I believe that the American Dream no longer exists and when it did exist, it was not at all what it turned out to be. Even when it did exist, I believe that there were a lot of complications with the word “dream” and that a lot of people were fooled into thinking that it was something great and big, and a new start when in reality it wasn’t a big thing. People came here thinking that “the sky is the limit” only to come here and find a lot of restrictions to the things that they wanted to do. I feel like a lot of people, including my parents came to the United States due to the false belief that the United States provided a better life and better future for the younger generation. My parents were fooled into coming to the United States, only to find that they had to almost live in poverty and work their way up. They were fooled by the concept when they could’ve just stayed where they were from and lived a life with less hardship. I think that there were a lot of jobs and opportunities for my parent’s generation. However, I feel as if they took this opportunity for granted and messed up our economy. The reason why that I don’t believe that the American Dream exists is because I feel as if there aren’t that many opportunities left in the United States, especially for my generation. It has come to the point that a four-year degree isn’t even worth much anymore. I know a lot of people who are still struggling to find jobs, or just working part time, coming out of prestigious universities with more than one degree. I am very worried when it comes time for me to go into the job market because there aren’t a lot of jobs that they are offering those who are fresh out of college.

I think that the United States as a whole suffers from a lot of social problems which include our economy and our social hierarchies. Also there is a lot of inequality to this day. There is a lot of racism and I feel as if the minority has become the “majority” in the sense that there is a lot more diversity now in the United States. However I think that the minority is under-represented. I think it’s interesting to see that our government consists of white, male, able-bodied, etc. people representing the majority of the “others,” or the people of color, female, etc. This is where affirmative action comes into play. Although affirmative action acts as part of a solution for an ongoing problem of racial injustice within our society, however it is not the end all to all our problems. I think that it was a good step to take, however we need to come together and start a movement for the racial inequality in our state. There is still a lot of racism here in the United States and there are still places where there is racial inequality. I believe that the American Dream can once again exist if the United States undergoes through some serious changes.

From this scandal I have learned that not only were just the victims affected but everyone, even Penn State as a whole has been affected greatly. Because this happened in the public eye, Penn State was watched very carefully on how we handle the scandal. I have learned that thanks to media and the means of communications such as Facebook and Twitter, that word travels quickly and not everyone has all the facts down. This is a sensitive topic and a lot of people wanted to take things into their own hands, but not in the smartest manner.

I learned from Sam Richard’s lecture that the silence needs to be broken for all of the victims of sexual abuse. There seems to be a taboo when it comes to sexual abuse. Out of sight, out of mine. Because no one really talks about it, most people go on their daily lives not even knowing that it happens. However, Richards presented that numerous people, even those within our family, have been or are still being sexually abused. I give my heart and my prayer to the victims. I can only imagine what the victims went through as this scandal was in the media’s light. I also learned that you need to speak up when you are in this kind of situation, whether you’re just an eye witness or the victim themselves. There will never be an end to this monstrosity if no one says anything. Because people didn’t speak up when they knew something, it caused this scandal to continue on for years. If you are in this kind of situation, no matter how hard it is, no matter how many people you hurt, you must do something when you know in your guts that something is not right. Action. That’s where a lot of people neglected to do. They neglected to take action and leave it in other people hands. You can’t just shove your responsibility onto others and deem that the situation is in better hands. If you are involved it’s your responsibility to take action and see through it.

The most important lesson that I learned is that one person doesn’t define a whole. We are Penn State. And we are all here at a great university for a reason. I think that even though this scandal has shed us in a really bad light, we still need to come together and be strong. We need to support the victims and realize that only time can repair all of this. Only time will allow victims to move on and only time will help Penn State move on from this bad reputation. It is so important to let time heal things. A lot of people are broken from the victims to just ordinary Penn State students, and with given time we will all find ourselves in a much better place. We need to keep ourselves busy and turn to bigger things that are happening in the future, such as Thon.

I honestly hate the whole concept of social media behind this scandal. It is a quick and easy way to spread rumors and not get the whole story straight. Through the help of facebook and twitter, people are getting the wrong versions of the story and persecuting the wrong people.

I believe that as outrageous as the riots were, it would’ve happened with or without the help of social media. Social media only helped to make it become as big in such a short amount of time. Masses of people were confused and angry that we were missing so much information behind the fall of our legacy—Joe Pa. Joe Pa was the figurehead, father figure, and symbol of Penn State. He is even seen as the Jesus of football. Naturally the mass crowds will have an excess amount of emotion. What better way to take it out than a riot (sarcasm). Riots stem from the constant “leaking” of information through social media. We were never told the honest truth from the Board of Trustees or those who are in charge. We only got our information from the leaks of the media.

The media is honestly so corrupt. They were showing something that said advertised Joe Pa with the scandal and didn’t mention Jerry Sandusky’s name once. People are getting from the media that Joe Pa was the one who messed up. The media isn’t clear and only gives the audience bits and pieces of facts. Twitter and Facebook only helped the wrong message get out at a quicker pace. However, there was so much anger and passion arising from the groups of people that a riot was inevitable. So many things happened in such a short time, people didn’t know how to react and gather their emotions before acting. Also word gets twisted. As people tell and re-tell the same stories, opinions begin to get mixed in with the facts, causing such confusion between the people.

If the media didn’t get involved, I think that people would’ve been more slow to form up and riot. I don’t think that it would’ve gotten so out of control like it did two nights ago. If the media didn’t get involved then maybe a media van wouldn’t have gotten flipped and people wouldn’t have gotten maced. I wished that people put the victims in mind first and not caused such a commotion. It is a dark time and we are under watch by the whole nation. People failed to realize that our actions are under such scrutiny in a hard time like this. People should’ve though before they acted and shouldn’t have forgotten that they were ultimately representing Penn State. But what does is done. We can only move forward from this. We must learn from our mistakes and not repeat the same ones. We need to come together and be proud to be Penn State. We must recognize that everyone is full of strong emotions and turn this passion towards the future like the football game against Nebraska, the faith of our football team, and the where Penn State is headed as a whole.

Only 12% of white people think they’ll do better than their parents in the future and how far they get because a lot of white people are privileged. Due to one’s color, it is easier to get a job and also to get further in life. Although a lot of people like to say that racism doesn’t exist anymore, especially in the work place, it does exist. It is far more easier for a white person to get a better paying job and work their way up than for a black or Mexican person to do the same. That is why a lot of black and brown people think that they will do better off than their parents would.

Normally a lot of first generation colored people have it harder than the privileged white people that have been living in the United States for many generations. They need to start all over again and work to lowest jobs in order to provide for their families. It took my father years and years of hard work in order to get to the place and standing that he is. This included shady jobs such as working at a liquor store for long hours. His life was endangered a few times working their however it paid for his education and it allowed him to eventually get a much better job for the government. My parents work hard in order to ensure that me and my sister don’t have to go through the hardships that they did when they were our age. That is the same for most colored people and their children. They work hard long hard hours, they work shady jobs that no one else wants to do, and they work themselves to a place where they can provide for their children.

A lot of white families are privileged in the sense that they are not first or second generation of the United States, but their ancestors had come to the United States a long time ago. They worked hard back then and established a standard that was passed onto their children. A lot of black and Mexican children think that they’ll do better than their parents because they were also provided with the opportunity of getting an education, unlike their parents. A lot of people, especially the lower class (not to say that all Blacks and Browns make up the lower class), can’t afford to pay for a four-year college education. Education has a lot to do with getting a job. If you have a college degree than you are more qualified to get a better paying job than if you just had a high school degree. I think that a lot of colored parents came to the United States in order to provide a better future for their children. Which is why I believe that I’ll do even better than my parents because I have more opportunities in front of me than when my parents first came to the United States.

Racism stems off of the uncertainty and the unfamiliarity people face when one encounters something different than what they consider normal. It is the belief that another person is less than human due to their customs, their language, the color of their skin, and the place they were born. Racism is when one thinks that a certain race is superior or inferior to another—a person’s inborn biological characteristics predetermines a person’s social and moral traits. Racism can be seen everywhere. It’s always been a huge part in history and still exists to this day. I personally believe that racism is people’s ignorance. Many people choose not to see and recognize the inequalities around them because it’s easier for people to go on with their daily lives and not stop to think about others. Also a big problem is that people seem to think that racism is gone because there aren’t huge groups of people getting punished for their race such as the time period when Hitler ordered the deaths of millions of innocent Jewish people or since the liberation of slaves in the United States. However I believe that racism is more alive than it ever was.

Racism is now seen in smaller examples. It is acted out through geographical location because if a certain location is heavily populated with a certain race, there will always be a “minority.” Back in my hometown, I lived in an area which was heavily populated with Caucasians. However if you drove thirty minutes outside of my town, it would have a lot of Asian influence. And once you got ten minutes outside of there, there would be a lot of Black people. There is a huge mixing pot of people within a two-hour radius of my hometown. But, most people tend to stick with those who look the most similar to them and those they can both share and embrace their separate but different cultures with.

It is important to carry an open mind when encountering some other kind of race. One cannot walk around filled with ignorance about the different colors and cultures behind race. Especially in the United States because our country is made up of immigrants—people of many different colors and many different races. We need to embrace all the kinds of people because they make up our culture in the United States. There’s no use thinking that one person or one group of people are better than the other because how can we base superiority on one person’s opinion? What actually qualifies a group as being the superior model for the rest? Cultures are unique and the people that create it are people you learn from. Although the first step in getting rid of racism is to learn about different people and their cultures, and dispel false pretenses that were created by the ignorant, the most important thing is to experience and learn about them yourself. Education can only do so much, it is living life for yourself that will help break down the walls of racism.

I think that I personally have reached stage three in the stages of racial awareness. It has been a recent revelation when I took a personal interest to my race and culture. I am a Korean American that grew up in a predominant white society and I have recently just learned that for that past x amount of years I should be considered a “race traitor.” I remember my mom specifically telling me that it was important to keep good relationships with my white friends (over my Korean friends) because although it may be easier to hang out with people of my own race, we are living in America, not Korea. The older I got and the more I hung out with white people, I subconsciously began to believe that I was white, therefore being a race traitor. It became harder to hang out with Koreans because the white aspect of my life (i.e. my main group of friends, my school, my neighborhood) seemed to slowly engulf the Korean aspect of my life. I began to have opposing interests and blatantly different mentality than my group of Korean friends and slowly overtime I stopped being close to them. I remember how I thought it was unfair because my parents were really strict (due to their Asian nature) and I told them that that’s not how my white friend’s parents treated their children. I would always seem to get punished for things that would be considered absurd in my white friends eyes. It’s been a tough journey trying to embrace both the Korean in me and the white that I lived around. However, I have come a long way from those days that I served as a race traitor.

I think that I am in stage three of the stages of racial awareness because stage three is exploring one’s own culture with no interest in other. This whole summer, I spent learning about my culture and my roots in the heart of Seoul, Korea. I got to see, live, learn, and ultimately experience the things my parents and those before them have. It was quite a culture shock to me! Even though I was raised with Korean culture heavily influenced in me such as the food I ate, the language I spoke, and the way I was raised, I still had a hard time adjusting. Everything was in a different language, people had a different style of clothes, all I ate was Korean food, and the mannerisms were all things that I knew about but never actually experienced first hand until I lived in Korea.

I think that the majority of my family that has immigrated from Korea to other places in the world (i.e. California, Chicago, Maryland, and New Zealand) has experienced a lot of stage two’s “us and them” and are probably further along in the stages of racial awareness than the one that I am in. It’s easy to live in your own bubble when all the people you are around look the same as you, act the same, have the same mentality, same interests. I think that the majority of the people in Korea are stuck in stage one because although they “see” the different color of races, they fail to acknowledge the existence of anyone who is different than them.

In my opinion, women aren’t forced to wear “short skirts” or the clothing that they choose to wear. Women wear them because they personally want to look good and the way to “look good” now is to show off your body and the features you want to accentuate. I would also like to disagree because I am a girl and I know plenty of girls who don’t dress up and wear heels all the time. I am one of those girls that don’t play into the role of “dressing up” to impress a million people that I don’t know and I would probably never see again. I also hate heels because “heels are a male invention designed to make a women’s butt look smaller and make it harder for them to run away.”

The media plays a huge role in the way that people dress now. The media sells that showing a lot of skin (as much skin as possible) is sexy. They also sell that having big boobs and having a big butt is beautiful. The media stresses that this unnatural beauty is real beauty and that people need to follow these roles in order to look sexy, be sexy, and be accepted by other people. Like Sam Richards said, one of the first thing men are turned on by is their sense sight. It just so happens that showing women who show large amounts of skin, those who wear mini skirts, and those who have their stomach hanging out is feeding into the male dominant world. Because we live in a male dominant world, we feed the egos of the men around us by dressing up for their pleasure—to impress them and get their sign of approval. This is also the reason why I think that it is acceptable for men to wear whatever their heart desires and still be accepted by the community. Not only the media affects what people wear but also the culture of the community we reside in. Penn State seems to advocate the lack of clothing during the weekends. It is rare that you see women dressed in modest material—even in the freezing cold! The culture at Penn State seems to influence the way people dress and interact. Because we’re known as such a huge party school, we need to live up to the “standards” that come with partying, which ultimately affects what we wear and how we interact with other people.

I think it is up to men and women to break down these social pressures. I think that men should see women the way they are, not how little clothes they wear. Men need to realize if they want to be with a women that wears little to nothing. Women need to be self-respectful and wear clothing that reflects them. They don’t need to be wearing little to nothing in order to be accepted or feel beautiful. Women need to realize that they are beautiful the way they are.

I really like the Haiti project because it brings perspective to people. People take for granted the basic things we have in our everyday lives like electricity to light up our homes, cars to take us from one place to another, the infinite knowledge the internet provides us, and clean water to drink whenever we want at the tip of our fingers. The people of Haiti may not have these “luxuries” but they are hard-working and honest people. They work hard to provide for their families and rarely take time off of work.

I think that it’s sad that a lot of Haitians have the talent to make the things that they do but they lack the resources and rarely get anything in return. If Clorene’s team expanded and she had the resources available to her such as materials in a bulk quantity and a bigger place for business, she could make more money for the things that she makes. It’s interesting to see that she is using old school silk screening, something that the United States has used 50 years ago. It’s eye-opening to see that there are other places in the world that aren’t as advanced as the US. In the video, the machines look old and the workers look hot. If she had the means to do things in bulk, she could make more money and sustain her family. I think it’s interesting that things that people all over the world take for granted small things such as t-shirts and purses, but these are things that play an essential part of the well-being of some people. It’s amazing that she produces about 300 shirts in four days with just one sewing machine. Think about all that she could do if she only had the means! I think that Clorene Blaise is a great leader and could run a bigger business well. She is resourceful because she makes purses from women’s old worn out jeans. She has made her own training program and lastly she does work herself. She has proven that she is capable of running a business. I respect her so much for her work ethic. She doesn’t work in the best conditions but she makes the best of it.

A lot of people are unaware of those around them. Most people don’t ever step out of their comfort zone and some may be stuck forever in their own little world. Many fail to see that poverty exists. Poor countries are often forgotten by the society that we live in because most people have not seen first hand or experienced poverty. The Haiti project is a great opportunity to educate people that such poverty does exist and in turn help others who are in need.

I am a second generation South Korean and I grew up in a Caucasian-dominant suburb. My parents were both born in Korea, however my dad moved to the States when he was in high school and my mom moved here once she married my dad. Interracial marriage has always been looked down upon in Korea and it is just now being more accepted. My extended family that lives in Korea believes that it is important to to marry within our race. Culture, family, and discipline are important aspects of being Korean, so it is often hard to go against a families wishes. My cousin who just graduated from UC Berkeley was telling me how she was against, almost angry, that her younger brother marrying his non-Korean girlfriend and consequently when the time came in my life, I should find a nice, Korean man to marry. Even though she lived in the States, she was raised in Korea and therefore believes it to be important for Koreans to marry other Koreans.

When I was younger I always thought it was weird to date guys outside my race and for the longest time I only dated Koreans. After seeing so many of my half-Asian, half-white friend’s parent’s marriages end up in pieces, I was always uneasy about it. However, the older I got the more I realized race has nothing to do with how you feel—you can’t help who you fall in love with! Even though I felt awkward about it before, I am now completely open to it and I actually find myself in an interracial relationship. I always thought that there would be a big clash in culture, as well as interests, and I also believed that since each race brings up their children in different ways, things just wouldn’t ever work out. However being submerged in school (elementary-high school) where there were only a handful of Asians, it made it easier for me to adjust to the thought of interracial dating. Even though I grew up in a traditional Korean household, I was heavily influenced by my friends, my school, and the area that I grew up in. Despite the fact that I have seen a lot of failed interracial marriages, there has been one very important “mixed” married couple that has withstood more years than I have lived on this earth. My aunt and uncle are still going strong and only seem to love each other more each day.

My cousin, who I mentioned before, told me that she and my dad had a discussion on interracial marriages. When she asked how my dad would feel if I ever brought home a non-Korean man, he replied with “why does it matter, as long as she’s happy.” My immediate family supports me in what I do and they will support me if I choose to date a Korean or someone outside my race.

I don’t think that I accepted my faith in Christianity until I started studying about Buddhism. Even though I grew up in a church, I was never really a part of it. I only practiced the daily motions of being a “good Christian” and I was instilled with the ideals of Christianity before I could even walk or talk. My religion taught me that this mysterious (and somewhat shady) guy named Jesus was sent by God to perform a numerous amount of miracles, and then die for my sins. I mastered the gestures, the motions, and the language of Christianity, which got me through every Friday and Sunday of my life. In other words, I was living a lie, and because of this I constantly doubted my faith. I spent countless of years struggling between my Christian roots and my desire of liberation.

One day I began questioning everything that I knew. Doubt just completely consumed my mind. I began to believe that God wasn’t working in my life and that He did not want me, nor did I want Him. It was a dark period in my life when I parted ways with my God, but I was too stubborn to believe that I needed Him. In the beginning I felt as if the chains that were holding me down were finally broken. But I had no destination, and eventually reality began to sink in—I was alone. What was worse was the thought that I couldn’t turn back. Moving forward, I searched for other things that would fill up the void in my being and found light in Buddhism. The fundamental belief of Buddhism is that one can only reach Enlightenment through meditation and mindfulness. Through Buddhism I began to understand the concept of inner peace and my past ambiguities became insignificant. Buddhism opened my eyes to the fact that I was a complete wreck without a higher power and I needed a guiding lamp in my life. My beliefs in Buddhism and Christianity complement and complete each other. Buddhism covers the part of my life, my personality, my relationships, etc. which needs discipline, patience, love, and kindness. Christianity guides me in the right direction. It comforts me and it keeps me together. I follow Christianity because life without a God is just dark and meaningless. The times that I neglected Christ were some of the darkest periods of my life because I had nothing to turn to. I have a tendency to lack commitment to mostly all the things in my life, but religion was always one thing that was there. Although I have a lot to figure out about my religion and what I believe, I can see the outline of my religious path forming so I am confident when I speak of my religious beliefs. In all honesty, I just need something in my life to just get me through the next day.