The change starts with love… I learned to love the people who don’t know how to love, to show them that love is out there for everyone, and [to] let them know that they’re never alone….
— A student writing her personal statement…
Three Berkeley City College teachers, Cleavon Smith, Chris Lebo-Planas, and Scott Hoshida, decided to ask students what happened when we began sharing stories in our basic skills composition classrooms. While we knew that students would appreciate the chance to share their stories and to hear ours, we did not know how much of an impact this story-telling would have on our classroom communities, our students’ identities, and, most importantly, on us.
