Hernan Ramirez

SBS 402
Dr. Bales
5/08/2018

Exit Paper

When I first enrolled to CSU Monterey Bay I came here with an undeclared major. I had

no clue what the Social & Behavioral Sciences major was until I met with a career advisor

(Esmeralda Maldonado). I met with Esmeralda I talked to her about my goals. I expressed my

intentions of pursuing a career as a high school counselor because I wanted to go back to my

community and help high school student get in to college/universities. Ms. Maldonado presented

me the option of SBS. She explained me what it was and the different concentrations in the

department.

I decided to declare my major in Social & Behavioral Sciences with a concentration in

Sociology. This major convince me because I wanted to learn about individuals behaviors at the

micro, macro, and meso levels. I thought this major would give me the knowledge and prepare

me for further achievements in my education. I personally believed that this major and my

concentration met all my needs as a student here at CSUMB. All my coursework definitely

provided much knowledge in my college education. As a student at CSUMB I believe I have met

the demands of the major by completing the work required by the SBS faculty. Completing

reading annotations was definitely challenging but slowly this task was completed.

As a SBS student here at CSU Monterey Bay, both of my service learnings were

definitely some of most beneficial and rewarding learning experiences I had in my major. My
first service learning I completed it with a shelter agency. It was a great experience volunteering

with this agency because we served homeless individuals in different areas. We served people

from Pajaro Valley in Pajaro/Watsonville and people from Salinas in Chinatown. This

experience was so rewarding because the individuals that we served were so grateful with our

services. It was so satisfying seen smiles in their faces when they would get their bag of food and

clothes. In my second service learning I volunteer at Watsonville High School to tutor ELD

(English Learning Development) students in the class of teacher Juan Carlos Pozo. This

experience was important for me because I was able to assist individuals that did not know how

to speak, write or read English. This experience was super rewarding for me because I got the

opportunity to help English learners. The reason why this experiences was important and

rewarding for me is because when I migrated to California I arrived here in the same situation, I

did not speak English. The fact that I was helping them with their classwork motivated me to

continue helping them because I believe that when they would learn they would help some else

and the cycle was going to continue. I thought it was amazing how someone can assist others

when they are bilingual.

The way I have improved as a viewer and thinker is seeing adolescents. After I conducted

a research project for my capstone in this area, it has definitely change the way I think or view

teens. I have been working with resource students at a continuation high school and when I first

started working there I thought that everyone was a gang member. I view them as a danger for

the school and community. After working and spending more time I realized that their clothing

or appearance does not define who really those adolescents really are. After my research project I

learned more about these individuals. For example I learned that most of them become gang

members because they have family that are members, others because they do not have good
commutation or relationship with their parents, others because they lack of protection and others

simply to gain respect and feel that they belong somewhere. This capstone project along with my

experience working with resource students have change the way I think about most gang

member. Now when I see a young gang member I feel like approaching him and try to help them

out because as long as you respect them they will respect you.