Achieving Excellence through Adversity

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Diversity & My Study

By Adam Pinkney

Synopsis:

My graduate project is a personal documentary. This documentary will focus on different aspects of my life. It is the story of a young man name Adam Pinkney who is pursuing a masters degree. He was the only one in his whole family to go to college and in 2008 he received his bachelors degree. He was born the fifth child of eight children in his family. The color of his mothers skin was white as day, and fathers dark as night. He had conflicting issues growing up as a mixed breed. There came times in his life were he had to chose sides, from the simplest fact of checking his ethnicity on paperwork, to the ultimate fact of being accepted and rejected. Adam faced many hardships in life however he chose to stay positive and strive through adversity.

Adam is one of those success stories we hear all too often; poor boy from a small town turned college graduate. But Adam’s story is a little longer than that. A common phrase that relates to his story is “what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger,” if this is true, Adam is a very strong person. Adam grew up with six brothers and sisters and his parents in a three-bedroom house in McAlester, Okla. I wish I could say that was the hardest part of his childhood, but I’d be lying. He knew more slang words for drugs by the time he was ten. For other people, “visiting relatives” was a family vacation, but for Adam, it was visiting his dad in the state penitentiary.

 

But none of that discouraged Adam. If anything, it was the motivation he needed to make something of himself. He wanted to do something for himself and his family, so he moved to Norman and started the next chapter of his life at the University of Oklahoma. He made great friends, great grades and decent money working various on-campus jobs.  Things were going perfect for Adam. For once, life was good.

 

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. On Aug. 30, 2007, two weeks into his senior year, Adam received a phone call that would change his life forever. His mom, Carolyn, and 17-year old brother, Jesse, had died in a car accident, and no one was sure if his 16-year-old sister, Jessica, would make it. At that point, many students would have dropped out of school and spiraled into a deep depression, but Adam knew what he had to do for his mom and brother, for his family, for himself.

 

Adam went home that week to comfort his family, pray for his sister and attend his mom and brother’s funeral. The next week, he was back in class, with a new determination to make something of himself. He was going to do something his brother would never have the chance to do. Adam was going to graduate.

On May 10, 2008, Adam walked across the stage with his dad and siblings applauding from high in the stands, and his mom and brother applauding from even higher. He smiled from ear to ear as he shook hands with the dean and received his diploma. To others, that diploma represented four years of tests and homework, or $80,000 of tuition. But to Adam, it represented his life, every struggle, and every accomplishment. It also represented his strength and his drive for life.

 

This will be one aspect of my documentary in setting up my life. As a whole my documentary will be impacted by diversity. This is due to the mere fact that I grew up with a white side and black side. Through my research on poynter.org I found an article called Diversity in Hard Times. After reading this article I found feedback to this article. The feedback was more interesting and compelling to me because it was more personal and I could relate. One post on the feedback that I could relate to included these words: “The main problem here is the parallel often drawn between diversities of opinion and issues, and the diversity of skin color. For any company or organization to be as progressive as they ought to be in issues of workplace diversity their emphasis should be placed on the individuals up for hiring or firing; what their personal background is, past beats that were covered, and issues that concern them as journalists and as people.”

 

Ultimately diversity made me who I am today. However the color of my skin does not automatically make me diverse.  I have to choice to open my mind up to diversity. My documentary will include diverse subjects from my moms side of the family and my dads side of the family. I will also include diverse subjects from my close friends. All of the sources and views combined will impact my documentary with diversity.

Final Post-Player's Choice by Josh Rogers

Final Post-Player's Choice by Josh Rogers

For my final post, I thought I would point out and discuss some of the resources available to the graduate student. Hopefully, you will find some of these resources useful in your own journey through graduate school.
Take a visit to the OU IT store. There are a number of "free"( free, as in, you've already paid for it with your tuition fees) downloads available. If you want to upgrade to Office 2003 Professional this is a free download. Symantic Anti-Virus and Ad-Aware are also available to download. For grad assistants, I would suggest downloading a copy of EndNote, or ProCite. These are very useful reference managers which will help store and properly format all the research that you have downloaded from the library. The only pain is that you need to do a little data entry to load your references but after that you will be able to cite and reference effortlessly in most Word .docs.
If you like to listen to music while you are studying check out ruckus.com. OU, like many other universities, has an agreement with Ruckus for free music downloads. Ruckus also has videos and games which might distract you from working on your thesis but it is worth checking out. Pandora.com is also a great customizable Internet music site. Build music channels with your music preferences-listening to Pandora is almost like inventing your own favorite radio station that only plays the kind of songs you want to hear.
Feelin' blue? Gradresources.org is a website that has a section for "E-mentors" that are available through email correspondence. According to the website:
Nick Repak, National Director of Grad Resources, has started a weekly email letter to those who have requested E-Mentor assistance. His initial topics have included Time Management, Prof/Grad Relationships, Financial Pressures, and other issues grad students face. He will also respond to topics/issues you feel are pertinent to a majority of grad students, and would greatly appreciate your feedback and suggestions. If there are specific issues that require personal responses he will attempt to answers these personally or put you in contact with someone who can.

If you have a more urgent need for help, Gradresources.org also offers a crisis hotline-1-877-GRAD-HLP. Unfortunately, the section that was titled Grad Student Survival Kits: Free Resources for Graduate Students is now closed.
Trying to eat well on a tight budget? I would recommend this site for a number of recipes that are possible for a starving college student. Recipes like "Hot Dog Casserole" and "Ramen Foo Young" are quick, easy and affordable for a graduate student on a budget.
For those graduate students that are hard up for cash-- donating plasma might be a possibility. The local center in Norman is right down the road from campus. I paid for my high school prom by donating plasma and I finished The Once and Future King by T.H. White-required reading for my senior A.P. English class-during my plasma sessions.
I know that some of these tips might be more practical than others. I just thought that I would have a little fun with my last post. Hopefully, though, at least one of these tips will come in handy-Have a good summer and good luck with the Hot Dog Casserole.