Juan Topete

Mr. Ewart
Advisory
4/24/2015
Senior Retrospective

Hello, my name is Juan Topete and today I shall be presenting to you about my past years
here in V.I.S.A. Personally as I reflect upon these times I come to realize how much I have
grown and changed over these past four years. Thus at this point I am feeling both triumphant
and at the same time somber as I prepare to leave V.I.S.A. A school that which I feel no regrets in
having attended despite its unorthodox style of education. I look back to those days of freshmen
year when I was quite nave and if I must say such a fool. I must confess some these aspects still
remain with me, yet I have matured and come to know myself and the world that which I dwell
in. It is a world I have yet still so much to learn but one shall run with arms open as opposed to
arms closed. Part of these discovery of the world around me has to do with me growing as a
Global Citizen.
One key major project that helped me grown as a Global Citizen was my 9th grade lunch
project proposal. During this project I and my partners for the project had to formulate a plot in
which we attempted to find a way to resolve the issues with students grabbing lunch. One of the
key parts of the project that helped me come to understanding the community of students around
me and why they would neglect to go grab lunch. I did such task by providing a survey for these
students to take and further analyzed that one of the biggest issues was the length of the lines.
This helps demonstrate the qualities a global citizen has in being able to gather information about
a community and analysis its effects on the overall actions of the culture. This also helped me

communicate ideas by being able to take the information that had been surveyed along with our
proposed solutions into a formal leader to be send to the administration. A second project I did in
my freshman year that helped me grow more as a global citizen was the I.S.S. project in my
Digital Literacy class. In this project my teammates and I had to research about the dangers of
the internet and how to be safer online in regards to giving away personal information. This
helped me grow as a global citizen by realizing the importance of safety in the online world and
real life stories of these victims.
During my sophomore year I also managed to grow more as a student in an academically
when I had to part take in Ms. Tupazs environmental science V.E.I. project. The V.E.I. project
stands for V.I.S.A. Environmental Initiative, this project focused on finding a world issues that
could be local or international. Our class group decided to focus our attention on the community
around us by helping clean under the freeway bridge. This projected helped me grow much as a
student for it helped learn to open up and communicate with my fellow classmates in order to
achieve our goal in an effective way possible. This skill shall be useful during in all aspects of
my life whether it be at my university or in the work space. In fact I believe it is a skill all of us
should learn since we shall always have moment when communication skills are vastly
important. Another key part of my sophomore year that helped me grow as a student was my
class debate in environmental science. This debate that focused on pesticides was a way for me
as a student to learn to participate in a formal debate with timed speeches and equal ground for
both sides to defend their view points. This is an important academic skill to acquire for college
since public debates can be part of a course and must be able to be handled well without respect
for both sides in a civilized manner.

I would describe my junior year as a time in which I made great amount of progress in
my academics. This resulted in taking a college class during the spring semester. My first class
was sociology which I was fortunate enough to have taken with such a passionate and helpful
professor. During this class I was able to grow academically with the amount of paperwork that
was required from us. This workload included several papers and projects as well as several test
on our chapters in the text book. This class helped me realized that the amount of work I shall
receive in college is of great amount yet possible in completing. Although the work load was a
bit overwhelming I was able to stay on top of the assignments while receiving an A. Another
project that has helped me grow more as a student was my Fast Food project which I did with
both my English and history class. In this project I had to learn about the fast food industry and
the way it operates. By doing so I had to read a book called Fast Food Nation, research online
articles, and investigate a local restaurant to make a presentation on our findings. This type of
research is one many college students shall have to do for presentation, speeches, and projects.
Thus by researching for this presentation I was able to get a similar experience to the research
that is often partaken in a major assignment.
Having completed three years of science courses needed for my A-G requirements I
decided to take on another year by taking Biotechnology. To my surprise our teacher Ms.
Panrroyo (whom I had for biology) quickly settled the fact that she would be holding us
accountable for our work in the class. Ms. Panrroyo shaped our class room around requires
amount of work, most of which had to do with preparing large amounts of paper work for
the class room labs which had plenty of. Even then we were hold accountable of having to work
our own personal reading of our designated book: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. This
long assignment required us to read chapters of the book on our own time along with answering

questions on the passage. This very much stimulates similar types of reading assignments that
professors shall require us to do in our time between class meetings. One shall also find that Ms.
Panrroyo has constantly reminded us that not doing these reading assignments shall hinder only
our self which add a level of pressure to the classroom when it comes to personal responsibility.
Even the amount of lab work that is brought up on us can be seen as a lesson to be learned for the
future challenges of college. For college shall bring a hefty amount of work that shall be needed
to help pass your classes. An assignment that I have had to work on during the winter was Ms.
Burnetts the stranger assignments. These assignments were given to use during the winter as
way to keep us consistent in our preparatory for our AP Literature exam. This assignment proved
to be quite a big assignment and helped me understand the pressures of turning in assignments in
college without having someone to remind you to do the work. This was a great way to prepare
me for college because we are often never informed about our assignment and are expected to
manage our schedules in order to acuminate our homework and classwork that we receive from
class. I quickly learn this lesson when I had about less than a week to write several essays, comic
strips, and an AP prompt essay to write. That stressful week helped me learn that reminders and
scheduling can help resolve a lot of issues such as procrastination.
Now I cannot deny that yes I have had a great experience here at V.I.S.A, yet I feel there
can be more done to help improve the school. Teachers, I believe its very important to
understand students and their current situations that may prevent them from reaching their full
academic potential. This is something that I at times suffered from during my soft more year as I
struggled with depression. Being able to comprehend a students personal life and adapt to it
helps them out so much more in attempting to pass the class. Another piece of advice is being
able to foster a students thoughts at a much earlier point in their high school carrier. This can

help the students learn more about what requirements maybe needed for the school and the
specific program they desire to enter. In fact many of my friends were not aware of some of the
auditions, portfolios, and AP subject test we had to take in order to qualify for our desired
colleges. As for students the best advice I can suggest is to be able to take college classes now at
a time when you can take them for free. Yes, it can be a challenge yet think of all the money and
time you can be saving with having taken all these general education classes that colleges often
require you to take. In fact with the amount of credits I have taken I shall be starting college with
already one semester completed.
In a summarization, as I come to the end of my high school career I am extremely pleased
with the progress I have made as a student here at V.I.S.A. I have made progress both
academically and personally. I have made several friends and befriended several teacher and staff
that I am thankful for having them be a part of my life. I have also learned about the world and
the importance of being an open mind and exploring it. So I leave V.I.S.A. with much achieved
and a desire to grow more and achieve more accomplishments. Thank you, for taking the time to
hear my speech.