As we all began our first fall semester in this remote learning “space” professors around the world tried coping with the heavy burden of figuring out how to continue to work with students, to build community, and to adapt to and learn new technology - all while experiencing a global pandemic, witnessing the righteous political responses to systemic racism AND an exceedingly important election.

At Hostos Community College, Professor Camilo Almonacid tackled this challenge by working with students to create the hysterical AND important video below featuring seniors from Hostos Lincoln Academy: Rahneice Wise and Janae Chavannes.

Prof. Almonacid summarized his process like this:

 “…I had a synchronous session last week to discuss the syllabus and other class stuff; I did an ice breaker activity, and then we had a little contest in class, I gave them the prompt for the scene and put them in breakout rooms in pairs. They all created a sketch based on being in the future and what would happen if DT got elected again, (yikes) then each group shared.  I had the difficult job of choosing. All of them were fun and inventive but Rahneice and Janae’s piece was so sincere and the images they painted were powerful… I chose them as the winners…I met with Janae and Rahneice in zoom, and prior to that they did revisions on their script and thought about costumes. We tried changing the background but ran into some technical difficulties and in the end just recorded in front of a white wall. In editing, we later changed the background. I see a lot of potential in this type of creation process with the students...“

This is the kind of resilience, creativity and iterative thinking that will always put the folks at Hostos at the front of the learning curve. I am proud to call these people my colleagues and my friends.

Que Viva Hostos!

Check out their video below