The College Experience Through Film - Original Writing Essay

I’m raised in an environment filled with negative stereotypes, high dropout rates, fewer resources, and low expectations. As a Mexican American from the San Fernando Valley, educational opportunities do not come often. In middle school it massed into my head that going to college is my way towards success. Soon it became the only option for me and as a result, I joined Project Grad to begin my journey towards college. They introduced me to the Chicano Youth Leadership Conference during my junior year. After applying and attending, the conference eliminated the label that Latinos are not college material. Subsequently, I grabbed as many opportunities as I could. In my junior my school did not put me in any AP classes. Therefore, I went to go

“Men and women can't be friends, because sex always gets in the way”, is the main theme of the movie “When Harry met Sally”. The script is a good example of the interpersonal communication ten stage model by Mark Knapp. This developmental model entails the stages of a relationship from it’s infancy to an ending. In the movie we can clearly identify all ten stages of this model.

To many high school students, college seems like a far away land, a mysterious place where everyone wants to be yet not many know how to get there. As children, our parents tell us how much time we have to think about college, and that it is too far down the line to think about. The truth is it is never too early to think about your future. I, like many people, put little thought into my future career and now am lost in an unfortunate mix of indecision and anxiety. Not knowing where you want to be in the future is a hard burden to bear. Many of us tend to find out that we only know what we do not want, not what we actually do want. Do we want to be poor? Absolutely not. Do we want a boring job? Of course we don’t. We all want our

The film, “the Power of One,” followed the life of a boy named P.K. from a small child to a handsome young man. It showed all the hardship and tragedy he had to endure throughout his life. Although the movie could have focused more on the apartheid, it instead portrayed the vulgarity of those times through the eyes of an English boy. As time went on, P.K. slowly began to realize the full severity of the apartheid. It was difficult for a child to comprehend how horribly people could treat one another for no apparent reason.

My dark lord, I am weak to resist him, like a siren calling out to sailors, beckoning them to their deaths on the rocky shores. He lures me in and “kills” my time. Standing at thirty-two inches watching me every time I enter my room, sounds like a midget in a horror movie...nope nothing that terrifying, I am talking about what everyone calls the idiot box or the boob tube.

In the summer, I attended a guidance class at Chaffey College. I thought that community college was for people who drop out of high school and not take life seriously, but I got that idea from teachers who went straight to universities after high school. When I attended Chaffey, I was surprised to be in a diverse culture. The people that I have met were so different and the professors were very helpful than I expected. Suffering through the midst of exclusion taught me that there are so many options I can choose from in the future. Being a survivor from the destructive side effects of mind control was shocking enough. Fortunately, I recovered from the operation that poisoned every inch of my mind. I was glad that I attended Chaffey because

Films communicate cultural messages. The 1960s were a time of social rebellion and dissonance, as a younger generation coming of age in a time of war and unrest came to call into question the mores of their parents and authority figures. The Graduate portrays relationships, coming of age, expectations, moral dilemmas, values, and sexuality and among many other issues that were relevant in the 1960’s. The main character, Benjamin, is the pride of his wealthy Southern California suburbanite parents and they expect nothing but the best from their beloved son.

In the film The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967), the focus of movie is centered on main character Benjamin Braddock’s life after college, as he aimlessly finds himself being exploited, mis-directed, seduced (figuratively and literally) and betrayed by the antagonist, Mrs. Robinson who coincidently helps him transition from boyhood into adulthood. The central theme of innocence and confusion are also at the forefront of the film’s thematic message, where Ben is often seen lost in his own world. The scene initially opens with a fade-in shot effect from black to blue into a close-up, disembodied image of Benjamin Braddock's face that serves to highlight the moral dilemma of film during Benjamin’s “drifting phase” in the opening seconds of the shot. The purpose of Nichols’s use of non-diegetic sounds,

"Tomorrow is the first day of what I will become." I wrote this in my diary the night before my first day of college. I was anxious as I imagined the stereotypical college room: intellectual students, in-depth discussions about neat stuff, and of course, a casual professor sporting the tweed jacket with leather elbows. I was also ill as I foresaw myself drowning in a murky pool of reading assignments and finals, hearing a deep, depressing voice ask "What can you do with your life?" Since then, I've settled comfortably into the college "scene" and have treated myself to the myth that I'll hear my calling someday, and that my future will introduce itself to me with a hardy handshake. I can't completely rid my

Everyone has or should have an ideal; something which he can look forward to, of which he may dream, and for which he may strive. In our colleges we come across many defects or limitations. We often discuss these among ourselves. And in course of these discussions, and as a result of them, we come to cherish a vague notion of what would be an ideal college, at last, what we would regard as an ideal. Here of course I speak mostly for myself.

There is always the question of how someone can make a film out of a real true story. For some film makers they would embellish a good key parts of the story in order to have film goers become excited or shocked, an example would be probably any ‘this is a true story’ tag that comes up with horror films that when examining the real facts aren’t as scary or as real as the film is. With Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, it takes the true story of a freeman who was captured and as the title suggests, kept as a slave for twelve years. The core concepts of this narrative are the same although there are things that are added to the film that weren’t in the novel in order to illustrate the aftermaths of slavery and the small conflict of male white owners and female black slaves, which is a small section of the white masters as a whole in the film. The relationship or lack there of between Epps and Patsey is the important section that is included in the white master and black slave conflict.

What has my journey to graduation been like for me? My journey has been a crazy, fun-filled learning adventure. I met many goals and accomplishments I set for myself but I also faced some challenges on the way. For example, I finally met my goal of graduating with a 4.6 GPA and maintaining it. Also, I accomplished completing my last four years of grade school and now I am on the way to college. My last year has been interesting and there are many goals, accomplishments and challenges I can reflect on.

Why did a pick a movie that has some many questionable connections to the things we’ve “discussed” in class? I guess I picked the movie because I’ve watched it over 100 times, and pretty know it like the back of my hand, as well as it was one of the first adult-like novels I read when I was a very young girl that my grandmother didn’t have a problem with. I remember after reading the first couple of chapters, my grandmother asked what did I think of it. I teared up and said I felt sad and could relate to the feelings of abandonment and conflict Celie was going through. We had such a great discussion about the book and that’s when my grandmother decided that I was mature enough to watch the movie. I cried like a baby and had so many questions for my grandmother after. So, when presented with doing a final paper on a film, what better film to choose than one I have analyzed in so many ways except maybe from a leadership perspective.

As I graduated high school, I thought college would just be yet another four years of high school, and I was wrong. College opens many new doors in a young man or woman’s life. There are new responsibilities and pressures that you will have to deal with, and with more freedom these responsibilities and pressures can be difficult to handle. College has changed a great deal over the years and these changes, such as more freedoms, make college a much more challenging experience. You need to start preparing for college now by making yourself more responsible and having more self-control. Although you think college is merely partying with easy classes on the side, I have experienced pressures and work loads that make the experience challenging

Throughout my lifetime I have listened to people reflect back on their college experiences and explain how college is supposed to be “the best experience of your life.” The summer after my senior year I use to try and imagine what my first semester was going to be like based on what I had heard people talk about in the past. After my first semester at NC State I realized that I couldn’t fully understand what college was like until I experienced it for myself. My first couple of weeks at Ohio State was rough and really tested my strength (mental and physical). I faced challenges and obstacles that I had never heard about in those past college experience conversations. All of a sudden there was no one to get me out of