Final Reflection

Throughout this class, I have been bombarded with tons of information about various subjects. I am thankful for the opportunity to have taken this class because I got to hear the words of many prominent professors at this school that I otherwise would not have the opportunity to interact with. After leaving this class, I feel proud to be a Howard University student. Through the lectures, I have learned what it means to be a Howard student-through the legacy of the people who have come before me and through working with my peers on our group presentation, to name a few. This class has prepared me to continue my education here at Howard by giving me snippets of information in various subjects to encourage me to think more globally. At the end of the day, I am so thankful that I was able to accept the opportunity to study here, because I know that many of my peers do not have the same luxury. When I am stressing about homework or a big test or problems with the Administration building, I must remember that I am lucky to be a part of Howard University-despite all its flaws. Howard has a strong legacy and I am willing to uphold that legacy.

Erika Meijer

Peer Presentations II

Another peer presentation that I found really interesting was the one on teen pregnancy. It amazes me how prevalent of an issue teen pregnancy is, and this presentation opened my eyes with statistics and facts. The sad thing is, teen pregnancy is preventable. A lot of people get distracted with the pro-choice/pro-life debate, but I don't think that is the issue at all. As a teen, you can make the choice to be sexually active or to be abstinent. If you choose to be abstinent, there is no way you can become pregnant. However, if you choose to become pregnant, the chances are 50/50. You can protect yourself with condoms and birth control medication and be almost completely protected from accidents, or you can choose the dangerous path of luck-not using protection but hoping things will turn out alright. Since we are in college, we are exposed to a wide variety of sexual pressures, and it is important for us to recognize them and learn how to deal with them. I'm not saying that we shouldn't be sexually active-that is a choice meant for the individual. I'm saying that we need to understand that we are in college for a reason-to get a degree and become successful. If we get pregnant, the chance of that pregnancy setting us back are definite.

Peer Presentations

One peer presentation that affected me a lot was the one on teen suicide. It was easy to relate to, because I have had a few friends who have suffered from depression, and one of my friends even attempted suicide. I think the main focus of the presentation was that we often take the little things too seriously in our lives and let them pile up to create a very big problem. However, if we just sat back and evaluated the importance of all those little things in our lives, I think we would realize that everything didn't need to be taken so seriously. This presentation was really important to me because, as I stated earlier, one of my friends attempted suicide. I didn't know what the warning signs were and I didn't know how to deal with the situation, but now I feel that I am more educated and if the time should come again, I will be prepared with knowledge on how to deal with the situation.

Erika Meijer

The Stampede:Group Presentation

The Stampede's Group Presentation focused on the awareness of suicide and the factors that lead to suicidal attempts. S0me of the facts that were given by Stampede surprised me because I never knew some of the statistics of the people who commit suicide. Overall their presentation was very informational and I'm sure made everyone aware of how big of an issue suicide really is. The Stampede's presentation also listed factors that contribute to the rising rates of suicide, for example, partner or child abuse, depression, unemployment, and the list goes on. Because of the constant changes in America's society suicide rates have doubled, due to the recession that has last over the past couple years and the amount of people losing their jobs. Their group presentation also made it evident how serious an issue suicide really was when they stated that suicide is the 8th leading cause of death and that 5 people fall victim to suicide everyday. The Stampede's presentation was very informative and should encourage everyone to be on the look out for people who are very depressed or sad and to just look out for their possible suicide attempts. I believe with more awareness suicide rates could decrease. Overall the presentation was great and I really enjoyed learning.

Jahmonni Long

Peer Presentations

Another group presentation that I saw addressed Genocide Intervention in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Genocide is defined as the systematic and widespread extermination or attempted extermination of an entire national racial, religious, or ethnic group. In the Congo the mineral Coltan is the main reason for the killing of many civilians.While the Democratic Republic of Congo features the world’s second-largest peacekeeping force, MONUSCO, these peacekeepers have yet to bring peace to that area. Civilians in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo remain victims of mass killings, severe torture and widespread rape at the hands of numerous armed groups operating in the provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu and Orientale.  Conflict in the DR Congo has resulted in an estimated 5.4 million civilian deaths since 1996. The Congolese Army, known as the FDRC, engages in looting and gender based violence against civilians that they should be protecting. The group provided a video for us to watch however time ran over so we were no able to see the whole video. I would have liked to see more of this group.

Peer Presentations #1 The Stampede

The

The presentation by the Stampede addressed suicide among African Americans: Ages 15-24. I feel like it was necessary to discuss this topic seeing as though a student had recently committed suicide and suicide is not something that is discussed often.  They started by defining suicide as the taking of one’s life, but that it not all it is; it is the severing of social ties from the family, church, and other social aspects of life. Today the leading cause of suicide is due to unemployment. This creates a sense of helplessness in which people feel they have no other way out than to take their own lives. Other reasons as to why people commit suicide are incarceration, stress, few ties to the church and social group, and childhood maltreatment. Something new things I learned from their presentation were that more than 30,000 African Americans commit suicide annually. There are more than five African American suicides per day, and for every successful suicide the ratio is four to one, men to women. Suicide is the third leading cause of death in the world today and I feel that if we are able to recognize the signs of people in distress then more lives can be saved. It is very important to be aware of the people around us and to monitor their behavior. Most people who commit suicide are the people we would never expect too, and that indeed is a tragedy in itself. I just feel that we should always be conscious about what we say and do to people cause our actions can really affect someone to the point of wanting to end their life.

Self Assessment

After being in freshman seminar I still feel the same way as I did going into it. I did not feel like it really served a purpose as a class. The lectures were given were about random topics and I don’t see how they are going to help us progress in the years to come. I guess I would say the research project was useful in helping us learn how to develop research questions properly, and execute the correct steps to successfully creating a presentation. I think one reason why I did not really like doing the research project was because everything was so unorganized. I like things to be clear so that I know what is supposed to happen and when. I also don’t see why we have to do blogs when we do the mbongi forms in class and it’s basically the same thing just in a different format so I feel it’s redundant. One thing I did learn from freshman seminar was that I need to be more present in all my classes mentally so that I can really absorb the information being given to me. I did learn a few things, but most of them won’t be used later on in my life I don’t believe. I also could have tried to take the class more seriously.