Xavier in New Orleans in the World

My day at St. Louis Cemetery #2.

bphturner001 — Wed, 06 May 2009 09:51:55 +0000

My day at the cemetery marking down the names of the residence there was very an interesting experience. I have never done anything like that before. The cemetery was really old so some of the graves there were corroded and others had been buried from all of the dirt over time. It didn’t seem like the cemeteries had been taken care of. There were people buried there from probably a century ago. Im not really sure if any of them were famous or not. Overall it was interesting to be there helping out.

my interview with an upperclassmen..

bphturner001 — Wed, 06 May 2009 08:11:46 +0000

My interview with an upperclassmen about Xavier’s mission statement didn’t go as i expected. i interviewed a sophmore and could you believe that he was not even familiar with the mission. It was kind of funny cause he explained that all he wanted to do was go to a good school, do his work and whatever was necessary to pass his classes, and graduate so that he could get a good job doing what he wanted to do, which was unknown at the time. He said that he was nt that interested in things that did not have anything to do with his grades and him passing. To tell the truth I dont really think most students are interested with the mission. I thought it was only for faculty really.

blog#7 What can you learn from society in a cemetary

bhiggins2008 — Wed, 06 May 2009 06:03:55 +0000

You can learn many thing from society in a cemetary. You can learn about people from the past and their family. Especially here in New Orleans you can learn alot about cemetaries because it is above ground first of all. This is different from any other place I ever visited because down here in New Orleans we are below sea level so therefore our graves and tombs are above ground which I know probably seems strange to people who aren’t from here. Also if you research some of the people that are on some of the grave sites, you can learn so much from the past. Many of the people were very important people back in the day. This can tell you about the history of the surrounding are in which the person was buried. Also if there is a large number of deaths in a particular time frame it can be found that it could of have came from an epidemic such as serious sickness’ that may have taken place at that time or it could be because of war or something of that nature.

blog#8 Expierence at cemetary

bhiggins2008 — Wed, 06 May 2009 05:57:06 +0000

My expierence at the St. Louis # 2 cemetary was not all that bad. Although I had to wake up out of my bad on a hot saturday morning and also miss a day at work which led me to miss out on MONEY!!!! All in all it wasnt a bad expierence because what we had to do was relatively easy. What made it easier was that I was in a group with two of my potnas which was fun because the whole time while we were documenting the names and everything on the tombs we was jokeing around which made the time go by relatively quick. It made it even better when we did not have to stay all day at the cemetary and got to leave the cemetary early. This was a bonus!!! All in all it was a very good learning expierence and I would not mind if I had to do it all over again. Well at least if it is not on a saturday because thats my time lol.

blog #5 What happens to you when you die?

bhiggins2008 — Wed, 06 May 2009 05:47:22 +0000

There are mixed review to what happens to you when you die. Most feel the same way. Either you go to heaven or you go to hell. Personnaly this is the way I feel also. I feel as though if you live your life right here on earth you will be fortunate enough to make it to heaven. If you live here on earth wrong, down-bad, or cut throat you will go to hell. I think it as simple as that. Although I do believe in porgatory, which from my knowledge is the middle of heaven and hell, which means until you cleanse your soul you wont make it to heaven until you do so, I believe that porgatory is here life on Earth. Like my other blog others believe in reincarnation but I dont believe in such of a thing.

blog #4 Interview an Upperclassman

bhiggins2008 — Wed, 06 May 2009 05:36:28 +0000

In interviewing many upperclassman about Xavier University mission statement I learned that many did not even know what Xavier University mission statement actually was. This is because I don’t think it was a requirement for them to know. Although many of the upperclassman did not know what the mission statement was, many elaborated on what it meant to be a student at Xavier University. Most of the upperclassman had the same idea. That was to be a leader in the community. Many also said to give back to the communtiy and help out where you can. In having this knowledge of what it means to be a student at Xavier University they basically said what the mission statement meant to them.

Blog #3

bhiggins2008 — Wed, 06 May 2009 05:29:20 +0000

brianab1

JJames5

destinee88

kirsten smith

mwalker2

my day at st. louis cemetery #2

ptchatchou — Tue, 05 May 2009 15:34:47 +0000

Sometime in February, I went to Dr. Homan’s service learning project at St. Louis Cemetery #2. What in the world was I doing at the cemetery? I don’t know, I must have switched up Halloween with Valentine’s Day. So I get to the place, and we formed groups. It was Princess, Lauren, some girl that left early, and I that were in the group. We were given maps of the cemetery and we had to locate the location, hopefully that grave still exist, and write the names if legible. Sounds simple huh; For those who can read a map and don’t mind being outside a dead man’s grave-house. Luckily for me, I was both. So locating our domain was easy and we got to work. Princess had the clipboard, I had the map I read out the names, dates of births and deaths. The other two, of course, helped and made things go faster along. Too easy. I’m out here, coordinating this in the sun. So we were done with the 1st map, so they gave us another map in part 2 of the grave. Oh my goodness, there was no shade at all! And this time, we got 2 clipboards to make things go along faster. All I had to do is tell the team the location of the grave on their papers. So we were done quick, and lunch didn’t arrive yet, so we were given another map. We all got our own clipboard and spread this up. I still had the map, so after the others were done, I had still had to double-check. Holding the clipboard was pretty awkward, and I was the slowest and last to finish. Then, when I went to check Princess’, the list was so messed up, it confused me – not liking that. But I checked everyone, then checked mines last. I think I overworked myself to get things correct, it wasn’t that serious. Then we has a tour. The first lady told us the background and explain to us these graves. It was interesting that her family grave was right where we were standing. Then, the other lady came – she was lively and full of it. She took us to the part of the grave where many blacks were buried and showed us the Sisters, and other famous people of New Orleans. The cemetery experience was pretty nice, though I don’t rock grave-yards.

dead bones tell a story

ptchatchou — Tue, 05 May 2009 15:10:07 +0000

Dead bones tell society’s past. From the dead bones, you can tell the demographics, such as age and ethnicity. At the St. Louis Cemetery #2, there was a mixture a French, Spanish, American-American, Creole, Irish, and German. From the grave, you can tell what class they are from. The many large, real-size-house graves, definitely belong to those of the upper class. The simple, small graves, are from the working class. When looking at the general mode of the birth and death years, you can tell if there was a baby-boomer or an epidemic disease period. I have heard that New Orleans went through a crisis of yellow fever. You can tell by the number of names engraved, whether the family was rather large or small. Also, from the most current death date on the grave, you can whether or not the family held strongly to their traditions, and if they were very close. I also noted on some of the graves who had modern dates that the language changed from the previous languages stated to English. That reflects a culture change in the society at that period. If you make close attention to the ages at which these people died, you can learn the average life expectancy. To sum it up, the bones can tell you the racial pool, economic status, birth and death rates, family size, traditional values being passed, culture changes, and life expectancy. Not most people think of looking at grave-yards that way, they just think about dead family, dead bodies and convert them into themes of scary movies and Halloween. But if you want any clue on how society used to be, the best tips are at the cemetery.

Interview for Xavier’s Mission

tammar williams — Mon, 04 May 2009 19:08:47 +0000

I interviewed a junior named Adrianne Stronn for my blog. When I asked her what Xavier’s mission meant to her she first paused and thought about it for a second, and then she said that she didn’t really know exactly what it was. I then told her that is was basically the promotion of a more just and humane society. She then said “ohhhh” and answered the question. Her answer was basically that it was a good thing to do and that the school would probably be better if they did it. At this, I asked her what she meant by if, and she replied that education-wise, the school was doing a pretty good job of fulfilling their mission; other than that, the school was doing a bad job. She basically said that the school could use a lot of improvement in areas like the school’s social life, the housing, and pretty much anything pertaining to the school other than education. I pretty much agree with Adrianne’s response. The school can definitely do a lot better with a lot of things. In fact, a lot of students don’t even care about the mission statement because they are so worried about the stuff that we DON’T have here at Xavier.

I thought the interview was pretty cool, considering that it lasted like two minutes. It’s always cool to get some interaction with the upper-class person, and see how they feel about different things and get advice from them since they have probably been through all of the things that freshman like me are going through now.