...African-American College Students: Personal History, Struggles, and Graduation Rheon Gibson Northern Illinois University Abstract In this report, I discuss the importance of African-American college students in higher education realms and why the topic appeals to my interests. I will also identify trends in research questions, methodology, and research findings; regarding three identified themes; Personal History, Struggles, and Graduation. In addition, I will provide the reader with an evaluation/critique of the existing literature, including; 1) contributions of literature to the field, 2) overall strengths, 3) overall weaknesses, 4) missing elements, and 5) what are the next steps for research. African-American College Students: Personal History, Struggles, and Graduation Introduction Importance to the Field Educational attainment amongst African-Americans is a crucial concept that not only affects African-American communities but it also affects society as a whole. Education provides a solid foundation for individuals to experience personal growth, increase one’s socioeconomic status, and obtain professional careers and licensures. Obtaining higher education does not begin upon admission to an accredited college or university; instead, it begins when one is first introduced to the educational system. This introduction can be in Kindergarten, Pre-K, the first year of home school, or wherever the first fundamental steps of acquiring a higher knowledge of comprehension...
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...through the first month of classes. Initially when I took improve I didn’t know what to expect. I wasn’t necessarily excited for Improv but I wasn’t unhappy to take it either. The first time I actually took Improv was when I was 16. I was in summer acting conservatory for NYC kids at Sarah Lawrence College and we had Improv every single day for several hours. It was so much fun and I found that I excelled at it. I was able to think quickly on my feet and create a piece with my partner in the exercise that was funny, flowed well and was easy to follow however, that was when I was 16. Now as a 19-year-old college student who hadn’t studied improve for several years, I was a little nervous. Its one thing to study Improv for a month straight and another, to take it as a college course. I was worried that maybe I might suck. Fear grew bigger and bigger inside the pit of my belly the beginning of the semester. As my fear grew bigger my patience grew less. I didn’t realize that many improve 1 students are freshman and although I was just a freshman myself last year, I could see the major difference in discipline between the two. I use to get irritated due to the lop-sided circle, the struggle to get through the warm-up games or the excessive side conversations. I didn’t feel connected to my ensemble and I also felt like we didn’t get through as much due to talking. I remember around that time whenever I participated in an exercise I would feel extremely lost and confused. Early on...
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...The reason I decided to go back to college at this time in my life is because I want more. I want a career, not just another job. I want to be a role model for my children, to be someone that they can look up too. I want my children to see me work hard, and see the determination that I have, so that they too will do the same. The main reason is to be that example to my children , and by going back to school, my children will see that anything is possible and that they need to work hard and to stay focused. But another reason is I want a career, a career will provide much more for myself and my family. At this time, finances are a struggle. Within the last two years, I have had 9 surgeries, and most of those two years I have been unable to work, and provide more for my children. Another reason is I want to feel like I have achieved something in my life. At the age of 17 I dropped out of high school, due to pregnancy. Finally in 2003 I went and took and passed my GED. Even though I passed, I don’t feel as though I have achieved anything. Years passed and I struggled with what I wanted to do. I considered nursing, criminal justice, and there was also a point that anything and everything was put on the back burner...
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...One of the great things I appreciate about art is how it can profoundly have an effect on many people in different ways that are meaningful and influential. A piece of art can have breakthroughs in relevant revolutions where it can interpret the way a certain struggle can be justified. Most of the time, when something like this happens, we immediately realized how we are part of something bigger. Whether it’s because it was God’s intent to unite us or the revolutionary movement of humanity reflecting what Mother Nature has always shown us. The tough love that is needed to better evolve and how everything is connected in various manifestations when it comes to our ecosystems in different societies. Because of this complex environment, is the reason why we are egotistical creatures by always trying to make proof that our culture and where we come from is like no other and par to none. This observation was very evident when I visited the Saint Petersburg College’s art gallery located at the Clearwater, Florida campus. While I was glazing at the many wonderful art pieces our student body created I could foresee how advanced humanity has become as a whole. Then I see this astounding painting reaching for some type of swords that were more like levitating from a pair of hands pointing up and down from left to right and standing with one leg while the other was lifted and reaching across the other leg in a trance posture. As I got closer, I realized I was looking at Franklin...
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...heard, I was convicted of a crime I did not commit and given 10 years in prison with 5 years to serve. Since getting out of prison, I have felt like society is against me. It feels like people I know along with the legal system keeps holding my criminal record over my head. Rather than helping me and my children to make a better life for ourselves, people continually remind me of what I did and that I am a felon. The legal system is no better. Instead of funding programs to help a person become a productive citizen, the legal system keeps pushing people back into the streets by not giving them a chance to learn how to survive once you have gotten a criminal record. Along with this, you have to struggle everyday just to make it in this society. Living becomes an everyday struggle because you can’t...
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...life is. Without faith, motivation for the achievement of goal is completely lost and the person ends up becoming a failure in his life. If we observe the reasons behind the failure of any person, we find that one of the main factors responsible for his failure is lack of faith. Faith is the only power that inspires a human being in despair. But if a person loses faith during the period of struggle, he gives up hope for any success and succumbs to the unfavorable situations. So, an individual without faith is as good as a dead person. His life is just like a deflated balloon. So, we can truly conclude that faith is the foundation stone of any project that is undertaken with a will to complete. It is that driving force which enlightens the candle of hope by giving strength to fight against all odds. A person having faith may face failures in his or her life, but he does not lose his heart in despair. He knows that the obstacles that are coming in his way are only temporary and he will ultimately be successful in achieving his goal. It was only because of faith, that during the freedom struggle, a whole lot of freedom fighters struggled till the...
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...Life is full of twists and turns .Everyone has to struggle here in this world to overcome every obstacle in the way to success.For this hard work is necessary. Without working hard and just by sitting idle it will be hard for one to get success. Since from childhood and till now I always remember the sentence that my parents used to tell me "TO be A better person in life and to get success YOU havE to work hard, The result of hard work is always fruitful,so YOU have to work hard". I want to give exampleS from my experience today whatever I am its only becAUSE of hard work. For a guy from A lower class family it is almost impossible to GRADUATE in enginneering BY FINANCING YOURSELF. It's only becAUSE of the regular hard work I got A scholarship to do BTECh.I don't believe in luck since luck is never my LOT. Today's world is a competItive world. Everyone here wants to be famous and wantS success in his life. Whether he may be A successful boxer, sportman, actor or writer his present positiOn is only due to hard work.Let's take an example FROM people who win gold medalS in THE OLYMPIC Games ,novel??? prize in differENT fields of knowledge is only because of hard work. Luck has nothing to do with it .Just by watching television and siTTing idle if YOU are saying that can bend down success in your knee means YOU are wrong. YeS perhaps YOU HAVE got success sometimes becAUSE of your luck but it is not true always .Saying that I am A lucky person success automatically comes ....these...
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...This is my season under heaven my time to grow, to struggle, to trust and to fight. This is my time to be born, to be born to be just Kisha not daughter, not sister, not wife, not mom. Those are roles I know how to play. I can resume those roles at a later date, but now it’s time to look into the mirror of my heart. It is time for me to put away the persistent little voice that says “you can not do it”. This is time to only worry about “what I can do”. This is my time to plant the seeds of hope. I choose were to plant and I choose to rejoice in the harvest. This is my time to heal. This is my time for my family to heal. I will always embrace the power of healing. This is my time to tear down fear and walls of regret. I will clear the ground where they once stood and build new bridges that would shelter me from misfortune. No more time for mourning or for weeping I will embrace my life. Now is my time to laugh and smile. I will welcome the humor and absurdity of everyday living. This is my time to dance gracefully. This is my time to see myself through my journal of my life. It is my time to ponder on the bits of memory that this writing process has surprised me with. People, places and feeling that had been long forgotten. This is my time to search my mind, my heart, my soul for the stories that need to be...
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...Jairah Grace G. Santos 3. Do you value only what you struggle for? People always work hard to get what they think is valuable. Giving values to things or actions depends on the person. Things that can be obtained easily, are taken for granted. Things which are easily acquired holds no value at all. The appreciation towards a person is only learned after difficult times or rather on difficult times. It’s true that the more we are eager to get or to achieve something, the more we value it, because our efforts or hard work makes it more rewarding. Simple task are rewarding too but when you make a choice, you always push them aside and left for last. However, it is not always true that people only value what they struggle for. For example, the air that we breathe, the water we drink, our friends , family and especially our life. We have them even without struggling and we really value them. It is then that it becomes valuable because we see how different our lives would be without them. We achieve the most precious things of our life without even struggling for it but it cannot be compared with the self-contentment and the immense pleasure following the accomplish ment when we strive hard for it. It is true that people struggle for happiness, but it is not always true that those people struggle for giving back happiness. Sometimes people receives things that cost a lot does not have enough to payback to those who really tried...
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...Nguyen Cong Hoan is considered one of Vietnam’s great writers and especially a writer of socialist realism. During his life, he produced many collections of short stories, novels and memoirs. In his collection of short stories, Kep Tu Ben is one of the most impressive works. With subtle irony, in a style later known in Vietnam as critical realism, Nguyen depicts the struggle between poverty and humanity in the portrayal of the protagonist, Tu Ben. At first, Kep Tu Ben is known as an unique talent opera actor. However, due to his independence nature, he has never joined a stable theater. His appearance on stages always attracts everybody’s attention. So, any theaters also want to invite him to join in casting. Unfortunately, the unexpected thing that happened to him is that his father was seriously sick. He spent all his savings buying medicine for treatment. Finally, with no other options, he had to borrow money from several wealthy theater owners. This results that Tu Ben had to do the unexpected thing. The owner of the Stage Drama Theater stopped by for a visit and inquired his loan. Besides, the theater owner used many sweet words and gave some interesting suggestions to persuade Kep Tu Ben for his performance. Although he didn’t want to leave his father alone, he accepted to come back to work by force of circumstances.He had to sign on the dotted line in the owner’s contract. After about half a month for rehearsing, that performance came. Everything was already and many...
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...I accompanied my mother to the central market to buy some groceries that she needed for the coming New Year. When we arrived at the market we could not find a place to park the car. So we waited patiently for about ten minutes before someone vacated a parking space and we moved in. Coming to the market just before a festive season was not a pleasant experience. The whole town seemed to be there. Everyone had things to buy. So the prices of things shot up. Worst of all, we had to struggle to get these things. So we made our way carefully through the various sections buying vegetables, meat, fish, noodles, spices and other food stuffs. We had wanted to buy some prawns too but they were all sold out, despite their sky-high price. The bags got heavier and heavier. The crowd got thicker and thicker. The noise and heat was overwhelming. As we had nearly done all the shopping, I told my mother that I would wait for her at the car. I could not stand being among hundreds of aggressive shoppers anymore. I lugged the bags wearily to the car and breathed a sigh of relief when I reached it. The air smelled sweet and cool. I was glad to be outside. Fifteen minutes later my mother emerged from the market. She looked exhausted. We put the groceries in the boot, got into the car and drove off with the air-conditioner at full...
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...that he faces lead him to make choices in life that helped him understand consequences and the expectations of the world. Sammy is a character that has many qualities. At first you can say he is distracted. From his encounter with the old lady and the mistake he made at the register proves that he is very unfocused and strayed in his thoughts. He also loves detail. The descriptions he gave within the story shows of how particular he sees every detail. ...read more. Middle Another struggle his has is his immaturity that leads to his infatuation over Queenie, who at the end does not even notice him. He never was able to show his rebellion as he quit his job only to prove to the girls that he was too like them. Lastly, his conflict with the life he leads. The manager tells him at the end that he would regret his decision of quitting and that his parents would be disappointed. This enables as us readers to understand he had financial issues in his life that he struggled with. Sammy has a struggle between conformity versus non-conformity in his life. This conflict he endures leads him to quit his job. He describes his working condition as very poor and low as he calls his cashier lane a âslotâ. He does not really conform to his working conditions. He explains how he is not like Stokes, a married...
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...J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation Hospitality Scholarship Essay Bruno Fernandez Throughout the year, as well as the year before, ever since I transferred over from UIC to DePaul, I have persistently been trying to find a scholarship in which will help my parents payoff my tuition here at DePaul. Ever since I had enrolled into this school, my parents have been somewhat struggling with paying off my education; in which ever since the beginning and as of now, they have been paying the full regular amount. I had and still have all the requirements as well as the G.P.A that I need/needed in order to have been considered eligible to apply for an incoming student scholarship, but due to the reason that I transferred over from another university with less than one semesters [or even quarters worth of credits] I wasn’t given any aid or support at all. Aside from that, another disadvantage that I have faced in being able to help my family pay off my tuition is through financial aid. At one point I took under consideration to apply for financial aid as my backup choice in case applying for a scholarship didn’t work out, but unfortunately because I am a non-U.S citizen, I have been ineligible to apply for that either. Based off from what I read and understand regarding the information about this specific scholarship it states that a freshman student here at DePaul is considered a student that has completed...
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...Hard Work Is Key To Success Life is full of twistS and turns .Everyone has to struggle here in this world to overcome every obstacle in the way to success.For this hard work is necessary. Without working hard and just by sitting idle it will be hard for one to get success. Since from childhood and till now I always remember the sentence that my parents used to tell me "TO be A better person in life and to get success YOU havE to work hard, The result of hard work is always fruitful,so YOU have to work hard". I want to give exampleS from my experience today whatever I am its only becAUSE of hard work. For a guy from A lower class family it is almost impossible to GRADUATE in engineering BY FINANCING YOURSELF. It's only becAUSE of the regular hard work I got A scholarship to do BTECh.I don't believe in luck since luck is never my LOT. Today's world is a competitive world. Everyone here wants to be famous and wantS success in his life. Whether he may be A successful boxer, Hard Work Is Key To Success Life is full of twistS and turns .Everyone has to struggle here in this world to overcome every obstacle in the way to success.For this hard work is necessary. Without working hard and just by sitting idle it will be hard for one to get success. Since from childhood and till now I always remember the sentence that my parents used to tell me "TO be A better person in life and to get success YOU havE to work hard, The result of hard work is always fruitful,so YOU have to work hard"...
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...face difficulties due to the circumstances that come along. Some conflicts can occur based simply on our perspectives and judgments on sensitive issues. We as individuals need to learn to accept things the way they are. This idea is demonstrated in an American film, ‘Remember the Titans’, directed by Boaz Yakin, which proves how our perspective on certain things can create dilemmas. The film demonstrates the impact of sensitive issues related to conflict, such as racism. The clashes that occur as impact of racism between individuals is depicted through a football team named Titans. It also reflects on the black community who have been segregated from the white community for years, resulting in hardship for those American footballers to struggle to accept African American footballers as a part of their team. As a result of the lack of trust and respect for one another, the blacks’ and whites’ encounter several clashes before...
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