"Warriors Come Out To Play" (Blog Post #13)

Last night, a group of friends and I went to watch the Golden State Warriors take on last year’s league MVP, Derick Rose, and the Chicago Bulls. To say that the game was fun to watch would be an understatement. In order to understand what we experienced, you need to know the history of both the teams and the people in our group who attended the game.

Vicky and Juan are die-hard Warriors fans, always have been and always will be. My girlfriend and I are fans of the LA Lakers. Although we don’t live in Lakers “territory,” we still support the local Warriors. Now Enrique and Adriana are even further out of their team’s “territory,” because they are Bulls fans and obviously so, in full Bulls attire last night. Now that you are familiar with the attendees, let me explain the irony of the night’s matchup.

The Warriors were the underdog in this game. Why wouldn’t they be? They had just lost to a newly formed team, the Los Angeles Clippers, full of championship potential the night before, and were now up against a team, the Chicago Bulls, who made their presence known in last year’s playoffs, and are expected to only do better this year. The Bulls had just dominated the Lakers in their own house and had every intention of repeating that same punishment to a team that is not that familiar with playoffs and championships as of late. Shockingly, the Warriors had control of the game the entire night, balancing a pretty solid lead and making sure the Bulls fans in attendance remembered whose house it was.

Throughout the entire night, my friends and I shared some pretty memorable moments. We laughed, we cheered, we yelled, we got nervous, we got upset, and some of use even got saddened by the outcome. In the end, we all had fun. I absolutely had an amazing time with my friends at the Warriors game last night.

"Attitude Reflects Leadership" (Blog Post #12)

To be internship-ready means to exemplify successful qualities naturally. A person who is ready for success will always be on time and they will most definitely be early, because the person who is early will always be prepared and organized. Organization refers to time management, as well as scheduling, and file management. A person who has their files, documents, and assignments filed properly will always be on top of things and will be the first person considered for more responsibilities. When you are internship-ready you will be the type of person who is driven and shows initiative when it comes to potential opportunities. They don’t wait for chances to come, they go looking for them.

For the next module I will own the qualities I already have and continue to hone them. Rather than putting the majority of my focus on the traits I am already excelling in, I am going to concentrate of the growth areas that I have been given by my advisor, my peers, and my own self-assessment. I have demonstrated that I have a good ability to learn but I need to find a method that will allow me to become a better teacher. I want to be able to help my peers by bestowing my newly acquired knowledge onto them in a way they can learn the material and I can reassure my understanding.

I have been given feedback instructing me to relax a little more often when it comes to our class. I tend to take my work more serious than necessary and that might give the impression that I am unapproachable, which is the opposite of what I’d like to accomplish. I feel that I have pretty positive attitude when it comes towards Year Up, but I need to show more positive energy when it comes to the class and I want it to be infectious. Taking transportation that will get me to class 30 minutes before it starts, and completing assignments immediately after they’re assigned, are routines and methods that have been working for me and I will continue.

"How Would You Like to Pay for That?" (Blog Post #11)

Working at Best Buy could possibly be the best job I ever had. It should be made cognizant that positive and negative experiences collaborated to make my time at Best Buy memorable. I worked in the Mobile Phone department, and my primary responsibilities consisted of sales, consultations, repairs/maintenance, and all while providing the best customer experience possible. What I enjoyed the most was being able to help people. The job was more than just selling mobile phones; it was providing people with the best solution to meet their needs.

I was often sought after by customers and developed a sound clientele because of my ability to provide honest, non-bias, and thorough solutions. During my time there, I learned how to read people via their body language as well as verbal language. I also learned how to properly listen to people and what to specifically accomplish in order communicate successfully. Because of these skills, I acquired an immeasurable amount of patience. I also discovered the absolute value of honesty and how it can culminate a trust between complete strangers. Best Buy was my opportunity to establish myself and further my development as a person.

Not all experiences at Best Buy were positive. In several occasions, my character as a trustworthy salesmen and a tactical problem-solver were questioned by customers, simply because I still had to put my company’s priorities before theirs. In other words, I did not enjoy having to coerce people into buying additional and mostly unnecessary products and services with their original purchase. I had to be constantly reminded that Best Buy is a business, and in order to be a successful one, we needed to make sure that all our customers were recommended every, and any, additional solution. My inability to conform was perhaps the motive for my inevitable departure.

The Great Repetition (Blog Post #10)

The people who had fallen victim to the Great Depression were naïve and led to believe they could trust the banks with their money and that their government was protecting them. As a result, the market crashed, the banks failed, the people had everything taken from them, and government couldn’t do a single thing to help. Now unemployed and without money, they were left to survive on their own.

The damages of the Great Depression taught us, as a country, many valuable lessons. Unfortunately, the people today have grown naïve and dependent on their governments’ protection. Before we repeat the same mistake, the Occupy movement has organized themselves to proclaim their message, and remind the people that we cannot, and will not fall victim to the corrupt banks and our bought government.

In the glass house of the mural lie hundreds of people, probably unemployed or homeless, sleeping and being overseen by a policeman. This image can easily resemble the protestors, the 99%, that occupy cities and are being overseen, and at times disassembled by police. The people in the subways represent the lower and middle class workers who are the foundation of this country and economy, and are still victims of modern day slavery. In the bank are a few wealthy people, who can be translated as the 1% of today, that have heavy influence on the banks, the government, and the rest of the country.

When I look at “Frozen Assets” by Diego Rivera, I cannot help but to feel as if it was a warning for the people of present day. “Do not repeat this history,” he’s exclaiming to us. As much as it is a depiction of the darker times during the Great Depression, it ironically and clearly holds the same truth for us today during the Great Recession.

"Patria o Muerte" (Blog Post #9)

Let’s imagine a world where the homeless, the starving, and the uneducated do not live in our societies because these misfortunes do not exist. This “perfect” world is what Ernesto “Che” Guevara dedicated his life to.  He sacrificed more than what any average man was willing to, in order to give complete strangers their equal rights; rights that we normally take for granted. Regardless of all the enemies he encountered, he was a man who had a vision and acted on it. He was my superhero. He was Che.

                I first learned about Che Guevara when I asked my father who the man on all these bumper stickers and t-shirts was. I was immediately drawn to him by the way my father would describe him in his common exaggerative fashion. He made it clear that he was an incredible soldier but an even more incredible human being. He told me that Che suffered from severe asthma but still managed to fight wars in several countries and trained thousands of troops. He exercised his medical expertise on people that could never afford it or who suffered from medical conditions that no doctors would even bother to treat. After hearing my father’s anecdotes, I started doing my own research and I began to read more than I ever had before.

Knowing that an ordinary man can accomplish extraordinary achievements was what attracted me to Che the most. I became so inspired by Che that I wanted to become a doctor, I wanted to discover the world and fight for those who needed to be defended. Although today I am merely an average student with enormous ambitions, I still plan on impacting the world as Che did. I do not support Communism, but I do believe that everyone in this world deserves equal treatment. Che Guevara’s dream still lives on today. It lives through his idolizers, like me and many others around the world whom he inspired. In life he was the flamed torch that led a revolution, and in death he is the spark that will ignite the flame of future leaders who will change the world.

We Run This Town (Blog Post #8)

In my senior year in high school I served as student body president, and with that position came the role of leader of the B.O.S.A. (Board of Student Affairs) class. Our community consisted of students of all grades, from different backgrounds and neighborhoods, and different social standings. If a community were to be chosen to represent the word diversity, it would've been ours.
We were all there for a common purpose, and that was to work together as a community in order to complete tasks that would lead to successful events for our school. Although students in government positions were mandated to be apart of the class, it was still a conscious choice we made because we wanted to be included  in an important and exclusive experience.
We would communicate with each other, delegate tasks, and hold professional team and project meetings. We would also have open discussions and warm up questions that would allow us to give our input and demonstrate our individuality and creativity. It was a positive environment and very influential to the rest of the school.
A few of the disadvantages were that many people in the community were once adversaries campaigning against each other for their respective positions. Although much time had passed since the results, there was still some tension and unspoken animosity between certain individuals, myself included. We were all a community but it was apparent that cliques still formed within the class. It was inevitable, we were still in high school, after all. Thankfully, we were still a mature group and our duties were still fulfilled.
Being a part of a community like our B.O.S.A. class at that particular time our lives definitely added to our character and development as young adults. I learned a lot of crucial skills and made lifelong friends and network partners. My community was short lived but made a lifetime impact on me.

"I'm Just Saying You Could Do Better" Blog Post # 7

On the plus side, I feel that I have done a stupendous job at maintaining my professionalism efficiently and consistently. My attitude has been recognized as mature and admirable by my peers and instructors. This is a positive accolade for a crucial skill that I plan on continuing to demonstrate throughout my careers.
It may come to a shock to many that the things I am most proud of are simple things like organization and timeliness. Before Year Up, I was not the best advocate for these two important skills. I was notorious for being late to everything. It became so much of a bad habit that people would schedule plans and inform me to be there thirty minutes before everyone else. It was expected of me to arrive late and people would accommodate their schedules on my behalf. This negative habit not only needed adjusting, it needed to be eliminated entirely.
My organization skills were also sub par before I attended Year Up. I would not take advantage of simple tools like calendars and planners. I would rely and depend on my memory for everything, and my memory isn't as sharp as it once was. Luckily, now I utilize all resources available to me in order to stay on top of tasks. I not only use my daily planner, but I also use the calendar on our Outlook for school, and I also use Edmodo to communicate with my peers about assignments. I am more proficient now because of simple skills like organization and timeliness.
As far as my growth areas are concerned, I can definitely admit that although my professionalism has improved substantially, there is always room for improvement. I have been told on many occasions that I have the qualities of a leader and that I should take initiative and find a role in leadership within our community. Unfortunately, I have yet to take advantage of support I have garnered and seek a leadership position. Although I am confident in the impact I am capable of creating as a leader, I am deterred by distractions and need to refocus on my objective to find a career and excel in it. The best way to make a great impression at any future career is to prove you can demonstrate leadership qualities. I will begin to do a better job at preparing for my future and start working on my capabilities in a leadership role.

Product of My Environment (Blog post #6)

42 people were murdered in East Palo Alto, California in 1992. Although the number is relatively low as compared to most major U.S. cities, it was those 42 murders, in combination with our population of 24,322, that helped make East Palo Alto the murder capital of the United States. This is what our community is known for to the rest of the country. It is upsetting to know that the city that I live in is synonymous with murder and crime despite the fact that our crime level and murder rate has decreased significantly and are at an all-time low. I am not a product of my environment.

I will admit that my surroundings played a role in my upbringing but it is not solely responsible for making me who I am today. For example, the friends, enemies, and acquaintances I’ve shared relationships with were factors in my development but it isn’t guaranteed that the same factors couldn’t have been possible had I lived somewhere else. I developed the majority of my character through family and no matter where we lived, my family would still be there for me to learn from and grow with.

I am eternally grateful that I grew up where I did because I do believe it triggered discussions with my father, conversations with my mother, and camaraderie with my brother, all of which helped strengthen our relationship. When we make the best of any situation that our neighborhood brings to our doorstep we develop a bond that is unbreakable. I do, however, believe that this bond would still have come to fruition if we lived in another city, another state, or even another country. The challenges and benefits we experienced were unique because of where we were but there are still challenges and benefits to be experienced everywhere else. My character and my personality were destined to be what they are today, regardless of where I grew up. This was simply just the path chosen for me. I have no regrets.

Power to the People (Blog Post #5)

“We are the 99 percent,” “Solidarity forever,” and “Save schools, not millionaires” are just some of the statements declared during the Occupy Wall Street protests. The 99 percent refers to the percentage of Americans who are affected by an unstable economy with record-breaking unemployment rates, high home foreclosure rates, low funding in schools, and overall social unfairness. These recent demonstrations exemplify the actions resulting from the disgruntlement over the decisions made in the past few years, but who the messages are aimed at are the one percent of Americans who made, and are still making, these decisions. These are people in government, large corporations, and of course, banks that although make up one percent of the population, still make up forty percent of the country’s wealth. Unlike the majority of the U.S., they’re not affected by their actions.
In “The Poverty Business,” Brian Grow and Keith Epstein target companies run by individuals that share a similar characteristic to the people being demonstrated against in the Occupy Wall Street movements; That characteristic being greed. Owners and managers of companies like J.D. Byrider Systems Inc., Jackson Hewitt, Tribute Mastercard and BlueHippo are people who are well aware of the opportunity divide and the people on the opposite side. They are also mindful of the colossal damage they inflict on those people by bamboozling them into preposterous interest rates and payment plans. They are cognizant of the fact that they are destroying the lives of people who have little hope to begin with. Unfortunately, the victims are oblivious to what's occurring to them until it’s too late.
Albeit the companies previously mentioned are conscious to the repercussions that they bestow upon the general public, they are not solely responsible for the results of their deceit. The people need to take responsibility for their lack of comprehension when it comes to malicious companies and their treacherous methods. To end this disarray they need to organize themselves and bring this to the attention of the government. These companies and their greed will not cease until they make it illegal for them to continue their reign.

I am... (Blog Post #4)

Christian Martin Ramos. Martin Ramos is my father's name. I feel as though my name is a reminder that everything I do will represent my family. I love my family and want nothing more than to make them proud. They are my motivation. 
My future goals are to be the first one of my immediate family to graduate from college and attain a Bachelor’s Degree. I also aspire to work in a career, not a job, where I will be happy and enjoying what I do. I want to look forward to work every hour at work and I want my talents and skills to be appreciated and challenged.
Once I accomplish my first few goals I will be prepared to complete another and give back to communities and organizations that made me who I am. I plan on contributing to The Boys & Girls club of the Peninsula and to Year Up because they played a vital role in the success I have achieved, and I want to make sure I can help do the same for someone else.

Rise of the Fallen (Blog Post #3)

On September 21, 2011, Troy Davis, a prisoner convicted of murdering an off duty police officer, was told for the fourth time since he was imprisoned that he was going to die that day. Many legal decisions as well as protestors have helped stop the previous three execution dates from occurring. Sadly, Troy Davis’ fourth attempt at appealing his case and postponing his execution yet again would be his last. He was pronounced dead by means of lethal injection by the state of Georgia at 11:08 P.M.

What makes Troy Davis’s situation standout among other similar situations is that the public was very aware of the evidence, or lack thereof, that was being used against him in the court of law.  Like many convicted for murder, Davis professed his innocence until his last breath. His final words to the family of the man he was convicted of killing were, “All I ask…is that you look deeper into the case so you really can finally see the truth.” ¹ What truly makes the case of Troy Davis stand out is the significance of his protesters and supporters.

The petitions signed to stop the execution were in the hundreds of thousands which included former president Jimmy Carter, Pope Benedict XVI, the NCAA, and countless celebrities.  A crowd chanted outside the white house so their message was heard. More than 700 demonstrators rallied outside the prison to do the same.

With so many supporters fighting for the cause of Troy Davis, one cannot help but to ask, “Did our justice system fail us?” It’s on the minds of many but we must not point fingers and only talk about it. We should focus on how we can change it. As Troy Davis instructed his friends and family, "Continue to fight this fight.”²

Bused Over (Blog Post #2)

At one point there were no high schools in our city due to political and geographical circumstances. All high school students had to attend a school in a neighboring district because our city didn't have one.
Many of us “impoverished” students were sent on buses to schools in cities that were considered upscale. I myself was bused over to Woodside high school located in a suburb, or the “rich” side of town. I can't say I always felt welcomed there but I will say that I understood the power of diversity.
Fusing students from opposite backgrounds and neighborhoods was a potential catastrophe. I, however, couldn’t have found it more fulfilling. Because we had more ethnic students we had more cultural festivities that we all benefited from, especially our culturally-challenged classmates.
Despite my lack of effort in academics, I was still educated with experiences enriched with life lessons. Had I gone to a school in my city, I know for a fact that my education would’ve also reflected my character, poor. Even though my environment is grim, it is because of this that I was blessed with a better education in another, and for that I am eternally grateful.

"I Beg Your Pardon" (Blog Post #1)

     I didn't speak a word of English until I entered kindergarten. After a lot of ridicule from other English speaking students I became determined to not only speak their tongue but to master their language. Throughout elementary I worked diligently to perfect my English. I thank my teachers and my mother for the support they provided in order to help me develop my "proper" English.
     While I was becoming a linguistics master in class, it was outside of my class that I started to learn there was more to English than what textbooks and teachers had to offer. My schoolmates would communicate with me using words and terms I never heard before. I began to get comfortable with the new lingo and I adapted quite nicely. Soon we would start showing off new words and phrases we had picked up from movies, television and music. We would use it proudly in hopes to start new trends and gain more acceptance. It worked.
     I truly believe that the way I speak reflects who I am. I do not regret learning "accepted" English from school nor do I regret learning "improper" English from my environment. I feel that the true skill of being a master of both dialects is to know when to use them. We must consider these dialects as tools because like regular tools we must know which one to use for the right job.