Ashley Gallardo
Staff Writer
Exactly one year ago former Pepperdine graduate Crystal Luong would have been pulling all nighters with the rest of her friends for the Graphic. She would have been enjoying dinners at her favorite local restaurant, Taverna Tonys, and been busy volunteering for every non profit organization that the area had to offer.
What a difference a year makes.
Luong has followed her calling to serve all the way to New York City to be involved in Teach for America, where the mission is for all children in the nation to have opportunities toward excellent education.
Luong’s latest challenge began this summer. On top of dodging the obvious obstacles of finding her own place and adjusting to life in the Big Apple, Luong had to dive head first into her new job with TFA.
Her summer assignment was teaching ninth grade English at Frederick Douglass Academy in Harlem. From the get-go things didn’t go exactly to plan seeing as she was supposed to be teaching an entirely different class and had prepared her first lesson plan with that in mind.
But, instead of having a meltdown, Crystal decided to take a “too blessed to be stressed” outlook on life.
While coming up with her first couple lesson plans were a rather tedious process, Luong has gone into her fall assignment with a much more confident perspective. Her permanent position for the fall is teaching 7th grade at Central Park East Middle School in East Harlem. Daily Luong teaches 6-7 periods with students in a new educational reform movement called Teachers College Readers and Writers Workshop.
“I’m always lesson planning, calling parents, grading papers, attending meetings, working on grad school assignments or reading young adult literature,” Luong said.
“TFA not only affects immediate change in classrooms across the country, but alumni continue the movement in finance, politics, medicine, journalism and other fields,” she added. She added: “Everything about the organization aligns with my missions in social justice and I really believe that closing the achievement gap is the civil rights movement of our generation.”
Luong’s interest in serving as a Teach for America Corps member stemmed primarily from the volunteer work she participated in at Pepperdine.
“From my involvement with the Social Action and Justice Colloquium at Pepperdine, I became involved with Camp David Gonzalez’s Literacy Program, in which a core group of SAAJ members tutored minor offenders during their school hours. It was there that I realized the brilliance of the minds who had traveled the wrong path or had been born into situations beyond their control.”
“I grew up in an immigrant family with parents who emphasized hard work and upward mobility,” Luong said. “Thanks to the guidance of numerous teachers and mentors through the years, I was given the opportunity to rise from the bottom, and I feel it’s my duty to give back.”
Luong is exactly the role model that these students need. She is a primary example of someone who has overcoming all the odds. Luong managed to graduate from Pepperdine with a double major in Journalism and Political Science with countless awards for her brilliant talent in writing.
Luong has definitely faced some challenges since moving her life to New York. She is living in a place where people have a completely different mind set and every day is extremely fast paced. Nevertheless, Luong is adjusting to cab rides, late nights out, the Laundromat, and is finally settled into a place of her own.
“I chose New York because I love the city – people, atmosphere, culture, food, public transportation, everything,” she said. Some of her favorite things about life in New York will be checking out the limitless array of places to go out, soaking up the high fashion, her students and Central Park.
While Luong certainly has her work cut out for her. Being 21 years old in New York City seems like a fun-filled adventure just waiting to happen.
Luong also left some advice for Pepperdine’s Journalism majors, “Journalism really is a learned art that anyone can do if he or she has the passion. Also, try to dabble in different aspects of journalism by gaining practical experience. The degree is useless without being involved in publications during college.”
10-13-2006