My name is Stephanie Perez and I’m currently a MEC Education Department alumnus. As a Dominican-American, I have laways felt comfortable surrounded by the African-American and Caribbean population.   My family moved to Harlem when I was four and I’ve been living there ever since.  I attended public schools in Harlem as well and learned the culture and struggles of African-Americans.  At MEC, I had great professors as well, who have taken it a step further, explaining the struggles they continue to face today as far as racism and inequality are concerned.  Having attended schools where students were pre-dominantly African-American and from the Caribbean, helped me to understand their culture better and in some ways has also helped me fit in despite my ethnic background and cultural differences. MEC was the first college that I attended, but because I thought it was too far for me to travel, and also because I felt I could not connect to anyone in the college, I transferred to a few other schools. After transferring from MEC, I attended Lehman College (CUNY), Hostos Community College (CUNY), University at Buffalo (SUNY) and LaGuardia Community College (CUNY).

            Lehman College  had a good percent of White students as well as Latinos, Blacks and other races.  Hostos Community College is mostly comprised of Latino Students since the college is geared toward helping out students who speak Spanish by offering Spanish classes as well as English ones.   There were some Black students as well but very few.  University of Buffalo is mostly comprised of White students with very few minorities.  LaGuardia Community College is the most diverse school I have ever been to and I’m glad to say that I did very well and received my A.A. degree in Liberal Arts there. My experiences at these schools helped me realize that I do better academically in a school that is very diverse with teachers that practice culturally responsive teaching.  I transferred from school to school because I felt that I did not fit in for one reason or another.  University of Buffalo probably had the most negative impact on me academically because it was the first time I took classes with White students, who were the majority in the classrooms, and of course living in Harlem all of my life, I had never had the opportunity to really interact with them.  I experienced such a culture shock that I would not attend classes most of the time because I would be the only minority in the small classes they offered and maybe one of the few in lecture hall classes of 100-200 students.  I could not stay for many reasons, but the main reason I left that college was because I felt it did not serve my needs as a Latina student.  I guess that’s why I came back to MEC to complete my degree.  Despite also being a minority at MEC, I felt more comfortable surrounded by the students here because I had the same connections as they did growing up.  

          My personal experiences have both been positive and negative at this Historically Black College.  Being Dominican-American in a college that is predominantly Black was not an easy experience for me.  Most of my teachers at Medgar Evers College talked about the African Diaspora regardless of the subject they were supposed to be teaching, and I’m sad to say that I now know more about the struggles of African-Americans than I do about my own ethnicity.  When teachers continued to discuss this topic in their classrooms, it left out the rest of the few students who were from different cultural backgrounds, and caused them to feel neglected.  When teachers did so, it made me not want to try as hard in their classes because I was not being acknowledged as the person that I am, a Dominican-American.  I feel that if a professor is going to discuss an ethnicity, they should discuss all of the students’ ethnicities in the classroom and not just one in particular.  I noticed that when exposed to these types of classroom environments, my grades were usually lower. Where as in a classroom where the professor discussed all types of ethnicities or none at all, I tended to receive a higher grade because I didn’t feel as excluded.

           I believe during my last year, the organization for American Latin Student Association (ALAS) at this historically Black College could not have come about at a better time.  This organization helped me in learning more about my heritage as a Latina, as well as other Latino heritages, in order to help me become more aware of the issues surrounding our people in this country and around the world. Also, I believe it helped me become, by the time I graduated, a much more well-rounded individual.  By participating in this club, I learned more about myself, and, as a teacher, understand Latinos in the classroom and become more aware of being a culturally responsive teacher in helping them and all of my students achieve academic success.  I am glad of all the experiences I have been exposed to both positive and negative at MEC because they made me the person that I am today.  I am very grateful to have had all of my professors because I have learned in all of my classes despite the negative experiences I have been faced with.  I just hope for the future that professors take into consideration the different ethnicities MEC has to offer and that despite it being a Historically Black College, they serve all of their students no matter where they came from and make them feel that they belong by providing them with a multicultural education that will help them succeed academically, and after they graduate as well.