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.