Part of the reason behind the downfall of the U.S. economy is the irresponsible spending and poor decisions made by its citizens. The mortgage crisis was fueled by irresponsible home buyers purchasing homes outside of their budget. When time to renew their ARM (Adjustable-Rate Mortgage), they are suddenly hit with reality: interest rates are now higher than what they originally paid. Soon foreclosures start popping up, and due to the state of the economy, it is difficult for people to sell their properties. These properties are then seized by banks, who also are pressed for liquid assets. The falls of major lenders like Bear Stearns are a result of the lack of liquid assets. Bear Stearns' assets were tied up in real estate properties that were not selling. The government should educate the public to help prevent many of the economic problems today. Students should know the basics to personal finances before they graduate high school.

Unfortunately, many high school students don't know the basics of personal finance. Although one can always argue that smart students that go to college will learn how to manage their money, this information may be presented to them years down the road. Almost everyone makes financial decisions in their day-to-day lives, and those decisions become more important as students graduate high school. At the age of 18, many students go to college away from home, where they must make financial decisions on their own. Financing college may be a challenge for many students. These people need proper training to make financially sound decisions. I believe high schools should be responsible to prepare students for the real world that will hit them as soon as they graduate. The government provides free public education to people so they make sound decisions and help the community grow in a positive light.

Linworth's personal finance class has recently received a large amount of attention from Ohioans. Much of this attention is as a result of the state's attempt to improve the financial savvy of Ohio high school students. A few weeks ago, the treasurer of the state of Ohio came in to Rick's personal finance class at Linworth to speak to high school students about the subject. ONN also ran a story on the news, interviewing Linworth students and staff about the personal finance class. Linworth's personal finance class is one of few in the state, and something that Ohio educators are hoping to use as a model to set a statewide standard of financial savvy.

The Linworth philosophy of education is that students learn best when they combine theoretical concepts with real world experience. The experience and application part of the process teaches the kids the importance of learning in the classroom, and its relevance in their own lives. It is easier for people to learn when they can relate the material presented in class to concrete examples and situations rather than dealing with abstract ideas. The personal finance class is a great example of information taught to students that is relevant, practical and useful in making day to day decisions. Money is all around us, and no matter how wealthy people are, everyone should know how to manage, save and spend it responsibly.

I support the State's notion to ensure every student knows basic personal finance concepts. I do believe there will be some students that are already financially savvy, so if this class becomes a graduation requirement, students should be able to test out of it. The goal is to make sure students leave high school knowing this information, not to waste a period of the school day learning things you already know. With this extra bit of practical information, we will be taking another step towards fixing the country's problems.

Posted in 0 comments Posted by Umang Patel at 11:01 PM  

My last A.P. exam is finally over. For three of my classes, the whole year has been centered on learning, getting good grades and preparing for these exams. The morning of exam day I woke up and the first thing I thought of was, “gee, I probably should’ve listened to Mr. Miller.” I was not completely stressed out, but I would be lying if I said I had a good eight hours of sleep. I was at Cedar Point for the entire day Tuesday because it was Physics Day. I did not realize the Cedar Point trip was the day before the AP English Language exam when I initially signed up and paid for tickets. I guess it was poor planning on my part because I had all my AP exams marked on my calendar, yet I did not check the calendar to see if the physics trip was conflicting with anything.

I ended up making the best of the situation. Of course I was not totally exhausted Wednesday morning, but I would like to have slept a little more. I had to make the best of the situation, so I took a teaspoon of ginseng tea in its most potent form, which gave me plenty of energy for the next few hours. I also took 120mg of ginkgo to enhance my mental alertness.
I arrived at the testing facility (the WEC) ten minutes before the suggested arrival time. There was a constant pool of students spilling in, but it was apparent that the Thomas students largely outnumbered the Kilbourne students. It was great to still see several familiar faces to break the pre-exam tension. Immediately after entering the exam room, I was glad I dressed in layers, since the temperature was rather cool inside.

Once inside and situated, it was time to wait until the proctors were ready to administer the exam. There were the usual jokes about the flaws in the College Board system, and how there are so many ways for people to cheat that they have not addressed. The seat I was instructed to sit at was directly next to the clock, which was a pleasant surprise to me. However, I later learned that the clock was taped to the window with masking tape, and would periodically fall off. There were several other flaws in the administration of the exam.

The proctors administering the AP exams in Worthington need to be trained to properly administer standardized tests. The first issue with the exam was the testing environment itself. There were far too many students in the testing room, so the student’s desks were placed too close together, resulting in discomfort during the exam. Also, there were no aisle ways to travel horizontally across the room, so students were constantly distracted when they needed to make room for people leaving the room. The proctors were very rude and terse while giving instructions, snapping stern commands to the students, which added pressure to the testing environment. During the test itself, the proctors would stand over individual students’ shoulders for prolonged periods of time, which distracted many students. There was also a discrepancy between the three clocks in the room. They all showed different times, so it was difficult to figure out exactly how much time was remaining.

Although there were many flaws in the administration of the exam, the experience was not as terrible as it may sound. The multiple-choice section of the exam was not as difficult as I had expected it to be. The first section was the hardest, and each subsequent section became easier. I paced myself relatively well, because I finished my last question about thirty seconds before time was up. During the practice tests in class, I usually finished about five minutes behind schedule. The essay prompts were also easy for me to understand and relate to. One of the prompts was about corporate partnerships and advertising in the school setting. I have been working with administrators over the past couple weeks to try and convince them to open up to more sponsorship opportunities, so I had plenty of ideas on what to write about. I spent most of my time analyzing the passage for the prompt that required me to identify rhetorical strategies used in the passage. The provided passage used a wide variety of techniques to further its message. I believe I effectively analyzed the significance of the strategies used, but I may not have identified every strategy with its technical term. The third prompt was a synthesis essay on whether the penny should be removed from the U.S. currency or not. I decided it would be easier to argue that it should be removed. The prompt was a little unclear, so I did not like the question. I spent the least time on that question, because I believe I had the potential for a higher score for the other two essays than for the penny essay. I ended up using all the time given for the essays. I finished on time, but I tried to utilize every minute given to me.

Our group finished the test almost an hour behind schedule. After the administration was over, everything wrapped up pretty quickly. Aside from the poor administration of the exam, everything else went rather smoothly. The exam itself was not as difficult as I expected, but that doesn’t imply that it was easy.

Posted in 0 comments Posted by Umang Patel at 9:54 PM  

I am a strong proponent of technology and its role in educational institutions. The Linworth AP has taken a huge leap this year by implementing WiFi throughout the school available to all its students and staff. As with almost any privilege given, there is always the risk of abuse. With the popularity of social networking website like Facebook and Myspace and access to email and instant messaging, there is always a risk of this abuse. Students around Linworth regularly use these services to stay connected with the world around them, often times keeping up their friends or using these tools to maintain a healthy social life. I believe these tools are essential in this new world of web 2.0 applications, and when used responsibly, can help people achieve great feats by instantly connecting people all over.

I believe Linworth should keep the network open and unrestricted to its students. The Linworth philosophy is to create a tight-knit community based on trust. This encourages responsible behavior from students. There are no filters currently installed to regulate student activity online and through the network and students seem to be using their resources responsibly. There has been tremendous criticism over the internet filters implemented at both the home schools in Worthington. They block relevant educational research material and filter important information. I personally remember researching information on body decomposition for BESS (Biology) last year. BESS, the firewall (yes it has the same name), would not display the website because it was related to death.

Of course along with any freedom or privilege, there is inherently the risk of abuse. The Linworth community has its own system of checks against people abusing their privileges. Instead of policing students, the community has instigated an honors system, so if one student violates the rules, another student will see that as unfair and take action.

I believe students should only check their email, use facebook or myspace, or access YouTube if they are doing something constructive and useful. I do not necessarily believe that all bandwidth used by students must be for academic purposes, since Linworth's philosophy is based on experiential learning. There are many things that students can learn outside of the school environment, and the internet is a great resource. I cannot count the number of times I have looked up tutorials or demonstrations on YouTube, or collaborated with students on Facebook to seek help on homework or hold meetings. Technology is an important part of the daily lives of students and staff alike. As long as this technology is used responsibly, there should be no reason to revoke the privilege.

Students should be free to use the tools available on the school machines, but they should not keep other students from finishing their work. I believe you can learn from every life experience, especially from browsing the internet and reading things. School bandwidth, when used responsibly, is the best investment in the education of its students. Since Linworth didn't have the budget to buy new machines for the school, by opening up WIFI the students can now bring in their own machines and utilize the resources on the internet. These resources are extremely valuable, since the internet is an endless source of information.

Posted in 0 comments Posted by Umang Patel at 10:00 PM  

Malcolm Gladwell manages to effectively organize his ideas about the factors that cause an idea, trend or social behavior to tip and spread. After reading The Tipping Point, I have gained a clearer understanding of the big picture on what causes epidemics to start. Although many of the ideas may seem obvious, I have never connected them together into a coherent set of guidelines, as Gladwell does in his book. Gladwell's book was both informative and interesting because he provided numerous examples and case studies to support his ideas. This book was particularly helpful to me because I am planning on starting some viral marketing campaigns in the near future.

Throughout most of the book, Malcolm presents and supports his three rules of epidemic. The first rule is the Law of the Few. He states that it's a small percentage of the population that fuel the epidemic the most. This rule is also known as the 20/80 rule, where 20 percent of the people cause 80 percent of the problems (or solutions).

The second rule is the Stickiness Factor, which means exactly what it sounds like. For a message to turn into an epidemic, it must be sticky, or easy to remember. Gladwell dispels a common misconception by explaining that the stickiness of a message is determined by quality of the presentation of the message, not by the quality of the message itself.

Gladwell's third rule is the Power of Context. The surroundings, environment and situation contribute largely to the outcome of an epidemic. Who knew that cleaning subway cars could result in a lower crime rate? I have noticed from my own experiences that the environment I'm in has significant influence over my actions. When I'm in my room studying alone, I can get far more done than when I'm not. This summer I plan on moving my business operations into a commercial office space, even though the extra space is unnecessary and it would cost a large sum of money. The work environment and vibe created in a commercial office setting should force me to work seriously and discipline myself to get things done. During my interim this year, I learned the importance of culture and the surroundings within a corporate setting. The company I shadowed at, Knetwit Inc., spends tens of thousands of dollars a year to maintain a relaxed, fun environment for their mere 20 employees. That says something about the importance of the work environment. Again, the idea is that the context of the situation greatly affects its outcome.

Gladwell goes on to elaborate on a specific aspect of the context. He introduces the Magic Number, 150, which is the largest number of people that can work effectively in one group. He has come to this conclusion by analyzing the human social channel capacity. A typical human can only maintain 150 close relationships. Everything beyond that number is usually just an acquaintance, or a person with whom you have "loose ties."

In sum, The Tipping Point was worth reading, as it offers insight and reasoning on why some things can achieve widespread appeal while others can't. For anyone who is planning on spreading an idea, trend or social behavior and wishes to achieve viral growth, The Tipping Point is a must read.

Posted in 0 comments Posted by Umang Patel at 8:05 PM  

Interim is an incredible experience where students get one week off from school to conduct an independent study. They can learn anything they would like to learn that cannot be learned in the traditional classroom setting. It encourages students to become independent and responsible, since they are in charge of finding their mentor and usually doing everything on their own.

Previous Years

I have had an incredible experience with interim in the past years. Interim and walkabout (a semester long version of interim) were the main attractions that lured me into Linworth in the first place. Freshman year I went to King Business Interiors (KBI) and EventCo Productions for my interim. I spent the week learning about two of the things I'm passionate about: Business and music.

Every year I've been able to take what I have learned from interim, and immediately apply it to a project that I start after interim. Freshman year I shadowed KBI, where they focused on selling office furniture to small to medium sized businesses. One week after interim, I implemented a few changes within my own business. I started targeting SMB (Small and Medium-sized businesses) with my marketing efforts. I made the largest single sale in my life that week: almost $25,000 in digital cameras and memory cards to a medium-sized corporation. This was a direct result of the knowledge I gained during my interim.

During my interim sophomore year I spent one week at EventCo Productions. I learned about artist bookings and event management and production. Soon after, I founded Masala Entertainment, an artist management and entertainment company. Although the company launched last spring, I am still in the process of developing a business plan and marketing strategy that will be launched within the first two weeks of summer vacation, enabling Masala Entertainment to book events nationally. The business currently has regional reach, which will soon become national. Again, much of what I needed to know specifically about the entertainment industry came from what I learned at EventCo.

This Year

I am going to be at a dot com startup venture named Knetwit, which is located in Chattanooga, TN. Knetwit.com is a social networking and knowledge collaboration website that enables students and professors to share ideas, issues and content centered around their educational journey. Anyone with a .edu email address can sign up and use knetwit.com for free. Also, anytime someone downloads the information you post, you get paid! Within the last 9 months, Knetwit has gone from a valuation of nothing to $88 million. I hope to learn more about how startups work, how they get funding, and how they can move at such a fast pace to develop the company. I am also interested in learning more about management and communication techniques.

This year I'm currently working on a project to rebuild Worthington Kilbourne's website. It looks very outdated and is not very functional. The new website needs to be a complete solution that is fully integrated with existing social networks and other websites in order to place powerful tools, for both students and staff, right at their fingertips. Currently the three person team has been working on ideas for the website, but nobody on the team knows what they should be doing, and the whole process is very unorganized. There is no official leadership, nor is there a road map to guide the other two students working on this project. I plan on taking what I've learned from Knetwit to figure out what kinds of features we can implement into this new site, as well as where to look to research the trends of new web 2.0 websites. Also, I would like to take leadership and create a road map for this project. I would like to look at the website from a businessman's perspective. It should be a solution or product that I am trying to sell to someone. There needs to be a reason people want to use it. It needs to be convenient, fully integrated, and fun to use. It's just like any product: if nobody uses it, you're wasting your time producing it.

Again, interim is one of the best experiences I've had at Linworth thus far, and I believe every student should make the most of it. It isn't just a week off from school. It is an excuse to give to people that would normally not allow you to come and work with them for a week. It is also a time where you learn more than just information. You learn how to live life, communicate with people and solve spontaneous problems that seem to sprout out of nowhere. You are exposed to the real world, and if you try a little, you will quickly learn that people will go out of their way to help you. All you have to do is ask, and show them they have some sort of value in helping you.

I believe every student should be required to do their own interim, not work with other students or classmates. Every student has his own passion, and no two students are the same. Also, a large amount of what students learn during this process occurs outside of the actual week off designated for interim. Calling to find a place, presenting yourself as a passionate student, and convincing your mentor to teach you and allow you to shadow them is a big part of the experience, and I believe every student should go through it on their own. All people have times in their lives where they will need to ask for help or favors. It is important for people to learn how to effectively communicate and build relationships that reciprocate favors to build trust and provide mutual benefit. Interim is a great start to this learning process.

Posted in 3 comments Posted by Umang Patel at 8:57 AM  

I'm not sure how this post is supposed to be done as an assignment, so I have just pasted my comments I have made to other blogs so it's easy for Jen to grade them. I really prefer commenting directly on the other people's blogs because then the author gets the little notification on their account that tells them that what they write has relevance to other people.
Also they don't have to browse my blog just to know what I think of what they think.

Person: Zach
Post: "[ the oc part i ]"
Comment: You know what really troubles me? As an Indian, my family is really frugal. We buy things in bulk when they are cheap. Unfortunately, since so many teens are irresponsible, we are no longer able to buy over the counter medication in bulk when it goes on sale. I can only buy two bottles of Nyquil at once, how sad is that? And I'm not even planning on abusing it, just trying to save some money. Man, what is this world coming to?

Person: Melissa
Post: Consumerism and qips about quantum computers
Comment: I love how the U.S. economy works. You're right, we are pack rats, but we seems to be fueling our economy by our own stupidity. Take fast food for example: People buy it because it's cheap, convenient and seems to taste good. They waste their money on eating out too much, then get fat and spend their money on diets. The diet companies spend money on marketing and provide jobs for researchers and people to take care of operations. When diets fail, the doctors and hospitals get business, which in turn fuel the health care sector of our economy. It even gets us to build more schools and support education. The chain goes on and on, but my point is all this can happen just because of the typical American's obsession with "stuff."

Person: Melissa
Post: So I guess I am warming up to Malcolm...
Comment: I guess Gladwell is finally writing about stuff we can relate to right? I mean it's nice to know that erasing graffiti can stop crime, or that things need to be "sticky" in order to stick (duh?), but this chapter finally seems to explain why things work the way they do and what relevance these ideas have to our own lives.

Person: Laura
Post: OC #1 for this week
Comment: Yikes, I feel sorry for that kid that went to Larry at this point in time. Wayne seems a little worried about interim as people have yet to decide what they want to do, and when I spoke to Josh he seemed to be having a fit over it as well. I don't blame them. Laura I think the video documentary is a great idea. What kind of programs are you looking at using? From what I've heard the complicated programs like Adobe Premiere or Final Cut Pro take quite some time to learn, but I know several people that make real professional looking movies through programs like Windows Movie Maker and Apple iMovie. If your goal is to create a documentary, it may be more efficient to use a user friendly program, while if your goal is to learn how to professionally edit videos then it would be beneficial to learn how to use the industry standard programs. I'll keep my eyes open for people that know video editing real well.

Person: Kyle
Post: "OC#1: Reservation Road, the movie"
Comment: Wow man, I had no idea you were in a movie. You must be really well connected to get into a movie like that, and getting to meet and work with such high profile people. This sounds like an amazing experience. I checked out the trailer and the movie looks pretty interesting, I'll be sure to watch it.

Person: Katie
Post: The Rule of 150
Comment: I really like this idea of yours of the social networks. It's a great way to look at how we are all connected. I was looking at Linworth as one of these networks that work effectively because we have about 150 people (which follows the rule of 150), but I never looked at it as small groups of people that know each other well, bridged by connectors who open us to hundreds and hundreds of acquaintances with whom we can carry "loose-ties." Ok Ok, my point is I like the way you think.

Person: Michelle
Post: "O+C:Materislism"
Comment: Non-possessiveness is a religion to me. Literally. My religion is based on three fundamental principles: non-violence, non-possessiveness and non-absolutism. My goal is to practice these principles in my own life. This may seem strange coming from me considering I can't imagine living a day without my Macbook Pro and that I become extremely agitated when I run out of hair gel. I have a long way to go, because clearly I haven't discovered what life is really about. We come into this world with nothing and we leave this world with nothing. There's no use hoarding materialistic junk with us because nobody can take that stuff with them once they die. I think your idea is one that everyone should incorporate into their lives, because by transcending the materialistic things in life, people can experience the true value of life.

Person: Dylan
Post: "Book vs. Movie"
Comment: Agreed. The book is better than the movie because the beauty of reading books is having the ability to create your own mental image of the story. It's like having a guided dream, where you illustrate the scene with your own interpretation of what the book is like, yet the everyone follows the same storyline as you. Movies hinder people's creativity because they are fed what to think and see.

Posted in 1 comments Posted by Umang Patel at 10:48 PM  

Recently I have been helping out with fund raising efforts at our Jain temple. I am part of the Jain community, a small group of about 100 people in central Ohio that practice Jainism. Due to the lack of funds and size of our community, our temple is really a unit within an office complex which has been converted into a place of worship. We are getting closer to our goal of raising enough money to buy some land and build an independent temple. This spring the temple's executive committee has decided to put together a dance drama fund raiser to raise money for a new temple.

The show is titled Mahavir, which is a drama choreographed by a wonderful dance instructor in the Columbus area and performed by dozens of kids from our own community. Everyone has been hard at work trying to make this event happen. I have contributed my design and promotion skills by designing tickets and helping promote the event, while others have contributed to planning the logistics of the event, and still others have provided monetary support. I believe the cause for the event is great but in the back of my mind, as much as I hate to say it, I believe this event is not going to be successful. I don't mean to be pessimistic, but the idea is flawed, and unfortunately adults never want to listen to kids' ideas. The committee has put too much time and money into the event to turn back now.

There are some direct issues that need to be addressed before a community can take on an event like this. The idea seems great, but it has not been thought out completely. The first issue with the fund raiser is that they want to charge tickets at $25, $50, $75 and $100 levels. The pricing seems a little steep, and when they have the ability to charge as little as just a few dollars for the show, there is no reason to inflate the prices so ridiculously high. The fact of the matter is that people will come to the event for entertainment as well, not only to support the community. The reason I say that is because there are 100 families in the Jain community, but they are trying to sell over 700 tickets for the show. This means people from other communities are going to have to come to this event in order to meet the goals set, and these people have their own fund raising goals. Raising money for another community's temple may not be one of their main goals. Especially if they are not Jain or do not believe in Jainism. There is no celebrity talent or anything, and don't get me wrong, these kids are very talented, but when you are charging big money for events, people expect big names.

Another issue is that the event does not have mass appeal. The drama will be performed through classical Indian dance, which is beautiful but does not have widespread appeal. The event also has high overhead, since the Indian dance choreographer is being paid for every practice, and on top of that, they get free advertising to thousands of Indians within the Columbus area. I would say that is a poorly negotiated deal, because anyone getting that much advertising for a professional dance academy can more than make up their losses due to their hourly choreography fees by the new business that this event will bring them. They should be doing their part to help out because after all, this is a fund raiser.

Aside from the apparent issues with the event, when you dig deeper you find many more issues with all this fund raising. I am always told to help the community, because that is what a good person does. I have always heard people at the temple say "give and you'll always get something in return." I started thinking of what this really meant. Obviously the temple is doing a lot of fund raising to build a new place, so they are telling the whole community to give to the cause, and they will get back the experience of spiritual enlightenment and other good stuff.

I started look at the Jain temple as a non-profit organization. If they are always telling me to give and help others, then the same should apply to our community as a whole. I am having trouble finding any specific example of a time when the people of our temple have gone outside of our own community and helped others. The temple should give, and people will surely give back. I look at these Christian churches, the Muslims and Jews and I can't help but appreciate all that they do for the community. They look beyond a person's religious affiliation and into that person's heart and soul. I see Muslims helping Hindus and Christians helping Jews all the time. They have open soup kitchens, help the homeless, teach people how to read. And our temple seems to be out of the loop, caught up in our selfish goals of building a new temple. Do we really need it?

I am proud to worship at an office building turned temple because it is better than nothing, and we have a small community that the building has been able to accommodate without any issues. I think our temple needs to look beyond our own goals and give to the community first. What goes around comes around, but if you don't send anything around, you'll be sure to get nothing in return. Successful communities rely on each other. They are proud to help others, and not shy to ask for help in return. I believe someone needs to open our community's eyes to realize that there are things more important than money, even if it is for building a temple, and that there are people that we could be helping. Unfortunately, there has yet to be anyone bold enough to challenge the community and its ways, but someone needs to do it. I hope to be that someone.

Posted in 1 comments Posted by Umang Patel at 10:10 PM