Inclusiveness and Multi-dimensional Understanding
The above five photos are included hoping to present the diversity as well as the inclusiveness of my hometown Suzhou. With the government focusing on investing in modernization, numerous skyscrapers are built and technology is rapidly developed, yet at the same time, the city is able to preserve the majority of its cultural heritage and historical sites. The picture three therefore demonstrates a unique integration of modernization and tradition. However, on top of the seemingly extravagant and liberal lifestyle, there are still blocks where families are experiencing poverty, food insecurity, or other difficulties, as shown in the fourth picture. While some authorities are hesitant to bring up this issue as it may undermine the city’s profile, in order to fully understand and embrace the city, the voices of this community should never be neglected. Apart from having a variety of architectural buildings, Suzhou also values cultural inclusiveness and attempts to offer citizens international education opportunities, with myself being one of the people who received such benefit. The last picture is my high school in Suzhou, where all classes are taught fully in English, providing a solid foundation for future overseas study. Overall, though hard to incorporate the spirit of the city within a few photos, the ones above represent the most crucial and unique parts of the city.
Given that the experience of online tutoring will be different from in-person, I decided to visit 826LA schools as well as the time travel mart in order to gain a more realistic and multi-dimensional view of the community. Apart from seeing the improvements of the students during virtual tutoring, by actually visiting the environment they study in, I could be able to understand their difficulties and appreciate the efforts they have put in to overcome these obstacles more. Moreover, having learned that 826 National supports a system of multiple writing centers across the country, I hope that the Youtube videos could provide me with a more comprehensive understanding of the whole project, including the history, preparation process, and overall purpose, so that I could apply them better while interacting with students. Yet at the same time, visiting 826LA time travel mart gives me a more focused view of the distinctiveness of the LA project (compared to other 826 projects around the US). Ultimately, before being able to help this community to the greatest extent, one needs to understand and embrace it from multiple perspectives.
