Celebrities donating millions

Ihave always boasted that Ican talk myself out of any situation, but lately the questions I have been getting have made me question this assumption. Last semester was my first semester at Cabrini and it was boring because I was asked the same questions over and over again, “Why did you come here?” and “Are you Tutti’s brother?”

This being a small campus, Ithink someone has ratted out that I hate being asked the same questions. So now the questions have changed and my new favorite question is “do you speak English?”

Iknow the difference between acity and a state. But I feel that it’s time everyone woke up. Just because I speak with anaccent does not mean that I do not speak English.

Icannot speak for everyone, because it is true that many people come from countries where English is not the official language.

But regardless of how many languages a country has, people in most, if not all c ountries speak English. I love compliments, but when someone says your English is “very good,” it is not a compliment.

When people tell me that my English is good I laugh but it’s not funny. From now on my answer will be your English is good too.

Irealize that the question “do you speak English?” is not a compliment, if this question was a compliment, why is this compliment only posed to international students?

Aday in the life of a celebrity would consist of makeup, hair and riding around in their new Mercedes while getting paid an immense amount of money for doing so. The question some of us wonder is where does this large amount of money go to?

Of course, Britney needed a diamond encrusted baby carriage for her new addition to her family and I’m also almost positive Arnold Schwartzeneggar couldn’t live without that private island in Figi. All jokes aside, the celebrities do donate some of their cash to The American Red Cross, for the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts and other dilemmas around the world, but is what their donating substantial to the millions they are worth?

After almost a month of donations to the American Red

Cross, American citizens have finally reached the one billion dollar mark. Celebrities such as Celine Dion, George Clooney and Jay-Z all donated one million dollars. Being that Dion is not an American born signer, this is a substantial amount of money for her to donate. Jay Leno, one of NBC’s late night talk show comedian, has in the past donated a Harley Davidson motorcycle, signed by all of his guest, to the Tsunami Relief fund. The motorcycle was auctioned of on eBay.com for a total on $810,000.00. Leno has recently bought a second motorcycle to be signed by his quest to be auctioned offon eBay.The money earned from this motorcycle will be given to the American Red Cross for the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.

Aconcert was established called “Shelter from the Storm: AConcert for the Gulf Coast.”

Many celebrities performed as this concert, such as, Mariah Carey,Paul Simon, Alicia Keys and many others to raise money towards the Hurricane relief funds. Other celebrities that were present on Friday, Sept. 9, were Jennifer Aniston, Jack Nicholson and Julia Roberts.

The concert raised about $30 million dollars towards the American Red Cross and Salvation Army’s Katrina relief efforts.

One of the wealthiest celebrities is missing from this ongoing list of celebrities who have donated their dollars for a good cause. Her name is Miss Britney Federline, a Louisiana native herself. Of all the money Britney is worth, it seems that she hasn’t donated a penny to her home state in a time of desperate needs. Although, Britney did not give an extra dollar to the homeless in New Orleans and surrounding areas, she did offer on her official website her thoughts and prayers. Unfortunately for the suffering victims, thoughts and prayers are not equivalent to dollars.

In all celebrities, are normal American citizens who have hearts and lots of money to prove it. One can not distinguish what is an adequate amount for another person to donate, but a person can morally know that donating is the right thing to do, especially when it is your fellow citizens that are in need.

Seemingly most people assume that English is the official language only in England and the United States. Unless one has been living in awalk-in closet for the past 20 years, you will notice that most countries have made English their official language.

People all over the world speak English, with some words here being different. We don’t say gas we say petrol, we don’tsay candies we say sweets.

Idon’t blame people for asking. When I first arrived in the United States, I asked many questions that some students may consider basic. I could not even name 10 states that made up the United States, and never knew that New York was a state, nor did

Mybrother says that I just like to take everything too seriously, and I shouldn’t read anything into it. People are just trying to know me he claims.

Maybe he is right. Maybe people are just trying to know me. But questions like “your English is very good,” in my opinion, are not questions that one should ask when meeting aperson for the first time. Questions like that only bring the worst out of me.

Asking if a person’s English is good in my opinion is like asking someone from California if they know how to surf. So if you really want to know me and want to start a conversation rather ask “Are you new at Cabrini?” and “Where are you from?” will be better.

JILLIAN MILAM FEATURESEDITOR JGM726@CABRINI EDU

Astudent sits in their seat with their eyes on the clock, dreadfully anticipating the second hand to strike 11. “OK folks, it’s 11:00. Time to begin the exam,” the teacher says without one strand of nervousness. As the teacher calmly hands out the tests, row by row, you wonder if anyone else is as nervous as you are and the doubts begin to flow in. ‘Did I read the material enough in the textbook?’‘Did I make enough index cards?’‘I knew I should’ve gone over that one section in our notes better.’‘Did I even study the right chapter?’The questions you’re asking yourself seem to engulf your mind, while the questions on the test seem to scream out, “Ha Ha, try to answer me!” Fidgeting in your seat, you try to get it together and attempt to focus on remembering what you studied.

While some students know this scenario all too well when taking a test or exam, some students feel the same way about the alternative method teachers use to test our knowledge: papers, presentations and projects. Both systems seem to cast a lingering, dark cloud over students’minds when they think of having to do either; however, some students prefer one over the other. Tests and exams verses the triple P: papers, presentations and projects. Which would you rather have?

“I prefer presentations,” Colleen

Bowman, a senior business major, said.

“Only when you get to pick your group though. I hate when teachers assign the groups, because I normally end up doing the work,” she said. “That’s when presentations turn out not to be beneficial to the students.”

B owman believes projects to be more beneficial than tests because they include e xperience.

“You do the actual research and get involved, whereas when you have a test, you tend to cram before it and then all of the information you learn is lost right after you take the test,” she said.

In regards to views on the benefits of presentations, Bowman and Dawn Francis, Asst. Professor of Communication, share similar beliefs.

“Having worked in corporate communications before coming to Cabrini, I can tell you that most of my days were spent writing business proposals and presenting business solutions to clients,” Francis said. “Therefore, when I think about the most essential skills for students to possess when they leave Cabrini, I recall my own job r equirementspapers and p resentations to clients or company employees.”

Some students experience the blank-mind effect the moment a teacher hands them a test or e xam. Whether it is a blue-book test or a series of multiplechoice questions, the empty loose-leaf and vacant answer lines leaves students a sick feeling in the pits of their stomachs.

“I know a lot of people who have test anxiety. I have it myself,”

Christina Shelley, senior individualized for physical therapy major, said.

“I don’t think it’s fair because say a teacher gives four tests during a semester. That’s all you’re judged on,”

Shelley said.

Benjamin Bloom, an educational psychologist, created a chart with the help of other educational psychologists that represents intellectual behavior