I was baffled. Even after employing the tried and true topic that had never failed to help me pull a student out of his or her shell in four years of teaching lessons - favorite color - my new student still shrank further away, seemingly defying the impossible. It was my first day as a teen teacher with the Special Skaters Program, and I had just been introduced to little Nathaniel. He kept his bright green eyes that matched his...

I am Asian-American. It is true that this makes me one of many; when I was about 14, this became glaringly clear. The new tap teacher continually confused me with the two other Asian-American girls in class, and, after 3 weeks, gave “Kayla” a correction but directed the comment at me. Her response to my, “I’m Julianne,” was, “Oh, you’re all the same anyways.” A possibly insignificant sequence of mistakes escalated into hurtful discrimination. Her comment and the misidentifications made...

A lot of students are a part...

Spirited, Intelligent,...

More focus...

Do things that interest...

Although USC is in a 'bad neighborhood', the school is kept very...