African Burial Research

When i first thought of the African Burial Ground, i was a little surprised that it was located in New York because whenever i learned about African history, i learned about it with in locations in the south. But during the eighteenth century some of the land in New York that was known as just common ground was used to bury over 1712 slaves that were executed. These physical remains are of African decent that were imported from the dutch as a way of making money, many years ago. Once labeled as the negro burying place in 1732; the ground was reported to have uninviting suburb elements.. The government desired to plant construction in those very spots. Never the less, the ground has been protected by the original holders, the bodies that have been buried and mean so much to us today. This is a very important honor,especially in New York because like i stated before, it is not often recognized for the history of slaves. There are no buildings or statues in their honor, only their remains and spirits.

My Freshman Seminar Experience

Freshman Seminar has been an interesting experience for me. When I thought of a seminar class, I was under the impression that we would just be learning about how to adjust to college, and different ways to benefit ourselves, as students. Freshman Seminar was so much more than that. We learned about so much more than just how to manage our time, or be college students, which we hadn’t been used to. The first six weeks were a time where I could learn more about my race. Each lesson taught me things that I had never heard about before. One of the lectures that I enjoyed most was when Dr. Benjamin spoke to us about the Human Genome. She was there to stress to us the importance of being Black and the fact that it was our time to change the way things were and to excel and surpass all obstacles. This course was able to help me to increase my esteem as a Black person. It also educated me more on different topics. The trip to the African Burial Ground was able to teach more about what occurred in this nation that I live in. I felt so much more educated from a class that didn’t even fall under a specific discipline. I always wondered about the amount of work that I was putting into a class that was Pass or Fail and only worth one credit, but I believe that might have been worth it for the amount that I was able to learn.
Shayna McCormack

Freshman seminar Overall 2010

Freshman seminar has given me a load of historical information that i can use in the future. When i learned of all of the things our ancestors did to improve society, i wonder why i don't see that eagerness and effort from people today. The broad question of how knowledge can be generated by various fields of study can be used to generate human social problems and challenges has allowed us to be more aware and explore problems and solutions. Through everyones presentations, i was aware of problems in our society and our school. Through the power points, I was constantly reminded of the legacy and importance that Howard holds. It has allowed me to make connections to myself and life as it is. This class made links to religion, race, the mind and body. It was a relief from the everyday study and makes you think critically, on a level that gives you the ability and responsibility to explore change, taking things that happened before christ and applying it to how the world is today. I appriciate the reality and self awareness that was brought to the class. In the end there was a connection from every class to the goal of creating a vision, solving the problem and continuing the legacy. Of course everyone appriciates the work being done through blogs. It allows us to freely express what we got out of each professor and not be limited to any requirements. Also, we can view the point of view from our peers and even respond to what we learned from them. I can take what i have learned from this course and apply it to my everyday knowledge.

Intellect & Rhythm

Intellect and Rhythm talked about the awareness of HIV and AIDS. The stats they discussed are scary in terms of the percentages. 49.8% African American woman have HIV and AIDS. While their white counterparts are 2.8 for every 100,000. Men receive HIV and AIDS from having sex with other men. This led me to believe something about the reason so many black women have HIV and AIDS. Black men are heavily incarcerated and some do tend to have sex with other men while incarcerated. Then when they are released they have sex with black women. I believe it starts in the prisons just from that small fact. You can get HIV and AIDS from semen, breast milk, blood, unprotected sex and even with a condom there is a chance. They showed pictures of people who were a little older that were affected when I feel they should have showed teenagers who were affected. The closer in age, the more of and affect the visual aids would have had. They felt that we should start doing things in the communities to express what is felt about HIV and AIDS. One of the young women said to start having a spokesperson in schools (starting with HBCUs) and stat safe practice campaigns. But my thing is this, HIV and AIDs is always talked about especially among my age group. We are very focused on media and BET always has Wrap it Up campaigns and spokespersons who go out to schools and famous people that talk about these issues. What would be the difference if someone in your school did it? I believe it will have the same outcome, the people who do not want to get in contact with HIV and AIDS will pay attention and be aware, and those who do not think it can happen to them will continue their daily lifestyle.

Richelle Jenkins

BE PRESENT

Awareness,Vision,Memory...With the knowledge we hold, we hold the power to recognize problems and solutions in life. Rather than letting these problems go unsolved or trying to advicate them ourselves we must make others aware. Initiating the vision is the key to more successful changes. I was told to never be passive about the plan of possibility. But before making the world aware, we must plan a vision for what we desire the world to be. The imagination and a plan of what we can create makes what we want to do more realistic and somewhat easier. Although it is always possible for the vision to be recreated, at least you can learn more about the factors of the situations by having the positives and negitives of the vision. This creates even more for the memory. Memory is the historical part of the vision. There is a chain that connects from memory back to awareness. That is why it is important to scribe. We were made aware through the scribes and what they recorded. Before christ, scrolls and clay was used to make memory and show us what once was their vision, which makes us aware. I have found the link between awareness,vision and memory and continuing the legacy. It is impossible to continue legacies with out initiation and great expectation.

Black Slave Owners

There was a group in our Freshman Seminar class which did their presentation on Black slave owners. I found this to be an interesting topic since it addressed an issue that I had never thought about and had not even been fully aware of. I knew bits and pieces about Black people who owned slaves. Most of what I knew and believed included that they worked to free their own families and, if they did have other slaves, they would at least treat them properly since these people were of the same race as them. I found it interesting to learn that these slave owners treated their slaves the same way that white slave owners treated their slaves. They bought these people and beat them when they behaved in a negative way. There were Black slave owners who basically bought slaves for their own profit, no to help their people. I find it to be disconcerting that these people would treat their own people like this, since it would have been better to have some form of solidarity in the face of racism and mistreatment. This presentation was really able to open my eyes and even made me question most of what I learned in the past. There could have been other roles that Black people in the United States had with putting down the people of their own race, with the issue of slavery. It was an interesting topic that I would actually be interested in looking into more myself, some day.
Shayna McCormack

Brown Group 2014

Brown Group 2014 research project was about the affects of underage drinking. They informed us that underage drinking can lead to sex, suicide, arrest, death, homicide, suicide, memory loss and change in brain development. The brain affects that they discussed were issues such as structural problems, smaller brains, and the exposure to drinking disrupts development. With drinking being an issue with college students, though they are on a dry campus, it affects their school work. A lot of underage drinkers do it because they think that it is cool and they are trying to fit in with another group of people who drink. 31% of people from the age of 18 to 20 binge drink. Binge drinking is basically drinking primarily to become intoxicated and excessive drinking. Binge drinking leads to diabetes, poisoning, high blood pressure and issues with brain development. At the end of their presentation people asked why did they do their paper on underage drinking when it is against the law. They responded that even though it is against the law, people under the age of 21 still drink and still have access to alcohol. They were not really trying to prevent underage people from drinking, they were just trying to inform people what can happen because of it.

Richelle Jenkins