American Dream
Faith's Childhood
Arlene (Faith) Stepp , is an immigrant from Cebu, Philippines. When she was only 3 years old her mother passed away in a car crash. Since her father was a sailor, he wouldn't be home that much to take care of his 6 kids at the time. That meant that the children were split up to different relatives. Faith went to her aunt who she was very close to. Her aunt was about to adopt her, but got pregnant with her own child. Faith lived living with her aunt. Her aunt was so nice and would provide her with everything she wanted.She says, " Favorite thing [during childhood] it was a nice experience like childhood experience, friends, school, anything." She still lived with her aunt until her aunt got ill and unfortunately passed away. She then lived with her grandma for a period of time. When she got a little older she lived with her dad, his wife, her brother, and her 3 half brothers. When she was there it was very hard to get along with her step mother.
She said she graduated nursing school when she was only 21 because in the Philippines there was no middle school. She had a daughter and decided to take her and her daughter to America to start "a new journey of life."
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The Journey
Faith was surprisingly not scared to come to the U.S. People could assume she was because she came here alone with her daughter when she was only 27. She immigrated to the U.S. by taking a plane from the Philippines to America. She came here legally with papers and a passport. Faith had everything figured out. Her plan for the U.S. was to find a job at a hospital and buy her own home to start a family. In an interview she said "and a new journey of life", this means she wants to start a new journey and to make lots of memories here . Faith described why immigration was important to her. She called it, "The American Dream".
In the U.S.
After she came here she lived in Missouri with her 2 sisters. She then moved to California with her sister , Joy, and worked really hard at her job. She had several jobs over when she first came here, she faced a lot of discrimination from different jobs. She described this experience by saying, " you know, you can see, you can feel, you can hear the discrimination." This quote was basically saying that even if you don't hear it you can sense it by looks or just having a feeling.
Her sister then introduced Faith to a man named Dwayne. Faith and Dwayne began a relationship. The 2 then got married and lived together. She moved all over the place when her daughter started her family of her own. She settled in Pomona and helped raise her daughter's 5 kids. After her daughter move out, she soon started having problems at her work and started working at another company. She started having trouble with her work she quickly started her own hospice company. She still has a positive attitude and spoils her grandkids.
About the Authors
My name is Jordynn Leilua. I'm a 13 year old, and I am an eighth grader at Alvarado Intermediate. I'm from a very mixed family, I'm half Filipino, a quarter Samoan, and a quarter German. My mom side is Filipino, and I don't have much cousins or uncles and aunties, but on my dads side I have lots of uncles, aunties, cousins, and family friends. I love going to parties on both sides. I party it up with my grandma, eat lots of food, and sing my heart out during karaoke during my Filipino parties. (I don't sound that good) On my dads side I dance the night away, hang out with my cousins, babysit some of my cousins, and eat lots of yummy foods. I also love hanging with friends, I used to go to so many places on Fridays, but now I've been so lazy to move. I'm super excited to cheer for the raiders n
My name is Joaquin and i am 14 years old and i am an 8th grader at Alvarado Intermediate School. I come from a hispanic family. I was born January 29th 2005. I enjoy sports and music. I am very energetic and tall. I have a dad and a mom and a little brother, my mom is a spanish teacher at RHS and my dad works at clayton industries. I really enjoy music and i love to eat a lot.
Reflections
Jordynn:
This project gave me a new perspective. It allowed me to listen to different stories from different countries. It taught me that a lot of people are very brave to go through troubles because of being forced out of their home country because of harsh conditions. I got more respect for those who immigrated because they were so brave to risk everything to come to America. I also want to thank them for showing America culture. Also, I would like to thank them for their delicious food.
Joaquin:
This project helped me answer the essential question "How has immigration shaped America", by helping me understand how immigration impacted America and learning how immigration works. One of the skills i had learned throughout this project was research was because i had to really look back at the articles we read and look at all the sources we have gotten. I have gotten used to partner work and interviewing, and writing notes about things. I learned to take more part in partner work and help out more.