After reading "Locating the School-To-Pipeline" article I found myself appalled. In particular the passage where it mentioned that there are five year-olds that are taken out of the class room because they have temper tantrums. I can not not rap my head around this because I have a five year-old brother, and to imagine this happening to him is impossible. I find it an inhumane act. I also did not like the fact that this is becoming a trend in certain areas. I do not find it fair to give up on students, and even worse put them in the school-to-prison pipeline program and deny them education only to place them in a prison. I feel that the group of people fooling themselves into thinking that this program is going to work are living a life of denial. Not only do I feel like this program is not going to work, but also I think that it is going to make matters worse. These individuals will never have the opportunity to live their life to the fullest. I know something needs to be done to change this injustice, but at the moment I do not know what can be done.

Watching "Black Males, Black Dreams" was an emotional experience for several reasons.The first thing that affected me was the fact that I was shocked how I forgot about the world around me. Sometimes I get so caught up in my problems that I forget to take the time to sit down and think about how others have it worse then me. I realize that I take certain things for granted, and I do not realize that although my life is not perfect I have certain privileges others do not. The other thing that affected me was that I related personally to the video to a certain extent. I have a brother who is a junior in high school and he is going through a similar situation. It is highly unlikely that he is going to graduate, and he has gotten to the point he appears to have lost hope. He has always been the individual who was told he was not going to do well in school, and he was always been targeted for this reason, so like the video it is only natural for him to reach fall deeper into that cycle of hopelessness and lack of motivation. At first I tried getting through to my brother, but it got to a point where you could not change his mind, so I have left him alone. But watching this video has motivated me to talk to him again, and try to reach him. I do not want to give up on him because if he does not have that support system he will never break free from that cycle. 

"What will you do to address the educational inequalities that exist in the city of Chicago?"  This is a challenging question to answer because it such a huge issue that it is hard to think that as an individual you can make a change. Being in STARS I have realized that anyone can make a significant change, so I think that my first step to addressing the educational inequalities is to give my all the empowerment pipeline program. Furthermore, I will practice Servant Leadership by helping to develop the students that we are going to assisting. For example, I want to be that mentor that will be a positive role model for these students. Thus, it makes me really nervous to be hosting these students because I have high expectations of myself and I do not want to let them down. I realize how serious our role as mentors is going to be towards these individuals, but as long as we show that we are going to be a support system in which they can count on then every thing will fall into place. 

(sometimes we all need some one to lean on)