Student Perspectives: Being a citizen

• Being a citizen
• Learning civics
• The candidates
• Voting
• The issues
• Jose Velazquez's teaching style
• Constructivist learning
• Group work

Kerron: [This class] has helped me to become a voting citizen. Many might say one vote can’t make a difference. Can you just imagine if everybody thought the same way, then nobody’s opinions would be viewed.

Maysa: It’s affecting me studying this whole mayoral election because you hear a lot. You will be on a bus and you will hear people talking about Old Sharp James and Cory Booker, going back and forth. The election is getting so heated; it’s never been like this before. It makes you want to know. I recall being on a bus and two guys were talking about it and I wanted to join the conversation so badly. As a teenager, it’s like we are not really informed; we have to go get informed because we don’t vote or anything like that so they really assume that it’s none of our concern. We have to deal with what is coming in the future. In about four years, when the next mayoral candidacy comes up, I’ll be an adult and I want to know what’s going on. It’s really an issue with me. If you don’t know what’s going on around you then you pretty much don’t know anything at all about your life or your culture or your ethics.

This experience in class today--it was tremendous. First of all, other people in this world will see what we’ve done and we want to make an impression that is different from the stereotype [of] Newark students. No doubt people assume things about Newark based upon what they hear in the media. So we want to show that it’s not just about drugs and crime and abuse and anything else that people will stereotype us about. We are not just some minorities that are interested in making money, because money does not make everything.