Kefaya Diab
A Student Letter by Athziry Marrufo
At the end of the spring semester of 2021, Athziry, a student in a first-year writing course that I taught at Indiana University reached out to my department head to make a case for retaining me at the department despite the end of my contract there. Athziry granted me her permission to publish the email on my website.
Good morning Dr. Adams,
My name is Athziry Marrufo; I am currently a freshman at Indiana University. It has come to my attention that Dr. Diab's contract has ended; therefore, she won't be teaching at Indiana University anymore. I find that upsetting. Dr. Diab has done an excellent job at teaching. She has raised awareness of many of the issues within society today, and she has done a fantastic job at it. Of all the classes I've had, I have never felt more interested or invested in such a class than this one. Dr. Diab's teachings are incredibly relevant and extremely important.
The only way to defeat the ongoing struggles within our society is to talk about them and analyze them. Teaching young students about racism, white supremacy, and colorism makes people more aware of what is going on outside of their world. It keeps ignorance at an all-time low. At the beginning of the semester, I believed I knew everything there was to know about the ongoing struggles within minorities; however, I was quickly proven wrong. Dr. Diab made sure to educate all of us in the most excellent way possible. She cares and loves for her students like no other teaching figure I have ever had in my life. We had ongoing, engaging, and insightful conversations during class, and in the beginning, I was highly defensive and ignorant. I refused to listen to other people's views, and I thought I was right. Dr. Diab always made sure to stay after class, surrendering her own time, just in case anyone wanted to stay and talk. I decided to stay after class once and speak to Dr. Diab about how I felt. She gave me a wonderful teaching moment and made me realize that I need to open my ears and listen, that I need to open my eyes and observe. She is such an observant and intelligent person, and I am beyond grateful I had her as a professor. When two of my group members were not cooperating with the team, it was brought to Dr. Diab's attention. Dr. Diab had the issues resolved within hours. I recently had two family members pass, and Dr. Diab was extraordinarily understanding and made sure I was okay. She hears and understands our struggles and uses them as teaching moments. She has taught all of her students so much in such little time. As a minority, it was very comforting to have another minority as a teacher, mentor, and professor. Sadly, the teaching profession is not as diverse as it should be. I genuinely feel so supported and motivated to see another minority succeed. And it's even more comforting to have a minority as a mentor and a teacher. Dr. Diab is so motivating and caring. Studies have shown that minorities perform better academically and are less likely to get in trouble when they have a minority teacher/mentor present in their life. The underrepresentation of minorities is a significant problem within society today, and it limits not only minorities' educational success it also limits others. In a way, it is promoting ignorance. To my knowledge, she is the only minority within the English Department. It saddens me that she is not going to work at IU anymore.
Thank you for your time,
Athziry R. Marrufo
PS.
I emailed a couple of students and they wanted to sign my letter.
My name is Athziry Marrufo; I am currently a freshman at Indiana University. It has come to my attention that Dr. Diab's contract has ended; therefore, she won't be teaching at Indiana University anymore. I find that upsetting. Dr. Diab has done an excellent job at teaching. She has raised awareness of many of the issues within society today, and she has done a fantastic job at it. Of all the classes I've had, I have never felt more interested or invested in such a class than this one. Dr. Diab's teachings are incredibly relevant and extremely important.
The only way to defeat the ongoing struggles within our society is to talk about them and analyze them. Teaching young students about racism, white supremacy, and colorism makes people more aware of what is going on outside of their world. It keeps ignorance at an all-time low. At the beginning of the semester, I believed I knew everything there was to know about the ongoing struggles within minorities; however, I was quickly proven wrong. Dr. Diab made sure to educate all of us in the most excellent way possible. She cares and loves for her students like no other teaching figure I have ever had in my life. We had ongoing, engaging, and insightful conversations during class, and in the beginning, I was highly defensive and ignorant. I refused to listen to other people's views, and I thought I was right. Dr. Diab always made sure to stay after class, surrendering her own time, just in case anyone wanted to stay and talk. I decided to stay after class once and speak to Dr. Diab about how I felt. She gave me a wonderful teaching moment and made me realize that I need to open my ears and listen, that I need to open my eyes and observe. She is such an observant and intelligent person, and I am beyond grateful I had her as a professor. When two of my group members were not cooperating with the team, it was brought to Dr. Diab's attention. Dr. Diab had the issues resolved within hours. I recently had two family members pass, and Dr. Diab was extraordinarily understanding and made sure I was okay. She hears and understands our struggles and uses them as teaching moments. She has taught all of her students so much in such little time. As a minority, it was very comforting to have another minority as a teacher, mentor, and professor. Sadly, the teaching profession is not as diverse as it should be. I genuinely feel so supported and motivated to see another minority succeed. And it's even more comforting to have a minority as a mentor and a teacher. Dr. Diab is so motivating and caring. Studies have shown that minorities perform better academically and are less likely to get in trouble when they have a minority teacher/mentor present in their life. The underrepresentation of minorities is a significant problem within society today, and it limits not only minorities' educational success it also limits others. In a way, it is promoting ignorance. To my knowledge, she is the only minority within the English Department. It saddens me that she is not going to work at IU anymore.
Thank you for your time,
Athziry R. Marrufo
PS.
I emailed a couple of students and they wanted to sign my letter.