Self-perception of young female and male students from Somali ethnic Essay

Self-perception of young female and male students from Somali ethnic group in Britain today - Essay Example Because of the changing structure of the education institution in Britain as well as the failure of several schools to sufficiently and fairly train or educate marginalised ethnic groups, such as the Somalis, an emphasis on issues of ethnic identity has emerged in relation to curriculum (Rutter, 2003, 29). Motivating a great deal of ethnic identity literature is frequently inherent and at times clear assumption that exposing students from disenfranchised ethnic groups to academic discussions of their own culture improves their mental and emotional security (Desforges, 2003, 42). Hence, the purpose of this study is to find out the current perceptions of Somali students in Britain of their own ethnic identity in order to ascertain the ‘best practices’ that may be applied to diversity management in the British education institution. 1.2. The researcher is confident that this study will provide an opportunity that would encourage critical reflection in Somali students of the ir ethnic identity. This study hopes to raise issues of group belongingness, conflict with the mainstream group, and individual identity. Certainly, the researcher views this subject matter as one valuable response to counteracting the failure of the British education institution to adequately and justly educate Somali students. ... r acknowledges that ethnicity is just one level of ethnic identity of students and that a variety of other variables influence how students understand their history and sense of group belongingness. 1.4. The potential users of this research are education practitioners such as school administrators and teachers. Understanding of the phases of ethnic identity development can aid teachers in correctly interpreting their students’ responses when they experience culturally or ethnically charged problems. And most importantly, Somali students as well as their families can use this research to understand their current situation in Britain and the possible means of dealing with issues of ethnic identity. 1.5. This study will try to answer the following research questions: 1. How do Somali students in Britain perceive their ethnic identity today in terms of their: a. relationship with their teachers; b. their socialisation experiences in school; c. their experiences with instructional practices and classroom curriculum. 2. Literature Review 2.1. Introduction London has the biggest Somali population at present. Somalis, in 2002, were reported as the biggest immigrant groups in London schools (Rutter, 2006, 177). Settlement patterns in the UK are influenced by ethnic identity. That ethnic identity establishes settlement patterns in UK schools possibly will have distinct groups of Somali children, with different experiences (Kassem, Mufti & Robinson, 2006, 91). A UK-born Somali child, for instance, will have distinct experiences from a child who immigrated from Mogadishu (Rutter, 2006, 177). Clan membership in the UK is less significant among migrant groups before 1988 but it remains extremely significant among new immigrants (ibid, p. 177-178). Memories of violence and

Biomarkers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Biomarkers - Essay Example In aquatic environment, biomarkers depend upon the physical environmental conditions such as temperature, pH or salinity, as well as toxic concentrations of chemical pollutants or any combination of these. Biomarkers can be categorized as non-specific and specific according to their responses to a particular element or a group of environmental factors (Mayer et al., 1992). non-specific biomarkers, for example ribonucleic acid/deoxyribonucleic acid, radiolabelled amino acid or nucleotide incorporation, and adenylate energy charge, give direct information on the growth rate or potential of an organism but they can not be used to determine the particular toxicant. Specific biomarkers can be again categorized n to two sub-categories, organ, and toxicant specific according to method of their recognition. Organ specific biomarkers are analyzed by examining changes in concentration specific enzymes in organisms whether as Toxicant-specific biomarkers are analyzed according to the exposure and effects on an organism due to a chemical or group of chemicals. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), transaminases, creatine phosphokina... criteria with which to assess results should be available Biomarkers can be categorized as non-specific and specific according to their responses to a particular element or a group of environmental factors (Mayer et al., 1992). non-specific biomarkers, for example ribonucleic acid/deoxyribonucleic acid, radiolabelled amino acid or nucleotide incorporation, and adenylate energy charge, give direct information on the growth rate or potential of an organism but they can not be used to determine the particular toxicant. Specific biomarkers can be again categorized n to two sub-categories, organ, and toxicant specific according to method of their recognition. Organ specific biomarkers are analyzed by examining changes in concentration specific enzymes in organisms whether as Toxicant-specific biomarkers are analyzed according to the exposure and effects on an organism due to a chemical or group of chemicals. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), transaminases, creatine phosphokinase, lysosomal enzymes, alkaline phosphatases and mixed function oxidase are the examples of organ specific biomarkers while as inhibition of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) by organophosphates and inhibition of cytochrome P monooxygenase, methallothionein and metal binding proteins by metals are some of the toxicant specific biomarkers (Mayer et al., 1992; Gagn and Blaise, 1993). There are basically two parameters for biomarker assessment: global reference values and comparative values. global reference values can be developed for DNA adducts, ALA-D, AChE, scope for growth, CEA, PAH-metabolites, GST, lysosomal stability, micronucleus formation, vitellogenin, MT biomarkers and comparative values can be used for ethoxyresoroufin-o-deethylase (EROD), antioxidant enzymes, peroxisomal

Foxconn Suicides Case Study

Foxconn Suicides Case Study Introduction Foxconn Technology Group is a subsidiary of Hon Hai Precision Industry Company Ltd, a Taiwanese company which is a major electronics manufacturer catering to famous-name brands including Sony, Apple and Nokia. With the first manufacturing plant established in Shenzhen, China in 1988, around 450,000 workers are now employed at the Foxconn City, which intends to act as both working and leisure place to the employees. Foxconn has been involved in several controversies, relating to how it manages employees. It is mostly known by the public for the series of suicides in 2010. The 2010 Foxconn suicides occurred between January and November, 2010, when eighteen Foxconn employees, aging from 18 to 24, attempted suicide with fourteen deaths. Though investigation has found that employees personal problems may cause them to commit suicide, low income, enormous working pressure and a lack of communication opportunity are commonly accounted for the incidence. The suicides drew much media attention and in this project, we will focus on analyzing the managerial problems of Foxconn which lead to the incidence and the effectiveness of the measures taken by Foxconn after the incidence to alleviate those problems. Management problems: Military leadership style Many reports suggested that Foxconns leadership style is the culprit for continuous suicides. They argued that manufacturing workers also need a warm and supportive working environment which was the opposite of Foxconn practices. Almost every worker needs to stand to work 12 hours a day intensively so as to maintain their live with the low wages. As they do not have other qualifications, they have no choice but have to choose this kind of harsh jobs said a first-line manager in Foxconn. After a series of suicides happen in Foxconn, a reporter slipped into the company for 30 days. He found that the environment inside the factory was more terrible than imagine. For instance, no one can leave for a minute for washroom unless he can find someone to replace his duty. It shows that even peoples basic needs are ignored. In addition, Foxconn stresses heavily on execution and efficiency although it never delivers compensation late. Some workers point out that whenever your boss gives out command, the only respond you can give is Yes or OK. You cannot be suspicious for a second. The only thing you can do is follow his order and delegate the work to your subordinates. In other words, manufacturing workers get extremely low status in the industry. With low status, workers duty is to listen and follow their instructions, workers should have no say to what they can do. We are pretty sure that this kind of military management is unethical as they simply ignore the basic human needs. If we apply the motivation theory-Maslows Hierarchy of Needs to Foxconn, they cannot even fulfill the most basic physiological needs like sufficient rest time for the prolonged working hours. Ranging from work conditions to worker status, Foxconn fails to fulfill those hygiene factors( dissatisfiers) according to Fredrick Herzberg s Two-Factor Theory. Both of the theories above show us clearly that worker will get dissatisfied with this military leadership style. The strict and inconsiderate leadership style explains why Foxconn was blamed to be inhuman causing endless suicides. Rewarding policies From the view of motivating and rewarding employees, some believe that a string of  suicides at Foxconn has highlighted what some say that the minimal pay of 900 RMB is exploitative. We shall examine the issue and analyze rewarding policies of Foxconn. With respect to the monetary rewards, it is laudable that Foxconn has signed labor contract with their workers and pay their basic salaries on time. However, they set the minimum wage in Shenzhen, 900RMB, as the basic salary of workers in the factory before tragedy happened. In fact, the so-called basic salary is not enough to guarantee workers even the basic standard of living. They are long overdue for significant pay raises and the factory pay has not kept pace with inflation over the past decade that makes their lives hard. We may find that the monetary reward offered by Foxconn is insufficient to satisfy even the physiological needs of workers. It is very likely that workers will get more depressed when their job is overwhelming stressful at low pay level. Suicide attempts are usually preceded by a period of serious depression. It is easy to understand that the low pay can induce suicide with tremendous pressure faced by factory workers every day. After several suicides, Foxconn has reached a preliminary agreement on pension and maintenance payments with the bereaved families that Foxconn would make a 360,000 RMB pension payment to those families and offered maintenance payments of 30,000 RMB per year. This practice intensifies the suicidal problem. The original intention of this measure is to pacify the bereaved families, comfort employees after a series of suicide events and at the same time, relief the pressure from public. However, for those workers who are dissatisfied with their lives at Foxconn, huge amount of compensation induces them to end their life as they find it more preferable. The pension payment, being the culprit of suicides, is achieving the opposite. The dearth of non-monetary rewards also results in a string of suicides at Foxconn. Under the military leadership style, being blamed is one of the job duties. Non-monetary rewards like praise, status promotions or privileges are simply impossible. For general companies, not having any non-monetary or intrinsic rewards is not the critical problem. It is a different story for Foxconn and they become extremely important when monetary and extrinsic rewards are far from sufficient to satisfy workers. It acts as the supplements or compensation to workers with low pay. Unfortunately, Foxconn just does the opposite. There is neither significant extrinsic reward nor any form of intrinsic rewards. Worse still, they tend to punish rather than encourage workers when they get mistakes. All the above rewarding policies fuel the suicide problem. Communication opportunity Communication with peers is important to express their ups and downs and relieve their stress. Developing the social network in the industry would also enhance the job satisfaction and sense of belongings to the company. However, there is a lack of communication in Foxconn. When they are working, workers cannot talk with each other, or else there will be disciplinary action. After work, they seldom talks with their roommates, since they either have to work overtime or need to take a rest after long working hours. After the first few suicides, Foxconn carries out a number of measures. For example, managers buy information with monetary incentive. Whenever workers report employees with psychological problem, two hundred dollar is rewarded. This practice further worsens the relationship between peers, supervisors and subordinates as it weakens the trust between workers, making it more difficult for them to share freely with their peers. When employees are not satisfied with the working environment and have nobody to talk to, their stress level will add up. And one day they can no longer withstand the stress and end their lives to get rid of the work. Fairness Have you ever imagined that the unfair treatments in the work place would induce people to commit suicide? People in this generation pay more attention to the fairness. However, unfair affairs exist in Foxconn. There are rumors that security guards maintain order according to their personal mood, rather than the regulations of the company. Whenever one of the guards does not get along with you, you will be beaten for whatever reasons. One example will be Mr Leung. Some said that he spit to the guard after being dressed down and jumped from the roof the other day. Another example will be the management by Mr Kwok, the chairperson of Foxconn. He was born and educated in Taiwan. That is why he is criticized of preferential treating towards Taiwanese. He often employs Taiwanese to manage Chinese and rewards are different between employees from different origins. Taiwanese have a higher salaries and bonus than Chinese at the same level. It is true that we cannot check whether the above claims are correct or not. However, discrimination is not uncommon in the real society as we can think and thus it may be the fault of Foxconn not to balance the interests of different parties which directly leads to continuous suicides. With the workers being treated differently and nowhere to complain, they can only endure to it. When it comes to the end of ones patience, some of them choose to end their lives. Measures taken by the Foxconn Group: After the consecutive tragedies, the Foxconn Group had adopted various measures to prevent employees from committing suicide again. These measures included: 1.) Increase in workers wages. The management raised the wages of all production line workers by 30%. And for the production line operators in Shenzhen, their basic salaries and wages were raised from 1,200 yuan to 2,000 yuan per month. 2.) Set up of Safety Net The company set up a rigid Safety Net within the staff residential areas, which occupied for over 150 million square meters of spaces, thus to avoid the death of any worker directly if they intended to jump off the roof downwards. 3.) Establishment of the Caring Team Foxconn had divided their workers into groups of 50 people, known as the Caring Team, and their responsibilities included giving cares and love to each other, and to report any unusual emotional changes of their co-workers. 4.) Counselors availability to assist the workers At the time after the incident, the company had already trained 1000 psychological counselors. They were sent to the factory to provide counseling, guidance and assistance to the workers via the psychological consultation hotline. 5.) Mandatory Psychological test Once new workers were employed after the incident, they should undergo an in-depth mandatory psychological test to evaluate their mental health and provided better guidance on how they could work happily in the future. To conclude, these measures aimed at preventing the same incident from happening again. Criticisms on the measures taken by the company Despite the several measures adopted by the company, did they really benefit the workers permanently? Or did they only bring temporary effects? It was surprising to discover that there were still cases of workers committing suicide shortly after all the above measures were implemented, which gave us the solid evidence that the measures might not be as effective as the managers expected and could not root out the problem. 1. Short-sighted measures without long-term consideration The above measures could be said to be effective in dealing with short term problems, yet it might not be long-term considered enough. For example, the set up of Safety Net could only enforce workers not to jump downwards from their roof, but it could not solve the workers dissatisfaction towards the company and enhance workers morale in long-term. Some even argue that the establishment of safety net shows the cool-blooded attitude of Foxconn towards workers. 2. Not sufficient psychological support Although the company sets up a psychological consultation hotline, helping employees to relieve their stress, this measure is quite passive and the number of employees being helped is limited. Top managers only select 1000 employees to take a training course of psychological consultation. Eighty of them pass the exam helping employees who cannot deal with stress. But, these eighty helpers, relative to over four hundred thousand of employees, are insufficient to prevent suicide from happening again. We doubt whether it is the effective method to prevent suicide and help employees. 3. Insufficient improvement in satisfying different needs According to Maslows hierarchy of needs, it states clearly that different needs ranging from physiological needs to self-actualization and esteem needs, such intrinsic values are the most crucial ingredient in the recipe of motivating workers. However, what Foxconn offered were far from fully satisfying workers fundamental needs (ie, financial security), not to mention what measures did Foxconn implement to satisfy workers social needs. Although they set up the caring team to show their love to workers, whether it works is in doubt. Can the need of social network be simply replaced by the so-called caring team? The act of suicides proves its effectiveness. Being ignored the intrinsic needs, workers hardly find the feeling of satisfactory and recognition from the work. Our Suggestions To coop with the incident, we ought to think of some more probable ways, which are listed in the following: 1. An increase in wages and a reduction on working hours Most of the workers in Foxconn endured their tiredness by standing for over 10 hours per day, with 6 days per week without adequate rest. The reason that workers choose to work overtime was that the wages were still far from enough for them, even after the little raise in the wages . By increasing the wages, workers no longer need to suffer from the extremely long working hours. If we want to save workers lives, we should first make sure that they get sufficient salary to maintain their lives. 2. Satisfying different needs Under the Maslows Hierarchy of Needs, social need like affection, belongingness and friendship is one of the essential needs for workers to get work. Apart from encouraging workers to make friends with others so as to alleviate the psychological problems, they should also encourage them to relax by having some leisure activities. Though Foxconn has good relaxing facilities like recreation centre for chess, mountain climbing and fishing, they never promote and encourage workers to enjoy them. From the Shanghai-based China Business News reported, Researchers questioned 1,736 employees and found they worked an average of 83.2 hours of overtime a month that is more than twice the maximum of 36 hours allowed under Chinese law. Workers work numerous overtime and thus they do not have time to enjoy those facilities. If Foxconn can truly allow workers to enjoy these facilities, workers would definitely gain a better sense of belonging and the morale would thus be enhanced greatly as differen t needs are satisfied. Google which provides its workers a comprehensive working environment and encourages them to enjoy it is a successful example. For instance, swimming pool, 24-hour canteen and gymnastics facilities are all free to use for every employee. Although Foxconn might not be necessary to imitate Google in such ways, it should consider deeply on how it can provide better environment to workers. 3. Means to let workers assure of a more certain future The suicide cases increase workers fears towards their future. They feel devastated and uncomfortable to what the public said and even lose confidence on Foxconn. These emotional effects can be disastrous if Foxconn cannot handle it well. We believe that more resources should be spent to stabilize workers emotion. Foxconn should first explain clearly why several workers committed suicide and hence encourage the remaining to cherish their lives. Secondly, several means should be provided to help workers establish their career paths with promising future so as to reduce their uncertainty about the future. If so, it is believed that the working pressure as well as the turnover rate of current workers would be decreased significantly. Eventually, the occurrence of suicides of workers could be diminished. Conclusion Deficiencies in management inevitably account for the series of suicides. The incidence, perhaps, is an alarm to Foxconn for the urge of a change in its management style. Is military leadership still viable and suitable? Or another style, a more caring one should be adopted to encourage workers? Instead of thinking how employees can benefit the company, it is more appropriate for Foxconn to think about how they can benefit the employees and get high productivity in return. The essence of the problem is simple: even human needs are not satisfied in Foxconn. But up to now, measures taken to tackle the problem, mostly short term, are far from satisfactory, or even worsen it. Apparently, these measures do not get to the root of the problem. To alleviate the dissatisfaction of workers, long term solutions to regain employees confidence towards Foxconn are the only way out.

Procrastination Essay -- essays research papers

1. What am I talking about? I am the thief of productiveness and time. I sound simple, but in fact I’m quite complex. I am a strange phenomenon. My purpose seems to make my life more pleasant, but instead it almost always adds stress, disorganization, and frequent failure. I want to achieve some outcome, usually something myself and others can value and respect; â€Å"I’ve got to start.† I delay briefly thinking of real and imagined advantages of starting to change later; â€Å"I will do it tomorrow.† 2. Good evening gentlemen. My name is Bobby Hurley. I’ve been in the military now for just over nine years. All this time I’ve always said that I’m going to finish my degree but until this past year I have never been able to stay committed to doing so because I am a procrastinator. I’ve gotten some help with my procrastination from various web sites. That’s why this evening I would like to talk to you about three important aspects of procrastination. These include the reasons for procrastinating, some symptoms of procrastination, and how to cure procrastination, but first, let me explain what procrastination is. Procrastination, though not officially classified as such, is a complex psychological behavior that affects everyone to some degree or another and can have roots in several officially recognized "illnesses", such as phobia, depression, and even low self-esteem. For some people it can be a minor problem but with others it is a source of considerable stress and anxiety. 3. This brings me to my first point, reasons for procrastinating. One reason for this is poor time management. What this is, is not being able to manage your day or yourself effectively. You may be uncertain of your priorities, goals and objectives or may be overwhelmed with the task. As a result, you may put off your academic assignments for a later date. You may also spend a great deal of time with your friends and social activities. Lastly, but most importantly, you worry about your upcoming examinations, class projects or papers rather than completing or studding for them. 4. Another cause of procrastination is having difficulty concentrating. What this is, is your inability to stay focused on one subject or object for any length of time. When you sit at your desk y... ...er projects, use a timer or alarm clock to help you stick with your plan. If you know you will not be able to concentrate on a project for 3 hours, break up your work into 1-hour blocks for 3 days. It's much easier to face an unpleasant task if the time you are giving it is brief. 9. Another method to cure procrastination is to avoid perfectionism. If you accept nothing less than a perfect performance, you may never get to work on a task because you're worried that it won't be perfect. Remember that doing your best is fine, and that giving yourself enough time to do your best will reduce stress. 10. In conclusion, I have covered three important aspects of procrastination to include the reasons for procrastinating, the symptoms of procrastination, and how to cure procrastination. I’d like to thank you for your time and attention and urge you the next time you’re thinking about putting off an assignment or task to think carefully about the long-term side effects. Sure, you might get some good grades or praise from your boss or teacher but eventually it will catch up with you and by that time it will be too late. Thank you.

What Is a Bboy?

David Le Date 3/20/13 Dr. Hasell ENGL 1301 – 38107 Word Count: 1,159 What is a Bboy? (final) Bboying is not just a movement. It is a passion, a language, a form of art and expression. The terms bboy (be-boy) and breaker come from the words beat boy and break boy. Bboy refers to someone who dances to the beat of the music and breaker refers to someone who dances to the break section of a song. The part of a song where there is no singing, just pure instrumental music. Essentially bboys and breakers are the same.Breaking is very different and unique when you compare it to other styles of dance. Ballet revolves around graceful movements while bboying can be whatever the dancer feels like doing during a song. All that matters is the beat of the music and the passion of the dancer. The most important thing about bboying is having the opportunity to express yourself, that brief moment when you can be true to yourself. Bboying is a unique form of art. You may have heard that painters need inspiration before they can create art.For a bboy, the music is the inspiration, from the instant you feel the beat moving through your body to the very end of each dance set. That small interval of time is when someone would paint the picture of what he or she is feeling through physical movements. Some might have the urge to do power moves. These moves involve require strength and complete control over the body, for example hopping while holding a one handed handstand. Other dancers might feel the music is moving them to express in slower more fluid motions by maybe gracefully sliding and spinning while on their knees.There are some basics moves for breakdancing but the best dancers are original and create their own personal signature moves or styles. Once a year the best bboy crews from all around the world will come to one spot and battle each other through dance in order to gain respect from other dancers all around the world. This event is called battle of the year. I th ink one of the biggest defining things about battle of the year is that the winning prize money is only three thousand dollars. After this is split between maybe 10 crew members the amount of time put in to win doesn’t pay off.But to these professional bboys the pride that comes with winning is all that is needed. When the dance battles take place each crew will take turns sending in one member to freestyle to the music. Each bboy is different, there cannot and never will be two people that dance with the exact same style. This is one of the amazing things of breaking. A friend of mine likes to dance with a wobbly drunkenness with each step in order to taunt his opponent while another friend is very serious in order to show that the opponent has no chance of winning the battle.I’ve seen one dancer end his freestyle set smoking an imaginary cigarette and throwing it onto his opponent to tell him he had just gotten â€Å"smoked†. Now, if this was any other hobby o r sport, doing these sorts of things might get you beat up. However, this is one of the beauties of the bboy culture. Even after conveying such mean and hurtful actions every bboy understands that it is all part of the â€Å"act† and it is nothing personal. Over time clowning or making fun of your opponent has become a very essential part of dance battles. After each battle all competitors will always shake hands and hug, even if it is a total stranger.For most bboys, respect is given right from the second someone else decides to express themselves over the music in the spotlight. This is because most breakers know that it takes courage to would out in front of a crown and express yourself ignoring what people may think. The complex language of dance is solely unique and is what makes the bonds and friendships between breakers so powerful. Sweat, pain, and exhaustion are all things that intersect the path of bboying. To any true dancer, the drive to improve will always out wa y the pain and the downsides.Every crash is a lesson; the only way to improve as dancer is to learn from previous mistakes. Over the years technology has made this easier; many bboys can now simply record themselves in order to watch for errors or mistakes during their practice sessions. While this helps decrease the time it takes to learn things, true breaker will never stop and always strive to be a better dancer. Ultimately there is no finish line; the real goal is the friendships and memories that will be made through this journey. He or she will always be trying to beat that future opponent who may be good or bad.There are four main elements of bboying; power, footwork, top rock, and freezes. Power moves have the steepest learning curve of them all. The most basic power move is called the windmill and this on average takes at least 6 months to learn just one rotation. And when I say six months, I mean six months of practicing every day for one hour minimum. There are many bboys out there who love power moves for this very reason. They are so hard to master, and achieving them makes it worth that much more. The best bboys have a good balance between all four of these different styles.During this adventure of learning each style, good breakers dissect each move in attempt to make new and original things out of the old. It may be just one slight difference of being lower or higher with your legs or it could be a whole combo of fast stepping movements stringed together with original fluid transitions. This is the true beauty of bboying; one can do whatever one wants. There is no one in the world that can say you are doing your own style incorrectly. Creativity is a truly amazing thing. Because of the nature of the brain, there is an endless amount of combinations and movements that can be thought of or discovered.Dancing, to put it simply, is a vessel to express ideas and emotions. The only reason breaking is still thriving today is because there is always so mething new that can be created. Every generation will build off what their previous generation has made and make it their own. Over time the â€Å"foundation† moves have changed, and it will always continue to evolve as long as there is music and a will to express. Some might say that other things make up a true dancer, but out of all of them I would have to say the most vital things are to be original, be unique, be you; bboy.

Taylor Swift

Making A Difference Make a donation, lend a hand, be a supporter, and you will make a difference! When people think of the word â€Å"charity† or â€Å"donate†, they automatically think of money, am i right? Not only does donating money to charities and foundations help, however giving your time and effort as well. There are many ways for people to give back. With all of these different charities and foundations our world is a better place for everyone. Without open-handed people, having charities and different foundations would not be a choice.Be a generous person and give freely without expectations of recieving anything in return. There are many famous people that donate to different charities and foundations, one person that I am going to go into detail about is Taylor Swift. I really like Taylor Swift, she is a country singer, and her music has made a great impact on my life. When I was growing up I always wanted to be like her, she was my rolemodel! In seventh gra de I done research on her, and she was always giving to other people, which shows that she is a generous person.She has supported twenty-one different charites and foundations throughout her lifetime, and plans on contributing to many more! Taylor's mother and grandmother were a big influence on Taylor's country singing career. Taylor's grandmother was an opera singer, and her mother helped her in various ways. When Taylor was young she performed at talent shows, festivals, fairs, and karaoke contests. She had won money from these events and she saved it, having dreams and big hopes of becoming a country singer.With help from her parents to pay for everything, Taylor's family made it happen! Taylor Swift was born on December 13, 1989 in Reading, Pennsylvania and moved to Wyomissing, Pennsylvania when she was nine. At fourteen years old Taylor moved to Nashville, Tennessee to begin a career in country music. In 2003, she signed to Big Machine Records. At that time, Taylor was the you ngest song writer ever hired by Sony/ATV Publishing House. Taylor attended high school at Aaron Academy, a Christian school in Hendersonville, Tennessee. She graduated from Aaron Academy in 2008.Taylor has not made a decision whether or not she will go to college, right now she is pursuing her dream of being a country singer/songwriter. Ever since Taylor has began her career, she has donated money to many different organizations. Some of them include Children in Need, Clothes Off Our Back, Feeding America, Heroes in Heels, Music for Relief, Red Cross, and Wish Upon a Hero Foundation. Taylor does not donate money just to make herself look good, she does it because the charities and foundations she donates to are meaningful to her.There are many reasons as to why Taylor chose to donate to these organizations some of them being, homelessness, disaster relief, human rights, poverty, abuse, and cancer. If you have not realized Taylor is not a greedy human being. On September 21, 2007, Ta ylor launched a campaign to protect children from online predators. Following that in 2008 she donated 100,000 dollars to Red Cross for the victims of the Iowa flood. In 2009 she performed a concert for Children in Need on BBC and donated 13,000 dollars to that organization.Responding to the 2010 flood Taylor donated 500,000 dollars to help different communities get back on their feet. The money that Taylor has donated was raised by performing benefit concerts and having rehearsals open to the public. If you want to make a difference, communicate, offer your money, and devote your time. Not only will it make you feel like a better person, but you will also be noticed for what you have done. Doing this will leave you with a memory that will last a lifetime. Give a little, laugh a lot, and change a life forever!