Introduction
I first arrived at ACLC on a rather shaky basis. The greatest factor in my choice was that my sister was attending and I'd have the comfort of family, with the unique environment of the school coming at a close second. I'm glad I made the choice I did, because the experience I had at ACLC was wonderful beyond measure. ACLC taught me how to learn, how to lead, and how to grow creatively and intellectually. As my time at ACLC comes to an end, I can turn back and see all the ways ACLC has guided me through growth.
Personal Qualities, Work Habits, and Attitudes
My time at ACLC has helped me develop a social confidence I once lacked, which I am very thankful for. In the past, I was a shy person, and I had trouble speaking my mind or approaching new people. Public speaking was one of my greatest fears, and I never even contemplated volunteering to go first when the whole class was called up to present projects. However, because of ACLC’s project based learning model and close-knit community, I was encouraged (and sometimes required) to confront and overcome those hurdles. In class, I practiced my public speaking skills in front of an audience by presenting my work, and outside of class I practiced my social skills by meeting with my peers during free periods, doing group activities during CCC, and participating in clubs and bevies. Now at my final school year at ACLC, the improvement to my sociability is clear. I no longer have any qualms about speaking in public and presenting my work to others. I’m comfortable with speaking to my friends and strangers alike. Most significantly to me, I’ve started to interact with the ACLC community on my own terms, as I’ve gotten engaged with the community by starting clubs and participating in community events. Overall, I’ve become a far more sociable person because of ACLC.
One trait that I have developed through my education at ACLC is responsibility. I practice responsibility in many different areas of my life, from my personal life to my academic life. Because of my time at ACLC, I know my responsibilities as a student and put in the effort to make sure I am not late to any of my classes, turn my assignments in on time to the best of my ability, and practice academic honesty. While I sometimes find myself prone to procrastination, I do not let those tendencies drag me down, making the time if I have to get my work done and with a proper amount of effort. During group projects, I make sure that I am doing my part, and if it need be, help the other members of my team organize their work if they have trouble or take it on myself to cover gaps in the assignment. In the event that I fall behind somehow, or notice a problem with my work or my grades, I know how to responsibly contact my facilitators and talk with them about what needs to be done, either resolving an issue if the problem was with a grade or learn ways I can make up for a missed assignment or fix a mistake on a project. In other, non-academic ways, I also hold responsibility outside of school, whether that is a responsibility to my family in performing chores and keeping on top of my homework or a responsibility to a friend to be on time to a hang out or be there to host a game of D&D.
New Basics
Being able to read to understand rather than read to memorize is a skill that has been emphasized throughout my education at ACLC. I’ve been taught this skill in my English classes to help me analyze texts and understand the deeper meanings and themes, in my history classes to gain a broader understanding of historical events and the people behind them, and in my math classes to be able to glean from the textbooks and lectures a total understanding of the concepts taught rather than memorizing certain answers. I owe a lot to my English facilitators in particular for helping me develop my reading skills through both selecting texts with interesting narratives and themes to them and teaching me the techniques and perspectives I would need to appreciate the texts in a deeper and more comprehensive way.
Writing, whether it is academic writing or creative writing, is a skill that I have honed through my time at ACLC and have come to enjoy as a hobby. Essays have always been a large part of my English grade throughout my ACLC education, which over the years has led to me developing a strong grasp of educational tone and essay format. Additionally, my English facilitators have had a great effect on my writing, giving me critical feedback to help me shore up my weaknesses and showing me techniques to strengthen my writing. In addition to academic writing, an elective I chose to take when I started high school introduced me to creative writing, a hobby that grew on me. After taking that class, I started to write on my own terms, creating short stories and developing fictional worlds. I’ve even begun creating a writer’s circle to develop stories and share feedback with my friends and others at ACLC interested in creative writing. Writing, whether it’s for school or for fun, is a talent that I want to master and continue practicing in the future.
Thinking and Reasoning Skills
Creative thinking is a skill that I have developed thanks to my time at ACLC. Thanks to the curriculum focused on project-based learning, I’m great at developing creative ideas, whether they’re for a short story or a solution for a problem that needs to be solved. Something that exemplifies my creative work at ACLC are the assignments I have completed for my creative writing class, whether it be the short story I wrote about a mouse performing a cheese heist or any of the poems I’ve written for the class. This creative thinking helps me out in another way, problem solving. ACLC has prepared me for recognizing and overcoming problems through improvisation, an example being one of my science fair projects. The intention of the project was to test how fast snails can move over different surfaces, but the snails would often crawl up the sides of the barriers of the test, making it impossible to measure. I solved this problem by treating the test barriers with WD-40, the slippery surface preventing the snails from trying to escape.
Interpersonal Abilities
When it comes to teamwork, I am solidly a team player after my education at ACLC. I understand my responsibilities as a member of the team, and always do my part to complete the job and help my group members after the forging heat of countless group assignments. If a member of the team doesn’t pull their weight, I’m the first to step up and cover the slack to get the work done. When it comes to group tasks, I am also active in discussion and able to provide ideas on direction or subject for projects. Leadership is another ability that I can hold, best demonstrated by my time in the Alameda Youth Committee, an organization for community service and event planning in Alameda. During my time in the AYC, I helped organize food drives, directed haunted house construction and operation, and took a leadership role in other events such as sales of Christmas ornaments.
Technology
Thanks to my education at ACLC, I am competent with the use of technology, and am comfortable with applying technology to my educational needs. As much of my schoolwork is done digitally and my gradebook is also in a digital format, it’s necessary for me to know how to access digital resources and operate them to complete online learning. A class that demonstrates this the most was an elective which I took as a Junior, Digital Music. As it would suggest, Digital Music is a course which is almost entirely digital, using software to create music to share with the class. Through instruction from the teacher and hands-on experience, I was able to effectively apply technology to the task of creating music. The program was somewhat obtuse, and many functions were difficult to configure or would often mess up the entire music program on accident. However, I was able to troubleshoot the problems using online research and intuition and resolve the issues I was experiencing, and I was able to complete my course work for Digital Music without any troubles.
I first arrived at ACLC on a rather shaky basis. The greatest factor in my choice was that my sister was attending and I'd have the comfort of family, with the unique environment of the school coming at a close second. I'm glad I made the choice I did, because the experience I had at ACLC was wonderful beyond measure. ACLC taught me how to learn, how to lead, and how to grow creatively and intellectually. As my time at ACLC comes to an end, I can turn back and see all the ways ACLC has guided me through growth.
Personal Qualities, Work Habits, and Attitudes
My time at ACLC has helped me develop a social confidence I once lacked, which I am very thankful for. In the past, I was a shy person, and I had trouble speaking my mind or approaching new people. Public speaking was one of my greatest fears, and I never even contemplated volunteering to go first when the whole class was called up to present projects. However, because of ACLC’s project based learning model and close-knit community, I was encouraged (and sometimes required) to confront and overcome those hurdles. In class, I practiced my public speaking skills in front of an audience by presenting my work, and outside of class I practiced my social skills by meeting with my peers during free periods, doing group activities during CCC, and participating in clubs and bevies. Now at my final school year at ACLC, the improvement to my sociability is clear. I no longer have any qualms about speaking in public and presenting my work to others. I’m comfortable with speaking to my friends and strangers alike. Most significantly to me, I’ve started to interact with the ACLC community on my own terms, as I’ve gotten engaged with the community by starting clubs and participating in community events. Overall, I’ve become a far more sociable person because of ACLC.
One trait that I have developed through my education at ACLC is responsibility. I practice responsibility in many different areas of my life, from my personal life to my academic life. Because of my time at ACLC, I know my responsibilities as a student and put in the effort to make sure I am not late to any of my classes, turn my assignments in on time to the best of my ability, and practice academic honesty. While I sometimes find myself prone to procrastination, I do not let those tendencies drag me down, making the time if I have to get my work done and with a proper amount of effort. During group projects, I make sure that I am doing my part, and if it need be, help the other members of my team organize their work if they have trouble or take it on myself to cover gaps in the assignment. In the event that I fall behind somehow, or notice a problem with my work or my grades, I know how to responsibly contact my facilitators and talk with them about what needs to be done, either resolving an issue if the problem was with a grade or learn ways I can make up for a missed assignment or fix a mistake on a project. In other, non-academic ways, I also hold responsibility outside of school, whether that is a responsibility to my family in performing chores and keeping on top of my homework or a responsibility to a friend to be on time to a hang out or be there to host a game of D&D.
New Basics
Being able to read to understand rather than read to memorize is a skill that has been emphasized throughout my education at ACLC. I’ve been taught this skill in my English classes to help me analyze texts and understand the deeper meanings and themes, in my history classes to gain a broader understanding of historical events and the people behind them, and in my math classes to be able to glean from the textbooks and lectures a total understanding of the concepts taught rather than memorizing certain answers. I owe a lot to my English facilitators in particular for helping me develop my reading skills through both selecting texts with interesting narratives and themes to them and teaching me the techniques and perspectives I would need to appreciate the texts in a deeper and more comprehensive way.
Writing, whether it is academic writing or creative writing, is a skill that I have honed through my time at ACLC and have come to enjoy as a hobby. Essays have always been a large part of my English grade throughout my ACLC education, which over the years has led to me developing a strong grasp of educational tone and essay format. Additionally, my English facilitators have had a great effect on my writing, giving me critical feedback to help me shore up my weaknesses and showing me techniques to strengthen my writing. In addition to academic writing, an elective I chose to take when I started high school introduced me to creative writing, a hobby that grew on me. After taking that class, I started to write on my own terms, creating short stories and developing fictional worlds. I’ve even begun creating a writer’s circle to develop stories and share feedback with my friends and others at ACLC interested in creative writing. Writing, whether it’s for school or for fun, is a talent that I want to master and continue practicing in the future.
Thinking and Reasoning Skills
Creative thinking is a skill that I have developed thanks to my time at ACLC. Thanks to the curriculum focused on project-based learning, I’m great at developing creative ideas, whether they’re for a short story or a solution for a problem that needs to be solved. Something that exemplifies my creative work at ACLC are the assignments I have completed for my creative writing class, whether it be the short story I wrote about a mouse performing a cheese heist or any of the poems I’ve written for the class. This creative thinking helps me out in another way, problem solving. ACLC has prepared me for recognizing and overcoming problems through improvisation, an example being one of my science fair projects. The intention of the project was to test how fast snails can move over different surfaces, but the snails would often crawl up the sides of the barriers of the test, making it impossible to measure. I solved this problem by treating the test barriers with WD-40, the slippery surface preventing the snails from trying to escape.
Interpersonal Abilities
When it comes to teamwork, I am solidly a team player after my education at ACLC. I understand my responsibilities as a member of the team, and always do my part to complete the job and help my group members after the forging heat of countless group assignments. If a member of the team doesn’t pull their weight, I’m the first to step up and cover the slack to get the work done. When it comes to group tasks, I am also active in discussion and able to provide ideas on direction or subject for projects. Leadership is another ability that I can hold, best demonstrated by my time in the Alameda Youth Committee, an organization for community service and event planning in Alameda. During my time in the AYC, I helped organize food drives, directed haunted house construction and operation, and took a leadership role in other events such as sales of Christmas ornaments.
Technology
Thanks to my education at ACLC, I am competent with the use of technology, and am comfortable with applying technology to my educational needs. As much of my schoolwork is done digitally and my gradebook is also in a digital format, it’s necessary for me to know how to access digital resources and operate them to complete online learning. A class that demonstrates this the most was an elective which I took as a Junior, Digital Music. As it would suggest, Digital Music is a course which is almost entirely digital, using software to create music to share with the class. Through instruction from the teacher and hands-on experience, I was able to effectively apply technology to the task of creating music. The program was somewhat obtuse, and many functions were difficult to configure or would often mess up the entire music program on accident. However, I was able to troubleshoot the problems using online research and intuition and resolve the issues I was experiencing, and I was able to complete my course work for Digital Music without any troubles.