We often hear the expression, "The sky is the limit", but for people of a small town, you hear, "The corn is the limit." I grew up in a town with two thousand people. It is a town that takes no more than two minutes to drive through, and it is not much for the eyes. All around, you will see corn, corn, and more corn.
Shortly after my junior year of high school, I was selected to represent Salt Fork High School at Illinois Premier Boys' State in Charleston, Illinois. I was the only student from my school to go. However, when I got there, I discovered that I was minority of the group. All of the students there were from Chicago or the suburbs of the city. On the first day, we were all getting to know each other. Where we are from,
Selling corn in massive quantity can lead to a greater profit. An ear of corn may averages about eight-hundred kernels in sixteen rows and a pound of corn consists of approximately 1,300 kernels. One-hundred bushels of corn makes approximately 7,280,000 kernels. Every year, a single U.S. Farmer may provides food and fiber for 129 people in the U.S. and 32 overseas. In the U.S., corn production is 2 times that of any other crop. Over 55% of Iowa’s corn goes to foreign markets and the rest is used in other parts of the United States of America.
“Do I have to go? I mean, it’s not required for me to finish high school or anything. It’s just something you want me to do,” I pleaded with my parents. “Yes you have to go and there’s no way you’re going to get out of it either. It’ll be a good experience for you, and you might even make some new friends,” my father replied. Tomorrow I was going to HOBY, which stands for Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership Seminar. It is specifically for sophomores in high school and I was chosen to be one of the candidates to represent my school for the year twenty fifteen. There are many HOBYs around the United States, but I was going to HOBY Ohio West located at the Ohio Northern University in Ada, Ohio. The seminar started on June fourth and concluded on the seventh. This was a four day event and I wouldn’t see my family for two of the days. I had just turned sixteen in April and I had never stayed more than an hour away from my family for a night or two. It was very nerve-wracking for me, but I had to go no matter what. Little did I know that this experience would make me into the more confident young woman I am today.
Kozol has compiled a list of schools that are either still segregated, or are re-segregating and the schools do not have the same things as those in suburban, or mainly white neighborhoods. He outlines many inner city schools as mostly African American and Hispanic students. Some schools have less than a quarter of their population come from Caucasian decent, and as few as one student in the demographics. Kozol speaks about unequal d...
Corn soon became the crop of choice to Iowa farmers. They found that it was more resistant to disease than the other crops they were growing, such as barley, oats, wheat, and apples. With this newfound “wonder crop”, Iowans found that farming had become the ideal way of life. Working on the farm involved all of the members of the family, which brought them together and made them stronger through hardships and great opportunities.
I grew up across the street from two high schools. One of them, Fiorello Laguardia High School, is a special admissions public school for students who are gifted in the performing or visual arts. The student population at Laguardia is relatively diverse with students of all races attending, although the majority of the students, as at all of the NYC special admissions high schools, is white and Asian. The other high school, Martin Luther King jr. High School is a "regular" public high school. The population is almost entirely African American and Hispanic with a very small minority of Asian students.
Corn, or maize, plays a vital role in many areas of the world today, and each location views and handles corn in a different way. How they manage corn can show small details about the area and culture as a whole. Not only is corn a staple today, it also had a huge presence in the ancient Native American’s lives; corn is sometimes revered as a deity and other times as a gift to the people from the Creator or a hero of the culture.
Going to Boy’s State will forever be one of the best decisions I have ever made. My confidence and social skills greatly increased in just that one week. I was glad to represent my town of Guymon at this event, and I was even prouder to represent my race.
Through programs that directly fuel desegregation in schools, our educational systems have become a melting pot of different races, languages, economic status, and abilities. Programs have been in place for the past fifty years to bring students that live in school districts that lack quality educational choices, to schools that are capable of providing quality education to all who attend. Typically the trend appears to show that the schools of higher quality are located in suburban areas, leaving children who live in “black” inner-city areas to abandon the failing school systems of their neighborhoods for transportation to these suburban, “white” schools. (Angrist & Lang, 2004). This mix of inner-city and suburban cultures creates new challenges for students and teachers alike.
Throughout my four years in high school I have been fortunate enough to fulfill many of my aspirations and my thirst for knowledge. One goal that I would like to achieve is to become an international attorney. I have aligned my involvement in specific academic and extra-curricular activities to aid me preparing for the long road between my present situation and the day I pass the bar exam. Through my high school activities I have learned three virtues that I have deemed necessary to achieve my goal, passion, self-discipline, and perseverance.
King Corn is a documentary about two men on the hunt to find out about the crop that drives our nation’s fast food industry: corn. They move to Iowa to grow an acre of corn, but over the year they spend in the small town, they discover some horrifying truths about the way our food is produced. About 15% of the corn produced in America is used for consumption. All this food, and we’re only eating 15%? This is especially surprising when you consider that corn syrup is in almost everything.
Wayne State University is known for its vast diversity amongst its student body. Everyday some 27,000 students from all walks of life attend Wayne State. One of the key factors behind the WSU’s wide diversity is the fact that the majority of it’s students are commuters. While many would think that this factor would result in low school spirit, this is not the case. Recently this diversity has begun to build as unique culture of school pride. One of the key areas where this has been affective is sports. In 2015 alone both basketball and football experienced record numbers in attendance. Through the the WSU Athletic Engagement and Warrior Pride Initiate, nearly 1,000 more students attended football games during the 2015 season. In basketball,
During fourth and fifth grade, I was among the group of kids that were at the top of the school. All of the younger children looked up to us and copied the actions that they saw us doing. These we the last years for the fun and games for me. My work would later get more difficult since I made the transition from easy work to the more difficult. These were the last years that we had recess after lunch. We would no longer have one teacher teaching us every subject. For all of elementary school I was at Upson which is now known as Shoreview Elementary. I think that every year someone looked out for me because I was always blessed enough to have the good teachers for each particular grade. These teachers always saw potential in me and from a young age they always told me that they knew that I would do great
I wasn’t always custom to the whirling seas of corn fields. Nor would I ever thought that I would be living in a location where there were less than 3,000 people. Moving from Nashville, Tennessee to small-town Fort Branch, Indiana is quite a jump; more like a leap of faith. It’s definitely a different scenery, but yet, still just as beautiful. And now I live in the middle of a corn field.
At the start of the new year at Options I just couldn't get it right. I was off task because I was using a computer;therefore I had a somewhat slow start.
For most of what I remember to be my middle school life, I tried my best not to become involved with any of the gossip and drama in the various networks of my class. Rarely did I ever engage in group conversations or even one-to-one conversations for that matter. In fact, any type and degree of social interaction seemed exhausting to me. Therefore, I usually stood away from the general population and kept to myself.