Articles and Scholarship Junkies

I found the Finding your Power article to be very accurate in what it was trying to convey. I think that it is very necessary for us to embrace our power, like it said with the swimming example. However, we need to be sure we are using it to benefit others and to make sure we value them. It is not right to just blame others for problems. We should take responsibility when it is due. We can help others do this as well by consulting them and making them feel less alone. 

I also agreed with a lot of points from the article, “The Do’s and Don’ts of Being a Good Ally.” I think that a good way that we can become better allies to other communities is by becoming better educated on them. We can do things such as engage in discussion, read books, and actually listening to people. Being a good ally is not about status but about doing what’s right in the right way. This can be very applicable to the STARS LEAD Program. We always engage in discussion on sensitive topics and it is important that we are allies to each other and try not to derail the discussion. We might not agree all the time but we try to stay as respectful as we can and try to learn from one another and I think we can always improve ourselves in that way. I think that my biggest strength as an ally is being able to listen and not derailing a discussion. I am very good at staying on track and making sure we are using our time efficiently. An area that I can maybe improve in is becoming more educated on the subject we are talking about by reading books and links. I usually don’t do that and I think it can really help me become a better ally. 

I found the Scholarship Junkies workshop to be very helpful. Obviously it was geared towards the inner-city high school kids, but I think us leaders got a lot out of it as well. It can really help the kids in the Empowerment Pipeline to potentially get scholarships and be able to afford college. It helps to give them hope that they in fact, CAN succeed. It is a step towards more social justice. That’s because scholarships give them a chance that they otherwise, could not ever have. It puts them on, if not an equal plane, a better plane than before, as other kids in terms of chances of success, which is a step closer to social justice.

Waiting for Superman and 12 Lies Article

I found the “Waiting for Superman” film to be extremely moving. I was able to relate to it, even though I didn’t go to a really bad public high school in Chicago. I was really surprised by the severity of this problem. I knew that inequality in education existed, but the number of schools that are failing is insanely high! I feel like to help save these kids, there is a lot that needs to be done. We talked a lot about this in our meeting on Friday. There are just so many variables in this conglomeration that it is almost impossible to look solely at one reason, and say that if that problem is fixed, everything will be better. Many things can be factored in to help determine why these kids and schools are failing. We talked a lot about the federal system and how their agenda is different than the state’s agenda, which is different than the district’s. There is also the distribution of money issue and the strain on the teachers. Some things that are often overlooked are the things that we have to control over, such as the neighborhood the kids are in and the situation away from school back at home. I think a good place to start is getting everything fixed at the federal level and trying to get everyone onto the same page. Then hopefully it will trickle down to the district level and will improve some things. We can also get parents involved to help by making the communities better and just educating them on the seriousness of this matter. I believe that all the parents would be more than happy to help to make sure their child gets a good education. Voting for officials that can help solve this issue is a big way that parents can certainly address this problem.

I found almost everything the “12 Lies to Stop Telling Yourself” article to be relatable to me. There were many things in there that I think I tell myself all the time. There are many improvements that I would like to make for myself after reading this article. The ones that I found really interesting were the ones that said, “my dreams are impossible” and that “failure is bad”. I’ve always had the mindset that failure is terrible and that it should never happen. Plus, if I do fail at something, then I will almost never reach my goals and dreams in life. I now know that this mindset is really bad and to always remember that we are always improving ourselves to make sure we always get back up whenever we fall down. This will not only make you a better person, but it will rub off onto the people around you which will only make their lives better as well. A perfect example is with the inner-city students and how their mindset is that things will never get better. We need to show that there is always a chance.

Happiness Reflection and Summer!

The article on the 10 Ways Happy People Choose Happiness was very interesting to me. I was able to relate to all the topics it covered and I believe it is 100% true. Just reading that article made me smile and brightened up my day. I want to focus on just trying to be more positive whenever I can. When I look back, I can see opportunities that I should have dealt with a more positive attitude. It’s going to be a challenge because I usually have trouble expressing myself to others. But I know that the more I do, the better it will be for me. 

There are many things that make me happy. I love it when I can help other people with anything that they need. It gives me a sense of accomplishment. I am also very happy whenever I succeed in something or reach my goal. It shows that I have grown and that I am slowly improving myself to be the best I can become. 

When I went back to my dorm on Friday and read the stuff people left me in the booklet we made, it made me really happy. Everyone said such kind things about me and gave me a lot of good advice. It felt good to know that there people that appreciate you. I think that the activity in general was very beneficial. It was interesting to see what people wrote on their respective covers to describe themselves. I found it actually a lot more difficult to give characteristics to myself than I thought it would. But overall, I think it helped us come together as a STARS LEAD family, and bond a bit more as a group. 

As for the E-Portfolio, I actually haven’t done anything with mine as of yet. I think that it is a great tool to help us organize ourselves and to show potential employers everything that we have to offer. However, I don’t think that I have enough quality material to put anything of value into my Portfolio. I will start building one soon and hopefully I will be able to add to it over time. As for the Capstone project, I had some ideas on what we could do. We could film the high school students that are coming to Loyola in the next couple of weeks and somehow integrate them into whatever the theme of our video will be. We haven’t filmed anything yet, but I think that we have some good ideas.

Spring Break was a lot of fun! I didn’t go anywhere special this year, however. I spent a day on my Uncle’s farm in Wisconsin which was great and got to meet a lot of my friends in high school and other colleges. I slept a lot and made sure to get a good amount of homework done because I knew the week I came back would be a struggle with all the papers and tests that are due. I can’t wait until this semester is done and for summer can be here. I don’t have that big plans, but my family wants to go on a trip somewhere (not finalized). I want to able to go swimming and play football, and just not have to worry about classwork and college. It’s only a couple months away!!

Meditation, Pendulums, and Procrastination

In this blog I wanted to talk about the meditation article that we had to read. I found it to be very interesting. It made a lot of good points as to why people might have difficulty meditating that I hadn’t even thought of. I was able to relate to it really well because as a matter of fact, I do meditate occasionally. I got into it because of my Buddhism class here at Loyola. Every Wednesday before class, we all either sit on the floor, or in our chairs, and meditate for a good 10-15 minutes. I realized after doing that I loved it. It really does clam me down and forget about all the problems that are on your mind. Like the article stated, the Buddha and Buddhism in general incorporates a lot of meditation and says that it is very helpful in finding peace. While I may not have ever gone into a completely deep meditation state or anything, it just feels good to not do anything and to get a chance to relax. 

After reading, “What can the rhythm and flow of a pendulum teach us about balance and personal growth”, I think that it is somewhat accurate. It is true that life has a balance of ups and downs and that things will always get better. I also agreed when it said that things will not always swing the way you want, when you want it. However, it says that when that happens, you should just go with the flow. I think that I would rather fight it. If something isn’t going your way, then you should try to make it better and fight for your way. I just don’t think it is good to just be passive and not try at all. But overall, I think that it had a good message. I apply this all the time in my life. One of the best examples is with my schoolwork at Loyola. Things don’t always go the way I want here. I might not do so well in a class or get in a fight with a friend. But, I always know that things will get better. As I go through my career at Loyola, I want to stop worrying about things so much. I realize right now, I am always concerned about some aspect of my life and I think that if I stop stressing about things, then I can have better outcomes. 

I really liked the quote that Joe gave to us by W.E.B. DuBois. It talked about how we should take the initiative and to do everything that we can today. We should not waste our time now and we shouldn’t procrastinate. I do try to apply this way of thinking in my daily life, but I still need a lot of work. I am a veteran procrastinator and it’s a bad habit that I’ve been trying to get rid of. I realize that I hate putting things off. I feel so much better when I don’t have things in limbo and can relax because I’ve already finished everything.

Inequalities in Education in Chicago and Motivation

For this blog, I am going to discuss the three videos that we had to watch and also about the students are going to be visiting Loyola next Friday. 

First off, the video about the Inequalities in Education in Chicago was very well done. I was impressed with the graphics and overall presentation of it because this is a subject that needs everyone’s attention, and the video certainty got mine. I was extremely surprised by the crazy statistics in the video! It gave us a lot of information in a very short amount of time. It is unbelievable that these things are happening right around us. However, this does remind of the conversation we had in our meeting regarding statistics. Statistics can easily be manipulated to purposely prove your point, and disprove another. While there were a lot of good statistics in the video, I wouldn’t put too much weight onto them until they are either proved true or further explained. The video did make a good point though about how the whole system is a cycle. There are not many people leaving the system just because of outside factors and living conditions and are stuck with the system in place. It is especially terrible for teachers. They have it a lot worse than people probably realize. For most of these children, they take on a much bigger role than just teacher. I think that that is completely wrong. It should not be the teacher’s responsibility to make sure all a student’s life is all in order outside of school. That’s a job for the parents/guardians. Also, you can’t expect a teacher to help fill in that role with all of his/her students. My only complaint of the video as a whole was that she did not offer a solution to the problem. She just sort of left it open and didn’t say how we can really help. It would have been much better if she provided a course of action that we could take, but overall, I thought it was a great video.

The “Louder Than a Bomb: High School Training Ground” video was very moving to me. I am very interested in lyric-based rap music and freestyles so to me, this video was amazingly done. First off, that boy had some very good verses. He made a lot of valid points and none I think were truer than when he said the public schools in Chicago are actually in fact succeeding at their real purpose which is, “Preparing young people for a future that mimics the problems and contradictions of society as a whole.” He is saying that things are the way they are because in order for one person to succeed in our capitalism-based system, one must fall. He is saying that they are the ones taking the fall and that is not fair at all.

The “Inspiration: How Bad Do You Want It?” video was amazing. It was very inspirational to me. It had the montage of a football player and I also played football in high school so I was able to relate as to how hard some players train and how much motivation you need. I would say that my source of motivation is my desire to succeed. I want to be successful at everything that I commit myself to. I know that if I succeed, then I will be happy with myself. As long as I have support from my friends and family, I know that I will do well.

On a closing note, I am very excited to meet the students from Amundsen High School this Friday. I am interested to see what expectations of the students have of us as college students. I hope that we get to do some one-on-one interactions with them even though we are only on a panel. Either way, I think that we can have a very good influence on them and hopefully help them with whatever it is that they might need.

Servant Leadership and Inequalities in Education

Hey! This is my forth blog entry. I mostly focused on the article and video that we watched in our meeting.

When I read this article, I was completely stunned. I had never heard of the “school to prison” Pipeline until now! I just seems crazy to me that there are actually hundreds of schools around the nation participating in this. How can a school actually encourage a student to dropout? It seems to goes against every principle the education system is based on, no matter how messed up it is. What surprised me the most was the zero tolerance policy. The article said that kids were being EXPELLED for doing things such as bringing nail clippers to class. That just boggles my mind.

The “Black Males, Black Dreams” was very moving to me. It was a real account of what Carlos Wallace went through and I thought there was a great lesson learned from his story. I think that it showed that we should be persistent in trying to achieve our dreams to always have hope. It really shed to light a lot about the inner city schools that I had never known about. I think that one of the main necessities that African-American kids in impoverished areas need, is African-American role models. I think that they need hope that they can succeed in education and can achieve higher goals. Wallace was a perfect example. 

I think that everyone in the city has at least some right to help these kids. They live in the same city as we do and deserve a better learning environment and people to help lead them. When we host students from Tilden High School next week, I think that the best way I can practice servant leadership with them is to be an available resource. By providing support to them, I am showing them a good example of servant leadership. I can be an available role model and pretty much help them with anything that they need, from things like giving advice to just showing support. It will be a great opportunity for me to develop my servant leadership skills by giving me a chance to have actual personal contact with kids in need and listening to their experiences. I wouldn’t just be in a classroom learning about servant leadership, I would actually be applying everything that I've learned. I’m personally very excited to meet the students next week. I hope that I can be of great help to them and I’m going to try to have as positive of an impact on them as I can. 

Third Post - Servant Leadership

Hey everyone! This is my third entry in this new blog. Hope you like it!

A quote that stood out to me is, 

“The ends you serve that are selfish will take you no further than yourself but the ends you serve that are for all, in common, will take you into eternity.” - Marcus Garvey

I absolutely love this quote. It sums up a very strong point about leadership and how it relates to social justice. I would define social justice as trying to establish a society upon principles of equality and valuing the individual human rights of everyone in that society. This quote relates to leadership by explaining how a leader cannot be successful if he/she is selfish. If they are only justifying themselves with their actions then they will not accomplish much. However, if one were to serve others, then the benefits would be endless, and that would include social justice among the people.

I actually really enjoyed the Servant Leadership workshop. I went into the workshop not having any idea as to what a servant leadership meant. I was actually very surprised to learn about this way of leadership. I had thought about the idea of leaders actually being servants to their people, but very in such detail. I loved the concept and think that it truly represents the qualities that a leader should have.

In terms of the servant leadership point of view, I think that my strongest characteristic would be listening. I am always open to the views and opinion of other people. I believe that that will best help me in making the smartest decisions and will also help me be aware of everyone’s viewpoints, which is what servant leadership is all about. I also feel like I have a commitment to the growth of the people. Everyone is important in a group and as a servant leader, it is your job to help everyone grow and achieve their full potential and hopefully help them improve to become future leaders. 

I was easily able to pick out the characteristic I was weak in that a servant leader should have. I need to learn to share power. I prefer to have control over everything. I’ve always believe in myself and that I can handle everything that is given to me and that I don’t ever need anyone’s help. I now understand that it is sometimes necessary and almost always beneficial to share the power and workload for the betterment of the group. It can help improve the quality of the work being done and improve skills of others. 

I also found a nice, short video here that summarizes the main characteristics of Servant Leadership and also shows examples of some of out great leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Check it out!

My dream job has always been to be the head doctor of an NFL Football Team. I’ve always wanted to travel around with the team and be able to personally handle the injuries and problems of the players and to help make sure they are healthy enough to play. It is a perfect combination of not only my love for football and sports in general, but of my desire to help improve the lives of others as well. I will be in a leadership role with the team and will be serving the players by helping them reach their full potential.