Lesley's 340 Blog

                                                     The first step in making the world a better place seems like something with so much weight. It’s almost intimidating to think about. The first thing that comes to mind is international aid.  Coming from Kenya, I’ve always been interested in providing opportunities to developing countries because I was provided those opportunities. Often people migrate from developing countries to seek a home in a new space. However, that has consequences on their connection with their culture and community. Instead of moving people out from their home country, we could instead bring to them the opportunities they are looking for.  One specific area is in the realm of education. Education has an enormous impact on society. In developing countries, most of the leaders in society are educated. Often people try t...

  What Home Means to Me 1 Home is community, culture, and chaos. 2 Within the country is the tribe. Within the tribe is the city. Within the city is the village. Home flirts with blurred boundary lines. 3 When divergent plates move away from each other, it causes the rock to stretch because of the tension.  4 In my home, tension lives rent-free.  5 My parents never allowed me to settle in one place. They claimed that moving away would help grow a new crust. At the time, old seemed better than new. But I now know new crusts create space for a new village. 6 The first tension I felt in America was a tension of culture. Trying to make this new crust my home, I realized each home has certain rules of assimilation.  7 My community, uprooted and forced into slavery, seemed to still abide by the hierarchy structure of domestic slaves and field hands. The hierarchy showed the tension between African-Americans and Africans. The fracture in the home was first inflicted and the...

The book I chose was Between the World and Me. It is a letter from a father to his son about Black History. It is written in 3 parts. It is roughly written in chronological order as the father adapts his perspective about race. Without ruining the plot, the first part is the present and how his view on race began. The second part is about police brutality and his travel experience abroad. The third part is about how his view on nonviolent protest shifted, and he advises his son on how to move forward in a world that is focused on ensuring you stay stagnant. I think the genre of solutionist journalism is quite interesting because it isn’t clear what fits into the genre. The uncertainty in the genre then impacted my expectation of what I thought the book would be about. I expected it to be more instructional. However, it was more evolutionary because our perspective evolved as the author revealed how his perspective evolved. I found the book slightly difficult to comprehend. Not b...

The book I’m reading is Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. I also chose this book based on conversations I had with my friend. We were how race is so inundated in American society. Also, my sister recommended it. According to the blurb of the book, the book is a letter from a father to his son regarding the realities of race throughout American history. I hope to gain a deeper perspective on the nuances of race. I haven’t gotten too far into the book. My first impression was that this is the book that challenges your perspective on certain questions. With that, I mean the author dissects the motive of questions he was asked and how they relate to the institution of racism. In the beginning, his writing was hard to understand. But as I kept on reading, I started to piece together what he meant.

TO: Clark Hansen, CEO, AMDP FROM: Lesley Omenge, R&D, AMDP DATE: April 26, 2022 SUBJECT: Recommendation to Invest in Who Gives A Crap  As part of the research development department at AMDP, it is my role to find new companies to invest in! My goal is to find businesses that not only focus on financial responsibility but also on environmental and social responsibility. After researching, I would highly recommend Who Gives a Crap! Who Gives a Crap is a social enterprise that focuses on creating environmentally sustainable toilet paper from Bamboo. AMDP Standards Before exploring more about Who Gives A Crap, I will explore the standards that AMDP looks for in possible investments. Triple Bottom Line When creating a business, people often first focus on how they will gain profit. But the triple bottom line suggests a new metric for measuring a business’s impact and success. It incorporates the economy, society, and environment in one theory. This theory allows businesses to fu...

Have you ever sat in a class and wondered what is the professor talking about? I always thought that language learning was only applicable to languages such as Spanish or French. But, in the short amount of time that I have been in university, I realized that in most university classes they teach a new language: jargon. There are a few methods that I have seen professors use to teach jargon. Full Immersion : when the instructor speaks in jargon. Application : when the instructor requires you to speak in jargon Explanation : when the instructor explains the jargon in terms you understand. Full Immersion In traditional language learning, most people recommend full immersion into the language. For example, traveling to the country that speaks the language. But full immersion in a classroom often doesn’t work because of the lack of context. A lot of professors approach the full immersion technique by assuming that students are well versed in their jargon language. This often allows them to...