It is vital to reach out to those that are sincere in helping you advance and progress in any way that he/she can.

After reading my blogs, I feel disappointed because I did not put forth the upmost effort to reach out to individuals that could have given me guidance on how to start my own auto dealership. I have come to realize that networking makes a difference between you and the next person that may be going for the same position or in competition when it comes to business. But, I do feel that networking does have some negative aspects regardless of ethnicity that may be. Many people do not owe the person they may be networking with and that can be a problem. For example, I was referred to a contact that owns two auto dealerships and he was able to provide insight on things that I did not know. Yet, as I reflect on the interview, I am still where I was before I interviewed him. It is very unlikely that someone that does not know me will allow me to be authorized as a buyer under their auto dealership license. Even if an auto dealer requested a large portion of money from me to become a buyer there would still be room for error for me to jeapordize their license reputation if I chose not to purchase a vehicle at a dealer auction. I have never reached out to an individual because where I'm from, you do not deal with people that you do not know. So, I came into this course with the mentality that could care less if someone else that did not know me would help me progress.

There are aspects of this course that I really enjoyed and helped me to mature as an individual. Networking allowed me to contact the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs of the College of Education after I conducted an interview with her and another lady that were conducting a research study on how successful black males have made it through college. I did not know who they ladies were and what positions they held but, the Associate Dean, Celina Simas, volunteered to help me reach my goal of attending graduate school once the interview was finished. I immediately e-mailed her after she gave me her business card. A couple days later, she e-mailed me and scheduled an interview with the Dean of the College of Education. After missing the graduate school deadline after a month, my networking allowed me to still be admitted into U.I.C.'s College of Education. It is weird because today, April 28th, I have officially found out that I have been admitted into the Elementary Education Instructional Graduate program! Two other things that I liked about the class was the flexibility and the adaptability to our actual lives as humans.

Three things I did not like about the class were the reading selctions and the recommendation to speak and interview with someone that was out of our comfort zone, especially a caucasian person. Also, I did not care for being penalized when the interviews were not completed. If someone does not want to help you they will not.

I would suggest different readings, more interesting movies, and more discussion panels throughout the semester. Overall, I have learned alot in this course and I would like to thank my professor for a well taught course. I'm in graduate school!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!