What Did You Learn From The Course Content?

Segueing, my favorite unit of the sociology 101 course was the unit pertaining to socioeconomic status. We learned that socioeconomic status within the United States, is immensely hard to climb within. That means that your economic status, whether lower, middle, or upper class, is very hard to break out of. This topic hit home with

Prior to attending this class, I thought that it was going to be a very boring one with long frustrating lectures. I was surprised at how much I was enjoying this class because it had to do with an area I have interest, which is, working in the community. Some of the challenges I encountered in this class was conducting a needs assessment, identifying advocacy article, and the elevator pitch. I can say honestly say that I learned how to conduct an actual needs assessment, although when I was doing my paper I did not quite grasp it at the time. It was not until the presentations I understood how it is done based on the information presented and the comments and explanation given by the professor. It was very important that I learned how to conduct the needs assessment, because my interest is working with low income individuals in different communities. Now that learned how to conduct a needs assessment I am excited to go out and gain some practical knowledge with a team. The lecture and the advocacy piece assignment helped me to understand what advocacy is all about; I now able to write, research and recognize and any advocacy document. The elevator pitch was novel to me and I had a hard time understanding how someone can give all that information in a minute. After the different scenarios that were role played during the presentations I got knowledge on how it is done. I also

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.

I do not know if that is due to its own merit as a theory or the fact that I spent so many years studying psychology in my previous educational life. In future academic and professional endeavors, I will incorporate knowledge gained from this course by understanding that what is presented on the surface is rarely reality. This translates into so much more than literature. People are complex beings who rarely present their actual selves. They walk around with their projections out front for the world to see. Like Lacan, I do believe it is a struggle for people to present their actual, real selves to the world. By having this understanding of the actual and the projection, it will be easier to understand people and their idiosyncrasies. In addition, concepts from this class will help in my future writing. I will have a baseline of theory to pull from when working out plot and context (and everything else). It is actually a little frightening to think that someone may someday analyze my writing. What unconscious ideas will be lurking there in my

I learned that our thinking can make bad decisions. Our thoughts can change with comparing things. We can say no to one thing, but if it is compared to something else that can change our mind. The comparison can make things look different in our mind to make us make a different decision. The information that I learned is important because it helps you to look at things differently now. Sometimes it is best to stick with your first choice or decision and can cause an irrational decision.

So far in the course, the material that has sparked my interest the most were the concepts of privilege and oppression. Actually, I would not even say that it sparked my interest; I would say that I could compare my life with these two terms. I grew up on the East side of Detroit, in a neighborhood that looked down on people who did not attend schools in which they have. For example, I went to a predominantly all black private school not too far from my house. But my friends in my neighborhood honestly did not care whether it was a black or white school. They would make fun of me because I attended a private school. I believed that their interpretation of a private school was that the school was preparing us to into formal black Americans.

The topic that was the most influential to me was the personality types. This topic has also been something interesting to learn about. First we were able to find our personality type and I turned out to be an ISTJ. Learning my personality type made me realize different things. For example, it has given me the idea that I need to be more extraverted to be an excellent nurse. It has also given me the chance to learn the best way to study. Being an ISTJ, I learned that I like to be very organized. Since my personality type states that I am a person who is very organized. This is true because I like to organize all of my information, especially notes, in a certain way. Or when I need to study, the best way to study would be in a quiet and isolated place. Introverts are known for liking their quiet and alone time.

While I was able to apply almost every concept from the course to some aspect of my own life, I believe that the most important thing was learning to recognize just how much privilege I have experienced. At the very beginning of the quarter, Professor Roy used the example of the fish not being aware that it lives in water. I think that translates perfectly to my experience – as it should for many of us taking this class. While I recognized the privilege of having basic needs like food and shelter taken care of, other things like my race, gender and education really hadn’t resonated with me until I took this course.

Being a student in the Honours Sociology program with a concentration in Criminology has truly educated me on sociological issues such as poverty, racial issues, violence, gangs, etc.

I plan to become a Registered Nurse. As a nurse it is important to understand the patient completely and know where they come from. In sociology people are described in a "group" or "communtiy" perspective. Understand the many different varieties of people in society and fully understanding the meaning of "Sociology" will benefit nurses in not only one way but many. In the medical field there will be many ethical questions which can be partially covered via the study of sociology. Taking this sociology class will allow me to relate to my patients, co-workers, and the different varieties of families that I would be encountering. Sociology will allow me to have a better understanding of how to deal with any type of person in the best proper

Sociology 101 is a very insightful and beneficial class to anyone and everyone. The class bridges the gap between all the different cultures of the world by affirming the belief that although we can feel a world apart there are similarities that bring us together. These similarities, however, may not always be so positive. There were social issues I had known about before taking the class, such as human trafficking, sex exploitation, underage marriages but not to the degree at which I know after taking the class. It is hopeful to see there are groups who take action to help the victims. It taught me that although situations may seem dire, that if we just fight for what we believe in, social injustices can be overcome.

activities which made it comfortable for us to share ideas and really open up about the material

In Navigating Social Worlds class, I could gain and develop my sociological imagination. This was my first sociology class, and I had almost

I have learned so much in this class to prepare me for a successful college experience. There were some topics that caught my attention more than others. Such as, time and stress management, University resources, and critical thinking.

I feel like I learned a lot from this course. I think, overall, this course was very eye-opening and made me understand, and want to better understand, issues involving gender and how they effect society. I would say the one of the most important pieces of information I learned was just how much the idea of gender and gender roles influences everyday life. I had never really thought too much about the determents of gender or traditional masculine and feminine ideals before this class, and how we as a society promote and encourage the belief that a person’s gender or sex creates different innate, natural attitudes and attributes. Learning about how important society’s views of gender is, and how it affects the way we learn and think, makes me look at our culture in a different way. For example, before this class I never realized how much women are objectified and put under intense Photoshop in advertisements. This better understanding of the way society is helps me take a step back and look at our culture in a different way, and allows me to become more aware of the issues surrounding gender, sex, and the ideals of masculinity and femininity.