Speech At The East Ascension Class Of 2016 - 1019 Words

Good evening to everyone gathered here today. I am honored to be here representing the East Ascension Class of 2016. Our time spent in East Ascension’s halls has flown by, yet this day seemed never to come any closer. I am reluctant to leave the sense of community I have come to know as I have walked these halls, but also excited to see what life has in store for me. Today is a bittersweet moment for each of us. While it is a scary yet thrilling moment, we are finally leaving our comforting nest to spread our wings and take flight. Although, I will say that I am thankful for the unfortunate events that have landed me in this graduating class. On August 27, 2005, my family left St. Bernard Parish to head to Baton Rouge. The windows†¦show more content†¦The ditches spilled water onto the streets, and earlier that day, the levee had burst, filling my home with ten feet of water. The few days that we were supposed to be away from home turned into a lifetime as Hur ricane Katrina flooded New Orleans. Everything that we had come to know was no longer, forcing our lives to begin anew. The world was now a foreign land to me. There was no dotted line or a bold red â€Å"X† to guide us. My family searched for places to live and jobs to support us. My sister and I walked through different hallways and attempted to fit in at our new school. Most of these kids had grown up together and suddenly, multiple Katrina victims were thrown into their mix. As the quiet girl at school, it was intimidating to approach people, introduce myself, and make conversation. I struggled with forgetting everything that was left behind: toys, clothes, pictures, jobs, and friends. I had only seen pictures of what the storm had done to my house, and the damage was devastating. Foot after foot of water still remained weeks after the tragedy. I imagine how the air reeked of the swamp. There was also the fear of what lie hidden beneath the murky water. Not onl y was it fears of critters, but of valuables now unsalvageable. Soggy furniture was upturned and even hanging over doorframes. Our neighbor’s aboveground pool was dragged down the street and across the neighborhood. Only weeks before, I was running in those streets and swimming in that

Jeannette And The Child Abuse Essay - 1610 Words

Pains hurt Jeannette Walls. It hurts her physically and mentally. Especially when those pains are caused not just by physical harassment caused or those of sexual abuses she experienced or acknowledged happening to her and her family but also the dysfunctionality of her family. The way Jeannette processed and respond to all the misfortunes and abuses of life hints us a rather insightful view of how perceptions and knowledge shape certain prejudices and judgments upon another person s circumstance. As a human, we tend to recoil from pains, Jeannette was no exception yet her reactions are childish and rather too instinctive. One of the earliest encounters was Billy Deel. His constant declaration of false truths creates to people s†¦show more content†¦To stop him, I put my hand down there, and when I touched it, I knew what it was, even though I had never touched one before.† () Here, the conception of guilt and responsibility becomes blurry as it could be the blame on Jeannette as she is incapable of defending herself against the sexual assailant. Nevertheless, she has no knowledge of sexual harassment that she could have used to protect herself by shouting out. At this point, we can relate the essence of the dilemma to the paradoxical psychology of how we react as a human to hazing and harassment in life. Just as how Jeannette instinctively react by herself, refused to call out for help from the beginning, we human make the same mistakes. Kids get bullied all the time and choose to remain silent of shame and in fear of the bully while the simplest solution is to find adults, teachers or friends who are capable of defending them. Even as adults, we tend to try to handle conflicts with colleagues and bosses by taking problems on our hand while the more scientifically efficient way is to seek out a pacifier who could help. It’s how we lack the knowledge of how it would turn out that we are afraid and unable to employ the better solution to a problem. It’s also how we are prone to the temptation of individualism eve n though we are better to thrive in collectivism as a whole. It’s the illusion of if each individual grows as its best then the whole will grow as well yet we forget the costs toShow MoreRelatedTheme Of Alcoholism In The Glass Castle977 Words   |  4 PagesESSAY - BY KAYLA FOSTER AND LANE MCCARTHY What is alcoholism and how does it severely affect people? It is a chronic condition characterized by uncontrolled drinking and preoccupation with alcohol. In The Glass Castle, Jeannette’s father Rex, is an alcoholic. We assume he enjoys drinking when on page nine, Jeannette recalls her father smelling of whiskey. â€Å"As he held me close, I breathed in his familiar smell of Vitalis, whiskey, and cigarette smoke. It reminded me of home.† While it is concerningRead MoreAlcoholism and the Effects on Family Essay1593 Words   |  7 PagesChris Landry Prof. Horowitz Synthesis Essay 10/26/07 Alcoholism and the Effects on a Family Alcoholism, although thought mostly of its impact on the alcoholic themselves, it is also a very present problem in the ruining of his or her friends and their families lives. Someone who may be a fully functional, great person to his or her family may be extremely dangerous, dishonest, and destructive while they are under the influence of alcohol. This instance occursRead MorePoverty in America1874 Words   |  8 Pagesfactors include socio-economic status, mental illness, family values and work ethics, to name a few. In this essay, I will be examining these factors as they are discussed in the book, The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls (referred to as Glass Castle throughout essay), as well as in the article Poverty in America from the Congressional Digest, December 2010 (referred to as Census throughout the essay). When children are born into poverty, it is the only life they know. They often grow up to either seeRead MoreFeed The Children1830 Words   |  8 Pagesfactors include socio-economic status, mental illness, family values and work ethics, to name a few. In this essay, I will be examining these factors as they are discussed in the book, The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls (referred to as Glass Castle throughout essay), as well as in the article Poverty in America from the Congressional Digest, December 2010 (referred to as Census throughout the essay). When children are born into poverty, it is the only life they know. They often grow up to either see

Constructive Relations at Top Trucking

Question: Discuss about the Constructive Relations at Top Trucking. Answer: Introduction Organizations during the contemporary period are compelled to adopt to change on continuous basis after realizing that global markets in particular are continuously being characterised by uncertainty (Asrar-al-Haq and Kuchinke, 2016). This means that change is inevitable for companies that are concerned about achieving their desired goals in the face of constantly changing environments in which they operate. However, success in implementing change in the operations of the organization can be achieved through effective leadership (Saari and Judge, 2004). Leaders often adopt different leadership styles they believe can positively influence the behaviour of their followers in their endeavor to provide the direction towards goal attainment. As such, this report seeks to analyse how changes in Top Trucking Companys workplace practices improved its performance as well as the complementary role they played to each other. The report also discusses the risks likely to be encountered in the ev ent that the yard manager or George leaves company after full implementation of these new changes introduced. The last part of the report discusses the extent to which blue collar unions like the Transport Workers Union can undertake various workplace changes. Complementary roles of new work practices The new manager brought a raft of changes to the Top Trucking Companys workplace policies contrary to autocratic leadership that was used by George Psaros who would tell people what to do or at time would yell at them. Some of the workplace practices introduced by the new manager include but are not limited to the following: engaging both drivers and union representatives, rational approach to problem solving, continuously worked to improve occupational health and safety and the drivers received more training. These work practices were geared towards improving the overall working conditions of the employees within the organization in a bid to improve its performance as well. It can be seen from the case study that the change brought by the new yard manager was transformational and to that effect, it can also be stated that he used transformational leadership style. Transformational leaders are leaders who show great consideration for individual needs of employees such as intellectual stimulation and they are also charismatic (Robbins, 1993). These are leaders who significantly inspire the followers to convert their personal interests for the good of the company. This is exactly what the new manager did to the employees at Top Trucking Company. The raft of workplace practices that were introduced significantly contributed to improved performance in the Trucking Company. It is evident from the case study that the workplace practices introduced by the yard manager complement each other. For instance, the yard manager made a policy aimed at engaging both drivers and union representatives. In this case, improved performance by drivers would complement the efforts of the union representatives to ensure that the working conditions of the drivers were good. The aspect of rational approach to problem solving by the yard manager played a complementary role with improved employee performance since the employees naturally developed respect for their new leader. On the other hand, continuous improvement in occupational health and safety also played a complementary role with improved driver competencies and skills in performing the tasks expected of them. On top of this, it can be observed that both the leader and employees played a complementary role to each other since their collaboration in various aspects led to improved performance in the organization. Schultz (2007) suggest that both leaders and followers in the organization play a complementary role to each other where the leader provides direction toward achievement of the goals while the followers respond by putting optimum performance to ensure that the desired goals are achieved. This notion has been supported by Asrar-al-Haq and Kuchinke (2016) found that there exists a significant relationship between transformational leadership and employee performance in their study. This shows the extent to which the employees and the followers in the organization play a complementary role to each other. Essentially, the efforts of the leader within the organisation should be complemented by the effort put by the employees in their work toward the attainment of the set goals and object ives. Risks of sustaining new changes introduced at the Trucking Company There are risks that are likely to be encountered in attempting to sustain these changes in the event that George or the yard manager moves. First and foremost, it should be noted that leaders are not universal especially in the way they approach different workplace practices. According to Zaccaro (2008), leaders have different personality traits that shape their leadership styles. According to Mohammed et al. (2014), leadership style involves different patterns of behaviour that are shown by the leaders when they deal with the employees. There are different leadership styles and each leader can choose a style that suits his or her needs of steering the company towards the desired direction with regard to goal attainment. A closer analysis of the case study of Top Trucking Company shows that the yard manager introduced democratic leadership style which was by far different from the autocratic leadership style that was used by George Psaros. Basically, democratic leadership, also known as participative leadership style involves persuasion and considers the feelings of the employees and encourages their participation in decision making process (Mohammed et al., 2014). This leadership style is designed to give the followers greater job satisfaction as has been the case in the above case study. Therefore, if the yard manager is to leave, then it may be difficult for the company to get a similar replacement in every respect. The employees particularly the drivers were beginning to realise the benefits of the changes that were proposed by the yard manager such that they would not question them though at first they seemed not to be comfortable with them. The new leadership style utilised by the yard manager had slowly been adopted into the culture of the organization of which all the employees were happy to identify with. This shows that the yard manager utilised change-oriented leadership described as the ability by leaders to implement changes and finding persuasive communication methods to convince people about the significance of that change (Khuong and Hoang, 2015). Again, this shows that change is a process which can be implemented at a slow pace for it to be accepted by the members of the organization. In the unfortunate event that the yard manager leaves the company, this move can create a wide gap which may be difficult to close especially if he is replaced by a manager who uses a different leadership style. This means that the employees in the organization would need to be reoriented in order for them to familiarize with the new leadership style that would be introduced by the new manager who will replace the current one. T his is quite a daunting task given that implementing change in the organization is not an event but a process that requires concerted effort by different stakeholders who are likely to be affected by it. The major risk in such a scenario is that the widely accepted changes by the current manager could end up being reversed should a different leader with different leadership style be appointed in the company. This will negatively impact the performance of the organization after witnessing significant developments that improved job satisfaction among the drivers. 4.0 Personal reflection about role of Transport Workers Union In my own opinion, I think unions like Transport Workers Union are more of less likely to engage in changes of this magnitude than public and service sector unions mainly because these are concerned about collective safety of the employees under their jurisdiction. In other words, bodies like TWU are concerned with enforcing legislation that is primarily concerned with ensuring the organizations they represent adhere to the laws so that the safety concerns of the employees are taken into consideration. This type of union puts more emphasis on the safety of the employees and other stakeholders who may be affected by their operations. The reason why they may not be able to make changes in the workplace practices is that they are primarily concerned with providing a framework upon which their representatives can design policies that take into consideration all the safety requirements as stated by the law. In other words, it is the duty of the organizations to make necessary workplace ch anges they desire instead of the TWU performing that task for them. This is just an umbrella body that provides the legal framework for the operations of its members. In order to establish if you are right about this claim made above, you only need to observe the internal operations of transport operations represented by TWU and see if they have any representative on the ground within the company. These blue collar unions promulgate laws which they expect all the transport operators to obey. They are only tough in the event that there has been a disaster in an organization it represents for failure of upholding the safety principles stated in the law they enforce to protect the employees. In other words, representatives from these unions do not directly make changes in the workplace practices of different companies since they operate outside companies. The TWU plays a major role in controlling the operations of their members through the use of legislation instead of them actively participating in making workplace changes for individual companies. This is the duty of the internal leadership of the organization that is aware of the importance of cha nge at a given moment. Conclusion Over and above, it can be observed that organisations are compelled to adopt change mainly due to the changes taking place in the environments they operate. Effective leadership is very important if the company is to implement change successfully. This has been illustrated by the case of Top Trucking Company which witnessed performance improvement in leaps and bounds following successful implementation of a raft of workplace practices by the new yard manager. These changes were also found to be complementary to each other and this significantly improved the performance as well as job satisfaction of the employees. However, credit goes to the leadership style of the new yard manager which was oriented towards fulfilling the needs of the workers. This notion has been supported by Mosadeghrad and Ferdosi (2013) who found in their study that employees job satisfaction and commitment depend on the leadership style used by the managers. References Asrar-al-Haq, M. Kuchinke, K.P. (2016). Impact of leadership styles on employees attitude towards their leader and performance: Empirical evidence from Pakistani banks. Future Business Journal, Volume 2, Issue 1, p, 54-64. Cooper, B. Waring, P. (2009). Employment Relations: Theory and Practice. Sydney: McGraw-Hill. Khuong M.N and Hoang, D.T. (2015). The Effects of Leadership Styles on Employee Motivation in Auditing Companies in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance, Vol. 6, No. 4. Mohammed, U.D. et al. (2014). The Relationship between Leadership Styles and Employees Performance in Organizations (A Study of Selected Business Organizations in Federal Capital Territory, Abuja Nigeria). European Journal of Business and Management, Vol.6, No.22. Mosadeghrad, A.M. Ferdosi, M. (2013). Leadership, Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment in Healthcare Sector: Proposing and Testing a Model Mater Sociomed, Vol 25, (2), p. 121-126. Robbins, S.P. (1993). Organizational behavior: Concepts, controversies and applications. 6th Edition. New jersey, NJ: Prentice Hall. Saari, L.M. Judge, T.A. (2004). Employee attitudes and job satisfaction. Human Resource Management, 43 (4) (2004), pp. 395407 Schultz, R. (2007). Human resources management. JB: Prentice Hall. Swanepoel, G. (2000). Perspectives in human resources management. CT: Pearson. Zaccaro, S. J. (2008): Trait-based Perspectives of Leadership. American Psychologist, 62-6-16

Congo Book Report Essay Example For Students

Congo Book Report Essay The book Congo is about a group of people who go to the African Congo to return a gorilla to her homeland and to find type IIb blue diamonds. On their journey they discover the lost city of Zinj and a new species of killer gorillas, which they must overcome to survive. The story takes place in June of 1979. The three main characters are: Dr. Karen Ross, supervisor of Earth Resources Technology Services (ERTS), Dr. Peter Elliot, a primatologist who trained a gorilla named Amy to speak by the use of sign language, and Charles Munro, the guide who leads the expedition through the Congo. ERTS has already sent an expedition of eight into the Congo to retrieve type IIb blue diamonds. They are contacting them back at the base in Houston. The camera in the expeditions camp turns on revealing a destroyed campsite: torn tents, supplies and clothing scattered everywhere, and dead bodies. As the camera moves around scanning the area, a big gray object runs by the camera and destroys it. Every at ERTS is in shock. They replay the footage and freeze it on the big gray object. It looks like a gray gorilla, but gorillas dont kill people. Karen Ross decides to take another expedition into the Congo to get the blue diamonds. Because of the bewilderment over this incident she contacts Dr. Elliot to find out what this gorilla is. She tells him that theyre going to the Congo and he wants to come and bring Amy, his gorilla. Amy has been experiencing bad dreams because of her past which is unknown to Dr. Ross. She begins finger painting, which helps her sleep at ease because tries to banish the dreams onto paper. Elliot realizes she wants to go to the jungle because all her paintings are of it. The expedition leaves quickly because there is a competing company that is also making its way to the Congo to get the blue diamonds, which are an amazing source of energy. The expedition is set to meet Charles Munro; the best guide there is, to guide them through the Congo. They discussed business matters and quickly headed to Nairobi. From Nairobi they took their final plane to go to the Congo. At that time, a civil war had started in Africa and both sides were shooting everything, including the expeditions plane. Everyone had to take a parachute and jump out of the plane. This was a major delay in the time the expedition had to beat the competition to the diamond site. The expedition: Ross, Elliot, Munro, Amy, and some African men have to walk the rest of the way to the diamond site. On their way they encounter many dangers like cannibalistic tribes, angry hippos, crocodiles, and a volcano ready to burst. As they are walking through the jungle Ross is informed on her computer that the competition has already reached the site and there is no point to continue. Later on they find the competitions campsite destroyed and all the people are dead. During their journey they have an encounter with mountain gorillas. Amy runs of with them because she thinks the group is mad at her. After all the troubles and danger they finally arrive at a place to make camp, which turns out to be the lost city of Zinj which contains the blue diamonds. They are very excited to have made such a great archeological discovery and go exploring the city for the rest of the day. At night they set up and electric fence, sensor guns, and sensor lasers. .ucdf73a6c5cf41dd82cb27feb694f92db , .ucdf73a6c5cf41dd82cb27feb694f92db .postImageUrl , .ucdf73a6c5cf41dd82cb27feb694f92db .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .ucdf73a6c5cf41dd82cb27feb694f92db , .ucdf73a6c5cf41dd82cb27feb694f92db:hover , .ucdf73a6c5cf41dd82cb27feb694f92db:visited , .ucdf73a6c5cf41dd82cb27feb694f92db:active { border:0!important; } .ucdf73a6c5cf41dd82cb27feb694f92db .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .ucdf73a6c5cf41dd82cb27feb694f92db { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .ucdf73a6c5cf41dd82cb27feb694f92db:active , .ucdf73a6c5cf41dd82cb27feb694f92db:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .ucdf73a6c5cf41dd82cb27feb694f92db .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .ucdf73a6c5cf41dd82cb27feb694f92db .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .ucdf73a6c5cf41dd82cb27feb694f92db .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .ucdf73a6c5cf41dd82cb27feb694f92db .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .ucdf73a6c5cf41dd82cb27feb694f92db:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .ucdf73a6c5cf41dd82cb27feb694f92db .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .ucdf73a6c5cf41dd82cb27feb694f92db .ucdf73a6c5cf41dd82cb27feb694f92db-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .ucdf73a6c5cf41dd82cb27feb694f92db:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Ansel Adams: photographer and artist Essay This is their first encounter with the gray killer gorillas. The gorillas showed signs of intelligence by attacking different parts of the electric fence to get in, they also wheezed to one another and used hand signals, which served as a language. The next day while studying paintings in one of the houses of the city they discovered the story behind the city. The city has diamond mines under it and they trained gorillas to be like watchdogs to guard the mines. These watchdogs turned on their masters and now these killer apes rule the city. The team dug a moat around the camp because it is known that no gorilla will cross even the smallest body of water. That night the gorillas came and the same wheezing noises where heard used a tree trunk as a bridge over the moat and some of them made a distraction while others used a stick to lift open the fence and kill some of the African people. Later the team studied the body of one of the dead animals. It was a little smaller than a gorilla and weighed less and its fur color was gray. The next night the same thing happened: more gorillas slipped in unnoticed, killed some of the African people, and made a clean exit. The next day Amy returned to the campsite and told Elliot that these gray gorillas are bad creatures and that she could understand them a little. Elliot thought of a plan, he and Amy went to the lair of these gorillas and focused on one. Amy would explain to Elliot what each noise meant. By the end of the day they had down the meaning of a few words. Elliot made a tape with the words: GO AWAY, NO COME, and BAD HERE. As the gorillas attacked that night he played the message and they all left. The plan had worked. The next day the volcano was ready to blow which meant they had to leave quickly. On their way a cannibal tribe attacked them. They managed to escape in a hot air balloon and Amy was set free and lived with a gorilla troop. Ross got her blue diamonds and went home happy. I liked the book because of all the adventure. All the danger they had to go through was very exciting and suspenseful. I was always waiting to see what would happen next. It was also fun reading about how surprisingly intelligent the gray gorillas are. In each attack they do something smarter and waiting to find out how the team would overcome them was very exciting. I recommend this book to adventure loving people who also want to learn a lot while reading. The book has a lot of on the edge of your seat adventure and suspense and a lot of educational material about primates, the history of training animals to talk, and computers among many other things. In conclusion Congo is a great book that doesnt let you become bored and teaches you a lot of interesting facts.English