Letter of Recommendation Sample Close Colleague

Letter of Recommendation Sample Close Colleague SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips You don't have to be somebody's boss to write her a recommendation letter. You might have a coworker ask you to write one when she applies for an internal promotion or a position outside the company. This sample letter's written by a colleague for someone applying to a leadership position at another company. As a coworker and friend to the candidate, the writer can speak both to her professional skills and to her personal interests. Read on to see how the writer supports his colleague's job application. Sample Recommendation Letter #7: Written by a Coworker Mr. Ernie SandersChief Marketing OfficerGlobex Tech55 Valley RoadPalo Alto, CA 95014 Dear Mr. Sanders, I’m very pleased to recommend Alice for the position of Editor-in-Chief with Globex Tech. As a fellow IT Content Editor at CloudArk, I’ve worked alongside Alice for the past five years. Not only has she been a key player on our team, but she’s also become a close personal friend. Alice’s skills and leadership qualities would make her an invaluable addition to your information technology content development team. While Alice has found success at CloudArk, helping increase our blog traffic from a few thousand to over one million monthly readers over her time here, she’s looking to maximize her skills as a leader within a larger company. Our small start-up doesn’t yet have the opportunities for leadership for which Alice is qualified. Alice is poised to step into a role of editorial management for a content program with the potential for global reach. Alice can plan, create, and market IT content and build a global presence for Globex Tech. She’s an excellent writer and editor with a facility for translating technical information into engaging content. She has used her knowledge of the tech world both to popularize CloudArk’s blog and to develop a platform for educational training, including IT-related certifications, workshops, and webinars. She has her finger on the pulse of technological trends and provides content that’s both useful and captivating to readers. Alice marries her writing skills with a working knowledge of digital and inbound marketing. She works across social media, email campaigns, and other public relations outreach to effect viral engagement. Her last three posts across our social media platforms generated an all time high of 20,000 shares and helped bring in many unique visitors. In a leading position with your company, Alice would use strategic tactics, like search engine optimization and social media metrics, to take your web presence to the next level. In addition to her professional qualifications, Alice has personal qualities that make her well-suited to leadership. She’s naturally fallen into the role of â€Å"point person† that many of us go to with questions. She’s not afraid to take risks and often suggests new directions to explore. Alice was instrumental in introducing our educational platform for training, for instance, a direction that has proven to be very fruitful. She’s committed to quality, growth, and progress, and she inspires her team members to strive for the same. In short, Alice is a person with vision. On a personal note, Alice has become a close friend over our years of working together at CloudArk. She organized several social events for the company, like bar meet-ups and 5k races, helping to facilitate team cohesion and allowing us to form a great friendship. In fact, we’re going trail running this Saturday. Alice’s fun and friendly personality are just icing on the cake of her many other qualifications. Alice has my highest recommendation for the position of Editor-in-Chief with Globex Tech. I’m excited to see the directions in which Globex Tech will grow under Alice’s leadership. Please feel free to contact me for any further information. Thanks very much for your time. Sincerely, Robert WordsworthIT Content EditorCloudArkrwordsworth@cloudark.com(866) 811-5546 Robert sounds confident that Alice has the editorial and social media skills to beEditor-in-Chief. Recommendation Letter #7: The Breakdown This recommendation letter sample is one written by a coworker for someone applying outside of the company. This coworker describes his personal friendship with the applicant while also pointing outthe applicant’s professional skillsand work performance. He starts with a statement of strong support, as well as an explanation of why Alice is looking to step into a leadership position at a larger company. Robert describes Alice’s past accomplishments and future potential. He shows how she contributed toCloudArk's growth, describing her skill in content creation and knowledge of technological trends. He also touches on her digital and content marketing abilities, both of which would be essential in her target job. In addition to discussing her experiences, Robert explains that Alice has the leadership capabilities and vision to move into an Editor-in-Chief position. He says she’s become the â€Å"point person† for her colleagues while also excelling at collaborative work. This former skill is further evidenced by virtue of the fact that the letter is written by a work colleague. As Alice’s friend, Robert’s also able to touch on some of her personal interests, providing an additional dimension to the letter. Overall, Robert states strong support for Alice’s application and gives examples as to why she’s ready to step into a position of editorial leadership. His letter presents Alice’s editorial and marketing qualifications and proves that she’s established positive relationships with her colleagues. Want to provide a strong recommendation for your employee, but don't have the time to craft the perfect letter? PrepScholar's new recommendation tool, SimpleRec, takes you from good intentions and a blank page to a fully written and formatted letter of recommendation in under 5 minutes. All you need to do is give us some simple pieces of information about your employee and your experience working with them, and we'll do the rest. Try out SimpleRec risk-free today: What's Next? Not everyone asks a coworker or manager to provide them with a letter of recommendation. People who are just out of college often ask a former professor. Check out this next recommendation letter sample to see how a professor supports a former student's job application! Are you looking for more rec letter samples? Refer to this complete reference letter guide to find more samples and learn more about the letter writing process.

Helen Pitts Douglass, Wife of Frederick Douglass

Helen Pitts Douglass, Wife of Frederick Douglass Born Helen Pitts (1838 - 1903), Helen Pitts Douglass was a suffragist and abolitionist in the 19th century. She is best known for marrying politician and abolitionist reformer Frederick Douglass, an interracial marriage considered surprising and scandalous at the time. Fast Facts: Helen Pitts Douglass Full Name:  Helen Pitts DouglassOccupation: Suffragist, reformer, and abolitionistBorn: 1838 in Honeoye, New YorkDied: 1903 in Washington, D.C.Known For: A white woman who married the mixed-race abolition leader Frederick Douglass, Helen Pitts Douglass was an advocate in her own right and pushed for abolition, suffrage, and her husbands legacy.Spouse: Frederick Douglass (m. 1884-1895) Early Life and Work Helen Pitts was born and raised in the small town of Honeoye, New York.  Her parents, Gideon and Jane Pitts, had abolitionist views and participated in anti-slavery work. She was the oldest of five children, and her ancestors included Priscilla Alden and John Alden, who had come to New England on the Mayflower. She was also a distant cousin of President John Adams and of President John Quincy Adams. Helen Pitts attended a female seminary Methodist seminary in nearby Lima, New York.  She then attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, founded by Mary Lyon in 1837, and graduated in 1859. A teacher, she taught at the Hampton Institute in Virginia, a school founded after the Civil War for the education of freedmen.  In poor health, and after a conflict in which she accused some local residents of harassing students, she moved back to the family home at Honeoye. In 1880, Helen Pitts moved to Washington, DC, to live with her uncle.  She worked with Caroline Winslow on The Alpha, a women’s rights publication, and began to be more outspoke in the suffrage movement. Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass, the well-known abolitionist and civil rights leader and ex-slave, had attended and spoke at the 1848 Seneca Falls Woman’s Rights Convention. He was an acquaintance of Helen Pitts’ father, whose home had been part of the pre-Civil War Underground Railroad.  In 1872 Douglass had been nominated – without his knowledge or consent – as the vice presidential candidate of the Equal Rights Party, with Victoria Woodhull nominated for president. Less than a month later, his home in Rochester burned down, possibly the result of arson.  Douglass moved his family, including his wife, Anna Murray Washington, from Rochester, NY, to Washington, DC. In 1881, President James A. Garfield appointed Douglass as Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia. Helen Pitts, living next door to Douglass, was hired by Douglass as a clerk in that office. He was often traveling and was also working on his autobiography; Helen Pitts helped him in that work. In August, 1882, Anne Murray Douglass died.  She had been ill for some time.  Douglass fell into a deep depression.  He began to work with Ida B. Wells on anti-lynching activism. Married Life On January 24, 1884, Frederick Douglass and Helen Pitts were married in a small ceremony officiated by the Rev. Francis J. Grimkà ©, at his home. Grimkà ©, a leading black minister of Washington, had also been born into slavery, also with a white father and a black slave mother. His father’s sisters, the famous women’s rights and abolitionist reformers Sarah Grimkà © and Angelina Grimkà ©, had taken in Francis and his brother Archibald when they discovered the existence of these mixed-race nephews, and had seen to their education.  The marriage seems to have taken their friends and families by surprise. The notice in the New York Times (January 25, 1884) highlighted what were likely to be seen as the scandalous details of the marriage: â€Å"Washington, January 24. Frederick Douglass, the colored leader, was married in this city this evening to Miss Helen M. Pitts, a white woman, formerly of Avon, N.Y.  The wedding, which took place at the house of Dr. Grimkà ©, of the Presbyterian church, was private, only two witnesses being present. The first wife of Mr. Douglass, who was a colored woman, died about a year ago. The woman he married to-day is about 35 years of age, and was employed as a copyist in his office. Mr. Douglass himself is about 73 years of age and has daughters as old as his present wife.† Helen’s parents opposed the marriage because of Douglasss mixed-race heritage (he was born to a black mother but a white father), and stopped speaking to her.  Frederick’s children were also opposed, believing it dishonored his marriage to their mother. (Douglass had five children with his first wife; one, Annie, died at age 10 in 1860.) Others, both white and black, expressed opposition and even outrage at the marriage. However, they had support from some corners.  Elizabeth Cady Stanton, longtime friend of Douglass though at a key point a political opponent over the priority of women’s rights and black men’s rights, was among the defenders of the marriage.  Douglass responded with some humor, and was quoted as saying â€Å"This proves I am impartial. My first wife was the color of my mother and the second, the color of my father.†Ã‚  He also wrote, â€Å"People who had remained silent over the unlawful relations of white slave masters with their colored slave women loudly condemned me for marrying a wife a few shades lighter than myself. They would have had no objection to my marrying a person much darker in complexion than myself, but to marry one much lighter, and of the complexion of my father rather than of that of my mother, was, in the popular eye, a shocking offense, and one for which I was to be ostracized by white and black alike.† Helen was not the first relationship Douglass had had aside from his first wife. Beginning in 1857, Douglass had carried out an intimate relationship with Ottilie Assing, a writer who was a German Jewish immigrant. Assing apparently thought he would marry her, especially after the Civil War, and believed that his marriage to Anna was no longer meaningful to him. She left for Europe in 1876, and was disappointed that he never joined her there.  The August after he married Helen Pitts, she, apparently suffering from breast cancer, committed suicide in Paris, leaving money in her will to be delivered to him twice a year as long as he lived. Frederick Douglass’ Later Work and Travels From 1886 to 1887, Helen and Frederick Douglass traveled together to Europe and Egypt.  They returned to Washington, then from 1889 to 1891, Frederick Douglass served as the US minister to Haiti, and Helen lived with him there.  He resigned in 1891, and in 1892 to 1894, he traveled extensively, speaking against lynching.   In 1892, he began to work on establishing housing in Baltimore for black renters. The following year, Douglass was the only African American official (as a commissioner for Haiti) at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.  Radical to the end, he was asked in 1895 by a young man of color for advice, and he offered this: â€Å"Agitate! Agitate! Agitate!† Douglass returned to Washington from a lecture tour in February 1895 despite declining health. He attended a meeting of the National Council of Women on February 20, and spoke to a standing ovation. On returning home, he had a stroke and heart attack, and died that day. Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote the eulogy which Susan B. Anthony delivered. He was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester, New York. Working to Memorialize Frederick Douglass After Douglass died, his will leaving Cedar Hill to Helen was ruled invalid, because it lacked enough witness signatures.  Douglass’ children wished to sell the estate, but Helen wanted it as a memorial to Frederick Douglass.  She worked to raise funds to establish it as a memorial, with the help of African American women including Hallie Quinn Brown. Helen Pitts Douglass lectured her husbands  history to bring in funds and raise public interest.  She was able to buy the house and adjoining acres, though it was heavily mortgaged. She also worked to have a bill passed that would incorporate the Frederick Douglass Memorial and Historical Association. The bill, as originally written, would have had Douglass’ remains moved from Mount Hope Cemetery to Cedar Hill. Douglass’ youngest son, Charles R. Douglass, protested, citing his fathers wish to be buried at Mount Hope - and insulting Helen as a mere companion for Douglasss later years as well. Despite this objection, Helen was able to get the bill passed through Congress to establish the memorial association. As a sign of respect, however, Frederick Douglass’ remains were not moved to Cedar Hill; Helen instead was buried at Mount Hope as well in 1903. Helen completed her memorial volume about Frederick Douglass in 1901. Near the end of her life, Helen Douglass became weakened, and was unable to continue her travels and lectures. She enlisted the Rev. Francis Grimkà © in the cause.  He convinced Helen Douglass to agree that if the mortgage had not been paid at her death, the money raised from the property being sold would go to college scholarships in Frederick Douglass’ name. The National Association of Colored Women was able, after Helen Douglass’ death, to purchase the property, and to keep the estate as a memorial, as Helen Douglass had envisioned.  Since 1962, the Frederick Douglass Memorial Home has been under the administration of the National Park Service.  In 1988, it became the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site. Sources Douglass, Frederick. Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. 1881.Douglass, Helen Pitts. In Memoriam: Frederick Douglass. 1901.Harper, Michael S. â€Å"The love letters of Helen Pitts.† TriQuarterly. 1997.Marriage of Frederick Douglass. The New York Times, 25 Jan. 1884. https://www.nytimes.com/1884/01/25/archives/marriage-of-frederick-douglass.html

Discuss critically distinctions between Islamic finance regulation and Essay

Discuss critically distinctions between Islamic finance regulation and conventional financing of commercial credit - Essay Example Islamic financing was first introduced in the UK in 1990 and has since developed to such an extent that the UK hosts the largest share of Islamic assets (valued at US$18 billion) among all Western countries and is eight worldwide.6 As of 2008, there were five â€Å"stand-alone† Islamic banks in the UK and more than 20 conventional banks offering Islamic products.7 This paper provides a critical analysis of the distinctions between Islamic finance regulation and conventional financing of commercial credit. The modernized form of Islamic finance began in Egypt during 1963 when the Mitt Ghamr savings system was introduced as a â€Å"social banking initiative†.8 By 1975 the first commercial Islamic banks were established: Islamic Development Bank and the Dubai Islamic Bank. The Islamic banking sector grew at a steady pace and by the 1990s there was a growing demand for Islamic financial products in investments and loans. In more recent years, the growth in demand and supply of Islamic financial products has been more expansive. Between 2006 and 2008, Islamic financial assets experienced a growth rate of 30%. As a result, Sharia compliant banking products have been described as the worlds â€Å"fastest growing financial sector†.9 There are at least 614 â€Å"registered Islamic finance institutions† in 47 countries with Islamic assets increasing from US$150 billion during the 1990s to approximately US$700 billion by 2007.10 The growth and expansion of Islamic banking and financial products have been impressive. Holden reports that over the last thirty years or so, Muslims all over the world have demonstrated a propensity for withdrawing billions of dollars from conventional banking systems and transferring them to Islamic banking and financial systems. In addition, conventional banks have shown an increasing willingness to offer Islamic banking and financial products and services.11 Islamic banking is defined as a â€Å"system of

Marxist Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Marxist Analysis - Essay Example This is not the same case when it comes to the history of economic original sin; it reveals to us that there are people to whom the whole thing is by no means essential. It happened that those in power accumulated wealth, and the subjects had at last nothing to sell other than their skins. Thus, the majority of people are poor despite their labor which is the only thing they have remained with. The few rich are constantly accumulating wealth despite the fact that they stopped working long time ago. This is usually used in defense of their property because in actual history it’s the enslavement, robbery, murder and force that play greater roles. In the records of political economy this idea has been brought about by Karl Marx. In the analysis of the international trade by economists, the Robinson Crusoe figure is taken as the main starting point. He is pictured as a strong, intelligent and diligent individual who through reasoning masters nature. In addition, he is also portrayed as a promoter of slavery, murder, robbery and force. This is because idyllic existed earlier thus; political economy should not be ignored. The contrast between what actually happens in the international economy and the international trade myths in the economics textbooks is as a result of the contrast between the real Robinson Crusoe and the economist’s Robinson Crusoe. The model of a fisherman and a hunter who exchange their mutual profit under conditions of reciprocity, freedom and equality are paradigmatic to non-Marxist international trade theory. International trade should be based upon a division between equals; unfortunately, it is often based on a division between the subordinate and the superior. It’s more of a trade between the colonizer and the colonized, the hinterland and the center, the servant and the master. It’s based upon the division between lower and higher functions as in the relation of capital to labor; one party does the work while the

Policies and Procedures to Manage the Release of PHI Research Paper

Policies and Procedures to Manage the Release of PHI - Research Paper Example Mobile phone and other related technology, retrieve personal health information for patients. Rapid exchange of vital medical information helps to quality delivery of medical aid to individuals (Kelly, Vottero & Christie-McAuliffe, 2014). On the contrary, there is a risk of unwanted access to privacy of medical information. It is important that health institutions have policies procedure to guide the process of revealing the medical information of individuals. Agency should implement an information management system to assist in managing health records. There would be effective quality control of health information. Proper health information management harmonizes the differences in law governing the release of medical information. Management of health information is one of the ways to regulate the release of medical information for patients (Kelly, Vottero & Christie-McAuliffe, 2014). The release of health information is an important topic because it dictates the quality of medical delivery. The state laws conflict and there are some states that have different rules governing the release of medical information. There is no uniformity in the state laws governing the protection of a patients medical information. There is varying degree of seriousness in handling the release of medical information for patients. Some states require patient permission to publish his or her personal information. On the contrary, some states do not have significant restrictions in releasing medical information to individuals. It is important to have install management systems that will ensure that there is protection of health information of patients. Installation of better management systems provides tracking of patients information. It is an important component in the implementation of a health care policy. The management should manage patients information in the hospital, and teams

Is Morality Relative To Culture?

Is Morality Relative To Culture? Its has been charged that truth or justification of moral judgement is not relative to some group of persons, but absolute. After having defined both objectivism and cultural relativism views about morality well try to argue the relativity of moral by 3 different ways. First at all metaethical relativism tries to challenge the existence of objective fact, then thinks about what motivate people to act in order to see if motivations are relative or a priori and, last but not least emphasises the existence of moral disagreement s which cause an objection to objectivist theories. Cultural relativism is primarily based on empirical thesis that emphasises deep and widespread moral disagreement across different societies. This descriptive claim is not controversial but leads to metaethical thesis which can be contested. According to it, the truth-value of a claim is relative to the tradition, conviction or practice of a group (such as a society). There is no universal moral authority or normative force over (for ?) moral judgement but a relative one. Truth-values depend upon what people happen to be right or wrong within a particular ethical framework. Relativism has to face objectivism about the status of morality. The latter holds that moral judgement are truth or false in an absolute or universal sense. People are justified in accepting true moral judgement because they are based on objective facts. So moral judgement is an evidence to any reasonable and well informed person. The first issue raised between both theories is about the existence or not of objective fact. Harman disagree with the idea of objective morality which would rely on objective facts. Objective facts are indispensable in explaining what we observe, no putative moral facts are thus indispensable, therefore, there are not moral facts (Harman, 1997). If we tried to explain what we think or to judge an act as right or wrong its because we have moral thoughts. However moral thoughts are nothing else than socially inculcated view of the right and the wrong. In other words, we reflect about the worlds through our perception of it. Perception is not a neutral physical process but something determined by our upbringing (beliefs, concepts, expectation). Cultural relativists ensure that a persons culture strongly influenced her mode of perceptions. Culture shape human being. No man ever looks at the worlds with pristine eyes, he sees it edited by a definite set of custom and institution and ways of thinking (R.Benedict, 1934, pp. 2-3). Its not simply that our perception of thing is relat ive but facts themselves are relative to culture. Then polygamy is wrong may be justified in one culture but not another. Thus what is right or wrong depends on what moral standards of a culture warrant. Kantian ethic separates the agent from is social context, our perception of the world have nothing to do with cultural upbringing Indeed the world exists independently of how we know it. An agent cannot have any coherent experiences and knowledge without being aware of an objective world. We think the world in term of central concepts. Viewing the world objectively, I detached myself from my present concern, interests, goals Beliefs are not embedded in practice but framed in term of these concepts called categories, given a priori by our reason. Thoughts are regulated, not by culture but by the principle associated with these categories. The human being is a rationally free agent, independent of contingent and particular desire. Beliefs are determined by the speculative reason, and the same faculty frames what we have to do. Then, if you are not a rational agent, how could you know the right thing to do? Since morality seems to be viewed as a practical guide for action, conflicts between objectivism and cultural relativism leads us to explain what motivate people to act and in which way these motivations are relative to culture or not . Harman felt that we judge action right or wrong relative to a moral standard that we have agreed with others to accept. Moral judgement makes reference to an agreement. An agreement is reached when someone has reason to do something and this reason is shared by who Harman called the speaker and the audience. We need to look at how and why people act. If Y says that X ought to do something, that means that X has reason to do it, has motivation for doing so, and this reason is shared by Y (its what Harman called an inner judgement). Reasons have their source in desire, goals. To possess rationality is not enough, desires and goals are necessary to act. In other words, pure practical reason is not an explanation of why I intend to do something. Motivating reasons are not universals. People act to serve their ends and peoples ends differs from a person to another one. There is agreement if and only if a number of people have an intention on the assumption that others have the same intent ion (id). Then moral understanding is the result of a bargaining. People keep agreements because they provide us reasons to intend to do something: to do its own part of the agreement on the condition that others do their part. As we have seen above, culture shape human being in his way of thinking, that follows that desires, goals, needs that lead to agreement are influenced by culture. To conclude, moral agreements vary across different cultures. Thus Harman disagree with Kant for who what motivate people to act is never based on whats people desire or peoples ends. People act in order to realize the summum bonum, which is the object of our will. (summum bonum understood as the highest freedom and happiness) To promote it we need the accordance of the will with the moral law. Here also we need to look at how and why people act. People have different inclination that is to say, a feeling of various attractive ends. Among different type of inclinations one is overridden, its the a priori feeling, feeling of a respect for the moral law, based on pure reason. Inclinations must be incorporated into a maxim. We decide what to do because we have some beliefs, determine by the reason alone. Maxim provide us reason to action, I adopt an end according to these maxim and commit myself to some means for achieving that end (I will something then I do it). We can think that people would choose different maxims relative to their own culture, but actually maxims are chosen a priori through pure practical reason regardless empirical or contingents factors. Since I have deprived the will of every impulse that could arise for it from obeying some law nothing is left but conformity of action as such with universal law (kant, 1785.) Some actions are necessary and correspond to Categorical Imperatives. They are inescapable law, applicable to everyone and do not appeal to non-moral consideration. To conclude people act in accordance to CI (existing a priori in an objective world), whose 2 formulations are the universal law and the law of nature. These laws, being universal apply to everyone and are not relative. We can notice that even the word nature is often opposed to the word culture. The last issue here to face both theories concerns moral disagreement. They disagree on the possibility to rationally resolve moral disagreement. Cultural relativism often described itself as an interpretation of this disagreement. If they could be resolved, relativism would be undermined. Each society has its own conceptual schemes and they are incommensurable with one another. Cultures do not have enough in common in term of shared concepts or standard to rationally resolve their differences. Wittgenstein claims that there is an autonomy and a rationality to each culture. There is no way to understand rules except from inside the rule governed practice themselves. People are minded in a certain ways and its why they find justification to their true-value. This point is controverted by objectivism for which moral disagreement can be rationally resolved. Disagreements only reveal that people can be mistaken. People could be influenced by ideology, prejudice, interest etc. Then if people are well informed, moral difference are resolved. Following Kant some specific moral framework are rationally superior to others, such as Categorical Imperatives provide by pure practical reason. For example to say that polygamy is true relative to X, only means that polygamy has been accepted by people living in x. But people can be mistaken and the true remain undiscovered. Relativism must reply that there is no way to think that some people are much more well informed that another, this could not be a rational explanation to moral difference between societies. Furthermore the fact itself that objectivists disagree among themselves proves that there is no moral objective fact. To conclude, we agree that morality is located within the world rather than outside. If relativism can be challenged in many ways, a weaker form of relativism must be held for at least 2 reasons. To agree with relativism imply that there is no superior moral value among the diversity of culture. And in other hand there is no way to interfere with the action of a society whose moral agreement differs from ours. However we can underline that a mixt position will be better to handle relativisms problem. Indeed some rules seem to govern the entire world (ex: promoting welfare is the goal of a society, or do unto others as you would have them unto you). But there are different ways to promote welfare. Then we could accept that moral concept must have enough content to prevent from moral imperialism or moralizing view.

Symbols in A Separate Peace, by John Knowles Essay -- essays research

The theme â€Å"rite of passage† was used in the novel A Separate Peace, by John Knowles. This moving from innocence to adulthood was contained within three sets of interconnected symbols: summer and winter, the Devon and Naguamsett Rivers, and peace and war. These symbols served as a backdrop upon which the novel was developed. The loss if Gene Forrester’s innocence was examined through these motifs. The summer and winter sessions symbolized Gene’s loss of innocence. During the summer sessions, the boys of Devon were carefree and showed no respect for the rules, while the teachers put no effort into enforcing the rules. â€Å"This was the way the masters tended to treat us that summer,† (Knowles 23). Together, Gene and Finny formed the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session. The Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session represented the freedom and naivetà © of the summer. Unlike the summer, the winter session was defined by rules and discipline; the teachers now enforced the rules unlike the summer. The fight that occurred between Gene and Quackenbush set the tone for the winter session. â€Å"I had never been in it before; it seemed inappropriate that my baptism had taken place in the first day of the winter session and that I had been thrown into it, in the middle of a fight,† (Knowles 86). Gene’s transformation began with the summer and wint er sessions. Equally important to Gene’s metamorphosis were the Devon and Naguamsett Rivers. Devon School sat in between these two r...