About the Project
This project is an attempt to better understand ourselves by sharing in the lives of others. Specifically it is geared to observe the role of education in the lives of people from different places. We do this by communicating. We can communicate in several ways. This projects allows those who share to communicate by written word, or multimedia through audio and video. In this we are able to express ourselves in the form that we feel most comfortable and believe we can communicate most clearly.
The motivation for this project are the stories of the people of the Santa Maria valley. The Santa Maria valley has been an agricultural region for more than 100 years. The Santa Maria area is rich in history of cowboys, stage coaches, trains, and even the real Zoro lived in these parts. But most of the lives of the people of this area have been affected by two seperate waves of immigration. The first wave was people of the plain states that came here looking for work in the fertile ground where there were miles of vegitable fields. This heroing trek was made famous by John Steibeck's 'The Grapes of Wrath.' The second wave is that of the Mexican and South American immigrant who comes to this area to work, much in the same way that the Okies and Arkies did over 70 years ago. They were from two different areas, two different cultures, speaking two different languages, but they were searching for the same thing: a better life for them, and more importantly, their children.
In this project we hope to share in the lives of students today whose struggles are monumental but their resovle is even greater. We'll share in the sacrifices that their parents have made and are making, and share in the accomplishment of their success in education and the hope for a better life. And in that we hope to learn how to communicate better those the written word and multimedia.
The purpose of this project is also to provide a vehicle that allows students to work on basic skills and technology literacy to develop a knowledge that will benefit them in their pursuit of educational goals. It is not limited to language or communication majors, but is open to all students from every discipline to examine themselves and to learn about others in the context of their educational journey.
The project is ongoing. The focus is community college students of all ages. Time is another effect on one's perspective. We hope this project will continue for enough time to allow users to the site to be able to look at these stories and examine the similarities and differences present in these stories.
The results of this project are the stories themselves. The project is a collaboration of personal, human, and ingaging stories. The gallery of stories, their triumphs, disappointments, and successes are the result of this project.