It is a beautiful day outside, so I did what I love to do in my free time, read. In this case the newspaper; I like to read local newspapers rather than "National Newspapers" because I can just watch CNN for that. Anyways...so I pick up "The Champion" (Dekalb County's Newspaper), and I am just flipping through and all of a sudden I see an article titled New Wing Opens at Emory Conference Center: First-of-its kind hotel bowling alley debuts. I was soo confused. lol. Keeping in mind that a good portion of our senior activities were at the ECC. I had NO IDEA that there was going to be a BOWLING ALLEY there. Was Emory keeping this a secret? I just really don't understand.
Oh and get this...they named it WISTERIA LANES. lol. Wisteria lanes...seriously? It is just somewhat ironic because I recently watched seasons 2-5 of Desperate Housewives. And for all you fans, or pop culture people, you know the housewives live on Wisteria lane. I just thought it was kind of funny. I read the article, half expecting that at the end there would be some type of J/K written or maybe explaining that it was all fictional but it definitely isn't. So besides the bowling alley they built a new boardroom, ballroom, 4 suites, and 127 additional guests room. Necessary...I think not! Way to spend our tuition money. I'll post the link for the article just in case you wanted to check out this madness.
http://championnewspaper.com/page6.htm
Until next time...
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Friday, May 29, 2009
Some Spoken Word
So... I have always been into spoken word. Sometimes it is corny, but when I hear a really good "poem" delivered in just the right way, it always seems to give me a little chill. I am not particularly feeling, in love or anything actually I am happily single (finally), but I found this particular video to be really really cute. Maybe one day..! Until Next Time...
PWI's....are they good for us?
So..this has been an ongoing "debate" throughout the black community for many years. I put debate in quotes, because people have this idea that either HBCU's or PWI's are better for better than the other. In my case, I chose to go to the PWI (Emory) for my undergraduate experience. As a senior at CHS, I honestly had no desire to go to an HBCU, hence I never even applied to one. But I will say as my time drew to an end, I seriously considered what it would have been like to go to an HBCU.
As a first semester freshman, I wrote my first paper in college on this topic. The question/topic of my paper was "Are African American college students that attend Predominately White Institutions at an academic disadvantage due to race-related stressors?" (I really wish I can find this paper, I saved it on my old USB drive). So here I am 4 years later, with a bachelor's degree from Emory still fighting to answer this question. Right now in this moment, I will answer yes, students at Emory are at an academic disadvantage.
Throughout my time at Emory, I have always been interested in race dynamics and how people fit into their particular ethnic communities. The issue of "diversity" was always a hot topic, which would bring up such trigger words as "self-segregation". (That is a whole other blog post, I have a lot to say about that). So yes I was aware, of the great lengths that Emory went to discuss race, but it always seemed to fall short. For me, participating in TCP (Transforming Community Project) was what helped me have a pivotal turn on how I viewed Emory. TCP was a dinner based discussion on Race at Emory with certain readings/videos for the week in which participants discussed the history of race at Emory which was often charged. Although I felt that every single black student that stepped foot on Emory should participate in TCP, that was not the case. I think it was very important to know where we came from to adequately evaluate things now, in order to see where we are going. (I'm off on a tangent).
Anyways...I will say that attending an institution like Emory was beneficial to me, because I was able to learn about different cultures and what not..blah blah blah. Isnt that what college is about? So what makes this PWI so different and enhancing for me. I will say it is the RESOURCES and opportunities that were available to me. If you just searched a little, there were so many opportunities to get involved and everything was WELL FUNDED. The list of activities/programs going on every single day is overwhelming (ie. Emory Announcements, then again I believe Emory is an overprogrammed university).
I feel as though Blacks on campus have been accused of creating their own little HBCU's within the larger university ....let's point to self-segregation (I'll touch on it briefly). What I have to say to that is, although I may have done that my becoming a part of several black organizations, I did not by any means...create an HBCU in my classes. In no way, do I think I have ever had a comfortable amount of blacks in my class. And the two that I can think of, we planned to take the class together. So that really upsets me when people say that. I did not have an HBCU in Residence Life when I was an RA and definitely not as a Tour Guide (given there was 1 other black tour guide when I did it).
So back to my original question, are PWI's good for us...yes. Absolutely. I believe that us, should be "me". There was a lot of racial strife, but that is life... So I can finally say I'm happy I went to Emory and everything that I took from it. Until Next Time...
As a first semester freshman, I wrote my first paper in college on this topic. The question/topic of my paper was "Are African American college students that attend Predominately White Institutions at an academic disadvantage due to race-related stressors?" (I really wish I can find this paper, I saved it on my old USB drive). So here I am 4 years later, with a bachelor's degree from Emory still fighting to answer this question. Right now in this moment, I will answer yes, students at Emory are at an academic disadvantage.
Throughout my time at Emory, I have always been interested in race dynamics and how people fit into their particular ethnic communities. The issue of "diversity" was always a hot topic, which would bring up such trigger words as "self-segregation". (That is a whole other blog post, I have a lot to say about that). So yes I was aware, of the great lengths that Emory went to discuss race, but it always seemed to fall short. For me, participating in TCP (Transforming Community Project) was what helped me have a pivotal turn on how I viewed Emory. TCP was a dinner based discussion on Race at Emory with certain readings/videos for the week in which participants discussed the history of race at Emory which was often charged. Although I felt that every single black student that stepped foot on Emory should participate in TCP, that was not the case. I think it was very important to know where we came from to adequately evaluate things now, in order to see where we are going. (I'm off on a tangent).
Anyways...I will say that attending an institution like Emory was beneficial to me, because I was able to learn about different cultures and what not..blah blah blah. Isnt that what college is about? So what makes this PWI so different and enhancing for me. I will say it is the RESOURCES and opportunities that were available to me. If you just searched a little, there were so many opportunities to get involved and everything was WELL FUNDED. The list of activities/programs going on every single day is overwhelming (ie. Emory Announcements, then again I believe Emory is an overprogrammed university).
I feel as though Blacks on campus have been accused of creating their own little HBCU's within the larger university ....let's point to self-segregation (I'll touch on it briefly). What I have to say to that is, although I may have done that my becoming a part of several black organizations, I did not by any means...create an HBCU in my classes. In no way, do I think I have ever had a comfortable amount of blacks in my class. And the two that I can think of, we planned to take the class together. So that really upsets me when people say that. I did not have an HBCU in Residence Life when I was an RA and definitely not as a Tour Guide (given there was 1 other black tour guide when I did it).
So back to my original question, are PWI's good for us...yes. Absolutely. I believe that us, should be "me". There was a lot of racial strife, but that is life... So I can finally say I'm happy I went to Emory and everything that I took from it. Until Next Time...
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Wow...I guess I was Ahead of the Times
So this is kind of weird/eery. So in high school and the beginning of college I had a Xanga account. For all of you that don't know what Xanga is, it is a "Weblog" community. Pretty much, it is the same as blogging. I couldn't remember my screenname and password to save my life. And as soon as I created this one, it came to me. It was just sooo weird. So I found all these posts from senior year of high school and first semester of college. Wow... that is really weird. I am going to look back over them.
It is just kind of ironic, given that I just graduated from college and I just decided to create ANOTHER blog. I just completely forgot about it. Ok clearly I am in shock. Well let me go read/browse through what my life was like 4/5 years ago. Ohh the joys of the internet! Until Next Time...
It is just kind of ironic, given that I just graduated from college and I just decided to create ANOTHER blog. I just completely forgot about it. Ok clearly I am in shock. Well let me go read/browse through what my life was like 4/5 years ago. Ohh the joys of the internet! Until Next Time...
It's About Time
So...for those that know me. You know that I am an avid blog reader. For about a year now, I have seeked out many blogs on all type of topics just to browse/read. So..it only seemed natural that I create my own. Well here I am a year later with this very late start.
Clearly it is summertime, and when I got bored with facebooking, I turned to twitter, which still didn't satiate my needs. I am not sure, what "Reason to Believe" will provide for me, how long I will continue with it, but I will just see how it goes.
Right now, I'm watching the Magic/Cavs game...it clearly looks like the Cavaliers are going to win (which they should). I am not even going to front like I am some big basketball fan, because I'm not. I honestly jumped on the bandwagon on this one. Sometime last week some friends/sorors of mine headed to Taco Mac after a random dance concert and the magic/cav game happened to be on. The ending was sooo exciting and at that moment is when I became a Cav fan. lol. Just like that...
I got my new phone today, wait it was yesterday. It's the Tmobile Dash in Black. It's cool, lots of fun things it's a "smartphone" (whatever that is supposed to mean). Honestly, it is lacking some essential stuff, that I kind of miss on my old phone, like a "timer," and several alarms. I was kind of at a loss today. I put some cookies in the oven, and usually when I bake cookies, I set the timer on my phone. That is when I found out, there IS NO TIMER!!!
Ok yay the Cavs won 112-102. Tomorrow I'm supposidly headed to the pool. It has been raining almost everyday for like a month now. I don't know what that is about...ugh that is a whole other story (ie. graduation day, when i woke up and it was thundering and lighting). I need to learn how to navigate this whole blog thing...how to post links, videos and what not. :sigh: I have so much to say, but I won't overdo it this time... That's all for now... Until Next Time...
Clearly it is summertime, and when I got bored with facebooking, I turned to twitter, which still didn't satiate my needs. I am not sure, what "Reason to Believe" will provide for me, how long I will continue with it, but I will just see how it goes.
Right now, I'm watching the Magic/Cavs game...it clearly looks like the Cavaliers are going to win (which they should). I am not even going to front like I am some big basketball fan, because I'm not. I honestly jumped on the bandwagon on this one. Sometime last week some friends/sorors of mine headed to Taco Mac after a random dance concert and the magic/cav game happened to be on. The ending was sooo exciting and at that moment is when I became a Cav fan. lol. Just like that...
I got my new phone today, wait it was yesterday. It's the Tmobile Dash in Black. It's cool, lots of fun things it's a "smartphone" (whatever that is supposed to mean). Honestly, it is lacking some essential stuff, that I kind of miss on my old phone, like a "timer," and several alarms. I was kind of at a loss today. I put some cookies in the oven, and usually when I bake cookies, I set the timer on my phone. That is when I found out, there IS NO TIMER!!!
Ok yay the Cavs won 112-102. Tomorrow I'm supposidly headed to the pool. It has been raining almost everyday for like a month now. I don't know what that is about...ugh that is a whole other story (ie. graduation day, when i woke up and it was thundering and lighting). I need to learn how to navigate this whole blog thing...how to post links, videos and what not. :sigh: I have so much to say, but I won't overdo it this time... That's all for now... Until Next Time...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
LinkWithin
