Juggling studies with work and personal obligations is an act that the majority of college students will have to master.  For most people, enrolling in college is the first step on a path to a more rewarding career.  The majority of students need to keep a part time job to supplement the ever increasing expenses associated with getting an education.  Many have families to support, and children who require time and attention.  Students without children will also find that there is always something remaining or being added to their to-do lists, be it work or school related.  Some are lucky enough to be employed by companies that help them pay tuition.  In order to avoid a negative impact on their scholastic performance, students must manage their time efficiently and prioritize their studies.  They must find a happy medium that allows them enough time to excel in school while earning a living and fulfilling their familial obligations.

Institutional knowledge is expensive.  Many students will be paying off tuition debts long after they graduate.  Financial aid and grants seldom cover the entire cost of school and many students must take out loans to finance their education. Books alone can cost thousands of dollars.  When the cost of living is factored into the equation, students quickly realize they will need a job to make ends meet.  If possible, students should try to find an entry level job related to their field of study.  By the time they graduate and pursue their career full time, they will already have valuable work experience.

Research shows that working while attending college is indeed beneficial.  As they pull themselves up by their bootstraps, successful working students learn to manage their time and make use of every free second to work ahead.  When they can balance their time and efforts between school and work they will find they are better able to focus in both settings.  The juggling act increases a student’s ability to multi-task, a trait which is highly favorable and increasingly necessary to be successful in the “real world”.  In “The Multitasking Generation”, Claudia Wallis asserts that “the quality of one’s output and depth of thought deteriorates as one attends to ever more tasks.” As such, it is important for the student to find a rhythm and work load that isn’t overwhelming. If a student should find that their work schedule and or family obligations are hindering their performance in school, they would be well served to take a class or two less.  This will ease the stress and allow them the extra time and freedom they need to excel in their remaining classes.  It may take longer to attain the degree, but that is a small price to pay for a better quality of life, not to mention better results.

It’s no secret that the social aspect of college is of great importance to students.  Meeting and learning about new people from different places and partying are collegiate rites of passage. With the majority of their time being dedicated to work and studies, students have to accept the fact that their time for play is limited.  However, since they are gainfully employed, they will be able to afford the well deserved occasional night out with friends.

It is an advantage to have a job while attending school.  In “Less Is More: A Call For Shorter Work Hours”, Barbara Brandt writes about how Americans are spending more time at work than ever before.  She points out that “almost every other industrialized nation (except Japan) has fewer working hours and longer vacations than the United States.”  The extra effort it takes to be successful in school and at work at the same time will prepare students for the rigors of an eventful and productive career.  These graduates are better prepared to work harder, longer.  Juggling part time work and college increases the amount of responsibility one can bear in their career.  The process yields a more mature employee with a greater respect for hard work.

One would be remiss not to educate themselves on the customs and values of other cultures.  When traveling, they may unwittingly commit cultural faux-pas, offending natives.  In “Norms”, Mary Fjeldstad noted that someone eating with their bare hands instead of silverware in America would evoke ridicule and criticism, while in some African villages, eating with hands is the custom, practiced on pain of sanction.  Someone from a different country speaking a different language could be the perfect spouse or an invaluable lifelong friend, but if you are alienated by their traditions and you can’t understand their language, communication is almost impossible and the relationship never develops.  In the work place, which is becoming increasingly multicultural, it is essential for people to work together efficiently to achieve goals.  When employees understand the cultures of their colleagues, they communicate more effectively which results in an increase in productivity.  Corporations depend on managers who understand the dynamics of multiple cultures to ensure this environment of synergy.  In a perfect world, everyone would have knowledge of culture.  Unfortunately we live in a historically intolerant world, where wars have been fought and countless lives have been lost due to simple differences in culture.

Our ability to understand other cultures is contingent upon the understanding of our own.  Our own culture is the part of education that occurs in the home.  It is the way parents speak, their mannerisms, their way of doing things, and their traditions.  It is the type of food they cook, the music they listen to, and the paintings they hang on their walls.  These are the things that shape our lives as human beings.  In an essay entitled “Culture”, Clyde Kluckhohn writes about meeting a young man who spoke no English in New York City.  The blond haired, blue eyed, American by blood had been orphaned and raised in a remote Chinese village.  Kluckhohn was impressed by the Chinese influence on the man’s body language and modes of thought.  He explains “The biological heritage was American but the cultural training had been Chinese.”

As a child, I attended a school with only a handful of minority students.  I was fascinated by the self segregation that was instinctually practiced by my monocultural classmates.  Being born into a multicultural family, I had no aversions to interacting with people who spoke and looked different; it was second nature to me.  Even at that young age, it was all too clear to me that my classmates had deemed me different, and this precluded them from interacting with me in the same way they would with the kids that looked more like themselves.  Consequently, my social experiences at school as an outsider differed dramatically from that of one among the herd.  This could be seen as a disadvantage, but to me, it was as if I had a bird’s eye view of the big picture from the start, while my classmates took years to develop their ability to see the forest for the trees.  The experience fostered a degree of social independence in me.  By the time I reached high school, I still observed segregation but it was based less on culture and more on socioeconomic background.

Every culture has its stereotypes.  This is neither good nor bad, but unfortunately stereotypical statements sometimes serve as fodder for the prejudice and intolerant. When we break down the stereotypes associated with our own culture, we become less inclined to base our knowledge and opinions about other cultures on their respective stereotypes. Many stereotypes are statements of absolutely no consequence, and upon closer examination, we usually discover that some of these assumptions are either erroneous or true of all people.  For example, the stereotype that Black people like fried chicken – So what?  Chicken is a fundamental staple in the diet of almost every culture.  After the attacks of September 11, 2001, the stereotype asserting that all Muslims are terrorists gained a lot of popularity.  It is simply a false and ridiculous claim.  The vast majority of Muslims condemn such acts of terror, just as the vast majority of Catholics condemn the IRA for its radical actions.  Extremists seeking to terrorize others can be found in any group.

A globalized economy means that more than ever before business is being done between companies based in different countries.  An American clothing company imports textiles from India; A British company builds computers with chips from Taiwan.  The companies employ multi lingual liaisons who well versed in the customs of other cultures to travel between countries, and strike lucrative business deals.  In marketing, it is essential to have knowledge of different cultures to produce ad campaigns that don’t alienate consumers.

Culture is interesting.  It explains a lot about a person.  We should take care not to let our differences divide us.  We should embrace the nuances of other cultures. In a presentation called “Cultural Journey”, Professor Mohamed Zefzaf notes that all humans are 99% genetically identical and we shouldn’t get hung up on less than a percent of difference.  Our culture gives us individuality which makes the world a much more interesting and vibrant place to spend a life time.  One would be remiss not to educate themselves on the cultures of others; they would miss out on many of life’s most precious gifts.

Ever since Gutenberg’s Press heralded the dawning of the Third Information Age, civilization has fundamentally progressed and benefited from several technological advancements in mass media.  Gutenberg’s press made it possible to mass produce literature which resulted in an explosion of information and knowledge amongst common people.  Four-hundred years later, the Linotype Machine would automate the typesetting process, introducing the keyboard.  Daguerre’s Daguerreotype made it affordable for people to have a true likeness made without having to commission a painter for large sums of money.  Muybridge would take photography a step further by lining up a series of cameras to create short stop-motion pictures.  Not long after, Edison would capitalize on the new film technology with his Kinetoscope.  These technological advancements can be characterized by 3 major trends: the expansion of scientific knowledge, the increase of media and information accessibility amongst common people, and the quest for richer media to be perceived by the masses.

There were only a few books before Gutenberg’s press, all of them owned by the wealthy Aristocracy and the Church.  People got all their news from the priest at their local parish.  Gutenberg’s invention would take the power of information from the hands of controlling oppressors and place it with the common people.  The press brought about standardization of language, grammar, punctuation, and spelling.  It also fostered the standardization of the book format, with Title page, Table of Contents, Indexes, Page Numbers, and Footnotes.   Schools were popping up everywhere and pupils were educated with mass produced literature.  The influx of information meant that Scientists could read the published research and discoveries of their predecessors and push the envelope further by expanding on the shared knowledge.  The church began to lose absolute control as literacy spread.  The people began to think independently, challenging traditional power structures as they discovered discrepancies amongst written texts.

Some 440 years after Gutenberg changed the world, Ottomar Mergenthaler developed an automated machine that easily set movable type and could be operated by a single person.  The machine boasted a 90 button keyboard which operators used to quickly compose whole pages of type.  When the matrices were assembled, the machine would dip the composition in molten metal, forming one large slug for press.  When the slug was no longer needed, it could be melted down and returned to the magazine.  The linotype fundamentally changed publisher work-flows, as the pace of the newsroom was no longer limited by the tedious Gutenberg process of manually assembling type for press.

Daguerreotype portraits became popular amongst common people who couldn’t otherwise afford to have their likeness painted.  Scientists attached Daguerreotype cameras to both telescopes and  microscopes, photographing microscopic cells.  Daguerreotypes were true to life detailed likenesses, whereas paintings were only as realistic and detailed as the painter could manage. Travelers and explorers shared their daguerreotype pictures with people in foreign lands, offering them a glimpse of a place never before seen.  However, developing daguerreotypes was a very difficult and hazardous process.  Many photographers’ assistants would lose their lives, succumbing to the poisonous mercury fumes used in the process. The Mirrored surface of the Daguerreotype made its image more or less vivid depending on lighting conditions and viewing angle. Color could not be captured by this process, but it could be added later.  Like Paintings, daguerreotypes could not be duplicated into numerous copies.  Although they took much less time to produce than a painted portrait, daguerreotype photography was still light-years away from the instant shutter speeds we take for granted today.  Long Exposure times meant photo subjects had to remain still for several minutes.  Anything moving would not be captured in the photograph.  The subjects of most daguerreotype infant portraits are dead, as live babies are unable to sit still long enough to take a picture using this process.

Edison’s 1888 invention of the Kinetoscope gave birth to the motion picture business as we know it, spawning viewing parlors that charged patrons $.25 cents to view a few minutes of footage.  Edison’s Kinetoscope allowed for longer films with plots. Viewers, one at a time, were dazzled by the primitive stories.  His Camera system, the Kinetograph ,was used to capture motion on film for experiments and eventually commercial Kinetoscope pictures.  Muybridge’s complicated filming method had limited applications and his short and repetitive were a much less entertaining medium. His famous films of animals in motion such as the horse and the buffalo had scientific value in their ability to illustrate how animals run.  Edison’s Kinetoscope made improvement over Muybridge in image quality, but his films still lacked color. The films were not accompanied by any sound.  Though Edison later produced an improved version of the Kinetoscope with a phonograph attatched called the Kinetophone, the sound was not synchronized with the imagery.  Kinetoscope films could only be viewed by one person at a time, and the devices popularity would diminish in favor of projected films which could be seen by numerous audience members simultaneously.  While the masses were impressed by the technological marvel of the Kinetoscope, few could afford to shell out the $.25 cent ticket price for such a short and limited experience.

These advancements have had a profound impact on the progression of society.  They have been used by authors and journalists to disseminate news and information, by scientists to document, publish, and communicate discoveries and other important scientific data, and finally, by just about literate member of society who captures memories and seeks entertainment.  Today we can do the work of all these marvels with our personal cell phones, but before life was so simple, we depended on the revolutionary ingenuity of Gutenberg, Daguerre, Muybridge, and Mergenthaler.

Dr. Cornel West has been called the W.E.B. Du Bois of this generation. The African American scholar is a best-selling author, philosopher, critic, actor, blues man, and outspoken civil rights activist. West preaches a message of love and equality amongst all religions, colors, castes, creeds, sexes, and sexualities. He refers to everyone as his “dear brother” or “dear sister”. West is a prominent member of the Democratic Socialists of America, and describes himself as a non-Marxist socialist. He is frequently invited to share his political perspective on tv and radio. Names like John Coltrane, Herman Melville, Malcom X, The Black Panther Party, Dr. King, Du Bois, Karl Marx, and Ralph Waldo Emerson among others are found on his eclectic list of influences. West has earned more than 20 honorary degrees, and is widely cited in the popular press. He challenges his audience to question socratically, think critically, and stand against injustice. He is currently serving as Class of 1943 Professor at Princeton University where he teaches African American Studies.

Cornel Ronald West was born the 2nd of June 1953 in Tulsa Oklahoma. He was raised in Sacramento where his mother was a teacher and his father worked for the Department of Defense. His upbringing was humble and Christian. His mother instilled in him a passion for education at a very young age. Before he reached his teenage years, West developed such a voracious appetite for knowledge that his parents would frequently have to take his glasses from him at night to get him to stop reading and go to bed. By the time he was 17 years old, West was enrolled in Harvard, where he graduated magna cum laude only 3 years later with degrees in Near Eastern Languages and Civilization. His career began in his mid-twenties when he became an assistant professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Soon after, West would earn his PhD at Princeton in 1980.

West communicates with his entire body. He sways from side to side, front to back, and his maestro like hand gestures seem to direct the symphony of words that he is speaking. His accompanying facial expressions are dramatic and mesmerizing. West even sends a message with his attire. He wears a black 3 piece suit with a white shirt and black tie 365 days of the year. West explains that he was deeply influenced by the style of clothing worn by Preachers and Blues Men. When describing the symbolism of the color black, he alludes to the words of a character named Marsha from his favorite author Anton Chekhov’s Masterpiece 3 Sisters. “I am in mourning for the world,” he recites. “I have a sad soul and a cheerful disposition. I can be up, but deep down I am still trying to come to terms with the suffering of not only myself, not only of my loved ones, but of those all around the world.” In his Memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West makes light of the fact that his wardrobe is not unlike that of a funeral director.

When speaking, West often begins making his point using common language or even Ebonics, luring his audience in with an unpretentious and cool bluesman swagger only to seamlessly transition into more intellectual rhetoric. He expresses himself in such a manner that his audience can understand what he has said, even if they are unfamiliar with some of the large vocabulary words he so effortlessly employs. He commands and then holds the attention of his audience by gradually building up the intensity of his delivery. His monologues often come to a climax with him stringing together an impressive combination of multi-syllable words. Using his body language to communicate in tandem with a voice that is at once passionate and calm, meek but strong, West has an uncanny ability to convey cerebral concepts and messages to common people who may not share his extensive educational background.

West uses a variety of mediums to reach his audience. As an Ivy League professor, Dr. West lectures in classrooms packed with the best and brightest from Princeton University. West has also previously held appointments at Union Theological Seminary, University of Paris, Haverford College, Yale, and Harvard, often serving on the faculties of more than one institution at the same time. During his tenure at Harvard, West was in such demand as an educator that the university had to rent out a church to accommodate the overwhelming number of students seeking his tutelage. As a best-selling author, he has written more than 20 books, and frequently appears on a plethora of talk shows on radio and television. As a self-proclaimed blues man, West recently released a spoken word Hip Hop Album called Never Forget: A Journey of Revelations. The album boasts features from luminaries ranging from Tavis Smiley and Micheal Eric Dyson to Andre 3000, KRS-1, Talib Kweli, and Prince. Fans of the Matrix trilogy will also remember West in his role as “Councilor West” in both The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. West’s presence in all major forms of mass media is consistent with his reputation as a renaissance man.

Dr. West is a gifted communicator blessed with the ability of a Baptist preacher to inspire hope and enthusiasm. He delivers his sentiments with the eloquence of a poet, and backs up his talking points with concrete examples. He harbors a perpetual righteous indignation against injustice anywhere, and continues to champion human rights and equality in all of his endeavors.