Personal Narrative: My Urban Experience

Going into Sophomore year, starting my Urban class with Mr. Berkson, I was worried. Although I had heard he was a great teacher, something about being in a different class then I had planned worried me. Going into Sophomore year, I had planned to join Eastern Religions, but after going through some serious consideration, I decided to switch into Urban. To this day, my decision has not let me down. I enjoyed Mr. Berksons class all year, for many reasons. These reasons include his great humor, his passion of teaching, his endurance and dedication.

Not only did I enjoy Mr. Berksons class because of his way of teaching, I also enjoyed it because of what he taught. There were many things I enjoyed learning about, and then there were things I did not enjoy. In this course of a semester, we learned and read about many interesting topics including, the discovery of Chicago, Chicago becoming a “shock city”, and many other topics that led to the great city Chicago is today. Out of all the topics we have studied throughout this course, my favorite would have to be learning about the great migration and the black. I enjoyed learning about this because it shows how african americans came to chicago and how they brought their culture to the North. I also like seeing how the violence in the south side in the earlier 1900’s is still happening in the city today. This is my favorite topic because studying this made me realize how our city has changed/ evolved since this time. We still hear about racism, gangs, and that black lives matter, but we never really pay attention to how this conflict started, until I studied Urban studies.
I feel I have grown as a student in the context of this course because I have learned how to use a textbook to study. I also have learned so much about the city that I can use in my life to this