Iowa State Leadership Experience

Friday I was able to attend two sessions for the Learning Communities Mid-Year Institute.  The first session I went to was about bullying and what to do if you witnessed it happening and how to prevent it from happening.  I wanted to go to this session because I wanted to know other possibilities to look into if bullying occurs and if I’m not able to take care of it, being the little ol’ me that I am.  The room was probably set up for at least 20 people however only 5 people in came including me, but I liked it because it felt more interactive.  They mentioned different scenarios that would happen and asked us what we would do about them; this helped a lot because it had me picturing what could possibly happen, although I hope I don’t have to encounter it, and what I would be able to do about it. 

Say if guys are playing flag football and out of frustration someone says the three letter F word.  The best thing to do if you happened to be on a team with the person who said it would be like “dude, that’s not cool don’t say that.”  That has a huge impact on people only if it is a few simple words.  They said silence = acceptance, so if you don’t stop that from happening they’re going to think it’s okay to say that and keep saying bad things that shouldn’t be said.  So step up and just say that it isn’t cool, and hopefully to whoever you’re saying that too looks ups to you and understands that it’s not okay to say that.  I also went to a time management session, and we talked about how to better manage your time, and where to study and how to better yourself as a student.  I’m in the process of working on that for myself.

Today, I went to two more sessions for ISLE and the first one was very helpful for me.  It was about what to do with groups and we talked a lot of ice breakers, but he preferred to use the words team builders.  He gave us many options to start with our students next year in the fall.  Some of them obviously we won’t be able to do the first day because some team builders are a lot more intimate about our personal lives rather than asking what you like to do in the free time.  There are many different team builders that we will be able to use next year and they will help us tie into the real lesson we will be doing and hopefully then they will be able to tie into what the team builder was and the lecture or whatever we happen to do.  Overall, all the sessions were very helpful for me to help the incoming freshmen I mentor next fall and I’m really looking forward to get started with their Iowa State adventure.  

Diversity Event

Thursday night I went to the MLK Legacy Series talk given by Michael Eric Dyson.  He is a Baptist preacher so when he first came out he was very energetic to say the least and he seemed very comfortable talking to us.  It made me feel very comfortable and excited to hear what he had to say.  He started off saying basically everyone used to be a racist because if you talked about race you were a racist.  I was a little thrown off by that but it has always been a big issue especially since when our parents and our grandparents were younger.  He also said MLK Jr. said racism is wrong.  Obviously we know that he was strongly against racism. That’s what he fought so hard to get rid of; to get people passionate to step up for themselves and finally create equality.

He also mentioned the black community stepping up and becoming just like one of us.  When Jackie Robinson (the first black ball player in the major league of baseball) joined the baseball world that was a huge step up for the African American community.  He was there to show people that they can do what they set their mind to; to be anything they want to be.  That strongly helped in the some of the major steps for the African American community.  In our lifetime and in our parent’s lifetimes there have been many major steps, and there have also been many firsts that have been achieved, and barriers broken.

He also mentioned something that I had never heard of or even thought of before.  When he was talking about slavery he said slavery had never been as viscous until Christianity got involved.  Christianity was a strong faith to have among many slave owners and of course going to church and reading the Bible had been very important to them.  I don’t know word for word what it says in the Bible but he mentioned something about those who do wrong should be punished and at least in the old testament it was okay to have slaves and or servants.  Since slave owners had a strong Christian faith a lot of them could be like people we would now look up to such as lawyers, teachers, and doctors.  You just wouldn’t be able to tell back then because it was just the normal thing to be able to have slaves.  Going to this presentation was an eye opener for me in a way and I’m very glad I was able to hear what he had said about MLK Jr. and slavery because some things I had never even known.

In class on Wednesday I really liked the activity we did when we got that little piece of paper with the various scenarios on them that the incoming freshmen next year have.  It was helpful to play it out with each other and get a sense of what we should do and how to go about a certain situation.  It was also pretty neat when we went around the room and just listed off different situations that freshmen can encounter in their first year of college, and if we’re being honest I probably hit every one of those at one point freshman year.

It’s definitely hard and it’s stressful transitioning from going to high school where it’s easy to get by and you really don’t have to do a whole lot of work, then coming to a university like Iowa State where yes, you actually have to do your work to be able to know what’s going on and actually read the texts for a class.  That was probably one of my worst things to get used too.  Reading wasn't really my thing in high school and procrastination was and boy did I bring that to college with me, and I feel like some of you can agree to that.  I’m getting better with some of the readings, especially this past week when I had to read something for my Criminal Justice class.  It’s nice when you’re actually intrigued by what you’re reading and you want to know and learn more about it. 

That’s something that I want to pass on that it’s going to be hard work in the beginning especially with gen ed. classes, but as you start taking classes that are more linked in to your major you will enjoy those classes.  All the hard work would be paid off and you’ll be able to reward yourself with doing something you actually love/want to do. I hope the freshmen will see that they've been given an amazing opportunity to be able to go to college and pursue they’re education and I really hope they remember they when they feel like times may be getting hard.

First week of class

Meeting the new group of Hixson Peer Mentors for next fall was really exciting to see who I'll be spending a lot of time with this semester and next fall.  It's also slightly nerve racking meeting new people, but that's like it is in any situation.  I can't wait till everyone becomes comfortable with each other and we can bond and be friends not only in class but outside of it as well.  Our group seems to get along very well and I'm excited to see what we can accomplish within the Hixson program this spring and in the fall.  

The activities that we have done in class so far I feel have been very helpful in getting to know one another.  Although some people get tired of icebreakers they have been nice and help with opening up about different things.  It helps with different ideas so then we can better understand what we need to do next year during our recitation classes.  Along with that, I find it helpful with most of us being first year peer mentors that we have other peer mentors from the previous year.  It’s good to know that they liked it and had so much fun that they wanted to do it again!  That makes me excited to look forward to this semester and the fall to see what great opportunities and experiences we will have together.

I also really like that the previous peer mentors can helps us with what we are going to go through.  They know where we’re coming from as being students and having to juggle all the class work with the majors and the Hixson program.  It will be helpful to ask them questions about being a leader and recitation class because they have already gone through it and they will give us a better idea of how to go about everything.  If I decide to be a peer mentor after next year I hope I would be someone that the incoming peer mentors would be able to go to too because I would like to be able to help out anyway I can because I would’ve been in their position just a year before.   

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.