Final Project

Final Video 

Final Thoughts

Over my first semester here at Southern Connecticut State University I have learned a great deal about myself.  I also feel as though I have gotten a feel for what’s expected of me as a college student.  I have had to take on a lot more responsibility with getting my work done, and also keeping up with my job and family and friends. 

I think I do need to work more on prioritizing my time and not procrastinating so much on bigger assignments.  I feel as if my grades could be better if I hadn’t waited so long to start assignments, or done them as good as I could of, instead of the bare minimum requirements. 

My biggest challenge at school has been my anxiety.  I ended up missing a lot of classes because I couldn’t get myself to show up.   I assume professors think I was just slacking off and didn’t feel like coming to class, but it was more than that.  I moved home because living at school made my anxiety levels a lot higher and then when I did live home, it was easier to make the decision to stay home from a day of classes because I was so far away from school. 

I’ve tried to force myself to go to school and get my work done despite my anxiety.  I tend to look at the big picture of things rather than take it one day at a time and I think this is one of my biggest downfalls.  There were times during the semester that I thought ‘there’s no way I can do x amount more weeks of this’.  But if I tried to look at it as, ‘today all I have to do is this and this’ it makes things a lot more manageable and easy.  I also hope that reflecting back on how fast this semester went by will be a good motivation for the rest of my career at Southern Connecticut State University. 

My biggest achievement would be getting a really excellent grade in one of the classes I was worried about.  It was a class on school health education and when I walked in the first day, I realized everyone in it was much older than me.  I didn’t think I’d be able to keep up with students who have had much more experience at college than I did, but I ended up getting the highest grade of the class on our first test and a really good grade on our second test.  I was also able to put my anxiety aside and present a lesson plan to a group of older, intimidating students and do a really good job with it. 

I was able to get good grades on the exams because I did a lot of studying for that particular class.  It was a lot of random facts thrown together on each test ranging from calculating a persons ideal heart rate when exercising to knowing where most injuries happen at school.  I took notes on my own time out of our book, and rewrote them as a studying method.  I learned in high school that copying notes worked well as a study strategy for me so I liked to use it for this class. 

My time management over this semester has improved a lot than what it was at the beginning.  I’ve done less going out and more staying in and getting work done. 

I think that in the rest of my time at SCSU I want to get much better grades than I have now, especially if I want any hope of getting into the nursing program.  I plan to spend more time on my work and keep better track of my assignments to make sure everything is turned in on time and done as well as I possibly can do it! :)

Life After College

I don't really know what to expect for my life after college because I don't know if I'm capable of reaching all the goals I've set.  In an ideal world, I would get an excellent GPA and be excepted into Southern's Nursing program at the end of my Sophomore year.  I'd complete everything on time and be out of here in 4 years. (Unfortunately, Southern has already set me up to go here for 5 by giving me the wrong classes my first semester.)  I'd get a job at Yale or Saint Raphaels (I think I heard they're merging?) in New Haven and maybe begin to specialize in working in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.  I've heard it's very hard to get into the NICU because of how many people want that job.  I'd hope to get a stable career and then work on getting married and having kids and all that other stuff!

Project Outline

So far, I have not gotten a lot done for my project.  I have, however, created an outline and started some of the research I need to complete my project.

- Introduction of Problem.. Forced to pick career at 18
- Other student's saying they're equally confused (interviews, quotes?)
- My plan of some part of nursing field
- Explaining different levels of nursing
- Assistant, Practical, Registered, Practitioner.
-Explaining my possible choice and why
-Slide of ideas to help out other students pick their possible career
- Credits

My plan to make my video interesting and creative is to try to make it appealing to students.  I'm not going to include long, drawn out interviews like I had in my first video, and I'm going to try to use a lot of numbers and statistics to get my ideas across.  I think statistics and numbers in bullet form will help make my project more easy to pay attention to and enjoy.

Final Project Proposal

For my final project, I'd like to do a project on the career I'm choosing.  I think deciding your entire life's plan when you're 18 and a freshman in college is very stressful and difficult for most people.  Through my first semester of college I've felt a lot of pressure to know exactly what I want to spend the rest of my life doing.  I need to pick the right classes and study the right things in order to get the correct degree I'm going to need.  I've thought about the idea of leaving Southern Connecticut and going somewhere else, like Gateway, to get an associates in nursing rather than a bachelors. I don't know what the difference in career and salary would be with these two different degrees, and that's one of the things I want to look into for my project.    I'd like to create a project on the different levels or nursing to help me decide what I'm going to pursue.  I know that there are many different kinds of "nurses".  There's nursing assistants, practical nurses, registered nurses, and nurse practitioners.  Each has different skill levels, education levels, and salaries.  Some require college, some require graduate school, and some require only short programs and a certification test. 

Reading Response for Krista's Group

I remembered that Krista had said that she was going to use the video project topic for our next project as well and that's what I saw when I opened her group's readings.  I thought this was a really interesting topic and I was happy to learn more about it.  Their first reading was friendly to read and easy.  I thought the second reading didn't look so friendly and was more of one big block that I skimmed through more than I read.  After reading the articles I think I have decided that I'm a Kinesthetic learner.  Throughout highschool I seem to have done better in classes that had some type of hands on learning, like my sciences and arts.  I have always loved math, but sometimes I just can't comprehend what is going on because it's purely hearing and seeing and there's nothing you can touch.  It's more of an abstract concept and I think this makes it difficult for me sometimes.  I chose nursing as my current career path for many reasons, but one of them would be that its very hands-on with patients.  I'm extremely excited to get to actually be accepted into a nursing program (fingers crossed) and get to work with all the equipment and the dummy patients, as I think I will do much better with this than I do with abstract concepts that you can't actually use your hands in.  To me, Krista's group chose a really great topic to teach us about because it directly relates to all of us and how we learn best in college.  I do think though that they could have chosen more interesting readings on the topic. 

Double Campus Safari

Campus Safari 1 - This week I took a trip to the health center.  I have the worst immune system of anyone I know, so of course I'm sick.  I wanted to make sure I didn't have anything worse than a cold so I made an appointment.  I waited in the waiting room before I was taken in.  The woman who saw me was a nurse practitioner.  She took my temperature and my blood pressure and then listened to my lungs.  She also gave me a rapid strep test, which thankfully came back negative.  I asked her some questions about the cold to be able to make it into a campus safari post.  I asked if there was anything I could do.  She told me that because a cold is a viral sickness, things like antibiotics are ineffective and are only used for illness caused by bacteria.  She told me to take ibuprofen and gave me a goodie-bag of cough drops, a reusable super cool paper thermometer, a fact sheet, and a decongestant.  She said that colds typically last 10 to 12 days so I should be prepared for another week of feeling less than great.  She also gave me some tips on how not to spread it to my roommates, like cleaning the door knobs and other things we all touch.  All - in - all I think the health center was great and a really good alternative to a student's normal doctor when they live on campus. 

Campus Safari 2 - This week I also went to the library to meet with my Inquiry group.  After we had finished our meeting, I went to find a book that my Anthropology Professor has discussed with us.  We eventually need to get it to read some passages.  It's called "Patterns of Culture" by Ruth Benedict.  It was in the SCSU stacks and had the call number GN400.B4.  I thought it was relatively easy to find after we had our library instruction earlier in the year in Inquiry.  The library seems pretty simple to get used to and it's easier to get used to finding the things you want than I had expected. Being a wishful thinker, I was hoping this book was a novel or had some sort of story, but I should have known from the title that this wasn't the case.  When I flipped through it I saw that it had absolutely enormous chapters, all of them about 50+ pages, and I know that we already have to read two over our Thanksgiving break.  The writing seemed technical and bland, but hopefully it's something me and my classmates can get through easily!

Reading Response for Mike, Tina, and Mike's Group

The first group I read for was Mike's group.  The posts were about surviving all of the debt after college when you don't get the job you thought you'd get with the degree you earned.  The first one was about a man that says it would have been more worth his while to go to jail than it was to go to college.  He's in 30,000 of student loan debt, and although he can make the minimum payment on time, he doesn't feel hIe can keep his head above water. It then went on to talk about the statistics with college students and credit card debt.  The second paper was about a plan to lessen the burden on college grads with their student debt.  It also mentions that student loan debt now surpasses credit card debt in the United States.  After reading the two articles, I'm honestly a little nervous about my life.  I think I made the best choice I could with coming to SCSU because it's less than a quarter of the price of the other school I was considering.  I really hope that my life won't be like the people in this articles because I plan to be a nurse, and the demand for nurses is supposedly huge.  I like to think that this means that I won't graduate then continue to work at a skill-less job for minimum wage while making minimum payments on my loans while the interest racks up.  I know a few graduates of nursing programs and both of them have really great jobs and lots of money to blow on new cars and vacations and other things.  The only difference is that in both of the situations they don't have any or a lot of loans to pay off.  One of the girls has a wealthy father who paid for her school outright.  The other one went to a university that her father worked at, and got a drastic cut in her tuition price.  I'll have to actually pay off all my loans and debts myself.  Ah.

Second Interest

One thing that interests me and is connected to SCSU is Nursing.  I chose Southern Connecticut State University because it has such a good reputation for having a really great nursing program.  At Southern, the nursing falls under the School of Health and Human Services.  They have a four-year program, and other programs beyond that to get different degrees like a masters or a doctorate.  Nursing is my career of choice because of how versatile and exciting it is. The nursing demand is huge, and it will always be needed.  Nurses help treat and educate patients and provide advice and emotional support.  Once you become a registered nurse, you can work in many different settings.  You can work in a hospital, a clinic, a nursing home, or in many other places.  The nursing earnings outlook for New Haven CT is about $69,000. I think that I would like to work in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Neonatal refers to the first 28 days of life, and a Neonatal Nurse works in a nursery, either Level I for healthy babies, Level II for premature babies, or Level III for babies who are too sick to be in the other two nurseries.  I think working with babies and helping them become healthy enough to move home with their parents would be an incredibly rewarding, yet difficult job.  I have a friend who is currently a Neonatal nurse and she has told me that where she works, you basically get assigned one baby and that's the baby you take care of until it's healthy.  You get very attached to the baby, and sometimes they don't always get healthy.  It's a job where you have to be able to separate yourself and deal with loss often and in a healthy way.





http://www.nursesource.org/neonatal.html

Gay Marriage Rights

I'm writing a paper on gay marriage in another class, and I think it's a very interesting topic that others may also be interested in.  I have really strong views on gay marriage and I'd hope that many others would share the same views.  To me, I think it's ridiculous to tell people that they are not allowed to have the same marriage rights because they love someone different than they're "supposed" to.  I think that it in no way affects the sanctity of marriage itself, when the divorce rate of straight couples is astronomical, and Kim Kardashian is allowed to spend millions on a wedding that lasts 70 days, but two people who are honestly in love will make straight marriages less meaningful? I don't think that makes any sense at all.  I believe that a person is equal to any other person, no matter what they believe, who they love, and what the color of their skin is.  I don't think being homosexual makes a person less equal than the rest of the population, where they don't deserve the same rights.  In my opinion, a lot of the people who are opposed to gay marriage think that way because of their religious views.  I agree completely with their right to think this way, but church and state should  be seperated and their should not be any laws based on religious beliefs.  Laws should protect people and their properties, not constrict marriages and other rights.  Unfortunetly, I don't think this is an issue that will be resolved in any kind of timely manner, and even though some states are allowing it, I think it will be years and years before homosexuals are actually seen as equals in our society. 

I found a few resources if people wanted any more information :

http://arguingequality.org/

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-gay-marriage-20111101,0,6750292.story

Midterm Grades

I have been so anxious about my midterm grades since the day I found out all freshman were getting midterm grades..which was months ago.  I know I need an extremely impressive GPA to get in to the nursing program here at SCSU, seeing as the minimum for them to even CONSIDER you as someone they might want, is a 3.0.  I really was hoping to reach for a 3.5 or better for my first semester GPA but I don't think I'll be getting quite that.  My highest grade is an A+ in school health education.  That class is by far my easiest, the one test we had was the study guide she handed out EXACTLY so I got a 100.  She also curved it by adding 3 points to everyone because some students argued that one of the questions was worded in an unfair way. (it wasnt). So in the end, I got a 103 for the midterm grade.  Next, I got an A in anthropology.  I don't understand.  I never know what in the world is going on in that class and I struggle through the reading every night but somehow I still managed to only get 2 points taken off everything we've ever done.  In composition I got a B+.  It was based solely on one paper we did.  I got a c in inquiry, and I was mildly disappointed in myself for that.  The class doesn't ask a lot of me and I slack on the blog posts.  My lowest grade was a C- in Math 102.  I struggle a lot in this class and I definitely need to get extra help.  I went to the campus tutorial center today with a friend, but they were all booked up for the day and they don't make appointments for days in advance, so I'm going to go back tomorrow and make an appointment for the afternoon.  Overall, I'm not happy with my grades at all and I definitely need to step things up if I want to pursue a career in nursing.

Comfort Zone

This weekend,  I went out of my comfort zone by looking for a new job.  I've had two jobs before, but they've always fallen into my lap.  My first job as a waitress was offered to me by my boyfriend's sister, and I never had to do any interview process.  I just had to show up and I was hired. My second and current job was given to me by a friend.  She works as assistant manager at a store, and recommended me as an employee.  The owner was convinced by whatever she told him, and I was hired again without any interview process.  This weekend, I saw a post about a waitress opening at Buffalo Wild Wings in the Connecticut Post Mall.  I decided to go for it even though I had no experience applying for a job.  I went to apply in person, and had a short conversation with the manager.  He asked me about my job experience and when I was available and then gave me an application to fill out.  I'm now supposed to call him and set up an interview.  Overall, I think it went well and I think I might have a chance at getting a new job!

Video Project

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwWfflSbcWs

Time

So far for my project, I haven't gotten a lot done.  I've probably spent 45 minutes brainstorming, an hour playing around in Imovie, 2 hours getting interviews, and 2.5 hours putting the interviews on my computer and editing them.  I think I'm going to need to spend much more time getting interviews and then editing them and starting to take on making the final project. 

Trouble Shooting

Okay, this really frustrated me.  Like, slam the computer shut, walk in a circle, open it back up again aggressively frustrated.  When I took videos, I did it in one long chunk planning to later break it up.  I asked my friends what their names were, where they went to school, and then what they wanted to be when they grew up, and how critical thinking is used in that career.  When I went to edit it, I would take minutes getting the little yellow box to start and end EXACTLY where it needed to be to get the right about of information for each section, then I'd try to drag the yellow selection into the top "my first project" section.  It worked the first time.  Not the second.  or the third.  or the fourth.  I later figured out dragging it was very temperamental and didn't work very well, so I found a button that brought it up there instead! Phew!

Campus Safari

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Video Project

Okay, I don't mean to sound like a jerk, but my project is going awesome.  I'm so excited about it.  I have my 3 undergrads done (easy first of course), and I started to edit them together on I-Movie.  I think I'm going to interview the Dean of Nursing, Lisa Rebeshi as well.  Lisa is a life long family friend.  She was my mother's bridesmaid and my mother was hers.  My father and her husband were high school friends, and when they we're dating my mother and Lisa respectively, they all went on dates together.  Lisa's husband even taught my mother how to drive!  I've grown up around the Rebeshi's so I'm confident that she'll be willing to help me with my project.  I also wanted to meet with her in her professional setting as well to talk about my plans as a pre-nursing major.  I look up to Lisa and think she is so incredibly brilliant and I'm excited for the possibility of working with her.  I'm taking a less-serious approach to my project.  I'm including my friends giggling and saying, "Can someone else go first?" I'm loving learning about I-Movie, and I've been watching tutorials and playing around myself to learn more about it.  It's so simple and user-friendly, but has so many great features!  I've never had to do a project like this before and I think it's a great opportunity.  I'm really excited to get more done and put together the final project!

Critical Thinking Essay

This week in the library I decided to look up some information on the use of critical thinking in Nursing, as nursing is the career I plan to pursue.  The book I picked up to help me research this topic was “Nursing Process and Critical Thinking” by Judith Wilkinson.  It was published in 2007 and highlights the importance of the use of critical thinking in the nursing world. 

Nursing is a high-pressure job, rich in need for critical thinking skills.  You have to be able to make quick decisions, and have to make them correctly.  The need to consider many things in every decision they make.  The art of nursing, the knowledge of nursing, the ethics of nursing, and the list goes on.  Critical thinkers are rational and reasonable.  When nurses have to make quick decisions they need to be both of these things.  Nurses have a lot more contact with patients than doctors do.  They need to think fast to say and do the right things.  They need to assess the situation at hand and figure out what is appropriate to say to the patient and what is not.  They need to be able to comfort anxious patients and detect things such as infected incisions.

Nurse’s decisions can affect a persons well being, or in extreme situations their survival.  They need the ability to collect information, assess the information quickly and make responsible decisions.  The author describes critical thinking as “thinking about you’re thinking while you’re thinking so as to make your thinking more clear, precise, accurate, relevant, consistent, and fair.”

I think that if I want to become a nurse I need to make sure my critical thinking skills are as up to par as possible in order to be the best nurse I can be.  To me, nursing is a huge responsibility and I intend to take it very seriously. 

Wilkinson, J. M. (2007). Nursing process and critical thinking. (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall

Blood Drive!

This weekend I participated in a service project.  I donated blood to the red cross.  I've donated once before at a drive at my high school, so I thought it'd be something nice to do again and get myself some good karma.  I had an appointment for 1:45 and got there right on time, I signed in, and they gave me a folder of pages to read.  It was all about medications and sexual contact and other restrictions one may have.  It took my about 5 minutes to read/skim through and then I went back to the reception desk to get my number.  I waited for another 5 minutes then began the "mini-physical".  They took my blood pressure, temperature, tested a small blood sample, and asked me a bunch of questions. After that I was taken to the main area where they collected the blood.  I squeezed a little red ball for about ten minutes while the blood collected and then I was all done! I sat and had a nice chat with a 50 year old biker who once got hit by a boat.  He was the kind of guy who looks terrifying but secretly loves kittens. Or something.  All in all the whole process took about 25-30 minutes and they gave me cookies! I think everyone should consider donating blood, it's so easy and fast but can really be so so so helpful.

Gyming to Relieve Stress!

I am so beyond stressed out.  I feel like I cannot keep up with assignments, don't remember what classes have what due, can't figure out this horrid anthropology essay, etc. I've never wanted to freeze time and sleep for a week so badly in my life. I have blogs due, I had a math test Monday, I have a school health education test tomorrow, I got a paper that's 20% of my grade in comp handed back today with a less than perfect grade, I have my anthro essay due Tuesday that I know I should have started but haven't out of frustration, and about a million other small assignments to due.  I know I need to cut down my hours at work, but I really don't want to and really can't afford to.

This Sunday, I gave 3 hours of my day up to just go buckwild at the gym.  I have anxiety troubles and have always found I'm less likely to feel anxious on a day that I've exercised, so I already knew going to the gym would help.  I started out with 30 minutes on a stationary bike, and then went on to another 20 minutes of cardio on an elliptical.  After that I did some exercises with a stability ball.  I used it to do crunches and then used small free weights of bicep curls and tricep work.  I went out to the machines and did leg work along with more arms an abs.  I felt so good and accomplished after.  Even though I had to go right back to constantly treading water with school, friends, and work, it was a fantastic break from the real world. (P.S. the gym is super empty on Sunday afternoons, perfect!) I think everyone should try exercise to realize stress.  Yoga, a run, good stretching, or a Beach Booty workout tape will all help!

Getting Sick at College

This blog is one that's extremely important and stressful for me.  I can't get sick this semester! There's no time. I have 15 hours of class, 25+ hours of homework, and 20 hours of work.  I hadn't really thought about it before but I'm realizing now how bad it could be.  I have the worst immune system in the history of otherwise healthy people, and when I get sick, I get SICK.  Every year I always (knock on wood) get the flu twice, regardless of whether or not I get the shot, I always get strep, I have colds like it's my job, and I throw up in the morning like I'm forever a few months pregnant.  Being sick all the time has already been an issue for me throughout high-school.  The administration wasn't always thrilled to accept my doctor notes.  I've missed one class of math so far because I felt really awful.  I didn't know if it was the beginning of a cold or allergies so I took Cold-Eze & allergy medication and whatever it was went away.  Phew.  If I do feel sick again I'll definitely go straight to the health center to get it taken care of before it gets bad.  I've been eating a lot of yogurt, as I was told it helps boost the immune system with the bacterias it has.  I've also been trying to drink tons and tons of water.  I've never normally drunken the recommended amount of glasses a day.  I'm trying to avoid the dining hall drinks because I never drink soda at home but it's so much easier to drink it here and I don't want all the extra sugar.  I'm trying to wash my hands constantly, avoiding touching things like doorknobs and desks and then eating or drinking, getting as much sleep as possible, exercising and eating as well as I can in college, hopefully I stay healthy and avoid my usual winter tradition!

Campus Safari

This week, I attended the RHA's Stay And Play.  It was held on the Residence Life Quad on Saturday starting at 1pm.  One of my good friends, Kristen, was part of organizing the event so I really went to visit her.  They had a big inflatable obstacle course, a t-shirt making booth, and some popcorn...and that was really it.  There wasn't really a lot going on and there really wasn't that many people there at all.  I didn't stay long at all and I just went to the gym instead.  I was slightly disappointed and I thought they might have more activities to try to really encourage people to stay on campus for the weekend instead of going home.  I really wish more people would stay because campus is so dead on the weekends! Hopefully, events in the future will have a better turnout and will be more exciting than this one.

Does Facebook Affect Your Education?

I asked a bunch of my friends about if they thought Facebook and Twitter affected their educations or attention during class.  I asked ten people and I definitely got the response I expected.  I asked 8 girls and 2 boys.  As expected the boys both said something along the lines of "um..what..no?" like it was a crazy question to ask.  The girls all said about the same thing too.  "Hahah definitely" was one of the text responses I got.  One of my friends who is studying at Roger Williams said, "Um, F--- yea."  I think it's more distracting to females than males because in my opinion, we don't really care about the same things.  Girls like to gossip and look at pictures of other girls and judge the length of the dress they wore to the club last night and look at whose relationship status' have changed to "It's Complicated".  To me, guys don't really seem to worry about those things nearly as much as we do and therefore, Facebook is probably a lot less interesting.  I think the only, teeny way Facebook may help education is that its a good way to connect with people in your classes and consult them about homework, getting notes on classes you missed, what they got out of a lecture, etc.  To me, this problem isn't one with an easy solution.  It's hard not to venture over to Facebook when you have your laptop infront of you during a painfully boring lecture on arguments.  If anything, the issue will only get worse.  One of my friends said "Yes because whenever I get bored it's just an instinct."  Facebook is like another limb for a lot of girls.  It's on your phone and you have the I-pod app and you're subscribed to get text messages when someone Facebook has decided is a "close friend" updates a status or post a new picture.  We're only getting more and more wrapped up in this virtual world as it becomes easier and easier to follow every movement of our friends, the girl who gave you a dirty look in math, and the boy who stopped texting you back.

So little time

I feel that recording what I was doing at all times throughout a week was extremely beneficial to me.  I realized that I still have a lot more free time than I had realized but I end up just wasting it.  I spend 4-5 hours at the gym, 20 hours at work at work, 3 - 3.5 hours commuting to work, 25 hours on homework and/or studying, and am left with about 18 hours of free time.  I use a lot of this time facebooking, zoning out (just spent a good 3 minutes staring at the wall before I realized it), and with friends.  Facebook and twitter would definitely be my biggest distractions.  I think these are most college students biggest issues because it's so easy to get sucked in for hours and have 3 tabs going at the same time without ever looking at the tab that has homework on it.  I also spend too much time trying to figure out how I'm going to spend my next block of free time.  I sit on my bed and try to figure out if I should go to the gym or start my math homework or write a blog or nap.  I don't consider friends wasting of my time but the other two could probably go.  I think I should discuss hours with my boss because I feel a little bit stressed and overwhelmed with working so much and was discouraged by the facts you presented to us regarding statistics on students with high job hours getting lower grades.  My boss is extremely reasonable and thinks my education here is much more important than my job there.  I think I should also schedule my days out more and pay attention to what I'm doing and how I'm spending my time.  I have a lot more time than I realize and I want to make the most of it!

9.26

Campus Safari 2 (#9)

This week, I went to the Club Fair on campus.  Two booths I checked out were the Best Buddies booth and Delta Phi Epsilon.
  I've always wanted to be in a sorority as long as I can remember, so DPhiE was my first stop.  They told me they were one of the most prestigious sororities and did the biggest, most successful charity events.  I was told they were having a rush event that night, so I decided to attend.  It was fun, but I came to the conclusion that I wasn't going to pursue a sorority this semester.  I feel like I do not have the time or time management skills yet to commit to a sorority.  I do, however, plan to shop around sororities and attend more rush events in the spring.
   After I left the DPhiE booth, I went over to the Best Buddies booth.  Best Buddies is an organization that pairs a student with another mentally impaired student and allows them to become best friend and bond.  They try to create opportunities for people with special needs.  I decided to check out this booth because I've heard a lot about this club and all of the work it does. 
   Overall, I thought the club fair was a good experience and helped me figure out how to become more involved on campus.

A Quality Blogs

The first blog that I thought was a blog worth an A was Kelsey's College Confessions.  Her layout and background is really appealing and easy to look at.  Her font is also really easy to read and is pleasing to the eye.  I really liked her blog post about the professional make up artist because it's a really interesting career and I look at some of the author's youtube videos and really enjoyed them. It seems like Kelsey puts time and thought into her blog posts, and therefore, I think she deserves an A!

Another blog I liked was Merril's Thoughts.  I liked the masculine font and background and the pictures he used helped break up the writing and make it easier to look at.  I read his CC campus safari post, and it made me feel better about having to do this myself.  He said his CC was really willing to help him and answer his questions.   Merril's writing seemed more formal to me, and like he takes his blogging seriously, and that's why I think he deserves an A.

Tori's blog was my favorite that I looked at.  It looks like she put so much extra time and effort into her blog, posting artwork and other things.  Her title also stuck out to me as interesting and creative.  She also takes the time to make creative titles for each individual posts, rather than Blog #4 and Safari #1.  I read her blog on taking a new language at SCSU and I thought that was something brave to be taking on her first semester at her first year at college.  College is hard enough without throwing German into the mix! I also thought it was cool that she was joining the German club, she's definitely determined to learn!

Professional Blog Analysis

The first professional blog I chose was Code Blog: Tales of a Nurse. (http://www.codeblog.com/)  I picked this one because I plan on being a nurse and that's why I'm in college in the first place. It's interesting to see how people who have been in the field for years and years see nursing as opposed to my view of it being something so high above me and glorious and my most major, significant goal.  This blog is interesting because any nurse or doctor or patient, etc can submit her stories to the site and they may or may not be posted.  It's a compilation of many different nurses' tales of the ER, OR, Psych Ward, or 'Carnivals' as they call them.  The main author is a woman named Gina who has been an intensive care nurse for 13 years.  Since it's a compilation, the writing styles vary quite a bit.  I read a few posts and skimmed through some more and to me, it seems the purpose of the blog is to entertain people who can relate to the stories people post.  Doctors, nurses, paramedics, even patients can get a laugh out of this blog. 

The second blog I explored was from a professional sky diver. (http://ukskydivingadventures.blogspot.com/)  I decided to look for a skydiving blog because it's something I've always wanted to do and I thought it'd be interesting to see things from the point of view of someone who does it almost daily.  This blog is run by UK Skydiving Adventures and seems to be more of an advertising blog.  They want you to come to their company to go skydiving and post pictures, stories, events, and specials to try to get you there.  They also post uncensored customers' reviews on their experience with the company, which I thought were informative and sometimes humorous. If anything the blog made me want to go skydiving even more than I did before, but I probably won't be going to UK to do it. :0)

Campus Safari 1

For my first campus safari, I visited the Fitness Center at SCSU.  I decided to sign up for a 1 semester membership after I suspended my membership at my gym at home.  It's 60 dollars a semester, so it equals out to be slightly higher than most chain gyms around CT, but the classes are included.  The gym I went to at home charged more (a lot more) for the classes I took but they offer what seem to be about the same classes at the fitness center.  They have zuma, yoga, cycling, boot-camp, "Buns, guns, and abs", kick-boxing, and much more.  I spoke to a few girls as they walked out of the cycling class and they told me in between heavy breaths that it was extremely challenging but I should try it.  This class runs Monday and Wednesdays from 4:00 - 4:45.  They have a good selection of machines, but not many of each.  There's 2 stair-steppers, a few ellipticals, a few more treadmills, and 4 bikes.  They have a lot of free weights and other things in what I consider the boy side of the gym so I didn't venture over there.   The Fitness Center is open every day.  Mondays - Thursdays : 7 am - 10 pm, Friday : 7am - 8pm, Saturday : 9:30am - 4:30pm and Sunday : 2p - 7pm.  

Analyzing Readings, Part 2

 

After reading "Change Course", by Steven Weinberg my perspective about my college experience changed a little.  He discussed how college is never what one expects and you have to allow yourself to go with the flow and not force the path you projected for yourself.  I know that right now I think I'd like to be a nurse, but I'm willing to follow other paths if I find something that I feel is more suited for me.   When you go into college you want the best professors, the newest, most exciting classes, but you can't always get that.  You might not get the famous professor that everyone talks about or be able to avoid the professor that takes attendance every class and assigns piles of homework, but you'll leave a different person regardless.  You gain wisdom and lifelong friends and a career and countless memories.  College may not be all the great things you expected it to be, but it will be other great things that you never before considered.

The second article I read was "Off Campus Life" by James Burns.  It highlights the importance of reading newspapers.  I would agree with this article because I think it's extremely important to be an informed citizen.  If a group of people are talking about a current event and you have no input or idea what is being discussed, it makes you seem less educated to other people.  The article recommends that you chat with your professors.  I think that if you talk to your professors on subject outside of the class or connect real world issues with the classes subject matter that they will be more likely to remember you and it can help differentiate and set you apart from other students.  Knowing what's going on in the world outside of your own personal life makes you a more well rounded person. 

Response to readings

After reading "The Hunt for a Good Teacher" by Stanely Fish and "Don't Alienate Your Professor" by Carol Berkin, I had a lot to think about in regards to my experience at college.

I thought more about how you're going to get out of college what you put into it.  If you work hard and dedicate yourself to studies and learning and bettering yourself, you will come out better, smarter, and a harder worker.  If you go through the motions and pass classes by the skin of your teeth, you're not cheating anyone but yourself.

The first article, "The Hunt for a Good Teacher" made me realize that I need to take an active roll in my own learning.  I need to research and look into professors before I sign up for classes.  I need to ask my friends, my RA's, my advisers, and anyone I can get my hands on about the professors I'm thinking about taking.   I need to drop classes if the teachers aren't teaching.  I can take classes I tested out of to refresh my writing and math skills to prevent getting a bad grade and lowering my GPA.

The second article I read, "Don't Alienate Your Professor",  helped me understand how to present myself an act in classes.  I shouldn't appear to want to head out of every class I'm in.  I shouldn't check the clock constantly and start packing up my bag 5 minutes before the sessions over.  I am lucky to be in the classes I'm in and I should act like it.  I should laugh at the professors jokes, pay attention, and show that I want to be in class.  

I've already learned from my own experience that sitting in the front row really does help.  I learn more.  I understand more.  This plays off the ideas that the second article gave me. 


All in all, these articles helped me consider how I need to act and present myself in college and to my professors. 

College!

            College to me is a very exciting and fun opportunity that I am lucky to have.  Going to college for me is going to help me get closer to the goal of working as a nurse in a neonatal intensive care unit.  For the time being though, it helps me grow as a person and into a more independent adult.  I have already found myself growing and changing in the short time I’ve been here.  I pushed myself way out of my comfort zone and made myself take the leap of leaving home and living on campus by myself.  I have an anxiety disorder so leaving home is an especially difficult task for me but so far I’ve found myself happy and relaxed.  College is helping me move past some of my anxious tendencies.  I’m excited to meet new people from a wider pool of people, rather than the 200 people I graduated with and have known since 1^st grade.  (Who also happened to be clones of one another, with a few exceptions)  I’m worried about the workload at SCSU.  I have never had very much work in high school, especially during my senior year.  I haven’t written a paper over 3 pages in my entire life.  I’m scared of going to suddenly be required to do incredible amounts of work and that I won’t be able to keep up with it and retain a good GPA.  My GPA is really important to me because I still need to get accepted to Southern’s nursing program to meet my goal.  Most people need to get into college then go with the motto “C’s get degrees” but I can’t do that.  I have to have a near perfect record to be considered into the very selective program.  Overall, I’m equally excited and nervous to my college life to get settled and learn what it’s really like!

All about Sam McGowan !

5 Words to Describe Me

• Friends
• Understanding
• Fun-loving
• Sleepy
• Happy

Friends - 

My friends are the most important people in my life.  I always put my friends first and love to be with them all the time.  I have 3 extremely close friends within a large group of good friends. 

We love to go out, stay in, drive around, and hang out in town together in our entire group.  Most of our parents are friendly as well and some are very close friends.  I have had my core group of friends for as long as I can remember, I didn’t jump around from friend to friend like most people do in high school.  My closest friend is named Morgan and is to the far right of the above picture.  I moved next door to her when I was about 15 months old and she was about a year old.  We have been inseparable since then.

 I would consider myself a very understanding person.  I always put myself in other people's shoes and try to figure out how my actions and words may make them feel.  If I feel like I accidentally hurt someones feelings or said something wrong, it will honestly bother me for weeks.  

I love to have fun.  I rarely am home alone and not out enjoying myself with friends.  Over the summer we had tons of bonfires and beach trips and sleepovers to get in all the fun we could before college started.  We all got a lot closer and enjoyed eachother's company all day every day this summer.  

I absolutely love to sleep.  I look forward to sleeping all the time.  I usually don't even sleep late, but I cannot wait to get into my bed every night.  There's no where I feel more safe and happy and comfortable.  I hate sleeping out because I enjoy crawling into my own bed at night.  I may still have some lingering symptoms of mono and that could explain this, but I do not mind at all!

I pride myself in being a very happy person.  I try to see the best in every situation.  I understand that I am incredibly lucky to have everything I have.  I am a 18 year old girl from Connecticut.  Life couldn't have been any easier for me and I try appreciate that every second of every day.