TAKE YOUR SPRING SEMINAR WITH DEGUZMAN IF YOU CAN!!!
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Deguzman's class was definitely the highlight of my spring quarter!
He is extremely upbeat during class and keeps students very engaged. He made the three hour long seminar feel like it was a breeze. He also was very receptive to feedbacks as he gave us long breaks in our meetings.
I cannot say enough good things about the positive energy he brings to the class.
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GRADING
I know y'all are reading this to know about grading, and I would say that you can definitely get an A in his class even if you think you are bad at writing. He only has 1 big writing assignment, which is a paper you work on throughout the quarter. He sets deadlines for parts of it so you don't get behind which was helpful because I never felt stressed about the writing ever during this class (I also heard that other spring seminars had writing every week/every other week, so if you are looking to avoid that, take this class).
With that being said, he also still greatly improves your writing. He gives detailed feedback on issues he sees with your writing, and if you appropriately address those issues and listen to his comments you will get an A. I attended his office hours for extra feedback and he would let you know what needed to be altered and he also went above and beyond and found sources for us to use in our papers which I thought was really nice and helpful.
25% Class engagement
25% Class presentation
5% List of Sources
10% Thesis and Outline
10% Rough Draft
25% Final Draft
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I wish I was able to take him in previous quarters of this seminar, so if you get the chance definitely take this seminar.

Professor deGuzman is a great professor to begin a path in Asian American Studies, or simply fulfill a GE requirement with. Although, I did not visit lectures often, he used engaging slides, brought in guest speakers, and even simulated group discussion via Jamboard and other platforms. The way to achieving an A in his class is to always finish your paper ahead of time (1-2 days before), and schedule a private 1 on 1 session for him to review the content before submission day. If he signs off on the paper, it is an automatic 100% eyes closed. However, if your rough draft doesn't completely fly on the first try, he gives spectacular feedback which will enable you to ace the paper for sure. I even failed to complete a quiz on time, and he extended the deadline for me, meaning he is lenient on tardiness and cares about the students. He gives weekly readings, which are quizzed on. However, to be honest, the quizzes were open note, so I did not stress about reading them at all.

Professor deGuzman was great! The class wasn't too hard, and the sections were actually worthwhile. Overall, an easy, interesting GE.

If you don't mind reading tons and tons of documents. You gotta take this class.

I love Dr. deGuzman! Take him! He's a wonderful professor! He always has a sense of humor and I honestly wanted to drop this class in the first place, after reading the syllabus with a number of readings we have to do before each lecture, but they are very interesting! You only need to buy two textbooks, but they aren't too expensive. The grading is based on section, midterm, research project and final. You have to participate in section and facilitate! He gives you a study guide, so you won't have to worry about cramming in everything from the textbook. He will specifically tell you what will be on the midterm! They are I.D. terms and are written in short essay formats! The grading is very fair. I had Kenny as my TA and he definitely prepared our class for the final, since we got a lower average for the midterm. The midterm had a B average, which wasn't too bad. I wished I could take Dr. deGuzman again! He is awesome sauce!

This class was my favorite class this quarter despite being an 8 am (which is really saying something). Dr. DeGuzman is an amazing lecturer and really tries to make the information understandable to the class. The class broke down into 1/3 participation, which is based on participation in discussion (and your TA will have a specific guideline as to how they run the discussion and give points), 1/3 final exam, and the midterm and final paper together make up the last 1/3 of the grade. The paper was an 8 page interview based paper that really wasn't too hard if you went to TA office hours and talked about what they wanted to see (I got a perfect score). The midterm and final were the same: there was a list of 10 terms and 3-4 essays we had to study. 3 of these terms were on the exam and you had to define 2, and 3 of the essays were on the test, and you also answer 2 (1 for the midterm). The terms and essays were repeated word for word from the study guide, so it is super straightforward. The work for the class was primarily reading (maybe 100-ish pages a week?), but the reading was super engaging and not too sense so it really wasn't that bad. My TA, Christina Ayson, was AWESOME and really tried to make herself available to us to work on our papers, and discussion was always super interesting with her. As long as you do all the work and talk to your TA regularly, you shouldn't have any trouble getting an A (especially with all the extra credit offered in the class).

Dr. Deguzman makes this class very interesting and I attended every lecture besides one that I overslept on ( this class was an 8am). The midterms and final were straight forward and fair since he provides a study guide and nothing is a surprise. You have an oral history paper for this class and it is graded by your TA. I had Christina as my TA and she was very knowledgeable about the topic but her grading was rather tough. I was never able to get full credit on any reflections and my overall grade suffered from not having a good grade for my oral history paper. Make sure you spend a lot of time on your paper and reflections and show up to discussion for participation credit.

As a freshman in my first quarter, this was the first class I ever took. It definitely set the mood for a really amazing first quarter with him. He is genuinely a good professor that is passionate about the subjects he speaks about. He is engaging, funny, and made waking up for an 8 am worth it! I think I was very lucky in making the decision to take this class. I really hope UCLA keeps him around for a long time because this class made the difficult transition of going into college a lot easier. It was also very interesting and eyeopening, and the things he talks about really influences your views on Asian American history for the better. I couldn't have imagined my first quarter in college without him or this class.

Out of all of the seminar options for Cluster20: Race and Indigeneity, I highly recommend Cluster20CW: Buddhism and Intersectionality. Not only do I think the content is very interesting, but Dr. JP DeGuzman is single-handedly one of the kindest, smartest, and best professors at this school. This class is centered around 2 books mainly, along with a few assigned digital readings that are extremely manageable. There are also a few field trips to Buddhist temples and YRL along the way, which are really fun and a great way to apply what we read to real-life. The seminars are 2 hours and 50 minutes long, which are long but they go by extremely quickly in Dr. JP's class. As for graded material, participation really matters - as well as 2 essays in this course, which are really interesting and involve a deep analysis into Buddhism (in the media, and in archives). Dr. JP is extremely helpful and provides awesome constructive criticism on essays.

Incredible lecturer, extremely well-informed and happy to learn more, even from students. Highly recommend this teacher and class, even for a lifelong Angeleno you will learn a lot. UCLA should give this man a tenured position!