College is often a place where people truly discover who they are. This section focuses on how going to college shaped, influenced, or help students' realize their identity.
I am who I amBennison Flores is a fourth-year student at Cal Poly, SLO majoring in Civil Engineering.
He has only very recently begun his hand at digital art, and was happy for this project to be his first public display of his newfound talent. His project reads "Ako ay kung and ako" which translates to I am who I am. |
"This project represents me in my current state(s). I was honestly playing with my hair the day I signed up to do this, and it naturally unfolded from there. Ever since I was little I was surrounded by such powerful and inspiring womxn figures with long hair. As a boy growing up in a traditional Filipino house hold I was only allowed to have one haircut, bald. Coming to college and being on my own for the first time, I made the decision to grow out my hair as much as possible--with intermittent haircuts whenever my mom forced me to. It took a lot of fighting back and talking with my parents for them to accept my long hair. I think the moment they fully accepted it was when I had just freshly done my hair routine, and my lola (grandmother) looked at my hair and said it was the most beautiful hair she had ever seen. To me, that was what my college experience has been. A lot of my family not understanding why I decide to do what I do, then, their eventual acceptance once they see what beautiful things my choices can make. The message I am trying to convey is that I am who I am. I only decided to only see my backs because at the end of the day I am the only one fully watching it. Me, Myself, and I."
no rain, no flowers
Marlen Estrada is a fourth-year student majoring in Animal Science and Spanish. She explains that she chose her creative medium "because I'm not the most artistically inclined, so I figured creating something with Canva was personally the best option. I chose Canva because it provides a lot of guidance while also allowing room for my own creativity."
"In households that have very traditional beliefs and values, mental illnesses are often overlooked and ignored. They are often simply treated with medicine and rarely discussed. Over the past few years, I have suffered with anxiety and depressive episodes. This quarter specifically, my mental health suffered tremendously. By depicting a brain whose flowers are growing when being watered, it represents the growth and learning a person can experience by simply taking care of themselves, including their mental health."
"In households that have very traditional beliefs and values, mental illnesses are often overlooked and ignored. They are often simply treated with medicine and rarely discussed. Over the past few years, I have suffered with anxiety and depressive episodes. This quarter specifically, my mental health suffered tremendously. By depicting a brain whose flowers are growing when being watered, it represents the growth and learning a person can experience by simply taking care of themselves, including their mental health."
slomeFelipe Vallejo is a fourth-year student at Cal Poly, majoring in Agricultural Communications and Ethnic Studies.
He chose to do his project on InDesign because it is a program that he is very familiar with. He notes that "this was one program I learned in my major and something I use often to develop marketing collateral for work." "This project is a reminder to myself on how much I have grown and how far I have come since starting at Cal Poly. This image features a photo of SLO’s landscape ripped to show with a photo of myself underneath. For the last three years I have used photography as a creative outlet and when developing this project, I knew I wanted to feature my passion for photography to some capacity. Cal Poly had been my dream school since I was a freshman in high school. During my first year, I was unhappy a lot of the time and struggled to find a place to fit in. Being a Chicano in the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Science has been challenging at times. There have been times where my skin tells people about me before I even have the chance to speak. Cal Poly and San Luis Obispo in general are very white spaces that I have had to learn to navigate through. Attending a PWI allowed me to appreciate my culture more and be proud of who I am. Over the last four years, I have been able to grow and put my happiness first. I look back and see how different and unhappy I was back then. The photo beneath the landscape is of me. I was taking some senior portraits with my roommate and I decided to hop in for a quick shot. Although I am not graduating this year, I choose this photo to remind myself that I am not done yet." |
Photo source: https://unsplash.com/photos/IDFJUVl0puM