Critical Thinking Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 13

Basic Thinking - Essay Example These slip-ups show themselves in their thinking, inclinations, preferences bends, personal stake and personal circumstance. In this unique situation, the paper fundamentally assesses Mr Herman Good Eagle’s routine trying to attempt to make sense of the obstructions that essentially add to his delay. In this manner, basically figured arrangements will likewise be advanced so as to empower Mr Herman deal with his time productively. Some of the time, being late is a lifestyle for certain individuals. They happen to imagine that they have additional time in their grasp than is extremely accessible. This sort of reasoning is both impeding to a person. For instance, because of poor time the executives Mr Herman dangers losing his employment. To make sense of the variables adding to Mr Herman not keeping time, his course guide will be dissected efficiently. Additionally, Mr Herman’s causes may be specialized. This implies he is awful at evaluating or approximating to what extent occasions/things take. As delineated, the results of running late for the most part run further than the vast majority (Banai, 1988). Individuals will tend not to believe a person who is in every case incessantly late. All things considered, the individual will have a negative notoriety which thusly will influence connections. A ton of components add to making Mr Herman late. Initially, Mr Herman is by all accounts waking somewhat late than is normal.

Security guide of the network fundamental - MyAssignmenthelp.com

Questions: 1. Distinguishing proof of data resources of A4A. 2. Distinguishing proof of InfoSec dangers related with the data resources. 3. Can these dangers be distinctive relying upon the part organization where a part works? Answers: Answer 1 The data resources of Academics for Academics incorporates the frameworks (PC, PC) on which the tasks are to be created and conveyed. The other data resource of the organization incorporates the delicate duplicate and printed version of the assignments or the activities created by the individuals from A4A. This is a data resource of the association since all the data delivered by the individuals aside from the messages, checked assignments and tests are properties of the association. The data framework putting away every one of these information is a significant data resource of the association and consequently, legitimate approaches are should have been upheld for the security of the equivalent. Answer 2 The significant data security chances that are related with the data resource are infection or malware danger and danger from an insider. Appropriate security of the data resource is to be guaranteed so as to forestall the infection or malware assault to the framework (Von Solms and Van Niekerk 2013). The association is additionally presented to danger from insider who can utilize the information or the reports delivered in the association. Answer 3 The dangers distinguished in the past segments are related with the data framework and its information in A4A. Nonetheless, there can be different dangers also, contingent upon the area where the part works. In the event that a part is working from a spot outside the association, there is a chance of the data robbery while its exchange (Ciampa 2012). Besides, the data security hazard from an insider danger increments also. References Ciampa, M., 2012.Security+ manual for organize security essentials. Cengage Learning. Von Solms, R. what's more, Van Niekerk, J., 2013. From data security to digital security.computers security,38, pp.97-102.

SIPA Students Compete in the Total Impact Portfolio Challenge COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY - SIPA Admissions Blog

SIPA Students Compete in the Total Impact Portfolio Challenge COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY - SIPA Admissions Blog On May 1st, a team of five SIPA graduate students represented Columbia University in Philadelphia for the inaugural Total Impact Portfolio Challenge, organized by the Wharton Social Impact Initiative  and the Good Capital Project. After months of preparation, the Columbia team was one of five out of 25 teams who earned advancement through two initial rounds to the final presentation round of the competition, which began in August 2018. The final presentation was made during the 2nd annual Total Impact Conference. The Columbia team members are Alecia Hill MPA 19, Ji Qi MPA-DP 19, Marc Tannous MPA 19, Kingsly Wang MIA 19, and Mingyi Xu MIA 19 (pictured above). They were very proud to represent Columbia and to have been selected for the final round. They would like to thank the many advisors who helped them throughout the process, including Anna Ginzberg (U.S. Trust), Cary Hanosek (Merrill Lynch), Ethan Powell (Impact Shares), Andrew Hornung (Brookmont Global Eguity), Professor Inna Okounkova, Professor Deborah McLean, and Professor Colm O’Cinneide. The Total Impact Portfolio Challenge is designed to train students to construct and execute a 100% impact portfolio, incorporating publicly traded securities and private investments to achieve a market rate of return and specific impact targets according to the mandate of a hypothetical client. The Good Capital Project (GCP) is a collaboration to drive more capital towards purpose-driven investments. Founded in 2017, GCP is an Intentional Media Company. Sharadiya Dasgupta is the Managing Director of GCP and is a SIPA alumna (MPA 17, Economic Policy). Interested in Learning about Impact Investing? We asked the team what advice they would give for incoming and prospective students if they want to learn about impact investing: Join the Columbia Impact Investing Initiative (CI3) and apply to be a CI3 consultant or a MIINT team member. If you are interested in the Total Impact Portfolio Challenge (TIPC), consider applying your second year. The process begins in August and is greatly benefited by experience including in CI3 connections, and relevant coursework. It would be helpful for your TIPC team to have at least one person with substantial investment / portfolio optimization experience (and ideally a CFA charter holder). For students interested in impact investing, explore courses in the following areas: Courses focused on the implementation of impact, such as: Community economic development; social value investing; PPP. Courses focused on the measuring and evaluation of impact, like: Impact investing courses; impact frameworks and tools like the GIINS IRIS, GIIRS, Toniic; and ESG standards like MSCI, Arabeque, Sustainalytics, and Bloomberg. Courses focused on traditional finance and quantitative skills, including Statistics, International Capital Markets, Multi-Asset Portfolio Management, and non-SIPA courses. (SIPA students can cross-register at other Columbia University graduate schools, including Columbia Business School.)

Making A Job Application For Business Law - 1467 Words

Before considering filling a job application I do a deep research the company before submitting any personal information. Since there are many shell or Ghost Companies and Companies that commit fraud. In the class on what little I ve had the opportunity to be present but I ve always been able to read the chapters of the class assigned to us the students, learned to identify several areas of law especially that are relevant to business and the Importance of the rule to those areas of law, how the rule of law limits government, how the rule of law Protects people from harmful business practices and why the rule of law is important to business. In my opinion one thing that I can say that if you do not have the knowledge to identify these†¦show more content†¦Is something that call their attention and always works. Normally before filling a job application I make a list of my skill, which are the most notable, if I use my past work and looking assessments which are the best qua lified and which ones I need to improve. I always analyzed myself as a person, I also use personal assessments like asking to friends and family as they observe and categorize my community work. These are aspects that are worth gold when making a resume and fill out your application for a Job. I have always considered that the more experience in my future profession or future as I would describe it is always good to keep in mind that experiences make you be better spent to best boss in the not too near future. Your goals are more serious and easier as you get on the field knowledge. For example this one on my favorite Cover letter: Dear Juan Done: I am writing in response to your advertisement in 113 east 13 street for a Finance Consultant position. After reading your job description, I am confident that my skills and my passion for Helps clients accomplish financial objectives are a perfect match for this position. I would bring to your company a broad range of skills, including: †¢ Business Knowledge, †¢ Communications Skills (listening, verbal, written), †¢ Analytical/Research Skills †¢ Computer/Technical Literacy †¢

The Geneva Convention in 1977 - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 5 Words: 1431 Downloads: 4 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Law Essay Did you like this example? There was a major revision of the Geneva Conventions in 1977, and both Additional Protocols I and II to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 were adopted. The first dealt with international armed conflict, whereas the second concerned with protection of persons who are victims of internal armed conflicts. The Martens Clause contained in the Preamble of the AP II holds cases that are not protected under the Protocol, would still be subject to the principles of humanity and the dictates of public conscience. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "The Geneva Convention in 1977" essay for you Create order The principle of humanity complements and limits the doctrine of military necessity by proscribing direct attacks against the civilian population and the use of violent acts which result in unnecessary suffering. The AP II refers to the principle of humanity as contained the customary law principle of civilian immunity and the principle of distinction in United Nations Resolution 2444, to internal armed conflicts.[1] Articles 1 and 2 of the AP II contain the scope of its application. Article 2 provides that all persons affected by an armed conflict are to receive protection under the Protocol, without any adverse distinction based on race, color, sex, language, religion or belief, political opinion, national or social origin, wealth or other status. While the Common Article 3 does not define the term non-international armed conflict, Article 1 of the AP II defines it as: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“armed conflicts which are not covered by Article 1 of the Additional Protocol I (internat ional armed conflicts) and which take place in the territory of a High Contracting Party between its armed forces and dissident armed forces or other organized armed groups which, under responsible command, exercise such control over a part of its territory as to enable them to carry out sustained and concerted military operations and to implement this Protocol. [2] Thus on the observation of Article 1 of the AP II, it can be said that the terms à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“non-international armed conflictà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  applies only to the most intense and large-scale conflicts. The requirements of control over a part of the territory of the State, and the ability to accomplish sustained and concerted military operations, make the AP II armed conflicts similar in many respects to international armed conflicts. Article 3 of the AP II provides that the Protocol cannot be invoked to affect a States sovereignty, its responsibility to maintain law and order or its defense of national unity and te rritorial integrity and further provides that the Protocol cannot justify any intervention, either direct or indirect, in a conflict or in the internal or external affairs of the State. Article 4 on fundamental guarantees relates to civilians who either do not take part in the hostilities or who have ceased to take part in hostilities. It specifically prohibits the order of no quarter. It also prohibits the following acts at any time and in any place: violence to the life, health and physical or mental well-being of persons, in particular murder as well as cruel treatment such as torture, mutilation or any form of corporal punishment; collective punishments; taking of hostages; acts of terrorism; Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment, rape, enforced prostitution and any form or indecent assault; Slavery and the slave trade in all their forms; pillage; threats to commit any of the foregoing acts. Article 4 (3) provides detailed protection to children and, in particular, guarantees the right to education, including religious and moral education; and the reunion of families temporarily separated. It provides that children who are below the age of fifteen years shall neither be recruited in the armed forces or groups nor be allowed to take part in hostilities. In case children below the age of fifteen years take a direct part in hostilities, they shall be provided special protection. Children temporarily removed from the areas of hostility to safer locations must be accompanied by persons responsible for their safety and well-being. Article 5 of the Protocol deals with persons whose liberty has been restricted for reasons related to the armed conflict. It covers essential aspects of treatment which must be observed as a minimum in all cases like medical treatment, food, water, freedom of religion, etc., and also other important issues like accommodation, communication, a nd medical experimentation. (For details See Article 5 of Protocol II). On the Observation Article 5 it is viewed that it does not have any provision relating to visit by impartial bodies to places of detention, whereas Article 126 of the third Geneva Convention refers to such visits. Thus the Protocol allows a detaining power to ensure a complete cloak of secrecy around the treatment meted out to detainees. Article 6 of the Protocol applies to the prosecution and punishment of perpetrators of criminal offences related to armed conflicts and states that no sentence shall be passed and no penalty shall be executed on a person found guilty of an offence except pursuant to a conviction pronounced by a court offering the essential guarantees of independence and impartiality.[3] In particular, these guarantees require that an accused must be informed about the details of the offence alleged against him and he must be afforded all the necessary rights and means of defense during the trial. These rights are based on Article 14 of the ICCPR relating to the right to a fair trial. Article 6 also requires that the death penalty not be pronounced on persons who were under the age of 18 years at the time of the offence and not be carried out on pregnant women or mothers of young children. At the end of hostilities, an endeavor must be made by the authorities in power to grant amnesty to persons who have participated in the armed conflict, or those deprived of their liberty for reasons related to the armed conflict.[4] U C Jha, Wing Commander (Retd)), in his work à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“International Humanitarian Law, The Laws of Warà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  viewed: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“The Protocol also provides rules for the treatment of the wounded, sick and shipwrecked (Articles 7 and 8), and the protection of medical and religious personnel, and medical units and transports (Articles 9 to 11). Article 12 provides for the display and respect of the distinctive emblem of the Red Cross. The provisions for the protection of the civilian population and cultural property are contained in Articles 13 to 18. Article 13 which relates to civilian immunity, does not define the terms individual civilians and civilian population. The Protocol covers not only the peaceable population, but also civilians who participate or have participated in hostilities without a combatant status. While taking a direct or active role in hostilities, these individuals forfeit their immunity from direct attack, but retain their status as civilians unlike combatants, once their participation ceases, these civilians may no longer be attacked, although they may be subject to trial and punishment by the adverse party for having assumed the role of a combatant. The provisions relating to dissemination, ratification, signature, accession, denunciation and registration are contained in the last part (Articles 19 to 28) of the Protocol.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ [5] As on 31 December 2010, the Genev a Conventions of 1949 had been ratified by 190 countries, whereas the AP II had been ratified by only 165 countries. The countries which had not signed and ratified the AP II included the USA, India, Iraq, Iran, Myanmar, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Israel, and Sri Lanka. The past century has seen an increase in the proportion of non-combatant deaths in conflict. Williams Paui D, in its research paper opined that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“during the First World War, an estimated 5 per cent of casualties were civilians. In the Second World War, the figure was 50 per cent. Today, 80à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ 90 per cent of war casualties are civilians, the majority of them women and children. A large number of non-combatants die from the indirect effects of conflictà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ from [1]. Resolution 2444 (XXIII) of the UN General Assembly, 19 December 1968. Respect for Human Rights in Armed Conflicts. ItAffirmsresolution XXVIII of the XXth International Conference of the Red Cross held at Vienna in 1965, which laid down, the following principles for observance by all governmental and other authorities responsible for action in armed conflicts: (a) That the right of the parties to a conflict to adopt means of injuring the enemy is not unlimited; (b) That it is prohibited to launch attacks against the civilian populations as such; and (c) That distinction must be made at all times between persons taking part in the hostilities and members of the civilian population to the effect that the latter be spared as much as possible. These fundamental humanitarian law principles apply in both international and internal conflicts. [2]. See Article 1 of Additional Protocol II, 1977, Part 1 à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Scope of This Protocolà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . [3] See Article 6 of P rotocol II. [4] Ibid. [5]. Jha U C (Wing Commander (Retd)), International Humanitarian Law,The Laws of War, Forwared by Christopher Harland Published by Vij Books India Pvt Ltd, New Delhi.

Present Value Free Essays

Selling price The selling price would equal to the sum of the potential profits realizable by the purchased asset. In order to present a proper amount with respect to the time value and including the market risk and risk premium, the profits have to be discounted to the present value using the appropriate discount rate. The sum of the discounted cash flows for the next two years of the asset’s useful life is $299,021. We will write a custom essay sample on Present Value or any similar topic only for you Order Now 75. The same number represents a fair price for purchasing the asset, as it includes potential benefits realizable by the investment, as well as accounts for the possible risks on the basis of the fixed discount rate. Price adjustment under higher rates and inflation The higher inflation rate would require the appropriate price markup. Market interest rates as well as the risk rates are higher under the growing inflation. Therefore, the price of the asset will be increased, by marking the adjusting the dollar value using the appropriate inflation rate. Location If the asset would be located in the area with unstable governmental and economic situation, it would cost less. The unexpected and sharp market prices fluctuations could alter the projected profit margins. The implementation of long-term contracts would be under a threat. However, with only two years of potential profits, the latter argument does not represent the most critical issue in determining the price level. The risks associated with the potential benefits are significantly higher than in the case of operating in a stable economy. Consequently, the asset would lose some of its value, and its selling price would be lower. Bonds The goal of the firm is to maximize present shareholder value. This goal implies that projects should be undertaken that result in the positive net present value, that is the present value of the expected cash inflow less the present value of the required capital expenditures. Using net present value as a measure, capital budgeting involves selecting those projects that increase the value of the firm because they have a positive NPV. The timing and growth rate of the incoming cash flow is important only to the extent of its impact on NPV. The increase in the net present value means the decrease in the discount rate. This data can be observed in the financial plan section, using cash flows, where the present value of a cash flow stream is equal to the sum of the present values of the individual cash flows. Moreover, in determination of the net present value cost of capital percentage can be used. The cost of capital for any investment is the rate of return capital providers would expect to receive if they would invest their capital elsewhere (opportunity cost).  The annual financial reports for the two companies suggest at a first glance that Cisco systems would be a more sound investment, as it represents a more favourable income statement balance. General Motors Company shows very low profits for the last periods, however its profit margins are steadily growing. A significant loss, which negatively affects the current credit rating of the company, is realized in prior periods due to discontinuing operations and losses on requisitions. However, the company’s liquidity shows a close to industry’s median value. General Motors shows a more confident overall stability of business operation, while Cisco system greatly depends on innovation and research and development, which is associated with greater costs and bigger risk involved. However, the business indicates less dependency on fixed costs, which allows to attain not only technological or innovative advantage on the market, but also to win better trading bargains offering more favourable prices to customers. The business operations of Cisco largely depend on the appropriate timing and immediate reaction.Cisco should have a higher discount rate than General Motors, because it requires a more profound analysis for determining the potential performance of the company. The higher risks associated with the investment should be accordingly accounted for including the calculation of the market rate and the risk premium. General Motors offers lower returns but higher stability, which means less risk. Making a long term investment in bonds with the same pay rate would be more sound and reasonable for General Motors Company, as it provides a less risky opportunity of return. However, its benefits are limited compared to the potential suggested by the Cisco systems co mpany. How to cite Present Value, Essay examples

Fashion Icon Fashion Leader Essay Example For Students

Fashion Icon Fashion Leader Essay Abstraction No 1 could hold a accurate and comprehensive definition of the two footings â€Å"fashion icon† A ; â€Å"fashion leader† in the past decennary while these two new words appear often in the manner universe today. However. it seems that these have their ain significance and construct in two different cultural positions. The propose of this research is to reply the inquiry what does the â€Å"fashion icon† A ; â€Å"fashion leader† average severally in U. K. and China and what causes the difference apprehension of it. which may act upon the development of the manner universe in the hereafter. Literature research. personal interviews and cyberspace studies are the methods that I used to research this survey which could acquire in-depth. comprehensive. professional and the newest information. In add-on. what I found out from this survey research is to the different civilization taking to the difference construction of the society. And holding a different signifier of the society. the regulations of the life. the things the public pursue. the topographic point people is looking frontward to. the lifestyle the mass being willing to bask is non the same. This is a large subject to discourse. but we can get down from the little point. Let’s go back to the manner universe to speak about the different construct of the two footings. â€Å"fashion icon† A ; â€Å"fashion leader† . debut A large moving ridge of new word have been appeared these old ages to depict the new things invented with the development of the modern manner universe ; e. g. smart. purchaser. disco. stylist†¦The term â€Å"fashion icon † is thrown about excessively much these yearss. It is obvious that â€Å"fashion icon† is the most popular term which will be mentioned in today’s manner universe. However. the significance of the new term is different in eastern and western civilization. What cause the phenomenon and what difference significance included with the similar word â€Å"fashion leader†is the cardinal point of the research to research. The definition of manner is rather complexed which is the value or life manner in a period. It is proposed by some little kind of people. And so the populace respected and followed. The scope of manner is really broad. including making-up. vesture. dressing. behaviour. sense of placing. feeling and even ideas. Not every one can follow a right way of popularity for manner. Manner could be in a limited range alternatively of in a really big graduated table. Majority have a trouble about manner which leads them to follow some innovators. At this clip these individual and organisation shows their importance to the mass. Having an kernel of manner reflects their ain gustatory sensations which makes â€Å"fashion icons† A ; †fashion leaders† go some popular these yearss. To analysis the complexnesss of the adaptation curve into history from two different civilization is an indispensable job. PROBLEM STATEMENT/ Research Question: †¢ What is â€Å"fashion icon† in UK? What is â€Å"fashion leader† in UK? What is the relationship between â€Å"fashion icon† and â€Å"fashion leader† ? †¢ What is â€Å"fashion icon† in China? What is â€Å"fashion leader† in China? What is the relationship between â€Å"fashion icon† and â€Å"fashion leader† ? †¢ It is obvious that it have different definition of â€Å"fashion icon† A ; â€Å"fashion leader† in UK and China. What factors influenced it? †¢ Will it do the development of the manner universe in the hereafter? †¢ What other facets could be related with the difference? Research Objectives and Purposes: 1. Purpose: To look into the factors that leads to the difference description of the two new footings in manner. 2. Aim:†¢ The information will be extracted from some well-known manner insiders’ sentiments which have been reported to the populace. †¢ Questionnaire will be distributed to assorted types of people. so to roll up and number the consequence of the responses. †¢ To analysis the effect of all the information of both British manner country and Chinese manner country. separate the chief factor of it. Literature Review International purpose is fast going one of the most popular entry manner schemes for international retail companies when traveling into international markets ( Burt. 1993 ; Quinn and Doherty. 2000 ; Quinn and Alexander. 2002 ) . Though ab initio decelerate to react to this practical phenomenon happening in the international retailing sphere. the academic community has besides been bit by bit turning its attending to the nature of international franchising. in the context of retail merchant internationalization ( Whitehead. 1991 ; Sparks. 1995 ; Quinn. 1998 ; Doherty and Quinn. 1999 ; Quinn and Doherty. 2000 ; Quinn and Alexander. 2002 ) . This reappraisal will give a brief construct of the â€Å"fashion icon† A ; â€Å"fashion leader† in UK and China individually. Followed by analysing the factors consequence on the phenomenon. to hold a farther treatment on if it will do the development of the manner universe in the hereafter and the other comparative countries. 3 Types Of People EssayMethod A ; Feasibility Administering questionnaires. personal interviews and cyberspace studies were the ways for this survey. The grounds why utilizing assorted method presented have 3 points. Point 1. it was suited for researcher’s aims and could roll up a large sum of information from different sort of voluntaries in a high efficiency manner. Indicate 2. interviews is a quite distance and fast method manner to acquire information. And can acquire the feeling of the interviewee face to face. Some are afraid of interview because of experiencing under force per unit area in a one-to-one scene. As a consequence. point 3. the cyberspace study is better manner to affect the awkward state of affairs. And combination of all three methods. I consider it is the most appropriate ways to different sorts of people. The sample size was 50 in questionnaire. 17 of them take to make full in the questionnaire,6 of them chose have a personal interview. and the others prefer have an cyberspace studies for the resear ch. all the questionnaires were delivered to the voluntaries on 12th December and completed on the 19th in the same month. And it is be left adequate clip for the voluntary to complete the questionnaire with a no force per unit area environment. Personal interview is a private state of affairs. Paying attending with protecting the personal information when making a interview is the key to this methods. Give the adequate trust to the interviewees. The consequence will excessively good to anticipate. Internet study is the same questionnaire with the first method. Privacy protection was still the most trouble that many voluntee wasn’t willling to make full the existent information to de questionnaire. Most of them have a high ego protection. which may take to the information got is non so accurate. To work out this issue. any information was anonymously collected. but protecting privateness remained in a secret box. In other words. it was necessary for the research worker to explicate the content carefully or construe content suitably when research participants asked inquiries about the questionnaire. Furthermore. it was appropriate to supply a written debut to the subject for participants about the questionnaire. which may hold helped them understand easy and be willing to make full questionnaires out. Finally. avoiding injury is besides of import. which means that research workers should non inquire any sensitive inquiries or personal inquiries which might do injury to research participants. A study illustrate the chief factors about the people’s cognition about the manner icon and manner leaders. 35 % people said they know nil about what manner icon is. 15 % people have a extremely awareness about manner icon but have no thought about manner leaders. 27 % people think even they know merely one or two manner icon. they won’t pay more attending on it. the remainder per centum of the individual have an involvement in manner and want to cognize more information about it. Most individual show great involvement in manner is female and no affair the Asiatic miss or the European miss. But the manner icon these two different parts misss focus on is different. A consequence can be acquire is that people ever accept the manner icon in their ain civilization more easy. List OF mentions Craig. J. T. A ; Diana L. H. 1997. Journal of Consumer Research. Speaking of Fashion: Consumers’ Uses of Fashion Discourses and the Appropriation of Countervailing Cultural Meanings. Vol. 24. No. 1 ( June 1997 ) . pp. 15-42 Greenberg. B. A. . Lumpkin. J. R. and Bruner. G. C. 1982. Opinion leading and innovativeness in manner diffusion. American Institute of Decision Sciences Proceedings. pp. 240-42. Jennifer. C. 2009. Manner. Rhe cardinal constructs. pp. 02 – 03. Kaiser. S. B. 1990. The societal psychological science of dress 2nd erectile dysfunction. Macmillan. New York. NY. Kerry. P. 2012. Harper’s BAZAAR. Interview – The Sartorialist New Book Closer. hypertext transfer protocol: //www. harpersbazaar. com/fashion/fashion-articles/scott-schuman-sartorialist-interview # slide-1 Minyi. H. 1989. Modern Fashion in The Last Decade. New coming words. Vol. 6 pp. 88 – 89. pp. 90-91 Rosalie. A. C. 1969. American Anthropologist. Conceptual Styles. Culture Conflict. and Gestural Trials of Intelligence. Vol. 71 No. 5. pp. 828 – 856. TIME. 2012. List. All-time 100 Fashion Icons. hypertext transfer protocol: //www. clip. com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0. 29569. 2110513. 00. hypertext markup language

Definition and History of Fundamentalism

Nicholas Copernicus †Founder of Astronomy Essay

Nicholas Copernicus – Founder of Astronomy Essay Free Online Research Papers Nicholas Copernicus Founder of Astronomy Essay Nicholas Copernicus is considered to be the founder of modern astronomy. He was born in Poland in 1473. After his childhood dreams of astronomy, he was sent off to Krakow University to study mathematics and optics. Later, returning from studying religious law in Italy, Copernicus, through the influence of his uncle, was appointed cannon in the Cathedral of Frauenberg. In the next few years, Copernicus continued his studies of astronomy alone in his church. He made most of his observations from a turret situated on a protective wall around the cathedral. In 1530, after more than thirty years of intense study, Copernicus completed his great work, â€Å"De Revolutionibus†, which presented the theory that the earth rotated on its axis and made one complete revolution daily, and, at the same time, traveled around the sun once yearly. This was a fantastic concept for the sixteenth century! All great thinkers of that age believed that the earth was the center of the universe, and heavenly bodies revolved around our planet. Copernicus died in 1543, His life had been a sheltered and academic one. He never knew what controversy his work had caused. The church argued that man was next to God and was therefore superior to any other thing. But Copernicus forever changed the place of man in the universe. Man, according to this great scientist, was just a part of nature and should take his place among other living things, not dominate them. Research Papers on Nicholas Copernicus - Founder of Astronomy EssayAssess the importance of Nationalism 1815-1850 EuropeQuebec and CanadaAppeasement Policy Towards the Outbreak of World War 2Effects of Television Violence on ChildrenCapital PunishmentCanaanite Influence on the Early Israelite ReligionInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesThe Spring and AutumnMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever ProductArguments for Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS)

The Pacific Theater of World War II Research Paper

The Pacific Theater of World War II - Research Paper Example At the time, the US was not so active in world politics, but Japanese assumed US inclusion in the future. The surprise attack began on a Sunday morning on 7 December 1941, with layers of Japanese bombers and fighter aircrafts intended to destroy the Pacific Fleet in the harbor as well as US aircrafts on nearby fields. The attack destroyed three main battleships, three destroyers and one mine laying ship according to the initial reports by the Secretary of Navy. Furthermore, 72 aircrafts including bombers and fighters were destroyed along with 128 damaged. Casualties were near 2,400 which mostly included armed personnel.2 The attack achieved its objective of destroying most of the fleet and the damages bought Japanese some time to secure footholds in Pacific without interference from the US. The attack pulled US into the war and it is referred as the opening of the Pacific front. The Pearl Harbor was one of many targets across the Pacific that formed part of a very large offensive lau nched on 8 December 1941 by the Japanese. Thailand was invaded within a day and Hong Kong within three weeks. US forces stationed in Guam and the Wake Island surrendered to the ground offensive. Furthermore, Malaya was taken from the British rule within two months. This initial offensive launched on the 7 and 8 December 1941 was extremely successful campaign. The Japanese controlled the region and dominated the Pacific without major threats. The victories in Malaya as well as Thailand provided launching pads to establish air superiority in surrounding region. British battleship Prince of Wales was sunk by Japanese bombers launched from bases in Malaya. Almost a month after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese started... The Pearl Harbor was one of many targets across the Pacific that formed part of a very large offensive launched on 8 December 1941 by the Japanese. Thailand was invaded within a day and Hong Kong within three weeks. US forces stationed in Guam and the Wake Island surrendered to the ground offensive. Furthermore, Malaya was taken from the British rule within two months. This initial offensive launched on the 7 and 8 December 1941 was an extremely successful campaign. The Japanese controlled the region and dominated the Pacific without major threats. The victories in Malaya, as well as Thailand, provided launching pads to establish air superiority in surrounding region. British battleship Prince of Wales was sunk by Japanese bombers launched from bases in Malaya.Almost a month after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese started to consolidate their position by securing strategic assets in the region. Tarakan and Manado fell within days of invasion; Tarakan was rich in oil fields and a s trategic airfield, whereas Manado provided control of the Minahasa peninsula that could be used to approach Australia. In the same time period, invasion of Burma started on 15 January 1942 along with invasions for Singapore and New Guinea. British Commonwealth forces retreated from Burma and Singapore fell to Japanese in almost a month. By the first six months, Japanese controlled the Pacific from Burma in the west, Singapore in the south, New Guinea in the east and numerous islands in between.

Rock and Roll vs Rap Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Rock and Roll vs Rap - Essay Example Soon the American rock style began to influence other genres. Places like Southern California produced their own varieties of pop music, such as surf. Young adults and teenagers across the country were playing in amateur rock bands, laying the roots for local scenes which would pave the way for garage rock and the so-called San Francisco Sound. Rock has encountered several stages of development since the beginning of the 50s, and the tendencies in modern rock include alternative bands (Radiohead, Muse), so-called pop-rock (Blink-182, Green Day) and others (George-Warren 26). Rap music in its widely recognized form appeared much later than rock and roll. The roots of hip hop music are in West African and African American music. Originally, early rappers of the 70s focused on introducing themselves and others in the audience (the origin of the still common practice of "shouting out" on hip hop records). These early performers often emceed for hours at a time, with some improvisation and a simple four-count beat, along with a basic chorus to allow the performer to gather his thoughts (such as "one, two, three, y'all, to the beat, y'all"). The 1980s saw intense diversification in hip hop, which developed into a more complex form.

Pure Enantiomers of Phenylethylamine Mixture

Pure Enantiomers of Phenylethylamine Mixture Introduction The purpose of this laboratory was to resolve the pure enantiomers of ( ±)-ÃŽ ±-phenylethylamine (racemic) mixture, by separating their diasteriomeric derivatives using (+)-tartaric acid. The differing enantiomers form different salts with acids. Two molecules that are enantiomers have nearly identical physical and chemical properties although this may be true, the salts that are formed after the reaction with acid have distinct properties. Some salts are less soluble [(+)(-)] than others, and therefore crystallize from the mixture in a nearly pure stereoisomeric form. When using NaOH as a strong base to treat the salt, it allows for the isolation of the enantiomer (Lab Manual, 2007). Polarimetry is a common method used to distinguish between enantiomers, based on their ability to rotate the plane of polarized light in opposite directions (+ and -). This allows the observer to determine the enantiomeric purity, and therefore the composition of the mixture (Wade, 2007 Chemical Reaction: (-)-amine (+)-amine less soluble salt [(-)(+)]: crystallizes more soluble salt [(+)(+)] remains in solution 2NaOH + 2H2O (-)-ÃŽ ±-phenylethylamine (Lab Manual, 2007) Procedure: Instead of using a 50 mL beaker to boil the amine solution in, we used a 50 mL Erlenmyer flask For the rest of the proceduce refer to pg. 18, 22-24 (Lab Manual, 2007) Observations: The crystals were given a 4 week crystallization period and afterward, the (-)-ÃŽ ±-phenylethylamine- (+)-hydrogen tartrate salt was observed to be a white crystalline solid, and the methanol was a transparent liquid. Two very distinct layers were visible following the reaction with the NaOH (strong base) and addition of the methylene chloride (CH2Cl2). The top layer was translucent in some places and opaque in others, very cloudy, white liquid, while the bottom layer was transparent and also liquid. The resultant mixture following the three separate extractions was close to transparent Discussion: When the (+)-tartaric acid was added to the racemic mixture, ( ±)-ÃŽ ±-phenylethylamine, (-)-amine-(+)-hydrogen tartrate, and (+)-amine-(+)-hydrogen tartrate salts were formed. The (-)-amine-(+)-hydrogen tartrate was much less soluble in methanol, and therefore crystallized out of the solution (Lab Manual, 2007). This method of separation was proven to be quite successful, as the percent yield of this crystallization was 73.1 %, which is relatively high. The presence of impurities, as well as the inability to completely crystallize the salt from methanol most likely attributed to any discrepancies. It is also possible that although the (-)(+) salt is less soluble than the other salts, it still has some sort of solubility, and therefore crystallizes rather slowly (hence the mandatory 2 week waiting period, in our case it was 4 weeks). As well, the other salts, despite their high solubility in methanol, may have still crystallized very slightly over the long waiting period, adding to impurities Addition of NaOH resulted in the formation of two distinct layers: a white, cloudy aqueous layer (top), and a clear amine layer (bottom), and allowed for the isolation of (-)-ÃŽ ±-phenylethylamine (Lab Manual, 2007). The addition of 5 mL of water to the flask confirm that the top layer was the aqueous layer, since it increased relative to the bottom layer and the water was absorbed here (Lab Manual, 2007). The aqueous layer consisted of the (-)-amine, along with sodium tartrate, and water, while the amine layer included any impurities. The sodium tartrate readily dissolved in water, while methylene chloride (CH2Cl2) was added to dissolve (-)-ÃŽ ±-phenylethylamine (boiling point ~ 186oC), since it had a lower boiling point (40oC), and could easily be removed through heating (Synthesis and resolution of alpha-phenyethylamine. After a filtration process, including a series of extractions, there was percentage yield of 61.3% for the (-)-ÃŽ ±-phenylethylamine, which is a lower yield than the original 73.1 %, indicating that there was a loss of amine during the second part of the experimental procedure. The main cause of this error was the accidental disposal of much of the amine layer, in which a small amount of (-)-ÃŽ ±-phenylethylamine was still present. The presence of some impurities may have also affected results, however, they would have instead increased the yield and lead to misleading results. Another possible cause of error is the slight leakage out of the glass stopper on the separatory funnel when the solution was shaken. There was a bit of solution that leaked out the bottom or squirted out the top when releasing the pressure in the funnel. Subsequently, the error that substantially lowered the yield of the product greatly increases the optical purity of the mixture. The observed rotation of the final sample was -31. 8o (levorotary, left hand rotation) and the specific rotation was -33.8o compared with the empirical specific rotation of -40.4o  ± 0.2o (Lab Manual, 2007). The resultant optical purity was 83.7%, which is considerably high. Aside from the previously mentioned disposal of the organic layer, numerous other errors, such as the presence of impurities may have contributed to deviations in the optical purity. The negative (counter clockwise) rotation essentially confirmed that the enantiomer being isolated was the (-)-ÃŽ ±-phenylethylamine, and the high optical purity demonstrated that the extraction was accomplished with much success and considerable accuracy, since the final product was mainly (-)-amine, despite the relatively low yield.

Gods Grandeur :: essays research papers

Relationships between humans and the Divine have been the subject of many authors writings, in fact the very first text ever published was the Bible; the most comprehensive link between the Divine and humans. History is full of examples of people trying to define their relationship with the Divine or lack there of, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love...'; (Psalm 51:1). In the poems, “God’s Grandeur'; by Gerard Manley Hopkins and “Leda and the Swan'; by William Butler Yeats, humans relationships with the Divine is explored. In these poems we see an attempt to capture the obscurity, beauty and knowledge that are ever present in human beings relationships with the Divine. Hopkins and Yeats use a variety of method to express these views and in many ways differ in their attempts to capture this special relationship, but essentially they are trying to explain the same thing: the interconnection between the Divine and humans.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In many aspect human and Divine relationships are very obscure, since it is often difficult to remain faithful when God does not appear to be apparent in every day life. Hopkins realizes this, but compels the reader to take a closer look at the splendor of God which surrounds us every day, “The world is charged with the grandeur of God'; (Hopkins). Everything around is full of God’s glory, but one needs to realize that, “God’s glory is hidden except to the inquiring eye or on special occasions'; (MacKenzie, 1981, p. 63). This is represented by the comparison of God’s glory to the shaking of gold foil. Gold foil when viewed from only one angle appears to be dull, but when shaken gives of radiant light, much like lightning. If we limit ourselves to looking for God only on the surface we may actually miss His true radiance because we are unwilling to explore other venues to discover Him. Much like lightning, God’s display of glory can be dangerous and powerful: “The electrical images convey danger as well as power, but their display is rare'; (MacKenzie, 1981, p. 63). The glory of God is present but at the same time is obscure and irregular, we must therefore, strive to see it in our everyday life. Yeats also uses these images of power to portray the obscure nature of the Divine: “A sudden blow: the great wings beating still'; (Yeats).

Teaching Gifted and Talented Students

Many educators have become well-versed in modifying the regular classroom curriculum to meet the needs of students with disabilities. Educators are not as experienced, however, in meeting the instructional needs of high-ability students. In a growing number of states, revisions in regulations pertaining to gifted and talented students are requiring that high-ability students, previously served in part-time pull-out programs, must also receive appropriate instruction within the context of their regular classrooms. For example, in Kentucky, high-ability students can no longer be viewed as sufficiently served by a once-monthly or once-weekly program. These students have educational needs that must be met daily, just as students with disabilities have. Many regular education teachers report that meeting the needs of high-ability students equals and often exceeds the challenges of integrating disabled students in their classrooms. High-ability students can be delightful, but they can also be demanding, impatient, perfectionistic, sarcastic, and disruptive. In addition, few regular education teachers have received sufficient training in issues related to gifted and talented education. Before teachers can develop appropriate instructional strategies to meet the needs of high-ability students, they must recognize the value of such efforts. For many educators, services to gifted and talented students may seem to be elitist. However, public education is founded on the belief that all students (including those with high abilities) have the right to instruction appropriate to their needs. Gifted and talented students, like all students, should learn something new every day. General Strategies for Modifying the Curriculum The objectives for modifying standard curricula for high-ability students include: meeting the learning capacity of the students, meeting the students’ rapid rates of learning in all or some areas of study, and providing time and resources so that students can pursue areas of special interest. In order to modify standard curricula for high-ability students, Lois Roets (1993) proposed three options: lesson modifications, ssignment modifications, and scheduling modifications. Lessons can be modified through acceleration or enrichment of content. Assignments can be modified through reducing regular classroom work or providing alternate assignments. Scheduling options include providing opportunities for high-ability students to work individually through independent study, shared learning in homogeneous groupings with peers of similar ability and in terests, and participation in heterogeneous groupings of mixed-ability students. Lesson Modifications. One way teachers can extend or enrich the content they present is by asking open-ended questions. Such questions stimulate higher order thinking skills and give students opportunities to consider and express personal opinions. Open-ended questions require thinking skills such as comparison, synthesis, insight, judgment, hypothesis, conjecture, and assimilation. Such questions can also increase student awareness of current events. Open-ended questions should be included in both class discussions and assignments. They can also be used as stimulation for the opening or conclusion of a lesson. Another strategy for lesson modification developed by Susan Winebrenner (1992) is to use Bloom’s taxonomy of six levels of thinking to develop lesson content. Bloom’s model implies that the â€Å"lower† levels (knowledge, comprehension, and application) require more literal and less complex thinking than the â€Å"higher† levels (analysis, evaluation, and synthesis). Teachers are encouraged to develop thematic units with activities for students at all ability levels. This strategy involves four steps. Teachers first choose a theme that can incorporate learning objectives from several different subject areas. Secondly, teachers identify 6 to 10 key concepts or instructional objectives. Third, they determine which learner outcomes or grade-level competencies will be targeted for the unit. Finally, they design instructional activities to cover each of the six levels of thinking. Assignment Modifications High-ability students are often expected to complete assignments that they find boring or irrelevant because they represent no new learning for them. Allowing them to reduce or skip standard assignments in order to acquire time to pursue alternate assignments or independent projects is called urriculum compacting. The curriculum for a gifted student should be compacted in those areas that represent his or her strengths. When students â€Å"buy time† for enrichment or alternate activities, they should use that time to capitalize on their strengths, rather than to improve skills in weaker subjects. For example, a student advanced in math should have a compacted curriculum in that area w ith opportunities given for enriched study in mathematics. The first step in compacting the curriculum is determining the need to do so. A student is a candidate for compacting if he or she regularly finishes assignments quickly and correctly, consistently scores high on tests related to the modified area, or demonstrates high ability through individualized assessment, but not daily classwork (i. e. , he or she is gifted, but unmotivated for the standard curriculum). The second step in compacting the curriculum is to create a written plan outlining which, if any, regular assignments will be completed and what alternate activities will be accomplished. A time frame for the plan should also be determined. Modification plans can be limited to a few days (i. e. , length of lesson or chapter) or extend over the course of an entire school year. Alternate assignments for high-ability students can either be projects related to the modified area of study that extend the curriculum, or they can be independent projects that are chosen based on students’ individual interests. Winebrenner (1992) described a strategy in which students use written independent study contracts to research topics of interest to become â€Å"resident experts. † The students and teacher decide upon a description and the criteria for evaluating each project. A deadline is determined, and by that date, each student must share his or her project with the entire class. Before choosing their projects, students are also given time to browse various areas of interest. After completing compacted work, students are allowed to look through research materials to explore various topics. A deadline for choosing a topic for independent projects is also given to the students to limit their browsing time. Scheduling Modifications Cooperative learning through traditional heterogeneous groups is often counterproductive for high-ability students. When the learning task involves a great deal of drill and practice, these students often end up doing more teaching than learning. When placed in homogeneous cooperative learning groups, however, gifted students can derive significant learning benefits. This does not mean that high-ability students should never participate in heterogeneous cooperative learning groups. Rather, groupings should be chosen based on the task that is being assigned. When the task includes drill and practice, such as math computation or answering comprehension questions about a novel, gifted students should be grouped together and given a more complex task. When the task includes critical thinking, gifted students should be part of heterogeneous groups to stimulate discussions. Open-ended activities are excellent choices for heterogeneous groupings. Cluster grouping of high-ability students in the same classroom is another option for meeting the needs of gifted students in the regular classroom. The traditional method of assigning students to classes has often been to divide the high-ability students equally among the available classes so each teacher would have his or her â€Å"fair share. Under this system, however, each teacher must develop strategies for modifying the curriculum to meet the needs of the advanced students. With cluster grouping, four to six high-ability students are placed in the same classroom. This system allows the students to learn with and from each other and reduces the need for multiple teachers to develop appropriate instructional modifications. Case Studies The following case studies describe how the curric ulum was modified for three academically able students. Mark Mark entered first grade reading at a fourth-grade level. He had mastered math concepts that challenged his first-grade peers. He was placed in a second-grade class for math instruction and in a third-grade class for reading and spelling instruction. Despite these opportunities, Mark was always the first to finish assignments and spent the majority of his school day reading library books or playing computer games. His parents and teacher were concerned that he was not sufficiently challenged, but as a 6-year-old, he was too young to participate in the district’s pull-out gifted program. They were also concerned that he was having difficulty developing friendships in his classroom since he spent much of the day apart from his homeroom peers. A request for consultation was made to the school psychologist. With input from Mark’s parents and teachers, an independent study contract was developed for Mark to channel his high reading abilities toward study in a specific area. After browsing for a week, he chose dinosaurs as his project area. Mark then narrowed his focus to the Jurassic Period and decided to create a classroom reference book complete with pictures he drew. When he completed his daily work, Mark researched his topic area and worked on his project. When completed, Mark’s teacher asked him to share his project with his classmates. Because he had chosen a topic of high interest to his peers, Mark’s status as â€Å"resident expert† on dinosaurs made him attractive to his classmates. Mark’s teacher encouraged these budding friendships by asking the other students to bring dinosaur toys and books from home to share with the class during the following weeks. Katrina Katrina’s parents chose to move her from a private school to public school at the end of her third-grade year. Following the advice of the private school staff, Katrina’s parents enrolled her in a second year of third grade at the public school due to reported weaknesses in reading and written expression. After a few weeks of school, Katrina’s teacher approached the school psychologist with her concern that retention may not have been in Katrina’s best interest. The teacher reported that Katrina was performing on grade level in all areas and demonstrated high-ability math skills. Upon meeting with Katrina’s parents, however, they expressed the desire to keep her in the third grade. They felt that Katrina had suffered no harmful effects from the retention since it involved a move to a new school with different peers. Further, Katrina’s parents reported that she felt very comfortable and successful in her classroom. Although the committee decided to keep Katrina in the third grade, they developed a compacted curriculum for her in the area of math. A contract was written specifying modifications for Katrina in the regular class math curriculum. She was required to complete half of the assignments given to her peers, as long as she did so with 90% or higher accuracy. When finished with her modified assignment, Katrina then used her time earned through compacting for enriched study in mathematics. The committee was careful to avoid presenting material to Katrina that she would study in the future to avoid the possibility of repetition. Instead, an enriched program of study was developed that emphasized critical thinking and problem solving related to the addition and subtraction being taught in her classroom. Katrina’s contract included several choices of activities, any of which she could choose to do on a given day, such as creating story problems for the class to solve, drawing pictures or using manipulatives to demonstrate calculation problems, or activities involving measuring, classifying, estimating, and graphing. Katrina’s teacher would present a specific activity choice in these areas that extended and enriched the basic concepts being taught to the class as a whole. With these modifications, Katrina's advanced skills in math were addressed. Her parents and teacher judged her school year a success, and Katrina made an easy transition to fourth grade, where she was able to work on grade-level material with an average level of accuracy in all areas. Adam Adam demonstrated a very high spoken vocabulary and advanced ideas when participating in class. He completed few of his assignments, though, and showed strong resistance to putting pencil to paper despite obvious high abilities. He was able to read orally at a level 2 years above his fourth-grade status and could perform multidigit calculation problems mentally. However, in the classroom, Adam demonstrated task avoidance and disruptive behaviors. His teacher and parents were frustrated by his lack of work output and behavior problems, and they sought assistance from the school psychologist. In interviewing Adam, the psychologist found that he did not see the need to put on paper answers he already knew. It seemed likely that Adam’s behavior problems were related to boredom and frustration. To test this theory, the psychologist recommended the use of Winebrenner's (1992) â€Å"Most Difficult First† strategy. With this strategy, the teacher identifies the most difficult portion of an assignment and the student is allowed to attempt that portion of the assignment first. If he or she completes it with 100% accuracy, the student is excused from the remainder of the assignment and allowed to use his or her free time to pursue an alternate activity. Adam was resistant to this strategy at first, but he quickly saw its advantages and began completing those assignments that were modified using the strategy. With guidance from the school psychologist, Adam’s teacher then extended modifications to include pretesting and compacting opportunities across the curriculum. Adam used his time earned from compacting to pursue independent projects and recreational reading, and his behavior problems decreased accordingly. Conclusion The focus of educational services for high-ability students is shifting to the regular classroom. While this expansion of services to the regular classroom is a welcome recognition of the need to challenge high-ability students all day, every day, this initiative also brings with it a significant need to train regular education teachers. Support staff such as educators of gifted and talented students and school psychologists must learn to become effective consultants to assist regular classroom teachers in applying instructional strategies appropriate for meeting the needs of high-ability students References Roets, L. (1993). Modifying standard curriculum for high ability students. New Sharon, IA: Leadership Publishers. Winebrenner, S. (1992). Teaching gifted kids in the regular classroom. Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit. One of the biggest complaints that teachers hear from truly gifted students is that instead of having different or more challenging work, they simply have more of the same work every other student is assigned. For most parents, it is difficult to understand the difference. They see their child who can write and read well, and who can do math calculations easily and quickly and think that by having twice as much homework, the student's needs are being served. Unfortunately, they are wrong. While there has been a significant push to improve the lot of students with disabilities, programs for the truly gifted student are often left to their own devices. Without training and supervision, some teachers will be intimidated by their precocious class and rather than opening doors to more advanced insight, will simply load students down with what amounts to busy work. A child who already knows how to read and write well, probably should not be burdened with basic grammar exercises. Instead, this student should be reading for research and writing essays. This isn't beyond the scope of truly gifted children as young as nine or ten. But with funding cut at every turn and demands being made on public schools to provide services beyond the scope of mere education, too often G/T programs are left to their own devices. The solution lies in the intervention of parents and the interest of the community at large. This is the point where mentors from various professions can spark a bored but talented student to the next level. Imagine how much more interesting a talk about cancer cells would be from a visiting oncologist. People in the community are often more than willing to help, but it takes more than just teachers making the request. Parents have to get involved. Quite often parents are the first to notice their child's abilities. Some schools will try to put off testing or divert attention, but the parent needs to be their child's advocate. Students are legally entitled to and schools are federally mandated to offer programs for students according to their abilities. This means that gifted children deserve and should receive educational work commensurate with their abilities. Don't take no for an answer. Parental involvement can be a double-edged sword. Gifted programs need parents to push school districts to offer and support programs for gifted students that go past minimum standards. Without parental pressure, districts will ignore programs and allow them to atrophy. But it is also important that the need for parents to view their children as gifted isn't allowed to drive the enrollment of the program. In some district, testing for admission has become a tug of war for parents to get their children into programs viewed as having better teachers or lower enrollment. While any gifted student should be encouraged to take more challenging courses, it is a mistake to simply place a student into a program. It is also a mistake to water down curriculum in order to raise enrollment in advanced classes. Students need to be in programs that fit. Some students are good across the board learners and will be in language arts, science and math programs; other students have abilities in just math or just language arts. Make sure your student is in classes that fit his or her needs. Many parents make the mistake of thinking that having a child in a G/T program of classes is a ticket to academic success. That isn't really the case. Students in advanced classes suffer from some of the same problems that students in regular classes endure. And students in gifted classes have been known to fail. Failure is seen as anathema for most parents, but especially those of gifted students. Their first reaction is to blame the teacher or the school. Sometimes that action is justified, but just as often students make the choice to fail. Sometimes the decision to fail is an attempt to fit into the prevailing social structure of the school. Gifted students sometimes have difficulty dealing with their peers and will â€Å"dumb down† in order to fit in. Other times, learning disabilities such as ADD or anxiety will create situations in which the gifted student has problems processing or completing work. This doesn't mean the student doesn't deserve to be in an advanced program; it means that the student's educational disabilities need assistance in much the same way that a nearsighted student needs glasses to see the board. It's a balancing act. One of the biggest hurdles gifted students face is the social acceptance within the school. In some schools being in the gifted program is a mark of excellence. In others, it labels you as a nerd and causes problems that can be difficult for a shy or immature student to overcome. Teachers and parents should always monitor their student for situations where they are settling for lower recognition in order to avoid confrontation or bullying. This is especially a problem for some minority students and needs parental intervention and outside activities in church or the community in order to give the student a social support structure. Students such as this thrive in activities such as Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, church service, community volunteer programs and other activities that require a level of independence. By having a group of friends outside of school, the gifted student won't feel the need to mitigate their own achievements in the classroom in order to keep friends. Finally, and this is a very hard situation, parents have to learn to separate their personal needs from the accomplishments of their child. It's very easy to look at the kid who does math and science well and try to push them into a program for Med school. Don't do it. Gifted kids learn quickly, but they also suffer from the same false starts and lagging development that other kids experience. The failure or success of your gifted child belongs to them. And if that is the case, parents have to develop a hands off policy towards homework and projects. Teachers can spot the project where Mom or Dad tweaked something here or added something there. By intervening on such projects, parents dilute the learning experience and undermine their child's self-confidence. Gifted children often have self-doubt because they are doing things that are months or sometimes years beyond their peers. Don't exacerbate that by taking over the learning experience. Gifted children can offer a great deal of joy, but they are also a huge challenge. Quite often hey will offer opinions far beyond their years and understand provocative situations while still appearing innocent. It is important to support your child without smothering them. No matter what their abilities, they will still suffer the same teen angst and doubt held by others of their age. Roll with the punches, expect to be challenged and encourage them to explore areas beyond their comfort zone academically. BACKROUND http://www. azagt. org/teaching-gifted. html Common wisdom of the day once said bright children take care of themselves. Leta Hollingworth didn't believe a word of it. Instead, she thought teaching gifted students required specialized environments designed to bring out the full range of talents of the student. Hollingworth stumbled onto the concept of teaching gifted and talented students in a different way than the ordinary when her own teaching career hit a dead end. Hollingworth had been born and raised in Nebraska. She even graduated from the University of Nebraska at the age of 20, in 1906. Two years later, Leta Anna Stetter (Hollingsworth) moved to New York City and married Harry Levi Hollingworth, a Columbia University graduate student. Expecting to resume her teaching career in New York, her plan failed when she learned no one in New York City hired married women as teachers. Bored with the prospect of being a housewife for the rest of her life, Hollingworth took the next step in developing the methods for teaching gifted students still in use today. She enrolled at graduate school, too. Perhaps it was here that her interest in teaching gifted children sparked to life. She studied educational psychology and became a Columbia University professor. She focused her research and studies on finding the origins of human intelligence. She measured thousands of babies and monitored others for decades. It seems to have been important to Hollingworth to uncover any gender issues before tailoring methods for teaching gifted children of either gender. Her meticulous studies debunked the idea female inferiority. Over the years, her research and her methods for teaching gifted children led to more research and more books. She considered it vital to identify gifted children at as early an age as possible. She also advocated grouping gifted children with other gifted children instead of placing them in classes designed for the average student. Because Hollingworth considered daily contact a key component to her methods of teaching gifted and talented students, she eventually established a school in New York that was devoted to exceptionally bright students. Instead of a teacher-led program of study, the flow of the education was student driven instead. Hollingworth felt her special students would benefit from knowing about some of the challenges life might send their way. To prepare them, her curriculum for teaching gifted students included learning experiences based on issues they were likely to encounter at some point in their adult lives.

The Challenge - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 34 Words: 10115 Downloads: 8 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Statistics Essay Did you like this example? Objective This document sets out a final and comprehensive report for all stakeholders and partners of The Challenge Reality TV Project initiated by British Council Ghana in June 2007. The Council co-produced and co-sponsored the reality TV to deliver a programme which mixes academic excellence and the competitive spirit to create an intelligent, powerful and thought-provoking show. Preface The concept of The Challenge was created by the British Council as a competition that provides opportunity for three Ghanaian university graduates to win full scholarships for postgraduate study at three prestigious universities in the UK. The winners of the competition are also guaranteed management positions with Ghana Club 100 companies on completion of their courses, while the first prize winner also receives a brand new saloon car. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "The Challenge" essay for you Create order The vision above was only achieved by creating a collaborative partnership between the British Council, Charterhouse Productions and three Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) in the UK, namely the Universities of Westminster, Thames Valley and London Metropolitan, with commercial sponsorships from tiGo (Millicom Ghana) and Zenith Bank Ghana. A number of Ghanaian corporate organizations namely, Virgin Nigeria, PHC Motors, TV3 Media and BusinessGhana.com also supported the project with substantial in-kind sponsorships; while donors included FairGreen Computers, Woolworth Stores, Simbins Funiture, Joy FM and RVI. A key strategic thrust of the British Council is to ensure that a high number of the Ghanaian populace becomes aware of its work in promoting UK Education, professional development and in facilitating cultural relations between Ghana and the UK. Through The Challenge we specifically sought to aggressively achieve our Corporate Outputs of promoting the UK as offering a wide range of high quality, inspirational opportunities for personal development while encouraging return of UK university alumni back to Ghana to contribute to Ghanas development). A related intent for British Council Ghana was to pilot an event to commemorate the 50th Anniversary celebration of Ghanas independence. The association of our HEI and commercial partners with this innovative project was to provide a platform to market services to socio-economic group ABC aged 18 45, thereby reinforcing corporate image while increasing appeal to the target. Through this we envisaged that sponsor organizations raise the profile of company as a corporate establishment supporting a worthy educational/ human developmental cause in Ghana. The Search This stage was the preliminary one where prospective participants were invited to submit applications. This was achieved through the institution of a web-based application system that automatically screened all applicants on the basis pre-set eligibility criteria. The use of this system, apart from being cost effective, allowed us to accept applications from all the regions in Ghana in a relatively short time. Close to 2000 applications were received from first-degree graduates within the first two weeks of going live; out of these, 900 applications met the eligibility criteria and these were invited to two pre-selection auditions in Kumasi and Accra. The Pre-Selection Auditions The first audition was held at Miklin Hotel, Kumasi on Saturday 3rd November 2007. Although 240 eligible applicants from the Northern sector of the country were invited, only 70 turned up by the end of the day. Remarkably, only two female applicants turned up. In sharp contrast, the audition held at the British Council office in Accra on 11th November had close to 700 applicants turning up. About 40% of these applicants were women. Screening Process The process of screening applicants to arrive at a short-listed pool of 100 applicants involved two stages. All the applicants were required to write an aptitude test made up of ten quantitative and qualitative questions. All applicants who obtained a pass-mark of 50% and above qualified to go through the second stage. Stage two of pre-selection involved an interview with three members of The Faculty, namely Messrs Ebow Spio, Kwasi Appiah and Ms Diana Yanney. While in Kumasi, this stage was concluded in a day that of Accra spanned two full days in consideration of the sheer number of applicants. During the interviews applicants were required to provide evidence of their academic qualifications. They also had to demonstrate creativity and good presentation skills. * Observations Learning More than 90% of applicants in Northern Ghana were products of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. Clearly the fact the Kumasi audition was held just within just ten days of advertising the programme gave unfair advantage to applicants who were based in Kumasi. The question of holding the pre-selection auditions in just two locations requires a second look in future. Further, an innovative solution would have to be found to ensuring that all regions of Ghana are proportionately represented in the preliminary pool. In sharp contrast to the Northern sector, the Southern sector auditions turned out an impressive number of nearly six hundred candidates with an appreciable increase in the number of female applicants. In subsequent editions of the project, cognisance needs to be taken of the dearth of female participation in Northern Ghana, and affirmative measures would have to be taken in this regard. At the end of the two week audition sessions, 102 applicants were short-listed for the semi-finals stage of the competition. Semi Finals Held at the British Council Monday 12th November 2007 The 102 pre-selected candidates were divided into five groups and assigned case-studies developed from real management challenges facing the organizations that were in our major sponsor category. Apart from the obvious value of providing orientation into the operations of our sponsors, it enabled recall and mention for purposes of TV broadcast. The groups were tasked to present their results of their analysis and solutions to the three-member faculty, after which all members of the group were randomly picked to answer questions or explain concepts and issues that the faculty deemed appropriate. The faculty members then scored individuals in the group on ability to think quickly on ones feet, analytical thinking, power of communication and articulation. The Faculty also looked out which members of the group demonstrated leadership potential. Through this exercise, 25 semi-finalists were selected to compete in the next round. * Observation Learning The structure adopted for this stage of the selection process made it difficult for the faculty to ascertain the top performers in the group without equivocation. In the process, it is likely that some good performers were dropped at this stage. The structure and mode of selection at this stage needs a re-think in subsequent productions. The Finale 12 The process to determine the 12 finalists involved three components: All 25 semi finalists were required to demonstrate qualification for post-graduate courses and scholarships at all three sponsor HEIs. In all of these cases, the applicants submitted an essay to make a pitch for the scholarships. The Universities applied their standard selection criteria and systems to determine which of the 25 finalists qualified to read for a Masters Programme as well as qualified for a scholarship. To make it to top 12, an applicants had to be given the heads-up by all three universities. British Council conducted background checks of all 25 applicants. Upon receipt of feedback from the partner universities regarding the applications, and the background checks, the 25 participants attended a workshop facilitated by Options Group (Dolores Acolatse Faculty Member) on public speaking and delivering effective presentations. After this workshop, each of the 25 selected a topic through ballot for which they had to prepare presentations and deliver to a panel of two made of British Council Representative and an Interaction facilitator. The results of the three components above formed the basis for determining the twelve finalists to be out-doored to the public at the official public launch of The Challenge 2007. The Launch Held at the British Council, Accra Friday 16th November 2007 The official launch of The Challenge was successful notably due to the attendance of most invited VIPs among whom were two high ranking Ministers of State, The out-going British High Commissioner, Gordon Wetherell, Senior Entry Clearance Managers of UK Visas, Senior Managers of Westminster University and all the corporate sponsors. The British Council auditorium where the event was held was filled to capacity. Conservative estimates put total attendance at over 300. The event was nearly marred by a later than scheduled start due to the late arrival of the Master of Ceremony, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah. The tiGO marketing team also came in late to mount branding materials when guests were seated. There were also minor but numerous technical hitches that affected the smooth flow of the event; these are attributable to the late set up of set and equipment, as well as sloppy coordination in some respects. It was also clear that the Master of Ceremony, due to the late arrival, had not been adequately briefed and therefore made mistakes in some of his presentations. Further, he neglected or was not cued to bring in the audience and family/friends of the semi finalists in hyping up excitement and tension which would have made the show more engaging for the audience. Taken as a whole however, the launch was an impressive event with good entertainment from a renowned up and coming RB act Irene and Jane. The 12 finalists were announced and decorated by the Honourable Minister for Manpower, Youth and Employment, Hon, Nana Akomeah. Again, it was clear that that segment of the programme had not been properly planned to the detail. The 12 finalists were: * Belinda * Esther Quaofio * Joan Tsorhe * Jojo Quansah * Joshua * Junior * Lily Atutigaba * Lisboa Quarshie * Nana Afia Twum Barima * Seth Miah * Sheila * Thomas Abor The Challenge House Accommodation Production Base Activities Eviction The intent for The Challenge House at the planning stage was for a location that would serve the purposes outlined above. The plan was for the finalists to move into the Challenge House immediately after the launch event. However this arrangement did not materialise on account of the fact that no suitable facility had been secured and readied for the stated purpose. An apartment was hurriedly rented in East Legon, but the suitability of this facility was questionable. This compelled the production team to jettison the original arrangements and only sequester the contesting finalists for 2-3 days in the week in line with activity and filming. Indeed, by the time the Challenge House was ready for full occupancy, the first finalist had been evicted. The candidates checked in on Wednesdays, sometimes Tuesdays depending on the recording schedule and checked out Saturdays. This approach presented production challenges and inconvenienced the contestants, as they had to leave for home late o n some days when filming was finished late. On one occasion, Belinda was severely attacked by robbers on her way home late after an episode filming. This may have had potentially negative PR consequences had this issue found its way to the press. The legal implications for both British Council and Charterhouse may also have not been welcome. It is also noteworthy that the general up-keep, maintenance and security of the facility left much to be desired. No systems were put in place for cleaning, laundry and general maintenance of the house. Quite disappointing was the fact that none of the contestants took leadership of this issue to galvanize their colleagues to maintain high standard of cleanliness in the house. In sum, cleaning and maintenance was ad-hoc. Security in the house was an issue of prime concern throughout the duration of the show. The lock systems to the major entrance of the house were porous, put mildly. While security guards were posted to the facility, they were absent for long periods during days and nights, visiting other security guards in the neighbourhood or simply fallen asleep. It was therefore not surprising that the house was robbed twice during our sojourn, with electrical and electronic items made away with. There were numerous instances when the landlord of the facility visited without notice to conduct unwarranted inspection of the rooms (in most cases without knocking). On one occasion he entered one of the female contestants bedroom whiles she was undressing. He would also constantly complain to the participants that he was not happy with the condition of the house The lax control and commuting arrangements also meant that friends and family of the contestants visited the house regularly. The exposure of the contestants to such loose security arrangements could have had dire PR and legal consequences for the British Council and Charterhouse. The Board The contestants were judged by a three member scholarship committee: named The board made up of Madam Esther Cobbah, Dr. Kwasi Appiah and Mr. Keli Gadzekpo. The role of the Board was to: * Assess performance of participants against set criteria * Provide feedback to participants on basis of assessment * Nominate two participants for weekly SMS voting/evictions * Provide input into development of tasks and criteria * Serve as jury during the grand finale event * Make input into personal professional development modules Very high commendations are extended to the Board members for their commitment to this endeavor, particularly considering the heavy responsibilities they shoulder at their various organizations. Worthy of special mention is Dr. Kwasi Appiah for his unflinching dedication, consistency and engagement across all levels of production. He went an extra mile by visiting the participants in the house, joining in on training sessions, and editing of the scripts before they were presented to the public. Since the Board members were the moving force behind the show it may be advisable to get a ONE face of the board, supported by a pool of board members (say 6) with a rotating schedule. This will also enable their involvement in the weekly task to give them a better understanding of participants performances, attitude and behaviors The Faculty In-between weekly episodes and tasks, the finalists were taken through a number of personal and professional development training modules facilitated by experts in the respective fields. This was facilalted by a number of seasoned resource persons known as the faculty. Members of the faculty were: Mr. Ebow Spio Mrs. Zayna Taiwo Mrs. Grace Amey Obeng Mr. Martin Mensah Ms. Dolores Acolatse The role of the faculty members was: 1. Assess performance of participants against set criteria 2. Provide feedback to participants on basis of assessment 3. Provide input into development of tasks and criteria 4. Serve as jury during grand finale event 5. Make input into personal professional development modules Most of the Faculty members were very dedicated and this helped in the success of the event. Ebow Spio, Dolores Acolatse and Zayna Taiwo were the faculty members consistently supportive throughout the duration of the project. The Tasks There were seven main tasks that were designed to test the intelligence, creativity, innovation and knowledge of the Challenge participants. Through SMS voting 7 out of the 12 contestants were evicted over the eight week period. Profiling (Vision Board) This was an introduction stage of the show. The purpose of the task was to give the participants a platform to introduce themselves with the use of a vision board and pictures to the public. This was an important stage since voting formed an important part of the show, therefore the need for the public to get to know the participants. This crucial stage in the future could be made more interesting by allowing participants to decide on the different presentation styles such as the use of film, audio and multi media instead of restricting them to the use of the vision board. The shooting of the task started at about 10pm and ended around 4am. This was due to the late start of production and filming, a feature that was to dog the rest of the production. Sponsor Visit This stage was to help create mileage for our sponsors and media partners. This was also to make the participants aware of the job opportunity that awaits the winner upon return from the UK. Among the sponsors given this privilege include Virgin Nigeria, PHC Motors, TV3, Graphic Communication and Joy FM. At TV3 participants were made to assume the role of the news editors and readers after they had been given an insight into news editing and presentation. At Joy FM, participants were made to experience how to develop headline stories and also review daily newspapers. Although the purpose of this task was to create mileage for sponsors, it was difficult to arrange visits. For instance, Zenith Bank was given short notice of the visit, thereby creating an inconvenience for the Managers on the day of the appointment. 1. Business Simulation Task The objective of this task was to help participants understand the impact of marketing strategies on business performance and appreciate how to measure and generate cash and profit to prepare them for the corporate world. Participants attended a business management practical workshop facilitated by Suganthan Allotey of BizLiteracy Solutions. They were then put into four groups of three and made to run a pen manufacturing company for the second and third years as well as forecast for the fourth year. The groups came up with business names for their companies namely, WriteRite Company Ltd, Jet Corporation, Increaz Ltd and Web. Based on the task, Jet Corporation was found to be the strongest team and Write rite Ltd was found to be the weakest team. From that team Sheila was evicted from the show. This was a good learning platform for all business men and students as it addressed key issues pertaining to the business world. We propose more of such task be designed as it prepares the participants for the corporate world. 2. Smart Brains Quiz The quiz was designed to test participants knowledge on current affairs and global socio-economic development. Before the quiz, participants had the opportunity of having Uncle Ebow Whyte, a renowned motivational speaker visit them at the Challenge House. Ebow Whyte shared some words of wisdom with them in preparation for the quiz. Some issues that were addressed were gratitude, being pleasant, etc. He encouraged them to use their knowledge to make the world a better place. The structure of the quiz was a three-round competition. Round 1 concentrated on Africa-related issues. Round 2 was about identifying prominent faces while Round 3 was about identifying popular speeches and quotes. With the absence of the quiz master, Dr Appiah, a Board member was called in to serve as the moderator of the event. This however affected the show as he did not have time to prepare for his role. The questions were too simplistic considering that it had been titled Smart Brains. Further, the participants were given areas to study, this did not reflect their knowledge in the areas addressed and did not bring out the competitive spirit among them. Joshua performed poorly, with only one mark he became the second nominee for eviction. Nana Afia and Seth however proved themselves by scoring 7 points out of 8 and for that week both of them worn the Gold Medallist award. 3. Charity Task The task required The Challengers to bring Christmas to the children of two orphanages in Accra. The main objectives of the task however were: 1) to test their creativity 2) to ascertain their ability to work under extreme pressure 3) to test their ability to derive value from minimal resources 4) to determine their organizational and team working competencies. They were put into two groups of four, and assigned to the Osu Childrens home and Teshie Orphanage, each group was given seed capital of GH100. At the completion of the task the Group A, made up Jojo, Belinda, Joan, Esther and Lisboa, assigned to the Osu Childrens Home was identified as the strongest team. This is on account of the adoption by the group of a strategy that delivered results to meet objectives of the project. This task, according to the participants, brought fulfilment into their lives knowing they were able to make a difference in anothers life. According to Nana Afia, this task made her realise that success is not about attaining set targets but about your sense of accomplishment. 4. Speech Day The Speech Days objective was use awareness of global issues ranging from economic, social and political topics to identify which of the participants had good communication and public-speaking/oratory skills. The discussion demonstrated intelligence and desire to make a difference in the economy. This was staged in front of the public and the media. Participants were prepared in advance to take stands on various issues, after which they were asked questions based on their presentation. The topics that were discussed included Unemployment of University Graduates, Brain Drain in Africa and Achieving a cashless economy in Ghana to name but a few. This task really demonstrated real intelligence and must be encouraged as it serves as a learning platform for the viewers and the participants. For Seth, this was the task that taught him a great lesson In life one is expected to take a stand and stick to it, because people must know what you stand for and what your principles are. It was just a shame that the lesson he stood by that week was the task that sent him to the eviction room. For many people the choice of topics was stimulating and addressed very important issues in the world at large. The media interaction being a vital tool as it enriched the show and highlighted the knowledge of various issues 5. Film Task The film task was aimed at challenging the participants to bring to life creative ideas as they address issues of sanitation in Ghana. They were expected to produce a 10 minute audio visual that would impact positively on societys attitude towards sanitation. A session by Jim Awindor was organised to equip participants with the technical skills to enable them to undertake the task. They were put into two groups of four. The first group known as SLOAN production settled on narrative documentary to address sanitation issues at the Madina market. The second group known as Oasis production produced a docu-drama to address sanitation issues in the urban areas. The market sanitation documentary produced by SLOAN productions carried very powerful visuals of a typical open market in urban Ghana. Felicia Nyame, one of the reporters of the Challenge website www.thechallengeghana.com wrote: the film footage captured choked gutters in very disturbing proximity to food vendors, dilapidated toilet facilities, ineffective and inefficient waste-disposal systems; and what was really evident in the video was the manner in which buyers and sellers and market authorities carried on with a business-as-usual attitude, seemingly oblivious to the health risks posed by the unsanitary conditions. Seth Mia, who wrote the script, says: We knew at the beginning that this was an issue that had received a lot of attention without any identified change or impact. We therefore decided to adopt a new strategy of using the stakeholders, that is, buyers, sellers and market authorities, as our main characters to describe the problems and prescribe solutions to improve sa nitation 6. Great Debate The debate was designed to test the participants power of analysis, persuasion and ability to debate on points of view in a lucid succinct manner. The moderator was Ghanas renowned TV host, Paul Adom Okyere. The debate sought to put participants argumentative skills into play as they challenged each other by airing out their views on various topics ranging from education, crime and law enforcement, politics and leadership as well as the environment. The debate was to test the participant on various aspects. They were assessed on the following criteria: * Presentation style in addressing the key issues * Speaker is engaging and holds audience interest * Demonstrates clarity of thought * Is eloquent * Provides credible facts and s to support argument * Powers of analysis The way the debate was structured did not reflect the theme of the task as a great debate. It was more about expressing ones opinion as opposed to an interactive debate. The moderator did not know the nature of the task until an hour before the show was due to air. Having little time to prepare he contributed little in creating a lively upbeat debate. . 7. Interview Task The main objective of the interview task was for the sponsors to access the participants and identify those who could qualify for the managerial role that will be offered to the winner upon return. The panel was made of Heads of Human Resource from Millicom Ghana and Zenith Bank and Martin Mensah, faculty member. The interviews were conducted in two stages. The first stage involved leaderless discussion on the topic Cash is king, profit is vanity. This was followed by a group debate with the panel, who sought to challenge the participants on viewpoints and positions taken during the discussion. The second stage was an individual interview by the panel to ascertain their respective skills, competencies and ability to perform on the job. This task proved very popular with the young followers/audience of the Challenge on TV as it exposed the audience to rudiments of effective interviewing and behind-the-scenes discussions/negotiations of a job interview panel. The Evictions Video clips of weekly tasks and faculty assessments were sent to the Board prior to filming of evictions. The eviction episodes were always preceded by the in-camera Board deliberations of the outcomes of the tasks. The purpose of the eviction was to eliminate the weakest performer from the show on a weekly basis to arrive at the shortlist of five for the final show. The evictions were a thirty minute show that took place on Wednesdays and broadcast on Thursdays. The eviction process was structured in such a way that the board, after interviewing the participants, would put up the bottom 2-3 performers of the weeks task up for eviction. After this stage the public vote is used to evict the person with the least votes. The voting system played an important role in the eviction process as it was the final determiner of who should be evicted. The voting was such that the person with the highest votes was automatically immune from eviction and the person with the lowest votes automatically gets evicted. Below are a list of the evictions and the individual tasks the contestants were evicted from. EVICTION TASK NAME Eviction 1 Business Simulating Task Sheila Addo Eviction 2 Smart Brains Quiz Joshua Adom Eviction 3 Charity Task Thomas Arboh Eviction 4 Speech day Lily Atutiga Eviction 5 Film Task Lisboa Yemotiokor Quashie Eviction 6 Great Debate Belinder Oduro Eviction 7 Interviewing task John Kesse Jnr The Finals Held at the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel 1st February 2007 Seated audience: 600+. Esther Quaofio, Jojo Chartei Quansah, Joan Selorm Tsorhe, Seth Miah and Nana Afia Twum Barimah were the five candidates who made it to the grand finale event. The show in itself was fantastic with few, though quite long speeches. One significant quandary though, was the fact that we didnt expect such a positive turnout and under estimated the audience size. A lot of visitors could not find seats nor was there standing room. A large number of invited guests had to be turned away. The need for a larger venue was made apparent. That not withstanding, the performances were nicely coordinated and at the end of it all, the combined efforts of the candidates themselves, KPMG, the faculty, the board and the general public crowned Jojo Chartei Quansah winner of the challenge 2007. He received a prize package with a total value of 40,000 made up of full scholarship from the University of Westminster, fully paid accommodation in an international student hostel, a monthly living allowance, return air ticket to the UK valid for one year and a brand new laptop computer. On completion of the graduate course he will return to Ghana to pick up a pre arranged lucrative job placement and a brand new TATA Safari SUV Car. The 1st and 2nd runners-up were Nana Afia Twum Barima and Seth Miah respectively. They received a one-year Post Graduate Scholarship and accommodation from London Metropolitan University and Thames Valley University. In addition they also received return air tickets from Virgin Nigeria and living allowance from British Council. Broadcast The Challenge was broadcast at prime-time on TV3 three times a week. The main episode was shown for one hour on Sundays at 4pm. There were two 30 minute broadcasts on Thursday at 8.30pm and Saturdays 11am. A typical weeks broadcast resulted in potentially 989,700 households with total a total of five million people watching the programme across the country. Despite strenuous efforts to achieve the contrary, the production teams relationship with TV3, our television partner was dogged by numerous challenges, with dire consequences for consistency of transmission and quality delivery. The extent of cooperation and support received from (production section of) TV3 did not lend credence to the tenets of the partnership. Indeed, the posturing of TV3 at times was reminiscent of a competitor rather than a partner. While in limited instances the intervention of the head and members of TV3 Marketing department did make a difference, by and large TV3s posture was as if they were doing the Challenge a favour. This is unfortunate, considering that TV3, having produced in-house reality TV were aware of the challenges that reality TV posed. To be fair to TV3, they also articulated legitimate concerns regarding Charterhouses blatant disregard to deliver tapes per mutually agreed deadlines. It took a number of meetings between TV3, British Council and Charter House before the former became flexible on what they termed company policy on transmission ( all tapes to be aired on the network had to be submitted at least 24 hours before transmission time). Then again, TV3 without any regard to our viewers took off and aired some episodes as and when they pleased, especially at the inception of the football season when they changed their transmission schedules to favour the 26th edition of the MTN African Cup of Nations. Then again there was that issue of their refusal to air all voting promos unless the voting revenue was shared with them. TV3 was also not generous in its offer of programme (broadcast) support and publicity, particularly in the initial stages of the show. Promos, teasers, etc to drive audience awareness and vie wer ship was very scanty and ineffectual. Given the partnership status of TV3, it is appropriate to benchmark this against the programme support that TV3s in-house production receives. Publicity and Advertising Mileage After having a successful launch, the Challenge TV programme was fast in gaining a niche following across the country, through the various publicity coverage and media exposure. Television Based on independent media Survey reports, The Challenges 3 weekly episodes were watched by an average of 5 million people across the country. This transfers into an in home penetration of 900,000+ urban and semi-urban households in 6 regions of the countrys 10 regions. The broadcast episodes featured the following: * Up to Two 45-60 second commercials of all the major sponsors * Logo insertions of all sponsors and donors * Sponsor/donor mentions * Sponsor/donor acknowledgements in credits roll Radio Weekly updates of The Challenge were featured on Joy FMs popular super-morning show and drive-time programmes both of which reach up to 1 million people daily in Accra (mostly students and young professionals). Numerous interviews were conducted on the Start Breakfast Show on TV3 with British Council officials, contestants, and faculty and production crew. All interviews featured sponsor mentions Internet The Challenge website www.TheChallengeGhana.com received a total of 1,824,079 hits from September 2007 to February 2008. The average daily hits are 14,664 and 16,249 for December and January. The site continued to provide a live on-going platform of engagement with our audience and free mileage for all sponsors as the links to all sponsors are still active. The internet also gave us the added advantage to branch out via links to other websites such as www.Ghanaweb.com and www.myjoyonline.com which showed a live broadcast of the programme. Usage Statistics for thechallenge.com Publicity, especially before the auditions was vibrant and well delivered by the media. As the show progressed, however, publicity started to slack. A prompt meeting was arranged and the issue of exposure was efficiently rectified during the latter episodes of the program leading to the final event. Regular interviews at Joy FM and TV3 plus press reviews in the print media were all adopted. For future series a need to adopt a media coverage time line in advancement of the event is of paramount importance to maintain high interest and constant hype around the show. In furtherance of this, it is proposed that the linkages are maintained but direct delivery executed independent of the production team. This will enable a fleet-footed approach to using print and electronic media to drive top-of-mind awareness, interest and participation by the target audience. The Guardian Newspaper in the UK will published a story in Week 2 of January 2008 about The Challenge and this story featured interviews with Steve Berridge of the University of Westminster and quotes from BC Ghana officials. Sponsors The Challenge was made possible by the partnership with diverse organizations which are leaders/prominent players in their respective field. This therefore created an ideal partnership between the sponsors, the show and the British Council as they shared similar target audiences young, upwardly mobile people striving to obtain and be the best each mirroring a reflection of the others success and achievements. The categories of sponsorships are represented below: Platinum Sponsor Gold Sponsor Silver Sponsor Donor University of Westminster tiGO (Millicom Ghana) Zenith Bank Virgin Nigeria Airways PHC Motors London Metropolitan Thames Valley BusinessGhana.com Intl. Students House Fair-green Limited Simbins Furniture Woolworth Stores 3E Quantum BizLiteracy Solutions Holy Trinity Spa FC Group Reality Vacations Databank Joy FM The table below provides a comparative analysis of the sponsor benefits promised in the sponsorship proposal and the actual delivered. Category Benefits Proposed Benefits Delivered General Communication Plan applicable to all sponsors signed on before launch of the program Two-phase publicity blitz running on all the major Fm Stations in all urban towns Over 100 Advertising spots on GTV and all Charterhouse produced programs Over 10 Full Page Advertising pages in the Major Daily Newspapers Deployment of two thousand (2000) A3 Posters nation-wide Deployment of five thousand (5000) A5 Double sided flyers Web advertising on all popular Ghanaian web portals Regular write-ups and program updates and coverage in all the major newspapers 10 Banners displayed at major youth centres like; busy internet, SMS updates sent regularly to contestant fan clubs National awareness was driven largely by print media and internet. Radio was limited to Accra and Kumasi Over 200 Advertising spots were placed on TV3 through crawlers promotional clips 6 Full page advertisements were placed in Graphic and Mirror; all featured logos of all sponsors Not done. Spend was rather re-assigned to production of 25,000 fliers for more impact Over 25,000 flyers were produced and distributed nation-wide. This had logos and/or mentions of all sponsors This was achieved through programme dedicated website ref in other portals Not consistent in the earlier stages, but this improved in the 2nd month onwards Achieved Spend was re-allocated to SMS promos Platinum All communication will feature adverts, logos, artwork, web links, as well as general information of corporate sponsors One 30 45 second TV commercial spot in 30 minute mid-weekly episodes a minimum period of eight weeks Two 30 45 second TV commercial spots in 1 hour weekend episodes for a minimum period of eight weeks. Delayed broadcast on Africa Magic on DSTV for additional mileage. Achieved Where available Platinum sponsors were allocated two 45-60 second commercial spots in all the episodes over a 14 week period. In absence of TVC, voice-over mentions were used Where available Platinum sponsors were allocated two 45-60 second commercial spots in all the episodes over a 14 week period. In absence of TVC, voice-over mentions were used Not achieved yet Gold All communication will feature adverts, logos, artwork, web links, as well as general information of corporate sponsors One 30 45 second TV commercial spot in 30 minute mid-weekly episodes a minimum period of eight weeks One 30 45 second TV commercial spots in 1 hour weekend episodes for a minimum period of eight weeks. Delayed broadcast on Africa Magic on DSTV for additional mileage Achieved Where available Gold sponsors were allocated One 45-60 second commercial spots in all the episodes over a 14 week period. In absence of TVC, voice-over mentions were used Where available Gold sponsors were allocated One 45-60 second commercial spots in all the episodes over a 14 week period. In some instances, two spots were allocated Not achieved yet Silver All communication will feature adverts, artwork, web links and general information of corporate sponsors. One 30 45 second TV commercial spots in 1 hour weekend episodes for a minimum period of eight weeks. Delayed broadcast on AfricaMagic on DSTV for additional mileage. Achieved None of the silver sponsors provided TV commercials to be used. . In absence of TVC, voice-over mentions were used Not achieved yet Donor Donor clips in all episode broadcasts Acknowledgements by presenter in all episode broadcasts Acknowledgement in credits roll Reference to donor when prize package is mentioned Achieved Achieved Achieved Achieved ` What is the impact The Challenge has made so far? a few examples Social change the case of Madina Open Market in Accra The article below, culled from a report at the British Council Africa website was an adaptation of a story reported at www.thechallengeghana.com What began as just another task on The Challenge has surely come a long way. writes Felicia Nyame (Press Liaison Officer Reporter of www.thechallengeghana.com ) British Council in Ghana staff member Felicia Nyame writes on The Challenge website: When the SLOAN production team decided to do a story on market sanitation for their creativity task, little did they anticipate the impact this 10-minute video would have on the community of Madina in Accra. Felicia continues The car park is now taking shape with pavement blocks providing a more welcoming appearance to the market entrance. That is not all, there are more refuse containers, the abattoir is in better shape now, and the general sanitation has improved. The video obviously has had an impact on sanitation in the market. According to Seth Mia, he was told by a friend at church to visit the Madina market since a change was taking place. When I got here I was surprised, there were pavement blocks all over, cars were parked in an orderly manner it seemed too good to be true! So I went to the K.V.I.P section and realised the place was cleaner, even though some tomato sellers were still too close to the toilet facility. There were more containers it was a pleasant surprise, and I felt good about it, considering the part I played in the change. Some of the traders were quick to point out that the video had an immediate impact. Others assert that there were plans to sanitise the market but The Challenge reality show fast-tracked it. Bystander at market -The video obviously has had an impact on sanitation in the market. WhenI got hereI was surprised, there were pavement blocks all over, cars were parked in an orderly manner it seemed too good to be true! So I went to theK.V.I.P section and realised the place was cleaner, even though some tomato sellers were still too close to the toilet facility. There were more containers it was a pleasant surprise What credit do other people give us for what happened? In his keynote speech during the official launch event, the Minister of Manpower, Youth and Employment Hon. Nana Akomeah, described The Challenge as the most effective and productive TV event which has ever taken place in the country. He said The Challenge is very unique and different from all other competitions in and out of the country and Africa as a whole. Hon. Nana Akomeah said the fact that The Challenge is a competition which requires raw intellectual and mental power of the contestants makes it even more different from any other competition. The British High Commissioner, His Excellency Gordon Wetherell who was also present at the launch said the relationship between Ghana and Britain for the past years have been very strong and I hope with the British Councils effort to initiate an educative programme like The Challenge, the relationship would even grow more stronger. Mr. Wetherell described Britain as a country with the leading International educational system. He further stated that Britain is doing its best to extend their level of education to developing countries in Africa. He said 70,000 students worldwide have been given scholarships to study in leading Universities in Britain and that keeps the standard and reputation of British Universities very high. Mr. Wetherell advised the winners to make good use of the opportunity while studying in Britain. He concluded with the hope that The Challenge would make the relationship between Ghana and Britain grows stronger. Dr. K. Appiah, Chairman of Civic Foundation and Board member of the Challenge remarked This is a good stand that the British council has initiated and is undertaking, I hope this effort is not wasted and that the candidate who wins makes Ghana and British Council happy and proud by making an impact when given the opportunity. Nana Afia Twum-Barimah, one of the 12 finalists remarked I think this program will be great for challenging young optimistic students. It will give us a chance to show how much we care for our education. The prizes are also very promising for us graduates and our future Diana, a guest at the launch More grease to the elbows of the innovators and organisers of the Challenge. It is pretty outstanding and inspirational. I believe programmes of this sort will help whip up the zeal and enthusiasm in education to the farthest extent. I am particularly glad Interest and recognition from other BC offices across EWA beyond There has been a considerable amount of interest shown by other British Councils offices across East and West Africa who are seeking to replicate our success in their countries. We have been inundated with emails requesting information and reports with the hope of emulating The Challenge as a possible future venture. The Challenge Team from Ghana won an award in the recent BC-EWA Regional Recognition Award Scheme for impact and income. .Albert Eliason, Diana Yanney, Roy Aboku and Angelina Diyuoh in Ghana for the Challenge Ghana Reality TV initiative. This initiative attracted 169,000 in sponsorship and promoted Education UK much more effectively than the usual advertisements. With almost 2 million web hits and 5 million viewers, this is really a lesson for us all. Well done! 500 to share! Congratulations! E-mail circulated to all BC EWA staff on 2nd April 2008 by Philip Goodwin Regional Director British Council, East West Africa Region. Elements of The Challenge have been incorporated in the PMI Marketing strategy for 2008-2011 periods. The Challenge Reality TV has also recently been nominated for the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana (CIMG) Award in the category BEST TELEVISION PROGRAMME OF THE YEAR 2007 Increase in awareness and patronage of sponsors operations ..Finally, so far and the deadline is not until 31st May, Ghana has supplied more scholarship applications than any other country, up c.40% on last year. Regards, Colin Colin Matheson Director of Scholarships, University of Westminster in an e-mail he sent to Albert Eliason, Business Director, British Council Ghana and leader of The Challenge team. The winner of the London Metropolitan University scholarship-Nana Afia had her first shot at being ambassadors of the universities she would be attending this summer! The opportunity was presented through the British Councils Education UK Exhibition from 15th to 16th February. The Education UK exhibition is organised annually by the British Council with the aim of giving Ghanaian students desirous of studying in the UK the opportunity to interact with academics and representatives of reputable higher educational institutions in the UK. Through this exhibition details of courses and scholarship opportunities are also exposed. During the fair on Friday, Nana Afia was also assigned to the stand of London Metropolitan University. It was an interesting sight to watch them her work as ambassador for the very institutions she will be attending in August 2008. Not only did people join long queues to make enquiries at her stand but also to have photo taken with her. Nana Afia Twum-Barima said The exhibition has been very interesting, meeting all these people who came to my stand for enquiries. I feel so lucky knowing that without the Challenge I could be one of them .Most of them were also looking for scholarship opportunities and knowing that not all of them will be getting what they want, just shows how lucky I am. I am glad I was able to get students for my school. Most of them were anxious to fill the application form and also book appointments. I enjoyed myself. I am looking forward to doing more of this for my school Production Administration what worked well what didnt The Challenge 2007 was co-produced and administered by British Council and Charterhouse Productions. This collaboration general worked well and led to the launch of a project within very tight deadlines. There were also challenges and areas of improvement that ought to be highlighted. What worked well? * The delivery of the project to very tight deadlines, especially considering the relatively limited budget, is worthy of mention. This was as a result of spirit of understanding and compromise exhibited by principal managers of the two organizations. * The flexible approach to decision making also allowed for an alternative to GTV to be agreed upon quickly. This allowed for the development of technical and non-technical support to be derived for the production and broadcasting of the programme. * Development of media /technical partnerships to ensure credible selection/eviction methods through panel judging and audience use of SMS text message and web forms for voting/eviction * The design and build of performance stages for most of the shoots by Charterhouse was well executed. The sets looked very professional and contemporary. * Provision by Charterhouse of all technical requirements, including lights, sound equipment and visual equipment needed to execute the project was very remarkable. * Willingness of the technical and production team to work long and in most cases late hours to ensure delivery is also commendable. * By and large the production of a technically sound programme involving live events, pre and post production work regarding all episodes of the Reality TV show * Provision of technical logistics to support participants of the show, implement projects/tasks set them by the Board or Faculty. Arranging with third-parties for facilities, logistics and permits required to implement participants projects, as well as filming and post-production. What didnt work so well? * The provision of transport to ensure safe commute of participants from Challenge House to home after weekly eviction was completed. * Pre-production planning (with British Council team) was either not done or things changed last minute without notification. Setup for most programmes in the auditorium was mostly late and this contributed to the delay in the shooting of the main task. * The requirements, output and deliverables some of the tasks were sometimes not well-thought out or coordinated. Some tasks were set without agreement and publication of a comprehensive assessment criteria. * Communication between Charter house and British Council was not always effective as changes and decisions were not communicated in good time. * Centre of co-ordination between Chartehouse and TV3 was missing. This was manifested in the TV station and Charter House changes of broadcasts were not communicated in time to reach all parties and sponsors involved. Most importantly viewers were not given timely and adequate notification of changes/cancellations of scheduled broadcasts. * The nature of some of the tasks, and their overall output/quality seemed to be limited by technical/logistical challenges. In some of these instances, creative solutions would have delivered top class outputs, but the team limited its achievement on account of undue focus on financial limitations. * We did not maximise the use of media and the internet to generate a massive following for The Challenge. This was due to the teams unwillingness or inability to implement agreed strategy for media and web support. Technical Output A number of technical difficulties were encountered and this affected the quality of the show. A number are highlighted below: * Inadequate number of (lapel) microphones. The effect may have been imperceptible but did take a lot of the quality and professional output. This also delayed shooting as hand-held cordless microphones were passed on from one contestant to the other in most of the episode filming, and where a contestant forgot to pass on the microphone, this called for re-takes. This depreciated the professional output of the production. * There were an inadequate number of cameras for group/syndicate work off-site; this posed production challenges when participants were split up on different assignment and locations. * There were a limited number of instances where the camera crew were left to cover activities without hands-on direction. Even though a general brief was provided to the camera team, this was inadequate as the case of the Business Simulation Exercise proved. The output of some episodes also belied conformity to effective production planning. * The need to pre-shoot episodes in considerable advance of studio editing is of paramount importance, leaving enough time for the editing of all episodes before broadcast. * The lack of a permanent venue for shooting all the episodes brought to bear logistic and organizational nightmares for all parties. There is the need for all venues to be secured ahead of time before the day of shooting. * There were inconsistencies in the broadcast of the show, sometimes exacerbated by the poor communication between Directorial/Editing team of Charterhouse and TV3. TV3 on the other hand did not promote the show consistent with the outputs of a media partner. It is proposed that in future TV stations should bid for the show to ensure a better delivery. There is also need to select a TV station with national coverage to create a better impact and reach a much larger audience. * The show did not benefit from the execution of a well-thought out media support intended to generate public interest and understanding of the concepts as played out on TV. It is proposed that a team independent of Charterhouse be engaged to take a lead on execution of this in future production. Recommendations Coverage To ensure that The Challenge achieves the desired impact, national broadcast is an imperative. It is proposed that in future selected media partners have national coverage of their network or present a combination of network partnerships that deliver complete/near-to national coverage. Media support Trend analysis of web hits at www.thechallengeghana.com demonstrates the potential for this reality show to generate a massive following and larger audience s. An integrated media support strategy that dovetails press, radio and web formats to TV broadcasts will reinforce the impact and coverage of the show. To achieve this, the imperative to have a third-party working in tandem with Charterhouse is paramount. Review of press stories of The Challenge over the entire period of Season1 production and broadcast reveals numerous inaccuracies and factual misrepresentations. To prevent this in season2 it is expected that the proposed third-party media liaison/agency be made responsible for writing and circulating stories to all press houses. Further, this will ensure consistency as well as control and direction over what is written in each article for all media forms. An obvious need is to focus more Media attention in regions other than Greater Accra especially in the weeks leading up to the auditions to generate a higher number of applicants would be necessary; with a desirable component homing in to address the need for greater female participation. Production To address the production challenges and outputs referred to in earlier pages of this report: * Central direction is required at all times to provide linkage between concept development, execution and coordination between camera/sound crew and the editing bench. * Director and production team (inclusive of the editing bench) be guided/quality-controlled by input of three distinct panels. a) Concept Development Panel. This should be made up of representatives of BC, Charterhouse, Faculty, Board and external consultants who will be co-opted to contribute to concept development, inclusive of tasks and content of episodes. The panel will feed-back into proposals by production/technical team with a view to providing guidelines for the director, producer and technical crew. b) Quality Assurance Panel. It is proposed that this panel be made up of one or two technical experts from the TV station partner, Director and Editor, who will review all finished tapes of episodes to confirm/advice on conformity to all quality benchmarks, viz sound, light, cinematography, etc. Tapes that are sent for broadcast should pass the assessment of the QA panel. c) Audience Focus Group Panel. This would be made up of a core group of target audience who will pre-view episodes to determine suitability to audience preference, interest and appreciation. The bottom line is to establish appeal of recorded episodes to target audience. Ultimately input and feedback from the 3 proposed panels is to ensure that final output that is presented for broadcast delivers on all quality benchmarks. * A major challenge in season 1 was the use of an ideal venue to house contestants and provide a central/control point that serves as a fulcrum for effective production work. It is highly recommended that a permanent suitable venue be identified and secure in time for the show so that equipment is not moved back and forth unnecessarily. At best the production crew have a clear two day access to the recording venue for setting up, thus saving a great deal of production time. Consistency of broadcast The lack of consistency of broadcasts in season 1 brought into question the professionalism of Charterhouse and British Council and affected the overall quality of output. The causal factors that culminated in the shortcoming have been analysed from all perspectives. To ensure consistency of broadcasts in season 2, it is recommended that at least four episodes to be recorded and canned before the airing on the show. Research on advanced program scheduling is needed when evaluating air time availability /slotting, especially when important national and local events, and other reality shows are being aired as these shows compete with our target audience. This could be achieved by inviting TV stations to bid for the broadcast rights to The Challenge. Ratings, audience feedback and assessment of impact With regards to determining the ratings and popularity of the show, its extremely important we gain a clear understanding of the impact each episode/ task has on the audience. In future it is suggested that a system be developed to capture and store sufficient data to make this analysis possible. Market research in the form of questionnaires, polls at www.thechallenegghana.com for viewers, interviews and phone-in data could be captured and uploaded onto a data system. Analysis of this information could form the basis of a SWOT, fine-tuning of tasks and expanding to capture larger audience ratings. Furthermore, an in-depth weekly review should be incorporated, this can then be edited to compose a highlights version to be added to the challenge website. For future series statistics from our channel broadcaster is required not just for the broadcast of the entire show but for each individual episode aired. This could be cross-referenced and cost-analysed relative to popularity of individual tasks. The Tasks To achieve a good balance between the educational aspect and entertainment impact it is recommended that all tasks be thoroughly discussed by all parties involved in the recording process. The institution of the proposed Concept Development Panel will facilitate this to a much greater extent. This should enable a smooth and acceptable interpretation of the tasks recorded on the show Inspired Research A scan of business reality shows such as The Apprentice may provide useful pointers of many interesting tasks (ref. www.nbc.com/The_Apprentice) which have in-depth comprehensive links of the show, episode recaps, weekly tracker, lessons learned, etc.For example a task could be based loosely around the format of The Dragons Den show which, consists of entrepreneurs pitching their ideas to secure investment finance from business experts. Wardrobe The general feeling from all contestants was the issue regarding business attire. A number of them felt they hadnt been informed prior to the airing of the show of relevant clothing needed, with the attendant cost implications. It would be an unfair advantage for someone to be eliminated due to the fact they looked less professional. It would be advised that consideration be given to bringing on board a sponsor from a fashion house or reputable tailoring firm/entrepreneur to provide comprehensive wardrobe for contestants. Security and insurance The need for improved security and care/well-being of all contestants has been highlighted against the background of the Belinda-incident. Not only did she have to pay for her own medical expenses, but no after-care was offered on behalf of the British Council such as counselling or a follow up medicals. The potential for negative PR if this were to occur in the future should not be under-estimated. At least one person should remain on call in case of any emergency, with basic insurance granted for each contestant while on the programme. This also demands the imperative of full sequester of all contestants for the entire duration of the programme. A full check of the facility to serve as Challenge House should be conducted to ensure compliance with to BC Health and Safety regulations. Incidental expenses Contestants felt they had to cover a lot of minor costs related to tasks they had been given, for example transport and mobile phone top-up cards. A number of the assigned tasks required considerable research which came with attendant costs. Allocating a driver and people carrier for the contestants, (which could be heavily covered with the show and sponsors logos) would not only solve this problem but also create a great opportunity for free advertising. For mobile-phone top-ups, it might be useful to include an additional term to the existing mobile contract, stipulating all contestants are given top-up cards and mobile phones in return for specific advertising mileage in the use of the service. Appreciation and Gratitude The successful execution of The Challenge is due to the immense contribution of the following institutions and personalities, to whom we owe a huge debt of gratitude: University of Westminster London Metropolitan University Thames Valley University Steve Berridge Catherine Downes Cliff Condell Colin Matheson Alex Malley Catherine Spargo Paula Robles Ian Jones TiGO Millicom Ghana Zenith Bank Ghana Limited Virgin Nigeria Airways Anita Erskine Andy Oje Jilly Holley Ransford Nyarko Eva Richter-Addo Sodie Osei-Bonsu Angela Okyere-Fosu Gwendoline Okwabi Joy FM Frederick Quainoo Kojo Oppong Nkrumah Percy Grundy Bola Ray Eric Meijer Edward Owusu The Board BusinessGhana.com PHC Motors Esther Cobbah JE Allotey Managing Director Kwasi Appiah Kweku Regional Sales Manager Keli Gadzekpo Emmanuel Marketing Manager The Faculty British Council Donors Ebow Spio Christine Bateman AVI Reality Vacations Dolores Acolatse Arlene Griffiths FairGreen Limited Martin Mensah Jean Kamara Woolworth Stores Zayna Taiwo Philip Goodwin 3E Quantum Grace Amey-Obeng Ann Russell BizLiteracy Ghana Suganthan Allotey Simbins Furniture Holy Trinity Spa FC Group Databank TV3 British High Commission ISH Nana Kutin Karen Rogers Chris Hutty Derrick Degboe Andy Holden Kevin Coyne Nana Adjoa Amanda Lambert Peter Anwyl Gordon Wetherell Carol Sutcliffe Nick Wescott Others Eugenia Appiah Nina Chachu Aisha Etrew Uncle Ebow Whyte Felicia Nyame Irene Mensah Conclusion This report is the product of interviews and consultations of stakeholders of The Challenge Reality TV Show, made up primarily of representatives of: * British Council * Charterhouse * Sponsors * Contestants * The Board * The Faculty * Viewers * UK Visas The last word The three scholarship prize winners and technical crew have had visas approved to travel to the United Kingdom from the 20th September. An elaborate itinerary has been agreed with the UK HEI Sponsors and British Councils Welcome UK team to ensure that our winners are accorded a fitting welcome. The weeks PR activities will include: Meetings with dignitaries and VIPs Receptions in their honour Guided tour of London Press engagements All the engagements will be filmed by the crew and footage will be used for production of documentary that will precede The Challenge Season II.