A Learning Experience at the YMCA

I decided that this semester I wanted to volunteer at my local YMCA. The YMCA is a non-profit organization that looks to strengthen the local community. The Y brings people together, and over the last 160 years, they have worked day-in and day-out everyday to bring people together regardless of age, sex, orientation, and income level, in order to learn, grow as an individual and community, and thrive within it. The YMCA believes themselves to focus on three categories: youth development, healthy living style, and social responsibility (YMCA 2015).
http://www.ymca.net/about-us

On Friday, April 25th, I volunteered to help out with Healthy Kids Day at the 95th Street location in Naperville. At the event, many other organizations had set up tables to inform "event-goers" about the three categories mentioned above. My table, which was sponsored by the Compass Church in Naperville, chose to do a promotion within their cafe where 20% of the proceeds went to help stop human-trafficking around the world. During the event, a volunteer could hold three separate positions: supervisory (watching the kids to make sure they didn't hurt themselves), teaching and demonstrating (telling and showing the kids how to live and eat right), and promotional (overlooking an individual table respective to the sponsor and providing information on the social interaction). I took part in two out of three positions. I was a supervisor and a promoter. After the kids had gone through the learning activities held within the gym, they were allowed to participate in the bounce house and bouncy slides. As a supervisor I was tasked with making sure none of the kids got hurt and followed the rules. Making sure they waited patiently in line for their turn and providing an equal time slot for all the kids were some of my responsibilities. As a table promoter, I was asked to promote the organization, the Compass Church, and provide information on what the church was doing to to combat human-trafficking. The Compass Church was in the process of their April mission where they looked to strengthen the relationship between two parties each week. One week for siblings, one week for parents, one week for children, and one week for the Church itself. One of the most important interactions I experienced was my conversation with the pastor. He stated the being socially responsible is a job we all must do. Helping people without second thought on how it affected you was his main point. All around the world there are people suffering. Here in America, we are in what he called a "giant bubble". In human rights terms, nothing detrimental really takes place anyone with the Civil Rights Movement in the 1900's and the LGBT movement happening this century. Most the people of the world do not have the resources to help themselves and their families survive in their current conditions. Who takes care of these people? Who comforts them after a bad dream or a painful experience? Usually it's nobody since they have nobody; they are sort of lost within the world. It is our job as humans to become socially responsible for these "lost" people, creating hope where this none and providing them the means to better their current situation. The event was held from 10:30~2:00. I learned a lot from this experience, not only about healthy living and social practices, but about myself and how to properly communicate with people. During the supervisory period, it was hard to demand the children do something without sounding threatening or aggressive. Being clear and sincere in your convictions broke down the barrier between stranger and stranger and created a sense of belonging among the people within the event. I also learned that I should do more to assist those in need.  From my experience there, I came to the realization that I have taken parts of my life for granted. Things three meals a day, a bed to sleep in, and roof to live under are some of things I thought to be commonplace throughout the world. As I said earlier, most people do not have access to things we do. My world revolves around pursuing more knowledge and enlightenment through games, education, and family life. Their world however, the ones the "lost" people belong to, revolves around finding something to eat for that day, finding a dry spot to sit when it's pouring rain outside because they do not have a "home" to go back to. I realized that it was our job as a community and as individuals to create a new "home".

Email Etiquette

GOOD:


Subject: Fri 2/15 Prin. of Marketing Class

Good afternoon Professor Bates,
This is Scott Zielinski from your 1:00pm Principles of Marketing class.
I am contacting you today to inform you that I will not be able to attend class today due to a
fever. If there are any handouts or assignments I will be missing please let me know so I can complete them on time.
Thank you for your consideration.

Best Regards,

Scott Z




BAD:



Subject: N/A

Hello Mr. Bates
i will be missing from class fri. hope thats ok with u.
see ya later

3 citations for annotated bibliography

Topic: Corruption

Duska, Ronald. “Corruption, financial crisis, and financial planner.” Journal of Financial Service    Professionals 63.2 (2009): 14-16. Web. 23 March 2015.

Harrison, Elizabeth. “Corruption.” Development in Practive 17.4-.5 (2007): 672-676 Web. 21 Mar 2015.

Stevens, Betsy. “How Ethical are U.S. Business Executives? A Study of Perceptions.” Journal of Business               Ethics 117.2 (2013): 361-369. Web. 23 March 2015

Connecting your Sources

Source A: Harrison. “Corruption.”

Source B: Stevens. “How Ethical are U.S. Business Executives? A Study of Perceptions.”

Source C: Duska. “Corruption, Financial Crises, and the Financial Planner.”

Source D: Duoqi. “Implications of the Financial Crisis for China’s Information Supervision and Curbing of

Financial Corruption.”

Source E: Abou‐Moghli. “The Role of Disclosure and Transparency in Combating Financial and

Administrative Corruption: A Field Study on Jordanian Public Joint‐Stock Industrial Companies listed in

Amman Stock Market.”

Harrison seeks to clarify what corruption actually is and how it takes place, how it’s viewed, and what is being done to stop it. When compared to source B, Harrison supports the idea that a stronger

Code of Ethics is needed within businesses and a well‐organised and thorough anti‐corruption agency must be present within developed and developing countries. Both support ideas that corruption does have an emotional and psychological impact on families and societies around the world, especially poor ones. Harrison and Stevens both include research from the Corruption Perception Index which details how society views a large variety of professions within their respective countries. Harrison also writes that even though corruption is made known, our perceptions have little to no effect on its action.

Stevens however, believes that once our perceptions are strong enough, that can allow us to act upon those perceptions and use actions to combat corruption. The more we know about corruption, the more we can do to stop it.

Looking at Duska’s article, it is more specific than Harrison’s article. He focuses on the United

States and the 2008 financial crisis. Elements of similarity are still present between the articles. Duska writes that corporate greed plays a huge role in corruption along with other governmental and financial factors. He argues that corruption occurs when an individual, entity, or system doesn’t perform as it was intended. He even goes as far as saying that the current lobbying system for small and big companies within the United States is the cause of the corruption within the financial and governmental sectors. A slight difference in his definition as compared to Harrison. She is more concerned about the different types of corruption and ways of defining them as well as how we should view them.

Duoqi’s articles gives us additional insight to the financial corruption world phenomenon. He examines China’s financial market rather than the U.S.’s like from previous articles. Similarly to

Harrison, Duoqi looks at what companies are doing to prevent corruption at the financial level. He goes into great detail about what procedures are being used to combat corruption. Both source D and source

E indicate that information is the key to stopping corruption. Abou‐Moghli, source E, highly recognizes information disclosure and transparency within all operations of business as a necessity in preventing corruption. Harrison shows argument that supports these claims because most of the financial crises in the U.S. have been caused by false records, inadequate auditing, and corporate lies and greed. Source D and E agree that more supervision is required within all aspects of government and business.

Harrison’s article does a good job of providing general information on the topic of corruption. She highlights what happens when corruption within financial and governmental sectors occurs. This information allows the reader to develop an understanding about what corruption and how it is applied to the other sources. The sources B-E providing additional information concerning corruption which can be put into perspective with the help of Source A.

When introducing my sources to each other, I would introduce Source A first because all of them have at least one thing in common with A. B is a little more focused and well-defined. He pays attention to detail and likes to make sure everything is properly organized. Source D and E are a little more eccentric than the first two. Both sources provide supporting information from other cultures and regions of the world. Lastly, Source C will be introduced because he knows exactly who he is. He is very specific and analytical along with being very intelligent.

Annotated Bibliography

Abou-Moghli, Azzam; Al-moumany, Salam; Al-Abdallah, Graith. “The Role of the Disclosure and                Transparency in Combating Financial and Administrative Corruption: A Field Study on Jordanian             Public Joint-Stock Industrial Companies listed in Amman Stock Market.” Interdisciplinary Journal       of Contemporary Research in Business 5.4 (2013): 368-381. Web. 27 March 2015.

                The authors of the article describe the importance of being transparent and honest with the financial data gather within the company. With so many people worrying about corruption and things it brings along, companies are required and pretty much obligated to show the public everything within the books. Accountability has also taken on a bigger role within the financial industry. Companies are required to go through certain regulations and processes every year in order to prevent any intentional or unintentional mishaps. That being said, the information that is needed for stockholders and business executives to make educated decisions must be readily available and completely authentic. The decisions made by these guys and gals should not be based upon falsified information. The hope is to prevent the leaking of misleading information and properly examine the role of disclosure and transparency in combating corruption.

Duoqi, Xu. “Implications of the Financial Crisis for China’s Information Supervision and Curbing of             Financial Corruption.” Social Sciences in China 32.4 (2011): 207-220. Web. 27 March 2015.

                Duoqi writes about how crises are a result of the failures of the current corruption prevention mechanisms in place. He states that a large amount of corruption can be attributed to financial corruption which has given rise around the world. Examples provided will bring light to the overall grasp of corruption. It doesn’t only affect the United States, most other countries are plagued by corruption. This article will help identify some the problems related to corruption. The reason why is that people are making huge violations against financial information disclosure policy. These people were trying to cheat the system, some of them succeeded and now we are paying the consequences. Duoqi suggests that supervision and regulation are the best fitted combatants in the battle against corruption. In doing so, this allows any business, government, or any other entity to become transparent. This builds trust within the relationship between parties and it allows for easy decision making. The articles also focuses on the act of rebuilding the system to fight financial corruption and how we should focus on improving information disclosure, building an effective sharing mechanism, and integrate all supervisory resources into one. The information within the text will help me build up the prevention side of corruption.

Duska, Ronald. “Corruption, financial crisis, and financial planner.” Journal of Financial Service    Professionals 63.2 (2009): 14-16. Web. 23 March 2015.

                Duska analyzes the public’s reaction to the 2008 financial crisis in the U.S. He stated that when a crisis occurs, many questions are thrown straight into the air. What caused this to happen? Is this an ethical issue? He suggests that this specific crisis was caused by individuals within our society who have been influenced by corrupt practices and culture. The article also reviews the investment bank fraud that took place within America and how it not only affect us but the entire world economy. Duska also takes time to explain the current representation system within the U.S which is known as lobbying. Towards the tail-end of the article, he brings in philosophical evidence that goes against the U.S. economy and business world. This article provides information that gives specifics examples of financial corruption and how it took place. This is useful for identifying errors within the current system and what actions should be taken in order to fix them. It also provides routes of connection between some of the other information researched.

Harrison, Elizabeth. “Corruption.” Development in Practive 17.4-.5 (2007): 672-676 Web. 21 Mar 2015.

                Harrison argues that the assumptions about corruption should be properly cleared up. She hopes to identify what corruption means and how it is attributed in certain situations. How does corruption affect different people? How does corruption operate and vary? These are some of the questions that Harrison answers within the text. She give light to anti-corruption activities and how they are instigated at the international level then to the national and local stages. The article really speaks to the citizen subcategory. People want to know the truth and if not, how can it be remedied. The article also does a good job of identifying and defining words related to corruption. Examples such as bribery and nepotism to name a few. Harrison also includes compounding research on the Corruption Perceptions Index. Harrison’s article will really help build my anti-corruption research. Properly identifying the types of corruption and how they are used and stopped perhaps, will aid me clarifying any assumptions that are present. Having specific incidents where policy failed and corruption occurred will provide factual evidence to support claims.

Stevens, Betsy. “How Ethical are U.S. Business Executives? A Study of Perceptions.” Journal of Business               Ethics 117.2 (2013): 361-369. Web. 23 March 2015.

                Steven’s article look at a study of the perceptions that U.S consumers have towards business executives’ ethics within the U.S. The study also considers the psychological state of the citizens and how that may affect their perceptions. The data provided within the article is taken directly from Gallup. Gallup is a data driven research firm and one of the leaders in public opinion reports, polls, and analytics within the U.S. Stevens also highlights some of the historic scandals that have taken place within the U.S. and worldwide and how these respective countries have dealt with and improved the systems at fault. Changes in Congress such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act were put into place to prevent falsified documents from being released to the American public. Farther into the article, Stevens reviews a case study done to compare people’s views on the ethics of other professionals as related to business executives. She also includes a section on the Corruption Perception Index which rates each country relative to the level of corruption existing within. This information will be useful when building an argument for the battle against corruption. The article also provides a look into the minds of U.S. citizens and how they view their own business executives. The way people think about the ethics of authoritative figures has an effect on the corruption itself. There are plenty of examples within the article depicting events where corruption was taking place. This provides the argument with facts that are able to be built upon. 

Project Proposal

Throughout the world, recent financial and administrative corruption has taken center stage. Actions have been taken against innocent people for the private gain of individuals. This could have been caused by many things but one thing remains true; all corruption is unethical. Now, if we all known that corruption exists, why does it still happen? The research gathered will give me the proper information to answer the following: What is corruption and its different types? How does it affect people? What is being done to prevent such unethical acts? The resources that are cited provide insight on what corruption is and how it is defined, for once we are able to identify what corruption is and why it’s taking place, it may be easier to solve the problem it has caused. Specific examples of corruption are cited within the texts which will allow me to build evidence which then can be developed and supported. They also give plenty of examples of how corruption is being fought not only on the national level but worldwide. Credible research and organizations help bring to light these “corruption” situations and what steps must be taken in order to prevent it from happening again. The research will allow me to properly identify the problem of corruption, clarify what is going and why, and lastly, what is being done to eliminate and prevent future incidents.

Link to Marlboro Ropin Man Ad

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See you guys tomorrow at Charlie's Place!