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Since I've only been to Mexico, my life experiences are limited to only a few. I want to be enveloped in an enriched culture that has existed for a very long time.
I want to experience life from a different country, and able to breathe in fresh air surrounded by open land. It would be a honor to be able to learn from the people of Kenya, to enjoy a unique culture- and experience how they see the world.
I've have studied so much information about Kenya and its indigenous people. I want to continue to know more. Also rhinos and elephants are both endangered species that I REALLY want to see in its natural habitat, before they are all gone.
I absolutely want to broaden my outlook on life, to believe that I have the power it takes to conceive in whatever I believe in. This year is my final year in high school, and I really want to end it with a huge positive experience. Without a Internship I would not be able to appreciate a experience such as this. A encounter such as this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, which would help me grow as a person, to learn to appreciate different cultures, and it would expand my love for travel. It's a rare chance that I will ever be able to travel to Kenya alone, so I appreciate all that you guys are doing! Thanks so much.
When I took my first art class, in 3rd grade, I had no idea what those splashes of paint and wrinkled paper meant. I had no clue what I was embarking on. Opening, a brand new treasure chest that I couldn't wait to explore. As I grew older, the spark grew larger. I pursue this interest everyday of my life, seeking out new information about art every single day. I constantly study art from videogames and older masters such as Leonardo da Vinci. I catch myself constantly daydreaming about life as an illustrator, I strive to suck up as much information I can.
Thinker
Africa internship letter
First off, I would like to thank you'll for this opportunity to apply again!
I am interested in joining the 2016 Mcbride Internship, because I want to view the world from a different perspective. I've seen countless documentaries of Africa, it’s is by far one of the most exciting places. It’s never boring, because every day is full of new and exciting thing. I have often dream of visiting Africa and being able to view the world from a small native child’s eye. Being able to look in a elephant’s eye for just a second, would be a breathtaking moment. Seeing all these documentaries is nice, but limited. You can't really enjoy the real thing from a television screen.
A lioness I drew to add to the interneship application.
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When I looked at the comments of the news post that Chicago Tribune posted, it was biased because it was all hate about guns, but on another post like on the Christian Science, people were typing about how they don’t blame the girl or the gun-but the instructor. I believe whatever we are surrounded by is what we believe in. We tend to take whatever we hear as the truth instead of looking for the real truth ourselves. It makes one wonder what is the real truth?
The Chicago Tribune is owned by Sam Zell, a billionaire American businessman, who runs a real estate business. According to Chicago Tribune," People should not talk about envy of the 1 percent, they should talk about emulating the 1 percent. The 1 percent work harder, the 1 percent are much bigger factors in all forms of our society." The perspective of The Chicago Tribune is from a billionaire point of view.
The Christian Science Monitor is a international news organization. That focuses on different views. It is run by a group of individuals called Church of Christ, Scientist. Though it may be deceiving TCSM doesn’t focus on the bible for its point of perspective-It is it’s own thing and they have a worldwide perspective instead of a closed-minded approach.
Does the source of our news affect our perspective? When we are surrounded by a certain media, we tend to be predisposed because some sites like Chicago tribune; are just plain biased. For example on the case of the girl who shot a Uzi, and killed a instructor on accident, The Chicago Tribune wrote how girls that are nine shouldn’t be shooting guns.
However, The Christian Science wrote about how it has nothing to do with a nine year old girl but instead, how people need to be educated before they shoot a gun. They believed it was the fault of the instructor for not teaching correct methods of shooting.
Most of popular media is downplayed to make news that is important seem something that Americans should not focus on when in fact it should be focused on. CNN, or otherwise known as The Cable News Network, is one example. Big companies tend to lean more to “Juicy” information/News. They try to turn our attention onto negative situations outside our country. When we should be focused on our own country’s problems First.
The outcome of several popular newscast creates an America that is always riled up and is always mad, but is not-concerned with issues here in America. Most Americans are unaware of the differences in medias and what’s going on in the US. They just go along their own day, and don’t think much of where their news comes from. People who tend to look for a un-biased newscast will be more likely to understand everything and they will learn things from both sides of the conflict.
If a person focuses on just one site that is biased it’s just a situation of “who said- they said” where nothing is actual fact. Learn both sides-and then your can decide for your own self on what you agree on.
I believe that the source of our news affect our perspective, Whatever we believe in creates who we are. If we always watch a show which pours and pours biased information leaning one way or the other, you're never gonna get the facts straight. It’s not helpful nor is it good to listen to a biased newscast. For example if one listens to a president or a leader, one might just hear about how good he is or how he might change things, but he won’t talk about his downfalls, it’s just biased information. Whatever one listens to is what they hear as truth. If one just decide one day to look at unbiased information-their whole point of view may change. They might be totally flabbergasted on what they just heard. It’s [important] that we all learn to look at the correct source-something totally unbiased.
News Perspective
Learning about this craft has taught me to enjoy life, and that you must pick a career that you enjoy. Your happiness is very important when picking out a career choice that suits a person. Never do anything for money alone, since people cannot live off money alone. Happiness x100. A person cannot wake up every morning dreading and feel apprehensive about what they have to do. I feel you must have fun with whatever you pick.
I constantly post my art online for the world to see. I can tell if my training paid off , when I post something, and I get a huge response back about a illustration. Lots of feedback is important for improving on any craft. I believe I continuously progress towards my ultimate goal of being an illustrator.
Training a new ability is never a smooth ride, sometimes you feel like giving up and other times you feel like you can fly. Other times, I'll get into an artist block, not knowing what I'm doing. But it's important to continue your adventure because you'll never know if you will or will not exceed if you don't try at all.
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To me, wilderness means, something left untouched. When I envision wilderness, I imagine a land that has grown to huge lengths without being cut down or destroyed. I depict a land that is rich in culture and diversity. It's not forcefully controlled. Animals are allowed to live in peace and harmony without human intervention. Metaphorically wilderness to me means, life, and ambition. You can take man away from wilderness but not the wilderness away from man. We have a natural instinct to survive and thrive. We must be careful and cautious, but at the same time have fun.
My definition of wildlife means beautiful animals who are free to express their own lives without being caged or trapped inside an enclosure. I believe they should be respected and loved. Wildlife really reminds me of mountains where I've seen cougars hanging out. I respect them a whole lot. I know how to appreciate their beauty but from a distance. I believe that wildlife should not be taken for granted, and you should never kill them for selfish monetary reasons or for fun. Death of animals should only come from nature or because you need food and supplies. Their needs to be balance between human life and wildlife.
When I went on a trip to South Dakota, to help volunteer around the Pine Ridge reservation, we had no cell service. During that period I found it amazing to just be around the reservation helping without a distraction. It really frees your mind to not having to worry about facebook or any other social media. I find that exciting ! I'm sure I can survive without electronic communications for twelve days. I think it could be hard for some because living in the era of technology makes you addicted to wanting to check your phone every couple hours. But I don't have a issues leaving behind technology as it doesn't allow you to fully enjoy the experience.
During my time at Yampah Mountain High School, I have traveled to many states and experience a lot. This includes a trip to Portland, Oregon, Seattle, Washington, Backpacking in Yellowstone; Going to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota; and going to Chicago, Illinois! In Middle school I went on two separate camping trips in which we also went rafting down into Utah And a trip backpacking up Storm king Mountain. All which has really helped me progress as a person.
FED UP
In my Home Economics class, we saw a documentary about food, and how food is affecting our country. The Documentary was called, Fed Up. Which was a very interesting film. Food is seriously affecting our lives in not very good ways.
Just like never before, kids are increasingly becoming obese and diabetic. Kids who are 15 years old, having to go through Gastric bypass surgery. That’s just super crazy. Kids this young should not being going through such a dangerous and risky operation. If anything we should be changing our food industry and what we feed America.
It would be great if we could change how things work in America, but every time we try to change how things work, the Food industry gets together and works to block congress and any plans that don’t suit the food empire.
Everytime we see a commercial about processed food it gets ingrained in our heads that we need these terrible fake foods. Processed food is processed for a reason. It’s not real food even though it may say ‘All Natural’ made with ‘real food’. The FDA allows for food companies to say all natural without it actually being so. They are allowed to make it seem appealing to people who want to be healthy.
Seeing the film was pretty crazy. I couldn’t believe how many cafeterias and lunches for students is made of complete crap. Schools are signing deals with soda companies to have them in their schools. And in some schools, they would serve fast foods every day. Imagine how that’ll affect the kids in the long term.
There were kids trying to lose weight in the film but were unable to resist temptation to the foods given to them. The kids struggled to not crave the sugar that is in the food.
If I had one thing to blame, it would be the sugar. Sugar is in everything we eat and has been doubling in quantities. Studies have been shown that sugar is very addictive compared to cocaine. COCAINE. People need to realize that until we stop the food empire, that things will continue to get worse. It was crazy to see how much obesity has skyrocketed from the last decade, especially when they introduced more sugar into the products. Sugar has many names to hide. Including Corn syrup, Sugar cane, and Natural Sugar.
It makes me angry that america is being killed by it’s own people, and that the government is allowing foods that shouldn’t even be in our system in the first place.
Why are we allowing the government to control us with sugar? It’s crazy to know that so many people are so ignorant or non-educated on the fact about how much we are hurting ourselves when we take a drink of that soda, or eat that chocolate bar.
And some people do realize what we are doing, but can’t afford to buy organic or fresh made foods. It’s that way for a purpose. If something is cheaper we are more willing to buy it. Cheaper food is easier for us to afford but come at a price. The food we eat is hurting us and causing people to get diseases they could have avoided.
Fed Up, was a good documentary film, and very informative. I’m glad we could see it in the classroom for those who were unaware.
Pine Ridge Reflection
During the week of April 4th through the 10th, I visited a place call Pine Ridge. Which is located in South Dakota. The area I visited is a indian reservation where the Oglala Lakota live.I went on this trip with a group of yampah students, and two advisee.The week I spent there was a fascinating one.
The reservation I visited is in the second-poorest county of the United States. The place is filled with lots of problems considering the place has 70-90% unemployment rate, and a high rate of alcoholism. There was also around 14 teen suicides in just this year alone.
When we were there, we volunteered to help around the rez. The main program, Re-member, has been in the rez since 1997 which has been a great benefit to the rez. Every week, new volunteers show up to the facility to help. Re-member gets over a thousand volunteers every year, and is the most successful volunteer program.
On the first day of my adventure through the unknown, I got to visit a place called, Wounded Knee. Wounded knee was a massacre grounds where there is tons of graves.Two hundred and counting lakota people perished in a massacre of 1890. The experience of being there was crazy. I learned so much about the people. After, the Wounded Knee, we visited the Badlands, where the United States Air force had a bomb and gunnery range. We went hiking in the National park. We also had a moment of silence which was a very quiet peaceful period
On the second day we started working. The group of twenty people, split up into two crowds, my group worked on loading wood into a trailer. And in the afternoon, worked on a wheel chair ramp for a elderly lady. The whole afternoon was filled with us putting the ramp together. We were asked to put in screws, saw, and place wood in places.
On the Third day we were asked to be in the workshop, this was where we worked on building bunk beds, and staining the wood. I was asked to be a strainer, which I ended up doing all day. This was the most hard day for me since I was working non stop all day, and worked with Fatima staining the bunk beds. By the time the day was over, I looked like a serial killer because I had paint all over my hands, face and shirt.
On the Fourth day, we worked on delivering the bunk beds to the families. This was our final work day and the funniest day for me. I had a great time setting up the bunk bed in the poor unfortunate homes. The best part of this day, was seeing the small lakota children super happy since they got a chance to finally sleep in their own beds. Which made me super happy to have a chance to give to the poor,
The last day we had, we spent in traveling around the town getting a tour. We went and saw a big church which was part of the Red Cloud school. We got informed about the school’s high success rate. We ate at a great place and I got to eat a super good salad, and sweet desserts. We finally went to the trading post which was pretty cool.
Throughout the week, each night we had a tribe elder member give us their story. Which was a very great way to end each night.
After the final day we said our goodbyes to the other volunteers, and left Pine Ridge.
The whole experience was a very great one. It was hard week for me, but it taught me so much about the people and who they are. It made me aware of how much I complain about not having enough, when there was hungry, thirsty children on the rez. I may not have much, but I’m grateful for what I do have. Before this experience I was so ignorant about indian reservations and never put much thought into it.
I learned some words including Mitakuye Oyasin, which means we are relatives. The Lakota people taught me to be more accepting of all type of people, every race deserves a chance to be respected, and that includes the native americans.
I was very shocked that even though we all lived in America, which was supposed to be this ‘great country’, there was people who are living in very bad conditions. It made me aware of how little the public is doing to help the rez, and other indian reservations.
Overall, I am appreciative of the whole experience, and would still be ignorant to this day if I knew nothing about the Pine Ridge Reservation. I’m thankful to the Yampah Mountain High school and those involved, who made it possible for me to experience this moment.
