David Ricardo

In high school, I was a member of the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) for all four years, actively participated in several teams within the program each academic year, and had a goal of being promoted to the highest position within the school battalion. By my Junior year I had reached the third highest position within the battalion, Command Sergeant Major (c/ CSM) and had enough experience in military drill movements that I had to teach new recruits the basics of drilling. As the Cadet Command Sergeant Major, my main responsibilities involved working with the five company First Sergeants as each had a monthly company task, organizing monthly meetings with the First Sergeants, and selecting the Cadet of the Month and Cadet of the Year. I also was responsible for supervising the Color Guard team, the individuals that carry the flags flanked by two riflemen on either sides at parades or sports games, but this was supposed to be a more minor task as there was no prerequisit...

Last spring semester I joined the Vietnamese Student Association (VSA) RSO because I was looking to make new friends on campus. I attended their first general meeting in late January and everyone I spoke with was very friendly. VSA was looking for interns who basically assisted the executive board in organizing and carrying out events. I submitted an application to be a VSA intern but at the time I did not know what the position involved.  I was interviewed by one member of the executive board and one of the current VSA interns for the position. We originally used Facebook for communication and only had three group chats: one for the executive board, one for the interns, and one for everyone in the RSO. There were weekly meetings held on Sundays where the first half is attended by the interns then the second half is attended by the executive board and interns.  From mid/late January to late February everyone in the RSO was focused on Vietnamese Cultural Night (VCN). Com...

Last year, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) announced the Illinois Commitment, a financial aid package that went into effect Fall 2019 for new instate freshmen and transfer students with a family income of $61,000 or less and family assets are less than $50,000. The Illinois Commitment will cover the full cost of tuition and campus fees. There is another scholarship, the Illinois Promise, which is only available to instate students whose total family income is below the federal poverty level, their Expected Family Contribution (EFC) is equal to $0, and total family assets are below $50,000. Basically, the Illinois Commitment is for students who falls below the median family income in Illinois while the Illinois Promise is for students from low income households. I met my friend Alexa, not her real name, when I was a junior in highschool and she was a freshman. We were in the same company for Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) together. In Fall 2018, I ...

Hello and welcome to my blog! I am David Ricardo born April 18, 1772 in London of the Kingdom of Great Britain. I am one of seventeen children in my Jewish family! We had to work hard from an early age because after all feeding seventeen children is expensive. I started working with my father, Abraham Ricardo, when I was 14 years old as a stock broker. The future looked bright and I soon found the love of my life, Priscilla Wilkinson, and got married when I was 21 years old. Youthful ignorance made me blind to the coming storm on the horizon. My father did not approve of my decision because Priscilla was a Quaker. He quickly disowned me from the family and my mother refused to speak with me. I said my farewells to my brothers and sisters, at least to the ones that would listen, before setting out on my own path. I began a business around trading government securities with the savings I had from working as a stock broker. Over time, the business faced difficult financial si...