Intellectual Exemplar

For my intellectual exemplar I interviewed Professor Jeanne Toungara, an Africanist scholar, who offers students courses on West Africa, Women in Africa, and the African Diaspora.

Ø    Professor Toungara entered the field of history, because she was inspired and looked up to one of her professors from her own under graduate experience.

o      She also believes that Africa was a region of the world that was not greatly represented through out high school and learning history helped filled a historical and cultural gap that was missing.

Ø      When I asked Professor Toungara what in her estimation makes a successful student she said, “History helps students to understand the present” and from that she explained that students have to be curious to learn and be pro active about their education. Students only become successful when they engage in the topic activity and look for a challenge, because at the end of the day students are responsible for their own learning.

Ø    Professor Toungara believes that Howard University was the right university for her to tech at because the environment and surrounding neighborhood is rich with history and she would also like to fill the gap of African history for African American Students. 

John Hope Franklin graduated from Fisk University and received a doctorate in history from Harvard University. Franklin taught at universities such as Fisk, Duke, Howard, and the University of Chicago. John Franklin served at president for many organizations such as the American, Historians, and the Southern Historical organization. He also had many publications while teaching, and was the recipient of numerous awards and honors. John Hope Franklin passed away on March 25, 2009.

The Second Time Around

The second learning community…….

 I was actually looking forward to this event, because my first learning community was not a success.

The guest speaker was Dr.Harris, and he spoke on the topic of blacks in science and engineering with this topic he focused on dedication and the achievements of blacks that came before us. The presentation started out catchy and interesting, but that didn’t last long! As I looked around the auditorium that was already empty at the beginning of the program I realized people were playing games on their computers, taking naps sitting straight up, texting, or pulling the “ I’m going to the bathroom” and never came back. So I’m sad to say the second learning community was long and boring again! I can not speak for all the freshman students, because I know some people do enjoy the learning communities but I do believe that there needs to be some improvements to keep students in their seats.

 I understand the point of the learning communities and think it’s a great idea. But here are a few of my ideas to keep our attention and to get better attendance. 

*So this all makes sense in my head, but I’m not sure if I did good job of explaining it

 Time:  Make the communities shorter, or have different time slots available

                        *Especially because no one wants the café food after 7pm.

Topics:  Give us topics we could choose from.

Involvement: If each learning community had two topics and we could choose one to attend this would do a few things

Ø  Create smaller groups so the audience could interact with the speaker

Ø    Keep our attention because we were able to choose the topic we listening about

Ø  Would create a opportunity for us to use our freshman seminar class time to discuss and share what we learned about two different topics but still relate them to research

*For example if we could choose a between a topic on the history of fashion or blacks in science and engineering. More people would be attracted to come because they have options. And the fun part would be finding a way in class to bring these two very different topics together and relate them to research.

* The idea of the learning communities is great I just feel like it could be done differently.  

First Learning Community

I might have just been hungry and tired, but I personally thought the first learning community initiative was long and boring. I will admit I did catch myself laughing at the jokes and enjoying the oldies being played; however, in the end I was pretty lost and wasn’t sure what I should have been taking in from the lecture. Because I did not grasp the point of the lecture the first time, I looked over the power point online. From the power point I realized that the first learning community was trying to guide us as freshmen in college to realize where we want to go, and how to find the steps necessary to get there through research.  “Fear the future or shape the future”? Was the first question we need to ask ourselves to become successful.   

HU Clubs

The Howard University Student Association also known as HUSA, the voice of the student body. HUSA’s goal is to maintain communication between students and the university. A few events held by HUSA are blackout wednesdays, and HUSA in the Cafe.  The association consists of an executive branch, judicial branch, legislative branch, and the graduate student assembly; it also includes the domain of the entire student body. The 2009-2010 President and vice president Bryan Smart a senior political science major from Houston, TX, and Jerome Joseph a senior biology major also from Houston, TX.

                                                                            *HUSA is located in the Blackburn Center Suite 102

The Hilltop is Howard University’s campus newspaper. It was co-founded by former students Zora Neal Hurston and Eugene King. Today editor and chief Crystal Allen and students run the paper daily to keep the campus aware of news in the D.C. metro area and on campus. The sections of the paper consist of campus, nation and world, life and style, business and technology, sports, and editorials and student perspectives.

Howard University is the only NCAA division 1 Historically black women’s lacrosse team. The program does not have a large reputation on campus, but with new coach Jessica Morgan she plans to change that this spring.

National society of black engineers is a club at Howard that recognizes and empowers black engineers here at Howard and around the world. Because there are so few black engineers in the world the organization has developed workshops, programs, and events to help support and educate students young and old about engineering. The organization also has a yearly conference and summit to bring these talented people together. 

Chapel assistance is an organization at Howard, which helps the chapel every Sunday by preparing the chapel for service and provide refreshments afterwards. The members meet every Friday to socialize, read the bible, and get to know each other through fun activities such as icebreakers, dinner, and prayer.

“Right on time”

Convocation was great! And it couldn't have come at a better time. For me it was much more then an official start to the school year. It was more of a reassurance! Over the pass couple of days before convocation, I began to question my decision to come to Howard, asking myself if this was the right place for me. I will admit a small part of me was missing home and thought about trading it all in just to be a little closer to home, but that wasn't it. I’ve been told by many, "Howard is one of those places you will either love or hate"! At that moment I had my mind made up I was going to hate it, because it seemed so cliquish and a bit like high school. Friday morning quickly approached, my alarm went off and I thought to myself "I’m not getting up to go to convocation, I’m way too tired". Eventually after a bowl of coco puffs I got myself together and headed across the yard to Cramton auditorium. When I entered the auditorium I could instantly feel the pride of being apart of the Howard family. People of all ages where there, excited and waiting for the program to start. Finally, the band started played and the staff marched it. President Ribeau started by welcoming the class of 2013, then went on to explain that convocation represents the official opening of the school year and this year was very important because it was the 40^th year of black studies at the university. He closed by telling the class of 2013 to size the opportunity of being apart of the Howard family, because a Howard education is not just a degree, its more about earning an experience.  The alumnus and Bermuda Premier Dr. Brown was honored at the convocation, and gave an amazing speech to speech to welcome the class of 2013. Forty-five years ago Dr. Brown was sitting in the audience being welcomed to Howard University. He explained to us that the seat we were sitting in today would start our journey into the future by focusing on three major qualities reflection, preparation, and commitment. While sitting in the seat he wanted us to reflect on the people that sat in these seats before us, such as 1st African-American Justice of the Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall; the 1st African-American US Senator, Ed Brooke, Phylicia Rashad, Debbi Allen, Taraji Henson, and P. Diddy. These were just a few people he recognized. While reflecting on those that came before us we should be proud and embrace the rich and powerful legacy left behind. We also need to use these seats to prepare and commit ourselves to meet the complex challenges of the world, and to aim for academic success. Towards the end of his speech Dr. Brown told us to ask ourselves, “what will your journey be?” and “how will we make this legacy live on?”  Once we can answer those questions for our self, we will know our purpose at Howard. Convocation made me realize that I made the right decision to come to Howard and building friendships here will come with time, but right now I need to focus on how I will take part in making the legacy at Howard live on. The Howard experience is more then just and education and I am learning everyday that it is something I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to have at any other university. 

TILT

The TILT activity was really informative. Even though I felt like some of the information was repetitive, because my high school library required every student to take an  information/ library literacy tutorial in the beginning and the middle of every school year. But the activity was a great fresher and will help a lot of college freshmen during the research process.

What is really in there?

On a typical night after dinner students usually gather around on the yard and socialize before a long night of studying, but there is always that one group of people that always hang out on the steps of the fine art building. So now I am curious to know, what is really in the fine arts building? Well during my virtual tour for Howard I learned that one-third of the fine arts complex is a gallery of art. The gallery of art was established in 1928 and lead by directors James Porter and Professor James Herring. The African American art gallery has artifacts that were donated by Alain Locke.