I am a first-generation daughter to Nigerian immigrant parents. As one may imagine, the journey from a populous country in West Africa to the city of Dallas, Texas can be a strenuous task to overcome. In spite of this, my parents both collectively made the difficult decision to leave their families in Nigeria for the brighter prospects and array of opportunities the American education system has to offer. Because of the obstacles my mother and father have endured in their past, they have ensured that each of my siblings and I have not had to make the same difficult decisions as they did. They have done so by instilling morals, values, and beliefs to potentially guide us through the hardships of life. These values include a strong work ethic, perseverance, as well as adaptability. Work ethic is a value that has been persistently emphasized to my three siblings and me throughout our childhood. As the four of us have aged, we continuously have been told Nigerian proverbs in our native language, Yoruba such as “mura si se re, ise la fi ndeni giga,” which is roughly translated into English as “work hard and work smart, these two things will bring you great success.” Being that these qualities are often shared between people belonging to various medical professions, I believe that it is values such as these that have motivated each of my siblings to coincidentally select our individual paths of health professions as our desired careers. My decision to pursue dental hygiene is
Education, or the lack thereof, has always been something that plagued my immediate family. I come from a background of immigrant parents—hard-working, yet unable to acquire academic achievements. My father did not graduate out of high school in Vietnam because he was drafted into the Vietnam War and escaped as a refugee thereafter. My mother, on the other hand, graduated from high school but was not able to pursue higher education due to the burdens she had working and raising me as a child.
Being a first generation college student is a heavy load to carry due to the constant reminder of having to be a good role model for my siblings. Children of immigrants are often highly expected to excel in their academics and to be involved in extracurricular activities. His/her parent immigrated to the “Land of The Free” in order to receive a better life and to give their children a place to call home. They work from one to two jobs a week just so that we can dig through the pantry, and raid the refrigerator. We sometimes take our parents for granted unknowingly, and constantly fill our heads with a question that we all seem to ask. “How do I please my parents?”, “What do I have to do to make them happy?”. As students we should all be voicing “College!”. Yes, maybe our folks’s dreams have faded away, however that should be our motivation to aim higher; to achieve our American Dream. Throughout our years of education, our very own relatives and teachers have emphasized on the importance of receiving a higher education. I have come to realize that I should not be asking myself “How do I please my parents?”. Instead, “How do I please myself?”, “What will my lifetime goals be?”, “Will it leave my parents hard work in vain?”. Obtaining a higher education will not impact their lives, but will affect yours drastically. My American Dream has always been to become an immigration lawyer that deals with international relations or to become a professor teaching my true passion for
Everyone has to make choices in their life. Some are everyday choices, like what to eat or drink. Others are more critical, like choosing a job. Important decisions take time to comprehend. Like with me, the decision to go to college was the most critical choice in my life and for my future, and I will never regret it. Going to college is important because it helps me find a job, it expands my knowledge, and it is a wonderful experience.
A important dilemma in my personal life is about my experience as a first generation immigrant in the United States. My parents take extra precaution to make sure I do not loose sight of where I came form and so, my parents drive to Mexico every year with my sister and I to see relatives who are living in conditions worse than ours so that we are grateful of our life in America. As I see my cousins and nieces/nephews grow up, I see realize that they have no real role model to look up to as no one has completed college when their parents exited high school and some not even that. So I want to help my family members to aspire to be something better in life and not a mailman or manual laborer like my father and uncles. I would like to instill
People insist that they want to make the world a better place, but are they willing to invest the time and effort necessary in doing so? Like all things worth having, a medical career requires determination, motivation, and hours spent becoming an expert in the field. After all, patients presume that we will be excellent at what we do, even if we must battle through the chaos, frustrations, and potential complications to do so.
My parent’s both have very hard working jobs which have inspired me to work not just hard but to my fullest extent. Money is not the only benefit, but accomplishing my goals and desires are. My mother gets what she can every week cleaning houses in the Redlands, and my father takes two buses, and one train until reaching North Miami six days a workweek. All their sacrifice is for me to have a roof and food at home, this way we can afford our duplex in Homestead. We are a low-income family in Florida who have no other family members but ourselves. Having to adjust to a new community, learning a new culture based on other traditions and an altogether new terminology has been difficult, but overcoming many of these struggles have taught me that one day I will be capable to achieve my ends. I will be helping the community that one day welcomed me, as one of their
As an African-American male of Nigerian descent growing up in the United States, my parents constantly talked about my heritage and invariably enforced it on me throughout my 17 years in this world. As an adolescent I often see my parents on the phone with my relatives in Nigeria discussing their daily struggles, lack of food, little or no electricity and the withering health of the old and the young due to lack of medication and treatment. This prompts my parents to constantly send money to their loved ones. This sparked my awareness of the problems that Nigerian community and the rest of the third world countries are going through. How my parents voluntarily support their relatives has made me to participate in more volunteer activities in my Maryland Community. I have joined the National English Honor Society at my school and I participated in a home makeover program with “My Girlfriend’s House” Community Program to help the less fortunate by providing them with food and new living utensils. The many charitable acts I have done resulted from my cultural background and I plan to continue doing this during and after college.
As the son of impoverished Mexican immigrants, I never experienced the luxuries and everyday joys of other children my age. For instance, while other children worried about missing their favorite television shows or about what gifts they were going to receive for Christmas, I spent a majority of my time worrying about whether or not my parents would be able to put food on our table or be home in time to say goodnight. Yet, thanks to the support of my family and an unsurpassed desire to obtain a better life, I have immersed myself into my studies, in hopes that I can one day better the situation for those around me.
Nurses are able to work with a high level of integrity. As nurses, exposure to medical records happens on a daily basis. Nurses show their morals by only using these records to perform their job effectively. Laws like HIPPA exist to help prevent behavior like this from happening. My belief is the vast majority of nurse’s would not “snoop” without HIPPA.
People and family outside the United States will risk and sacrifice anything to get the chance to come to the United States to seek the American Dream, and equal opportunity to achieve success through liberty and pursue their dreams of happiness. My father was one of those people who made it out, to survive one of the most impoverished counties in the world. My father, Isaac E. Otitigbe, was born on December 25th, in 1958, in the city of Ishan, located inside of Delta State, Nigeria. He is dark skin, six feet tall and weighs one sixty pounds. He is a hard worker and never settles for less. Although he had to overcome many challenges, he made it to the United States to achieve his dream.
Being a first-generation immigrant, my childhood was shaped by the constant struggle to fit in. Instead of learning from my parents, we grew alongside one another in awareness and understanding of what the American identity truly is. As the language barrier was a greater impediment to my parents than myself, I learned to speak for my parents, and I matured rather quickly. As a young child, I was bothered by the fact that I was different from my peers. However, it is this difference that has led me to discover three families outside my home: Benet Academy, Best Buy, and Edward Hospital. These families have accepted my differences with compassion, which in turn has positively influenced the way I think of others. Each of these families have contributed
De bono (1933) quoted ?Effectiveness without values is a tool without a purpose?. Came to my mind when I first read Professionalism in Physical Therapy: Core Values published by American Physical Therapy Association. I believe that core values play a major role in determining one?s standing in the society, either as an Individual or an Organization. APTA (2003) stated that in 2002 eighteen physical therapists based on their expertise in physical therapy practice, education and research were invited by APTA?s Education Division to participate in a consensus based conference to develop consensus based document on professionalism that include Core values of the profession and its indicators that are fully consistent with core values and professional education matrix that includes educational outcomes, examples of terminal behavioral objectives, and examples of instructional objectives for classroom and clinical practice.
An individual education is significantly shaped by the dynamics of there lifestyle. Factors such as socio-economic status and school demographics affect the nature of education a person obtains. As a student that studied in two completely different educational systems with totally different educational agenda, my academic background definitely shaped my personality and attitude. Having to attend 8 different schools with 3 being in the United States and 5 in Oman and alternating between languages (Arabic and English), has impacted my ability to adapt to new surroundings. The exposure that I received from changing schools and experiencing different educational systems has taught me acceptance of new cultures and viewpoints, adapting to new surroundings, and my work ethic.
I am the first born of two Hispanic immigrants with little or no formal education. I am surrounded by gunshots and the turbulent stream of violence prevalent in a troubled community, and to make matters worse, I am only seventeen years old. My path towards a four year university is littered with roadblocks and gaping potholes but lucky for me, upon my arrival to the U.S., my parents were able to enroll me in school nestled beside the sea due to its proximity to their work. I didn't take this into consideration throughout my childhood, but as time has passed, I realize how fortunate I am to be attending a school in such a community, one surrounded by wealth and opportunity.
A university, like organizations and communities, are comprised of individuals representing different cultural and religious backgrounds. In defining the rules of conduct for individuals functioning together, it is necessary to formally define those rules to ensure that all are aware of the common values that should be adhered to and the consequences of non-adherence.