Letter of Intent for Masters of Public Health Essay

Letter of Intent for Masters of Public Health - Essay Example Therefore, I believe that pursuing a masters in public health will enable me to play a crucial role in creating a healthy community, which has been my long term goal. My background education in various educational backgrounds in related fields will be a plus in my effort to achieve my goals. I have a bachelor degree in psychology and I am also a doctor’s assistant in a medical clinic. In my work environment, I have faced various medical situations in my line of work and because of the need to ensure that I progress career wise and also attain my goals of ensuring a healthy lifestyle for everyone in the community, pursuing a masters in public health will enable me to be a step forward in attaining my goals. I have various qualities that make me an eligible candidate for the MPH program. I am passionate about public health and I always take the initiative to research new trends in the area and this has always kept me in a position to have ready solutions in various situations that my arise in my line of work and also in case of any emergency or situation requiring my expertise. My motivation comes from the need to have a healthy community an d this has made me creative in various areas. The passion for my work as a public health officer has put in me the willingness to look for solutions to problems without giving up as this plays a crucial role in solving various medical issues that may arise. With a MPH I aim at playing a central role in improving the health of people around the world and I will achieve this by developing various strategies aimed at coming up with solutions for health problems. I envision myself collaborating with other professionals in the public health sector with the same goal of promoting wellness in communities all over the world. This program will give me the chance to advance my research skills which are paramount for coming up with real solutions to health related problems. My experience in psychology

Guerrillas in Arkansas Essay Example for Free

Guerrillas in Arkansas Essay During the American Civil War, there were such things called guerrillas. No, I am not talking about the muscular black creatures that hide in the jungle. Though that is exactly how the Confederate independent companies got there name. Where and when did guerrilla warfare begin? Who did it involve? Who were these so called guerrillas and what was there strategy? Did certain Military commanders in Arkansas make an impact on the use of guerrillas? What were the strategies that Federals and Unionists used to stop guerrilla warfare? Daniel Sutherland’s Guerrillas: The Real War In Arkansas explains how partisan fighters helped shape the strategic and tactical patterns of the war. Shows us the reasons men became guerrillas, their roles in the Confederate service, and the guerrilla operations effectiveness. First off, guerrilla warfare began in February 1862 after Federal forces infiltrated as far south as Fayetteville and Batesville. In self-defense, Arkansans became guerrillas and started skirmishes. Guerrillas were formed with men who had been serving outside Arkansas in Confederate units or away from their family and homes. Not to be a traitor or do what they pleased but men often left the paper army to fight near their homes, where it matter most! Federal soldiers easily outnumbered and overpowered local defenses because Confederate government did not commit nearly enough troops to Arkansas. These guerrillas were shadow warriors and ghosts who struck Federal soldiers and Unionist flanks and rears. Guerrilla ambushes and midnight raids in Arkansas was how the Civil War was fought. Not a war within the war, but THE WAR. Secondly, General Earl Van Dorn became the first Confederate commander to endorse the use of Arkansas guerrillas in May 1862. After Van Dorn’s retreat from Pea Ridge, he has little choice for hundreds of men deserted to fight in isolated bands in northwest Arkansas. In June 1862, General Thomas C. Hindman, commander of the Confederacy’s Trans-Mississippi District, gave his final blessing to the formal organization of independent companies or â€Å"guerrillas. In theory, companies were to be governed by the same regulations as other regular troops, and elect their own officers. Arkansas’s terrain of mountains and deep rivers favored guerrilla actions in the north, and swamps in the south. The most costly economic factors and the most annoying of all guerrilla strategies were the suffering of river traffic and confiscation of its cargo. Guerrillas would hold the boats, take the cargo, and serve as commissaries to the interior. Last, what were the Federal soldiers and Unionist going to do to stop guerrilla warfare? Because up until the end of the war the United States government were basically supplying the Confederates and fighting them at the same time. In 1863, the Federals had released their counter-guerrilla campaign. A campaign that would have several regiments of good troops be raised in Arkansas for a short time to put down guerrillas. The counter-guerrilla acts were successful by reducing the power of Confederate guerrillas. An extensive variety of strategies were played by Federal forces to defeat irregulars in Arkansas. Arkansas Unionist forces were used as anti-guerrilla troops. Forces which used gunboats to control the waterways throughout rivers, and the head marshal’s military system that spied on alleged guerrillas and imprison those caught. By reinforcing that system, the Federal army developed an effective force themselves and defended Confederate raiders strategic targets. In conclusion, guerrilla warfare started because the Federal soldiers and Unionist outnumbered the structured Confederate Army. Protecting those they care about by remaining near their homes while settling family feuds. These guerrillas used tactics such as night raids, bushwhacks, and attacking the flanks and rears of Federal soldiers. General Van Horn and General Hindman backed the idea of forming an independent company called guerrillas after the losing both battles at Pea Ridge and Prairie Grove. Both Generals knew that the Arkansas terrain could give the Confederates an advantage to stop forces moving further south. The United States government basically supplied the Confederate as the same time of fighting. After realization, a counter-guerrilla campaign was put into action to stop Confederate raiders.

Impact of Harriet Beecher Stowes Uncle Toms Cabin :: Uncle Toms Cabin Essays

Harriet Beecher Stowe was born on June 14, 1811, in Connecticut. She was the seventh child of a famous protestant preacher. Harriet worked as a teacher with her older sister Catharine, at the Hartford Female Academy. She was also an established writer. She helped support her family financially by writing local and religious periodicals. Harriet began writing when she was young, beginning with poems, travel books, and children’s books, and eventually writing adult novels. Her first adult novel that she wrote and published was Uncle Tom’s Cabin. She wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852, after the Fugitive Slave Law was passed. Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a controversial book that Harriet wrote on her feelings of slavery. The story focuses on the harsh reality of slavery and the main character, Uncle Tom, a suffering black slave whose Christian love and faith overcame enslavement. Uncle Tom's Cabin was the best-selling novel of the 19th century, and the second best-selling book of the century after the Bible. 300,000 copies of the book were sold in the first year after it was published. Harriet being a sworn abolitionist, her views and comments written in the book helped start the Abolitionist Cause in the 1850’s. The book also spread many stereotypes about African-Americans, such as Mammy (slang for mother), Pickaninny (slang for a black child), and Uncle Tom (slang for a black servant faithful to his white master or mistress). The impact of the book was so great, that before the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln wanted to meet Harriet. When he finally met her in 1862, he said, â€Å"So you’re the little woman that wrote the book that made this big war!†. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, however, had a greater impact in England than it did in America. The first London edition of the book came out in May, 1852, and sold over one million copies. The biggest reason it was more popular in England than America was because of British antipathy to America. One remarkable writer from England explained that "The evil passions which 'Uncle Tom' gratified in England were not hatred or vengeance [of slavery], but national jealousy and national vanity. We have long been smarting under the conceit of America--we are tired of hearing her boast that she is the freest and the most enlightened country that the world has ever seen. Our clergy hate her voluntary system--our Tories hate her democrats--our Whigs hate her parvenus--our Radicals hate her litigiousness, her insolence, and her ambition.

Counselling Children in a Community Setting

In the world of counselling, using effective techniques and skills in understanding the behaviour of a person is critical. This will serve as the path that will break through the natural barriers of the human mind. Like adults, children have issues that have to be confronted in order to behave accordingly. The only difference is that they act on these issues on a different than adults do. Hence, a different approach is need.Unlike adults, children lack the proper vocabulary to explain their feelings making it harder for counsellors to understand their thoughts. Velsor (2004) in her article ‘Revisiting Basic Counselling Skills with Children’ talks about the essential approaches that may be helpful when dealing with children during counselling Her article hopes to improve the study ‘Adapting Basic Skills to Counsel Children’ by Erden and Lampe had done to create an appropriate approach in dealing with children.Velsor offers two new approaches into the world of counselling children. The first is to enhancement of microskills, a term used for communication skills units by counsellors, when working with children. This allows any client, adult or child, to present their issues during sessions. For children, the use of microskills involves the counsellor to adapt to the children’s varying capabilities. Apart from encouraging verbal communication of children, this allows them to bring out their issues through the manner of playing.In this article, several examples are used to explain the different microskills used as well as the different manners children may use to act on their issues. Velasor explains her second approach by introducing and explaining the common stages and themes that occur during counsel with children. Acquintance with these stages enables the counsellor to properly understand how to go about the counselling period. List of References: Velsor, P. V. (2004). Revisiting Basic Couselling Skills with Children. Journal of Counseling and Development, 82 ( 3), 313-318.

Decisions Essay

Decisions in 2006 regarding discrimination in the workplace centered largely on a theme of time and evidence. The court regularly held that the evidence of discrimination must be clear and that the legal action must be filed in a timely manner. The idea that a person can have been the victim of discrimination for years and have taken no action was dismissed as untimely. A case alleging racial discrimination was held to have insufficient proof of intent and in another case the court held that a union suing an employer for prejudicial hiring practices also did not submit sufficient proof. Finally, the court held that when an employer takes discriminatory action it does not have to be within the confines of the workplace to be discriminatory. First, in a case against Good Year Tire and Rubber Company, the plaintiff claimed that in her 18 years with Good Year, she had routinely been paid a smaller wage than her male counterparts. A local jury awarded her damages based on a series of wage-related decisions going back 19 years. However, the 11th Circuit Court held that the plaintiff’s lawsuit was untimely in that her complaint was not based on actions taken in the last 180 days according to the summation of Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber, 421 F. 3d 1169 (11th Cir 08/23/2005) (Runkel, 2007. The court did not rule on the merit of the case, but held that the statute restricts the time frame in which the alleged discrimination was to have occurred (Runkel, 2007). The plaintiff has appealed the decision to the U.  S. Supreme Court and in May, 2007, Justice Samuel Alito writing for the court, affirmed the lower court’s ruling â€Å"Ledbetter v. Good Year†, 2007). Next, in case versus Tyson Foods the court held that use of the term â€Å"boy† is not enough proof of racial animus to sustain a ruling alleging discrimination, but reverse a portion of the lower court’s ruling which had claimed that a racial descriptor was required to accompany the word to prove animus. In Ash v. Tyson Foods, 126 S. Ct. 195 (02/21/2006), the court wrote, â€Å"†Although it is true the disputed word will not always be evidence of racial animus, it does not follow that the term, standing alone, is always benign. The speaker’s meaning may depend on various factors including context, inflection, tone of voice, local custom, and historical usage. Insofar as the Court of Appeals held that modifiers or qualifications are necessary in all instances to render the disputed term probative of bias, the court’s decision is erroneous. (Runkel, 2007). That means the court needs more information that just a word to determine discrimination. The court ruling says that to prove discrimination, the plaintiff must show more than just a misjudgment by the hiring authority of perceived qualifications. It must show that ‘disparities of qualifications must be or such weight and significance† that a reasonable person could not have made the hiring decision which was made (â€Å"Ash v. Tyson, 2006). This decision dovetails with the court’s decision in IBEW v.  Mississippi Power & Light, 442 F. 3d 313 (5th Cir 03/02/2006). The union had argues that the employer’s standard for employment was discriminatory in that the cut-off point on the standardized tests was inherently discriminatory. The court did not dispute the merit of the claim, but ruled that the burden of proof lies with the plaintiff and that the union had failed to prove that there was another way that the employer could adequately determine employment eligibility. (Runkel, 2007) Finally, the court held that when an employer is accused of retaliatory action, it does not have to be limited to the confines of the work environment. In Burlington Northern v. White, 126 S. Ct. 2405 (06/22/2006), the court upheld the defendant’s claim that her employer had retaliated against her by moving her from one position to another and by initially trying to suspend her without pay, requiring that she file a grievance through the union to receive reinstatement and her back pay. The court held, â€Å"We conclude that the anti-retaliation provision does not confine the actions and harms it forbids to those that are related to employment or occur at the workplace. We also conclude that the provision covers those (and only those) employer actions that would have been materially adverse to a reasonable employee or job applicant. In the present context that means that the employer’s actions must be harmful to the point that they could well dissuade a reasonable worker from making or supporting a charge of discrimination. (Runkel, 2007). The court further held that retaliatory practices do not have to include financial loss to be actionable. (Runkel, 2007) The overwhelming effect of these court ruling on future graduates is a trend within employment law toward the defense of the employer. These cases tend to indicate that the court has placed the entire burden of proof on the employee when it comes to discrimination cases and expects that the employee can make a clear case for their claim, rather than relying on vague innuendoes, such as in the Tyson case. For employees, this can be a difficult precedence in that other employees are unlikely to back a person’s claim regarding workplace discrimination especially when they would then have such stringent requirements in proving their own retaliation case. This is also likely to have a chilling effect on employees who feel they are being mistreated because of the burden of proof. The reality is that for any African-American man, the mere use of the word boy is inflammatory, especially in the south. Though the word was not accompanied by any racial descriptor, the court held that intonation and other context can be used to determine the word’s intent. For an African-American in the South, that is the context and proving what his supervisor was thinking places too great a burden on the plaintiff. The Tyson case in particular makes it difficult for a person who is the victim of subtle racism to prove it and the Ledbetter cases reiterates that the person must deal with any perceived discrimination within 6 months of its occurrence, compounding the difficulty in proving a case.