My Feature Story

To graduate, and to get an AA degree, are supposed to be two exciting moments in a person’s life. A person has just turned another page from his or her book. After hard work and perseverance, a dream has become reality. I am one of those students. I graduated June 10th, of 2008, and I received an outstanding academic achievement award.

However, I am not just any student. I have Cerebral palsy, I have been blind since birth, and I cannot read brail. However, that has not stopped me. I have to complete one more class before obtaining my AA degree.

Unfortunately, the class, which is journalism1, is a substitution for broadcasting 4a which teaches students about news writing. These two classes are structured for people that can see. This is a problem for me because I believe that people like me should not be taking these classes do to their visual content. Also, I have no knowledge of the things that are being taught or how they are going to be taught. In my journalism 1 class, I have to work with pictures and websites which are not accessible to blind users.

It was almost the exact thing in my broadcasting 4a class; I had to hear what was on a video. At the same time, I had to hear my note taker describe to me what was going on the video. Then, I had to transcribe all of this information as if I was on the seen that the video was showing.
Many days I ask myself, “How am I supposed to know this? How am I supposed to know how everything is arranged and what does it mean, if I cannot see the screen?”
Another example is when I was in class, as an in-class activity, along with other students; I had to find stories in the newspaper to compile for a mock newscast. As all the students were looking in the newspaper, and talking to each other, I was sitting alone in front of a computer screen. I was frustrated because I was not doing my best to reach my potential. Tears were rolling down my eyes, and I wanted to get out of there not only because I was not doing anything, but because I did not want people to see me.

Miguel Lugo, an advocate for people with disabilities, said that there are always challenges that people with disabilities have to go through, and that there is always someone who is willing to “help you out.” According to a 2004 report titled, “Blind Adults in America: Their Lives and Challenges,” 16 percent of blind people have had some college education.

This report was conducted by the National Center for Policy Research for Women & Families; an independent research and educational organization, and was written by Diana M. Zuckerman whom has a PhD, and whom is an expert on national health policy.
As we have seen, some of them have reached their goals. However, things are not really that good when we compare this statistic and others, with those of the general population. The report also states that While 12 percent of blind people have a college degree, 18 percent of sighted people have achieved the same goal. Also, 40 percent of blind people do not have a high school diploma; compared to 25 percent of the general population that does not have a high school education. This report also found out that Blind people are less educated than people who can see. Blind people only have in average of 11.4 years of education. In the work force, 70 percent of disabled people are unemployed, According to an article, titled, "Blind Applicants Confront a Harsh Job Market," which was published on November 22 2007 in the Boston Globe. This is higher than the statistics that the bureau of labor reported for the sighted population. According to the bureau of labor statistics, 5.5 percent of sighted people are unemployed. These statistics are startling.
At SMC, a student is required to take 5 classes and an elective in able to get an AA degree in broadcasting. Out of the 8 broadcasting classes that I have taken, 6 have had some visual content that I have not been able to understand. For classes that have visual content, students with disabilities are provided with a scribe. After class, the notes are scanned, so the blind person could read them.
For some teachers at SMC, the transition from teaching sighted students to teaching blind students has not been hard. Nick Pernisco, whom is professor of broadcasting at SMC, said, “ I think that what’s happened is that I’ve become more conscious of the fact that I am not only trying to appeal to students who are able to see, but also to students who aren’t able to see.” He also says that this experience has made him conscious in terms of how he puts together his lesson plans.

Most professors seemed to be OK with having someone else helping a student by taking notes. “It seemed to work well for me,” Frank Dawson said, another broadcasting professor at Santa Monica College. He also stated that “Working with the students with disabilities department” was helpful. They told him what services they had available.
In some cases, when students with disabilities cannot do the assignment that the professor has assigned, professors give students an alternative assignment which try’s to be an equivalent to the assignment that the other students have to do.

Students are also not bothered by having blind students as classmates. “They were shocked,” Jason Tillitte, a student at SMC, said after seeing a blind student in the class. “It is a new experience for some of them,” Ron Brewington, whom is a teacher and former professional broadcaster, said.

This is not the only class that I have taken. In September of 2007, I had to take a basic math class. Because the class was not targeted towards me, I ended up dropping the class. I think that it would have been a different story if I would have been able to read brail. However, only 10 percent of blind people read Braille, according to the National Federation of the Blind. Also most college teachers have not worked with visually impaired people. This poses a big threat because as we have seen, more blind students could end up being part of that 16 percent of students who have only had some college education.
One solution to prevent this is to train the professors on how to work with blind people.

In the math class, the visual information was described. However, it was useless since there was nothing that I could relate this information to. I also ended up substituting this class for speech 11 which is an argument and debate class. “It would be nice if people could substitute these types of classes ahead of time,” Bianca Carneiro, whom was a student at SMC, said. Most of the interviewees agreed that the college curriculum needed to be changed.
How can we say that SMC or any other college is being friendly to everyone, if they are still leaving out those who need the education most. “It is our job as professors to help students,” Brewington said. Further more, We cannot expect students to willingly take a class such as journalism 1, which is not targeted towards them, and then have them go to their work place which is probably as inaccessible as these classes and which also expect a college degree which would not be obtained by the student. By adapting classes to visually impaired people, we will insure that blind people will be successful in the future. And more people will have a college degree.

Is John McCain a maverick?

In a story titled, “Between a maverick and a hard place,” publish to day in the LA times, I found some things that were very interesting. For example, John McCain considers himself to be a maverick. So, what is a maverick? According to thefreedictionary.com, it is, “One that refuses to abide by the dictates of or resists adherence to a group; a dissenter.” Yes, he is still one, but I also think that he is stuck in between roads. He wants to be seen as someone who is different than other politicians. But at the same time, he wants to win these elections. I used to like him a little bit more a few years ago when he co-authored an emigration bill that was fair to undocumented workers. Now it seems as if he has joined those people whom he has criticized. I believe that a person could be with a group and still not be in agreement with them. However, in this case, I think that there is very little difference between President Bush and McCain. In another note, I think that he should not use ads like the one with Paris Hilton to get his point across. He should not criticize Barak Obama for saying what he said about tires and energy.
To read the article, go to
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-maverick11-2008aug11,0,299016.story

News in California.

This morning I was on my computer. For a few minutes, I kept hearing a dog. I was wondering what was wrong, so I stopped what I was doing to listen carefully. I did not hear anything. The sound that I had heard was interesting. It sounded as if the dog was moving back and forth. When I went back to what I was doing, I felt OK. A few minutes had passed when I heard this rattling sound above me. I stopped again, and I sat to listen. When the sound got a little bit louder, I wanted to get up, but I did not because I thought it was something not important. As I sat there, I felt the floor shaking under me. For a few seconds, I was still trying to process what was going on. When I understood what it was, I attempted to shut down my computer. By the time that I was going to get covered, it had stopped shaking. I went to the living room to see if someone had some info, and they confirmed what I had already suspected. Then, I turned on the radio, and they were talking about what had occurred. They did not have anymore info than I did. I kept listening, and I found out that the earthquake was felt all across California and in Las Vegas. Its epicenter was in chino Hills which is 20 miles or so away from Los Angeles. Neither damages’ nor injuries were reported. I went to one of the other rooms to hear what the people on TV were saying. I heard different numbers for the magnitude of this earthquake. It was not until hours later that I found out that the earthquake was a 5.4. I think the last one that I experienced was in 2005 or 2006. I cannot remember the details of that one. I do remember the one that we had in 1994. I had to sleep in a car. Things were broken, and I think there were cracks on the walls of the apartments in the building that I was living in. When we got down stairs, there were two people. Hours later, my grandma told my family and me that a fight broke out between them. I am glad that I was not inside. That earthquake had a magnitude of 6.7. So, here are some things to have when the next one comes. Water, food for three days, a flashlight, an emergency kit, a radio, extra batteries, another bag pack with games, reading,, writing, and listening materials , an address book, and extra clothes. I am not sure if it was in that earthquake that one of my teachers told me that I had predicted that it was going to happen. She told me this when I got back to school. Apparently, I had made a prediction a few days earlier. I cannot remember saying that there was going to be one. However, a few weeks before today’s earthquake happened, I had to write 12 short phrases to tell a story. The other students had to do the same thing, but they had to use pictures. Here is what I wrote.
House with light on
House up down
Scared kid up room
House is dark
Kid screams
Man under table
Man is up
Man walks up
Man and kid run down
They fall
Wall falls on top
Man and Kid closed eyes.
That was supposed to be an earthquake. OK, I am not sure why I got the two events right. I will be looking out in the future after I write something like this again.

the creation story

In the beginning, god created the heavens and the earth. Because it was dark, he said, ” let there be light,” and there was light. Then, he separated the light and the darkness and that is how the first day became to be. On the second day, he created the sky. On the third day, He gathered the water that was under the sky to one place and then dry ground appeared. He called the gathered waters seas and the dry ground land. He also made plants and the trees. On the fourth day, he created the stars. On the fith day, god created the sea creatures and the birds. On the sixth day, god created cralling creatures , wild animals, livestock, and every other living thing. He also created man from the dust in the ground, in his image by breathing the breath of life into his nostrils. Then, he created the woman from one of the man’s ribs.
God told them that every living thing on earth as well as the sea was theirs. God wanted for every one to be fruitful. Also, he said to everyone to multiply.He created humans to oversee everything and to care for the land as well as the sea. He wanted there to be a place so, men would do good

a Story that was not reported in the media.

On Friday, July fourth, five minutes before 12 P.M., Three men were standing in front of the LA convention center, and they were getting ready to cross the street. There was a sign that said that an animation show was taking place at the convention center. The convention center had been already opened for a few minutes. It was easy to see this because the sign gave the information of how many days was the convention was going to last, what days was the convention going to be opened, as well as at what time it was going to be opening and closing. Out of the Thousands of people that were still waiting in line to get in, there was a man with curly hare. He was wearing jeans and a t-shirt. Also, he was wearing vans shoes. The other two men could not be identified. The sun was scorching hot. Because there was almost no wind, it felt as if it was hotter than it really was. Both eyes were hard to keep open because of the heat. Sweat started to trickle down foreheads. For a minute, it felt as if everything was spinning. The Cars were going in every direction. Someone was saying something that could not be understood. Even when he said it the second time, it was still very hard to understand him. The person whom was talking was a police officer, and He was using a megaphone. From a distance, Three sheriffs on motorcycles came flying north up Figueroa avenue. They Stopped at Pico Boulevard preparing to block the street off. The next moment, a car was honking at one of the police cars. After a few seconds, others joined in. They were honking because the sheriffs were already blocking the intersection. One of the men said to another, “They are honking at one of the police officer.” All of a sudden, one police siren was heard. As it got closer, it became hard to know what to do. The man with the curly hare covered his ears. As that sound blended in with the honking sound, it became clear that unlike a symphony, this was painful to hear. When the siren was heard very close, every other sound was drowned by the deafening sound of the siren. Not a minute had passed, when one siren after another started to be heard. At that point, one man, who seemed to be in his 40’s, took out his camera and took a picture of the seen in front of him. Three LAPD vehicles and four CHp sheriff units came down. Two of the sheriff vehicles stopped. One stopped beside the blew line tracks, and One stopped at the California hospital. They were driving Over 60 miles an hour. Moments later, an ambulance with two sheriff vehicles behind and another to in front of it, came rushing to the seen as well. The four vehicles were escorting the ambulance. The last thing that was seen was some of the sheriffs moving all traffic away from the area. I am sorry I am not able to include a picture. It came out blurry. I wanted to know what had happened, but nothing was reported in the media. To think I could have been a stringer!

How to come up with story ideas.

In able to come up with a good story idea, people have to see, listen, and research stories. Then, you must come up with questions about that story which could lead to an idea. Listen to other people talk and get in the conversation. Out of the many topics that you will be discussing, one if not more, ideas will be developing before you know it. Always ask what if questions. For example, What if school uniforms were required from now on? Also, seeing a TV show or movie can give a person a lot of ideas. I think that it is best to start with movies that are based on a true story. When I want to write something, I get my ideas from personal experiences. It is not hard to do. There are questions that should be asked before writing. What, where, when, why, who, and how. Here is an example. First of all, I will ask each question followed by an explanation. Then, I will make a story based on the info that I provided. What is happening? Someone is typing on the computer. Where is it happening? He is In front of a computer and in a room. When is this taking place? This is taking place Today at 1 21 P.m. Why is he typing? He is writing this to post this on a blog. Who is typing? Daniel is Typing. He is typing by using two hands.
So, let me give you the little story. Someone, by the name of Daniel, is inside his room typing on his computer. This began today at 1 21 P.m. He is typing by using two hands. As soon as he is done, He will post his writing on a blog.
In between this info, you must add details.
I hope this helps people who are struggling to come up with an idea of what to write about. Remember, these questions can be used for anything you want to do.