Wall Street

All of the horror movies have finally come true- the machines have taken over. Okay maybe not so dramatic. With the White House stating that no cyber attack was committed on the Wall Street computer systems on Thursday and people wonder what went wrong. As workers stood on the stock room floors and we unaware of what exactly was happening around them. How long will it take the government to figure out what went wrong? I hope not long because Americans have amazing imagination.

Vikings Stadium

Recently in my marketing class a group presented a project promoting the construction of the Vikings stadium. The current estimate of how much it would cost to build the new stadium would be around $953,916,000 according to football.ballparks.com. The Vikings are currently trying to get the government to support the construction and in turn pay for a majority of the stadium through tax increases. Arguments for both sides of the Vikings stadium have been heard. People have stated that the Viking stadium would offer employment to residence, draw people from across the country and keep the Vikings in Minnesota. People against the stadium have been against the thought of Minnesota residence paying for the stadium through taxes even if they do not watch football or attend football games. Personally I find that the argument should not be why we should have the stadium but what we could do with that money instead. Being strongly pro-education I think about how many teachers have been laid off and the disintegration of our educational systems and I wonder why we are even debating a stadium.

Abroad

Ask people what they want to do when they will retire and chances are that around half or more people will say travel the world. Well why wait until we retire to travel the world. With the increase of globalization cultures and ethnicity's are being pushed to mingle with each other. The ability for us to accept other culture and ethnicity's cannot only make us more understanding of each other and increase business opportunities. It has been shown that our minds develop most rapidly when we are young it also has been said that people are more open minded at a young age. So isn't it important that we experience these cultures young?

Jumping Forward

Someone once told me something along the lines of "You can't cross a ravine in a couple steps you just have to jump". At the time those words made sense but only in a literal way. Looking now at my future and my friends future alls I can see are a bunch of "ravines". They are the moment you send in your deposit for college. The day you graduate high school. The day you leave your family and move in to college and many more. The challenges never stop coming and no matter how slow and steady you wish to take it the event come at an alarming pace. There are so many things that me and my peers are about go through, times when we will fall and times when we will rise. Years and years we have been taught how to be strong, brave and be incredible people from the examples set by the people that surround us. Years we have worked hard and done hard work in effort of becoming who we want to be. So sing with hope, excitment and joy because we are the class of 2010 and we are ready to jump!

The Issues we are Facing

I was recently assigned a project to write about the key problems that affect my community. I was to get this information from a key community leader. The only problem was I didn’t know who to pick. After research it seemed to me as if almost anyone that left their house was in one way or another, a “community leader”. So when it came down to finally picking who I was going to focus my article on I chose Shelia Bourgoyne. Shelia is 43 years old, a mother and a student. She is also an active member of the community. When I was talking with her she said that the main three problems that the community is facing are vacant homes, an increasing homeless population and an education deficit.
The first issue she mentioned was vacant homes. She said that this is a concern to the community for many reasons. One of the concerns is who is going to take care of these homes? What happens if someone were to loot the house for copper pipes and the gas was still on? Another concern is that vacant houses also offer a place for illegal activity to take place which endangers the community.
The second issue that she discussed with me was the increasing amount of homeless individuals. This issue goes almost hand in hand with the increasing amount of vacant homes. As the amount of people that are homeless increase the resources that are available to those individual become harder to come by. Families must try and find ways to feed their children and provide a roof over their head after their house is foreclosed on. When it is hard for these families to meet their basic needs other important aspects of life such as gaining an education seem to lose importance.
The third issue that Shelia told me about was the educational deficit in our community. Not only has is there a money deficit in the educational system that will not be fixed for another six, seven years but a money deficit is causing an educational deficit. Teachers want raises, technology and resources such as books need to be updated and with a lack of money these needs are hard to meet. This leaves students with an education that is not nearly as good as they should be getting.
These issues are all present throughout the community and things are being done to try and make the problems diminish. Through programs such as CAER a community food shelf and fundraisers at local schools individuals all over the community are trying to come together and make our community and world a better place.

What Have You Learned?

On an optimistic note I think that the economic roller coaster that the US has been on has taught people a lot about themselves. People learn what they are willing to do to keep their pay, and keep their hours. You notice which friends are truly friends and which friends have other priorities. It also teaches people about how they deal with not getting what they want. Like I mentioned in my earlier post a lot of the jobs that are available right now are jobs that most people are not correctly qualified for either that be over qualified or under qualified. People are being forced to make decision whether to keep what they see as their pride by declining jobs under their ability and qualifications and risk financial ruins. People also face the problem of being under qualified and must struggle with the choice of whether to go back to school. Peoples patience and creativity are and have been tested the question is what have you learned?

Economy

I can’t think of anyone that has not been affected by the economic circumstances of our economy. From hours getting cut, pay getting docked and people getting fired the economy has taken its toll. Just an example my cousin will be graduation this summer with a bachelor’s degree in International business. He had hoped to get into a job of relatively high importance and deal directly with other countries. Unfortunately he has been unable to get the job that he would like and will be working as a second level manager at a local Target store. I think it is such a shame that people who are coming out of college with degrees are not able to find jobs that suits their major that they put so much money and effort into achieving.

Talking at Target

I find that the most interesting, thought provoking, and truthful conversations happen in the least planned for places. On a recent trip to a nearby Target the store is not set up for lengthily in-depth conversations and it white and red isles with linoleum floors and metal shelves do not offer a comfortable or specific place to talk about issues. I have noticed that because so many people spend so much time at Target they become comfortable with the environment and they are willing to freely express their concerns and openly start conversations with other shoppers and since they are already at Target they don't have to go out of their way to express their opinions. Generally the people that you most often fall into discussions on shopping trips with are the single older ladies and mothers. Topics range anywhere from rental laws to the quality of local schools. The last conversation that I was a part of started with a mother picking up a deck of math flashcards and examining them. Another mother chimed in to say that they were fantastic cards and before we knew it our conversation about flashcards branched into a conversation about the public education in our area. The participants in the discussion had strong opinions and the tone was rather tense. When another mother joined the conversation and thought that her child’s education was perfectly fine in the local public schools the other mother had a look on their face that said “then you must not be paying attention to your child’s schooling”. Shortly after that the conversation broke up and each woman went her separate way with her cart. Overall the view of the group was pessimistic. For these mothers their child’s education is one of their primary concerns and if they have a negative outlook on that then their overall outlook on the community is not the best.

A change in the Educational Norm

The average sixth grader living in Otsego Minnesota attending a public school can expect to have English, geography, math, science, history and gym classes as part of their school schedule. In Minnesota the state is divided into districts and within those districts they further broken down into school zones. Up until recently most of my community believed that if a student’s home falls in zone A then they attend elementary, middle and high school at A schools. If a student lives in zone B they attend schools that are in zone B. Known exceptions to this rule were children being home schooled and children whose parents are paying for private school. Recently the population in my town has become more aware of the different schooling options available for their children. Magnet schools, which have been around in the United States since the late 1970’s have recently grown in my community. The school district that I live in 728 has partnered with districts 286, 877, 279, 883, 11 and 14 to create four different types of magnet schools:
• International baccalaureate schools
• International baccalaureate world schools
• Visual, performing, literary and new media arts schools
• Science, technology, engineering and math schools.
The magnet schools serve kindergarten through 12th grade and provide specialized courses aimed to promote high academic levels. As an example students at a visual, performing, literary and new media middle school can choose from elective classes such as dance, orchestra and drafting. Not only do students at magnet schools get to choose from electives that are not offered at normal public schools but basic classes such as math and English are adapted to fit the purpose of the school such as to promote and learn through the arts.
I went around my community and asked people what various questions regarding the magnets schools that were offered. I learned that there are still a lot of people that don’t know about these schools and their benefits. I was able to talk to some parents of students who attend magnet schools and some of the children who attend the magnet schools. The parents commented that not only is the education at the magnet schools a step above the normal public schools but the free transportation that is provided and fact that magnet schools are free lifted a huge weight off their shoulders when it came to their child’s education. The students also seemed very pleased. They commented that they liked the variety of electives that they get to choose from and the fact that the school caters to a specific area such as science, technology, engineering and math. One student remarked that the only thing they didn’t like about the magnet school was that they didn’t go to school with children in their neighborhood. Overall magnet schools are a great benefit to students and a great addition to my community.

For more information on magnet schools in the north western suburban school districts of Minnesota please visit http://www.nws.k12.mn.us/

Blog Entry One

What makes a blog a blog?


A blog is a blog because it possesses certain characteristics. These characteristics include but are not limited to the following: it possesses a voice, it is concise, it draws the reader in and it informs the reader.

What is your favorite thing about blogging?

My favorite part of blogging is the voice that it gives you. Not only does it give you the opportunity to put your knowledge and sometimes opinion into words but it lets you share it with an almost infinite amount of people. Blogs give you a place where millions of people can read your work and become informed and hopefully interested. I hope that through blogs my voice will become inspiration to at least one person.

What’s most challenging about blogging for you?

For me personally the most challenging part of blogging is deciding what to write about. There are so many topics and so many questions that have to be answered before you find the right topic. First you have ask yourself what interests you. If you aren’t interested in the subject your writing is going to portray that and your audience will be uninterested. Then you need to think about whether anyone will be interested in your post. Part of blogging is sharing it with the world and people aren’t going to read you blog simply because you wrote it. The final part that makes writing a blog hard is making sure that there is enough information out there to write an adequate blog. The last thing you want to do is seem full of hot air and not creditable.