Student Work Samples
The following excerpts are samples of student work created by participants in the Voice of Witness/Facing History and Ourselves educational pilot program. The first phase of the pilot program took place in the 2010-11 school year within 7 schools in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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Excerpt from Strength, Beauty and Spirit: An Oral History Narrative of Naudja Bynum
Conducted by Taylor B.
Envision Academy of Arts and Technology, Oakland, CA
Teacher: Trevor Gardner
(Click to enlarge)
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Excerpt from The Oral History of Dinesh Kumar
Conducted by Fifer G.
Berkeley High School, Berkeley, CA
Teacher: Bill Pratt
(Note: Mr. Kumar is on the maintenance staff of Berkeley High School)
Back in Fiji, my family had a farm. They planted tomatoes, cabbages, lettuce, eggplant and ochre. Early in the morning I had to wake up at 4 a.m. to water the tomatoes, tie the goats, then take shower, get ready and then go to school. It’s very different. If I was late, I got beaten. If you drop something there, you have to pick it up and clean it. There is no custodian or nothing there. Every morning you have to wipe the windows and chairs. If you have trash, you have to dump it, and then you start the class.
This life—its a little bit hard, you know, always the rooms are a mess. Dirty stuff you have to clean, then you go home at eleven o’clock at night and take your shower, and then you don’t feel like sleeping. You fall asleep like one or two a.m. Then early in the morning you have to wake up, drop your kids off at school and go to another job. It’s a little bit tough, but you have to do it for your family.
And when I had kids, I did all I could to care for them. In my country, if you have a job, you’re lucky. I was very lucky, getting a job in Fiji; there are a lot of educated kids who don’t get a job.
I must think about my kids. So I come to your country. Well, I can say our country, because I …I am citizen today. I took the exam in Oakland today, so now I can say my country.
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Excerpt from The Oral History of Daniel Cheng
Conducted by Clara C., William C., and Jonathan S.
Mission San Jose High School, Fremont, CA
Teacher: Katherine Geers
Daniel: In 1960, I was a top piano student in the Shanghai Music Conservatory. At that time, Chinese Communists made a lot of political movements and we could not practice the piano. I was very unhappy, so I hoped to go overseas to Hong Kong or the West to continue my music studies. The Communists called me a traitor and sentenced me to a prison farm for eighteen years—from the age of 20 to 38.
My mom always supported me. She wrote two letters a week to me, and told me, “You will, you will stick to your beliefs. You will have a better future.” She always encouraged me during those eighteen years. So when I got out of prison I started to practice again. My arms were just painful for a long time— but I just kept going.
This experience made me more involved in music, in musical expression. I already had the experience of life— not always very happy, often a hard life. That’s important, you know? Very, very, very, very important. For a person to get involved in the arts, not only music but for literature or something, you must have a lot of experience, so you can write a novel or poetry in a more powerful mood. So, today, I can bear more pressure. Yeah. Because even if I’m not happy—even if I’m sad—that’s better than before.
