In-Class Assignment 3/27

Businesses around the world are looking for more sensible business decisions for both the short and the Long term. With vast new improvements in technology businesses are at the forefront of developing new techniques, and attempting to prolong the use of these techniques. Sustainability combines many different disciplines and combines there viewpoints. Therefore instead of focusing solely on sustainability as a whole, we will need to break up the disciplines that comprise sustainability. Sustainability can be broken up globally and specifically for business aspects. For business, sustainability majors would be in charge of finding a way to cut costs, or developing new policies used to improve work efforts. On the other hand a sustainability major looking at the global scale could be asking questions on how to sustain our environment. The types of questions asked from this discipline really will vary due to the type of field each person is specific in. With that being said each sustainability major will have different filters to their questions. What those filters might be we do not know yet. Although this might not be a bad thing. All of the different disciplines that comprise sustainability will add to the amount of questions that can be asked. This brings us back to our main point that sustainability is a very diverse department. As we look closer at the questions we have to ask, we may run into an abyss. An abyss of questions that never end. As my partner and I discuss the implications of becoming a sustainability major we have came across that we both excelled in all aspects of school, not just one study. So now we can look at what we don't know. We don't know how a sustainability major would go about approaching a problem, as well as how they would solve it. Addressing this in our interview would be the first step to understanding. It would seem to be beneficial to be able to pick the brains of people in different industries with a similar sustainability background. Knowing how someone approaches a problem would ultimately help us understand our major much more, as well as helping us figure out how to ask questions in this specific discipline. To the best of my knowledge each situation will be different in sustainability. This is the main question we will need answered to move ahead; Does each specific project need to be approached in a different way? Or does each problem have a universal approach by the sustainability discipline. Are hypothesis needed in sustainability? Businesses hire sustainability majors to save them money, while the government hires them to help keep the earth clean and green. Sustainability majors have limitless possibilities with what their job details might entail.

Interview Questions

1. What is the main goal of studying sustainability? What are the experts in Business Sustainability trying to accomplish? Do you believe they are trying to accomplish a common goal, or do they have different ideals?
2.  What are the main ideas, principles, and theories that guide thinking within Business Sustainability? Is there a specific mindset that a person needs to have when entering the field?
3. What, if anything, is taken for granted in this discipline?
4. What kind of information and proof is used to settle controversial disputes within the discipline?
5. Is there somewhat of a cutoff line where a project or belief is "not sustainable enough?"
6. How important do you think your fieldwork is for society?
7. What are current debates in your field?
8. What sources do you view as credible when learning new management tactics?
9. If the field of Business Sustainability were to devote all of its time, energy and resources to one thing in your field what would it be?
10. What assumptions do people who study your discipline hold?

Blog Due 3/26

     After reading Henry David Thoreau's "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For", "Our Picture of the Universe" by Stephen Hawking, and Ruth Benedict's "The Individual and the Pattern of Culture", I discovered that they address several questions in the "Essential Questions" handout. While all three readings have an abstract connection, each reading answers different questions from the handout that are more specific to the topic and its purpose. First, in "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For" by Thoreau, he begins his piece of writing by describing a peaceful scene where he describes what Walden Pond looks like where he worked cutting down pines that were to be used as timber to build himself a home. In his writing, Thoreau describes many modern commodities as unnecessary and redundant in a sense. He insists that we do not really need things like newspapers and post offices. While he has a valid argument, I disagree with him. Simple things like that make day-to-day tasks much more simpler and improve our quality of life in general. Yes, they make life a little more complicated, so I would agree with him on that. In "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For", Thoreau emphasizes the simplicity and beauty of humanity and nature and how we need to appreciate it much more than we do. Sometimes we take for granted the little things, but we should not, because we may never get them back.
     The second piece of writing, "Our Picture of the Universe" by Stephen Hawking, unlike Thoreau, focuses more on ideologies and beliefs.  In his writing, Stephen Hawking focuses on explaining why society should focus on sharing one simple ideology. He goes into physics and talks about Newton but makes it a point that it is flawed and it does not accurately represent the theory of the entirety of humanity as a whole. I feel like Thoreau and Hawking kind of had the same argument, but Thoreau took a more simplistic route and Hawking took it up a notch and went in depth, taking a more scientific approach.
     Finally, the third reading, "The Individual and the Pattern of Culture" written by Ruth Benedict, takes yet another different route to state her argument. In "The Individual and the Pattern of Culture", Benedict correlates and establishes a connection between society and the infamous "social structure". Benedict describes every social status and explains how they all come together to form a whole. I agree with Benedict's argument that the culture that we are born into shapes us, but there may always be exceptions. Her argument may not apply to everyone out there, so I believe she should have included a sort of gray area for those that do not necessarily conform to society.

Blog Due 3/19

Both Duke University´s Thompson Writing Program ¨Short Guides to Writing for Specific Disciplines¨ and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill´s ¨The Writing Center¨ boast many valuable resources available to students during the writing process. However, Duke University´s writing guide is geared more towards a specific subject or discipline. For example, if you are writing a history paper and need help, Duke University´s website would provide the best guidance. On the other hand, The University of Carolina at Chapel Hill´s guide is a bit more general, focusing on the entirety of an essay. This writing guide has two columns titled "Writing the Paper" and "Citation, Style, and Sentence Level Concerns" which have essential material that one should look over when writing a paper in college. The Writing Center, created by University of North Carolina, has a third and fourth column titled "Specific Writing Assignments/Contexts" and "Writing for Specific Fields" respectively. The third column provides help when writing a business letter, a resume, a report, etc. I found this very helpful, because even though we might have been taught the formats and how to write these types of writing some time along high school, we definitely need to how to write these specific forms of documents if we want to be taken seriously by our professors and potential employers. The fourth column is similar to Duke University's Thompson Writing Program. It bestows multiple handouts on different subjects, such as philosophy, drama, and history. I also found this very helpful because it explicitly tells you how to build a dissertation and argue it in order to persuade the audience in the writer's favor. Because the Duke University Thompson Writing program is tailored to a specific audience looking for help in a definitive topic, I believe that it provides crucial guidance to a person writing about a topic within the Arts or Sciences department. Once you click on a certain topic, such as Communications or Drama, you are directed to a type of handout that has a great amount of information, all the way from helping the student understand their assignment to helping them select a topic. While these guides intend to help those writing about a distinct discipline, any student can skim through all the guides and retrieve valuable information that may help him or her write their paper. After exploring through both Duke University's Thompson Writing Program and The University of Carolina at Chapel Hill's Writing Center and the writing guides they have to offer, I will definitely keep them on hand the next time I have to write an essay for any of my classes. Both websites provide quality information that will help any college student having a rough time writing a college paper. Even if a student feels confident about his or her writing, I would still suggest consulting these two handy websites on their next assignment. Even though both websites grant some of the same information and some that is distinct from one another, I admit that both sites possess worthy counsel that will do nothing but improve one's writing abilities. 

Part 3

Dear Mr. Estrada,

I am currently a freshman here at Arizona State University, and I have a concern that I would like to address, for which I believe you, along with Residential Hall Association, posses an effective solution. 

Depression among college freshman is a major issue that needs to be brought out of the shadows and made known among the Arizona State University community. The transition between high school and college and from the comfort of home to living with a stranger in a dorm is not always a smooth one. Depression can be caused by many factors. Homesickness, in my opinion, is one of the major causes. Residing in a dorm and interacting with unfamiliar faces all the time can bring about a feeling of absence and loss of identity. Another main cause for despondency amid first year students is balancing one’s social life with school. By this I mean trying to meet new people and establishing social connections while maintaining a solid performance in school. The pressure in doing both can get the best of us sometimes, whether we like it or not. In addition, another cause for depression among first year college students is culture shock. The college environment is unlike any other; and, if you come from a small town or another country you will be in for a big surprise. I definitely noticed it, and I am sure many other freshmen also did. Depression has many causes and greatly affects undergraduate students.

I have experienced a little bit of unhappiness myself during my time here, and I firmly believe that if my Community Assistant and Peer Mentor were trained to address matters like these I would be comfortable going to them for advice and consolation. For many, it is much easier to open up to people who are around their same age, which is why I believe not very many college students seek assistance from the counseling department at Health Services. Because Community Assistants and Peer Mentors literally live a few feet away from us it would be so much more convenient and accessible for us dorm residents to go to them whenever we see necessary if they had the proper training and certification.

Because Residential Hall Association is involved in managing university housing and improving the overall housing experience, they would serve as my ideal audience for my proposal. RHA is deeply involved with student life at the dormitories so they would understand how big of an impact this would have on first year students here at Arizona State University. Their purpose is to improve the overall experience for college freshman and adding this service would only have even more of a positive impact on dorm residents. In the past there have been suicides here on campus and it is simply unacceptable that suicide after suicide there are not further precautions and concerns being taken into account. I cannot imagine being a parent of an ASU student receiving a phone call saying my child has caused self-inflicted injuries because of depression. What would that say about Arizona State University as an educational institution? I love my school and I am happy to be attending here, and I would like to see everyone else around me also cheerful and optimistic. After all, college is a major stepping stone in life and if ASU can do something as simple as providing guidance to Community Assistants as to how to deal with their resident’s depression there is no reason why they should not take action. 

I would like to thank you for your time, and take my proposal into consideration. Residential Hall Association has the power to do this and more, and I strongly believe this would add a great amount of depth to RHA and would receive a lot of support.

Sincerely,

Regina Soto

Part 2

Depression is something that is very common among society, and even more prevalent in a college setting, especially in a large institution like Arizona State University. Community Assistants, Peer Mentors, and dorm residents are all here for the same purpose- attend school and adjust to college, all while developing a strong relationship in the dorm community. Because the issue I am addressing pertains to college freshman living in the dormitories on campus, the ideal audience for my proposal would be Residential Hall Association. As stated on their website, RHA is “student-run organization here on campus. We seek to create the greatest residential experience here on the Tempe campus. Every resident is a member of RHA. We are here for all 7,000 residents, and provide for them through our four pillars: Leadership Development, Advocacy, Programming, and Regional Involvement” (“What Is RHA?”).

RHA is in charge with a great part concerning student housing on campus, so if anyone, they are the go-to organization when it comes to bringing forth this issue. Once the issue has been brought to the attention of Residential Hall Association, they would know where to go from there. Residential Hall Association is also in charge of selecting Community Assistants and Peer Mentors, which is extremely helpful, as they would be familiar with the duties of a CA and what can be done concerning college depression.

WORKS CITED

"What Is RHA?" ASU RHA. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2013.

Part 1

One of the main things that is encrypted in American society nowadays is to improve our quality of life and accomplish our goals by attending a post-secondary institution. There are several aspects that come along with this process: there are applications and scholarships to be filled out, colleges and universities to be visiting, and finally selecting the ideal school for you and ultimately attending it. Wherever that school may be located, one thing is for certain- one will endure an abounding amount of new experiences. One of the main and most difficult experiences a college student will encounter throughout their journey through college is depression.

At one point, perhaps over the first month of school or during stressful finals week, college students will go through a phase of despondency, especially as freshman. As stated in the scientific journal “Depression and Related Problems in University Students” by researchers Field, Diego, Pelaez, Deeds, and Delgado, “The incidence of depression in university students is not only increasing in foreign countries but also in the U.S. In a 2005 national survey of college counseling center directors, 86% reported an increase in severe psychological problems including depression (Gallagher et al, 2005). This increasing incidence is problematic given that Major Depression Disorder in adulthood has its first onset during or shortly before college age (Kessler et al, 2005) (Field et al. 194). Not only does Major Depression Disorder begin displaying its symptoms in people in their late teens and early twenties, that also happens to be the approximate ages people move out from home to attend college. As stated in Maclean’s Canadian news magazine, “In preliminary findings from an unpublished study involving several U.S. schools, Cornell psychologist Janis Whitlock found 7.5 per cent of students who started university with no history of mental illness developed some symptoms. About five per cent who did have a previous history of mental illness saw symptoms increase while at university. She says, ‘there's probably never been a more complicated time to be growing up than right now’” (Lunau). The studies show it, we have experienced it, the problem is apparent; depression is prevalent among college freshman.

Perhaps a closer look at the causes of college depression will help us better understand the issue and what can be done about it. Moving from the comfort of your home and adjusting to a foreign city and living in a diminutive dormitory unquestionably has an impact mentally and physically. For some, this transition is easier than for others. Based on my personal experience at Arizona State University and the interactions I have had with other freshman during my time attending this institution, I have received mixed responses. However, I have noticed that a large part of the freshman population has experienced homesickness at one point or another since their move to Tempe. Because the move is so recent and our life is changing so rapidly, I believe depression affects college freshman the most.

Furthermore, another cause for college depression is culture shock. In addition to being homesick, college culture is different than everything else out there in the world. Upon my arrival to Arizona State University, I was astounded as to how, in a sense, college students are secluded from the rest of society. As mentioned in a research paper in the scientific journal Education for Health: Change in Learning & Practice, “Students living in university residences everywhere experience frail living conditions, being away from their homes and families, due to the stress of studies and absence of readily available guidance for academic and non-academic problems” (Shaikh and Deschamps vol. 19). In addition to Shaikh and Deschamps’ observations, college students face the pressure of developing a social life and being accepted among everyone else, all while doing well in school. With all of these burdens one cannot help but break at one point. Being in college is difficult, and being able to handle everything is even more laborious.

Depression brings about nothing but bad repercussions, as it is detrimental to our health and, in some cases, may even cause death. Moreover, depression causes sleep disturbances. If a student is not getting the ideal amount of sleep a day it will eventually affect his or her performance in school, in addition to mood swings and a poor diet. Also proven in Education for Health: Change in Learning & Practice, “Isolation, fatigue, stress, depression, and difficulties in coping with day-to-day problems are frequent notions associated with student populations. Lack of balanced diet is often related to difficulty in managing time and finances while living in university residences (Shaikh and Deschamps vol. 19). This is not the way to start college, and much less the way for someone to be living their life.

To my knowledge, Arizona State University has taken matters into their own hands to help solve and eradicate this issue. There are counseling services offered at Health Services in each of the four campuses, along with medication and psychotherapy sessions. In addition to counseling, Arizona State University offers a vast amount of student activities and clubs that students may choose to become involved in. While these courtesies are greatly appreciated and helpful to an extent, not very many people actually take advantage of these services. Many times freshman are not very familiar with the campus, they do not know counseling is even offered, or they simply cannot afford it.

There are multiple solutions to prevent and diminish depression among college freshman. One solution would be to advertise the amenities Health Services has to offer a little more. A good way to do that would be to send a massive email to new coming freshman and post informative posters around the dormitories. Another possible solution could be that ASU could sponsor counselors about twice a month to come to the lounges at the dorms and students could have a session with them at no cost. However, the solution that I believe would be the most effective would be to train Community Assistants in counseling and how to deal with depression. From personal experience, I feel much more comfortable talking to someone around my age about my problems and dilemmas rather than an adult. If Community Assistants and Peer Mentors were qualified to deal with these types of issues I believe this would dramatically decrease the amount of college depression among college freshman at Arizona State University.

Works Cited

JEANNETTE DELGADO, et al. "Depression And Related Problems In University Students." College Student Journal 46.1 (2012): 193-202. Academic Search Premier. Web. 25 Feb. 2013.

          "THE BROKEN GENERATION. (Cover Story)." Maclean's 125.35 (2012): 54-58. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Feb. 2013.

          Shaikh, Babar, and Jean-Pierre Deschamps. "Life In A University Residence: Issues, Concerns And Responses." Education For Health: Change In Learning & Practice (Taylor     & Francis Ltd) 19.1 (2006): 43-51. Academic Search Premier. Web. 25 Feb. 2013.