Florence Nightingale Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Florence Nightingale - Assignment Example Nightingale not only treated the soldiers but she started working for the improvement of the conditions of the military hospitals. She wrote books on nursing and with the help of aid from friends she started a nursing school at St Thomas's hospital. Florence Nightingale was a very ambitious lady who revolutionized the criteria's of nursing. Though belonging to a rich family she chose for herself the profession of nursing and tried to change the concept of the society that nursing was a profession for the working class women and not a very respectable line of work. It was the period of the 19th century when women were struggling for their rights. Florence Nightingale played a role in the movement and she faced all the challenges that came her way which included the government of that time. She used the newspapers as her tools and worked very hard for the purpose. Florence Nightingale was a very brave and confident lady. She set an example for the women of her time. Florence Nightingal e became a nurse though she belonged to a wealthy family and nursing at that time was a profession considered to be for the working class women.

Online blog research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Online blog research - Essay Example These considerations carry even more weight when we explore the factors that will determine a successful website that markets toys. The complexity of marketing toys on the Internet begins with the target audience. The website offering toys will be visited by young children, their parents, and grandparents. There will be vast differences in Internet capability and a wide variety of tastes. The site should be simple enough to navigate for a 10-year-old child, yet offer the sense of security and trust required for an adult to feel comfortable. The test of 3 websites offered by major toy retailers showed some important differences in usability across age groups. To begin the investigation, we attempted to shop for two toys on etoys.com, toysrus.com, and fatbraintoys.com. These sites were selected by their prominence on the major search engines, which indicate they are probably most selected by consumers. While toysrus.com and etoys.com are for general toys, fatbraintoys.com has a niche market for educational toys. We looked for an erector set for a ten-year-old boy, and a Barbie doll for a ten-year-old girl. While toysrus.com used age brackets, such as 3-4 and 5-7 years of age, etoys.com and fatbraintoys.com listed each age below 8 separately. ... Shopping by department fared no better. On toysrus.com, we looked for the erector set under building sets and retrieved hundreds of different toys. Narrowing the search by age the results were still overwhelming. Simply shopping for an erector set was not realistic. Only on fatbraintoys.com was the erector set a separate category. However, the search for a Barbie doll was much simpler. ToysRUs and etoys had a listing for 'characters' and 'brand', and Barbie was listed as a main category of toy. In fact, toysrus.com had 50 items listed under the Barbie category priced from $10 to $200. The Barbie department at etoys.com had over 100 Barbie items. The site operated by fatbraintoys did not carry a Barbie doll. When the search was narrowed to the 2008 Holiday Barbie doll, toysrus.com and etoys.com had the doll and both were identically priced. All three websites offered toys that were categorized as boy's or girl's toys. Marketing differentiation is a difficult task on the Internet, and will certainly come down to product placement. Shopping for an erector set simply by narrowing the age group or shopping a department would take more time and patience than any child or adult would expend. However, all three sites have an easy to use site-specific search engine. By entering the word 'erector', all three sites returned their selection of erector sets. However, there were significant differences in the results. While etoys.com listed 3 different erector sets priced between $40 and $100, fatbraintoys.com listed 20 different sets in the range of $18 to $90. However, though toysrus.com only listed 8 different sets, they covered the wider price range of from $20 to $300. Clearly, when a consumer is shopping for a

Risk management and hedging

Risk management and hedging Risk Management And Hedging In Derivatives Market Risk management can be undertaken in several different manners, which often depends on the structure and initiatives for the specific firm. One commonly used approach is to hedge in the derivatives market, which consists of futures, forwards, swaps, CFDs, warrants, convertibles and options. Derivatives are financial instruments whose value and performance depends on the value of underlying assets, for example equities, stock market indices, exchange rates, commodities etc. The main argument for hedging is for companies to minimize risks that may arise from interest rates, exchange rates, and other market variables and volatilities. By engaging in derivatives companies manage their various risks by hedging a position, to be more certain what the outcome will be. For example, one can hedge a certain amount of currency at a future point in time, in order to know exactly how much that will be received/paid at the specific time thereby avoiding the risk of losing value because of the exchange rate risk. There are however also arguments against hedging in the derivatives market. Establishing hedging programs may be very costly, and if there are alternative and more cost efficient ways to reduce risks, such as operational and financial strategies, that could be preferable. Furthermore, sometimes hedging may lead to losses even though there is a gain on the underlying asset, which is a scenario that is difficult to explain to stakeholders. If losses appear too often, this could cause mistrust from the shareholders, and should then be avoided. One has to consider the overall trade-off between costs and savings when engaging in hedging to manage and reduce risks. It is therefore also necessary for management to undergo thorough risk assessments and to construct firm specific schedules, in order to identify the most significant risks and subsequently to establish risk preventing actions. Hedging is in addition mostly used by institutions that are extensively exposed to the various busines s and market risks, and who most of the time would benefit from undertaking such actions. However, derivatives may also be used by the private sector if necessary. The article Who Manages Risk? An Empirical Examination of Risk Management Practices in the Gold Mining Industry by Peter Tufanoexamines a new database that details corporate risk management activity in the North American gold mining industry. The article claims that academics know remarkably little about corporate risk management practice, even though almost three fourths of corporations have adopted at least some financial engineering techniques to control their exposures to intresest rates, foregin exchange rates, and commodity prices. There is little empirical support for the predictive power of theories that view risk management as a means to maximize shareholder value. The article furthermore describes risk management practices and tests their conformance with existing theory by analyzing an industry that seems almost tailor-made for academic investigation: the North American gold mining industry. These firms share a common and clear exposure in that their output is a globally traded, volatile commodity. Firms can manage this exposure using a rich set of instruments, including forward and futures contracts, gold swaps, gold or bullion loans, rolling forward commitments called spot deferred contracts, and options. Perhaps most importantly, firms in the gold mining industry disclose their risk management activities in great detail. The gold industry has embraced risk management: over 85 percent of the firms in the industry used at least some sort of gold price risk management in 1990-1993. Using industry-specific measures for firms exposures, cost structures, and investment programs, Tufano tests whether cross-sectional differences in risk management activity can be explained by academic theory. For example, theory predicts more extensive risk management by firms more likely to face financial distress, which in this industry can be measured by operating costs and leverage. Other theories posit that corporate risk management activities might be linked to risk aversion of corporate managers, and the form in which they hold a stake in the firm. These theories would predict that firms whose managers hold greater equity stakes as a fraction of their private wealth would be more inclined to manage gold price risk, but those whose managers hold options might be less inclined to manage gold price risk. This article tes ts the predictive (as compared with the prescriptive) power of the various theories, i.e., whether they help describe the choices made by firms. He finds that gold mining firms risk management decisions are consistent with some of the extant theory. Managerial risk aversion seems particularly relevant; the data bear out Smith and Stulzs (1985) prediction that firms whose managers own more stock options manage less gold price risk, and those whose managers have more wealth invested in common stock manage more gold price risk. These results seem robust under a variety of econometric specifications, and using a number of alternative proxy variables. In contrast, theories that explain risk management as a means to reduce the costs of financial distress, to break the firms dependence on external financing, or to reduce expected taxes are not supported strongly. He also finds that firm risk management levels appear to be higher for firms with smaller outside block holdings and lower cash balances, and whose senior financial managers have shorter job tenures. â€Å"Managing Foreign Exchange Risk with Derivatives†by Gregory W. Brown is a field study of HDG, a multinational manufacturing company of durable equipment with sales in more than 50 countries that actively encounters 24 different currency exchanges. Although multinational companies like HDG are always exposed to foreign exchange risk, this is one of very few studies that investigate the risk management operations for a non-financial corporation. Since multinational companies tend to be very complex, while using multiple strategies, a field study of this nature provides a deeper understanding of how the risk management process works. Dr. Brown attempts to answer to three main questions. First he wants to understandhowthe Forex risk management program is structured; second,whythe firm focuses on management of exchange risk; finallywhatHDG uses within their hedging derivative portfolio in order to minimize their foreign exchange risk. In order to get a comprehensive understanding Dr. Brown investigated HDG over 14 quarters starting from 1995 and ending in 1998. The structure of HDGs foreign exchange group consisted of 11 employees who were not considered â€Å"traders†, with an average experience of 4 years, whose focus was not only hedging foreign exchange risk. The program cost which included salaries and overhead was approximately $1.5M annually, and the overall transactional costs averaged around $2.3M annually. HDG had an actual foreign exchange risk policy which focused to reduce transactional, translational, and overall economic exposures. In order to meet this policy the group actively engaged in spot and forward contracts, currency put option, and currency call options. Traditional economic theories usually illustrate hedging Forex risk for benefits such as reducing taxable income, protecting against potential costs of financial distress, and reducing overall volatility of wealth. HDG however, focu sed its risk management program on smoothing out earnings impacts, providing the company with competitive pricing, and enabling improved internal control management. In some ways it seemed that HDG was attempting to use Forex risk hedging in a speculative attempt to increase potential income and thereby increase overall firm value. The procedure used in Forex risk hedging was quite simplistic. The department would not use live market feeds but rather sources such as Bloomberg to signify a â€Å"hedge rate† from current market rates and overall cost of derivatives. This information would then be passed onto the tax department and after review would be developed into a hedging strategy to forecast future hedging activity. Browns statistical studies of HDGs hedging activities concluded that the models R-squared value increased as the time horizon decreased. This indicated that the companies hedging activity was dramatically affected by its most recent hedging transactions. This may seem rather obvious but the strongest tests only indicated 55% in accuracy. In all Brown explains there is much more in the way of testing that needs to beconducted in order to better evaluate which additional factors significantly influence the Forex risk management of multinational non-financial companies. This study should be the start of a new investigation in understanding currency risk perspectives. In Risk Measurement and Hedging: With and Without Derivatives, Petersen and Thiagarajan (2000) explore the reasons for two gold mining companies to use opposite approaches in managing their risk, namely American Barrick, which aggressively hedges its gold price risk with derivatives, and Homestake Mining, which uses no derivatives. By studying two firms from the same industry, which hardly has any variation in product quality, the fundamental differences that lead to the different approaches in risk management can be examined. Homestake Mining is focused on developing its own properties and hence, spends more on exploration costs (capital and labour costs), which makes high gold prices profitable if they are not correlated with exploration costs. The greater need of investment capital Homestakes Mining has when gold prices are high makes reductions in the volatility of operating cash flow less valuable to it as a complete hedging would take cash flow away when gold prices are high, i.e. when Homestake Mining is in need of it. The different opportunities companies possess of also explain some reasons for different risk management strategies. Homestake Mining has for example lower costs of adjusting the mining output than American Barrick as the former can (over a short period) alter the quality of the ore that is mined. This mining strategy creates costs that vary positively with the price of gold and thus provides the firm with a natural hedge, which American Barrick does not possess of. As managers will act differently according to the risk they are personally bearing, compensation strategies is of upmost importance when it comes to risk management. Both the American Barrick and Homestake Mining use options to link the managerial wealth to the shareholder wealth, however, American Barrick does so more intensively. Also, its compensation is equity-focused where the bonuses are linked to the stock values, whereas Homestake Miningss bonuses are linked to the profitability, which explains why the latter adjusts its costs as gold prices change. The earnings are quite volatile, however through this can be reduced by different choices of accounting techniques, which is the reason for Homestake Mining to changes them in opposite direction to gold prices, where American Barrick rarely alters its accounting choices at all. From the above findings one may conclude that the choice of managing risks depends on various firms specific characteristics; their firm structure, management contracts and incentives. Specifically, it is a matter of the trade-off between costs and savings/benefits. Establishing and maintaining derivatives program is often quite costly, and therefore the alternative of using other methods to hedge risks may be preferable. In the article Hedging and Coordinated Risk Management: Evidence from Thrift Conversions, the writers argue that the firms risk management can be used to reallocate the firms total risk between different sources, rather than reduce it. So in this case hedging doesnt necessarily equal total risk reduction as often stated, but rather a technique of risk-reallocation or as an essential part of a firms profit-maximizing strategy. This becomes clearer if we separate risk in to two types, based on the activities where the firms have their comparative information advantages, namely: -Core business risk: Firms earn rents or economic profit for taking on activities bearing this risk. -Homogenous risk: Financial risk as interest rate changes, foreign currency exchange rates, or commodity prices. By contrast there is no compensation for bearing this kind of risk. (This doesnt necessarily apply if the firm has a comparative information advantage in the financial risk sector, then financial risk can then become core business risk. If we now consider a risky asset, it may be viewed as a portfolio of multiple claims from the owners. These claims are bundled together which basically means that the firm must take on all the projects if it wants any of them. A subset of these projects may be â€Å"core business projects† which have a positive NPV for the firm, and the remaining subset may be projects bearing homogenous risk with NPV = 0 (the firm hasnt any disadvantage/advantage compared to others in assessing the unsystematic risk). The total variability of a portfolios cash flow of course includes both risk types. An example of this could be a farmer expecting payment for breeding pigs. Then his superior equipment or animal feed preparation would be categorized as activities bearing core business risk, while the price of pork would be homogenous risk. When increase in total risk is costly, risk composition becomes more important as the firm value becomes a concave function of the expected cash flows. Therefore if the risky asset was separable (which it is not), we would only seek to invest in positive NPV projects with core business risk. However this is not the case and therefore we can instead make a trade off by decreasing homogenous risk while gaining additional exposure to core business risk and still maintain the target level of total risk. This substitution is called â€Å"coordinated risk management† and can be attained by the use of derivatives. They test for coordinated risk management in a sample of thrifts that convert from the mutual to stock form of ownership. These conversions have been used to recapitalize the thrift industry since 1982 where legal barriers were cleared. From 83 to 88, 571 conversions issuing stock totaling over $10 billion were completed, compared to only 130 mutual-to-stock conversions between 75 and 82. At the end of 82, stock saving and loans managed only 30% of the industrys assets, but by the end of 88, stock saving and loans controlled 74% of the industrys total assets, going from $686 billion to $1,4 trillion. These converting thrifts provided an interesting sample to test whether the use of hedging can be part of an overall strategy to increase total risk. They argued that converting thrifts will attempt to increase their overall level of firm risk following conversion due to changes that occur at the time of conversion. In other words, these institutions are a unique case relative to empirical studies of risk management that focuses on firms with incentives to decrease total risk. The reasons for converting institutions to increase total firm risk are likely because of these two major reasons: 1. A converting institutions ability to take risk increases at the time of conversion, even though the investment opportunities do not change. This is because conversion provides financial slack and access to capital markets. A conversion typically proceeds at least the book value of equity of the mutual thrift. Assuming that pre-conversion mutual equity meets regulatory capital requirements, doubling the capital ratio creates a larger borrowing capacity that can be used to double the asset size of the thrift. Increasing thrift size does not necessarily imply an increase of thrift risk. However, thrifts usually have incentives to grow by investing in riskier assets because of flat deposit insurance premiums that allow thrifts to shift risk to the government. 2. Converting institutions are predicted to increase the total firm risk following because of the change in their managers incentives for risk taking. Before the conversion, managers receive a fixed salary. But upon conversion, shareholders are able to include stock and stock options in a managers compensation contract, aligning the managers interest with the shareholders. In this situation, the manager will typically be more willing to take risks in order to maximize firm value. The Test Schrand and Unal has used sample data from conversions completed between January 1, 1984 and December 31, 1988. They have also made some selecting in the sample excluding the supervisory mergers and merger-conversions. Also they further exclude smaller companies by having a minimum limit of $100 million among the sample companys. As of the methodology Schrand and Unal have used a quantitative time-series study, where they have analyzed the changes in total risk, interest-rate risk and credit risk using an ordinary least squares method. The model is a form of a least squares method where they have added the term Time(t+k). The extra term is an indicator variable which is equal to one if quarter t is k quarters from the conversion quarters, and if not the term equals zero. As of the independent variables in the model, they can be seen as tests, indicating the differences between the risks of the average converting institution and the risks of the average institution in the control group. However the model doesnt indicate whether the interest risk and credit risk are coordinated. Therefore Schrand and Unal have used another model to analyze if there is an association between the interest risk and the credit risk. The model which is a pooled time-series cross-sectional regression is computed as follows: Here Schrand and Unal predict a positive slope between the interest risk (XSNET) and the credit risk (XSHIGH). The Empirical Results The study show that the converting institutions capital position increases with roughly 70 percent after the conversion. Also the study shows that the converting institutions significantly decrease their exposure to interest risk. However the Credit risk increases when converting, because of taking more risk in their loan portfolios. Further the study indicates that the investment patterns are related to the actual conversion rather than the time-trend within the industry. Also they conclude that the increased use of derivatives is a strategic decision and not a mechanical phenomenon. References Brown, G. W. (2001), â€Å"Managing foreign exchange risk with derivatives†, Journal of Financial Economics, Vol. 60, pp. 401-448. Naik, N. Y., and P. K. Yadav (2003), â€Å"Risk Management with Derivatives by Dealers and Market Quality in Government Bond Market†, The Journal of Finance, Vol. 58 (5), pp. 1873-1904. Schrand, C., and H. Unal (1998), â€Å"Hedging and Coordinated Risk Management: Evidence from Thrift Conversions†, The Journal of Finance, Vol. 53 (3), pp. 979-1013. Tufano, P. (1996), â€Å"Who Manages Risk? An Empirical Examination of Risk Management Practices in Gold Mining Industry†, The Journal of Finance, Vol. 51(4), pp. 1097-1137. Petersen, M. A., and S. R. Thiagarajan, (2000), Risk Management and Hedging: With and Without Derivatives, Financial Management, Vol. 29(4), pp. 5-30.

Comparing the Symbology and Imagery in T. S. Eliot’s Poetry Essay

In the poems â€Å"The Love Song by J. Alfred Prufrock,† written in 1910, published in 1915, and â€Å"Rhapsody on a Windy Night,† written in 1917, both of which were written by poet and literary-critic T. S. Eliot, the symbolism and imagery of the women represented in mythological means, the locations and landscapes that both protagonists wander through or plan on going to, and the nature that is used in both poems are very similar, yet uniquely different. â€Å"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock† is about a man with low self-confidence worrying about going to a party in the evening where he is sure that the women there with reject and ridicule him; â€Å"Rhapsody on a Windy Night† is about a man wandering his way back in the early hours of the morning to the place where he is staying. In â€Å"Rhapsody†¦,† the moon is featured as a forgiving woman, one who will not hold a grudge and gentles and watches over everything. She appears as a lonely woman, almost as one whose lover has left her holding and twisting a â€Å"paper rose that smells of dust and eau de Cologne† (Eliot 31). At the end of â€Å"The Love Song†¦,† the women are represented as mermaids, sea-girls. They put the men under a spell, for lack of a better word, â€Å"We have lingered in the chambers of the sea/ By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown/ Till human voices wake us, and we drown.† The last line makes them seem like Sirens. In both poems the women are featured in strong mythological terms. Mythology, legends, etc. have always appealed to the senses. They are timeless, and involve adventure, romance, magic, loyalty, betrayal, wars, and mystery, all of which are qualities that strongly appeal to our senses, while also being riddled with symbol s and hidden meanings (Melinda-Landa... ...Works Cited Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. New York: Avon , 1972. Print. Daly, Kathleen N., and Marian Rengel. "A-to-Z Entries." Greek and Roman Mythology A to Z. New York: Facts On File, 2004. Print Eliot, T. S., and Peter Washington. â€Å"Prufrock and Other Observations.† Eliot: Poems and Prose. New York: A. A. Knopf, 1998. 13-19, 29-32. Print. Hanegraaff, Wouter J. "The Nature of Reality." New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought. Albany, NY: State University of New York, 1998. 154. Print. Hard, Robin, and H. J. Rose. "The Younger Olympian Gods and Goddesses." The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology" London: Routledge, 2004. 187. Print Homer. "Book Twelve." The Odyssey. Trans. Robert Eagles. London: Penguin Group, 1996. Print.

Problems why Students fail? Essay

Do you know the problems students face during their college? Does it affect every inch of you when it comes to different aspects of being in student’s college life? Have you ever notice these problems and what do you do in order to cope up with it? Can you give the problems college students’ face? Are you already aware of it or not? Starting college is a difficult decision to be made. But after finishing it, all of the problems we faced will worth it. Being in college can bring much anxiety in the heart of a new college student because of all the unknowns and hidden things behind. â€Å"What should my major and course be? Will I meet good friends of mine? How will I find time in all of my lessons? What are the things I should be aware with?† College life is a practice to those students who wants to be successful in their lives in the future. Academics and extra-curricular activities should be managed well. That is why students should be shaped and taught about being aware of opportunities. There are lots of challenges a college student might face but in order to survive, he must first learn to sacrifice. There are problems we may encounter during these years tat is why we should embrace all the things that may arise. Students must be brave and strong enough to face those challenges that will come ahead. This book focuses on The Different Problems of College Students. It contains ten (10) chapters which are presented on the table of contents. Being a college student is a stepping stone in reaching and getting what you want in life afterwards. If we compare our Pre-school, Kindergarten, Primary and Secondary levels of studying. It is the Tertiary level or the college level that plays very important, amazing and hardworking tasks in accomplishing our goals. Acknowledgement This book gives information to all college students who experience different problems in their study. The authors of this book are also a student that is why it became easier for them to write a book like this. But not all the credit is for the authors, there are people behind the success of this book. The authors of this research would like to thank different people who had been part of this book. First of all, the authors would like to thank Mrs. Evangeline Leonardo who encourage the researchers to make it finish despite of difficulties in preparing it, different problems happened while starting this book, but Mrs. Leonardo became an inspiration to the researcher she said â€Å"When you start something make sure that you will finish it†, this message from her became the motivator to the researcher to finish this book. Secondly, the authors would like to thank their parents for always  understanding that writing a book like this is a difficult one, their parents became more supportive to them. Having supportive parents became an advantage to finish this book. To BSA-102, authors would like to acknowledge their section Bachelor of Science in Accountancy, 102 who became an inspiration to them to make recognition for their course and to make their section be proud of what they had done in this book. And lastly, the Lord and God who gave this group especially the leader the strength and guidance in order to be successful on this project. About the Authors Balmores, Donabelle – is a 17 year-old girl who graduated at Taà ±ong High school. She was born on February 15, 1996. She lives in Industrial Valley Complex, Marikina City. She wants to be a professional Accountant and Architect someday. She is kind, loving, understanding, serious, funny and awesome. She loves to travel a lot with the ones she love. She has many dreams but she plans it to be one step at a time. Her parents are Leonora Japson and Jefferson Japson. Padua, Julie Ann L. – is a 16 year-old girl who graduated at Antipolo National Highschool who wants to be a Fashion designer someday. She is small but intelligent, industrious, jolly and friendly, transparent, cute and thoughtful. She was born on July 4, 1996. Her parents are Gracia Padua and Louie Padua. Cruz, Jenny Ann C. – is a 17 year-old girl from Malanday, Marikina City. She was born on November 29, 1995 and graduated at Malanday National High school. She wants to be a CPA someday. She is a simple person, talkative and prayerful. Before she closed her eyes, she always prays to God to give him strength and guidance. Her parents are Jennifer Cruz and Efren Cruz. Edillor, Monna V. – is a 16 year-old girl who graduated at Silangan National High school. She lives in Tierra Monte, Silangan San Mateo. She wants to have a better future and to be a CPA someday. She was born on June 20, 1996. She is a simple girl, sometimes naughty, caring, loves to eat footlong and spaghetti. She is also a very jealous person and quick tempered. Her parents are Rosie Edillor and Ramon Edillor. Eroles, Melanie R. – is an 18 year-old girl from Ampid I, San Mateo Rizal born on January 21, 1995. She finished 1st year-3rd year high school at Sta. Cruz Institute, Marinduque. She graduated at St. Mary Integrated Learning School. She wants to achieve her goals and to be a CPA someday. She is simple, serious, and funny at times, quick tempered, loves playing and eating burger. Garcia, Beverly O. – is a 16 year-old girl who graduated at Fortune High school. She wants to be a programmer and encoder. She loves being polite and obedient. She was born on May 8, 1996. Her parents are Cherry Garcia and Pedro Garcia. Letada, Jessa Lynel N.- is a 17 year-old girl from Farmers 2 Tumana, Marikina City. She graduated at Central for Positive Futures and wants to be happy and successful enough according to my goals. She is tall, serious and happy person.Her parents are Lilibeth Letada and Arnel Letada. Macaraeg,Ara Mia Julian C. – is a 17 year-old girl born on December 5,1995 who graduated at Taà ±ong Highschool and lives in Taà ±ong, Marikina City. He wants to be a CPA someday. She is serious, moody, sometimes funny, simple and kind. She doesn’t care about what people might tell her but it doesn’t mean she has nothing to say in return. Her parents are Almira Macaraeg and Aaron Macaraeg. Medina,Jr., Maximino F. – a 16 year-old boy who is studying in Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Marikina. He was born on May 13, 1996. She is a typical college students who is not smart but can absorb ehat the proctor teaches. He is sometimes a lazy student. His parents are Maximino Medina Sr. and Ma. Corazon F. Medina. Boredom in school has different causes that make a student do badly in their learning habit. Its causes could be a simple disinterest. Its effects would either make their school life not so good or their career not so productive. However, this study topic about boredom might not be too interesting to some students. But this would let them know that simple things like boredom could affect their lives. CAUSES OF BOREDOM There are many causes of boredom that a student acquires. There are also such simple factors of becoming bored because of little bit complicated causes that are not popularly known. It is important to have knowledge of a cause of a specific matter. That knowledge would give an idea on how to prevent being bored. Less enjoyable things and topics Topics or lack of challenge can cause boredom. Students become bored if they already know the topic being covered in class. Gifted student, for example grasp concepts easily and quickly and exhibit skill proficiency beyond their grade level. Boredom in school is also caused by lack of application of knowledge and some students might think that subjects or topics they are learning are not relevant to their lives and future careers. Atmosphere and weather The atmosphere and weather are also factors of being bored. For example, for the month of March, students could feel the summer heat; therefore, they cannot focus more on the topic in their class. Thus, it makes them bored once they’ve realized that they cannot cope up with the lessons. Impaired ability of a student to actively focus One more cause of boredom is the impaired ability of a student. Some examples are: Non verbal Learning Disorder (NLD) that impairs a person’s ability to solve problems, think critically or creatively, form concepts and reasons. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) are similar diseases that rob students of the ability to pay attention in class and complete assignments. DISADVANTAGES OF GETTING BORED Effects of boredom would never have any advantages. Unless being on a fantasy-like situation. Boredom makes students do things that is unnecessary for a student to do. Boredom also redirects the students’ attention or focus away from the lectures. Low test scores Boredom may lead students to fail in class by having low test scores. Low test score may be the effect of not being interested in class or not paying attention at all. Poor stability and retention of material Poor retention of materials used in lectures is also a factor of having low grades. Understanding a book or any materials that is used in lectures is important. Those who are too lazy to read the material or cannot cope up with the topic in the book would surely feel bored. Of course, listening to the teacher while reading cannot help you to follow on the discussions properly. Drop-outs Drop-outs may occur if the students are not willing to participate or focus on their learning. However, dissatisfaction with the variety of classes offered, lack of application of knowledge, and disinterest in classes were more common among those who drops their school. EFFECTS TO STUDENTS Most of the students would normally care less about the reason of being bored. However, they are pretty much aware of the effects of it to them. Declination to contribute in country’s productivity Effects of boredom may come to the point that in the future after they graduate, they would not be contributing to the productivity of their country. Failure to reveal skills to succeed in work place Boredom also prevents them to acquire the skills they need to advance in their work that causes poor job performance. Without the skills they need, their workplace, school works, or anything that requires focus will make it hard for the students to finish it without mistakes. Failure to apply themselves in class However, being a student or an employee, boredom surely causes them to fail to apply themselves in their class or workplace. For a student, being so much bored that they are not focusing on the lessons because they are no more interested in it, they cannot participate in recitations and activities. POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS TO HELP STUDENTS Possible solutions that students does to avoid boredom are: reading books unrelated to class, do homework for other class or subject, and chat with their peers. Some could just grab a book; do productive things that could at least satisfy their being bored state. Read books unrelated to class to satisfy yourself Reading is a hobby for many because people lose themselves in an imaginary world as they read. Reading is a good discipline. Reading books that catches your interest surely gets rid of your boredom. Do home works for other classes Home work relieves boredom because it exercises brain capacity and keeps you busy. Doing homework when bored is a good thing to do. Create an artwork Try painting and other recreations to be entertained. Make a collage of your photos or cut-outs from magazines. Draw a sketch. Use watercolors or crayons for your masterpiece. It’s your time to get creative. CHAPTER 9: LACK OF SELF-CONFIDENCE Lack of Self Confidence is having an overall negative view of you, judging oneself or placing a negative value on oneself as a person. A student’s self confidence has a revealing in everything that she/he does. Because of the lack of self confidence, a student can’t have a good academic performance and there’s a possibility that it can lessen a student’s passion to learn and their ability to focus and their willingness to take a risks. A student can have a low self confidence if she/he experience different problems. For example, Accommodations unnecessarily on negative occasions such as failures and disappointments, instead of using the event as a learning experience she/ he choose to think the negative side and also the fear of failure. There are many reasons why a student can’t develop their self confidence. CAUSES OF LACK OF SELF-CONFIDENCE There are many reasons why students lack self confidence. They are based on the experiences you’ve had in life, and the messages that these experiences have given you is the kind of person you are. If your experiences have been negative, your beliefs about yourself are likely to be negative too. These three causes that are prepared is one of those reason why the students has a low self esteem. Setting of unrealistic goal Some students think of the thing which doesn’t really exist or happened. Sometimes they just came up on realizing that it is just an imagination and untruthful. For example, you are the student ad you have your final examination tomorrow but unfortunately you don’t want to review your notes and you’re trying to expect you would pass your exam. As we can see, this can’t be happened unless you are a genius student who doesn’t need any materials because of your stocked knowledge. Another example is when your goal is to become a CEO of a company but you have no experience yet, this goal is not realistic because before you became a CEO you need to have lot of experiences first. Lost of a family member Secondly is the lost of family member, maybe experiencing very traumatic incident may cause decrease in self esteem. For example, after witnessing the death of a mother knowing that they are very close can lead to a feeling of being alone. This can cause hard feelings to a child because she felt like everybody can’t understand her feelings so as a result, her motivation to studies does not go strong. Past experience of failure Third and last is Past experience of failure in a exam, if a student experience that, it can cause a low self esteem. For example, every time that he takes an exam he always gets a failed grade and because of that his confidence is goes down. This is the common reason why students get tired in their studies. This is also can cause a lack of confidence because of the reason that he encounters especially during taking of exams. We all feel afraid some times or the other. At times, because of fear of failure, we do not master courage to try out new things. People generally challenge their own potential to avoid facing any larger failure in life. Failure is generally synonymous with lack of confidence in your own abilities. A lot of people go through this feeling of fear of failure. CLUES TO KNOW IF YOU LACK SELF-CONFIDENCE Self-confidence is the specific drive that brings students in greater heights. People, who are not blessed with those skills, are able to get to the top because they feel and believe that they can do it. Self-confidence is an invisible motivational drive that will make things happen and turn the impossible into a possibility. Self-confidence empowers people beyond their expectations, and if you lack self-confidence, then you are taking away your chance to go the distance. People see you as defensive Some student is become defensive if there’s a thing questioning to them. It can cause a bad or a good reason depending on the answers. Being defensive is also a reason why the self esteem of a student is goes down because sometimes being defensive is not good characteristic to achieve your self esteem. Sometimes student use the defensive way to cover something what is real and too much of being defensive is not good unless things are not real. You give reason for your action unnecessarily You can do other way, you can use explanation and this is a good example. If you think your action is good and others think it is bad try to explain to them to understand it. Explanations are better than being defensive. WAYS TO HELP YOU ENHANCE YOUR SELF-CONFIDENCE To develop the self confidence of a student, you need to focus on the things that can help to improve your self confidence. Improving your self confidence increases your confidence and it is a first step towards finding happiness and a better life. Look at your strength and not your weaknesses Look at your strength and not your weaknesses every time you encounter different problems. Think positively about yourself to counteract it and do the things that give you a good and inspirational feeling. Focus on the positive way not the negative to achieve your goals and dreams in life. Make the decision carefully and do it right. Start thinking positively about yourself Start thinking positively about yourself and make a list of all your positive traits that can help to you develop yourself. You can also ask your friends about your positive traits and this will be helpful to you because it gives to you more idea on what to do and it will help you gain confidence. And you’ll be positively surprised at how many good traits that you have. Act as if you’re confident Don’t be harsh to your decision because being harsh is a wrong move and it gives to you a stress feeling. You can also ask your friend for a suggestion about yourself and to be a more confident student you can express your feelings to others, study your lesson, having fun, and try to become friendly to others. Always think that every trials and hindrances came there has a solution. Like others say, problem is exists because they have a solution. NATURAL REMEDIES Life coaching Life coaching is one of the best tools to improve your self confidence and your set realistic goals. Life coaching is best for the students who have a low self confidence why? Because life coaching helps you to become more proud to your self and it gives to you different ideas to resolve your problems. It is also different from consulting, mentoring, advice, and therapy or counseling. The coaching is a process addresses to a specific personal projects, studies successes, general conditions and transitions in the student life, relationship or profession by examining what is going on right now, discovering what your obstacle or challenges might be and choosing a course of action to make your life be what you want it be. CHAPTER 10: LACK OF MOTIVATION One of the most common problems students face in college includes lack of motivation. As we all know, college life is different from high school and elementary levels. In here, students are free to do what they want. They can get away from their parents, live in dormitories, drink freely and hang out with friends. But aside from that, college students can also experience different frustrations and pressures in studies. There are times when they also feel so bored, tired and weak. This is due to lack of motivation. Motivation is the internal and external factors that stimulate desire and energy in people to be continually interested and committed to a job, role or subject, or to make an effort to attain a goal. CAUSES OF LACK OF MOTIVATION Because of the different factors that affect students in focusing in their studies they continuously undergo to lack of motivation. Sometimes due to their friends, they are being influenced not to make their tasks. Among the causes of lack of motivations are depression, fear of failure, low self-esteem, lack of interest, and stress. Depression Depression is a medical illness that causes a constant feeling of sadness and lack of interest. It affects how the person feels, behaves and thinks. Usually it is being experienced by college students especially when they are far away from home. They tend to feel alone and homesick. Others get depressed because of financial problems, relationships and studies. People with depression find it hard to go about their day-to-day activities. Sometimes they might also feel that life is not worth living. One of the most common symptoms of depression is called anhedonia, or the lack of interest in activities, especially ones that once used to be pleasurable. Depression can wreak havoc on academic and professional success. Treating the depression generally has a very positive effect on motivation and productivity. Fear of failure Some people have a character of being a perfectionist. It means they always want things to be perfect. For them mistakes are failures. This develops an inherent fear of failure, which is presented by avoiding work. Instead, people who are afraid of failing avoid the goal feels safer than trying and not succeeding. This attitude must be change because it will lead to taking things for granted. Students feel the pressure when there are tasks assign to them. They feel nervous whenever the deadline comes. Because of fear to fail in their fields they just simply make things easily in a sense that they do it quickly. This results to unsightly work. Furthermore, there are also students that because of fear to fail did not want to engage in any works. They don’t want to try before quit. Therefore they inclined to lost interest and also lost motivation. Low self-esteem Another cause of lack of motivation is self-esteem. People who have low self-esteem tend to believe that they are not capable of succeeding and often self-sabotage. They will miss deadlines, procrastinate, double-book or put in minimal effort so that the project or task is not perfectly complete, there is something else to blame. Aside from that, low self-esteem decreases a person’s self-confidence. Deflecting personal responsibility helps preserve a delicate sense of self that comes with low self-esteem. Lack of interest Some tasks are uninteresting and that makes them difficult to engage in. Students require frequent rewards and if the school subject or project is not interesting enough, it is natural to not participate in it. This becomes especially problematic when students are involved in major, class or career that is uninteresting. Their attention will be diverted elsewhere, resulting in poor grades or low performance at work. Stress Stress takes up a significant amount of cognitive and emotional bandwidth. Some people cope with stress and feeling overwhelmed by avoiding deadlines or finding triggers to engage in substance use again. Lack of sleep due to stress or overwhelm can also make it difficult to feel motivated. While a person is stress they cannot focus on their works and lose a chance to do their task properly. Students mostly college students are prone to this kind of problem. This is because they are busy in their studies, projects, home works and other activities that can generate stress. In fact, students who are stress-out might also be depressed due to frustration. To avoid being stress you need to give yourself some time to rest and have enough sleep everyday. TECHNIQUES TO HELP YOURSELF GAIN MOTIVATION From our previous lessons we discussed about the different causes why students lack on motivation. For us to overcome this problem we must follow some techniques to help you gain motivation. Develop a primary goal It is important for a student to build or set up a primary goal. This will help them to get motivated and develop themselves. The most common mistake that we make is that we try to take on too many goals at once. One example of this is my experience. At times I always set up too many goals to achieve. I always say to myself that I can do all of this but later I find myself stuck up and finish nothing. I realized that I cannot maintain energy and focus in the goals that I want to accomplish. So it is really necessary for us especially to students to choose one goal and concentrate on it. This will help you to make things always on the line and help you do other goals. Meditation Based on my experience it is really hard to change your habits. It requires great effort in order to get motivated. As students we should always keep our mind fresh for us to have a good outlook in life. Meditation can be a great way to relax and de-stress, as well as to create emotional and spiritual well being. If you’re a person who loves studying or workaholic, you probably don’t have much energy left to feel motivated. If that’s the case, you need to slow yourself down and let your mind relaxes so you can rejuvenate and reenergize your body. Meditation helps you do both of these things. It gives you the opportunity to let your stress and anxiety seep out of your body and allows you to decompress and find the energy to reach the goals you have set for yourself. So, take a few minutes and just breathe. Let out the negative and let in the positive. If you want to stay motivated, you have to work at it. And if you follow this activity, your mind will make motivational thinking a habit. Before you know it, your dreams will be a reality. Fortunately, meditation may help you overcome these same scarcity conversations in your head. Now if you could just start meditating you will also be able to find inner peace. Be physically fit Even though students are busy in their studies and other activities, they should not forget to take care of themselves. They must stay strong, healthy and physically fit. A person who is physically has much higher energy than those who does not engage in physical activities. Exercising is a good example of making your body glowing. It is not just about aerobic capacity and muscle size. Surely, exercise improves your health but it has even greater benefits for your energy, mood, and brain power. In addition, eating plenty of vegetables and drinking 8-10 glasses of water will contribute to your body’s growth and development. This will help you gets motivated in every action that you obtain. Conclusion Every student should acquire or should know the proper applying of decision making in able for them to assess their expected outcomes. Decision making can make your life easier and full of happiness if you just practice controlling and managing your decisions wisely. Every problem in college life has its own solution, the only thing we need to do is to know and find it. The tips and advices in this book can help you to your problem as a college student but the only one who can really solve your problem is your own self. Money Management is a very effective way to make your budget last up to last day of the month. Although it is difficult to achieve, you’ll start making hard decisions, cannot go to all of your barkada’s hang-outs, but like all other things, we just need practice and be mindful of wherever our money goes. Money Management is very useful especially for students if they only know how to use it appropriately and it can help them to become smart in handling financial figures. It is only a problem when there is a shortage of money and an inappropriate use of allowances. The recommended tips on this book can help students to be guided in managing money. If it can’t really solve money shortage immediately, it can still become a basis for a college student in their first step in keeping their money in the right place. Our wallets may not have a stomach but it is always better if it is full. When we think on the positive side of pressure on studies, we  can definitely tell that it helps us to be matured and take the challenges we faced by encouraging yourself not to give up easily. Remember that when there is a problem there will always answer for that. Just take time and not decide urgent because when you decide when you’re under pressure you can think for the consequences of your decisions that you made. When you’re under pressure, take that as challenge for you to grow up. Pressure helps you to work hard on your work so be thankful. We can attain the things that we want to if we just strive hard. But also remember when there is positive, there is negative Peer pressure can be good or bad but it depends on the person that thinks about it. He can use it for the betterment of his future career or future life. It really plays a very big factor when it comes to the development stage mostly of the teenagers. Peer pressure is a part of every teenager’s life, this is where they find themselves and discover what kind of personality they have. Being a college student, having a relationship or falling in love to the opposite sex is an unavoidable thing. Relationship is good in the fact that this gives you a better determination in studying, somehow makes you feel better to school every day and to impress during class the one you love. But fails to know their limits lead to a very complicated situation which somehow leads to the destruction of your dreams. So it is always good to think a hundred times before engaging to those activities which is not yet ready or not yet allowed for both of you to engage with. Remember that when reality fails, nothing you could do in order to correct those wrongs you have done. Relationships are good, but sometimes it can be a problem. There are times in every relationship where a couple will have a disagreement or an issue. Disagreements between couples can distract students from their school work and add to already high stress levels. Break-ups can drive some students even further into depression. Depression is a distressing experience but there are many kinds of help available. Sadly, you may not always get the help you need, sometimes because you may feel too hopeless about your situation to ask. It can change lots of things in one’s personality, especially colleges. I think students should know their limits to handle the things that made them stress. Depression doesn’t have any positive outcome to us but sometimes we need to take the problems seriously, and treat them as a nature of every man. Think on the positive ways to solve it. Being bored is a choice that you make when the first thing or second you think of to do is unavailable to you. You’re left with things that you considered less enjoyable, and thus you’re bored. When I was in this situation, the solution to that problem was easy. I opened new doors. I looked for new things to do. Lack of Self confidence is one of the biggest problems of a student because being some students possesses and acquires this. There are many reason why students self confidence goes down. But in order to boost and develop your self esteem, you need the help of this book. Students need to develop their selves in acquiring confidence to achieve good grades and a better life in future. Everyone holds opinions about the type of person they are but keep in mind that these opinions are at the heart of self-esteem and it will affect how you feel about and value yourself. Self-esteem fixed your beliefs about yourself and it can change throughout your life as a result of circumstance and experience. If you have low self-esteem, these beliefs will often be negative. You may not focus on what you feel to your weaknesses and mistakes that you have made but to those strengths. Learned that Self-confidence is extremely important in almost every aspect of our lives, yet so many people struggle to find it. Sadly, this can be a vicious circle: People who lack self-confidence can find it difficult to become successful. Lack of motivation is the last topic that is discussed in this book. We know that we cannot avoid being lazy or having lack of interest in our works at times. It is normal, but making this a habit is not good. As a student we always have to be motivated in every action we do so that we can come up to a great work. Behind every goal that we desire to achieve motivation has been the influence behind it. Motivation is the force of life, and the drive of all actions. In order to succeed we have to push ourselves and take a lot of effort to motivate ourselves. Bibliography Student Orientation Programs – Introduction to College Life, Becoming Familiar with the New Environment, Welcome to the Community!, Conclusion – StateUniversity.com http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2462/Student-Orientation-Programs. html#ixzz2O0F1sjmX (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decision_making)http://www.mysahana.org/2012/04/six-common-reasons-for-lack-of-motivation/ http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/motivate-yourself-to-work-harder-6-tricks.html www.geocities.ws/lightningscattersdarkness/Boredom.doc en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boredom Adjustment To College – Types of Adjustment, Services Available to Assist with Adjustment Students,Student,Social,andRelationshipsStateUniversity.com http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1735/Adjustment-College.html#ixzz2O50mwDkk http://www.aboutourkids.org/articles/transition_college_separation_change_parents_students http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sleeplessness http://www.helium.com/items/967588-anxiety-issues-among-college-students http://www.nelsonsnaturalworld.com/en-us/uk/a-z-of-ailments/emotional-health/lack-of-self-confidence/

A House for Mr. Biswas: Mr. Biswas’ Identity Struggle

Almost all the works of V.S. Naipaul have charaters who are poor and live in rural areas. Always these characters undergo trials and suffer identity crisis.The main protagonist, Mr. Mohun Biswas in V. S. Naipuls’ A house for Mr. Biswas, is not an exemption. â€Å"I am going to get a job of my own. And I am going to get my own house, too.† This vow of Mr. Biswas typifies his longing for freedom, social and family respect and acceptance that constitute his 40 year struggle to gain his own identity.The moment Mr. Biswas is born, he already has the burden of deformed identity that will make him feel that he does not belong: He is born with six fingers. â€Å"Born in the wrong way,† as they say. This alone alienates him from his peers and the society. Adding up to the injury, the attending midwife declares that they should be careful because Mr. Biswas, with his seemingly uncommon figure, will eat up his parents.As he grows up, Mr. Biswas experiences seemingly endless prejudices and ridicules. The community in which he lives in is bounded by traditional superstitions and caste discrimination; thus his misshapen fingers make him feel a real outsider.But misfortune is not only brought by his six fingers; they have been living in poverty even before he is born and their financial woe continues. In fact, it worsens that they hardly eat. Mr. Biswas becomes thin with stunted growth and acquires sores and eczema. This appearance of his heightens his insecurity and his alienation from the people around him.Poverty drives Mr. Biswas to seek employment. He is hired by Dhari to look after his calf. Finally, Mr. Biswas is exulted because someone trusts him. But it is only a short-lived glory as his clumsiness and low self-esteem make him lose Dhari’s calf. He runs away to avoid punishment. Mr.Biswas’ father drowns in the pond when he is looking for him in the forest. This fulfils one half of the midwife’s prophesy when he was born.Anoth er show of Mr. Biswas’ struggle for self-identity is when, in the classroom, he is forced to write â€Å"I am an ass† on the board. Although this is his punishment for disobedience, he will not do this if he has a strong confidence of who he is.The statement is downright degrading. Perhaps a physical punishment, like cleaning the room or running around the ground, is more fitting. This is more dignified than the self-inflicting defamatory words on the board.From here on, Mr. Biswas’ luck does not depend entirely on his own effort as destitution and inevitable consequences force him to live momentarily from one home to another, relying on other people’s aid to feed his stomach.Through this pitiful journey, amidst the manipulation of people around him, he holds on tightly to his principles and ideals; cluthcing to the thin thread of his identity, to his assumption that he, Mr. Biswas descended from noble families and not from common rural nobodies. He consi ders himself to be in line with the colonial tradition and language instead with the custom and tradition of other races in the island. This arrogance may heighten his feeling of alienation.

Anti Death Penelty essays

Anti Death Penelty essays Virtually every major program designed to address the underlying causes of violence and to support the poor, vulnerable, powerless victims of crime is being cut even further to the bone... In this context, the proposition that the death penalty is a needed addition to our arsenal of weapons lacks credibility... Scott Harshbarge, Attorney General of Massachusetts Across the United States, police officers are losing their jobs, prisoners are obtaining parole early, courts are clogging with cases, and crime is on the rise. Over two-thirds of the states use capital punishment, which is a grave mistake by any measure of cost effectiveness. The government spends hundreds of millions of dollars in order to punish a few individuals each year. Yet, these actions do nothing to slow the rise in violent crimes. Moreover, the death penalty has been used to portray toughness on crime, but it actually leaves communities worse off in their fight against crime. At the same time that states are pourin g money into the capital punishment black hole, lack of funds is also causing the criminal justice system to break down. Consequently, the public is left with fewer resources, which otherwise could benefit their entire community. Every working person in the United States pays taxes to fund the government. However, is the death penalty a cost-effective way to use the taxpayer's money? After evaluating the cost of the death penalty and the effects of paying that cost, one would agree that the death penalty is not a cost-effective way to fight crime and thus the government should abolish the death penalty. The death penalty is much more expensive than life imprisonment. In Texas, "the death penalty cost taxpayers an average of $2.3 million each year, about three times the cost of imprisoning someone in a single cell at the highest security level for 40 years." Death penalty trials are also longer and more expensive than ordinary murder trials. A North Carolina...