Rhetorical Analysis
Justine C. Matias
ENGL C0862: Intro to Teaching Comp
Professor Watson
DATE
A Voice Found Via Poetry
The object that jolts my memory of a significant time in my literacy development is “A Celebration of Young Poets”. In 2000, while I was in middle school, I had one of my poems published in an anthology of poetry alongside other middle school students in New York. I remember this moment vividly because of the excitement I felt having my writing published for the world to see. In addition to my excitement, knowing that I made my mother and family members proud of me made this experience even more amazing. This opportunity was possible solely because of my middle school, Cornelia Connelly Center, also known back then as Holy Child. This book symbolizes my time at an amazing institution and my academic and personal growth that ensued.
In 5th grade, I left public school to attend an extremely small all-girls private catholic middle school located in the Lower East Side where I was born and raised. I absolutely loved it, not only because my graduating class consisted of only 16 girls, but because of the confidence that my teachers and peers instilled in one another on a daily basis. Holy Child accepted students from low-income families, all who were from the Lower East Side community. We were an extremely racially diverse group of girls, and we were able to bring our cultures into the academic setting so that we all could learn from one another. Despite being from all different ethnicities, we developed a sisterhood that was impenetrable for those four years we were together. I attribute much of what I learned during my academic career via experiences there to the woman I grew into and am today.
Located on 4th street and Avenue A, Holy Child taught us about community service, women empowerment, and opened our eyes to a world outside of NYC. They stood true to their mission statement: “Cornelia Connelly Center (CCC) champions girls at risk, empowering them to realize their full potential from middle school through college and beyond… seek to develop as mature persons capable of making choices which enrich their own lives and contributes to the lives of others.”[1] We volunteered at the local Senior Community Center where we wrote letters to our friends there every week and played board games with them when we visited. We were constantly writing letters asking for grant money to fund our educational trips to Chesapeake Bay and for our annual two-week sleep over Summer Camp in Lake Placid. Holy Child instilled a sense of gratitude in all of the students, which we portrayed through our thank you letters to the donating foundations. My teachers encouraged me to read and write constantly and this later helped me in my future academic endeavors.
I can recall the poetry workshops we had where we brainstormed, wrote, and vigorously edited our writing all in preparation for possible publishing. Despite all 16 poems being an automatic entry, each student worked hard to produce their best writing. My teachers pushed me to dig deep and get creative. We had studied a vast array of poets, some famous, some local, and many from different countries, so we could better our understanding of poetry. I remember sitting at the round wooden table in the library surrounded by my peers, writing in a marble notebook for almost half an hour before we traded notebooks and peer reviewed our classmate’s poems. We would then take our second drafts to the computer lab where we would tap away at the keyboards, remembering to spell check our work before printing them out for yet another peer review with our classmates and our teachers. Our final drafts were read aloud to the class where classmates told one another of their favorite parts, uplifting each author.
Having my poem published meant more to me than just being able to say I was a “published author”. It meant that women, especially of the Latina culture, could develop their writing and have it mean something. I had a voice, even at an early age of 11 when children at that age are usually “seen” and not “heard”. Being from the LES was a struggle in a sense because my family was barely getting by financially, yet I was able to gain such an amazing education through Holy Child. They were able to open doors to me and present me with opportunities (such as having a published poem) that I would never have imagined being involved in. I became a more confident person due to my experience at Holy Child.
I did not turn out to be a famous poet during my time at Holy Child (or thereafter), but my eyes were open to how much of a difference I could make in my personal life within my family and in community. It was at Holy Child that I made the decision that my education would not stop at College, but would continue on to Graduate School. I did not know then that I would be the first in my family to obtain a Master’s Degree, but nonetheless I was going to take my education farther than what my mother expected of me. I sincerely owe my academic achievements to the education I received at Holy Child and hope that one day when my daughter and son becomes of age; they too, can attend the same school that changed my life for the better.
