Carter Stokes

Week 7: Diversity and Inclusion III In class this week we watched a movie call "Instructions Not Included"  Link Here  before meeting on Monday. We were all shocked by the ending with the daughter of Valentin being the one with the illness. The movie was quite funny in the beginning but then towards the end was really sad. the film explores many theme such as parenthood, what it means to be a father, commitment, and facing fears. The theme of parenthood brought up a good discussion in our class about how courts would be inclined to give custody of a child the biological mother regardless of the situation.  This is an issue I was completely ignorant about and was happy to learn about. I found it sad to think about all the custody cases that where potentially ruled wrong and children suffering due to the ruling because of the bias the judge or the institution holds. Although we did not discuss the other themes as much in class I feel that the theme of fear really drove t...

Week 6 : Diversity and Inclusion                   In class this week we discussed two documentaries both made by Jose Vargas Documented  Link Here  and White people  Link Here . Documented was about Jose's personal story about being undocumented and how there are very little options for undocumented Americans to gain citizenship in the United States.  White people was mostly about what white people feel about race and diversity. Jose interviewed many people about white peoples take what life is like for white people. He found that may white people claim to just not notice race and they say this to avoid the issue and not discuss it. But when interviewed alone Caucasians say that they feel that discrimination against whites is just as much as a problem as discrimination against minorities. This turns out to come mostly from one place. The reason white people believe this, is the myth that scholarships are mostly going t...

Week 4: Academic Integrity and A Growth Mindset        In Class this we mainly discussed the factors that contribute to a quality and productive class discussions, what it means to have a growth mindset, and violation of academic integrity  and the consequences  of those violations. Unfortunately we were still behind schedule due to Hurricane Dorian so we were not able to really talk about academic success, but there was a lot of links and things give for us to consider given this week about academic success.          One interesting reading  found here  was about Georgia Southern's withdraw policy and how we should make the decision if we should or should not  withdraw from a course. There are multiple draw backs to withdrawing such as we only get a total of six withdraws in your college career so we need to really think if we should use it before just wasting a withdraw. Also an other thing ...

Week three:Class discussion/Free Speech Unfortunately this week we did not meet for class so no discussion were had but there was still plenty of material to look over. In the article "the power of dialogue" ( Found here )the author says dialogue is not just a conversation but a conversation where real empathy is show and where it is constructive and thing s are accomplished. This could be a helpful thing to keep in mind in our upcoming classroom dialogues. Also in the article "12 Essential Communication Skills not Taught in School"( Found here ) It discusses non-verbal communication and its significance. I feel that non-verbal communication is important for college freshman because it can instantly show your interest in the person and the conversation. this is also the skill I probably need to work on the most. Every time some one nobs along with a conversation and makes eye contact I feel that they are trying to empathize with me. In the article "What ex...

Week Two Reflection: The Honors Program and Time Management In class this week on Monday we had three guest speakers, Dr. Engel, Dr. Desiderio, And Erin Martin to discuss with us the requirements and exceptions of being in the honors program. I Found this session to be extremely informational. To be quite honest I had no idea what the requirements were for the honors college so this was completely necessary for me to see all the the resources the honors college has and meet the people who can help me have success.It made me realize that I was lucky to be part of a program that will push me to do the things I need to do to get the most out of college, such as study abroad or conduct research. On Wednesday in class we got in to small groups and were given a list of objectives with point values assigned to each of them. them were given a small amount of time to score the most points. We followed up the activity with a discussion on how we manage our time and strategies we had for getti...

Week One Reflection  In Class This weeks topic was Campus engagement and what it means to be engaged. We discussed first in small groups then in the entire class group. We also watched a ted talk ( https://www.youtube.-com/watch?v=29tJAgc54RA ) about why we are here in college and About paving our own paths instead of the ones laid out by others, and if college was for everyone. Class discussion  As I said, in the discussion we talked about the word "engage" and said that inside of college it typically means to get involved in the community, join clubs and community service. But, we also talked about how it means to engage in class like how we ask question and answered questions. I feel that this is especially important because it not only help the class instructor to notice us and began to develop a rapport but also helps us to stay to stay focused because I find it hard to focus and listen for long periods of time without engagi...

Hi! My Name is Carter Stokes and I am Mechanical Engineering Student at Georgia Southern. I am originally from Slidell, Louisiana and lived there for sixteen years then moved to Kennesaw Georgia when I was in tenth grade. My interest include playing chess, disc golf, guitar and robotics. I choose Georgia southern for its mechanical engineering program and because of the beautiful campus.