Fast Food and the Risk of Childhood Obesity Essay

The fast food industry promotes childhood obesity by manipulating the young mind, putting them at risk for health complications such as hypertension and diabetes. The super-sizing of America is been a frequently talked about subject lately. Especially since it is seem to have negative effects on the health of children and adults alike through massive consumption of fast food. Health providers and other authority figures are now concerned about children’s obesity rates shown during the past 3-4 decades. They have now drawn a close connection between fast food and obesity and identified a childhood obesity epidemic with increased negative health factors. According to the American journal of public health, 2005 September issue, fast food retail sales in the United States have increased 900% from $16. 1 billion in 1975 to a projected $153. 1 billion in 2004, during the past 3 decades. The numbers of fast food restaurants targeting child and adolescent customers are found to be clustered around schools. With the addicting flavors and affordability of fast food has contributed to adjusting the young minds gradually to grab the quick lunch without second thought. Apart from the many types of fast food offered inside the school cafeteria, Studies have shown the fast food restaurant outlets are multiplying around the school grounds and neighborhood. The American Journal of Public Health estimated that there are 3 to 4 times as many fast-food restaurants within 1. km from schools than would be expected if the restaurants were located around the city in a way unrelated to schools. They also reveals that the median distance between any school to the nearest fast food restaurant is only 0. 5km, which means, there is only a walk of little more than 5 mints for any kid to grab that delicious treat. Some schools in the nation have already begun the fight against the fast food epidemic, although they’re a much less percentage of the whole. The marketing strategies used by fast food brand s mostly target children and adolescents. In his book Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser describes the history of child marketing explaining the concept of ‘kid kustomers’ McDonalds was the first fast food chain to direct their marketing towards kids. Schlosser explains how McDonalds took on the certain strategy from Disney, who by the time had understood the way to success is approaching the kids and who intern will attract a third party to the equation. They understood that the best way to make sales with adults was to lure the children who would keep whining until they got what they want. The ast food industry does not stop until it would possibly attract every single kid kustomer possible. Beginning with famous cartoon characters, the fast food industry started giving away free toys to children as compliment. They promoted unique collections of the current child attractions of super heroes and other toys such as stuffed animals and army troops. The constant advertising of such collector’s editions, scra tch and wins, party hosting ides with fun activities and also, the building of personal play grounds with structures was and still is a major attraction strategy used by the fast food industry. They know how to manipulate a young mind in to thinking that love and care is about giving you food that tastes so good, and giving away free toys. The sole problem is not in just the types of fast food that is served in fast food restaurants-which are obviously fatty, oily and high in sugar content-but also in the portions. The portion size was drastically increased over the past couple of decades, bringing the once ‘Large’ size portion as the now ‘small’ size and having 5 categories as small, medium, large, supersize and combo meals in the ascending order. The trick is, every time you go for the next bigger portion, the customers are made believe that they get more for less price, in turn making the sale a worthwhile exchange. Since it is all about the visual of it, the customers tend to over look that whether it is more for less, it is all too much than what anybody needs to consume per meal. Fast food tastes best when they are fresh out of the restaurant. No matter how big the portion is, fast food can be hardly eaten as leftovers. So children have gradually trained their stomachs-adults likewise-to hold fattier, oily, sugary foods that come in super sizes. The initial issue seemed to be just being overweight and obese, as these children who consume more fatty foods than necessary grew up to be a fat generation of adults. But now, the fast food monster has grown bigger and wilder that it brings children critical health issues at much younger ages. Children in the United States are currently considered to be facing an obesity epidemic. Overweight and obese children are diagnosed with a number of health issues such as Type 2 diabetes, Hypertension, Cholesterol and Lipid abnormalities, Hyperinsulinemia and obstructive Sleep Apnea. In her book, Underage and Overweight, Frances M. Berg, a licensed nutritionist and adjunct professor at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine stated that during the 1990s, cases of diagnostic diabetes for all ages rose 33% nationwide. She also explains by 2004 diabetes was the seventh leading cause of death in the United States and is the main contributor to health problems like heart disease, stroke, blindness, high blood pressure, kidney disease and amputation which occurs with increased frequency in overweight children and adolescents. Although many fast food restaurant businesses argue that they do not serve unhealthy food to their customers, the fact remains that since the rise of fast food restaurants, the obesity epidemic has only grown alarmingly. And as mentioned before, the portion size has massively increased, contributing to this epidemic every step of the way. This is now not just a concern of individual willpower but also a fight to save the nation as a whole. Studies show that children can be brain washed to believe in anything with little incentives. With the fast food industry being the top manipulators of children’s mind, they keep stuffing themselves with the mouth watering hamburgers, fries and shakes. Apart from these critical health problems, obesity brings in other issues to a child’s life. David Ludwig, an associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School has dedicated his life to researching and contributing to overweight reduction in children. He is the director of the Optimal Weight for Life (OWL) program at Children’s Hospital Boston, one of the largest clinics for overweight children and their parents. In his book, Ending the Food Fight, Lundwig explains the Vicious Cycle of poor diet and inactive life style which fosters many other negative factors in between. He lays out a great picture of poor diet that resembles over eating, that lowers metabolism, resulting in sluggishness and low motivation leading to an inactive lifestyle. Once this life style is acquired, the amount of calories stored in the body increases, causes fatigue and boredom, results in low self esteem that succumbs to temptation for ‘comfort food’ which contributes again to the poor diet that started out the cycle. He also explains in detail how obesity due to high-glycemic food intake-the type of food available at fast food restaurants-result in complications in a child in his/her Brain, Heart and blood vessels, lungs, digestive tract, hormones and also mental health. Obesity is also a key factor in most children’s self esteem and performance levels. Dr. Sylvia Rimm, a Child Psychologist and clinical professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine describes in detail the contribution of Obesity in depression and quality of life of children. She mentions â€Å"In a nationally representative survey conducted in 1996-1998, researchers reported that more than 60% of kids ate 5 servings of food fruits and vegetables a day. Unfortunately these results were based on a broad range of vegetables that included potatoes. † In illuminating potatoes from the vegetable group, Sylvia states, â€Å"children who consumed five servings of fruits and vegetables a day dropped to 30%. † This means the consumption of fast food is quite often as the most popular method of potato intake is through fries and fries are often not consumed by itself. The 30% that actually dropped was consuming 5 portions of potatoes a day. Rimm shows a wide range of analysis and research done on over weight/obese children on Self Description of Intelligence, Self-Description of Grades in School, Self-perception of Intelligence, self-deception of work ethic, Self-description of Athletic etc, of all which with ought a failure represented the obese and overweight children in the more negative side of the chart. When childhood innocence takes a turn in emotional fields like this, it is high time that there is even greater attention be given to the issue of fast food that make unhealthy little human beings who are not only physically but also emotionally malfunctioning. To bring back attention to the facts and analysis made on the fast food industry and childhood obesity; obesity is currently exposing an unfortunate epidemic in children who consume the wrong types of food, in wrong amounts. The fast food industry promotes sales by manipulating the children’s mind with toys and other prize promotions, luring them in the friendly caring restaurants. Children not only get to have happy meals, but they get rewarded with toys and more importantly critical health issues such as diabetes, hypertension and other heart and mental illnesses. The emotional lives of young children which is critical to having healthy physical and mental conditions in future is also subjected to being obese/overweight resulted in too much unsuitable food intake. Being from a South Asian country, I myself have faced the discomfort of fast food addiction as I grew up. I preferred less activity and ate out more times a week than necessary and ended up with low self esteem during my high school years. I was bullied; I did not have guys who were at all interested in me or even good grades. I am just one person who went through this painful process of growing up with too much ‘tasty food. ’ But I know there are many more who are entangled in the same web. It is not easy to wake up one day and say to yourself, I’m not going to be discouraged. We need help. And if as a whole world people need to stand up for the root of the problem, fast food, then isn’t it worth the try?

Julius Caesar †Qualities of a Good Leader Essay

Selecting a good leader for a country is like dominoes. The leader needs to be somebody that won’t make the occasional mistake that would, in dominoes, hit one of the others and make them all fall down. If the leader does their job correctly, the country will be strong. A good leader must be able to make his own decisions because if he cannot, he will be considered a weak leader. A country’s leader must be able to communicate with the people as well because if he gets the people of the country to listen, then his job would be much easier. Also, if the leader were noble to his countrymen, then there would not be any disputes within the country. In Julius Caesar, Mark Antony is a perfect example of a good leader. Not only is he a confident and noble person, he is also persuasive and that helps in becoming a good leader. Antony would be a good leader of Rome because he is confident, noble, and persuasive. He never changes his mind when he makes a decision and that is good in a leader. When the triumvirate was making a list of people to kill, Antony came across the name of his nephew. Even though it was his nephew that he was killing, Antony said, â€Å"He shall not live; look, with a spot I damn him.† (IV.i.9) Antony had to kill his nephew, who might oppose him, and he did not want to take the chance. Another part where Antony’s confidence in decision-making was when he was talking to Octavius about Lepidus. The triumvirate was made up of three people, Antony, Lepidus, and Octavius, and so â€Å"The threefold world divided, he should stand / One of the three to share it? (IV.i.14-15) Antony meant that Lepidus would not be capable of ruling a third of the world, and that he would rather take half and Octavius take the other half. Antony’s confidence shows him being capable of being a great leader. Along with being confident, Antony would make a great leader because of his nobility towards others. Antony was seen to be noble towards Caesar. The two men were close to each other like a mother and her child. When Caesar died, Antony wanted revenge for Caesar. And Caesar’s spirit, ranging for revenge, â€Å"With Ate by his side come hot from hell / Shall stir these confines with a monarch’s voice / Cry â€Å"Havoc!† and let slip the dogs of war / That this foul deed shall smell above the earth / With carrion men, groaning for burial. (III.i.270-275) Caesar was like family to Antony and when Caesar was killed,  Antony wanted Caesar’s spirit to rest easier, and so he went to get revenge for Caesar. Besides being noble to Caesar, Antony was noble to the countrymen as well. When Antony came to give his speech about Caesar at the town, the people were listening to him respectively. Antony knew about Caesar’s will and he did not have to tell the citizens about it. Since Antony was a good person he read the will and he said â€Å"To every Roman citizen he gives, / To every several man, seventy-five drachmas.† (III.ii.244-245) Being a good person as he is, he read the will as the people wanted so they would be content. Antony’s nobility shows him to be worthy in becoming a good leader of Rome. Along with being confident and noble, Antony would be a great leader because he can be persuasive. Since Antony had great speaking skills, he could get people to think the way he wants them to think. After Caesar’s death, Antony met up with the conspirators and he decided to make them think he would forget about the assassination. He said, â€Å"I doubt not of your wisdom. / Let each man render me his bloody hand.† (III.i.202-203) The conspirators thought that Antony had forgiven them, but the truth was that Antony was going to make the public turn against Brutus and the conspirators. When it was time for Antony to make his speech about Caesar to the countrymen, he used his speaking skills and got the countrymen on his side. The citizens were moved by his speech and said, â€Å"We’ll hear him, we’ll follow him, we’ll die with him.† (III.ii.211) The countrymen were listening to Brutus’ words at the beginning and they were agreeing with what he said. Now Antony had gotten the people to listen to him and follow him. Antony uses his speech skills to win the heart of the crowd and he makes the people feel how he wants them to. He said, â€Å"Good friends, sweet friends, let me not stir you up / To such a sudden flood of mutiny.† (III.ii.12-13) That quote probably made the crowd want to know more of what Antony had to say, and that was what Antony wanted. So, the ability to persuade people is a very important element in being a good leader. A successful country must have a good leader, and Antony has the ability of being a great leader. He can persuade people into thinking as he does and he is noble to the people of the country. He gives the people an opportunity to say what they have to  say instead of just going on his own beliefs. He is also very confident in himself and so whatever he decides to do he does, and does not change his mind. Not only is he noble to his friends, he is also noble to the people of the country as well. With Antony as a leader, the country would not go bad since he is a person who does thing right. Mark Antony was an honorable and powerful man, and so he would be a great leader.

Case Study: Quality Parts Company Essay

1. Which of the changes being considered by the manager of Quality Parts Company are counter to the lean philosophy of the company? Lean production is a philosophy and a way of working involving eliminating all forms of waste (where waste is defined as anything that does not add value in the production process and supply chain). Many changes being considered by the manager are counter to lean philosophy. These are: Installing an automated ordering system to help control inventories and to â€Å"keep the skids fined† implies the use of inventory as a motivator to push production; adding external inspectors; setting up a network line only institutionalizes the acceptance of rework. They could have implemented a strict quality control to ensure the quality of the products being produced by the company. Factory workers should become their own inspectors that would personally be responsible for the quality of their output. In this way, QPC can save more money and more time. Also, utilizing the labor and the machine does not coincide with lean philosophy. The focus should be more on flexibility and reducing the waste of overproduction. The installation of high rise shelving indicates an acceptance of wasteful inventory. This would just be added as a non-value step in their process. Lean philosophy leaves no room for surplus or safety stock. No safety stocks are allowed this philosophy says that, ‘If you cannot use it now, you do not need to produce it now.† Once production is done in excess, this can be considered as waste. 2. Make recommendations for the lean improvements in such areas as scheduling, layout, kanban, task groupings, and inventory. Use quantitative data as much as possible: state necessary assumptions. As we can see in the process, step 1 has one of the highest operation time and second to the highest when it comes to set up time. Therefore, adding a machine here will help improve the production of the company. The bottleneck of the process is in step 4 which includes three steps in assembling the product. With this, products were clogged to machine department before reaching the assembly bench.

Introduction to legal frame work Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Introduction to legal frame work - Assignment Example lly an individual that carries on business activities on his own account and is singularly responsible for all the losses and profits that are made by his business. In managing the business enterprise, a sole trader is tasked with the responsibility of acting as both the risk bearer and the owner of his business. He is expected to use his own labor and skill as well as use his own capital in addition to his also being entitled to all the profits that the business organization is able to make. As a result of his having unlimited liability, a sole trader is personally responsible to all the creditors of the business enterprise and he alone bears the complete risk of the failure or success of the business organization. In the event that the business enterprise happens to be particularly large, a sole trader has the option of employing a large number of people to help him in effectively managing the business operations. He also has the option of borrowing funds to be used in financings the operations of his expanding business. Canwell (2005), points out that about 63 percent of all business organizations in the United Kingdom are noted to be run as single-person enterprises. Some of the advantages of this business structure include the fact that the registration of a small business in the United Kingdom is relatively straight forward, its record keeping is simple and the owner gets to enjoy keeping all the profits that are made by the business organization after paying taxes. Opting to operate as a sole trader provides the business owners with the opportunity of being able to test the market before they can go on to get involved in some of the more complicated forms of business structures. The main disadvantage with this form of business structure is that the current laws do not make any distinction between the sole trader and the business. It is this aspect that causes the trader to have unlimited liability. Having unlimited liability means that any debt that the

Write a report on the environmental activities Coursework

Write a report on the environmental activities - Coursework Example Corporations operating globally need to undertake various environmental activities in order to conserve the environment and provide a sustainable society. The environmental policies are prepared so as to promote these activities in the organization (Hirata Corporation, 2014). The main purpose of the report is to highlight the environmental activities that are undertaken by a European Carbon Intensive Industries Company, Arcelor Mittal. The report also investigates the level of disclosure that is provided by the company with respect to the specific environmental activities in the past 2 years. The level of disclosures is provided with the help of disclosure index, which includes General Environmental Activities and Specific Environmental Disclosure as per GRI indicators. The individual activities that are highlighted in the Appendix are detailed in the report along with the level of disclosure. The methodology indicates the process employed to elaborate the environmental activities and how the data are collected. The section, analysis of the results, depicts the comparative evaluation of data obtained in the last two years. The analysis is followed by a general discussion regarding the environmental activities that are undertaken by the companies. The general discussion is based on the activities that are disclosed by the selected company. This part of the report is prepared with the help of academic literature that are provided by different authors regarding the disclosed topic. The recommendations are provided based on the research and conclusion, which is a good source of information for further researches. The methodology includes the methods and principles that are employed in collecting information regarding the environmental activities of Arcelor Mittal (AM). The information pertaining to the different disclosures of

Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 4

Personal Statement Example His personality, appearance and communication should be qualified enough to motivate people to follow the guidelines. The leader should be competent, goal-targeted and loyal to the profession. Communication style carries an important position in leadership. Every individual has some strengths and weaknesses, be it a leader, manager or an employee. However, the success of a person depends on his ability to judge his strengths and weaknesses. Once weaknesses are identified it becomes easier for the individual to overcome them. However, the strengths motivate him to maintain them and further research what needs to be done for a more successful outcome. Hence, it can be said that strengths and weaknesses both are important for a sustained excellence in the leadership profession. My knowledge about these important issues help me come over my weaknesses and enhance my strengths. I want to be a leader or a manager because I have identified certain traits in my personality which may help me in becoming a good and efficient leader. Some of these traits are discussed in this paragraph. Firstly, the habit of communicating my own ideas and asking questions about those ideas from others may be a helpful tool in strengthening the leadership and communication skills. In addition, my researching abilities and keenness to improve will help me as a helpful tool to gain a more competent position in any organization. Additionally, my personal experiences in working as teams throughout my school and college life have affirmed the importance given to appreciation and rewards. This importance provided to them has encouraged me to use them for a more effective team of subordinates. I have also observed that in order to get a better result it is important to involve the subordinates in the decisions more and more. This is also helpful for me in creating a better reputation in their view. In the cases where the views of subordinates do

Relationship Between Accounting, Accountability and Organizational Essay

Relationship Between Accounting, Accountability and Organizational Control - Essay Example The researcher states that accounting is more than bookkeeping, and is concerned about how these records are put, the analysis of the records and also interpretation. An accountant is concerned with the relationship between the financial results and the events that have led to them. They do study various alternatives that are available to the business and use their knowledge acquired in the accounting field to help managers select the best action plan. Shareholders and management need knowledge in this field so that they get to understand what accountants tell them. Investors also need this knowledge so that they can read and understand the financial statement issued by the business. Since it is a business language all the stakeholders of a business will want to know whether the organization is making a profit or not. It will also help show if the business will meet its commitment as they fall due and not run into bankruptcy. These are only answered by use of accounting information o f the company which can be derived by the equation given by, Total Assets= Total Liabilities + Capital Accountability means taking the responsibility or obligation by an individual or an organization. It has to be done in a transparent manner. The responsibility can take the form of money or properties. In relation to accounting, it takes the form of integrity. That is to say that, the accountant has to be able to take responsibility on any issue regarding the transaction of the firm. Organizations do undertake so many activities on a daily basis. Such activities include the purchase of raw materials for the daily operation of the firm, receiving of payments from the customers, banking of the cash received on a daily basis. All these activities involve transactions and hence there is the responsibility for each and every activity. Each is assigned some duty to be undertaken. The three are related to the following perspectives: a) Performances, there is a high degree required while u ndertaking the three issues. This is because in accounting, an individual performance in meeting different objectives of stakeholders of the firm; accountability takes the form of responsibility and obligation of an individual. The responsibility can be in the form of money or properties. Organizational control is important to the general functioning of an enterprise. It entails planning of what is desired; setting good standards, monitoring the performance of the firm; measuring performance - comparing actual output with that which is expected; and taking accurate measures to correct discrepancies. b) Integrity, The three are pegged on integrity. For example, in accounting, the financial information of the company is prepared on the rules and guidelines of accounting worldwide; accountability, on the other hand, gives obligations to an individual. Organizational control gives an illustration of the level of monitoring and feedback, which is achieved by implementing internal control s. It follows a control loop of assessing systems and procedures, establishing appropriate controls, evaluating outputs and adjusting where necessary. The working definition of the concept of accountability and its relationship to accounting Since accountability refers to a capability of being held responsible for something or being held to account, scrutinized and being required to give an account.

Business Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Business - Case Study Example Owing to this reputation, Toyota has been able to enjoy several benefits including financial strength, customer loyalty and market share. According to research scholars Steinmetz (2010) and Quelch, Knoop and Johnson (2010), the rapid growth of Toyota had created stress on the manufacturing, engineering and design which may lead to the consecutive occurrences of quality issues. This had in turn demanded the company to recall the vehicles at the beginning of 2003. However, the quality related problem of Toyota gained national attention in September 2009, after the public release of a recorded complaint which was associated with a certain incident. There had been a recorded call to 911 regarding a car crash which was being driven by an off-duty California highway patrol officer. The crash had resulted in the death of the officer along with his family members. This accident was caused by uncontrolled acceleration due to the floor mat problem which sticks to the accelerator pedals. Owing to this incident, the company recalled 3.9 million vehicles in US on September 29, 2009. The matter gained attention in January and early February of 2010, when 2.3 million vehicles had to be taken off the roads due to the sticking pedals (Fan, Geddes and Flory 2011). Toyota stopped selling eight of their models in North America, had shut down their production plant and increased their intensity of recalls in China and Europe. The CEO and the president of the company had apologised for the recalls. Another recall associated with Prius Hybrid, one of their best selling vehicles, was initiated due to some banking problems. After this third recall, the total amount of recall between 2009 and 2010 totalled to eight million that included six million in US itself (Madslien 2012; BBC News 2012; Couts 2011; Mackenzie and Evans 2010). Critical evaluation of the business response using evaluation criteria Reputation: Owing to the crisis related to the uncontrolled acceleration, the responses by the business of Toyota had aroused concerns regarding the reputation of the organization. The car accident had affected the reputation of the organization to a lesser extent than the damages done by the disclosure and communications, recalls and apologies previously. The confidence of the customers was seen to exhibit a sudden fall. The customer reports survey showed that the pre-eminent reputation of the organization plunged from 30 percent to 19 percent (Dietz and Gillespie 2011). In case of Toyota, the recalls were done in the years 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2009-10 due to different problems related to brakes, engines and accelerators, which had totalled to over 8.5 million vehicles (Dietz and Gillespie 2011). This staggeringly high number was considered to be sufficient to damage the trustworthiness of the organization. A positive reputation can be said to be as good as the effort that is taken to create and sustain it. The excellence in reputation fails if immediate action for tr ust building contradicts this reputation. In this case,

What are the criteria Postgraduate students use to determine career Dissertation

What are the criteria Postgraduate students use to determine career choice - Dissertation Example y 3.6 Ethical Considerations 3.7 Research Limitations Chapter 4: Findings and Analysis 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Relative Importance of Factors 4.3 Impact of Internal Factors on the External Factors 4.4 Impact of Internal Factors 4.4.1 Impact of Family Factors 4.4.1.1 Parental Influence 4.4.1.2 Parental Guidance 4.4.2 Impact of Socio-Cultural Factors 4.4.2.1 Cultural Factors 4.4.2.2 Social and Gender Sterotypes 4.4.3 Impact of Emotional Factors 4.4.3.1 Impact of Anxiety Levels 4.4.3.2 Impact of Life View 4.4.3.3 Self Concept and Identity 4.4.4 Impact of Self-Efficacy 4.4.5 Impact of Personal Interest 4.4. 6 Impact of Personality Factors 4.5 Impact of External Factors 4.5.1 Impact of Image of the Institute 4.5.2 Impact of Marketing Activities 4.5.3 Impact of Resources and Facities of the Institute 4.5.4 Impact of Culture 4.5.4.1 Impact of Policies and Procedures 4.5.4.2 Impact of Classroom Teaching Methods 4.5.5 Impact of Placement and Campus Recruitment 4.5.6 Impact of Financial Support 4 .5.7 Impact of Research Funding Available to the Institute 4.5.8 Impact of Location of the Institute Chapter 5: Conclusions 5.1 Summary of Research Findings 5.2 Limitations of Research Scope for Future Research List of Figures and Tables Figure 1: Parental Influence Figure 2: Impact of Parental Guidance Figure 3: Impact of Culture Figure 4: Impact of Socal and Gender Sterotypes Figure 5: Impact of Anxiety Levels Figure 6: Impact of Life View Figure 7: Awareness of Life’s Aims Figure 8: Ability to Gather the Information Figure 9: Ability to Analyse the Information Figure 10: Awareness of Interests and Aptitude Figure 11: Impact of Personality Factors Figure12: Impact of Image of Institute Figure 13: Impact of Marketing and Promotional Activities Figure 14: Impact of Resources and... The current research is aimed to assess the important factors which influence the postgraduate students in management to determine their career choices. The research was conducted among 40 management students who were selected in a random manner from the management course in X institute. The research was conducted using quantitative survey questionnaire that was sent and collected using emails. It was found that Promotional Activities of the Institute, Image of the Institute, Placements and Alumni record of the institute and Resources and Facilities of the Institute comprised of the most important factors that were used by the students to assess their career choices. In addition, internal factors like parental influence, awareness of life aims and interests, parental guidance and culture were found to be importance influencers in the career decision-makig process. The research also found that factors like image of the institute is greately influenced by parental guidance, parental in fluence and culture, and importance of placement record as a criteria of career choice is highly correlated with both family and personal interest and self-identity factors. The research analyses the findings with the aim of filling the gaps in the available research and providing further inspiration for future research in the same area.Higher Educational Institutes (HEI) are facing an increased competition in terms of getting governmental or private funding for research and also suffer from a dwindling application numbers from students

Evaluate the success of European monetary union to date Essay

Evaluate the success of European monetary union to date - Essay Example In the years that it has been in existence, the euro has widely grown to be recognized as an international currency, and thus, it has enjoyed benefits of the world’s stable market and endured the times of instability. The first idea that gave birth to embryo of the European Monetary Union can be traced back to R. Mundell’s theory of optimum currency areas of 1961 and that of R. McKinnon of 1963. However, it was until 1978 that an idea on the European Monetary System was proposed (Overturf, 1997 p. 14). The proposed European Monetary System (EMS) had various components that included; financial support mechanism (FSM), European Monetary Cooperation Fund (EMCF), exchange rate mechanism (ERM), and the European currency union (UCU). From the inception, the implementation of the European monetary Union in itself was a major triumph. As the ambitious program began to be operational, the countries that were under the union realized many benefits and costs, and in some instances, experienced serious flaws. In a real sense, unification of the currency helped to enhance the condition of the single market since it permitted all transactions to be conducted in one single currency. In that case, application of a single currency helped to improve competition among the member countries and also made the entire European economy to be more compatible with the global market. Because competition among the member states was enhanced, the consumers benefitted immensely because they had a wider range of choice, better quality, and reduced prices. The use of a single currency also helped to attract foreign investment, particularly in areas that were least developed. The use of a single currency within the European countries has ensured stability and positive inflation in most of the years that it has been under operation. The concept of money, as a means of measurement, can assist in

Described by Dickens Essay Example for Free

Described by Dickens Essay The extended metaphor at the end of the first chapter depicts the children as vessels or jars, to be filled to the top with facts until they are full. The metaphor portrays the children as inanimate objects, which shows the reader the arrogance of Gradgrind:  Vessels then and there arranged in order ready to have imperial gallons of facts poured into them until they were full to the brim.  Dickens describes them as if they are empty and know nothing. Therefore they have to learn facts whether they like it or not. The short sentences and repetition in the sentences of the opening of the second chapter aids the description of Gradgrind as it shows the reader there is no manipulating this man and what you see is what you get. He will never change his mind.  The extended metaphor, a kind of cannonaway shows the reader Gradgrinds idea of how children should be properly educated. He believes that imaginations are to be stormed away and children should mature through facts. He is described like a cannon loaded to the muzzle with facts this shows the harshness of his character and the machine-like qualities he holds. Sissy Jupe is described by Dickens as dark-eyed and dark-haired her skin is tanned as Sissy has grown up with the circus she has an interesting background and a creative imagination; she is not just filled with facts. The colour of her eyes and hair reflects her traveller background. Whereas, Bitzer is described by Dickens as light-eyed and light-haired. His skin seems to be white, in contrast to Sissys tanned complexion. This description shows the harshness of the Victorian education system, on his appearance. The audience has no sympathy for the coldness of his character even though he is seen as a model pupil from a model school by Gradgrind, who has forced out any imagination Bitzer had and filled him with facts. His description of a horse compared to Sissys attempt shows the reader the machine-like almost robotic manner in which he is able to reel off facts: Quadruped. Graminivorous.  His character is the opposite of Sissy. Gradgrind refers to her as a number, yet to Bitzer by name, as Sissy has only been at the school for a short time, but is referred to as Girl number twenty as she is new to the school her education is not as Gradgrind would like it to be, this in turn alienates her.  During the fifth chapter, we meet the characters Sissy and Bitzer again as their chase come to a halt when they bump into Gradgrind. After explaining why she was running, Gradgrind comments, as he cannot understand why Sissy should be run after: Run after? repeated Mr Gradgrind. Who would run after you?'  Gradgrind does not know Sissy, and sees her as an outcast. He does not see why she should be run after, and cannot understand why someone would want her. His question is answered when Bitzer enters in the next paragraph. He is described as the colourless boy. This creates lack of empathy in the reader towards Bitzer and how he has been manipulated by Gradgrind and the school. As Bitzer is running after Sissy, although described as without fancy (colourless), he still is a child as he was pulling faces to scare Sissy. Once escorted by Sissy to her home, we see Sissys fears of Gradgrind through the way she talks to him. She also seems embarrassed by the state of her home:  This is it, sir, and if you wouldnt mind, sir this is the house.  Sissys politeness to Gradgrind, as well as showing a well-mannered child also show how nervous she is around him, and the fear she has of him. Sissy is frightened of Gradgrind as she sees that as she is from a poor lifestyle, because of the shabbiness of her home, she will not be allowed to continue her studies, as those with a proper education will do better in the future. The audience empathises with Sissy because of this. In conclusion, Gradgrind has a stern manner and is very controlling of his pupils and his children because he is a very hard character he is a man of realities. Bitzer is a machine-like character; his white face reflects the coldness of his life with only facts in it. This contrasts to Sissys character, which is imaginative, because she lacks the proper formal education Bitzer has received. Hard Times is based on, and shows, Dickenss view of rejection, to the callous determination of Victorian greed. The audience empathises with Sissy the most as her character seems to be lost and the most fragile. The audience do not empathise with Gradgrind because of his stern and cold nature, which, as Bitzer becomes a model student, causes the audience to empathise with neither of the two characters.

Describe the main grievances of the Russian people Essay Example for Free

Describe the main grievances of the Russian people Essay In the early 19th century Russia was still a typical pre-modern society. A century later it had been transformed. The main changes that effected the Russian community took place in the late 19th century and early 20th centuries. Although the country was prospering in terms of economy, 80 per cent of the population were classified as peasant who lived in small farming villages that were using primitive farming methods. At the beginning of the 20th century, half the Russian population was illerate. This may have been due to the fact that until the 1860s the peasants had not been set free, although the Emancipation Act was attempting to correct this, not much had changed. Industrial growth after the abolition of serfdom did not really help progress the economy. One school of thought expected that the abolition of serfdom would create a spontaneous upsurge in industrialisation. The Emancipation act did nothing to stimulate a sudden upsurge in industrialisation, but it did not entirely block economic progress either. Though the size of peasant allotments did remain roughly equal, the amounts they actually farmed did not, because poorer households, with insufficient labour or livestock to farm their own allotments, rented them to wealthier peasants who could farm extra land. Industrial production did not grow rapidly, and by the 1900 Russia had a well-established base for further industrial development and an extensive railway network. The record for the agricultural sector was unimpressive, even though agriculture remained by far the largest sector of the economy. Growth was thus rapid but unbalanced. While industry expanded, the living conditions of large sections of the peasantry declined. Industrial development was therefore felt for the most part as a decline rather then a rise in material living standards. The problem for most people was how to cope with deteriorating economic conditions. The increased tax burden was combined with growing land shortage. Between 1860 and 1900 the average allotment per male peasant had declined about 46 per cent. At the same time, a growing number of poor peasants did not have the livestock necessary to work and manure their land. Declining land holdings and rising taxes had a profound effect on the peasantry. They meant the peasants who in the past had been able to support themselves mainly from the land, now had to adopt one of two strategies, either sell their grain for cash, or seek monetary incomes/wages. Russian industrial development favoured not the manufacture of consumer goods, but that of producer goods such as iron. In other words it did little to increase the availability or cheapness of consumer goods or increase material living standards. On the contrary, it affected people above all through an increase in the taxation necessary to pay for industrial development. Although the country was prospering in terms of economy, eighty per cent of the population were classified as peasant who lived in small farming villages that were using primitive farming methods. At the beginning of the 20th century, half of the Russian population was illiterate. This may have been due to the fact that until the 1860s the peasants had not been se free, although the Emancipation Act was attempting to correct this, not much had changed.

Different Payment Methods In The Hotel Industry Finance Essay

Different Payment Methods In The Hotel Industry Finance Essay The forms of payment accepted in hotels have changed over the years. Most hotels still accept a variety of methods of payment mainly so as to provide a service to their clients and to generate additional earnings through exchange. A large number of independent travellers now use some form of credit or charge card. Hotels are now very familiar with a wide range of cards, often with dual ownership (e.g. the HCIMA have their own version of Barclaycard). There will always be a number of other transactions within the hotel regardless of the method of payment. These transactions will often be paid through a number of other methods. Upon departure, guests can settle their account in one of a number of different ways: †¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Cash †¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Foreign currency †¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Cheque †¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Travellers cheque †¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Foreign cheque †¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Debit card †¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Credit card †¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Charge card †¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ledger payment †¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Voucher (e.g. travel agent, A TO). In dealing with each of these methods of payment, the hotelier must assess the impact of three major factors: liquidity, security and worth. Liquidity It is advantageous to the hotel if the account is paid in cash, as the hotel can immediately use the money to purchase goods itself, or bank the money and earn interest on it. Payment by ledger, however, will take much longer perhaps as much as two or three months may pass before the money can be re-used in the business. 2. Security The two sides to security are as follows: †¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚   The likelihood of forgery or fraud by each of the payment methods. †¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  The subsequent risk of theft once the hotel has the money. Payment by cheque is a greater security risk than accepting cash in Payment of the account. It would be difficult to trace stolen Currency if the hotel was robbed and cheques would unlikely is taken as they wont be of any value to a thief. Worth The total amount of money the hotel receives in payment will not be the same in every case. Handling charges, commission and delays in payment will cost the hotel money. But because of The extra commission, accepting payment in foreign currency will usually mean that when guests use this method of payment, the hotel gains an extra profit. Table 9.1 shows that the profitability of the hotel may be affected by the variety of payment methods used by the guests Method of Payment Security Liquidity Worth Cash The risk of loosing cash through theft is high, but the risk of forgery is low. Immediate 100 % Foreign currency The risk of loosing foreign currency through theft is high, but the risk of forgery is low. 1 Day 102 % Cheque Cheques carry a high risk of fraud e.g. non-payment. If security checks are carried out, risk of theft is low. 3 Days 98 % Travellers cheque Safe method of payment if control checks are carried out properly. Low risk of forgery. 4 Days 98 % Debit Card Safe method of payment if control checks are carried out properly. Low risk of forgery. 3 Days 99 % Credit card Safe method of payment if control checks are carried out properly. Low risk of forgery 3 Days 96 % Charge card Safe method of payment if control checks are carried out properly. Low risk of forgery 3 Days 96 % Ledger payment If creditworthiness is established before hand, it is a safe method of payment, however there is always a risk of non-payment of accounts 30 Days 98 % Voucher (e.g. travel agent, A TO) If creditworthiness is established before hand, it is a safe method of payment, however there is always a risk of non-payment of accounts 60 Days 89 % Table 9.1 Security, Liquidity and Worth of the various methods of payment Cheques Payment by cheque use to be one of the most common methods of payment. It reflected the decline of payment method in cash in recent years. Cheque guarantee cards guarantee the payment of the cheque to an agreed amount (usually  £50 or  £100). But there are a few simple rules that needto be followed. The guarantee provided by cheques guarantee cards are: †¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Only one cheque is used per transaction †¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  It is signed in the presence of the cashier †¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  The bank code on the cheque and the guarantee card agree †¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  The card number is written on the reverse side of the cheque †¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  The card has not expired. A bank does not guarantee to honor a transaction where an account of is paid by issuing two cheques of  £50. The transaction is changed to a cash one by putting the card number on the back of the cheque. The customer will then not be able to stop the cheque later. It is crucial that the cashier watches the customer sign the cheque and then compares to the signatures carefully as to establish their similarity. Listed below are factors that need to be look into when handling cheques guarantee cards. 1. Code Number The bank sorting code number must agree with the code of the issuing cheque. 2. Card Number The card number is written on the reverse of the cheque by the accepting cashier. It does not correspond to any other number on the cheque. Expiry Date The card will not be valid if it is out of date. Signature The signature must be checked against the signature written on the back of the cheque. The card should be examined to make sure that the signature panel has not been tampered with. Crossed cheques are now mostly issued and therefore have to be paid into a bank account. With the signature of the payee at the back, it can be reassigned to a third party. In the case where a third party cheque is returned, the hotel has to contact the original drawer of the cheque to obtain settlement. It is for this reason that hotels do not accept third party cheques. Date When accepting a cheque, the cashier should check a number of points, one of the most important being the date. A cheque that has a date in the future on it (a post-dated cheque) will not become valid until that date. A cheque more than six months old (stale) is no longer valid. Crossing Cheques The two most important rules about crossing cheques are as follows: †¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  A/c payee: this means that the cheque can only be paid into the account of the person nominated. It cannot be assigned to a third party. This is useful for cheques sent by post. †¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Not to exceed xxx: this is crossing establishes a maximum Value to the cheque and guards against fraud by making it more difficult to change the amount payable. Travelers Cheque Travelers cheques (Fig 9.4) are issued in fixed denominations by major banks, travel agents and now building societies throughout the world. The customer will need to purchase them (before leaving home) using their own currency, or in the currency of the country being visited. These cheques need to be signed when purchased. The serial numbers are then noted by the issuing bank cashier. A service charge of 1% is normally paid to the bank by the customer. It covers insurance against loss or theft. The issuing company will repay the customer within 24 hours should the travellers cheques be stolen. It is for this reason that travellers cheques are found to be much more secure than currency. It is essential that the cashier should watch the guest sign and date the cheque when accepting these cheques. Should there be any doubt or irregularities about the signature, the customer can be asked to sign on the reverse of the cheque. Proof of identity can also be verified by asking the guest to produce their passport before accepting the travellers cheque. Debit Cards, Credit Cards and Charge Cards Debit Cards The common alternative to cheques nowadays is debit cards such as Switch and Delta. The way that it works is similar to that of cheque whereby the outstanding sum is taken directly from the clients account. But the transfer is through an electronic point-of sale and no cheque is necessary. The cashier and the payer will receive a slip notifying them of the details of the payment. This is usually the same card that is used to guarantee a cheque or withdraw money from a cash point. Bank Credit Cards Visa and Access are the two major bank credit cards in the UK. These cards are usually issued for free and customers need not to pay for any annual subscription. The customer uses the card to purchase goods and services by signing a sales voucher for the total amount of the account. The card company will send a statement to the customer with information of all the transactions of the month before. The customer has the choice to pay the total owing or only a proportion of it. The rest of it may be paid over a period of time. As the cards constitute a form of credit, the minimum payment is fixed by the government. The customer will receive a personal credit limit which must not be exceeded in any one month. Visa is an internationally recognized name, and while most countries use an additional name (e.g. Barclaycard in the UK; Carte Bleu in France), all cards carry the name Visa and bear the distinctive blue, white and gold stripe logo (Fig. 9.5).

Foreign Language Essay :: Foreign Languages Essays

Foreign Language Essay Innehà ¥llsfà ¶rteckning Innehà ¥llsfà ¶rteckning  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  2 Inledning  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  3 Sammanfattning  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  4 Allmà ¤nt  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  5 Japans industriella  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  6 struktur Faktorer som bidragit  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  11 till Japans framgà ¥ngar Jà ¤mfà ¶relse mellan  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  14 Sverige och Japan Kà ¤llfà ¶rteckning  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  18 Bilaga  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  19 Inledning Sverige à ¤r nu i en djup là ¥gkonjunktur, med massor av "sparpaket". Dà ¤rfà ¶r tyckte jag att det skulle vara intressant att titta pà ¥ just en av và ¤rldens stà ¶rsta och starkaste marknadseko ­nomier och se vad som skiljer den mot Sverige. Jag valde inte USA utan Japan som kommer lite i skymundan mot den stora jà ¤tten i Và ¤st. Jag kommer att ta upp lite om fà ¶retagsstruktur d v s om de à ¤r konglomerat eller ej, stort eller litet o s v. Sedan tà ¤nkte jag ta upp lite om instà ¤llningen till arbete hos japanerna, d v s hur deras tra ­ditioner à ¤r i fà ¶rhà ¥llande till arbetet. Pà ¥ det hà ¤r sà ¤ttet tà ¤nkte jag pà ¥visa vad som gà ¶r Japan till en rela ­tivt solid ekonomi. Jag vill ocksà ¥ visa vad som gjort att Japan har haft sà ¥ otroliga framgà ¥ngar speciellt efter andra và ¤rldskriget. Sammanfattning Japan à ¤r ett relativt litet land, men à ¤ndà ¥ har det utvecklat en và ¤l ­digt stark ekonomi. Bristen pà ¥ tillgà ¥ngar och det isolerade là ¤get har lett till att japanerna mà ¥ste ha en effektiv handel à ¶ver grà ¤n ­serna. Japan har ett và ¤lutvecklat industridepartement som samarbetar dagligen med industrin och fungerar som ett samordnings- och rà ¥dgivningsorgan. De stora industrigrupperna stà ¥r fà ¶r hà ¤lften av Japans fà ¶rà ¤dlings ­và ¤rde, men bara ca 1/5 av sysselsà ¤ttningen. Detta beror frà ¤mst pà ¥ att industrigrupperna tillà ¤mpar livstidsanstà ¤llning och seniori ­tets ­systemet vilka à ¤r mycket kostsamma, men ger mà ¥nga fà ¶rdelar bl a effektiva arbetare. Industrigrupperna samarbetar med smà ¥- och medelstora fà ¶retag, de hjà ¤lper dem med bl a finansiering och rà ¥d ­givning. I gengà ¤ld arbetar de mindre fà ¶retagen lojalt fà ¶r de stora och blir som ett slags sà ¤kerhetsomrà ¥de fà ¶r dem. De flesta japanerna sparar fà ¶r en oviss framtid, dà ¤rfà ¶r att de ej har nà ¥gon speciell social trygghet genom staten, endast en folk ­pension pà ¥ ca 3816 kr/mà ¥nad. Genom detta sparande blir ban ­kerna enormt kapitalstarka och dà ¤rfà ¶r à ¤r just de 4 stà ¶rsta banker ­na i và ¤rlden ja ­panska. Det genomsnittliga sparkapitalet fà ¶r en japansk familj à ¤r ca 354 000 kr. Deras marginalskatt à ¤r endast ca 10% vilket moti ­verar à ¶vertidsarbete och mer sparande, dà ¤rfà ¶r arbetar japanerna ca 6 h mer à ¤n t ex europà ©er. Det finns mà ¥nga faktorer som har bidragit till Japans framgà ¥ngar framfà ¶r allt efter andra và ¤rldskriget bl a den stabila stà ¤llningen in ­ternationellt, den effektiva inrikespolitiken, nà ¤ringssystemet, styr ­ningen av fà ¶retagen och de effektiva arbetarna. Jà ¤mfà ¶r man Sverige och Japan sà ¥ à ¤r det, det lite stà ¶rre landet med 8 miljoner inv. mot det lilla landet med en enorm befolkning pà ¥ 125 miljoner.

Control, Empowerment, and the Fake World: Converging Metaphors :: Metaphors Education Educational Papers

Control, Empowerment, and the Fake World: Converging Metaphors "Metaphors not only structure the way we think about school, they also help create the world of the school" (Cunningham, "Metaphors of Mind" handout). This quote speaks the truth! Metaphors are the tools we use both to structure thinking about our culture and to create culture at the same time. An excellent example of this dual and interconnected role of metaphor is Marshall's belief that "the dominan t metaphor in many schools is SCHOOL IS WORK" (Cunningham, "MOM" handout). Marcel Danesi would say that this metaphor underlies a way to "conceptualize the world" of school (Danesi 107). By thinking about school in this way, the world of school is "crea ted" to be a work-filled experience. Students need to do homework and work harder at their lessons and teachers must manage their classrooms (Cunningham, "MOM" handout). It is in this way that the metaphor is the "cognitive phenomenon that converts fact ual feeling states into artifactual conceptual structures" (Danesi 107). Together, people create metaphorical ideas that turn into "real" artifacts, the representative structures of culture. The metaphorical idea of "school is work" pro duces the artifac tual world that fosters homework, working harder, earning grades, and managing classrooms (Danesi 108). These artifactual signs in turn perpetuate the controlling metaphor. Metaphors, then, are at the heart of understanding the way we view aspects of our culture while we simultaneously build that culture. Umberto Eco stresses that culture is a collective experience. In his view, "there is no such thing as a single mind, un connected to other minds or to their (collective) social cultural constructions" (Cunningham, "MOM" handout). If this is taken as fact, the "social, cultural, historical, and institutional contexts" humans find themselves in contribute to creating their metaphors and in turn, their artifactual worlds. Therefore, the situational context and the metaphors found there are intertwined and must be examined together. For example, I work in a juvenile prison. Prison is an interesting cultural context to investigate from its various perspectives. Many metaphors may be made about the same system depending on a person's immediate cultural group, or what Eco better terme d as humans' "local cultural organizations" (Cunningham, "MOM" handout). The sign of school and its object, the prison school program, has at least three distinguishable interpretants in the facility in which I work. These interpretants can be viewed as metaphors and are different depending on whose point of view and "local cultural organization" one is investigating.

Essay --

Hank Aaron was a famous baseball player who was respectful to his teammates and his fans. His nickname was â€Å"Hammerin’ Hank†. At one time he led the league in the most home runs. He was born in a poor family and then grew up to be a great professional baseball player. He became one of the most admired baseball players in Major League history. He was born in Mobile, Alabama called â€Å"Down the Bay† on February 5, 1934. His real name was Henry Louis Aaron. He was the third of eight children. His mother’s name was Estella and his father’s name was Herbert. His dad was a tavern owner and a dry dock boilermaker’s assistant. His mother did not have a job until Hank was older. He lived in a town where there was segregation. Hank lived where it was rural and it was a lowly populated town. The town was fueled by a migration of farm workers looking for city work. Hank took an early interest in sports. Although the family had little money, and Hank took several jobs to try to help out, he spent a lot of time playing baseball at a neighborhood park. He had jobs such as mowing lawns, picking potatoes, and delivering ice. He started to love the game when his father’s local team formed out of the tavern he opened next to the family house called The Black Cat Inn. He played baseball with the loc al kids in the wide open fields. Until too many children to take care of at home, his mother worked in one of Mobile’s white households, where work was available for blacks as maids and cooks. Hank and his family moved to Toulminville, right outside of Mobile, at the age of eight. During his freshman and sophomore years, he attended Central High School, a segregated high school in Mobile where he stood out at both football and baseball. Fearin... ...rst all time in total accumulated bases with 6,856. He was second all time in at bats with 12,364. He was third all time in hits with 3,771. He was third all time in runs scored with 2,174. He was also third all time in games played with 3,298. He was elected into the Hall Of Fame in 1982. His autobiography, I had a Hammer, was published in 1990. In 1999, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of breaking Babe Ruth’s record, Major League announced the Hank Aaron Award, given to the best overall hitter in each league. I picked Hank Aaron because I want to be a baseball player just like him. I think he should be the President of baseball because, all of his special achievements. He was a very nice and skillful person and he will be remembered through all of baseball and will be remembered as one of the greatest baseball players ever in the history of baseball.

A Case of Buddhism

Buddhism continues to exert a fundamental influence on the cultures of the world and also play a leading role in the contemporary affairs of the world. This paper draws on the understanding that the humanistic aspect of world encompasses problems that are said to be evil from the religious perspective and the fundamental objective of the religion amid these human problems is to provide solutions in relation to the absolute. As such, a manifold of worldly problems today; economic justice, insecurity and peace, human rights and protection of the environment call for the universal corporation of the human as well as religion in solving them.Towards obtaining solutions for these human problems, Buddhism as a religion build on their belief system to establish helpful ideas that touch on and are related to the absolute. Essentially, the relevant sphere of action focus on the pedestal of humans understanding that the world poses characteristics of humanity and in a collective sense, individ ual Buddhists as human beings face these problems within the nature as the physical environment.With this principle in focus, Buddhism effort to solve the problems for human by drawing from the divine provision and agency between the supernatural realms, the human beings as well as the natural environment that humans operate in. Introduction The central idea behind the problems in the world encompass the larger perspective of humanism and towards solving the resultant problems, Buddhism focuses on the stipulated divine agencies.Considered to be on of the world major religion, Buddhism adheres to religious tenets that typify it as a religion in addressing concerns that rise in the physical world. In so doing, Buddhism understands that a universal humanitarianism is an essential component towards solving global problems. As such, compassion is regarded among the pillars of world peace. Accordingly, Buddhism draws on its several doctrines and belief system to embrace the concept of abs olute set of values which in the very least serve as guiding absolute ethical principles.In addition, the position of the life after death, which is a post mortem kind of existence guides how Buddhism as a religion helps its members to understand the numerous human problem and strike a balance in approaching the very problems in a bid to solve them As a result, the question of evil is highly addressed in the attempt to understand the many human problems where the future of Buddhist in life after here contends the approach used in solving the human problems. Historical Overview of Buddhism The history of Buddhism spans the 5th century BCE to the present 21st century.Obviously, the birth of Gautama Siddhartha, famously referred to as Buddha, in Ancient India marked the beginning of Buddhism because, he grew up to evolve Buddhism into a religion that spread through central, Southern and East Asia. Warren (2007) asserts that the history of Buddhism is typified by the development of seve ral schism and religious movements such as Mahayana, Thervada and Vajravana traditions. Buddha founded Buddhism after asceticism and meditation which sparked him to establish a path of moderation that sought to move away from the extreme modes of life of self mortification and self indulgence.Scholars argue that after Buddha attained divine enlightenment when he was seated under the papal tree, he managed to leverage the ruler of the Magadha who was an emperor and made him accept Buddhism as his personal faith. This incidence allowed for the establishment of the numerous Buddhist Viharas that later spread through the entire Asia into well established Buddhism (Herman, 2003). Before his death, Buddha instructed his followers to embrace the doctrine and teachings of Dharma in order to avoid the problem of this world and attain supremacy in life after death.These instructions from Gautama laid the foundation for the absolute ethical and divine principle, that prescribes the present rul es of discipline and community living that characterizes Buddhism (Warren, 2007). On these tenets, Buddhism developed into a world’s religion that took great pains in addressing the problems of humans through transmitting the teachings of Buddha in the most accurate form. Koslowski (2001) agrees that the Buddhist follow the ideas and practices of Buddha; a concept that has developed from early Buddhism to the present Buddhism.Bearing in mind that the first followers of Buddha were as homeless as their teacher, they wandered all over receiving material gifts of food from lay people and ended up settling in the outskirts of cities and town to mainly teach the laity about the meditative way of life that Buddha taught. Accordingly, it becomes evident that the Buddhist community has for so many years regarded the teachings of Gautama as the enlightened teachings that should be used to seek divine intervention.Alexander (2008) outlines that the basic teachings of Buddha touched on the animate and inanimate phenomena that poses three features of being unsatisfactory, impermanent and lacking an abiding value. In light of this, these characteristics have been applied to the human sphere to evoke the picture of sufferings (dukkha), ageing and death (jar-maraa) as well as the absence of the soul (anatt) to illuminate the rationale for human problems and the hitherto solution that attribute to the absolute (Diederik, 1999).Problems for Humans in the World and the Solutions of Regarding the Absolute Realm To understand the problem of human within the context of Buddhism leads us to understanding the relation that exist between Buddhism and Humanism. According to Keown (2000), it is definite that humanism opposes the religious tenets of Buddhism and the important point in focus arises in light of understanding the way religion interprets problems that humans face in the world.Incorporated in the self infused belief systems of dharma, Buddhism holds on the concept of law and norm as opposed to the western religion that upholds the concept of God. In this contradictory framework, the contemporary society faces similar problems and Buddhism stick to the natural laws of compassion to address these universal problems. Minnich (2008) postulates that problems originating for the social, political, economic, cultural and technological paradigms, can succinctly be solved through a concise framework of values and beliefs which are considered absolute.With regard to this, these values invoke the supernatural forces in a more concise ways because they involve ethical rule that do not attract rational inquiry or rather are they completely relativistic. To illustrate, members of the Buddhism community employ moral approaches towards solving their problems in a criterion that is considered as more satisfying because, viewed from a cultural and ethical perspective, the Buddhist understand the role of applied ethics as an obligation that can help them to execut e the good for both the individual and the larger society(Warren, 2007).To reinforce this argument, the solutions to the human problems in the absolute sense the question of hereafter is well catered for and Buddhists are obligated to do good for the society and individuals so that they may be reborn in order to attain a state of holiness or purity. These supernatural elements make Buddhism to ignore the concept of God but still satisfy the condition of absolute thus addressing the contemporary problems of humans (Freeman, 2007). It is plausible to argue that the major problem of humans within the perspective of Buddhism is the nature of being evil which comes through the process of constant becoming.Pandey (2008) postulates that evil forms a perpetuation of illusions by aspects of humanity and doing what is unethical. As such, many humans face a manifold of problems due to their ignorance in perceiving that the devoid of self, is impermanent and thus leading to constant sufferings. Whether this is manifested through lack of peace, constant warfare, negative effects of technology on value systems and environmental challenge, it is imperative to note that the problems narrows down to what is inarguably referred to as ignorance in perceiving life through the three characteristics of importance, suffering and self indulgence.Essentially, the summation of these factor focus on suffering to be problem of human in the world and as Buddha proclaimed, life that exist in evil yields constant sufferings (Fasching, 2008). According to Warren (2007), the noble truth of suffering encompass the holistic life such that aspects of birth, sickness, aging death, sorrow, despair, associating with what is evil all amounts to problems of suffering which characteristically borders the angle of evil and lack of moral tenets as manifested in current worldly problems.Keown (2000) further agues that the defilement of the mind unquestionably combine with aspects of life to yield sufferi ng and within the angles of absolute solutions, Buddhism seeks to alleviate sufferings and enhance a value system that will not only reduce the instances of humans suffering but also being rewarded by rebirth. Significantly, problems such as greed (raga), aversion (dvesha) and ignorance (avidya) are all products of defiled mind.In addition, they are products of human desire to experience existence at a personal level and as selfishness and egoism is an illusory effect of desires and defiled minds, selfish human perpetuate the desire for personal existence and benefits; a actor that lead to constant suffering. Buddhism attempts to solve this fundamental problem by enforcing moral, ethical and value systems enshrined in the teachings and beliefs of the Buddha (Warren, 2007). Evaluation of Buddhism All the factors of our lives subsist in a complex of human mutual causality.As a conscience, our problems, succinctly perceived by the Buddhists as sufferings, are favored by the interplay o f delusion, aversion and perpetual craving that come up due to the lack of poor understanding of roles in the society (Warren, 2007). In essence, humans create a self bondage through forms of reifying as well as holding onto what is naturally transient and contingent. In light of this , Pandey (2008) primarily describes that the problems of human are endemic and so is suffering but the role of religion is to provide a platform that addresses the problems through a situation of eternal rewards that come after death.Essentially, although sufferings is endless, it can be stopped or rather reduced and towards achieving this solutions, Buddhism emphasis on the need to see the true nature as a phenomenon, which radically forms the human interdependence. Solutions packed for the human problems in the world can be achieved if human cleanse their perception through meditation and maintain purity of conscience through an acceptable moral conduct (Warren, 2007).This intuitive approach limits i ts practicality to the absoluteness of values and beliefs which yields a concrete interconnectedness of all things in life and irrespective of the problem or the nature of the problem, the doctrines of Buddhism offers clear ways of understanding deep complicated platform of various social economic, cultural, political and technological links that connects with the life of the human being and others. As a result, the reciprocities of thought and action as well as universe and self direct the individual to uphold meditation, correct moral conduct and purity of conscience (Diederik, 1999).Moreover, it invokes criticism that as the world and life correlate to the aspects of human consciousness and mentality and this distinctive feature attracts many humans to be endowed with the capacity to choose their destiny. Warren (2007) argues that it is on this conceptualization that human life is considered as a privilege that comes with no price and the practices of Buddhism emphasizes on medit ation which gives the individual an opportunity to understand his human existence and seize the opportunity to uphold the value system and make the society a better place for all.Significantly, the vision of Dharma enhances the fact the humans in the world can be always alive with consciousness, thus providing an inspiration that is powerful for the healing of lives in the world. In the arising world with numerous problems, the Buddhist system of belief helps humans to see important aspects of life such as the deep interconnectedness in the web of life as well as the distinctiveness of human beings together with the ability to choose.In light of this, it becomes clear that this approach of life and religious practice facilitates a process where human beings are relived of their human loneliness and arrogance (Warren, 2007). Conclusion From the forgoing discussion, it is evident that Buddhism continues to exert a fundamental influence on the cultures of the world and also play a lead ing role in the contemporary affairs of the world. A manifold of worldly problems today; economic justice, insecurity and peace, human rights and protection of the environment call for the universal corporation of the human as well as religion in solving them.Towards obtaining solutions for these human problems, Buddhism as a religion build on their theory and perspective to establish helpful ideas that touch on and are related to the absolute. The central idea behind the problem s in the world encompass the larger perspective of humanism and towards solving the resultant problems, Buddhism focuses on the stipulated divine agencies. Considered to be on of the world major religion, Buddhism adheres to religious tenets that typify it as a religion in addressing concerns that rise in the physical world.Evil forms a perpetuation of illusions by aspects of humanity and dong what is unethically not accepted. As such, many humans face a manifold of problems due to their ignorance in percei ving that the devoid of self, is impermanent and thus leading to constant sufferings. Buddhism seeks to alleviate sufferings and enhance a value system that will not only reduce the instance of humans suffering but also being rewarded by a rebirth. Reference Alexander, J (2008). Responding to Religious Absolutism. London: Routledge Diederik, V (1999). World Views and The Problem of Synthesis. Cambridge: CUP Fasching, D (2001). Comparative Religious Ethics.London: Blackwell Books Freeman, R (2007). The Search for Absolute Values in the Changing World: A Perspective of Buddhism. Oxford: OUP Herman, C (2003). Participatory Learning and Religious Education in Globalizing Society. London: Brill Press Keown, D (2000). Contemporary Buddhist Ethics. London: Routledge Koslowski, P (2001). Overcoming and Understanding Evil and Suffering in the World. New York: Springer Books Minnich, V (2008). Investigation of Self Human Environment. Texas: Global Books Pandey, C (2008). Ecological Perspectiv es in Buddhism. New York: Readworthy Press Warren, M (2007). Worlds Religion. Belmont CA: Wordsworth

Human Elements In Administration Essay

People are the most important element in an organization whether it’s a business enterprise, a school, an army or hospital. School administrator and supervisors must be prepared to deal effectively with the people involved because they have the most difficulty in understanding and dealing with the human elements of administration. The administrator must understand certain fundamental concepts of motivation. He must have an insight into the nature of authority and influence. And most of all, he must have the ability to analyze specific problems and to carry out his intentions successfully. Technical skills, administrative skills and human skills are the three kinds of skills a successful administrator must possess. * Technical Skills – pertains to methods, techniques and processes. * Administrative Skills – ability to see the organization as an entity and the interrelationship of its various parts * Human Skills – refers to the ways of dealing effectively w ith people. 3 Distinct elements: *Skill in understanding the basic human forces active in the organization. *Skill in analyzing complex human situations. *Skill in implementing a plan of action. It is said that man is a wanting animal. As soon as one of his needs is satisfied, another appears in its place. Man’s needs are organized in a series of levels or a hierarchy of importance according to the theory of Maslow. Psychological needs – to be alive and to stay alive. Safety needs – to feel safe from accidents or pain, from competition or threat. of his behaviour. Ego needs – relate to one’s self – esteem and one’s reputation. Self – fulfilment needs – for continued self – development, for realizing one’s own potentialities. Understanding basic needs of an individual is important for the administrators and supervisors because deprivation of those needs has behavioural consequences on the part of one’s individual. It is also important to understand because of the fact that an individual whose lower level needs are satisfied, he is not any longer motivated to satisfy his psychological and safety needs. Rather, he shifts towards the satisfaction of the other needs in the hierarchy. Unless there are opportunities at work to satisfy these needs, the individual is deprived and his consent behaviour will reflect the deprivation. A New Theory of Management Proposition on the theory of new management’s task by McGregor harnessing human energy to organizational requirements are stated as follows: 1. Management is responsible for organizing the elements of productive enterprise – money, materials, equipment and people – in the interest of economic needs 2 A process of directing peoples efforts, motivating, controlling their actions and modifying their behaviour to fit the needs of the organization 3. It is the responsibility of the management to recognize and develop the individual’s potential for development, his capacity for assuming responsibility, his readiness to direct behaviour toward organizational goals. 4. The essential task of management is to arrange organizational conditions and methods of operation in order to achieved desired goals and objectives. New theory of management relies on self – control and self – direction; it treats people as a matured adults and it is management by objectives, Advantages 1. it does not involve the relinquishing of leadership, the abdication of management or the lowering of standards 2 it is a process of creating opportunities, encouraging growth, releasing potential, removing obstacles and providing guidance Some applications of the new theory: 1. Decentralization and Delegation – freeing people from too close control of conventional organization. 2. Job Enlargement – encourages the acceptance of responsibility at the bottom of the organization. 3. Participation and Consultative Management – people are encouraged to direct their own creative energies towards organizational objectives and giving them some voice in decisions. 4. Performance Appraisal – individuals are involved in in setting targets and objectives for himself and in a self – evaluation of performance semi – annually or annually. Close supervision tends to be associated with high productivity, general supervision with high productivity. The importance of supervising subordinates as a group are as follows: a.) discuss work problems with the group, b.) group performs well even when the supervisor is absent, c.) foster teamwork and group loyalty and d.) involves group participation in making decisions. THE ADMINISTRATOR OF SCHOOL FINANCING The welfare of the state depends largely upon the education of its citizens. Filipino people recognized the importance of sending children to school whenever and wherever possible. Our leaders and framers of Constitution see to it that the Magna Carta contains a provison that the state should establish and maintain a complete and adequate system of education and provide at least free primary for all education of school age. Since school population keeps on growing and the salaries of the teachers are keep on increasing, more and more funds are needed. However, present financial capability becomes inadequate and need to augment financial resources to keep up with increasing educational needs. In general, the sources for government income for education are the following: 1. Taxes imposed by law for the support of the government such as the real – property tax, specific tax, and import and export taxes. 2. Tuition fees imposed on students in public high schools, vocational schools, regional normal schools, and chartered colleges and universities. 3. Matriculation fees collected from public secondary school students, vocational schools, and chartered colleges and universities. There were also a matriculation fee charged in the intermediate grades but the fee was abolished by R. A. 4092 effective the school year 1964 – 1965. 4. Rental for lease of school sites and sales of schools products. 5. Land grants and donations. 6. Voluntary contributions. 7. Special fees such as miscellaneous fees charged from college students for entrance, registration, library, athletics, and laboratory, medical and dental clinics, school paper, diplomas, graduations and R.O.T.C. Support for Elementary Education The Educational Act of 1940 which nationalized the support of all elementary schools in municipalities and municipal districts saved the situation for the poor communities. The Educational Act of 1940 forbids the collection of tuition fees in the intermediate grades although it permits the matriculation fees in an amount to be determined by the President not exceeding two pesos for each pupil enrolled in the intermediate grades in municipalities and municipal district. The proceeds from this matriculation fee accrue to the fund of the National Government to purchase of library books and equipment and 40% for financing athletic activities in the intermediate grades. While the acquisition of school sites and construction of temporary school buildings remain the responsibility of the local governments. The law abolished the share of municipalities and municipal districts in the internal revenue collections, percentage taxes on the agricultural products and income tax. Support for Public Secondary Schools The financial support for the maintenance and operation of public secondary schools provided for by the provincial and city governments. Generally, the majority of provinces do not have adequate funds to support the schools properly. This deficiency in finances gives occasional difficulty in the payment of secondary teacher’s salary. The sources of provincial income are the following: 1. Internal revenue allotments from the national government. 2. Share from local taxes. 3. Fees from services rendered. 4. Income from miscellaneous receipts. Support for secondary schools 1. Tuition and matriculation fee levied by the Provincial Board on all high school students 2. Board uses parts of its general fund in case of shortage or the Board passes a resolution increasing the rate of tuition 3. Through the enactment of R. A. No. 3478, the National Government has been granting annual national aid to general provincial and municipal high schools beginning with the school year 1963 – 1964, primarily intended for salary adjustments of teachers and other secondary school personnel 4. Voluntary contributions and donations by private individuals and civic organizations Support of barrio experimental high school, the Bureau of Public Schools in its Memorandum No. 86, issued on August 1, 1966, states as follows: 1. The tuition fee to be charged should not be less than â‚ ±80.00 a year. 2. 50% of the 10% real estate tax proceeds allotted to barrios in accordance with the revised Barrio Charter should be set aside and used solely for the improvement of instruction in the barrio high schools. No amount accruing from this fund should be spent for salaries of teachers and other school personnel. 3. All feeder barrios should share the expenses for the improvement of instruction, the share of each to be proportionate to the number of students from the feeder barrios attending barrio high school. 4. All resolutions of the barrio councils regarding the funding of barrio high schools should be approved by the Municipal Council concerned. Support of Public Schools in Chartered Cities 1. Tuition fees and city funds   2. National Government allots lump sums as aid to cities for their educational needs. 3. National aid for salary adjustments of teachers and other secondary school personnel. The law was amended by R.A. No. 4128so as to include all city high schools except Manila and Quezon City. Support of Vocational Schools Vocational schools usually come under two categories – the provincial trade school and the provincial agricultural school. The source of income comes from the national contribution, tuition and other fees and income from school products. The so – called rural high schools which are agricultural in nature are jointly supported by the provinces and municipalities and the National Government. Support of Normal Schools Regional normal schools are also national like the vocational schools. There are still seven regional normal schools located in strategic places in the country serving the needs of the students in the surrounding places. Sources of income of these schools are national contribution and tuition fees. The city or municipality where they are located may also appropriate funds for the normal training department. Support of Special Schools The Philippine Nautical School located in Pasay is supported entirely by the National Government which offers courses for employment as merchant marine officers. The School for the Deaf and Blind under the Bureau of Public Schools is supported by the government with occasionally aid from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes. Support of Chartered Government Colleges and Universities The support of chartered government institutions like University of the Philippines comes from the tuition and matriculation fees of students and comes from national funds appropriately annually by Congress. Special aids for the construction, repair and improvement of the buildings are given in special legislation or taken from the pork barrel fund. The tendency of the request by these institutions is to increase every year. Thus, the burden of the National Treasury for the support of these schools keeps on increasing. Other Agencies in helping the Financing of Public Schools A number of foreign agencies give some material aid to the schools aside from the National Government. Among these agencies are the following: * AID – NEC – provided in 1966 appropriations for buildings including the constructions of dormitories and also for typewriters, mimeographing machines and professional books for the Bureau of Public Schools. * UNICEF – gave aid in kind such as educational kits, globes, tape recorders, laboratory equipments and vehicles. * The American Foundation for Overseas Blind – donated Braille type writers, paper headsets, etc. * The Pilot Applied Nutrition Project (Bayaribang) – is a joint venture of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). These entities gave help in the form of technical services, training stipends, vehicles for supervision and various types of supplies and equipments for kitchen, laboratory and agricultural uses. * The Agency for International Development (AID), National Economic Council (NEC), and the Bureau of Public Schools (BPS) – jointly undertook a textbook production project which started on July 1, 1960 and terminated on June 30, 1965 to help solve the problem of lack of textbooks. The project was expected to print and distribute around 25 million of copies of textbooks within a 5-year period at an estimated cost about â‚ ±59.5 million. Support for Private Schools All private schools, colleges and universities derive their income mostly from tuition fees and miscellaneous fees from students. There is no law prescribing the maximum rate of tuition fees so there is no uniformity and limit in the tuition fees being charged by private schools. Quality schools with good standards among the religious institutions charge relatively higher rates than the ordinary schools. Some of the religious schools are partly supported from their properties. Some non-sectarian schools operating specially for profit charged comparatively lower tuition fees and even permit their students to pay on easy instalments to attract as many students as possible.

The Tony Ferguson Weight Management Diet

The Tony Ferguson Weight Management Diet: An Information Fact Sheet for Community Members Overview: The Tony Ferguson Diet is a weight loss and management diet, which is based on specialized shakes, soups, bars and muesli. The diet is advertised as low GI and low carbohydrate. The diet is designed to induce the individual into a state of ketosis, ‘Ketone bodies are produced mainly in the mitochondria of liver cells. Its synthesis occurs in response to low glucose levels in the blood, and after exhaustion of cellular carbohydrate stores, such as glycogen.The production of ketone bodies is then initiated to make available energy that is stored as fatty acids. ’ (Wikipedia, 2012). The individual is advised to consume 2 specialized meals per day along with two servings of fruit, 3 servings of vegetables and 2 servings of lean meat. Advice: Advice to the consumer is that of caution. The human body requires carbohydrates to survive. Many functions of the body require carbohydr ates to function effectively. The Tony Ferguson diet effectively induces the body into a mode of starvation, can develop into disease.Ketosis is the desired state of the Tony Ferguson diet, this is where ‘Ketone bodies provide an alternative fuel source during starvation, but when their production exceeds their use, they accumulate in the blood, causing ketosis, a condition that disturbs the body’s normal acid-base balance. ’ (Whitney et al, 2011). When the body is in a state of starvation and it is experiencing a lower than required amount of carbohydrates, ‘the body finds a way to use its fat to fuel the brain.It adapts by combining acetyl COA fragments derived from fatty acids to produce an alternative energy source, ketone bodies. ’ (Whitney et al, 2011). This state can change the normal pH of the blood. ‘This is ketosis, a sign that the body’s chemistry is going away’. (Whitney et al, 2011). The blood glucose of the human bod y is maintained by homeostasis and is extremely important for many of the body’s major functions. ‘When a person eats, blood glucose rises. High blood glucose stimulates the pancreas to release insulin.Insulin stimulates the uptake of glucose into cells and storage as glycogen in the liver and muscles. Insulin also stimulates the conversion of excess glucose into fat for storage. As the body’s cells use glucose, blood levels decline. Low blood glucose stimulates the pancreas to release glucagon into the bloodstream. Glucagon stimulates liver cells to break down glycogen and release glucose into the blood. Blood glucose begins to rise. ’ (Whitney et al, 2011). Carbohydrates are essential for human nutrition and as such, this extreme diet may cause extremely adverse effects.It is recommended that a varied and nutritionally sound diet and exercise program be implemented and that extreme diets such as Tony Ferguson be implemented only as a last resort and alwa ys under medical advice. Reference List: Author Unknown, 2012, Wikipedia, Viewed: 11 April 2012, http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Ketogenesis. Whitney, E. Rolfes, S. Crowe, T. Cameron-Smith, D. Walsh, A. 2011, Understanding Nutrition, 1st Ed, Cengage Learning, Melbourne. Chosen Diet: http://us. tonyferguson. com/1448. aspx

My Personal Story

My Personal Story Chapter 1: Elementary School Years (K-6) All of my elementary school years were spent in Ridgewood, New Jersey. I remember going to school everyday at Somerville Elementary. This is only significant because there were a bunch of different schools, all obviously having to do with where you lived. I think there were like 5. But also, all of my friends went there. It was me, Peter English, Dougie Burek, Ryan Monroe, Cooper Shreve, Matt Myatt, Ned Winner, Frank Melli, Brian Wennersten and Michael Springer. Somehow every year, at least 2 or 3 of us were always in the same class. I guess I was well liked back then, by both my peers and teachers, as I was always chosen to be the lead in plays, and to represent the class at things. In fact I gave an Oscar winning performance Santa in my 2nd grade play, Santa and his magical computer. I was chosen to play the role of â€Å"Old Man† in a play about China or something, don't really remember to be honest. But I did everything with those guys. We were always playing football, basketball, wiffle ball or something in someone's backyard. In terms of learning during this time, it was all at a moderate pace, and I don't really remember having any problem keeping up. My Mom used to take me Hackensack Hospital, a learning center for people who had trouble learning at a normal pace. I never understood why I went there, until my parents told me I had a learning disability, which to me just meant I needed to work harder. My ADHD didn't really affect me in my daily life, I just remember getting really hyper from time to time, and that was remedied by being given But when it came to grades, I did pretty well, earning all Es (excellents) and Gs (Goods), with like one S (satisfactory) in handwriting. I actually was made a teacher's helper in both 4th and 5th grade, which meant I got to help grade papers, and help kids with their math, spelling, etc. Also, I was picked for Critical thinking, which was a big deal because only the â€Å"smartest† kids got picked for that, and there you got to talk about advanced things like, geometry and books that you had read. Otherwise, I remember my elementary school years for the sports I played. I played Little League Baseball, Soccer, and Biddy Basketball. My mom wouldn't let me play because she thought, despite me being one of the bigger kids in school, that I would get hurt. I was on travelling all-star teams for all of the sports, and was thinking about sports 24-7 then. I played in 3 basketball leagues at a time, Biddy, YMCA, and my All-star team. In 4th grade my dad coached both my Biddy team, and my all-star team. I still like to give him a hard time about taking me out of a tournament game against Neptune, NJ where I scored the first 8 points of the game, in fact our only 8 points in the quarter to keep us in the game! Then he left me out until the 4th quarter. We ended up losing by 22 points. 22! I was feeling it, should've left me in. Also, the great thing about playing sports was that there were stats involved. After every game we played, my brothers and I would talk about what kind of numbers we were putting up. It was a big deal to outscore the others. At one point, I held the record for most points scored in an organized basketball game with 26 in 4th grade, which stood until my younger brother broke it with 28 points when he was a senior in high school. The first thing he did after that game? Called both me and my older brother at college to let us know the mark had fallen. We were a very competitive bunch. To this day, we talk about these things at Thanksgiving. 5th and 6th grade were very big for me in terms of change in my life. In 5th grade, within a span of 6 months I lost all of my grandparents, including my great Uncle Johnny. There are 3 days in my life that I remember everything I did the entire day, and my Grandma dying is one of them. The other two will come later. I came home from school, was sitting in our den with my 2 brothers, and watching TV. The phone rang, and my mom answered it, then she came in the room, and said, â€Å"I just want to let you all know, Grandma just died. We all started crying immediately. I remember my mom screaming â€Å"I want my mommy! † repeatedly and feeling helpless. I had never really experienced personal loss before, as I had never met my dad's mother because she died when he was 16. His father re-married 3 months later, and my dad never got along with his stepmother, and they kicked him out of their house. I've never met my dad's fa ther. So, losing my Grandma was a big deal. I always remember coming home from school, seeing her, and her always making me smile. I remember everything about her to be honest. Her perfume smell, the fact she always kept bouillon cubes in her pantry, and the fact that she always loved everything my brothers and I were interested in. Her and my Grandpa became baseball fans because of us, after not really caring one way or another before we were born (I'm told). My Grandma was always around, and she loved her grandchildren very much. She was a great lady, always singing, always happy. In the middle of 6th grade, My dad came home from work one day, sat me and my brothers down, and told us we were moving to Chagrin Falls, Ohio. He said we were going in 1 month, in the middle of the school year. I wasn't excited, as all I ever knew was New Jersey, but obviously had to do it. It was really hard leaving all of my friends. Chapter 2: Middle School (Grades 6 to 8) After finally getting acclimated with middle school life in New Jersey, and getting used to how things worked there, I was ripped out of there, and plunked into a small town in Ohio. Coming into the middle of a school year is hard for everyone, but especially for a middle schooler. I remember my first day, and being sat at the â€Å"nerd† table because the guy showing me around thought that would be best. I didn't let that happen though. I immediately got up and sat at the â€Å"cool† table, and actually ended up becoming friends with those people. It was still pretty hard to make friends though, as in a small town everyone knows everyone else's business, and have their own clicks. In homeroom, when I sat down, two girls waked me around the room, ad told me whom I needed to bother with getting to know, and who not to care about. It kind of prepared me for what Chagrin was all about. A lot of people who base their worth off of what other people think about them. I ended up making a lot of friends, but kind of felt like an outsider for my middle school years, even though I was pretty much accepted. Everyone loved to talk about things they did together when they were younger, and how long they'd been friends. SO I just tried to blend in, and try and not get noticed. I'd always sit my older brother on the bus, and not really talk to anybody, until one day my friends Cade Otstot and Trevor Gile told me to sit with them and their friends. From that day on I felt like I belonged. Class-wise, being in small classrooms with less people made me feel like I was always getting put on the spot. I hated answering questions in class, and really hated doing my homework. I always felt like there was so much else to do other then that. SO I put school on the back burner and got caught up in trying to be popular, and playing sports. Although I always did enough to get by. I never really got Fs or Ds or anything like that, but also didn't try and overachieve for fear people would look at me like I was a nerd or something. Looking back, that was probably a mistake. I played basketball and football in middle school, but really wasn't that good. I loved the sports, but this time is when I started gaining weight. I wasn't obese or anything, but I wasn't in shape either. I was on the B teams in both sports, but excelled in baseball. I always thought I was playing well, but the coaches never seemed to notice. So I was relegated to the bench for the most part. Otherwise my middle school years were pretty uneventful, although I did make a few really good friends, but also I fell out of touch with my New Jersey friends. Chapter 3: High School (Grades 9-12) Freshmen Year of high school was pretty typical. My older bother Mark was a senior, and looked out for me for the most part, but I still got flak for being his younger brother. Nothing too crazy though, because I knew eventually I'd be as big if not bigger than those guys, and if they really did something to me, I'd get them back ten fold. Football practice that year was big wakeup call. Everyone was bigger faster than us Frosh, and everything seemed to move a lot quicker. Especially in school. There were no classes where I could just drift through, I had to stay up on my studies, which I think I did a good job of, but still my mind drifted a lot to sports, and girls. I didn't really have much interaction with girl's, except them being nice to me to get to my brother. All the freshmen girls wanted my older brother, so people whom I had never talked to decided it was a good idea to talk to me. I didn't go to many parties then, as my fiends and I were more into just going to the movies and hanging out at my parents’ house. Or we'd play football in my backyard. But I did get asked to the winter formal (a Sadie Hawkins dance). I had a good time on my first actual date where I had to dress up in a jacket and tie. Also, that year I got my first detention, and had to stay after school, and was grounded, although it was my brother's fault that we were late so many times. Only detention of my career actually. So that's pretty much my Freshmen Year. Sophomore year was just a blah year. Nothing really happens in your sophomore year. Just same old same old. Football wise, I lettered, and I made the JV basketball team. That year our football team broke our 28 game losing streak, the longest in Northeast Ohio, We won our last 2 games, to go 2-8. I went to my first Homecoming dance, and also my second winter formal. School wise, I got bored. The classes were so boring to me. I just wanted school to end every day. Also, the girls who had talked to me the year before because my brother, just plain stopped. Shocking I know. Junior year was actually a lot more fun. I finally mounted the courage to talk to girls regularly. I made some great friends in the process as these girls are the people who I still keep in touch with the most to this day. I was voted to be head coach of the Powder Puff football team, and that was a great way to get to know everybody. I had a blast doing it, and it helped me get invited to parties and what not. My friends and I had a blast that year. We'd go out every weekend, and party. It was great! I had two dates to the winter formal, my friends Meghan, and Melissa. Everything was going really well socially, as I really came out of my shell. Academically, I did just enough to get by, posting GPAs anywhere from 2. 7-3. 0 during this year. Can you sense a pattern here? Went to my first prom with my friend Katie. It was at Jacobs Field where the Tribe plays so it was an awesome night! Senior Year was a blast too. The football team did really well, winning our first 7 games, and having 2 games that were voted games of the decade in Cleveland. Big deal for a little school like ours. Also, I actually got to contribute, and set the family record for kick return average; at 3. yds a return (I caught 2 onside kicks, and ran one 3 yards). This was the first year I actually got in shape for football, and took it seriously. It's the first time in my life I learned that whatever you put into something, you get out of it. I took the SATs untimed, a â€Å"perk† as my parents put it of having a learning disability, which to be honest put more pressure on me then anything. I over thought pretty much every question, and was in an isolated room by myself. It was kind of miserable. I didn't score as high as I would've liked but did enough to get accepted into 5 colleges. These were all small schools where the environment was geared towards learning at your own pace, and where they had good LD programs, as my parents made this a high priority. Funny, I had never been in LD classes in high school, but my parents thought I should do it in college. Anyway, I graduated, went away that summer to the Jersey Shore, as we had been doing since I was 11, where my summers consisted of being a dishwasher/bus boy at Uncle Bill's Pancake House during the day, and a Summer Place at night, and came back and said goodbye to all of my friends, before initially heading off to Muskingum College. Chapter 4: College (1998-2006) Muskingum College (1998-2000) The college odyssey that was the Scott Iantosca Experience started in New Concord, OH. Now I thought I wanted a small college in a small town, but I quickly found out that this wasn't the place for me. All there was to do was drink in your dorms, and go to one of the 3 fraternity houses on the campus. If you weren’t in a fraternity, you pretty much had nothing to do. Thankfully I was getting recruited pretty hard by all of the fraternities, so I had some fun. I was accepted into the plus program, which is the LD program there. I didn’t realize the commitment. We had to meet with tutors for every subject. And it had to be in between your classes, not when you had free time. It kind of was like an added class. Midway through I stopped going. I didn't want to hear the exact same lecture twice, which was basically what it was. I just used them as needed, and that wasn't taken to kindly too by the administrators. Also, I thought I could get by skipping class all the time, and teaching myself the material. I probably only showed up to my classes about half of the time. Somehow I was stunned when I got a 1. 7 GPA, and couldn't rush that year, while all of my friends were allowed to. Then I got kicked out of school at the end of the year for my grades. This was a wake up call, or so I thought. I had to go to Muskingum and plead my way back in, in front of the board of trustees with the leader of the Plus program. It was really embarrassing. Being as I had soured on the Muskingum experience, I was fighting t o get back into a school I didn't want to go to. I got back in on a probationary period, but then was so unhappy there, I did the same thing. Then I told my parents I didn’t want o go back, and instead of working hard and getting good enough grades so that I could transfer out of there, I just stopped going to class, and only turning in papers. I thought I could just get kicked out and go wherever I wanted to. At the end of the semester, I went home for good. I got a job waiting tables for Max & Erma's, and Blockbuster video while my friends were at school. It was pretty miserable. I gained a lot of weight, getting up into the 270s. And was feeling like my life was passing me by and I would be living with my parents forever. My only form of entertainment was going to my brother's basketball games, but I'd always feel awkward because I'd see people I know there and have to answer questions about why I was home from school. Landmark College–Putney, VT (2000-2001) The second part of my college odyssey was at Landmark College. My mom found out about it through someone she worked with and being as I had no other options, I decided to take a look at it. It is a school solely for people who have learning disabilities, mostly severe, and who have gotten kicked out of school. Basically a second chance for people who have messed up in their first try at college. I went into it optimistically, but even during my first visit, I knew it was going to be a challenge. Putney, Vermont is a very small town, where there is absolutely nothing to do. The campus was so small it didn’t help much either. There was a zero tolerance drinking policy, and if you were caught once, you were immediately brought in front of this disciplinary board where you were given a hearing. Pretty strict. Also, the only way to get off campus was on a van that one day a month would take you to Wal-Mart, and then every Friday take students to the movie theater. That was it. We all referred to it as a prison. People were trying to get thrown out of there on a nightly basis, and going to great lengths to do it. Kids would intentionally trash their rooms, even throwing their TVs out the window in hopes of getting kicked out. And everyone would try and overdose on their prescription meds, in hopes of their parents taking them out of school. There was an ambulance or campus security van at one of the 2 dorms every night. Many of the students had some serious learning problems, for example, many didn't know what a verb was until they went to Landmark. Or in one instance, this guy couldn’t form a complete sentence logistically until he went there. Not really a big deal to me, but just not something I had been around before. They also told stories at orientation about how Landmark changed their lives, and how before Landmark they would get so frustrated they would cry by themselves in the shower. Pretty heavy stuff, but also made you think and re-evaluate your position in life, and inspired me to get my stuff together. A lot of the things they talked about were about accepting your disability, and learning to overcome it. Having not really had my learning disability really be a big deal for me, I hadn't realized that a lot of the reasons I had trouble focusing, and talking in class was because of my ADHD. It was kind of eye-opening. Socially, I kept to myself, and just concentrated on my grades and school work. They were pretty laid back there, and although we were assigned a tutor and an advisor who we had weekly meetings with, they only lasted as long as you wanted them to, and being as I was getting a 4. 0, mine were really short. The classes were really easy to me for some reason, so I did really well. I pretty much cut off my social life because I knew why I was there: To get the hell out of there! My days went like this: Wake up, go to class, eat lunch, go to the library, go to class, do homework, watch TV and sleep. This is what happened 24-7. I never deviated. I talked to my advisor every day about what I needed to do to transfer, and he kept telling me to take my entire 2 years there. No way was this happening. I finally sat down with my dad and outlined what I had accomplished, the fact that I was 21 at the time, and that I had proven to everyone, including myself that I was ready for a â€Å"regular† college again. I even was inducted into Phi Theta Kappa, the junior college National Honor society. It was the first academic award I had gotten since elementary school, and my parents came to the ceremony. I was really proud of myself, to be honest. So, I then started to look for schools to apply to. After being in social jail for a year, I decided campus life was a big deal, as well as my major, which was going to be sports management. Ohio University met both of these criteria, and accepted me, so there you had it. Ohio University (2002-2006) Ohio University was the most fun I had ever had in my life. I did so many things academically, and socially it was amazing. My parents moved to Switzerland, and my older brother moved to Warsaw, Poland, so I got travel around Europe on my 6 week Christmas break while other people had to go home and get part time jobs or sit around. I experienced and saw so many beautiful things, and expanded my horizons greatly. Of all the places that I travelled, I would definitely say Germany and Italy were my two favorite places to visit. In Germany, we travelled along the Christmas trail, which had Weinachtsmarkts (Christmas Markets) all up down the states. It was amazing. Although I already had a few high school friends who went to OU, and had established a good group of non-fraternity friends or GDIs (you can pretty much figure out what that means), I decided to rush and join a fraternity, much to their chagrin. They thought â€Å"Frats† were full of meatheads, and shunned them pretty much. I, on the other hand, am all about new experiences and branching out, so I saw this as a gateway for doing so, and expanding my social circle, and creating lifelong networking contacts. I ended up joining the Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity, after receiving bids from all of the fraternities I visited. Being a 22 year old pledge was hard, as I was being â€Å"hazed† by people younger than me, but it allowed me to bond with my pledge brothers, and build some lifelong bonds with them. I still keep in touch with many of them, and have been in 2 of their weddings, and 4 of them (Rick Heyeck, Mike McMasters, Aaron Gray, and Will Hardy) will probably stand in my wedding, if I ever get married. I'll always cherish my times with them. Ohio University is known for being a party school, and while it certainly did live up to its reputation as such, I still managed to always make it to class, and get moderately good grades. I was in the learning disabled program there, but only used it to take untimed tests. Which, again, were nerve racking as someone just sat in the room and stared at you while you were taking the test. Since, many of my credits didn't transfer over; I had to pretty much start over from scratch academically, but was fine with it because OU was so much fun. The Sport Industry program had everything I was interested in, a lot of sports classes, and a good amount of business classes, and was very laid back as to the amount of work we had. It was very term paper based, and being as I love to write, I was all about it. The only negative from this experience was that my weight became a real problem. I was pushing 300 lbs by the end of my tenure as a Bobcat. Ohio University was a study in excess. Excessive drinking/partying, eating junk food, and excessive sleeping. Not a lot of workout time in there. My main concern was how this would affect me in getting a job after school, but it really didn’t as my advisor knew someone with Columbus Blue Jackets, and spoke to them, and I got a job there after interviewing. Post College (2006-Present) Right after I graduated, I took a job as an Inside Sales Rep for the Columbus Blue Jackets of the NHL. I figured this was the best way for me to get my foot in the door within the Sports Industry, so to speak. What I didn’t realize was that ticket sales was not what I wanted to do. I thought that I would eventually make a lateral move to doing something more in the front office, but about a month into my tenure, I saw that I was pretty much pigeonholed into being a â€Å"ticketing guy†. This was fine, I guess, because I won the monthly sales contests consistently. Also, I enjoyed working with a close knit sales â€Å"team† of people at the same stages of their careers as I was. This also created a great environment of competition, and I gained a mentor in my boss, Joseph Cote, who is now the head of ticketing for the Portland Timbers, of Major League Soccer, and the Portland Beavers, a minor league baseball team. He basically taught me how to be a professional, and how to balance fun in the office with being serious and buckling down. The perks of the job were unreal. We worked at the arena, so we had free reign to all of the events, and also had to â€Å"work† the hockey games. Basically it consisted of us standing at a table during the intermissions, and then visiting our clients we had sold for the game. Then we just watched the game the rest of the time. It was a good job. But, towards the end of my tenure there, my mother contracted a benign cyst on her back the size of a basketball, and was rendered basically an immovable object. She had to have surgery, and with my dad being CEO of a major corporation, and my brothers living in San Antonio, TX, and Manhattan at the time, I decided I needed to come home and take care of my mother while she was incapacitated. She would definitely do it for us. Family always comes first. This did not go over well with my employers, and they gave me an ultimatum of accepting a promotion, or going home and helping my mother. Which do you think I chose? I told them thanks for the opportunity, and gave my two weeks notice that day, and moved from Columbus, OH back to my parents’ house in Chagrin Falls, OH. After about 6 months of taking care of my mom, she was ready to live normally again. During my time with her though, I did do some good things to get my life in order, and re-focus on what’s important. I joined LA weight loss (which doesn’t exist anymore), and by the end of my tenure there I had lost 108 lbs. it’s easily my biggest accomplishment, aside from sticking with college and getting a degree. So after that, I revved up my job search again, and looked anywhere and everywhere for a job. But many of the interviews I was going to were for jobs selling copiers, or Ink for copiers, or things of that nature. I think what I enjoyed most about sales is the passion that was brought to the job everyday when I was selling something that I knew a lot about and had great interest in. Selling copiers, or ink, or technical equipment while living in Cleveland wasn’t really doing it for me. So begrudgingly after trying to find a job on my own for about 3 months, I asked my father for help. He had dinner one night with Jay Bauer, the president of Nation Pizza Products in Schaumburg, IL, and had mentioned his son who was coming to pick him up that night was looking for a job after a hiatus from employment (a really nice way to say I was unemployed by the way). As I picked him up, Jay came to the car, and told me to call him the next day and he would see what he had for me at Nation. I was pretty excited. After living with my parents for a while I would have moved anywhere, but Chicago was a dream. I’ve always loved Chicago. It has everything, great nightlife, So many sports teams, and the best restaurants in the world. I called Jay the next day, and the rest was history. After flying me out for an interview and dinner with my two future bosses, a tour of the plant, and then another interview with HR, They called me a week later and hired me for a position they were creating especially for me. This should have been my first sign that Nation wasn’t right for me. See, everyone at Nation Pizza Products has been there for decades, there are only a handful of new hires every year. And they only had one salesmen, albeit the VP of sales, but he had done everything himself for 15 years. They had no idea what to do with me, built hired me basically to keep up the relationship with their biggest customer, Nestle. Thus, being the President and CEO’s son really is what got me hired. Nothing having to do with my sales acumen at all. I was too elated by the fact I was living in downtown Chicago to care at this point, but this was sign #2. I tried to soak up everything I could my first year there, doing a lot of grunt work, trying extra hard to pay my dues, and when given the chance to work with customers I shined. But when I asked for more responsibility, I was told I wasn’t ready. Also, the handled me with â€Å"kid gloves† the entire time I was there. Not talking about customers other than Nestle with me because they thought I would tell my dad, despite the fact that they were PAYING me to be a Nation employee! I even signed a confidentiality agreement when I started there. I thought this would eventually get better over the years, as I progressed in the business. It did not. As time went on, I was given reluctant independence there, but when able to work alone with customers, they would send me thank you notes, and call the President of the company directly and let them know how much they enjoyed working with me. Instead of giving my boss confidence in me, he took it as a threat to his job, and I was gunning for him. Which I wasn’t. I thought the two of us could and should work as a team, thus with double the effort, we could bring in double the business. He didn’t see it that way, and took credit for many of my sales when talking with the executive board. I’m not one to be boastful about my achievements, but how does one gain respect at an organization when people are constantly thinking he is just a minion, and hasn’t made a sale in 4 years? Also, I worked with a lot of fake people. It was really bad. Maybe it’s a food industry thing, but everyone I worked with, from the chefs to the food scientist, was extremely fake towards me. They loved to tell me I was doing a good job, and then behind my back talk to my bosses, and make negative comments about me, and disregard the way I was working. Also, the commute was obnoxious. It was an hour and half each way, and wouldn’t put me back in the city until around 8, after sitting in traffic. I didn’t mind it when I thought there was a place for me at the company, and a progression plan in place. There was neither. Then, My dad â€Å"retired† from Nestle, as much as basically taking 3 months off and hanging in Miami with my mom can be called that before taking the opportunity to run another company here in Chicago, everyone started treating me differently. They treated me as if they had no need for me anymore, and I wasn’t a valuable member of the team. In my fourth and final year there, they kept making take the boss’ car to get washed, or carry boxes for women who worked in the office to their cars, or clean up the presentation room, basically treating me like a secretary. Finally I had enough, and walked into the presidents’ office, who was my major confidant at the company (another source of angst for the VP of sales because he thought I was bad mouthing him to him, which I wasn’t, so much insecurity there), and told him it wasn’t working out. I said I was no longer happy here, and didn’t really see myself going any further than my current position. He tried to get me to stay, and I actually considered it, until the VP of sales walked in. Thankfully, for him, I’m a classy person, and I thanked them both for the opportunity, and gave my two weeks notice. They said they would pay me for my two weeks regardless, and asked what I wanted to do, and I said I would just leave then. I’ve never been happier or more content with a decision I’ve made in my entire life. Also, the president of the company said he would help me out in anyway he could, and write me a recommendation if I needed it. I still keep in touch with him as we speak. So that brings us to present day. I am unemployed, but extremely happy. I’m glad I’m taking a step back and actually analyzing what my strengths and weaknesses are, ad what my interests are. Taking my time choosing my next move is definitely the right step to take. The next chapter of my life is yet to be written I feel. Do I have a plan? I’m getting there. There are things I envision myself accomplishing professionally and personally over the next 5-10 years. I won’t bore you with them here. But the great thing is I have an unbelievable support system behind me of family and friends. Also, I feel like I have the right attitude towards it, and am determined to do thing the right way this time. And whatever I choose I know I’ll work hard at it, and take steps to become a success. Just taking it one day at a time.