Xavier University of Louisiana: XULA Digital Commons

This module deals with the structure of aldehydes and ketones

Lawrence, Candace M.

Organic Chemistry II Drill (CHEM2220D) Module 6. Part A. Sample Problems

McKissic, Jenna

Masthead Logo Pathways
Volume 2014
Issue 1 2013-2014 Article 13
2019
Teenage Pregnancy
Jenna McKissic
Xavier University of Louisiana, pathways@xula.edu
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.xula.edu/pathways_journal
This Essay is brought to you for free and open access by XULA Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Pathways by an authorized
editor of XULA Digital Commons. For more information, please contact ksiddell@xula.edu.
Recommended Citation
McKissic, Jenna (2019) "Teenage Pregnancy," Pathways: Vol. 2014 : Iss. 1 , Article 13.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.xula.edu/pathways_journal/vol2014/iss1/13
Jenna McKissic  
Teenage Pregnancy 
In my mother’s side of the family, every daughter, from grandma to my older sister, has 
had child while attending high school. As a young child, I thought maybe I should have a child 
too in high school because I saw the rest of my family having children. I also saw in the females 
in my family the trials and tribulations that came with having children when they were still 
children. But my perspective changed drastically when I saw my older sister, Carissa, struggle to 
graduate after having my niece Cailyn at the age of 16. I also saw Carissa, and Cailyn’s father, 
Chris, go through rough financial patches to raise their child. Then one of my closest high school 
friends got pregnant.  
When I was younger, I never thought much about my view on teenage pregnancy. I just 
thought it was a normal thing for girls to do. I saw young girls in my neighborhood between the 
ages of fifteen and eighteen get pregnant, and with no support from the child’s father or family. 
But in my family, any child that was brought into the world always received unconditional 
financial, mental, and physical support. My first reaction to babies was excitement about having 
a new family member. Everyone looked so happy with a newborn baby in the house. These little 
inferences shaped my way of thinking about teenage parenting.  
My mother often told my brother, sister, and me stories about giving birth to and raising 
our half-brother, Albert. She was eighteen when she got pregnant and missed a lot of activities in 
her last year of high school. Even though my mother graduated and continued on to higher 
learning, pursuing a cosmetology license, that was not her ultimate career goal. My mother had 
wanted to join the police academy right after high school. But she couldn’t, not with a fresh 
newborn son, and no support from the father.  
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When Carissa got pregnant, my mother was very disappointed and hurt. She felt like the 
stories that she told us hadn’t been enough for my sister. The only thing different between my 
mother’s experience and Carissa’s was that Carissa had support from the father, Chris. They both 
worked minimum wage jobs, Carissa a sales associate at a hotel candy store, and Chris a 
McDonald’s cashier. This was not enough to support their daughter, though, and they both knew 
it. Before having Cailyn, Carissa had wanted to go to a liberal arts college in New York City and 
become a fashion consultant and designer. Today she is going to graduate school and is still a 
hard-working mother for Cailyn. 
Another perspective that hit home for me and changed my view on having children at a 
young age was seeing one of my closest friends get pregnant while we were in high school. It 
was the middle of our sophomore year, and my friend, Ariel, and I had just finished our third 
season of field hockey. Ariel felt some tough abdomen pain, and on the same day, she visited her 
doctor to see what was going on. Ariel was three months pregnant. She immediately wanted to 
get an abortion, but she was too young. After giving birth to her daughter the next year, Ariel 
thought about adoption. She went through various adoptees, but then suddenly realized she had 
grown attached to her daughter, Dreu. Ariel had the ambition, grades, and ACT score to get into 
a lot of colleges. Today, Ariel doesn’t have a strong relationship with Dreu’s father and is not 
attending college.   
All these real life stories that I’ve seen have changed my perspective into waiting until I 
have a career, steady paycheck, and a man who wants to be in their child’s life. I also have a 
nine-year-old niece who looks up to me, so I have to be an active role model for her. Even 
though you get attention from family and friends, having a baby young is not worth changing 
your dreams. Preventing a pregnancy means maintaining choice.  
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https://digitalcommons.xula.edu/pathways_journal/vol2014/iss1/13
   
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English

Teenage Pregnancy

Montgomery, Camille

Masthead Logo Pathways
Volume 2014
Issue 1 2013-2014 Article 14
2019
Value of Privacy
Camille Montgomery
Xavier University of Louisiana, pathways@xula.edu
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.xula.edu/pathways_journal
This Essay is brought to you for free and open access by XULA Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Pathways by an authorized
editor of XULA Digital Commons. For more information, please contact ksiddell@xula.edu.
Recommended Citation
Montgomery, Camille (2019) "Value of Privacy," Pathways: Vol. 2014 : Iss. 1 , Article 14.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.xula.edu/pathways_journal/vol2014/iss1/14
Camille Montgomery 
Value of Privacy 
 One would think that a high school would keep their students’ personal information 
confidential. I had an experience that proved otherwise. For nearly four years, my parents and I 
were nagged and harassed by a company that was performing a longitudinal study on high school 
students’ success and the tools they used to be successful. Although this study seemed very 
interesting and the data they gained from the study could be very beneficial and reveal 
interesting results or trends, their methods for gaining information were not ideal and invaded the 
privacy of many families.   
 My freshman year, I, along with several other of my classmates, were asked to take a test 
by some of our teachers. We were informed that the test would be used to help a company’s 
study on high school students’ success. However, we were not told that they would be trying to 
contact us over the years to update information in their database on how we were continuing to 
succeed. If I had known this information from the beginning, I would have never agreed to take 
the test. First, they started sending emails to me, then to my parents, asking us to fill out surveys. 
Initially, my parents responded to one of the survey requests. Next, they began calling us, phone 
call after phone call, to our house phone, then to each of our cell phones. Many times, we would 
not answer because we were not interested in completing any more surveys.  
 The calls came so frequently that one day my mom decided she would answer and 
respond to any questions they had. She figured that if she did this, the calls would stop. She was 
wrong. They questioned her for over an hour on very personal information. Even after she 
participated in yet another questionnaire, the calls and emails continued, and we kept avoiding 
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them. My dad eventually took one of the calls and clearly communicated to the representative 
that we no longer wanted to participate in their study.  
 The harassment was elevated one day when we received a knock on our door. The 
company had sent a representative to our house. At this point, my family and I felt as though our 
privacy had been severely violated. Shocked and furious, my dad once again directly 
communicated to the representative that we did not want to be involved in the study and 
requested that all attempts to obtain information stop. Even after this incident, we continued to 
receive calls as well as emails. Even after I had graduated high school, the calls and emails 
continued. It was not until this past summer that my father was finally successful in getting the 
company to stop contacting us by responding to one of the numerous emails.  
 This event really shaped my perspective on privacy. Before the incident, I considered my 
information to be safe with the school administration. I thought that all of my test scores, grades, 
and personal information was secure with them. I trusted them to keep my information 
confidential. I never thought about them sharing specific and personal information with outsiders 
without asking for my parents or for my permission. I thought it was commonplace that people 
would respect others’ right to privacy and personal space; however, through this experience, I 
found that this was not the case. I figured that if someone wanted to pass on information to 
another party, they would, out of respect, ask for permission to forward information. 
Furthermore, I have always felt that privacy was an important aspect of life; however, it was not 
until this experience that I was actually able to place value to it. I also realized that everyone 
values privacy, and you have to choose carefully with whom to share personal information with. 
Moreover, I have learned that when personal information must be provided, it is good to find out 
what the information will be used for and whether or not it will be shared with others, especially 
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Pathways, Vol. 2014 [2019], Iss. 1, Art. 14
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others who have no real need for the information. Although this may seem like a minor intrusion 
to some, it certainly brings into perspective the need for privacy laws.  
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Value of Privacy

Group photo of McNair Scholars some wearing Xavier t-shirt. This photograph includes a woman wearing a pink skirt.https://digitalcommons.xula.edu/mcnair_service/1006/thumbnail.jp

Xavier University of Louisiana

McNair Program - Projects with a Purpose - Dr. Melvinia M. Martin\u27s Students - Group Photo # 5

A photograph of Deborah E. Nolan, Administrator of Ronald McNair Progarm,  Office of Graduate Placement, Xavier University of Louisiana, holding a gift bag.https://digitalcommons.xula.edu/mcnair_schol/1005/thumbnail.jp

Deborah M. Nolan, Office of Graduate Placement, Xavier University of Louisiana, holding a gift bag

Part 1: Introductions and discussion around advantages and disadvantages
 Part 2: The Nuts and Bolts of ePortfolios in Brightspac

Todd, Dr Jason

Using ePortfolios for Assessment Saturday Workshop

Pittman, Shaisa T

Masthead Logo Pathways
Volume 2015
Issue 1 2014-2015 Article 9
2019
Finding Home
Shaisa T. Pittman
Xavier University of Louisiana, pathways@xula.edu
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.xula.edu/pathways_journal
This Essay is brought to you for free and open access by XULA Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Pathways by an authorized
editor of XULA Digital Commons. For more information, please contact ksiddell@xula.edu.
Recommended Citation
Pittman, Shaisa T. (2019) "Finding Home," Pathways: Vol. 2015 : Iss. 1 , Article 9.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.xula.edu/pathways_journal/vol2015/iss1/9
Shaisa T. Pittman  
Finding Home 
Throughout a typical lifetime, the average person faces several different obstacles, some 
of which may be more significant than others. For me, the most significant of these obstacles has 
been poverty and, more specifically, the living circumstances that poverty (and a slew of terrible 
landlords) has forced me and my family into. By no means do I wish to complain, for I know that 
it always could have been worse. I simply mean to share some of my experiences.  
Our tale begins in the year 2009. My mother had just realized that the horrible skin 
breakout I had was caused by the flooding in our basement, and the subsequent forest of mold 
and fungi that grew around our ventilation system. In the middle of our moving process, the 
landlord got a bad attitude about the terms of our evacuation and changed the locks, putting some 
of our things on the street to be taken by curious passers-by. In August, we moved into a new 
house, where I was far enough from my school to be at risk walking to and from school alone, 
but just close enough to be denied free bus rides. Mother couldn’t afford the bus bill, so I made 
the walk throughout one of the coldest Illinois autumns ever. And I didn’t like our house. There 
was something weird about it, and I never felt safe.  
Right after Thanksgiving we noticed a strange smell in the house. But it wasn’t until the 
electric iron smoked and burned that Mother decided to check into things. Apparently, the house 
had terrible electrical fires within the walls, and was basically slowly burning around us. So 
Mother took the landlord to court for lying and putting us in danger, and then ignoring our 
complaints. The judge’s verdict? Move out in two weeks. That was our “justice”, and with our 
income level there were no houses that we could afford. But there was no lenience. The landlord 
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said she needed us out so she could make the necessary repairs to the house. But no sooner were 
we out than another family was moving in.  
We were staying with my aunt, so that I could ride the bus to school with her son. The 
majority of our belongings were in storage units. We were paying my aunt so much that it would 
have been cheaper to stay in a Motel 6, but Mother insisted on being there so I could ride the 
school bus. Two weeks before Christmas, my aunt told us that her friend was coming into town 
for the holidays, and she wouldn’t dare let him stay in a hotel, as hospitable as she was. She 
wanted us out before he got there, and gave us three days. So, still having found no house, my 
mother and I hesitantly asked another aunt , who lived across the street from my school, if we 
could stay with her until we found somewhere to go. Of course, there were more exorbitant 
payments to be made, and we were under a lot of pressure because we knew she didn’t want us 
there at all. Hurriedly searching for a house, we were pretty desperate. And for good reason, 
seeing as the new arrangement lasted only three days.  
Then, we were ousted again. Believe it or not, we had gone to the kindest, most generous 
relatives we had, and there was no one willing to let us stay with them. But Mother works the 
occasional miracle. She found this little house that had been abandoned for months. It had 
electricity and running water, although it was pretty poorly insulated. It was better than freezing 
outside. So that’s where we stayed. On Christmas Day, my brothers, as financially challenged as 
we, made their way back into town, to that little house, and gave us gifts. I got my first mp3 
player, which was the best gift I’d ever gotten. Then, with the help of their significant others, 
they treated us to IHOP. For being a “homeless” Christmas, it wasn’t really that bad. The owner 
of that abandoned house walked in on us, and coincidentally he’d gone to high school with my 
mom. He said that he had a house that was almost finished, and if we would move into and rent 
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that house when it was completed, he would let us stay in the empty one until the other was 
done. So we made a deal, and we had ourselves a house.  
On December 28th, 2009, we gathered anyone willing to help, got our things out of 
storage, and started moving in. It was an icy, rainy day. Of course things didn’t go smoothly, 
because the helping relatives weren’t working for money. But we got our stuff out of the house, 
albeit after an unnecessarily long time, including several arguments and complaints. The house 
was very tiny and poorly put together. The plumbing failed all the time, even when we could 
afford to pay the water bill. The insulation could have been better, but it could have been worse. 
The walls were crumbly, and over very little time they grew full of cracks and saggy spots, as if 
the walls couldn’t handle the weight of the house.  
I graduated from eighth grade that May, and got accepted into the International 
Baccalaureate program at Richwoods High School. I would be getting a great education, on the 
complete other side of town. So, I rode the school bus whenever I could. It was a very long ride, 
and some of the kids on my bus would say, “If she lives way down here, why doesn’t she just go 
to the ghetto school.” The regular school days weren’t a struggle, but being as active as I am, 
there weren’t many “regular” school days. I typically had to catch the earliest city bus, for drill 
team practice.  After school and on Saturdays when there were things I had to do, none of my 
friends were willing to assist me in getting home because their parents “don’t think it’s safe in 
that part of town.” or “it’s just too far away.” I alternated between taking obscenely late buses 
and, when that wasn’t an option, begging relatives for rides. Mother and I typically had to pay 
twenty dollars if we wanted someone to bring me to or from school, which was just barely 
cheaper than a cab. So I walked a lot, telling Mother that I had a way home so that she wouldn’t 
flip out.  
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Pittman: Finding Home
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I made it through high school, even though it was stressful and sleep depriving. I 
graduated second in the class and got a Presidential Scholarship to Xavier. In fact, I made it 
through all of the things I’ve gone through, much thanks to my Mom. I feel as though I have 
overcome a great deal, being only eighteen, and there were plenty of things I haven’t mentioned 
here. But I have yet to overcome the greatest obstacle, because although I made it out of the 
depths of poverty for two semesters of the year, Mother still lives in that horrid house. And until 
I have gotten her out, I cannot be truly rid of the choking clutch of destruction.  
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Pathways, Vol. 2015 [2019], Iss. 1, Art. 9
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Finding Home

A poster presentation (title not identified)  from the National Conference for McNair Scholars and Undergraduate Research, 20th Annual, 2019, at University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland.https://digitalcommons.xula.edu/mcnair_conf/1000/thumbnail.jp

Rodney, Arlysse

McNair Conference, 2019 - Poster Presentation

A photograph of a group of students engaged in community service projects. They are working with Dr. Melvinia M. Martin, Assistant Director of CURGO at Xavier University of Louisiana.https://digitalcommons.xula.edu/mcnair_service/1003/thumbnail.jp