It’s hard to have a clear opinion on illegal immigration because it’s really easy to see both sides of it. In my opinion there are two extremes. These are either just allowing all immigrants to come or completely stopping them from coming in. From a logistical stand point, neither one of these options is possible. Like sam was saying in class, it would take all the money we had and then some to get control of the situation. It just is not possible. On the other hand, there are only so many resources in our country, if anyone could come in we would run out of ways to accommodate everyone and the ‘american dream’ would no longer be possible by anyone.
I really liked how Sam pointed out the determination of the immigrants. I think that any employer who has worked with immigrants can attest to the fact that they are the hardest workers. I think people get the wrong ideas about immigrants and it gives them a bad stereotype. I really liked how Sam went through exactly what an immigrant has to do to get here. One enlightening point to me was when he said that the ones that are lazy didn’t make it here, they’re back in their own country. My roommate right now is from Peru. A few months ago she told me the story of how she got here. She came here when she was eight years old but her dad had been here for many years before. He came to America when she was only three and from ages three to eight when she came to America herself, she only saw her dad once a year, sometimes less. For some reason this was just shocking to me. That had to be so incredibly difficult for her dad who was living in America alone and never seeing his family. Not to mention the impact it would’ve had on her mom to be alone raising two young kids. My roommate says that she was so young that she just thought it was normal and it would’ve been a lot harder had they had to do it when she was older and used to her dad always being around. But regardless, that definitely had an impact on her childhood. I could never in a million years imagine having to do that. It makes me have a lot of respect for people who are able to go through that in order to create a better life for their families.
I think this is something that, if I had thought about I would’ve understood. So I wouldn’t say that Sam’s lecture changed my mind about immigration because honestly I didn’t have much of an opinion about it before. It definitely brought things to my attention though.

The lecture on nepotism/affirmative action was very interesting. It’s hard to say what exactly there is to do about it though. Yes nepotism makes somebody lose. If you get a job because of your connections then someone who might be better qualified is missing out. So does that mean you turn the job down? What if you got turned down from a different job because someone else used nepotism? Then shouldn’t you deserve to use your connections now that you have them?
We tend to love nepotism when it’s working in our favor, but hate it when it’s not. My sister was up for a scholarship when she was in high school that was given by the secretaries of our high school. It was a big process with applications and interviews and everything. It came down between my sister and one other girl. This girl just so happened to be one of the secretaries daughters. She had a much lower GPA than my sister and was less involved. She also had a much lower financial need for the scholarship. On paper, it would’ve been obvious to choose my sister. However, the other girl got the scholarship. It was pretty obvious that it had been because her own mom was choosing the winner. In this case, my family was pretty bitter about the nepotism component of the choice. However, this year I was looking for an internship. I’m a finance major in the business school and went through all the processes of the career fair and applying on simplicity. Etc., etc. However all the jobs that I was getting interviews for were on the east coast and I was more interested in being closer to home. I’m from Texas and unfortunately that area doesn’t recruit heavily in Pennsylvania. My aunt had a connection with one of the financial vp’s at Dell in Round Rock. She sent my resume to them along with a recommendation and I got an interview. A few weeks later I got an internship offer. In this case the nepotism was great for me. At the same time, it makes me question if I really deserve it. If I hadn’t had my aunt as a connection, would I have even gotten an interview? Much less getting the actual position?
So to answer the question, I did use nepotism when it was offered to me. It got me a great internship that will look great on a resume and possibly lead to a good job when I get out of college. I don’t regret the choice, but I will say that if I had gotten a job without the connection I would be a lot more proud of it.

It really bothers me that people speaking a different language bothers people. It might bother people because they don’t know what they’re saying and they’re afraid they’re saying stuff about them, but that’s ridiculous. You don’t need to always know what people around you are saying. If you went to a different country with your friends or you came across another American, you would speak English to them. It is completely disrespectful to be offended or bothered by someone speaking a different language. This semester I got a new roommate. She has lived here since she was eight years old but she is originally from Peru. She speaks English very well, so well that when she speaks it you wouldn’t be able to tell that it’s not her first language. However, when she speaks to her family on the phone or in person she speaks in Spanish. I remember the first time she was on the phone with her mom she was speaking Spanish. When she hung up she looked at me and said “Does it bother you that I speak in Spanish to them on the phone?” Obviously she was asking this because she knew that it bothered some people but I thought it was the craziest question ever. Why would I care how she spoke to her parents? It’s not like I needed to be a part of that conversation. If she was speaking English, I still wouldn’t be a part of that conversation so she can speak whatever language she wants.
I’m from Texas and in Texas it is almost a given that you take Spanish in high school. That combined with what I’ve taken at Penn State means I’ve taken 5 years of Spanish classes. I will be the first to admit that I am awful at it. My accent is ridiculous and I can’t hold a conversation to save my life. With all that time put into it I still can’t speak it. It is something that I regret all the time. I’d give anything to be able to speak Spanish and go to another country and speak a different language to the people that live there. I studied abroad in Italy for six weeks last summer. Spanish is sort of similar to Italian and I was able to pick up words here and there but I was nowhere close to being able to hold a conversation. I have experienced first-hand how difficult it is to learn a second language, so when I hear people speaking another language, if anything, it just makes me wish that I could too. I know how much work is put into it and I know that it’s not easy. Hearing people speak a different language makes me respect them more for all their hard work.

This question is difficult because it’s hard to prove how I feel. I grew up in a predominately white high school. And now I go to Penn State. I honestly haven’t been in a ton of social situations that have exposed me to different races. This class has made me realize this more and more. I will say that in my honest opinion about interracial relationships, race doesn’t matter. I could rattle off that I’ve dated this race or that race and that shows that I’m ok with it but that would just show that I was singling out those relationships. It’s not about how many interracial relationships you have; it’s about how you really feel.
There are things that I look for in guys and if I find those things, I will be interested, regardless of what race they are. This conversation is interesting to me however, because I know that me being in an interracial relationship would make my grandparents uncomfortable. My granddad is a great guy but he grew up in a different time. He grew up during the great depression on a farm and racism was very prevalent. My granddad is not the type of person to be openly judgmental or rude to other races. He has moved on with the times and doesn’t have huge racist thoughts but one that I know has stuck with him is interracial relationships. Over Christmas break, I was inspired by this class and I questioned my grandma about it. The topic came up because my distant cousin is a sophomore at University of Georgia and he currently has a black girlfriend. His grandfather (different from mine) is openly racist and we know he is not happy about it. When I asked my grandma about it she wasn’t exactly pleased. I then asked her what exactly makes her against it. My grandma then explained that it wasn’t about the person. She’s beyond the point where she thinks different races are inferior. In her mind it was all about the kids. She felt that if they were to have kids of mixed race then the kids wouldn’t know where to belong. In my grandma’s mind, the world still has plenty of racist attitudes and people still divide into racial groups. Her fear wasn’t that his girlfriend was inferior or wasn’t good enough, her fear was that their kids wouldn’t fit into any group. It’s interesting to me to see how different generations view the world. My grandma’s perspective is very different from my own and her reasoning behind it only shows that she grew up in a different time. Knowing that my grandparents would be against this type of relationship frustrates me because I know they aren’t seeing the whole picture, they’re just looking at it through their own lens.

The diversity at Penn State wasn’t something that I thought about before I came here. When you’re looking at colleges you look at rank, quality of education, location etc. but in my personal experience the lack of diversity wasn’t something I considered. It honestly wasn’t something I ever thought of even when I was here until my mom came to visit. I was dancing in THON so she came up for the weekend from Texas. No one in my family ever went to Penn State so no one in my family knows anything about Penn State. While she was here, we were hanging out in the BJC a LOT. One time she was on the floor with me she made a simple comment to me. Just in mid conversation she was like “There really are a lot of white people here.” I always knew that Penn State lacked diversity but I had never really put much thought into it until she said it to me like that. I don’t consider myself to be racist or have any negative opinions towards diversity, so it is interesting to me that looking at my life I really haven’t been around any diversity. The high school I went to was in no way diverse and a majority of the students were white. And now I go to a college that has the same set up. I always would think that there’s no discrimination and everyone has the same attitude as me. But obviously that’s not true. I’ve lived in a very sheltered world where I haven’t had to see or deal with any of these things. I wouldn’t say that any of it is by choice though. I went to the high school that I went to because my mom taught there. When someone asks me why I chose to go to Penn State I say because it was a good school and it was near family, not because there’s no diversity. I don’t think whether or not a school is diverse is a reason anyone would pick a college. This class has opened my eyes a lot to the real world. I know realize that the world I’ve been living in is sheltered and not what the majority of the world is like. At the same time, the world that I’ve been in hasn’t been one that taught me to only want to be in a non diverse world. Even without diversity I’ve still learned that everyone should be respected no matter what their race or sex or anything. I’ve learned that people are people no matter what. While I may not have gotten a first-hand lesson of equality by seeing diversity around me every day, I’ve learned how to be a good person, no matter who you’re around in your life.

At first glance, this topic seems very controversial. It’s something that when you first read the headline you think, wow that’s not good. Why do we have that reaction? Because at first glance it seems like a white supremacist action and it seems like this scholarship is just giving all the power to the white male. The fact that it’s a Texas based group probably doesn’t help it anymore. Texas is seen as a very conservative state and to other parts of the country they see it as a place where white supremacy still exists. When you first see this story and then see it’s from Texas you’re gut reaction is to cringe at the thought of Texas doing something like this. Being from Texas, I would quickly defend these stereotypes, however I know that many parts of the country still see Texas in this way. So because this scholarship is based in Texas, it takes away some of the credibility.
Upon further thought, and after watching the video, there seems to be some validity to this scholarship. As a white female, I look for scholarships every year. On scholarship websites and the sites offered by Penn State, a majority of the scholarships are offered to minorities and I have to immediately write them off. It is understandable why the scholarships for minorities exist. Affirmative action is necessary to an extent. But that doesn’t mean that all white males don’t need the money to go to school. In fact, there are many white males who have less money than some males of minorities. It is no longer working out that just because you’re white and a male means you have the money to go to college. From this stand point, I see the need for the scholarship. It’s helping white males who would otherwise not be able to go to college because they don’t qualify for any of the minority scholarships. If scholarships can be offered to certain minorities then why not offer one to white males as well?
At the same time, this could be problematic. I would question the intentions of the people issuing the scholarship because there are still white supremacy groups out there and people who have that philosophy. I would be careful to see if these people really are just having the pure intentions of sending poor white males to college or if they have some kind of hidden agenda. People could very well be issuing these scholarships with the wrong intention. This is still a very touchy subject in America. I can see why people would consider this to be big news but I also see the good intentions that these people could have. I’m still on the fence about whether or not these are for the right intentions and would need to know more about the organization to form a full opinion.

Affirmative action is a subject that I tend to go back and forth on. Being a white female, affirmative action doesn’t have to do with me. I don’t benefit from it in any way so it’s hard for me to have an opinion on it. I used to think it was kind of a joke. I’ve already discussed this in my section but I had a friend growing up who lived in a neighborhood near mine and went to the same schools as me. Both of our parents were teachers and we grew up with very similar lifestyles. When it came time to take our SATs we got very similar scores. We were both right outside the cut off for national merit scholar and we were frustrated with this. However, she was one quarter Hispanic. Being from Texas, we have a very large population of Hispanic people, of all various classes and income levels. Because my friend was one quarter Hispanic she was able to qualify for the Hispanic National Merit Scholar which was a lower cut off. Because of this she got a lot of interest from different schools and ended up getting a large number of scholarships to all different places. I was never angry or frustrated with this it just always seemed kind of weird to me. Why would a certain race have lower expectations of what they get on the SATs. While it helped people who were Hispanic, it almost seemed a little insulting at the same time. I just always found it weird that someone who grew up the same way as me didn’t have the same expectations on the SAT. This class has opened my eyes a lot to why we have this though. My naïve perspective was that it was almost a form of racism. Now I get why. These policies need to be in place because there is an injustice when it comes to races. While it didn’t exactly make sense for my friend to get that kind of treatment, it did make sense for other people. Affirmative action is simply a way of correcting the injustices and it helps a lot of people that would otherwise be over looked or slip through the cracks. It is in no way a perfect system. People still slip through the cracks and others benefit from it that don’t necessarily need it but it is something. I think that there can be ways to improve it so that even more people benefit from it. Seeing the statistics that Sam shows in class has proven to me that it is necessary. It’s opened my eyes to something that I didn’t realize and now it makes more sense to me.

This is something that we don’t like to talk about. I think we just go along in our everyday lives and try not to think about all that we have. We definitely take it for granted. I think this class has really allowed me to start truly appreciating everything that I do have. I complain way too much for things that, in the long run, don’t really mean anything at all.
I complain that I have too much work to do or that my boyfriend isn’t doing something right. I complain about my parents and my sister. I complain about not getting enough sleep or not being able to buy something. But now that I look at it, that’s all insane. Watching these videos puts everything into perspective. I have an amazing family who gives me everything I need. Yeah I have to work at school but at least I have the opportunity to go to school and live on my own and spend time with my friends. I know this was something that Sam told us not to think in class but it really does make you feel kind of guilty. But at the same time, I don’t know what I could do about it. If I stopped using my resources, then that wouldn’t help anyone. If I stopped living the way that I do, it would only hurt me and would help no one. I think we just have to take the resources that we do have and use them to the best of our ability to help anyone that we can. Since this is the day before THON, I can’t help but make a THON reference. At THON my freshman year, someone stood up and told as story about a little boy and his grandpa. They were walking on the beach and they came across a row of millions of starfish that had washed up onto the beach. The starfish weren’t being swept back into the water and they were all dying because they couldn’t survive out of water. The little boy started picking one up and throwing it back in the water, one at a time. The grandpa tried to stop the boy and said, you won’t be able to save them all, there’s way too many you’re not going to make a difference. And the boy just picked another one up, threw it in and said I made a difference for that one. That’s really all that matters, you just have to help in any way that you can. You can’t stop living your life the way you do you just have to use everything that you have to help as many people as you can. You can’t save the world but you can save someone. Sorry for the sappiness of this blog but I’m dancing in THON this weekend and it’s really all that’s on my mind right now!

This is a really interesting topic because I think it’s one that we don’t normally think about. Like Sam was saying in class today, we don’t go into a job interview or a meeting and do well and then think, I did well because of my skin color or because of what my parents gave me. When we accomplish something in life, we want to take the credit for it. That’s why this topic is such a dilemma because on the other hand, when we don’t get something we try and blame it on our parents or our situation.
I haven’t had a hard life by any means. I was never the wealthiest person, but my mom taught in a really wealthy school district with a lot of opportunities. When I was in first grade, my mom transferred me to her school because she knew I would get a great education out of it, and I did. At my school, it was basically a given that you would graduate. I don’t know the actual percentages but I know that I don’t know anyone who didn’t graduate. We had awesome teachers and awesome opportunities and I know I wouldn’t be as successful in college as I am now without them. I don’t really think about it much, but that school is why I’m in college and is why I want a job and want to work and be successful. If I had gone to a different school, I might not have all the same ideas about these things as I do now. It is unfair, because I know there are plenty of people who are probably smarter than me who won’t get to where I am simply because they don’t have the resources that I have had.
At the same time, I put work into getting here. I studied in high school to keep my GPA high and worked hard to have a lot of extracurricular activities so that I could get into a good college. Now I work hard to compete to get internships and hopefully a job after graduation. I think that I’ve used my resources more than other people with my same opportunities have. Someone else with the same opportunities as me might not try as hard and might not make it as far as me.
So basically, I now more than ever, fully acknowledge that my opportunities are why I am here. But it also has a small part to do with me working hard to make those opportunities into something. It’s not fair that others who work as hard or harder and are smarter than me don’t make it as far. That fully has to do with opportunities and what their parents gave to them. I guess the best we can do is just work as hard as we can and then pass the opportunities onto our own children.

This question seems simple. Why wouldn’t we want to eliminate all the pain? We could stop being sad and hurt. We wouldn’t care if someone we loved died or if some guy broke our heart. No one would ever murder someone or tease someone. All the pain would be gone for the world if we just learned how to not care. I thought it was interesting that the video said something along the lines of Humans are the only species who think that they should be happy. OK, well why shouldn’t we be happy? Yes there is a lot of pain and suffering in the world, but there is also a lot of happiness. There are a lot of things like family and friends that make all the bad things easier to handle. Sometimes we look over the good things, and only focus on the bad things. I do think that the video was interesting. It puts things in a different perspective. We seem to put ourselves in the center of the universe and it was weird to look in on everything from an outside perspective. It seems crazy when it’s put like that. At this point though, it would be impossible to regress and go back to the former state of not caring. At this point we just care too much.

Without feelings, without sadness we wouldn’t have progressed as much as we have. Yes bad things happen all over the world, but it lets the good things grow stronger. The example that this reminds me of may not be known world-wide, or even throughout the country, but it is our own local version of why caring matters. It might seem cliché but this reminds me of THON. With THON being only 14 days away, it’s hard to think of much else. I’ve put a lot of my time during my college career into this and if I’ve learned anything it’s that caring counts. Cancer is an incredibly painful and horrible thing in this world. It tears families apart and punishes people that don’t deserve it. Most people have had their lives affected in some way by cancer. What’s even worse is when it happens to children. THON has taken something horrible, and brought people together into something amazing. We found a way to fight it because we care. If we didn’t care at all, and reverted back to that state, then we would have just sat on the sidelines and watched it all happen. There are over 15,000 students who volunteer their time and energy into trying to make a difference and we do make a difference. And the only way we make a difference is because we care.