Week 1

Welcome to my blog! My name is Tony Ritter and I am a new student at Brandman University, still in my second term. I am pursuing a Bachelors in Applied Studies with the eventual goal to seek my masters in the realm of education. The masters program that I decide on will ultimately be determined by the specialty area that I am employed in after school. My career goals are also a bit transitional at the moment. My family and I have been planning to serve as missionaries in the African country of Chad since 2011 and are currently studying and preparing our credentials to align with the requirements of the organization that will be sponsoring our tenure there. There are multiple areas of specialty that my wife and I could be employed in there depending on the need at the time of our acceptance. I am expecting our function while we are there to be that of teachers or in the education field, although I am still not completely certain.

The topic that I would like to research will fall within the broad subject of the nation of Chad. As with the study of any nation, there are a wealth of topics that could be exhausted. Some of the topics that immediately come to mind are Chad’s history, government and constitution, its educational state, health programs or any number of its political and socio-economic issues. Naturally, researching Chad would prove beneficial to my future success there in a very broad sense. While conducting further research this week I will attempt to narrow my topic and address this specification in future blogs.

Based on this week's lecture and the skills listed in the Literacy Competency Standards for this course, there are a few skills I am definitely looking forward to learning more about and improving in this class. The first is using the internet for research more effectively and discovering some new research resources in general. Additionally, I could use some help with making proper citations. The ability to conduct legitimate, expansive research seems to be critical in many areas of higher learning so I am also excited about honing my researching skills and employing them in future essays and assignments.