Becoming Certified essays

Becoming Certified essays CompTIA is the global leader in the information technology trade, with influence in all areas of IT standards. CompTIA is dedicated to the development and growth of IT professionals by promoting industry standards. CompTIA is also devoted to helping students gain professional IT knowledge, by providing IT skills, education and developing related business solutions. CompTIA has developed specialized initiatives and programs dedicated to major areas within this industry. Certification is the computing industrys method for developing competency standards and identifying the men and women who have mastered those standards as professionals. They include convergence technology, e-commerce, IT training, software services, certification exams, public policy and workforce development. CompTIA Linux+ certification is a new standard for those that have 6 or more months experience installing, configuring, administrating UNIX based operating systems. With a Linux+ certification it is not uncommon to demonstrate knowledge of installation, operation, administration and troubleshooting services. A growing demand for UNIX support professionals is at an all time high. Holding a Linux+ certification will open many doors to a successful career. CompTIA i-Net+ has official recognition as the standard for competency in knowledge of Internet, Intranet, and Extranet technologies around the world. This exam is recognized as a starting point for technical knowledge specially designed to certify entry-level Internet and e-commerce technical professionals. Those who possess an i-Net+ certification can build a solid career in e-commerce, web development, networking, and Internet security. CompTIA A+ exam consists of two exams, the A+ Core Hardware exam and the A+ OS Technologies exam. You must have basic knowledge of installing, configuring, upgrading, troubleshooting, and repairing desktop computers before you take the test. An A+ certi...

How To Unlock Quality Content From Your Worst Posts

How To Unlock Quality Content From Your Worst Posts You had a great idea, you wrote your heart out, and it turned out to be a hugedud. How do you recoup the time and effort you put into it? Because if time is money, you don’t want to have wasted it. Bottom line, and all of that. Your worst-performing content must be something you learn from, and/or reuse. 10 Ways To Unlock Quality Content From Your Worst-Performing Posts via @JulieNeidlingerWhat are some characteristics you’ll see evident in your worst-performing content? I’m going to hazard a guess and say: Weak, vague, or inaccurate headlines Low-grade graphics Completely irrelevant to your audience Lax compliance with promotion and social media strategy Bad timing Keep that last one in mind and remember that content that performs poorly might not always be the fault of the content itself, but might be problems with promotion. Anyway, what can you learn (and do) when you have a content dud on your hands? 1. Your Research Is Never Wasted No matter how crappy your content, your research is never wasted (that is, if there was any research in it). Research is hugely time consuming, so there is absolutely no way you want to waste the information you found. Even if the first way you packaged that research tanked, use it again in a different way. Make an infographic. Rewrite the content with a different approach. Write it into a guest post for someone else. Don’t waste the time you invested in finding that information. 2. Your Approach Might Be At Fault Great ideas turn into bad ideas depending on how you approach the topic. I wrote a pretty stinky blog post a while back, bad enough that I would want to protect my mother’s eyes from ever catching a glimpse of it. It probably wasn’t a bad idea as far as the topic (lack of planning can kill your blog), but the approach was all wrong. Considering that the post talked about how to make your blog fail...maybe have the post bomb was a self-fulfilling prophecy. Whatever the case, the comments section is all crickets chirping. Have a blog post that bombed? Maybe your approach was at fault.It’s hard to separate the idea from the approach in knowing which was the reason for the failure of the content. Thing is, you won’t know if an approach won’t work until you try it. So while it’s not a shining moment of glory, I’m glad I took a swing at it anyway so I could at least know. Recommended Reading:  9 Ways To Reclaim Your Breakthrough Content Ideas From Old Posts 3. You Have A Chance To Bare All If you’re not allergic to humble pie, you can use the opportunity of a failed piece of content to ask a more experienced content marketer what they think went wrong. Whether you do this behind the scenes or do it publicly and turn it into another piece of content (â€Å"Why My Post Bombed† or â€Å"3 Experts Dissect A Bad Piece Of Content†). Hootsuite did something like this: Ouch. Heres what we learned from our WORST performing content: http://t.co/czwpTFg6hG pic.twitter.com/WiX6VOp7zk Hootsuite (@hootsuite) February 12, 2015 Confessional behind-the-scenes content is appealing to readers (as you’ll see in item #4). Wouldn’t you like to know all the dirt on how a post gets created here at , and what we do when something flops? I know I enjoy reading that type of revealing content from big name bloggers because it actually encourages me; there’s a sense that the gods came down from Olympus. Recommended Reading:  Proof That Publishing More Content Won’t Grow Your Blog Traffic (And How To Do That) 4. You Can Do A Post Mortem Speaking of content dissection, why not do it yourself? Slice and dice that content and see if you can learn something from it post mortem. What are you looking for? Redundancy. When I have nothing to say, I usually find lots of ways to say it, repeatedly. It makes for hideous content. Bad headlines. Headlines are what get people to read. Search engines might not care, but people do, and people are a huge part of your audience. They make up 100% of it. Communication barriers. I’ve written about communication barriers that we put in front of our readers. Tone, ego, language- they all play a part in turning people off from your content. Uninteresting research. Piling research into your post is only valuable if it’s actually valuable and interesting research. If you’re going to use research, you need to find a way to liven it up either by â€Å"translating† it anecdotally for your reader, or using comparison and contrast to put that research into the context you’re going for. Simple spewing out percentages in a list can be mind numbing. Too much copycat. Your headline, your post- whatever it was- is just like every other blog post being written out there. Be careful about mimicking the influencers; everyone else is, too. Nothing trumps a defiant streak of originality. You were bored writing it. No one creates boring content like a bored writer. Your readers didn’t care. It doesn’t matter if the topic was important to you. It has to be important to your reader. All your passion on a topic amounts to zilch if Melonie Dodaro did a post mortem on her seven worst blog posts, and you can get an idea of how to go about it using her example. You’ll notice that key among her findings was how a headline either had little to do with the post (and people bounced out as soon as they realized it) or was a dog from the get go. Headlines, headlines, headlines. So important. I read Dodaro’s entire blog post because I’m like most of you: I have a slight penchant for schadenfreude mixed with curiosity over the confessional approach. So that, right there, is a great way to turn blog post duds into traffic getters. 5. Your Practice Is Never Wasted Practice doesn’t make perfect, but it does make a habit. Not only did that bad content still have a role in your writing training and habit-making, it fulfills that important role of letting you experience failure so you know better what is good, what is bad, and the art of being able to pick yourself up and move on. Everything- even the failures- is a data point. Hopefully you’re tracking it. 6. It Might Be Time To Shift Your Strategy Perhaps your content wasn’t all that bad, but it performed badly because your social sharing, paid promotion, email, or other promotion methods are in need of a tune-up. Are you promoting your content at the wrong time of day or the wrong day of the week? Has your audience changed since when you first started? Are you on the wrong social network? Do you need to send out more emails? You’ll often see blog post suggesting that you review your data, your results, and ultimately your strategy periodically. If you’ve noticed a series of poorly performing content, it might be a sign you need to do that, that your strategy needs to be retooled. You've had blog posts bomb. How often do you check your data to know what really happened?7. You Didn’t Leave Enough Time Maybe you slipped a bit and weren’t doing as well as you’d hoped as far as planning your content on your editorial calendar. You didn’t give yourself enough lead time to keep up with posts, and are fast approaching the point where you’re behind the curve instead of ahead of it. What do you do in a rush? You start to lose sight of important things, such as keeping your SEO tight and your copy audience-suited. Not all poorly-performing content is the result of letting time get away from you, but it’s worth an honest look. This is one of the reasons an editorial calendar is so vital. It keeps you from falling into that dark valley of â€Å"OMG, I need a post for tomorrow!†, a valley where sloppy and shallow are most likely to emerge. Look at the poor performing content, and take a look at your editorial calendar or work schedule. How much of a rush were you in? If you had a post that bombed, how fast did you write it? You can use that idea again, here's how.If you can’t keep up with the content quality because you bumped the quantity up a few notches, bring it back down and work on focusing on a singular post a week. 8. Your SEO Has Gone Wild Being rushed sometimes means your SEO is barely given a nod. On the flip side, though, getting too narrow a focus on a keyword can also derail your content. Dodaro admits as much for one of her failed blog posts, noting that the problem with a post was a faulty headline which had an â€Å"SEO keyword crammed in at the expense of title’s integrity†. Yep. We’ve done that, too. Ever see those weird headlines that look like someone bungled the grammar, leaving out the article in the midst of a keyword phrase or seeming slightly off from how a real person talks? â€Å"How Market Research Firm Can Help You† â€Å"What Time Is The Super Bowl?† (An actual headline from the Huffington Post. Probably a huge long-tail search term, but how much content can you really create for that without seeming obnoxious?) â€Å"The Business Social Media Hacks That Work† That’s what happens when your headline is an indentured servant to keywords and SEO. It’s as if you’re playing the Cat Game from Super Troopers, packing keywords everywhere you can: Fast Company puts this well: â€Å"If you find yourself trying to fit a square-pegged keyword into a round-shaped title, just let it go. You don't want to write something that doesn't make sense or confuses the reader just for the sake of SEO.† Clunky headlines that search engines might love but people ignore don’t do you any favors on social media and in email. 9. Decide If You Need To Cull It I won’t recommend deleting content, but if you are unable to bear the thought of that awful content existing, perhaps it’s time to remove it. However, be sure to salvage what little traffic you had coming to it. Direct that low-performing post to a brand new, much better post using a 301 redirect. Or, follow the Moz blog’s suggestions for weeding out low-performing content and cleaning up your site. 10. Look For Salvage Maybe you can save it. How bad was your post? Be sure you are really identifying your site’s worst-performing content and not just the stuff you don’t like yourself. At that point, there are likely things you can still salvage if the sum of the parts happened to be less than stellar. Did you have an idea for an interview and the interview went badly? Maybe the interviewee answered in one- or two-word answers. Can you turn that interview into data or other forms (charts, percentages, or recharacterizations)? Maybe you got sloppy and cheated a bit on the headline by using the first one that came to mind instead of really working through the best options.Why not change the headline, and reset your social sharing and promotion to see if it fares better? At the very least, you can get some A/B testing data out of that between the two headlines. Take Action:  Look through your analytics and choose at least three of your worst-performing blog posts. Dissect them. Figure out why they bombed. Was it: Headline problems Copy failures Wrong topic Wrong timing Lack of proper promotion Uninterested writer Dissect your bad content and figure out why it  didn’t work. Rework them into a new piece of content, and try again, taking into account the things you did wrong the first time. Or, develop a checklist for yourself to be sure you don’t repeat the same mistakes for future content.

Strategies for Change Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Strategies for Change Management - Essay Example The fourth explanation defines change management as a control mechanism. (Nickols (2008)) Fred Nickels states that change management is a process that involves moving from one state to another. Change management occurs in three strategies namely the unfreezing stage, the changing stage and the refreezing stage. (Nickols (2008)) For the core units the individuals will have the how questions, for the perimeter units individuals will have the and how questions, for the buffer units individuals will have what questions and finally for top managers they will have what questions. (Nickols (2008)) In an organization there exist resistance to change; the degree of resistance will depend on the number of individuals in the organization, political issues in the organization and whether the organization depends on the people. If the degree of resistance is high then the power coercive strategy or those environmental adaptive strategies are the most appropriate strategy and if resistance is low then the other strategies are appropriate. (Nickols (2008)) Time available to implement change will influence decisions, when time is limited then the power coercive strategy is the moist appropriate but if time is abundant than the other strategies can be applied. (Nickols (2008)) The availability of experts in the organization will also affect choice, where an organization has limited number of experts then the power coercive strategy is the most appropriate but if there are experts then the other strategies can be used. (Nickols (2008)) A business opportunity with high anticipated returns will require the use of all four strategies given that the main purpose of the organization is to generate income and therefore the organization should by all means implement change. (Nickols (2008)) If in an organization the organization depends on

Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 3

Analysis - Essay Example ther in the story A Good Man is Hard to Find does convey moral depravity and wavering throughout the story, which emphatically comes out as an anathema to the Misfit, who irrespective of being a criminal, does depict much moral consistency and commitment. Right from the start of the story the Grandmother comes out as an individual, who doesn’t mind manipulating and cheating her family members, irrespective of claiming a so called moral uprightness. She time and again tries to manipulate her son Bailey into going to Tennessee, just because she does not want to go on a trip to Florida. She even tries to scare away Bailey by intimidating him with the Misfit on the loose as she says â€Å"I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn’t answer to my conscience if I did (O’Connor 1).† Even when she decides to join the family on their trip, she jilts them by hiding her cat in the car, just because she knew that Bailey would not allow the cat on the trip. No doubt this very cat becomes the cause of the fateful accident that eventually ended up in a bloody tragedy. For the grandmother, morality is a ploy for manipulating and moving people, rather than being som ething that one actually practices and cherishes in one’s life. She even goes to the extent of enticing the children with the idea of the hidden silver so as to make them force Bailey to turn on the dirt road that led to the mansion she so badly wanted to visit. The grandmother regards morality to be a matter of appearances and perceptions, instead of being a way of life. It is indeed true that the grandmother in the story A Good Man is Hard to Find is a moral chameleon who dons a moral persona to cheat others and to get people influenced by the perception of morality she creates. For instance one comes to know in the story that the grandmother while going on trip is immaculately dressed in impressive fineries just so that, â€Å"In case of an accident, anyone

Care Support Essay Example for Free

Care Support Essay Effective reflection on relationships that develop in care work Mary is an 82 year old female resident who came to live in our nursing home five years ago she has a mild cognitive impairment and is totally independent she wears an incontinence pad and requires minimum assistance. Mary loves to sing and listen to music especially Irish traditional music and popular ballads. She remains in close contact with her two daughters who visit regularly. Mary is a very private person and likes to spend time alone in her room. She is a very jolly lady who loves to laugh and enjoys life. As a care assistant I had assisted Mary with her continence needs by making her aware of where to find continence pads in the bathrooms around the home and making sure they were always available in her bedroom this protects her privacy, dignity and independence as I know it would cause her embarrassment to have to ask for them. We got on really well because we both have a love of Irish music and I spent a lot of time talking with her about music, her family and her reasons for coming to live with us in the nursing home. I also developed a trusting relationship with her daughters as Mary would often include me in conversation when they visited. I had noticed a change in Mary where she was spending a lot of time in the bathroom and she seemed agitated when in the day room I approached her and asked if she wanted to go for a walk outside as we have done on several occasions. She agreed and we set off. ecause of the trusting relationship we had built over time I felt comfortable asking her if she was ok and she replied â€Å"yes love shure ya have ta have a laugh† I deviated a little with some talk about the gardens we were passing and I approached the subject again by saying if there was anything wrong you can tell me, and if I can help you I will, you only have to ask, she replied with â€Å"I don’t want to be a bother to anyone† I told her I noticed she was going to the bathroom a lot, there was silence for what seemed forever then she told me â€Å"I have a stinging pains down below† I knew straight away it was thrush as I had observed from her care plan she was prone to thrush. I asked her permission to talk to the nurse and explained it would require medical treatment and she agreed. Asking her permission protected her confidentially, when we returned to the home I approached the nurse and told her of the situation she acted immediately, knowing Mary was prone to thrush she kept a supply of ointment to treat her, I went back to Mary and asked her to come with me very discretely so as not to draw the attention of other residents or visitors this protected her privacy, dignity and confidentially . I escorted her to the nurses’ station and the nurse took over. Within a few hours Mary was back to her normal jolly self singing in the corner. The positive outcome for Mary during this incident happened because of the relationship we had built over time and getting to know her, being able to observe a change in her behaviour. The situation was handled with just me and the nurse on duty no other members of staff were involved this protects Mary’s privacy and dignity. Clear identification of interpersonal issues that can arise in care work The interpersonal issues in this situation were between Mary myself and the nurse and no other staff, resident or visitors were aware of Mary’s situation this protected Mary’s privacy, dignity confidentially and respect. Interpersonal issues between me and other healthcare staff occurred through informing them of what had happened and how the situation was handled. What was observed during this incident was that building relationships with residents allow us to be more effective as care assistants. The types of communication used during this incident were mainly verbal, communicating with Mary in a very discrete and respectful manner put her at ease, and communicating with other healthcare staff to inform them of the incident and how best to handle it should it happen again. The outcome for Mary was she got the treatment she needed in a timely manner, it highlighted to senior healthcare staff the importance of the care assistant in relationship building and observation, reporting our findings to the nurse to get the best healthcare for the resident. Effective reflection on own interpersonal skills as a care worker Interpersonal skills used in this incident were respect and confidentially taking Mary out for a walk and chatting allowed me to discover what was bothering her by doing this it did not draw the attention of any other resident to her situation. Informing the nurse and other relevant healthcare staff will allow them to handle any other similar situation in a discrete manner thus protecting her privacy, dignity confidentially and independence. Comprehensive observation of the process of developing personal effectiveness as a healthcare assistant In this situation I was able to help Mary because I noticed a change in her behaviour, I believe in order to give person centred care you must know your residents, individualised care is an on-going process, building a trusting relationship with knowledge of life history, likes/dislikes, religious and cultural influences are vital in the implementation of individualised care. Knowledge gained in class helped raise awareness of how important it is to protect residents dignity, respect, confidentially and independence. We learnt about the art of reflection, looking at an incident, what happened? How we handled it and how can we improve to achieve a positive outcome for the person involved. Knowledge gained in class has helped me gain skills in awareness. observing how residents behave and being aware of changes are important tools for personal effectiveness, reflection is also a vital tool for personal effectiveness looking back at a situation and analysing what happened and how it was dealt with is very effective it allows us question ourselves and ask how can we have handled the incident better and put a plan into action to bring a positive outcome for the resident involved. Personal skills helped significantly in this situation, skills such as building relationships, empathy, observation and the ability to communicate effectively with residents and other healthcare staff helped me bring about a positive outcome for Mary. As a carer there are many skills that can be developed such as communication, the ability to communicate with all healthcare staff regardless of their discipline is important, and knowledge gained through dialog with residents and their relative’s is invaluable, knowing a little about residents will allow us to care more effectively completing level 5 in healthcare support has been invaluable although we care for people every day, having knowledge and the theory behind it is important and will make for better care. Detailed evidence of expertise in a range of interpersonal care work skills I don’t know if I have â€Å"expertise† in any care work skills but I think I am good at what I do, knowledge is a wonderful thing and as our knowledge increases we become confident, and self-confidence is a great tool to have in care work, having the confidence to talk to other healthcare staff in a professional manner enables us to gain the best possible care for our residents, what I gained from this situation was respect for fellow healthcare staff who listened to what I said and acted on the information. I don’t know if I could put an action plan in place for this scenario but what I can say is that it is vital that all healthcare assistants observe all residents and become familiar with their daily routine this gives us the opportunity to note any changes and report these findings to relevant staff. Some of the skills used to deal with this situation were gained through life experience, being a father of 4 I have brought with me patience, understanding, and empathy to name but a few but the course has given me the ability to analyse my thinking to look at how I have worked today and how can I improve tomorrow. Conclusion All healthcare staff from consultants to healthcare assistants must give the best possible care to patents/residents, we are privileged in our role in healthcare and everything we do must be in the best interest of the patent/resident. Being a part of that team and being respected for the role we play is very important. Nurses are put under increasing pressure with medication rounds, paperwork, supervision etc. they can’t be everywhere or know what is happening with every resident so we as healthcare assistants become the eyes and ears of the facility, observing changes and reporting in a timely manner to gain a positive outcome for the resident involved. Being heard as part of the team will make for a more effective workplace.

The Wave was a Good Idea :: Nazi Germany

When something like the Wave comes along, so promising and full of energy and optimism, people are bound to be caught up in it. The students at Gordon High got "swept up" in the ideals and promises of the Wave. No matter how poorly it may have turned out, though, the Wave did start as a good idea. It attempted to make all students equal, to eliminate competition and create a feeling of unity, and, most importantly, to teach the students in Mr. Ross class about Nazi Germany. The Wave eliminated cliques and accepted outcasts. It made students like Robert Billings accepted by their peers. No student was left out, and all of the original Wave members even sat together at lunch. Robert spoke up without being made fun of, and even Brad, a boy who used to torment him relentlessly, accepts him as an equal. No student is considered better or not as good as another student within the Wave. Perfect equality is established, although at the cost of individuality. As the Wave progressed, Mr. Ross noticed the students as a whole were doing better on tests and quizzes. It seemed there was no longer any competition for grades. Rivalry between two students and best friends, Laurie Saunders and Amy Smith, disappeared. Amy had always competed with Laurie for grades, friends, and boys. She loved the Wave because, as a member of it, she didn?t have to constantly compete anymore. Mr. Ross also encouraged the students not to work toward being the best, but to focus on the common goal of the class ? working together as one to achieve what they seek. By doing this, they utilized the section of the Wave motto ?Strength through Community?. Of course, the most important reason it was a good idea is that it taught the students exactly what it intended to ? about being swept up into a large group, about losing the ability to think for oneself, and about unquestioningly following a leader. Many students had thought that nothing like the Holocaust could ever happen again. Only when Mr. Ross snapped them out of their ?Wave? mentality did they realize it almost did. It taught the students to think for themselves and be responsible for their own actions. The excuse of ?just following orders?

Dieting

A fit and healthy body is essential for one to be able to live his or her life to its fullest. One can have a quick-thinking mind and a strong and active body only if he or she is healthy. Health affords one the capacity to use and maximize all of his or her potentials. A fundamental factor in the being healthy is making sure that one’s body is getting the right kind and amount of nutrition. Thus, it is important that one has a well-balanced diet. The National Health Service defined a diet as the food which one eats over a particular of time.The recent years saw people’s obsession with their weight, losing pounds and curves, and staying thin. As such, the term diet has gotten a new connotation as the process of reducing and planning a rigid eating plan to help one lose weight. The second definition of diet is also the more popular one because of people’s increased interest in their weights. The combination of recent years’ health risks and people’s perception of attractiveness have made the second definition of dieting popular today. Though they hold various reasons for going on diets, the decision to diet is obviously for weight loss.Why is the idea of weight loss deemed so necessary and attractive nowadays? First, dieting is widespread because it is a health and life necessity for many people. A proper diet is one that is suited specifically for a person’s activities and body type. It should also include a balanced mix of all the major food groups. The fast-paced lifestyles many people lead today have prevented them from practicing a healthy diet. Those who feel they do not have the time or extra energy to prepare the right kind of food for their diet fall prey to greasy fast food and often skip on vegetables and fruits.Another problem is that many of people’s occupations now do not require them to be physically. The combination of the two has resulted in the United Kingdom reporting a 300 percent increase in t he number of overweight or obese people. As such, one reason for dieting and weight loss is to improve one’s health. Second, many professional athletes or aspiring ones view dieting as a way to keep their bodies in top physical condition. Sports require one to be in his or her best fitness levels. Athletes believe they may play better and faster and endure longer if they can improve their physical condition through highly-regimented diets.Further, there are also sports and highly physical activities such as running, gymnastics and ballet in which the participants are encouraged, almost required, to be thin and prevent weight gain as much as possible. Third, the media portrays a certain body type and look to be the single most attractive look there is as such many feel compelled to look the same. The media influences people in their formation of the definition of beauty. People are living in the age of the media, wherein the media has the power to dictate people’s belie fs.As such, whatever the media portrays as attractive or not becomes translated as the people and their culture’s real idea of beauty. Though they are not the only ones for whom this reason is true, teens are especially susceptible to this kind of influence by the media since they are in an age wherein they feel conscious about the changes happening to their bodies as well as what others think of them. Teenagers are still in the process of building their sense of identity and therefore have fragile self-esteems.Their body images, or how good they feel about their appearance, are closely tied to their sense of self-worth and self-identity. Therefore when they are constantly bombarded with media images of beauty in the form of waif-thin women and muscled men, teenagers form it in their heads that these are ideal looks that they should have. They learn to identify with the media-prescribed image of beauty. Teenagers perceive and accept cultural notion of beauty as depicted by th e media, and feel resolved to accomplish the same figures and looks by going on special weight-reducing diets.These reasons are voiced out by millions of people scattered all over the globe, thereby making the idea of dieting a very popular one. Diets have also been profitable as seen in the many diet facilities and services present. Further testaments to how widespread the idea of dieting is nowadays are the seemingly endless list of diet fads. Recent dieting fads to take center stage include liquid diet, grapefruit diet, detox diet and different reincarnations of low carbohydrates diet. These diet fads, like fashion trends are always changing because of its extreme food restrictions.These fads are never around for long because not many can force their selves into the kind of deprivation diet it requires of people. Weight loss diets easily become dull, repetitive and too limited thus people cannot stay on them for very long. The best and most realistic kind of diet is still the bal anced diet with a slightly edited calorie intake for those who seriously and medically need to lose weight. People cannot be prevented from wanting to lose weight and as such weight loss diets are still thriving businesses. Weight loss diets may be restrictive but most are generally safe to follow.The problems most people have who have discontinued dieting are the feelings of deprivation and missing the food they used to eat, and being unable to successfully fit their diets into their lifestyles. Diets only become dangerous to one’s health when they are done excessively, beyond what nutritionists have planned and what people’s bodies can handle. Pushing one’s body beyond a certain painful point can turn weight-loss diets into psychological and eating disorders. Two of the most common types of eating disorders are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.Both are expressions of dissatisfaction with one’s body size and shape and the extreme lengths of weight lo ss. Anorexia is person’s intentional deprivation of his or her self from food intake due to the fear of becoming fat. Anorexics are also psychologically disturbed believing that they are overweight despite the fact that they are already very skinny. Earlier compliments regarding their weight loss act as anorexics’ motivation and reinforcements so that they continue their practice of not eating even when they have become unhealthily thin, exceedingly weak, sick, or near death because of hunger.On the other hand, bulimia is an eating disorder wherein one goes on excessive or binge eating then as if to negate the eating, follows it with severe and harmful methods of weight control. After an uncontrolled and massive food intake, bulimics attempt to prevent weight gain by quickly purging the food from their bodies through methods such vomiting, intense fasting and repeated use of laxatives. The repeated abuse causes bulimics to become prone to stomach and esophagus ruptures , irregular bowel movement and tooth erosion.Apart from the physical harm, bulimia is also an addiction and psychological disorder. When bulimics binge on food, they feel temporary calm and separated from their depression. However it is quickly turned over by the feelings of guilt and self-loathing which compels them to purge what used to be the object of their calmness, food. Bulimics’ self-loathing and unstable personality makes it more probable that they will perform more intense forms of self-damaging actions such as suicide. Dieting can lead to dangerous and hazardous health situations when taken to the extreme.Eating disorders stemming from a person’s desire for weight-loss represent an intense lack of self-esteem and an absence of a positive body image. The lack of these personal strengths makes people predisposed to unquestioningly accepting the media’s single and prescribed definition of beauty. Dieting is one of the tools people use to reach this beaut y goals but sometime people are unable to limit the steps the take to feel attractive and accepted. Whether due to a need to improve one’s health, stay physically fit or fit the cultural notion of beauty, diets must be made wisely and realistically.

Explain why dreams and plans are so important in ‘Of Mice and Men’ Essay

George and Lennie are examples of ‘migrant’ or ‘itinerant’ farm workers who fuelled and made possible the intensive farming economy. These men would travel great distances, however they could, often by foot, or by the empty boxcars that were later used to carry the grain they helped to farm. They would receive $2.50 – $3.00 a day, plus board, which meant food and a room. The food would be very basic, the room sometimes not more than a small tent shared with many other workers. Conditions did improve for migrant farm workers at the start of the First World War, because of the industrial action in the USA at that time forced an increase in wages and therefore an increase in the price of grain. But at the time John Steinbeck wrote ‘Of Mice and Men’, advances in technology were rendering many of the farm workers obsolete, because of the improvements in industry and machinery. Before machinery came onto the farm, the mule driver was at the top of the social tree on the ranch, because of his high skills. Slim was this figure in ‘Of Mice and Men’, and he probably commanded a high wage compared to the other ranch workers. The key dream throughout ‘Of Mice and Men’ is the dream that George and Lennie gradually show us. This was the dream of most workers in all of the USA, and George, Lennie, Candy, and all the other workers on the farm all have the same dream, to own a smallholding or a small farm. Such an acquisition would mean that they would be their own boss, and make a basic but good living from their own work, instead of having nothing to show for a lifetime of hard work. America was first populated by people who came from nearly every country of the world, believing that they could escape and find their dreams in the new country where they believed there was no persecution or hatred. Others saw it as an escape from hard poverty or starvation. The American dream was focused on the fact that it represented a dream of wealth and success, and allowed men and women to have a fresh start in another country that they could build themselves. This dream survived until the late 1920’s, when the Wall Street Crash caused the Great Depression to start, and people learned that there was no more land to be bought and farmed. All the intensive farming over the years had caused the ‘dustbowl’, and many people who had borrowed money to build the farms in the dustbowl, could not now repay the money, because of the wasted land, with no farming value. The dream that George and Lennie had was becoming history. The dream of their freedom and independence was doomed right from the start of the novel. When Lennie is being pursued at the end of the book, George recites the dream to Lennie, before he shoots him. Lennie dies at George’s hands, and the dream is just as doomed as Lennie. Lennie, George, Candy and temporarily Crooks all are shown to have the dream of a small farm. It is the dream that was shared by hundreds of ranch hands at the time. The title for the book ‘Of Mice and Men’ by John Steinbeck was taken from the poem by the Scottish poet, Robert Burns. In the poem, Burns writes; The best laid schemes o’ mice and men Gang aft agley And leave us nought but grief and pain For promised joy! ‘Gang aft agley’ means that things ‘often go wrong’ George and Lennie’s dream of owning a small farm does go wrong in the end, even though it looked at one point as if it might work, when Candy joins the idea, and puts forward all his savings. But it just leaves pain and grief instead of joy. What Burns and Steinbeck are both saying is that we can lay our plans carefully, but something will always go wrong. This doesn’t mean that we should stop dreaming, and laying our plans, even though the likelihood of them succeeding is small, we still need those dreams and plans to keep us working and to keep us trying to be better, do better, earn better and have a better quality of living. The idea of mice is also a potent one, because even though Lennie is very large, he is still moved by something even bigger and stronger, in the shape of fate and destiny. Lennie is controlled by George in the same way, even though George is far smaller than Lennie is. The idea of mice is also potent because of the burrowing that mice do to make their nests, only to leave them later, not to return. The same is true for all migrant workers, constantly working to get their own farm, only to have their dreams shattered. They also move on to other places all the time, leaving their ‘burrows’ to move on. This is particularly true with George and Lennie, because of Lennie’s actions throughout the book. The dream is never realised, but much good has come from the dreaming. Each of the characters has their own personal dreams: * George has the dream of owning the farm, and therefore is much more responsible with his money. He shows this in the novel when he is appalled when Lennie drinks ‘scummy’ water at the start of the novel, and does not like the thought that there may be lice in his mattress from the previous inhabitant. But sometimes you also think that he temporarily hates Lennie for the burden caused, and that he wishes that he could be alone to be less responsible for someone who thinks like a child, being an adult. George says,’ God a’ mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy.’ when he is in one of his rages with Lennie. He also seems to think badly of some people and he wishes to hurt them to stop them hurting Lennie, for example, Curley, when he says to Lennie to ‘get’ Curley, and you almost sense joy in his voice. * Lennie is a strange character when it comes to dreams, because the dream of owning a small farm is all that he really remembers. But he also wants to please George very badly, because George is his companion and friend. George describes at one point that he used to tell Lennie to do really stupid things, and then he was forced to realise that Lennie would do anything he said, and could be hurt or killed by his actions. Lennie is also a very clever character, because he plays with George’s conscience, shown by the incident of the mouse being taken by George at the start of the book, first showing Lennie as a simpleton. * Candy dreams of having back his right hand, and being able to have a better job. He is chained to this ranch, because he would not get a job anywhere else. He has lost all control of his life to other people, stronger, younger people, all highlighted by the incident with Candy’s Dog. He dreams of a small farm, and when he hears that George and Lennie are trying for it, he joins them, and tells them that he will give all his life’s savings to have his own land for the rest of his life, and then lose it at the end, but still to have had something to show for all the years of work. * Crooks dreams of freedom. He is a black man, in a white land, where the black people are treated as slaves. The hierarchy is shown in the incident with Curley’s wife, when she says,’ You know what I can do to you if you open your trap?’ He is also crippled, which means that he is even lower in the social hierarchy. But on the ranch, he is seen as a ‘Nice fella’ by Candy, and he is not really looked down upon by most of the characters. On the ranch he is given his own room, be it small and smelly, and he is given respect. He is very intelligent, but he has never had any opportunity to do well in his life. It is in him that we first see that the dream is impossible to really achieve. * Curley’s Wife is seen upon as dangerous by the other ranch workers because she is married to the son of the Boss, and is also married to Curley, who takes every opportunity to have a fight. Curley’s wife is very flirtatious, and has dreamed for many years of being a singer and actress, but never made it. She married the first man who came along and chose badly, and is not really treated as a person by Curley. He is very sexually orientated, as is revealed by the glove of Vaseline he wears, to keep his hands smooth. But had fate dealt her a different hand, and had she married a man who treated her as a person, she would have been a good and loving wife. She is shied away from by all the other ranch hands, but Lennie is too innocent to recognise the danger. All the characters have dreams of their own, as all people do, but in the novel, these are revealed to us. All the dreams of all the people shape the whole book, causing it to become a real story of the ranches, not just a story of a mad man and his clever friend.

Contemporary Trends in Feminist Criticism and Their Echo in Sylvia Plaths Later Poems

Contemporary Trends in Feminist Criticism and Their Echo in Sylvia Plaths Later Poems Free Online Research Papers Contemporary Trends in Feminist Criticism and Their Echo in Sylvia Plaths Later Poems This paper on womens poetry seeks to demonstrate the extent to which two of Sylvia Plaths later poems are rebellious and non- conventional for her era and how this style corresponds to two views in recent feminist criticism ; Susan Bordos reading of the female body as a meaningful text and Elaine Showalters exploration of the essential difference between female poetry and male-oriented literary texts. Showalter establishes the idea that womens writing is a basically different type of literature, deriving from the notion that women have a completely different experience and perception from men. This difference is echoed in style, structure ,language and themes of female writing, to name but a few , and has four realms of difference- biological, linguistic, psychoanalytic and cultural .I will relate to two essential realms of difference which Showalter addresses, which are broadly illustrated in Plaths poetry- the social realm which situates the woman in certain social codes and the biological/corporal one, addressed by both Showalter and Bordo. Through an analysis of two of Sylvia Plaths poems; Ariel and Tulips, written in the last months of her life, I will try to show how these insights co uld be applied to the poems and reveal how Sylvia Plaths poetry was dominated by biological/corporal concepts and imagery and social attitudes of dominance and power . Contemporary feminist critics generally agree with the fact that even the greatest male writers in literary history who wrote about strong women characters (such as Chaucers The Wife Of Bath and Shakespeares Lady Macbeth), could obviously never precisely convey what it is to be a woman and their character illustration was thus probably based on the social codes of their period and their own male perspective of women . Consequently, there is an obvious distinction between the male and female discourse, relating to the attitude and point of view of women in literature; A poetry written by men speaks a totally different language from that written by women .Womens poetry, when treated as a gendered artifact, involves, as we have seen in a close study of feminine poetry of the 19th and 20th centuries, a scrutiny of culture related issues such as power relations between the sexes, male dominance, domestic chores and responsibilities and others. It also focuses rather often on issues that are generally associated with the female body such as sex and sexuality, body image, childbirth and other female related topics. Thus, I have decided to focus on these two realms in my paper and I will look at two of Sylvia Plaths poems from this perspective. Susan Bordo, in Anorexia Nervosa: Psychopathology as Crystallization of Culture, relates to the body as not merely physical but as permeated with cultural meanings too – an insight developed in the writing of the French philosopher Michel Foucault. Foucault claimed that the human body can be observed in many fields-the historical demography or pathology, physiological, the extent to which historical processes were involved in biological events and the most profound field-the political involvement of the body which includes power relations that have a direct physical impact on the body. By asserting that cultural practices †¦.are always inscribed†¦on our bodies (Bordo, p. 142) , she does not deny this relationship between political/ social procedures and the body and claims that women are not only possessors of a body but are also associated with the body, which is part of the womans sphere. She remarks however, that the power relations which involve male (or anot her sectors) domination over the specific weaker sector (such as women) does not necessarily imply that the dominant group is always in control or that the oppressed or dominated group may not be able to take control over the situation. When Susan Bordo presents the social causes for physical disorders (such as anorexia, yet we can apply it to other factors as well), she observes the obsession with control (the control axis) and the effects of power relations (the gender/power axis) to be 2 of the most important causes for these disorders. Within the control axis, she sees the young anorecticwoman (as ninety percent of all anorectics are women) ,as possessing a feeling of control-over her hunger specifically and her body in general and over her disability to meet personal and social standards and expectationswhich she now finally accomplishes control over. This feeling of control is also shared by body- builders, which just like anorectics, are engaged in the quest for perfection w hich leads to a feeling of independence and security as soon as the goal is attained. This notion of total control is also associated with control over death, or immortality. Within the gender-power axis, Bordo discusses the effects of power relations on gender and claims that women protest against 3 things: *confining role expectations *images of women who are threatening and insatiable in physical and sexual appetites and idealistic images of the feminine. *their own desires. Gender has a fundamental role within these disorders. Many anorectics have reported to have an imaginary male dictator inside them who dominates and possesses them. Bordo proposes this male will or dominator to be the cause of the womens fear of the traditional female roles, social expectations and oppressions- which are associated with weakness and mental lassitude. Another possibility could be a deep fear of the female concept with its archetypal associations such as voracious hungers and sexual insatiability. Bordo identifies anorexia as the dimension of protest against the limitations of the ideal of female domesticity Anorexia is thus, a rejection of the traditional domestic roles and social expectations and of the ideal femininity of the full figured, large breasted woman. These pathologies of female protest, continues Bordo, (including agoraphobia, hysteria and anorexia) function as if in collusion with the cultural conditions that produced them. Susan Bordo thus sees in the emergence of these physical disorders rebellious performances. If society wants the woman to be thin- she will almost disappear. Additionally, if society wants her to perform her domestic obligations- by falling ill she may escape these duties. In other words, the sick woman (suffering from anorexia or other disorders) is able to conform to societys expectations and rebel and reject them at the same time. These notions, although revealed and identified after 1961- the year Sylvia Plath committed suicide, can be vastly applied and are widely echoed in the poetry of Sylvia Plath , as my analysis will show. Elaine Showalter, situates the woman in literature in a different position from men, both in terms of the woman as a reader and as the writer of a literary text. In Feminist Criticism In the Wilderness, she surveys some feminist theories and consequently reaches the inevitable conclusion that womens literature is differentas it is based on womens experience and not on male assumptions- as in literature written by men about women. This female vision, which was termed by Virginia Woolf as the precious specialty, demands new models of literary criticism that are based on women experience such as relationships between women, childbirth etc. Consequently, feminist criticism, can not rely on critical tradition as it must consider its own subject, its own theory, and its own voice (Showalter, p.54). The differences in the feminine poetry lie, according to Showalter, in four realms: biological, linguistic, psychoanalytic and cultural. The biological difference, which situated the wo men as inferior by Victorian anthropologists, lies, in Showalters opinion, with which I agree, in the analogy between feminine texts and gestation, labor and childbirth. Feminist criticism stresses the body as a source of imagery. The second difference Showalter discusses, which I would like to address and which will be relevant to my poem analysis is feminine writing and womens culture. In this realm, Showalter defines a cultural theory as one which acknowledges the differences in class, race, nationality and history between men and women, and womens culture as a collective experience within the culture binding women writers over time and space. Throughout time, women have been ignored as a separate group within the general male culture. In the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the term womens sphere referred to the separate roles of men and women which had little or no overlap. In contemporary terms, Showalter mentions Shirley and Edwin Ardener who have defined the women as the muted group who are not fully contained by the dominant male group. Following this, the language belongs to the dominant group and women must speak through it. Thus, women and male circles of relationship, portray an overlap between the dominant and the muted group on the large part with a slight crescent of of the muted group – which Ardener calls wild. This wild zone, Edwin Ardener continues, generally stands for the typically female experience, life-style and imagination which is totally inaccessible for men. The wild zone actually enables women to express her revolutionary desires through language and convey her inner unexpresse d and generally repressed world. It is, as other feminist critics have termed it, a womans way of writing her way out of the cramped confines of patriarchal space ( Showalter, p.66) by traveling to a place where she can have female realization , uninterrupted by the dominant group. Nevertheless, despite this idealism, Showalter denies this possibility of a wholly feminist structure, completely outside the dominant structure .Consequently, womens writing is generally addressed as a double –voiced discourse which must cohere the social , literary and cultural heritage of both groups. This means that a womans writing can never be strictly feminine or mothered, but would convey a dual parented voice- one which will be both fathered and mothered and which has both a dominant and a muted plot. The poem Ariel, at its basic level of plot, tells the story of a runaway horse ridden by the speaker , conveying to the reader a sense of thrilling self-imperilment from the speakers side. The metaphor of flying and motion throughout the poem gives the reader a feeling of rage or even violent action on the side of the speaker. It conveys the feeling of lack of control, (the speaker is not able to control the horse and tries unsuccessfully to hold on to his brown neck- line 9), of getting away or escaping, of leaving everything behind and perhaps even creating a new identity.This can be seen as the poets desire to break free from the duties , traditions andexpectations of society.(it seems like the childs cry in line 24 reminds the speaker of her motherly duties; childbirth or taking care of children from which she is released for the time being ) .On the other hand there is a notion of power; the speaker is invested with power – she is able to escape reality and perhaps create a new one- one in which she will be dominant and will invest complete power. The change of images following one another in quick succession and the quick pace of change give us readers again the impression that the speaker is flying on the horse and wants to get away. The question which crossed my mind is whether this escape is a metaphorical one- from her reality and duties, or is it an actual desire to get away from this world- a desire for death.(Sylvia Plath committed suicide a few months after the poem was written). This idea of leaving the world and its duties, traditions and customs can also be seen in the image of Godiva unpeeling Dead hands, dead stringencies .Yet, when the speaker flies into the red eye(which I observe as the rising sun), this can be seen both as having her wish granted- dying by burning from the suns heat or a rebirth- dying only to be born again out of the ashes. It is merely a metaphorical death in which the speaker to peel off all social co nstraints, duties and limitations .This notion of rebirth seems to be expressed in her hopeful ending- the cauldron of morning in which the sun rising in the morning reflects the hopeful rebirth and re-illumination of another day. The poem , which is written in a dual or double voice, contains both a female voice and language full of feminine and sexual images; Gods lioness, Thighs ,hair, flakes from my heels(arouses a sexual connotation), Godiva, and the childs cry- (feminine duties). Additionally the poem proposes on The one hand to convey a feeling of powerlessness and fragility of the woman rider who has to struggle for control over her horse. On the other hand, there is the notion of power, force and control which are conventionally male traits. She wants to escape, she wants to be like an arrow which is endowed with that force and even manages to become one for a while. Yet, soon after she returns to the female fragility of the dew – which will surely be consumed by the sun. There is a constant battle of forces between the fragile woman speaker and the male stronger forces such as the horse and the sun. In relation to Elaine Showalters article, what comes into focus in this poem is the cultural and feminine chores which Sylvia Plath abandons and wishes to escape, and the use of the body as a source of imagery as suggested by Showalter .As Showalter suggested that women writers have their own unique language which is based on feminine experience, Sylvia Plath speaks a language endowed with feminine notions (as I have previously discussed). Moreover, she makes a vast use of the wild zone mentioned by Showalter and within this zone tries to break free from convention. Only by making this journey with Ariel and reaching its final destination, can she find her way out of this confined world (literally or metaphorically) , uninterrupted by the dominant male group. In this poem Plath actually takes control over the situation and causes change .As Susan Bordo asserts, the power relations between the dominant group and women does not always imply that women are always dominated by the dominant group (although it is conventionally so). Thus, in Ariel the speaker does not allow the dominant group to overcome her and takes control by escape. Sylvia Plaths obsession with control, as seen in this poem, e nded in a state of gaining control (death or abandonment of conventional life) . This may seem parallel to the anorectic woman who seeks for control over her physical hunger and her body. As soon as the goal is attained, the anorectic woman gains a feeling of accomplishment and control just as Sylvia Plath has a feeling of hope and accomplishment at the end of Ariel. When Bordo defines anorexia as a rebellious act against social conventions of the full figured, domestic female figure, this is highly echoed in Ariel in which we observe the speaker as a rebellious figure, denying conventional social roles and seeking to escape. Many of these notions appear in another poem of Sylvia Plath, Tulips. In Tulips the speaker who is lying in hospital, feeling immense peacefulness, having given up all her responsibilities, identity and connection to the world I am nobody; I have nothing to do with explosionshave given my name and my day-clothes up to the nurses†¦ .However, this peacefulness is disrupted by the red tulips which were sent by her husband, invading her privacy and feeling of detachment from the world, reminding her of the outside world which she is currently separated from. The idea of lying in bed being ill is parallel to Susan Bordos notion of the nature of anorexia as a rebellious reaction to social norms. By lying in bed the woman denies her identity and social duties and is able to reach an escape from duties without being expected to perform these duties( being ill). At the beginning of the poem, Plath illustrates her total tranquility and passivity , allowing herself to be complet ely taken care of by others my body is a pebble to them†¦ . This escape from her life and duties also relates to what Showalter mentions in relation to the cultural realm of difference in female literature, which is influenced by the cultural roles of women. Here, Plath has found a way to escape her domestic chores. This situation is her wild zone in which she is able to fulfill her desires. This is why she is so angry at the invasion of the tulips of the new world she has temporarily created for herself. The red tulips, disrupting the whiteness and purity of the hospital room, are a symbol of the outside room, her family and reminders of the social duties she will have to return to. By attacking even the pictures of her husband and child ( their smile catch onto my skin, little smiling hooks), she makes this idea very clear .As the poem proceeds, she personifies the tulips (†¦hear them breathe†¦redness talks to my wound†¦now I am watched†¦) and blames them for consuming her oxygen and choking her. Like in Ariel, this escape from domestic and social traditional roles can be seen also in the light of Elaine Showalters article who cites Shirley and Edwin Ardener who perceived the female wild zone as a situation created by women where they do not wish to be interrupted by the male. The tulips, sent by the male(her husband) are in fact trespassing into her wild zone where men have no place. This wild zone, besides being an escape can also be regarded as a yield for death. She is situated in state of not living , being underwater (the water went over my head), feeling numb seems close to being dead. Death is symbolized by the whiteness and purity of the hospital (opposed to the living red tulips). The idea of quietness and purity of death as a goal may be echoed in Bordos perception of the anorectics feeling of control over physical limitations ( which death is apparently one of them and may be seen as the highest form of control). Research Papers on Contemporary Trends in Feminist Criticism and Their Echo in Sylvia Plath's Later PoemsAnalysis Of A Cosmetics AdvertisementCanaanite Influence on the Early Israelite ReligionInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesResearch Process Part OneHip-Hop is ArtMind Travel19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraThe Masque of the Red Death Room meaningsMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever ProductEffects of Television Violence on Children

Saint Marys University of Minnesota Admissions Data

Saint Mary's University of Minnesota Admissions Data Saint Marys University of Minnesota Admissions Overview: Admissions at Saint Marys University are generally openin 2016, the school admitted over three-quarters of applicants. Students with good grades and test scores within or above the ranges listed below have a good chance of being accepted to the school. In order to apply, interested students will need to submit an application (which can be sent in online), official high school transcripts, scores from the SAT or the ACT, and a writing sample. For complete requirements and other important information (like deadlines and addresses), be sure to visit the schools website. If you have any questions about applying, or would like to visit the campus, be sure to get in touch with the admissions office at Saint Marys. Admissions Data (2016): Saint Marys University of Minnesota Acceptance Rate: 79%Test Scores 25th / 75th PercentileSAT Critical Reading: 460  / 540SAT Math: 440  / 570SAT Writing: - / -What these SAT numbers meanACT Composite: 20  / 26ACT English: 19  / 25ACT Math: 19  / 26What these ACT numbers mean Saint Marys University of Minnesota Description: Saint Marys University of Minnesota is a private, Lasallian Catholic university whose 400-acre undergraduate campus is located in Winona, Minnesota, a town about 50 minutes east of Rochester. The university has a 13 to 1 student / faculty ratio, and undergraduates can choose from roughly 60 bachelor degree programs. The university ranks highly among midwestern colleges, and results from the National Survey of Student Engagement show that most Saint Marys students found their college experience to be extremely positive. On the athletic front, the Saint Marys Cardinals compete in the NCAA Division III Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC).   Enrollment (2016): Total Enrollment: 5,640  (1,590 undergraduates)Gender Breakdown: 46% Male / 54% Female73% Full-time Costs (2016- 17): Tuition and Fees: $32,575Books: $1,300 (why so much?)Room and Board: $8,635Other Expenses: $1,490Total Cost: $44,00 Saint Marys University of Minnesota Financial Aid (2015- 16): Percentage of New Students Receiving Aid: 99%Percentage of New Students Receiving Types of AidGrants: 99%Loans: 63%Average Amount of AidGrants: $21,115Loans: $8,368 Academic Programs: Most Popular Majors:  Accounting, Business, Criminal Justice, Human Resources Management, Marketing Retention and Graduation Rates: First Year Student Retention (full-time students): 70%4-Year Graduation Rate: 51%6-Year Graduation Rate: 61% Intercollegiate Athletic Programs: Mens Sports:  Track and Field, Soccer, Ice Hockey, Swimming and Diving, Golf, Baseball, Basketball, Tennis, Cross CountryWomens Sports:  Ice Hockey, Swimming and Diving, Volleyball, Basketball, Track and Field, Softball, Golf, Tennis, Cross Country Data Source: National Center for Educational Statistics More Minnesota Colleges - Information and Admissions Data: Augsburg  | Bethel  | Carleton  | Concordia  College  Moorhead  | Concordia  University  Saint  Paul  | Crown  | Gustavus  Adolphus  | Hamline  | Macalester  | Minnesota  State  Mankato  | North  Central  | Northwestern  College  | Saint  Benedict  | St.  Catherine  | Saint  Johns  | Saint  Marys  | St.  Olaf  | St.  Scholastica  | St.  Thomas  | UM  Crookston  | UM  Duluth  | UM  Morris  | UM  Twin  Cities  | Winona  State Saint Marys University of Minnesota Mission Statement: mission statement from  smumn.edu/about/mission-vision Enriched by the Lasallian Catholic heritage, Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota awakens, nurtures, and empowers learners to ethical lives of service and leadership.

Adolescent pregnancy Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Adolescent pregnancy - Assignment Example The ultimate result is usually unplanned pregnancy at teenage age. Lack of proper guidance from parents or caretakers is a factor that leads to teenage pregnancy. This is because such teenagers require support and appropriate guidance during their adolescence stage (Macleod, 2003). Teenage pregnancy carries with itself colossal amount of health risk to the baby, mother and the society. According to WHO, pregnancy and childbirth related complications are the second causes of death among teenagers globally. Some of the risks that teenage pregnancy pose to the baby include delivery of low birth weight babies that predispose them to lifelong conditions, reduced developmental milestone leading to intellectual and socio-emotional delays. The risk to the mother includes school dropout, abortions, psychological problems like depression, low self-esteem because she feels neglected by the peers. She can as well have medical complications during delivery because of inadequate and immature pelvis. Teenage pregnancy risk to the society include influence on other younger girls who may see it as a fashion and try it, burden to the maternal child health clinic, reduced economic output since they are not working and drop out of school (Crittenden, Boris, Rice, Taylor, & Olds, 2009). The Maryland family planning health programme is involved in prevention of teen pregnancies. The programme funds young adult and teen pregnancy prevention. This programme aims to reach several youths who are at risk of being pregnant. Its main theme is advocating abstinence and offering tools that help to delay sexual activity and unplanned pregnancies. The national support centre for state teens is involved in youth activism by critically putting in place policies that address teen pregnancies. They support and strengthen the states capacity to stop teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. They offer services like