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Application For Honors Transfer Program

Name

Instructor

Course Code

Date

Title:

Following my wide-ranging research on professional colleges and universities that are offering an honors program in Sociology, I have decided to apply for the Honors Transfer program at El Camino College. For it is the reputation of El Camino College of that convinced me to write you an application for the Honors Transfer Program.

The major I intend to pursue at El Camino College is Sociology owing to its relevance for the better comprehension of a contemporary social problem. I am of the view that Sociology is a subject that enhances the critical thinking and develops the ability to gauge shreds of the evidence whether qualitatively or quantitatively. Moreover, this subject does not put any constraint on the person who pursues it as a major rather it permits the person to follow his/her interests. In addition, I have kept myself involved in activities that allow me to learn the behavior of the people, their cultural patterns, their cultural priorities. I am presently working as a server at wedding venues and this has helped me a lot in engaging different people with different perceptions. Further, this job has helped me to learn about the roles that people play in society. I have had the experience of engaging people with different age groups. I thoroughly assessed how society is influenced by gay marriages, marriage between the people of different races and marriages between older and younger people.

I have also served in a number of projects and programs coupled with volunteer work and a few of those programs and project which helped me to broaden my mental horizon are as follows.

Project EGO

This program was all about college prep. and leadership and helped me a lot to become a team player. During the project EGO, I learned the importance of teamwork and helped me to develop a strong bonding with other team members. The best thing about the project EGO was it developed leadership qualities in my personality. Albeit, the whole project was focused on teamwork but it taught me professionalism and helped to cope with some real-life experiences such as improving myself to accomplish what I have planned.

Puente Program

Another program is another program which I took to help students so they could get transferred to 4-year university programs. The program was focused upon helping those students who were disadvantaged. The program helped me to encourage and motivate other people. In addition, I experienced from Puente program that best satisfaction which one can experience is through helping and motivating people in their hard times. Moreover, it was Puente program which taught me that helping others is the best contribution one can make for the betterment of society.

Volunteer Work

I have worked with Surfrider Foundation as a volunteer. Surfrider Foundation helps cleaning up beaches to guard the environment and aquatic life. This particular experience helped to learn that it is not only the people which contribute to the betterment of society but also the environment we live as it influences the thinking patterns and behaviors of the people to some extent.

The reason why I chose Sociology as a major is, it coincides my nature. Sociology is a broad field and a person with a broad mental horizon and open mind would choose to opt this subject as a major. I am of the view that my accomplishments and work experience precisely is in line with the subject. Sociology is a subject which demands you to enjoy around the people which I experienced and learned during my engagement with different projects and programs. In addition, I have completed all the prior requirements to get myself enrolled in the program at El Camino College.

Subject: Reflective Thinking

Pages: 2 Words: 600

Becoming A Good Thinker

Becoming a Good Thinker

[Name]

[Institution]

[Date]

Becoming a Good Thinker

Name:

Important Problem: Gun violence

Example Important Problem: Ocean Pollution

Critical Thinking Question

Domain of Thinking

Intellectual Standard/Element of Thought

Fact, Preference, or Judgment

Example: What is the leading cause of pollution in the world’s oceans and its impact on ocean life?

Ecology

The intellectual standard related to this question is clarity because in order to understand why the oceans are polluted, it is important to be specific about what is polluting them. The element of thought would be information since the data and facts of what causes ocean pollution would lead to further ecological questions about when enough data is understood, and the goal of cleaning them up can be formed.

Fact

What practices and social structure support gun violence and how can it be minimized?

Sociological

 The intellectual standard related to this question is breadth   because

 There are multiple viewpoints regarding gun violence in society. These viewpoints need to be critically analyzed to understand the practices in a society that promote gun violence.  The problem needs to be analyzed from other possible perspectives as well. As some states do not consider gun violence as a crime and allowed the local people to sue gun for their safety which leads to even more violence. There could be a various pint of view of this issue and those should be considered to minimize gun violence in society.

 

The element of thought concept because the social structure and practices in a society can be analyzed based on sociological models., laws, theories and practices. It will help to understand the laws or models that can minimize gun violence in society if followed accurately.   The social principals that might be promoting gun violence should be changes to minimize this issue. Societal laws and norms can be redesigned to control the issue of gun violence in society.

Judgment because it requires evidence and reasoning to understand the social structure that supports gun violence and the ways that are helpful to minimize this issue in society.

2.

3.

Subject: Reflective Thinking

Pages: 1 Words: 300

Interviewing Techniques

Non-verbal Communication

Name

Institution

Non-verbal communication

A. When I allowed myself maintaining eye contact with the person while having a conversation for two minutes, it enabled me to pay close attention to his gestures and get a closer look at his non-verbal cues. On the other hand, the other person when knew that I have had good eye contact; he paid close attention to what I said and realized that he must reciprocate when I am listening to him attentively. Hence looking at him communicated the notion that the other person is listening to us attentively and we must continue telling the whole story. It had a pleasant effect on our conversation; we both listened to each other attentively.

B. When I failed to maintain eye contact with the other person for two minutes, I found it hard to focus and understand his point; I also struggled to understand his non-verbal cues that increase the credibility of information such as corresponding emotions and body movements. On the other hand, the other person realized that I am not attentive and I am completely disregarding what he says and how he says. He stopped talking to me the very next moment and it was all finished. This was the most embarrassed conversation that I had with someone.

Subject: Reflective Thinking

Pages: 1 Words: 300

Music

Your Name

Instructor Name

Course Number

Date

Music

Introduction

Music is considered the food for the soul; it is considered as the ultimate key to anyone’s heart. It makes a person happy and brings back so many good memories. On the other hand, sometimes music can push a person in nostalgia, and bring back painful memories. No matter what, it becomes much easier to convey a message in the form of a musical tune. A person can easily convey their feelings and emotions to another person in the form of lyrics accompanied by various music and melodies. Some people take music as an escape from all the pain and worries of life. Music has always been important in every time period.

Music has seen a number of eras and has gone through multiple transformations. However, the most notable ones have been mentioned below:

Medieval (c.1150 - c.1400)

Renaissance (c.1400 - c.1600)

Baroque (c.1600 - c.1750)

Classical (c.1750 - c.1830)

Early Romantic (c.1830 - c.1860)

Late Romantic (c.1860 - c.1920)

Post 'Great War' Years (c.1920 - Present)

Discussion

If there was a rule to measure the element of dissonance in every period, the listener could easily understand that from which era the music was coming from, but unfortunately, there is no empirical, defining characteristic between the music and the melodies of different periods, especialyy on a purely notational level. The differences between the music types and genres cannot be quantified and transformed in a shape of a data set, but they can surely be articulated by composers' treatment of harmonic dissonance, in a broader sense. Most of the musicians and composers distinguish the music of different eras on the basis of dissonance (Liu). There is a general trend from say 1400 to 1920 or so of allowing freer treatment of dissonance.  I bet you could train a Bayesian classifier using features like:

frequency distribution of melodic intervals

rhythmic position of dissonance

frequency distribution of harmonic intervals or chord progressions.

Gregorian chant essentially avoids harmonic dissonance entirely: it's monophonic. Then, a listener can begin to hear a doubling of melodic pitch--first at the octave, then the perfect fifth and fourth: all perfect intervals (Mauch). Eventually 3rds and 6ths were 'allowed'--all consonances. Dissonance in early polyphonic music, say of Leonin and Perotin, is treated as passing tones between strong harmonic consonances. In the Renaissance and Baroque periods more dissonance was allowed, but still quite carefully controlled. The pattern of preparation (consonance) - suspension (dissonance) - resolution (consonance) governs much of the harmonic motion in the music of those times. Composers, gradually, introduced more and more dissonance (Grant). Composers explored and pushed the tension-and-release pattern mentioned above, pushing it beyond recognition.

By the time Wagner comes along, it was considered acceptable to start a piece of music (e.g., Tristan and Isolde) with a dissonant chord that barely fit within a tonal harmonic analysis. There were an obvious Schönberg and Co 'liberated' dissonance, making it equal with consonance. In short, the difference between periods and styles changed gradually from one composer to another, not always following a straight line, sometimes jumping way left the field, other times going way back in time. Late Mozart sounds almost baroque. Some mid-period Machaut sounds like music that wouldn't be written again for at least 600 years. Beethoven moved in a Romantic direction and then suddenly went back to a fairly classical style later in life.

However, this task is not simple. Musicians and composers cam across many tricky and confusing melodies as well. For example, Gesualdo (late 1500s/early 1600s) wrote music that used chromaticism that was uncharacteristic of his time and which would not be heard again for hundreds of years.  In addition to this, some modern composers intentionally at times took on a neo-classical style, e.g., many of Stravinsky's works and Prokofiev's "Classical" 1st Symphony.

Conclusion

Hence, it can be clearly seen that it has never been an easy task to distinguish between various kinds of music and compositions based merely on their melodies and genres. Many factors acted and still act in the composition of the music and from 1920 to the present day it is harder to distinguish classical styles by their treatment of dissonance, since the harmonic vocabulary is essentially wide open, anything goes, including atonal, tone clusters, and even microtones.

Works Cited:

Grant, Roger Mathew. Beating time and measuring music in the Early Modern era. Oxford University Press, 2014.

Liu, Yang, et al. "Extracting music genes for era classification." Expert Systems With Applications 41.11 (2014): 5520-5525.

Mauch, Matthias, et al. "The evolution of popular music: USA 1960–2010." Royal Society open science 2.5 (2015): 150081.

Subject: Reflective Thinking

Pages: 2 Words: 600

Not In My Ranks

Not in My Ranks

Author Name

[Institutional Affiliation(s)]

Not in My Ranks

Despite extensive training and education, the cases of sexual harassment and assault continue to occur. Not only women, but men too are victims of sexual harassment by the members serving in the military. This essay discusses the reasons why sexual harassment in military continues despite the rigorous training and education, and the proposed remedies to end this unfortunate culture.

According to the Army Regulations, it is the responsibility of the commander to prevent sexual misconduct. The army regulations also specify the way in which a victim can deal with such situations. The victim can use the direct approach i.e. to confront the perpetrator or send a letter making it clear that this misconduct is not tolerable. Secondly, the victim can ask someone for assistance. Thirdly, such misconduct can be reported to the immediate superior or someone in the chain of command. Lastly, a formal or informal complaint can be filed against the perpetrator. AR 600-20 chapter 7 states that the charges of sexual harassment or assault are dealt by the law enforcement channels ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"oylAWIpE","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Headquarters et al., 2006)","plainCitation":"(Headquarters et al., 2006)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":816,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/YgsdZK9k/items/Y2LAMRTA"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/YgsdZK9k/items/Y2LAMRTA"],"itemData":{"id":816,"type":"book","title":"Army Regulation 600–20","URL":"https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML0807/ML080790409.pdf","author":[{"literal":"Headquarters"},{"literal":"Department of the Army"},{"literal":"Washington, DC"}],"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2020",1,7]]},"issued":{"date-parts":[["2006",7,7]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Headquarters, 2006). Now the question arises that in spite of strict regulations and extreme and aggressive training, why is sexual misconduct not prevented?

The main reason is that these crimes are not reported and the perpetrator goes unpunished. Unfortunately, only less than one third of the sexual assault and harassment incidents are reported. Th victim can make a choice of ‘Restricted’ or ‘Unrestricted’ reporting. In restricted reporting, confidentiality is maintained as opposed to unrestricted reporting. The reason of non-reporting by the military member victim is the same as that of any civilian victim. They too, out of fear and embarrassment, withdraw or don’t report at all. This culture of acceptance gives the perpetrator courage to commit such a crime again. The victims are also afraid of the legal or disciplinary actions taken against them. Moreover, sexual crime survivors are parted for disciplinary or emotional health reasons. The victims comprehend these actions as the retribution for reporting. In this way, the acceptance of sexual harassment and assault develops a hostile environment where it is assumed that sexual misconduct is tolerable.

The current training for reducing sexual misconduct seems insufficient. According to recent reports and issues by the Department of Defense, it is revealed that the number of sexual harassment and assault cases has increased in the last two years ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"uVJ9e9ZT","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Department of Defense, 2019)","plainCitation":"(Department of Defense, 2019)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":814,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/YgsdZK9k/items/AJTL4Q4M"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/YgsdZK9k/items/AJTL4Q4M"],"itemData":{"id":814,"type":"report","title":"Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military- Fiscal Year 2018","URL":"https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/800-dod-annual-report-on-sexual-as/d659d6d0126ad2b19c18/optimized/full.pdf#page=1","author":[{"family":"Department of Defense","given":""}],"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2020",1,7]]},"issued":{"date-parts":[["2019"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Department of Defense, 2019).In these cases, the perpetrator was either of the same rank or higher. The victims at that time suffered due to abuse of authority by the hierarchical structure. But this hierarchical structure also has the authority to improve Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (SAPR) programs ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"eaYhdB0b","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Stander & Thomsen, 2016)","plainCitation":"(Stander & Thomsen, 2016)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":817,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/YgsdZK9k/items/MXLWAAYB"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/YgsdZK9k/items/MXLWAAYB"],"itemData":{"id":817,"type":"article-journal","abstract":"ABSTRACT. Recently, there has been increasing concern regarding the problem of sexual violence in the military. Because sexual harassment and assault are more","container-title":"Military Medicine","DOI":"10.7205/MILMED-D-15-00336","ISSN":"0026-4075","issue":"suppl_1","journalAbbreviation":"Mil Med","language":"en","page":"20-27","source":"academic.oup.com","title":"Sexual Harassment and Assault in the U.S. Military: A Review of Policy and Research Trends","title-short":"Sexual Harassment and Assault in the U.S. Military","volume":"181","author":[{"family":"Stander","given":"Valerie A."},{"family":"Thomsen","given":"Cynthia J."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2016",1,1]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Stander & Thomsen, 2016). Through these reforms, a convenient atmosphere can be created for the victims where they can report and the offender is punished.

To summarize, the current training and after-complaint procedure is not adequate and needs rectification. The U.S. military has fought and won wars at numerous fronts, yet it fails to battle against sexual harassment and assault.

References

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Department of Defense. (2019). Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military- Fiscal Year 2018. https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/800-dod-annual-report-on-sexual-as/d659d6d0126ad2b19c18/optimized/full.pdf#page=1

Headquarters, Department of the Army, & Washington, DC. (2006). Army Regulation 600–20. https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML0807/ML080790409.pdf

Stander, V. A., & Thomsen, C. J. (2016). Sexual Harassment and Assault in the U.S. Military: A Review of Policy and Research Trends. Military Medicine, 181(suppl_1), 20–27. https://doi.org/10.7205/MILMED-D-15-00336

Subject: Reflective Thinking

Pages: 1 Words: 300

Tribe: On Homecoming And Belonging

Tribe by Sabastian Juger

The Tribe is an eye opener for the post war traumas endured by the veterans of the war. The book is unique in its own way since it features on realization of a much bigger psychological aspect of any human i.e. the need to affiliate and belong. The notion of the book is to build on the most primal desire of any human being. The author asserts that modern day veterans are very much like traditional people belonging to tribes. The people of that time used to lead a nomadic life where men used to hunt and females were involved in home making roles, however, all the people used to exist in a small group called tribe with certain culture and norms of their own. The author lays immense weightage on how the modern day relationships are devoid of such tribal instincts to group together and builds on how crucial they might be.

The author then asserts an unpopular opinion that while it is thought commonly that a veteran coming back from battle zone would be extremely happy but it is quite often not the case as most of the veterans might end up missing the experience. As a marine corp, I can thoroughly relate to each ideology put forth by the author. If I were an ex-marine corp I would definitely miss it because it was real and there's no gray area in the battle field. There's no maybe or might be and no questioning. There's fight and no fight but just life and death, brothers and enemy and glory and death.

As a marine, we all have a mission which is to fight and keep our brothers alive. You end up being extremely affiliated to the man next to you. All of those brave men I fought along side of, even the ones I don't particularly like, I love. I love every last one of them. They are one reason that one would actually miss their job. Furthermore, the fact that we didn't have insignificant facts like bills, jobs, and families dividing our time. It was just us and we literally saw the best and the worst times of our lives together. We would spend every minute fearing, fighting, walking, miserable, happy, all together, as one. We didn't have anything but our weapons and our brothers.

Just like the author asserts, another reason as to why any ex marine corp miss being a part of the team is that they had a reason in life. It wasn't gray, or questionable in the way of wondering what it should be. But, in fact, he knew what my life was, and what he was meant for. The way marines fight depend on numerous situations. Some will do it because they feel it is their duty as defenders of the country, other will feel that they must make their family proud and not back away from fights, people who generally need a job either obey the orders reluctantly or start loving what they do which in my case makes up the entire essence of my career as a marine corp.

Even though in most wars, we still lose brothers and become scarred for life they define the essence of our character hence are never fully able to adjust to a normal civilian life. The sense of belongingness remains absent and we yearn for a tribe of our own i.e. the marines.

References

Loxterkamp, D. (2017). Caring for the tribe: from addiction to zen. The Annals of Family Medicine, 15(6), 578-580.

Junger, S. (2016). Tribe On Homecoming and Belonging. New York: Twelve.

Subject: Reflective Thinking

Pages: 2 Words: 600

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