Never Alone: Inspiring Through Literacy and Education (eBook)

From Grace to Grace

Arch/Dr. Winnie Nnakwe (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2024 | 1. Auflage
256 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
979-8-3509-5384-8 (ISBN)

Infos

'Never Alone: Inspiring Through Literacy and Education' is a memoir of one woman's drive to never give up in their pursuit of education and learning. As Glory demonstrates over and over again, with an education and commitment to lifelong learning, anything is possible.

Arch/Dr. Winnie Nnakwe is a young Nigerian who migrated to the United States after graduating from high school. She initially struggled academically due to the academic setback of the Biafra War and later became one of the top students in her class. Her interest in education grew to become a love of learning. She found God early and allowed God to direct her path, becoming a leader and mentor. Along the way, she developed the ability to invent a course of action through society where she encountered its expectations of a woman, norms, and limitations. By the grace of God, Arch/Dr. Winnie continued her quest for knowledge in a foreign land bridging two cultures (Nigerian and American), and three professions and careers (Architecture, Business and Education) to literacy's true freedom. She is self-assured and ready to inspire those who may have been dealing with education barriers for one reason or the other to understand that 'literacy is liberating but illiteracy is debilitating and incapacitating.'

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"e;Never Alone: Inspiring Through Literacy and Education"e; is the true story of "e;Glory"e; (fictitious name of the author), who above all demonstrates that she is unstoppable and able to achieve anything she sets out to do, not only because of her incredible drive and talent, but also thanks to the enduring love and guidance of God. Born in Nigeria and later immigrating to the United States, Glory makes her mark on everything she does. Her intelligence and dedication to learning propels her to unprecedented academic success during elementary and high school (most notably in mathematics and science), earning multiple degrees; working in architecture, business, and education; becoming the first female international president of an esteemed association; and being blessed with promotions, accolades, good fortune, bounty, gifts, and graces.

Textauszug

FOREWORD

God’s Preparation

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”

—Proverbs 9:10 NIV

God has a way of preparing every individual for the life ahead. Sometimes, people try to distract from God’s work, but the Bible says “All things work together for the good of them that love the Lord.” Romans 8:28–30 NIV says “We know in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. v29: For those God foreknew, He predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. v30: And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.” God’s promises to the believer in this Scripture gives you “peace that passes all understanding.” It is the prescription to relax and believe that all things will work together for your good and God’s will, to know that God has your back, and as such, you do not need to stress, punch, kick, and yell all the time. So even though some stray from God’s preparations and will, God has a way of reeling us back. The Bible says all we must do is “Be Still and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth!” Psalm 46:10 KJV.

The onset of the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic has been a living nightmare as we watched life as we knew it vanish right in front of all. Now we wonder, will life ever be the same? We have all quarantined, some longer than others. Yet we are all almost equally frustrated, emotionally drained, changed, and socially distanced out with unimaginable losses. However, we know that we will not go back to the status quo right away, even when we return to life and living. Life will require some adjustments.

Some of the adjustments have already begun with the not-too-distant deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Rayshard Brooks, and many others, the reopening of old wounds that time refused to heal, embedded in the names of those who suffered similarly in the hands of the police, like Eric Garner and others. The perpetuation of police brutality; continued killings of black and brown men and women; biases ingrained in our society; failures of our leaders at the top laid bare by Covid-19 and the need for change in leadership through voting in elections; the high mortality rate of Covid-19 due to slow response of top leadership; the high unemployment rate; the economic fallout and its impending impact on businesses, education, and governance; and the systemic grandfathered injustices of the world have all collided and renewed the “Black Lives Matter” protests and calls for urgent revolutionary social change.

So we talk about rebuilding, voting to make sure we exercise our rights to hold our leaders at the top (president and congress members) accountable, the same way they hold our educators, Wall Street, and every other worker who must be evaluated on the job frequently accountable. We talk about revamping our businesses, jobs, education, communities, cities, states, country, and the world. However, we must not forget to transform the individual and make each one a “Stronger One! A Literate One!” How, you ask? Investment in human capital. Society, including businesses and government, must be willing to invest in the individual. Former Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s philanthropic donation of $25 million to the city of New York to build a high school that will fast-track students into the medical field is a great example of investing in the individual. Society must do more. At the same time, individuals must be ready and willing to embrace opportunities for higher learning and for acquisition of skills, especially technical skills such as computer technology, carpentry, plumbing, electrician, auto-tech, and more.

Literacy and the fear of God are important in renewing the truth in our society today. As a society, we embraced social media. Now we are more confused than ever. We are bombarded with misinformation and disinformation or outright lies. I have always had my doubts and fears of social media, but I never imagined we would be where we are today. As a society we are at a point where the truth is so hard to come by. The saddest part is that so many do not recognize falsehood when they hear it or see it and do not make the effort to verify information. As a result, those who tell lies are very emboldened to continue to tell the lies. And those who buy the lies are continually misled to their detriment, often resulting in personal and community losses. For example, at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the government and leaders of our society could have shared with the public a great deal of information that would have saved lives, but this information wasn’t shared. Instead, a load of lies was unleashed on the public, especially here in the United States. By March 12, 2020, I had concluded that the Covid-19 virus was airborne. How? Mathematically, it was the only thing that made sense. In mathematics, we learn about arithmetic progressions and geometric progressions, but when you are dealing with a virus with a rate of infection that defies all progressions, jumping from, say, 1 to 10, 52, 255, 708, 1561, and so on, it is airborne! For someone who lived on Staten Island and commuted to City College, worked at the Harlem State Office Building, lower Manhattan below Canal Street, and New York City Fire Department where I visited most of the fire houses in the five boroughs of New York City, the subway system and roadways are very familiar to me. As the Covid-19 virus spread through the city of New York, I was able to mentally trace the paths of the virus through the subways, the many taxis, buses, and places where the most people congregated. My heart ached at the foolishness called “press conferences” held every day that failed to give people the information they needed. At the same time, the media was showing statistics of the death toll in Italy. At one point, my brain recorded that 5 percent of the population of Italy was infected, and 2 percent of the infected had died. My mental calculations started. I translated that number to the US population. At approximately 325 million people, the projected death toll would be 325,000 people. A projected 325,000 dead people was a nightmarish heartache I could not shake off. Unfortunately for humanity, the actual death toll in the United States more than doubled that number. I often wonder what would have happened if more people were able to see what I saw. Would it have made any difference? I don’t know, but I know that acquiring knowledge in multiple disciplines has made a great difference in my life.

Another example is when I served as a juror in Long Island, New York. It was a criminal case; the defendant was charged with having committed three major crimes. I will call them charges A, B, and C. The prosecution left no stones unturned. Every expert witness necessary was called in from as far as California, Alabama, and Florida. The evidence covered every aspect of the case. There were dramatizations, presentations, and stories, all tied to the crimes. The defense did its part in trying to muddy the waters. Thank God for the gift of memory retention. As we began deliberations, the jurors said they doubted if the defendant committed crime A and wondered if it could have been committed alone or in collaboration with at least one or two others. The discussions continued in earnest, considering the witnesses and presentations from both sides, and reviewing the documents and sending messages for clarifications from the judge. From charge A, the jurors moved on to charge B, with some believing the crime was committed and others saying they did not believe the defendant committed the crime charged in A. As we went to B, more jurors were convinced that the defendant committed the crime, but there were a few holdouts. All along from the courtroom, where I had followed the logical sequence of all events, I was 100 percent convinced the defendant committed all three crimes charged. However, I did not yet indicate my opinion to the rest of the jurors, but instead was involved in interpreting, clarifying, and answering questions raised by the other jurors during the deliberations. We had quite a diverse group of jurors. The discussions were led by a medical professional young woman and an event venue operator (young man). The labor of love over the documents continued—“labor of love” because as a group, we agreed to be very careful in the deliberations because we did not want to convict an innocent person. Somehow, we had not been able to unanimously agree in any direction for charges A and B. We skipped both and went to charge C. By the time two or three people spoke, everyone agreed that the defendant committed crime C. At that moment, the many mental exercises I had engaged in for approximately two weeks during the trials in the court room came to light in a full classroom logic and proofs lessons: working backwards.

If C, then B. And A = B + C. Simply put, crime C was connected to crime B, or it was because crime B occurred that crime C had to occur, or without crime B, there would be no crime C. We all agreed. Then crimes B and C were the byproducts of crime A. So, without A, there would be no crimes B and C. Every juror agreed that the defendant committed crimes A, B, and C, including the judge who congratulated the jurors for a job well done.

As a math teacher, students in the classroom asked, “When am I ever going to use this in the real world?” The truth is we need to...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 7.7.2024
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
• ISBN-13: 979-8-3509-5384-8 / 9798350953848