LaTasha Watkins Gets Second Degree Burns

21 year-old LaTasha Watkins is diagnosed with second degree burns after an accident in the kitchen.

Watkins, an electrical engineer student at Lawrence Tech University, says she was turning off the stove when her elbow hit the pot handle causing cooking oil to splash all over her right hand and wrist as well as her left index finger and thumb.

“The first thing I did was grab a first aid cloth to cover my arm and my boyfriend drove me to emergency” Watkins says.

The burns have prevented Watkins from doing simple tasks on her own such as doing her hair, showering, and driving.

“I have to wash my burns 2-3 times a day and put fresh gauze on…along with silver sulfadiazine cream”

This is not the first time Watkins has burned herself. At age five she got a 3 degree burn from a hair curler.

According to the doctor that helped Watkins in emergency, Watkins’ accident is not uncommon.

Watkins hopes her experience will alert others to never leave the pot or pan handle sticking out when cooking.

ESL students

It is beyond my believe how some teachers are unaware of ESL (English as a Second Language) Students.

Many students come to the United States not knowing the English language and face the challenge of learning a new language.
I personally lived through this. I came to the US at age nine, knowing very little English.
Not only did I face the difficulty and challenge of learning a new language, I was also challenged socially.
Who wanted to be friends with the girl with the strong accent?

Looking back at my elementary years I remember how hard it was to be myself. I was afraid to speak up because of my accent.
I wanted to play outside, but had no one to play with. I wanted to sit in the back of the bus, but I felt safer in the front. I hated lunch time because I never knew where to sit. It was the fact that I had an older sister that made me happy- she was always there for me.

Some ESL students don't have a supportive family the way I did.

My experience has changed the way I view everything- but specially ESL students.
I know not to speak loud and slow- because I hated that. We aren't deaf of dumb, just learning the English language.

Working at a High School I see how teachers are not taught to teach to ESL students. For example: speaking too fast, using abbreviations, etc.

I made a chart of suggestions and explanations to teachers about ESL students.
Hopefully this will help some teachers understand why ESL students are not doing as well as the other students in the class and what each teacher can do to help.

Chess Boxing??

I turned on the Discovery Channel today and apparently there is a new sport that was recently invented called chess boxing hahaha sorry but who thought of that combination??

Not sure if I totally understand the concept but the guys sit in a ring and play chess for an amount of time and then box for an amount of time and go back to playing chess.

How can you concentrate on the chess game after being thrown on the ground or punched in the face?
Man that's tough.

Not to mention the excitement of watching a chess game...almost as lame as watching fishing.
Don't get me wrong, Chess itself is fine; I've played it before and though its not too fun, its "mind stimulating"- but watching it? umm...no.

The people who invented this game are trying to introduce it to America and hope it becomes popular.
We'll see how that goes.

It made me think, what's next? Monopoly Boxing? Scrabble Boxing? LOL

Ok I'm done
...still can't believe there is chess boxing though

Pageants

I just watched Miss America yesterday and am so happy for Miss Indiana who won.
It made me think- what if I get there someday?

I was never a "pageant" girl or knew anything about pageants until last summer.
I was looking for scholarships and ran into the Miss Michigan Scholarship Pageant website, began reading more information and realized that in order to compete in Miss Michigan, a girl must first win a local pageant.

It just so happened that the Miss Oakland County Scholarship Pageant was open and I decided to compete.
Then I learned how each contestant had to have a platform and it wasn't just a "beauty pageant that gave scholarship" anymore; a scholarship pageant wants a girl who not only is smart and in shape, but also someone who has a passion for a certain issue and likes to do community service.

I didn't win the Miss Oakland County pageant, but I did win two scholarships/awards: The People's Choice Award and The Miss Scholar Award, a total of $320.

I was really proud of myself. Then I found out that Lawrence Tech opened a pageant.
Almost seems like it was meant to be haha- I hope so!

If I win Miss Lawrence Tech I would compete in Miss Michigan (who gets $11,000), and if I win Miss Michigan I would compete in Miss America (who gets $50,000).

I now understand that the Miss America Program is more than a beauty pageant. I truly admire all the efforts the organization does to help women.

My platform is High School Drop-out Prevention and I am so very passionate about my platform as well as education in general (that is a whole other story). I hope to be able to speak in high schools and motivate and inspire minority students who are more likely to drop out of high school.

Anyway...just had the pageant in mind after watching Miss America (Miss LTU will be Feb 7th at 5pm in LTU).

Congratulations Miss Indiana!

My Inauguration Experience

There were three main highlights of my trip: Governor Jennifer Granholm's and Governor John Cherry's open house for Michigan at the Library of Congress Madison, the Inauguration Ceremony, and the Michigan Dinner Dance Inaugural Ball.

Governor Jennifer Granholm's and Governor John Cherry's open house was an amazing experience. I took pictures with Jennifer Granholm, Debbie Stabenow, Carl Levin, Brenda Lawrence, Kraniak the Maniak, and more. 

It was definitely a great networking experience. My team got interviewed by two television stations and three student reporters- not sure if we were on tv or in an article, but hopefully we were. 

The Inauguration day didn't exactly go as planned. We had two options: watch the inauguration from John Conyer's office in the Rayburn Building (were they would serve food and drinks for free) or stand outside with the other million people in National Mall.

Our group was undecided on what option to choose. 

It seemed somewhat dumb to choose to watch it on TV since it is something we could of done in Michigan, but at the same time standing outside for six hours was not a pleasant thought.

I absolutely hate the cold.

On the other hand, sitting in Conyer's office was another opportunity to network and they provided foods and drinks.

At the end, Leslie and Sydney decided to go the Conyer's office while the rest of us decided to make it a full experience by being outside (I decided to just suck it up and deal with the cold).

Doors opened at 4am for the inauguration so we woke up at 2:30am left the hotel at 3am and walked an hour to the State Capital Building (so many roads were blocked it was impossible to find a taxi).

When we got there, we walked another half an hour to find the gate.

We kept asking the police officers for directions but they didn't know anything! It was very frustrating. We finally saw an entrance with people waiting so we stayed and waited there.

The cops announced that the doors were going to open at 7am not 4am- we were SO mad!

So we waited till 7am, 7am turned into 7:30am and then the news- we were standing in the parade line! So we waited there for no reason. Then we were told that the National Mall was full.

We had no option but to go with our plan B. Since most roads were closed it took us 2 hours to find John Conyer's office. When we got there we had to go through security (another 1/2 hour).

By the time we were inside and found an room with enough seats for us to seat next to each other, our legs hurt, we were frozen, and tired.

When Obama was actually giving his inaugural speech I was half awake. We left the office around noon and then headed to the hotel- and got there at 2pm (another 2 hour walk). 

I was only able to get 2 hours of sleep since we had to leave at 6:30pm for the ball.

So you might be asking why this is a highlight of my trip? Yea I froze to death, walked like I never walked in my life, had my legs hurting, and was half sleep for the actual inauguration, but overall I was there- and that is an amazing feeling. I was there to witness history happen and share the moment with many others. So there were some negatives to the trip, but it was SO worth it!

The Michigan Dinner Dance Ball was also amazing. It was held in the National Museum of American History so when I wasn't dancing or eating I was able to tour the museum and take pictures. I spent most of the night in the dance floor.

Highlights of the ball: Danced the Human Shuffle next to Jennifer Granholm and had a saxophone player come off stage, put his arm around me, and a photographer took a picture (which I will never see because I lost his business card :( )

Overall the trip was fun and a memorable experience.

I am truly honored to have gone and very thankful to Lawrence Tech for their efforts in making the trip happen. The trip meant a lot to me.

How I went to the Inauguration for free

I keep getting asked: How did you get to go to the inauguration for free??

So I will explain the how and then go into details about the amazing time I had in Washington DC.

I overhead Leslie Wilson, the students activities coordinator at LTU, about how Lawrence Tech was going to hold a student debate. I immediately asked her how I could participate and she put my name down as an interested student.

The student debate would need a total of 10 students (5 for Obama and 5 for McCain). The incentive to participate was that the team's candidate who won the actual election would be sent to Washington DC- and all paid trip by LTU.

Later I got an email saying that due to the large number in interested students, the faculty running the debate will have to hold auditions. Each student had to prepare a one-minute speech defending his or her candidate on any issue of his or her choice. 

At my audition, I spoke about education. After my speech, the faculty asked me further questions on my topic to further analyze my knowledge of the subject.

A couple of days later the team members were announced and I made the team! The Obama Team members were: Fritz Belfort, Tyson DeLandsheer, Adam Dumas, Jennifer Guthrie, and me. We also had an alternative (Sydney Pea) in case any of us got sick.

We had two weeks to prepare (and believe me that was NOT enough time!). Each group member had to prepare a four minute speech on three issues that were given by the faculty.

My issues were: Health Care, Education, and Poverty.

There were two wins that each team was aiming for: to win the student debate and to win the actual election.

Ballots were handed out before and after the debate to determine the winner of the student debate. The team that persuaded more people to change their votes to their team's candidate won.

The debate lasted around two hours. First with the prepared four minute speeches and then a Q&A session with the audience.

After so much preparation the ballots were counted and the Obama team won!!

Now we had to get our second win...

and as you all know by now, Obama won the election and that is why I was sent to the inauguration for free (Jan 17th-21st).