Women's Empowerment Forum

NCAA Tournament predictions (West)

Sports tawk

James Harden beat

Los Angeles Rams sqeek by the Saints to reach the Super Bowl

The Los Angeles Rams defeated the New Orleans Saints Sunday to go to the Super Bowl for the forth time. The Rams walked into the Mercedes-Benz Superdome with a wave of momentum after last weeks dominant performance against the Dallas Cowboys. the Saints were in control of the early stages of the game quickly earning 13 point lead to end the first quarter. in the second quarter the Rams offense began to move the ball to cut the lead to three to end the half. The Saints increased their lead to ten to open the half with screen pass from quarterback Drew Brees to quarterback Taysom Hill on third and goal (at the 8:39 mark 3rd quarter). The Rams took their time gradually chipping time off the clock as they scored with a play-action pass from quarterback Jared Goff to tight end Tyler Higbee. late in the Game the Saints were inching towards the red zone on third won when a pass was thrown incomplete due to a collision between cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman and Saints wide receiver Tommie lee Lewis. this was one of the biggest plays of the game because the refs missed the call on an obvious pass interference which force the game into overtime.

With the score tied 23 to 23 at the end of regulation the Rams were able to kick their way into Super Bowl 53 thanks to an untimely interception by Drew Brees and the steady arm of Jared Goff to put the rams into field goal range to setup a 57 yard field goal by kicker Greg Zuelein. in closing I feel that this was a very close game played by too evenly matched teams that from the start of the second half I knew that who had possession to end the game would be the winner. other than the no-call in the forth quarter the game was played with a lot of back and forth swings of momentum. the Saints finished the game with 290 yards of offense while the Rams finished with 378 yards. The Rams averaged 5.6 yards per play with the Saints averaging 4.5 yards per play. Drew Brees finished the game with a passer rating of 88.4 completed 26 out of 40 passes for 242 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception. Jared Goff finished the Game with a passer rating of 75.1 completing 25 out of 40 passes for 297 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

This game was very close, in my opinion the Saint could have won if the utilized Alvin Kamara and Mark Ingram more even with the missed penalty. The Rams simply controlled the clock better and terrorized Brees the whole game. Defensively the Saints gave Goff too much time to find open receivers allowing him to move the ball up the field with ease.
My prediction for the Super Bowl is the Patriots as the winners because as well as Goff played in the championship game I feel that if he makes too many mistakes and allows time for Tom Brady to score the rams defense won’t be able to hold the Patriots off.

Millionaire race conversation

In James Weldon Johnson’s “ Autobiography of an ex-colored man the central theme is about his struggles as a biracial many in the post Civil war era. During the story Johnson is met with many hardships like not knowing his father, his mother passing away and losing his wife to child birth. Though  all these struggles may seem like a great burden his greatest burden of all is his identity. Johnson lives a comfortable life passing as a white man but can’t shake the feeling of being a traitor to his African roots. During a conversation with a rich white man , who has no prejudice towards race, advice is given to Johnson that he should continue to downplay his African heritage for fear of how hard life as a black man can be.

Semester in review

Electronic media production Is a class that talks about using social media outlets to create content and  using the content to blog post. In this course we had to create a blog complete with gadgets and links to our various social media accounts. Throughout the semester we updated our blogs with new post and applied what we learned to the post.

The first social media outlet we learned about was twitter. My twitter handle is Tommyboyswag96. 





the next social media was LinkedIn , which is a professional social media used to connect aspiring workers with employers .  having a quality LinkedIn account is important for anyone wanting to be successful in the professional world because it could potentially help you get the job.






My Pinterest account has three boards and they are as follows: quote of the day, hilarious memes and sports memes. The quote of the day board is made up of inspirational quotes that I find helpful to building a positive and healthy mindset. The other two boards are similar as they’re both pictures with funny sayings and phrases printed on them. The sports memes board is simply a compilation of photos of sports with funny quotes on them for instance, my favorite picture is a picture of two basketball players where one is jumping, while the other is standing on the ground and his face is covered by the guys hand and the text reads “in the name of Jesus be healed.”

Prezi is an updated version of the PowerPoint presentation software, which allows you to create professional looking presentations for class projects and or proposals. I used prezi to make a presentation about my top 10 favorite comedians.what I like is that it has more customization options than PowerPoint but what I dislike about it is that it sometimes doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to and is only compatible with certain electronic devices.

the Green screen where I want to be assignment showed us how to use the Green screen effect in Adobe Premier Pro. for this assignment we were asked to take photos infront of a green screen and choose a background picture to use as scenery. after we had our pictures chosen we applied the green screen effects in the adobe program and created a custom photo complete with text describing the picture.

Kizoa is a newer presentation movie/ collage maker software that allows you to make quick and easy videos with sound and text. i like that it has different animations and effects that can make your video more entertaining but i dislike the process by which you have to apply the effects and other features because of its tedious nature.

Bulldog Scavenger Hunt

In conclusion this semester I learned how to create a blog and learn of the various features and gadgets available to make it stand out. I also learned to use these features and social media sites to promote myself and present my content to the public. before this semester I only used social media to communicate with friends and post about my hobbies, but this course show me how to use social media in a more productive manner that could help me start my career.

Kizoa Scavenger Hunt

This is a compilation of photos taken on Wednesday November 29th from 8:30- 9:40 am , which highlights the many bulldog statues and logos present on the campus of South Carolina State University.  The Bulldog scavenger hunt required that you travel almost the entire campus in search for the Bulldog statue or logo. While on this search it was discovered that there are more bulldogs on the campus than i had prior knowledge of , for instance before the scavenger hunt i was unaware of the Bulldog Statue located in the Donma Administration Building.

Green Screen to At&t Stadium

This project is called the green screen assignment, where I had the choice of picking a place or thing that I wanted to either go or be.  so I chose to take a picture of a place I'd like to visit, I chose At&t Stadium which is home to the Dallas Cowboys. I chose this scenery because one day I hope to visit the stadium to see the Cowboys play because they are my favorite team.

so the first thing I did was find a picture of the stadium then I imported it to adobe premier pro( go to file import and select the image).

After adding the picture to the adobe program I selected it and dragged it to the V1 panel on the screen. So now that I had a background it was time for me to take my picture. I went into the green screen room and posed with my arms stretched wide.

 Next I imported the picture into adobe premier pro and scaled it down to the size I wanted so it would appear as if I were on the field. Using the ultra key tool and playing with the matte generation tool allowed me to remove the green screen and blend the background into the stadium background. Once I got it to look as though I was standing on the field , I added text using the title tool. my title reads " Respect The Star."

Prezi the next level power point

Prezi is a presentation software that allows for a more interactive experience in comparison to power point. Prezi was created in Hungary and was launched in April of 2009. The founders of prezi are Adam Somlia-fischér, Peter Halacys , and Peter Arvai. Peter Arvai is the CEO;he is a Swedish business man with Hungarian parentage. The headquarters for prezi is located in San Francisco, California.

https://prezi.com/view/b9stm7yBqcD54JP27fHF/

Pinterest what is it ? And what does it do ?

Pinterest is the social media outlet that allows users to create a page consisting of pictures. it is often referred to as the online scrapbook. Pinterest was created in 2010 by Ben Silbermann , who worked for google as an online advertiser . After leaving Google Silbermann teamed up with a Paul Sciarra to produce iPhone applications. the two would later produce Tote but the application failed to gain notoriety. The two former Yale graduates would soon hit the jackpot as they would create the board based social media platform that would later be known as Pinterest.


Pinterest users not only use it to pin their pictures like a scrapbook , but also to shop for popular items .  Pinterest is primarily used by women , who commonly use it to shop for clothes and beauty products to feed their shopaholic desires. shopping is made easier through Pinterest and companies capitalize on it's growing popularity by displaying their products with a Pinterest logo to entice customers to buy their products because it was previously seen on Pinterest. for the cooks and chef's of the world there are also recipes and food boards available on Pinterest to help them take their dishes to the gourmet level.

         

Under Armor uses Pinterest to promote their products and sales. They even have the products for the upcoming seasons . Their products are geared towards the needs of athletes and their mission is to provide comfortable clothing to allow for

increased athletic performance.

one of my boards is sports memes which will consist of popular sports memes such as jokes about

how the Atlanta Falcons blew a 28 to 3 lead in the Super Bowl. my second board is similar because it is also a meme board but just funny ones in general.  my third board will consist of inspirational quotes. i chose these boards because I'm very keen on jokes and I'm a sports fanatic,but I also need inspiration at times.

Jose Matthew’s Hard Knock Life

“The most expensive thing I’m the world is trust. It can take years to earn and just a matter of seconds to lose.” , are the powerful words of Tupac Shakur. Jose “Ricky “ Matthews has quite the story to tell and the story begins in the gritty streets of Brooklyn, New York, where he was raised.

Take heed as Ricky describes his experience growing up in Brooklyn “I lived in one of the worst neighborhoods in Brooklyn ;where Blacks and Hispanics are constantly getting arrested. Positivity is only found in school and sports
He said.

 I was constantly on guard”. Ricky said “ I was raised by three beautiful black independent women. “  Matthew’s mother kept him active with football, karate and art. He said “ she kept me in the house until I 14”. He would go on to say that in his teens he would get arrested for “dumb stuff “

:Matthews pictured above posing in the courtyard of Mitchell Hall

Upon graduating from high school Matthews attended a prep school in Georgia but it didn’t work the way that he hoped it would. After returning home to Brooklyn before being connected with South Carolina State University through a family member who worked there. Matthews now 23 years old recalls his experience coming to SC State he said “ it was new to me, I found myself being around people who reminded me of the people I hung out with in Brooklyn,and I knew that I wanted to be better than I was so I had to make a change. Everything began with 101 black men “.


The 101 black men is an organization on the campus of SC State that aims to mold young black men into leaders. It is through the 101 black men that Ricky met his mentor Dr. Rashad Anderson, who is the organizer of the 101 black men. Matthew’s relationship with Dr. Anderson would later lead him to join another campus organization as he would be apart of the Phi Mu Alpha music fraternity ,an organization that Dr. Anderson is also a member of. He said “ I’m a city boy adapting to a country school. I’m trying to be better than who I was and to become the leader I was meant to be “.

 

: Jose pictured above during an event for Phi Mu Alpha

Jose is now in his Junior year at SC State and is majoring in Mass communications, he plans on being a sports broadcaster while also chasing his dream of playing in the National Football league. Ricky’s hobbies include playing football, working out, running track, and listening to music. On the topic of his hobbies he said “ I’m the type of guy that enjoys things that people take for granted. Anything, the little things in life matter. Sometimes I enjoy being alone .” Ricky described himself as a nonjudgmental, laidback, ambitious, down to earth person. 

In his words he said “ I stay to myself but I’m a people person. “

Ricky would go on to say that he doesn’t like to fail and that while he doesn’t consider himself to be the smartest person, what may lack in smarts he makes up for with effort and he will never give up. 

With that mentality in mind I doubt anything or anyone can stop Ricky Matthews from being a success, because he’s come to far to allow for anything less than to be a success. 

To learn more about Ricky Matthews click here to see his LinkedIn site

                                                    : Matthews all smiles as he poses infront of Mitchell Hall.

Twitter how to use it and why

Twitter is the social network created to allow for communication in short bursts.  Twitter was created by Jack Dorsey in 2006. the idea for Twitter came from his time as a dispatch software conductor ;which was his first job. Dorsey was honored as the technology innovator of the year on October 12, 2012 for the success of twitter and the invention of Square,a mobile credit card processor.
Twitter is primarily used to display your thoughts about certain events and topics relevant to the mainstream media. In recent years twitter has grown in popularity and is being used as a platform to promote business ventures as well as politics.

I personally don’t use twitter very often because it is my least favorite social media outlet but after getting into college and being introduced to new ways of utilizing it I’ve grown to appreciate twitter more. I use twitter to ;keep updated on news , read tweets from people who I’ve lost contact with, and to see the results of a pay-per-view fight or un televised game. I personally spend more time reading tweets than I do tweeting my own thoughts and ideas, so I consider myself a passive twitter user.

My list of followers is low due to my lack of use and the people I follow are mostly classmates and friends from my school and neighborhood, I also follow a few celebrities like; Dwayne Johnson, Deion Sanders , and   Emmitt Smith. I follow all of these guys for one simple reason because they have personality traits that I believe everyone should aspire to have; I admire Dwayne Johnson for his humility and kindness , Deion Sanders for his confidence and the fact that he doesn’t hide his talent and I admire Emmitt for his work ethic and resiliency. My twitter handle is @Tommyboyswag96.

what's LinkedIn?

LinkedIn was created by Reid Hoffman and a group of his colleagues from Social net and Paypal in 2003. 
LinkedIn is a social media platform that allows people to network with professionals, to establish relationships that translate into job opportunities.
LinkedIn allows users to post their education, experience and skills to ensure that employers know enough about them to see if they are qualified for the job.

LinkedIn is primarily used by High school and college student in an effort to build their portfolio.
 this is done to connected students to employers before they graduate making it easier for them to find jobs.
with my LinkedIn I hope to share my content with employers so that they may give me feedback and tips on how I could produce better content.

Jerel Palmer is an example of someone who has a well organized LinkedIn profile. Every aspect of his linkedin is detailed with information about his expertise ,which has allow him to connect with a multitude of news stations and has gotten him many job opportunities. the only negative to his profile  is that he didn't smile in his profile picture. 

SC State solar eclipse experience

On Monday August 21 at 1:00 pm we witnessed the first solar eclipse in the United States since 2015. People from all over the world were on hand at Oliver C Dawson stadium to experience this once in a lifetime spectacle. The campus of South Carolina State University was open to all comers and got the party started at 11am. The atmosphere resembled a good old fashioned family reunion with music, food and theatrics to appeal to multiple demographics. At 2:43 pm the eclipse had reached totality and people could be seen looking up to the stars eyes wide in amazement with what they saw.

 
In this picture students can be seen looking towards the sky to view the eclipse, notice the SC State student(middle) is wearing his solar eclipse glasses. 

 In this picture I can be seen wearing my eclipse glasses, Students , faculty and al who attended this event were urged to keep their glasses on until the eclipse had reached totality.

 In this picture we see the eclipse at totality