Zach's Senior Website

care about my work, even when I was working in groups. Even through my freshman year, I was not achieving my potential, both academically and in the community. But after my first year at ACLC, the environment began to influence me. Being around people who actually cared for my learning and wanted me to achieve inspired me to put on my try hard pants every day. Through essays and boat races and multiple (failed) science fair projects, I began to take more time to do my work, and genuinely cared for the quality of it. This work ethic has grown over the course of my four years here, and now I feel like I can take pride in my work, and in my work ethic, something I would not have been able to say even 3 years prior. Likewise, being in the ACLC environment, I feel much more accepted and comfortable (especially more than I did at my middle school), and in turn, much more inclined to give back to it, and treat others the same way I felt my peers did when I first started here, and really how I have been all 4 years here. I won’t say that I wasn’t an inviting and accepting person before my time here, but now, I feel much more obliged to treat all people the same, and allow them to feel comfortable around me. Especially after being a Hannah Camp Counselor twice and working with younger learners a lot as a JC Clerk, I feel a strong responsibility to play a big role in the community, and make the younger learners feel accepted and happy at ACLC. Hopefully, this attitude will play a use in my future endeavors.

New Basics

          My academic skills and knowledge have also grown immensely over my four years at ACLC. I have already completed all required units to graduate, minus English, Gov/Econ and Senior Seminar, but I have done much more than just the “basic” requirements. Junior year, I took Calculus and HP English, both classes that drastically improved my skills in their respective areas of expertise. Likewise, I was JC clerk and Proposal Police Commissioner my senior year, as well as a Sociologist in training at the College of Alameda. Through all of my courses, and activities like perspective and persuasive essays, Socratic Seminars, and science fair projects, I have learned how to better convey my ideas and knowledge through the verbal, written, and visual media; I have also acquired skills in analyzing and solving all sorts of problems in the worlds of science, politics, and even in the social world; and, finally, I have grown  in my use of power and creativity in having to officiate judicial proceedings and give out punishments to young delinquent learners. My “new basics” will help me in my future college life and in the real world, especially in my hopeful job of radio or television sportscaster.

Thinking and Reasoning Skills

          My creativity and learning skills have improved a lot during my high school years at the Alameda Community Learning Center. ACLC is an environment that requires outside-the-box thinking and problem solving. A lot of the projects don’t have a lot of guidance and are open to a great level of interpretation and creativity, only condensed by the limits of the subject matter of the project. Through projects and events like the science fair, JC, history artifact assignments, and Socratic Seminars, I have learned how to think creatively, and solve problems using reason and creativity, like the ACLC environment encourages and facilitates.

Interpersonal Abilities

          I have developed a very strong skill set for interacting with other people, and working well as a team with others. One very special thing about ACLC is the ability of every student to interact with, and have a lasting impact on, other learners, especially younger ones. You have to work with others, especially in classes like Leadership, or even just being in the center. In this environment, I have grown a lot as far as my ability to work well with others from many diverse backgrounds and styles, as well as developing a very positive and up-beat attitude towards my projects and toward my fellow learners. I have learned how to properly delegate responsibility and how to keep responsibility for myself and for others in check. Through my time here, I have been in many different zones of power, from being a lowly freshman to eventually a Leadership learner, JC Clerk, and Senior role model, so I have become more adept at succeeding and surviving in all levels of authority. Likewise, my internship requirements helped me a lot in learning to how work well with authority figures. Finally, through classes in diversity days and in bevies, I have gained further experience in respecting and working with ALL types of leaders and authority figures, a skill not appreciated enough.

Technology

            I am not a very technologically adept person, but I am much more familiar and comfortable with it now than when I first came to ACLC. Because we do a lot of projects here, I have been required to learn how to properly and successfully utilize programs such as Powerpoint and the very fascinating and exciting Prezi. Likewise, through classes like Calculus and Biology, I have learned a lot about using Microsoft Excel past face value – like how to create tables, graphs, equations and averages, which will likely help me in future college classes and the like.     Even in my internship, which took place at the loan office of a bank, I learned how to properly use a scanner and copier, and how to fix jams in printers, copiers, scanners, etc. While I hope I will never have a job that involves this kind of work, it is very useful to have this knowledge.

            Reflecting on my experiences and growth as a person during my lifetime at ACLC, I am proud of the person I have become. I feel that I have been allowed to blossom as a young man intellectually, as well as in my personal relationships and in the general way in which I carry myself. I have learned so many skills that I will be able to take with me as I move along my path in life, and that will truly help me in my future endeavors. I will always cherish the time I spent here and the truly wonderful and beneficial things I have learned and developed at the Alameda Community Learning Center.