Week 8 Response

I feel that I'm a little further in my culture in that I just interviewed someone from my fieldsite and toured the facilities. The central theme is abortion, but I don't know where to focus at with that topic because my original group was disbanded last year. I still need to go and visit one more site and then I will have all the information I need to complete my project.

Week 7 Response

I plan to finish my project with more research from the Counseling Services Center, a couple of interviews, and maybe more research from the library. I'm also thinking about volunteering for about a day or maybe even a week at First Choice for Women to get a sense of what the volunteers get to see on a regular basis.

Version 2

As you enter the building which is located on Tilliotson surrounded by popular fast food restaurants, a waiting area is presented with the receptionist behind her desk waiting to take your request. The receptionist’s desk looks tidy and well organized; the waiting area has chairs placed on either side of the room for patients sit and wait for their name to be called for an appointment with the counselor or doctor. Placed on the tables in front of each row of chairs are magazines for the patients to read or flip through, on the walls are pictures and paintings of calm and relaxing scenes.

Version 1

The front door opens up into a waiting area with a receptionist sitting at the front desk waiting to greet you, take your questions, or ask “do you have an appointment?” In the waiting area there are about four chairs on the right and four chairs on the left and a table between the chairs with magazines laid out for the women to flip or skim through as they wait to be seen. Plants are placed on the sides as showpieces and to add a bit of color to office. On the walls are pictures of peaceful and calming scenes to help the women relax and paintings of beautiful landscapes that capture nature at its best. Several rooms are located in the back, some of which are offices to the counselors and examination rooms for the patients. The building it is located on south Tilliotson not far from some of the popular fast food restaurants such as: McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Burger King just to name a few.

Box 18

The agency's main objective is to offer counsel and advice to women of all ages that may be struggling with making a decision regarding an unwanted pregnancy, abortion, or even just to get a pregnancy test. Counselors are available to women who may need counseling for some of these problems or for women who can't talk to their family about a particular situation. First Choice for Women is not pro-life or pro-choice so therefore can offer an unbiased opinion and give advice about alternatives to abortion. Most importantly First Choice does not administer abortion services at the agency, but can provide the information or direct patients to another facility.

Week 6 Response

No I can't make any conclusions about my subculture, because it is a really controversial topic with many people. I think observing pregnancy crisis agencies in areas around other Indiana colleges would give me around the same results if not slightly different.

Box 12

I am very blessed to be privileged as a nineteen year old female in the United States during a time of change when we have a woman and an African-American male running for the presidential candidacy and I am old enough to legally vote in the 2008 election in November. Among my other privileges would be that I come from a moderately middle-class African-American family and have the privilege to attend the college of my choice and study my major. The right to have my own opinions, practice my own religious beliefs, and speak my mind, is another wonderful privilege that I have by being a citizen of the United States.

Box 9

I really didn't have any assumptions about the reading, because I didn't know what it was about. Obviously the culture of the islanders was different from someone who grew up in the city or even the country. One thing that did surprise me was the fact that they were descended from slaves and still lived on the land owned by their ancestors. One movie that comes to mind when I read the excerpt was, The Color Purple, because some of the characters dealt with these issues, such as moving away from the family land, being separated from family, and others coming in and being an outsider observing their culture. I've read a little bit of everything and think that Naylor did a very good job of describing a different culture and taking a global perspective towards the islanders' culture. Just the "18&23" reference was a little confusing for me to understand so I just reread it a couple of times. The background information was interesting and reading about how the land became their's . Mama Day, to me was the most interesting, because she reminded me of people in my family such as my granny or my great granny who if you had a question you could go to them and ask them about it and they would give the best answer they could.

Week 5 Response

I have found a couple of articles from two other colleges related to my topic but I'm still looking for something on pregnancy crisis centers.