Category: My Students’ Writings

  • Writing from the Classroom: Ailyn Hernandez-Bazan, First Generation College Graduate and Its Discontents

    Writing from the Classroom: Ailyn Hernandez-Bazan, First Generation College Graduate and Its Discontents

    Ailyn Hernandez-Bazan was a student in Literature and Contemporary class, which I taught this spring. She is a first generation college student, a cultural phenomenon I know well–to be the very first to go away to college, and all that means, how it changes our relationships with our loved ones. It begins with thanksgiving, then rips through…

  • Writing From the Classroom: Alejandra Gaspar

    Writing From the Classroom: Alejandra Gaspar

    Alejandra, known by her friends as Ally, graduated from Mount St. Mary’s University, Los Angeles, in 2016.   The Dwelling Star Abandoned in connected ache, I mold- My bosom, rusting colors of warm wine, Then festering in ardor shant define Our spoiling youth engraved and uncontrolled. In your decay, I seek thy dust to hold;…

  • Writing From the Classroom: Valeree Morales

    Writing From the Classroom: Valeree Morales

    Here is an essay that I find most engaging, provocative, and I bet a few of you out there might feel the same way. Valeree touches upon a subject matter that, in the Mexican/Mexican-American community, is a difficult one–what it means to be a “pocho.”  She’s a student at Mount St. Mary’s University in Los Angeles,…

  • Writing from the Classroom: Ajeé Anderson

    Writing from the Classroom: Ajeé Anderson

    Here are three poems by Ajeé Anderson. She graduated a couple of years ago from Mount St. Mary’s University in Los Angeles. She took a number of my creative writing courses, but she came to the class already with the fire to write. Here’s her bio in her own cool words: I’m an African-American woman…

  • Writing From the Classroom: Dana Gil, Ghost-Seer

    Writing From the Classroom: Dana Gil, Ghost-Seer

    This is an essay by Dana Gil, who took my class “Literature and Contemporary Issues.”  She has a real knack for storytelling, and this story, well…something to tell around the campfire.   My grandmother, María Elgega, died three weeks ago. She died in her sleep, at her nursing home, my mother at her side. She had…