Social diversity can be defined in many ways, but in my opinion I believe that it is a society that coexists regardless of different races, cultures, political and religious stances, gender, and sexuality. All of these aspects define a person, but the differences between all of us is what makes our society unique. Every person brings forth a different mixture to 'pour' into our societal melting pot. Multiculturalism, on the other hand, is the recognizing of differences within a society and encouraging others to promote and be proud of their societal differences and backgrounds. Unfortunately, I did not grow up in a very diverse area. I grew up in a predominately white neighborhood and the most cultural diverse thing to us was perhaps Red Dragon, our local Chinese Restaurant. So it is safe to say that I was somewhat sheltered to what diversity was as a child. My parents were accustom to diversity, but my brother and I were not. So when I went away to University of Iowa last semester, I was able to actually open my eyes and see the beauty of this nation's melting pot. I learned new things about all the different people that make up our society and how important diversity is in a society. It brings forth new ideas, new customs, and new ways to present a problem. In my personal life, class played a big role of diversity, even though I lived in a ritzy town, my family was not one of big money. We were in no means poor but we certainly did not have what everyone else in the town did. So I did, in some ways, have an understanding of the diversity of social classes within a society.
In fourth grade, a girl from Japan moved to our school and she spoke maybe five words of English. For some reason, my three other girlfriends and I decided to take her under our wings. We took it upon ourselves to teach her the basics of English. So everyday during silent reading time we would go out in the hallway with the permission of our teacher and use flashcards and English/grammar books to teach her the basics. I'm not going to say four nine-year-olds taught this girl all the English she knows but we definitely taught her something. In return, we all learned something as well. We learned about the difficulties of coming to not just a new town, but a new continent! We all became her best friends and when we would go to her house, her mom and her would teach us about culture back in Japan. She always made us homemade dishes and we heard about certain traditions her family followed. I no longer keep in touch with this girl, but she certainly taught me a lot about how diversity makes up and shapes a society. It predisposed me to the different experiences others may have encountered opposed to just my own.
I am interested in either researching abortion (teen pregnancies), suicide, drugs/drug abuse, alcoholism, or violence in schools. I think all of these topics are especially important because of our generation these negative issues seem to be increasing. All of these, aside from violence in schools, pertain to my major which is nursing. I may be dealing with individuals with drug/alcohol abuse, with those who attempt suicide, those who are interested in abortion, and teenage girls who become pregnant.
Monday, August 30, 2010
8/26/10 In Class Blogging
a) When it comes to reading, it has been a major part of my personal life. As a child I loved books and loved reading, at the age of 3 I had been able to read the covers of my favorite movies and my favorite book The Foot Book. I believe that I learned most of this by memorization, but overtime I came acquainted with what certain words looked like and how to sound out certain letters. Since then, I've always read for personal pleasure. In my academic life, reading was more of a chore. Read this chapter and respond to these questions and I somewhat dreaded it, however certain texts (more towards the end of high school), I actually started to enjoy. I've never really required reading or writing in a professional sense because most my jobs included working at a bar, a pizza place, and babysitting. Writing on the other hand was never EVER a favorite of mine. I was fairly good at it, I always received good grades in high school and I understood the concept but I absolutely dreaded writing papers. It wasn't until last year in my University of Iowa Rhetoric 1 (similar to english 1 ) class that I actually started to enjoy and get into what I was writing. I looked forward to expressing my thoughts and opinions about a subject I was passionate about.
Outside of school, the only writing I really do is texting, facebook, and the occasional journal entry depending on the day (for example if I need to vent, I usually do so to my journal).
b) The most difficult part of academic writing for me is getting started. I have the hardest time with the introduction. I always tense up and feel insecure about my intro because it's the first thing the reader sees and I want it to be interesting and perfect! My area of improvement would have to be better explaining and clearer reasoning.
c) I read pretty much any genre. I've read things from Twilight to 19 Minutes by Jodie Picoult to The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. I also read a ton of magazines. I usually read a book that has been recommended by a friend or one I saw a friend reading that looked interesting. By reading different genres, I was able to become familiar with different forms of writing. The connection between reading and writing for me is that reading sparks ideas for you to write about. It ignites a passion for you to reflect upon.
d) Research papers always intimidate me mostly because of the steps and procedures involved. I'm a bit of a perfectionist so writing an interesting and good paper is very important to me. However, when it comes to this course, I feel more relaxed that we get to chose the topic we research and because of that I will be a little more driven to find information and to write about it.
e) I want to write about either teenage pregnancies or suicide. Both topics interest me on a levels of personal and professionalism.
f) I would probably use the internet and library books for both, but also since this day and age has a lot of reality television, I can also use the media to my advantage.
Outside of school, the only writing I really do is texting, facebook, and the occasional journal entry depending on the day (for example if I need to vent, I usually do so to my journal).
b) The most difficult part of academic writing for me is getting started. I have the hardest time with the introduction. I always tense up and feel insecure about my intro because it's the first thing the reader sees and I want it to be interesting and perfect! My area of improvement would have to be better explaining and clearer reasoning.
c) I read pretty much any genre. I've read things from Twilight to 19 Minutes by Jodie Picoult to The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. I also read a ton of magazines. I usually read a book that has been recommended by a friend or one I saw a friend reading that looked interesting. By reading different genres, I was able to become familiar with different forms of writing. The connection between reading and writing for me is that reading sparks ideas for you to write about. It ignites a passion for you to reflect upon.
d) Research papers always intimidate me mostly because of the steps and procedures involved. I'm a bit of a perfectionist so writing an interesting and good paper is very important to me. However, when it comes to this course, I feel more relaxed that we get to chose the topic we research and because of that I will be a little more driven to find information and to write about it.
e) I want to write about either teenage pregnancies or suicide. Both topics interest me on a levels of personal and professionalism.
f) I would probably use the internet and library books for both, but also since this day and age has a lot of reality television, I can also use the media to my advantage.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Intro
My name is Paige and I'm from Elmhurst, Il (suburb of Chicago). I'm a nursing major and I'm really interested in working in the medical field. I'm a recent transfer student to ISU from the University of Iowa, so looks like I'm a former Hawkeye becoming a Redbird! However, I don't have enough credits to be a sophomore at ISU, so I'm technically a freshmen all over again. I'm looking forward to this class this semester!
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