Your thoughts of Xavier’s Mission Friday, Dec 9 2011

After my first semester, I think Xavier is a powerful school that makes each of its students feel accomplished. I was scared for this semester because I thought I wasn’t going to do well, but the community changed my thoughts around. The teachers were there to help me when I needed it and the students were there as great sources. The tutoring centers helped me to understand what type of studier I am and helped me to gain new ways to study. This first semester actually helped me to learn what type of person I am and it let me know that I can handle anything I set my mind to and anything that comes my way. I did have distractions thought. In the beginning I thought that I could primarily rely on the knowledge I learned in high school, but college is much more than that. I know that I can’t slack off because it’s hard to get your grade to where you want it and you should never slack off because it sets you up for a bad habit that you do not want to gain. I believe that Xavier’s mission has been fulfilled and is continuing to do so. I say this because every student has something positive to contribute to Xavier and with the many opportunities the school provides, no one is left behind. I believe if things stay the way are, each student can make the world a more just and humane place.

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Thoughts of Fast Food Nation Friday, Dec 9 2011

When I first received the book in the mail, I thought it was optional. Then I actually read the papers that came along with it and set a planned date to start reading my book. That date changed once my mother found out about the book, I started reading the day I got it. When I looked at the cover I thought it was going to be one of the dullest books I’ve ever have to read, but it caught my attention once I started to read. Time passed by and the book began to lose my attention, so I put the book to the side. When classes started and we started to get into the book, I started to see the book a different way. I learned a lot from the book that I thought was talking about things I thought I already knew. Even though I only read the introduction of the book, I’m glad I got the opportunity to have been introduced to the book. I learned a lot of facts and grasped a deeper understanding for fast food.

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Automobiles and Interstates Friday, Dec 9 2011

Automobiles and interstates play a very important role in spreading the fast food culture. Some may think that cars and interstates are just for making traveling to places faster and easier, but it plays a major helping role when it comes to advertisement. Every day there is traffic on the interstate that slows everyone down from being on time to their destination. While sitting in traffic there are billboards and signs that advertise the fast food chains in the city. The creators of these images create them so each person that see them would be persuaded to go out at buy the meal that they see, but what they don’t know is that what they see on the picture is not what they’re going to get. Another use for the interstate is to capture the attention of those who are traveling long distances. Every day people decide to go on road trips to different cities. While driving, the driver will pass up numerous signs that indicate a location of a fast food restaurant. After driving for hours and seeing food signs for every 10 miles, the driver is going to stop eventually and give in to the hunger signs and the food signs on the side of the interstate. Things are not like they used to be. Everything used to be within walking distance and there were no use for cars. Now every place you want or need to get to a car is needed. The fast food culture has grown or the years and with the continuous increase in technology, it will continue to grow.

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Email your favorite teacher Friday, Dec 9 2011

Hi Dr. Baker,

For my Freshman Seminar blog, I am required to write an email to my favorite at Xavier and thank them for their hard work. I chose as my favorite teacher because you made me feel comfortable in class. I don’t know if this was the same for the other students but, for me English is not my best subject. When I came into your class I didn’t know what the outcome would be. Once classes actually started, all of my nerves went away. You made me feel like I was back in high school, doing work with a bunch with friends I consider brothers and sisters and a teacher I can always talk to. You made the work fun and easy to understand. Also you made each assignment easy to relate to so we wouldn’t have to struggle with anything. Your feedback on each paper helped me to grow more as a writer and I know when I go to pick up a book, I won’t judge it by the cover or the name. I just want to say thank you so much for all the work you’ve done for me and I know all of your work will go on to bigger and better things.

Best,
Kenyal Rieux

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Friday, Dec 9 2011

I don’t know too many seniors here at Xavier, but I did find a junior that I was particularly close to. I interviewed my cousin and I asked her what she thinks about the school’s mission statement. She replied and said that it was one of her main reasons for choosing to attend Xavier. She believes that each and every person should hope and strive for the best and at Xavier those things are possible. She said she likes how there are students of many different ethnic and cultural backgrounds becoming leaders in their community. She said everyone who attends Xavier should believe in the mission statement because it gives its students leadership positions and the ability and power to accomplish any and everything they wish to accomplish.

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Katherine Drexel Tuesday, Dec 6 2011

Katherine Mary Drexel, better know as Saint Katherine Drexel, was born on November 26, 1858 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to her parents Francis Anthony Drexel and Hannah Langstroth. She was born into a family who raised her in a wealthy lifestyle. Her family owned a banking fortune and her uncle was the founder of Drexel University. Later in life she became a nun and along with the change in lifestyle, she decided to devote her time and inheritance to broken Native Americans and African Americans in the United States. With her intense drive set out to help these oppressed ethnic groups, she created an order by the name of The Sister of the Blessed Sacrament. She helped to finance over sixty schools and in her journey she founded Xavier University of Louisiana. As of today, Xavier University of Louisiana is the only catholic historically black college. If Katherine Drexel were still alive I think she would have her likes and dislikes of Xavier today. She would most definitely be proud to see that the school is challenging its students academically and that these challenges has kept the graduation rates high and also the acceptance into Graduate school. Another aspect that would make her happy is that Xavier is still a historically black college and has become more diverse over the years. A negative aspect would be the tuition that has been set for accepted students. She started this college to help those ethnic groups to get a great education without having to pay such outrageous prices and the tuition today would not meet her standards. But overall, Saint Katherine Drexel woud be happy with her choice to invest in such a prestige university.

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Does the author have a political agenda? Give examples to support your claim Monday, Dec 5 2011

In Fast Food Nation I do think that Schlosser had a political agenda. In his book he didn’t spent his time writing the book to try and make every fast food franchise look bad. Especially McDonald’s since that was his main source of attention. Instead he touches on the inside things that most people don’t pay attention to or never heard of. Schlosser talks about how fast food has become more of a convenient mode of food for most people and how these large corporations treat their employees. He talks about how the workers are mistreated and how this has been going on since the start of fast food franchises. Another topic he touches on is the many things that go into the food that is being processed and sold to the many people in the society who support the fast food corporations. He tries to focus on the things that the behind the scene people working for these multi-million dollar fast food franchises try to hide from the public. He isn’t trying to tell the people who read his book to stop eating the food from the fast food restaurants, but he is just trying to instill some knowledge of the food that people ingest daily and he is trying to get people to think about all the history behind the making of fast food so the next time they can make a smart decision on what and where they decide to eat and the treatment people have been through to maintain a minimun wage salary.

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Kenny! Tuesday, Oct 18 2011

In Fast Food Nation Schlosser talks about a man named Kenny Dobins. As a young kid, Kenny had some challenges that led to where he is today. He grew up with an abusive father, endured many injuries and didn’t have a great enough knowledge to read. He left his house at the age of 13 and began working at the Monfort Slaughter house. There, he settled an unsafe environment doing the most deadly work. One day while doing his work, Kenny got into an accident that caused a back injury. He was sent to the clinic at the job to get checked, but they nurse told him that he had only sprained his back. As time when on, the pain in his back became more unbearable and he decided to visit an outside doctor that resulted in him staying in the hospital for the duration of a month. After his recovery, Kenny returned back to work with the same skills he started with and the same drive to do his work. Little did he know that he was going to be doing more disgusting work than what he started off with. Later his visit to the doctor became more frequent with more injuries, but that never stopped him from his ambition to get right back to work, knowing that he was not getting paid for those days he was recovering from his injuries.

I don’t know of anyone who has suffered the same treatment Kenny has been through, but I would not want someone to experience the same treatment or something similar to what Kenny has been through, In my opinion, Kenny’s work experience was un-American and should be going through transformations to change as time changes. I’m not saying that there isn’t someone who hasn’t experience some mistreatment at their work – place, but I just hope that it wasn’t to the same extent as Kenny Dobins’.

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What is your favorite class and why? Monday, Oct 17 2011

When I noticed that week five’s question was what is my favorite class, I couldn’t choose because I was getting adjusted to my classes and my teachers. I was very into my labs and was very engaged in my biology class because of the material. After weeks of adjusting, my favorite class has come to be my English class with Dr. Baker. I chose this as my favorite class because Dr. Baker makes the class feel like my old high school class, everything from her teaching methods to the environment of the class. That feeling makes me feel comfortable and it gives me the sense that my thoughts and ideas are never put to the side and always challenged. Also I like her teaching methods. She allows us students to help one another and to give positive feedback to each other that won’t put each other’s work down. She also keeps the interest of her students not only by the activities in class, but by the readings she has chosen. Sometimes some teachers choose books to teach based on the interest of other teachers, but since she is a writer herself, she is able to choose books where she know the words will capture the eyes of her students. I like how she gains her students attention by holding interesting discussions about topics related to the work labeled on the agenda in class that day. Even though she was new to the school, she came in with a very positive attitude and ready to share her knowledge with her students. I am glad that I was able to have Dr. Baker’s class because she has made my whole perspective change on English and now I can read poetry or non-fiction stories and be able to grasp the meaning of the context without losing interest.

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How did Sinclair’s The Jungle (1906) dramatically change the food industry? Will this book Fast Food Nation do the same? Why or why not? Sunday, Oct 16 2011

In Upton Sinclair’s 1906 novel The Jungle, he wrote about the meat packing industry and how their protocol was unsanitary and hazardous to the world. Sinclair describes the actions taken by those working in the industry such as grinding in dead rats with the meat, how all the gross left-over insides that were on the floor was being swept up and packaged as “potted ham, and how they were killing cows that were infected with diseases for the meat inside of them. After the book was published, President Theodore Roosevelt was disgusted and ordered for a law to be passed, which created the Food and Drug Administration. After this the meat was required to be inspected to insure the health of those who eat the meat being packaged. If this law was not passed, those practices that the industries practiced would still be occurring today and many lives would have been in jeopardy because lots of that contaminated meat would be going the fast food restaurants and today fast food restaurants have developed over the years and have become more form-fitting for people today.

This book has caused a major impact on the world that teens today would not know about because of the lack of reading and the many distractions that have been created by technology. If this book were talked about over the new media sites, then more knowledge of the actions taken within Sinclair’s novel would be known. In my opinion Schlosser’s book Fast Food Nation is not going to cause a great impact as The Jungle has because to me some of his issues are good points to bring up, but they are somewhat the same as Sinclair’s issues and don’t have the same response from the readers.

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