All posts by Mustapha Salau

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E-Portfolio Justification

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Portfolio: https://mustasalau.wixsite.com/my-site-1

The purpose of my portfolio is to be a living document that highlights my most meaningful experiences during my time at Penn State. When I reflect on my time at Penn State, a big part of my reflection lies in experiences that are either directly related or tangentially related to the College of Engineering. Consequently, I made the decision to highlight engineering work in addition to some of the work that I’ve done throughout CAS to meet the assignment requirement. Given that the website was created as a class final, the primary audience is my professor, Benjamin Henderson. The secondary audience is anyone who may somehow come across the website. I will say, I’ve taken the necessary precautions to ensure that the website can’t be easily viewed by the public, and I do plan on taking down the website after the grading period finishes.

When I think about my experience at Penn State, my life experiences, and the relationships that I have with said experiences, the first thing that comes to mind is my nonchalant approach to my experiences. I’m a strong believer in the fact that everything happens for a reason, and that’s a belief that has guided my experience at Penn State. Consequently, I wanted to website’s appearance and feel to embody that almost nonchalant, minimalist perspective that I have so often. The website only includes information that I thought was necessary, and the information is presented cleanly and clearly. Overall, I’m happy with the way the website turned out, and I’m happy that I’ll be able to use the website in the future.

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Advocacy Project

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Advocacy Project Plan

  • Issue: Fundraise for Penn State’s closest Planned Parenthood
    • To ensure that students can access these services if needed
  • Medium: website, GoFundMe, meeting that will be hosted by us (this will educate about the services available and be an incentive to donate)
  • Audience: University Park students
    • Will most likely be females, transgender, non-binary students

 

Dates to Plan

    1. April 2nd: Make a reservation for a room to be used for the meeting 
  • Fiona
    1. April 4th: Group meeting
    2. April 6th: Have research on the services being offered by Planned Parenthood
  • Jaxon
    1. April 6th: Have research on which services will be more of a necessity for PSU students
  • Jaxon
    1. April 8th: Create a GoFundMe
  • Mustapha
    1. April 8th: Create a website
  • Fiona
    1. Create GroupMe that will take people’s interest in the meeting to estimate attendance
  • Fiona
    1. April 9th-10th: Create the flyers (with the GoFundMe QR, plus GroupMe)
  • Every person will split the work (creating the QR code and designing the poster)
    1. April 11th: Group meeting (more meetings over zoom or in-person will be figured out)
    2. April 11th-18th: Start to advertise the GoFundMe and the meeting (hang up posters on public bulletins and others, social media, etc.) 
  • All
    1. April 13th: Make the presentation slides for the meeting
  • Every person (we will meet beforehand and create them together)
    1. April 13th: Start practicing the presentation for meeting
  • Everyone
    1. April 18th: Host the meeting in the rented room
  • Everyone
    1. April 19th-20th: Start creating the class presentation (add if needed)
  • Everyone
    1. April 22nd: Donate the funds raised to our closest Planned Parenthood area (if we get more funds we can donate after the 22nd)
  • Fiona
  1. April 22nd- everything needed should be done
  2. April 25- submit everything (Presentations start)
  3. April 27th- Presentations

 

Likely to Go Wrong

  • A worry would be that we do not have enough outreach to the students a t Penn State
    • Contingency: with the GroupMe and GoFundMe to estimate the outreach, we can reach out to people we know (friends and orgs) to advertise through social media and oral
    • April 15th
  • Not enough attendance at the meeting
    • Contingency: estimation through GroupMe will help us know, we will keep the website and GoFundMe up and still advertise it personally throughout the semester
      • The website will have educational factors
        • We will have information about Planned Parenthood and services that they can access
        • April 15th-25th
  • We might not have enough funds 
    • Contingency: we will keep the GoFundMe up after the class presentation, including the website
    • April 18th-22nd

 

Limits to Effectiveness 

  • The Topic
    • Even though this topic is very important, Planned Parenthood is also very controversial
    • We will focus on the audience most likely to be interested in it because we are advertising around campus
  • Fundraising
    • Some people might not want to donate
    • We are using social media to reach out to every demographic, including those who are willing to donate

 

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TIB

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Audio

Script:

There are 7.753 billion people on this planet. That’s seven with nine zeros or just a big number. Yet, there’s only one of you. No person has come before you and no person will come after you with the same genetic make-up, physical characteristics, or personality… the list could continue. You are unique. You are perfect at being you, and that’s why I believe in the existence of a higher power.

The belief in a higher power is most rooted in religion, so when I reflect on my belief now, it’s no surprise that my belief is so firm. Much of my childhood was centered around religion. My parents were practicing Muslims, I attended private religious schools, study-abroad experiences, and Sunday schools. As a child, I couldn’t fathom the possibilities that the world boasted, but I was blessed with the comfort of knowing things just worked the way they were supposed to. When I turned on the faucet, clean water gushed out. When I looked in the fridge, there was food waiting for me, and when I reached in my secret hiding spot, there were skittles waiting to be eaten.  Life was perfect.

As I grew, I was exposed to the cruel realities of the world. There were people who lived but didn’t appear to live in the same world as me. On my visit to Nigeria in 2008, I was astonished by the lack of things that seemed so commonplace in my world. There was no dependable Wi-Fi or electricity, food was a rarity to some, and many kids my age certainly did not have the luxury of a Skittle hiding spot. I was confused because to me, if there was a higher power, my world, a world I thought was perfect, would be everybody’s world. Although I didn’t know it then the exposure led me to question how it was possible for a higher power to coexist with such blatant disparities.

10 years later, the question regarding the existence of a higher power crosses my mind. However, with the 10-years of knowledge that I’m hoping I’ve developed through time, I’ve taken more of an introspective approach to the aforementioned question. I look at the blessing of something as simple as the collective human ability to sense and feel. I consider how vegetation is fertilized by the same rain, yet produces fruits of different tastes, colors, and sizes? Lastly, I return to the individuality of man.

There are 7.753 billion people on this planet. Yet, there’s only one of you. No person has come before you and no person will come after you with the same genetic make-up, physical characteristics, or personality… the list could continue. You are unique. You are perfect at being you, and that’s why I believe in the existence of a higher .

RCL

Discussion Guide

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Deliberation Guide – Pink Tax

Price Disparities Among Gender Targeted Products

Overview

The “Pink Tax” essentially describes the overall price disparities among gender-targeted products. Products marketed towards females are often higher priced than the counterpart items marketed towards males. Furthermore, there is a physical tax placed on feminine hygiene products in 48 states which adds to the overall figurative “Pink Tax” experienced by women. 

Approach 1: How can gendered marketing contribute to neutral pricing?

Values: fairness 

One reason for price disparities among genders is uneven marketing. Through equal spending targeting different genders, companies will be able to charge the same price, as opposed to charging more due to increased spending in marketing.

Option: companies can spend the same amount of money advertising to different genders. Or a company could create neutral advertisements/packaging, eliminating gender marketing.

Benefits Drawbacks
Consistency through standardized taxes and prices Supply and demand issues play a role
Fairness – this is an unfair tax Traditional style of marketing, could be hard to change
Product quality will be equal in comparison to its price. Products targeted towards different genders are often intentionally sought after 

 

Approach 2: How can physical tax regulations on certain products minimize the overall phenomenon of the “pink tax” 

Values: equality

Feminine products such as tampons and pads are taxed in 48 states. Some people (mainly women) consider these products to be necessities. 

Options: Necessities such as milk are untaxed so we can similarly officially consider feminine hygiene products as necessities and eliminate the tax placed on feminine hygiene products. If the tax cannot be completely eliminated it can be lowered to promote fairness and equality. 

Benefits Drawbacks
Feminine products become necessities instead of luxury items. The government collects less money through taxes.
Helps low-income individuals afford needed products. Venders may raise the price since customers will be able to afford it.
Increase awareness of the female reproductive system. Changing/passing legislation is a complicated/long process.

 

Approach 3: How can decreased focus on hyper femininity and toxic masiculinity solve gender based discrimination?

Values: Tradition

Many ads targeted towards gender-specific audiences include the hyper-feminine and toxic masculine gestures and stereotypical implications through their imaging and slogans. 

Options: As many commercials and marketing draw in the consumer, by focusing on the removal of hyper-femininity and toxic masculinity we can leave room for equality along with eliminating historical diminishing gender roles.

Benefits Drawbacks
Products are less targeted and leave room for gender expression. Kickback from the public.
Less Sexism Conservative views.
Lets neutral products appeal to all genders. These aren’t always made apparent
Companies save money through eliminated targeted advertisements and products. Feminine and masculine products are deeply rooted in marketplaces.

 

RCL

CI/Passion Blog Brainstorming + Review

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CI Ideas

  1. Healthcare Discussion

America’s healthcare system is in dire need of restructuring. There’s a strong amount of history and documentation explaining why the system is where it is today, but the most recent and known example is the introduction of Obamacare. While the intention was good, the program caused insurance premiums to skyrocket and consumer choices to decrease.

So how do we fix our healthcare system? Is it a matter of more government funding? Is it time to copy another countries model? That’s what I hope to explore here.

 

2. College Costs

As we all know, college can be expensive. Cost is one of the most influential determinants for many when deciding where to attend school, and for some, it’s the deciding factor as to whether or not they attend school at all. In this blog, I hope to explore why college costs are increasing, the accumulation of student debt, and potential policy solutions to the issue.

Passion Blog Ideas

  1. I really like talking to people, especially when the conversation leads to the sharing of ideas. There’s a lot of “controversial” topics out there, and people have a lot of interesting views. I think it’d be captivating to both hear and share what those topics/ideas are. The discussions would also be great ways to practice having civil discourse and being more accepting of conflicting views.
  2. I’ve recently gotten into investing, and a big part of that is doing research. I’m still learning how to do that research and what to do with the information, so this would be a good way to a.) force me to actually do the research b.) present the research in a practical manner c.) share what I’m learning

Blogging Analysis

If I’m being totally honest, my blogging last semester was terrible. I thought the idea that I had was pretty good, but having to blog before every class got annoying, and the quality dropped soon after that. I’ve given some more thought to the ideas that I’ve presented for this semester’s blogs, so hopefully, that combined with the lower frequency of blogs will help my quality stay high.

RCL

TED Talk Reflections

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I’ll start off by mentioning how much fun I had creating and performing my TED talk. From the start of my research to when I edited my final video, I enjoyed almost every part of it. I won’t lie, the works cited page was a hassle, but for the most part, I had fun. I liked the effect that my content and visuals had on the talk, and I think they augmented the performance. As I watch the video back, there were times where I was a bit too animated with my hands, so I’ll keep that in mind in the future. Aside from that, I think the project was successful.

This project gives way to a lot of interesting topics because of its isolated focus on controversy. With that said, I’ve found that the most interesting controversies in the last few years revolve around sex/gender and race. I’d be interested in researching the legalization of gay marriage, gun laws, and transgender rights.

Passion

The MLS: Sunday Nov. 7th

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For the past few weeks, we’ve focused a lot on Premier League soccer, and that’s great, but there’s way more soccer in the world. The roots of soccer in the United States are relatively unknown, but most historians can agree that the Oneida Football Club was the first football team to come to the United States. The earliest recorded game of soccer in the United States was played on October 11, 1866, in Waukesha, Wisconsin under the 1863 London Football Association laws. (Source: Wikipedia)

Major League Soccer (@MLS) / Twitter

That’s all to say, soccer has been around for a bit, so I think it’s time we switch this blog’s focus to soccer in the United States, particularly the MLS (Major League Soccer). I’m not sure if we’ll maintain that focus on US soccer, so don’t be surprised if I do any of the following in the future A.) revert to the original topic of this blog B.) Only focus on MLS soccer C.) Alternate back and forth between MLS & Premier League.

MLS doesn’t use the same conventions as the Premier League, so there aren’t any match days. If you were to search MLS on google, a schedule would appear that’s segmented based on dates not Matchdays, which is an important distinction when following both leagues.

With that said, I’ll employ the same format that I used in the last blog post where I provide the scores of a few of the matches from the last gameday and then provide some analysis on one or two of my favorite games from the week.

Major League Soccer Club PR Contacts | MLSSoccer.com

Results

Philadelphia Union 1 – NYC 1

LA Galaxy 3 – Minnesota 3

D.C. United 3 – Toronto 1

New England Revolution 0 – Inter Miami 1

Real Salt Lake 1 – Sporting Kansas City 0

FC Dallas 1 – San Jose 1

NY Red Bulls 1 – Nashville 1

Atlanta United 2 – Cincinnati 1

Philadelphia Union v. New York City FC

I’m starting off with this match because it’s near and dear to my heart. Being from PA, Philadelphia Union was one of the soccer teams that I watched religiously. I also had the opportunity to train with their academy teams, so it was (and still is) exciting to hear news about the team.

Similarly, NYCFC has an incredibly unique style of play, so I’d watch their games to learn more about the sport. I distinctly remember spending my lunches with my phone propped up and NYCFC games playing through YouTube, so as I said, both teams are near and dear to my heart.

The game started with pace, as Philadelphia Union’s Kacper Przybylko put a goal in the back of NYCFC’s net at 26 minutes. His goal was met with immediate petition, as the NYCFC players believed Przybylko was in an offsides position. With the rise of technologies like VAR, it was easy to conclude that Przybylko was not in fact offsides. For context, VAR stands for Video Assistant Referee; it’s essentially a means of referees playing back plays to see what may have occurred.

In the 53rd minute, Taty Castellanos, put one back in the Union’s net, tying the game up at one-one. Overall, it was a great game, and there’s more to come in the next weeks.

Philadelphia Union

Passion

Premier League: Matchday 11 of 38

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Alrighty. I’m going to experiment with a bit of a new blog post structure. In the last few posts, I’ve really been focused on a few matches, rather than the matchday. Consequently, there’s a lot of information that I could be giving, but I haven’t been. This week, we’ll start off with the scores of the matchday and shed some light on a few, particularly surprising and/or important matchups.

Scores:

Southampton v Aston Villa: 1-2                Arsenal v Watford: 1-0

Brighton v Newcastle: 2-1                           Everton v. Spurs: 0-0

Crystal Palace v. Wolves:  2-0                    Leeds v. Leicester: 1-1

Chelsea v. Burnley: 1-1                                  West Ham v. Liverpool: 3-2

Man Utd v. Man City: 0-2                            Bretford v. Norwich: 1-2

I’ve bolded the matches that I’d like to focus on in today’s blog post starting with Manchester United v. Manchester City.

Premier League Fixture: How schedule will shape 2021-22 title race? | True Scoop

Manchester United v. Manchester City

Manchester United started the match terribly. There’s really not much more to say there. Seven minutes into the match, Joao Cancelo’s (Man City) low cross was converted into an own goal as one of Manchester United’s defenders raced back to clear the ball. As the game progressed, it was clear that Manchester United was struggling. Not to delve too deep into the statistics, but oftentimes, you can tell who will win a soccer game based on possession, and in this game, the possession was seriously one-sided.

Manchester United 0-0 Manchester City: Who impressed and struggled in Manchester derby? | Football News | Sky Sports

As the first half came to a close, Man City was able to put another goal in the back of the net making it 2-0 going into the second half. Despite the changes made to the personnel on the field and tactically, Manchester United could not pull through, and the game ended in a 2-0 win for Manchester United.

Following the match, manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was under intense pressure, as it was said that he was at risk of losing his job. He was quoted to have said, “Some praise has to go to them but we were not at our level. Standards need to be raised, We need to be on the front foot. I can’t look at myself and say this is the way I want Man Utd to play, I have good quiet communication all the time with the club. I want the best for Manchester United. As long as I’m here, I want to do what I can do to improve this.”

What TV channel is Manchester United vs Man City on? How to watch plus team news and kick off time - Manchester Evening News

Only the coming games will tell if Solskajer will be able to retain his job.

In other news, next week’s matchups should be very interesting, especially given what they mean for standings. Four teams have changed their managers, so the upcoming matches will be used as assessments of the managers’ ability to successfully direct the respective teams.

FIFA 22 Ratings - Best Premier League Players - EA SPORTS Official Site

Matchups to look forward to:

Liverpool v. Arsenal

Man Utd v. Watford

Leicester v. Chelsea

More to come next week!

 

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Unit 2 Project: Sources

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Source #1: UCSD Partner Article https://caseagrant.ucsd.edu/blogs/diversity-in-stem-what-is-it-why-does-it-matter-and-how-do-we-increase-it

This source provides numerous statistics and information on diversity in STEM, which I’d be able to use through a visual or simply mentioning and expanding on an aspect of diversity in STEM that’s mentioned in the article. Moreover, the article provided links/doi #s for sources that may provide more information on the topic.

Source 2: Dr. Nate Brown 

Dr. Brown is current professor at PSU. Dr. Brown’s research includes documenting differential impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on undergraduate STEM students by race/ethnicity, sex and socioeconomic status; developing a valid and reliable measure of “inclusive instructor behaviors” that influence whether students believe they can succeed in math and if they feel like they belong in math; and related studies, both qualitative and quantitative, on differential impacts of mathematicians’ beliefs and behaviors on women and students of color.

I plan to get information from him regarding his research and/or ask him for his dissertation, which would provide both data and analysis of different aspects of the diversity in STEM discussion. I’d most likely use this information as the backbone of my TED talk.

Source 3: PEW Research Center https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2021/04/01/stem-jobs-see-uneven-progress-in-increasing-gender-racial-and-ethnic-diversity/

Like the first source, the PEW Research Center article provides numerous statistics and information on diversity in STEM, which I’d be able to use through a visual or simply mentioning and expanding on an aspect of diversity in STEM that’s mentioned in the article. Moreover, the article provided links/doi #s for sources that may provide more information on the topic.

I’m finding that many of the sources provide similar information, and it’s really just a matter of how in-depth the source goes. I feel confident that I’ll find a lot of information to draw from, and I can’t wait to present the final product.