Steinbeck Youth Institute students learn on trip up California coast

Starting on Oct. 6, English teacher Pete Barraza took 20 of his former and current students on a five day trip following John Steinbeck’s literary path along the California coast.In addition to his job at Samo, Barraza is a member of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Steinbeck Institute and decided to mimic a similar program created by NEH director, Susan Shillinglaw. Coined the Steinbeck Youth Institute (SYI), Barraza has created a program that shares his passion for Steinbeck’s novels and novelettes. “I became fascinated with California’s most revered writer, likely because of the way marginalized characters somehow remained heroic or courageous during dire times,” Barraza said. The characters in Steinbeck’s novels are one of the many reasons Barraza teaches and encouraged his students to immerse themselves in the world of Steinbeck’s literature. The way Steinbeck is able to extract the human condition into its purest form, makes his literature valuable, especially for high school students as they discover more about themselves and the world around them. Natalie Gold (’17) was first inspired to read Steinbeck’s novels because Barraza recommended him to the curious readers of her 11th grade AP English class. “I wanted to explore the impacts of Steinbeck’s literature on communities and people,” Gold said. “From reading their novels I learned the effects of great writing through hardship and how landscape can reflect on people.”Teaching Steinbeck has given Barraza the opportunity to share his knowledge on an American writer that changed the literary world of the marginalized. When he first read “Of Mice and Men” as a freshman, Barraza realized it was his literary turning point. There was no going back. The way the characters were able to support each other was something that he knew was important for not only his life, but the life of everyone he shared it with. Prior to the trip, Barraza assigned the group to read “Of Mice and Men” along with several other Steinbeck novels such as “East of Eden”, “Cannery Row”, “The Pastures of Heaven” and “The Log of the Sea of Cortez”. In reading these, each student got a new perspective and literary context of Steinbeck’s works. According to Emma Ware (’18), reading Steinbeck’s works in Barraza’s class inspired her to want to recreate the landscapes within the books.“I decided to go on the trip because we read “Cannery Row” last year with Barraza,” Ware said. “It was beautiful, and I was eager to see and explore the area it was about.”On the first night in San Luis Obispo (SLO), the group watched the 1992 film interpretation of “Of Mice and Men”. Being one of Barraza’s favorite Steinbeck novels, the students got a chance to see a filmmaker’s perspective in comparison to their own. On the second day they visited the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas and drove through the Corral de Tierra Valley which was the inspiration for “The Pastures of Heaven”. On the third day they went on a nature walk at Point Lobos and experienced Steinbeck’s California by walking his Cannery Row. The last day brought a trip to the Hopkins Marine station for a squid dissection. Each part of the trip was eventful, and everyone enjoyed it in their own way. According to Kelly Dunn (’18), exploring new places was one of the most enjoyable parts of the trip.“The highlight of the trip for me was on the last night,” Dunn said. “We bought some firewood and we went to pebble beach to explore and had a huge bonfire. It was really cool.”The passion and drive Barraza saw in these students that led to the trip was amplified when they got to experience everything firsthand. “Student investment becomes profound when students can see themselves in the literature and in the places described in texts,” Barraza said. By reading the novels, viewing filmmaker’s perspective on his stories and taking his students to the actual landscapes of the texts, Barraza has seen first hand the effects of this exposure on each of the participating students.Barraza used to lead the annual California Literature trip and during this time he realized the importance of access to literature at the same time as the geography for students. He wanted to make sure that everyone who craved it was able to experience the sights and smells Steinbeck experienced while he was writing his most famous works. “This program is the first of its kind for high school kids,” Barraza said. “We are lucky Steinbeck and his rich texts belong to California.”The students got to visit the National Steinbeck Center’s archives, which is a rare privilege, as well as walking the paths Steinbeck walked when he was writing some of his most famous literary works. They also heard from keynote speakers such as Shillinglaw and her husband William Gilly who work closely with Steinbeck’s literature and history. Barraza believes that working closer with Steinbeck’s literature will help students discover more about themselves while connecting with California and the rich literature it has to offer. Through learning more about the many perspectives of California, the SYI strives to learn about the environments in which Steinbeck wrote about and the history of Steinbeck’s life and career. After the trip, students came back with ideas about academic and creative pieces based on Steinbeck’s work that will be published in the spring of 2017. “The privilege of learning and sharing through my role in the NEH Steinbeck Institute has provoked me to want to bring that experience to high school students whose voices are probably the most important in terms of future scholarship and inquiry,” Barraza said. “I am so excited to finally be able to create this experience for a group of high school students ready to conduct focused research and field work.”