College is a very important part of our lives. It is where we grow and learn. In college we learn to become independent and learn more about ourselves as a person. College is not only where we learn, but it is a place where we get to explore and experience many different things. College is also a place to meet new people and make connections, aside from figuring out what we want to do and become in the future. During college, many students experience a lot of change. This change can range from living away from family for the first time, being independent and doing things on their own without expecting anyone to do it for them, as well as the choice of attending class and completing assignments. They also have to become accustomed to a new setting as college is very different from high school.
In college, I would like to accomplish getting good grades and maintaining a good GPA. Aside from grades, I would like to be able to make some type of change to help other people in need. In my opinion, there are many people throughout the community that needs help but often gets unnoticed. (Arnaud, p.161) By being able to help out in the community students are able to find out more about themselves and be able to grow more as a person. I feel that it is important to help the people in need to not only feel that I have done something good, but to also make a change in the world and just be able to brighten up people’s lives who are struggling. (Gordon, p.176) As a college student, being able to help out around the community will help me develop not only as a college student, but also as a person. This helps in the future as I will be able to have many experiences. The article I also would like to accomplish my goal of being able to graduate in four years. My current thinking on choosing a major is set on majoring in nursing. I think that becoming a nurse is the career that is the best fit for me. I have had experience in working along side nurses and I can say that I would enjoy the job as I really enjoyed my experience at my nursing internship in high school. (Marcus and McVey, p.290) In the article they suggest students to try out different majors before setting in stone a major. I believe that this would be helpful for those who are unsure of what they want to major in. I think that I have made a huge decision in choosing my major but I believe that nursing is a career that I enjoy. Aside from helping people, I also get to be part of a huge situation in their lives. I enjoy helping people and being able to help them become better and stronger. Though it is not always going to be easy in this type of field, I am ready for the challenge. The contemporary issues that I have chosen which are racism, poverty, and animal abuse reflect my values because I value equality. In my opinion everyone should be viewed equal. The color of one’s skin should not be viewed as a bad thing because I think that our differences is what makes us unique and it is what gives us our identity. People shouldn’t be judged by the color of their skin, what matters most is a persons attitude. The people in poverty should be given a chance and also should not be judge because in my opinion they did not choose to be in that situation. Just because some people are less fortunate, they should be judged and discriminated. Instead of judging people and looking down on them, we should help bring them up and help in every way we can to help them and their lives become a bit better. Animal abuse reflects my values because I value my pets. I view all animals like humans. I believe they deserve their rights to not be abused and treated fairly. Just because they can’t speak up that doesn’t mean they can be abused. It is not right, animals are living things too! My contemporary issues reflect my passions because I am passionate about helping people as well as animals. I am also passionate about making a change in lessening and hopefully being able to eliminate racism. My contemporary issues also reflect my interests because I really like to help. I like helping almost everyone in need as well as anything. (Seligman, p.322) This article discusses being able to enjoy your work and gain personal satisfaction from it. I think that my CI’s and future career goals compliment this article because I will be able to enjoy my job and gain personal satisfaction by being able to help.
0 Comments
My first idea is that in every thing there are always people a part of things, such as the ones you see and the ones you don’t. In high school I remember my principal talking about there are many opportunities coming for us. In the beginning of each year, on the first day of school, there are so many people up on the stage that we as students don’t recognize and don’t even know their names. Later we found out that those people were our community partners and they were the one doing all the work, along with my principal to give up all the opportunities we were given and even more; such as funding, scrubs, etc. They were the people behind the scenes that we barely know, but did so much for students. I found this interesting because from the topic we did in class about the structure of universities, it reminded me of one of my experiences in high school. There are people were don’t acknowledge, but have taken a big part. In the structure of Universities topic my group have discussed that the Universities are made up of more than those we see such as the faculty, students, Deans, the President, etc. The university wouldn’t function without these people and even those who work behind the scenes.
My second idea is that there are different types of expectations from different people. We often have exceptions from our family, but we also don’t realize they our professors, friends, etc. also have their expectations of us. In class we discussed about the professors’ expectations of students. In the discussion it was mentioned that the professors’ expectations are a way of them to help us improve ourselves as students and people, but also to help us succeed in college. In the article “Why I Don’t Let My Students Cut” by Brown, it related to the expectations of their students. He made the rule of students not being able to cut class by helping his students succeed in college. This shows that Brown cares for his students and want them to succeed. Not being able to cut his class will help his students even though they are against it. It is like when parents don’t let their children do certain things, is because parents knows what’s best for their child. We often don’t understand these things as we are young, but once we get older we will realize why. My third idea is that students have expectation for themselves. Who doesn’t like having good high grades. Students are often pressured with so many expectations from people that they will do whatever they can to meet those expectations. In the article “Student Expectations Seen As Causing Grade Disputes” by Roosevelt, it is mentioned that student expect to earn a high grade for doing their best and doing all the assignments on time and going to class on time. Because of the pressure they receive, students are overwhelmed and often just think they will get and A for doing their best, and doing everything the professors ask. There is more to trying their best. It is also important to understand the material that is being taught to get a good grade. It is also important that professors see students being able to apply their knowledge, this in my opinion is what get students high grades in additions to doing their best and doing all the assignments. I found this interesting because I also thought that by doing by best and doing all the assignments on time would earn be an A in class. Later, I realized and learned that there is more to that, it is also important to be able to apply what is learned. My fourth idea is that the world is evolving in so many aspects. There is always something new about technology everyday. There are also many multiple different technology coming yearly. With all the overflowing changes and improvements, we often can’t catch up. In the article “Technology Skills” by Staley, she mentions that technology skills will play a large role in education. I agree with her statement as we use technology in our everyday life and also everyday throughout the campus. In the article “Avoiding Plagiarism” by Williams he mentions that we often get blamed for plagiarism for forgetting to cite where we get our information. In today’s wold I think it is getting harder to avoid plagiarism due all the many different ideas people come up with everyday, we often don’t know that our ideas was already someone else’s idea. We also often don’t cite something that we came up with, even though we have little knowledge that is was already someone else’s idea. It is hard in today’s modern world to avoid these mistakes as it is hard to catch up with all the new information and new technology coming up everyday. In the reading “Saved” by Malcolm X, he mentions that being in prison had helped and changed him as a person. In the beginning, I was surprised to read that prison has helped and change him. When you think of prisoners, most of them are up to no good. After reading “Saved” by Malcolm I understood how having knowledge can drastically change a person and also help them. In the article Malcolm talks about how reading everyday made him gain the knowledge he didn’t have. He was also able to learn more about the history of African Americans, where he got to learn and get to know more of who he is as an African American. I found this interesting because I never knew that prison can change a person and come out being more educated that if they were to go to college. In the reading “Active Learning” by James Twinning, he mentions that active learners become successful learners. In the article, he states that students who take notes and underline key words are able to remember what they learned more than students who do not. In the reading “How DO You Perceive and Process Information?” By Constance Staley. She states that everyone has different learning styles. Combining the two articles, in my opinion being an active learner does not define being successful by just taking notes and underlining key words because at Staley states everyone had their preferred way of gathering, interpreting, organizing and thinking about information. I found this interesting because in my opinion the knowledge of someone can’t be measured because everyone had a different type of knowledge, which is one of the characteristics that makes humans different from each other. In the reading “Understanding Who Is Smart” by Jennifer James, she mentions that there are 8 primary forms of intelligence. This resonated with me because I am a visual/spatial and body kinesthetic learner. This is related to knowledge and power because not everyone has the same form of intelligence. I found this interesting because it just amuses me that there are different ways that people are able to learn better. These 8 forms of intelligence is also what helps a person understand better and learn better. Coming into class on the first day of school, I had no idea what this class was going to be about. As the weeks go by and after almost a month into school, I could say that I have learned a lot in this class. I have learned more about my peers, what this class is all about, and most importantly myself. I have learned the importance of ethnic studies and why we are taking this class and also why people fought for ethnic studies to be taught. Two ideas from the lectures and discussions that resonated with me is identity and privilege. Identity is knowing who you are as a person and where you came from. I found identity interesting because up to this day I am still confused of who I really am. Growing up we don’t really get taught about our identity except our parents and family members telling us where we were born. Identity is something we have to learn ourselves as we grow up. Identity is relevant to understanding who I am because I want to figure out more about myself and explore to find who I really am as a person. Today, we get influenced by the people we are surrounded by easily and forget who we really are. Knowing who I really am and finding my identity is important to me because today we don’t usually look back and reflect on our identity. I often forget to check back with myself. My values come from my family especially my parents and grandparent because they have and continue to teach me to become a better person everyday. The (Personal Identities Exercise Wheel) and the (Identity Signs Activity) has helped me realize and know a bit more about myself that I don’t usually ask myself or realize about myself on a daily basis. These two activities has given me more importance on knowing my identity. Having privilege is something we don’t realize that we have everyday. Compared to the less fortunate, I have never realized and though about how I am privileged on many aspects of life and should not take it for granted. Privilege is having an advantage and a special right to things. I found privilege interesting because I don’t usually reflect on the things that I have and looking back I sometimes don’t appreciate the small privileges that I have that others would be very appreciative of. To me, I feel that I have all the necessary things that I need in life and the additional things that we want but is not really necessary. Privilege is relevant to understanding of who I am because, I often forget to be thankful for the things that I have and my privileges. I confess that I do take things for granted at times and not realize that other people would be very happy and thankful to be in my position. This is one of the things I often forget to be thankful for. Having privilege is important to me because it makes me realize the struggles of my parents and other people that have given me the privileges I have today. My values still come from my parent, grandparents, and other family members who have worked hard to give me the things I have today. The (Lecture, September 20th) about privilege and (McIntosh, p. 206) has taught me how privileged I am to have all the necessary things and even more that some people around the world are deprived of. The lecture and the reading has taught me many things about having privilege, including its’ pros and cons. Overall, these few weeks of class has taught me more about my identity, culture, privileges, beliefs, etc. The lectures, activities, discussions, and readings have taught me to embrace myself and to be thankful for all the good things that has be given to me. It has also taught me to not take anything for granted as other people would be very happy and more appreciative to be in my position. This has made me realize that I often forget about other people who are in need and are deprived of having the necessities they need to survive. I also realized that what may be something small in my eyes could be something big in someone else’s. I would say that I have learned the importance of reflecting on yourself as you can find ways to improve and learn more about yourself as we continue to grow each day. It is important to know who you are, where you came from, your values, and know the importance of things. |
|