Campus Safari #15

For this weeks campus safari, I deeded to go up to the MultiCultural Center which is located on the second floor of the student center. I had my first experience with them over the summer. I had to get a few of my books last minute, and a girl that my mom works with used to go to southern and coincidentally she used to work in the MultiCultural center. They do plenty of things, but something helpful is they give students books that they don't necessarily have to pay for. When I went up there, they lady was nice and answered the few questions I had.
     
      Q: "What is the purpose of the MultiCultural center on campus?"
      A: we promote different cultures and plan events so people can get involved. for example, this month is hispanic month. We gathered outside and just had a get together.

      Q: How do you play a role in helping kids on campus?
      A: like before, we basically just plan events and if the students want to come and get involved they can. its their choice.  all of our events have too do with the different cultures and we base everything off of that.

she also told me next month is woman history month.

Watch and Learn

After class on thursday, I was talking to my friend about the video project we are assigned. She obviously said that she would allow me to interview her as one of the Freshmen. Afterwards I was talking to her about how I wanted to make my project. I decided that for every group of people i'm going to do a different style: face to face, just voice, and then writing. Hopefully that would give my video a different look and make it seem more interesting. I decided that my topic is going to be "All about Campus". I was planning on just asking the basic questions any freshmen would have when they first start college. Surprisingly I know a lot of freshmen, and older students to talk to which also helped me pick out my topic. The people that I have decided to interview are older, some have commuted, transferred, lived on campus, done both, and may have pursued their major. So I figured that they would be good people to talk to and learn things from. A few questions i'm going to ask are:
*How did you get involved on campus?
*What made you decide to live on campus/commute?
*How did you decide what classes to take, or what major to go into?
*What helped you adapt to the new changes southern brought to you?
     and more.....
There is way more questions that I thought of, but I can guarantee that a lot of students think of those questions. Everybody wants to know how to survive their first year of college so they can make the next three successful. By asking questions you can learn a lot and most freshmen want to know all they can learn from whoever will give them advice. I don't really know if those questions are going to make the video interesting, but I'm hoping that the responses will also make it better.

Time is a created thing. To say "I don't have time" is to say "I don't want to." (LAO TZU, O Magazine, Jan. 2007)

       Since sophomore year of high school, I have realized my life is nothing but a routine. I always find myself doing the same things everyday, week after week. I have nobody to blame for that but myself, but who said I was even complaining? I love my life, and everything I do I do it for a reason. If I didn't like the things I was doing daily I would change and/or stop them. I realized all of that more than ever while doing the self study.

        During this week (if my calculations are right...) I spent about 5hrs and 15 minutes doing homework, and about 30 hours in class. In-between my classes, I have plenty of breaks which is when I like to get a lot of my work done. I am not a procrastinator at all, so that amount of hours doesn't really surprise me. I like to do a lot of things ahead of time, so I have the rest of the day/week to do other things I want to get done. During this time, I'm also with my friend but we are nothing doing work. I find it easier for myself to get things done knowing she is also doing work. Having a lot of long breaks works in my benefit and before starting school I thought they would be a waste of time and I would be bored, but boy was i wrong.

     I also found myself spending a majority of my time at work. I've had a steady job since the summer of my junior year and I love it. Its your basic teenage work place and it has taught me a lot of responsibility because during these times i've had to juggle other things going on. I don't plan on spending the rest of my life their but you learn a lot from the jobs you have while your in high school and college. I also feel like working as taught me the most important: time management. I work nights, and weekends so on these certain days I don't have time to do homework. Which is also why I feel like I don't procrastinate.

     Looking at my schedule, I wouldn't really change anything and I feel like I can continue this type of schedule throughout my first year of college. yeah we will all hit bumps in the road and things will get tough, but thats when you change things. I wouldn't necessarily take things out of my schedule, maybe just spend a few more hours on homework/studying but for now things are going well and everything is playing out successfully 

Campus Safari #7

So for this weeks campus safari, I decided to take a trip to the fitness center. I was hanging out in the student center with my friend during my break so I figured why not. If you didn't know, its located on the second floor of the Student Center. When I went up there they kind of expected me because other people have gone up there too, so they were already prepared with the questions. They handed me a brochure of all the information, and then I looked up their website online. 

Hours:

Monday-Thursday: 7am-10pm

Friday 7am-8pm

Saturday- 9:30am-4:30pm

Sunday 2pm-7pm

The cost is very reasonable for a college student, its 60$ for one semester, and 120$ for two semesters. A class I would be interested in joining is Zumba which is on Monday, Tuesday and wednesday nights from 7:15pm to 8:15pm. Another class that i might be interested in is Yoga on wednesdays from 5-6. In order to attend classes you need to sign up 15 minutes before class at the front desk. 

Everyones Different

I have never been a blogger, I never looked at blogs, I never wrote on blogs so all of this is new to me. We are required to blog three times a week on all different topics and sometimes I have no idea what to write. So after reading the assignments for the week I think about the topic, and then I go look through an assortment of blogs on the home page.  That helps me get a better understanding of what to actually write about and how I should start writing. I do have my own ideas, but reading how other people feel or what other people think helps me out. So for this week we had to pick out somebody's blog that stood out and was "A" material. But for me I can't pick out a certain person. Everybody has their own style of writing, and everybody's creativity level is going to vary. Yes we all have to write about the same things, and add pictures or links but everybody is going to have something different which to me, makes their blogs unique. When we have to blog, something different pops into all of our heads to write about, no blog is ever going to be the same. One thing I can say is that when I go look at the blogs I don't just click on random ones, I click on the ones that have an interesting title. The title can say a lot about a persons blog and how they write. Then I read what they write and see the designs on their page. To me, if they follow all the requirements and show that they tried then that is A material. If their blog has a design and isn't just plain then I would give them a good grade. I feel wrong just pulling out a specific student because everybody does the blogs, in their own ways.

Past Three Weeks

College is definitely a HUGE change, compared to high school. I can honestly say that in high school I took the easy way out of everything, did my work, and still passed with nothing lower than a B, and in the end I graduated. But in the past three weeks, not only in my INQ class, but my other 4 classes I learned so much about myself, and school in general. The one big thing that I learned and am taking full advantage of being good at is time management. Between having a job, school, homework, and everything else that comes with life you have to make time for everything. With most things in life I don't like to wait till the last minute to do them all so I do a lot of work ahead of time. With that being said, I'll keep up with that in my schedule, and also spending more time on a lot of my school work. In order for me to get better at the classes i'm taking more time needs to be spent on what I don't understand rather than what I do understand. If I am successful at doing all that, my goals for the end of this semester will sure to be met. I have to end the semester/year with a B average in order to get into the program I want to major in. So hopefully by the end thats what will happen because then I can start taking classes that I am actually interested in. Because of the type of person I am, and my personality something that isn't useful for me is getting involved. So far all upperclassmen I have talked to have told me to get involved, join club, study abroad, etc. But all that is not something I'm interested in doing. since i commute, I'm content with going to school, going to class, doing my homework, going to work,  and seeing my friends. I don't feel a need to join a specific club or do sports. If something is meant to happen for me in college it will, Im not going to go searching for it, which may or may not be a problem. I am really a shy person around people I don't know which is also why that isn't something that I'm willing to do. But we've only been in school for about a month and sooner or later i'll find my place and come out of my comfort zone.

Campus Safari #1

For this weeks campus safari I decided to go and talk to my math professor. She doesn’t have an office, so we talked after class because that’s when her office hours are:

Professor: Elizabeth Hart

Contact info: harte4@southernct.edu

Ehart221@yahoo.com (home email)

Office hours: Monday/Wednesday 9:15-11:45am

Question 1- Is the online math homework on My Math Lab mandatory for all teachers at southern or is it your personal preference?

-       anybody who teachers 095 has the option to do online homework, so its basically up to the professor.

Question 2- How come you are all for calculators in class?

 - Calculators are optional for every teacher. I allow you to use them all the way through. 

Professor Hart also teaches at gateway community college, and has taught the middle school math level. 

10,000 Hours

After our discussion in class the other day about this article, it really got me thinking about me and my working habits.  Malcolm Gladwell is the writer of all the outlines, and according to him it takes 10,000 hours to be an expert on a certain subject. So if you think about it, that would be 20 hours a week for 10 years. Thats a lot of hours! In my opinion, in order to spend that much time you have to be interested in it to be successful. If your just learning about something to learn about it your not going to care for it as much compared to if you had interest or loved it. This concept is kind of similar to "practice makes perfect". If you practice a sport, math problems, writing essays etc for hours on end daily then eventually you will get better at it. If you have somebody that can guide you and help you when you need it then I can guarantee that you will be a master at it. We were talking in class about how you are born with certain talents, but I don't believe that. I think that you can be born with something but there is always room to perfect it. I also believe that you grow up loving something (such as music) or being good at something (such as math) because you were brought up with that constantly in your life. If you learn something at a young age, it will stick with you and all you can do is become better at it when you gain more knowledge. The page wasn't loading on my laptop, but I really found this discussion in class most interesting and informational. Each of the articles we've read since class started each have their own importance about them, but this one was probably one of my favorites that i payed 100% attention to.

Cheerleading Taught Me a Lesson

The only difficulty that I can think of that I've faced in my life happened my freshmen year.  I always refer to cheerleading with everything I do in my life because it has made a huge impact on my life plus all the people I have met, challenges I've faced and overcome and just the sport in general have given me a different outlook on plenty of things. I've been doing cheerleading for 12 years (since 2nd grade) and i don't regret any of it. Freshmen year in high school I tried out for the team along with all my other friend's whom I have been cheering with since 2nd grade. Cheering in high school was a whole new ball game compared to pop warner and middle school. So tryouts went on and the final day came when we tried out in front of the judges, come to find out I did not make the team, but all 5 of my friends did. That crushed my self esteem more than anything. I was speechless and had no idea how to react cause I was so hurt. This was most difficult for me because I felt as if I wasn't good enough, my hard work wasn't paying off, and I was taking a year off doing something that I loved. Even after all that negative, plenty of positive came out of what happened. I had so many peoples standing behind me willing to help me out for the upcoming season. The head coach, who has been a family friend for years practiced with me at least once a week for a while, and all I got was positive feedback because SHE BELIEVED in me. She knew I could do it which made me more confident in myself. So when May 2009 came I tried out, and made the team, and couldn't be happier. Starting college and being done with cheerleading I have a state champs and regional champs title to remember, 12 years of memories, plenty of lessons learned, and a team I consider sisters. This can go with college because you have to realize that not everything you work hard for in the beginning will always work out. You might have to go that extra mile to get what you want, because sometimes not everything in life is easy to get when you want it. You have to learn to stay positive and remember when you need help, just ask for it because chances are theres always going to be someone who has your back. This also made me learn that not everything is going to be handed to you in life, you have to work towards your goals, which is a main reason why people go to college. 

Campus Safari #2

So as I was doing my homework for my other classes, and for our inquiry class I realized that one of the books we are assigned to read: Thriving in College and Beyond was a good choice of book to pick for #2. The book was not to hard to find. I purchased it in the SCSU bookstore and it was in the INQ section of the store. I started flipping through the pages and the book really does help you with all different aspects of college. It gives you plenty of tips and advice on how to write/think, manage time, manage your health and money, planning your career and rest of college and much more. You can really learn so much about college by reading this and it will help you if you take the time to understand it all. Thriving in college is relevant to our INQ class and in a way all the other classes you may chose to take while in college. I didn't have a picture of it on the shelf, so I just took one from my phone of the cover:

Mistake!

Since we were supposed to blog on wednesday, I combined that assignment with the first blog so its towards the end of my last post.

Starting College

        College came so fast, and to be honest I am not prepared at all. Everybody told me the college change would be a slap in the face, and after three days of classes I realized that. Coming into Southern, I had plans for myself and I already knew what I wanted to do, and where I wanted to go when I graduated in 4-5 years. My mom always told me that college is where your going to meet your true friends and the ones you'll possibly have for the rest of your life. So in a way, thats part of what college is to me. The other half of me knows that college is where your future starts. You go to a university, or a school to start your life and further your education. You take classes that you are interested in and that may or may not have to do with your major so that when you graduate and have a degree you can get a job that you love and spent years learning about.  Thats what college is made out to be, but that could be different for everyone. At orientation I was miserable, along with welcome weekend. I didn't want to be at either of those events spending all those hours on all those days, so obviously I had a negative attitude. I think that if I went into everything more positive I could have started school on a different note. Looking back, I realized there kind of is so much to do here. You can start your own group with your friends, or join one that is already active. You basically need to be open to new things and trying things, experiencing them and thats how you'll have fun. I have never been a school homework type of person, so I wasn't really excited for school. I just wanted to make new friends and get out of my little town and see what else is out there. I didn't want to go to a state school, I wanted to leave the state, but in the end I chose Southern. Fun fact: I came here with all my best friends, and about 40% of my senior class which isn't shocking when you live in the valley. So because of that, in my mind I didn't really expect much starting college. Each class that I'm taking is clearly different and requires different things. I have never been one to spend more than a half hour on homework/readings. And with all of these classes you need to spend more than that to understand or pass. I was more nervous starting college than I ever have been BECAUSE of my study habits. In the end, I want to be a Speech Therapist in an elementary or middle school working with children. That has always been what i wanted to do since i can remember. I've always loved kids, but never wanted to be an actual subject teacher.  So hopefully that is what i'll be doing in 5 years when I graduate.
          I have never blogged before or looked at blogs until now. But i did realize and what I do like is that it describes you, and can explain who you are by the smallest detail. I'm hoping by the end of this semester I can understand and be better at blogging than I am right now while writing this. On my blog, i'll design it to be about me and my personality so everyone can see who i am.