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Prompt Tell
Prompt: Tell us your story. What unique opportunities or challenges have you experienced throughout your high school career that have shaped who you are today
You walk into a Firestone automotive shop to get your tires or oil changed and behind the counter you see a five-year-old boy sitting down playing with toy a car, starting a conversation with you that lasts your entire visit. You ponder why a boy, at this age, is spending his time here, rather than at the playground where other children would reside.
The boy being described, is me, Christian Ziadeh, where I would later learn that spending my days and nights working next to my father at this automotive shop, has taught me a plethora of lessons that have shaped me into who I am and I would continue to utilize in my future endeavors.
Ironically, I always dreaded weekends growing up. They only indicated more work and I learned very quickly, the older I got, the more work I would endure. Saturday mornings consisted of my father waking me up to the sound of the garage door opening, indicating that I needed to be ready in minutes to head to work. I would then spend the day shadowing my father and the employees
Freshmen year of high school still going to work after school and on Saturdays cleaning the shop cleaning inside the shop helping out around the shop. My favorite thing is seeing the customers that I have known sense i was five them talking about how cute I am and how tall. Sitting behind the manager watching how he writes tickets orders parts and makes things run. Learning as much as possible so one day i can run the shop. Sophomore year I am 15 and staring to actually work and getting paid. Doing oil changes and brakes and other things. Working along side father’s workers they always helped me out if i didn’t know how something was done. Letting me use there tools anytime i need to use them. Occasionally running the front when the manager is at lunch or doing something that causeshim to not be in the front. Summer of sophomore year is when the work actuallygot to me mentally and physically. Working in the Texas heat for 60 hours aweek took a tole on me. But it got me ready for football season and got me used to the heat. Football season starts everything going well till one day I feel a really sharp pain in my back and go to the doctors to get x-rayed and a MRI.Doctor comes into the room and tells me i have scoliosis and herniated disc and a compressed disc and cant play football for 2 years at least me verydisappointed that I couldn’t play the game i loved probably for the rest of my life. Also I couldn’t work the way I Used to picking up heavy things that i needed it just slowed me down and I didn’t like that. It all worked out in the end because i mostly stayed up front and pushed sales and helped the business rise in sales. Summer of Junior year I am 17 working full time at a new shop running the new shop that we opened that wasn’t doing so well working so hard to make my father happy and the shop profitable. In a matter of 2 months of me running it sales went up 46% and the shop was worth keeping. Senior year has begun and I get off of school at 12:00 go straight to the newest shop that is doing worse then any shop that my father owned we were losing money from this one. Working to make this shop become the shop a great, as it should be pushing sales on every car I could staying late and working do make something work. Nothing was working this prime time shop wasn’t being the prime time shop that it should have been. One day a man walks in and asked us if we work on diesel trucks and we said of course what would you need and he said to just check up on his truck that he has we wrote up a statement and sent it to him he comes in to talk to me asked to go into the office sits down and tells me. You have my business and i will be bringing in my 25 trucks for you to work on. First question i have is what made you happy? He told me that in the 30 years he has run his business he has never had a shop give him a quote that is exactly what was wrong with the truck. He was testing our knowledge and our integrity. This shop now is the most profitable shop we have out of the 6. My unique opportunity is that at 15 years old i worked more then any kid my age to make the shop successful. At 16 i started running a shop and made it successful. At 17 I am running the most successful shop we have had in 20 years. Hard work pays off. Integrity shows who you are and pays off at the end.
The Global Village
The Global Village
The world is slowly but surely becoming one global village, as a result a problem arising in one corner of the world the repercussions will be felt on each and every corner of the world. Terrorism activities in Afghanistan do not only cause ripples in Afghanistan alone the rest of the world is also affected to some extent. Happenings in any corner of the world can be transmitted to the rest of the world in minutes.
The author Friedman uses the topic “Flat world” as a metaphor; the author used the term flat world to indicate the next stage of globalization. The author uses various examples to show how the world is becoming more entwined. The author focuses more on how the world economy is becoming more flat, and even how the “barriers to entry” are being broken down. In his book Friedman main attention is the United States of America and the notion that it has held for along time that they don’t need the Middle East in order to survive (Steingart, pg 220).
The “flattened world” that the author describes is a world where companies such in the United States of America can venture into the Middle East and take advantage of the low cost of production. The author gives an example of ordering food from MacDonald’s drive- through where he says that the person that takes your order do not necessarily have to be at the place where you are physically. The person who takes the order is actually based at the firms call centre in Colorado, but within a few minutes of receiving the order it is processed and it is ready by the time one gets to the pickup window. The world that Friedman talks about is a world where all countries will have goals of improving the living conditions of all the human beings on earth and not only their citizens (Steingart, pg 180).
The beneficiaries of the flat world according to the author are countries which are still developing. For decades the United States of America has dominated the world in a manner that no country has ever done before. The country has also been vocal in calling for the open markets, and trade. By putting in place such policies the developing countries will benefit the most as they will have the same market share as the developed countries. The developing countries will gain both politically and economically. He gives an example of China by stating “If China grows economically, at some point it will also gain political ambitions.” Fried man goes further and explains that economic equality and relations will play a key role in averting war between countries as no country will feel superior to the other. The author cites that major conflicts in the world especially between countries are as a result of pride (Friedman, pg 220).
The major losers in the quest for a flat world will be the developed countries. United States of America in particular will have nothing much to gain either politically or economically. The country will loose the dominance that it has held for a very long time, which means it will no longer be a superpower as it is today. The author concludes by wondering if in the quest to globalize the world, the Unites States of America forgot that they are also part of the world and need to be globalized also (Friedman, pg 230).
Globalization of the world does not necessarily mean that people will have to forget about their cultural difference and values. In the new world that Friedman proposes, the cultural differences is what will bring people together, Indians will move to America to work, and the Americans will also go to India. In the process people from the two countries will learn the cultures of each other. The world will have different cultures spread throughout the world as people will feel free to work from any part of the world. The main reason will be that all the countries will be equal in terms of development and economically, thus no country will be regarded as more developed than the other (Friedman, pg 210).
The repercussions of an equal world will be diverse; many people will have to work in their own countries as the profession that most are pursuing will be available in their own countries. Some countries such as India which is known for having very many engineers more than even the employment opportunities will have nowhere to take the many engineers (Friedman, pg 220).
The book serves as an inspiration to the citizens’ of developing countries. The book also shows the reason why the developed should strive even more in helping the developing countries. As Bill gates told Friedman “Thirty years ago, if you had to choose between being born a genius in Mumbai or Shanghai and an average person in Poughkeepsie, you would have chosen Poughkeepsie because your chances of living a prosperous and fulfilled life were much greater there. ”Now,” Gates says, ”I would rather be a genius born in China than an average guy born in Poughkeepsie.”Work Cited
Friedman, Thomas L.. The world is flat: a brief history of the twenty-first century. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005. Print.
Friedman, Thomas L.. The world is flat: the globalized world in the twenty-first century. [New ed. London: Penguin, 2006. Print.
Steingart, Gabor. The war for wealth: the true story of globalization or why the flat world is broken. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008. Print.
The Global Strategies on Inclusive Education by Edward Ndopu
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The Global Strategies on Inclusive Education by Edward NdopuAccording to Edward, almost 650 million people living with disabilities are neglected, discriminated against, and further points out at 98% of children born with disability in the developing world who are denied access to education (YouTube). Edward further explains that the disabled children are excluded from the social and economic issues including denial of access to information. His frustration with the way people living with disabilities are treated prompts him to join in the campaign against such kind of exclusion and discrimination. The campaign termed Global Strategies on Inclusive Education with the aim of raising awareness as well as providing education and socioeconomic opportunities to empower children living with disabilities.
Edward and other sponsors of the campaign believe that the campaign will greatly help the physically disabled children to become intelligent, compassionate and highly focussed grownups which is an extraordinary expectation considering that most people with such kind of a conditions are excluded in the society. The GSIE is expected to be an informative program intended to raise awareness in the education sector and transform the worse conditions faced by the disabled children ( Ndopu YouTube).
Edward asks people to join him in the fight against discrimination and exclusion faced by the physically disabled children all over the world. Edward is convinced that GSIE will make a convincing and tremendous impact on the many discriminated against children and further ensures that the disabled children get access to education. It is apparent that change and hope largely inspires Edward and he is determined to change the way physically disabled people are perceived in the world.
As a leader, I would show passion in assisting the physically challenged children. I would talk to their parents so that they can have hope in their children and turn life challenges into success. I understand that the best motivator to a physically disabled child is to show love and passion. I would initiate campaign against the physically discriminated children and advice the society on the need to show passion, love and support to the disabled people since they are normal human beings with talents, skills and capabilities that can be of great help to the society. “Never giving up” spirit should always be at everyone’s mind regardless of the worst conditions one undergoes. At one point or the other people may undergo depression, stress and serious emotional problems because of their physical inability they find themselves into such as disability. Such kind of conditions may be permanent and the only option to bring happiness and put a smile on such kind of people is love. I will encourage the children to have sheer determination and courage to do extraordinary beyond everyone’s’ expectation and discourage them from looking back at their physical conditions.
I will ensure that I instil the “all things are possible” belief amongst the children and empower them to take action. I will assure them of their significance and purpose in the society as well as the need to set pace for other people and belief in their inner strength that is superior to the physical disability. I will let the physically disabled people understand that the most important thing in human beings is the strength of the spirit, determination and passion inside him or her but not their physical conditions. Edward Ndopu has transformed my thinking and encouraged me to extend my hand wherever I can.
Works Cited
Ndopu, Edward. “Global Strategy for Inclusive Education.” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 16 Dec. 2009. Web. 13 Dec. 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRIxcfwN-2E>.