Educational Essay Revised

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

  • 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,
  • 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

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.

Unit 4(revision of Unit 1)

 

English Composition ll

Hello..My name is Brandon Ma.

There are many things that I would like to discuss today regarding America. One of the things I will talk today is something that everyone of you should went through in your life….and it’s our education system. Growing up as students, everyone has the same curriculum to follow and it’s hardly changed in these past years. The America’s education system can be very competitive among students that want to achieve better in college but are uncertain what they are passionate about. The American education system should adopt some policies from all around the world, but specifically things that worked well in Finland’s education.

The first topic that I will discuss is what America has implemented from the “early 1900’s” which  is the standardized testing. One of the many thing that students get anxiety over which is the testing. According to Big Think “Finland has no standardized tests. Their only exception is something called the National Matriculation Exam, which is a voluntary test for students at the end of an upper-secondary school (equivalent to an American high school)”. Students should not be studying and getting stressed until the standardized test or even the SAT just to get a good score so people they know would be proud. Not everyone is capable of doing well in tests and while there are others who can do well but does poorly in school. This can relate to discrimination in our society because if a student was not able to achieve certain expectations, thus these students tend to be neglected.

 

[My story]

Growing up has been challenging for the first 12 years of my life in public schooling. Why would this matter?

[Pause]

For most of my life, I was in public education and I never felt learning was something that I can be passionate about. Standing here now, I’m afraid of running out of time before it’s too late.

I didn’t know what I wanted to do from an early age and all I’ve done up to know is study the main curriculum to pass these upcoming test like the common core, standardized test, and SAT test.

 

Here I am in college, being penalized by Excelsior Scholarship Program in college. The reason was changing my major and an elective that I previous took does not transfer over. This can be very frustrating for me personally because I still don’t know what I can be passionate about.

Now I’m worried about running out of time before it’s too late.

[Introduction]– Moving onto our next topic, is student’s interest going to school.

Not everyone likes to go to school and attend class especially at the end of the day, they get piles of homework. According to the website The Big Think, “students in Finland have the least amount of outside work and homework than any other student in the world(qtd.Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development(OECD)). The students of Finland may not worry about stressing over homework that is due the next day and is able to relax. While America gets a lot of homework, and students worry if they can maintain still be motivated to go to school.

[Story]

In my high school no one liked to sit in class and learn.The environment was very rebellious and causing all teachers being irritated everyday. Whenever students were given homework, not everyone completes them. This led to the teachers giving less homework or little to no homework at all. On top of that all, the students in my class was always distracting others in class and teachers when they are not getting personalized treatment to help them learn.

 

[Transition] The education system we have today may not be ideal in some ways but it can be improved.

[Introduction]While education had worked well in Finland, America still struggle to follow the trend. According to the website The Big Think, “There are fewer teachers and students in Finnish schools. You can’t expect to teach an auditorium of invisible faces and breakthrough to them on an individual level”. This clearly shows how Finland has small classes because of that students are more focused in class and interested to learn. However America still has its overcrowding in schools causing students not want to learn. I would like to talk about American University School of Education, and their mission “is to create knowledge and prepare students to transform societies through education.” The American University talked about, “Acknowledge and address overcrowding”. This often lead to students losing interest in schools, less personal support, and more stress between teachers and students. This shows that America should change some policies like effects of overcrowding schools.

 

[My story]

In my high school, the teachers felt out of place. The students never wanted to learn because of that they often distract other classmates and even the teacher. While the teacher can’t remove the student from the class, even if they are distracting is not a great solution.

 

One of the most common thing that is happening to our very classrooms is overcrowding. According to School of Education

 

[Conclusion]

Not everything can be changed overnight but as a society, we can change things little by little. There should be more personalized care for students in school, not everyone learns the same way or students are able to understand the material. Thank you for listening and you should be one to help education be better even if you’re a parent or a student.

Works Cited

“5 Ways Policy Makers Can Improve the Quality of Education.” American University School of Education, soeonline.american.edu/blog/5-ways-policy-makers-can-improve-the-quality-of-education#first.

Colagrossi, Mike. “10 Reasons Why Finland’s Education System Is the Best.” Big Think, Big Think, 7 Feb. 2019, bigthink.com/mike-colagrossi/no-standardized-tests-no-private-schools-no-stress-10-reasons-why-finlands-education-system-in-the-best-in-the-world.

Helsinki, Visions of. “Why Finland Has the Best Education System in the World.” YouTube, YouTube, 15 Sept. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHHFGo161Os.

Education Essay Revised

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.

Education essay revised

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.

 

Education Essay (Revised)

Amani Nassar

English 1121

Dr. Hall

April 30, 2019

The Palestinian Boricua

Coming from such a diverse background of being Palestinian and Puerto Rican, I have gotten a lot of mixed reactions from people when I tell them about my background. Some would be shocked and ask “how did that happen?” Others would say something like “wow, that’s an amazing combination” and occasionally I get a “you foreign Amani” from my friends. One reaction in particular that I never liked getting was when people would ask if I was a Muslim or a Catholic.

Religion can be a sensitive topic to discuss for some people, and for me this question made me feel rather uncomfortable for the simple fact that I felt as though I had to choose one religion over the other because that’s what most people would expect to hear. If I were to say I was a Muslim people would question why I never wore a hijab. If I were to say I was a Catholic, people would ask why I did not attend church regularly or ask me something about the Bible, all of which I would not have a clear answer for. I had never put much thought into my religious nature or upbringing because in my household, religion was never really a huge topic of discussion, no one was judged for believing in what they believed in or how they chose to believe. My parents never forced religion on me, but rather left it up to me to choose any religion I wanted to practice or even no religion at all.

My mother was brought up as a Catholic from a young age, attending church every now and then. My father was a devoted Muslim, born and raised in Israel, later coming to the United States. Typically, most Palestinian men have children with women within their religion, but since my mother is a Catholic my father was actually able to marry my mother and later have children together. Even without knowing much about religion, one could assume that being a Muslim is quite different from being a Catholic. They have different places of worship, different names for their God, different scriptures, different ways of praying, and holistically many different practices for fulfilling their religious duty. I felt like I had a confliction of religions that seemed to be more different than alike.

I grew up in my Puerto Rican household with my mom, brother, abuela, and my father once upon a time. All my life I only knew about my Puerto Rican roots, the food, the music, the Spanish language, and of course the people. All of my family functions consisted of the boricuas (another name for Puerto Ricans) on my mother’s side. Any birthday I ever had, was attended by only my Puerto Rican family. I celebrated, and still do celebrate holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, which Muslims do not celebrate. I never fasted or celebrated Eid and I do not pray 5 times a day as a typical Muslim would, but one practice I do follow is to not eat pork. A lot of my Puerto Rican family members tend to forget that I do not eat pork and offer me foods like pernil (roasted pork) at our parties. Pernil is such a Puerto Rican delicacy and is at basically every celebration you can think of. You may assume it’s hard to resist such delicious, but I do my best to follow my sole duty as a not so typical Palestinian to not eat pork.

Although I’m Palestinian and may be expected to be a Muslim, I unfortunately do not follow many of the Islamic practices but my brother on the other hand, who is fully Puerto Rican, actually adopted to the practices of Islam and converted to become a Muslim a few years ago. I remember when my brother first became a Muslim he gave me my first copy of the Quran which I still have to this day. It was so amazing to me to see his interest and liking of the religion grow fonder each day and being able to make the decision to convert in order to better himself through religion was a great thing.

My name often times grabs many people’s attention. Amani is an Arabic inspired name meaning desire or wishes. Nassar is also an Arabic name meaning helper, protector or victory. I’ve had people who are from a middle eastern descent ask if I was to0 because they heard what my name was where  we would then sit and talk about my name and family background, it’s always a good conversation starter. There has even been instances where my teachers would ask me where I was from after reading my name off of the attendance sheet or seeing what I looked like.

Growing up in a multicultural household is an experience I will cherish forever, I had the best of both worlds. I remember when I was younger I would walk into the room sometimes and see my father on the floor praying and would walk right up next to him pretending to pray just like him. I had no idea what I was doing, but seeing my father pray made me want join in, even if I was doing it wrong. Some late nights my father would go to our favorite Hala restaurant and get some of our favorite foods, fried rice with half chicken and this amazing garlic sauce they had, it was our special sauce that no one else knew about. Now my abuela, she’s the chef of the house, she would rather cook a five course meal at home any given day than go out to eat anywhere. Up until this day I run into the kitchen and help her cook some of our favorite Puerto Rican foods like tostones (fried green plantains) and pollo guisao (chicken stew). One day without any sort of explanation, around the age of 14, I had this feeling that my two cultures could coexist and they have all my life, it was almost as if I was in two different countries right in my own home. Now that I was getting older and could appreciate my cultures more than ever before it all just felt right, my better halves made me who I am today and who I will become later on.

Everyday is a new learning experience for me when it comes to my cultures. From my first semester of English class, I have learned new things about the Muslim beliefs from classmates writings and discussions of practices. My brother even talks to me about Islam and the meaning behind certain things in the religion like the people and the names of parts of Israel. Being mixed is something that I have always embraced and will continue to embrace. I love everything my cultures have offered me from my curly hair to thick eyebrows and even my effortless Spanish tongue. Although I do not know much about my Palestinian culture or family, it is something I plan to indulge in as time progresses. One day soon I want to learn Arabic and find out more about my Palestinian family, I even want to read the Quran from cover to cover.

 

Education Essay (Revised)

David Wu

More Than A Game

Ever since I was a child, I loved the game of basketball. The speed of the game, intensity, and aggressiveness of the basketball stars always got me excited to watch them play. Little did I know that playing basketball would have a much greater impact on my life than I could have ever imagined. It all started with me spending time with my cousins watching the games on television every day. Watching the sport constantly made it intriguing for me to start playing the sport at the age of 10. I would practice dribbling around the backyard and go to local parks to practice shooting the ball into the basket.

I always thought I knew what I was doing in the sport until I actually learned how to professionally play the game at the age of 13. A group of my friends and I went to an indoor gym to practice and run a couple of games. One of my friend’s cousin showed up and decided to watch us play. After the game, he pulled me aside and told me I was playing the game wrong. It was then he taught me how to shoot the ball, dribble, play defense, make good passes, you name it. He was like a mentor to me and taught me everything I needed to know. Throughout my years of playing basketball, I learned that basketball is more than just a sport and can teach people a lot of life lessons.

One of the lessons I learned was that life isn’t fair. I soon learned that when the referees in the game were making horrible calls or calls that didn’t make sense at the time. It seemed that all the calls that were being made never went our way and the referee never made the correct call when the call needed to be made. One bad call that I will never forget  was a call in a playoff game that would have won us the game and move on to the next round. It was the last quarter with the score being tied and it was our possession of the ball with 5 seconds left on the clock. The ball was in my hands and I drove to the basket going for a layup. The ball went in the basket and the intensity of the crowd and my teammates went out of one’s mind. It was then the whistle went off and the referee made the call. The call was a charging foul which occurs when a dribbler charges into a defender who has already established his position and you already know what that means. The basket didn’t count and the possession of the ball was turned over to the opposing team. The call left me and everyone in disbelief. That call had everyone and myself arguing with the referee but we knew that we would never win an argument against any referee. We soon lost that game in overtime and got eliminated from the playoffs. Bad calls happened a lot in a lot of our games so I learned to accept it and just move on.

Another life lesson it taught me was how to have good sportsmanship. Playing any sport in general involves both a winning and losing team. After every game that my team and I play against, no matter the outcome, we would always shake hands with the opposing team and tell them it was a good game. It was a form of respect for both teams. If we win, we learn to be proud of our success without despising our opponents or if we lose, we learn to accept our failures and come back stronger next time. Over time you will realize it’s not really the win or loss that makes a difference. If you gave everything you’ve got, no matter what the outcome is, you can walk away with your head held high as my coach always said. This also applies in life too that everything you do does not always go your way. Everything is a slow process but quitting won’t speed it up. There are highs and lows but if you continue to give whatever you do your very best you will always feel victorious.

Basketball has also taught me that nothing comes easy in life. It all comes down to hard work and dedication. A lot of the stars in the league states that they didn’t make it here by luck but by all the hard work they put in everyday to deserve to be in the league. If you really want to excel at something, hard work is the only way. My teammates and I had to put in hours of practice every day after school. Our coach would always push us beyond our limits. After every practice we would be drenched with sweat. Coach told us if we wasn’t drenched, we didn’t put in any effort at all. It is the same with any other field in life. If you want to get better at school or get a raise at your workplace, the only way you can do it is by hard work. There are no shortcuts to this. We are always taught to dream big but what we don’t realize most often is that our dreams don’t work unless we do. There is no substitute to hard work, ever.

In basketball, you are taught to never give up. A few minutes can change the game in so many ways. You keep trying until the very last second. During a game that determined if we were going into playoffs, most of my shots wasn’t going in and we were down by 10 with 3 minutes left on the clock. I felt hopeless, tired, and even wanted to give up the game. My coach then sat me out and told me, “You can never give up, not on the game, not on your team, and especially not on yourself.” He even quoted which I later on found out it was a quote from Michael Jordan: “I would tell players to relax and never think about what’s at stake. Just think about the basketball game. If you start to think about who is going to win the championship, you’ve already lost your focus.” And I will never forget those words as they sparked a fire in me. I then came back into the game and helped my teammates in whatever way I can to win the game. In life too, there will be many occasions where you will want to give up, but you need to not give up because we all know things take time.

The most important lesson that basketball has probably taught me is leadership and communication. A lot of the games that my team and I played, I took charge if the captain of the team or the rest of the team isn’t communicating. I would be the one to call certain plays for us to score to get their adrenaline flowing on the court for us to win the games. During the preseason games, the team wasn’t communicating on the court since the games didn’t count towards our record but that doesn’t mean for our team to not play their heart out on the court. So I took on the captain role and made sure our team was communicating, scoring baskets and winning the game.

To a lot of people, basketball is just a game because majority of the people just watch the players play and don’t know what the players go through and learn. I believe it can teach people a lot of lessons by playing the sport. It has certainly taught me a lot of life lessons that I would have probably never learned anywhere else as effectively.

Final Draft

Dear MTA Board Members,

For starters, I would like to thank you all for what you’re doing for public transportation and allowing there to even be an alternative for people to commute. But it’s honestly not enough. As a train rider, I’m speaking on behalf of myself and other passengers I witness who are also fed up with the MTA when I say that train delays have become major issues. Train delays take place during any time the subways are in service. They last from as short as five minutes to as long as forty five minutes based on my experiences. But I’m pretty sure that others have experienced worse. During service hours when a train all of a sudden stops moving, most people boarding the train start sucking their teeth or shaking their heads right before the conductor states, “we’re experiencing delays due to signal malfunctions, we’ll be moving shortly, thank you for your patience.” Do we really end up moving shortly though? No. Sometimes we do but often times we don’t and that is not okay. There is nothing more disappointing than hearing that the train is delayed when you have somewhere you really need to be. It also annoys some passengers that the MTA never explains what signal failures are, why they go wrong, and things that can be done to avoid them. They just stop the train, give an excuse about signals, and expect passengers to comply with it.

After doing research of my own, I found out that just like roads, railways have signals which are traffic light devices that inform train drivers if it’s safe to proceed. Signals are positioned at the beginning of each track and divided into sections to ensure that trains don’t collide. In a particular section, only one train should be in service. Sometimes these signals breakdown and the signal turns red causing train drivers to stop driving. Signals turn red because of problems with track circuits and axle counters. If anything goes wrong with these devices, its not safe for a train to proceed. And if one train doesn’t proceed, it will hold up the train behind it which will cause train traffic. These devices fail because the proper maintenance that tracks need to function efficiently is not being provided enough. On top of that, recent studies found out that “For all intents and purposes, the subway uses the same signaling system that was installed when the first subway line opened in 1904.” (Gordon 1). So basically, the subway uses the same century old technology, more specifically signaling system which is a key factor as to why trains experience delays. If passengers have to deal with the annoyance of train delays due to signal problems, they should at least know the reasons why these signals fail. The way the system operates hasn’t appropriately changed since it’s establishment. This results in trains being held in stations longer than intended. And if trains don’t proceed on their proper schedules, things could get hectic really quickly. Things such as electrical supply faults, track circuit failures, broken rail joints, blow signal lamps, or train stop faults which are referred to as these signal problems could all be prevented if more track work gets done.

A few suggestions gathered that may help prevent delays include meetings that should be held with railway engineers discussing steps that need to be taken to ensure that proper track maintenance takes place and engineers that actually live within the borough they work for should be the ones being hired. This way they can get to their job destinations quicker and develop solutions to technical problems quicker. New products to enhance track duration should also be open for discussion and development. Rumor has it that the subway fare is going up soon, if this is true people shouldn’t have to pay more for commutes that are twice as long than usual. It’s just simply unfair! Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Ife Ajayi

Gentrification Memo

Amani Nassar

English 1121

Dr. Hall

April 4, 2019

Memo

Brooklyn has changed drastically over the past few decades. Our low income neighbors are being displaced as newer, richer people take over. Starbucks are taking over our local bodegas, family owned businesses are closing, and rents are going up, Brooklyn is becoming the next Manhattan. But why is Brooklyn being so gentrified?

I don’t think there is one real explanation for why people come to live in Brooklyn and gentrify it to their liking. There are so many factors that contribute to the gentrification of what was once Brooklyn. For one, Brooklyn is pretty close to Manhattan allowing easy movement of people from borough to borough whether it’s through a car or train. Brooklyn is also in high demand of bigger businesses coming in, who can afford the higher rents such as the Chipotle’s we see. Money rules our world, wherever the money is, is where the people will follow. The rich can afford to buy property, drive up rent prices, making the neighborhood less minority filled and bringing in more high rise luxury apartments that most of us can’t afford.

According to the New York Post “escalating housing costs — spurred by gentrification — have driven lower-income Hispanics out of once the predominantly Latino neighborhoods.” Due to higher rents, low-income families are forced to leave their neighborhoods and move to other boroughs like the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island, which are more affordable for them.

The true culprit that started gentrification was the “rezoning of parts of Downtown Brooklyn in 2004 to allow for denser residential growth, the area has seen the development of new condominium towers, townhouses, and office conversions, which all have spurred population growth,” according to James Dinsdale who was a student at John Jay College. The rezoning has allowed more retail shops to come into Brooklyn, more offices, and of course more people. It’s shocking, yet amazing to see how the heart of Downtown Brooklyn is being modernized and filled with shops while just a few blocks away we have affordable housing projects with many low-income families struggling. Rezoning is the action or process of assigning land or property to a different category of restrictions on use and development allowing developers to build higher buildings, and so on.

According to Jillian Steinhauer’s article “development companies are given huge subsidies to build condos, and new residents receive deals that allow them to not pay property taxes for the next 10 years!” This article is from 2013, which means the 10 years these developers were given have not finished yet, we can see more changes coming to Downtown Brooklyn and other neighborhoods in Brooklyn. 

I currently live in Park Slope, Brooklyn which has become one of the most gentrified neighborhoods in Brooklyn. My mom was born and raised in Park Slope and has seen it changed throughout her life. While we walk the streets she would tell me things like “wow, I remember when this was an empty lot where we would all play,” Today we see see expensive supermarkets or high rise condos in placement of those empty lots. When I asked her when she noticed Park Slope was changing she told me it was back in the early 2000’s. Park Slope used to be filled with minorities, burned down buildings, corner stores and empty lots all over but now it’s the new mini Manhattan.

 

References

https://nypost.com/2017/11/06/hipsters-are-driving-low-income-hispanics-out-of-brooklyn/

https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/downtownbrooklyn/history/