I wrote this post for my blog at www.myblogisaverage.com because I felt this word of advice from a Stanford professor would bring joy to some people’s lives; it did for me.  Peep the video and blog post here.

Stemming from my interest in hip-hop, I started a music blog located at www.thagoodlifereviews.com.  Out of all the artists I consistently network with, Mike Posner is my favorite.  Mike Posner is a senior in college at Duke University who has a distinct style of music.  As he likes to call it, “pop” he combines many electronic instruments and of course, vocals in order to create his unique sound.  In his cover-make of Soulja Boy’s “Kiss Me Thru The Phone” Mike Posner creates the entire song in his own dorm room!  Though it looks like it only took him 1 minute to create the song, I talked with Posner and he said it took him weeks.  Peep the video here.

I believe all people should print out the A-Team Model and do as I did – post/tape it on a place that you see often.  I receive failure almost everyday.  And to see the model of what can be learned from failure gives me hope, gives me courage, that now I have greater knowledge to have greater success in the future.

In college basketball, Binghamton University, in its attempt to succeed in Division 1 basketball, recruited very talented players with a history of problems in high school.  At Binghamton, the players were no different.  They players were noted for skipping classes, getting into conflicts with students on campus, and overall, flaunting their status as varsity basketball players.

The news of these issues at Binghamton have been ongoing for over a year.  I see to this day, the news has not stopped.  Because both my parents graduated from Binghamton University and my sister currently attends the college, I keep up-to-date on popular news.  Here is the most recent article from the New York Times in which the paper reports that the college basketball coach successfully lobbied for a student’s grade to be changed so that the student could play in a basketball game.

Do you think this coach has gone too far?

The first book I ever read which fueled my passion for a subject was Freakonomics.  As I think back to my senior year of high school, I had never studied economics and my only exposure to business was practical experiences and the newspaper.  I had never realized the depth of economics and the tools that could be used to uncover…just about anything.  I read Freakonomics for a summer reading assignment for my AP Macroeconomics class senior year.  The assignment called for us to write an approximately 8-page double-spaced stream of consciousness.  I vividly remember walking up to my teacher now: “Is it OK that I wrote 10-page paper on the book?”  The teacher stared at me in awe.  I was so excited to read the stories and examine the process by which Levitt and Dubner used statistics to formulate conclusions.  I immediately become enthralled in the study of economics and I had never even opened an economics textbook!

To this day, I still ponder predicaments in life involving my everyday experiences.  Why do some restaurants add tax directly to menu items and others charge tax afterwards?  How come if jay-walking is illegal in Michigan, why do the thousands of students that commit this crime everyday get away with doing so?

The book Freakonomics fueled my interest to think outside the box and learn to manage and solve problems.  I hope to use the knowledge and resources gained from the University of Michigan to follow in the footsteps of the study of freakonomics and pursue a field of study that interests and challenges me upon graduation.

Natural Area Preservation (NAP) works to protect and restore Ann Arbor’s natural areas and to foster an environmental ethic among its citizens. This involves conducting plant and animal inventories, ecological monitoring, and stewardship projects in Ann Arbor parks. These tasks are performed by both staff and volunteers (NAP Ann Arbor).

I really enjoyed my experience working for NAP.  I spent 9 hours working at volunteer projects, mainly destroyed invasive species harmful to the growth of natural plants; I spent 3 hours in a NAP office studying the budget and working on promotional methods to attract more volunteers.  To learn more about my project and final presentation in the class, see my PowerPoint presentation here.

I have completed many drafts to essay #1.  I link my strong interest for philanthropy and working on events with the study of management and I how I wish to enroll in management courses at the business school.  However, for essay #2, I am struggling to discover my most important personal values.  For essay #2, I’m describing the process of creating “Sigma Pi Chivalry Week.”  We are currently collaborating with UMix Late Night, UHS, Stay in the Blue, and Delta Gamma sorority.  The goal of this event is to raise awareness for Sigma Pi’s official philanthropy – the Sam Spady Foundation and to instruct people the importance of being responsible and helping others in need anywhere on campus, but especially social events with alcohol.  I feel very strongly about promoting this cause because the creation of the Sam Spady Foundation is due to the fact no one took care of a girl at a party; she was left alone in a room and found dead the next day.  By raising awareness of this story and the facts about alcohol consumption, I hope people will make smarter decisions and be more responsible at parties.

I ask of you readers, to comment on this post and let me know if you are interested in learning more about this event and if you would be willing to help participate.  I know I have provided a short description but one of the main obstacles I will have in marketing this event is to attract others through a brief conversation or a small handout.  I hope that from reader’s comments I will attain a better grasp of how this event can help others and in turn, have a greater personal reflection process in which I can evaluate personal values of mine to elaborate on in my essay.  Thanks in advance.

Stemming from my father’s deep interest in being environmentally conscious, I have been looking for ways to raise awareness to people about being environmentally conscious.  So when I decided to start an entertainment blog with my friends roughly 1 year ago, I wrote two important posts that instructed people about one form of environmental consciousness.  My first, Vegetarian Contract: A Commitment to Environmental Protection, hoped to spark people’s interests to work together to not eat meat for just one day a week – and in turn, illustrate the effect that can have on the environment.  The second post I wrote, Tap Water Cleaner Than Bottled Water, informed people that some tap water may actually be healthier than the purchase of new water bottles.  In this post, I assumed it was common-knowledge that buying more plastic bottles was harmful to the environment.  I hope, after reading this, that some people will re-fill up aluminum or plastic bottles with tap water.  In life, one person always makes a difference and one person can always be a trendsetter.