Central research problem
The United States is a first-class nation, and many people believe that its educational system is up to standard. However, that is not the case, as Bill Gates was able to identify a gap. The major problem addressed in this research essay is the education inefficiencies in various study institutions and how Bill Gates has tackled the problem.
Bill Gates identified various educational problems that average American’s encounter in their daily errands, and he has employed efforts to ensure that students are able to access computers with ease through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The foundation has funded the construction of information science buildings in major institutions of higher learning to enable students to have sufficient interaction with the computers.
The other problem addressed in the essay describes the disparity that arises due to uncontrollable factors. Although racism is an outdated aspect in the United States, the fact that blacks are more disadvantaged than the whites are is inevitable.
In most cases, the whites have access to efficient learning environments while a great percentage of the African Americans and Latinos will only have access to overtly populated schools with inappropriate learning environments. Fortunately, Bill Gates has facilitated the opening of small schools to relieve the teachers from the heavy workloads.
The Latinos and African Americans with low grasping abilities benefit from this program, as they are able to obtain increased attention from teachers. The reduced student-to-teacher ratio offers the students with enhanced learning environments that encourage great interaction with the teachers.
While poverty may not be a major problem in the United States, it is worth noting that some students have difficulties in achieving their educational dreams due to financial constraints. Bill Gates identified the problems that students from unprivileged families encounter, and he decided to establish the D.C. Achievers Scholarships.
The scholarships have proved to be beneficial, as brilliant students across the world are able to win scholarships and study degrees of their choice.
The major factor that makes the problem to have complications is the strong belief that people have towards the government of the United States. Students across the globe would struggle to obtain an opportunity to study in the United States, as they believe that the degrees that they would obtain are highly valued.
A large scholarly debate may arise, where, some people may oppose Bill Gates’ believe that there is a gap in the education system in the United States. In fact, some people can even say that Bill Gates is simply raising the eyebrows of the citizens to obtain fame and honor. They would suggest that Bill Gates would rather spend his wealth on helping the starving nations instead of investing in an already established nation.
Overall, I would challenge the people who resist Bill Gates’ efforts by daring them to visualize the education system in the United States without Bill Gates’ inputs. In the absence of the information centers and scholarships facilitated by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, thousands of people would be helpless, uneducated, and jobless. Therefore, college students should embrace Bill Gates’ efforts positively.
They should reap as much as they can from his projects, apply for scholarships and employment opportunities whenever possible, and most importantly, they should purpose to give to the community once they have the ability to give in the future.
Annotated bibliography
Gates, Bill. “Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: 2012.” African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition & Development 11.7 (2011): 1-25. Print.
The article describes the 2012 annual report from Bill Gates, which describes his philanthropic efforts. Bill Gates clearly indicates that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation aims at innovating areas that comprise of people who are in desperate need for help. In Africa, for example, the governments spend very little money on agriculture research, yet they ought to prioritize agriculture before other things.
For this reason, Bill Gates indicates that more than 1 billion people in the world are extremely poor. The most insinuating thing is that people are not poor because of laziness, but because they employ inefficient agricultural practices.
Bill Gates found out that the poorest nations spend a high percentage of their income on food, while the rich only spend about 6% of their income on food, and they invest the remaining amount in useful projects. Having identified the hunger, technological backwardness, and hunger-related illnesses as the major problems in Africa, Bill Gates established a way to address the problems.
The article is very instrumental, as it explains the crucial role that Bill Gates has played in Africa to improve the quality of life and minimize the effects of food shortage. Bill Gates has played a critical role in protecting the health of people living in poor countries by funding organizations that handle such matters.
The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVA), for example, is a full time beneficially of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Through the donations, it is able to provide immunization and increase healthcare accessibility in Africa.
The article, which is in the African Journal of food, agriculture, nutrition, and development, is highly significant in describing Bill Gates efforts in helping the needy people across the globe. In the article, Bill Gates stands out as a social figure, who has toured the world to find out what other people need to enhance their lifestyles.
The article highlights the role that Bill Gates plays in funding several projects with particular emphasis on the increased amount of food and reduced starvation through personal funding or through his foundation. It contains photos that display the projects that Bill Gates has funded in the marginalized communities, and how he freely interacts with the poor people.
Students who have never been to Africa will find it awkward to believe that some people in the world can starve to death. However, this article is highly important as it gives pictures of the real situation in Africa. College students will find it helpful in gaining a clear visualization of the meaning of starvation.
The discussions and the pictures in the article give a clear description of the situation in Africa. Indeed, health issues, poverty, and technological backwardness are factors that contribute to the death of millions of lives in Africa; therefore, students are obligated to reconsider their choices in life. Upon reading the article, college students will learn to give the little that they have to people in need.
Most importantly, they will learn to be selfless and humble social individuals, who can fit in any society. If Bill Gates, who is among the richest people in the world, can afford to associate with the poor, then the college students can do better than him. The insinuating story will trigger racists, choosy, proud, and selfish students to reconsider their choices in life and emulate the practices of Bill Gates.
Research process
The first step in this research process was to find out about Bill Gates’ early life, and his interest in programming. The internet search engine was highly beneficial at this point, as the information was readily available. Indeed, Bill Gates and his friend, Paul Allen, had an interesting early life.
One incident leads to another and the project slowly developed into a real research study. Allen and Gates were great programmers who could even hack programs to obtain free computer time. This was the most interesting incidence that would trigger one to imagine what the small boys were capable of doing in their adulthood.
In their early years of adulthood, Gates and Allen founded Microsoft, and all computer users give tributes to Bill Gates for heading the world’s largest software company, which is imperative in the current world. However, after establishing and running the Microsoft Company for several years, Bill Gates felt that it was time to shift his life from computers to addressing the needs of people.
Andrew Carnegie was one of the philanthropists who triggered Bill Gates to consider giving back to the community (Stevenson 239). A reflection of his philanthropic work has clear relevance to Bill Gates’ philanthropic work. In the research study, the establishment of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation marked his shift from computers in libraries to reformations in high schools (Hill 45).
The source described Bill Gates’ efforts to reform the education system in the United States through scholarships, donations to construct information centers and measures to address the needs of the disadvantaged people in the country. Hill’s source led to Bill Gates’ report that appeared in the African Journal of food, agriculture, nutrition, and development.
Indeed, the report indicated that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation played a great role in addressing the needs of the helpless people in poor nations. The foundation emphasizes health matters, agriculture, and technological concerns in the least developed nations (Gates 20).
These three sources led to the other two sources that describe the new face of philanthropy, and the efforts that the philanthropic man has portrayed in his life. It might be difficult to affirm that Bill Gates is one of the greatest philanthropists in history. However, from the list of the records of things that has done, Bill Gates is likely to become the greatest philanthropists in history (Lenkowsky 19).
Although it was very easy to find information about Bill Gates’ early life through the search engine, it was somewhat difficult to find the exact information about his donations to Africa and the rest of the world. Different sources had different statistical figures, and it was difficult to identify the source with the most accurate figures.
Moreover, researching about Bill Gates’ philanthropic efforts was quite tricky as many authors concentrate on his computer programming skills rather than his philanthropic efforts. At that point, it was necessary to find peer-reviewed scholarly articles that would have more accurate information than the internet sources.
It was necessary to counter check the statistical data in the reviewed journals to increase accuracy. Indeed, the peer-reviewed journals did not have varying statistical data. Essentially this is the constructive controversy problem and resolution technique that emphasizes on analyzing the pros and cons of certain decisions. Therefore, college students should always consider this approach to develop researches with accurate information.
Value of the research project
I find this project to be highly important to those of us in college. It reveals that heroism is more than giving the surplus monies that one has to the community; it is sacrificing and giving beyond people’s expectations (Byrne et al. 82). Bill Gates’ early life is a great revelation that I need to work hard for everything that I desire in life.
His mischievousness with his friend Paul Allen is a clear indication that aggressive people have to find all ways and means to obtain what they want. Bill Gates’ adventurous college life plays a great role in inspiring and motivating my academic learning. Interestingly, he spent most of his time in the computer lab while in college, but he still scored highly in his exams to impress his parents, who wanted him to become a lawyer.
This incidence encourages me to work hard and have exceptional performance in spite of the numerous extracurricular activities that I may be attending to while in school. I can still visualize the boldness that the two boys had when they convinced MITS’s manager that they were working on a program to run the Altair computer.
For this reason, my cowardice disappears whenever I intend to do great things. I clearly understand that all I need to perform miracles is to believe in the little strength and wisdom that I possess.
Some of my college students are used to being selfish in everything that they do. Bill Gate’s selfless trait should be a wakeup call for them to act selflessly and be good to others regardless of their social status, race, or background.
The entire project will encourage college students to become risk-takers, who can entrust other people with their most valuable items. Indeed, Microsoft was a highly significant company to Bill Gates, but he was able to entrust his college friend, Steve Ballmer, to lead the Company while he concentrated in his philanthropic work.
Moreover, the fact that Bill Gates donates billions of dollars without becoming poor would trigger college students to reconsider their daily deeds. They will feel obligated to ensure that their deeds are beneficial to at least one person. The entire project will change the lifestyles of college students, who tend to associate with people of their class.
They will learn to portray their kindness in every aspect of life, and most importantly, the project will encourage them to work hard, learn from their mistakes, and never to give up in anything. The students will learn that the small things that they do will determine their success in the future; therefore, students will learn to take responsibility of their actions.
This project speaks directly to self-centered people in the current world. People across the globe have embraced the saying that men should struggle for their own lives and let natural selection take its own course. Bill Gates has played a significant role in overthrowing the saying as he is living and working for other people. The Gates have tried their best, and willing and able people across the globe should emulate his work.
Bill Gates’ story should challenge people who are living luxuriously while others are dying of sickness, hunger, and poverty. Indeed, some parts of the world can only recover from their current state of agony if people emulated Bill Gates’ practices.
Works Cited
Byrne, John, Julia Cosgrove, Brian Hindo and Adam Dayan. “The New Face of Philanthropy.” Business Week 38.9 (2002): 82. Print.
Gates, Bill. “Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: 2012.” African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition & Development 11.7 (2011): 1-25. Print.
Hill, Paul. “Bill and Melinda Gates Shift from Computers in Libraries to Reform in High Schools.” Education Next 6.1 (2006): 44-51. Print.
Lenkowsky, Leslie. “Will Bill Gates Become One Of History’s Great Philanthropists?” Chronicle of Philanthropy 18.1 (2006): 16-19. Print.
Stevenson, Siobhan. “The Political Economy of Andrew Carnegie’s Library Philanthropy, With a Reflection on Its Relevance to the Philanthropic Work of Bill Gates.” Library & Information History 26.4 (2010): 237-257. Print.