Week 13 - Intended Major

1) My intended major(s) is/are: Computer Science and Information Security. I have only added InfoSec as a major since attending KSU. Well, I've always liked the idea of understanding and implementing complex technical skills to build programs and secure data.

2) The four type of professional experience that can help me in my studies are:

-job shadows (where one follows around someone already in a job position that you want so that one may experience the intricacies and nuances of a real world job.)

-internships (a short-term hands-on experience which lets one maintain their study time while also working usually part-time for a company they wish to apply to and so one gets a feel for how juggling responsibilities and keeping focus will feel like)

-co-ops (basically one semester, one will study and be able to concentrate on academic responsibilities, and the next semester, one can essentially, "intern" for that period of time, allowing one to be devoted to their work) and

-volunteering (a position which one devotes time to an organization, simply because one wishes to, not because they will receive payment).

I believe an internship would be my best option. It would allow me to continue learning at school while experiencing the life of a job at a company. If I still wish to apply to that company, I can; but if I do not, then an internship will allow me to find out if that environment is right. The next best would be a co-op. It woiuld allow my to concentrate on my studies for a limited time, then be able to devote my attention full-time to a temp job position.

Week 11 - A Class Divided

1) I was very surprised by the students' reactions. At the beginning of the video, the kids seem like nice, normal people. But halfway through the "experiment", best friends are nemeses and people who didn't like each other from the start now had allies in those of the same eye color.

2) It proves human nature isn't as resilient to this type of conditioning as people thought. Many of us think this conditioning is horrid and outside of the realm of possibilities affecting us but the reality is that most of us could be made to believe something that isn't true solely because it has been repeated over and over by others. It also goes to show how malleable children's minds are and that adults need to be careful as to what teachings are introduced into their child's education.

3) Well, this experiment would obviously vary from city to city but taking metro-Atlanta as a possibility, I think this experiment would be less effective considering the amount of diversity. Growing up I had all types of friends: black, Asian, Hispanic, white, and even Indian. So from a young age, that type of "diversity = equality" thinking had been instilled in me from a young age. I don't think that experiment would take much hold in the more urban areas of a city simply because kids are more likely to be exposed to different cultures early on and learn to accept those cultures growing up.