Kenny (Jae) Cho

Professor Mary Hays

Rhetoric 105

25 January 2016

Everyone Belongs Somewhere

This week’s readings, “The Student Code” by the University of Illinois, and “The Power of Hello” by Howard White both discuss about one’s involvement in a community. “The Student Code” by University of Illinois gives information, specifically about individual’s rights as a student in the community of the University. The author is very straightforward about the main point; all students have rights they can embrace but they should also know that, because everyone has these privileges, one should be careful not to step over others’ boundaries of their privileges. For the second article though, which is, “The Power of Hello,” the author is very direct on his thesis statement. Throughout the article, he talks about his own experiences and how just saying “hello” got him to where he is today. He was trying to state that, “everyone deserves to be acknowledged regardless of his or her class or their position in the society.”

The author of the “Student Code” supported his main point by revealing to us the most important rights that we acquired the day we stepped onto his campus, which were, “freedom to learn, free and open expression within limits that do not interfere with the rights of others, free and disinterested inquiry, intellectual honesty, sustained and independent search for truth, the exercise of critical judgment, respect for the dignity of others, and personal and institutional openness to constructive change.” The author of “The Power of Hello” supported his thesis by saying that his mother told him even a dog wags their tail when they see someone so the least he could do is say hello. Another experience he brings up is the author saying hello to everyone at work regardless of his or her position in the company, from janitor to the founder of the company. One day, because he has been an acquaintance with the founder of the company, he had the courage to schedule a meeting and ask him about his possible future position, which I believe, had an effect on Howard reaching up to where he is today; the vice president of Jordan Brand at Nike.

After reading “The Power of Hello”, I’ve realized that because I acknowledge people and very rarely passed by someone without saying hello, I became who I am and where I am today. Throughout high school, I played football and when I had the chance, I looked into the eyes of the varsity head coach, while shaking his hand and asked just 3 words “how are you?” These actions got me acquainted with him and whenever I was on the field as a freshman, he focused more on me than any other players and I believe that’s how I went on to the varsity team as a freshman, which is very unlikely. I also think saying “hello” in general to the people that I passed by at school got me more sociable and allowed me to create more friends. Overall, these two articles made me realize that wherever I go in this universe, I will have a relationship in some kind of community.