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A reflexivity statement is a reflection on your personal identity and how it relates to your perspectives or what you believe in. These statements can be very useful in recognizing the biases one might have in their writing.

In my reflexivity statement, I choose to write about where I grew up because it has a lot to do with how I position myself within my borderlands research. The pin for this artifact is set to my home in Elkhorn, Nebraska because I felt like my hometown is what makes my perspectives a lot different than other students at the University of Arizona.

I felt like the differences I had from other students here was my main way of developing a reflexivity statement. When I was first drafting my reflexivity statement, I was thinking about how much I have been isolated from issues relating to borderlands for pretty much my entire life. Growing up, any issues relating to borderlands were simply political topics that didn't really affect anyone that I knew or was close to. For these reasons I begin my reflexivity statement by emphasizing my personal background and where I am from and I end my statement by emphasizing how being at the University of Arizona has effected my perspectives in my borderlands research. I knew to stop writing once I felt like I had identified all the factors contributing to my perspectives within my borderlands research. I think being able to properly analyze how my background contributes to my personal opinions is what makes me consider myself a good writer.

Throughout my writing process for this artifact, I sought to completely reveal my internal biases. Sometimes you fail to see these biases until you do an in depth reflection of yourself. In my first draft for my reflexivity statement, I noticed that I revealed so much about myself that someone could almost take offense to it. This first draft really helped me see the biases that I might have, but I did have to make some changes because I felt guilty and embarrassed about the way I had explained my identity in my original writing. In my final draft, I tried to make it so readers could capture certain parts of my identity that I didn't explicitly say. I wanted it to be this way because I felt like if I went into too much detail about my background then people would discredit my writing. In my Borderlands synthesis essay this was a major concern. I made further changes to my reflexivity statement in this essay because I really wanted to emphasize that being at the University of Arizona has decreased my conservative bias towards a lot of these issues. For this portfolio, however, I used my unchanged final draft because it shows more of a balance between the backgrounds I come from.

In my reflexivity statement, I felt like it was super difficult to write a piece where I could both show my personal identity but also be humble and prevent people from discrediting my writing based on my background. Having grown up in the midwest, I didn't feel like people would not trust my research or my opinions on the borderlands topic. Writing my reflexivity statement, I really wanted to be able to reveal the biases I might have, but I also wanted people to trust me as a writer which I felt like was the most difficult. While I found it very difficult to write my reflexivity statement for my borderland research, I do think reflexivity statements are a good technique to add credibility to your writing. I can see myself using reflexivity statements in my career after college because I feel like I can use them to justify my perspectives and to show my level of experience.

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The purpose for writing this essay was to take a look at some texts relating to borderlands and synthesize their ideas, themes, and concepts in order to develop a deeper understanding of the borderlands topic.

I chose to put the pin for this at our classroom at the University of Arizona because it is where I developed most of my perspectives for this essay. Borderlands isn't really much of a topic for conversation where I am from so a lot of the things I learned within the texts I analyzed were completely new concepts to me. For the first time in my life, I have been surrounded by people who are directly affected by the crisis at our southern border so a lot of the things that other students shared in class impacted the conclusions I made in this essay.

In the essay, I analyzed the texts I used based on their purpose, target audience, rhetorical strategies, and the background of the authors. Synthesizing these elements allowed me to convey a stronger understanding of borderlands issues. I chose the texts that I chose because the characters within each text were in very different situations, however the texts had the same overall themes. I wanted to use a very diverse range of sources because I felt like it would lead to more accurate conclusions about the borderlands issues that our country faces. The first source I looked at was the movie 'Border South' and while I watched it, I just thought about how isolated I have been from the horrible traumas people face trying to cross the southern border. These thoughts carried over into the next two sources I read. The entire time I was thinking in my head, "How do people not know about this?" While reading/viewing these sources, I did not take too many notes because I felt like the more important details were hard to forget. When analyzing the rhetorical strategies of these authors, I felt like it would be best to write about the choices the authors made that stuck out most so I didn't see it as necessary to take tons of notes. I did, however, use some outlining to compare some of the themes shown in each text.

During this project, I learned a lot about how analyzing an author's rhetorical choices can help to gain a better understanding of a topic. Looking at factors like the purpose, audience, context, and genre allowed me to truly evaluate the ideas being expressed about borderlands in each of the texts I looked at. Also, analyzing these things allowed me to see how the authors may have gone about writing their texts and where their internal biases may have come into play.

Overall, during this assignment I felt pretty unfamiliar with the content I was analyzing. I don't feel like I put together the best synthesis of the texts that I analyzed, but I feel like what I produced is an accurate representation of how most people that are unfamiliar with the borderlands topic would interpret these texts. I think my analysis in this essay shows my ability to interpret texts based on the context in which they were written and my ability to synthesize the themes of these texts within my writing. I think I will have to write synthesis essays like this a lot throughout my academic career because there are many instances when I need to analyze multiple texts in order to make conclusions about a subject even in my more technical classes.

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The point of this fieldwork journal was to collect data and make observations about a place of our choice so that we could relate it to the borderlands topic. I conducted an oral history, collected photos, and did ethnographic research on the city of Omaha in order to make a thesis for my digital story telling project. Using this journal, I was able to formulate a main idea that conveys how borderlands issues are relevant in all parts of the country.

I chose to place this pin on the interstate in Omaha that I mention during my fieldwork journal because it was what I identify as a border in Omaha. My goal during my research was to find how Omaha was similar to a borderland and I was able to identify this spot as a border that separated socioeconomic classes within Omaha.

For this project, I collected my notes and pictures, did an oral history interview, and did some online research during my spring break. I also collected some older photos from when I was living in Omaha because I felt they were relevant in this project. When I conducted research, I mostly focused on details that differentiated my home suburb from other areas of town. I focused on documenting schools, public facilities, neighborhoods, and anything that I felt would help contribute to my argument about borderlands. During my research process, I learned that you will often find new points of emphasis for you writing that you didn't expect to find. I took note of a lot of unexpected things that ended up being essential to my argument about borderlands.

The images I collected during my fieldwork helped me to organize my digital story. I was able to come up with 6 sections for my project based on the themes of my pictures. I used standard conventions for organization within my digital story, but I somewhat broke the narrative conventions expected of a digital story. My story is not really told in the typical format because this format would have prevented me from being able to make the conclusion I wanted to about the city of Omaha.

I felt like this project really showed me how fortunate of an upbringing I had in Elkhorn. I feel like the fieldwork that I produced did a really good job of showing how Omaha relates to borderlands. I wanted to show that the differences in opportunities amongst different areas of the community makes it feel like there are borders dividing the city. In this assignment, I did a short reflection on the city of Omaha which helped me develop a thesis for my digital story going forward. I think I will do writing like this a lot throughout college and my career. This form of outlining is essential to developing a thesis for my writing.

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This artifact is a discussion post that we did for class. For the discussion I read the excerpt "The Ruins" and then I analyzed how the passage effected my understanding of the city of Tucson. The main reason I chose this artifact was because of the last prompt where I wrote about a place that was important to me.

I chose my pin to be located at my grandparents house in Nehawka, Nebraska. The reason for this is because it was the important place that I wrote about for this discussion. It is a small, run down town in Nebraska that holds a lot of my family's history.

Borderlands are areas that usual lie along distinct geographical, cultural, or political boundaries. They are areas of cultural exchange and they often have a variety of different cultures and social classes.

This activity really helped me understand what it means to be a borderlands writer because it allowed me to put myself in the shoes of people who are negatively effected by borderlands. Reflecting on a place that I love that has gone to ruin makes me feel terrible for indigenous groups that have lost their land.

This activity really strengthened my engagement with the borderlands topic because when I talked about the town that my family is from, I could really relate to the feelings that people have when places they love go to ruin. Being able to understand what these hardships might feel like is essential to making meaningful writing about borderlands.

This activity really helped me identify the things that I value most in my life. Reflecting on the the town of Nehawka really helped me develop a sense of identity because I was able to feel connected to the culture of a small town that is a big part of my family. This helped me find a purpose in my writing to defend the people who are trying to hold onto the things that are part of their personal identities.

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20303 Blue Sage Pkwy, Omaha, NE 68130, USA

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My name is Tristan Minderman and I’m from Omaha, Nebraska. I come from a family of small town midwestern farmers where my father was the first person in the family to break off into a different career field. As my father climbed up the hierarchy of the medical profession while I was growing up, my family started to live a wealthier suburban lifestyle. We ended up moving into a new neighborhood which resulted in me going to a more competitive highschool . Going through highschool I was a 3 sport athlete who worked a job and took all of the advanced level classes. From freshman to senior year I would be at the school building from 7:30 am to almost 7 pm every single day. I had excellent grades and test scores when I finally put my application in for the University of Michigan. This was my dream school and I remember coming home one day in February of my senior year to open up my decision letter. I was tired from a long day of exams, practice, and a late night shift at work and I opened up my decision letter to read the words “We regret to inform you”. This was all I ended up reading before I slammed my computer shut. It didn’t just end at that because shortly after I was struck with the same level of disappointment when I saw my financial aid statement for the school that I would end up attending. All my hard work throughout the years seemed pointless as I would still be paying a large amount of money to attend the University of Arizona.

This was when the argument began between me and my father over being able to pay for my college. Despite my father being one of the most understanding people I know, it was really hard to convince my father to help me even a little bit financially with school. I had always admired my dad for being a good listener growing up, but during our arguments about my tuition he didn’t really consider what I had to say which was very surprising to me. Even at the beginning of this semester I wrote one of my papelitos about him where I described him as being “very dedicated to finding solutions to the problems I have”(Papelito #11). This was the one instance where I didn’t feel like he was much help to finding a way to help me afford school. I ended up settling with my cheapest option for college where I would still have to pay for the majority of my tuition out of pocket. This especially hurt seeing friends and family of mine go to school for free with resumes that I felt were very similar to mine. This was where I would be forced to grow up fast as my school would require me to come up with thousands of dollars on my own to pay for it.

The lack of financial assistance from both my parents and the schools I applied to at first felt extremely unfair. In my papelito from when we wrote about choosing a target audience, I indirectly write about my experience with applying to colleges by targeting politicians and the people in power of these institutions for having a tendency “to overgeneralize things”(Papelito #18). One of these “things” is the idea that kids who come from wealthier backgrounds are fully supported by their parents financially. This assumption has always angered me because I felt like I was being held to a higher standard simply because of my parents income. Due to this assumption, I now am faced with the challenge of paying unreasonable amounts of money for a 19 year old despite the fact that the university thinks my parents are the ones paying for everything.

Although I really felt like I was extremely successful in highschool and deserved more out of the effort I put into it,I have become very grateful for the experience I had with not receiving adequate scholarship money. In my time at the University of Arizona, having to personally contribute to paying for my school has been one of my main reasons for success. It has made me want to get a lot more involved on campus in order to get the full value out of my education. At the beginning of the semester, in another one of my papelitos about the struggles I had been facing, I wrote, “The change in atmosphere has been very difficult for me but I have been pushing to make the best of this experience”(Papelito #8). This optimistic mindset was something that I never quite had before I had seen all of my scholarship and college admissions goals fail. Although I believe it is still unfair that I wasn’t able to receive opportunities that matched my academic achievement, I do think that ending up having to pay for my school out of my own pocket was something that has been necessary to my success at the University of Arizona.