CASA Familiar: San Ysidro Youth Center
Narrator: Stephanie Beltran
Date: May 10, 2018
Location: San Ysidro, Ca
Field Notes:
I visited the CASA Familiar Youth Center at San Ysidro on Thursday. I arrived at the center around 4:00p.m. and I left around 6:00p.m.
When I first arrived I introduced myself to Yesenia who is in charge of the after school tutoring program. She explained to me about her role and duties at the center. She informed me that there is around 12 students from grade levels 2nd to 6th grade that attend the tutoring program from Monday to Friday. The tutoring program is from 3:30p.m. until 7:00p.m.
This program offers homework assistance to the children. At first it was only Yesenia helping everyone. However, since January she has obtained six high school volunteers who come daily to help the children with their homework. This has helped her a lot because she now has time to not only help the students with their homework but actually tutor them more extensively in a subject. On this day it was Mexican Mother’s Day and the last day of school is approaching therefore, not a lot of students went that day. Only two students showed up on Thursday and all six high school tutors showed up. Bella (HIUS Students who arrived after me) and I talked to some of the high school tutors and explained why we where there and asked them if they would be interested in being our interviewees. Unfortunately, the students were not interested and declined our invitation. We didn’t talk to the children because they were being helped with their homework and we didn’t want to distract them. During, the conversation I had with some of the high school students I noticed how hard it was to get them interested in our class topic. One of them mention that this doesn’t interest her. This made me realize that maybe I should target a different age population. I decided to look for adults who are more open and like to talk. I meet this lady on my last visit and my goal is to look for her and ask her to be my interviewee. She was very open about her life story and liked to talk. I believe she will be the perfect interviewee.
Bella and I continued to talk to the youth and to Yesenia. We talked about the center, school, UCSD, and future plans. We were having a good conversation. However, they still seemed reluctant towards being part of the project. I believe this reluctance comes from fear and paranoia. Some of these students may have been undocumented or their families are. Therefore, making them reluctant from sharing their stories. Hopefully, on my next visit I will have more success in finding the lady or any one who is willing to open up.
