Service Learning

What are some of the things you would like to see in an internship position that would be different from the service learning site you are at now? How will this experience help you to determine a career path?

I would like to have an intern that had to do with my major. I want to major in psychology. So therefore I'd like to watch the life of a psychologist and see what they do.
Also, having this experience will help me determine a career path because I will openly see what the life of a psychologist is like and it will help me determine if its what I really want to do in life.

About myself.

My name is Edrika Dave. First and foremost, I'd have to say that the traits I like most about myself are that I am dependable and hard working. I don't like to be let down so therefore I don't let others down. Also I have the mentality that when I put my mind to something, I put ALL of my effort into getting it done.

Service Learning

Based on the presentations that people have in class about their sites I think the most important thing should be that they enjoy what they do. Everyone said that they pretty much enjoy working at their sites. It would be unfortunate to have to work somewhere that you do t even want to be.
I also think that every service learning site should include people that have good time management. I think that time management can be a strength or a weakness for some people. But since we have to do 25 hours a month in this class, it gives everyone more sense of time and to know where they have to be and when.
The last thing I think a service learning site should include is they should give the person a sense of appreciation. Some people said the people that they work for let them know that their volunteer work is appreciated. This makes them feel good and like they are really needed.

I'm Proud!

When i sit back & reflect, I think about how I have so many things to be proud of in my life. There are times where I feel down and out and like there is no hope. But in reality I have to remember that things could always be worse and i DO have reasons to be proud. A quote that i thought was interesting is "It's just a bad day, not a bad life". I have to always keep in mind that I will have many bad days but its just THAT day that is bad.

When it comes to what I'm proud of right at this moment, I would have to say it is my performance in school. I believe that I have all A's. In both my English classes, Math and also Personal Growth. I put so much hard work and effort into school work so I see why this is the outcome. It's fortunate that I am pulling an A in math right now because I am NOT the best in math. But I like my professor and I feel that he's doing a good job teaching me. But on the other hand, I am doing my part and making sure I do my homework and study for tests and quizzes. I just recently got 100/100 on a Math test! I was so so so so so PROUD of this. I worked hard to get this grade.

Also in my English 48 class I received the highest grade in the class on the midterm which was a 46/50. This made me feel good. Not just because it was the highest grade, but because I know i put a lot of effort towards that test and like my favorite quote says, "Hard work pays off". In college, I feel that my hardwork is definitely paying off. THIS I am proud of! :-)

Fooooood!

In my English 49 class we are talking about Americans nutrition & how most of the food that we eat is bad and harmful for us. I related this to what we are talking about in Personal Growth. It's interesting to me that once you become educated about the whole food organization that there's no turning back. You know what's good for you, & you know what's bad. But sometimes we as people still continue to make unhealthy food choices when we know its bad.
I just recently learned that mostly everything in your average grocery store like Albertsons and Food4Less
Is mostly processed food. Processed foods contain harmful ingredients & many things that do bad stuff to our bodies. For example, even when it comes to produce at these grocery stores they inject things in our fruit to make it ripen faster. You go to the store thinking you're being healthy by eating an apple but in reality that apple may not be good for you.
Even when it comes to the meat that they sell at stores. These companies do harmful things to animals like inject them with hormones to make them grow faster. The things that are harmful to the animals then become harmful to humans because we eat it.
Me personally, I feel that eating healthy is a work in progress. It's expensive but since everything around us basically bad for us we have no choice but to consume bad things every once in a while. I try to eat fruits & vegetables more often. But you never really know which foods to trust. I think that all Anericans should be aware if what they are REALLY eating.

Nutrition Assignment

I love to eat healthy and I don't mind doing it. I try to eat healthier because I realize that in doing so it is better for my body. I just recently started eating better than I use to. I cut a lot of fast food out of my life. I now only eat fast food like twice every 2 weeks. But this also saves me money. I'd rather go to the grocery store and get food that I can make for long term periods of time. Overall, eating healthy is pretty expensive because healthy things cost more. But I still do try to eat well.

To me organic means foods that are taken directly from the source and doesn't have preservatives or artificial things in them. I think that gluten is sugar, or a bad sugar, the sugar that isn't in fruit.

People are concerned with American children's health because it seems as if kids are becoming more and more obese. I'm not sure what GMO's are.

I could eat in a healthier way. I could do this by cutting fast food out of my life all the way. But I could also make the first step to cut out fried foods that I cook at home too. I could just mostly bake things because its healthier. I could also try to eat more balanced meals. This would be sure to give me all nutrients that I need in a day.

Service Learning Experience

My service learning experience connects to my short term goals because it is helping me gain experience working with kids along the way. I'm thinking about becoming either a child psychologist or a criminal psychologist. So therefore I feel that working with children at an Elementary school is helping me gain experience interacting with them. In the future I may be doing the same thing. I feel this same way for my medium and long term goal. 

The knowledge from my service site that I will utilize to reach my goals is to just have patience and stay on the right track. I know that with kids I have to be patient because some can be hard to work with. I know that I will have to continue being on track and staying positive, the same way I am at my service site.

Understanding past issues of diversity and tolerance can help me define these goals by trying to be more open minded. By being more open minded to others diversity I will be able to accept other people for their different culture or background. I know I will come across a lot of different people in my future. 

Social Media

What is your reaction to the presentation last week on “Netiquette” and what will you be doing differently after having heard Tracy speak?  Do you believe social media will impact you at your learning site and/or in your future career, and how?

My reaction to the presentation last week is that it was very interesting. A point that Tracy mentioned that stood out to me was about how everything that we post online can eventually catch up to you if it is negative. This is an important point about privacy because you will never make a clear defined line between your private life and your educational or even work life. Many people are unaware of their privacy settings on things like Twitter and Facebook and they may post something from their private life that may not be needed to know. 

What me, personally, will be doing differently online is making sure that I just don't post anything that I wouldn't want an employer or even my mom to look at. Chances are that if its THAT inappropriate it shouldn't be said publicly online anyways.

I don't think that social media will impact my worksite, this is because I'm going to be working with kids and I cant have any outside connection with them. However when it comes to my future career, I will just limit my life to  having a work side, and then a personal side. But as of now, I don't have anything negative in the social media. If anything I have good things because of situations I've had in school. For example, my blogs and things I've been apart of in in high school.

Community Service

A way that I expect the community that I am serving to satisfy me is by everyone doing their own fair share of helping the community also. Serving my community makes me feel like a better person at the end of the day. I think that if everyone took the time to be involved in some type of community service that they'd feel better about themselves too. It would satisfy me to see more people engage in helping each other in our community instead of everyone doing things for themselves only.

Two ways that I will take responsibility for that community is: One, by making sure I fulfill all the hours of community service that I need to plus more. By doing this I know that I will feel like a achieved something great. And by two, encouraging others to partake in community service. I could encourage my friends to do things for people in our community that doesn't involve in receiving money. If I do this I know I can make a difference within the community not by just actively DOING community service but by telling others to be involved too.

Service Site

I haven't started my official service site yet. But I have been to the orientation for it. I am going to be working at Rosa Parks Elementary School with either 1st or 2nd graders. I expect for it to be a fun experience because I really do enjoy working with children. I think that I will become a big part of the kids life and vice versa. I stated my times to work at my site on Fridays. So every Friday I will volunteer my time with them and be involved in their lives. I think that Im going to enjoy my site though. & while I do it I will gain experience with kids. I'm looking forward to starting my site.

Tuesday Expenses

Lunch- $3.50
Total- $3.50

Monday Expenses

Coffee- $2.00
Lunch- $3.00

Total- $5.00

Saturday Expenses

In my Personal Growth class I was asked to track all of the expenses I make for 2 days of the week plus one weekend day. So here I go:

Saturday:

Gas- $15.00

Lunch- $5.00

Jamba Juice- $3.35

Total- $18.35

Hard Work

Being involved in SRP I have learned many lessons that I will be sure to take with me in the fall. The most important lesson that I will take is "Hard Work Pays Off". Coming into SRP I told myself that I would make sure that I try my hardest to get an A and do every single assignment that was assigned. I did this so that I'd be sure the outcome of these classes would be positive. I knew that I'd have to dedicate my hard work toward all of my classes so that at the end of it all I could say that I tried my best. For example, if i didn't make it a goal to do ALL assignments assigned then if i got a grade I didn't like then I'd have to say I didn't give it my 100% efforts because I didn't do everything asked of me. But me, being an achiever, likes to put 100% into everything I do.
This brings me to how my lesson "Hard Work Pays Off" falls into place.

Working hard truly does pay off because at the end of the course of working hard toward your goal, the outcome is bound to be positive. For example, this year in English 42/43 I stuck to my goal and said that I'd do all assignments and work hard on them all. We got our essays back today and majority of them are A's. This gave me the pleasure of saying that all of my hard work payed off. All of my days really making an effort to do my homework to the best of my ability showed through my work. This gave me a gratifying feeling because I feel that I'm on course to my goals that I made when entering SRP.
So therefore, this is the lesson that I will be sure to take with me in the fall. Keeping this is important because when I enter something and want the outcome to be positive I can think back to all of the times where I felt satisfaction in the outcome of working hard.

Motivation

In class we looked at an image that features a women that looks shocked. On the picture it displays the quote, “OMG, I have to read a lot and write a lot to be a writer?” This brings up the idea that people expect things to just be given to them in life and when they aren’t they act shocked. Many Americans don’t seem to understand that they do actually have to work. Of cours if a person wants to be a writer they will need to attribute the talents of a good writer who reads and writes a lot. But if they really have the passion to do this job, the excessive reading and writing wouldn’t matter.

 For example, many people want to do high paying jobs like being a doctor or a lawyer. But when they look into it and find out that in order to be a doctor you have to do a lot of schooling and participate in dissecting labs, they seem to be surprised. The same concept applies to some people who want to be lawyers. People look into it and see all the work that they will have to put in by going to law school and they seem surprised about it. People just expect for jobs to be given to them, they don’t want to do the actual ground work that it takes for them to get there.

This quote also reminded me about how at the beginning of SRP in English class we had a discussion about Motivation. People are mostly motivated by money and only want to do a job because the lasting outcomes will be a lot of income. But in reality they are only hurting themselves because they arent doing what they love or enjoy to do. Imagine a person that is into fashion but pursues a career in Child Development working with kids. This person may have a job as a teacher but everyday not even want to be there because thats not what their passion in life is. Doing something like only choosing a job because of the money is detrimental to only yourself.

People should be more mindful of jobs that they want to pursue. If they are interested in a profession it shouldn’t matter what measures they have to take to do the job. Just as long as they enjoy it that should be enough. Whether it comes to being a doctor or a lawyer, a person should be interested for the right reasons and not just for the money. Any amount of work shouldn’t be a problem leading up to the desired profession because it should be something they enjoy to do.

Who's to Blame?

In my English class we were showed an image that displayed a quote about the blaming of Dentist and teachers. When it comes to Dentist and Teachers they can highly be compared. A Dentists job is to teach the relevance of taking care of your teeth. For a Teacher it is to teach the relevance of all types of educational topics consisting of English, science or math. But all in all, the primary job for them both is to teach. The quote stated,

 “We don’t blame dentists when we don’t brush our teeth properly and we get a cavity. So why do we blame teachers when kids don’t pass because they don’t study?”

My reaction as to why we do things this way is because there are different circumstances between a Dentist and a patient then there are between a Teacher and a student. Circumstances like the fact that we only go to a dentist at certain times in a year but we go to school every day and interact with teachers every day.

This quote makes the big point of responsibility. It is the patient’s responsibility to go to the dentist and go home and make sure that they brush their teeth every day. It is also the student’s responsibility to learn from the teacher, study, and pass their tests. I agree with these statements, but sometimes I am guilty of blaming a teacher for not passing. Sometimes the reason for not passing depends on the circumstance of the teacher. At least 2 factors fit into this problem. We don’t go to the dentist every day and learn that we always need to brush our teeth.

But we do go to school every day and it is the teacher’s job to teach. There is a different relationship of a teacher and student than there are between a patient and student. A student and teacher are much more close which brings greater risk for blame. I know that I can say that I'm not as close with my dentist like I am with my teachers. I'm pretty sure if patients went to the dentist everyday that the dentist would end up being put to blame for cavities just because of those circumstances that the patient IS there everyday.

            But all in all, the success of not getting a cavity and passing a class are a person’s divine responsibility. We can’t blame other people in life for our irresponsibility. Just like we can’t blame the dentist for a cavity, we can’t blame a teacher for not passing. If students really have the strong will to pass, we’d take the initiative to do so and not sit back and blame the teacher for not doing our own work.  The bottom line is that everyone is responsible for their own actions. There is no need to put the blame on anyone because depending on the circumstances thrown at a person in life, if they want to see success they will go out and get it. Just like if a person doesn’t want any cavities they will be sure to brush their teeth. And if a person doesn’t want to fail they will be sure to study.

Violence

Today during English class we read a paper written by Marilyn Manson. In this paper he was relaying to all of the criticism he got from people that were saying his music was part of the reason for some of the violence throughout the world. Manson made it clear that he totally disagrees with this concept of his music being faulted for violence. He takes it all the way back to the origin of religion and Christianity. He brought up the Cain and Able story about how Cain killed his brother and even back in times like those there was no television, music, or media. Therefore he left us with a point that peoples motives aren't always what they hear or see. Just like Cains reason for killing his brother was through something personal, and not because of any music he had listened to.
He also mentions a lot of mass murders that have happened around the world, for example the one that happened in Columbine where there was a huge shooting in a high school leading to many deaths. He mostly blames media for publicizing them the way that they do. Manson states, "America puts killers on the cover of Time Magazine, giving them as much notoriety as our favorite movie stars.Meaning that we give the killers the attention that they want. 

I believe that media is part of the blame for the violence that goes on in the world. This is because we are greatly influenced by it everyday. There is music and television around us everyday. People have a right to express how they feel in their music. If they feel they want to do so in a violent way, then Yes they can. But it only becomes a problem when people start to be influenced by these behaviors. But I am a firm believer in the idea of responsibility. A responsible person who's a leader wont choose to be influenced by any violent music or movies. They will make sure that they choose a path that is morally right. But all in all, I feel that society needs to reinforce the ideas of safety and try to do something to prohibit it, instead of condoning in through our media.

My Strengths

1.Achiever

2.Relator

3.Intellection

4.Individualization

5.Arranger

In taking the Stregnths Finder Test I got these Top 5 strenths to describe myself. I feel that they really do describe myself being that I answered every question as honestly as I could. Even before taking the test I predicted that I was an Achiever and I got that as my number one choice. This shows that I really do have an idea about who I am. An Achiever, according to Strengths Finder, is described as "People who are especially talented in the Achiever theme have a great deal of stamina and work hard. They take great satisfaction from being busy and productive." This perfectly describes ME as a person because I like to work hard and put 100% into everything that I do in order to get the best results. I really do also find satisfaction in being productive because at the end of the day I can think back to my day and know it wasnt just a waste. Another trait that I got that I felt I could really relate with was Intellection. They define Intellection as "People who are especially talented in the Intellection theme are characterized by their intellectual activity. They are introspective and appreciate intellectual discussions." I feel that I identify with this trait because I do a lot of thinking to myself about intellectual things. For example, I'm really interested in psychology and I like to be involved in discussions about it. But overall, I wasnt suprised with the results that I got from my test because I feel that they are all ME.

My American Dream

'Cause baby you're a firework
Come on, show 'em what you're worth
Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh"
As you shoot across the sky-y-y

This part of the chorus in the song Firework by Katy Perry represents my American Dream. This is because as I grow up and really get into my education and field that I will be majoring in, I want to make a change in the world someday. I don't want to sit back in life being quiet and passive. I want to change the lives of others. I consider myself to be some sort of a firework like the song symbolizes. My reasoning for this is because you set a firework on fire and then BOOM it just explodes and you are able to see ll the pretty things that it embodies. That's just how I believe my American Dream is going to be. I'm that firework that is just waiting to show the world my thoughts and talents and I will be able to just BOOM one day.

You don't have to feel like a wasted space
You're original, cannot be replaced
If you only knew what the future holds
After a hurricane comes a rainbow

Maybe your reason why all the doors are closed
So you could open one that leads you to the perfect road
Like a lightning bolt, your heart will glow
And when it's time, you'll know

These 2 parts also stand out to me. This is because, it explains how everyone is special, no one is just a wasted space because everyone is capable of making a change someday.It explains how, maybe a reason you feel that all your possibilities have ended are because its your responsibility to lead the way. So therefore My American Dream is to ust be happy in life, but not only be content with my own life, help others around me become happy along the way too. I just want to show everyone what I'm worth, and pass knowledge along.

Smart Girls.

This picture really stood out to me. 

I'm pretty sure SO many other people can relate to these words of Drake.

I chose to blog about this because it sort of defines ME & WHO I AM.

I feel that I haven't really found MY place in the world, I'm still looking and finding out things. I often find myself overthinking everything that comes my way. Every situation that is thrown at me, I always think of every possibility, every action I should take, and the 'what if's'. I'm pretty sure everybody, not even JUST girls are insecure about something that has to do with themselves. This reason is because, nobody is perfect, everyone has that ONE thing they wish they could change whether they want to admit it or not. 

In life, people go through things. People get hurt and pain can make a person just change. But pain can also make people learn lessons. So, these people that have been hurt tend to not trust easily, over analyze, overthink and this causes them to become smart. But it could also be a bad thing that these smart girls do this because their guard stays up.They start to open up less and let a little bit of people in their lives. But of course, smart girls keep the faith and hope. They know to learn from their mistakes and move on. These girls are worth keeping by your side because they can teach you a thing or two. They know how to love themselves meaning they can be open to love another person.

----This post is mainly just for anyone who can agree with what that picture up there stands for. Girl OR Boy. It doesn't matter. Smart people rule the world, and get further. :-)

Lesson learned in SRP

A lesson that I've learned so far from being in SRP is the lesson about being a Creator or a Victim. Before even coming to City College I'd never heard of those 2 terms in the way that they have been introduced for me here. I learned that a Victim is a person that lives life through fate and luck. They just let life happen to them and often feel that life is just going to take them wherever and that their choices don't matter. They don't beleive their lives are effected by their everyday choices. Victims oftentimes blame others for their mistakes and don't know how to take responsibility for their actions. 

But a Creator is the exact opposite. A Creator knows that they are in charge of every choice that they make. They take self-resposibility for everything that they do in life. Creators dont blame others for their mistakes. And if they do find something wrong in life they don't complain, they just make a change.Being in SRP has taught me the kind of person that I am. I feel that I am a creator. But I also have some Victim habits too. SRP has taught me the life lesson of being a Creator and I know now to shape myself to be much more of a Creator.

SRP & ME!

Hey bloggers! This is my first blog post ever! So, When first entering the Summer Readiness Program I didn’t know what to expect. To be completely honest, I was skeptical about it because of all that I knew I would be missing out in the summer. All I knew was that I’d be going to school taking 2 English classes and Personal Growth from Monday through Thursday from 8:45am - 2:25pm.

I have never had an experience with a college class so I didn’t know what to expect, if it would be hard or easy. Being in the SRP for 2 weeks now, I can now say that I’m not really missing out on anything. The only thing that I’d be doing at home is relaxing, or eating or just sitting at home being bored most of the time. Yes, im missing out on time that I could be spending with family and friends, but that’s what I feel like I have my weekends for now.

My weekends mean SO much to me now. I spend the week being productive, making sure I’m focused on school work. But when my Fridays come, I make plans with whomever to do whatever! My weekends are spent by me just having fun, whether it’s going to a party, or just having a sleepover at my friend’s house, I make sure I enjoy myself. But then Monday rolls back around and I get back into school mode.

My SRP classes so far have been beneficial though. I feel as if I’m learning and growing to be a successful college student already. I know that I definitely feel like a college student and am glad to have been given this opportunity. Although it’s taking up my Summer, I know that in the long run it’ll be all worth it.