Ethnic Studies 499 was a special class taught at during Spring Break.  It was an untraditional course designed so that instead of sitting in a classroom, the students were able to travel to other cities to listen to different stakeholders and their opinions and experiences regarding issues in cross cultural education.  I found this class to be a very informative way of teaching. Taking this class helped me with many of my fears about public speaking in large group situations. During the class I learned about many different issues that face minority groups, more specifically Latinos and African Americans. I had a chance to facilitate a panel of two Latina sisters and their views on receiving education as a minority student.  There were several main ideas and reoccurring themes between the sisters and the other stakeholders. Three of these themes are:
 

Segregation and discrimination

Community, family, and school support (mentoring)

Bilingual education