My Choice For Invite Mr. Lee

Jacob Neusner’s commencement speech points the finger not only at the graduating students but mainly at the faculty members. He sways towards how easy-going, laid back, and forgiving the professors and other faculty members were towards their students. In that sense, Neusner clearly states that these students aren’t prepared for what’s about to come because they have always had someone hold their hand every step of the way and shown forgiveness in this fantasy called “college.” College is supposed to help you get your feet wet and aid students with preparation for the harsh so called real world. Many thoughts ran through my brain while reading this speech as did my emotions which were up and down like a rollercoaster. As much as I agree with Jacob Neusner on the fact that college and the “real world” are

At the beginning of the essay, the writer expresses the difficulties experienced by high-school graduates in gaining admission to universities, nowadays. She states,” College as America used to understand it is coming to an end” through Rick Perlstein (Addison 3). To show contrast between the past and modern days, Addison brings another character to the scene. She states that Perlstein had a ‘beatnik’ friend alongside him. The term ‘beatnik’ makes reference to a person of the artistic Beat generation of the 1950s and 60s. During that period, college education, offered in universities, was highly regarded. To further her argument, she claims that admission to universities, nowadays, relies solely on their Curricula Vitae.

In his work entitled “The Shock of Education: How College Corrupts”, journalist and author Alfred Lubrano poses the question of how receiving education can lead to a harsh reality. Lubrano explains that as a child works toward a higher education, there are certain aspects of life they are forced to leave behind as they enter into a new existence. According to Lubrano’s statement, “At night, at home, the differences in the Columbia experiences my father and I were having was becoming more evident” (532). Additionally, Lubrano states, “We talked about general stuff, and I learned to self-censor. I’d seen how ideas could be upsetting, especially when wielded by a smarmy freshman who barely knew what he was talking about” (533). In answering this question, Lubrano must explore the types of conversations that occurred with other family members, the disconnection from his peers, and how segregating himself from his family

They acknowledged that they came from comfort and were given the privilege and opportunity of obtaining higher education, but for them, that higher education was not a reflection of, or supportive of

Throughout this entire semester, I have learned many different aspects of society that I had a basic understanding of originally. I never would have imagined the amount of knowledge and real life stories I would gain in this class. I want to start of by saying that I am grateful to have taken this class and appreciate each and every story that was shared. These stories opened my eyes to a world I wouldn’t have normally seen. For that fact alone, I believe sociology was one of the most insightful classes in my college career so far.

admires until I have my law degree.” “The university is no place for a women these days.” This

Lee Considered: General Robert E. Lee & Civil War History is author Alan T. Nolan’s attempt at taking an honest look at what Nolan considers one of the most deified figures in American history, Robert E. Lee. Nolan approaches his biography much in the format popularized by respected biographer Lytton Strachey (1880-1932) in that he is attempting to take an irreverent approach, an approach Nolan claims is sorely lacking in most scholarship pertaining to Lee. The uniqueness of Nolan’s approach is highlighted in the work’s title, Lee Considered, as Nolan claims “Lee has not in fact been considered. This book is not, therefore, a re-consideration” (p. 8). Throughout this book Nolan scrutinizes the certain falsely mythologized aspects of Lee’s, what Nolan refers to as the “Lee tradition” (p. ix), convincingly exposing what should be the obvious truth that Lee was “a great man, but, indeed, a man” (p. xi).

He worked with men that would dread going to work and worry about what they would do if they lost their job. "Factory life has shown me what my future might have been like had I never gone to college in the first place." The job at the factory showed him what it could be like if he did not have any other options. It was one thing to go through the exhaustion of working, but witnessing what stress came along with the job was another. The author realized how grateful he was to have the life that he did because most of the factory workers never had an education. I believe the point of his article was to show what these lessons taught him. Andrew Braaksma says "the things that factory work has taught me--how lucky I am to get an education, how to work hard, how easy it is to lose that work once you have it--are by no means earth-shattering."(paragraph. 9). This demonstrates the author mentally putting himself in different circumstances and attempting to relate to the individuals around

At first glance, the length of Mark Rose’s “Blue Collar Brilliance”, made me contemplate “How could I possibly relate to this?” along with “In what way can I read all this and write an essay on it?” However, as I further read, Rose addresses something that made me further connect with him. With great ardor, Rose states in his essay his position on the matter that the amount of schooling a person receives dictates their knowledge and skill set. He counteracts this opinion by detailing the various skills his waitress mother, factory working uncle, and other family members their “blue-collar” jobs obtained. I enjoyed reading Rose’s essay because through vivid descriptions, he addresses issues that my family has gone through, and learned how to appreciate the working class with little to no education.

From the beginning of the article, the tone was inviting, and the style of writing was different than previous journal responses we have had to do. She wrote in a more relatable way that made you feel as if you were sharing a conversation. Rieder’s thesis stated that while she is enjoying her time at the beautiful campus with friends, she sometimes feels unworthy and out of place compared to most other students. She feels self-doubt because this experience is far different from anything else she has done before. Not only does she feel that her old school was different from UVA, but that her studies at the Virginia campus are different from a great majority of students there, most of whom are taking STEM

Oh, to be a Black woman in America. When I entered college my interest consistently gravitated into the African American courses, since I wanted to learn more about my ancestors and my cultural history. The course name alone completely captured my attention and I could not pass up the option for this to be one of my elective classes this semester. Prior to this course, I had not taken a class that was centered around my gender or race. Therefore, I had hoped to learn more about the internal and external challenges of being a Black woman in America. Throughout weeks of captivating classroom lectures, intense readings, and additional coursework this class has surpassed my expectations, and I am not the same young woman that I was when this

Something I found interesting in the reading was the comments about the men of Morehouse college in the 1990s who understood their privilege

Higher Learning is a book made into a film which carries deep social and cultural issues that has plagued America since the time of its establishment. In this book, the author John Singleton sheds light on the never ending issues of education, racist, sexual abuse; social class, gender, and sexual orientation are faced head on. As a collection of freshman college students from all different walks of life they all come as one at Columbus University having to clash with stereotypes and prejudice in a new atmosphere. For illustration in the book, a ordinary white teenager from Idaho has a culture shock at his new school joins a Nazi bunch of criminals because they are the first friends he made,

An intersectional reflection of my dichotomous relationship with higher education is what fuels my desire to pursue a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis. As a first-generation college student, earning a Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees profoundly altered the trajectory of my family out of years of generational poverty. As a result of embracing higher education, I possess the ability to think critically and creatively, with a passion and hunger for lifelong learning. Contrarily, the experience also left some biological, psychological, and social scarring. Macroaggressions, tokenism, and implicit bias have all contributed to the way that I now live, learn, and work in the world. While these experiences did not prevent the completion of my education, it has led others to abandon the pursuit, and certainly presents an enigma to many colleges and universities around the country eager to recruit and retain scholars that identify as Black/African-American, first-generation, and/or low socioeconomic status. The majority of my professional experience revolves around this very conundrum and the time has now come to pursue extensive and original research in this chosen field.

Within the growing number of women in higher education, there is a growing population of students who are also mothers. Mothers attempting to obtain a degree contend with home and family demands that affect their degree completion rates (Carney-Crompton & Tan, 2002; Home, 1998). These postsecondary education students, unlike their traditional peers, are not developing into adult identities that are supported by a traditional college setting (Arnett, Ramos & Jensen, 2001; Arnett, 2000) but instead already have an adult identity as a mother (Wilsey, 2013) with a different set of needs and because of the familial responsibility motherhood brings with it these women are no longer “traditional” students (Cross, 1981; Bean & Metzer, 1985, 1987;