Advertisement Project

I have decided that for the project I am going to create a print ad on McDonald's and obesity.  I am going to create the ad to direct to parents and children and what your child could end up like if they consume to much fast food.  It is said that today Americans spend around $110 billion on McDonald's fast food. So to get some ideas I watched numerous videos on YouTube to see how effective ads can really be.
Here is a link to one of the videos that I have found:
http://youtu.be/a6NxnGZMycM

My Experiences with Research Papers

I have to say that I’m not too fond of research papers but I don’t completely dislike them either.  I remember in fourth grade I did my first real big research paper.  Our topic was “Animals” and I think the animal that I chose was the seal.  The paper had to be three pages long and we also had to make a visual to go along with our paper.  I looked for information on the internet and in books.  When I was in fourth grade I loved Zoo-books and so when I chose to do my paper on seals I got like five different Zoo-books just on seals.  Some were on the different kinds of seals but they were full of useful information.  I worked really hard on my visual and my paper, I felt like I knew everything about seals.  I really enjoyed doing that research paper.  I did a couple more throughout middle school and only two during high school.  That was fine with me because I didn’t really dislike or like doing research papers.  I was always positive about them and just told myself that every time I do a research paper I always learn something new.  Research papers can either be interesting or really boring and I’ve had experiences with both but each time I wrote one I always learned something that I didn’t already know.  I think research papers are a good thing to do during school because it expands your knowledge and you never know you might need that information that you learned from doing a research paper someday.

Why is Higher Education Still talking About Race?

Racial conflict has always been a big issue in the United States.  Even in other countries, they suffer greatly when conflicts between ethnicity, religion and racial groups have spun out of control.  Racial talk has always been around and many think that Americans are so called "immune" to this talk because we have a diverse nation.  Many university's today take on a huge role and try to promote diversity and multiculturalism.  Cantor in Civic Engagement said "the university must face outward toward work that changes culture of the day."  The University's want others to feel comfortable about sharing their culture to improve societal progress and teach others to be more accepting. I think that University's are more open to different backgrounds than the rest of the world, which is odd almost because outside of University's people still hold grudges from the past.  I think racism and prejudice has gotten better especially this generation but i don't think it will ever truly go away.  I personally think that people are people and their race or culture shouldn't really affect the way they live their lives.  I understand with some religions and how they decide who your going to marry but still each of those individuals has that decision to make whether they follow the customs or not.  Diversity is everywhere no matter what and i think that university's do a great job at making it more "normal" to many young people and then they realize how much you can learn from others.  Just because one person believes one thing because that's the way they were raised, it doesn't meant that you have to believe the same.  People just need to understand that people are entitled to express their life styles here in the United States.  You go to college not only to get a higher education in the field that you are studying but you also get a higher education in cultures, religions, ethnicity and various races.  Racial talk is constantly growing but its up to us to learn and teach others how important diversity really is.

Diversity and Multiculturalism

What does Diversity and Multiculturalism mean to you??

You may all have different opinions as to what these words mean to you.
To me Diversity means having a variety of people, ethnicity, gender and religion.  Multiculturalism to me means that you have a wide range of culture, values and beliefs that are generated throughout the world.  Without diversity and multiculturalism our lives would be bland.  Not everyone is the same and I think that Western Michigan University does a great job at representing what diversity and multiculturalism really means in a community.
Western has many programs here on campus for people to get involved with to teach others about diversity.  It could be something like helping students with disabilities and making sure that they are welcomed here.  This service helps the student adjust to their new environment and academically as well.  It is Western's goal to help students become successful.  Western also has support with your faith and spiritual development.  Many religions are accepted and shared throughout campus.  Western also has international programming.  The international program is a student organization dedicated to promote cross-cultural understanding here at Western. They have many organized events, social activities and provides a intercultural experience. The division of multicultural affairs does an excellent job serving as an information resource on the role and value of diversity in education at Western.  Western's campus is a community all on its own, there is a variety of people and they are very accepting to each and every individual here on campus.  I look forward to seeing how it grows in years to come and to see diversity and multiculturalism expand throughout Kalamazoo.

Peer Review

What do I think of Peer Reviewing????
Well I think that it is a great way to get feed back about your writing. At first it can be nerve racking only because you really don't want other people to read what you wrote.  I know sometimes I freak out and feel like my paper isn't good enough.  Today in class though when we did peer reviewing on our rough drafts I was paired up with Ashley and it went very well.  I actually had a hard time with my rough draft, only because I couldn't remember a lot of the details.  Ashley gave me a lot of ideas about some other things that I could add to my personal narrative.  Her constructive criticism was great, she wasn't like "oh your paper sucks" and she also wasn't like "oh it's perfect," I really liked that she was honest and it really helped me out. Sometimes that's just what you need is for someone else to read your paper because they may think of better things for you to include in your writing that you may not have thought of.  Other people pick out your mistakes as well, even reading it aloud yourself will make you notice the mistakes you made. I hope to improve my paper and put in more details that I didn't think of right away.

Writing Assignment-Sedaris

Learning can always be a challenge, depending on what it is...
In high school I took two years of Spanish and passed with A's, it was easy to comprehend when I needed to. Once we moved on in a lesson though I always forgot what the teacher taught us the prior lesson.  I basically did enough to get my "A." I never thought I would need to know it in my lifetime so I didn't think to much of it. Then in my neighborhood back home a Hispanic family moved in next door.  They had three boys and all of them could speak English, as well as their dad.  Their mom though only knows a few words of English, she has always just been stay at home mom.  The family owns a Mexican Mini Market in town, the boys go after school and on weekends to help out at the store.  The hard thing about this all is that our dad's became good friends and helped each other with work.  So sometimes him and his wife will come over and have coffee but there was always is a part that's awkward because the mom can't speak that much English.  Their middle son and I became best friends, we still are to this day and over the past summer he would say that it is the hardest thing to translate for his mom sometimes because words have different meanings when they are said in Spanish and then translated into English. Now that we have become best friends I wish that I would have kept up with Spanish and took it more serious. I only think that because now I see what it's like to not fully understand something or someone, I can only image how frustrating it is for her.There is always room to learn new things and review the old.