Every fall, seniors in high school are subjected to the irritating and time consuming task of filling out college applications. Just before typing this post, I was sitting at the desk in my room and completing part of the University of California online application.
Here I was, with the document that my entire high school career was based on, and I was getting annoyed. There are many parts to the application, and personally, I don't want to fill it out. This simple document is simply a record of all of my grades, accomplishments, life, and career...stuff. Each year thousands of college bound high school kids sit down with applications to various colleges, and they all complete them. They spend hours on them. We spend hours on them. Every new generation of kids has to go through this sluggish haul of college Q and A. And every year, thousands of college bound kids complain and moan, and post facebook statuses about how they are "finally finished with college apps!" or instagram pictures of the green triangles next to the common applications online tool. Each graduating class has to do these applications, and they take forever, but we really can't do anything about that.
Can we? Honestly, I have no idea. But, I am quite annoyed that no one has found a quicker, easier way to apply to a college. Can we suggest something? Can we have a database that all of our grades, volunteer hours, accomplishments, extracurriculars, awards, achievements, GPA, test scores, and pretty much anything else a college could want are kept in? Kids every year slave over their applications and never seem to point out how long it takes. I find that having to fill out the same information for different colleges is unnecessary. If we had a database that recorded information as it happened every year, kids would have a full resumé filled out as soon as they started their applications, and all that would be needed is to send the "resumé" to each college.
But this won't happen. Because each year, I'm guessing some kids think up a better system, but ditch the idea when they realize that they will still have to write their own applications; they will get no benefit. So instead, we just complain about all of this college junk.
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Vidal/Drugs Response
Yeah, I guess you could say I agree with Vidal's statement that "each man has the right to do what he wants with his own life as long as he does not interfere with his neighbor's pursuit of happiness."
I would like to add something to this statement however: I do believe that when a friend of mine may do something terrible to themselves, whether it be drugs or something else, it affects me. These actions can make me lose a friend or a loved one.
In the case of one of my elementary school teachers, his father died prematurely from cancer brought on by a lifetime of smoking. My teacher was furious at his father for this. His mother smoked, but quit immediately after it was proven that there were negative effects. My teacher's father however, kept on smoking. And he died. While this did not create an obstacle technically for my teacher's pursuit of happiness it did prove to be hurtful. I am not saying his father's intent was to create emotional pain in his son, I am merely providing this to propose the idea that choices of others can effect a person in a way that is not the "pursuit of happiness."
Vidal's idea for drugs in a society like ours is incredibly interesting, and I would be very curious to see the effects. Personally, I think the laws we have in place currently prevent a certain amount of people from getting into drug abuse, and that would possibly save lives. Now, if the laws weren't in place, one can argue that those certain people would not have gotten into drugs anyway, and thus would be safe from ill effects. If we assume these people would have gotten into drugs, we can also say that those certain people would only be harming themselves, which brings me to my point. Families have been destroyed based upon drug usage of a single member, and that is why I don't fully agree with Vidal's statement.
I would like to add something to this statement however: I do believe that when a friend of mine may do something terrible to themselves, whether it be drugs or something else, it affects me. These actions can make me lose a friend or a loved one.
In the case of one of my elementary school teachers, his father died prematurely from cancer brought on by a lifetime of smoking. My teacher was furious at his father for this. His mother smoked, but quit immediately after it was proven that there were negative effects. My teacher's father however, kept on smoking. And he died. While this did not create an obstacle technically for my teacher's pursuit of happiness it did prove to be hurtful. I am not saying his father's intent was to create emotional pain in his son, I am merely providing this to propose the idea that choices of others can effect a person in a way that is not the "pursuit of happiness."
Vidal's idea for drugs in a society like ours is incredibly interesting, and I would be very curious to see the effects. Personally, I think the laws we have in place currently prevent a certain amount of people from getting into drug abuse, and that would possibly save lives. Now, if the laws weren't in place, one can argue that those certain people would not have gotten into drugs anyway, and thus would be safe from ill effects. If we assume these people would have gotten into drugs, we can also say that those certain people would only be harming themselves, which brings me to my point. Families have been destroyed based upon drug usage of a single member, and that is why I don't fully agree with Vidal's statement.
Friday, November 9, 2012
Research Paper Progress Report
My research paper topic is Knee Health in Junior cyclists, more specifically, what the common knee problems are (if there are any).
I did the MLA citations, so here is a link to the google doc I saved it in (just so I can use the sites later).
Here.
I did the MLA citations, so here is a link to the google doc I saved it in (just so I can use the sites later).
Here.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Monday, November 5, 2012
Senior Project Update
Currently, my senior project is still going pretty well. In my attempt to create a cycling club at Vintage High School I have been working very hard with my mentor to create a working and specific club constitution. This constitution outlines pretty much everything the club stands for, what we are supposed to do, be doing, the responsibilities of our club members, riding schedules, commitment, etc.. The constitution essentially covers everything that we have thought of in the past eight months, and the reason I have taken this task so seriously in regards to the club is because I know that without a functioning constitution, it will be impossible to start a club at another school. I know by experience, that the creation of a club will be much smoother at Vintage because they can copy our constitution.
Liability. Liability. Liability. If someone gets hurt, who get's sued? Who pays for it? We are riding the Napa County Office of Education's bikes, and they have an administrator with us, so they have liability. We have two consent forms that must be signed, but that is not good enough now. The grant the NCOE used to pay for the administrator and bikes runs out in December, so they have to do something with the bikes. I want them to donate the bikes to our school, but the NVUSD does not want ANYTHING to do with the club's liability.
So we have a plan. We want to essentially secede from NVUSD. Sort of. We want to become a USA Cycling club, because we can then by health insurance for the club at little cost. But, we still need coaches and liability waivers and bikes (since the bikes we are using will be taken back in December). The Eagle Cycling Club is the main promoter of cycling in Napa Valley, they sponsor events such as the Tour of Napa Valley, road, and mountain bike races. We have been fortunate enough to have been in contact with them, and they have been our main sponsor as far as equipment and jerseys go. We want to become a junior development branch of their club, fully sponsored by them, and completely separated from NVUSD, with the only exception that the club is based out of Napa High School, with a user agreement that the bikes can be kept on campus.
In other words, my cycling club and my senior project as a whole are now based on how well my club can present our situation to the members of the Eagle Cycling Club, and will only really continue if they say yes. A little stressful, yes, but I really believe the Eagle members will be happy to welcome a junior branch to sponsor the next generation of cyclists in Napa Valley.
Liability. Liability. Liability. If someone gets hurt, who get's sued? Who pays for it? We are riding the Napa County Office of Education's bikes, and they have an administrator with us, so they have liability. We have two consent forms that must be signed, but that is not good enough now. The grant the NCOE used to pay for the administrator and bikes runs out in December, so they have to do something with the bikes. I want them to donate the bikes to our school, but the NVUSD does not want ANYTHING to do with the club's liability.
So we have a plan. We want to essentially secede from NVUSD. Sort of. We want to become a USA Cycling club, because we can then by health insurance for the club at little cost. But, we still need coaches and liability waivers and bikes (since the bikes we are using will be taken back in December). The Eagle Cycling Club is the main promoter of cycling in Napa Valley, they sponsor events such as the Tour of Napa Valley, road, and mountain bike races. We have been fortunate enough to have been in contact with them, and they have been our main sponsor as far as equipment and jerseys go. We want to become a junior development branch of their club, fully sponsored by them, and completely separated from NVUSD, with the only exception that the club is based out of Napa High School, with a user agreement that the bikes can be kept on campus.
In other words, my cycling club and my senior project as a whole are now based on how well my club can present our situation to the members of the Eagle Cycling Club, and will only really continue if they say yes. A little stressful, yes, but I really believe the Eagle members will be happy to welcome a junior branch to sponsor the next generation of cyclists in Napa Valley.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)