Chris Gardner 10 EE

10 EE Chris Gardner
All information from Chris Gardner's biography The Pursuit Of Happyness

Birth date and place:

Chris Gardner the author of The Pursuit of Happyness was born February 9th 1954 in Milwaukee Wisconsin.

Family Members:

Chris never met his real father but had an abusive alcoholic step father named Freddy Triplett, but at least he did know his real biological mom Bettye Jean. He had an older half sister named Ophelia, and two younger sisters Sharon and Kimberly who’s dad is Freddy. He had three uncles from his mom’s side Archie, Wille, and Henry who he had spent time with when he was in foster care. He has an ex wife named Sherry, a son named Christopher Jarret Medina Gardner Jr, and a daughter Jacintha Gardner.

Childhood/School Life:

Chris had an extremely rough childhood he had never met his biological father and in return had a horrible excuse of a stepfather. Freddy would beat him, his mom, and his sisters. Freddy at one time even tried killing his mother with a 2x4 right in front of him he would also accuse his mother of things and get her put in jail forcing him and his sisters into foster care but luckily they always had contact or lived with his mom’s side of the family with his aunts and uncles. Despite all of the horrific things going on at home he was always very good in school he said that he enjoyed school and learning because it was the only place he could escape to and it would make Freddy mad that he was smart because Freddy was completely illiterate so Chris would purposely read out loud when he was home. He was at the top of his class a lot of his school career. Although he was very intelligent he never went to college because he got his girlfriend at the time pregnant with his son.

Hobbies Interests and Activities:

Chris was very interested in school always had been since he was little always very curious and wanted to learn. He also liked to go with his uncle Henry on his motor boat until he died. Chris was never good at sports so he never pursued any of that.

Anecdotes:

The most life impacting story Chris tells in his book is when he is at the San Francisco General Hospital walking out going into the parking lot when he see’s a red Ferrari with its roaring revving engine pulling in; curious as to how someone could afford such a car at around the same age as him he approaches the man in the Ferrari and offers him his parking spot for exchange of knowing what he does and how he does it. The man accepted and said I’m a stockbroker but to tell you how will have to be for another time it would take too long so he gave Chris his card. This later turned into him turning into Chris’ mentor of the stock market his name was Bob Bridges and inspired Chris to be a stockbroker and eventually own his own firm making millions.

Career:

Chris started off as a doctor’s assistant for Dr. Robert Ellis but had ten years of medical school to go to and with the upcoming advancements in the field by the time he graduated the medical field would be completely different so he quit but later in his life he became a stockbroker and eventually started up his own firm named Gardner Rich & Co in Chicago, Illinois later he sold his shares and became CEO of Christopher Gardner International Holdings that has offices in San Francisco, New York, And Chicago.

Reason For Fame:

Chris Gardner’s Reason for fame was his book, life story, and movie the Pursuit of Happyness that ensures that no matter what if you have the dedication and motivation you can pursue and accomplish the “American Dream”.

Later Life:

When Chris married his ex wife Sherry he was in the medical field as stated in career but once she found out he had quit she divorced him and gave Chris full custody of his son but with no job and kicked out of where he was living with Sherry he was homeless and raising his son he stayed at shelters, buses, bathrooms and trolleys with his son for years until he finally made it as a stockbroker. Chris Gardner still owns his company but is doing great things with his money by being a philanthropist and donating his money to a lot of causes and organizations a lot of which have to do with kids and homeless because of his situation when he was homeless with a kid.

Journalism Article

Is The Dress Code Obnoxiously Strict?

    Have you ever been harassed by campus supervisors about something as trivial as wearing your hoodie or shirt with something as little as a gun on it? Well most would say the dress code at WHHS is overbearing. Everything seems to be a dress code violation at Westhills from hoodies,beanies, hats, shorts, tank tops, to even the word "straps". Everyday I see both girls and guys getting sent up to the business building to change out of whatever they're wearing wrong into the old gross loaners the school provides. I think the rules on our clothing are way too strict isn't this a public school after all not a private school? The smallest things are dress code violations like wearing your hood or hat, or even things as little as spiked jewelry even if they're earrings! I feel as if they lie and say it's for the schools safety but I think it's just another way to keep the student body under the school's thumb even more than we already are. Also let's say you don't want to take off whatever you're wearing or you accumulate a number of violations you get threatened or dealt with detention, Saturday school,  refferall , ect. I think that the student body should talk to ASB to should try to set a meeting with the principle and the staff to try and change some of the dress code. I do not think all of the rules are bad just some like the headgear, spiked jewelry, tanks, and a few others. Some of the rules actually do help keep our students looking decent and not déclassé like no pajamas and ones like that. But I think if we as students don't try to bring this up to administration it will only get worse and worse adding on more and more for the next incoming students at WHHS. I asked some students what their opinions on the dress code were one male student had said "Some of the things on our dress code I can see why they have it but others like no hats, hoods, and things like that make no sense. Plus it's hypocritical because almost all of our staff wear hats almost everyday". Another student but female this time said "I'm fine with everything except for the finger tip rule on shorts because my arms are very long so my shorts would have to be abnormally long to where there's no point and I should just wear pants". I haven't got a staff opinion but I know that one of the "narks" that used to work here actually quit because he really disliked getting students in trouble for the littlest things on campus but especially the Dresscode. But overall I'd say most people agree that there are some rules on our Dresscode that should be taken off for obvious reasons but it won't happen until we the students do something about it.

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Sidebar: Clothing trends at WHHS

Some of the clothing trends are very very popular to the point where it seems like everyone is wearing the same thing. Like for guys it's camo anything whether it's shirts, shorts, socks, shoes, ect. Also they either wear cargo shorts, slim straight jeans, or skinnys a lot of people are starting to cuff them. With shoes it's usually converse or vans authentics.