Diversity

                One of the most important factors in today’s culture is also one of the most limiting factors in many communities across rural America. This week about diversity was very different and interesting compared to some of the previous talks about diversity I have been able to experience. I learned a few things from this week’s activities that I can hopefully use in my future career and apply to some of my classes. I learned that diversity isn’t as simple as I thought it is. It can be almost anything relating to a difference between two things. Stereotyping is something that will always happen but it has changed overtime and will continue to change as our generations change. We each have our own dimensions that we use to identify ourselves even if other people don’t see us through this same perspective.
                This week’s speaker was very interesting and brought out very different perspectives to view diversity from. When he talked about sympathy compared to empathy I thought that was very interesting because I had never thought about diversity in this way. I thought he was a great speaker that tried to keep the crowd involved. My views related to diversity have changed dramatically since high school because my school had little to no race, ethnic or religious diversity. Now that I’m at Iowa State University I have become very aware of the diversity within the college.
              Diversity is the reason that the world is not extremely boring. Without as much diversity as there is in the world everyone would be the nearly the same and there would be no excitement in meeting anyone new. I know that there would be less fighting in the world about controversial issues due to everybody thinking in the same general ways but then what fun would there be in news and events? I don't think there would be much.

Diversity Event

             For my Diversity Event Option I chose option #3, “How Has the Supreme Court Reshaped American Law?” This event was very interesting because the man who spoke to us was Tom Goldstein, a Harvard University professor and a man greatly involved with the law in many ways. I also chose this diversity event specifically because it also met the requirements for my Philosophy 230 classes extra credit option. (2 birds with 1 stone!)

            Tom told us about many different things happening within the Supreme Court today such as Obama care, continued racism in the United States, and laws dealing with abortion. He said that Obama care was only passed because one Supreme Court justice changed his mind after he had decided what he was going to vote. He told us to think about the “what ifs” of it not happening and how that would impact our current society. He also told us about the different laws being regulated more in the law enforcement areas of today’s society.

            He also told us about the difficulties in the law enforcement area because of continued racism claims due to arrests for drug dealing. This factor has risen to the Supreme Court more frequently. Abortion is the same way because many people think it is a Right to decide on whether to abort their own child or not. The state of the fetus is also a concern. If the fetus is far enough along many people believe that abortion is murder in that sense.

            I think our current court systems still have a long ways to go before they get these problems dealt with but when they finally get those problems figured out new problems will already have risen.

My Twitter Experience

First off, social media is very new to me. I had never had a cell phone, Facebook or anything related to social media until the spring semester of my junior year in high school. I was very connected with people in my family, school and community by meeting them in person and being conversational instead of what our society is moving towards now. I personally do not like social media as much but I realize that I must adapt to it as society changes.

From this week of social I realized that Twitter is more confusing than I had originally thought. I still do not understand the point of having the “#” sign before some words. I learned that I must create a great bio for my online accounts and not make any bad remarks that may affect me in the future. I personally did not like to engage in this activity because I am a less social person sometimes and I feel awkward telling people about what I’m doing everyday on social media sites such as Twitter.

Social media can be helpful in reaching my goal of getting a great job by finding employers for me. I think I could do just about the same thing by networking with these employers in person by going to events that ISU has throughout the year but I will have less time to work on my academics if I go with that route.

Social media is being used all around the world in every country. This is a great thing for society because this allows us to be aware of everything happening around the world. When I read the article about the elevator I was surprised on how closely related these social media sites can be to a first impression in a person to person meeting. I realized that social media can be more helpful than I first thought but I don’t think just that factor will change how much I use it.

Report for when I missed class on October 9, 2012

            I attended the AgEI fall Entrepreneurs round table event on October 9, 2012. I learned many things from this event and I think this event helped me somewhat with my decision about my future. Currently I am stuck with a major life chose, to me. This choice is for me to just go home once I finish college and apply my gained knowledge to my father’s farm or to further my education after my undergraduate degree by going to veterinarian school and then going from there. From this event I learned 3 main things about being an entrepreneur: patent your ideas, you’re in the job to make money but you must still have fun or enjoy this job while doing your chosen job and finally be bold, don’t be a pushover because this will make you not accept or like your business as much as you should.

            I was able to talk with Tom Buman about his entrepreneurial experience. He specified that all people are in their business to make money. He believes that you must also enjoy your job or you will be less happy with your experiences. He said he was working for a government program but quit that job because he finally realized that was not the job he wanted to deal with for the rest of his life. He then went back to college to finish his degree and started his conservation company by creating a system concerned with farming conservation.

            I was also able to talk with Drew Ryder, who is a major contributor to the corporation Feedlogic. He talked to a group of us about his company and how they have made a difference in animal feeding operations. He wanted to make sure we understand that you must be bold in your choices and interests. If someone tells you that your idea has already been disproven try it anyways. Don’t be a pushover to people that think they know what they are telling you about something unless they have proven and honest research. But even at that you should try it anyways.

When you have an idea you may easily want to tell your friends about this great idea. Not such a great idea. Bill Rohlfsen, owner of the Moss Buster Company, had a great idea but he told one of his friends about this idea and lost over $125,000 due to this. When we listened to Mr. Rohlfsen tell his story he stressed the fact that in today’s society you must patent your ideas or else they are as much yours as they are your neighbors.

These three ideas about entrepreneurship that I have taken away from this event have helped me to have a better perspective about what I consider to be a major life choice for me. I hope to have my decision made by the end of fall semester of my sophomore year. I plan on going to more events such as this and am currently thinking about joining the pre-vet club on campus to help me also.