Discussions/Homework – Page 16 – WRT 205 Summer 2021

Introduction Dylan

Hi! My name is Dylan Lopez, and I live in Los Angeles, California, but I was born in Rochester, New York and spent the first half of my life there. I am going to be a junior in the Whitman School of Management next semester. I am planning to major in management and recently added a sports management minor. I am taking this course because I need to make room in my schedule for the minor classes and also because I have always enjoyed doing research to learn new subjects. A management course I took last semester briefly covered organizational cultures, and I look forward to going deeper into the material this summer.

In addition to taking this course, I am taking a religion course online and I am applying to summer jobs around my town. Being in California has unfortunately made it so I can only study remotely this summer, but I am happy that I will be able to organize the work to my own schedule.

My advice for all my remote student friends out there is to try and work on your assignments at the same time each day so you can stay on track. Also, I often print out the readings and find that I absorb more information that way without all the distractions that come with reading on the computer. That is something that has worked for me in the past.

Discussion Questions

These readings cause me to think more about what organizational culture is, how it affects people and the way they live their lives, and how diversity plays a role in the success of companies. Based off the reading “What is organizational culture and why should we care?” it seems like the definition of organizational culture is a spectrum and is more of an opinion. Most of the people who voiced their opinions regarding what organizational culture is have very different ideas that one who said one thing might not have even thought of what someone else had said. The definition and the way it affects people is dependent on who the person is and what they have experienced in their life. While it would be easier for most people, if not everyone, to have one main definition for organizational culture, it seems like it will always be more of an opinion of what it is and that it affects people differently depending on what they see it as.

Diversity has been a topic of conversation for decades while people have struggled with discrimination and being treated a specific way because of their gender or skin color. It is extremely interesting that the companies that have more diversity in both gender and ethnic ways have more financial returns because as stated in “Why diversity matters”, this is definitely more of a correlation than a causation. Although, this could potentially be caused by the fact that by having a diversity among the people working could cause people who think differently to be working together and coming up with new and different ideas.

The statistic that “racial and ethnic diversity has a stronger impact on financial performance in the United States than gender diversity, perhaps because earlier efforts to increase women’s representation in the top levels of business have already yielded positive results” is not only an interesting fact but proves that gender diversity has already been effective for businesses in the United States. The statistics in the article makes me think that the reason diversity is so positive for businesses is because there are different people with different backgrounds thinking differently about the same things. This allows me to create my own definition of what organizational culture is just like all the people from linkedin did in 2013. Organizational culture is within a company or even group of people when there is a diversity of people working on the same thing together. This matters because it is a way for people to be working together and is a way to get different perspectives and ideas on the same topic.

Introduction

Hello! My name is Sherri Holmes. I am an older returning student who is married with three daughters. One is a recent college grad and a Mechanical Engineer, one is a college student and the youngest is in high school. I work in New York City and am a co-chair for both my workplace union and our committee for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. None of us are experts on DEI but are passionate about changing the culture at our company. I enjoy reading most genres, watching movies, political debate, exploring nature and love going to the beach on steamy days!

I don’t have an exciting summer planned, so if I can squeeze it in, perhaps we’ll go to Cape May (Jersey Shore). Other than that, I’ll be working remotely full time and taking summer courses that I wouldn’t ordinarily be able to take online in non-pandemic times.

I chose this inquiry because as a union rep, I deal with workplace issues on a regular basis and thought it would be interesting.

I haven’t been in school for a very, very long time, so I appreciate all of your tips on taking an online class.

It’s nice to meet you all!

Introduction

Hi! My name is Caitlin Spillane and I am a rising sophomore. I’m majoring in civil engineering and the reason I decided to take this course is because I am hoping to study abroad spring semester when I would normally be taking this class at campus. However WRT 205 is not offered in my preferred country so I chose to take it this summer. This summer I am planning on working at a pizza place and hanging out with friends when not doing class work. One of my classes last semester was completely asynchronous so I am used to being online and it is very nice being able to work ahead of schedule whenever possible. My only piece of advice is make sure to make a note of all the assignment due dates because it can be very easy to forget to hand something in, especially during the summer. I look forward to getting started!!

Introduction

Hello, my name is Julia Fein-Ashley and I am a rising junior majoring in Finance and Accounting, along with a minor in Geography. I am taking this course in an attempt to lessen my workload for next year, as well as to stay busy.

One of the things I am extremely passionate about is travelling, and I plan on doing a lot of that this summer. I am currently in Costa Rica, heading to Florida after this, and hope to go to Alaska by the end of the summer. Besides that, I currently live in Colorado and look forward to hiking some more 14ers this summer.

Last semester, I studied remotely so I am used to working online. The greatest piece of advice I could offer is to create a calendar (I use excel) to plan out your weeks assignments in advance. Being an asynchronous class, it is really helpful to set aside a chunk of time to work. I am really excited to take this course and working with everyone this semester, it should be fun.

Introduction

Hi everyone! My name is Kate Mehne and I am a rising junior. I am majoring in Fashion Design within VPA, and am minoring in Public Communications in Newhouse. I am also in the fashion and beauty milestone program. I am taking this class because I was not able to this past semester with my workload. This summer I am living in Block Island, RI with my family, not Boston which is my hometown. I will be waitressing, taking this class, along with women and gender studies, as well as interning as a content creator for an online fashion brand. I think the fact that this course is online, as well as asynchronous, will be very beneficial for me because I can plan ahead and get my work done on my own time. I was taking two online classes last semester, and my advice to students who have not or who have struggled in doing so, is to be patient with technology and always ask questions. There is also a silver lining as I mentioned above- that you can get your work done on your schedule, which is ultimately pretty nice. Especially in the summer! I’m very excited to take this course and can’t wait to get started.

Introduction

Hi! My name is Zoe Miller and I am going to be a sophomore this upcoming fall. I am majoring in fashion design in VPA and am taking this course to lessen my work load next semester.

Along with this course, I am taking a Stat class and have an internship a couple days a week. I choose to take this class online and asynchronously because I like the idea of being able to log on when I can and do the work at my own pace.

My best advice for taking an online class is to check black board frequently and to look at the schedule ahead of time and see what the week or weeks will look like!

Introduction Ed

Hello, my name is Ed and I’m a junior majoring in Knowledge Management. I’m from the Central New York area graduating from Liverpool High School and Onondaga Community College. I’ve taken online courses before but usually they have a synchronous component to them. I enjoy “meeting” and working with my classmates online so just blogging or online chats will be a new experience. I think the most challenging part of any online course is keeping up with the work and making sure not to miss a deadline. Writing…is definitely a demanding task for me…so hopefully this course will sharpen my skill set.

I have worked in a college science laboratory and have been known to appear in some of the films by American High in Liverpool. This summer I addition to classes, I plan to spend some time up at my family’s camp in the Thousand Islands. While there I enjoy kayaking, fishing, swimming and watching the many tankers go by.

I’m looking forward to working with everyone this summer.

Introduction

Hi! I’m Oumou and I will be a sophomore in the upcoming fall semester. I am in the College of Engineering and Computer Science and I’m majoring in Bioengineering. This summer I am taking this writing course to lessen my workload next semester since I’ll be taking a lot of rigorous courses. I’m also taking a Calculus course as well. I’m from NYC so aside from taking these courses, this summer I plan on exploring the city with my friends and going to all the new places that have opened up. My reason for taking this course online is that I wanted to be home with my family after being on campus for so long. I also like that this course is asynchronous so I can do work ahead of time and enjoy my summer without worrying about logging onto class. My first semester 3 out of 5 of my classes were asynchronous.The main pieces of advice I would give is to try and stay on top of all the assignments, start a majority of the work ahead of time and not wait until the last minute because that will cause a lot of stress which could have been avoided. I’d also recommend using a planner/calendar or even setting reminders on your phone so that you don’t miss any assignments.

Time for some introductions

As this is a fairly small, discussion-oriented course, it will be helpful for us to get to know one another a bit. I ask that you each create a post telling us a bit about who you are.

What you share is ultimately up to you, but here are a few baseline suggestions:

what else are you doing this summer besides taking this course? other academic work, internships, employment, etc.
what brings you to this course in an online setting?
if you’ve taken a fully online course before, what advice do you have for your classmates who may be doing this for the first time?

Additionally, since I think we’ve all come to appreciate the value of seeing other people even more over this last weird year, it would be great if you would share a picture of yourself. If you prefer to share an avatar or an image that reflects something of your interests/identity rather than your face, that’s cool, too.

I’ll go first: my name is Karen Oakes, and I’ve been teaching here at SU since 2002. I teach in the Dept. of Writing Studies, Rhetoric, and Composition. I’m also a writing consultant with the Maxwell School and the Service Learning Facilitator for the Writing Dept. Additionally, I’m on the faculty of the History Dept. at SUNY Oswego. I’m teaching online courses at both universities this summer.

When I’m not teaching, I can be found parenting 2 very busy teenagers, teaching a 16-year old how to drive (yikes!), and trying to squeeze in some time for travel and hiking and kayaking.

I’ve been teaching online courses for the last 15 years, and my biggest piece of advice would be to stay mindful of the schedule. I like working from a print copy of the schedule because it helps me to keep an eye on the Big Picture–not just what’s due this week, but how this week’s assignments fit into the larger workflow. That makes it easier to spot potential conflicts or challenges in advance, and plan ahead for them.

Now it’s your turn–please create a post. Include a title that contains your name. Please categorize this post as “Discussions/Homework,” and tag it with “weekof6/7,” “introductions,” and [your name]. Decide now how to name yourself for your tag, and kindly stick with it throughout the summer, so that each of your posts will carry that same tag. That way your work will be fully searchable.