Archive for month: October, 2014

Personal vision statement:

I want to become a respected and successful police office. I want to use my platform to benefit and influence other people. I also would like to achieve self actualization and become the best person that I can become. I want to have many meaningful relationships in my life. Ideally, I would like to live in close proximity to my family. I am physically fit. I envision making a lasting positive impact in my community. Lastly I want to live a happy, fulfilling, and peaceful life.

 

 

 

 

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Last week’s class covered additional material from the previous class on the challenges that African Americans faced. I had forgotten that we were supposed to finish the remainder of the sections from the reading so I felt a bit behind. Dr. Hoffman gave everyone an opportunity to collect information on our topic again, which was really nice for me, as I had forgotten my notes. I have to say that so far for me African American struggles has been my favorite section for the reason that Dr. Hoffman introduced material that exposed a different perception of African history . What I enjoyed the most during the debate was that everyone proposed a question towards the end of each section and that was stimulating and thought-provoking.  Figuring out proposals or questions that may solve a dilemma or at least propose a change is educating and encouraging because you are forced to think of solutions that maybe no one has thought of or even questioned. I think it’s an excellent way to add additional thinking after each weeks reading.

 

I selected this image because often times we forget to recognize that respecting diversity and saying you approve and understand others also should include people with disabilities. There was a statement used by the author of What do disabilities have to do with diversity?, that said, “historically people with disabilities either have been categorized by the type of disability and thus been thought to have nothing in common with people who have other disabilities or worse yet ha not even been acknowledge as participating members of our society”. This is true for most people that have been abused by society regarding their disability because they don’t know where they belong even today in this generation. I worked with children that had developmental disabilities for almost five years and often times they discriminated them as much or more than minority groups. Some of the youth that I worked with were mentally stable but physically incapable and when I would take them out for trips or to grocery stores they would tell me how uncomfortable they felt. I think schools should expose young children to others that face conditions that make them different to avoid discrimination. Or even create community programs in schools that gives extra credit for those who participate in activities or community work with disabled children and adults. By doing this hopefully future generations will improve on how they view and respect those who suffer illnesses that disables them mentally and physically.  We have made improvements on how society treats other ethnic groups hopefully we can all work on bettering how everyone treats and thinks of disabled children and adults. Protesting for media to advertise characters with disabilities will also help  improve this awareness. It will also help those who think that because they have disabilities they don’t have beauty.

Our last class session began with an APA lesson plan through a power point by Julian. I thought it was good material to know but it went too fast to really write anything down. However, he did say he would email the power point, which would be good to have and very useful. Afterwards, we continued to discussion and summary of the article by Jenkins. I thought the article was fairly easy to understand but summarizing in class provided clarity. We then discussed the similarities and differences between Hurtado’s article and Torres’. I had already done so in my blog post so it was a refresher as well as a chance to think about other similarities and differences I didn’t before class. The activity that I enjoyed the most was answering questions regarding the two articles relating to our experiences, first in small groups, then as a class round robin style. I enjoyed it because it gave me a chance to get to know other students who I hadn’t gotten a chance to talk to much before. I was able to put myself in their perspective. My small group was an interesting dynamic because only one of us truly understood the Latino/a experience, but nonetheless I feel like I learned a lot and enjoyed simply making small talk with each other.  It is always a pleasure to hear everything that the students in class have to say.

 

The new readings assigned were about Abilities/Disabilities and how they relate to diversity, especially on college campuses. I have become increasingly aware of this topic on college campuses due to the various changes they have made, such as being able to open doors by pressing a button or the “Accommodations for Students with Disabilities” section on class syllabi. Although I have seen the changes made on campus I didn’t realize the struggles in depth that students with disabilities might face in the college campus setting. Although many achievements have been made so far, as mentioned in the article by Bryan and Myers, there are still more needed. I believe that, in order to make changes, other students and faculty do need to understand more fully the various types of disabilities and what can be done to accommodate everyone. The articles clarified some of those things for me and I liked to be able to learn about personal experiences in the article “What Do Disabilities Have to Do with Diversity?” I was already aware that certain students are treated differently, in fact everyone is treated differently, but I hadn’t thought much about the topic of Ableism. The article on Ableism made me realize the ways that people with disabilities have been oppressed. This topic was never discussed in schooling growing up. In a way I feel as though it was pushed under the rug. I have been around plenty of people with disabilities, physical and intellectual, and I wish there was a way to educate every one of what they go through and how we can make college a more welcoming environment. That being said, I truly enjoyed reading the articles this week.

I chose this image because it provides an overall view of disabilities and what can be done to accommodate everyone. For me this image helped me understand the various disabilities and encompassed the idea that I had been unaware of the ideas expressed in the readings.

 

In the second episode of survivor  we are starting to get to know each person a little more and see how their personalities begin to come to light. At the beginning of the episode twin sister Natalie opens up about how she feels not having her sister on the show, she is upset and says how she has never been apart from her the team shows great support and help her get through that rough time in the challenge.

Later in the show team player Jon from the hunnaphu team lost the flint to start the fire and I believe this is when he showed being a confessor after he admitted to what he did and took full responsibility for his actions.

In the immunity challenge both teams are being big supporters of the two competitors.  When Baylor went against her mom I felt like she was an attention seeker because when she busted her lip she began to cry and I felt it was done to get the attention from her mom and so she would feel sorry for her. It seemed to work and distract her mom from the challenge and Baylor took the win!!

I feel like in this episode we are starting to see how people are beginning to be more self centered and more selfish I mean there is only one winner at the end!!!!

        In this episode Action vs. Accusation things start to change more when Val was eliminated off Coyopa. Since John did not protect Jeremy’s wife his plan now is to eliminate Julie for revenge. John now feels the need for inclusion in his group because he catches fish for his group and he thinks that catching food for his group will give him less chances of being eliminated. Jeremy is a social member in the Hanahpu tribe because he gets along with everyone in his tribe and at the same time he can work independently. In my opinion I think that Jeremy is playing this game very smart because he knows how to approach everyone in his group and he has less chances of being eliminating since the beginning. In the Coyopa tribe Baylor has the need for control because she feels like everyone else in her tribe can do what she wants them to do. When it comes to voting people off the group Baylor tells everyone who to vote off and she feels like everyone listens to her when in the other hand they do the opposite without her knowing. Baylor also is the autocrat because she wants to dominate everyone.

The need for affection comes into the group when the Coyopa tribe is up for elimination and Jaclyn tells the guys that girls shouldn’t be the target that the guys should step in and vote out guys. I think that Jaclyn is right because the guys plan was to vote out Baylor and Jaclyn would be the only girl in the tribe. A personal member in the Coyopa tribe would be Dale because he doesn’t really give his opinion in any of the members. Dale has no emotion and just wants to continue the game without being involved in the drama. Dale would also be passive aggressive in his tribe because he goes with what is said in his tribe and doesn’t argue. I’m looking forward to the next episode to see who else will be eliminated in these groups.