SOAR

This is the hardest week in college so far. The semester is coming to an end and teachers are piling on the work. Cheerleading tryouts for the nationals team are approaching next Monday. ICC is scrambling to get in their last events for Fall Semester. SOAR graduation is tonight. Acceptance letters are coming in at work. It seems like everyone is scurrying to do their jobs. On top of that, there is christmas shopping which is always a chore. As I mentioned, tonight is the graduation ceremony from SOAR. It feels like last week that I had my introductory retreat for the group. It's weird to already be graduating. I was thinking about it today, I don't even know the names of half the people in SOAR and there are only 40 of us. We met once a week for two hours, and did service projects together, but yet I still do not know them. This really upset me. I know that I didn't make an effort to really know everyone there. That's something that I found out that I need to work on, and maybe that realization was why I took the course. I know that from this course, I'm suppose to learn how to be a leader. I know that from it I've learned many things. I learned that sometimes it's okay to step back and let others take control. Prior to SOAR, I was very much a control freak and I would never do group projects and trust others. Now, I can see that if I do let go things can get done just as well. SOAR has been a great experience for me, and I hope that others can have it. I plan on doing the second level of SOAR next year called "develop." I feel as if leadership skills can only help me. At the beginning of the year, I wrote this in my blog:

Leadership is a valuable skill to possess in any stage of your life. As a college student, knowing more about leadership will help me to succeed in the organizations that I am already involved in, along with the organizations that I will get involved in over the years. Being part of IRHA, CEN, working in admissions, and participating on the cheerleading team, I hope to eventually hold leadership positions in those areas so that I can contribute positively to the campus community.

I think that I have acheived most of these since that entry. I hold a chair position on CEN and am now Freshman Class Treasurer. SOAR has allowed me more self confidence and a step above the others in terms of leadership and organization. Those skills I will always cherish!

results

For my third assignment, I'm doing a project on whether or not college students take their education as seriously as they should. The results were really interesting. My partner and I went around and asked four freshman, four seniors, four professors, and we wanted four international students. When doing this, we found that international students were impossible to find. We stopped at the Intercultural Center three times on different parts of the week. We couldn't find one. Because the video needed to be edited, we just interviewed the advisor of the international students to speak on their behalf. This was interesting because it shows how not diverse we really are. There are 102 international students on campus, which seems like a significant amount. On the contrary, when you measure it up to the 4,000 undergrads, it doesnt seem as significant. Out of 102, you would think that you'd find at least one in the building. None were to be found. That was really interesting to me. I'd like to know why this happened. Maybe they are all involved? Maybe they were all in class? It was interesting.
The results to the questions were more or less what we expected. Freshman gave varied reasons as to why they were here. Seniors gave these same reasons, but talked about how they realized it at college and not before. Professors thought that Freshman don't know why they're here, but realize it to some extent before they graduate. International advisor thought that international students had a better sense of why they were here because this is a unique chance for them. I agree with these results because I know that it is more or less expected of students to go to college. In other countries, college is a prestigious thing and so the international students feel accomplished. On the way back to the dorm from cheerleading, my friend and I were talking about this subject. She is a business major, and wants to go to get her masters in that. I talked about how I want to go to law school. She mentioned how these days, getting your masters is the equivalent to our parents bachelor's diploma. By the time we're out of grad school, the competition is going to be that much harder for jobs. With the new students coming out, we're going to have to fight for our jobs. We believe that in our fields, having a bachelor's degree won't be enough. Law school isn't something I really want to do, it's something thats needed. Who wants to spend another $100,000? But it's money that will ensure me a comfortable life. I thought this was really interesting.

back to RWU!

I'm back at school! I've spent all week home for Thanksgiving and unfortunately didn't have time to blog. Isn't it ironic that I'm busier at home for vacation time than I am at school? I think so. This vacation was interesting because it gave me a true sense of who my real friends are. College is a funny time because the people who don't make the effort to stay in touch you won't end up seeing unless you do. It requires work. I thought that that was one really intersting thing about vacation. On the contrary, family is always there. We had a great Thanksgiving with all of the normal traditions of the holiday. I loved it. One thing that I found interesting is a conversation that I had with my older cousin Paul. He is one of my great friends, and I've always looked up to him. He's four years older than me and more or less, my big brother. He is my only cousin that lives near me, and we've grown up together as if we were siblings. Both being only children, it gave us someone to fight with and someone to get advice from. To others, he might seem scary. He is tattooed, ear gages, motorcycle riding, rock music loving guy. But to me? He's one of my role models. After Thanksgiving dinner, he helped me compile my movie for Lit class, considering he went to college for Film. As the movie was loading, I began to think about all of this. All my life, I tried to strive to hang out with the older cousins and be "one of the guys." I thought that it was so cool to have my cousin be in college and longed for the chance to go visit him. Then, I started thinking of whether or not my younger cousins think of me in this way. What kind of example am I giving to them? Given, I've learned mostly from Paul's mistakes, but throughout it all he has been nothing but nice to me and always there to help. When I started to think of it, I'm jipping my younger cousins. As much as I like to be, I'm not there to help them or anything that the older guys did for me. I made a point to hang out with them the rest of the night, and they seemed to really enjoy that. I noticed the same enthusiasm of when I asked them to go for a walk with me as when Paul and the other guys would ask me when I was younger. I promised them that when I got home for Christmas break I was going to take the girls out shopping for presents for Grandma and Grandpa for Christmas. Hopefully I can make this a fun tradition that will be forever in their memory. I hope that by doing this, I can have them someday realize about bringing down sincerity to their younger cousins, because as an only child, I know taht it was a significant part of my life. I hope that they can see that too.

This past weekend, I went on a service learning trip for SOAR. For this, we were required to do community service in Bristol, so we decided to rake leaves. In one hour, we got done five houses. We were required to do four, so we did one extra. It was really nice to be helping out the community, but I felt as if we weren't doign a sufficient job. We were originally going to be picked up by the bus at 230. but ended up leaving at 12 because we were already done. I didn't feel as if we provided adequate service to the community. I had a game for cheerleading at two, and I planned on missing it. Because we finished so early, we just left. I felt like the right thing to do would be to stay and work until 2:30, finishing as many lawns as we could. Imagine what we could have gotten done! We could have raked the whole block. I felt like by leaving early, we were doing the community an injustice. From this experience, we were asked about how this taught us to be leaders. Truthfully, I can't think of one way that it did. I know that sounds terrible, but we all worked together to acheive one goal. I guess that helps with leadership, in the form of collaboration. So I take that back!

Tonight is Monday before Thanksgiving. I think I'm one of five people left in my hall (which normally consists of about fifty). Everyone is already home for Thanksgiving. This raises an interesting question that we talked about in class: how can teachers not get students to skip class? Most teachers do this by assigning tests and quizzes on the last day before vacation. This works for most students with keeping them there, but on the other hand makes the students detest the teacher for it. Other teachers simply cancel their classes. Tomorrow, I don't have one class. Today, two out of three of my classes were completely pointless. Is this the teachers fault? Do students skip because they know the classes will be a joke? Or do they skip because they don't care? I have never understood that. Would it be more of a success if the University just said that Friday was the last day of class and cancelled Tuesday and Monday completely? I'm not sure.

clubs

This week has been so crazy. On top of schoolwork and getting ready to go home for Thanksgiving, I was elected into Inter-class Council as Freshman Class Treasurer. I'm really excited about this, but it's so much work! I was elected into the office Monday. Tuesday I had to go straight from class to my first meeting as Treasurer. I never imagined that it would be so formal! The reps from each class sat along a long table. The meeting was called to order and was very organized. You were called on to talk, and I'm assuming that talking out of turn is not allowed. They were all very welcoming, but it was a bit overwhelming. I was given huge amounts of paperwork and statistics on budgets that I'll be working on this weekend. A Freshman trip is already planned by the VP and President, which I also need to work out the money for. While at the meeting, one of the Junior class officers stated how she could not be the ICC Rep for CEN anymore. The Sophomore class officer stepped up and said that she'd take the job. The junior responded back that a freshman should take the position. Because the president, VP and Secretary are all busy during CEN board meeting times, I took the job. Straight from the end of that meeting, I headed over to my last SOAR meeting. Straight from there, to practice. As soon as I thought my day was over, I had to go back to the room and do some homework.

Wednesday wasn't any easier. I had meetings for ICC, CEN and then cheerleading straight from 3:30-10:30. Although it's a lot of work to be the ICC rep at CEN, it seems like it's going to be really fun. Everyone there was very inviting and seems to have a great time. The meeting with the CEN chair persons was much less formal, but still structured the same as ICC. I never even knew these type of organizations occured on campus! I told my roommate that if I go to join anything else to stop me. I need to focus on the clubs that I have right now and provide my best service to the freshman class. Although I love all of these things, I know that academics is my top priority. Thus far, my lowest grade is a 94%, so I hope to stay in that range. I feel pretty confident that I can do this, but I know that if I simply can't handle it the best action would be to forfeit something so that I can keep my priorities straight.

Traditions

Today in Human Behavior we talked about the importance of traditions. This topic ranged from family traditions to cultural traditions. Our professor asked us to think of how this relates to our lives. I began to think about what traditions my family has passed down, and one stuck out in my mind. My family isn't very cultural, and whatever culture we had we have lost. We are French and Swedish, but we don't show that at all in the house. Because our culture was lost, my great great grandmother thought that it was important to start our own family traditions. One family tradition that she started was family reunions. My father's family is huge and spread out all over the United States. I have relatives ranging from Maine to California to Florida to Colorado. Because of this, it is hard to keep in touch and meet up often. My great grandmother started a tradition where we all get together for one week once every four years. At the reunion, we all vote on where the spot will be next time. We also vote on commitees, such as "events" or "dinner planners." It has become huge. I love the reunions and it gives me something to look forward to. Within that tradition, we have many others that go along during the week, for example, a talent show and open mic night. Last year, it was in San Diego, California. In three years from now, it will be in the Outer Banks, North Carolina.

My family also has traditions regarding holidays, like any other family. Although the most celebrated holiday in the year is Christmas, Thanksgiving is the most meaningful to me. My grandparents live in Maine. Every Thanksgiving, some of the extended family travel up to Maine to visit them. We arrive on Wednessday night, and stay until Friday. The entire stay is full of tradition, and I have never met a family with such an agenda. Wednesday night we celebrate the coming of Thanksgiving with pie and catching up with the family around the fireplace. Later that night, the children of the family put on a Haunted House through the upstairs. After the short and not-so-scary haunted house, we all head to bed. Thursday, we're up nice and early. If you sleep past nine, Grandpa will be sure to stick in the CD of his favorite Orchestra, which projects into every room through the house-speakers. It's better to wake up early, trust me. Once we are all awake, fed, and showered, we watch the Thanksgiving Day Parade on the TV. Once it hits one, we all get bundled up and get out of the house. My grandparents live on the beach, so we gather champagne, bread and spinach dip and head down to the ocean. We all gather on this huge rock near the ocean which is inscribed with the name "Birch." My Aunt Judy starts off the family with the word "We...." and we all follow her in the song "We Gather Together." Why we do this, I'm not sure. But it's tradition, and nobody asks questions. I suppose it's because the words show the true meaning of Thanksgiving very well. After that, my grandfather opens the champage off of the rock into the ocean, and then we celebrate our thanks together as we eat bread and finish the drinks. The children are given sparkling champage, which is really white grape juice with bubbles. My grandmother heads back into the house around 1:45 to put the turkey on the table. The rest of the family arrives back there at two. When we get back, the table is filled with food and there are nametags for where we are sitting. Behind the nametags, is a little gift bag for each of us. This gift bag is from a character named "Turkey Claus." Yes, Turkey Claus. It's kind of like Santa Claus, except he comes on Thanksgiving instead. :) Whenever I explain it, it sounds so weird. I guess you need to be in the family to understand it. We all grew up thinking that Turkey Claus was in the mix with Santa and the Tooth Fairy. It was just another character. Turkey Claus gives each person a gift bag that contains an ornament. This ornament is the most meaningful part of Thanksgiving for me. When my great great grandmother was starting traditions, she wanted her future offspring to understand why Thanksgiving was so important. She wanted us to all understand the meaning behind it. To do this, she invented Turkey Claus to bring us gifts. The ornaments represent something we did well that year that we should be thankful for. For example, freshman year in highschool I was given an ornament of a diploma, representing my graduation from 8th grade and moving onto a new stage in my life. The ornaments remind us that we have a lot to be thankful for. As children, it also made us feel like someone really noticed our accomplishments. Although I now know that it is my grandmother, I still love the idea. It makes me know that she notices these things as well.

After this reflection, I know that traditions are important. I never realized how much of an impact that this had on my family and my life. I know that I am going to pass this on to my future family. Even if it's corny, it is something that ties us together and makes us a family. I mean, what other family has Turkey Claus?

Today in class we talked about Universities. A subject was brought up about whether Universities should accept on terms of wealth, race, social class, etc. This got me thinking. Highschool students work tirelessly to get into a college, so why should students with money be allowed a foot in? As I mentioned in class, Bill Cosby got his daughter into a college by funding a new building for the University. This made me mad. It isn't really fair, but I know that it happens. As everyone says, it's not what you know, but who you know. This got me thinking, what is the point of college? Is going to college a stepping stool just in case you don't know that one person who can pull strings for you? Is the point of getting into an Ivy League college so that you meet more important people and have better ties? If so, what is the point of Roger Williams? Should I be here to make ties with the most "important people? This sits with me wrongly because that would mean leaving out the people that I judge as unimportant. And on that subject, how can I determine who is important and unimporant in regards to making relationships with so that I am successful? Is that judged by wealth also? Thinking back on my college entry, I'm happy with how it went. Although I come from a well-off family, my father didn't pull any strings or call in a favor to anyone to get me in anywhere. His method was that he earned it, so I should too. My father worked at MIT for a considerable amount of time when I was younger. My friend's urged me to just apply to see what happens. I refused because I don't think that this is the way that I should be accepted. My father and four generations before him have gone to MCP. An admissions counselor visited my highschool, and I explained my family's background there (at this time I was still considering the pre med to medical school approach). This man basically flat out told me that because of my family, I would most likely be accepted into the school. He said as long as I wasn't close to failing, I had nothing to worry about. This turned me off from that school because I don't think thats fair.

For example, this kid in my highschool was an amazing football player and he got into BC with a 2.0 GPA. None of us thought it was fair, especially since the class president didn't get in to BC. It wasn't a fair situation at all. I disagree with this concept entirely and think that colleges should not accept upon those standards.

birth order

In one of my last posts, I wrote about my only child problem of now needing alone time. Professor Michaud kindly shared with me this site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birth_order#Only_children which really described what I feel in a nutshell. I've always wondered why people act the way that they do, and it usually does lead to other circumstances, maybe this is why one of my majors is Psychology. For example, my best friend refuses to get into a serious relationship until she is twenty-one. This stems from having an alcoholic father. I have learned that every behavior results from some sort of pattern in your life. One way to study these patterns is certainly through birth order. I admit, I am VERY spoiled. My dad grew up in a family of seven, so he never had the chance to be really spoiled and he had to work for what he got. Because of this, he feels as if I shouldn't be treated differently. I can see his reasoning, I would not want to become someone who is so dependent on their parents that I cannot rely on myself. My mother on the other hand, loves to spoil me. She grew up in a family where her mother was a great friend to her. Although they didn't have much money, her mother would do whatever she could to support my mom. My mom feels as if this should be the same for me. Although the views are opposing between my parents, my mom usually wins. It's usually a matter of "don't tell your father I bought you so much clothes" or "Shh, lets keep these new shoes a secret. If he asks, you found them in your closet." I love this type of behavior! Wikipedia suggests that this could lead to problems with selfishness. Because I grew up with both views, I like to think that I'm not selfish. I work for my money, and I've held steady jobs since I was 14. Although my mom does spoil me, I know the value of a dollar. Another reason that this has rubbed off on me is now I love to spoil people. Kids in highschool would joke that I would be first on their birthday list because of the presents that I give. I love to see other people happy because of something that I did. I think that this is because of my mom.

I don't think that the second section of this paragraph applies to me all of the time. Wikipedia states that "Another view of only children, as noted by Alissa Eischens in her paper The Dilemma of the Only Child is that they learn to be children on their own, they learn to depend on themselves, and they have no problem being loners." I would hate to be alone ALL of the time. I love to be with friends, I just need some alone time once in a while. I'm very big into thinking through things instead of fighting. I never thought that this was because of my past, but I am now thinking it's very possible. I never fight because growing up I had nobody to fight with. I have never hit anybody or physically hurt someone else on purpose. Whenever I fight with my boyfriend, I always say things like "I think we should hang up, I need some space to think." He is a person that wants to get it all out now and work it through before the phone call is over. I need my space sometimes to think. This topic is so interesting to me, thank you Professor Michaud for sharing this!

habits

I am slowly working through this math situation. Yesterday, I and two of my classmates spent seven hours in the library (four of them with the math tutor) completing our second take home test. I received my last test back, it was a 98%. I was really happy about this. Hopefully I do just as well on this one. I completed everything and the tutor said that it is all right, so hopefully we will see. This professor has decided to give us three of our four tests as take home tests. Unfortunately, the test that will be taken in class is our final. Truthfully, if I had to take either of these tests in the classroom, I would fail. I'm not sure that I would even get one problem right. It was really hard, and none of the material was taught in class. The tutor agrees with us, and she said that she'd speak to our professor about it. Hopefully it will become better in time for the final. Us three students are very proud of ourselves for our hard work on this test. We know that we will do okay because of the effort that we put into it. It's a great feeling. On the contrary, a bad feeling arose when fellow students asked to cheat off of my test.

Earlier in Lit class we talked about the pressures of cheating. Rebekah Nathan didn't lie, it's there. Students do cheat, especially when it's as easy as copying a test for take home. I opted not to share my test because I worked so hard. I felt cheated myself if someone else was to get the answers in 10 minutes for what took me three days. If the other student didn't take the time, I wasn't about to give up mine. I know that the other students that I worked with would feel the same way. I don't like that feeling, because I know what it is like to be confused and want instant help. Althoug I've been there, I don't accept this as someone I should pity. It was already hard to say no, but the hardest part was that the girl asking was my roommate. She said "Hey, can I see your test for math? I completely can't figure mine out." I told her that I didn't have it with me to avoid confrontation, but I know she knew what I meant. I couldn't leave it at that though. I felt terrible because all students have been worried about grades and stressed out, so I sat with her for an hour or so showing her examples of problems in the book like the ones on the test so that she could figure it out on her own. I know she didn't fully appreciate this, but it was the best I could do. The part that made me most angry, is when she finished (so quickly) she's now out for the night partying. This leads to the question of how seriously students take their college education. I don't believe that many students take it too seriously at all. Judging by my roommate experience, one is always out partying and throwing things together at the last minute. Although she still gets A's and B's, I don't feel as if she's learning anything for real. Roommate #2 is very smart, but writes papers at the last minute as well. She'll study for an hour and get an A. It bugs me because I need to spend days studying, but that's just how I work. I guess it all depends.

advising

This week has been very stressful because it is the beginning of advisement for picking classes. I've never had to pick my classes alone before. Throughout middle school, classes were chosen for you. In highschool, we sat down Freshman year with our parents and guidance counselors and made a four year plan to fulfill our requirements. For first semester, we chose our classes in a meeting with a faculty member who basically told me what I needed to do. It's very stressful doing it by myself. I've spent a good amount of this week going on www.ratemyprofessors.com and trying to pick out good professors by other students comments. I also read through the course catalog and tried to learn what courses I should be taking for my major. Hopefully I'm on the right track. In FYE class, we went through what classes I need to be taking but I'm still unsure. I made an appointment with my advisor to meet next Tuesday so we can figure everything out. I learned that double majors don't get a degree in both! How upsetting is that. With double majors one primary major appears on your diploma while the other is just on your transcript. I learned that if I want to get a degree in both, I need to have 14 extra credits of Psychology. I want to do this. I am unsure of what classes to take and whether or not I can add on a 6th course to my schedule. I think I can handle it? I'm not sure. I've done really well this semester with all A's I'm pretty sure, but I don't know how different that will be when I start taking courses like law and psych and HISTORY. I'm terrible at History. What if I can't do it? I'm really hoping that everything works out. I talked around for an easy History professor. I'm usually not one to take the easy way out but considering it's a course that I'll never use again and that I don't even like, I thought it was practical. I asked around for really informative law and psych teachers who quiz a lot because I know that is what I need to succeed. I think I have found the right ones for me.

I started to consider taking Speech as well, but then I heard that it is on North Campus and I'm not sure that I want to walk there when it is freezing. But I'm unsure of what else I can take. So far I have history, psych, legal studies, speech, and critical writing. I am unsure whether or not I want to take one more. Even if I did take one more, I want it to count towards my major but I'm unsure of what classes I can take without taking legal studies or psych 101. It's all very confusing and I'm very happy that I have a good advisor. Truthfully, I'm also considering communications. I won't even get started on that problem.