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Journal Entry 1: October 17, 2016 2:00pm-3:00pm

I had the opportunity to volunteer as a Detroit student ambassador for Wayne State
University and there admissions department. I had the Privileges of volunteering alongside other
ambassadors that were mentored By Daniel Winston. This volunteering opportunity is supposed
to allow me to interact with students across schools around Detroit. I hope to gain valuable
knowledge about Schools in Detroit and see how sociology plays a role in the community around
us. Visiting these schools and being able to talk to teachers from different grades, along with
students should help me understand more about education within the city of Detroit.
On the first day I learned that social class and class structure have a lot to do with the
opportunities a student gets in order to advance in the social structure ladder through
education. I did not visit a school but I did have an opportunity to sit down and talk to Daniel
Winston, who has been recruiting around the metro Detroit area for close to a decade. He was
able to tell me what he noticed while he visited schools around Detroit. One of the problems that
plagued Detroit Public schools in his eyes was poverty, this is one of the reasons why it is harder
for students to excel in school at a high level and compete with students that are from suburban
schools. As I learned from my sociology lecture, there are many types of poverty, but
official poverty and relative poverty are the main types of poverty Detroit is facing. I also
know that students that are going through poverty can have a lower IQ than normal,
mental health problems as well as physical health problems. The Poverty line with Detroit is
high and that is resulting in students not having the proper foundation at home to perform at their
fullest capability at school. He also told me that Detroit public schools do not have the proper
resources to educate their students to a point where they are ready for the next level, either its
College, high school, or even an elementary school student moving up to the Middle school

grades. What I am able to reflect from my first day of volunteering is that class structure, social
location, and wealth plays a huge role in a students ability to get a top tier education. After
my conversation with Daniel Winston I was curious to know if social integration had anything
to do with students within DPS not excelling alongside other districts. A questions I wanted to
get answered when I visited schools was what are some of the after school activities schools are
offering to their students to get them integrate with one another and with the community that
surrounds them.

Journal Entry 2: October 20, 2016- 9:00am-12:00pm

This was my second day of volunteering and I was able to visit Davison Elementary
School along with my fellow Detroit student Ambassador volunteers. At the school I was told
that I will be part of a student panel which will answer questions from 3rd and 4th graders. I was
instructed to answer questions about why I chose to go to Wayne State and other questions that
elementary school students might ask. One of the first impressions of the school I had was how
their computer lab was remodeled. They had brand new computers put in along with new
equipment. This observation made me realize that there were new and improved resources to
help students develop in school and also stay engaged in their learning. As the student panel
started I noticed that majority of the questions that were being asked were why we those to go
Wayne State University over other schools that were out of state, what I wanted to accomplish at
the end of my college journey and what the rest of the ambassadors wanted to accomplish as
well. As I asked the students back what they wanted to do for a career when they are older,
majority of the students want to be athletes, something within the medical field, or careers
related to video games. What I was able to pick from some of these short conversations I had

with these students was that they all wanted to accomplish more than their parents did and
jump up the class structure ladder than the one in which they grew up in. Davison
Elementary School was a African American dominated school and the norm for majority of
African American children was to pursue a career in sports, so I did not find it amusing that
majority of the 3rd and 4th graded that I interacted with wanted to one day be involved in
professional sports. One of the Things I noticed was that the questions were more so based on
career choices rather than questions about Wayne State and what the school as to offer to them.

Journal Entry 3: October 21, 2016 9:00am-12:00pm

The Very Next day I was able to go to the same school Davison Elementary School and
talk to 5th and 6th graders. I was once again at the computer lab that was newly redone. When
doing the student panel with older students I expected to get more questions related to how to
pay for college, how to prepare yourself for college and opportunities to gain scholarships. As I
expected I did receive those questions along with other questions about how to be successful in
high school. After the student panel I got the chance to talk to 3 of the students, I asked them
questions about what they like about their school and all three of them said their teachers and
that they are able to learn a great amount because of the teachers that the school has. I also got
the opportunity to talk to a teachers at the school. she was a 5th grade teacher, the main purpose
of me talking to this teacher was because I wanted to know what type of after school or even in
school resources and activities the school was providing to their students to make them feel more
integrated into society. She told me about some of the after school tutorings they have where
the higher grades help younger students with their homework. I also asked about some of the

sports programs they had in place for the students, and she told me about the schools basketball
team, soccer team, academic games, to name a few of the activities provided by the school.
Reflecting on the day, I loved the interaction that I had with the students and really loved
to see their interest in doing well in school and also being enthusiastic about college. Eventhough some of the students might come from a society that does not value education as much, I
liked to see the interest in upward social mobility. After having the conversation with the
teacher and learning about the different programs and resources the school is providing, I
was intrigued to know that Davison Elementary School had after school activities to get
their students socially integrated. As I learned from Teenage Wasteland by Donna Gaines,
teenagers have to feel accepted by society in order for them to be successful. If they are not
socially integrated they can start to gain interest in recreational drugs and adhere to suicide
because of boredom or just feeling cut out from society. So schools within Detroit Public
Schools and other school districts should establish after school activities, because it is a
good way to keep students from feeling cut out from the norms of society.
Journal Entry 4: October 24, 2016 -2:00pm-3:00pm
On this day I was able to have a sit down conversation with one of the Admissions
counselor for Wayne State University named John Young. To learn further more about Detroit
Public school and if social class structures and a families wealth had anything to do the
level of education they were getting within Detroit Public Schools. Mr. Young agreed with
me and also though that social structures did play a role in the education Detroit Public
school students were getting. He also told me that funding from the government have a lot to do
with the lack of success students from DPS were having. Suburban schools get much more
funding from the government which helps them have after school programs to help theyre

students with homework or with material that a student is having trouble with inside of the class
room. Mr. Young believes that household income and where a family falls on the class
structure does have effects on a students educational perspective. Students that come from
an upper-middle class family might not see education as important compared to a student
that is coming from a family that is a part of the working class or the working poor class. A
student that is from the upper middle class might feel like he does not have to work hard as
others because his family has the wealth that can help him go to a premiere university or that
student might feel like his family has enough wealth that he doesnt need the higher education
provided from school to live his dreams. While a student that was born and raised in a working
class family might feel like they have to work harder than their peers around them to earn
scholarships and other grants in order for them to pursue a college level education. Students that
come from a less financially stable family tend to work towards upward mobility more than
students that are from wealthier family.
I was enlightened by this new perspective Mr.Young told me about. I never thought about
how a familys wealth can play a role in there development through out there school careers.
This showed exactly how some children might achieve upward mobility and perform better
than their parents but others might not and actually fall to downwards mobility. I was able
to connect what I learn from Mr. Young to some of my learnings in class, I was able to notice
that there was a huge gap between social classes. Student on a higher social class can either
excel with the opportunities that are provided with a higher class structure or not even
perform at the level of a working class student who is trying to move up on the class
structure through education.

Journal Entry 5: October 25, 2016 1:00pm-4:00pm

On this day Taylor International Academy had a visit to Wayne state University, this was
a way for the school to introduce a college setting to their students at an early age, so they can
see how it is like to be in college and also get an opportunity to talk to Wayne State students,
who will explain a lot about their experiences at this University. One of the first observations I
made was most of the students ranged from kindergarten to about the 4th grade, there were couple
students that were in higher grades. I also noticed that as the teachers told them to get in a
straight line and stand still, majority of the students did not listen, instead choose to run around.
As the students were given a tour around Wayne State, they still tended to run off and not follow
any direction given to them by their teacher. There was one particular student that stood out to
me. He seemed to always have to hold the teachers hand because hes usually wondering off. He
also was hitting other students and was always complaining about the rout the tour guide was
taking. I was able to ask the teacher does he always act like that and she told me that he acts up
in class every day and usually tends to complain about everything that is assigned for him to do.
I decided to talk to the students to see if I can figure out what he dislikes about coming on a field
trip to Wayne State. When I sat next to him at lunch and had a conversation with him, I was able
to notice that he was very engaged in the conversation. He told me the shows he likes to watch
on television and that he hates school because he feels the teachers pick on him.
What I learned from that situation was that simply talking to a younger student about
some of the problems they are having can encourage them to behave because they feel like they
have someone they can relate to. I felt as if though I was able to make him understand what he
was doing wrong by wondering off, screaming, and physically hitting other students. An
assumption that I made was that the boy felt cut out from the societal group that he was a

part of. He told me about how he felt the teachers were being unfair to him, which made me
realize that he felt he was being cut out from the group of students in his class. A line from my
sociology book that describes this situation is when we belong to a group, we yield to others
the right to judge our behavior, even though we dont like It. That line exactly describes
how the boy I was able interact with today felt.
Journal Entry 6: October 27, 2016 12:00pm-2:00pm
I had the privilege of going back to my old high school, Cass Technical High School, to
recruit students to come attend Wayne state university. When I went to Cass Tech as a high
school student I never realized how diverse the school was. As I went back as a speaker and
observer this time around, I was able to fully grasp the diversity of the school. While I was at
Cass I had an opportunity to talk to several students that are seniors at Cass Tech. I explained to
them about the diversity Wayne state presents and how it is very similar to Cass tech. I got a lot
of questions regarding how I got to Wayne State, what were my ACT/SAT scores, my
accumulative GPA, what are some of the advantages Wayne State presents to their students, how
I would describe my first couple years at WSU, and etc. I got the opportunity to talk to Bengali,
Mexican, African American, and few Caucasian students. I felt like I was able to relate to all the
students very well and that all the questions I received came from students of different ethnicity.
After the questions and answer session was over I had couple of students stay back to have a one
on one conversation with me. I noticed that the students that stayed back to talk to me were all
Bengali. Majority of them were from Hamtramck, where I still live now, and they just wanted to
know how difficult the classes at Wayne State were, how I prepared myself for college, and what
were some of the step I took to get to where I was today. As I answered all of their questions all
of them were able to relate to me very well. At the end some of them even took down my phone

number and email address, so they can contact me if they needed help on something in particular
or just if any other questions that might come up in their mind.
I felt like the reason majority of the Bengali students stayed after to speak to me one on
one was because they were able to relate to me. I was also Bengali that had similar backgrounds
to them and connect to some of the situations that they were in. The group of Bengali students
and I had identical nonmaterial culture, which means a groups way of thinking, since were
Bengali we had similar beliefs, values, and norms. We also had common patterns of
behavior such as our language and many other forms of interaction Bengalis perform when
greeting someone, our symbolic culture was similar. That is what drew the students to come
talk to me and also take my contact information so they can interact with me in the future. Even
though the other students from other ethnicity did not stay back to converse with me, I felt
as if I was still able to connect with them through my material culture, I felt like my
knowledge of the modern world such as new styles, clothing trends, and jewelry, helped me
connect with them as well. They did ask a lot of questions during the Questions and answer
session and were very intrigued to hear some of my experiences throughout high school and
college up to this moment.
I also wanted to hear from them so I asked questions relating to Diversity. The most
common answers I got was that all of the students cultures fit well together. Majority of the
students were caught off guard and were not expecting me to ask a question like that. Some that
did answer said that everyone understands each other and that culture is never a central topic that
comes up at Cass Technical High School. Everyone understands each others beliefs and tends to
stay away from topics that might offends ones cultural beliefs.

Reflecting back at my Days at Cass Tech I realized coming from a city like Hamtramck
which is dominated by a large Bengali population, I always had a cultural relativism mentality
which allowed me to be able understand other beliefs and culture with an open mind so
when I was at Cass Tech High school as a student I was able to understand other students
beliefs. I think other students of different race and ethnicity also had a cultural relativism
perspective which allowed them to not have culture shock when they attend Cass technical high
school for the first. Ethnocentric, tendency to use our own groups beliefs as a yardstick for
judging others, did not exist at Cass Tech. That is one of the reason why students from different
cultures and religion were able to co-exist so well together and also work together to benefit each
other. I was very happy that the students there were able to relate to me and took everything I
said into consideration so they can achieve great things in the future. I felt like me being able to
connect to the Bengali community at Cass Tech was great because it showed me that I can get
societal group that I am a part of, to listen to what I have to say. Now going back to my old high
school as an observer helps me reflect and examine everything in a more Sociological
perspective.
Journal Entry 7: October 29, 2016 7:00am-3:00pm
Today was Decision day, which took place at Edison High School. I was there with
Wayne States Universities Admissions Department who were in charge of admitting or deny
students into Wayne State. While I was there, I volunteered to collect transcripts from students
that were interested in applying to Wayne State and help them fill out the application online. The
turnout caught me off guard because I was not expecting to see that many students, there were
approximately 600 students. Along with Wayne state there were colleges and universities from
all across Michigan. Wayne State had over 300 students that applied to see if they were able to

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get admitted into Wayne State. There were students from High Schools all around Detroit, I was
intrigued by the eagerness of some of the high school seniors to go to college. There was this one
girl named Asia, in which I had an opportunity to talk to her and she was very nervous but also
excited. After having a conversation with her I can tell she was determined to go to medical
school. She also told me about how there is a stereotype about students that come from Detroit
that dont perform at a high level in college. She wanted to change that outlook and show people
that she is a student from Detroit that attended all Detroit public schools all throughout her life
and is still able to pursue her dreams. She also told me that growing up she was not always
privileged like some of the other students she went to school with, but she always had just
enough from her parents to get by. I can tell just from talking to her that she didnt come
from family that is high on the social class ladder, but she was not going to let that stop her
from achieving more that her parents. I was able to tell from other small conversations I had
with other students that they had a similar mindset to the one Asia had. Social Stratification was
one of the reasons why some students are able to get a top tier education and others cannot.
I was happy to see that fellow students from Detroit trying their best to overcome some of the
road blocks presented to them so they can go to college and excel.
Throughout the long day I also noticed that parents were just as excited as their kids
were. Getting parents involved in there childrens education is one of the goals for the
Admissions department at Wayne State. I was able to notice parents very much involved in there
childs college application process. There were parents asking more questions about our school
than students were. To me it showed that the parents were excited to send their kids to college
but at the same time they were nervous. They wanted to know if Wayne State was the right fit for
their childs interest and also the main concern for majority of the parents was the safety. They

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wanted to make sure that if their child stayed on campus, that they were safe. This type of
involvement reminded me of blue-collar working parents, they are usually more involved in
their childrens education because they want their child to have a more secure and routine
job that will allow then to move up in the social class, those are opportunities they as
parents did not have. I feel like parents also play a huge role in social integration, because
they are the first people a child interacts with. Parents willing to get their kids involved in after
school activities and also taking the time to attend events to help them secure a spot in college is
a way parents are helping integrate their child into the real world.
While I was at Decision day I noticed different body languages, the way people use
their bodies to give messages to others. While I was collecting transcripts from students I
noticed some of their hands were shaking, that was a way I can tell that many of the students
were nervous. I also noticed that some of them looked at the ground or other objects around them
when they were asked about their grades by the admissions counselors. That was another cue that
I got from them being nervous, it was understandable for them to get nervous because getting
accepted into college was a big step towards their future. In addition to that I also observed how
students with their parents behaved compared to students that came to decision day without their
parents. The students that came with their parents seemed to have a more serious gesture on
their face compared to the students that came alone. I felt like they were under more pressure
from their parents to get accepted into college and also graduate. Towards the end of the day, the
students came back to get there decision envelope to see if they got into Wayne State University
or got denied. The students that picked up their decision envelope on their own had the tendency
to hold on to the envelope and preferred to open it at a later time to see the decision made on
them. The students that had their parents alongside them when they came to pick up their

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decision envelope were forced to open it on the spot by their parents, it also seemed to me that
the students that got accepted by multiple universities couldnt pick which university they
wanted to go to. The decision eventually had to be made by their parents. This reminded me of
power elite term that C. Wright Mills coined. This term referred to those who make the big
decision in the U.S. society. I would relate this term to the parents of the students because
they have all the power in their childs life and they make the big decision for their child.
Those are some of the observations I made throughout the day, it was a great experience to go
and volunteer at decision day because I never got an opportunity to ever be at a setting where so
many colleges were in one area admitting students into their prestigious University. I was also
proud to see so many students excited about the opportunity to go to college and pursue their
dreams, but the best part was seeing the happy faces of parents and their child at the end of the
day when they found out they were admitted by Wayne State and some of the other colleges that
took part in Decision Day.
Journal Entry 8: November 7, 20016 - 12:00pm-4:00pm
On this day I had the privilege of going to a school named Detroit International Academy
of Young Women (DIA). As an Ambassador I was going to talk to the seniors of that school
about Wayne State and all the cool features the university got to offer. One of the first things I
observed was that the school was strictly girls. As I got the opportunity to speak to the students I
noticed that there was a good amount of girls that were either Arabic or Bengali. They didnt ask
much questions to me so the question and answer session was relatively short. I thought that was
because I was a boy and this is an all-girls school, they had no interest in provoking a
conversation with me. I was still curious to why majority of them did not want to hear what
college had to offer, so I decided to try to converse with some of them in the hall to see if I can

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get to know them a little better. I stopped an Arabic girl and asked her if she was in the 12th
grade, she replied saying yes. I also asked her if she was at the Question and answer seminar
hosted for the seniors, so replied yes. I asked her why majority of the girls didnt ask any
questions about college and why so many of the senior class looked dis-interested. She told me
that she is not going to go to college so she did not have any interest in knowing about what
college has to offer. She also told me that she is going to get married after high school, which is
one of the reason she is not going to go to college. Another observation I made was that she
never made eye contact while talking to me, she usually stared elsewhere. I did not engage in
much of a back and forth conversation with her because she seemed like she did not want to talk
to me. I was also able to talk to a Bengali girl, I thought maybe a Bengali can relate to me better
since I came from a Bengali background. She was a little bit more conversational and she also
informed me that she was not interested in college because her parents dont expect her to go to
college. She said she might go to Bangladesh over the summer and get married. I found that very
unusual, because my parents are Bengali and they value education a lot. John Young one of the
Admissions counselor was there and I told him about me the conversations I had with the girls.
He has been recruiting at the school for quite some time now and he told me that majority of the
students parents are strict. Some send the girls to all-girls school because theyre culture
prohibits girls from interacting with boys. Others only send them there so they can stay out of
trouble and be more discipline. Mr. Young told me about a confrontation he had with a parent
who sends their child to DIA. The student wanted to go to college and pursue her dreams of
becoming a psychologist, but her father was against women getting education. This sounds like
an absurd thing to hear from a father, but some culture are against women getting an education.
Culture shock, the disorientation that people experience when they come in contact with a

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fundamentally different culture, might be one of the reason why parents of other culture
get their daughters married immediately after high school graduation. Some families also
believe a men should be the primary income holder of the house, even though a family with a
women as the head tend not to have upward mobility and have a risk of falling into
poverty. Women that do forgo marriage and pursue education have a chance towards
upwards mobility and a chance to move into a different social class.
After hear what John Young had to say, I understood exactly why some of the girls did
not want to talk to me. I believe it was taught inside their homes to not talk to boys. It was their
cultural norm, Expectations of right behavior. As being Muslim myself, I understood that
making eye contact with a man stranger can be taken the wrong way in some Muslim
households, even though in my house it is not sought as a big problem. I also understood that
if you are a Muslim girl and you get seen talking to a boy in public, it can lead to Negative
sanctions. I assumed that the girls I talked today grew up in a family with those types of cultural
beliefs so they tried to avoid a long conversation with me. The young girls getting married at a
young age is also a cultural value, ideas of what is described in life. Their father might a
tradition Muslim man that is a true believer of all his cultural values so he is getting his
daughter ranged married at an early age. This trip to DIA was a unique one for me because
not everyone gets to go to an all-girls school and experience how they interact inside of a school.
The chance to see the school environment that DIA created for the women that attend the school
fascinated me. They seemed to not even notice the there was no male at the school and the ladies
at the school treated each other with the outmost respect.

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Journal Entry 9: Reflect on my service learning.

Getting the opportunity to volunteer for Daniel Winston and the rest of the Admissions
team at Wayne State was truly an honor for me. I learned a lot of new characteristics about
myself and about the society around me. I enjoyed going to different schools and making
observations in a sociological perspective. This opportunity opened my eyes to a lot of social
events that are going on around me. I also enjoyed the opportunity I had to make a difference in a
students life, either it was an elementary school student or a senior in high school. My goal was
to inspire every student I talked to, I wanted them to know that going to college and
accomplishing their dreams is always worth it no matter what obstacles they have to face along
the way. I was able to grow my knowledge about Detroit public schools and how the social
structure around the schools of Detroit are playing a role in the education the students are getting
inside the school building. I also understand how poverty is consuming the city which is also
causing the students in Detroit to under achieve compared to their suburban counterparts. Being
inside of different schools also showed me that the schools in Detroit are improving their
resources to get students the proper help they need in order to excel. All the schools I visited had
after school programs that will playing a huge role in getting students socially integrated. Getting
students integrated into the society around them is an important concern that schools will play a
big role in solving. I was also happy to see parents being involved in their childs education. I
noticed that parents that have a close relationship with their child tend to be able to make big
decision for their child. At the end this was an amazing experience and I would love to be able to
go to more schools around Detroit and encourage students to take their education very seriously,
Education is one of their gateway to upwards mobility and away for them to live their dreams.

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Bibliography
Tiemann, Kathleen Anne., and James M. Henslin. The Intersections Collection: Pearson Custom
Sociology. New York: Pearson Learning Solutions, 2011. Print.
Ganies, Donna. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.