#140: SLSC - Day 36

Day 36: Fatima Koroma (the poet)

Fatima Koroma is a 25 years old nurse/poet, born November 9th in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Fatima came to the United State at the age of 9 years old. She attended Gladys noon Spellman elementary and Kenmore middle school in Landover Maryland. Fatima maintains a 3.0 average at Kenmore middle school and was given funds from the foundation of Education. She discovered interest in writing poe...ms at Duval high school during her freshman years. Fatima enrolled in drama, art classes and stayed after school programs to practice scenes and plays.

Fatima went into the field of nursing and business technology after graduating from high school 2003. Fatima attended Virginia Highland Community college in West Virginia in 2005. She became a licensed practice nurse and earns a diploma in business technology in 2007. During her college years she competes in poetry contest honoring African American history with “I have a dream” poem, she won second place.

Fatima moved back to Northern Virginia in 2008 and work for Alexandria hospital for two years. She also works for The Hermitage of Northern Virginia and Cherrydale Nursing home as a licensed practice nurse. As a full time employer she attended Northern Virginia community, taking prerequisites to transfer and obtain a bachelors degree. Fatima earned a degree in applied science 2010 at Northern Virginia community college.
In 2010, she got accepted in Indiana State University and took few online nursing classes. Fatima is now studying physician assistant at Howard University. She currently works full time for the city of Fairfax with opiates addicts in an outpatient setting. The goal is to help people get off opiates, maintain abstinence and get their lives back.  

As a full time college student and a mother of a two year old daughter, Fatima continues writing. Writing is Fatima' comfort zone with all the struggles in her life. Poetry is her passion; she writes what is in her heart and enjoys writing .Her writing targets relationships, dreams, goals, love, spiritual, wisdom, achieving and aspects of life. Fatima’s first book called “Fatima’s poetry of life “ is now in all stores and consists of 51 poems and many other things.

*This biography was taken from Ms. Fatima's Facebook fan page.

#139: HOAES (6)

So today I had a fantastic time in my Rock Mechanics lab, and I just want to scream to the world that I love Mining and Minerals Engineering, I love machines, and I love rocks! Being in a new major last semester was good, but I wasn't very excited about some of the coursework. However, I am enjoying this semester so far (even though I am only in the second week). Most of my classes last semester were very theoretical and I disliked the fact that I was not very hands-on with a lot of my classes, but one (Geology lab). One of the reasons why I decided to become an engineer is because I like doing practical work and being very hands-on, and I felt that engineering was definitely an appropriate path for me. But of late (meaning the past semesters), I've done less labs of my interest and more writing and I started losing my love for practical engineering.

BUT, I am glad to say that I am beginning to get my love for engineering again and my first lab work today definitely had something to do with it. Before going to the class, I was very tired because my day with classes started really early and I had already had 5 classes and they were all back-to-back, so I was not very excited to go to a 3-hour lab class. But to my wonderful surprise, reasons arose that made me wake up and get my excitement of being a mining and minerals engineering student. The purpose of today's lecture was to learn how to cut rock samples with the rock saw, polish the rocks to make them have smooth edges, measuring the lengths and diameters, and also finding RDQs. All the measuring was fun, but I was very happy when the *TA took us on a tour and asked if we will like to use the machines, and I gladly volunteered. He taught me how to use the rock saw safely with goggles and earplugs and also to be attentive not to cut off my fingers, how to polish my rock and test the level of smoothness.

Using the saw reminded me of my technology class that I had in 9th grade with one of my favorite teachers and mentors in the whole world. It just reminded me of why I decided to pursue engineering as a hobby and possible career, which is because of the hands-on work. This technology class was the deciding factor of my passion for engineering, and I had a wonderful teacher that made a great impact of me; he's the best. Also, it reminded me of the days I was involved with my Robotics Competition Team in high school, built robots and traveled to several locations for competitions with schools around the world. It was a great feeling to be using the big machines again, getting wet and dirty. As weird as it may sound, I felt pretty accomplished after I created a product out of my rock even though it was a small sample.

There are 14 people in my lab section with two girls, and I was the only girl in my group. Initially, the boys in my group were hesitant to mess with the rocks but with the opportunity of cutting the rocks that the TA presented, I just could not resist myself but to do it. As much as I get excitement from my major, as an individual and an engineer, I am always alert about being safe so I made sure I was following the proper steps. I have really small ears and so are the holes, so I notified the TA that the ear plugs wouldn't stay stuck in my ears; some of the boys were laughing at me and said that I need to stop acting like a girl; without being offended by it, I told them that yes I am a girl and an engineer and I am very cognizant that it's all about safety first, so if I am teased for being safe then that is all right with me.

So my advice today to you reading this is to follow your dreams and ambitions. There are times that you will be doing things and preliminary work that you do not enjoy but as long as the long-term goal is your dream, then it is worth it. I had to take some not-so-fun classes just to get to these fun classes, and the knowledge I gained in those previous classes have been beneficial to me in being a better student in the current classes. Also, do not pretend you know it all and shy away from learning new things because it will only hurt you in times to come; there were some calculations that I struggled with today in my lab but I put aside my pride and notified my group members that I did not know how to do it (even though one of them laughed at me), and by the end of class I was proficient in doing the calculations and reading the scales.

To my girls and women in engineering, be spontaneous and do things that make you comfortable. It's okay to be cautious whether you're teased for it or not. Do not be afraid to get dirty, wet, break a nail, and have fun, because you are only cheating yourself from all the fun in engineering and technology. Engineering and **STEM as a whole is exciting, so make the best out of every moment!


*TA: teacher's assistant
**STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

#138: African Heritage Month (September)

September is African Heritage Month. Please sign this petition to have all 50 US Governors do a Proclamation in September for African Heritage Month, as well as highlight the contributions of Africans in the USA and the unfortunate health disparities of African immigrants (National health messages do not reach our communities).

Sign the petition.

#137: SLSC - Day 35

Day 35: Vickie Remoe

Host Vickie Remoe is a twenty something socialist, fashionista, concerned global citizen, Know-It-All, Africanist, self proclaimed “Biggest Swit Mot Na Salone”. Vickie is one of first “cool kids” to move back to Sierra Leone as early as 2007. Amongst many things she considers herself an innovative serial entrepreneur. She is executive producer of VRS, country director for Canoe Magazine (an African Lifestyle Magazine published in Ghana); she authors the SWITSALONE BLOG and can also be heard on Free Radio 95:7, Saturday as Co-Host to the Morning Show. Back in grade school teacher comments on Vickie’s report cards noted “very clever, but too talkative”, little did they know she was honing her skills. Vickie Remoe aspires to be an African Media Mogul and we think she is well on the way.


Swit Salone website
Vickie Remoe Show
Facebook

#136: Afrique Fundraiser For Change

http://www.wix.com/massapikey08/afrique-fundraiser-for-change

#135: New camera = new adventures

My brother got me a new digital camera, and it's pretty awesome. Here are some test shots, and I plan to have a self-photoshoot with it very soon.

#134: SLSC - Day 34

Day 34: Sierra Leone Company

The Sierra Leone Company was the corporate body involved in founding the second British colony in Africa in 1792 through the resettlement of black American ex-slaves (called the Nova Scotian Settlers) who had initially been settled in Nova Scotia after the American Revolutionary War. The company came about because of the work of the ardent abolitionists, Granville Sharp, Thomas Clarkson, Henry Thornton, and Thomas's brother, John Clarkson, who is considered one of the founding fathers of Sierra Leone.

The Sierra Leone Company was the successor to the St. George's Bay Company which had been founded to attempt a mostly unsuccessful effort in 1787 to establish a free settlement for the "Black Poor" of London, many of whom were Black Loyalists, who had escaped and fought for the British following Dunmore's Proclamation during the American War of Independence). The 1787 expedition was made up of 300 of London's Black Poor, 60 English Working class Women, and an assortment of white officials, clergy and craftsmen to assist in building the colony - 411 men, women and children in all. Upon landing, they founded Granville Town as their base. This first colony only lasted about two and a half years, decimated by disease and later abandonment. The coup de grace occurred in 1789, when the neighboring Temne people burned the settlement during a dispute between the Temne and slave traders.

To know more about the Sierra Leone Company, read this.

#133: You're invited!

African Eleganza Thursday: Fundraiser For Change

Knowledge Is Her Power

#132: I never P-word

So this summer has been VERY busy for me. I've busy with many things such as working with my philanthropy, back-to-school prepping, but more importantly, I've been spoiling myself with lots of family and friends time. I've been loving all of it, but it's been taking a little of my time from blogging and doing dance videos. However, knowing me and how I'm good with manipulating time, I'll make it work!

Oh by the way, the p-word that I was referring to earlier is "Promise." I am not a big fan of that word at all, because my life tends to be so spontaneous and unpredictable that I do not trust myself when it comes to offering promises. I'd rather stay hush about something than promising it to someone. For instance, I said I'd make lots of dance videos and blog exorbitantly this summer, but that hasn't happened yet. So I am very happy that I never promised because when promises are made but not accomplished, disappointment is the follow-up, and I do not like disappointing people; also, it gives no room for others to discredit you. The moral of the story is that I'd rather surprise than promise.

While out and about this summer with one of my friends, I decided to have a mini-photoshoot with one of y new fave outfits. It's a summer dress I purchased a couple of months ago and I absolutely adore it. I think my figure suits this outfit, and the dress compliments the summer season! There were more taken but my friend's phone's camera didn't have great quality for the high-fashion photoshoot I wanted. Check out the pictures below.