My Experience As A Writer

As someone who has migrated to so many different places, I have always yearned for that sense of belonging, to place my soul in one familiar place, not having to cut my life into pieces of memory and forgetfulness. Yet I have come to realize how my perspective – as an immigrant from China and minority in the U.S. – has offered me a different, special opportunity to understand others and empathize with them. Having been a learner, teacher, and writer, my experiences have inspired and motivated me to contribute to the social and cultural diversity of the literary field.

Scenes of moving away arise in my memory as I think about the experiences that have shaped me into the person I am. Completely new to the American environment and unable to understand or speak English, I felt isolated and alone, and had to adjust to new customs and cultures. I remember the gradual transformative time when my teachers instilled in me the important gifts of literacy and belonging, and opened my eyes to the beauty and rhythms of the English language. As I resettled to new and unfamiliar places and schools, my teachers’ caring and mentoring inspired me as a learner and writer, and also …show more content…
As a recipient of the Woodrow Wilson-Rockefeller Brothers Fund Fellowship for Aspiring Teachers of Color, I have been honored to serve at Title One-funded, high-need public schools. While teaching high school English at Archimedean Upper Conservatory and InTech Collegiate, I have had the opportunity to work with a racially and culturally diverse range of secondary students. In designing curricula and working individually with students in the classroom, I have endeavored to provide learners with equal opportunities for achievement, and to empower students’ literary and personal voices in expressing their own perspectives as stepping-stones toward participating as active and engaged