Blog 3: Who did your group choose to research and Why? Saturday, Feb 5 2011

The person that my group chose to research is Dominique You.  In 1775, You joined the army of the Revolutionary France as an artillerist; and later served in the French Republic’s artillery corp.  A few years after the yellow fever plague took the lives of many French soldiers, You went to New Orleans were he became captain on the French Corsair Le Pandoure. 

You became a very successful smuggler while sailing his ship, and because him and his brothers were privateers, they constantly preyed on Spanish ships in the Gulf of Mexico, damaging the Spanish Commerce in the gulf.  In July 1814, you was falsely convicted of piracy.   The Americans at this time attempted to capture You many times, but all attempts failed because he managed to escape the capture.  On January 18, 1815, You and his men fought in the Battle of New Orleans and because he showed great skill, all charges were dropped against him and he settled quietly in New Orleans where he became a politician and a firm supporter of General Andrew Jackson.  You died in New Orleans in 1830 and is buried in the historic St. Louis Number 2 Cemetery.  The reason my group picked Dominique You for research is because he was pirate.  My partner and I thought it was rare that many people were pirates back in the day, so we thought it would be pretty cool to research the pirate life of someone who actually experienced being a pirate and was good at it.  Even though his actions were not acceptable in that time period, he still managed to become something positive in the end.

Leave a Response »

 

Blog 2- Save Our Cemeteries Saturday, Jan 29 2011

Save Our Cemeteries would be a great help to society. Save Our Cemeteries is a program directed towards rebuilding and saving the historic cemeteries in New Orleans.  Because the cemeteries in New Orleans are very famous and historic, it would be nice to keep them up so that people can experience the culture and history that was once there.  There are a lot of famous people buried in the few cemeteries surrounded in New Orleans. Generations tracing as far back as the eighteen and seventeen hundreds can be discovered by walking through these cemeteries.  After Katrina, many of the historical cemeteries got washed out and damaged.  Because of the extreme damage from the hurricane, tombstones were destroyed and as a result, many records were lost and the history vanished.  With the help of Save Our Cemeteries, we can help create a more just and human society by getting people involved to rediscover the history that New Orleans holds through their cemeteries.  Save Our Cemeteries will not only recover the history that was washed away, but it will also bring families together as the can discover their ancestors from many generations before. After being in class, I found out that the group before us that did community work with Save Our Cemeteries went around a specific cemetery in New Orleans picking up trash left over from others and writing down the records of the dead whose tombstone were either destroyed or heading for destruction.  This is a great gesture to the recovery of the cemeteries because it will allow families in the future to be able to trace back the records of past family members if their headstone is completely gone.  I think there should be more programs like Save Our Cemeteries because no family should not be able to find their ancestors because they have been washed away or their tombstones have been destroyed.

Leave a Response »

 

Blog 1:Describe a memorable funeral you have attended. How did this make you reflect on you own place in the world? Saturday, Jan 15 2011

The most memorable funeral I have attended, was the funeral of my great-grandmother, Ethel Sam.  At the age of 88, my great-grandmother died of Alzheimers disease.  Her death was kind of a sudden one because up until my great-grandmothers 85th birthday, she was the healthiest person in my family.  Seeing my great-grandmother pass away was probably the hardest thing I had to deal with last year because the relationship I had with her was so close.  Not only was she my great-grandmother, but she was also my best friend.  She was the one who helped my mom take care of me while I was baby.  Every day we would talk on the phone, and sometimes I even felt that I was closer to her than I was to my mom.  She helped me become the strong young lady that I am today.  She did almost everything a mom does, she cooked, sewed and cared for her children.  She had such a creative hand that she could make almost anything you could name.  She was just an overall phenomanal woman.  The death of my grandmother made me realize that anything could happen in any given day.  Seeing my grandmother healthy one day and then diagnosed the next and then passing away soon after made me realize that life can be taken away from you in a short period of time.  My grandmother’s death also made me realize that I must live every day like my last and enjoy every moment because I never know when it will be my time to go andwe are never guranteed to wake up the nex day.

Leave a Response »

 

What are your thoughts about Xavier and its mission after your first semester? Wednesday, Dec 8 2010

Being in any school, I never payed any attention to the the mission statement that the school upheld.  My past schools, all had mission statements but they never enforced them or mentioned them as much, but when I came to Xavier things were different.  Xavier is the only school that I know that stresses its mention statement.  The foundation of Xavier is based upon its mission statement, and as an institution it does a very good job of living up to it.  In a small summary, Xavier’s mission states that Xavier’s main goal as an a prestigous institution is to prepare its students and shape them into role models so that they can make a difference in their community.  I think Xavier does a very good job at living up to its mission.  Because its mission is so powerfully stressed, it has become a university with the highest percentage of admitting African-American students into medical and grauduate school, a wonderful accomplishment.  I believe when Katherine Drexel created Xavier, she knew that giving it such a profound mission statement would make it ver succesful in the future like it is now.  Xavier is a wonderful university, and I think they should keep stressing and pushing their mission statement because it has helped them become a very succesful historically black university.

Leave a Response »

 

Pick three other students in your section and leave detailed comments on their blog for weeks 6, 7, or 11. Wednesday, Dec 8 2010

Blog 6- trangqp

Blog 7- cnguye14

Blog 11- antonioroberts

Leave a Response »

 

Farmer tries to balance his desire to treat individual patients with the need for his attendence at high profile meetings (pg.260). Which of these two is ultimately important? Wednesday, Dec 8 2010

In the book, Mountains Beyond Mountains, Paul Farmer, the main character, tries to balance his desire to treat individual patients with the need for his attendance at high profile meetings.  Being a physician, is not an easy job to do, especially when you are committed and compaassionate about your job like Farmer was.  Farmer is a good role model for all employees around the world because he shows how a true person should value their job and the people they work for.  Farmer talks about staying in Cange because his patients are very important to him.  Farmer values his patients and wants to do anything he can to make sure they get the health care they need and are well taking care of.  Farmer also wants to make a difference which is why he chooses to attend these high profil meetings so that he can make an impact on the world around him by discovering and dishing out new ideas to other people in the same field as him.  Because Farmer is such a kind-hearted and hard working person, he makes both caring for his patients in Haiti and attending these high profile meetings equally important.  He does not put one over the other because to him neither one is just as important as the other.  In my opinion I think there should be more physicians like Farmer. Farmer is the type of person that we can all look up to when we become doctors, lawyers, and pharmacists.  He shows us that in our career you have to balance what’s important with what you physically desire because in the end, balancing both will help you give your best performance and what you are trying to achieve.

Leave a Response »

 

Send an email to your favorite teacher at Xavier thanking them for their work, and post the test of the email in your blog. Thursday, Nov 11 2010

Dear Dr. Mizell-Nelson,

Thank you for being such a wonderful, thriving and fun teacher.  Being in your english class this semester has made english and more fun and interesting experience.  Before this year, I really wasnt to excited about going to English or writing papers or even just sitting in a English class. See, english is by far my worst and most uninterested subject.  I dont like writing papers or reading because it just doesnt intrest me.  I just do it beacause I know I have too.  The reason I enjoyed your class so much was because we didnt read a lot of novels or books.  In highschool, we would read almost seven books in one semester and constantly write essay after completing each book. I hated that. One reason was because the books that we read did not spark my intrest at all so sometimes I would lose focus while reading it or I just wouldnt read at all. So I despised english all together, but your  class is different.  Your class is interesting to me because not only do we don’t have to read a thousand books and write a million essays, but we actually read things that are actually interesting and pertain to real life.  Unlike many of the novels that I read in high school, I actually understand and am able to comprehend what I read instead of letting it flow through one ear and out the other.  This semester in your class has really been a great experience and has taught me to learn and apprecitate english literature a little bit more.

Thank you again,

Alexandria Robertson

Leave a Response »

 

Interview a Xavier senior about his/her thoughts on Xavier’s mission and blog about what they say. Thursday, Nov 11 2010

The student that I interviewed asked to remain anonymous just for privacy.  While interviewing her, I simply asked the question, “How do you feel about Xavier’s mission?”.  After sitting there a couple minutes as if I had asked her a biology or chemistry question, she finally began to answer.  First she stated that she believed that Xavier’s mission was one that was the most straight foward and specific.  She said that after applying to other schools and reading their mission statement, Xavier University of Louisiana was the only on whose statement talked about preparing its students to be able to give back to their community onse they had graduated.  She also stated that Xavier’s  mission statement was one of the reasons why she chose this school out of her other ten choices, besides the fact that she had heard so many postive things about it already. She believes that the students at Xavier, her fellow classmates, truly live through Xavier’s mission statement.  Being a senior, she has seen many people graduate before her who are now successful and have became leaders in their sommunity as well as society as a whole.  She also believes that the Xavier curriculum and surroundings at campus is what truly prepares you for the global society.  Overall, I would like to say that the senior that I interviewed, had a very strong and positive outlook on Xavier’s mission statement, and by interviewing her, I must say I learned alot about her personally, but most importantly about what I can do to make sure Xavier University of Louisiana’s mission statement stays strong and continues to thrive.

Leave a Response »

 

Do some research on St. Katherine Drexel. Do you think she would be happy with Xavier today? Thursday, Oct 21 2010

St. Katherine Drexel took on a found love for God and her neighbor. At an early age, she took an high interest in the mental and spiritual well-being of blacks and Native Americans.  Her main purpose in life was to make sure that blacks and Native Americans recieved the same quality education and benefits as any other race.  She founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament because she felt that if her mission was going to be successful, she couldnt do it all alone and needed help from others.  With the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, St. Katherine Drexel founded avier University, a school which she intended for blacks and Native Americans to attend.  By creating the university, Katherine Drexel had set high expectations for the students who would attend there.  The mission of Xavier University shows exactly what Katherne Drexel wanted to gain while attending and once they graduated from Xavier.  I think if St. Katherine Drexel was alive today she would be exceptionally happy with Xavier’s progress.  Xavier University has been very succesful in the last few years.  It has been ranked one of the top Historically Black Colleges for placing African-American students in medical school, which is a very big accomplishment.  Xavier has so many postive attributes behind it that I don’t there would be any reason why Katherine Drexel would be dissapointed with it’s progress.  Another reason why I believe she would be happy with Xavier is because its growth.  Even though Katherine Drexel’s intentions were for the school to be an oppurtunity for blacks and Native Americans, it has now become an oppurtunity for all races.  Although Xavier is labeled as hisorically black, it has a wide diversity of students who attend.  This allows Xavierto become an universal school and become closer and closer to reaching its mission statement, a mission that was created by St. Katherine Drexel.

Leave a Response »

 

What role does money play in Farmer’s quest to provide health care? Saturday, Oct 9 2010

Money plays a huge role in Farmer’s quest to provide health care for the Haitians in Cange. Without the money, Farmer would not be able to provide them with adequate health care facilities so that they can be taken care of properly. Because most of his resources had already been used up from previous projects, Farmer was not sure if he was going to be able to get the financial support that he needed. Even though he was unsure about where he was going to get the money from, Farmer was still determined to get the job done. Farmer began his health census in Cange in 1983. In the beginning Farmer had many ideas that he wanted to bring to Haiti to improve their health care. Farmer wanted to build clinics, health services, and gynecological services for the Haitians, but he still didn’t have the financial support. Farmer had only a little experience in fundraising, but little did he know that he would get lucky in 1985. In 1985 after searching and searching, Farmer discovered a man named Tom White, a donor who owned a heavy construction firm in Boston. After meeting and becoming more acquainted with Mr. White, Farmer discovered that he was loaded with lots and lots of money. Because Mr. White had donated for many years to Catholic churches, charities, and needy friends, Farmer knew that he wouldn’t have a problem helping him on his health census, and he didn’t. After riding around Haiti, White was to the point where he “[felt] like bringing over the companies bulldozers” and rebuilding Haiti all over from scratch, expecting nothing in return (94). Without the help of White and him donating money, Farmer would have never been able to achieve his goals in trying to help improve the health care system in Haiti. Therefore, money is an important factor in Farmer’s quest because without it, his plans to rebuild and help would of never followed through.

Leave a Response »