Lee McKinnis (57)
Kristina Marynczak (37)
Killian Noonan (36)
Melissa Castillo (32)
NikoVelazquez (27)
Shannon Ratzel (23)
Michelle Reyes (22)
Kyle Barczak (21)
Maura Bilek (21)
Susan Bayaa (21)
For this week’s journal entry I want to write about the Act Out event that we had on Tuesday. I thought it was good and I really liked how the other groups’ poster board turned out. It was really nice how most of the representatives for each organization came and talked about what they do and what the volunteers do. The representatives gave a lot of information especially the guest speakers. There was one representative who grabbed a lot of people’s attention because she was outgoing and also she had a puppet on her hand and asking people questions. I didn’t really get a chance to stop by their table. Next to their table was the Children’s Museum in Oak Lawn and their representative was doing face painting. Some of my classmates decided to get their face painted just for fun and it was hilarious because two guys got their face painted with girly designs. Anyway, I am really glad that our representative was able to come to this event; she actually came early and brought a lot of flyers and pens that people can take. The flyers had information about for people who would want to volunteer for the Orland Township Food Pantry. She also brought some flyers that said what the foods are or products that go in the bags that they give out. Some other tables had flyers as well, and also candies. The Share your soles table was also really cool because they put a lot of effort in their poster boards and they brought some decorations that looked like old shoes and clothes. The event turned out okay and if Mr. McGuire is going to do something like this again next year, there should be a photographer or just someone who’ll take a picture of the event, other than that it turned out well.
“ACT OUT.” Moraine Valley Community College. 1 MAY. 2012
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Jean Claud Sunga
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Jean Claud Sunga
For this week’s journal entry I want to write about Ray Zahabs treks to the South Pole. The video was really interesting. When the video started I didn’t really understand what he was saying but then when the pictures started popping up while he was talking, I began to realize that there is more to what he is sharing to the Audience. He’s not just bragging about what he and his friends accomplished through their journey but he is showing people how we can do anything that we want as long as we are dedicated to do it. We have done whatever we want to accomplish without any complaints to meet our goal. I have high respect for him and his friends because what they did was very outstanding and not a lot of people would be willing to walk barefoot around the world. I like how he said “we can make the impossible things, possible.” I think it is true if we believe in our selves. We may not choose something big like what they did but we can start by doing something small that we think we can’t do because of other reasons. Like, Simple things that we think we’ll never get done, or passing a really hard class. We only need a little dedication or inspiration to do and accomplish what we really want in life. His story had a great impact on me because before I saw the video I was going through some things and his words of wisdom actually helped me.
Zahab,Ray. “Ray Zahab treks to the South Pole”Jun 2009. Online video clip. TED ideas worth spreading. 20 Apr 2012. -
Jean Claud Sunga
Lets make a difference together
Helping others can be long term happiness if it’s coming from the heart. It will definitely bring happiness to those people who are going to benefit from it. There are a lot of organizations who are trying their best to give those people who are in need, food, clothing, shoes and other resources that they can. My group and I will be working with a Food pantry because we have discussed that it is one of issues that people should pay attention to. It is one of the issues that WE can actually do something about by just giving our time. A couple hours of our time can make a big difference. Hunger and starvation does not only happen in the US but all around the world and most of us know that, although, not all of us do anything about it. If we all work together and help each other, we can keep decreasing the number of people who are malnourished or dying from starvation. According to dosomething.org, “ 5.6 million households obtained emergency food from food pantries at least once during 2009.” There will be a point in our life time that we will need help from other people. A time where we will would wish and hope as much as those people who are in need of help now. We all know that life is hard especially now because of our economy that’s why instead of donating money to organizations we can help through volunteering or giving service without asking anything in return.
The first time Mr. McGuire explained what is going to happen during our time in his class or throughout the entire semester I was intrigued because I’ve never done any volunteer work that is actually required. So I didn’t know what to expect at first, but I knew that it was an opportunity. It’s really fun volunteering at organizations and writing about it. I enjoyed reading about service activism in class. When we started talking about our last project for this semester, I knew it will be harder than our other projects because this project is not only a paper, but a service learning project which takes more time and it will require accurate information and careful observation.
It is very easy to say and plan that we’re going to give a couple of hours to volunteer to an organization, But when we think about it is very difficult especially if it’s a group work. To be honest I dislike working in groups because if not everybody agrees on something, nothing will be done. It is very hard to work in groups especially because we have different schedules and we all work but I know it shouldn’t be an excuse to not be able to do our project. One person’s mistake can affect every ones hard work. And that is what i am scared of. It’s easier to blame myself if I made a mistake in a project or paper than to be blamed or to blame someone for not getting a good grade. of course I am not going to do that, its just that all of us have things to do. I think we didn’t have that much time to work on this project especially that we only meet twice a week. I actually found a couple of places to volunteer at or organizations to work with for our group and most of them were twenty to twenty-five minutes away from Moraine because most of organizations I found were by Chicago. I called 9 places but i only got to talk to six of them. The organizations I called were Word of truth, Harvest of Food, Cannan MBC Pantry, Hyde Park S.D.A. CHURCH, and TRCDO – HARVEST FOR THE WORLD, it wasn’t that hard to talk to these people because they are very easy to talk to and they really helped me out when I asked them questions. I told them about how our class is doing a service learning project and we might work with them and volunteer at their place. They were really nice and told me their schedules and the requirements that we need before we can volunteer. So, I shared what I had with my group when we had a group meeting although none of them were used because i believe they were too far. Its okay though, we talked to Mr. McGuire and he gave us an organization that is close by and it’s called Orland Township Food Pantry. One of our group members called them to know the schedule and what not. He got the direct contact number of the person who is in charge of the organization. Her name is Mary ann and she told my group member their schedule and what days we can come to volunteer. We all had different schedules and we all couldn’t go at the same time. The place is kind of small and they don’t really need a lot of volunteers because there is not much work that’s needed to be done, so we all decided to go seperately.My groupmate, Jim and I went at the same time and as we got there i was looking around and observing the place. Its very clean and organize, especially when we went to their pantry where they do all the packing and where they store the other food. there are other rooms where they put the donated goods that they still need to go through because other people donate some stuff that are already expired. Its really sad because it just seems like they are just cleaning out their pantry and getting rid of the expired things.
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Jean Claud Sunga
For this week’s journal entry i want to write about” Ruptura: Acknowledging the Lost Subjects of the Service Learning story”. When i started reading the story, I knew right away that it has some kind of connection with what we’re doing or going to do in class. The teacher was narrating what was going through his head as he was reading his students journals about their service learning projects. He talked about how he wanted to know the different struggles these students are encountering and how he expected the students to have 20 hours of service. Then he started talking about the students’ journal and stories that created a big impact on him. When he was talking about Dana’s experience on how the director of the agency knows they’re volunteering only because it’s required for the class was very interesting. She also said that the agency is scared that the children might get too attached because sooner or later those volunteers would leave. I think that is true because most of the time when some students force themselves to do volunteer work just so they can get a good grade. Then when they make physical contact with the people they are trying to help, they kind of give them hope but at the same time take it away too because they may never come back. I think this helped me understand more about service learning because it will help me separate my own thoughts from what is actually happening and I will try to be more careful when I observe things for our service learning project.
Himley, Margaret, and Tobi Jacobi. “Ruptura: Acknowledging the Lost Subjects of the Service Learning Story.” From Language and Learning Across the Disciplines. By Tracy Hamler Carrick. Vol. 4.3. 2000. 56-74. Splatter The Messy Art of Writing. Web. 15 Apr. 2012. . -
Jean Claud Sunga
For this week’s journal entry i want to write about the part 2 of the KONY2012 video. At first I didn’t really understand why they made a second video when both videos seemed like they were the same. Although as I was watching it, I realized that the video is making the viewer’s understand more of what they want us to do. I think the part two of the KONY2012 video, answered my questions regarding the first video. The video also explained how they are going to capture KONY. Also the video showed some mini cards that they have hanged on trees which had ways to escape KONY or the LRA. I think the reason why they made a second video because there are a lot of negative things that this organization is facing like controversies and because some people’s beliefs are easily moved by the media, they automatically believe it and make false accusations about this organization. To be honest, i did question some things about this organization but not because I don’t believe in what they can do, but because I am just not used to it. It is such a big thing that it feels like it’s too good to be true. But when I talked to Mr. McGuire about it and researched more, all my questions were answered especially when I watched the second video. I now believe that we can’t just rely on other people’s thoughts or beliefs because that creates more confusion for us. Instead of helping out and making a difference, we’re causing more problems and by saying things that we are not even sure of about this group.
“KONY 2012: Part II – Beyond Famous”.YouTube.Invisible Children,4 Apr. Web. 5 Apr.2012 -
Jean Claud Sunga
This weeks journal entry i wanna write about the gas prices. i was reading a news article in Chicago Tribune about how high the gas prices are. it states that last year the gas price was $3.95 in the city and $3.77 in the suburbs around the same time as now. Now, its $4.67 in the city and $4.51 in the suburbs, isn’t that crazy? the minimum wage is still the the same. As the gas prices go up peoples salaries go down because of the economy. People like us, the students, need to go to school and go to work and most of us use cars to get wherever we need to go. Some of us pay for our tuition and maybe living on our own, and paying for everything including gas. It will be harder for us to try to save our money. We get to use coupons and other discount for food, clothing, appliances But not gas. We try so hard to not spend too much money with other things but then when it comes to gas, it seems like all those savings are going nowhere. sooner or later people are going to start taking public transportation and then it will be harder to get to where we want to because the buses will be packed by the time we get on it and then we’ll have to wait for the next bus. Having a car should be convenient and not give us stress. IF they are going to raise GAS they should raise our salaries too!
Julie Wernau. “At $4.51, gas prices hit all-time high here.” Chicago Tribune.27 Mar. 2012. A Tribune News Website. 29 Mar.2012-
Klem Bachleda
Here’s a different look at things: If they lower gas prices down to about $1.00 a gallon, would they be right to lower our salaries from what it is now?
If the argument was concerning inflation increasing at an average of 2% per year, and salaries only increasing at .5% or even 1%, then that is an argument I would gladly participate in.
; ) Just trying to bust your bubble…….
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Jean Claud Sunga
thanks klem! this what just what i was thinking about but thanks for the info. by the way if you could check you email too. Thanks!
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Grace Cosentino
hey did eithier of you guys get my messages Klem i sent you one yesterday and jean i sent you one today. When and what time is the meeting? And what did you guys think about my starving children i know we all wanted to do the soup kitchen but i contacted alot of organizations and the time schedule kind of stinks and i think by going with a more legit organzation you can go pretty much any day anytime and we all have really different schedules let me know what you guys think! just an idea because i remember when we were talking everyones schedule was really different im still up for the soup kitchen i just think this would be easier then searching for a random organization.
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Jean Claud Sunga
Bobbie Harro’s writing about the “cycle of socialization” was very interesting because he had a point in everything and most of the things he said makes sense if you think about it. We are all innocent when we are born and everything changes slowly as we get old because of the different things we see or hear from other people other than our parents or family. We all believe in the same thing until we start to think about other things and start questioning it. According the Harro, because of the institutional and and cultural socialization and enforcement’s we tend to feel angry, guilty, and other things happen because we don’t agree in on thing. I agree when he said that there are rules that we might not think as unfair because we benefit from it but when we become the groups that are penalize by the rules that is the only time we feel uncomfortable and unhappy. He also said that the things we are learning and not hard to believe when we see them everywhere and keep learning from them. I think what he’s trying to say is that some of the things we learn are not true because we are either misinformed or we were too used to the things that we grew up with even if its wrong. i agree with him that we should build new rules that are truly equal for everyone. His writing made me think really hard about what is actually going on and i think that most of the things he said are right.
Harro, Bobbie. “Reading for Diversity and Social Justice.” Cycle of Socialization (2010): 15-21. Splatter The Messy Art of Writing. Web. 22 Mar. 2012. -
Jean Claud Sunga
Money can’t buy happiness, but service can
We all define happiness differently for different reasons, different wants and needs and different life styles. Many people define happiness as having all the brand new electronics, clothing, shoes and purses. Some may define happiness as collecting things that they want; it could be pictures, toys, make-up, accessories and other collectible items that make them happy. Those people who are more money can also have a different meaning for happiness, it can be working, and buying different houses in different states, traveling, buying brand- new cars or it could be as simple as having a cup of tea or coffee with their friends or family. On the other hand, there are people who define happiness as being able to eat something for the day or having shoes or sandals that will last them for a long time. Some people find happiness from giving and sharing what they have to others who are less fortunate. Most of us pay attention to the material things that we think would makes us happy, but a true happiness cannot be sold in stores, although we can find and experience it through love and caring for one another.
I recently volunteered to an organization that helps starving children in different places of the earth. The organization is called Feed My Starving Children. This organization sends out packed meals that was called Manna pack Rice which have fed a lot of starving children in the world.When I was young I didn’t even know what starving meant, I thought starving simply means being hungry, I remember saying to one of our maids “I’m starving nanny, can you make me something to eat please?” then she told me that I shouldn’t use the word starving because I am not starving, I am just hungry and can easily have food whenever I want to, and that children who are starving are the ones who can’t eat because they are lacking sufficient money to buy food. She also told me that when I get older I would realize what she’s trying to tell me. I keep thinking to myself why she was so upset that I used that word, I see commercials on TV that plays a very depressing song and shows pictures of children who are underweight and at the time I thought it was normal since they are still babies and young. I used to ignore those commercials before because the music scares me until I was old enough to understand what is really happening. I then, realized that those children I see on TV need help; I didn’t know how to help them since I didn’t work then. The only thing I could give them was a prayer. I used to live in the Philippines and as I got older I became more observant to the things around me, I have seen children begging for money or food outside the church, they would also knock on the windows of our car to ask for change, and I have seen children selling flowers and other things even if it doesn’t cost that much. I have seen children sleeping on a piece of cardboard box on the ground. I felt really bad but at the moment there was nothing I can do. These things happened when I was still in the Philippines, and I didn’t know that there are other countries that are experiencing the same thing.
At the FMSC, I saw a Philippine flag as soon as I entered the door. It made me really happy because I thought about the children that I used to see in the streets and I feel like I can now do something to help them. I got to the place early so I walked around a little bit and looked at the things they are selling and where the money is going. I was so surprised that a cost of one shirt can either provide 38 meals or 54 meals depending on what kind of shirt they are going to buy. They also had handmade jewelry, baskets, cards and hats made by people from Uganda, Philippines, Haiti and other places. As I was walking, I felt a little disappointed with me because I would buy material things that I don’t even need that cost a lot of money, and I could’ve instead provided meals for children who are starving.
It was my first time volunteering at this place so I had to sit down will the other volunteers and talk a little bit with one of the employees. They showed us a mini compilation of the statistics of starvation in other countries. They said that there are 18,000 children who die from hunger each day. As I was watching it, I felt really emotional and it made me want to know what we, the volunteers, are going to do. After watching the video, we were brought to a room where volunteers pack the food. There were silver tables and plastic containers which had the three substances that we need to pack. In every pack of meal, it had rice, soy protein and dried vegetables. Looking at the stuff looked easy, but as the employee was showing us what to do, we had to learn the different strategies to pack the food, to seal the packed food and to box the packed meals. We needed extra care to pack the food, as much as possible we cannot spill any of the substances because as they have said, they buy all these food. Although, they said that the food that we spill are going to the farm to feed some animals so it wont go to waste.
My boyfriend and I were working with a couple of old ladies and even if we were all in different ethnicities, we all cooperated and understood each other. Some of the ladies we were working with didn’t speak English but I saw in their faces that they were happy with what they were doing. There were other volunteers in the other tables so we got a little competitive. We were working really hard since we only had 2 hours to volunteer and we already lost the ten to fifteen minutes because of the video presentation. After an hour, we counted the boxes that we filled up, and we had 7 boxes of the packed meals and in each box there are 36 packs of food. We all cleaned our stations and washed the utensils. After a couple of minutes the asked us to gather around the boxes and say a little prayer for the food. I think even if there are a couple of people who had a different religion, they didn’t mind saying a little prayer because what they came there for was to help the starving children buy giving their time to volunteer.
This volunteer was an opportunity for me because I felt like I am now capable of helping others who are hungry when I thought I could never do anything to help. I was really happy with the outcome of our hard work and I wish other people would find happiness in sharing what they have and giving a couple of hours to volunteer because it is a very good experience. I had a wonderful experience at the FMSC and I felt like I have accomplished something, it didn’t feel like I was working, it felt like an adventure and as if I brought home something that no one could ever take away from me. I wish I could see the faces of the children who are going to eat the food that we packed, but for now I know that all I can do is to keep volunteering to help these children. This experience is one of my life long happiness and I am going to share it with my friends and family. I think if we all try to be thrifty, not buy expensive things and give a little to the ones who are less fortunate; maybe a lot of people wouldn’t be hungry. There are more things that we should pay attention to instead of the new trends and new advancements that we have in our generation, we just need to open our eyes and do something not by giving money or liking a page on Facebook, or saying that we feel bad for those people, we need to do something like what the organizations are doing to help the less fortunate people.
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Melissa Castillo
Your story was nice to have read. Reading along with you and your acknowledgment of what you are doing wrong in life and walking with you as you realize what’s more important was very nice to have experienced. I’m happy you can see what you have said and done wrong. Not many people realize that there are more important things out there then their materials. Everything seems to be revolved around materialism. That makes our country so cold-hearted. People are so spoiled here they don’t even realize it. They don’t appreciate what we have. There are countries out there with little to no food to eat and we throw tons and tons of food away each day with no conscious thought about it.
I was liking the part about your maid telling you about the meaning of starvation. You told it as if she was very upset. She really explained it well to you. She explained it well enough to make you think twice. I really admire her for telling you the truth and helping you understand the circumstance about it. That tells me she tried to raise you will common sense and not spoil you to your every want and need. Good for her and for you.
The detail about you walking into the building was remarkable. I did the same service opportunity and I really didn’t see any flags. I’m glad that you seen your countries flag. I did see the items they were selling from the other countries and I thought they were all so beautiful. I couldn’t buy anything because I’m short for cash, but I know I would like to go back with more people and purchase an item. Your details of the service act were all on point except for the name of the meal bags. They were called Manapacks. By you speaking of your work being an adventure; it made me really appreciate my visit as well. That was the perfect word to explain the experience. It was a heart and mind changing moment in my life. You did well and bringing your boyfriend was even better. I did the same and brought my fiance.
I like how you wrote about seeing the commercials and hearing the scary music. You thought those kid were all babies. Some of those kids looked like babies because they were all malnutrition. They never gained the weight they were suppose to so their body never grew. I remember those commercials and I used to think “Oh God another one of those commercials wanting money”. Growing up and learning more makes us really think and then think about how harsh we were when we were children.
I believe you will make a difference and your writing can make that difference. You testimony is great and all need to walk with you as I have. Your work was well written and it helped me visualize most of your day down at FMSC. Good luck with your work and I hope to read soon another one of you papers.
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Kristina Marynczak
I enjoyed your paper and glad you had a positive experience with Feed My Starving Children. Your paper was slightly hard to follow. I did understand the main points but some words you use the wrong word or have run-on sentences which can be distracting. For example, “There are more things that we should pay attention to instead of the new trends and new advancements that we have in our generation, we just need to open our eyes and do something not by giving money or liking a page on Facebook, or saying that we feel bad for those people, we need to do something like what the organizations are doing to help the less fortunate people”, should be multiple sentences. So needless to say I had to reread your paper twice to fully understand it. Another pointer can be to organize your paper a little more. I think as a reader I’ve noticed you jumping from main points to supporting details at random. A little help might be just having cleaner transitions between paragraphs. As the reader, I got confused on where your introduction paragraph stops and your body begins. I think maybe you only have one paragraph as your body? Maybe you can add a little more length so it’s not cut short.
You do a very well job with background information. The example of how you had a maid that did everything for you and set your thinking straight is good to know where you came from/think. I’m glad you mentioned you lived in the Philippines because when I was reading your description about homeless children I started to question. I thought about where I live and how it’s pretty impossible to have children sleeping outside and be homeless. (Because of laws and foster homes, as well as DCFS)
YOu set a good mental picture about your views/thoughts prior to you volunteering but lacking that when you talk about the actual event. I understand your nanny changed your views as well as yourself when you grew up but don’t see where it correlates from your service event. You said the event made you realize you can help starving people but is that it? The main message I got is that volunteer work opened your eyes even more and now you know one out of the million ways you can take action in society. Also that you blow too much money on unimportant things. Is that your main message?
Also, don’t forget to add a title. Make sure it is unique and eye-catching. (as well as important as your paper) Your conclusion ties up your thoughts so I can defiantly summarize it perfectly. I’m glad that this experience helped open your eyes to the world and our society. You have a good start, just organize and reword a little and your revised paper will be awesome!
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Jami Busse
First of all I want to say that your first sentence is awesome I like how you didn’t really just start it off like other people started it. I think that starting out with talking about happiness and trying to define it really helps the reader connect with it. I also sometimes do that in my essays to. I think that you showed great detail in everything that you talked about and explained. This is very good to have in here because it gives the reader a visual picture which means you’re a great story teller. I liked how you expressed you’re feeling about things and what you thought about it. That really helped me to understand how you feel about the whole issue. I think that when you said, “This volunteer was an opportunity for me because I felt like I am now capable of helping others who are hungry when I thought I could never do anything to help. I was really happy with the outcome of our hard work and I wish other people would find happiness in sharing what they have and giving a couple of hours to volunteer because it is a very good experience.” This really shows your true feeling on the issue and I’m glad you shared it. I think being honest in these can only help you and not hurt you when you want the reader to understand where you’re coming from and your personal thoughts. I thought that your word choice and your sentence structure was every good. I also liked how you made it seem like a real essay and didn’t just basically answer the question given to us, it really shows that you care about what your writing rather than just doing the assignment. Another quote that stood out to me was, “There are more things that we should pay attention to instead of the new trends and new advancements that we have in our generation, we just need to open our eyes and do something not by giving money or liking a page on Facebook, or saying that we feel bad for those people, we need to do something like what the organizations are doing to help the less fortunate people.” You are so right when you say this and I truly believe that you want to change it. I think that everyone always feels bad but if they really felt bad they would get out there and do something to change it so they wouldn’t have to feel bad and more. Overall I thought it was a great essay and I really enjoyed it. Great job!
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Javier Calderon
There is no doubt that Feed My Starving Children is a great and delightful organization to do volunteer work for. Your reflection paper on your experience with FMSC was good to read and it was very insightful. I did my community service there and had a great time. I could not believe how amazing and how helpful this organization really is. It is just so amazing how just one meal a day can make such a huge a significant difference in a starving child’s life. I also think it is pretty cool how they have engineered their manna formulas to where they are all culturally accepted worldwide. I enjoyed reading your paper form beginning to end because it seems like you put some significant thought into your writing. I liked the beginning of your paper because you talk about our modern day society and how many people define happiness as obtaining material things like electronics, toys, and other accessories. This seems to be very true because everyone seems to be so caught up and consumed in the world of material things. And we see a perfect example of this come Christmas time every year. And that is not good because the more people get caught up in these habits the more they become less appreciative of other things they have. I like how you share the piece of your past were you talk about how you didn’t know what starving meant but eventually with time you went about finding out what it meant. The commercials you talk about that show starving children can be hard to look at and can really throw off your mood to a not so happy mood. It is heart breaking to see children begging for money so they can buy food. I have also seen children outside this country sell flowers and ornaments on the streets so they can make money to buy food. Some of them had serious physical conditions that made the sight of them begging for money even harder to bare. It has been a while since but I must have been 9 years old when I saw these kids out on the streets for the first time and I really could not understand why they were out there. I kept asking my father were their parents were and why they looked so sick. The kids I saw on these streets were no older than 8 years old I remember because the cab driver asked them how old they were and when was the last time they ate. I remember seeing all the flags by the entrance at FMSC and I think it is cool how you saw the Philippine flag. I am sure seeing the Philippine flag motivated you to want to help out more because it made you feel like you can help out the children you saw on the streets. I think it is great how you feel like you are now capable of helping out the less fortunate. That says that your experience at FMSC helped you see something you did not see before. It is great to be able to experience the feeling of accomplishment especially if it was because of a place like FMSC. It would be nice if people became thriftier and considered donating some of the saving s they made out of it. I enjoyed reading your paper.
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Jean Claud Sunga
I wanna do my reading research entry about the KONY2012. I’ve seen the video and its really sad how Joseph Kony is treating the children and what he’s making the children do, such as ti kill their parents and other nasty things. The video has been going around now through internet and i think Jason Russel did a very good job in sharing what is happening in Uganda and watching the video was worth it. A lot of people don’t really care unless they see something that would break their hearts, and this video is one of them. No one wants to see children getting hurt and those children deserve their freedom and not have the fear of being hurt by someone or something. Those children have the right to enjoy their youth just like every other child. because of the video i have research about it and joined the “invisible children”. i have also recruited other facebook friends to check out the page and be a member.
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Jean Claud Sunga
Dear Editor,
Birth control is a controversial issue because of the number of unwanted pregnancies. I’ve read in an article that there a couple of clinics that will be giving birth control to minors. They are already clinics that are giving birth control for minors even without a parents consent. It is true that to prevent unwanted pregnancy at a young age, minors or their parents should be allowed to get birth control. Although, i don’t think they know all the consequences of being in Birth control. It’s kind of just letting minors have sex at a young age and not care because they know they won’t get pregnant. Those kids are still young to be taking those birth control, and there are a lot of side effects that those kids will be going through. The generation now is a lot different from before, maybe because of the laws although i feel like they are still lenient when it comes to children or minors. Those minors who are either being forced to take birth control, taking birth control, or want to take birth control could or should still be playing and enjoying their youth but because they still young they don’t know any better when it comes to sexual intercourse. These children deserve to enjoy their young life and i think if they are aware of the negative impacts of Birth control and if parents are talking to their children about not having sex, instead of taking their daughters to clinics maybe they would understand more and think twice. These minors are not aware of a lot of things and tend to not care because they are still immature, and what they need is more knowledge about this topic. So i think that if there are more articles about this issue on news paper, adults and children would be aware of it.
Sincerely,
Jean Sunga-
Javier Calderon
Your letter to the editor about birth control shows that you are very concerned when it comes to minors using birth control that their parents give them or birth control they actually get themselves at clinics. I am also able to see and understand your purpose in writing this letter to the editor. And if I were to read this letter in the local newspaper myself I would I feel a bit more informed about the issue because I did not know that there are already clinics giving birth control to minors. I have always known about the popularity of birth control because I have many friends that have been using it since they were in high school and that was many years ago. But the few friends that actually talked about it in detail told me that that their mom, dad, or aunt had gotten it for them when they were minors. I don’t know how long these clinics have been given birth control to minors for but I guess as a reader it would be nice to know a year or a roundabout date when these clinics started giving out birth control to minors. And also how underage are we talking about? I mean I think 17 and under is underage for birth control but I think you would really catch the reader’s attention if you were able to put the youngest age number or average age number of underage birth control usesr in your letter. For example if I were to see the age of 14 as a user of birth control I would probably say oh wow! That’s like freshman year high school! They should really be enjoying their teenage years. Also you mention the existence of negative side effects that result of using birth control. Again I think it would really catch the reader’s attention a lot more if you were able to mention some of the most common or most serious side effects of using birth control in your letter. Actually knowing or being able to picture the consequences of using birth control would more than likely be able to make an impact on the reader’s perspective over this issue. I can also agree with you saying that this generation is a lot different than it was before. It seems like everything nowadays is extremely sexually oriented. A lot of the shows we watch on television portray sex as a very casual and recreational act. Along with that a lot of movies and songs also portray recreational intercourse as a very common act. They just make it seem so normal and so accepted that it makes the new generation be more prone to engaging in sexual activities. And it is also true that a great majority of minors are not aware of a lot of important facts when it comes to this matter and just don’t seem to care because they are just too immature. I think that a more in depth sex education plan would be a bit more affective with today’s modern day society teens. Overall I think you are able to get across the message you want your readers to get and I think that if you were able to put in a few concrete facts, your letter would prove to be very effective.
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Jackie Xiques
I felt that you picked a good topic. You seemed concerned about the fact that young people should enjoy their childhood and not resort to being sexual active so young without understanding the consequence. I felt that what you were trying to get across was that birth control should not be so accessible to minors without consent and should be distributed with more discretion. I liked your points but I felt they were at times bias. You failed to look at the other side where there are young people who are on birth control because of medical conditions and not for the sole purpose of sexual intercourse. Parents who take their children to get birth control I do not feel are giving their children permission to have sex but it could be something that is needed. I liked how you said that there were side effects that could affect some in the future but I wanted to know what those side effects were. I t would have made you letter more serious and informative. I liked that you held your opinion that there was an issue that it is being distributed so young but also be sure to give more fact rather than sole opinion. I agree that children are susceptible to things so young and therefore there youth is slowly taken. They are not only taken from their youth but innocence and should not grow up faster than they should. It is unfortunate but I felt as if your paper was entirely about teens taking birth control because they want to have sex and not get pregnant. It is a false misconception for some but you are right about others. I feel that you are right that a parent should be their child is prescribed birth control because it is not something that should just be handed out for no reason. I felt that you held strong opinions and you continued making them throughout the letter. It was straightforward and honest which is what people like to be informed of. I liked that you said people should be more informed such as parents and schools because sex is something that is done so carelessly and results in many teen pregnancies. If they are more informed about sex rather than being given a pill which makes it safer but not completely safe to have sex, they will be more educated on the consequences of their decisions. When someone is being educated on information it is there choice in what way they decide to use it. I remember having to go through sex education in eighth grade and high school and it is taken very immature and as a joke. The real reaction finally comes when it is too late and that person becomes pregnant. It is right to start becoming more serious on this issue because it is an issue that is taken too lightly and has heavy responsibility. Overall your letter was very good and I saw your passion as you voiced your opinions.
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Jami Busse
I really liked your topic I thought that this is a great issue and very relevant for today’s time. I liked how you connected it to how you just read an article on the subject. I too think it is very shocking that these clinics are giving underage girls getting birth control. I totally understand and agree with what you’re talking about saying that the parents should think twice about allowing their daughters to take birth control knowing that they are having sex. I think that parents should be stricter and should care more about what goes on in their child’s life. I think you defiantly conveyed your thought very well. I understood what your views were on the subject and could relate. I really liked how you said that there should be more articles about this issue and I think that this is the only way that people can make themselves aware. I think that it was great of you to address the newspaper directly and give them your opinion. Young kids are vulnerable and immature and I think it is the parents who should really but there foot down and give their children some rules rather than just let them do whatever and give them some pills that can help prevent pregnancies. all together I thought this was a great piece and liked it very much.
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Jean Claud Sunga
For this week’s journal i am going to write about the Video about the Food depository that Prof McGuire posted a couple of days ago. I didn’t go to that field trip or any of the field trips yet but I am looking forward to the upcoming field trips. The food depository explained how their fresh and canned food gets to them and how they dispose it to people who are in need. They also said that without the food depository a lot of people will be hungry and i do agree with them because most of us who can still eat 3 times a day and don’t really pay attention to the food that we are “sometimes” wasting. They also said that because of the basic essential needs of people, like transportation and other things food gets pushed down. The Greater Chicago food Depository offers other programs to like job training programs to help them find jobs. i think that its really great because a lot of people in other countries or places don’t have the opportunity. They also have after school programs for children, they have tutoring, and mentoring and they get to eat hot meals. One of the things that stood out the most while watching the video is when they were saying what we can do and the quote “Give what you can” they also said that if everybody gave one can of food, one dollar and hour of their time will make a very big difference.
“Greater Chicago Food Depository” Youtube.com. Youtube, 5 Feb 2009. Web. 29 Feb 2012. -
Jean Claud Sunga
Elevator Speech Outline
there are choices that people make because of the bad choices that they made, Sometimes that what they do leads to something worse.
One of these is Abortion.
- a very big issue because there are two sides to it.
-pro abortion
-against abortion - According to the Bible, Abortion is wrong and its considered as killing.
Abortion is bad and should not be permitted.\
Reasons:- babies deserve to live
- these women or teens should be responsible for their actions and not take the easy way out
- There are about 42 million abortions that occur every year worldwide and there are about 3,700 abortions per day.
- those fetus or babies are helpless
They should think about if first before they do it because they are a lot of women who regret getting an abortion and said that they regret what they have done.
Adoption can be another thing for them to consider if they are not ready to take care of the baby.
they can also do counseling or talk to people they trust
they can also try to ask for help from other organizations or family member is money is the issue, if they think they cant give the baby a better future because of their financial issues.Abortion can lead to medical complications and other problems, not just for women but also for their partners.
For example:
- Depression
- guiltiness
- both can lose affection with each other
- some women die
- some women who had abortions may not be able to have babies anymore
Abortion is wrong and should be stopped because we all came from our mothers womb and those babies deserve to experience what we have experienced.
what we can do
- join organizations
- donate money(if we have any extra)
- spread the word
- talk to younger kids or teens because its better that they have knowledge about this because they can save a babies life in the future, or they can help out their friends in the future.
- a very big issue because there are two sides to it.
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Jean Claud Sunga
The reading journal entry that I’m going to do for this week is about the video about the Philosopher, Martha Nussbaum. What i got from it is when he was talking about how people always have something to say, for example how some people in our society have disabilities and because people like to judge even if they don’t want to, it comes out naturally now even if we don’t want to. She also said how we need to learn how to educate children about issues like this. We all know that when we are young we are clueless, well sometimes, we are immature and all we want to do is laugh and have fun and sometimes we don’t know that we are hurting other people because we are young and careless. We can’t really blame the kids, especially if they are not being taught well enough, kids are just kids. I agree with Martha that we need to learn how to educate kids about issues like these. She also said how over time things keep evolving and developing. She also said that the community joins together out of love. I believe that is true because in most places we say hi or acknowledge people around us that we see every day because they’re the people that we got used to seeing every day and we can say we care for them even if we don’t know them. i think most of the things that Martha said was true because it is what’s happening in real life.
Nussbaum,Martha. “Social Justice.”in-class. 22 Feb,2012.-
Prof McGuire
This citation is incorrect–despite the fact most of your peers are following one another on this one. Look it up, everyone. Don’t follow the person in front of you as they run off the cliff :-)
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Jean Claud Sunga
Many people choose the easiest way to get rid of “a problem” that they think they can’t handle. Something that they didn’t plan and something that they don’t want to deal with for the rest of their lives. Abortion is one of them. A lot of women don’t know what to do especially teens because they are scared to let their parents know. They all have different reasons why they want to abort the baby. Abortion does not only happen in one country, it happens in a lot of country although some countries ban abortion. There are about 25 percent of pregnancies that are aborted in the United States. This is a very big issue because it is life that they are taking away. Those babies deserve to live and experience life on earth. This is an issue towards Women and teenage girls. There are other ways to do to save the babies rather than just getting rid of them. In today’s society, many teenage girls have unwanted pregnancy because of the decisions they do with their partners. Many girls get pregnant at a young age for different reasons so they easily think that abortion is the number one thing that will solve their problem. There are a lot of medical complications that women and teens can go through when they get abortion. Abortion maybe easy to do, or think about doing but it will cause problems in the long run, not just physically, but emotionally. The reason why this is an issue that everyone should care about is because those fetus or babies have life too and abortion is an act of killing and should not be permitted.
There are different reasons why women consider abortion. One of them is if they’re financial issues. Most people think about money first maybe because they don’t have that much money to support a family. Another reason is if they are young and don’t want a baby at a young age. Another reason is religion, or country laws. Another reason is if they’re birth didn’t work and they don’t want to have a baby. Another reason is if they are scared that their babies have any birth defects and they don’t want to raise a child like that. These children have the right to live and their mothers or even fathers should be responsible for the actions that they have done. There have been 45 million abortions performed in the in the US since 1973.
There are about 42 million abortions that occur every year worldwide and there are about 3,700 abortions per day. Many of us don’t even know the number of babies who are being killed through abortions every year. There is a lot of stories everyday concerning abortions especially teen abortions. Women who just had abortion are prescribed into taking birth control pills so that they don’t need to consider abortion anymore. Although taking birth control doesn’t really change the fact that a fetus is being destroyed. Birth control is one of the contraceptives that women take to prevent pregnancy. There are other forms of contraceptives if a woman doesn’t want to be pregnant, such as condoms, different kinds of birth control, the diaphragm or Abstinence. There are a lot present struggles people are facing in working on this issue, one is trying to persuade these women or teenagers to see a different perspective other than abortion. Another struggle is putting the word out there. People who are trying to stop abortion are not really being heard worldwide, not everyone really listens to them because its either they don’t care, or they are not in the position of getting an abortion but that is not the point. Talking about abortion and how it really works and affects not just the baby but the person getting an abortion can help a lot of people who are experiencing unwanted pregnancy because it helps them realize what they are doing and what can happen after. There are women and teens who share their experiences after having an abortion and most of these stories are not pleasing to hear. One teenage girl shared her story and said “I looked for the easy way…abortion. It was the only way to keep it from my parents and not let my friends know about it” she also said that she have seen girls in school carrying babies, and she wishes that instead of aborting the baby she could brought to the world but she did the opposite. She said to “think before you do it, because life has a lot of regrets”. These words are very simple yet powerful because it’s the truth to everything we do.
Most conservative religious groups are the ones who are usually against abortion and the ones who speaks about it more often because the bible says that abortion is wrong. There are organizations and clubs such as Family Planning, Planned Parenthood, national right to life, and other anti-abortion companies are helping one another and spreading the word of saving lives by not doing abortion. They do speeches in-front of people in different states or cities, send out flyers and pamphlets, talk to women who are thinking about abortion and planning on aborting their babies, give women other ways to help them choose a better decision, inform women and even men with the medical complications that may happen after the abortion and offer hotlines.
There are different ways in getting involved to this issue. We can join campaigns that are anti-abortions and spread the word by sending emails, posting articles online since our generation now is very hi-tech or anything that we can possibly do to make a difference. As an individual, if we have friends or loved ones or just anyone who are thinking about abortion or wanting abortion, we should try our best into talking to them and making them realize that their decision is wrong, or the abortion is wrong and killing an undeveloped embryo or fetus is the same thing as killing a person, the only difference is that, the baby or fetus is powerless and helpless. There are different organizations that we can contact such as, AbortionNo.org, their contact info is
PO Box 219, Lake Forest, CA 92609 /949-206-0600/ info@cbrinfo.org / Facebook / Twitter / Podcast
This website shows videos of how abortion is.
National Right to life:
CONTACT INFORMATION
National Right to Life Committee
512 10th St. NW
Washington, DC 20004
(202) 626-8800
NRLC@nrlc.orgThis website shows videos of abortion, they are doing that to expose the cruelness of abortion. the videos are very interesting yet sickening in a way because its not something that we don’t want to see but it actually helps seeing these videos because we can have more information to what is actually happening inside an abortion clinic, what is actually happening to babies or fetuses, and how it looks so easy for those doctors to take out a fetus in a woman’s womb. It also has articles about abortion, it has facts of abortion and ways to help other women who are thinking of aborting their babies. They have blogs that we can post to or send out thoughts and read other peoples thoughts. They also offer jobs and internships such as marketing, accounting, public relations, web design, video editing, security, administration, transportation, research and graphic design. It also shows pictures and articles on what the government or police is doing to those people who are trying to fight abortion.
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Jami Busse
I really liked you essay. I think that your topic, abortion, is a very talked about and controversial I was really surprised when I read that 25 percent of pregnancies are aborted in the United States. I totally agree with what you said that those babies deserve to live. I liked how you gave your opinion and your views about the issue. I was totally shocked when I read this about how many abortions, “There have been 45 million abortions performed in the in the US since 1973” this is shocking and I cannot believe that we would have 45 million more people. I liked how you gave all these facts it was very informative. I was also shocked that 42 million abortions occur every year this startled me a lot. I think I was taken aback by this statement so much because abortion is such a controversial thing here in the United States that I don’t think about how it is in other countries. I liked how you added that example from the girl that shared her story and said, ““I looked for the easy way…abortion. It was the only way to keep it from my parents and not let my friends know about it” I think this girl is being very honest. A lot of teenagers do get abortion just because that knows they would not be able to handle it. Personally I agree with you and say that every baby deserves to live and that I would never get an abortion. I liked how you added the things about raising awareness and how the organizations go out and talk to people and spread the word that there is other things that you can do like adoption. I really like your essay and thought it had great structure and word choice. You did a great job.
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Javier Calderon
The subject of abortion is most definitely a very controversial one. Even though it seems that a significant amount of people oppose it, it is still legal. The debate over this issue has been going on for years and just seems to be at a stalemate. People in this country have so many different views and beliefs and just can’t seem to agree on one side .I think there is a lot of truth behind your statement on how many people choose the easiest way to get rid of their problems. And abortion for the most part is used as an easy way out. I say for the most part because I have heard of some situations in the past were parents a family force the abortion on their pregnant loved ones who had no other choice or other situations where the birth of the child would mean the death of the baby and mother. An unplanned pregnancy for the most part is very devastating. It truly is sad that pregnant women have to resort to this option for whatever their reasons might be. And it is even more upsetting to think of all of the abortions that take place every day all over the world. It is also sad to hear about the cases where there are couples trying everything they can to conceive a baby while others are aborting them. You mention in your paper that abortion is easy to think of when it comes to looking for an easy solution to the unwanted pregnancy problem and that these women getting the abortions fail to think of all the negatives that come with the procedure. It has been proven that these women are prone to negative health implications and emotional issues as well after the procedure is done. Before reading your paper I had no idea that the number of abortions in this country was so high. It really gets you thinking of all the irresponsible people having sex and all of the problems and emotional scars these women and their families have to live with the rest of their lives. I can agree with you when you say people don’t listen or just don’t care about people trying to inform them against abortion. And I think it is because it is an issue people don’t like to think of or it is an issue that has been in circulation for such a long time that it just seems like it’s never going to end. I do believe that making people see the bigger picture of this issue would definitely help cut down on the abortion rates and make women thinking of abortion see the actual consequences. You make it clear you are against abortion and would like to help put an end to it. You state some of the problems that come with having abortions and what can be done to make people more aware of the severity of abortions. You also give some points of contacts which people can use to be more aware of the issue. One thing I would like to know is what is it that is stopping our government from making abortions illegal.
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Jackie Xiques
Abortion is something that can be looked at from both sides for some people and one side from others. In my opinion I am against abortion but I feel if someone is raped they should not be looked down at for having an abortion. Overall it was a very good paper. I was surprised to see all of the statistics you gave and it was sickening to find out just how many babies are approximately getting killed evry year. I wish there were more ways to help people who were considering abortion but it seemed from your paper the best bet would be to help that person consider other options. I just wish there were more organizations that could help me become better understand on becoming involved and help fight abortion as an option. I agree with you that it is unfair to the baby and how it is an abomination in the Bible. I remember from the elevator speeches that were held in class that referencing the Bible in your paper may not be the smartest just because not everyone may follow the Bible. I liked how you gave all of the reasons why most people have abortions. It helped to give me a better understanding of how I can empathize with a person and their decision to keep the baby or kill it. It is sad that killing an unborn child is even an option in our society and I agree that people should deal with their consequences of bringing their child into life. I was not surprised to see how many people seemed regretful of aborting their child and they saw that after they aborted their baby that other people were walking around school having theirs. At that moment the girl realized that abortion did not have to be the final answer and instead of being selfish she could have raised a beautiful baby. It is true just how much an abortion can have medical side effects. I have heard that it is hard for some to have babies again after an abortion. That would be sad to find that choosing to have sex at a young age and going through with an abortion; it can prevent you from starting a family later on in life when you are actually prepared. I liked how you gave medical examples and explained it not only affects the woman but her partner as well. As you wrote, it causes people to loose relationships and becoming angered towards each other. It is a decision that is very difficult to make and having to live with the memory of being pregnant and being able to have the baby and struggle or abort it and get rid of the problem. It is unfortunate that people take the easy way out. I believe abortion is the most selfish act and in some ways can be looked at as murder. If people are having sex and are not ready for a baby protection needs to be in place.
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Jean Claud Sunga
I really like the story “your mother and I” because it was really interesting and it sounded just like a father talking to his daughter or son. Its funny in a way because he was talking about things that he shouldn’t be talking about around his child or to his child. I think all parents are like that that’s why i find it funny. it started of as the father just talking about normal things specially if they are doing something while talking to each other. Then, they started talking about how things are quickly changing from time to time. he then talked about how his wife gets “horny” and other inappropriate things, i think its whats making him remember the things that has happened over time. although there is something that i didn’t quite understand though and its when he said “there is a program where everyone can redo one year of their childhood. For $580, you could go back top the year of your choice, and do that one again “. I don’t know what he’s trying to say or if there’s a message behind that i really don’t know, maybe i have misunderstood it, so whoever knows what that means i would be happy to know. Anyway, the whole story was really fascinating because we can see that the mom and dad really loved each other, and have been through so many things in their lives but they are still together. Specially when the dad always talks about his wife and how beautiful she is when her hair is up.
Eggers,Dave.”How we are hungry.” Your Mother and I. McSweeney’s,2002. 115-123. Splatter:Messy Art of Writing.Web. 19 Feb,2012. -
Jean Claud Sunga
the “who should survive” activity seemed easy but it was really hard because the people on the activity are the kinds of people we have in our society today. It’s very hard to eliminate people or even just a person because we shouldn’t be doing that. when I started doing the activity on my own i thought maybe its not a big deal if i just pick the weakest people. so i did. when we got into groups and talked about the people we want to eliminate, i kind of saw a pattern too, that we all eliminated the weakest people. Those people who we think wouldn’t be able to survive because of their disabilities or what they used to do or their age. I feel bad that we did because in real life we would be doing the same thing if we were in same scenario. Its sad that almost everyone in the class picked the weakest people, and i am not being a hypocrite because i did the same thing. In our society those people who are weak are the already on the bottom and most of us sometimes just step on them and we don’t even realize it. Our generation now have a lot of influences from people who are above us or we think is above us so we try to be like them thinking that its the right thing to do. we try to fit in and think that we have to keep striving hard for ourselves to become a better person, to get what we want, to survive what life has for us. But other people don’t have that opportunity, and instead of helping them we still do our best to make Ourselves better than everybody else.
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Jean Claud Sunga
Dave Eggers’ short story about the soldier who was shot, dragged from his vehicle and mutilated in the dust, I felt the pain of the author because it may not be a member of his family or a friend but if anyone can do that to a soldier what more can they do to an ordinary person who thinks that he or she is safe wherever he is? I can sense from the story that the author thinks that there is more to what the news paper is saying. That there is more to the picture that he saw and that he didn’t believe that he soldier was just shot, he thinks he was tortured. In the first paragraph it’s saying how the guy felt like he needed to do something but he didn’t know what it is that he needed to do. I think this part, is where he felt his instincts and had a gut feeling that something bad happened. I feel the same way whenever something happens or even before it happens, i think its natural because that instinct is our way connecting ourselves to something that is really important. I really don’t know how else to describe that. Towards the bottom of the story, the author said that the man wanted to do more things as he was looking at the smoke from the factory, i think the smoke of the factory symbolizes the bad things that is happening and he wishes that he could do something about that but he couldnt.
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Jean Claud Sunga
“What I would die, kill and live for”
There are a lot of things in the world that are worth living,killing and dying for. Everyone in the world have their own reasons because we all have different things that we want, need and care about. My family is worth living for, because ever since i was born they have been on my side and guided me throughout the decisions that i make for myself. They never gave me a reason to rebel and feel like they don’t love me, or i am not needed. My family are my role model and they are the reason why i am who i am now. They have shaped my personality and raised me well. They taught me things that I know other people wouldn’t, and one of those things is unconditional love. Love is another thing that is worth living for, without love some people would be sad and unhappy. The feeling of being loved feels really great especially when it comes from people who you truly cares about you.
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Jackie Xiques
This was my third article that I read and out of the three this one seemed to be my favorite. Some of your answers were refreshing and unexpected which made it interesting to read. Family seems to be important to you because they were brought up within the first paragraph. You incorporated family into almost all of your answers and I was happy to see that. You seemed to have a strong opinion about what is going on in our country and the economic stand point. I agreed with all of the statements that were said about the wrong people getting taxed. I feel that has a lot to do with the type of party we elect and how they go about taxing the right people in the right ways. I do agree that it is crazy to think that the cost of living is so high but salary wages seem to stay the same or even lessen. Jobs are now more than ever scarce and hard to find. It is a struggle to believe we are making something of ourselves but might not end up getting paid what we deserve because of the struggle of the economy. The issue is talked about daily but more of an action needs to be made soon or the recovery will be even harder. I agree with peoples’ selfishness and abusing the money they receive from the government. They are proud of the fact they know exactly how to work the system to their advantage so that they can take the easy way out and spend the money other people actually work for. It is an unfair system and there needs to be a new idea to change that. I agree that the more years pass the less manners people retain. The attitudes of society are so rude and out of line that it has become socially acceptable to be inconsiderate. Children now more than ever are defiant to their parents and even worse in public. If we were to go back years ago if a situation were to happen like that the children would be burdened with corporal punishment which gave them room to grow into their obedience. It also how you said children are using the police to their advantage if a parent tries to fulfill their duties in disciplining them because of how our society has changed. It is very sad to see and admit. I would also love to know facts that others do not know about. I also believe that there is so much the government keeps a secret and we are only allowed certain information. I know the classified information would be shocking but I would love to know things that the public are blinded by. There are so many theories about the government that go unanswered that I would be very interested in learning about. Overall this was a very well structured essay that gave many different views. The responses were very relatable and I was enlightened to different perspectives that I would not have normally considered. I feel it was a great essay.
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Javier Calderon
This paper is different from the ones I have read so far. Different in a way that it just doesn’t concentrate so much on family but it also mentions our current issues in society. You make it clear that your family and loved ones are very important and that you appreciate what they have done for you. I also feel like family is very well worth living for and my family too has been there for me since day one. And you make a great point when you say that being loved feels really great when it is coming from a person or people you really care about. What goes on in our modern day society is very important because it affects all of us in many ways. The sad part is that many people do not seem to realize that and think that they can just leave it someone else and wait for it to get better. Today’s economy is no joke and is cause for concern. And you make an excellent point about taxes being so ridiculously high and the wrong people taking advantage of that. Every time I look at my earning statements I feel like there is too much taxes being taken out. And yes it kills to see how there are many people that take advantage of our tax dollars and remain ungrateful and demand more and more instead of looking for a job or doing something productive with their lives or families. It truly is sad to see people act and live like that. And it is really hard to even try and understand why it is that they live and think that way. I also think that is sad how these new generations of kids seem to be even more disrespectful than the past generations of kids. It sure would be nice to see a change when it comes to these matters because these kids are the future of our nation. And it would be nice to know some of the things that go on behind closed doors within our government. A lot of us have wondered many times what it is that goes on within our government or if what they are doing is best for us. But along with that there might be some things that are best left secret. I agree with their having to be a good enough valid reason for committing the act of killing. I agree with many of the points you made in this paper. This paper really shows how you care about your family and the important things that go on in our modern day society. I too feel that it is important to care about all of these matters because it affects all of us and after all it is a society in which our future kids and family will be living in.This paper has good structure and is effective at getting its points across through the reader. I am not the best reader or responder there is so I would like to apologize if there is something that I possibly misunderstood or missed completely.
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Jami Busse
After reading your piece i thought it was good. it was very different from the others that i have read. Your ideas seemed to be about your personal feelings about things and not what you think the answer should be. I think that you really thought about it and reflected on your life and what you believe. When reading, I can see your opinion about things and the things you feel strongly about. I like how you started off your first paragraph by jumping right into it and saying that you live for your family becasue you love them and you can feel the love that they give you. i also agree with what you said about how are family shapes are personality and the way we are raised. i loved when you said, “I care about a lot of things but what i care about the most is what i see and experience on my everyday life.” I to think this statement is very true and you worded this very well. I was suprised when you said that you cared for the economy becasue I it suprises me that some one would live for it escpecially with how it is today. I liked how you brought in your experiences from your experciences at work. i think you can connect with a reader and let them see you for you when you tie in personal things like your job and your hobbies. i can totally understand when you talked about people haveing really bad attitudes and not respecting others. i also can not stand when someone disrespect their teacher or parents. i defiently connected with what you said about how you would die for your future spouse and kids becasue i to would do the same. It schocked me to see that you would die for a chance to know a secrecret goverment information. i found that as a suprise csaue ive never heard that before. I think that your word choices were good and your sentence structure was great. I think you really put in alot of thought into this piece. i can see that your very instinctive when reading that you would kill for food if you were in the circumstances that you would need to. i think that this good quality to have. i found it very sweet and romantic when you said that you would kill for, die for and live for your signifcant other. I hope i have that feeling for someone someday. i think you said it weel when you said that your feelings could change in the future. everyone’s feeling change and i think that its good that you admitted it. I think that you got your message and opinions across greatly. i think that you easily connect with your audience by useing things that connect with the reader and i think that you did this very well. I enjoyed reading your piece and look forward to reading more in the future.
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Jean Claud Sunga
thank you all for your comments i greatly appreciate it! I am glad that you guys enjoyed my writing, I really appreciate that. And thank you for taking your time in writing your comments. :)
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Jean Claud Sunga
I think ecological literacy means knowing the principles of the ecosystem and how we can incorporate that knowledge into our everyday life rather than ignoring it. Natural disasters that happen to our community, other places, states or countries are the effects of the simple things that we are doing in this generation now. The continuous inventions of electronic devices, the apathetic attitude of people and maybe the endless use of money to buy unnecessary things are leading us to ignoring what nature has for us and preserving Mother Nature. I am not saying i don’t do any of these, but I’m just talking in general and stating my opinion. I think ecological literacy also means, accepting what is around us or people we meet every day no matter what ethnicity he or she is. The diversity is what’s making us a community. According to Fritjof Capra, if we understand the pattern of ecology we can solve more problems. I think we can become ecologically literate if we practice ways on how to live a sustainable life. Also, if we look at the things that actually matters the most and help one another, is another way of being ecologically literate. I think ecologically literate means to appreciate Mother Nature. I don’t really know if I am ecologically literate but i value the things around me specially the nature. I don’t dispose my garbage everywhere; instead i look for a garbage can or just keep it with me until i find one. One of my pet peeves is seeing fast food cups on the at the parking lot ground.
Capra, Fritjof. “From the Web of Life.” Print.
Jackie Xiques, 
Javier Calderon, 
Jami Busse and one other person are discussing. 
Grace Cosentino, 
Jean Claud Sunga, and 
Klem Bachleda are discussing. 
Kristina Marynczak and one other person are discussing. 
Jaclyn Epstein 1:41 pm on April 23, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I really enjoyed your paper. It seemed as if alot of groups had a hard time actually volunteering with an organization for various reasons. The most common two reasons seem to be timing, and that the organizations are not looking for anyone to help at the moment. The timing thing is understandable to me though, everyone had their own things going outside of this Com 102 class. Some of us do not have lots of spare time to actually go volunteer. “There will be a point in our life time that we will need help from other people. A time where we will would wish and hope as much as those people who are in need of help now. ” I really like this statement. Everyone at some point in their life will need help, wheter it be a big task, or small task. Alot of people have too much pride to ask for help though, which is sad. Because everyone really does need help with something, wheter they like to admit it, or not. It is important to help people, even if you do not directly know them. I like that you and your group are going to volunteer at a food pantry. Hunger is a really huge issue that affects alot more people than we even know. “ 5.6 million households obtained emergency food from food pantries at least once during 2009.” This fact is really crazy, and eye opening. I knew that the economy was bad, and that times were tough, but that is so surprising. “To be honest I dislike working in groups because if not everybody agrees on something, nothing will be done. It is very hard to work in groups especially because we have different schedules and we all work but I know it shouldn’t be an excuse to not be able to do our project. One person’s mistake can affect every ones hard work.” I COULD NOT AGREE WITH YOU MORE. Working in groups just adds 10x more stress on to a project. It is hard relying on people to work together and actually trust that they will do their part. Especially since we really did not know the people we would be working with too well. Working in groups always makes me anxious because it is like I am putting my grade in their hands, I do not like that feeling at all. But I got lucky with my group because we all pretty much worked together. You seem pretty passionate about helping the hungry and that is really good! Even though you did not go volunteer yet, your paper is really good! I could tell I will probably enjoy your actual service learning paper! With that being said, I cannot wait to actually read it!
Jami Busse 9:14 pm on April 23, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
First of all I want to say that I really enjoyed reading this and think that your group and many others are having the same problem. I think you really want to help and you express you’re feeling about the topic and cause very well. I liked how you were totally honest and said, “To be honest I dislike working in groups because if not everybody agrees on something, nothing will be done. It is very hard to work in groups especially because we have different schedules and we all work but I know it shouldn’t be an excuse to not be able to do our project. One person’s mistake can affect every ones hard work. And that is what i am scared of. It’s easier to blame myself if I made a mistake in a project or paper than to be blamed or to blame someone for not getting a good grade.” I felt the same way and I’m sure a lot of other people also felt the same way. I work way better when I’m by myself and relaying on myself to get the job done. I think you could improve by adding little details like the names of group members and maybe go into finer detail to give it more of the story telling aspect even though you did a great job with it already. I think that you did great with not turning explaining something into babbling about it so that is good. That’s awesome that you have found a place to volunteer at and I think that is working in your favor and just like my group we haven’t gone and volunteered yet. I really like how you concluded with this, “Even though there’s a lot of conflict going on to finish this project, I am still looking forward to this project and hopefully we get to do it on time and give a really good presentation for the fair. This shows that your group can overcome things and face setbacks and still get the job done. Overall I really enjoyed your piece and thought it was very well written with little to no errors. I think that this piece is great and I really enjoyed it. Great job.
Javier Calderon 5:41 am on April 24, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I really enjoyed reading your paper it gives a lot of details of what you have been through so far with your group. Me and my group are focusing on the same idea as your group is. We also feel like this is an issue that should really be addressed. Our help efforts might sometimes seem like they will not really count for much. But it reality they do once we get involved and actually see how all of our efforts piece together and end up making difference in some one’s life. And know that you were able to make a difference in a person’s life truly is extremely satisfying. It is the kind of satisfaction that cannot be bought. I think if more people volunteered and made efforts to donate the world would be a little bit better. But all we can do is try and keep going forward. I like the how you use real facts to support your paper. That is good because it shows the reader that you are taking extra steps other than just volunteering for your cause. It says you have more insight about the matter at hand. And that is also good because numbers and facts grabs people’s attention and sometimes really gets them thinking. I can see what you mean when you say you dislike working with groups because of all of the difficulties that can result due to disagreements. And when it is not that time, schedules can be very conflicting and have an impact on the group’s overall performance. But when it comes down to it the job needs to get done and one way or another it is possible to complete the group work. Im glad to read that you were able to contact several organizations. I had a hard time finding an organization that had available slots for our group. A lot of them said that they were short on food or that they already had all the help they needed. The other ones that said they had slots available but were not until the end of next month and of course that is too late for us. I was truly surprised by this but it only pushed me to find an organization to actually be able to work with. I Guess we all had similar problems when it came to these organizations. The one we were able to find also told us they were limited on supplies and only needed a few volunteers. This just seems to be the case for most of the organizations out here. Even though you know the organization you chose to work with has limited amount of food to work with you still seem to have a good attitude about the overall project. And that is good thing because not being optimistic wouldn’t help at all. I am sure that once you make a trip out there and get sometime there you will be able to have a great things to say and add to your groups presentation.
Jackie Xiques 11:42 am on April 24, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
The thing that I liked the best about your paper was when it said “to be continued”. I like that because it showed that you were just getting started with your project and it showed that you were ready for what was coming when you actually did your service act. My group also when the route of the find pantry because it was something that we all felt passionate about. It was not the first idea that we thought of but after going through other this idea just seemed most fitting. I liked how in your paper you included honesty such as you not wanting to work in groups. I agree with you because it is a lot of pressure because everyone wants certain things done in their way. I liked that you listed facts about starvation and how badly it is escalating. People need to be more aware of things going on in their own country as well as others. It can’t be done by one person alone but a little help from everyone can make a strong and solid difference. I also liked how you included all of the organizations that you contacted. It shows the reader the strong effort that you are putting in to the project and that you are determined to find a place that is suitable for each member in the group. It seemed like you contacted many places which is also shows that you really feel passionate about your topic and doing everything that you can to make sure your mission is understood and the requirements of this project are met. I was happy to read that you had finally found an organization that worked for everyone in the group and being ha everyone has a different schedule, it still worked out in the groups favor. I overall felt that you had a solid and structured paper. It was a nice read and I liked that you were through throughout the paper. This paper was challenging because some groups were not able to find time before the draft was expected to be due, so there was less room for details and explanation. It was also a hard thing to do with all the other requirements that were expected to be completed. I was saddened to read that the organization that you had chosen was so small that there was barely any work to be done. It is hard to find a good organization that makes a big difference. All of the small food pantries that have little food received are still making a difference even though the work is small. I feel that there should be more work done for people to know where they are able to donate their food and all of the canned foods that sit in our cabinets and go to waste. They are able to last even past expiration and the food pantries know how long food can really stay good for without getting people sick. I really enjoyed reading your paper and keep up the good work!