In all honesty, I think I would feel uncomfortable attending a party in which I was the only, or one of only a few white people in attendance. Although this class has taught me to respect people of other races for the simple reason of "people are people," but it doesnt change the culture shock that would occur on me when I walked into a large gathering of people from a different group other than my own. I say this for two reasons:
The first being, here at Penn State, I have found that people of the same race tend to stick with people of that race. That being said, I feel as if those people that frequently hang out together have not only a strong friendship bond, but also a strong sense of a cultural bond that I have no real way of relating to. For instance, one of my very good friends is Indian. A few times she has invited me to attend a primarily Indian party. On all occasions I have declined. Not that I dont WANT to go, but rather I don think I'd know what to do with myself once I got there.
I foresee that there would be different types of activities going on compared to what I'm used to. For instance, the music and dancing. The Indian culture generally has a unique taste in music as well as a very smooth, yet almost hip-hop like dancing style. I listen to Ke$ha and dance like a straight-up white girl. I'd stick out like a sore thumb.
The second being, people handle themselves differently. Different things are offensive or funny or any emotion in between depending on who you talk to. I think many of these things apply to culture. Sure, I can say anything I want around my friend because she knows me and I know her. But I don’t know everyone else that I would be with during that party, so knowing my own limits, as well as trying to anticipate the drunk actions of people I have never met before can be a little bit intimidating. I know my friend would stick by me and I highly doubt I’d be purposely offensive, but just incase, it’s a fear that crosses my find mind every time she invites me.
However, I think either before the semester is over, or possibly next year, I think I will definitely take her up on this offer. Thinking about it, the gathering would more likely be awkward at first. But the awkwardness would only really be coming from me. After all, I would be considered a welcomed guest by my friend's friends. But I think once I get over the differences between their parties and the ones I'm used to, I think that I could adjust and learn a lot about another culture. After all, we're all crazy college kids. Just with slightly different habits. But that's what makes us diverse, because if we all just go out a whim and check out another cultures parties, I think we'd all find that we're all the same.

I think that there are a number of reasons as to why girls will not inform their partner that they didn't have an orgasm, or will fake it. The first is definitely due to the fact that we live in a male centered world. Women are always worried about being able to please guys, but men arent always as equally concerned with pleasing their female partners. This is clearly reflected in the statistics, in which 70% of men usually have an orgasm while only 35% of women when asked the same question. In the bedroom, men tend to take charge and women are usually inclined to go along with it. When the man is done, its basically over, so if a girl hasnt had an orgasm either at the same time or prior to than man's its probably not going to happen. I think this situation is a direct result of the "male gaze" we discussed in class. They ways in which we learn and see what sex is is through the mind of a man. Personally I dont think I've ever seen a movie in which the male was clearly unsatisfied. To use Sam's words, as soon a you roll over, its done.

Secondly, girls don't tend to tell boys that they didnt finish because its embarrassing to both parties. Its a touchy subject to bring up and as we've seen in previous lectures, many girls are not comfortable talking about what goes on with their bodies. They also dont want to make the guy feel bad or uncomfortable by being like hey, you're not doing it right. That's embarrassing for him too. I think most guys do try to satisfy their partners each time, but if it doesnt happen, a lot of guys tend to feel badly for essentially failing.

The conversation is also based on the type of hook up that it is. For instance, most girls are not ballsie enough to call out a man in a one night stand and tell him that she wasnt fully satisfied. That just makes everything extra awkward. However, in the case of relationships, girls probably feel more comfortable telling their boyfriend if he's not really doing it for her. Sure it'll be a little awkward for a little, but because he cares a lot more than in a hook up, he's more likely to help you to have the same experience that he usually gets.

Finally, I think girls won't tell boys that they havent had an orgasm is because they havent really experienced one. Personally i've never had one so I wouldnt be able to really coach a guy into how to make me have one cause it simply hasnt happened yet. I think this lack of true experience keeps girls from telling guys because they are not really sure what one truly feels like. However, if women would voice their feelings about not having an orgasm to their male partners, then maybe something could be done to raise the statistic and make more women sexually satisfied.

I personally believe that the pre collegiate education offered in the United States is far below what it should be. Especially in the public sector! I was really shocked to learn how far ahead some students from other countries are compared to American students. As an engineering major, I've met kids from every background. I have friends in my classes from Korea, India, and china, that I know of. They're here to study, and I frequently find myself asking these foreign kids for help in some of my classes. Why is that?! oh yeah, its because I went to a small, crappy and universe public school. Where there was one "black" kid and 2 asians. Talk about white power, huh?
Anyway, because I really can relate to this issue on a personal level, I feel that education plays a significant role in how we see other people around us. For instance, you may have heard about the incident in Shenandoah, PA in which 2 high schoolers beat a mexican immigrant to death. That school district is less than 20 minutes from my house and that court case was something I heard about multiple times a week. I couldnt help but thinking, wow, how could you do that to someone. Like, americans dont go to other countries and get beaten to death very often, now do they. NO. WE DONT. And who is to say that we have the right to determine who wants in to this country. If we could educate our students even half as well as other countries, we’d be soooo much better off.
I think we NEED to get rid of this standardizing testing bull shit. Especially in high school! There were days when I remember wasting 2-4 hours a day just doing stupid standardized tests. Given I aways scored advanced on my PSSA’s, they really don’t measure anything. Other than, hey, you understand basic algebra. Congrats. NO. stop this madness, we learn nothing except being taught the PSSA test. How is that helping us?? ….its not. Not even close.
Honestly, I'm not sure why immigrants bother. Obviously if they're coming over to the United States with an advanced education, they're going to SHINE in comparison to american students. But at what point will we as americans realize that these immigrants are helping us way more that we would ever be able to help ourselves!
In all honesty, the facts behind american students are horrifying. What is it that we need to do to match the standards around the globe? And if our comparison is so low compared to other countries, why are people still so desperate to come here?! I just dont get it. As an immigrant, you're bound to live in urban areas, where public schooling isnt really up to par, and many immigrants certainly cannot afford to sent their children to private school.
I think that if americans were less lazy and more accustomed to working hard and pursuing advanced science and math concepts, that we would reduce the amount of admitted immigrants and be able to function without the aid of other countries brilliant students!

I strongly believe that we as American's need to focus more on improving the lives of citizens in our own country before worrying about people in other countries. One thing I've noticed that the American government takes pride in is being a power house. We spread that power house around by moving in to other countries, trying to improve their lives, and gaining more followers, and more importantly, control. Sure, its great to have some sort of control over other countries, from a governement perspective... but what about your own citizens who are being ignored in this pursuit of ultimate power? When will they feel important in their own country? I can't imagine what it must be like to be ignored by my own government and sit back and watch as they put so much effort into helping people off our own shores. Its disgusting. I want government officials to walk around the streets of the urban ruins of Philadelphia, into the abandoned mining towns in Schuylkill County, and look at all the poverty that exist here. I don't understand how they can under prioritize their own citizens. They show us the ruins of other places and make us feel like it’s the worst situation ever. And that these peoples lives aren’t going to get any better unless we as American’s do something about it. Guilt, is whats keeping us from helping our own people. Our government has convinced the middle class to ignore the lower class and focus on foreign countries. We think , wow, I have all this stuff, and they have nothing. We need to do something. STOP. Look around you. I see it all the time, the poverty, the suffering, the lack of progression towards a better life. Its in our own citizens, and that’s where our attention needs to be! If America really wants to be a true power house, they need to help all their citizens be as prosperous as possible. Which may require us to be less "helpful" elsewhere.
Another thing that really irks me is that a lot of other countries... they don't actually like us. America is like, the Queen B of countries... everyone pretends to like her so they can reap the benefits of being in her "circle".. but no one actually likes her or thinks shes a good person. We have a shit ton of fake friends who like to take all our nice things and never really care when we need anything. I dont see other countries coming in to aid our poor, do you? That's because they know that we are perfectly capable of taking care of ourselves. And we definitely are! Its just our country is being run by people who can't come to any meaningful decisions, and would rather look good to the rest of the world that treat their own people with respect and fairness. America needs to focus on fixing their own problems before we start worrying too much about what other's think of us. And boy, do we have a lot of problems.

Over the last few classes, i've been very intrigued by the subject of affirmative action. I think this is a great question because I think that this is the main problem the affirmative action has created. I think affirmative action is great in the sense that companies that employ "low skilled" workers are pressured to hire people of every back ground. In that sense its okay. However, when you start to climb what I refer to as the professional ladder, it can be not only unfair, but detrimental to our society progressing economically. I have a firm belief that if you work hard and are qualified to do something, then you should be allowed to do it. I think that affirmative action is making that difficult for everyone, white people, black people, hispanics and women alike. The best person for the job should have it. Although some people may THINK they could do a better job, that management decision needs to be well thought out by someone higher up the ladder.
However, there are many cases of employment that affirmative action can be seen to help people. For instance, I'm entering a profession that is mostly dominated by white men. Also known as engineering. As a female, I am well aware of the challenges I will face simply because there's a white guy thats going to doubt my ability to do a job just as well, or even better, than a white man could. Lucky for me, some branch of affirmative action is going to give me the chance to prove myself. So in that sense I think affirmative action forces employers to give people a chance at a lower level. In terms of promotions, however, its definitely unfair. For the most part, I only ever see middle aged, well dressed, WHITE MALES in major leadership positions. I dont believe for a second that there's not a black man or woman that can't do the job of CEO or other high up positions. Its unfair that many minorities are not given the chance to show what they can do, because of this falsified system where white men promote other white men.
Additionally, I've been thinking a lot about how companies market themselves. I attended a career fair last week, just about every employer I talked to told me to apply. why? Because they wanted diversity in their company. Every single person working the tables was a white guy. Occasionally a company would have a woman representative, but in talking to them, there was rarely a woman that said she held a high management position within her company. There were also a depressingly low amount of black engineers representing the companies. In fact, of the 11 tables I went to, there was a total of 3 black employees representing. I counted. It seems to me that if they REALLY wanted diversity, they would bring they're already "diverse" employees to recruit other diverse members. But in taking this class, i understand their real reason for doing this. They don't actually want diversity, they're just saying that. The white men want more white men, but to their displeasure, they're pressured to hire women and people of color that will proably not be promoted to a very high position. ever. Thank you, affirmative action.

I was very shocked to learn about the actual relationship between the U.S. and foreign countries that are "benefiting" from our involvement. As many of us know, the topic of foreign aid has been thrown around in politics and public discussions for years. The question of should the U.S be as involved in other countries, or "helpful", as they currently are or should we completely dismiss our foreign aid agenda?
Because I have to take a side, I believe that America should stop giving foreign aid. From what I understood in lecture, we seem to be doing more harm to the countries that we are supposedly helping than good. I think the main problem in Americas drive to help foreign countries is that we have this crazy belief that we are superior to all other cultures. Because of this train of thought, we think that we can help everyone by giving them our benefits. However, that doesnt seem to be working. The state of Haiti has made little improvement, if any, regardless of American involvement. I personally dont believe that anyone is benefiting from just being handed something. I think that the only way the state of Haiti is going to improve is if we stop giving them aid and give them time on their own to figure out what is the best thing for them to do. Haitians are not incapable of doing things on their own. They were functioning before the US stepped in and I believe that they have to ability to continue to function on their own once the US steps out. We just need to give them that opportunity. One problem with aiding them is that they feel helpless and eventually will get used to that state of mind if we continue to just hand them things. If the US stops aiding them, I truly believe that the state of Haiti will make a serious self-improvement.
I also think that the US spends far too much time, money and effort on foreign nations instead of helping to improve the lives of their own citizens. There are people in parts of this country that are living in conditions of poverty nearly equivalent to Haiti. Why is our government not helping them? For me, that is my biggest pet peeve about foreign aid policy. There is so much improvement that needs to be done on our own soil, but instead policy makers focus on “looking good” to the rest of the world. No. No other country is making much extra effort to help our poor people out. They know that we should be able to handle that on our own. And we can. If our government spends less time worrying about the rest of the world and more time on its own people I think that we will be able to be an overall more prosperous nation.

In all honesty this lecture really didn't have that much effect of my specific faith, but it did have an impact on the way I think about religion in general. Personally, I have never had a strong faith. I have just always associated myself with the Christian Methodist religion because that is what I grew up with and those values and beliefs are those that I still have today. That being said, I think that having a religion just kind of pushed upon me from such a young age never really made me a strong believer. There have been a lot of times throughout my life that I found myself questioning the existence of God and if there really is any sorts of after life. I think I can credit much of this questioning due to my scientific-minded self and my need to have facts before believing anything.
To me, this lecture was mind blowing. From both a religious and scientific perspective. One thing that has always frustrated me about the scientific community is that sometimes they appear to be trying to disprove many aspects of religion. Although my faith is not very deep, I think that some scientists are far too skeptical and push the evidence towards disproving a religious belief. But this resuscitation science study is probably the most amazing discovery. Although knowing this information has not strengthened my faith or makes me want to run to church to repent for my sins, it does allow me to at least believe that there is really an afterlife of some sort for every person. I found this interesting because everyone, (Jews, Christians, Muslims, Atheists, etc) all had the same experience when they died and were revived. Does that mean we should all believe in the same after life? And will different religious beliefs change or even merge in the long run due to these findings about the afterlife? I think it will be interesting to see science and religion start to become similar as this study progresses.
However, the only thing that I can think of that maybe rocked my religious beliefs a little was the difference between suicide and all other means of death. Although I know that suicide is supposedly supposed to give you a one-way ticket to Hell, it made me question whether or not anything else we do during our time here on earth matters when the "life judgement" part of death comes about. For me, it wont change the way I live my life today. Like I'm not about to go prancing around pretending to be a saint because now I understand that there really is no need to do so. But I'm also not going to turn into some horrible person due to the fact that many of the other "sins" appear to be ignored or forgiven when ascending to the afterlife.
I think much of the class was either mind blown by this discovery or is still a little skeptical as to the truth behind it because they're worried about their faith. But personally, I think its fascinating and would love to further explore the facts behind it.

I think I walked away from Sam's lecture with a new perspective as to why I believe what I believe. First of all, I have never really considered myself to be a religious person, however in class I found myself thinking more and more about the truth to how we have come to be the species we are today. When Sam posed the question of how you believe we came to be, I answered that We evolved from evolution, but the process was guided by God, or another higher power. Even after lecture, I still stand by this answer, but I think my way of reasoning has changed. First of all, I never disagreed with the theory of evolution because that there is such an enormous amount of evidence that exists to prove this theory true. The again, being a scientific person, I never really fully backed up the creationists theory. The fact that humans are more closely related to chimps, genetically, than Asian elephants are related to African Elephants is not only mind blowing, but can not be overlooked when discussing the truth to evolution. In saying that, I also dont believe that we have evolved into this species by mere scientific chance. I think that there must be a higher power guiding us to develop into this dominant species. I don't think that we could have evolved into such a dramatically different species without a higher power deciding how much more advanced humans are allowed to be in comparison to other species. Scientifically, we have much more developed brains and significantly larger brains compared to other animals, We also tend use our senses differently from other animals and have more advanced technology compared to other species. I also think that a higher power is what allows humans to be so different but scientifically the same. For instance, when monkeys look different, I.e., an orangutang vs a chimpanzee, they're completely different species. But when you compare a larger red-headed ginger to a small skinny asian man, they're both still considered to be human. The same species, each person different and (theoretically) having the ability to provide positive contributions towards the advancement of the homo sapien species.
To sum up, I think what I walked away with was a little more appreciation and consideration for my faith. I think that the fact that more educated people tend to support either this theory or the straight evolution theory certainly helps back up any form of evolution. However, I also started to think that scientists should stop trying to disprove everything about the creationists theory using scientific methods. I believe that there are truly some things in this world that we will never be able to explain through observations, lab tests, DNA results, and hypotheses. I think that there is a higher power that will always blow the minds of scientists to prove to THEM that they're guiding our species in the right direction.

First of all, I was really surprised by the number of people who raised their hands when the class was asked if anyone would never join the military. Around me I could hear not just one, but multiple people saying "No way. I don't want to get shot!" Ignorance.
Personally, I've been debating joining ROTC and in turn, the military, for quite some time now. My grandfather was a WWII veteran for the US Air Force and always told me stories of his missions to Japan. For a while he was a POW, and although it scared me, I knew that the military helped shape him into the respectable man he is today and i wanted to be just like him. However, my branch of choice is the Navy.
I think a career with the military has the potential to be a rewarding career for me. It certainly would offer me so many opportunities. Being an engineering major, there are so many opportunities to work with military technology and systems engineering. Military engineers, from what I understand, are also some of the top salary earners in the military. Win. Secondly, there is the travel component that comes with the military. With US bases stationed all over the world, I could potentially live anywhere. I'd absolutely love to have a job that allows me to see the world, help my country, and have a career that I love.
Being a girl, a career with the military is not exactly "typical" and being an engineer, its even more atypical. But I think that the pros would certainly outweigh any cons. I'm in above-average physical condition, a value that I share with the military. I also have a lot of leadership experience that would help my military career. Even though I would not be doing any sorts of fighting, I think being an officer would be a rewarding experience. The military needs more women and more leaders. I think I could serve as a pretty good one.
Additionally, joining the ROTC would be a financially sound decision. The government pays for 100% of my education and promises me a job after graduation. Not a bad deal. Following graduation, I believe you're only required to stay in the military for five years. Again, great deal. Even if a military career ends up not being for you, five years really is that long in the scheme of things. And you get a free education and a great resume after the five years are over. What more could you possibly ask for?
I really hope more people rethink their answer in class the other day. I think many of us are unsure of exactly what a career in the military entails. At the very least students should research how the military could potentially help you grow as a professional and as a person. I think many of us will find that serving the US military would be a rewarding use of our time.

I believe that most people tend to initially judge others based solely on what they look like. This predominantly includes the race of the person, but a persons initial judgement of a person is also based on how the other person dresses, speaks, and carries them self. I know i'm personally guilty of making these initial judgements. I do it almost every day. But it usually does not define my overall opinion of a person.
For me, I tend to base my opinions of people based on how they act rather than their skin color. Sure sometime stereotypes run through my mind and I can't help but associate people of color with those stereotypes. But I try to not let that affect my opinions of a person without getting to know them. I believe that how you dress, act, speak and the respect you show to other people says a lot more about a person than the color of your skin. There are good people of every color, but in the same respect, there are trashy people of every color as well. Unfortunately, as a society, we tend to remember the negative aspects of a person more than we choose to address their positive qualities. Because of this, there are negative stereotypes of every race that people seem to find.
I grew up in a town where there were very very few members of the community that were minorities. I also come from a family where both of my grandparents are very racist. I can never listen to rap around them because they call it "nigger music." They associate all rappers, which they presume to be all black/ brown males, as being disrespectful to women, drug addicts, irresponsible, trash, and many other generalizations. Although, in my opinion, most of those general characteristics of rappers are accurate, what they fail to realize is that its not just people of color saying that stuff. Its white men, and now even women. My point of this comparison is to show that any "type" of person can have any skin color. Which is why I think its much more reasonable to judge, and even define a person by how they act rather than their race.
In terms of my perception of the man in the video, he appears to be of Asian descent, but from what I've seen and learned so far in this class, my perception could easily be wrong. Instead, I'd rather look at what you're wearing and how you address your audience in the video. The first thing I noticed was your THON shirt. In my opinion, participating in THON in any way says a lot about your personality. It means that you're unselfish- willing to commit time, money, and effort into the greater good. The second thing I noticed was the gold cross around your neck, which implies youre religious and respect a higher power through Christianity. In terms of how you talk, you neglected the use of slang words and spoke clearly and showed that you're educated (although your phrasing was a little off). But overall, my perception of you in this forty second video had next to nothing to do with your race.