Iman's RCL Passion

I found all three of the videos to be very interesting. Although it was a bit cheesy, I think that Vimeo did a good job at making their point. The two rhetorical implications that I appreciated the most was in the ‘Choosing a Camera’ and ‘Shooting Basics’ videos.

I think that it is very important to address the differences between using a camera from your camcorder and the camera from your phone. They both give you different aspects and can take you in separate directions. Each one can project images differently depending on the quality. At times it might seem easier to just whip out your phone and record whatever you need to record and then go about your business. However, when it comes to having high quality videos and interpersonal graphics with the ability to edit – there are a couple things to keep in mind. A camcorder not only has better quality video display, but it also has high quality sound.

The ‘Shooting Basics’ video showed that knowing the foundations for shooting a video are very important – especially for new comers. It is important that you integrate well thought out video techniques in order to make the video possible. Some people might not know how to acquire the best footage because they do not have a strong background with dealing in film or photography. By learning the basics and strong techniques, the video has the potential to come out very strong.

I know beforehand I have talked about African culture and the aspect of identity of people of color (PoC) on campus. Last night I witnessed an amazing thing. Penn State University hosted their annual ‘PSU’s Ms. Africa Pageant’. This pageant is a highly competitive pageant on campus consisting of various African women.

To start off the event, the hostess introduced what countries would be represented this year. As I have said before, my father is from Sierra Leone, so I was ecstatic to hear that Sierra Leone was in the competition this year. Along with Sierra Leone there was Liberia, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, and Ethiopia. The females were so beautiful.

The dress code for the night was semi formal and traditional African wear. I was so excited to see what everyone would wear. I wore dress pants, a tribal dress shirt, boots, and a purple gele. A gele is an African head-wrap or headdress made of high quality material. It is common amongst African woman and is a way to represent your culture.

The pageant consists of many different categories. There is traditional wear, swimwear, talent, evening wear, and the reveal. In between these categories, to keep the audience engaged, there is a dance contest and a PSU Mr. African determined by the audience. There is also an intermission where they played a lot of African music and everyone dances. It was the greatest time.

I loved this event because it was the first time I felt surrounded by my people on the Penn State University Park campus. It made me feel very in touch with my culture. Plus, after all of the hard work and great categories Ms. Sierra Leone took the crown home. To sit there and watch my country win was something I have never experienced before. I felt the most pride I have ever felt as a PoC. I was smiling from ear to ear.

Thus, I think that this is a great way of civic engagement because it invites a number of cultures into one setting and represent themselves in a positive manner.

Video: temporarily unable to post 

Part One) My preparation for the TED Talk includes some things that I learned in high school. I took an honors business class my senior year and we focused a lot on TED talks. In this class I learned all about the ten commandments for the TED talk. I thought it would be good to read them and incorporate them in my talk. As far as using resources from the Rhetoric and Civic Life book I paid a lot of attention to ‘The Flight from Conversation’. I reread the section to remind myself that I should not fear conversation in front of a big crowd. It kind of took the edge off of my nerves and anxiety since this is a speaking assignment. The Rhetoric and Civic Life book states, “Perceptions, and thus testimony about them, can be influenced by an observer’s perspective.” This quote struck home with me because my topic was about autism. In a lot of cases I think that autism can be looked at from many different perspectives and based off of people’s perception they can be influenced in different ways. I think for the most part I did a good job at incorporating and executing this concept because I ended my TED talk with how identity and perspective can change everything in this case of where identification and research of autism may go. More importantly, my main goal was to introduce the identity and my perspective on what autism is currently. For future TED talks, I could strengthen them by having better visuals. I feel like I could have incorporated more grasping images to emphasize my point more thoroughly.

Part 2) I was not able to retrieve the video file, so I am basing this off of memory. As far as what I think worked best for my explanation and delivery – there are various things. I think that starting out with the sole definition of what identity is made the audience think about their identities and what an identity means to them. I wanted them to think about identity to show them that there are different sides to every story. Along with this, I think that introducing Johnny after this was a good choice. It immediately made the TED talk more personable and informative. Plus, it was easy to come off as passionate and invested in my topic because I have a first hand view at exactly what i’m talking about. Introducing Johnny to the audience made it easy to give examples of personalities and behaviors of autistic children. It also let me easily use some humor to keep the audience interested. Although I think that my TED talk went well, there are some things I would have liked to improve upon. For instance, I think that my visuals could have been more consistent and engaging with what I was talking about. Sometimes I didn’t think that my visuals were as effective as other presentation that went before me. Another thing that I feel I could have improved on would be my voice level. I don’t know whether this is true or not but at some point I felt like I might have been too loud but I would rather be too loud then not heard at all. Instead, I’d like to find a common ground.

Thank you.

I did my paper on Autism Spectrum Disorder. However, I would like to touch on the topic of people who commonly will say, “I have ADD” or “I have ADHD or something” as a joke. It has always rubbed me the wrong way because it desensitizes and devalues someone who has ADD or ADHD.

Thesis: Joking about ADD and ADHD is demeaning and should not be funny.

I would adapt to my audience well because it is my generation, more than ever, who is saying these phrases. It is my generation, more than ever, who would understand exactly what i’m talking about. As far as rhetorical choices I am making; I think that I may just start off with it all as if I understand the other perspective and then go from there. That way, I will catch all of the audience member’s attention and then I will displace them. I would like to accomplish a paradigm shift in everyone from this. I would like to call to the awareness of not saying these phrases anymore.

It is that time of the year – Halloween. There’s so much to say about the well known holiday where people dress up, pass out candy, and receive it. It is festive and it is filled with good, plain fun.

I remember growing up not being able to celebrate Halloween for religious reasons, but I never failed to watch everyone enjoy it. Kids run from door to door yelling “Trick or Treat” in hopes to receive delicious goodies that eventually their parents will allow them to eat. It looked so fun and everyone seemed to be in such high moods.

Certainly the older you get, you find that people our age are no longer trick or treating. Now it’s more about dressing up and going out to a Halloween party. Now it’s less about the candy – or the giving/receiving rather – and more about just looking festive and pursuing a festive event. It has become a social event/weekend to look forward to that could take place from any time between Thursday to Sunday.

Recently I found a quirky take on the spooky holiday. In some resident halls I have found that there has been Reverse Trick or Treating, including my own resident hall. So the purpose of Reverse Trick or Treating is to get the whole hall involved. It works like this. Half of the floors are chosen to give out candy while the other half of the halls receives. Then the next day it is vice versa. It is an interesting take on the traditional trick or treating and takes a rhetorical concept to a wider audience. It incorporates a great amount of civic engagement amongst the various people who live in the hall. It lifts people’s moods and gets people talking. I look forward to it because this will be my first Halloween ever!

What are you doing for Halloween? Do you like the holiday? Why or why not?

African culture has come a long way and means a lot of different things to different people. Most importantly, on the Penn State campus, being African is a fairly exciting this week. It is that time of the year where students can stand out and show their pride in their African heritage. Many African students take a lot of pride in where they come from and like to brag about their traditions and customs. It is interesting to finally watch this week play out for the first time as a freshmen. I am very excited.

There are three most noteworthy events that happen on campus in spirit of African Week. There is the African Speed Dating hosted by ASA (African Student Association) which consists of your typical speed dating arrangement between people of African descent. Next there is the ‘Taste of the Motherland’ which consists of taste testing various traditional African dishes from various African countries. This is in hopes to spread a wide variety. There is also traditional African dancing, danced and choreographed by Penn State ASA students. Lastly, there is the African Kickback, which solely consists of a whole bunch of people just hanging out and relaxing.

Growing up with two separate cultural perspectives, I believe that learning about your culture and heritage can be a great way to delve into civic engagement. I was brought up by my mother who comes from African American and Irish American blood lines. Not until later did I meet my Sierra Leonean father and great grandmother that taught me everything I know about my African heritage. It was a coming to identity moment that I will never forget.

I think that heritage weeks like African Week are important and emphasize rhetoric and civic life especially. There are many events that invite the community in and are well organized to promote acceptance. The emotion and spirit put behind the words that are used to acknowledge these weeks are influential as well.

So, what do you do for your heritage week? Are you going to an ASA event this week?

For my paradigm shift topic, I was leaning toward the increase in what we now know as ADD, ADHD, and Autism. Clearly, decades ago this wasn’t a thing. There wasn’t a name for what we now know as personality and behavioral disorders that may or may not be far out of someone’s control. Somewhere along the lines someone made the conscious decision to develop a name and a stigma for these people with these unconventional behaviors and social habits. It perplexes me what started this and how in some ways, is being seen as an issue.

My best friend has Aspergers. It’s always been a thing i’ve known about him since as long as I can remember. Our mothers were best friends and had us a month apart. We practically have grown up our entire lives together. I always knew he was different, but I didn’t know what it was. So when my mother told me to watch out for him in school and continue to be his friend, I thought it was strange.

Over time i’ve realized that there are many people that i’ve gone to school with who have different issues similar to my best friend Johnny. I have many friends who have been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD. I’m also seeing an increase in how many people I know with this issue and I wonder why the number is increasing.

Research questions I would consider:

– Who is deemed to have ADD, ADHD, or Autism?

– Is this a topic accepted by society?

– What is the paradigm shift at hand?

– Is there an increase in the amount of cases?

– Demographics for these people.

– How do you get diagnosed?

– What started the paradigm shift?

– Where is this shift/trend going now?

With all the hustle and bustle at Penn State, it’s hard for many people to take a moment out of their day for the little things. A lot of the students are very involved in many activities, organizations and clubs. In the middle of the day, roads like Polluck and Shortlidge are packed with students trying to get to class.

For many first year students like myself, I’m sure it’s easy to miss the little things. With all the fast paced walking, I rarely ever notice friends giving each other hugs or public affection during the busy hours of the day. But this week I noticed a difference.

Free Hugs!

Many students are walking around with signs reading ‘Free Hugs’ as an assignment for a class. I watched as various students from all different backgrounds and views stopped what they were doing and embraced these ‘Free Hugging’ students. It was interesting to watch. Think about it – two complete strangers taking a minute out of their day to hug each other. I think that it’s pretty cool, regardless of the fact that I’m opposed to most physical contact.

I admired these students. It started to lead me to think about how civically engaging the act was. The rhetorical word choice of the fact that these hugs were ‘free’ plagued me for a little bit. Almost as if, without this invitation, hugs aren’t free otherwise or come with a cost. I thought about how the subjects of these hugs were oddly inviting because of the notion that these hugs didn’t directly have an invitation. I mean sure the signs were putting the message out there that the hugs were free, but the students’ signs didn’t read ‘Hug Me for Free’. The signs just put the message out there, “Here I am and if you would like to hug me, so be it.” I find that very interesting.

Did you get a free hug this week?

This is a big week for a lot of students on the Penn State University Park Campus. In one setting you have a huge commotion of Homecoming, Homecoming Events, Homecoming Football Game, etc. A cast majority of the campus is getting pumped up and encouraged to take civic engagement in the community. But in the other setting, there is a subculture of students also engaging in civic events as well.

I’m not sure if many of you are aware but this week is National Coming Out Week for various people in the LGBTQ community. LGBTQ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning. For one week out of the year the LGBTQ community celebrates what they recognize as the time to put out awareness and celebrate their pride. It is also a time to band together and welcome more people to take a stand and engage in the civic activities.

Penn State is known for having a five-star LGBTQ friendly campus. The campus has a resource center dedicated to this community and takes pride in the events it holds. In various places on campus you can see many rainbow posters plastered up for NCOW’s events on campus. These events consist of Straight Talks, Film showings, guest speakers, drag makeup workshops, etc. I think it’s great because it really keeps the community active and involved.

On the first day of NCOW as I entered the HUB, I noticed the “Takeover” event held by the LGBTQ community. Rainbow things were everywhere and there were plenty of stands filled with information. One guy even held up a sign that said “Free Gay Hugs.” I think that it’s important to note how friendly and welcoming the LGBTA is here on campus. They really uphold what NCOW is all about by inviting the whole community, whether homosexual or heterosexual, to engage in learning about something new or just participating by being an ally. They use the phrase “coming out” as not only a way to reveal or show pride in your sexuality, but to also just come out and get involved.

Here’s a clip of the NCOW Rally from a few years ago if you want to see what it’s all about 🙂

NCOW RALLY

One of the most well known things that come out of the Penn State philanthropy is without a doubt, Penn State thon. Practically all the students know about Thon and almost everyone supports the cause in some way as a Penn State student. It’s around that time of the year when everyone starts to get involved.

There are many ways in which you can get involved in THON. One of the most popular use of civic engagement that I can think of that deals with THON would be canning. For those of you who may not know already, canning is a THON activity in which you go out to different areas and carry around cans asking for donations toward the cause.

I feel like, in some ways, if you’re not out canning on a canning weekend you either ask yourself why you aren’t out canning, or you’re wondering where the rest of the campus is. I found myself in this predicament last weekend because it was the first canning weekend of the semester. My fraternity always partakes in canning but I was unable to go. It didn’t take long for me to feel it, either. The amount of students out and about on campus was obviously reduced. Places where lines normally long and crowded were fairly shorter. I just felt weird and out of place. Even students who normally party on my floor felt like there was no point in going out because the people who normally throw the parties were out in another city or state being hosted by a family while canning.

One can say that supporting THON is a common culture on campus. Using the rhetorical slogan, “For the Kids” easily pulls in a large crowd that empathizes and is touched by the cause. If you’re not involved in supporting in some way for THON, it is not hard to quickly feel like you aren’t taking part in your Penn State civic duty.