Pocahontas free essay sample

My mother used to call me Pocahontas when I was younger. It was an appropriate and endearing title, I think; I would watch the Disney adaptation tirelessly, always discovering new meaning in every scene, always wishing that I could be brave and clever, just like this historical caricature. The story of this free-spirited Powhatan princess and libertine never ceased to amaze me as a five-year old. Recently for one reason or another, the long-forgotten nickname emerged again, and I had a blast of nostalgia for those days when I used to live in a world of make-believe. As a child, I was curious about everything I saw; the backyard was another world that had to be explored. I searched for wonder in the most quotidian things; I wondered why the grass woke up every morning in a lustrous veil of dew, and why I couldn’t be sparkly at 6 A.M. This curiosity turned into a thirst for knowledge that could be quenched at school. I still think of education as a quest for enlightenment, whic h is why I have decided to apply to this university. I believe that this institution can be my guiding compass on this journey that I must take, not only as a student, but as a person going into adulthood. Being that I am about to start that odyssey from childhood to that next part of my life, I was surprised that my mother had so nonchalantly called me that Algonquian nickname that I heard frequently as a wide-eyed little girl. When I asked her why she remembered it, she simply smiled and told me that throughout my process of applying to college, she had seen the spark of curiosity in my eyes again; the same one I had at five years old when I saw Pocahontas for the first time and like her, I had a first encounter with a diverse society. As a child immigrant, I saw my family’s abrupt relocation to this new world as an adventure. I don’t think I realized that my family left everything behind to secure a better future for me, something they could only dream of in my nat ive land, Colombia. My naivete blinded me from the economic and emotional hardship that they went through as aˆ?aliens’ those first few years. But as I grew older, I learned to appreciate everything they did. I realized that everything they did was to lift me up so I could grasp that elusive thing, the American dream. My parent’s small daily tasks were like dewdrops on the thinnest blade of grass; I learned to find wonder in my parent’s daily and admirable endurance. I respected this perseverance and courage and each time I heard my mother call me Pocahontas, I felt as if there might be some of those qualities in me too. The sound of the nickname would instantly make me feel more important, somehow like I had a place in the world, even as a small child. I felt that maybe one day I would mature into someone like her, someone who would make a difference. Perhaps I would be remembered for doing something so bold that would simultaneously make old men who died for tradition roll over in their graves and sow the seeds of change. Perhaps I could help people in need raise their voices that are so often unheard, overwhelmed by the deafening silence of ignorance and hate. Of course these are lofty goals for a kindergartener, but in retrospect I believe that indeed a children’s animated film gave me my first lessons of the importance of diversity and the capability of creating change in the world. I am being very frank when I say that I still feel like that ingenuous five-year old sometimes, especially now as I am about to send off a piece of myself to decide my future. But the fact that I had once again assumed my youthful pseudonym just brought me back to the past. Reminiscing seventeen years of life, I realize that Pocahontas, not the animated character or the one in a tiny vignette in a history textbook, but her spirit, has always been with me. That spirit is with me now, as I am about to explore the rest of my life, starting with t his one step towards enlightenment.

Adult Aging Psychology essays

Adult Aging Psychology essays Topic A Remaining Healthy as an Older Adult To remain healthy as a older adult several factors come into play. All elements of the individuals life have to be looked at and studied. Do they eat right? Do they exercise enough? What is their social situation? By providing for these elements correctly a well-managed health and wellness program will benefit the Senior. Poor nutrition in older adults happens because of a variety of conditions. Many Seniors live alone and are unable to get around as easily as before. This may restrict grocery shopping and food preparation. Also, depression may affect the older adult. Depressed Seniors may suffer from a lack of desire to eat or prepare food. Declining oral health may contribute to the level of food intake. Some medications, medical processes and treatments may cause loss of desire to eat. Finally economic status plays an important role in nutrition as the lower the status the less capable the Senior is at obtaining the level of proper nutrition. Some of the health risks to poor nutrition are: Hypertension (high blood pressure) Vision loss (glaucoma, cataracts and macular degeneration) Proper diet contributes favorably to the Seniors life expectancy, emotional welfare and physical abilities. The definition of a proper diet ... encourages eating a low-fat, high-fiber, low-salt, low-sugar, and moderate-calorie regimen. This diet may be achieved with the aid of the Food Guide Pyramid. The aging adult should have: 6-11 daily servings of breads, cereals, rice and pasta 3-5 daily servings of vegetables 2-4 daily servings of fruits 2-3 daily servings of milk, yogurt and cheese 2-3 daily servings of meat, poultry, fish, dried beans, eggs and nuts minimal amount of fats, oils and sweets In addition to a proper diet nutritional supplementation is important. S...

Plan for Reconstruction Speech or Presentation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Plan for Reconstruction - Speech or Presentation Example From this paper it is clear that  both the sides dedicated themselves to the cause they deeply believed in. Let us not indulge in a cost and benefit analysis of this conflict, for how could one amount a cost that is steeped in the blood of our fellow Americans, no matter on which side they fought. Let us try to forget the worst that led us to this war and remember the quintessential American sense of gumption, equality and resilience that is a coveted essential for all the future attempts at reconstruction and reconciliation. Let us dare to once again be Americans in this moment of loss and sorrow.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This paper outlines that the reporter's heart goes to our brothers from the South. It is not that they are less American. Who can deny the fact that their forefathers fought with courage, dedication and sincerity in the War for Independence. They are not only an undeniable constituent of what we reverently remember as our Founding Fathers, but a significant chunk of t he American Declaration of Independence and the American Constitution owe their origin to their timeless values and ethos. So let us once again remember the values of liberty and equality enshrined in the American Declaration of Independence, not because someone is telling us to do so, but because in the times marred by flux and turmoil, one ought to stick to something that is timeless and eternal.  We as Americans always believe that all men are born equal irrespective of their color, ethnicity and race.... Much has got ravaged, but this sacrosanct belief has thankfully managed to survive. None of you will deny the fact that our black brothers, who just a few days ago were called slaves, played a pivotal role in building the American economy, heritage and culture, with their blood, sweat and toil. Now once again our black brethren are looking towards you. They have gone nowhere. They are here to sweat with you in the immense reconstruction efforts that you need to undertake. All that they expect is the right to be treated as fellow human beings and a just and fair share commensurate to their contributions to the American way of life. Reconciliation with our black brethren is not only in consonance with our values, but also makes a sound economic and political sense. The Former Slaves All the efforts at reconstruction will be futile, unless we not extend our heartfelt apologies and regrets to our emancipated black brethren. I must say that none of us knows the meaning of freedom better t han them. Freedom is not something that solely belongs to the domain of constructive philosophy. Freedom is actually the basic instinct of humanity. Nobody teaches to birds the meaning of freedom, yet even they do understand what it means to be free and liberated. Hence, they who had been denied freedom for generations on the basis of economic and commercial premises are the ones who deserve to be free now. I know that the injustice perpetrated against you was not only a social failure, but a bigger systemic flaw in the institutions brought into existence by such a society. The memories of the Dred Scott decision by the Supreme Court, which deprived a whole race residing in the US for generations, of the right to be called a citizen are still fresh

Central Nervous System Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Central Nervous System - Lab Report Example Also, the results are abnormal. The two types of photoreceptors include cones and rods. A rod cell is used in sensing a single photon light because it requires less light to work, unlike cones (Hoehn & Marieb 2010, 560). A cone cell, on the other hand, is responsible for sensing color vision because it functions best in fairly bright light. Cone cells are heavily packed in the fovea, indicating almost an average of 4.5 million cells in the human retina. On average, on the other hand, rod cells are roughly 125 million in the human retina (Hoehn & Marieb 2010, 561). Every person has a blind spot, but they do not know where theirs is or do not even see it as such (Hoehn & Marieb 2010, 570). For instance, when people try to view the back of their heads with only one mirror, they can never quite observe it even when a person describes the back of the other person’s head. Also, on a more scientific than psychological note, the optic nerve has to enter the eye somewhere so as to innervate the retina (Hoehn & Marieb 2010, 562). At this point, there are no cones or rods making it a blind

Debate on Creationism Essay Example for Free

Debate on Creationism Essay INTRODUCTION The dispute between representatives of the various fields of science and religious representatives is one that will last for many decades (if not centuries) to come, as each one of the two camps confirms that its view of the universe, the beginning of life, and the meaning of human being is the correct one and the one that should be, therefore, passed on to the next generations. This debate, that in some cases reached the level of confrontation, started many centuries ago when the Church rejected many of the scientific views that were presented by scientists. And this resulted, in certain events, in severe punishments that were carried out against those scientists. The specific case of the Bill 481 that was introduced to the 2001-2002 session of Ohios General Assembly claiming to improve the efficiency of science education in schools, was specifically done in order to allow the principles and the ideas of what is called ‘Intelligent Design’ in the science classes of public schools. Intelligent Design is not that different from Creationism; they both claim that the universe came to being as a result of a supreme being (God) that created it and created and everything else including humans with their present shape and form a few thousand years ago and that, therefore, evolution did not take place. There are small variations between ID and Creationism; for example, ID proponents do not call the supreme being with the title used by the various religious texts, they call Him ‘Intelligent Designer’; they do not confirm that notion that the entire universe was created several thousands years ago, and they do not claim, for instance, that humans walked the earth along with the Dinosaurs. WHAT IS SCIENCE? In order to be able to understand if Creationism or Intelligent Design can be admitted into science classes, we need to understand if they qualify to be considered science. Science, or what is also called as the scientific method, is the human technique of understanding the various natural phenomenon and the laws that govern each factor within these phenomenon in a way that is testable, repeatable, and approvable through practical tools that are agreed upon by all. From the above mentioned definition, it is evident that beliefs, personal opinions and supernatural forces are not permissible in the realm of science. Creationism and Intelligent Design rely solely on belief systems that were produced by religious thought and they take certain foundations of understanding the universe as fact when they cannot be put to test, and they cannot provide any agreed upon natural evidence to support their claims. We cannot find any element in any one of them that can be proven through testing or through repeatability. As we can understand, Intelligent Design and Creationism are not science; they are simply belief systems originating from religious thought: In the 1970s and 1980s, that [creationist] movement recast the Bible version in the language of scientific inquiry as creation science and won legislative victories requiring â€Å"equal time† in some states. That is, until 1987, when the Supreme Court struck down Louisianas law. Because creation science relies on biblical texts, the court reasoned, it lacked a clear secular purpose and violated the First Amendment clause prohibiting the establishment of religion (Ratliff). CONCLUSION The ideas of Creationism and Intelligent Design should be, if they must be, admitted in the classrooms, but not as sciences, instead, they should be taught and presented as anything else because they do not have the elements that shape science and make it what it really is. The idea that best explains the reality of Intelligent Design is what Mr. Newt Gingrich said: â€Å"Evolution certainly seems to express the closest understanding [of how we came to be] we now have†¦ Evolution should be taught as science, and intelligent design should be taught as philosophy† (Wilkinson 50-51). Works Cited Ratliff, Evan. The Crusade Against Evolution. Wired October 2004. 03 October 2006 http://www. wired. com/wired/archive/12. 10/evolution. html. Wilkinson, Francis. The Discover Interview: Newt Gingrich. Discover October 2006: 50-51.

An Internship and My Interest in Medicine Essay -- Medicine College Ad

Admissions Essay - An Internship and My Interest in Medicine    How does a hospital run without adequate water to develop X-ray films? What are the signs and symptoms of malaria? What is the most common cause of infant mortality worldwide? These are all questions to which I learned answers during my six-week clerkship in rural South Africa. That a well-rounded education is the mark of a true scholar is a belief I acquired from my high-school education, and in that spirit I flew off to try and understand some of the important issues in the changing South African health care system.    I learned more than I had anticipated was possible and can easily conclude that studying abroad is one of the quickest, most memorable, and most enjoyable ways of broadening one's education. Furthermore, it teaches lessons that are not possible to learn at home.    Tinswalo Hospital, where I worked, is small. The number of hospital beds is approximately 92, and the faculty (consisting of doctors, nurses, pharmacists, translators, and administrators) is fewer than 200. The population that the hospital serves, on the other hand, is large - approaching 200,000. Although Nelson Mandela has been increasing government funds for this and other public hospitals, diagnostic and treatment supplies are scarce. Deciding how to distribute scarce resources among a large population is a common, complicated topic in African... ...p; The world is becoming a smaller place. People are increasingly communicating across cultures and discovering how similar their problems are. These experiences encourage broad-mindedness. In addition to the traditional education, a physician studying abroad may become naturally interested in health care politics and the cultural aspects of disease developments, and may obtain a general global perspective. He or she also will learn that doctors bring their personal water from home to rural hospitals for developing X-rays in times of drought; that the most common symptoms of malaria are fever, nausea, and diarrhea; and that diarrhea and dehydration are the most common causes of infant mortality in the world.

Ethics of Welfare and Government Assistance

Patrick Cassidy PHL 215 3/23/10 Ethics of Welfare and Government Assistance When the topic of welfare is brought into an ethical discussion most individuals would surely see it as an ethical act that genuinely helps those in need. This is true to an extent, but is it possible that welfare does more harm than good? Most would argue that the hand out of money to those less fortunate is being socially responsible. The question that drives this ethical issue is where does social responsibility end and personal responsibility pick up? This question is difficult to answer because every family in need is in a different situation. Government benefits are supposed to be used as a crutch for families to get back on their feet, but about twenty percent of all families receiving welfare stay on the program for more than five years. {text:bibliography-mark} This is the base of ethical issues surrounding government assistance and social responsibility for the needy. Many individuals believe that receiving a government hand-out allows people to become satisfied with being on welfare. If programs like food stamps and welfare aren’t effective, they are essentially a black hole for the tax dollars of working Americans. There is no denying the fact that there are needy families out there who are so impoverished that they need aid, but it is nearly impossible to separate the abusers from the desperate. It is for this reason many arguments can be made for both sides of government assistance. The most common question is, how far should a government’s social responsibility stretch? The issuing of government benefits derived from tax dollars is a strong ethical dilemma that has both social and economical repercussions. text:bibliography-mark} The first way to look at this problem from an ethical and moral point of view would be from the psychological egoist perspective. An egoist is a person who believes all that matters in moral issues are the elements that deal with self. They are believers that all people’s decisions in life are based on selfishnes s. Therefore, if welfare were a charity, rather than a government run program, the psychological egoists of the world probably would most likely not contribute. On the other side of the coin, psychological egoism would suggest that all people who qualify for government benefits would try to collect these benefits. That is where psychological egoism falls short of defining exactly how humans behave. Social stigmas associated with government assistance keeps some individuals from applying. This shows that selfishness takes a backseat to pride and dignity when placed against these moral values. The real problem with government programs like welfare, food stamps, and free lunch is that the line between assistance and benefits is very dull. For example, a man who makes enough money to support his family may still qualify for welfare. If the person solely spends their welfare checks on alcohol, cigarettes, and gambling is it really helping them prosper? The reality is that every person has different tolerance for assistance. Welfare that may feel like warranted assistance for one family could be seen as excess unearned benefits for a different family. That is where the psychological egoism perspective of all actions being driven by self-interest falls apart. It also does not hold up against thoughts of compassion. If all people lacked compassion in their actions the United States government would have never been able to pass a bill to create welfare and other tax-dollar funded assistance programs. {text:bibliography-mark} There is another ethical theory that is based on people acting on self-interest, it is titled ethical egoism. There are three different types of ethical egoism; however, only two are actual theories on moral behaviors. The first is Individual ethical egoism. Individual ethical egoists believe that they should only act in self-interest, and that other around them should act out of their self-interest as well. This is the definition of being completely selfish, not only are you only looking out for yourself, but you expect others to help you along the way as well. In regards to government assistance, these people would likely complain about paying taxes for these programs, but also are very likely to want to use and abuse them. Another type of ethical egoism that exists is called universal ethical egoism. The main belief behind universal egoism remains the same as that of individual egoism; individuals should only act out of their own self-interest. Where these two types of egoism differ is that universal egoism suggests that all people should act in a selfish manner, removing all altruistic acts from society. If this type of egoism really described the actions of all people, it is likely most people would favor the individual egoism theory, for they would desire to have everybody acting for their personal interests. Both of these types of egoism don’t give a realistic grasp of the American society when dealing with government assistance. These egoists would surely all desire government benefits, but they would have no desire to give back to the community. If everybody were solely out for themselves, there would be no government assistance because working tax-payers would refuse to fund such a thing. Therefore those that believe in egoism are likely against government assistance programs, but are happy to reap the benefits if they qualify. The essential opposite to egoism is known as utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is based on the idea of morality revolving around creating the most good for the most people. When it comes to decision making surrounding utilitarianism actions are based on the consequences that will ensue from the action. When this type of thinking is applied to the government assistance problem, utilitarian’s would surely side with providing those in need with as much as possible. This is a difficult position, because the abusers of these programs are still going to be allowed to collect, but if allowing these programs to operate helps the most people, then utilitarian’s will be supportive of them. This theory on moral behavior is most definitely not an accurate representation of how society actually treats the poor and needy. Most people would only like to assist individuals if they are positive that they are desperate. The thought of people abusing the system drives many people to criticize it. People are greedy, and want to make sure all their money is being spent the way they desire. Therefore, the amount of people who support utilitarianism is the reason that these government assistance programs have been established. Greed and egoism are the reason that these programs are dysfunctional in many ways. {text:bibliography-mark} Who is at fault for those who require assistance? The egoists would argue that if one acts solely on self-interest and still comes up empty, they have to sleep on the bed they have made. Utilitarianism argues the complete opposite; all people as humanity are responsible for helping out each other. Since greed and materialism dominates American culture, it would be safe to say the egoists are winning this battle. Furthermore, by allowing abuse of government assistance programs it only advances the egotistical belief that the world is every man for themselves and to take all benefits possible. This is what drives most complaints within the system, the government not doing a good enough job of regulating these assistance programs. The issuing of government assistance is an ethical issued because it deals with multiple different opinions on the matter all based on morals. People who believe that every family should have to earn everthing they receive are basing this reasoning off egoism. Those who feel that it is the duty of society to help those in need are basing their reasoning off of utilitarianism. The issues that most people bring up within the government assistance programs are that they are not managed and policed well enough. This is not a moral issue; rather just issues of the government not doing all it can to make sure the right people are receiving assistance. Another reason that people have a large problem with assistance is because the government is in charge of it, and some people will go against anything that is government run. For these people there is no purpose in reasoning, they simply believe the government is out to get us all. The main reason people have such strong opinions on this matter is because those who work likely envision portions of their check being mailed to people who don’t even attempt to land a job. This is what creates the social stigma associated with government assistance. In this day and age a country as prominent and developed as the United States must look out for their impoverished population. The assistance programs offered may not have all the kinks worked out and may not be well liked by everybody, but there is no denying that these programs are helping more than they are hurting. Works Cited