In reflecting upon my experiences as a student, one word seems to play a central role: community. When I entered UNM as a freshmen, I had firmly intended on majoring in Architecture. However, before completing my first semester I had a change of heart. As part of a Freshmen Learning Community program, I had enrolled in an introduction to Community and Regional Planning(CRP) course. I had no idea what to expect from this course but soon was enamored by the various topics and questions about what community is and how it is both shaped by individuals and in turn can also shape the identity of those individuals. From that point on I was convinced that pursuing an undergraduate degree in CRP was the right path for me.
As a younger student, I had never given much thought to what community meant but I quickly realized how much importance I had always placed on the feelings of belonging and identity that community often provides. I also realized that again, while I had never given it much thought, community still played a role in defining my identity as a student.
Like every other student, throughout my educational career, I have belonged to many different communities. Some of the communities that I identified with were broad, such as simply being a “high school student” and some were much more concentrated, such as being a “student athlete” and even more specifically a “swimmer”. Each and every community that I identified myself with has both taught me something about and shaped how I view my surrounding environment. Often times teachers were central to those developments.
I have come to view these numerous communities as different puzzle pieces that when put together define not only who I am as a person but also my values and beliefs. We briefly discussed the idea in class of being socialized and how that will directly impact how we will teach our students. I believe that examining the different communities we have associated ourselves with throughout our lives as students will help in providing a better understanding of our own socialization.
Ultimately, The idea of community that was central to my life as a student played a part in my decision to become an educator. I want to provide the same feelings of belonging and identity defining to future students that I felt played such an important role in my life and development as a student.
