ReVisions Best Student Essays of The University of North Carolina at Pembroke Pembroke at ofNorth University The Carolina of Essays Best Student Spring 2012 Volume 12 Volume PHOTO BY ALEX WHITE ReVisions: Best Student Essays is a publication designed to celebrate the finest nonfiction work composed by undergraduate students at The University of North Carolina at Pembroke. This issue was copyedited, designed, and produced by students in PRE 3450: Computer-Assisted Editing and Publication Design. Jordan Burnette Adrienne Chavis Deon Harrell Tawana Johnson Elizabeth Locklear Kimberly Nguyen Allyson Stokes Keith Witherspoon Sara Oswald, Instructor Front: Sara Oswald, Allyson Stokes, Kimberly Nguyen; Back: Elizabeth Locklear, Adrienne Chavis, Deon Harrell, Jordan Burnette, Keith Witherspoon, Tawana Johnson Essays may cover any topic within any field of study at UNCP. We encourage submissions from Editor all fields and majors, but we do not publish fiction or poetry. All submissions must be nominated by a Teagan Decker UNCP faculty member. Students who believe that they have a strong essay for submission are encouraged Dept. of English and Theatre to ask a faculty member to sponsor that essay. Nomination forms are available at http://www.uncp.edu/ Managing Editor et/revisions. Sara Oswald Manuscript requirements: no more than 3,000 words in length and double-spaced. Do not in- Dept. of English and Theatre clude any names or identifying information on the essay itself; use the nomination form as a cover sheet, making sure to fill out all parts of the form. Please submit electronically the nomination form and the Selection Committee nominated essay in one Word or RTF file to [email protected]. Ryan Anderson Dept. of History All essays will be read and judged in a blind selection process. If a submission is chosen for publica- Bill Brandon tion, the author will be asked to submit a brief biography, and a photograph of the author will be taken Dept. of Chemistry and Physics to be included in the publication. Jane Haladay Nominations to be considered for publication in the Spring 2013 issue will be accepted until De- Dept. of American Indian Studies cember 2012. For further information, contact Dr. Teagan Decker, English and Theatre Department, David Nikkel Dept. of Philosophy and Religion 139 Dial Humanities Bldg., (910) 521-6437, [email protected]. The cover photo shows one of the banners on display throughout the campus to celebrate the University’s 125th anniver- sary. It was taken by Indianhead yearbook photographer Alex White, a Business Management major and member of Alpha Pi Omega sorority. 2 ReVisions: Best Student Essays Vol. 12 When Honeybees Disappear ................................................................................................................4 Daniel Atkins ENG 1060: Composition II Okonkwo Falls Apart .............................................................................................................................8 Sarah Beal ENG 2060: World Literature after 1660 “We are a Culture, Not A Costume” Campaign ...................................................................12 Teresina DeLaCruz ENG 1050: Composition I White-Nose Syndrome .........................................................................................................................15 Paula Garcia BIO 4320: Conservation Biology White-Tailed Deer ...................................................................................................................................20 Effie Locklear AIS/ENG 2200: American Indian Literature Foxwoods vs. Prairie Winds ............................................................................................................22 Joshua Rimes AIS 1010: Introduction to American Indian Studies The Hindu Goddess ...............................................................................................................................26 Courtney Thomas PHI/REL 4500: Advanced Studies in Eastern Philosophies and Religions Click on any title above to be taken to the start of that essay. Click on the at the end of the essay to return to this page. Spring 2012 3 By Daniel Atkins website, honeybees are social creatures that live and operate in their own intricate social network. Honeybees are not native to North America and were introduced to the Americas by early European immigrants. Due to immigration and the different jobs that bees are used for, honeybees now exist on every continent except for Antarctica. Over the past century, the world population of honeybees and bees in general has been declin- ing. Several species of bees have already been de- clared extinct and other species of bees are on their way to extinction. According to Diana Cox-Foster (2009), professor of entomology at Penn State University, “The number of managed honeybee colonies in 2006 was about 2.4 million, less than half what it was in 1949” (p. 40). Many causes contribute to the population collapse. Some of the major known causes that negatively affect the hon- magine going to the grocery store, and as you eybee population are changes in agricultural prac- Daniel Atkins is from Ben- round the corner to the produce section all tices, loss of natural habitat, and spread of parasites son, NC. A 2010 graduate of you see are empty shelves. Out of the corner I and pathogens. There is also an alarming phenom- South Johnston High School, of your eye, you see a head of lettuce, but as you enon, whose source is unknown, that has had a he is currently a sophomore move closer you notice that the price of the lettuce huge impact on the population of honeybees; it is student-athlete who plays is fifty dollars per pound. This situation may seem known as colony collapse disorder, or CCD. football. He is majoring in weird and unlikely. But in reality, we may not be far exercise physiology in the from this because of the population loss and pos- One contributing factor of the declining hopes of becoming a per- sible extinction of the major pollinator of plants, honeybee population is the spread of parasites and sonal trainer or a strength the honeybee. Honeybees pollinate our plants, pathogens. Grünewald (2010) states that, “Honey- and conditioning coach. which allows crops to be grown. They also affect bees are suffering from several parasites or patho- the economy through agriculture and the beekeep- gens. Among them are mites, bacteria, fungi, and ing industry. In recent years, a sharp decline in viruses” (p. 64). There are many parasites that can the population of honeybees has been noticed. If harm bees such as the wax moth, hive beetle, No- the honeybee population continues to drop, then sema infection, and other viruses, but possibly the there will be dramatic effects on the world and our major global parasitic threat to honeybees is the daily lives. Varroa mite. Originating in Asia, the Varroa mite has become a worldwide threat to the honeybees. There are more than 20,000 species of bees. Since this arachnid lives on the outside of its honey- Honeybees are a type of bee that live in colonies bee host, it is considered an ectoparasite. The mites and are known all over the world. According to reproduce and develop within the hive, thriving on Grünewald (2010) there are nine different species the bees and bee larvae. Over time, as the mites of honeybees, with the most common and most continue to be present and interfere with the bees’ widely distributed being apis mellifera, more com- daily lives, the entire honeybee hive will eventually monly known as the western domestic honey bee (p. die off (Martin 2001). Although the Varroa mite is 63). Honeybees live in our environment and many a major devastating factor for honeybees, there are are managed commercially for pollination services. other major factors that have negative impacts on According to the informative article “Honeybee: honeybee population. Apis mellifera” (n.d.), from the National Geographic 4 ReVisions: Best Student Essays Daniel Atkins Agricultural practices have had harmful ef- primary factors driving the rapid decline of tropi- fects on the population of honeybees. The use of cal bees are deforestation and habitat fragmenta- insecticides, especially in commercial agriculture, tion of rainforests in the Neo tropics, Africa, and has become very prominent and useful, but it is Asia,” by “reducing gene flow and preventing re- having large impacts on the way of life for bees and colonization among remaining forest patches” (p. on the honeybee population. Grünewald (2010) 64). When humans destroy or alter the honeybees’ says that insecticides affect the behavior and cogni- natural habitat, then the honeybees are greatly af- tive abilities of honeybees, accumulate in wax, pol- fected. The loss of habitat reduces the food supply len, or honey within the hives, and may possibly and nesting areas for honey bees and also can affect have effects on the population size of native bees the diversity of the bee population. (p. 65). Insecticides can cause the honeybees to Another important agent in the collapse of become lost from their hive because of the effects the honeybee population is the recent arrival of a that they have on the bees’ behavior and cognitive syndrome known as colony collapse disorder or abilities. Also, when the insecticides accumulate CCD. When a hive experiences CCD, the honey- within the hive, they can weaken the honeybees bees that live in the hive just seem to disappear. In and allow them to be more susceptible to disease an article