Key message FAQ Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Key message FAQ - Essay Example The school immediately encrypted the student files to prevent any future breach of the student records. 3. The school’s information retrieval trail proves there was no illegal retrieval of the confidential students’ personal data. The initial findings of the continuing investigation affirm only individuals using the correct passwords had accessed the student records. The continuing school investigation affirmed there is nothing to worry about. 4. No one had filed a complaint of any breach of the student files. This affirms that the unencrypted data remains confidential. Anyone who does not know the correct passwords cannot access the same student files. 5. There were no complaints of any unauthorized retrieval of confidential student data. The school’s effective anti-hacking tools & strong firewall software effectively prevented all unauthorized retrieval of any student information from the university’s server during the unencrypted records period. Yes. During February of 2014, one authorized university registrar’s office employee noticed the data was recorded using the unencrypted method immediately reported the issue during February. The information was immediately changed to the encrypted method (Indiana University, 2014). Records show that only one authorized school employee discovered the 150,000 student records were not encrypted (Piurek, 2014). The school history trail affirms there was no unauthorized retrieval of the student information. Only those having the right passwords had accessed the student files. This indicates only authorized students and authorized school employees had retrieved the confidential unencrypted student data (Indiana University, 2014). The school investigation indicated passwords were used to prevent the authorized retrieval of the unencrypted student data. The school software prevented the hacking of the

Course Expectations and Goals Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Course Expectations and Goals - Essay Example I have not always been an A student, but this particular topic interests me, and I think that I should be able to shine if I study hard and am open to learning from you, my teacher, and also my peers, who may be more knowledgeable about me in this certain subject. My strengths in technical writing are that I am someone who has a lot of thoughts swirling around in my brain, so it shouldn’t be too hard for me to jot them down on paper. Part of being such a good writer is to always be open to critique, and I am sure that this is one area that I can excel in. On the other hand though, my attention to detail is perhaps not as great as it should be. I think the reason for this is that I think faster than I can write, and thus the words are coming out of my brain much faster than I can write them out. I am aware of this and realize that I need to slow it down and properly construe the thought patterns that may be in my head. In terms of organization, I am a pretty well-organized person because I set deadlines for whenever I have to complete something by. Part of this process is breaking down the task into smaller more manageable â€Å"chunks† so that the task does not seem so daunting at first. My mind is naturally inclined to think critically about whatever I am writing about (Is this the only way? What if my way is wrong? Is there a better option?). I ask myself all these questions because I always want to strive for the very best that I have to offer. If I can refine my work just marginally, it may end up strengthening my argument. My grammar skills are quite acceptable to most people’s standards. I always take great pride in the quality of my work, and this also means the way it is presented too. Once I have completed a work, I go back over it and check for not only any blatant errors, but also for places where the copy can be improved or tweaked to make it more concise. I would

Homosexuality Essay Example for Free

Homosexuality Essay Homosexuality within the church is a controversial matter that is threatening to break apart the over 20-century-old institution of the church. This paper sets out to demonstrate that, Homosexuality within the church and the society is a controversial matter that is yet to be resolved. With particular emphasis with the teachings of the Catholic tradition on Homosexuality, the paper seeks to analyze how Homosexuality has for the entire history of the Catholic tradition threatened to divide the church. The paper also will take a view of Homosexuality in today’s society in a bid to compare and contrast how modern society views on Homosexuality differ from the teachings of the church and the reasons behind the church’s rather conservative approach to the Homosexuality issue. The Catholic church was founded around 2nd century at a time when church and state were inseparable and the church yielded much influence over state affairs and governance. With particular reference to Roman empire, the Catholic church in Rome came to be so powerful that church law determined state’s laws and the papacy was responsible for the running of not only the church affairs, but also of the state affairs. So much was the influence of the Catholic Church leadership on state governance that, church leaders were powerful and revered because they could exert political and religious authority. The issue of Homosexuality within the Catholic Church is not new and as early as the 5th century, there is evidence to the fact that, the issue had come up often in church doctrine and it had been discussed at the highest level of the church. Homosexuality according to the Catholic tradition is evil and not permissible. Indeed, the Catholic tradition holds that those who engage in Homosexuality should be excommunicated from the church, a punishment that is not revertible and rarely does the church leadership give audience to those viewed to be disobedient to the Catholic stance on Homosexuality. According to Catholic tradition, a union between a man and a man or between a woman and a woman is seen and therefore, it is contravention to the church teachings. As a result of the position the church has maintained for centuries, the issue of Homosexuality in the church continues to elicit emotional debates and is currently one of the most controversial issues in the Catholic Church especially the Catholic Church in USA. Rather than amend the existing church doctrine, to reflect modern society, and particularly the newfound freedom amongst the youth in America, the church continues to make key amendments to its dogmatic teachings, which continue to depict the church as old-fashioned, insensitive and non-responsive to modernity. The number of youth attending church in the USA has been found to have declined by upto 30% in the past few decades. This is reflected by the fact that, there are fewer Americans willing to take up leadership positions in the church causing a major shortage of father, nuns, etc. in the church. Although Homosexuality as an issue is not solely to blame for the current standoff, it is evidently a contributing factor to the leadership crisis the church is facing and the inability of the church to attract young people to participate in church leadership. Their lax evidence and substantial research in the causes of the church’s conservative position, which inspite of being challenged by scholars in the church and the faithfuls has remained perpetually undeterred and continues to maintain the hard position it has taken for the past centuries. In sharp contrast to the position taken by the clergy, there is growing evidence that a gay culture is slowly gaining root amongst the clergy something, which is proving to be magnanimous and one of the latest scandal in the Catholic church . This has had an impact on values that the church has continued to teach including family values that the church bases as its key argument against ratification of Homosexuality within the church. Although it is hard to say for sure how many Catholic clergy are involved in Homosexuality, going by the number of those who come out in the open and defiantly state their support of Homosexuality, it is clear that there are significant numbers of clergy engaging in Homosexual practices, promoting Homosexuality as well as openly or silently advocating for Homosexuality . This has left the church leadership in a dilemma as it has become very difficult for a common ground to be struck between proponents and opponents of Homosexuality in the church. What started as deliberations to examine how the church could respond to Homosexuality and its growing influence in the face of organized homosexual groups, which started getting rights to marriage as well as other rights, guarding from discrimination has put the Catholic church especially in the USA at crossroads. As a result of the raging debate, the media sought to focus attention on the issue of Homosexuality and how the church was responding to it leading to numerous reports accusing cardinals in the USA of engaging in Homosexuality. This has further been complicated by the fact that whenever Homosexuality debate has come up, the issue of pedophilia has come up . This has further complicated the Homosexual debate in that it gives the Homosexual debate a negative image in the public given that pedophilia is a sensitive issue equitable to crime. Homosexuality in the Catholic Church is so complex that, the independence given to cardinals has made it virtually impossible even for victims of Homosexuality perpetrated by the clergy to successfully wage complaints. For instance, clergy collaborate with their superiors to perpetrate Homosexual behaviour to young boys and instead of such clergy being punished when the matter comes out in the open, it is often the victims and their families who suffer most. Indeed, in many cases, members of the church are more likely to quit church because the only way out is to avoid confrontation with the church. This has further been complicated by the fact that, the church has been rather unwilling to acknowledge that Homosexuality is a problem within the church something which means that whenever such accusations are raised against the church leadership, the church is less willing or not devoted to dealing with the problem of Homosexuality. In most cases, the ‘offenders’ receive light punishments such as transfer and rarely has any meaningful punishment been referred against clergy by the church. This indifference from the church leadership has continued to taint the church’s image especially considering that there is a general lack of understanding and appreciation of Homosexuality amongst church faithfuls. That the Catholic Church traditionally believes Homosexuality is a sin, is evidenced by the constant pleas and calls for repentance the church sends out to self-confessed Homosexuals. Indeed, there is a clear difference between Homosexuality as practiced in the church and Homosexuality as practiced in the society. The matter is further complicated by the fact that, traditional Catholic beliefs do not allow members of clergy to marry or engage in sexual intercourse leave alone Homosexuality. Therefore, Homosexuality in the church circles is viewed as clerical abuse and is treated as such. There is enough evidence towards the fact that, the church is willing to fight on and totally ban Homosexuality in the church and especially within the clergy. However, the church is faced with a dilemma in that, it does not support the concept of Homosexuality. As such, the church leadership is in a state of denial, which seeks to present the church as devoid of Homosexuality but at the same time, wants to fight incidences of Homosexuality if and when reported. Although in some cases those accused of Homosexuality have been forced to resign, such calls come from the faithful and tend to be grounded on threats of charges and not as a contradiction of traditional teachings or church dogma considering that the church is reluctant to acknowledge that even within its clergy the problem of Homosexuality is rife. Outside the US, resistance to Homosexuality in the church is higher compared to US where in some cases, some archdioceses have the leeway to choose whether to work with Homosexuals or not. This is bringing a new dimension into the Homosexuality debate in regard to celibacy and a call for further scholarly interpretation of celibacy as understood in the Catholic Church . It is not surprising that the issue of Homosexuality in the church has never been comprehensively dealt with despite the fact that, Homosexuality in the church has been practiced since the 1970s upto present and evidently with the knowledge of the church leadership . Another dimension that the Homosexuality debate has taken in the church is questioning of how effectively Homosexual clergy are capable of guiding the faithful. The fact that Homosexuality is still considered by many Catholics as sin and violation of their traditional beliefs brings a dilemma to the clergy who are Homosexuals and is a common cause of conflicts. This has led many to question the ability of those who violate church teachings to lead the faithfuls who hold different points of view on Homosexuality. Indeed, this has brought about an ethical dimension to the Homosexuality debate in the church. While the proponents of Homosexuality call for relaxation of traditional teachings on celibacy, opponents of Homosexuality call for chastity and upholding of traditional teachings on sexuality as handed down by generations . Evidently, Homosexuality in the church has started to take a new dimension, that of civil liberties and civil rights. In this regard, there are those who want to bring the human rights issue into the Homosexuality debate and look at the church’s stance on Homosexuality as a violation of civil liberties and civil rights. This dimension has been criticized due to the fact that, the church is an independent institution whose doctrine is out of state control and therefore, compelling the church to accept Homosexuality as an attempt to guarantee civil liberties and civil rights, has in the past failed to yield into results. Therefore, while some liberals view Homosexuality as an orientation and something to be left to the choice of an individual, others view the church and indeed the Christian faith as dominant when it comes to individual choices and therefore, this implies that once one accepts membership into the church, individualism is less important and collectivity is emphasized. If what is happening in other denominations such as Evangelicals and Anglicans is anything to go by, Homosexuality in the church will continue to be a contentious issue and the solution lies in the granting of independence to churches to make individual decisions on how to conduct the Homosexuality debate. Indeed, nothing has in the recent history of the church been so hard to strike a common position on, as has been with the case of Homosexuality. Efforts by the church to transform Homosexuals through methods such as therapy in form of Bible teachings, have failed and that too has been considered as interference in civil liberties and civil rights of individuals. Therefore, asking homosexuals to change their sexual orientation has greatly failed and it seems that the homosexuals are gaining ground in the church and are swelling in numbers. If current estimates of homosexuals in the church today are anything to go by, the Catholic Church may find it difficult to contain the ‘homosexual movement’ and it is the high time that a multidimensional approach to the Homosexual debate is adapted with an aim of bringing together conservatives and liberals to strike a common ground. Even the involvement of scriptural interpretation has failed to yield into meaningful results as different groups have interpreted the issue differently. Therefore, the Biblical standpoint has ceased to be what guides the debate on Homosexuality and the church and evidently civil rights and civil liberties dimension together with emotive dimension is what is taking prominence in the debate about Homosexuality in the church. In conclusion, the view of Homosexuality in the contemporary society is as controversial as it is the case in the church. However, since the moral standards in the contemporary society compared to the moral standards set by the church are significantly different, homosexuals have received insignificant resistance in the civil society than has been the case in the church. That modernity has influenced the way modern society has welcomed Homosexuality is for sure but the teachings of the church have failed to incorporate the views of the same society that it purports to serve. This has resulted into a conflict that persists between the church and the modern society something, which will be resolved when the church will amend its teachings to reflect the modern society standpoint. There is a need for more scholarly studies geared towards establishing a common ground between opponents and proponents of Homosexuality with a view of diffusing the standoff between those who support a more tolerant church position on Homosexuality and those who are opposed to a more inclusive position on Homosexuality in connection to the church. There is a need for the Catholic Church to review its training programs for clergies in a bid to deal with the problem of clergy engaging in abusive behaviour that has resulted into conflict of interest and lack of harmony in the church. It is no doubt that, the society expects the church to be a model in as far as moral standards are concerned, and therefore, when clergy are accused of engaging in Homosexuality, which is in the first place against the official position of the church, doubts arise about the church’s teachings on Homosexuality.

Future Of The Banking Sector

Future Of The Banking Sector Online banking has been shaping and shaking the financial sector world wide. But sustainability depend on proper understanding of consumer, there demand and the way they use it. The main objective of this report is to focus on technology (especially IT) use in banking sectors. It also focuses on Limited Purpose Bank and Credit Card system. Thus objectives of the study are to: Changes of future banking sector and impact of information systems. Limited purpose bank and use of technology in facilitating special purpose. Consumer banking and various consumer facilities provided by bank using information systems. Understand and suggest the online bank on the basis findings. Credit card banks, sub-prime lenders, and Internet primary banks [Mahboob, 2001] FUTURE OF BANKING SECTOR Consolidation of the banking industry: What are the prospects for, and implications of, further consolidation of the banking industry, particularly relating to safety and soundness, market concentration, and small business credit? Combinations of commerce and banking: In future the questions may arise concerning the pros and cons of allowing common ownership and the options for regulating combinations. Supervisory issues: The implications for bank supervision for the growing complexity of large banking organizations may be other questions. Governance issues: There are many corporate scandals that have led to efforts to hold our corporate management and directors to a higher level of standard [Willium, 1996] LIMITED PURPOSE BANK Limited-purpose banks are institutions that specialize in relatively narrow business lines. Making a certain type of loan, serving as a subset of consumers and offering different innovative products some limited-purpose banks create their market. They focus niche marketing concerning limited set of activities these banking institutions can develop expertise in particular business lines and can become efficient producers. Specialization may have been promoted by technological innovations. Credit card banks offer their customers both convenience and liquidity by providing a financial product that can be used as a means of payment and a source of instant credit. Some banks provide banking services through internet are known as primary banks [American Banker,1996] CREDIT CARD BANK The credit card banks provide their customers with both convenience and liquidity by offering a product that can be used as a payment device and as an open-end revolving credit. There is no fixed duration to allow credit card loans that complicates the measurement of interest- rate risk. It creates the problems of adverse selection because of mass marketing of credit cards, small average balances on individual accounts. High interest rates results in high profitability of credit card loans, fee income, securitization, successful use of technology, and scale economies in operations. We can expect that the prosperity of credit card banks will continue [Ashust, 1996]. There are some benefits and Costs for Participants having a Credit Card. Types of Participants Functions Advantages Costs Card holder Purchasing of goods and services. Carrying money without carrying cash Convenient purchases Having ability to payment timely to match cash flows Easy access to credit Bonus using Easy access to float Others features Having more interest rates and fees Some difficulties to manage credit Merchants Sales of goods and services. Almost no risks of carrying credit card and selling to consumers. Getting the guaranty of payment Advantages of access to large number of consumer base. Interchange fees on sales have to pay to card holders Problem of Losing private credit information such as marketing information, customer loyalty, interest income and so on Issuing Bank Extending credit to the card holders Collection of payments from card holders Distribution of cards Authorization of transactions Receivables collection It is easy to collect fees from the card holders Interest rate spreads can be collect easily Gaining the ability to cross sell to their consumers Ability of being able to share interchange fees There are some fraud risk concerning credit card Managing costs of credit card Card Association Establishment of rules standards and standard protocols for governing participation in their network Promotion of the brand of Bank Formation of interchange fee structure Collection of assessment fees Collection of transaction fees Costs of expanding market Costs of maintaining network Cost of taking different fraud reducing programs TECHNOLOGICAL USE IN BANKING SECTOR Improvements in the technological field have played significant role in the growth of financial services industry as well as in the growth of limited-purpose banks. There are some people who think that specialization in financial institution comes from improvements in technology. Banking sector is going to get fully technology based. Most valuable reasons are the huge task conducted by business firms. Banks are giving consumer service and getting more consumers oriented such as ATM service, Internet Banking, SME Loan, Priority Banking and so on. Banks are now competitive because of combination of banks and commerce. So they have to provide quick service such as check funding, quick withdrawal, fund transfer, LC opening etc.For various purposes data-mining techniques are used in the financial industry. Credit scoring is the most mentionable example of the use. To produce a score to summarize a credit risk banks use statistical techniques and historical data as a credit scoring process. Credit scoring is a common form of speeding up credit decision to attract customers, and institutions use another efficient technique to identify their potential customers that is data-mining. In todays financial services industry electronic payment systems are important innovations having methods of transferring funds electronically. Because of having less physical branches these banks rely on Automated Teller Machines to give opportunity to their customers to access their cash. It also provides advantage of accessing on the automated clearing house to transfer fund. Credit card banks can process the payments within short time and having no physical existence of branches because of the development of technology. This dramatically reduces the cost of credit card banks. This development benefitted the credit card card banks as well as customers. Credit card banks take the traditional notion of banking as challenge and they provide unique product mixes to draw considerable attention of the new customers. They also have unique business model to get competitive advantage [Basel, June, 1996]. BANKING TECHNOLOGY Banking Kiosk A unique feature of the Versa Banker is its cheque deposit capability. It issues a receipt to deposit a cheque with a scanned image of the cheque. If a cheque is endorsed at the back detail transaction report is generated for the department of MIS of the bank. Personal Enquiries: The Versa banker allows you to check your account balance, print a mini statement and make cheque book requests. Internet Banking: Connect to the internet and carry out transactions through e-banking, with the help of Versa Banker. It is asked by the bank to view details of ones account and after that to make transactions online. ATM TMs were originally developed as just cash dispensers; they have evolved to include many other bank-related functions. ATMs include many functions which are not directly related to the management of ones own bank account, such as: Updating  passbooks Paying routine bills, fees, and taxes (utilities, phone bills, social security, legal fees, taxes, etc.) Deposit currency recognition, acceptance, and recycling. Loading monetary value into  stored value cards Printing  bank statements Purchasing Concert tickets Postage stamps Shopping mall  gift certificates Lottery  tickets Train tickets Movie tickets Donating to charities Adding pre-paid  cell phone  credit. Cheque Processing Module Games and promotional features ELECTRONIC FUNDS TRANSFER Electronic funds transfer  or  EFT  refers to the  computer-based systems used to perform  financial transactions  electronically. There is a number of different concepts that use this term: A cardholder makes use of payment card Direct deposit  payroll payments for a business to its employees, possibly via a  payroll services company Direct debit  payments from customer to business, where the transaction is initiated by the business with customer permission Electronic bill payment  in  online banking, which may be delivered by EFT or paper check Wire transfer  via an international banking network (generally carries a higher fee) Electronic Benefit Transfer MICR Check The MICR stands for Magnetic Ink Character Recognition. This technology is unique and uses magnetically chargeable ink and/or toner to print the special characters or numbers on the bottom of the checks. E-13B:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   CMC-7:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   United States of America France Canada Spain Australia United Kingdom Other Mediterranean Countries Japan South America (except Colombia) India After printing, the documents are then processed mechanically and electronically through a reader-sorter machine. BANKS in BANGLADESH USING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY The two main technology based bank in Bangladesh are- Dutch Bangla Bank Ltd (DBBL) Eastern Bank Ltd (EBL) TECHNOLOGY USED BY DBBL Dutch-Bangla Bank offers a complete electronic banking facility for your company around the clock. Most multi-nationals use this service because it is advanced, secure and affordable. DBBL creates a custom banking service to suit any business of any size. The services have a wide range that includes cash flow services, distribution banking and salary accounts. If a company knows what type of custom and tailored banking service they need, DBBL can provide it instantly and at minimal cost (usually free of charge). For example for your starting point, DBBL has created Employee Banking program which allows: Providing employees with timely salary payments Transactions are properly logged for your easy reference Seamless and error free distribution of salaries Highly secure way of distributing money Lower manpower needed Reduces cash theft and misappropriation No cash at hand in the office, all cash finally distributed through the largest ATM network in Bangladesh DEBIT / CREDIT CARDS Dutch-Bangla Bank family, always believe that, as in everything else, you deserve the best in banking too. We are here to assist you 365 days round the clock through our Customer Care Center.Normal cards use a magnetic strip at the back of the card. The information and security on that magnetic strip is stationary and does not change. Hence it can be easily duplicated. But NexusEMVs processor uses its processor to fully digitally lock all the information. It prevents the information from being copied as the processor generates security codes rather than store it. It is a form of encryption. INTERNET BANKING DBBL allows you to do seamless internet banking. This allows you to review your account, statements, paying bills as well as making some transactions. Because of local banking regulations, DBBL is not allowed to provide some types of transactions even though it is fully capable. Additional Internet Banking Features for Corporate Banking: Letter of Credit Bank Guarantee Limits Query SMS/MOBILE BANKING DBBL pioneered Mobile Banking in Bangladesh. It was the first bank to offer banking facilties through a wide range of mobile phones. SMS (Short Messaging System) is an extremely unsecure method to do mobile banking. The mobile phone networks are unsecure and there is nothing DBBL can do but to take precautionary steps. To make the most of this unsecure scenario, DBBL issues you a mobile PIN number which is different from the DBBL pin number for your mobile transactions. Not under any circumstances is the DBBL PIN number to be used in mobile banking. A different PIN number and a mobile transaction limit imposed by DBBL provide some security (but not all) over the unsecure phone network. Clients should be aware and cautious that although DBBL does its best, it cannot guarantee full security over a phone network it has no control over. EBL INTERNET BANKING EBL Internet banking application more efficient than others bank and EBL addresses the needs of individual as well as corporate account holders of EBL. List of Transactions: Transfers and Payments modes of EBL: There are different modes of transferring funds and customer can choose the modes he likes to transfer funds from selecting different modes. The user also has the right to choose the source and destination accounts because it depends upon his rights. Utility Bill Payment System of EBL: The customer can transfer funds from his accounts for making Utility Bill Payments to utility companies. The mode payment is as set up by the Bank. Deposits: Maintaining Deposits The user can view all the deposits maintained by the corporate. The customers are able to encash a deposit before its maturity. Session Summary of EBL banking: The customer now able to view the transactions profiles performed in a session. SECURITY MECHANISMS Encryption Encryption is the usual way to meet the data confidentiality requirements and although using a symmetric algorithm (symmetric or asymmetric) could be used, there are good reasons for using symmetric [Financial times, November 8, 1996]. Message Authentication A Message Authentication Code (MAC) is a cryptographic checksum, calculated using a symmetric algorithm, which is appended to a message and which can be verified by the recipient of the message. The use of MAC is one method of providing the integrity and authentication services, but it is not appropriate for meeting the requirements for no repudiation. Digital Signature A digital signature is a checksum, calculated using the private key of an asymmetric key pair, which is appended to a message and which can be verified by anyone with access to the corresponding public key. The digital signature is dependent on the complete message, so any change to the message will be detected. The real difference between MAC and digital signature is that as well as providing integrity and authentication, the later also provide non-repudiation. Algorithms and Cryptographic Mechanisms The constraint linked with each cryptographic algorithm (computation resources, time to compute, key management, algorithm capability and design†¦) limits their use for only a given number of security services. The following table lists the main security services and states whether RSA or DES (Data Encryption Standard) can address them [Denny, 1998] CONCLUSION The present status of e-banking is not satisfactory in case of virtual banking, call center and SMS banking. But all banks under study have their connectivity with SWIFT channel. Major reason is that security concern. One study in Europe reported that there is 2.6% increase in establishment of Bank branches. That means that E-Banking is declining in Europe. The main concern is security. So, data confidentiality, integrity, proof of origin, peer entity authentication, non-repudiation must be ensured. A few problems have been experienced by the IT heads in the Banks such as withdrawal of money beyond the limit. This has taken place at ATM booths because there is agreement between Banks regarding networking. [Barbara, 1997]

The New Teenage Parent Essay -- Essays Papers

The New Teenage Parent I originally wrote this essay as an assignment for Monique DuFour's class about how we classify different groups of people. I think that the part of the student population that are parents (especially single parents) are often forgotten by the University as a whole. I say this because there are very few, if any, programs that recognize and cater to the needs of parents/students that may need a little extra help, with time or financially. As I revised this essay, I tried to think of ways that I could speak to a larger audience and raise general awareness on this issue. A young man is at a party. He reaches in his pocket for some money, but he smiles to himself and pulls out a pacifier. He's a young single father. A young woman is playing on the lawn with a little boy, tickling him and laughing as he giggles. He's not her little brother. . . he's her son. Even more than being single parents, these are real people and have been or are currently students in college. I naturally feel that what I have to say is important because I am one of these people. I have a two-year old son, Jaymen. I also want you, the reader, to know that we, the young single parents who are a part of the United States, New York State, Syracuse and even closer to home, Syracuse University, are definitely more than statistics. I could tell my story and try to prove that to you, but that would not be a multi-faceted account of what being a single parent is. When I use the term, single parent, I am keeping in mind the literal meaning of single--unmarried. I am not excluding support of the other parent in any situation. When I add the word young to it, I am referring to a male or female whose child was born while they wer... ...ie, which ended in divorce five years later. She went to nursing school part-time, while working various kinds of jobs. She remarried while in school and finished nursing school when she was in her early thirties. Her son, Anthony, has finished high school and is now in the Marines. He's twenty-one now. She's divorced and now working as a traveling nurse. She never had any more children. The list of success stories for young single parents go on and on. Just because a person has made a mistake in the past does not mean that the future has to be a life full of mistakes. The saying, "Life is what you make it," is true. There is a difference, however. The extra incentive to work hard is to look into the big brown eyes of a child that you helped to create and realize that you have to be a good example and teach them to make their lives a little better than yours was. The New Teenage Parent Essay -- Essays Papers The New Teenage Parent I originally wrote this essay as an assignment for Monique DuFour's class about how we classify different groups of people. I think that the part of the student population that are parents (especially single parents) are often forgotten by the University as a whole. I say this because there are very few, if any, programs that recognize and cater to the needs of parents/students that may need a little extra help, with time or financially. As I revised this essay, I tried to think of ways that I could speak to a larger audience and raise general awareness on this issue. A young man is at a party. He reaches in his pocket for some money, but he smiles to himself and pulls out a pacifier. He's a young single father. A young woman is playing on the lawn with a little boy, tickling him and laughing as he giggles. He's not her little brother. . . he's her son. Even more than being single parents, these are real people and have been or are currently students in college. I naturally feel that what I have to say is important because I am one of these people. I have a two-year old son, Jaymen. I also want you, the reader, to know that we, the young single parents who are a part of the United States, New York State, Syracuse and even closer to home, Syracuse University, are definitely more than statistics. I could tell my story and try to prove that to you, but that would not be a multi-faceted account of what being a single parent is. When I use the term, single parent, I am keeping in mind the literal meaning of single--unmarried. I am not excluding support of the other parent in any situation. When I add the word young to it, I am referring to a male or female whose child was born while they wer... ...ie, which ended in divorce five years later. She went to nursing school part-time, while working various kinds of jobs. She remarried while in school and finished nursing school when she was in her early thirties. Her son, Anthony, has finished high school and is now in the Marines. He's twenty-one now. She's divorced and now working as a traveling nurse. She never had any more children. The list of success stories for young single parents go on and on. Just because a person has made a mistake in the past does not mean that the future has to be a life full of mistakes. The saying, "Life is what you make it," is true. There is a difference, however. The extra incentive to work hard is to look into the big brown eyes of a child that you helped to create and realize that you have to be a good example and teach them to make their lives a little better than yours was.

Search for Identity in Judith Guests Ordinary People :: Judith Guest Ordinary People Essays

Search for Identity in Ordinary People When we are young, we live life by the day. In our preteen and teenage years, the process of self discovery begins. For some people, this could take years. For others, it could happen within a week. No matter how people discover themselves, who they really are, and what they stand behind, everybody goes through it. Especially the characters in the book Ordinary People by Judith Guest. As they struggle through death, guilt, and a lack of understanding; Calvin, Beth and Conrad eventually discover their true identities. While dealing with their first major struggle; death, Calvin, Conrad's father, Beth, Conrad's mother, and Conrad begin their road to self discovery. They all deal with Conrad's suicide attempt in different ways. Calvin is the most concerned person about Conrad. "How's going it going? School. Swimming. Everything okay?" "Yeah, fine. Same as yesterday." "What does that mean?" A faint smile. "It means you ask me that every day." "Sorry." He smiles, too. "I like things neat." (11) Calvin is very concerned about Conrad's well-being after his suicide attempt. Every move or motion Conrad makes, Calvin is there to question it or question Conrad's health. Conrad on the other hand, is focusing on recovering from the incident. He is mainly focused on recovering from the mental damage he has caused himself and trying to begin his new life. "But he cannot relax, because today is a Target Date. Tuesday, September 30. One month, to the day, that he has been home. And what are you doing Jarrett? Asking weird questions like From what? Toward what? Questions without answers. Undermining. A serious affliction" (4). After coming out of the hospital, Conrad is forced to relearn how to deal with every day situations. Learning how to establish routines and manage his own life is Conrad's first step on his way to recovery and self-discovery. Beth deals with Conrad's suicide attempt in a very different way, she is very enclosed and in a constant state of denial. This is just the first of many actions until she reveals her true colors. "Will you talk to him this morning? About the clothes. He's got a closet full of decent things and he goes off every day looking like a bum, Cal" (7).

Being Tall

7/30/12 â€Å"Six, seven†. That’s what I would say about twice a day when asked how tall I was. I’ve always been tall so over time I had gotten used to and annoyed of this question and I would usually make these feelings evident in the tone of my response. However, it wasn’t the only response I was used to giving. â€Å"I don’t have it†. That’s what I would say about twice a day when asked where my homework was. †C†. That’s what I would say when my friends asked me how I did on the big test. I repeated the same answers over and over again but never really thought about them.Over the past year I began to question these responses and came to the conclusion that they were the wrong answers. I wasn’t lying about my height or my homework, or my grades or my studying habits, but ever since I started to think about these questions I’ve been able to change the answers. I haven’t gotten any shorter or mor e intelligent but by actually thinking about the question I’ve been able to give the correct answer. I started to realize that I was being asked the same questions over and over around sixth grade.I wasn’t even thinking about high school back then let alone college and beyond so I still had some time to figure out the right answers to these questions. â€Å"Wow do you play basketball? † Teachers would ask as they saw me struggle to fit through the doorway. â€Å"Uhh yeah† I would flatly reply. â€Å"Why didn’t you study, you knew you had a test†. â€Å"I don’t know,† I wasn’t even thinking about what those words meant but it was still just the practice round for the real thing so I still had time to find the right answers.I was explicitly warned when high school rolled around that â€Å"it counts now†. It was spelled out to me multiple times that high school was the real deal and even my Freshman grades would coun t towards college. I was also told that I wasn’t done growing yet and I would only be getting taller. I wasn’t thrilled about either of these facts, but instead of using my height to my advantage or taking school seriously I continued to wander through my life getting increasingly tired of the questions I was being asked. Do you even want to go to this school? † â€Å"Yeah, yeah of course† I would jadedly reply, solely to humor the asker. â€Å"How great is it to be that tall? † â€Å" Yeah its pretty great, ha-ha† I would say politely, but emptily none the less. As my high school career continued and the college clock kept ticking I failed time and time again to find the right answers to these questions. Around the middle of my junior year the college process had begun and I had decided to go visit a college over March vacation.As I got out of the car I immediately fell in love with the school, the campus was perfect and the students looked like they were straight out of a brochure. All the school’s features were amazing and while on the tour I began to grow increasingly excited about the school and the idea of college. As the tour came to a conclusion all the prospective students gathered in a room to hear a lecture about the application process from an admissions officer. As I stood amongst the other students I realized that I was the tallest one there.I was used to being to the tallest person at a given place but this was different. I realized that because of my height, I stood out, but in a good way; all the admissions officers and faculty noticed me before the other kids there. I saw my height for what it really was: and untapped advantage I had been given. I realized that when people were asking me how tall I was, it was because they were astounded, almost impressed at my height. As I happily chewed on this realization, I was slapped across the face by a second epiphany.As the speaker went more into the ap plication process, he began to talk about the school’s average GPA for high school students; my GPA wasn’t even remotely close to this average. â€Å"They just boost those numbers up for the presentation† I lied to myself â€Å"I’m sure everyone else here is just as shocked by those averages† I looked around and literally every other student nodded in agreeing upon hearing the numbers. My separation from the group continued as the other students began to ask questions like â€Å"Are 3 honors courses enough or are you looking for more in an applicant? and â€Å"I only have a 3. 5 GPA but I take six courses, is that taken into consideration? † I started to feel something I had never felt before, an impending sense of doom that came over me like a tidal wave as I started to mentally panic that I wasn’t going to end up here, that I had thrown away a golden opportunity that was given to me. The feeling was sharp and it stung. I felt sick to my stomach on the ride home as I wallowed over the idea of not ending up at college at all. As I continued to think this over at home I came to the onclusion that this could be a good thing, I should take this realization and use it to turn my grades around with the little time I had left. I thought about the questions I had always been asked and realized that the answers I grew accustomed to giving were not in fact the right ones. I remembered hearing an old proverb that now seemed to be directly speaking to me: â€Å"No matter how far you have traveled down the wrong road, turn back. † Turn Back. That night I decided to turn back, even though I had traveled so far down the wrong road.When I came back to school after the vacation I felt stronger than ever, I was so ready to attack school. The second day I was ready to hear those oh so familiar words: â€Å"Where is your homework? † It was a small homework assignment and the teacher undoubtedly expected me to have b lown it off. â€Å"Right here† I proudly retorted to the impressed teacher. Later that day a man at the gas station asked me if I was a basketball player. Again, I proudly said that I was and made a friendly joke about having a tough time with it because I’m so short.As the semester went on I continued to walk towards the right path, correctly answering life’s questions. Every night as soon as I got home I would sit down and complete every homework assignment with consciousness and pride as opposed to half-heartedly completing three or four out of five assignments. With the new found knowledge that people naturally notice and look up to me, I am setting a good example around the campus for others to follow, from cleaning up trash in the student center to starting a new club. A began to find myself on the right road, even though I was a little late.My hard schoolwork paid off when my grades landed me on the honor role for the first time. I also decided to put my size to good use by playing football in the fall of my senior year. With all this being said, I am the first one to admit that I was the definition of a late bloomer academically. Having already experienced low academic performance I can honestly say that I want to excel through college and beyond, not just with grades, but in all aspects of life. In the end the answers are what count, not the questions, and I’m ready to answer any question life gives me, correctly.