Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Child Advocacy


                                                 Fighting For the Rights of Children

            Imagine living your life from day to day not knowing where your next meal was going to come from or where you were going to sleep that night. Picture yourself as an 11 year old boy or girl, constantly being moved from foster home to foster home, and  unable to make friends due to not having anyone to speak up for your rights. Most people want to complain about the hardships the children in foster care face, but are unwilling to stand up for them. Are you that person, or are you willing to stand up and be a voice for the children? If so, you should think about becoming a “Child Advocate”. Take the stand and become a voice for the child who otherwise has none!

            Every day we see it, either in the supermarket or the drugstore or even just walking down the street. There is that one child who you see that makes you ask yourself, does this child have proper care at home? Does he/she have enough to eat? Is he/she abused in their home environment? One out of five children will die due to abuse or neglect (Author, Unknown, 2012, www.nationalchilrensalliance.org). In 2010, an estimated 1,560 children died from neglect or abuse in the United States alone (Every Child Matters Education Fund, We Can Do Better: Child Abuse and Neglect Death in the U.S., 2009).

            You see this child and while you may feel sorry for him/her, you walk away and often times don’t give them another thought. How can you help? Become a Child Advocate. A child advocate is a person who promotes the optimal development of a child, or group of children (Author, Unknown, www.dicitionary.com, 2009). As a child advocate, you typically would represent or give voice to an individual child or group of children whose concerns and interests are not being heard. You would be responsible also for trying to prevent children from being harmed or seeking justice for those who already have been harmed or worse; you might find yourself fighting for justice of a child who has died due to neglect and/or abuse. While acting as a Child Advocate, you may be responsible for ensuring that children have access to positive influences or services that benefit their lives such as education, childcare, and parenting.

            Thanks to the ones who are willing to stand up for children, in 2010, Children’s Advocacy Center’s around the country served over 266,000 victims of abuse, providing support not only to the children but to their families as well. In 2011, that number had grown by 27 percent to 279,000 (Arthur, Unknown, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Administration for Children & Families, Child Maltreatment, 2010). According to the National Children’s Alliance, national statistics for 2010 and 2011, collected from Children’s Advocacy Center members, children younger than one year of age had the highest rate of victimization with 20.6 percent of 1000 children in the population of the same age.

            Nearly 80 percent of reported child fatalities were a result of abuse or neglect that was caused by one or more of the child’s parents. With rates this high, how can we continue to not do something? Our children are the gateway to our future, how can you sit by and do nothing to protect them? Please, contact your local Child Advocacy Center and learn how you can become a part of helping our country to become great once again. Don’t wait, you never know, it could be too late.

                                                                  References

Author, Unknown, www.dictionary.com, 2012

Author, Unknown, www.nationalchildrensalliance.org, 2012

Every Child Matters Education Fund, We Can Do Better: Child Abuse and Neglect Deaths in the U.S. http://www.everychildmatters.org/storage/documents/pdf/reports/wcdbv2.pdf

National Children’s Alliance, Children’s Advocacy Center Members, 2010

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Administration for Children & Families, Child Maltreatment 2010, http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cm10/cm10.pdf

National Children’s Alliance, Children’s Advocacy Center Members, 2010




Week 3 Writing Assignment


              


                                               My Road to Becoming a College Student

          In February 2012, I became not only a full time mother and wife, but also for the very first time a college student. I hope to be able to share with you the constraints I faced along the road and how I overcame them. I will be the first to tell you it has been a long and difficult road, but one that I do not for a second regret.

            In October of 2008 I was a happy, energetic, and lively normal 8th grader. Little did I know that it was all about to change. You see, in September of 2008 I had been raped after a football game but didn’t realize it was something I would have to overcome for not only myself, but for the new live I was growing inside me. That’s right, in October, I found out that I was going to be a mom, not only a mom, but a teen mom which made the task seem all the more scary to me. After finding out that as a result of my rape I would be a mom soon, I tried to continue life normally, however, that would not be the case. Due to complications from being young and pregnant, I faced a number of health complications that eventually led to my dropping out of high school so that I could protect the tiny life growing within me.

            My son Jessie was born on August 28th 2009 and weighed in at 9 lbs. 13 oz. and was 21.5 inches long. That day my life turned down a whole other road, and has led me to be the person I am today. After his birth, I fully intended to return to school but unfortunately that wouldn’t happen.

Little did I know that 13 years later I would finally take the steps needed to gain my G.E.D and continue down my academic path. When I finally returned to school, I was a full time mother, and wife, which in itself is a fulltime job. In addition to the tasks already put before me, I was working part time as a substitute teacher at the school my children attended. When my youngest son began preschool, I thought, “Here is my opportunity to go back to school” I had been telling myself for years that when I found a babysitter I would go back, but things would always come up. Bills would be piled to the ceiling and my husband’s job just wasn’t cutting it. So, I took the step to working also. Eventually, I was able to get into a spot where we were living comfortably due to my husband’s new job and was able to cut back my hours working.

In August of 2011 when my youngest son started preschool I finally acted on the chance. I enrolled at the local Adult Education Center and began placement testing to see where I stood academically, and what I needed to brush up on. Luckily for me, I tested fairly well and only required a minimum amount of classes. After approximately 8 classes, I was informed that the center felt that I was ready to begin my pretesting phase. I sat down and in one afternoon took all the required pretest (including the essay) and after 6 hours was pleased to find out that I was ready to move on to the actual test!

 In December of 2011, I sat down at 8 am sweating bullets and worried about how I would test. You see, this was the first day of the actual G.E.D test, and I was worried that even though I had tested well on the pretest, I was totally going to mess this one up. After completing the first day, I was unsure of myself and worried that I was going to do poorly. However, I continued on to the second part, and was off to eagerly await my results. Fortunately for me it was only 2 weeks, although it felt like years to me at the time. Three days before Christmas I can proudly say that I received my diploma in the mail, and this past May crossed the stage in acceptance of it. It took me a long time to get here but I finally managed to do it.

            In conclusion, it has been a long hard road, but I have managed to overcome the constraints of being a single teen mother and a wife, to continue on to become a full time college student.

Week 4 Writing Assignment


                     A Look at One of the Worst Nuclear Disasters the World Has Ever Seen

In the town of Chernobyl, all was quiet and peaceful. It was Friday, April 25th, five days prior to May Day and the opening of a new amusement park, and the feeling of festivity was in the air. Night came and the town slept peacefully. Little did they know their lives were about to be forever changed.  At 1:23 am April 26th, 1986, the worst nuclear accident known to the world occurred, due to both mechanical and human error.

            At approximately 1:00 am April 25th the reactor was running at full power with normal operation and steam power was directed to both of the power generators. Slowly the operators began to reduce power for the test, which was to observe the dynamics of the RMBK reactor with limited power flow. Twelve hours after power reduction was initiated the reactor reached 50% power and only one turbine was needed to take in the decreased amount of steam so turbine two was switched off. Under normal procedures of the test, the reactor would have been reduced to 30% power, but the Soviet electricity authorities refused to allow this because of an apparent need for electricity elsewhere, so, the reactor remained at 50% power for another 9 hours.


            On April 26th, or day 2, the staff finally received permission to resume reactor power reduction. One of the operators however, made a mistake, and instead of keeping power at 30%, he forgot to reset a controller which caused the power to plummet to 1% because of water which was now filling the core, and xenon (a neutron absorber) which was building up in the reactor. This amount of power was too low for the test. The water added to the reactor is heated by the nuclear reaction and turned into steam to turn the turbines of the generator. Sometime between 1:00 and 1:20 am the operator forced the reactor up to 7% power by removing all but about 6 of the control rods. This was a violation of procedure, and the reactor wasn’t built to operate at such low power. By 1:23 am the reactor had reached 120 times its full power and all the radioactive fuel disintegrated, causing pressure from all of the excess steam, which was supposed to go to the turbines, to break ever one of the pressure tubes and blow off the entire top shield of the reactor. At this point government officials were notified, but they refused to acknowledge such an event had occurred, thereby putting off what should have been an immediate evacuation for 2 days. During this time, instead of evacuating the town to places where there wasn’t such immense danger of radiation exposure, they continued on with everyday life. Children were dressed and sent to school, parents went to work. On day 2 post explosion, families were finally evacuated, but by this time, they had already received the maximum exposure. As of current the Chernobyl Union of Ukraine, a non-government agency, estimates that the present toll, 26 years after the disaster, sits at almost 734,000 people due to anything from direct exposure, to Thyroid cancer which is a direct result of radiation exposure. According to Wikipedia.com, only 36 people died of initial radiation exposure, including, 4 that died in a helicopter crash while trying to deliver loads of clay, in an effort to contain radiation levels.

            It’s safe to say that in the past 26 years, we have only had 2 nuclear meltdowns of this magnitude, Chernobyl and Faushima Daiichi located in Japan. I think most would agree these have been extreme causes of concern of a possible nuclear meltdown here on US soil. In both cases there has been an immense amount of sorrow and displacement, due to things that may or may not have been avoided, however, both devastated the world over nonetheless.







References:

Wikipedia contributors; Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; June 2010

Balmford,Richard; March 2010 http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/15/us-nuclear-chernobyl-facts-idUSTRE72E42U20110315

Week 5 Writing Assignment


 Many people are surprised to learn that the United States has no official language. As one of the major centers of commerce and trade, and a major English-speaking country, many assume that English is the country's official language. But despite efforts over the years, the United States has no official language. Several significant political leaders argue for this issue rather than against it, for they claim that knowing how to speak English is the key to success in America. For instance Theodore Roosevelt was quoted as saying that “….We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...",(Arthor, Unknown http://alex-researchpaper.blogspot.com/2008/03/pros-and-cons.html, March 17, 2008)  some may agree with what President Roosevelt felt about this matter, however many often times disagree with him, arguing instead that, “Having an official language would, in fact, cover up cultural identity as well as discourage immigrants whose native tongue is not English.”

            On one hand, making English the official language of the United States, would save companies millions of dollars each year, by having to only print materials relevant to their company in a single language, rather than having to translate the information into several different languages. Think about it, how many times a day have you looked at a yogurt container, or cereal box, and noticed that is the information not only printed in English, but also in Spanish or another language? While this may hold true, you also have persons who believe that “English only” laws are politically incorrect and baised against immigrants to our country.

            On the other hand, there are still millions of people believe that multiple languages spoken throughout the country makes it interesting, diplomatic, and worldly. An imperative question that one must ask themself about whether or not to make English the official language of the United States is that; ”Isn't it better to learn and become familiar with languages other than one's own rather than know only one language your whole life?” It should be recognizable that different languages and cultures bring a uniqueness to our country. This particular controversy is simply a heated topic discussed within the government, however, it does nothing to solve the real conflicts that go on within our country.

            I personally am on the side that says we shouldn’t make English the official language of the United States. While it is estimated that over 80 percent of American families primarily speak English (Author,Unknown http://www.nccp.org/publications/pub_948.html June 2010)  we can’t at this moment say that it would be better for everyone in the country. I feel that one of the reason we have the vast amount of immigrants we do, is because we are known for being culturally diverse and welcoming of the new languages and ethnicities that often arrive here.






Aralani, Yumiko,  http://www.nccp.org/publications/pub_948.html, June 2010

Week 6 Writing Assigment


Located Cupertino, California is headquarters for Apple Inc., a company known for the production of items such as the iPad, iPhone, and iPod and to date, has estimated quarterly revenues of approximately $46.33 billion. Apple Inc. was incorporated on January 3, 1977 by then CEO Steve Jobs (Author, Unknown, Doc. DC300559, 2012). Due to the untimely death of Jobs in 2011, Tim Cook was named the successor of Jobs, was named current CEO of Apple Inc.
            In an article composed for The New York Times, we were introduced to the concept of Siri, or the personal assistant application developed by Apple. The article was very compelling as it introduced us to what very well could be the future of what is called search now (Lohr, Steve, The New York Times, (2011a), p.B4). See, while Siri may be relatively new to most Apple consumers, she has been impressing technologists’ since she was a product of the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Lohr, Steve, The New York Times, (2011b), p.B4).  In the article we were also introduced to the fact Siri is an evolving intelligence application used for things such as making dinner reservations and answering simple questions (Lohr, Steve, The New York Times, (2011c), p.B4). For Apple, Siri opens the door to getting into the search business of the future.
            Approximately two years before the death of Steve Jobs due to pancreatic cancer, Walter Issacson was asked to compose a biography of the life and times of not only Jobs, but his journey with Apple as well. The book was entitled “Steve Jobs” and is the captivating story of not only the man himself, but of the company he had high dreams of in younger years; Apple (Issacson, Walter, Steve Jobs, 2011). While reading the story you may experience a range of emotions anywhere from laughter to tears, while showing the constraints placed before not only a man, but the company as well.
            In conclusion, Apple Inc. is the tale of two boys with a dream that went on to produce one of the most widely known household names. It takes you through the ups and downs associated with a starting a company, and the constraints in making it a widely known and marketable product, while also proving that if you continue to nurture your dreams, they can and will become a success.
            While researching Apple Inc., I realized there is an abundance of information available that makes it difficult to write a 5-600 word essay on the company. However, it brought to light the importance of research and writing skills for my planned course of study, as in the medical field, research is encountered at all levels and not limited to only doctors and scientist. During my writing I realized that the library was a great help while also being a slight bit complicated. It allowed me a chance to overview companies that I would possibly consider for employment, however, due to the abundance of articles provided made finding the “perfect” articles for review slightly difficult.  Over all, I enjoyed the experience and ability to further my own knowledge of a company that produces many of the products I use on a daily basis.

                                                              References
Author,Unknown, Apple Inc. (AAPL) 2012 Doc. DC300559
Issacson, Walter, Steve Jobs, 2011
Lohr, Steve, (2011a) With Siri, Apple Aims at Search, The New York Times, p.B4
Lohr, Steve, (2011b) With Siri, Apple Aims at Search, The New York Times, p.B4
Lohr, Steve, (2011c) With Siri, Apple Aims at Search, The New York Times,p.B4