Activities
My personal interests redound to the academic. I am well versed in official scholarship, and have developed a propensity for scrutinizing works of academia in a peer-reviewed context, such as those presented in the pubications of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In addition to peer-reviewed journals of publication, I am an avid reader of mainstream publications such as The Wallstreet Journal, Fortune Magazine, The New York Times, Harper's Weekly, and the New York Times Book Review.
My independent aptitude for comprehending sound scholarship has led me to become familiar with the works of such renowned scholars as Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, and Edward Herman. Their works are an invaluable contribution to the the great democratic tradition of rhetoric that occupies such a lofty place in our own history, as well as right here at Penn State.
As I am currently enrolled here on the Hazleton campus as a sophomore for the 2010-11 school year, I have devoted myself to some particular academic activities that utilize my independent personal interests. For example, at the moment I am in the process of attempting to organize a Student Union through the academic Student Government. It is important that students, as a viable group of able-minded individuals, have associations through which they can participate in and further the democratic practice of open debate and dialogue. Students need to be represented directly, just as much as faculty. One area where this is particularly relevant is the selection of professors for positions as faculty members. I am of the strong opinion that students deserve the right to participate directly in this process. With a Student Union to communicate through, this right may be more possible to attain, hopefully in the near future.
Areas of my interest rebound to the comparative socio-political-economic realms. As this happens to be the case, media criticism is a comprehensive field of research that appeals to me on a great level.
Here's a video of an Occupy Wallstreet march that I attended on November 23rd.
I'm in the video.