School/Institution: (currently applying to 3 different graduate schools)
Major/minor: Psychology, Sociology
Giving back:
Tutor with Greensboro Dreamers
Teacher/Mentor with Empowered Youth Program at UGA
Guest speaker at scholarship fundraisers, talent shows, and high schools through the Moore's Ford Memorial Committee
Just Go Vote Foundation volunteer for 2004 elections
2004 Mock African Council Conference in Washington D.C.
Five-Year Aspirational Plan: In five-years I plan to be working on my PhD in School Counseling/Education or a related field so as to work with international students in America, helping them to manouver successfully in a new culture. Working in a public school system will also allow me to continue publishing my writing and playing my violin in the summers.
Country you are representing: Ethiopia.
Platform: I will help provide Ethiopian schools with easily accessible resources to make their students competitive on a global scale.
UGPulse: Tiger Woods... Same old story?
The media plays such a large role in forming our opinions on people, current events, places and ourselves based on insubstantial evidence. The story of Tiger Woods does not surprise me; not because he was an athlete, not because he was a black man, not because it is the same old story but because he was human and there was no evidence that he was handling success in a manner which honored his wife or followed the guidelines of what we as a society deem a 'respectable citizen'.
Realistically speaking, Tiger Woods was presented with tens of millions of dollars a year, beautiful women at the turn of every corner, a profession which keeps him away from home and any semblance of normalcy, and a posse of enablers more interested in reaping the rewards of befriending a superstar than giving sound advice to a friend. It takes a rare individual to handle this combination of circumstances in an honorable way. The only thing rare about Tiger Woods is likely his ability to play golf. Any other glorious characters of his personality were only fed to us by a media that would portray him in any way that brings in the fattest checks. Any other expectations we had about Tiger Woods were, frankly, unrealistic.
I often think of my disappointment when I learned that Martin Luther King Jr. cheated on his wife. It took some time for me to realize that the reason he was so influential had nothing to do with his habits in the bedroom and that it was not my place to judge him. In the same manner, I have to ask myself, "If MLK Jr. couldn't do it, why did I ever think Tiger Woods would? He does not even preach a value laden message. All he does is hit the heck out of a ball with a stick."
Contestant Liya Endale from Ethiopia.
UGPulse: Identity Theft... Are you concerned? How do you protect yourself?
Identity theft is a very real and very underestimated threat in our society. Our identity in this system has nothing to do with how much we love, smile or laugh. It has to do with a systemic method of rating our monetary credibility based on a specific series of actions we take which are monitored closely. Your credit rating will ultimately affect where and how you live, who you will marry and whether or not you will be able to afford going to school or buying a house. Subprime mortgages will likely, and hopefully, be an antiquated method of loaning money to people in troubled situations. Today, in order to buy a home, you have to have a down payment, 3-6 months of the mortgage payments in your bank account, have had the same job for at least two consecutive years, and a debt to income ratio of less than 45%. This means you have to have to have excellent credit for a creditor to take you seriously. Imagine if you do, in fact, manage to follow the rules and raise your credit score to a 740. Then, someone gets their hands on your 'identity' in the system. A crime committed against a faceless number in a system is a lot easier to commit, especially if you are in the growing situation where you have to feed your family and you are out of a job.
The chances of identity theft increase each time you pay your bills online, apply for another credit card, and use your debit card to pay for gas. The risks are like landmines scattered across our daily routines. If a we step on an active mine, the consequences can easily affect us for the rest of our lives. Recently, I accidentally opened up a skymiles MasterCard in my friend's name because I gave the representative his name and birthday. That is all it took for me to have a credit card with a 3-5 thousand dollar limit in someone else's name.
These warnings are not meant to terrify anyone into a paranoid panic, but to scare us into making smart decisions. First, take your birth year off of your facebook status. Next, be aware of how you are being monitored in this system. Did you know that there are three different credit bureaus which monitor different aspects of your monetary credibility? This means that depending on which credit bureau a lender checks with, one credit score can range by 100 points of another. Here is the good news, you can get a free copy of your credit report twice a year from each bureau so you can monitor your scores by reporting errors or being aware of any suspicious activity quick enough to prevent it from affecting your life. All you have to do is call and ask for it; Equifax 1-800-525-6285, Experian 1-888-397-3742, and TransUnion 1-800-680-7289.
Contestant Liya Endale from Ethiopia.
UGPulse: Tell us about the country you represent? Are all its women as beautiful as yourself?
Geographically, Ethiopia lies along the path of the Great Rift Valley which extends in Syria. Further, Ethiopia served as the hub of international trade for hundreds of years. For these reasons, the people of my country come in all shades. Our common features share those of the people from Ethiopia, into Egypt and Syria. Our noses are more narrow and our hair finer than our brothers and sisters from countries which do not lie along this geographic path resulting in a mixed population. Unfortunately, this world values these physical features and I often hear that women of Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan and so forth have a reputation of being very 'beautiful'. I, however, do not define beauty by how fine one's hair is or how narrow one's features are. These transient labels only serve to create animosity between regions based on nothing more than what we are forced to believe is 'beautiful'.
Further, I do not believe that these characteristics are what make me beautiful. My strength is not what lies on the outside, but in the way I perceive this world, the way my mind calculates all of the different stimuli I have been presented with from the time I was born in Addis Ababa. My beauty is in my warrior-spirit, my inability to love half-way, and my ability to show others how to think beyond the surface. So, are the women of Ethiopia as beautiful as me? Yes, and most even more so. Not because of the reasons others may call them beautiful but because of their courage which surpasses mine and strengthens me, because of their intellect and their resilience. This is what makes all women beautiful.
UGPulse: If you watched the new incredible movie, Avatar, what moved you most in the movie and what positive or negative message did you take home from watching this movie?
Today, we are bombarded with more stimuli on a daily basis than ever before. It takes more energy than ever to filter the intake of images, music, and media and not to get caught up with what 'looks pretty'. Remember. Everything can be broken down into basic messages. It is then our responsibility to actively choose what messages to internalize.
I was too excited to watch the movie Avatar after friends of mine from Georgia to South Korea raved about how awesome it was. With 3-D glasses on, I watched the most expensive movie made to date and took in all of the sophisticated technology which allowed computerized images to seamlessly blend in with a physical world. I was floored, moved by the raw and unbridled emotion of the main character, Neytiri . Outside of the obvious allusions to historical attacks on civilizations for their resources, there was something about this movie which lingered with me. I could not put my finger on it but I took it home with me and toiled with it for days.
In congruence with other films which have recently been released, certain themes began to stick out to me. Blind Side, Invictus, and Avatar all centered on the plight of a colored people. But when it came time to find the solution to each of their conflicts, the challenge was always met by a person or persons of Caucasian descent. First, I was angry at myself for coming up with such a negative synopsis of movies which were perhaps intended to funnel more positive messages of hope, resilience, and the power of a giving heart. These messages are vital and obvious. However, I believe subtle messages are more powerful and therefore dangerous because they seep into our subconscious, bypassing that level of thinking which allows us to choose what values and beliefs we take from these messages.
When people see that heroes always look a certain way, some will begin to believe that they can not be heroes because they do not share these characteristics of the ones on the big screens. I would love to see an Avatar where the hero is a Na'vi, a Blind Side that focuses on tackling the true and systemic problems that resulted in the condition of the victim instead of presenting the symptoms as the main problem. And I would love to see a movie about Nelson Mandela that uses the people who bled, fought, sacrificed and lost the most for a new South Africa to pass along the same message of forgiveness.
Contestant Liya Endale from Ethiopia
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