REVISED FORM OF MY JOURNAL 3

A university should have two main characteristics to be an “ideal” university. Firstly, an ideal university should provide the conditions supporting by free thoughts for students in order to improve themselves in the academic manner. In other words, university education must involve all the necessary information and methods which enhance and contribute to students’ qualities for their future business or academic studies. Also, thanks to the environment of free thoughts, students, as being individuals, have the ability of self-expression throughout their lives. This brings them self-confidence while giving a speech or interviewing for a job. Secondly, an ideal university has to have facilities which enable students to reinforce their social skills. Social clubs are the most common ones of these, i.e., sport clubs and student societies. When these characteristics are considered, METU has both academic and social ones. For example, with the METU Library’s advanced written sources, anyone can reach any information in various areas and can enhance her/his academic achievement constantly. Also, its academic staff has an important role in the quality of METU. Thanks to the instructors’ advanced knowledge about their fields and effective methods, students can fill their deficiency of knowledge by questioning and investigating with the academic help about any subject and receive perfect education consequently. About the social facilities at METU, the student societies and groups organize various cultural, sports and art events like concerts, exhibitions, performances and conferences every year. Furthermore, METU has a great number and variety of student clubs-societies, sports clubs and sports teams which provide students with the opportunity to improve themselves in any of these. To sum up, METU is the most suitable one according to the criteria that I have set for an ideal university and studying at this university will be the best investment to my future undoubtedly.

REVISED FORM OF MY JOURNAL 2

In my opinion, being a student at METU means to have a lot of educational and social opportunities which most universities in our country can not provide. However, even METU doesn’t have total perfection. There are three challenges I face in METU life. Firstly, at some hours occupancy of shuttles increases so that campus transportation becomes useless. This situation may cause being late for classes. However, if I am not in a hurry to get to class, I mostly prefer walking. METU has a lot of pathways and shortcuts among beautiful woods to walk with pleasure. Secondly, “Cafeteria” is closed at weekend. I am sure I’m not the only one to have this problem and I think it should be opened everyday because prices in other cafes and restaurants generally are not suitable for most students. And the last challenge for me is fierce dogs at METU. Once while I walking through A1’s way with my boyfriend at about 11 pm, then five dogs appeared suddenly, and jumped us. Fortunately a couple drove through and picked up us and saved our lives. I don’t know how I can cope with this challenge but it is really irritating. Of course, METU has not only these difficulties but also advantageous aspects. One of these aspects is that we can be informed about cultural and art activities organized in Ankara early. Also, we have those which are organized at METU. In addition to these cultural and art activities, we also have a chance to participate in scientific conferences at the CCC (Cultural and Convention Center). Lastly, the other advantage is that we have the opportunity to obtain information in various areas with advanced written sources of the METU Library. To sum up, METU is both academically and socially the most advanced university in Turkey despite its challenges.

JOURNAL 7 (video reflection-II)

UNEMPLOYMENT AND HEALTH

        Unemployment mostly affects health status of an individual psychologically and physically. Firstly, being unable to earn enough money to meet basic needs has negative effects on psychology of individuals. For example, they may have some disorders such as loss of self-esteem, anxiety and mental stress, which leads to depression. According to the researches, having low or no self-esteem, which means losing self-reliance and ignoring one’s own worth, feeling insignificant, has much stronger effect on being prone to depression than the other causes. In addition, as a result of psychological exhaustion, increase in ratio of suicide is seen inevitably. For example, according to a study conducted by Dr. M. Brenner in 1979, for every 10% increase in the number of unemployed there are 1.7% more suicides. This situation shows that the more people struggle with unemployment, the more suicidal they become. Secondly, unemployment also has negative impacts on physical health of individuals, which includes malnutrition and diseases resulting from stress. As a result of unemployment, people cannot purchase sufficient amount of nutritious food such as milk, meat, poultry and fruit because of high prices. In other words, unemployed individuals cannot keep balanced diet with certain nutrients, so they suffer from malnutrition and even various diseases such as protein, vitamin and micronutrient deficiencies, especially vitamin B₁₂ deficiency, throughout their lives. In addition to the disorders resulting from inadequate nutrition, these people may struggle with diseases triggered by stress. In other words, our bodies respond by means of dysfunctions to being under psychological pressure. Cardiovascular diseases and gastrointestinal disorders can exemplify these kind of diseases. In conclusion, unemployment and job-loss stress have detrimental effects on individuals’ state of health, which triggers psychological disorders and various diseases in the long term.

This video is from an American television program, "The Early Show". In this part, link between long-term employment and stress subject is discussed through contributions about issue of Psychologist Dr. Jennifer Hartstein. I chose this video because it not only addresses health problems arising from unemployment as I mentioned before but also emphasizes that relationships are impacted due to being jobless for a long time. In the video, this situation is veryfied by means of an interview and results of some surveys. Bill Siegel, unemployed since 2008, is interviewed about his divorcement and his financial problems. I think that his story is a striking example for the discussed subject. Furthermore, throughout the program, a lot of surveys and researches conducted in USA and their results are mentioned through percentages, which develops the content of the issue. In conclusion, in my opinion, the video has to be watched to have information about the impact of unemployment on health and social status because it enlightens the subject with scientific data and research results in an informative way.

MY COMMENTS ON FOUR JOURNALS OF MY FRIENDS

http://atamanes.blogspot.com/2013/01/journal-set-3.html#comment-form

http://emel3celik.blogspot.com/2012/12/la-befana.html#comment-form

http://bayraktarayla.blogspot.com/2012/12/food-products-kerebic-kerebic-is.html?showComment=1358703762599#c8228479804464611290

http://halealbayrak.blogspot.com/2013/01/video-reflection-2.html?showComment=1358706354880#c3636031063415743850