The Hinson Campus Center was filled with an average of100 students on Thursday, March 8 during Latina/o Empowerment At De Anza’s third annual globalization conference “From Global to Mobile.”
De Anza College students were fully responsible for organizing the event, doing everything from creating fliers to compiling research and arranging speakers.
“I love just seeing the students take the lead, and presenting the material, and seeing, like, the passion,” said Maylea Saito, who worked on outreach for the conference as part of her LEAD English 1B class. “And also a lot of the information was really eye-opening. I feel like everyone can really relate to something here.”
“Debunking the Myths About Immigration” was a game which sought to explain the realities of immigration.
“You know about it. You read about it. But it was just cool to have these interactive games, and actually learn about it,” said student Nidhi Solanki, vice president of W.I.S.E. 37, an environmental club at De Anza.
Other issues of globalization were explored through presentations, such as the LEAD Club members’ presentation “Blue Gold: The Exploitation of Fresh Water.”
“I didn’t actually realize it was a global issue,” said student Arturo Rocha after watching the presentation, “so they did a really good job explaining it, and I appreciate it.”
The protest performances attracted a lot of attention according to Char Reed, a LEAD EWRT 1B student and human rights activist.
“As an older person, I always think it’s pretty cool when the young people see what’s going on, and do something about it,” she said. “The crowd was really supportive, and into hearing the message. They were like sponges in there, soaking up the information.”
Other productions included instructor Doli Bambhania’s Math 10 students’ “Globalization Debates: Using Data and Statistics.”
Students argued over international issues like whether worldwide population growth should be controlled.
After students presented arguments, made rebuttals, and gave closing statements, the audience texted in which side of the argument they agreed with.
“This gives student that forum in which they can talk passionately about an issue that they care about, but they have to tie in math,” said Bambhania. “This is about really speaking about an issue that’s important to you.”
This spring quarter, English instructor Marc Coronado will teach Introduction to Women’s Studies, which will focus on how global issues impact women and the effect that women have on worldwide matters.
For information on clubs who participated in the conference, such as SIREN, IMASS, SFJ, LEAD, Occupy for Education, Domestic Workers Alliance, and W.I.S.E. 37, visit the De Anza club list page at http://www.deanza.edu/clubs/.
