However, through this experience, I was truly able to understand the meaning of the phrase "You are enough," as that is exactly the realization that I came to. I didn't have to change myself to try and work with these students, I simply just had to be me. .
As far as biases are concerned, I had to do some work in eliminating these prior to entering the space. I'm not going to lie, when I first heard Pearl and Lora state to the class, "You are going to be working with urban youth teenagers," I was a little wary of the whole idea. I had this preconceived notion that most of these students would be of color and that they would not possess any desire to participate in any of the activities and that these students would not contribute towards making this a positive experience for all. However, I actually had no need to eliminate the bias as I was proven to be completely wrong at first sight. All of the students present possessed a desire to want to learn and making this experience a positive one. Sure, some of these students were black, but it wasn't right of me to link these students to the course idea and concept of the "permission to fail," simply because of their race. On the other end of this idea, as a potential educator, I have this love for education and this idea that everyone should love and want to learn. This was another bias I had to eliminate prior to entering the space, as everyone might not share the same love and passion for education. .
One of the most daunting tasks for this project was to find a topic or idea to focus on while completing our studies. As an aspiring educator, I would say my main claim and idea in a way found me, instead of me going out to find it. After taking careful field notes for multiple weeks, and taking stock and mining that data, I have noticed that Individuals are HYPE is a space, where individuals possess the abilities to learn and thrive from one another and have the potential to learn about each other while being in the space.
