African Burial ground trip

Recently, freshman seminar went on a trip to The African Burial Ground in New York. The 3 hour drive on the bus made me very lethargic, but I still was awake enough to retain the information I saw at the burial grounds. What is the significance of such a place you ask? The significance of this place comes from slavery during the 1600s-1800s. This burial ground is related to the earliest slave revolts. At the time, New York had the most slaves per household. The ratio to Europeans to Africans was 5 to 1.This land was first used as common ground until the late 18^th century. Africans buried their fellow killed slaves in places like these. Those slaves were killed during the Revolutionary War and as a result of slave revolts. The burial ground contained a lot of artwork. One of my personal favorites was entitled “America Song” by Clyde Lynds. This was a stone carving that included fiber optics. It was finished in 1995 and is a tribute to the history of all people who strived for freedom. At night you can see the fibber optics emitting light across the sculpture. Under the sculpture is a poem that reads:

“I want to be free

Want to be free,

Rainbow’ round my shoulder

Wings on my feet”

This trip was very educational as well as enjoyable. There was a lot of history here that I previously did not know about

Henrietta Egbo Group Presentation reflection

For my group “Boots and Moccasins” my team members and I decided to cover a subject that we could all relate to. So for our group presentation we answered the question, “Is college worth the stress?”. One of the biggest stressors we talked about is money. College is all about money. You have to pay thousands f dollars for room and board and tuition. Your cost can range anywhere into five figures. Its impossible to just get tens of thousands of dollars out of nowhere, unless you rich, so you are expected to take out loans. Loans provide another stress because you have to worry about paying back accumulated interest as well as the money you borrowed, or it may hurt your credit score. But other ways to get money are through grants and scholarships. This is money you don’t need to pay back, but there is of course a requirement to getting these. College stress doesn’t just lie within money. Stress in college can come from a variety of sources like the financial aid office, administration, peer pressure, roommates and of course grades. But after going through all the stress, there are benefits of going to college. As a college graduate you are likely to make more money in your life. You make lifelong friends who have the same goals as you do. And for people like me, becoming a doctor requires a lot of schooling and degrees so school is my only option.

Henrietta Egbo Course reflection

I feel as though freshmen seminar had a lot of benefits. Although I did not enjoy going to class at 6 o’clock every Thursday evening, the benefits outweigh that inconvenience. During freshman seminar we had a lot of very motivational speakers. They were all very accomplished and reputable speakers. And luckily for me, a lot of them spoke about things regarding my field of study, biology. But even for the ones who didn’t speak on topics of my major, I still enjoyed hearing them. Most of the speakers talked about how we as young black students are the future. How we have the potential to accomplish things that generations before us weren’t able to. They also spoke about how our ancestors paved the way for us to have the opportunities we have. It was refreshing as well as an honor to be in the presence of prominent successful adults. Freshman seminar gave me a reason to stay motivated as well as reasons to stay focused on achieving my goal of graduating and one day becoming a doctor. Overall freshman seminar was an enjoyable experience. As much as I dint want to work on my presentation or get up from taking a late afternoon nap, I think it was well worth it. The ideas presented to me in freshman seminar well represent the ideas of Howard University and puts them in a very positive light.

Brandon Dean - Freshmen Seminar Final Reflection

The value of Freshmen Seminar is great in my eyes. The program integrates first year students into their new environment. Seminar allows for an inclination to what research is at a more sophisticated discovery level.  The guidance and instruction provided to students in seminar was most valuable. The diversity of lecturers with many unique perspectives on disciplines assisted students in developing their own research techniques.  Group presentations mirrored the faculty lectures in that it provided students an opportunity to discuss topics from the perspective of their own disciplines. Concerns that I would like to express concerning the course are the need for more focus on the actual process of research as a opposed to developing “half baked” research papers and presentations. It is my opinion that students would benefit from being more interactive with concepts of research as opposed to practicing research in this course. Assuring that students have mastered the broad elements of research will guarantee their future success in writing. This could be accomplish but have guest lecturers focus on their disciplines, as they do now, but also discuss one or two elements of research during their presentations. The subsequent requirement should be for students to make blog post that discuss the lectures perspective discipline as well as the concept of research introduced to the audience.  Freshmen Seminar is a valuable resource for students. It prevents a permanent struggle to adapt to the college experience, especially academically. My recommendations apply only to the research aspect of the course but moving forward I regard the other practices and activities in the highest esteem.

Brandon Dean Freshmen Seminar Session 9 Opinion Group Evaluation

What is clear from the information present is that the employment of young people in prostitution rinks is alarming but present. This practice has evolved but at the same time become much more difficult to crack down on. Although comprehensive research to document the number of children engaged in prostitution in the United States is lacking, it is estimated that about 293,000 American youth are currently at risk of becoming victims of commercial sexual exploitation.

The corrupt bargains that extend this lifestyle to young people is one of the most disturbing elements of the research. Other young people are recruited into prostitution through forced abduction, pressure from parents, or through deceptive agreements between parents and traffickers.

We can now conclude that prostitution rinks are out there and that those involved are not necessarily involved by choice.

Among children and teens living on the streets in the United States, involvement in commercial sex activity is a problem of epidemic proportion. Approximately 55% of street girls engage in formal prostitution. The challenge for the select majors was to use their discipline to solve this problem beyond the urging of our law enforcement and government to be more proactive in identify problems there is not much more that was offered as a solution.  Now that we have had such a presentation we must begin to wonder how we fix the problem. The issue has reached the international front making an extermination of the crime much more difficult.  I encourage further exploration of the issue and I expect that Howard Students will be able to contribute in this respect.

Brandon Dean Freshmen Seminar Session 8 Opinion Group Evaluation

HAITI RELIEF

I appreciate the dedication to research on behalf of this group. Their discussion of the tragic events surrounding the Haiti Earthquake provided new insight to the world after the disaster. Out of the efforts to rebuild this ravaged country arose corruption, lawlessness, and deep hurt. Howard University made a substantial contribution to the cause and has been vocal in the aftermath. I encourage this conversation and research to continue as it contributes to the ultimate goal of rebuilding a nation.

“Despite the good intentions of the United States and the world community, weary relief workers say the coming weeks will severely test the resolve of those foreign contributors and the resourcefulness of a Haitian government that remains all but invisible.”

The preceding statement was made shortly after the shock of a large national disaster in Haiti. The earthquake devastation in Haiti earlier this year was devastating with the loss of life, resources, and homes.  The concern presented by the seminar group was centered on the misappropriation of funds raised by various organizations for the relief effort. To date funding remains unaccounted for and withheld with respect to rebuilding the ravished area.  Recovery efforts began immediately following the disaster but little has been done at this point to completely restore the nation to fair conditions. The effect that the relief efforts had economically, socially, politically, and in popular culture are unprecedented. Out of this disaster two hit songs were created by artist Kirk Franklin and a collaboration between America’s A list entertainers.

Brandon Dean Freshmen Seminar African Burial Ground Post

Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of November 16, 1990

Native American human remains, graves, and ritual objects located on federal and tribal land are encouraged to be protected in situ . In cases where in place preservation is not possible, or if archaeological excavation is necessary for planning or research, or if the remains are inadvertently discovered, then consultation is necessary prior to excavation under an Archaeological Resources Protection Act permit. If remains covered by the law are discovered, the project will be stopped for 30 days while the review and consultation process proceeds.

What is clear from this summary of legislation protecting ancient burial grounds for American natives is that no such protection exists for sites that include a majority African American population.  The above act requires consultation with the descendant community as to how to the remains will be interred and how studies will be performed on the remains.  This is a clear injustice to the African American Community and blatant oversight by individuals who have observed the established of the African Burial Ground National Monument as a complete victory.  In fact the establishment of the monument is only a part of the continued effort that African Americans of the descendant communities for the ancestors must make to ensure that justice is served to those who died at the hand of “old brutal slavery”. The first step towards progress is to write letters to our members of congress asking them to draft legislation similar to that of the 1990s protecting the Indian Burial Grounds. The second step is receiving the endorsements of caucuses on Capitol Hill for the legislation. Those bodies could include but are not limited to the Congressional Black Caucus.  The third step in ensuring the success of the legislation is mobilizing students across the country with a genuine concern for the preservation of the ancestors of the African Diaspora. I will personally be taking on this task and I invite my colleagues to join me in creating this necessary piece of legislation which protects what Governor David Patterson once referred to as “our Ellis Island”.