Emily Diana Gunter came to speak to the class about spiritual coaching. I was not in the class yet but I decided to write a blog any way. Emily Gunter is the Founder of the Rites of Passage Youth Empowerment Foundation, Author of "A Rite of Passage to Spiritual Enlightenment: Living with Compassion" and " Superlearning 2000: Learning Made Simple-Everybody Can Learn" and Thirteen Golden Keys to Learning: A Spiritual Journey.

My class mates take on her was that she was very inspirational and help them realize that they could have confidence in themselves; to be re-assuring of themselves. I wish I really could have been there for that speaker. I feel like that my biggest weekness in life; not being sure of myself and feeling as if I need to have everyone elses guidance and oppinions.

"It is my mission to bring peace to our world through the personal empowerment spiritual development of all people."

UNC radio Awardees!

UNC radio was here and they told us about what their day to day work load was and what they had to do to get a story. I thought it was interesting to hear about the story where one of the reporters had to travel to another state in a day and make a deadline by the next morning. I think that says alot about who they are and what they represent. As a class we awarded them with various awards....So Congrats to them and Good luck in the future!

Louis Gasset jr.

Born May 27, 1936 in Brooklyn, NY, Lou has a flair for projecting quiet authority, and has scored well personally in string of diverse and ocassionally challenging roles. The aspiring actor caught a break in his first Broadway Audition for "Take a Giant Step" in 1953, amazingly beating out 400 other candidates for the role at the age of 16. His acting career soon florished and his work in the state and film versions of the ground breaking drama about an African- American family life in Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the sun" 1961 proved a watershed. This led to numerous appearances on network series in the 1960's and 70's culminating in 1977 when he picked up an Emmy for his eloquent portrayal of Fiddler in the landmark ABC mini-series "Roots". He's been in movies such as The LandLord, The Skin Game, Sadat, Travels with My Aunt, The River Niger, Enemy Mine, The Deep, An Officer and a Gentlemen, and Iron Eagle.

Gasset jr. has been described as a man with many visions. I learned that he attended the University if New York and has Honarary degrees from Spellmen and Shaw University. I thought it was interesting to know that he was here at NCCU doing plays 27 years ago, when I heard that I was actually amazed as to how many celebrities had graced this campus before becoming what they are today. At the Lyceum I learned of his many awards such as his Golden Globe and Peoples Choice award. I also learned about him as a person and his personal batter with cancer and drugs. I just thought it was amazing to share his story from growing up in the streets of the ghetto to living in Beverly Hills. Gasset spoke of the people who inspired him most such as his great grandmother who lived to be 116 years old and his grandfather who sold the best watermelons in the south.

I think that Louis Gasset jr. is an incedible human being not only because of his celebrity but because of what he has done for his community and race. Gasset started a non - profit organization call Eracism. Its overall mission is to do exactly that, erase racist america. He is a man that believes that our most important commodity is our children because they are what makes our future. I think it was interesting of how he spoke of the children of our genration and how they only see big cars, men with money, diamonds, and fine women. I also thought it was amazing that he plans on taking gang related kids on a 30 day pilgrimage to Africa to show them where they come from or as he would say " Try to reconnect our original African values". I enjoyed the Lyceum I think Gasset is a very inspirational and a very big humanitarian. I enjoyed his speech and thought that he sent a great message.

Director Rubin Whitmore II

Rubin Whitmore II a video music director, he has directed videos for artist such as Too Short, Uncle Luke, The Temptation, and many more. Even though many of them are out of my generation...... anyways he was only in class for a short amount of time. He discussed videos of today and what they represented which is basically porn. Which I don't understand he makes these and then talkes about how they are degrating to women and how he wouldn't allow his daughter to watch cable television. Reading the list of videos that he has directed I saw the video Hoe Bangin by Ice cube and Mack 10 all I can say is wow! I hate videos.... the ones with naked females..... making men expect this appearance and behavior from all females. What ! thats funny considering he is the reason that many parents don't allow there kids to watch television. But great guy, great message.....not really much to say....good luck in the future on movies!

Sofia Quintero

Born to a Dominican- Puertorican family in the Bronx of New york. She has written hip- hop novels Explicit Content, Picture Me Rolli and Burn, and a fourth novel Diva Don't Yield, and two screen plays,Corporate Dawgz and Blind Date, as well as co-edited the anthology Friday Night Chicas. Her fiction and film, which are intented to reach a multi-cultural audience, seek to inspire young people to turn their lives toward creative problem solving and self- determination. Pronounced one of the "New School of Activists Most Likely to Change New York" by City Limits Magazine, Quintero she is also the co-founder of Chica Luna Productions, a non - profit organization that supports women of color who use popular media to engage social justice themselves.
Now that you know a little about her you can understand why I say this she is amazing and I love everything that she represents. She is a strong, beautiful, and intelligent Latina and I love it. Its beautiful to see part of me embraced. Her presentation to the class was very good, which I can say because it held my attention. My favorite part of her presentation was the silent movie titled "Slam" . I liked how we had to interpret what we thought was going on in the film through the actors actions. To hear the classes responses was very funny. Some thought the girl was pregnant and the guy was angry and many assumed that they were having a cultural bash amongst each other about who was the blackest. It turned out that they were arguing about him excepting his responsibility's. I thought the message was deep and wanted to see more of the film. She made alot of great points as well, especially sense most of the class is going into the media industry.
1.) All media is trying to sale you something.
2.) Go for your dreams
3.) Anything is possible

I also think that its hot that she started a non- profit organization called Chica Luna Productions, a young minority organization helping females make urban films. I think thats HOT!

I enjoyed her and everything she stands for, keep doing your thing mami ....

¡representando ser más fuerte.... amor qué usted hace y hace lo que usted ama!

(representing a stronger being.... love what you do and do what you love!)

Dr. Cornell West

Dr. Cornell West a graduate of North Carolina Central University's prestigous School of Law, came a year ago and put on what I would have to say an incredible and inspirational speech. He spoke of dreams and reality. The dream to perspire and the reality was to see what the world really was. I found just about every word to be true. He spoke of the younger generation and our ways. He spoke of the older generation and what they became. He stated that Boys today walk with their heads down and their pants low. But not the men of the past, they walked with their heads held high and their shoulders back. He also stated how they had respect for one another and the people that surrounded them such as women. Which all of that is true. Men today for the most part are rude and degrating. They play with women and dont cater to them as they did way back when. That's where the saying" Chivalry is Dead" was born. I loved the peacock and the eagle. He says that you have to be what you wanne be and do what you dream. " The peacock struts so pretty because it can't fly such as an Eagle can, so soar my Eagles SOAR!"

Bishop Eddie Long

In class we watched a tape of North Carolina Centrals University's 2004 graduation. The guest speaker was Bishop Eddie Long. He spoke of the future and what it held for NCCU graduates. I love his African Proverb about the lion and the Gisele.

"Everday when the gisele awakes he must run faster than the lion and the lion must run faster than the fastest Gisele"

He was a graduate frrom NCCU and I loved the fact that he spoke 0f people who told him that he was never going to be anything. I think that was very inspirational to many students. Believe it or not many students were told that as well. I think that his word was very inspirational, watching it I felt as if I was in church. He got the audience very intune.....the students were saying praise and keeping their eyes and ears open for the next big thing to come out of his mind!

Dr. Mcdonald

I really enjoyed our speaker on wed. in class. She opened my eyes up to a lot, I found just about everything that she said to be inspirational. During her speech we discussed how positive things could come of positive speaking. That's really something that I need to work on. I feel as if sometimes I can give off negative energy. We also discussed the 3 keys to an amazing life. 1.) Faith. Even though I am a christian sometimes I feel as if I could be closer with God and believe more in myself. I think that would make my life more fulfilled, sometimes I feel an emptiness inside myself, hearing this helped me realize this is exactly what it was. 2.) F.O.C.U.S- frequent optimism causes ultimate sucess.3.) inter guidance, basically believing that anything is possible and being dedicated enough to go through with what you want to happen. Dr.McDonald is what I call brilliant! Hearing her story was very inspirational to me and I think the rest of the class as well. What I learned from this speaker was to believe in myself, surround myself with positive people, focus on the positives and not the negative, and Keep my faith strong. I am what the average person would call a "worry wart" I was just able to really relax and tell myself that God wouldn't burden me with anything that I couldn't handle. I use to panic and work myself into a frenzy because I felt there would be no way out in a situation that I may have got myself into. I have to surround myself with positive people! I feel as if I don't I will only tare myself down and they would only help me do it. In my camp I have wonderful parents and relatives that believe in me, actually more than I believe in myself sometimes, and I have a best friend that any girl would die for. She supports me no matter what the case is and she points out my strong and weak points. They say things happen for a reason, Wednesday I almost missed class due to not feeling well, I believe that God made me feel good enough to go because he knew that I was feeling down within myself, and needed to hear what she had to say. I'm so grateful to her advice and inspirational message. - Thank you

Martin Luther King jr. Price of Freedom

I felt that the film we watched may have been old but at the same time our generation could relate. I personally have never really had any racial issues or believed that I couldn't do anything because of what my race(s) are. I grew up in straight SURBURBIA.....Ive never had to want for anything or felt like I went without....my father is a sucessful bussiness man in our community, along with his brother and my mother just recently started working. So when we were in class and we were discussing moving out of the projects and living in a black community I could understand what they were talking about but I couldn't relate to it.....I've never lived in a black neighborhood anytime I went out and played with the "neighborhood kids" they were white. It wasn't until I transfered to Enloe high school that I really surrounded myself with african americans. When Discussing the black owned bussinesses i believe that many black people don't support there own because they hate to see one another do well....it sounds bad but for the most part its true...... Blacks are always bitter against one an0ther and quick to bring each other down. I enjoyed the panel discussion it was somewhat educational but nothing new.

In Class Video.......

I enjoyed watching the video in class on monday. Learning about Outkast and other big hip hop artist. It was interesting to learn about the people in the background such as Blue the manager for outkast, he kept the group basically on their toes. All day contstantly he was on the phone and running errons, the only time he got to sleep was when he was on a plane to Puerto Rico. I didnt realize exactly how complicated the music industry was. Its easy to get in but its even harder to stay!

Writing my Obituary

Writting my obituary was some what was fun . It was like planning my life out how I wanted it to be. I got to plan out who I wanted to marry, how many kids I wanted to have and careers. I had fun with thisassignment because I got to marry Will Demps, a New York Giants free safety that I adore. I also got to chose the gender of my children 2 boys and a girl. I was very sucessful as well. I was a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader, a childrens author, a mom, a wife, a cosmetitian and a popular designer. At first I thought it was going to be scarey and somewhat freakish but it wasn't at all it was actually fun!

Hip -Hop Summit

I enjoyed the summit, learning how the whole "industry" worked. I met the group Deepside and they gave me great info on how to really break into the music world. The basic point to the summit was to hustle and promote yourself. The music industry is so easy to get into, the hardest thing is to stay in. They also discussed internships and the future of hip- hop. I would love to intern in a huge music label, but I would love to work in a low key label as well, they're not in all the hype. As far as the state of Hip-hop, I dont believe its dead I just believe that its jello. Jello meaning it molds to its generation, our generation likes to be hype 24/7 so mellow music wouldn't cater or sale as well. Hip-hop changes if it stayed the same it would be boring. I did enjoy the summit though and Im interested in participating in it next year.

Blood Diamonds

In watching the clip in class on blood diamonds, I really didnt learn anything new. I saw the movie Blood Diamonds ( which is great) in theatres, The movie really covers all the aspects of the situation. I think that speaking out about the blood diamonds can only do so much. Reguardless of what you do America and every other country are going to continue purchasing Diamonds.I really didnt realize that people are amputated and killed through out villages over a simple rock. Its just something that we as people can't control. I think that is sad and very heartbreaking that all that blood and sweat goes into a diamond. I think that its even sadder that we as people support such in humane actions. Celebrities can't be at fault for their iggnorance because of the simple fact that we support them. Everyone wants to "bling" or "be iced out", its the trend and I have a feeling that its never going to passover it may just get worse. All we can really do is Pray! Just pray.

Mass Media and Society

1.) Why am I taking Mass Media and Society?

I am taking Mass media and Society because if is a required course of course but I do feel that the class will give me more insight as to what I really want to do with my major. This class also allows me to learn more about the world that I want to pursue in my future.

2.) What Impact does the media have on my life?

The media has a very huge impact on my life as well as any other young adult this day and age. Everyday I read magazines and watch styling shows to be updated on the best and the hottest trends. I watch the News to keep up with what is going on in this bundle of crazyness that we call earth. The media is also the influence on my future, I want to work with E!, So thats all I really watch.....