I Pledge...

I pledge to take on any opportunity offered to me (within reason) regardless of my reservations. I will accomplish this by networking and following up with people from my network and also being open to new things and experiences while a student at Year Up.

The Rich

          The question, "where are you from?" has always been awkward for me to answer. Well, I was born in North Oakland, Ca in a house that my father bought several years after moving from Jamaica and to this day my father still lives on the same block. When I was 2 years old my parents split up; and though both of my parents played a big part in raising me, I have always lived with my mother. Life was a struggle, my mother and I moved often, every year a different address - sometimes two moves per year. I've lived in different cities all over Northern California, such as, Hercules, El Cerrito, Vallejo, Fairfield, Suisun, Berkeley but, the city that I have lived in most by far is Richmond.

          Richmond, also loving called 'The Rich' or 'The Riches' is a very tight knit community, the city of 'pride' and 'purpose'. Many families have lived in Richmond for generations, so it is not uncommon to know everybody in town. With beaches, piers and scenic views, Richmond sounds more like 7^th Heaven than Boyz In The Hood, yet rising crime rates have ranked Richmond as one of the nation's most dangerous cities on numerous occasions. Now, Richmond has a reputation of being a dirty, crime infested, scary city. Many young ladies are becoming teen mothers and young men are in and out of jail and falling victim to street crime that now plagues Richmond.

          In my neighborhood of South Richmond I would fall asleep to the sound of passing cars, sirens blurring, drunk passers-by and I was comfortable. My community was diverse, a mix of older folks who owned their houses and younger families who occupied the many small apartment buildings in the area. I had a lot of neighbors with kids around my age and we would play double dutch together on the sidewalk, go listen to music at each others houses or walk to Nichol Park and meet boys. By middle school, most of the people I knew had tried drugs, drank alcohol and much worse. I have lost many family and personal friends to senseless violence in Richmond and wish it would stop.

           As a young woman growing up in Richmond I knew that people would associate me with the Richmond stereotype but I vowed to never be apart of those statistics. I am who I am today, despite of the fact that I grew up in Richmond. I will always be proud to be from Richmond because I truly believe and respect the motto: “city of pride and purpose.” I am determined to better myself and strive to be an example of hard work paying off. Because of my experiences I am who I am today, so I thank Richmond for teaching me invaluable life lessons and preparing me for the real world.

Advertising

I remember growing up in Oakland, there was a large billboard at the end of my block that always had a cigarette ad on it. I didn’t know much about cigarettes then but I knew there was always a pretty woman on the poster that looked as though she was having the time of her life. I recall wanting to get candy cigarettes and cigars made of chocolate so I could look as cool as the lady on the poster, now that I know that cigarette use can be pernicious, or deadly, I will never hold a cigarette to my lip. As a kid, I didn’t think much of advertising, nowadays, advertising is so overt isn’t impossible to miss. Billboards, print ads, radio spots, tv commercials, internet pop-ups and banner ads are everywhere we look. Nothing is worse than sitting down to use your computer and immediately get bombarded with hundreds of banner ads attempting to sell people obviously counterfeit designer handbags for 90 percent off retail price, or ads that try convince women with low self esteem that they need to buy miracle weight loss pills in order to get a perfect body in 30 days. In general, I have always despised Internet advertising, I try my best to just ignore web advertisements when I’m online - until now.

In the past few years I have really taken notice to the rise in ads that attempt to sell me something I don’t want and don’t need... male enhancement pills, miracle hair growth products and mail order brides. Do the Internet gods know that I’m not a middle aged, balding man?! Apparently not. In a perfect world people would have more control over the advertising content they view.

Groupon and Livingsocial are websites that send daily deals via text, and email to their subscribers for discounted services and products, ranging from spa treatments to hot air balloon rides around wine country. These two websites are perfect examples of advertising and marketing tools that companies use to generate business in a way that is not pushy and that gives the consumer the choice of offers by personal interest. Groupon and Livingsocial are great advertising tools because businesses get gain access to thousands of targeted consumers in their area and people who have no interest in the product or service being offered don’t have to be bothered at all. This is a win-win situation. I think targeted advertising that gives the consumers the power to choose what they want to see is the best form of marketing because both business and customer will be better off.