Category: Unit 2

Millennials Defying the Odds and Taking Over the Entrepreneurial Industry.

Two years ago, I delved into the realm of personal development and was blown away by how much knowledge I was acquiring, knowledge about building wealth and financial freedom that is not typically taught in schools. My mindset has evolved in a way which helped in transcending my limitations, making me more self-aware and focused. As a result of this growth, my interest piqued even more when I came to the realization that so many young people were starting their own businesses. My curiosity grew even more as I wanted to know what happened why such an outcome was brought about in the lives of so many young people. Why are so many millennials leaving their corporate jobs to become entrepreneurs? What has changed over the years to have led to more people feeling the need to be their own boss? As the years progressed, more people of color as well as females are becoming entrepreneurs. The younger generation is motivated by their passion, the idea of financial stability, having their fair share of seeing their parents experience financial hardship and job losses, not to mention some that had to grow up in the great recession. The vast growth of millennials in the entrepreneurial industry could have stem from the younger generation just being tired of not being able to have financial freedom merely working for someone else as in many cases most of the money made goes to higher ups in companies such as the CEO and other executives.  Additionally, it could also be a result of being uninterested in the traditional way of making money in the sense that they have been able to derive a simpler way to actually make money while doing that which they are passionate about without having to trade time for money or even having to punch a clock.

According to Melissa Schneider, VP of Global Marketing Operations and Product Marketing at GoDaddy, a survey was done and 3000 Americans were observed with 1000 being millennials (born between 1981 – 1996), 1000 being the baby boomers (born between 1946 -1964) and 1000 being Gen Xers (born between 1965 – 1980). The result from this study showed that not only is entrepreneurship on the rise, but also that millennials are the ones leading in comparison to the older generation. One of the reasons for the millennials leading in the pack of entrepreneurship is a result of them being more risk takers and just stepping out in faith. The older generation are more cautious and conservative when it comes on to risk taking and entrepreneurship. Consequently, statistics shows that 84 percent of millennials are more satisfied being entrepreneurs than working for someone else, 74 percent of baby boomers said they are uninterested in the idea of starting a small business while less than 12 percent of Gen Xers have searched for a community of other entrepreneurs. “As many as 38 percent of millennials attribute growing up during the Great Recession to making them more resourceful and primed for entrepreneurship, acting as the catalyst that sparked their entrepreneurial ventures.” (Melissa Schneider).  Melissa also made reference to technology playing an integral part for the growth in businesses, since millennials are usually very tech savvy and grew up with technology as a constant tool at their fingertips. As a result, newly innovative websites and marketing platforms such as Facebook and Instagram make it so much easier for them to market and grow their businesses exponentially. For millennials, entrepreneurship is a lifestyle rather than just being a career as they are able to turn their passion in areas like art, music, makeup, food and entertainment into a lucrative business for themselves.

Melissa Schneider is a resident trend expert at GoDaddy, one of the world’s largest and trusted domain registrar companies. She holds a Bachelor of Political Science degree from The Johns Hopkins University and a master’s degree in business administration from The MIT Sloan School of Management. The purpose of the article as well as this particular entity is to empower, and guide entrepreneurs, providing them the tools to start their own businesses and as such turning their side hustles into full time income. The use of expository writing as well as the rhetorical style cause and effects were used to write the article as more evidence such as statistics were used in bringing the information across rather than the use of the writer’s opinion. I believe the writer is credible not only because of her educational background, but also because of the prestigious organization in which she writes for, as well as the research done to provide factual evidence.  I believe Melissa chose this genre because she is extremely knowledgeable in the area. Her keen interest and understanding of customer’s desire and needs makes this genre a great choice for the intended audience.

Daniel Alley, an international business expert and a self-made multimillionaire spoke about his personal experiences and gave several insights as to why he decided to become an entrepreneur. As early as the age of 21, he had already gone through forty jobs because he hated the idea of having a boss over his shoulder, as well as being told what to do. He mentioned challenging his bosses when he knew there were better ways to do certain tasks and they were not pleased with that, so as a result he was a frequent job-hopper. He knew he had the strength, potential and knowledge of doing better as well as handling more responsibilities than the person he had to answer to. Consequently, he knew he no longer needed a boss because he could become his own boss and as such he did. Another reason Daniel mentioned for stepping out into the entrepreneurial industry was a result of wanting to create a legacy. Working a typical job could not provide the type of money, time and energy he needed to focus on his craft and build a legacy for himself. He believed he needed to explore his options in a way which would create some kind of product or services that would serve millions of people. Being an employee limits you in a way where you do not have the freedom of controlling your own schedule nor your time. In most cases you have to ask your boss for a break, lunch, time off and you are only able to leave on their terms, rather than yours.

Some people frown upon the idea of hearing others say they want more money as it is often said that money is the root of all evil. The talk of money is usually a taboo subject and as such many people avoid talking about it. For Daniel Alley, money was the seventh factor for wanting to become an entrepreneur. He wanted the opportunity of having unlimited income that he knew he would not be able to obtain from working from an employer. He views money as a good thing, a tool or factor to get you exactly where you want to be in life but also provides you the opportunity of giving back to society.

Daniel Alley is a master business coach, a keynote speaker, a world-renowned strategist, a popular youtuber and a three-time best-selling author. He was able to become a self-made millionaire at the age of 24 which was three years after embarking on his entrepreneurial journey. I believe his success story, his experience in wealth building as well as the multiple business he was able to build makes him a credible source for the genre. Additionally, he was featured on several popular magazines such as Time, Fortune and Success. The purpose of the video was to share his reasons for becoming an entrepreneur as well as providing encouragement for others wanting to do the same. I believe Daniel’s use of upbeat tone, as well as how he organized his speech had a certain effect which would lure viewers into becoming more intrigued with what is being said. The video was short and to the point rather than being too drawn out and off topic. This is something audiences usually appreciate and I believe it was effective.

 

Jason Albanese wrote an article for Inc Magazine, questioning whether or not millennials are the new entrepreneurs. He mentioned 61% of millennials believed that having their own business would provide more job security than that of working for someone else. According to data from Oxford University, 15% of students that are about to enter the university expressed interest in becoming entrepreneurs in October of 2016 however, that number increased by 19% the following year. On the contrary, it is stated that in spite of millennials expressing interest in entrepreneurship, data shows that they are less likely to start their own businesses compared to previous generations. According to Jason, data was taken from the United States Small Business Administration which showed that less than 4% of 30-year-olds were self-employed full-time while 5.4% of Generation X-ers and 6.7% Baby Boomers of the same age were already fully self employed and as such indicating a reduction of entrepreneurship within millennials by 65% since 1980. Jason made reference to a lack of finances as well as experience being the primary factors as to why more millennials aspiring to become entrepreneurs aren’t making it happen. However, I believe a lot has changed since Jason wrote this article back in 2018 as more millennials are becoming business owners when compared to other generations, especially since many had to find other sources of income after millions had lost their jobs as a result of Covid19.

In spite of the previously stated data, millennial entrepreneurs who are actually starting their businesses are doing so in a way which supersedes the entrepreneurs who were before them. According to a report from BNP Paribas, entrepreneurs between the ages of 20 and 35 had doubled the number of businesses they founded compared to those over the age of 50.

Jason Albanese, a CEO and co-founder of an intelligence and digital company called Centric Digital which is considered as one of the fastest-growing companies in the City of New York, as well as one of the fastest-growing Inc. 500 companies in America. Jason’s background as well as his experience and success in building his business makes him a credible source for the genre being discussed. Additionally, his use of statistics such as the research done and the sources, he provided also makes him a credible candidate. The purpose of this newsletter as well as the Inc Magazine was to provide advice as well as information which will help entrepreneurs in building their businesses. I believe the mission of the writer, as well as the website as it pertains to entrepreneurship and businesses makes the genre a suitable choice for the intended audience.

I found the statistics in Jason Albanese’s newsletter a bit more surprising in comparison to the other two sources as I expected a higher number of millennial entrepreneurs to have been building various businesses even back in 2018 compared to that of other generations. I have seen so many young people build businesses from starting Blogs, YouTube Channels, Instagram and Facebook, as well as the use of other platforms and as such I was appalled at the number especially because of the way technology had increased over the past five years, making the process so much easier. I do agree that Generation X-ers and Baby Boomers have more experiences when it comes on to building businesses, however I believe that the younger generation have utilized technology in a fashion which has resulted in exponential growth of online business. As stated by Melissa Schneider, technology plays an integral part for the growth in businesses for millennials as they are usually very tech savvy and grew up with technology as a constant tool at their fingertips.

All three sources contributed in answering my research question. I believe the data provided from both Melissa Schneider and Daniel Alley confirmed the hypothesis that were stated in the introductory part of the essay. It was confirmed that the great recession, the need for creating a legacy as well as financial freedom are some of the factors that has been playing an integral part for the vast growth of millennials becoming entrepreneurs. Additionally, the Generation X-ers and the Baby Boomers have been the ones to pass on the torch to millennials as a lot of the knowledge they possess today in the entrepreneurial industry came from the older generation.

The beginning of the year 2020 has brought to the world a new awareness about existence during pandemic. In the burst of this awareness many fields of our everyday life had to adapt, including the field of architecture. Well-established principles of architecture had to be reevaluated shifting the main priority towards the relationship between an architecture and a human health.

Being an architecture student, I first faced these adjustments during one of my assignments, when we had to design a community center considering a safe, Covid-19 free environment. In the beginning it was hard for me to develop new safety concepts and follow the health regulations. But over the time, it made me think about this new reality the architecture is moving toward. And as a future architect, I understand now, that with the burst of Covid-19 and possible future pandemics, the architectural planning and designing of new residential buildings, public spaces, work offices, and entire cities, would have to meet new considerations and tendencies.

In this research I expect to find some previous experiences of architects facing similar obstacles. I will also investigate some new technologies and green architecture tendencies which will fulfill the new requirements of safe environment. This research will help to understand consumers’ new expectations of different occupancy buildings.

Amado De Jesus is a Principal Architect and Green Architecture Consultant of A.P. de Jesus and Associates Firm in Philippines. In his article “Impact of COVID-19 on architecture” to Philippines Daily Inquirer he stays that in the past architects had already faced the consequences of various diseases and responded to them quite successfully. He brings some classical examples of adjusted architecture like Hausmann’s renovation of Paris in the 1800s, London’s infrastructure renovation in the wake of the city’s 1954 cholera outbreak, and the reaction of New York City to the miserable conditions of tenement housing. The author affirms that global pandemics has forced the architecture and urban planning to evolve in the past, and that Covid-19 pandemic would definitely bring changes in future building environment.

As a vice chairman of the Philippines Green Building Initiative, Amado de Jesus believes that Green architecture concepts will decrease the rate of sickness and improve mental functions of its occupants. He also says that the redesign of cities would have to undergo two major considerations – the accommodation of the sudden growth of sick people by providing medical supplies, spaces, and cemeteries in large scale, and by resuming the city life as normal as possible by accommodating residential buildings with functional and healthy spaces.  He insists on the concepts of green architecture in order to bring natural light and proper ventilation in homes.

Amado De Jesus also relies on new technologies to improve safety features of the buildings in the future. He brings out touchless technologies as automatic doors, voice-activated elevators, facial recognition, app-controlled rooms, and automatically washed and disinfected surfaces. The reduction of people gathering in airports he proposes to redesign security lanes with the improving of passenger’s flow, he also suggests embedding advanced automatic check-in systems. To increase the capacity of sick people in hospitals he suggests designing a hospital room in a way that it can be easily transformed into ICU. He offers to eliminate waiting area, substituting it to a compact nook with RFID (radio-frequency identification) technology to track and alert patients.

I strongly agree with author’s statement that eventually architecture will surpass all the circumstances of the pandemic and adapt to the new reality. I also believe that urban development would have to be reevaluated by reserving large areas of the cities not for commercial construction, but for green recreational areas, which in the case of new burst of pandemic could be quickly transformed to large mobile hospitals. As 2020 showed it is achievable in practice, when the whole world witnessed the erection of two hospitals for Covid patients in Wuhan, China in just over a week.

The author also brings up new technological innovations, which need to be incorporated with the building design in order to fight viruses and maintain the healthy environment inside the structure. I believe that technology is the future of not only commercial or industrial architecture, but also residential. The new digital technologies of air quality in the enclosed spaced should be introduced in every residential unit as well as new air-filtration systems. Every apartment of multi-unit building should be introduced to an open-air space like balcony or patio. The fresh air circulation should be introduced to the high-rise glass skyscrapers where typically windows are not operable.

Amado De Jesus opens his article with a quote of the pioneer of Modern architecture – Le Corbusier – saying “A house is only habitable when it is full of light and air.” Over 150 years later this statement gained its most relevance during present time. In fact, with the shifting towards online performance of our everyday tasks, people spend more time at home. And healthy productive environment of the people’s houses can be achieved with the close attention to the proper air circulation of the houses.

Phillip Kennicott – the Pulitzer Prize-winning art and architecture critic of the Washington Post – has conducted many famous architects and architecture-related professionals. In his article “The pandemic has shown us what the future of architecture could be” he analyzes and compares different responds and views on the future architecture. He opens his article with the introduction of relatively new building in Switzerland – the Blur Building – finished in 2002 by famous architects Diller+Scofidio Group. The uniqueness of that building lies in the artificial fog effect which blurs away and dissolve the entire structure. The building was described by its designer as “The public can drink the building.” Phillip Lennicott questions the relevance of the structure at the present time of pandemic – time of filtered air and sanitizers. He stays that architecture has faced its failure and assures that “people will spontaneously repurpose buildings if those buildings aren’t serving them well.” In his article he also brings up an example of an architecture graduate student of the University of California Jacob Sertich. For his final project, the student researched the topic of integration the senior living facilities into busy, dynamic urban life. The presentation of student’s work was scheduled right after Covid-19 outbreak, and by that time it was obvious that the entire proposal was destined to failure, as the elderly people should be isolated from the free transmittance of virus. Though the project received the top award for the concept, the young architect rethinks his idea in general. The author Kennicott interviews one of the designers of the Blur Building – Elizabeth Diller, world famous architect. She considers that future architecture should involve a new principle in its development – the fourth dimension – time. She strongly believes that the perfect model of the future city is the Highline Park, located in Manhattan. The elevated park helps to control the flow of its visitors by the means of forked pathways, and also visitor’s density introducing distanced seating areas. The park above the city also makes busy streets and subways less crowded as people gain a choice to travel along beautiful landscape.

Phillip Kennicott makes it very clear in his article that former unique buildings wouldn’t work in post-Covid era. And, unfortunately, I must agree with him. Despite uniqueness and characters of some world’s famous pieces of architecture, they lack the ability of coexistence with the modern reality. In my opinion, in the future architects would have to consider their buildings as an integral part of human life, rather than an independent living organism.

In the beginning of the 20^th century the Modern architecture brought many new points and principles of buildings. The concepts of open floor plan, glazed curtain walls, uninterrupted circulation were implemented and preferred in many designs. Nowadays, all these concepts would have to be reevaluated. As many families quarantine at home, the concept of open floor plan isn’t ideal any more since detached rooms need to be introduced to the household to prevent the spread of virus. Glazed curtain wall façade definitely brings to building some prestige, modernism and value, but inoperable windows don’t let the fresh air access inside, which have to be substituted by more flexible units. The circular uninterrupted circulation of Guggenheim Museum by F.L. Wright made this structure a world’s masterpiece for many decades. Unfortunately, nowadays such a feature can expose more people to virus.

In her interview Elizabeth Diller from Diller+Scofidio Group says, “The Pandemic is a problem that is going to be saved by medicine and not cured by architecture.” At some point I have to disagree with her opinion, as I think architecture plays a vital part of world’s fight against Covid-19. Though architects don’t have qualifications to treat people or develop vaccinations, they are responsible for the designing of the buildings where those procedures take place. Even if there is an efficient Covid-19 vaccine, it wouldn’t cure the planet unless the environment is designed to support its effect.

“How Covid-19 can transform the building where we live and work” is the video series by Washington Post, in which the journalist visits the homes and offices of famous architects during Covid isolation.

The journalist visits a young agriculture architect Cathleen Taylor who lives in her organic farm in Connecticut. In her 12 years career she was researching the influence of buildings on people’s health. She was one of the architects who designed a hospital for treatment of air-borne viruses in Butare, Rwanda. The implemented a new approach of the spatial arrangement in the hospital, by shifting all the means of circulation outside, and dedicating the interior space to the patients and medical stuff only. They also introduced a window access with the beautiful views to every patient what also helped to achieve cross-ventilation. She admits that the design of such facilities should be considered with the close attention to local climate and ecosystem, and that design strategy can differ a lot depending on the area where it is built. Another host of the video is world’s famous architect Steven Holl. He discusses his current project for Medical School College in Bogota. The building is only two stories and it is all outside. The main feature of the campus is the central courtyard which embraces the nature and brings it to the campus. The spatial arrangement of the auditoriums allows students to be involved in education from outside. Steven Holl considers that this building is a perfect example of campus architecture of post-Covid time. At the same time, he admits that such a concept highly depends on the climate and environment where ii is going to be built. The author of the video also visits the architectural giant firm Gensler which specialty is office buildings arrangement. The main concept of the firm is to treat the work environment as a creative collaboration space rather than the space for everyday tasks performance.

The video had not only a lot of useful information to consider but also provided a visual example of future architecture. I strongly agree with all the guests of the video and also think that the future if architecture should highly depend on the environment and climate possibilities of the specific region.

I think Steven Holl’s design of campus should be implemented for every university since the student’s collaboration is vital aspect of their educational experiences. For the areas with four-seasons climate Holl’s concept can still be introduced by shirting school year to warmers months of the year. Additional portable heating devices could be introduced for outdoor auditoriums as an option.

I also think we should not put a cross on the office buildings, but rather treat them with a new perspective. Unfortunately, not everyone has an opportunity to work from home on daily basis. To make an office building as an optional workplace would be an ideal solution for many working parents. In order to make workplaces more safe environment new regulations maybe introduced like bring your own device policy or application-operated digital facilities of the office.

In his interview Steven Holl mentioned that the current situation “sends us all to the first grade. And that’s something that he thinks is a positive since we’ve spent the last few decades basically wrecking the Earth.” I think his words have a very deep meaning. In fact, the humanity has been taking advantage of the planet, unless the planet strikes back at us. Only with the pandemic and being isolated from the entire world, we realized its value. In the future, I believe, the architects should carefully consider the nature and the possible impact new structures can bring to it. Architects of the future should be more respectful to the environment trying to preserve natural habitat as much as it is possible.

 

After performing my research and gathering opinions and views on post-pandemic architecture, as a future architect I marked down the path I should focus on. One of the main things which became clear is that the architecture would have to change. It was a relief to find out that architects of the past dealt with the circumstances of pandemic and did it quite successfully. Their experience brought new movements and trends in Modern architecture, and I think Covid-19 will bring new tendencies to the architecture of 21^st century as well. The architects of the future would have to consider the interaction of their structures with the nature, what is going to bring a new wave of Green sustainable architecture. Covid-19 brought our everyday tasks to a distanced performance, people work and study from homes, shop, and delivery food from online platforms, isolate themselves at homes. All these changes may shift the architecture towards development of rural areas rather than cities. The focus can be dedicated to the development of the residential buildings with outdoor spaces and efficient floorplans. This deurbanization may change the look of large cities by introducing large green areas which could be converted into mobile hospitals in case of another pandemic outbreak. The colleges and schools would have to meet rearrangement as well. The circulation of students on campuses should not be concentrated in one area, more naturally ventilated spaces would have to be introduced in the design. New technologies would have to be integrated in various occupancy buildings. The motion sensors, temperature detectors, touchless surfaces, air filtration devices would have to be essential part of every building. In general, we live during remarkably interesting time, when the old established normal would have to change to accept a new reality.

When I was first tasked with this assignment, I had no idea what I was going to write or what my question would be. So I decided to take a page out of Anne Lamott’s page and procrastinate. I sat there and watched the latest episode of  “falcon and the winter soldier.” The episode I watched discussed (spoilers) how there was actually a black super soldier before Steve Rodgers, The fictional character that we would know to be captain America today. The black soldier named Isaiah Bradley fought against nazis during World War Two but instead of getting rewarded for his actions, he was thrown in jail and experimented on. This episode reminded me of what happened to people of color in real life when they returned home from a war. They didn’t get any recognition or medals and people refused to put them on tv or talk about them in a positive way. But since we started protesting and fighting for our rights, more and more people became more open which led to diversity becoming more common. These real life and fictional events inspired my research question, how has diversity changed over the years and how has it impacted minorities? I expect to find examples of the how diversity changed from the past to present and how do people actually feel about seeing someone who shares their same culture and race on tv, or in a book or in person.

Often when talking about diversity, people usually think it’s about adding more blacks to shows and stories. But diversity is a lot of things. One example of diversity is how immigrants of different ethnic backgrounds and race go to different countries and cause a shift in the communities by making them more integrated and changing the percentage of what race lives there. According to the “Population Reference Bureau America’s Diversity and Growth: signposts for the 21st century” https://www.prb.org/americasdiversityandgrowthsignpostsforthe21stcenturypdf503kb/  Americans in the 20th century were worried about how their population would develop if they let immigrants in and how it would affect the ethnic balance of their community. The article also talked about how before immigration became more common, people living in America had a shorter life expectancy and from the 1900s to now America had become significantly more diverse racially and ethnically.  After immigration became more and more common the life expectancy increased. Immigrants moving to the country also caused a change in the education system, more specifically what race and what gender was allowed to attend school and college. Although this author is talking about how immigration impacted America in a positive way, there are some people who are against immigration and would say it’s a bad thing. https://apnews.com/press-release/pr-prnewswire/061357913b803d71caec9992ea155798  In this article AP news is quoting Dan Stein, president of FAIR( Federation For American Immigration Reform). Dan explains that “illegal aliens” cost taxpayers about 454 million dollars each year for the provision of education and health care and local schools struggle to provide educators and cover the cost to take care of limited English proficient students, he also states that the growing immigrant population competes with legal residents ability to obtain jobs in economically depressed areas. Here I Don’t like or agree with the way Dan uses the term alien when referring to a human being, I also see no problem with money going towards an actual thing that helps people. They teach us in school that education is the most valuable thing so it would make sense that we put money towards something so important. I also don’t get Dan’s argument about jobs, he claims that immigration brings less skillful workers, but if we keep putting money towards the education of immigrants there shouldn’t be a problem with a skill gap, if he could even prove that exists. He also says they’re stealing jobs from legal residents but I don’t believe that.  I believe that immigrants take the j0bs that no one else is willing to take and that they need these jobs more than legal residents because they most likely came to this country with nothing, looking for better living conditions and better opportunities. The purpose for AP news writing this article was to show why immigration was a bad thing and how it impacted America financially. the writing style AP news chose was like a bulleted list  with a statement thrown in there from the president of FAIR. I don’t think FAIR is really credible because their whole thing is to just talk to citizens who are concerned about immigrants and anyone can do that. AP news probably chose this style because it was short and to the point and they wanted to highlight what Dan was saying. I think it was a good choice for the intended audience because lots of people who are biased towards immigrants have a hard time reading and breaking down information so AP news helped them. The purpose for the Population Reference Bureau writing the article was to show that immigration has actually helped communities and that diversity is not a bad thing. The author wrote this article like they were a historian. they included no personal information about themself and chose to go straight to the facts. I thought the article was very interesting, specifically the way the author talks about diversity but in the sense of it being about immigration. I agree that immigration helps more than it hurts. I believe the author is credible because the PRB is a non profit organization and its purpose is to just collect and supply data. There seems to be no ill intent. The author chose this genre because they wanted to present the information to us as a history lesson most likely. I think this is a good choice for the intended audience because it doesn’t share any opinions, it’s just all facts and anyone can take this information and use it to justify immigration.

When I was little, me and the other kids used to pretend to be characters from shows and movies. One day we were pretending to be super heroes and I recall saying to my friend, I want to be “Spider-Man”. He replied (in a high pitch voice) saying “you can’t be Spider-Man, he’s not black”. Hearing those words made me pretty upset, not because he said I couldn’t be Spider-Man because I was black but because there really weren’t any black heroes or popular black people that I knew. Years later they  did create a new Spider-Man who was black and latino named Miles Morales, and there were other black heroes like Static Shock and War Machine and Blade. Seeing people who looked like me, Who talked like me, Who lived like me really did make a difference to me. I thought being black was cool, I learned more about my culture by seeing more shows with black people. “Everybody hates Chris was a very relatable show.” Diversity not only had a positive impact on me but also a positive impact on this author named Juan Del Toro. https://socialsciences.nature.com/posts/45551-diversity-and-inclusion-how-both-changed-my-life Author Juan Del Toro tells us about his story and how he felt like he was being discriminated  against because he was the only Spanish speaking student in his professor’s class. His unnamed professor learned that Spanish was his native language and advised him to drop his classes ( which he did) because he believed that Juan would struggle in classes. When Juan met other people who looked like him and sounded like him, he began to study again and succeeded this time. Juan came to the realization that diversity and inclusion had a positive impact on him and changed his life because he felt more comfortable with people who looked like him and felt that his Spanish wasn’t handicapping him. Although me and Juan both experienced microagressions, I believe Juan had it way worse because his teacher encouraged him to drop out while I just couldn’t be the hero I wanted to be.  Juan chose to write in first person and tell a personal statement about something that he experienced. Juan chose to tell this story to show the discrimination that people face when it comes to sharing a space with people who don’t look like you but to also show that you shouldn’t give up and that you’re not alone. I think Juan is credible because this is him just telling his truth, he’s not trying to convince us of anything. He just wants to tell us his story and also he gives us the name of his teachers and of the people who still help him to this day but not the name of the professor who wanted him to drop classes. This shows me that he doesn’t want to highlight the negative but focus on the positive. He also leaves us with a little update that he is currently a post doctoral research fellow at the university of Pittsburgh. He also has a dissertation on racial discrimination. This tells me that he’s serious about helping people and letting people know about discrimination and his story  most likely motivated him to to write that dissertation. I think it was a good choice for the intended audience because he’s trying to let minorities know that they are not alone and that there are people that look just like you who will help. Some people do say that diversity is bad when it comes to certain environments, for example when it comes to managing a company or workplace. Glenn Llopis states that diversity and inclusion fails when it comes to managing companies. Forbes- https://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2017/01/16/5-reasons-diversity-and-inclusion-fails/?sh=4c5524d850df in this article Glenn gives 5 reasons as to why diversity and inclusion fails in a workplace environment. those reasons are that diversity and inclusion initiatives only focus on recruitment and reputation management which limits them and leaves them disconnected from enterprise wide growth opportunities. companies actually end up solving for the wrong thing when trying to solve for diversity and inclusion, diversity and inclusion should make the company better on the inside and more competitive on the outside. the third reason is that diversity solves for recognition instead of respect and it should be the opposite, we should be trying to earn respect from people in our workplace. the 4th reason is that we keep looking at diversity as a melting pot but we should be looking at it as a mosaic and we should take advantages of our differences. His final reason is that when diversity and inclusion initiatives are weak, it causes regression in the success of a business. I disagree with Glenn mostly because of the way he’s looking at diversity, he’s looking at diversity as if it’s suppose to be profited off of. Diversity is meant to help the workers feel more comfortable, not so the company could gain more money. Diversity isn’t a business. I also don’t like the way that he started off by using a quote from Martin Luther king Jr. He tries to use Martin Luther king’s words to disrespect diversity and inclusion initiatives even though Martin Luther king Jr would most definitely be pro diversity plans. Also I think he brought up that quote from Martin Luther King Jr to make it seem like he isn’t biased towards people of color and to make it seem like he actually cares about them. I also don’t agree with him saying that we should earn respect from people, I don’t want to have to earn respect from a racist or someone who’s discriminatory. that’s just completely ridiculous, I’m not going out of my way to try to earn respect from a disgusting person.  The author Glenn chose to write the article like a list and like a caution to companies who do things to be inclusive and diverse. He starts off by quoting MLK jr and explains the problem with diversity and inclusion then proceeds to list his reasons. The purpose of the author writing this article was to show that diversity doesn’t always work in companies and that there are better ways to go about diversity and inclusion. I don’t think the author is credible because I never really heard of this guy but he’s supposed to be really good at business and apparently knows that diversity is what’s causing businesses to fail. He also starts using tweets from twitter and that’s not a very reliable source. I believe the author chose this genre because he just wanted to tell a precautionary tale to companies who are using diversity and inclusion. This is a good choice for his intended audience because it’s not too complicated, he gets to the point.

Earlier I mentioned that when talking about diversity we usually talk about black people and race but diversity can go beyond that. It can be about different cultures or religions. I talked about the impact of diversity and how it changed over the years but I didn’t talk about why we needed diversity. From what I learned, diversity is needed because it helps us create a better understanding of each other, it helps put an end to stereotypes, it gives other people a chance to shine in the light and people grow more accepting of each other. Elizabeth A. Segal Ph.D https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/social-empathy/201907/why-we-need-diversity uses examples of different types of diversity.  She talks about why diversity is important when it comes to plants, she explains that if you plant the same type of tree in a park and it gets a disease, the rest will get the same disease, but putting different varieties of trees will ensure that some will thrive and some can fight off pest. Elizabeth also talks about how people were so afraid of diversity, that it led to inbreeding which led to higher mortality rates and genetic disorders. She also gives us examples of how diversity can lead to better health in terms of the different types of food we eat. She then uses an example of financial diversification about how if we put all of our money in one stock and that stock fails then we lose all our money. Elizabeth talks about the positives of workplace diversity, about how it produces cognitive processing and the exchange of more information. Finally Elizabeth talks about the diversity of culture. Having different cultures creates new ideas and questions and it breaks us away from “groupthink”. Groupthink is when a group of well-intentioned people make irrational decisions spurred by the urge to conform. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/groupthink My opinion on Elizabeth’s work is that I think Elizabeth should focus on just 1 type of diversity because I’m confused as to what audience she’s trying to pull in. The type of writing style she uses it sort of like a blog, there’s a positive tone to everything she is saying. She has a certified Ph.D which makes me believe she knows what she’s talking about. The purpose of writing this was just to show that diversity is good. I think the author is credible because all of the thing’s she’s mentioned are facts. I believe the author chose this genre because she probably thought the blog style would attract older people or people who love to read blogs and interact with blogs. I don’t think this was a good choice for her intended audience because first off I don’t even know who she’s trying to reach out to, she goes from talking about plants, to food, to inbreeding, to work, to culture. and it’s in blog style so it seems kind of random. I think her main message was to just show different examples of diversity and how in every circumstance, It’s always a good thing.

While looking for answers to answer my research question, how has diversity changed over the years and what impact did it have on minorities? I Found that even in the past century there have been significant changes, I learned that people feared that their communities would more ethnically diverse if they let immigrants in and they also were scared that the population would change, but when America started letting more immigrants in, there were positive changes such as life expectancy increasing, communities became more integrated, Minorities being allowed to attend school. Then I read the story of a guy who was discriminated against because his native language was Spanish, and he dropped his class because his college professor encouraged him to. He then met other people that he could relate to and started to feel more comfortable which led to him succeeding in school. This taught me that diversity has a positive effect on minorities. Next I looked into why diversity was important. The author named Elizabeth gave examples of not only why diversity is important but also the different kinds of diversity. She mentions biodiversity which talks about how you have to plant different types of plants to ensure they survive. She talks about financial diversity which explains that you should put your money in different stocks because it’s less risky, she mentions how workplace diversity helps cognitive thinking and how cultural diversity encourages new ideas and questions. The thing that surprised me was how there were so many different types of diversity. I didn’t think about non-human diversity at all. When I first created my question, I was only thinking about discrimination only against people of color and the impact it had on them but I realized diversity has an everyone. I think what I learned is important because it opens my eyes to more areas of diversity, I also learned that it’s not ridiculous to be happy because you see someone that looks like you. I think anyone should hear about this, minorities, people who are LGBTQ, anyone who has faced discrimination, anyone who has faced microagressions. Diversity gives people a chance to fit in and a chance to meet other people.