 |
Sample Student Essays
|
|
|
Below are sample essays from students who have taken English 120 or English 121. You should read through these essays to help you determine which class bests suits your needs. The essays chosen for this website are those that were well-received by the instructors of the course, and that best fulfill the assignment requirements for typical English 120 and English 121 essays. The essays you will read here are end of the semester portfolio revisions of work done throughout the semester. English 120 Essays These assignments asked for the students to consider many different ways of learning; not just lessons we learn in school, but the important lessons we can learn from our everyday lives. The students were to use a reading that shows how learning can take place anywhere, not just in school, and reflect on the lesson learned in the reading. The students then considered how this lesson reflected a learning experience in his or her own life. The following essays are examples of successful interpretations of these assignments. Rachel Flores What Really Counts as Learning Learning happens in so many places and in so many ways. Maybe it is at the mall, or at home, or even in a classroom. For Russell Thomas it was in the poor town of Coney Island. In Coney Island, Russell has to learn many hard lessons in life. He learns that you can’t change everything and that life isn’t fair. Russell is forced to realize that failure is part of life and that it happens to all of us. These are all teachings that are irreplaceable and valuable. The lessons that Russell learns are ones that he will use for the rest of his life in his experiences. It is something that you can use on more than just a test for school. That is what real life learning is about and in one way or another we have all experienced it. Russell is the main focus in Darcy Frey’s article about three basketball prodigies from Coney Island. Russell is a tremendous basketball player and hopes to get out of Coney Island on a basketball scholarship. He has the skill to get that scholarship, but even with all that talent he has a major obstacle stopping him. In order to attend college on a scholarship, a score of 700 is required on the SAT. Russell, on his first attempt, only gets a 500; when a 400 is earned just for signing your name. So in order to get that scholarship and 700, Russell dedicates large amounts of time to studying. If he wasn’t working on basketball then he was working on his academics. After all that work Russell never gets his 700, or the scholarship. So therein lies the first lesson that Russell learns; life isn’t fair. Russell tries his hardest to bring up his grades and earn that 700, but when it comes down to it he has grown up in a low class area, without many opportunities. Frey described Coney Island as a place where there are “…no stores, no trees, no police; just block after block of gray cement projects…” (Frey 38). Russell had what can hardly be called an education. It is a place where most of the good basketball players with any chance at a scholarship never make it, they either end up dead or back in Coney Island dealing drugs. No matter what he can’t fix that, it is how he has grown up. Russell is forced to realize the effects that has had on his life. He can’t change who he was born to, and where he was raised. It is terrible, and Russell is forced to face that even before he is an adult. From then on though, Russell can understand and deal with things that he can’t change. Another lesson lies in Russell’s struggle with his SATs; everyone fails at times, but you have to keep trying. Russell himself says that “I’m gonna get my 700 and go Division I. Trust me. You know why? I’ve come too far, worked too hard already” (Frey 45). Even with all that heart and spirit Russell doesn’t make it. He learns that failure is something that happens to everyone. Sometimes that failure is something small and minute, in other cases like Russell’s, it is a big failure. Russell had also learned that after he had a violent fight with his girlfriend, and decided to solve it by getting on the edge of Coney Island’s highest building. He almost committed suicide. Looking back on that incredible life-altering event Russell says, “I learnt that part of success is failure, having hard times smack you in the face, having to go without having” (Frey 45). Russell experienced failure once with his suicide attempt, and again with his failed attempt at a 700. Russell learns that sometimes in life you set your standards too high. He didn’t make Division I, but he goes on to junior college and tries. It might not be what he was waiting for, but he went with what he had. Russell learns so much in a matter of two years. Not going Division I knocked him down and used it in his hurdles with college basketball. These lessons all count as learning for Russell, because every day in his life he is applying them to his experiences. Russell and I are similar in the aspect that our experiences have shaped our learning. In my case, I take some experiences I have had with my family and use it in my life. My older sister Emily went through a phase in high school that affected our whole family. Emily wasn’t a terrible person; it’s just that she started making bad decisions with her life. She wasn’t into crack or any really heavy drugs like that, but she was getting involved with bad stuff. She started fighting constantly with my parents, especially with my dad. That hit a peak when my dad tried to admit her into a mental hospital. Eventually when Emily was still living at home my dad “cut her off,” so to speak. It was rough; my dad ended up under a lot of stress and it lead to a few heart attacks. Emily moved out when she was 16, and she didn’t talk to my dad. She wasn’t allowed to come over to our house when my dad was home, so the only time we could see her was when my dad was at work and my mom was home. My mom and dad were also having problems through all of this because it was a “good cop, bad cop” thing going on with them. So not only did her decisions affect her relationship with my parents, it put a strain on the marriage. Emily and my dad didn’t talk for a year, and that was hard too, because it was like my big sister wasn’t a part of the family. Eventually they started talking again, and now everything is fine. We are a pretty normal family (if that really exists anywhere). All of those hard times, although they are over, taught me a lot of things. Emily was the oldest of the five children in my family and when she moved out that left me, the second oldest, to be the role model for the rest of my siblings. All throughout high school I was a very good role model for them. I was involved in different things at school; for the most part I got decent grades. I was always worried about things that I would do and how that might affect my parents. I know things Emily did impacted them immensely. Emily was a great role model for me in that aspect that I had the chance to learn from her mistakes. I had a chance to see what she did and the consequences of her actions. She did not have anyone to do that for her. I took the things that happened and I used them in my life, I applied them. It was something that could never be taught in any classroom, or put in any textbook. It was very unconventional learning. Russell and I learned in the same way that we took experiences from life and made ourselves better people for having gone through it. Samuel Butler put it nicely when he said, “life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.” For Russell and I that instrument is life. No one knows what it is going to be like or what is going to happen, but you just go with it and learn from what does happen. Russell learned that sometimes life isn’t fair, but you do what you can. He learned that failure isn’t the end of the world, and that life goes on. Russell did just that; he went to college, maybe not Division I, but he was out of Coney Island. For me it was taking my experiences and my sister’s, and using it everyday in my life. Thinking about the things I do and how it could impact others. These are all valuable learning experiences. They are so important because unlike learning about the brain in anatomy class, these lessons are used everyday. They cannot be replicated by any single teacher, the only teacher is life. Life’s students, like Russell and I, are forever impacted by its teachings. Works Cited Butler, Samuel. “notebooks.” Xrefer. 8 October 2002. <http://www.xrefer.com/entry.jsp?xrefid=247857&secid=.19#s.19.->. Frey, Darcy. “The Last Shot.” Harper’s. (April 1993) 37 – 57.
Andre Bell What I Have Learned When I think about what counts as learning to me, I think about my life. Just being able to live in this world to me is a learning experience, because I feel that my life is full of lessons and I believe that it takes lessons to learn in life. I feel that I have learned to understand learning more and to also understand the value of learning. As I get older I can comprehend subject matters more than I could ever do before. I am learning to be more serious and I find myself not taking life for granted anymore. I also feel that maturing counts as learning for me because growing up I was continuously being called immature. For me, maturing counts as learning because I find myself doing things I never thought I would be doing, like going to college, for example. I am learning that I am getting a chance to attend college and to have the chance to make something out of myself. I feel this way because I realized that a lot of people do not get a chance to go to college and make something out of their lives. Since I have this chance, I will take full advantage while I am in college. I have learned that I need to concentrate more if I want to make it through college. I need to concentrate more because I know college is not like high school and I really did not concentrate in high school. College is also a big learning experience for me because it is helping me to get rid of bad habits that I used to have. These bad habits include things like not being prepared for when I have to take a test and not studying. I realized that I needed better study habits when I did not pass my first test in college. I did bad because I did not study; that was an old habit I was used to and the main reason I did bad on my test. Now I have learned that I have to study to pass a test; I realized this is not high school anymore. I feel that I have to get rid of bad habits in order to make room for better habits that I need for everyday life. I am learning better habits everyday. Even though I did bad on my first exam I feel that counted as learning for me because now I know what it takes for me to receive a high grade on any test I take. The biggest learning experience to me so far is life itself. I feel that way because there is so much to learn in life. It takes growing up for me to learn in life. I am now beginning to understand the value of learning because a year ago I did not appreciate learning. I did not value it like I value it now. I took it for granted as if learning could just be given to me. I realize now that it has to be earned. My attitude in high school was bad because I really did not feel I was learning, so I took it for granted. In high school I felt as if the teachers were jokes and I also felt they did not care about educating me properly. I am now starting to learn the value of an education. I now look forward to learning new things everyday. I feel that I am beginning to have a passion for learning. I never thought that I would feel this way about learning because I never did appreciate it like I do now. I now actually yearn to learn; I feel that I need to learn new things. Every assignment I have done in college is teaching me something new. I think I feel this way because I am maturing and I now view learning differently than I did before. I am now turning into a person that cares about learning. I am turning into a person that I never thought I could be. I understand life more due to the few weeks that I have been taking to write my feelings down. By writing down my feelings it has opened up a whole new chapter in my life. When I think about opening up a new chapter in my life I feel like Russell, one of the boys in “The Last Shot” by Darcy Frey. It also took Russell to learn by opening a new chapter in his life. Russell learned that life is more complicated than just having skills in basketball. He learned that in order to make it in life, there are other things he could do. He learned that there are other places he can go besides Coney Island. Russell came to his senses when he was kicked off the basketball team. He knew he had to do other things. I also feel that way about myself. The more time passes, I learn more. Russell started to understand life better because toward the end he realized that he had to mature and find himself regardless of people in your life that can hold you back. Russell was taught that playing basketball was the only way; that was how Coney Island raised him. So in a way, Coney Island played a part in the negativity in his life. He realized that a person cannot always follow the ways of other people. “But on his final SAT attempt, his scores went down and Temple withdrew its scholarship offer” (Frey 192). Even though Russell lost his money and did badly on his test he still tried to make something out of himself. According to the reading, Russell went on to another college to grow more and to learn more. Even when Russell got to the new college he still was unhappy. Russell at that point wanted to be his own person, and that’s when Russell began to get away from the negativity in his life. Frey states that “where his teammates seemed to carry more guns to school than books. Desperately unhappy, Russell transferred after a week at junior college in Los Angeles” (192). I feel that to get away from doing something you love is hard. Russell loved basketball but he wanted more in life. He had goals in life. I feel that I have goals and I had to get away from things that I love in order to achieve these goals. When I say “things,” I mean like not doing my homework and having fun every hour of the day. I have learned to spread my time out and not make everything playful. Sometimes I feel that I need to get away from people that are bad influences in my life. That is what Russell did to get away from all of the negativity in his life in order to better himself. Russell loved to play basketball and he loved his friends, that was his heart, but he realized that they carried negative vibes so he had to get away from that lifestyle. His friends carry the old beliefs from Coney Island and at that point Russell wanted more than that. He wanted to be his own person. Another reading that makes me feel like I can learn and that gives me confidence to believe in myself more is the chapter “Saved” from The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley and Malcolm X. This reading to me is truly inspirational because Malcolm used the worst situation and turned it out for the better. He says, “I saw that the best thing I could do was get hold of a dictionary – to study, to learn some words” (208). This tells me that Malcolm did not waste his time in prison. Malcolm studied the dictionary and he taught himself to read. That is amazing when a person can teach themselves something. I believe that the time counts as learning because if a person wants to learn he or she should not waste any time. I have grown to learn that time is very important and I make the best of whatever time I have. “I read more in my room than in the library itself. An inmate who was known to read a lot could check out more than the permitted maximum number of books. I preferred reading in the total isolation of my own room” (209). I believe that one sometimes must concentrate alone, without others. Concentration plays a big role in learning. Sometimes it’s just best to study alone and better yourself. Malcolm isolated himself to better himself. It is sometimes best to have some alone time; that way, Malcolm was not distracted by anyone. I feel that sometimes in life to learn, you have to change your lifestyle. To me, change can work in many positive ways. It can influence one to get with a better crowd of people. Change is helping me to learn more about myself. Just like me, in the end of “The Last Shot” Russell learns how to value his education, he learned more about himself and he found his true passion. I know that I need more learning if I want to find what I want to be in life. I feel that a person needs learning to become successful. I am looking forward to learning more things as my life goes by. I view the world as being brand-new because I am growing and maturing. I think it is amazing that I feel this way because I did not think I would ever be like this, ever. Finally I feel that I will achieve my goal and find a passion that is right for me if I continue to learn and mature more, I feel I will be a new and better person. I honestly can say I am proud of myself. Works Cited Frey, Darcy. “The Last Shot.” Reading and Writing the College Experience. Huron Valley Publishing: Ypsilanti, 2003. 171 – 192. Haley, Alex and Malcolm X. “Saved.” Reading and Writing the College Experience. Huron Valley Publishing: Ypsilanti, 2003. 203 – 214.
English 121 is a class that focuses on research writing. To develop a question for research, students begin by choosing a community - usually, a physical site (e.g., a dorm, a place of worship, a business) where they spend an hour a week for 4 - 5 weeks observing what goes on within that community. The assignment for this essay is an example of a first essay assignment in English 121. In these assignments, students are typically asked to consider what they expect to discover during their future observations of a community. These essays are usually 5 - 6 pages. In this essay, the student is exploring the role language has in communities, and the ways it affects those communities. Dana Pulgini Untitled The language in Fires in the Mirror, by Anna Deveare Smith, is a microcosm for the way in which language creates reality in every community. In Fires in the Mirror, people from different communities in Crown Heights are interviewed on various subjects after the riot that erupted in 1991 between Jewish and Black groups, and in these interviews it is obvious that specific communities develop unique styles of language in order to unite all the members of their particular group. In several of the interviews a poetic form of language, rap, is used between members of the African American community to express feelings and emotions. Monique Matthews (Big Mo), an African American student interviewed in Fires says that she is trying to send out positive messages to the members of her community, and comments that the people who are sending out damaging messages “don’t understand the fundamentals of rap” (Smith 38). For example, in response to a supposed rap song by Big Daddy Kane called “Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy,” Big Mo writes, “Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy, But Whorin’ Ain’t Proper. Respect and Cherish the Original Mother” (Smith 37). With her rap, Big Mo is hoping to cause the men and women in her community to respect themselves and each other. Sonny Carson, another African American interviewed in Fires says that he is able to communicate with the young people in his community because he understands their rap culture. He says, “I understand their language…I speak their language. They don’t even engage in long dialogue anymore, just short words” (Smith 104). Carson’s ability to participate with the young people through rap allows him to have a better perspective on the tensions in Crown Heights. The phenomenon of communities being held together through language is not only seen in Fires, but with many other communities in a variety of places. Language has clearly become a powerful force in many countries where different communities actually want to split apart on the sole basis on the language they speak. An article about Spain’s language diversity explains how people feel so passionate about their native languages that the country had to create autonomous regions for each of the major languages, and people are still fighting to have their language become the dominant dialect (Berdichevsky 276). This is also seen repeatedly in America’s history where immigrants to the country struggle to keep their languages alive. These immigrants realize the important role that language plays in keeping a community together, and many immigrants from the same country will choose to live by each other in America and are resentful when they are forced to learn English. My own great-grandparents chose to live in an Italian neighborhood in Ohio when they first came from Italy so that their culture would not be lost. This allowed my grandma to learn Italian as well as English, and even though she was going to an English school she was still taught the morals of her culture because she was able to talk with the older Italian people who did not speak English. My grandma says that this has helped her throughout life because even though she lives in America she says, “I respect my Italian heritage,” and that it has helped “build my confidence” (12 April 2003). Sometimes communities will take the dominant language of a culture and distort it or add to it in a unique way in an attempt to carve out their own meanings. An interview in Fires by an anonymous middle school girl often repeats the phrase “biting off,” which is an invention of her school community, to express the act of people mimicking someone else’s style (Smith 17). Slang words like these develop in order to explain new situations and ideas that are happening in communities. It also creates close bonds between people from the community because it separates them from other groups who are not having the same experience and gives them a method of talking about the changes in their environments. Most people have been involved with some form of this, even if it is as simple as being able to express one’s self with more vulgar words while in one’s own community and being forced to use more appropriate words when confronted by a member of another community. I remember developing secret languages with my best friends in elementary school so that we could talk about the things we were concerned with without having everybody know what we were thinking. When I spoke in these secret languages, I felt like I was important and I felt comfortable telling my friend anything. Slang also develops when different communities begin to assimilate with one another and the languages are forced to combine to create something new. This is the function of a popular form of slang, Spanglish, which occurs in communities where both English and Spanish speaking people reside. An article in World Literature Today talks about how even though many immigrants strive to keep their native languages intact, they are usually diminished by the third generations, but Latinos have been able to keep their heritage by developing this mixed language. Spanglish has become “a bridge of sorts that unites the Latino community in the United States, “ and it is an “intraethnic vehicle of communication” that causes “Hispanics to establish a form of empathy among themselves” within the United States (Stavans 555). Spanglish is an important linguistic development because it has allowed members of Latino communities to keep their identities intact while being submerged in another community. The interviews in Fires show how the language that each community uses helps define their members’ personal identity. Big Mo understands this concept, which is why she analyzes the real message that is given to members of the Black community in Big Daddy Kane’s lyrics. He says, “Even white girls say I’m a hunk” (Smith 36), which Big Mo realizes ultimately translates to “black girls ain’t good enough” (Smith 37). She can see how women of the Black community hear these lyrics and eventually begin “just acceptin’ that they just considered to he a ho” (Smith 37). I personally know how language can build people’s identities because I have been surrounded by patriarchal language my whole life. Ever since I was a little girl, people have referred to me as “sweetie,” baby-doll,” or “cutie,” which have served to give me deeply ingrained complexes that I am supposed to be innocent and passive. Minister Conrad Mohammed, another person interviewed in Fires, elaborates on the major impact that language can have on people’s identity. He discusses how entire identities of African Americans were taken away because their language erased when they arrived in America. They were forced to renounce their birth names and choose an English name, which still prevents African Americans from knowing who they are. He says, “[They] took from us our names, gave us names like Smith and Jones and today we wear those names with dignity and pride, yet these were the names given to us in one of the greatest crimes ever committed on the face of the earth…[They have] stolen our identity” (Smith 57). This also occurred in Native American communities when children were forced to change their original names in boarding school. Luther Standing Bear, a Sioux, writes about his experience at the Carlisle Boarding School, and remembers the day he was given the name Luther when his teacher said, “each word is a white man’s name. They are going to give each one of you one of these names by which you will hereafter be known (Standing Bear). In this way, the younger generations of Native American cultures began to identify themselves more with the white culture, and the traditions that had persisted for centuries began to be forgotten. Words continue to be a powerful tool for oppression in every community. Like the differentiation made between Black and White girls by the word even, marked language for females on a larger context causes discrimination. Deborah Tannen explores how the language that people use can have an effect on gender difference in her article “Wears Jumpsuits. Sensible Shoes. Uses Husband’s Last Name.” She explains how the English language perpetuates a patriarchal community by making women the marked gender. She uses the examples of women having to take on the last name of their husband, or women having to label themselves as a “Ms.” “Mrs.” Or “Miss,” and of the pronoun “she” being used to describe only females while the pronoun “he” describes both genders (Tannen 258). This language causes women to be looked at as the “other,” and therefore no matter what they do they are discriminated against. Tannen uses the name titles to explain how women are constantly put on the spotlight and judged: While the title “Mr.” Does not reveal anything personal about a man, the title “Mrs.” informs everyone that a woman is properly married, the title “Miss” implies that a woman is either waiting to get married or is a lonely spinster, and the title “Ms.” carries the negative connotation that a woman is either extremely secretive about her personal life or some righteous new age feminist (Tannen 258). The tension between the Black and Jewish groups in Fires is partly due to differences in language; this is also a problem between other communities. Not only are the words that a community uses important in reaching an understanding of that group, but also the meanings attached to those words. Big Mo talks about the make rap community using words like “hotty” or “bitch” to describe a female, and how she is offended by words like that because they have a negative connotation that “you a freak, you a ho…like you just a ho and you can’t be saved” (Smith 37). This is similar to a common situation that occurs between members of Black and White communities involving the word “nigger.” Some members of Black communities have playfully called each other a “nigger,” but when a member of a white community notices this and tries the same thing with a member of a Black community, all of a sudden offense is taken and the white person is confused as to why. However, what the white person doesn’t realize is that there is a very different meaning behind the word when two members of the same community use it than when a member of a different community uses it. Robert Sherman, another person interviewed in Fires, notices that one of the problems between the Black and Jewish groups in Crown Heights are that they both have “lousy language” (Smith 66). He believes that people should start learning the true meanings of words because “vocabulary follows general awareness” (Smith 65). He suggests that once the different Black and Jewish groups have the same understanding of what words like discrimination, prejudice, bias, and racism mean, then they could communicate about the problems on the same level and possibly “deal with it honestly and to sort it out” (Smith 66). This suggestion would probably help white communities understand minority communities throughout America. Many times when these groups talk about issues they both claim that they are being discriminated against, and they become angry with the other group for not agreeing that they are. I used to become very offended when a person from a minority group would accuse me of being discriminatory, and I was often convinced that I was a victim of reverse racism. However, after taking a class about racial and ethnic minorities, some language was cleared up for me and now I am better equipped to understand situations. A definition found in the sourcebook Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice states that racism is “the systematic subordination of members of targeted racial groups who have relatively little social power in the United States by the members of the agent racial group who have relatively more social power” (Adams et al), which means that I could never be a victim of racism because I am a part of the dominant white group. However, I can now use the word “prejudice” to express some of the preconceived ideas I feel people make about my race. In the beginning of my racial and ethnic minorities class there was a lot of tension between different groups of people, which would often resort to yelling or silence. After we all shared some similar language, though, we were able to talk to each other and by the end of the semester all groups were able to sit in the same room and productively talk about racial issues. I think this would have the same effect on a larger scale, and if people in different communities were taught this racial language then people would finally be able to vent their frustrations and some real changes in attitudes could be made. Language barriers also include nonverbal communication, like gestures. People often try to interpret what another community is doing through their own communication patterns, which often leads to confusion. This is seen numerous times in Fires, when members from one group try to explain what the other group was doing, and the other group denies the accusations. For example, in regard to the argument over the Jewish community blocking off the streets, Reverend Canon says, “they spilled out onto the streets and buses had to stop because this BIG BAND had to escort the Rebbe” (Smith 76), while the Rabbi Shea Hecht explains the Jewish communities actions by saying, “every single synagogue, temple, mosque, in the world stops traffic when five thousand people have to walk out at the same time” (Smith 112). I witnessed this type of miscommunication when I was visiting the Sistine Chapel in Italy. I had been traveling for a long time and I only had one outfit, which was a pair of ripped shorts, a t-shirt, and a bandanna, and when I arrived at the Chapel I was so excited to see Michelangelo’s masterpiece that I did not give a second thought at just walking right in. However, an old Italian woman saw what I was doing and she began to yell at me in Italian and spit on me before she walked away. Of course I was completely appalled at her actions and I figured she must just be some sort of psycho who hates Americans, but after talking to a few other Italians about it, I realized that she thought I was being purposely disrespectful by not removing my bandanna from my head before entering the chapel. I think what we always have to remember is that nobody had the same world perspective as we do, but instead of debating which one is right or wrong, we should realize that everything a community does serves some kind of necessary purpose for them. Fires in the Mirror may be specifically about the riot in Crown Heights, but the language that is used is clearly a reflection of the powerful role that language plays in every community. I realize that no community can ever completely understand the language of another community, but as long as people in every group become aware of possible differences and are more sensitive and respectful to those ideas, communication between groups would become easier and problems could be resolved.
Works Cited Adams, Maurianne, Bell, Lee Anne, and Par Griffin. Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice: A Sourcebook. NY: Routledge, 1997. Berdichevsky, Norman. “Spain’s Language Diversity.” Contemporary Review. 278: May 2001. 276 –82. April 2003. http://www/WilsonSelect.edu. Eastern Michigan University Database. Puglini, Dora. Personal interview. 12 April 2003. Smith, Anna Deveare. Fires in the Mirror. NY: Anchor, 1993. Standing Bear, Luther. My People the Sioux. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1928. Stavans, Ilan. “Spanglish: Tickling the Tongue.” World Literature Today. 74: Summer 2003. 555 – 58. April 2003. http:///WilsonSelect.edu. Eastern Michigan University Database. Tannen, Deborah. “Wears Jumpsuits. Sensible Shoes. Uses Husband’s Last Name.” The Meaning of Difference. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2000
The following essay is based on a typical second essay assignment in English 121. Students usually write one of two types of essays for the second English 121 essay assignment: an inquiry-based essay, which answers a certain question about a community, or an ethnography, which analyzes through observations what is taking place within a certain aspect of a community. These essays are typically between 6 - 8 typed pages. The following essay is inquiry-based, and explores the safety measures taken by dormitory communities at Eastern Michigan University.
Emily Graeter Safe He had his hands full, but managed to find his key to the door at the First Year Center at Eastern Michigan University and let himself in. As he opened the door, a nice, well-dressed man came up behind him, holding the door to help him in. They entered the elevator together, and the man explained that he was there to surprise his girlfriend, a resident advisor on the third floor. The student with his arms full of bags nodded; he knew her, she was his R.A. Being a nice person, the man helped the student with all of his bags to his door and then asked a favor of him. He wanted the student to knock on his R.A.s door, because he really wanted to surprise her and wanted to jump out from the side of the door, so as not to be seen through the peephole. The student gladly helped him; he knocked, she answered, and the student started to walk away, letting the man take over. His R.A. gasped, he heard that, but then the door closed, and the student went back to his room happy to help with that surprise. Hours passed, and a knock at the door interrupted homework as the student who had long forgot about the man and his R.A. answered his door. It was his friend, who pulled him out in the hall. While pointing down the hall to the University police officers clearly handling the situation, the student was told about how there was an attack. Someone let the man in the building. The man was the R.A.’s ex-boyfriend. He beat her up and left. The surprise - the nice, well-dressed, helpful man; the bags in his hands and the holding of the door after being opened all came back to the student. He was the someone. He let the stranger in. Police reports, hospital visits, and emergency floor meetings followed. Thorough reviews of the University policies for living in residence halls and codes of conduct were all part of the next few days, all with an underlying message for all campus residents: safety (Kinkaid). This situation is just an example of the issues facing college students everyday, and a hard, fast reminder of the very real threat of violence on society. Terry Modglin, Executive Director of Youth Crime Watch of America put it well when he said, “the violence that confronts Americans does not stop at the campus gates” (Schroeder 1). I think this is something that tends to stay in the back of a student’s mind when he or she lives on a college campus. The threat of some outside member of society committing an act of violence in not considered nearly as readily as the threat of another resident on campus doing the same. I know that being on a college campus can feel sort of like a bubble. For me, someone that has stayed on this campus for two years, this is the Eastern Michigan University “bubble,” almost an entirely separate facet of the community it is inside of. Since situations like the attack the R.A. experienced are very real possibilities of trouble both on and off campus, precautionary measures are taken to increase the safety of students while on campus. For example, the group of students employed by this university for the pure purpose of safety in the residence halls on campus. The students are all residence on campus, working at the Night Watch table in Buell Hall at Eastern Michigan University. Night Watch is a program in every residence hall on campus designed to keep a written record of all the students in and out of buildings at night, to have an idea of the number of students in the building, and to keep non-residents out of the buildings, unless invited as guests by a student that is residing in the building. The program begins at 10 P.M. each night, and is simply one or two students sitting at a table right inside the front doors of each building, with a large binder containing all the names of the students that live in the residence halls, and sign-in sheets for visitors. As people come into the building, they must show their student I.D.s to the Night Watch employees at the table. They show both their picture and the sticker placed on the card with their residence hall name and the current year. This is a quick way to show that the student is indeed a resident of the specific hall. The only situations where a student would need to stop at the Night Watch table would be if they did not have a student I.D. on them, in which case they would need to present a state I.D. or give their name and room number. This would then be looked up within the binder. This would also be recorded if they were bringing a guest into the building. Visitors are permitted always, as long as a valid student or state I.D. is in possession. The Night Watch staff simply fills out a paper with the guest’s name, license number or student I.D. number, and the name of the resident signing them in, along with their room number. I can say, personally, that I feel safe living and walking around on campus. I wondered how much of that was due to safety precautions like Night Watch, and how much such programs subconsciously affected my feelings about my own well being on campus. Through an interview with Kristen Kinkaid, an R.A. and Night Watch staff member for the First Year Center this year, I had a few more ideas enforced personally about the safety of this campus and the student effect on it. Kristen and I discussed every facet of Night Watch that I think I could explore. I asked her what she felt her job as an R.A. would be like if there was no program like Night Watch in existence, and what she felt would happen to the students, and residence halls on campus. She said:
Interesting to me is how this quote brings up the idea of personal responsibility for others, and the effect that has on the safety of the other people living in the building that you are. This also correlates with the impact of student employees on campus, and how taking an active role in safety on campus is a responsibility that affects the safety of others in attendance of the university, as well as personal safety. An Article in The Education Digest by Ken Schroeder entitled “Student Safety Plan” discusses a new campaign across the country called “College Crime Watch.” It is a student driven effort to prevent crime, drugs, and violence on college campuses, and it is a way for students who hope to impact their communities and serve others in the pursuit of safety to achieve it. The components of the program include an expansive set of activities from campus patrols, and escort services to property protection and self-defense training. One of several ideas I found particularly striking through reading this article was that of the importance for safety measures to be taken on college campuses by the students themselves. It states, “The pressures and challenges students are facing are increasing, and the social activism of students will find productive and real results in promoting safety. We know that the best prevention of victimization is the awareness, education, and mobilization of those who need to be protected: (Schroeder 1). I think this specific part of the article affected me so much because I tend to consider the measures and steps that the university I attend are going to protect me, and the rest of the residents of the campus, and rarely consider my role in the safety of myself and other students on campus. The more I have thought about it though, the more I understand that everything I do, from the guests I choose to invite into my residence hall, the people I hold the door for, or the choices I make in regards to following university policy closely or not, not only effect me, but the other students living here. I feel, also, that the way the safety organizations like Night Watch are devised on the Eastern Michigan University campus increase in the overall effectiveness of them. By this I mean that the amount of money, effort, and careful planning and fine-tuning these safety programs have received has shaped them into a truly good and solid working order. Having these programs run by students, I think, has a huge impact on how they work. Night Watch goes hand in hand with the residence hall staff on campus; also a student-run operation, and yet another way students actively participate in the safety of themselves and other students on campus. In a lot of ways, Night Watch serves as a “look-out” for the resident advisors within the building. A good example are the doors in the building, which are monitored by camera that can be viewed through the televisions at the Night Watch tables. The policy or the doors is that unless they can be opened with a key from the outside, they should not be entered through. Most specifically, they should not be propped or help open by people already in the building for any reason. This is again so that Night Watch can keep track of the people in the building, and so that no non-residents are granted entrance without being signed in at the table. If a situation were to occur where a student was seen on the television at Night Watch holding open a door for someone, the R.A. on duty for the building would be notified. They then would address the situation, most likely giving both parties involved a write-up, which is a written statement of the act you committed to call a need for one, as well as an outlined appointment time to meet with the Area Complex Director of that residence, and again explaining university policy on the signing-in of guests at the Night Watch tables. The logbook at the Night Watch table is another helpful area for the resident advisors of the building. The incident where the R.A. was attacked, for example, was an instance where this book was helpful. The attacker had been the ex-boyfriend, someone who she signed in more than once over the course of the year prior to this incident, so the Night Watch staff was able to go through the log, find all the male guests that had been signed in by this woman, and narrow down their list of suspects, also giving the University Police both his name, and I.D. number. The log could also be helpful in a situation where a write up occurred, and guests were not willing to show their I.D.s. An R.A. could absolutely refer to the log at the Night Watch table, and look up who had been signed into the building to issue such a form. As Kristen describes it, the log is “really kept as a record to check for anything that goes on in the halls, if need to reference it or look anyone up, if something happens, we can look up names for both police officers and hall staff” (Kinkaid). I have to say that speaking as a resident of university housing, the authority of the hall staff and Night Watch is something I completely respect. I am genuinely concerned with the disciplinary action I could endure if ever in opposition to the rules enforced by either student staff organization. The respect that I have for them in the disciplinary aspect though, is mirrored in the respect I hold for the fact that they do make me feel safe in where I live, which is something I could never be thankful enough for. Ultimately, the example of the R.A.’s tragic attack is truly something rare for the Eastern Michigan University on-campus residence halls. I think this is due mostly to the fact that safety is such a major priority for the university, and is made a major concern among students. The priority made is demonstrated in the availability of crime statistics published by the EMU Department of Public Safety, and can also be obtained simply through the contact of one of the deputized police officers on campus. Without the dedication of students within programs like Night Watch, and the Residence Hall staff, students living on campus would not be nearly as safe, or as comfortable living in University Housing. The active participation of students in these programs, and the policies enforced in the residence halls creates not just a place to stay for students while they are here, but for each of them, a home. Works Cited Kinkaid, Kristen. Personal Interview. 14 October 2003. Schroeder, Ken. “Student Safety Plan.” The Education Digest, 68: January 2003. October 2003. http://www.WilsonSelect.edu. Eastern Michigan University Database. |