Category: Portfolio

Michael Vignoles

Dr. Hall 1121

2/9/2019

Educational Essay 

During High School I had this mindset to always go 110% in everything I do. I also hated the idea of wasting my time; wasting time in relationships or in life opportunities. During my junior year I was able to maintain a high GPA while working 40 hours a week. Prior to my Senior year I spoke to all my teachers to see if I was able to take extra classes in my free periods, or take classes in the summer; do anything to get out of high school early. I had the ambition and willingness to persevere through the hard work. My motivation all changed when I entered my senior year where I felt I was just taking classes just for attendance. I couldn’t understand the feeling of being trapped from wanted to do more in my life. It didn’t makes sense to me that school was the reason I felt like I was being held back. And as a result, I never went to my classes and put my focus on working at Journeys in hopes of doing something great with my life. A month before graduation my principle expressed to me that she was scared and couldn’t see me being successful in college. For years I battled with that thought, but one thing I did know is that I wanted to be successful in all parts of my life.

Right after graduating high school I was promoted to a managers position at Journeys. In my eyes, to be the best manager one could be, you have to be able to motivate every employee under your wing as well as anyone that walked into your store. I was able to get the opportunity to become a manager at the highest volume store, because of the energy I exuded and the relationships I was able to make with my customers. Oddly enough, my motivation was knowing that the world we live in has gone to shit. For example, we have a buffoon of a president in office; we have concentration camps separating children from families, and people of color who still do not feel safe enough to buy a bag of skittles and an Arizona. At times it feels like we as individuals have no power and control to make a difference. With a set of rosy colored glasses on, it was then that I realized that I met hundreds of people around the world virtually everyday and that I could then have the power to impact every customers lives that I crossed paths with. Even with something as small as my famous greetings. In a world that makes you seem so small at times, I finally found a way to make a huge impact.

I once had a family who was visiting the city from Wales while working at the store. They were a couple, with their daughter and son. While spending time with them for the first time I didn’t think anything out of the ordinary would come of our interaction. I made them laugh and they even bought several items from me, though they didn’t seem to intend to. It was when the family came back the next day, and the day after just to visit me that I felt that this was something different. Their hotel was right next to the store so they always ended up visiting at least once a day during their trip, just to say hello to me. On their last day in the city the family and I took a group selfie, and they said next time they come back to the city there going to come and find me. I was shocked that our small interactions had grown into a bond almost friend like, with my confidence on the rise I let them know that the next time they would  see me I would be running the store. This family only served as a reminder to my manager of how much my presence, kindness and energy meant to them, how it set me apart from all of my other coworkers. With everything seeming to fall apart out in the outside world, I was just happy to be able to bring a smile to this family every day on their trip in the city, letting them into my own little world for a while.

This was just one of many experiences that I believed were so small, and yet ended up leaving an impact with each and everyone of these people. What amazes me more is how many other lives I’ve impacted but just never really realized it. I’ve learned that regardless of whether you give out love and positivity or hatred to this world, it will always return tenfold later.  My job was to persuade customers to buy products from my store, however, I was the best at it because it became much more to me than that. I truly cared and wanted to give a one of a kind shopping experience, leaving all customers with a smile at the end of the day regardless of what was happening in that awful outside world. I can’t control that outside world, but in my world, my shoe store, I was able to make smiles for everyone.

For years  I battled with what my principle expressed with me. I was trying to go to school and work full time in hopes of proving my principle wrong. But ultimately,  I put too much on my plate and couldn’t handle everything at once. Working 50 hours just seemed impossible while trying to find time to study and sleep. It took me two semesters of failing or withdrawing from my college classes to realize that there is no correct set path to successful. In my eyes I became the best manager I could be and that is success in my eyes. There is no set time to do something or to finish something. I realized I was taking the classes to help fulfill my parents and to prove my principle wrong. Never had the thought to go to college for me, so I can find something I love to do. I set my motivate to become a manager at 19 years old, and now I’m setting my motivation to become a college graduate. The only difference mentally is that I’m proving myself wrong, I’ve always been bigger than what my principal ever thought.

 

 

Michael Vignoles

Unit 3

March 26, 2019

Unit 3

Technology is the future and so should Elon Musk

No matter if we like it or not technology will be apart of our lifestyles in the future. So we as humans need to adapt with technology in hopes to make a better world. However, because of the human nature, greed and money will always be a motivation. Technology in the right hands can benefit humans tremendously; however if it’s in the wrong hands it will only slow down or destroy the progression of humans. Elon Musk envisions a world only powered by reusable energy in hopes of preventing serious climate change damages. With Musk’s recent and most known invention, Tesla electrics cars, he hopes to create a safer world for the human race.

Since the invention of motor vehicles, awareness to prevent climate change with our vehicles were made. Things like car pooling or cars made to run on half gasoline and electricity at the same time. But were are coming to a point where small changes will only make small progression in fixing this major issue. Tesla cars that are solely ran by electricity is addressing the issue at the head of the snake. According to Union of Concerned Scientist, gas powered cars and trucks are producing 24 pounds of carbon dioxide per gallon used. Our personal vehicles are 1/5 of the cause of US carbon dioxide being released into our environment. Our personal vehicles and public vehicles like trucks, planes, and ship count for about 30% of all US warming emissions. If we’re able to create a world where our vehicles are no longer powered by gas, we would be addressing 30% of the climate change issues. 

With Musks creation of the Tesla car, he is pushing business and social boundaries by doing what was thought was the impossible. I was fortunate enough to be able to meet a mentor that made it far in the car industry. She informed me that she left the industry because cars innovation was too ahead of the time for people to understand and adapted too. She said simply that the car industry was moving too slow but had so much potential to excel. It is human nature to cling on to things that we are comfortable with whether it is people, habits, or technology. When Apple was releasing the iPhone 7 people went crazy that there were not going to be a AUX input for wired headphones. People were concerned about how they will charge and listen to music at the same time. Some customers switched Apple’s competitors Samsung just so they can have the comfort of the AUX input. During a TED talk with Elon Mush they talk about the concerns and safety people relying on electric self driving cars. Its difficult relying on a piece of technology that will make life or death decisions for you. No one believed that self driving cars would be apart of our generation. Humans are far from perfect and we make mistakes daily. According to Bryant Walker Smith, from The Center for Internet and Society, 99% for car crashes are caused by a human mistakes. If were able to create a world where humans can no longer make those mistakes behind a wheel and allow efficient technology to work cohesively together, car crashes and death should then be limited. Nothing will ever be perfect, but people and inventions should always strive for perfection. Comparing technology mistakes and human mistakes, technology is the closest thing to a perfect safe driving world.

We currently live in a world where big company purposely have planned obsolescence strategies to make as much money as they can. With huge corporate company dominating the car industry, they are only motivated by money and personal greed. I believe that these car company always had some sort of technology to prevent climate change or push innovations but didn’t want to release it to so they can drag out technology for profit.

Musk’s motivation is the protection of the human race and efficiency. Musk wants to make Mars habitable just to protect the human race from extinction. Musk’s introducing the self driving electric cars is pushing competitors and car innovations as a whole. In 2014, Musk released all blue prints of the Tesla models to all competitors. Simon Sproule, a spokesman for Tesla states “The mission of the company is to accelerate the widespread adoption of electric cars.” In another interview with Musk; he mentions how he wouldn’t care if another business were to take over the electric car industry because it will still be for the greater good for humans. Now in 2018, majority of the top car companies introduce all electric cars releasing within a few years. Huge car companies like BMW, Ford, Nissan, Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen and many more. A new cars campaign was made  “Drive Change. Drive Electric.” Tesla and Elon Musk is the leading image for the electric car revolution and hopefully an answer to climate change.

One of the risks Musk takes with Tesla is that one mistake could be the end of the company and all self driving cars as a whole because people will lose trust in the technology. In the interview with TED states the 1/1000 crashes is still not good enough to convince a driver that any self driving vehicle is safe enough. He aiming to life times, where a Tesla car has not crashed within 5 life times. If a self driving car were to cause an accident, people will become skeptical relying their life on this technology. This is why other corporate car companies haven’t tried to develop anything close to the Tesla because they know if they fail it could result to the end of the company. With companies motivated by money and greed they will never take the necessary risks to help innovate humans as a whole. Leader and activist Beyoncè, risks her career and self image to perform live at the Super Bowl addressing issues like Women and black rights in hopes to motivate women and minorities. Musk sees the human species is endangered if change isn’t made soon. Musk is risking his multi-million business and the image of future technology in hope of creating a solution to climate change and a safer way of transportation.

Technology is in our future and we need to start adapting to the changes. It also needs to be regulated so that we can ensure that the technology is in the right hands and is being used for the greater good for the human race. It can do great things if supported by innovators who wants humans to advance as a whole. Musk is pushing boundaries and motivating other car companies to make a world where gas powered cars will no longer be a thing in the future.

Work Cited

• Car Emissions and Global Warming. Union of Concerned Scientists, www.ucsusa.org/clean-vehicles/car-emissions-and-global-warming.

• Golson, Jordan. “Tesla Just Gave All Its Patents Away to Competitors.” Wired, CNMN Collection, 3 June 2017, www.wired.com/2014/06/tesla-just-gave-all-its-patents-away-to-competitors/.Hawkins,

• Andrew J. “Automakers Team up with States to Get Americans to Buy More Electric Cars.” The Verge, The Verge, 29 Mar. 2018, www.theverge.com/2018/3/29/17173176/electric-car-marketing-campaign-automakers-northeast-states.

• Smith , Bryant Walker. “Human Error as a Cause of Vehicle Crashes.” Center for Internet and Society, Stanford Law School, 28 Mar. 1970, cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blog/2013/12/human-error-cause-vehicle-crashes.

Mentor Article/Publisher

• Trendacosta, Katharine. “Tell Congress to Stand Up for Real Net Neutrality Protections.” Electronic Frontier Foundation, Electronic Frontier Foundation , 6 Mar. 2019, www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/03/tell-congress-stand-real-net-neutrality-protections.

The Electronic Foundation is a program that supports basic human right and needs with technology around the world. The EFF protects the internets freedom of speech and expression.  I would try to publish this writing piece with this foundation because it’s a political platform with the understanding of the need of internet protection.

Michael Vignoles

Dr. Hall

English 1121

Unit 4

The Confident I Needed

During my semester with Dr. Hall, my favorite essays to work on was the educational, and social responsibility essays because I was able to write about topics that had value and meaning to me. For my educational essay I focused on what I learned while struggling to work full time and maintaining school. There are multiple effective ways to learn, however my educational essay was aiming on learning from the mistakes I made in the real world. One outcome I learned is to do things for myself in order to make best version of me. In my essay I demonstrate how my principle expressed to me that she did not see me being successful going to college and how my motiv were not in the right places. “For years I battled with what my principle expressed with me. I was trying to go to school and work full time in hopes of proving my principle wrong.” (Vignoles). One thing I enjoyed about this class is that I was able to find my own topics that I cared about in order to produce a quality essay. My senior year of high school I felt like I was wasting my time in classes that I didn’t need, so I felt unmotivated to go to school. This class and learning experience really help me understand the importance of being properly motivated and finding topics to that I truly cared about. That deeper motivation helps me dig deeper to make a close to perfect essay. For me writing a perfect essay never comes easy for me.

Ever since a child my weakest subject was reading and writing and its always amazes me how much growth I can see with practice. This classes helped me understand the importance of being unique and not being scared to add my own personality into my work. Adding on to me educational essay I mention how the world we live in is not at its best state and I question the value I am giving back to the world.

“At times it feels like we as individuals have no power and control to make a difference. With a set of rosy colored glasses on, it was then that I realized that I met hundreds of people around the world virtually everyday and that I could then have the power to impact every customers lives that I crossed paths with.” (Vignoles)

As a writer, Dr. Hall and her classes are the roses color glasses. Her class help me see my writing in a different way. She helped me understand that my words have power and I should not be scared to voice it. Dr. Hall class helped me find value in my words to be able to stand confident in my writing.

The first homework assignment we had introduce one the intentions of the classes. We were assigned to read Voices of the Self  by Keith Gilyard. His essay was one of my favorite pieces because of the personality he put into it. Gilyard pushed literature boundaries and challenged the question of what is proper american english. “I also really enjoy that Gilyard was not scared to show his true literature abilities in the conclusion to make a strong and solid argument about whether Black English is proper and should be embraced more in public education.” (Vignoles) In the beginning of the semester I was scared and not used to being able to write how I actually talk. After years of being taught to write proper standard english to perfection I was not used to writing in “improper english”.

For my second essay I wrote about my role model Elon Musk. One thing I look up to him is that he is not afraid to make drastic changes in hopes of better the world with the right regulations. He made an all electric card when everyone laugh at the idea when he first started.

“Technology is in our future and we need to start adapting to the changes. It also needs to be regulated so that we can ensure that the technology is in the right hands and is being used for the greater good for the human race. It can do great things if supported by innovators who wants humans to advance as a whole.”

During this class I had to be open to all positive criticism to better my essay. During class we were able to sit down with our classmate to help find mistakes in a different point of view. One thing I struggled with was following the instruction to the tee because I was so interested in my topic at hand. I had to sit down with Dr. Hall to really understand what I did wrong and how I can do better. I aspire to be like Elon Musk and hope to be able to adapt my changes in essay requirements to make a better essay.  

The older generation will always doubt the the younger generation, so it’s important for us to be able to stand confident in our words and to be able to argue our point. Overall this class helped me find my importance in my words and helped me to be able to stand confident in my writing in the real world. It also showed me to to not be scared to show my own personality in my work. This class gave me the confident in my work that a class has yet to do for me.

Giuseppe Biondi

Dr. Hall

English 1121

The Tree of Dreams

 

 

The tree, a tree that I care more than anything else, a tree that helps me getting every difficult task done, and remembers me of the most inspiring person of my life, my grandpa. A tree that reminds me of all trips of every Saturday or Sunday, where me and my grandpa use to go when I was back in Italy. That tree, that every morning remembers me of an adventure, past, and the one I take every morning a step over my house door. A tree that will always have the summer smell of the nature, a nature that brings me back in the hills of Sicily, where my grandfather and I walked step by step, admiring what nature has given us, a gift that many planets in the universe do not have, trees. A tree that my grandfather took from the hills, and then plant it in front of my house, so that it reminds me of all the advice that he shared with me. The tree, which helps me overcome the greatest difficulties of this world.

My grandfather a medium height man, but that has the strength and the passion of a Spartan man going against everyone that stands in front of him. Nowadays, his hair are growing whitener than ever, but that is one thing that awaits for everyone in our old journey. He has blue eyes that reminds me of the blue sky that has been on top of us during every day journey with him. He taught me how to be myself to love every second of my life doing what I like to do and not what your parents would like you to be in the future, but to be yourself in everything that you do and to stand for your ideas and for the people that you love. He has and still is a very important part of my life and the only thing that has cut our relation is the distance between Sicily and New York, but that for us is nothing.

Day by day, what I remember is a past time, a time, where everything was beautiful and handsome. Trees is what I remember, then, a natural paradise, where the perception of our sense’s changes, because of the nature that involves you, as if it was the last match of an important team. Sicily, my island, this is what I remember every day, looking at the tree in front of my house, and while I look at it, it takes me back in there, like a time machine, but only the most beautiful memories will surround you, because at the end a life without good memories is not a happy life. Sicily an island down South of Italy, where nature is what makes everyone happy every day, just going out and seeing a volcano called Mount Etna, that can be seen from anywhere in the island. Some times in the year you can even small the smoke coming out of the central hole of the volcano, and as a Sicilian we already know that an eruption will come soon in the day.

Every morning awakening, what the tree transmits to me, are not only memories of the island where I was born, but also the nature that it transmits to the people that live near me, because it is considered one of the most beautiful trees in Gravesend, my neighborhood in Brooklyn. All seasons of the year it transmits a different emotion, but a happy one. During the summer it is always full of green leaves that makes me, my neighbors and even the animals happy. And this is what gives me strength when I have to face days when I’m bored and unhappy and it gives me courage, as if it were the person I would always trust, my grandpa.  The tree reminds me of my grandfather, as if he is watching me waking up every morning, he’s what the tree remembers me of, because it was him who gave life to the tree, and my feelings for it. My grandfather, the person that I would never be afraid to say what I think of him, or something that went wrong that day, or just to express my ideas on something. Just so every afternoon I linger in front of the tree, as if I am talking to my grandfather, and say all the good memories that happened to me that day or other. While talking to the tree, I imagine my grandfather, as if I would be talking to him instead of the tree, and it’s this that gives life to the tree, like if it was a person and not a plant.  I call it “The Tree of Dreams” because it brings me with him to beautiful memories, like the trips with my grandfather in Mount Etna, where nature envelops you like a burrito. Trips, where the beauty of nature is all you will remember at the end of the day, and where every step counts because nature changes every step taken. From flowers, to majestic plants full of color that gives the nature of the island a beauty, that diversifies it from the others. Every step, where my grandfather explains to me the birth of plants and how they manage to take their fascinating color that not many other plants have. Where step by step, you will have a different memory of the nature that surrounds you, and it is precisely this that makes it unique.

Since the tree has been planted in front of my house, it has helped me so much, overcoming the darkest periods of my new life since I’m here. The most difficult times, were when my family from Sicily are here to stay with us. The moments spent with them are always, and forever, the most beautiful once ever, since I was young. But when it’s time for them to return to Sicily, are always the worst moments, because saying goodbye to my family, and not knowing when I would see them again, it’s frustrating for me, and leaves me a sense of darkens inside me, because the most important thing that my parents taught me are to make a life of our own, and love your family. Therefore, I am so close to my family, especially my cousins. In all this, the tree helps me remember the best moments spent with them and then helps me both morally and mentally, to face any kind of challenge to problem that arises. Every day I spent some time talking to the tree, most of the time I tell it, the craziest things I’ve done with my cousins, like the time we jumped from a 12 meters’ rock near the beach where I live. Sometimes I even tell the tree, my feelings when I was around my friends, where the only thing that surrounded you was happiness.     “The Tree of Dreams”, is where all best memories can live, where I can forget everything, and it also helps me to immerse only myself to what nature has to give us, where I can be the protagonist of all my dreams, where I am the key to change the story, where I will decide where it will take place and how it will end. Every day I ask myself a question, “who are we to decide our destiny?”. Only now I understand what the tree has tried to tell me, with past memories, is what my grandfather has been trying to teach me overtime with every journey that we had together is that, we are special, and a special person should not depend on others and try to not imitate no one, otherwise we will be robots controlled by one main mind. So starting from today when someone tells you do to something think with your mind, not with someone else’s.

Karina Ramsey

Dr. Carrie Hall

English 1121

April 30, 2019

Not as Seen on TV

Coming from a small island into this big country with so many moving parts it was very intimidating; not to mention attending school in America for the first time. School, where I come from, is very religious and really strict. We had our own stuff that made it fun. However, when I watched TV as a kid, school is America just seemed like so much fun. So, it’s my first day of school in America, and I was super excited but nervous as well. I walked in not knowing that uniform was required because on TV they never wore uniforms. I met my teacher and he was kind and welcoming. To my surprise he was also from the Caribbean, but he spoke “proper”. I walked into the classroom, and the first thing I said to myself, in my head was, “this doesn’t look like what was on tv.”

The kids on TV had lockers, cool book bags, didn’t wear a uniform, they seemed very free-spirited, the food in the cafeteria looked good, they had classes like music and dance, and it just didn’t look like school was a lot of work in America. However, in reality, the students looked bored, everyone was wearing uniforms, and the teacher was actually teaching. The food was terrible, there were no lockers, we were locked in a building like we were in a prison. Even the windows had bars. One thing I liked about my school in the islands was the fact it was near to a beach, so I would sit in my classroom with the windows open and feeling the gentle breeze passing seamlessly through my hair. I didn’t expect a school in America to be such a rip off from what I saw on tv, or maybe that’s just schools in Brooklyn.

I took my seat next to the radiator with my back facing the window and sitting next to me was a young lady by the name of Khadijah. Khadijah was very welcoming. She instantly said hi to me and told me what topic we were on. What stood out to me the most was when ask me what my name was. I was surprised because I had a preconceived notion that everyone was going to be mean, you know, because I’m the “New Kid”. Oh, and did I mention she was black. I’ve always thought that I would be in a classroom with a bunch of white kids but, to my surprise, my class was predominately black. For some reason my nerves calmed because everyone looked like me. Darker skin tone, kinky hair, and almost everyone was in uniform.

The teacher got in front of the class and began to teach math, my favorite subject by the way, and then he asked a question. Me, being me and knowing the answer to the question, I raised my hand with no hesitation. He called on me, and I answered. Instantly I felt different. It wasn’t because my answer was wrong. It was because it didn’t dawn on me that I was different from everyone else until I spoke and didn’t sound like my fellow classmates. I didn’t have an American accent. Then I felt the eyes. Almost all the students in the classroom were looking at me. I felt out of place like I didn’t belong. I looked like everyone else, we were all black…. but yet a bit different.

My brother also started school that same day as me but was put in a higher grade. His experience was very different from mine. That afternoon when we were talking about how our first day went, I noticed that the way he spoke changed. His dialect was different. He started to sound and speak like my fellow students and my teacher. Me being me I said to him “wha you talking in style for.” I said this because to me home was our safe haven, where we all spoke the same way, and I didn’t have to be the orange chip is a bag full of yellow chips, because at home we were all orange chips. However, it seemed like I was the only one having a hard time adjusting. To my entire family, I just needed to start speaking “proper.”

My family, who mostly speaks the same exact way as I do, is telling me that I need to talk “proper.” I knew what they meant by proper, they wanted me to speak like my American peers. I didn’t need to look like the kids on TV, but more so sound and speak like them. “Proper” to my family is speaking English with correct grammar and change of accent. Granted my grammar was horrible and to this day still needs improvement, hearing them use the word proper didn’t sit right with me. It didn’t because to me, they were implying that the way I spoke wasn’t right and that wasn’t ok. It made me feel like they forgot that in our home country mostly everyone spoke this way. At this point in was wondering to myself “should I stop being who I am?”

I am a person who takes the time to think about what people say and take it into consideration. The issue was that, I wasn’t purposely speaking with my accent, I just couldn’t turn it off and switch to talking like an American, like I guess my brother could do. I literally couldn’t because I genuinely tried to. I tried because I didn’t want to feel out of place in a place where I would be spending a lot of my time. Then I meet the librarian at my school. When I met her and started speaking the first thing she told me was that she loved my accent. That was something I have never heard before, and I didn’t know if I should say thank you or not. She went on to say, “you should never lose your accent, it makes you very unique.” After she said that to me, I went home and thought to myself, “she’s right, I should be proud of my accent. No one else in this place speaks like me.”

Over the years I have come to embrace my accent, and I love the way it comes out when I’m happy, sad, or mad. My education was never flawed because of the way I speak so, I will continue speaking with my accent, but in a professional setting I will speak “proper.” As a kid, watching TV and admiring how awesome school in American would be, I was naive to the differences that set me apart for those kids on TV. It did not help that TV shows didn’t do a good job of promoting diversity. It should have showed that students who don’t look alike and don’t speak the same way coexist. Especially in a school setting.