Critical Writers

Partnership exists everywhere- whether it be a partner for group work, your relationship as a student with an educator, or your relationships with your boss and coworkers. What comes from the various partnerships in life? As Gan says to T’Gatoi in Bloodchild, “There is risk…in dealing with a partner.” Though there is risk to dealing with partners, I feel there is also many rewards. When dealing with partners of any type, you are offered a look into their mind and their own points of view. As a result, you may learn something from a perspective you’ve never encountered before. As stated by Professor Beth McCoy in her syllabus, I will be witnessing many different perspectives of administrators from Geneseo and the SUNY system. Engaging in these partnerships will help me to fully understand all that goes into this partnership between myself and this college and the partnerships between all the people that make this college run.

              The first partnership I made in this course was the partnership between Professor Beth McCoy and myself. At first, I didn’t see my relationship with Professor Beth McCoy as a partnership, but after class discussions I had realized that it is a partnership of a different form in which I have never thought about with my professors. This gets me thinking about how this course may be different from any other course I have taken, given how engaged Professor Beth McCoy is with all the students and how it her relationship with the class has been referred to as a partnership. Given the nature of this course and partnership itself, I think that this course will be constantly focused around what we both are going to need to give to engage in this partnership most successfully. I would like to explore what exactly Professor Beth McCoy does differently than any other professor to make it seem more like a partnership, even though it is already a partnership no matter what course I am taking. If I am not in class to partake in my portion of the partnership, then there truly is not a partnership to be had. I feel as though the small class size makes it easier for it to feel more like a partnership, but I also want to challenge myself to see aspects of partnership in all my courses this semester. The partnership with Professor Beth McCoy is not the only partnership I embarked on the first day I came to this course. The other partnership that I was engaged in right from the start was with the other students. I feel as though there may be more risks with that partnership, because we do have a collaborative essay that we will have to complete together. Given that the group I am in will have class time to complete the essay alleviates some of the risk, but not all. There is always the risk that a partner in the group will not complete their portion of the work. One of my goals is to not be the partner that risks a poor grade for everyone else. Another goal of mine would be to potentially help another partner if they are stuck so they do not become the risk as well.  Though the collaborative essay may be the only graded portion of this partnership, every day in class, this partnership becomes more and more active as l learn through the other students and see things from their perspectives.

              There is one type of partnership that I will never know the true inner workings of, but it is still notable. This is the partnership between Professor Beth McCoy and the administrators of SUNY Geneseo. Though I will not understand Professor Beth McCoy’s partnership with administration, I can relate it to some experiences I have had in different jobs and how different roles work together for one common goal. Professor Beth McCoy has a partnership with all the administrators in some level, but there are some that she may have a closer partnership to or ones that are so important that she is bringing them into partnership with myself and the other students. Professor Beth McCoy states in the syllabus that I will be listening to four different administrators from various roles which engages myself and the other students into the partnership Professor Beth McCoy already has with them. Having four separate days that administrators are coming in shows how important it is that I can engage in the partnerships with administration. This raises the question for me of how far am I going to get into these partnerships within this semester and also how far into the partnerships will I get into by the time I graduate, since without even realizing it I have been engaged in these partnerships from the day I applied to Geneseo? What administrators will I have the best partnership with? This whole semester I would like to think about how many partnerships I have within this college and how much each one influenced or will influence my career at Geneseo.

              I have never seen my relationships with educators or administration or anyone of authority over me as a partnership. Throughout this semester, I would like to challenge that portion of my thinking because a partnership can mean very different things and works in many ways. I engage in partnerships every day, and I have never thought to notice them in that way. Some of the partnerships I engage in that I don’t currently see as partnerships may have been or will be the best partnerships of my life. Just from the first two weeks of this class my partnership with Professor Beth McCoy and the other students in my course has changed how I think about everything that goes into running this college and partnerships in general, and I want to be able to watch these partnerships grow and evolve throughout the semester while also forming partnerships with new people. 

On my first day of class in INTD 105 my Professor Dr. Beth McCoy asked the class what we thought of the course epigraph listed in the class syllabus. The epigraph was a small excerpt from the book “Blood Child” by Octavia Butler and is stated here: “If we’re not your animals, if these are adult things, accept the risk. There is risk, Gatoi, in dealing with a partner.” During class due to the quotes ambiguous nature several interpretations arose, however I believe this quote could be used to characterizes a mutual unspoken agreement between students and our teaching institution.

                I believe this agreement leads to a partnership built upon trust and accountability from each party, and if observed it’ll lead to a successful learning process. First of all, us students need to be able to trust in ourselves, as well as the learning process that has been laid out for us by our professor. We’ll be expected to push the envelope in terms of our current abilities. These heighted standards are shown in Dr. McCoy’s syllabus for INTD 105 where it is listed under Values “Learning: embracing high expectations for intellectual inquiry, scholarly achievement, and personal growth”. I believe that if us students are unable to have faith in ourselves and the process, we won’t be able to grow as learners. I think this situation can best be represented by a quote by Henry Ford, “whether you think you can or you can’t, either way you’re right.”  Secondly, students must remain accountable, “if we are adults”, we are expected to act as adults would which means taking responsibility for our actions and inactions. Along our academic journey we will inevitably stumble at one point or another, whether it be missed classes or a failed exam. However, the real test of whether or not we are achieving accountability comes from the actions that we take after we stumble.  We can take a mental inventory of what happened, why it happened, and how it happened, then use that information to better ourselves in the future and prevent it from happening again.  On the other hand, we could choose the unaccountable reaction, which is taken by many students, which would be to forget about it and simply hope that it doesn’t happen again, because the thought of it makes us uncomfortable.  The importance of accountability in the learning process can’t be understated, I see this mentality is demonstrated in the Dr. McCoy’s syllabus simply by viewing the essay assignments, which all offer an opportunity for a rewrite. I believe these opportunities could help guide students towards being able to better self-reflect and assess. Being accountable also means that we won’t cheat, because in doing so we’d be circumventing the learn process that has been laid out for us by our instructor and thus preventing ourselves from growing. This sentiment is also expressed In the Course Syllabus for under the Academic Integrity and Plagiarism section where it states the importance of originality. Further more students must remember that to be accountable we must respect yourselves and those around us. That means giving our full attention to a lecture and not allow ourselves to get distracted with phones or side conversations. If we do allow ourselves to do these things, we’d be disrespecting ourselves by not getting the most out of our education and those around us by becoming a distraction to their education. In my opinion this is what’s necessary of us student in order to ensure the partnership with our intuition is a beneficial one.

                For the learning process to work, trust and accountably is also required from our teaching institution. Our teaching intuition is required to trust in its student and our abilities to meet our responsibilities. If an institution’s trust is misplaced in a student that doesn’t live up to their expectations, then they would potentially be giving that student the spot that another, more deserving, student could utilize to a higher potential. Our teaching institution also needs to be held accountable to provide its students with the tools and information they need to be successful. I believe this means that it should be able to provide adequately sized rooms for classes to be held as well as areas for students to study. In addition, they must make clear what they expect from there students as well as what their students can expect from them. This means making information like how grading is done as well as assignment due dates readily available to students. The importance of make information and expectations known to student is demonstrated by the sheer length of the course syllabus as well as when Dr McCoy mentioned in class that most of the expectations listed in the course syllabus have a story behind them. This shows the importance of information in keeping both us students and our teaching intuition accountable. I believe this is what’s need from the teaching intuition in order for the learning process to run smoothly.

                These are a few reasons why I believe the epigraph could be a characterization of the relationship between us students and our teaching intuition which is built upon mutual trust and accountability. In addition, as I was writing I began to think how I played a role in this proposed relationship as a student. This led me to my goal for this course which is to learn to be more trusting and confident in my thoughts and abilities as well as to become for honest and reflective with my short comings.

Risk is defined as the “possibility of loss or injury” and, at some point, everyone will face a risk in their lives. These possibilities of peril may present themselves in different guises. It may be a physical risk, like undertaking a dangerous task, or an emotional risk, like getting attached to a certain people. The most often discussed emotional risk is a relationship. By that same token, relationships are frequently seen as romantic endeavors. But one type of relationship not usually regarded is the academic partnership, particularly between college students and the faculty, staff, and other administration of the institution. Octavia Butler’s short story “Bloodchild” broaches several forms of risk and summarily explains the inherent risk of a relationship through the protagonist, Gan. In dialogue that is also our course epigraph, Gan tells T’Gatoi, “If we’re not your animals, if these are adult things, accept the risk. There is risk, Gatoi, in dealing with a partner.” Each phrase from these two sentences carries meaning for all relationships, but particularly an academic partnership. Thus, the course epigraph will be separated into segments and analyzed in context with the course syllabus and other materials. 

            Gan’s first sentence is a conditional ultimatum, “If we’re not your animals, if these are adult things, accept the risk.” Of particular importance now is the phrase, “If we’re not your animals.” While this may seem extraneous—simply a part of the story—to a college writing course, as it appeared to me at first, it can be applied to that very institution. Being a college student in the U.S., or simply in the age range of a traditional college student, is peculiar because many are legal adults but must still endure limitations that may not be present in other countries, and a class discussion recently highlighted this exact contradiction. The concept of adulthood will be discussed later, but the limbo that traditionally aged college students inhabit can sometimes make them feel as though they are animals, penned in, all the same, and with little ability to may their own choices. This captive state is very similar to how Terrans are kept on a Preserve, and also harkens to Cathy Birkenstein and Gerald Graff’s book They Say/ I Say. In the introduction, the authors bring up a frequently received concern that using the templates that populate the book stifles creativity, boxing students in. While Birkenstein and Graff argue that it is quite the opposite for the templates, that they increase creativity, the same cannot always be said of the colleges and universities students attend. That is why it is extremely interesting that the SUNY Geneseo mission statement, as proffered at the beginning of the syllabus, includes a section for “Inclusivity” that seeks “respect for the unique talents and contributions of each individual.” The focus on individualism indicates the college’s desire to combat the sense of sameness that students can feel in a large campus; that, in turn, can lead to parallels between students and animals.

            The next conditional phrase in the epigraph is “if these are adult things,” and this applies more directly to the experience of a college student. The discussion of adulthood, or lack thereof, on a college campus is impacted literally by the age of the students, many of whom are between 18 and 21, but also metaphorically. Most, but not all, traditionally aged college students are living away from home and making significant life choices for the first time. Cognizant of that, institutions sometimes implement the in loco parentis principle, wherein they act as parental figures. Phillip Leeinvestigated the history of in loco parentis, which was a major doctrine used by colleges to have a hand in students’ private lives (p. 66) until the 1960s, regardless of their consent. This practice fell out of use due to several court cases, heralded by Dixon v. Alabama (1961), and despite nearly sixty years between that ruling and today, it can sometimes feel like in loco parentis is very much still alive in higher education institutions. As such, it is particularly interesting that there are several visits scheduled on the syllabus by prominent figures in SUNY Geneseo to discuss their work in the lens of “forms of consent”.  Such language begs the question of how in loco parentis is, or is not, implemented on campus and in each individual’s respective positions.   

            The final phrase of the first sentence and much of the next have to deal with risk. Gan tells T’Gatoi, “accept the risk. There is risk, Gatoi, in dealing with a partner.” This gets to the heart of the matter, the inherent risk of an academic partnership. Students are putting trust in an institution to teach them and fulfill the role of higher education, a faith that is both sentimental and in the form of tuition. Meanwhile, institutions rely on students to uphold certain standards, of grades and livelihood. On both sides, these hopes may not be fulfilled and even the exact opposite can happen. Yet, both continue to place at least some faith in the other. This brings about several questions. How do institutions evaluate risks and attempt to mitigate them? What detriment to the student population does this incur? This was displayed in a recent event reported in Business Insider, wherein a student maintained a Twitter account parodying the SUNY Geneseo official account. The school noticed this, evaluated the risk of misinformation, and ultimately asked Twitter to take down the account. This demonstrates the risks of academic partnership but also brings forth possible issues that can arise.             

While risk is inevitable, different beings react differently to potential peril. In an academic partnership, both sides must face the risks to get a reward, and Octavia Butler’s short story “Bloodchild” echoes this. The novella includes our course epigraph, “If we’re not your animals, if these are adult things, accept the risk. There is risk, Gatoi, in dealing with a partner,” which relates to the state of the traditional college student, both as an animal and in the limbo of adulthood, and to the inherent, unavoidable risks of having a partner. 

Based on what we have read since the course’s beginning, our epigraph on the syllabus “If we’re not your animals, if these are adult things, accept the risk. There is risk, Gatoi, in dealing with a partner” by Octavia Butler emphasizes that there is a big deal within one’s life, for example as a college student and as a first-generation student we have risks. This idea as college students of having the ability to take their own risks, has a huge impact in one’s life, for example having to decide whether or not to retake a course all over again or choosing between having to change one’s major, having to decide whether or not taking the risk of going to college is a risk one has to take necessarily especially as first year generation, or taking a course that has nothing to do with your major, socializing and choosing whom you can trust on campus, and the level of difficulty that challenges oneself to improve and build upon.

As discussed in class, the idea of the example of the good Samaritan law demonstrates that if any person who is unconsciously ill and needs rapid attention should be looked after for immediate care because it is demanded of the person assisting by law to perform. This example, makes me think of the same exact idea of a college student because the same exact example falls for us in the reason that college students are expected to pay attention and pass all their courses, purposely stressed by professors, but needed especially if they want to have a job or a career in the long run. As well, as for the HIPAA law if you are assisting on a patient you are not authorized under the law to discuss about your patient’s cases under any circumstances unless fully directed to do so by the patient themselves, if they specifically tell you that they would like to discuss their health information with someone else. This shows that as a doctor you are obligated to follow the rules the same way as college students have to obey certain laws and rules while they are still students on campus like for example, following the school code of conduct & while living on campus, you have to follow certain rules in most residence halls led by your RA’s (Resident Assistant) in which you can and cannot perform.

Although, all these ideas help to set some serious goals within my lifestyle routine as a full-time student on campus, and develop some critical questions for myself to better solve and act upon for this course about the risks and rewards of academic partnership because it is important for me to fully dedicate my time and participate to the best of my ability throughout this course if I want to succeed and pass the course, and know what is right or what is not right for me to do, especially if the cost is that I want to become a very successful professional leader. There are consequences and risks that lead me to take so I can accomplish my goals in order to reach that state. This class is a risk that I choose to take to reach my goal as a future professional doctor even though I am a biology major, I am required to take this course outside of my major in addition to graduating within the next 3 years. On the other hand, I am a very shy, more likely to keep to myself type of person and I do not enjoy socializing with others surrounding me as much, because I am usually afraid of what others have to think about my ideas and experiences.

In order to become successful within this course I would have to face my fears and get out of my comfort zone so that I can become a better advocate for myself and for the rest that are surrounded by me. But this is where that idea of “taking risks” comes into play and is helpful in strengthening my ability to work and put myself out there more. Being able to create a partnership with my peers gives me the opportunity of listening more to what they have to say, and once I learn from their experiences or hear of their opinions I am more likely to respond in the form of disagreeing and agreeing when entering the conversation as stated by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein where they provide templates when it comes to clarifying a specific point. Although, this concept can help others to fully understand and possibly learn from the thoughts of others and their experiences to apply it to oneself or something related.

My goal for this course is to continuously ask curious, confusing, and remarkable questions to fully be able to challenge myself in a situation where I am uncomfortable in doing so, in the fact that I have never put myself in the position to speak up for myself and ask the right questions. If I take this into consideration, I am more likely able to understand what it would feel like to receive responses and focus my attention on the phrases and the ideas that are being used by the responder. This not only can help me become a great student, but it can help me better build upon my growth of ideas and phrases or vocabulary that I am using when I am supposed to be writing papers within this course. If i am the type of person to ask more, I will receive, and if I receive more often I am more prepared to perform as once read in a book called “The Secret”. Following back to the epigraph, this falls into the whole “Adult like things” because this whole concept prepares me very well in becoming a very open-minded and a passionate person. Once I am better prepared to learn how to take risks for myself without wanting or needing to back out on opportunities, I am more capable of doing anything that I may believe that can become impossible for myself and it would only make me stronger and incredibly successful at the end. 

Why do we put ourselves in positions of risk? Let’s take driving for instance. The Association for Safe International Road Travel estimates that 1.25 million people die and 20-50 million people are injured/disabled by road crashes each year. That’s 0.5% of the entire population. 2.2% of all deaths are caused by road crashes. Yet almost every day, people drive to work, class, or wherever they need to go. In theory, we should all stay indoors eating nothing but vitamins and minerals. But no one does. We all take risks every day. The ability to take risks is the freedom that we enjoy. That freedom allows us to grow and develop as humans. In short, without risk-taking, we cannot become better at anything.

So what happens without risk? Octavia Butler describes this situation in their novel, “Bloodchild and Other Stories.” In that work, Gatoi is a creature that uses humans the reproduce. Gatoi finds Gan, the main character, holding a gun. Gatoi then attempts to take the gun from Gan. Gan replies “If we’re not your animals, if these are adult things, accept the risk. There is risk, Gatoi, in dealing with a partner.” I think this fully encapsulates what gives us our humanity. By removing individual liberties, people can no longer grow. Gatoi does just that. By then reducing Gan to an animal, they can feel much less remorse when they use him for reproduction.

Earlier in the novel, Gatoi presents Gan and his family with an egg that causes a type of intoxication. When Gan’s mother, Lien, refuses the have some, Gatoi tries to coax her. Gatoi starts by saying “Lien, I would like you to have what’s left of Gan’s egg… You should take more.” The drunken stupor caused by the egg prevents Gan’s family from taking risks. Ergo, it takes away the ability for Gan’s family to resist. This lack of resistance has led to the current situation, where Terrans (humans) are used by Tlic (the kind of creature Gatoi is).   

Gan recounts a story about his late father. He tells us that his father often drank the eggs and lived to be very old. Gan recalls that his father “had lived more than twice as long as he should have. And toward the end of his life, when he should have been slowing down, he had married my mother and fathered four children.” Gan’s father was the perfect animal for the Tlic. He lived longer than he should because of the eggs, and then made more people to use. Farmers use antibiotics in order to get the most out of their animals. The Tlic uses the eggs in order to get the most out of the Terrans. Both the antibiotics and the eggs lower risk, which lowers freedom, which lowers the opportunity to grow. 

Gan himself demonstrates how effective this is. His brother, Qui, dispises the Tlic for what they have done to his kind. When pondering this, Gan says “Even my brother who had somehow grown up to fear and distrust the Tlic could probably have gone smoothly into one of their families if he had been adopted early enough.” Whether Gan is aware or not, his thoughts have been effectively controlled by the risk removal that he has been exposed to from Gatoi. 

But why is taking risks important? Most of us want to live long lives. Most of us want to be healthy. Most of us want to wake up every time we go to sleep. Logically, we should strive to minimize our risk. Let’s go back to driving again. As previously mentioned roadway accidents cause 2.2% of all deaths in a given year. People look at that number and try to minimize the inherent risk of driving. People now wear seatbelts, cars are required to have airbags, there are certain height restrictions associated with sitting in the front, etc. No one says stop driving. 

Every great thing that has ever happened involved a lot of risks. From the brave patriots who defending this land in 1777 to Robert Smalls who stole a Confederate ship to Marie Curie who won the Nobel Prize in physics. These three examples also demonstrate a very important idea, that the growth achieved through risk is not only personal but societal as well. Freedom creates the opportunity to take risks. Risks create the opportunity to grow. 

However, being forced to take risks can also lead to its own set of problems. Returning to Octavia E. Butlers “Bloodchlid and Other Stories,” Gan is, for all intense and purposes, forced to be used by reproduction by Gatoi, even though he had just witnessed what happened to Bram Lomas, a Terran who gave birth. This force of risk-taking is clearly not in Gan’s interest, as Lomas was “opened” directly in front of him. 

This naturally begs a few questions: does this risk need to occur, do I feel comfortable with this risk, and is there a way to lower this risk. Everyone, conscious or not, askes themselves this question each day from crossing the street to an academic partnership. The freedom to answer these questions is what allows growth. 

In this class, my goal is to answer all these questions. Firstly, an academic partnership is crucial to the advancement of every field, so the risk needs to be taken. In this class, I hope to become more comfortable with the idea of an academic partnership. In my opinion, the most important goal of this class is to learn ways of lowering this risk. In this way, we can reshape the phrase of no risk, no reward into low risk, high reward.

Procrastination at its finest, as I write my last blog, I am lost for words to see how freshman year is almost over. Looking back at the first class, I can see how much I have changed not only as a writer, but more importantly, as a person.

I am so happy that Dr. McCoy  made us learn everyone’s name on the first day of class, because it has helped me develop my communication skills. For example, instead of trying to grabs someone’s attention by making eye contact, you can call out their name and have a normal conversation. As a result of this, I made an attempt to learn at least five kids’ names in all my classes. This attempt was successful, as I made new friends outside of my core group of friends here at Geneseo. As my dad has said to me countless times, “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know”. I have not told my dad about this little social attempt I made, but I know he would be proud of my “networking”.

Learning people’s name has made it easier for me to do “school”. What I mean by this is that I now look forward going to class instead of dreading it, because I have developed new friends through just learning their names. On top of that, it made it easier to reach out to them outside of class to work on homework or group projects together. For example, instead of emailing someone who you have never spoken to asking for help on homework and getting a response, “Who are you?”, I now receive helpful and personal answers when I ask for help.

I can’t help but think how much different my second semester would be if Dr. McCoy did not make us remember everyone’s name. Imagine a parallel universe where Dr. McCoy did not introduce to each other. I believe as a result, I would be antisocial in INTD and in all my other classes. This would lead me to not to reach out to other students asking for help. Overall, in this parallel universe, my grades would be worse. Also, I would like to point out that in this parallel universe, our collaborative writing assignments would not be as good as they are now because of the lack of communication between each student without knowing everyone’s name.

Ultimately, I believe learning everyone’s name in a single class is not only beneficial for that one class in particular, but for other classes as well.

Over the course of this semester, there was only one thing I dreaded besides finals: the Bloodchild rewrite. I wasn’t nervous that I would get a bad grade; I simply thought I would not write an essay to Dr. McCoy’s standards. Dr. McCoy expects alot from her students, as she pushes us to be the best writer we can be. As I talked to other students in the class, they explained to me that received similar feedback to what I recieved. This made me feel better because it showed i was not the only one in my current situation.

Dr.McCoy pushed back the due date of the Bloodchild rewrite to three weeks later and first I was overcome with joy, but looking back, I procrastinated way too much on this essay. As it was two weeks out from the due date, I decided to give the essay a look. Looking back at the essay after a month of growing as a writer, I realized how raw my essay was, and that I needed to further explain my ideas. Dr. McCoy told me in an email that sometimes it takes an essay to write an essay, meaning that sometimes writing down all your ideas on paper the first time will help you formulate an idea upon which you can rewrite your whole essay. For example, Dr. McCoy picked out a piece of my rough draft, calling it the “popcorn kernel”. In this case, the “popcorn kernel” represents the idea on what I could base my whole essay about. This metaphor illustrates the idea that one idea can lead to endless possibilities.

I would be lying if I said I did not struggle with this essay rewrite, as it really showed me my flaws as a writer. For example, it showed that I jump from one idea to another idea without explaining the first idea fully. It also showed me that my writing tends to be choppy, meaning I jump from from place to place. The last flaw it showed is that I need to further explain my evidence and how it connects to the prompt I am writing about.

This rewrite process has allowed me to work on my flaws as a writer. Looking back, I feel silly that I dreaded an essay rewrite so much, because now I have grown so much as a writer.

As the last day of classes and finals week approaches, it seems like everything is just piling on top of itself. Personally, I lose count on what I have to do and what is due which day. Another thing I lose track of is what day my exams are, and exactly where and when the actually test is coming. It seems to me every student on campus is battling spring fever. For example, it is getting extremely hard for me to focus on my school work because of the nicer weather. I think spring fever is having a bigger impact than normal because of the harsh winter we experienced in Upstate New York.

Believe it or not, I have used my phone to keep me on track with my school work. Never in a million years would I have thought I would use my cellular device to keep me focused, because for the past couple of years it has been the source of my distraction, and the reason why I have procrastinated so long on most of my school work. Over the course of the past two weeks, I have used the calendar app on my phone to write down what assignments are due on which day. Also, I downloaded an app called “My Countdown” that sends you a notification every morning that tells how far an event is out. For example, I wake up every morning to see how many more days i have left till I take my astronomy, calculus, and theater exam. This little daily reminder helps me stay motivated. This simple reminder has helped me not to procrastinate too much on my exam studying. Another habit I have started to develop is that when I sit down and do homework, I set a timer for an hour on my phone and once that hour hits, I get up for 10 minutes and walk around and text my friends as a little distraction. Once that 10 minutes is over, I go back to studying for another hour. From past experiments with myself, I have learned that the most I can study at a time is 2 hours, but I can do this two or three times throughout the day. This is how I plan on attacking finals week.

In conclusion, I believe there is a silver lining to using your phone: it can help you become organized, but on the other hand, it could come at the price of distracting you and not letting you get your work done. As we are freshman, I believe it is important to develop healthy habits that will allow us to succeed during finals week here at SUNY Geneseo.

Last Friday I attended a MILES meeting. For those who don’t know what MILES is Men Incorporating Leadership and Exploration through Service. I enjoy going to MILES. You can always learn something new if you keep an open mind. In our MILES meeting, we had a guest speaker and Geneseo Alum Mr. Andre Doeman come in to discuss minorities and their misrepresentation as well as stereotypes in the media. Doeman talked a lot about his experiences teaching in the inner-city of Rochester. Most of the kids he teaches are of disenfranchised backgrounds. They have a shared culture of poverty which puts well within the achievement gap as we learned from Chipman The Power of Realistic Expectations.

Mr. Doeman explains how all the kids he teaches have similar dreams. They all dream of being professional athletes, actors, or rappers and the like. He noticed very few had dreams of being doctors, lawyers, teachers, engineers, or other types of well-educated professionals. He when he asked his students why did they dream to be basketball players and rappers and not something else. What made those careers appeal to them over all the other possibilities. He was meet with blank stares by most of them. Not one of them had a concrete reason. No one had ever stopped to question their motives. The majority of them didn’t question it themselves. Why is that?

He came to an epiphany. He realized the kids he works with only have exposure to those influences. All if any of the successful men and women of color they see are in those career fields. In an article, I read titled The Racial Achievement Gap, Segregated Schools, and Segregated Neighborhoods: A Constitutional Insult The author Rothenstein claims “if a child grows up in a poor neighborhood, moving up and out to a middle-class area is typical for whites but an aberration for blacks. Black neighborhood poverty is thus more multigenerational, while white neighborhood poverty is more episodic” One of the only outside influences that circumvent the achievement gap is media influence. Doeman explained that one of the greatest things to combat negative self-image in children of color is to have positive role models in the media they consume. What do kids all watch? Cartoons. What do cartoons often have? Super heroes. How many superheroes of color exist. The answer is not many. The ones that do have little to no screenplay. He brought up a point that I found very interesting. If we have more superheroes of color perhaps we would have more aspiring heroes in communities of color.