Allyson Wozniak

Panel Reflection

Learning about the six individuals that spoke about their

education and life long experiences was an eye opening experience.

Each individual had stories and experiences unique to them self.

Miguel Figuera, Williams Rodriguez, Max Fairweather, Benjamin

Machar, Carlos Rueda, and Mirose Pierville, all had one thing in

common. They had to adjust to the American society and way of living,

including adapting to the American education system.

Miguel Figuera, a current Spanish teacher at Easton High School

is originally from Spain. His experience attending school there was one

ruled by tough restrictions due to a dictatorship government. He spoke

Spanish at school but Portuguese at home because the dictator ruled

for children in schools to only be allowed to speak Spanish. He

attended classes for ten different subjects and they were split between

two days A day and B day. He said that his stayed in a cohort with

the same students for all four years of high school. They split up into

two different tracks, one for languages and the other for sciences. He

chose the language path and studied things like Latin and Greek.

Williams Rodriguez grew up in the Dominican Republic. He

attended a private school but they didnt have a lot of resources. No

computers, no lab rooms for science classes, and there were only a few

books for students to share. He grew up in a household where his

parents had little education but they always encouraged their children
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Panel Reflection

to continue their education. He was motivated to move to America

because of a group of Nurses from Maine who visited the Dominican

Republic to help out with medical resources. He learned his passion for

dentistry through them and decided to earn a bachelors degree in

French and then continued on to a dental hygiene school.

Max Fairweather was originally born in Jamaica, however he

spent most of his life living in New York City. From what he recalls from

his family and his experiences visiting he shares that students in

Jamaica are mandated to attend school and it is free until middle

school. After middle school students test in to a high school and it is

not free for them to attend. For college most students would travel out

of the country to England or America.

Benjamin Machar is originally from Sudan. He was considered

one of the lost boys after his was displaced from Sudan trying to

make his way to America. He arrived in the States in 2001 and sought

a degree from Eastern Michigan University. He was previously

displaced as a small child taking away from his education. But the

education he did receive he attended grades one through eight in

uniform. After eighth grade they have what is similar to high school,

but he described them as forms one through four. All subjects were

taught, math, science, history, and more. They used the metric

system, which was one of his biggest struggles with schooling in

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Panel Reflection

America. He said the biggest difference between the educations in the

two countries is that in Sudan they had less resources therefore people

cared about their education more and are more serious about it.

Carlos Rueda, a current student at Chesapeake College is

originally from Bolivia. In Bolivia there is little funding for schools and

the importance of education. He mainly attended private schools

because the public schools were so lacking in resources. He described

lots of homework but only a few hours of school mainly from about 8

am to 12 pm. Extracurricular activities mainly included playing soccer,

a major sport in Bolivia. He hopes to be able to reach out to the Latino

community and hopefully go back and help you Bolivians attend

college.

Mirose Pierville another student here at Chesapeake College is

originally from Haiti, which she describes as a beautiful country. Most

of the schools are private and you have to pay for them. Because of

the cost that people have to pay for their education it is extremely

important and valued to them. Occasionally if a family couldnt afford

to send all of their children to school, they would send one to represent

the family. During the school day she said students experienced harsh

punishments including beatings for miniscule reasons such as their

uniform not being exact to the teachers likings. She also described

harsh homework assignments where she would have to memorize

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Panel Reflection

pages in a book word for work. English was not taught in her school

only Haitis two main languages creole and French. She describes her

experience in education in America better and easier than her

experience in Haiti. She hopes that one day she can return to Haiti and

open up an orphanage for children who lost their families due to the

abundance of natural disasters that occur there.

All of these individuals taught me many things about education

systems around the world and perhaps how we could change for the

better. The main thing that sticks out to me is the attitudes that

children from other countries have compared to America. Most of them

have experienced more of a passion for education leading them to

continue their education. For example, Ben Machar left the Sudan and

has pursued his Ph.D in political science and Williams Rodriguez has a

degree in French and Dental Hygine, and Miguel Figuera has two

masters degrees, one in Linguistics and another in International

Business. Even though education is more valued in other countries, I

realized how easy we have it and perhaps thats why education isnt as

important to us. We can Google something or talk to our phone and it

will answer our question. Information is at our fingertips and I think

that we as Americans take that for granted because not every country

has that opportunity, they have to learn and experience things for

themselves. I think that if we had a more positive view of learning to

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Panel Reflection

do things for ourselves we would be much more successful in terms of

education.