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Community Connections: Meet Geovani O.

By Geovani O
October 22, 2014
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What object connects you to your community? We asked this question to the Youth Voices students at South El Monte High School at the end of our first meeting, and requested that they bring this object to our next class. These objects, along with their explanations, offer physical evidence of the personal link the students have with their neighborhood, and served as their point of departure for their Youth Voices Project: their experience, memories, and personal understanding of their community. To see more of the students' work click HERE or use #kcetyv on Twitter and Instagram.
My name is Geovani O. and I'm a Senior at Arroyo High School. Most people say I'm a shy guy but I like to think of myself as someone who has a lot on his mind. I like cold and rainy days and staying up too late to read books about people who lived a long time ago. I also respect people who have died for our country's freedom and who now live in our memories.

The object that connects me to my church is my statue of our Virgen de Guadalupe (the Mexican Virgin Mary.) Everyday my family prays to the Virgin Mary for a wonderful day and no harm to come to any of us. I grew up believing one of our life goals is to create a peaceful world where people can live without the fear of problems. My church is a big part of my life because it's a community that helps people in need by sending medicine to people in other parts of the world and locally feeding the poor. The church has a nice smell of roses and it's located in El Monte. Everyday people go to pray for our god's mercy and to ask for his guidance to live a happy life.

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