Our final course project is quickly approaching, and you are tasked
with conducting no less than five field site observations where you
collect extensive notes and build rapport with members of the community
you are investigating.
You must list two communities
you are interested in researching for your project. The community you
choose should NOT be a community you are already a part of. College is a
place where you are supposed to get diverse experiences, and this
project calls you to step outside and away from communities you are
familiar with. In past terms I've had students explore congregations of
churches, tattoo parlors, restaurants, Paul Mitchell's school of Hair
Design and Cosmetology, and many more.
You must pick at
least two communities because one may not pan out. Consider how
difficult it will be to access a particular community and also consider
your time constraints (you have about a month to gather all of your
data).
List at least two communities you are interested
in investigating. Give some background on the communities and explain
why you are interested in researching them. You will eventually pick one of these communities to pursue for your final paper. For now, I want you to list two just in case one doesn't pan out.
One community I want to a dig a little more into is the chef’s workplace. I actually have a few friends who are chefs and yet, I’m not sure what sort of work ethic they have considering that discourse changes with the different rhetorical situations you’re put into. I’m going to research the 407 Café because is close to my house and the staff is super friendly. It is a European style café that sells exquisite pastries, crepes, sandwiches, and things of that sort at a modest price. So not only will I be able to observe how the team works, I will be able to have a great meal while I’m there. I’m sure I can’t get into the kitchen, but I can definitely see it from afar.
ReplyDeleteThe second community is the common every day security guard. The entrance to my neighborhood has a guard there and even though I pass by him every day, I never bothered to say hello or even know his name. Quite frankly, I always painted them out to be annoying because they tend to cause huge pile up traffic all for the sake of a simple I.D. check. I want to see what it’s like to be one however, I’m not entirely sure I’ll be allowed inside the guardhouse. But it never hurts to try! … Unless I get tased that is (haha).
For my final essay, I plan to look into one of two communities, Biotest and a tattoo parlor across the street from my house (i'm not sure what the name is but I will find out). Biotest is a plasma donation center located on the UCF campus. I've been there a couple of times and I am really interested in the whole process. The employees there are around my age and are all really nice to me when I go in so I feel it will be simple to conduct the interviews I will be asked to do.
ReplyDeleteThe tattoo shop next to my house is another workplace I might like to work on as well. I chose the tattoo shop because for some reason, I feel comfortable with people who choose this line of work. I have six tattoos, therefore i'm used to working with tattoo artists (making conversation, becoming friends with my artist, etc.). I feel this essay will not be as difficult as i first imagined!
I’d like to learn more about Phi Delta Epsilon at UCF. It’s a co-ed international pre-medical fraternity that helps students get ready for med school and a successful career in medicine. The do this through fellowship, service, mentoring, and formal training in leadership, science, and ethics. They also partner with nonprofit organizations to raise awareness in the community. I chose this community because I’m aspiring to become a physician. It’s been a life long goal of mine and I think it would be interesting to learn more about a community specifically catering to this goal.
ReplyDeleteThe second community I chose is The association of pre nursing students at the College of Nursing. It’s purpose is to educate undergraduate students in the nursing-pending major track on the UCF Nursing program and how to best prepare to apply and enter the program. I chose this community because I am a nurse and I want to know what students have to go through to earn a 4 year degree in nursing and how nursing professors operate in college.
There are many communities I am interested in for doing my field report. The first is an online community that has an interest in clothing brands. It will be easy for me to research this, as my roommate and his friends are apart of this community. They will enable me to do research for it.
ReplyDeleteThe second community I am interested in is a living place on campus, such as Apollo that has many sub-communities (like buildings, floors..) and will be able to see how they interact and more. I am actually apart of my own community on campus, and know it is a big part of my life as I have connections with everyone on my floor.
When trying to figure out what kind of discourse community, i first think about what interests me the most. I think about my past. I was a cheerleader, a diver, and an international baccherlaute student. I think of the things I liked. I have a mermaid obsession. i enjoy cat memes. Then I thought....you can’t nessiarlly write very much about those things. So in a final ditch effort I thought “well, Im a nursing major..” Luckily enough there seemed to be a club that would fit into that quality of my life.
ReplyDeleteUCF has a club called The Association Of Pre-Nursing Students. This seemed like something I could actually see myself doing after my research. The mission of the club is to offer a highly developed program for undergraduate and graduate students. This program is an opportunity to prepare nursing majors to be successful in the endlessly changing health care environment. This gives an opportunity to get access to education and research to develop into great nurse clinicians, leaders, and scholars. They plan to achieve this through clinical excellence, research, and finally community service projects.
The second organization I found interesting was the Habitat for Humanity campus chapter and UCF. I have always wondered about them ever since I saw their little contributions on Extreme makeover: Home edition. I have always been interested in a hands on way to help those in need. Unlike what you saw on the show habitat for humanity provides small easily regulated home for those who need them. Their mission is to “empower students by providing them with unique opportunities to fight substandard housing in the local community and beyond, through the construction of strong homes, virtues, and friendships.”
The two communities I'm interested in exploring for our last assignment are UCF Kicks and BSU. Both of these organizations are clubs on campus. UCF Kicks is a new club to the school and it's purpose is to assist students exchange and buy the latest sneakers. It may seem stupid to someone who doesn't have one care in the world for shoes but to these members, trading and buying new sneakers are hobbies that they're passionate about. My dear friend is the president and entrepreneur behind this club. This makes it easier for me to get inside information on the club.
ReplyDeleteThe second club I'm interest in; BSU, stands for Black Student Union. Their purpose is to bring together the black community and people of any race for different forums, activities and gatherings. I went to their first event of the year on the first day of school and I met many people that I'm close with now. Their events have led me to feel comfortable and less homesick while here at UCF. I'm interested in finding more about the club and the philanthropy aspect of it.
The two communities I'm interested in exploring are the Hillsborough county Public School administration and UCF IM sports. I want to study these becuase of a few key reasons. The reason I wish to study the Hillsborough County Public School administration is because I have a lot of contacts in this department due to my mother working in this field. I also am curious of the different relationships between the various stages of administration and how they interact with each other. The main reason that I want to examine the IM sports community is to see how the faculty and participants react in comparison to the professional or club collegiate level sports. These are both two very interesting topics (to me at least) as they will allow me to see the different forms of interaction depending on environmental and temperamental factors.
ReplyDeleteOne of the communities is I am interested in would be in the sorority and fraternity range. There are two factors that many will make it easy to conduct the field observations. One, an enormous amount of people apart of these communities at UCF, Two that most of these Fraternity/Sorority are local. I haven’t quite decided whether to do it one Fraternity/Sorority or to do 5 separate communities. I chose type of community because I think it will be interesting to see what all the fuss is associated with them. With the amount of Fraternity/Sorority, and why people are so involved and dedicated to them.
ReplyDeleteAnother community I might pick to conduct my research. Would have to be something that puts me outside my comfort zone. My friend along with his girlfriend is a part of a bible study. I find this to put me outside my comfort zone, because I haven’t defined myself in this area of my life “religion”. I select this community because they meet every week and their segregated by gender. I find this peculiar, and I would like to know why they do it that way. Also, find out more to why people are so dedicated to these things. Hoping to find out little about myself in the process.
For the final project, the first community I am considering is PPMS, which stands for pre-professional medical society. I have always wondered about medical school, and this could also give me insight to if I want to pursue the medical field. I would attend the meetings, interview the members, and possibly attend an event they do!
ReplyDeleteThe second community I am considering is the Photography Club. I am not apart of this organization, but photography has been an interest of mine since I was 15. I am interested in finding out more about this club, and believe it will be a good pick for my topic if I do not chose PPMS.
For my last essay in this course I am interested in writing about buddish. I discussed this with a few people an it seems like a great idea. I have some friend who are Buddhist and it's something that's always interested me. Is it a religion? Is it a philosophy? Who the hell knows for sure.
ReplyDeleteIn class we discussed Reddit for a bit and that got me thinking. If got to a physical Buddhist temple couldn't happen, why not try a subreddit? So that's my second idea.
I'm planning to choose two popular discourse communities, where there are a lot of meetings and a high number of participants, so it would make it easier to extract the information.
ReplyDeleteThe first comminity is the Asian Student Association at UCF. This is a very popular community at UCF that I am not a part of even though I should be. I want to go in there, and do research about them to find the common goal for the operating of the association, I heard there are many enthusiastic officers who would take some time to be interviewed, therefore I think this is an ideal community to work with.
The second community is the Advertising Club. I'm very interested in economy and I always want to know more about the field of advertising, so this is a very good opportunity and one of many good option to work with. There is at least 1 meeting per week at the club as well, so this is a very good way to communicate and talk more to people.
I have chosen to do research on the Scuba diving club here at UCF. I have always been intrigued with the ocean and all of my cousins have told me to get my scuba certification, so why not kill two birds with one stone. My second choice is the UCF car club. I've never been to a car meet and would love to see how the scene is.
ReplyDeleteWhen choosing a discourse community that interests me is anything that’s related to music. So I chose that one of my projects I am thinking of a cappella. It seems like so interesting and definitely different from the music you hear on the radio. One of my roommates is in an a cappella group which even had the opportunity of going to regionals for UCF. Another community is also music related would be type of band like jazz band or concert band here at UCF. I was in concert band ever since middle school and I always thought it was so interesting how all kinds of instruments would make such good music.
ReplyDeleteThere are two communities that I am interested in here at UCF. One would be IM sports and the other is volunteer UCF. I played sports in high school, which is why i am interested in the IM sports on campus. Volunteer UCF is a group that goes out and gives back to the community, and I feel that this can have a great impact on the lives of others and myself.
ReplyDeleteI've never really been one to join into groups, my community has always been my friends and family. So when looking for a group to join on UCF, I was stuck. However, one thatstruck out to me was the Knight Kiteboarding club here on campus. I used to kiteboard in the past with my father, but I never really witnessed a real kiteboarding community. So I thought it would be interesting to see how it would feel to hang around some kiteboarders my age.
ReplyDeleteThe other community I was considering was Volunteer UCF. My friend turned me over to them to check out. They are a group of UCF students who volunteer their time to the community and do small events and raise awareness for causes.
(apparently I didn't send this in. I completely forgot to do the "Prove you're a human" thing)