ENGL 101 CLASS PROFILE PAGE

ENGL 101 Writing Rhetorically: WEEKLY UPDATES

Need to be in touch with me?
LEE TORDA
310 Tillinghast Hall
Bridgewater State University
508.531.2436
[email protected]
www.leetorda.com

Fall 2020 Open Hours for students (office hours):
M 12:30-2:00
W 10:00-11:00, 3:00-4:00
Th 10:00-11:00
and by appointment.

NOTE: All classes, student meetings, and open hours (office hours) this Fall 2020 will be held virtually.

Links to Open Hour for Students Zoom sessions:
For Monday Open Hours, click here.
For Wednesday Open Hours @ 10:00, click here.
For Wednesday Open Hours @3:00, click here.
For Thursday Open Hours, click here.

Need to make an during a time that is not an office hour? appointment? Let me know you want to meet by adding yourself to my google.doc appointment calendar here: https://goo.gl/3CqLf and I will send you a zoom link for the time you sign up for.

Alexis Mondanaldo is an 18-year-old young man born on November 26,2001 in New Bedford, where he currently lives today. He grew up in a very close-knit, caring family, the oldest of three boys. He lived an average childhood life, playing outside with friends, spending time with family, and just overall enjoying life. His family had gone through some troublesome events which brought them closer as a family and taught them that family was the most important thing in life. As a child you don’t really know what’s going on financially with your family if that’s not something that your parents want you to know. But there was a time where his father was in the hospital and lost his job, and, at the time, his mother was not working either, so they were in a financial despair, living off of their savings with not much food or money to provide. But his parents always made sure that he was well off and didn’t let him know how bad they were struggling. As the caring family that they were they often helped out other struggling families in hope that they would receive the same type of recognition in return, but that was not the case. But the hardship and tribulations didn’t last forever, and when they were over, and they got through them as a family, it taught Alexis that there is nothing more important than family, because when you have no one else you’ll always have your family.

Allyson Spencer's mom was an alcoholic and got her first DUI with her five year old and one year old in the back of her car. Allyson's father did not want to leave his kids, but he did not want them to be taken away either. Allyson’s dad left her mom and met her now step mom. Allyson and her sister were taken away from their mom and brought to their dad's new place, where they were safe. Two weeks later, Allyson and her sister were supposed get to go stay with their mom for three days, as the court ordered, but her mom got another DUI and hit a cop car. After that Allyson and her sister never went back to stay with their mom. You might think these kinds of things would destroy a person, but these experiences made Allyson a stronger person. In middle school Allyson started to realize what happened during her childhood, it was like putting puzzle pieces together. It was tough for her to fully grasp because all of this happened at a young age. But she worked hard and was determined to succeed. When Allyson puts her mind to something, she does all that she can to make it happen. Dream it, believe it, achieve it. Even when Allyson felt her life falling was apart she never gave up. She picked up the pieces by loving herself. The obstacles she faced did not define her. There were times where she wanted to quit but did not. She completed highschool and everything she went through growing up made it worth it.

Grace Reardon is from Winthrop, Massachusetts, and she just enrolled at Bridgewater State University as a health science major. She has 2 older sisters in an irish family. She can speak gaylick and even has an irish passport, which gives her dual citizenship. She does not seem like a shy person, but she says her best friend is her dog. When me and her were talking to each other on zoom, we hit a bit of a wall in the middle. So I asked her who her role model is and she gave me a great story about her dad, who’s battling cancer. She already has 2 tattoos, and she’s getting a third. She’s deciding to get a fish tattoo as a tribute to her dad. She told me the stories of her trips to the doctors office as a kid. She said she used to be so scared of going to the doctors. As a way to calm her down, her dad would ask her “Do you want to go see the fish?”. She said that always made her more relaxed before she entered the doctor's office. When you are a kid, your parents will do anything to make you feel safe.

Kyle McRea went to and graduated from Weymouth Highschool. The first thing we talked about was my friend and Kyle’s sixth grade crush, Mary Cate, also from Hanover, who Kyle has known all his life. So right away I was able to tell Kyle is a pretty great guy. When he is not playing baseball he is either working out, or playing video games, which we have all done a lot of during the pandemic. Unfortunately he has not been as active with baseball as he would like. Kyle has dislocated his shoulder 7 times and got 3 surgeries to cut a bone and move it to his shoulder to prevent his shoulder from popping out again. But he keeps his head high through his journey. He looks up to Mike Trout, the American league baseball player for the LA Angels. Trout is humble and goes out of his way to help others. So thankfully for Mike Trout and Kyle's 6th grade crush for bringing him brownies when he was sick, Kyle stays strong and hopes to continue to play baseball for BSU in his sophomore year. “When we reach our lowest point, we are open to the greatest change.” That’s Kyle's favorite quote, which he follows in life and shows in his attitude, including in his attitude towards with his journey in Baseball. Mary Cate was new to my school freshman year and was one of my first friends in highschool. She is a great person and that is enough to show me that Kyle has nothing but success ahead of him in his future.

AJ Marangos grew up in Stoughton, Massachusetts, which is about a 45 minute drive from Boston. He attended Stoughton High School where he played baseball and basketball, which he found a love for both sports. As of today, he still plays basketball and it is his favorite hobby. Aj’s biggest role model in his life is his mom. His mom is a teacher and he says she should be paid so much more for all the hard work she does. His mom works all day and still has time and effort to take care of him, his two younger sisters, and their black lab Luna. Because of his mom, Aj has been inspired to want to be successful in his life. Aj decided to major in business management. Aj looks up to Jeff Bezos and he wants a life like his with a big house and luxurious lifestyle. Jeff Bezos took a lot of risks to become who he is, and AJ shows a lot of the same qualities. Not only did Aj play sports in High School, he had many adventures. One of his most memorable adventurous acts was going cliff jumping. He describes standing over the cliff saying “jumping wasn’t even the scariest part, it was looking down at how far away the water was.” Once he jumped he wasn’t scared anymore, which is how he approaches most things in life. He is an Aquarius, which is usually an outside of the box type of person, very non confirmative. This applies to Aj because he marches to the beat of his own drum.

Patrick Phipps graduated from Cape Cod Tech along with the class of 2014 six years ago. He attended a community college two years prior to coming to Bridgewater to save money, which, in my opinion, I wish I would have done. Patrick majors in English and has some interest in becoming a teacher or something along the lines of that, but as of right now wants to focus on chasing his dream of a rap career and finishing up work on his up and coming album “Handicapped rap king”. Patrick enjoys writing music and dreams of pursuing that which takes a lot of guts. He also has a background in welding, which he gained in highschool. He had planned to take over his father's business, but, unfortunately, just did not have the passion to pursue that work. He knows how to weld but isn't the best at it. Pat also loves to hang out with his “vibe machine” dog Spunky who loves squirrels. Surprisingly to me, as we were talking about how I wrestle, Patrick told me he does Brazillian Jiu Jitsu! After talking to Pat my first opinion of him is that he is very goal-driven, hardworking person with a BIG heart. He seems like he wants to put everyone before himself and help a lot of people in his life. He is a super awesome mentor, as well as a person, and I hope life takes Pat very far.

Kaia Souza was born April 22nd 2002 in Cape Cod for her Freshman year of High School she went to Upper Cape Technical School, but during her Freshman year unfortunately her mother passed away from a drug overdose. She was then put into foster care and she would move around a lot; it wasn’t until her Sophomore year she moved to Taunton Massachusetts and lived with a foster family there and attended the rest of her High School at Taunton High. With her Biological family she has 8 siblings, but with her foster family it’s just her and another foster kid and also the foster family daughter. Growing up in her foster home she had a couple of pets. She had two dogs but they passed away and she has a pet turtle named chipotle for some weird reason. During her time at Taunton High School she would play lacrosse for her varsity team. Then when it came time to apply for college she chose to go to Bridgewater State University. When I asked why she said she’s familiar with the college and knows a few people that go to the college and her foster family knows the school well also she said Bridgewater is known to have a good Criminal Justice course. While at Bridgewater she plans on Majoring in Criminal Justice with a minor in Psychology and plans on becoming a Forensic Psychology. She also hopes while in college she can work more on her time management skills and try not to procrastinate that much in college and to make a few new friends in Pope hall, the dorm she is staying in and to see how these 4 years of college will change her for good or bad.

Tk Okla is from Accra Ghana and her family is from two different families in Ghana. Tk’s hobbies include dancing and Afrobeat dancing. Her major is business management major since it covers what she actually wanted which was based on social entrepreneurship. She is a proud owner of her own hair business at very a young age. She was inspired to open a business as a black women. She loves the fact that she's been able to make money by working for herself instead of working for others, like at a plain old regular job. She has been a go-getter since the age of ten by buying cupcakes for four dollars at a store then reselling them in her own neighborhood for two dollars a piece. You're probably wondering how she got into her work. When she was a little girl, she would go to different people to do her hair, and she simply got bored and tired of waiting as the people pulled and tugged at her hair. When her business becomes very successful, her goal is to open a beauty bar in her family's home country of Ghana and give high schoolers job opportunities so they can pay for higher education or any type of schooling. Tk said that her business was affected by COVID-19 tremendously because she had to stop doing hair since she couldn’t be in contact with others, but that didn’t stop her because she started selling bonnets and face masks.

Wicahpi Yankton is a hardworking, organized and determined young lady. Wicahpi was born in South Dakota, and her mother is from Denver. Her father is from Manderson. She has a younger brother, and she is overly happy that she gets to be the first child to attend college/ university. As a Denver native, she is obsessed with basketball, and her favorite basketball team is the Denver Nuggets. She’s currently majoring in political science and hopes to become a travel diplomat. During my conversation with Wicahpi, I asked her why she chose to attend Bridgewater State University knowing that she lived so far. She explained to me that Bridgewater was the only school that offered her a full ride, so she took it. Wicahpi is a person I would recommend first year college students to look up to. Although she lives in a rural area and the internet is not so strong; she still makes it her duty to attend online classes, whether it be she’s in a car or in her room. In her high school years, she caught pneumonia, which is inflammation in the lungs. She refused to go to the emergency room many times because she was taking 3 advanced placement classes (AP) and wanted to remain focused. Pushing herself to the extreme just motivates me to do the same myself. Wicahpi has a strong connection with politics. Since starting at a young age, Wicahpi has been working for different campaigns, including Former President Obama’s campaign in 2008.

Colm McDonough is an 18 year old from Hanover, Massachusetts. In High School, Colm played a wide variety of sports including Soccer, Cross Country and Track. He played soccer until his sophomore year when he switched to cross country. Colm said that the team chemistry and friendships on the soccer team were not what it should be so he made the decision to make the change. Colm mentioned that the coach for the cross country was way more of a coach than an authority figure so it was easy to train and get better from his coaching. I asked him his most memorable sport memory and he said the year he switched to cross country, they won the league title for cross country. He also said, “after every meet, the entire team would go to Wendy’s” and it shows how much better the switch was for his life. I also asked Colm about some of his family memories from when he was younger. He explained how, when he was younger, him and his brothers would play a huge game involving their surroundings and their kid imaginations. You have to admit that a child’s imagination is a wandering enigma that is always changing from one thing to another. They would use books as “buildings” and pretend to be huge monsters and fight to claim the building. I feel like that's mostly why Colm made the switch from soccer to cross country in High School. He was looking for more of a brotherly relationship with his team to feel more like a family instead of just a group of boys who have to play together but not work together. Colm is an all-around great person and very smart, he has an insanely bright future at Bridgewater State University.

Emily Bachman is an 18 year old BSU student, majoring in Psychology. Emily is ready to start the year and has a bright future ahead. My perspective on Emily is that she is a very calm, intelligent, focused, and quiet female. I've never met her in person but from what I’ve seen in the zoom calls that's what it appears to be. Emily is from Suffield, CT and hopes to become a therapist in Massachusetts. Emily is a very shy girl, but once you get to know her she's outgoing and brings out the best of her. There are a few hobbies that Emily enjoys doing in her spare time, such as dancing and singing. When she is wanting to enjoy her free time Emily will bust out moves and sing along to her favorite songs. The ending of senior year was rough for most of us students because of the COVID-19. During the last few months of senior year students had to spend their Prom, senior pranks, and even graduation either at home or online. Quarantine helped shape Emily to become a better person. Before, Emily had a lot of insecurities, feeling the need to get approval from people's thoughts of her. She discovered self-love and focused on herself, caring less about what people think of her now. Interviewing Emily, I learned that we have a lot in common and hopefully we can connect more.

Omayra Saez is an outgoing, friendly, chill, and understanding person who is often making friends and spreading positivity. The simple facts are that she loves Disney movies and can watch them on repeat. She went to New Bedford high, cheered in school, loves musicals, and her favorite books are Dr. Seus and The Great Gatsby. Ever since we met, Omayra has been really understanding about boundaries and really kind on how I can be a bit awkward sometimes, she easily made me feel comfortable with her. A story that impacted her was from her life with her grandma who died at the age of 64. Growing up she wasn’t close to her parents and siblings as much, and she was with her grandma, and, to her, her grandma was like her third parent, her guardian, her support system, her best friend. She would always feel safe and comfortable with her grandma, and, since her grandma took care of four kids, she was always preparing some fine dishes that Omayra loved. Little by little, Omayra started noticing changes in her grandmother; she would have less energy and say she would be depressed/upset. Then as she grew up, she started understanding what was going on which was that her grandma had dementia. Omayra felt like she could be herself and be free when she spent time with her so it was a struggle when she saw her grandma getting sick and couldn't do anything about it. Although her life got very hard when her grandma died, her grandma taught her strength, determination and love.

Destiny Leite-Pereira is a freshman here at Bridgewater State University. She is from Florida but is currently staying in a dorm on campus. She found it necessary to stay on campus because she lives so far away. She is an English major and wants to become a paralegal when she is older, which is a person trained in subsidiary legal matters but not fully qualified as a lawyer. The reason why she chose this occupation was that she wanted to do something that was achievable with her skill set and that would lead her to a comfortable life. I asked her if there was an event that made her who she is today, and she responded with, she doesn’t really know who she is quite yet, but trying to find out who you are is what everyone does in college.We all don't know who we are just yet. She said that one goal in life is to find peace in her mind and life. She also told me that one person that she admires in her life is her aunt and that is because her aunt had a difficult childhood and it inspires her to get through tough times like her aunt. Growing up, Destiny’s favorite thing to do was watch television. She loved watching anything but her favorite show to watch was Wizards of Waverly place. Overall, I really enjoyed getting to know Destiny in this assignment.