I raise chickens in order, so I can build my own egg business that delivers eggs to those less fortunate.
Family and UVM by Matt Saunders
I am Matt Saunders this is my final semester here. I will be graduating in May and I want to thank Bryan Dague Cassidy George and Emily Martin for us all being here every single year. You guys are the best for helping us go to college. You were the best for us. Everyone in Think College Program mentors and students are my family. Graduating makes me feel fear and be scared because of how much of my family all of you are and everyone’s leaving. All I have left is here in my UVM family. You taught me putting good effort in, making changes, I felt safe and good here and it helped me get on the right path. Everything’s changing like over a mountain when the mountain changes because it has many different colors. This is like a memory book that we have inside of us, changes happening like the different colors of the mountain. This memory book is like a normal book, we have to flip the page. When you flip the page wherever my UVM family goes I will go with that page. I realized the best thing about what we have is our love and trust and care. What we have in Think College Program after graduation is this.
Blue Purple Hummingbird
All of the beautiful things, like a hummingbird
All of them flying away in a crystal clear sky
It’s a marvelous creature and it’s from the foggy night
It’s going to its nest
To perch and lay with the little hummingbird and its babies
It flies away to find the butterfly secret.
And then it goes to a dusty, yellow, beautiful sky
It blows around the fields and into the treeline
It goes over all the trees into a beautiful African forest.
It touches all the animals surrounding
Then it swoops to touch a fox cub in its rock den
He looks up and says, “Hi Hummingbird, you are my soulmate”
The little fox then takes off to play with the rabbit
The rabbit takes off and is eaten by the grey wolf
The hummingbird and butterfly fly away and find a beautiful place
They find all creatures in the forest and a cloud of hummingbirds,
all in the treeline.
They found all the babies nests up high in the tall tall trees
She found the hummingbird family- there is yelling
The yelling is from a grizzly bear and a black bear, named Leonard and Katherine
They got hurt from a trap and the hummingbird and butterfly fly away
They fly and they glance down under the fruit of the forest and find a little spot
They lay together and rest, until something scares them
They fly and end up far, far away
Out of the forest and into the night sky
They soar over the clouds and make it through the moonlit night and into the fog
In the next forest, they find a beautiful sight, the butterfly’s family
The butterfly takes off to her butterfly tree
The hummingbird, by herself, flies up in the sky again.
She made it back
She goes into the tree and she finds her baby hummingbirds.
My Interview at Outback
Today I went to an interview with Cassie George at Outback. I met with Cassie’s friend Peter. The interview went really well. He is giving me a minimum wage for five to sten hours per week. I am so happy that I finally got the job. I did it for myself and I am so excited about. To form new relationships. I am so excited to bring out all of my peeps. I will not need SI checks anymore. This will help me be more independent and self reliant. For the Condo!!
India and food production
Question 1
The children in the Global South aren’t dying of hunger because there is no food, but because they have no money to buy it. Before foreign aid policies, most Indian people had home gardens to feed their families, but foreign policy made growing your own food more difficult. “The effect of foreign aid was to cause less food to be grown domestically. A food deficit began to loom, and as farmers refused to grow more, India became increasingly dependent on food aid imports” (132). These food aid imports being shipped in from different countries and sold in Indian markets were extremely expensive and more than the Indian people could afford. Though enough food is shipped in to make up the deficit from a lack of native crops, it’s so expensive that a lot of people can’t buy it and go hungry.
Although other countries such as the United States tried to offer assistance, many could argue that it ended up being more harmful. “The seeds brought to India from the U.S. were very difficult to grow and harmed the local environment by using up all the water and removing biodiversity” (134-135). Of course, aid only came from the U.S. during politically favorable times, and when India began to show political differences, the food aid was removed. Patel provides plenty of information to support his argument that famine is caused by distribution problems, not a lack of food.
Question #2:
Patel makes the argument that large corporations made decisions for what was best for the people of South Africa, based on profit. Specifically, he uses the Makhathini farmers as an example. Monsanto, a genetically modified (GM) crop dealer, took advantage of the desperation of the farmers. “The net effect of this, of course, is to offer farmers the following choice: choose GM seed, or don’t grow cotton at all. Since there are no other cash crops with a local market, farmers choose GM cotton” (pg. 164).
Unfortunately, they needed land to grow the GM cotton. “The Makhathini Cotton Company approached local community leaders to ask them to sell their land. Local headmen agreed on behalf of their ‘people’….except… not everyone wanted to move” (165). Besides farmers growing crops they didn’t want to grow, and planting on land that was given up unwillingly, Patel accuses the location of the “zone of engagement of GM crops” particularly in Africa as being a racially motivated decision. “Farmers in Makhathini aren’t being given the choices they really want. Just the ones that are most profitable to those who control the food system” (167). Patel exposes the Makhathini Cotton company and reveals how big money took advantage of farmers in the name of profit.
“In 2001 -2, the company offering the genetically modified seed was offering loans to anyone who promised to used it to buy genetically modified cotton seed people were queuing up at the gate swearing blind that they were cotton farmers and could they have a loan please? As one might expect, as we would have ourselves done if we were in a similar position the crop loan went to pay off existing debt, the cotton farmers disappeared and the cotton crop was significantly lower than the loan data would have led anyone to expect”
The genetically modified plant itself is not good to plant, because people shouldn’t touch it.
The government went overboard they need to stay there, the people need to be able to stand up for themselves, it seems as though they do not have any civil rights, because the cotton seeds do not grow well in Africa. It is not an economically viable crop in Africa. The farmers in Makhathini are desperate to grow something. Sugar cane has a local market, and food. The local Spar supermarket will not buy locally. The farmers are not given the choices they really want or need because of the corporations controlling the food systems.
Think college s
My name is Matt and I came to UVM and Think College in 2013. How I first got to UVM was with the help of my sister. She helped me to apply to the Think College Program, and ever since I have been so happy to find a place that I belong. I feel like I belong here because of the mentors, students, and the program leaders. I believe that Think College has helped me to learn more about myself. I have become more confident and involved at UVM because of the guidance and support that the mentors, students, and program leaders show.
What I like most about UVM is that it is a very supportive environment. I get my support from Cassidy and Brian Dague. Cassidy and Brian are awesome because they help to get things done and make things happen. I think that Brian and Cassidy are very motivated, kind, and helpful people. These two shape Think College and bring the program together to help us. Cassie and Brian shine bright like sparkling fireworks because they guide and push us to be better people. They are supportive and always think about the students first. Cassie and Brian are very knowledgable about their job and what is necessary to make the program and students successful.
I think that most people in the program, like the mentors and students are very unique in their culture and background. The mentors are great because the are beautiful, strong, and smart and they always do whatever is in the best interest of us as students. All students should have a mentor because they are awesome and have the knowledge to help you find a job and gain experiences to help guide us down a positive and progressive road. Like the Rascal Flatts say “if one door opens to another door closed, I hope that you keep on walking until you find the window”. I think that a lot of students dreams might come true. So make your goals bigger and great things will happen when you have people to help guide you like Bryan and Cassidy.
The lone survivor
Movie Review
The Lone Survivor
This is a true story that talks about the survivors of the Afghanistan war. There were 4 guys. They were trying to defeat and kill the enemies. They brought guns to survive out there. The 4 guys came out of the woods and started shooting their guns like crazy. Then there were 3 other guys that were pretending to be the enemies but were actually the good guys. So the 4 original good guys tied up the 3 other men because they thought they were enemies. Two of those 3 guys were young. The men that were tied up had donkeys. Eventually, the 3 men were let loose because they had not done anything bad and were actually good. The 4 guys went back to the woods, fields, and mountains and in the mountains, they madly were shooting the bad guys, but more and more bad guys kept coming. Of the original 4 good guys, three died and one was the lone survivor. The lone survivor was Mark Wahlberg. One of the guys lost his legs and it was torn out of his socket. One of the other guys got his head sliced off by one of the bad guys. The other good guy died because a bad guy shot him in the back of the head. Another guy died from suffering from cancer. At the end, Mark Wahlberg heard helicopters that were coming to save him, but one of the bad guys shot the helicopter out of the air. Everyone that was on the helicopter died. Another helicopter had to come save Mark Wahlberg. After Mark was rescued, he had to call the 3 wives of the guys that died to tell them what happened and how they died. At the end of the movie, it shows Mark Wahlberg at his house with his wife and kids.
I liked this movie and I recommend it. All people that like action packed and gory, war movies should watch it.
First post
I am Matt Saunders, a first year student at UVM. I enjoy taking care of my chickens. I hope to get a job at Best Western and I also like to recycle for money. I hope to have a chicken business, and have a barn. This year, I am enrolled in Intro to Music Cultures. My professor, Alex, tells the class about music history, cultures, and helps the class understand how different types of music came about. This class is about music in different cultures and how people in different areas around the world use music in their everyday life. I enjoy the class very much, and think that everyone at UVM should take this course! I feel strongly about the fact that students all around the world should be able to get an education, because everyone will find out that they belong somewhere. Think college makes me to feel like I belong in the UVM community, and everyone who wants to belong should join!
All around the world how many people in UVM have a right to be on campus. Campus is the best thing to go to. Fun experiments and finding that people have a lot of things to do. Things like meeting your mentors. Think College if you are going into it from UVM or somewhere else it makes it the right fitting. They have great ideas to get in to feeling strong and powerful, challenged and get yourself in to college!
Mentors are great people from UVM and Think College. They help students with homework. Students with homework should work very hard and keep up their own brightness, and the mentors are here to help. The mentors are needed at UVM and Think College. All mentors help you figure out your essay, strengths, courage, and your part of your story in your life. Also, the mentors help the students figure out things for themselves so they become independent. The students are soaking up the information from the professors and mentors. This helps us learn and become independent.
Keep your heads up high and do it with dignity. Confidence is the key but the sky is the limit.
Every student wakes up and goes to their own classes. Every student has a window of opportunity. There is a quote from a song by the Rascal Flatts that says, “And if one door closes, another door opens.
I hope you keep on walking till you find that door!” I love this quote because I thought about it and it gives me hope and faith in everything I do. I thought about a lot of the things about UVM and Think College. This program makes me feel like a star on campus. I want to tell the mentors and students to rock on, and keep being yourselves. You guys are the ones that make it happen. Speak up for yourselves. Your future is going to be bright. Keep it in your heart. Do not break down. Go at your own pace. Do not let anybody tell you that you can’t do something or who you are. Keep strong. Be proud of yourself for everything you do at UVM and what you do. UVM is one of a kind because it’s very accepting and it inspired me. Thank you so much because this program at UVM will help me grow after I leave (when I’m in Hawaii).
Sincerely,
-Matt Saunders
Special Olympics
Blog about special needs and the Special Olympics
Hi, I’m Matt Saunders.
This blog is about special needs and the Special Olympics. The Special Olympics provides opportunities for people with special needs to show their abilities. I think that all people from UVM and Think College should show how excellent they are. They should show who they really are so they can stand out. Millions of people are gaining opportunities from the Special Olympics around the World. I have two best friends who are April and Leah that are in the Special Olympics, and they are able to show their talents. They are leading a lot of people, and opening the doors for other people with special needs to join the Special Olympics. America has their own flag, just like every country around the world has their own flag. The Special Olympics has people that represent countries from all around the World. Many different cultures are in the Special Olympics. Everyone that wins the Special Olympics gets a medal, and gets to celebrate their success. The Bald Eagle is a symbol of the flag of America. It is a symbol of strength and success, so spread your wings and fly!!! Everyone should get a chance in their life to fly and do the things they never thought were possible! Everyone can make their dreams come true, and be great for themselves. In the Special Olympics everyone is beautiful and everybody’s a winner.As Christina Aguilera said, “You are beautiful in every single way!”
Mentors
I love my best friends and mentors and this is my uvm family.