Friday, April 9, 2010

Program Reflection Question #5

Which part(s) of the program do you find most useful in your life and future goals?

24 comments:

  1. I thought the most useful part of the program was learning teamwork skills and understanding my own Jewish Identity. It was great to work with a small group of other students on a project that we all thought would help to bridge the gap between the Latino and Jewish communities. I thought it was really helpful to harness my own group communication skills while also learning about a different culture.

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  2. In the future, I plan on being some sort of professional that interacts with many different kinds of people. The more one is educated on others’ cultures, the better one can relate to other individuals and form better relationships that would hopefully/ultimately lead to success. On a personal level, I value the importance of being cultured/ educated and understanding others’ ways of life as it enables me to understand the motives behind certain actions.
    Thus, although this program merely put a dent in understanding Latino culture, it’s a good start and it encourages us to learn and explore further. The program has encouraged me to try to adopt new perspectives on different ways of life than my own and become more tolerant (for lack of a better word) of others’ traditions.

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  3. Because the program teaches teamwork and communication skills, I feel that those skills will help me with my future professional goals. Additionally, learning about the different kinds of Jews and Latinos also helped me open my mind to adopt new perspectives on different ways of life.
    -Jonathan S.

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  4. I find the current part of the program of actually working on individual projects as the most useful one. During the first 6 months we had a lot of good, product full sessions of learning about ourselves and some aspects of Latino culture. However I feel that only through small group interactions between individuals that are equally interested in learning about one another you can truly get a real understanding of where people are coming from and what motivates them. This can not be accomplished in a class room. We have to get out and meet with one another in the real world which we did to some extent during the 1st part of the program and now is the main focus of sessions

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  5. I found that the many discussions we had really helped me to be more aware of my words and how I share my thoughts. It also made me more comfortable to share my true feelings in a productive way. I also found that the program facilitators were great role models to help with my facilitation for other programs in the future.

    I also found that leading tours through the Museum of Tolerance is extremely helpful for my future goals. I hope to be a professor one day and the education aspect of leading tours and the planning ahead of time what you hope to accomplish through that knowledge is great practice for curriculum planning.

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  6. Two parts of the program I found useful in my life and future goals. One was team projects, working together and distributing work equally while still ensuring everyone's ideas were heard. I was blessed to have a wonderful group that made this easy, while still completing a challenging task such as throwing a multi-cultural event.

    The second, was learning more about the diversity within our own culture, and while we still hold similar interests in high regards, we can disagree and agree to disagree on others.

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  7. There were two parts of the program that I find useful in my life and future goals. First, I believe that our training with Jorge Cherbosque, Anita Rowe, and Lee Gardenswartz will help me tremendously in my interaction with other people in the future. The world dynamics are changing rapidly, and as we become more globalized, and our culture becomes more integrated with other cultures, there is a necessity for people to know about themselves first (affirmative introspection) and increase their emotional intelligence.

    Second, I believe that the project phase has provided me with several practical lessons that are very useful now and will help me in the future. Through our project, I learned how to work with people from different backgrounds. This opportunity gave me an understanding of what’s ahead of me in the future and prepared me in overcoming any potential obstacles that would prevent me from achieving my desired goals.

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  8. I found the communication skills to be the most useful part of the program. We were taught teamwork and leadership skills that will ultimately help us in various situations throughout our life.

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  9. I find the leadership qualities that MOT invested time in producing in me the most significant. I never thought it could be so emotion oriented. But now I have learned that the best way to get through your "business" is by resetting your emotions for the right time and place.

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  10. Learning to interact with those who are different than you is one of the best traits I have gained from this program. People vary in so many different manners aside from race, religion, and gender. Their temperament, how they lead, outgoingness, etc. are all characteristics that differ from myself and therefore, it has been a huge learning experience to see how I can interact with people who are not just like me. This will definitely help me for the rest of my life

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  11. This program has offered the tools necessary to strengthen social skills, which I have found to be so useful in not only the program but especially in my own life and future.

    I strongly believe that having social skills plays a crucial part in allowing us all to connect and share our similarities and experiences growing up.

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  12. Overall I think this program was very useful in my future goals. It has taught me to look outside my comfort zone and develop relationships with people who I thought I would have nothing in coming with. This program helped develop great leadership skills, especially with planning an event from scratch. It has inspired me to do even more multicultural events. It was a great experience and I would definitely recommend this program to anyone.

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  13. the part of the program that i find most useful, was the leadership skills. from this program, i learned a great deal on cooperating with others, how to get things done, and how to step up to the plate. I learned leadership designs that i would otherwise have not known that i have already begun to use in my every day routine. In addition, from this program i have learned great social skills, and gained practice on working with people you have never met that will greatly help me in the future

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  14. There is so much I have learned and gained from this program.
    Firstly, I learned that in order to connect and begin discussion with others, we need to first know and discover ourselves. There was so much about the Jewish culture and its history that I was not aware of. By looking into myself and seeing what makes me so unique as a Jewish woman and my Jewish history, I was able to find a way to connect to my Latino counterpart. Without knowing about ourselves, there is no way to learn about others. The sessions on Latino history and culture also helped me connect to them.
    When we divided up into our different teams, I learned so much about developing a successful project. In order to teach others about an injustice done to our people, the Holocaust, we needed to find a way to make it relevant to them. At first, I thought we could just teach them facts about the Holocaust. I learned I was so wrong. We needed to choose someone who could connect the Jewish and Latino people, as well as create fun, active sessions to get the students interest.
    Overall, I learned about the importance of developing foundations that help bridge gaps and connect two different cultures.

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  15. I thought the most useful sessions we've had are the ones when we managed to understand ourselves before we got to meet with our Latino counterparts. I completely agree with having to know ourselves, our strong and weak traits, and applied them when interacting with other individuals, not only our Latino counterparts.

    Doreen Gal

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  16. Gabriela BeroukhimApril 22, 2010 at 9:10 PM

    This fellowship enabled me to experience and encounter culture clashes, leadership skills and social skills. In college and throughout my career I hope to employ these values. More so, I've learned how to represent myself and share my culture and religion. I believe that this fellowship will help improve intercultural relations in a secular college environment where most of my peers will be of another nationality.

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  17. By interacting with the students from Roosevelt High School, first by meeting with them at the Museum of Tolerance and then visiting their school, I was able to realize and verify that we have many similarities and those similarities can bring us together, rather than focusing on the differences that can separate the Jewish and Latino students. These interactions helped me explore the two community’s similarities even more because when I presented at LimmudLA on the topic of “Persians, Latinos, and Everything Jewish in Los Angeles: Proposing a New Jewish Future”, I was able to use my experiences at the program as a base for forming my new proposal on Jewish continuity, sharing moments from my experiences with a diverse audience, and teaching others about similarities between the Jewish and Latino communities, guiding others in seeking out similarities between groups, rather than focusing on differences. If I hadn’t had first hand experience with Latino students, meaning if we had just heard lectures, I don’t think I would have had the same passion and knowledge to continue learning and exploring about how to bridge the Latino and Jewish communities.

    The sessions on emotional intelligence were very intriguing and informative. I learned about myself even more and also about group dynamics, helping me in my daily life. I was able to share with my LimmudLA audience information that I learned from these sessions as well as ways to do introspective learning. This was a way to start teachings others what I have learned. I believe that in all my interactions in the future, I will be able to use the skills and knowledge from emotional intelligence to help me make meaningful relationships, interactions, and continue learning about myself.

    -Jessica K.

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  18. When I first received the application for this program, I thought to myself that this program would truly prepare me for the future whether it be my career goals or my life goals -- and I was right. This fellowship has given me the tools to interact in a diverse world. We not only live in a city teeming with diversity, but also a state and country teeming with diversity as well. I have been in the Jewish Bubble for practically my whole life, and this program has exposed me to different cultures, different ideologies, the tools for tolerance, etc. I am grateful to have learned so much in such a short time regarding the Latino culture and diversity as a whole.

    I plan on extensively studying the Latino culture and language in college next year, and I feel that I now have an advantage because I have already learned so much about it. Whether it was Jorge, Lee, and Anita's lessons on how to interact in a diverse world, or directly hearing from Latino people, I feel I now have the beginnings of a well rounded education regarding the latino culture and diversity. In addition, using my Jewish identity to help bridge the gap between the Jewish and Latino cultures has also given me a different connection to my Judaism that I had prior to the program. I will take all that I have learned in the program with me wherever I go.

    -Hayley G.

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  19. In the future I plan to be a therapist and I found interacting with different Latinos is essential in my field of work. It is imperative that I get to know and have experiences with different cultures, so I can have a broader perspective of daily issues each individual encounters. More specifically the emotional intelligence training with Jorge, Lee and Anita has furthered my ability to interact with others. I have learned how to appropriately confront others and how to understand mine and other's emotional responses. I have gained much insight into how to plan events that accomodates for differnet cultures, which can be used in my future intercultural relations in a diverse university in the next four years.

    I plan on extending my relations with the Latino communities in college as well. I feel that the last twelve years of my Jewish education have taught me so much about my identity. The beginning of this program has summarized much of my knowledge about important facts of my Jewish identity, which has helped me relate better to other communities. I now better understand my past, which will help me be successful in the future.

    -Miriam E.

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  20. As stated previously, I think the emotional intelligence sessions were the most useful. A person's own emotions are something that many people find hard to control. Be it anger, frustration, or elation, it is important to recognize emotions in the decision making process. That is not to say that they should be ignored. On the contrary, they can be extremely useful. But acting based on emotions without realizing it can be dangerous. I will certainly use this in my future life and always remember to keep my emotions at bay and use them appropriately.

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  21. I enjoyed learning more about the history of Israel and about Latino culture. I thought the sessions regarding the history of Israel and what makes up Latino culture were interesting and taught me more about the similarities between our two cultures and where each of us are coming from, particularly from a minority standpoint. I think this program is beneficial to me today and in the future because i am more informed and aware of my surroundings because i it. I have a better understanding about the state of Israel and i have a better understanding about the Latino culture and how to try to build relationships with people from other communities and different cultural backgrounds.

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  22. I think i found the excercises of putting all of our ideas on paper and then choosing the best ones will help me in the future. It is an organized and efficient way to brainstorm and can be very useful in life.

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  23. I believe the leadership and social skills I learned from this program will help me the most in my life and future goals. In the near future I can use these skills to interact with others in a college and work environment to interact and build bridges with others.
    -Daniella Golbari

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  24. In the Israel group we had more time to interact with all types of Latinos. I've gained a sense of sensitivity towards issues that might not affect me as much as some one else. I have seen the differences between arguing, debating and discussing. These skill will enable to continue making friendships with all kinds of people. I appreciate the work that goes into a program.

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