Diversity In A College Classroom
Seiana- Spencer Kendrick
The diversity in age, experience and background is not foreign to community college campuses. The same can be said for the diverse majors found in a class.
Chaffey College sees a yearly attendance of over 29,000 students, ensuring a rich diversity in ethnicity, age, background and experience is a familiar aspect of campus life.
Chaffey College is a hub of culture where students looking for opportunities to learn and grow outside of the classroom can find what they are looking for.
Often related demographically to a campus, diversity is rarely discussed concerning the differing majors you can find in the classrooms throughout campus.
A student enrolls in a class either because it is a major requirement or solely out of interest in the subject being taught.
In the fall semester of 2023, I enrolled in Beginning Darkroom Photo, also known as Photo 10, because it was a major requirement but for other students, it was out of personal interest. The majors in this classroom varied from Early Childhood Development to Film, Television, and Electronic Media to Business Marketing.
Most students with a declared major follow a specific Degree Map or have an Educational Plan created by an advisor, consisting of courses that fall under specific areas and are needed to achieve an Associate Degree.
For Gabriela Barreto, a friend and former classmate, Beginning Darkroom Photo was both a major requirement and selected out of personal interest.
Gabriela is a Film, Television, and Electronic Media major, she explained that she enrolled in Photo-10 to fulfill the Arts and Humanities requirement for her major and personally selected this course out of the plethora of courses offered in that area.
She explained that she specifically chose the course out of the art classes offered because she thought it was interesting. She added, “I was interested in analog film because I am a Film major and I [thought] this would help me understand cameras better and it was cool getting to develop film.”
The rigor of the course, in terms of individual performance and responsibilities, time management and cost were unconsidered factors for Gabriela when enrolling and predicting the outcome of the course.
Despite the demanding nature of the course, Gabriela saw the benefits it had in preparation for her major. She explained that “It helped [her] better understand how film cameras work, exposure, aperture, lighting, which are all [relevant] for digital cameras which is what most cinematographers use nowadays.”
Gabriela added that as a Film major, the course helped expand her creativity. “Even though we did not actually film anything, for our last project we had creative freedom and I chose to do something more storytelling,” she said. Allowing her to embrace her creative side by thinking outside of the box and with intention, rather than mindlessly capturing photos.
The opportunities to be a visionary in the course, allowed Gabriela to find her interest in the simplicity of analog film because of “its relevance in cinematography, providing aesthetic and appealing visuals.”
In Photo-10 the creativity behind capturing images, learning how to explain yourself in a precise and concise manner and understanding the what and why behind an image, whether it be your own or someone else’s, correlating to the many majors involved, was quite surprising.
With diversity also being in the classroom, students are allowed to experience varying ideas and perspectives outside of their own.
As she continues to pursue a future in Film and Media, Gabriela still sees herself using analog photography and what she learned from her experience in the course. It is not just the knowledge from the material but also the perspectives that came from the many differing majors.