Diversity Event

     I went to the lecture about Christians Views On Climate Change.  The speaker was a pastor from a church in Nebraska but she had also majored in Geology.  She made very good points about how the climate is changing around the world and it's all in a science.  She showed some clips to everybody of people in Congress I believe pulling out the Bible trying to say that global warming isn't happening and that it's not the end of the world.  The people quoting the Bible were talking about the end of the world and that it'll happen in a big way and that the warming and cooling in the world is just a cycle and that we'll get out of this hot cycle soon.  She then showed us graphs about the facts of the weather and what it's like.  Yes, there were cycles of the climate changing but right now according to the graphs we're supposed to be going back into a change were it gets colder but all we've noticed is that the climate is just getting warmer and warmer.
     I did agree with the whole thing that climate change is all in cycles but I didn't know that we're approaching the need to go back down and all the climate is doing is going back up.  It made me understand that we're really in a problem here and we should do something to fix it.  The speaker had a good presentation with the visuals and I liked the video clips and charts because they helped me understand all of what she was explaining.

What I've Learned and How I've Grown/Changed

What I’ve learned

• ·      Cyride is a lifesaver! I take it everywhere
• ·      You’ll be thankful for all the home cookin’ quick, I promise you that
• ·      My sociology professor is pretty hilarious.  I’m glad I’m in the learning community with him because you just get to know him and he asks our class how’s he’s going and he takes our suggestions into account and has changed some things b/c of what we’ve said to him.
• ·      You run out of money fast, also use you’re dinning dollars wisely my friend ran out in October b/c she spent it all on caribou!
• ·      Football games are awesome!! And storming the field was even better getting to do it two times this season!
• ·      It’s totally nice going back home and sleeping in your own bed, I loved it!
• ·      Movies at Carver are awesome with a big group of your friends(:
• ·      Doing the required readings is hard, honestly I don’t read as much as a should which I know is a bad thing.  I keep telling myself I will but I don’t, for me it’s hard to read when the material is boring but I need to motivate myself better especially b/c finals are coming up.  Yes, I’ll probably be the one cramming that in.
• ·      It totally SUCKS when you live on the 8th floor and both of the elevators are broken..not fun   :(
• ·      I’ve learned not everyone gets along with their roommate and I’m thankful that my roommate and I have a good relationship..we don’t know what we’d do if we didn't get along.

How I’ve grown/changed

• ·      I feel like I’m a bit more independent now.  I don’t call my parents and they don’t call me as much as I thought they would.  Really I only call if I need help with an issue, which only happened at the beginning of the semester really.
• ·     I definitely put things off in high school and I brought that over to college, not really a good start but I want to make a change next semester.
• ·    I’ve accepted myself and I am who I am, nobody can change that.

What The Hixson Award Means To Me

I am SO thankful for being able to receive this scholarship.  When I found out I got it I was so ecstatic, jumping up and down, it was a great feeling.  Honestly, getting the Christina Hixson Scholarship decided where I would go to college.  If I hadn't received this scholarship I would probably be taking classes at the community college DMACC and that's definitely not something I wanted to be doing.  I wanted to go to a big college, meet new people, and continue my education here at Iowa State.  I had always wanted to go here since I was little, my family is a big cyclone family and my mom went here  for her first few years of college too and it just seemed right.  However, I knew we weren't  in the best place financially and going to Iowa  State just might have to be put off a bit.  

The scholarship is giving me the opportunity to continue my education without being too worried about financial issues.  It was interesting going over financial aid in class and finding out that the average Iowa State students debt when they graduate college is around $30,000, that's ridiculous!!!  Although I'm only a freshman I'm still worried about what kind of debt I'll be in when I graduate, and hoping that I'll find a job soon enough to pay everything off when the bills start coming in.  

This scholarship has also brought me to meet a ton of great people, like THE PURPLE SQUAD!!  We're able to connect with people who share common goals and interests and it's fun.  We've definitely stuck together through this whole semester and it's always fun when we get together.  

Mainly this scholarship gives me the ability to go to college and continue a higher education.  I want to make a good life for me and I wouldn't be given that opportunity without the Hixson Scholarship.  Hopefully I finally decide on what I want to do in the near future so I can start taking classes toward that degree and do something that I want to do and make a good living off of it.