building connections through sharing our role models : Response to role model

By Darlene D'Astolfo
College of Education
Long Island University, C. W. Post
March, 2011

Today’s class was by far the most moving class I’ve ever attended in college. We spoke about our role models and I brought a picture of my mother, but this is not what I want to write about in this journal. I was more touched by everyone else’s descriptions of their role models. Two girls were brought to tears while describing the people that mean the most to them and I felt really emotional listening to them. I couldn’t believe that these people would get so emotional just speaking about someone they love and I realized that these people must be extremely special. I feel that role models are a beautiful thing to have and we all need someone to look up to. Even the most distinguished, accomplished person needs their own role model. We all need that one person to show us who we want to be in our lives.

The most touching part of the class was when everyone agreed to stay an extra 20 minutes to wait for Jasmine’s mother to arrive because she was running late. Jasmine is the only student who brought her actual role model to class which I thought was awesome. Her mother seemed like the sweetest lady and I can understand why Jasmine looks up to her so much. She told the class that she was diagnosed with leukemia at a young age and this made such an impact on me, because you never know what someone has been through just by looking at them. This drove this point home to me: that before you judge someone, you should always consider the hard things that they have had to gone through in their lives. I would have never thought Jasmine went through such difficult times. The same thing goes for other students who revealed that they lost one or even both parents.

I truly felt connected to my classmates in this class period because I got to know personal things about them that I would not have otherwise known. Professor Boyanton is truly an amazing professor who cares about her students, which was made obvious in the planning of this type of lesson.