Wow.  And just like that, my freshman year is (almost) over.  I cannot believe that I have spent 30 weeks at Santa Clara University already!  I also cannot believe that I spent 20 weeks in this CTW class! I really don’t know how I survived either one….just kidding!  These past few months have been some of the best of my life, and I feel truly blessed that I was able to come to this amazing school.  It’s going to be sad to see all my friends leave for back home, but as Dr. Seuss once said…

Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened!

Goodbye for now SCU.  See ya in the fall

I was so, so happy to see that so many people in my class focused on gender inequality and all-around girl power for their final papers/projects.  Gender inequality is a serious problem that I still do not think has garnered enough attention.  Although there have been many great changes made, there is still much to be done.  For example, in my last post I talked about gender inequality in sports, and in my research paper I talked about gender inequality in college and how it allowed for men to speak on behalf of women in the student-run newspapers.  Although my paper specifically talked about the inequality that happened in the 1960s-1980s, gender inequality in sports is something that is still happening today.

Women and girls are also discriminated against in health, education, political representation, labor market, and more, with negative repercussions for the development of their capabilities and their freedom of choice.

Some ways that they are discriminated against are…

• American women serving in Iraq or Afghanistan are more likely to be raped by a comrade then killed by an enemy
• Women with full-time jobs still earn only about 77 percent of their male counterparts’ earnings
• African-American women earn 64 cents and Latina women earn 56 cents for every dollar earned by a Caucasian man

There is an inequality index that calculates these disparities. The GII measures gender inequalities in three important aspects of human development: reproductive health (measured by maternal mortality ratio and adolescent birth rates), empowerment (measured by proportion of parliamentary seats occupied by females and proportion of adult females and males aged 25 years and older with at least some secondary education), and economic status (expressed as labor market participation rate of female and male populations aged 15 years and older). It aims to better expose differences in the distribution of achievements between women and men. It measures the human development costs of gender inequality, so the higher the GII value the more disparities between females and males and the more loss to human development.

Hopefully, one day girls truly will be able to run the world, and the GII will be at the fine number of zero.

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Image 1: http://giphy.com/gifs/girls-i-know-that-19yH2r3Y1eeic

Seeing Morgan’s, my classmate, presentation yesterday really struck a chord with me!  I thought it was fantastic how she was able to create such a moving multimodal piece that inspired me, and I’m sure will inspire others, to want to make a change.  It is very true what she said about the media not covering women’s sports and talking about them differently.  After all, just now I googled “women in sports”, and the first thing that popped up was “the hottest women in sports”.  Why are these women being judged on their looks and not on their athletic ability?  Why is it that beauty and how women look always have to be tied to their worth first on everyone’s mind?  Instead, we should be focusing on how they play.

Luckily, the enactment of Title IX, a federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in federally-funded education, including athletics, has allowed for more athletic participation opportunities and more equitable facilities.  But women and girl athletes have yet to reach parity with men. Women are still only about one-third of interscholastic and intercollegiate athletes.  Also, women college athletes receive less than 26% of college sports’ operating budgets, and less than 28% of college recruiting money (Women’s Sports Foundation).

The Boston Globe wrote a very interesting article about how people ignore women’s sports, even though they are just as, if not even more, talented than their male counterparts.  Hopefully, one day women will bring in just as much attention as males do when it comes to sports, but unfortunately that day does not seem as though it is coming any time soon.

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Let me start this off by saying that I have attended private school my whole life.  I do not really know what public school is like, so I do not know if I could accurately provide answers or an outlook for that side of the argument.  However, I can give my opinion, so that is what I am going to do.

I believe that private schools are fantastic.  They provide small class sizes, more personalized attention, and generally have better facilities.  They can also be very expensive and not have a whole lot of diversity.

Public schools on the other hand generally tend to have a lot of diversity, have more programs (like more options in majors/classes/extracurriculars/etc), but can also be overcrowded and underfunded.

My mom has worked as a teacher and a public school administrator for her entire professional career, and always tells me about how crazy it gets.  She talks about all the budget cuts (which private schools are not affected by), which have really affected teachers and obviously students.  These budget cuts have caused bigger classroom sizes, so that teachers can no longer have that connection and one-on-one time with students that they could have had before.  This, many times, causes the students to not do well on exams and in school in general.

However, there is no clear answer as to which type of schooling is better.  Private and public schools both have their positive and negatives, so it is up to the student and their family to decide which one is the right fit for them.

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Image 1: http://giphy.com/gifs/season-4-the-simpsons-4×12-l2Je95M0e46BHkuHK

Image 2: http://media.mlive.com/kzgazette/opinion_impact/photo/private-vs-publicpng-d829d72fcea4f62c.png

My project has to do with gender inequality on college campuses.  Specifically, I researched the gender inequality on Santa Clara University’s (SCU) campus through the student-run newspaper, The Santa Clara.  Through this research, I found that the men would write articles about women without giving them an opportunity to share their opinions and personal experience.  They were speaking for the women in a condescending tone which would usually belittle the women.  So, in order to try and change this negative situation into something a little more positive, I decided to make my multimodal composition in the form of a newspaper.

I decided to make a newspaper because I knew that I would have a larger audience if I did that.  Sometimes, the more technologically savvy that a person makes their project, the harder it can be for older generations to relate to.  On the other hand, newspapers are easy to follow and understand.  I also wanted to make a newspaper because all of my main sources that I used were from the SCU newspaper.  However, I struggled with deciding on how I wanted it to look.  Although at first I thought that I wanted it to look like an “old time” newspaper from back when coeducation was first starting at SCU, I realized that I wanted to bring this issue to light in a 21^st century context, so I made the newspaper look like one would look today.  As we still live in a very patriarchal society, it seems to be that everything is, and always has been, from the male’s perspective, which is why I titled it, “The Male Perspective”.  That is also why I put the newspaper as Volume 200,000 (because humans have been on the planet earth for 200,000 years), and the Issue as 152 (because there have been about 152 days in this year so far).

The actual articles in my newspaper themselves were also very important.  The main article’s information included what my research was about and pointed out the discrepancy between how little women’s voices were (and are still) heard as compared to men’s, which is why I included the picture that I took of the man treating the woman as a puppet on strings.  I wanted to show that men truly spoke for women, and by doing so were able to control and manipulate issues into a one-sided story (and therefore campus culture) where women were not represented.  I also made this picture black and white so that it looked even more grim, and really emphasized the seriousness of the situation.  The other three article titles are taken from The Santa Clara, and are the three main articles that I used in my research paper.  Below, I briefly summarized each article and explained how it did not allow women a chance to speak their mind or allow for their voices and problems to be heard.

This summer I am going to be an Orientation Leader for Santa Clara University.  I am very, very excited about it and cannot wait for the orientation sessions this summer!

Me with all my kiddos this summer

Specifically, I am going to be an Orientation Leader (OL) for the Unity RLC.  Unity’s motto is all about diversity, which really reminded me about some of my classmate’s research projects about diversity in college.  I have lived in Unity this year, and I believe that the Unity values of diversity were key to my feeling so included and welcomed here during the first week.  The people who live in my building are all from different backgrounds and walks of life, and I have benefitted so much from having these interesting people to talk to and be friends with.

Around campus, there might not be a lot of racial diversity, however there is definitely a diversity of ideas, religious values, socioeconomic diversity, geographic diversity, and more.  I personally have met people who have helped me grow and changed my opinions because we have come from two extremely different backgrounds and I had never thought of their side of the story before.  However, this is not to say that racial diversity is not important.  As a Latina woman I absolutely believe that racial diversity is key to having a more well-rounded establishment.

Not only is it key, but it is also interesting to learn about different cultures.  No one wants to live in a cookie cutter world, and I absolutely do not want to attend a cookie cutter institution of higher learning.  Luckily, I was place in one of the more diverse dorms on campus.  However, there is still work to be done in regards to diversity.  We as a school and as a people need to work on being more inclusive and accept and support those who are minorities.  This summer, my chant for Unity is going to be…

“Unity, diversity, you wish you were in Unity! U-N-I-T-Y…U!!”

This is a chant that should be screamed from every corner of campus, and every corner of the world because it represents a more inclusive and united world.

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Image 1: https://www.camplaurel.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/P01-01-2.jpg

Image 2: http://giphy.com/gifs/orange-is-the-new-black-diversity-sag-2016-l2JIbCs6LjtldOXIc

This gif is literally me.  I am this sloth.  

I am a procrastinator.  There, I said it.  It is so, so hard for me to ever focus and as a result I tend to just push things off until later.  This is not a good idea my friends, I repeat

NOT a good idea

In the beginning of this quarter my professor gave us pieces of paper from past students where they would give us some advice.  Almost all of the students said not to procrastinate, but I did not listen.  (And let me tell you, I really should have).  The thing that really irks me about procrastinating about these blog posts specifically though is that they actually turned out to be pretty fun!  I wish that I was able to spend more time on them, because I actually really enjoyed writing some.  I do think though, that writing two blog posts a week on top of the other homework that I had in this class and others was a little much, however if I had really rationed out my time a little better, I think that it could have been done.

However, I am the type of person who likes to be involved with a lot of things.  As a result, I tend to spread myself a little thin.  Then, at the end of the day I am exhausted and tend not to have a lot of energy to do homework.  I am also extremely forgetful, and would honestly just forget to do these blog posts.  Now, I am not trying to excuse myself for my mistakes because the stress that I caused myself of trying to finish these blog posts last minute is completely my fault.  So, dear reader, I am telling you all of this so that you can learn from my mistakes.  So….

1. DON’T PROCRASTINATE
2. Don’t spread yourself too thin
3. Write all of your homework down so you don’t forget things

If you follow these three things, you just might survive CTW 2.  Hopefully anyway, you’ll do a little better than I did.

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Image 1: http://giphy.com/gifs/cute-sloth-slothilda-26xoplW0VhLLByrAY

At the beginning of this whole blogging process, I was honestly not very excited about it.  I don’t necessarily love writing, so having to write 20 substantial blog posts was not a very appealing thought.  However, this was an assignment, and so I had to do it.

Then, I started to get a little excited about it.  I imagined myself becoming one of those famous bloggers who just write about their favorite vacation spots, candies, and other random things to there thousands of adoring fans who eat up every word.  I figured I could retire off of the money I make off of sponsorships, and work from my quaint little home on the beach.

Obviously though, this was and is not the case.  I am not writing a “lifestyle” or “beauty” blog, but rather an educational one.  Although writing an educational blog may seem kind of boring, it has actually been really interesting and has caused me to have to really think critically.  First of all, I have to brainstorm different ideas which actually seemed to take up a lot of time.  I really only like writing blog posts about things that I am interested in, so finding something to write about can be a tedious process.  However, what I do like about blog writing is that it is very informal.  Unlike essays which have to be very formal and well thought out, blogs are sort of like a stream of consciousness.  I can just write whatever I want however without fear of it necessarily making complete sense, which I think is fantastic.  In this blog, I am not constricted by certain guidelines which gives me the ability to be as creative and free as I want.  This is nice, because I enjoy creative writing, and like to add funny images that add to the content of my post.

All in all, I would say that these past few weeks of blogging have been pretty enjoyable!  It’s been hard to keep up with it on top of all my other schoolwork, but having my own blog with complete creative and literary freedom has been a good time.

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Image 1: http://giphy.com/gifs/90s-arthur-muffy-xpxtdcSjOIUSI

Image 2: http://giphy.com/gifs/working-typing-cartoon-11BbGyhVmk4iLS

Today I will be responding to my classmate, Kelly’s, post.  I found her topic about social media and hyper-sexualization not only fascinating, but also extremely relevant.  As a young women in a day and age where media has overtaken our world, I am constantly checking/updating/looking at social media.  On this social media, it is very normal to see scantily clothed women being used as advertisement, or simply just posing in these sexual ways for their personal accounts.  I personally do not think that this is sending a healthy message to younger girls, because it seems as though now there is a “self-esteem crisis”, as discussed more in this article.  Young girls are being told by the media that they have to be “sexy”, skinny, and much more in order to considered attractive and desirable.

(I saw a fantastic Ted Talk about this topic called “The Sexy Lie”, from which the picture above is taken, that is really worth a watch)

What’s so interesting to me also is the fact that this hyper-sexualization of women is backed up by research.  Kelly looked up many articles that all agreed that social media has caused misogyny and the hyper-sexualization of women to increase and become to apparent.  Many posts objectify women, and simply use them for their bodies in order to sell a certain product.

These two photos are advertisements that are very overtly hyper-sexualizing women.  The picture on the left is selling cologne, which has nothing to do with women’s breasts, however the latter still seems to be the star of the show.  Men are probably more likely to buy this product because of the fact that it is squished between breasts, as it is eye-catching and sexually appealing.  The advertisement on the right is more troubling though because it is of a young girl who is made up to look much older and is posed rather reductively.  The title reads “Love’s Baby Soft. Because innocence is sexier than you think”.  Although this young girl is probably around seven years old and should only be worried about playing outside and scraping her knee, she has already been exposed to the wandering eyes of older men.  As the Dove article states,

“Hyper-sexualization of girls can refer to girls being depicted or treated as sexual objects. It also means sexuality that is inappropriately imposed on girls through the media, marketing or products directed at them that encourages them to act in adult, sexual ways”.

We need to end this vicious cycle of hyper-sexualizaiton and instead be praised for talents other than their looks.

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Image 1: http://25.media.tumblr.com/57e3f4589e0a919b6567dfe74fe985ed/tumblr_mvb8c669Y31qeh4t2o1_1280.gif

Image 2: http://sexuallyobjectifiedwomen.weebly.com/uploads/9/5/1/3/9513520/8193464.jpg?338

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If you’re anything like me, then when you saw the title of this post you probably said, “What the heck are multimodal compositions??”  Well fear not young reader, I am here to tell you.

Multimodal compositions can include audio, video, drawings, photographs, and literally any visual element that can support the text in some purposeful way.  Blogs (like this one), collages, comic strips, podcasts, and more are all examples of multimodal compositions.

But why does this matter? This matters because, as Browyn Williams so eloquently put…

“We must recognize that English Departments no longer sustain culture behind impenetrable walls of print. Culture…now produces texts in multiple, often overlapping forms…students need to know how to write to learn and write to inform and persuade in these forms as well as they do in print.”

As technology is evolving, it has become a more and more important part of our learning and everyday life.  Gone are the days of simply using a textbook as your only educational resource, because now people use youtube videos, drawings, podcasts, and more in order to fully understand concepts, complete projects, and more.

I am a visual learner, so these multimodal projects are actually extremely helpful to me.  Although long research papers are full of fantastic information, I find myself not being able to get through most of it.  I get bored just reading pages upon pages of text and am therefore not able to really retain all of the information.

Pictures and youtube videos however, are able to really grab my attention and help me to fully understand the concept of what is trying to be discussed.  I am starting to really realize the importance of this because I have to transfer my research paper over to a multimodal piece.  This has caused me to have to really think critically and outside the box because I can’t just copy and paste my paper, but rather, have to create an interesting visual piece that communicates the same thing that my 10 pages of text did.  This has proved to be a bit challenging, but I think it’s a really important part of my learning process.  This is because, the more channels that I can use to compose and exchange meaning, the more resources I can have at my disposal for being a successful communicator, and that is what is really important.

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Image 1: http://giphy.com/gifs/internet-computer-technology-CTX0ivSQbI78A

Image 2: http://giphy.com/gifs/i-dont-care-my-brilliance-KFWSltHdEaBQ4