Tag: Jean Silesky

Students Connect Through Poetry and Literature

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April 4, 2017. Story and Photos by Hilary Broman

Senior Staff Reporter

To wrap up the Around the World in 30 Days event Montoya Campus held an international poetry and literature reading event where students volunteered to read poems in different languages or a piece that they had written themselves.

The event took place on Thursday, March 30th and it was hosted by Jean Silesky, Spanish instructor, and Maria Deblassie, English instructor and Montoya Campus writing group facilitator.

Poetry Reading 1
Emily Bjustrom is no stranger to reading her poems in front of a crowd. Her response to those who were performing for the first time was, “I think it’s beautiful and exciting. It’s obvious that this was the beginning of something special for them.”

CNM tutor and former slam poet, Emily Bjustrom, opened by performing three of her original pieces.

Greg Cappetto, Montoya tutoring center manager, said that he enjoyed watching Bjustrom perform at a previous event so he invited her to read at this one.

“I hope she continues to write and affect the community like she affected me,” he said.

 

Poetry Reading 2
Madeleine Allerheiligen takes a breath before reading Eiel Brouillé. She has been has been studying French for five years.

Madeleine Allerheiligen, Psychology major and Montoya writing group member, read a poem by Charles Baudelaire titled Eiel Brouillé in French.

She chose to read this poem because she liked the imagery of the spring weather and how it can be cruel, soft and sweet, she said.

She also loved the rhythm of the poem, she said, a lot of poems tend to lose the rhythm when they are translated and this one didn’t.

 

 

 

Many students who read were reading their work out loud for the first time including Rachel LaPore.

Poetry Reading 3
Rachel LaPore reads from one of her many journals that she has kept over the years. She is currently enrolled in a creative writing class, surrounded by other writers.

LaPore had been writing since she was seven years old but never felt encouraged to cultivate her creative talents, she said.

“I was a real estate developer and I never knew other writers or literary people,” she said. “Writing was like a secret life.”

The piece she decided to share was about identity and the struggle to find the true essence of self, she said.
“I was nervous about sharing this piece because it has a personal meaning and I was concerned that no one would like it,” she said.

Following LaPore, many students took to the podium to share pieces of writing that they had been working on or pieces of literature that stood out to them.

 

To close the event instructor, Maria Deblassie, shared an essay from her personal blog about finding the everyday joys in life.

Travel Around the World in 30 Days with CNM

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March 2, 2017

By Hilary Broman

Senior Staff Reporter

Around the World in 30 Days, an event celebrating global education and awareness, is scheduled to take place throughout the month of March on Main and Montoya campuses, said Ari Senghor Rosner-Salazar, event committee member.

Many events are scheduled to take place throughout the month ranging from enlightening panel discussions to dance and self-defense workshops, Salazar said.

International Education Week and International Women’s Day both take place in March, so the Around the World in 30 Days committee decided to create a month-long event that focuses on celebrating both, Salazar said.

Members of the event committee include; Ari Senghor Rosner-Salazar; Jean Silesky, Spanish instructor; Paula Smith-Hawkins, Associate Dean in CHSS; and Suzanne Buck, CHSS Faculty member, Salazar said.

Committee member, Jean Silesky, said that students can get something from every event.

“The panel discussions will be informative and the dance workshops will be fun, entertaining and relaxing,” she said.

The first event is scheduled to take place on Thursday, March 2nd and it will be a panel discussion with the performers from “Motown the Musical,” Salazar said.

International Women’s day will be on Wednesday, March 8th and there will be various events on both Main and Montoya campuses thorough the day including; a Jiu Jitsu, “Refuse to be a Victim Workshop,” and a “Women in Non-Traditional Roles” discussion panel, Silesky said.

Anyone can participate in the self-defense workshop, Silesky said.

“By no means is it just for women,” she said.

The “Women in Non-Traditional Roles” panel will include women who have professions in fields such as math, science, computer programming and law enforcement, Silesky said.

There will be a belly dance demonstration from a part time CNM instructor on Thursday, March 9th in the Main Campus Cafeteria, she said.

“With a snake!” Silesky said.

The “International Travel Panel” will include instructors who have either lived or studied abroad or who are from other countries and they will be sharing their experiences with the audience, Silesky said.

That panel is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, March 22nd, she said.

There are three dance workshops scheduled where students can learn African dance, Flamenco dance and Salsa dance, Silesky said.

“We think those are fun things that students would love to do,” she said.

There will be huge world maps at Main and Montoya campuses where students can put a push pin in a place where they are from or have lived for an extended period of time, she said.

“It will show that there already is a global presence at CNM that we are unaware of”, Silesky said, “We are called a community college and I think that makes people think small and local when really our community and Albuquerque in general is much more, people are from everywhere.”

The maps will be located in H Commons at Montoya campus and in SRC at Main campus, she said.

Around the World in 30 Days is about new learning experiences taking place outside of the classroom, Salazar said.

Silesky also thinks it is important to create a community outside of the classroom, she said.

“The focus is on the students,” she said, “Community building is really important for us and making students feel welcome at all times on campus.”

Students interested in attending any of the events do not need to sign up beforehand and they can attend as many events as they want.

“We want to encourage our students to participate, even if they can only come for 15 minutes between a class, or maybe if they are working on campus, during a break,” Salazar said, “We want as many people as possible to come to as many of these events as they can get to.”

It’s important to have a global perspective, Salazar said.

“We live in a big world and it’s important for folks to be aware of differences,” he said, “It’s never a bad thing to understand different cultural ways of communicating and different political and religious differences.”

For the past two years CNM held an event for National Foreign Languages Week, but it was too hard to squeeze all the events into one week, Salazar said, Around the World in 30 Days is an expansion of that event.

This event is sponsored by The Executive Counsel of Students, The Around the World in 30 Days Committee and Connect Services, Salazar said.

For a full schedule of events click here.

 

Explore Latin America Through Film

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By Hilary Broman

Staff Reporter and Photographer

You don’t need to know how to speak Spanish to take the new Latin American Film studies class, said Jean Silesky, class instructor.

The Latin American film class will be offered for the first time in the 2017 spring term and it will fulfill a humanities elective credit, Silesky said.

It is a part of the new Latin American studies associates program, she said, but anybody can take the class.

To register for the class students can find it under LTAM 1111, Silesky said.

The class will be at main campus in Tuesday evenings from 6:00-9:20pm, she said.

The class focuses on themes such as migration, war and conflict, women’s issues, and environmental issues, she said.

Students will watch eight critically acclaimed feature films in class and will also be required to watch films outside of class, she said.

There is not a required textbook for the class, said Silesky.

“The movies are our text,” she said.

The class includes films from Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Paraguay and more, she said.

The class is about encouraging students to look at the world from a different perspective, Silesky said.

“Foreign films allow us to travel vicariously,” she said, “I just want to open students up to see the world.”

Film in Latin America can be used as a learning tool rather than just entertainment, Silesky said,

And it can be intense and in your face.

“When we go elsewhere we see that there are other ways to live and to be and yet everyone is the same in the sense that everyone wants to be happy and to have a family; these things are a part of the human experience,” she said.

Silesky encourages students to study abroad both through film and in person, she said.

She spent time studying in Costa Rica when she was in school and it was an eye-opening experience, she said.

Students often think that studying abroad is for people with money but there are so many opportunities to be able to go abroad, she said, you just have to seek them out.

Overall, Silesky wants to promote global perspective and outlook, she said.

“It can be scary,” she said “but it can also be very eye opening.”

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