Campus Safari #5 Attend a sports event

On Tuesday September 27, 2011, I attended the boys soccer game played here at SCSU against Le Moyne College which is located in Syracuse NY.

       First of all, I'm not a big fan of soccer to begin with but a friend asked me to go with her and we know a few kids on the team so I decided to go. I had been to a few soccer games before in high school. The advanced skill level between high school and the college teams I couldn't believe. I was actually interested in this game because the players were so good and had such good technique. Which I guess makes sense because making a college sports team I've heard is a very hard thing to do because they only pick the best of the best out of hundreds or in some cases even thousands of kids. One thing I don't like about soccer games is that at half time there's no entertainment for 15 minutes, where as at a football game they have cheerleaders or dance team or both. There didn't seem to be too many people in the stands watching at first but after the game got started there were a lot of people except we sat on the wrong side by accident and didn't realize it for a while...oops!

The game was intense and very close. None of the teams scored in the first half of the game. There wasn't really any scoring until the last 20 minutes or so when the other team scored two goals almost immediately one after the other. After those two goals it was hard for our team to try and catch up in only less than 20 minutes. The final score was : SCSU- 0   Le Moyne- 2

Time Management Poll

I think that a good question that I would want to know people's opinions on is "What are different ways you manage your time?"

I was interested in knowing the answer to this because I think that time management is a huge part of being successful. Everyone needs to know how to budget their time in a smart, effective way. I took a poll from 8 of my peers. I got some similar answers and some very different answers.

• The first person I asked was my friend Morgan from high school. She responded:

" I have a schedule of all my classes and work so I know when I have open periods of time. I make a list of all the stuff I have to do and complete it in order from most important to least important. I think the biggest part of time management is being organized."

• The second person I asked was my friend Alicia that I met here at school:

"When I think of time management, I think planning, longer breaks, avoid distraction, never give up and meet deadlines."

• I thought that I should switch it up and make sure I asked some guys what they thought too, so I asked my friend Joe:

"My time kinda gets managed for me, I have mandatory study halls because of baseball so I bring all my work and just get it all done then."

• My friend Alyssa said:

"I plan out different times to devote to certain subjects to make sure I get each area covered."

• Dayna, my friend whose a senior in high school said:

"I like to be organized and I let to have a set schedule to make sure I have time to get all of my homework and projects done."

• I asked another guy, a friend from back home and he said:

" I have classes every other day, so I do my homework that night and switch back and forth so I get everything done and don't fall behind."

• Lastly, I asked my two room mates:

One responded, " I make sure that I organize a list of what needs to be done, in the order of importance. Then I complete all of my work in order."

The other responded, " I prioritize and do the most important things first. I also don't leave things for the last minute."

A common theme I see in all of the answers no matter the gender, or age is organization. I think that organization is the biggest part of time management so you can organize your time and plan out which assignments need to be done and when they need to be done by. I was hoping that by asking different people I would maybe find a new strategy to manage my time, just other than the one I already do like making lists and prioritizing. Everyone seems to do things the same way.

Time management: Self Study

From conducting my own time management chart I have learned that I really don't have 70 hours of free time. This makes it harder for me so I have to manage my time more closely and carefully. In reality I spend about 2-3 hrs. a day doing homework and studying, as of now. I feel that my work load is going to continue to get heavier and my work time will soon increase to many more hours.

 I have so many distractions because my room mates and I are all really good friends so we enjoy spending time together. I also stay up very late at night which causes me to want to take many naps through out the day and that also poses as a distraction from my work. Facebook, email, twitter, and texting all distract me as well. I probably spend the most time during my day socializing with friends or in my room on Facebook etc. A majority of my time somedays I actual spend in classes and learning all day.  I have been trying so hard lately to really focus and get my work done so that I can go out with ease knowing my work is complete and I have nothing to stress about. The feeling of having no weight on your shoulders is the best feeling in the world and that's what I reach for each time I sit down to do my work, just completing my work and everything I need done so I can relax. One thing I do to help me plan my time is I make a "To Do" list of all the assignments I have been assigned that week or any on-going assignments I may have and plan out each day which I should get done first or how much I feel I should get done at the time.

I think I need to change or improve my time management habits by getting to sleep earlier in the night so that each day when I wake up I'm not exhausted. This will make me less tempted to take hour long naps when I could be spending that time on doing homework or studying.

Campus Safari #9: Club Fair

My first impression of a college club fair was that it would be a small organized boring event with a few different clubs to get information on but, I was wrong. The club fair was loud with music playing,  so many fun activities to watch and do, such as watching the dance team perform a routine to jumping on the moon bounce and having an ice cream from the ice cream truck. There were so many different clubs and organizations here it was hard for me to get around to see all of them in the half hour I had before class. But two clubs that caught my eye were Colleges Against Cancer and a group called "Best Buddies".

Colleges Against Cancer is a group that gives students the opportunity to get involved and help fight cancer here on campus. This group was founded in 2007 and is still going strong today. They organize many different events that raise money for The American Cancer Society. A big event that they plan is Relay for Life. Over the past 6 years SCSU has raised over $180,000 for the American Cancer Society and it's various cancer fighting programs. This group meets on Monday's at 1:00 pm in the student center. I think I would really like to join this group because I love community service based groups and one that raises money for a cause like this is definitely something I want to get involved in.

The Second group that caught my eye but I didn't get a chance to go over and see about was called "Best Buddies". I figured it either had something to do with working with younger children, which I want to ultimately do some day in my career, or working with older people in nursing homes or hospitals. I looked the group up on the Southern website and the only information I could find about the group was that it is their goal to form lasting relationships between college students and members of the community who are mentally handicapped. I think I will e-mail this group to find out more about when they meet and what kind of activities they have done in the past. After I graduate I plan to work with mentally handicapped children so I think this would be a great group for me to get involved in. Again, it is a community service based group which I really like because you feel so rewarded after doing things for others and you have so much fun while doing it.

Excellent Blog Posts

    After going through a few of my peers blogs I came across 3 really great ones that I would rank being as being an A.

 First I read Mike McGowan's blog titled, "A New Chapter: Freshmen Year". His blog really caught my eye because of his creative title. Once I started skimming through his blog, his pictures were very vivid and he placed them nicely throughout his posts. I thought it was really cool how he took a video of him running on the treadmill instead of just sitting there and listing all of the things he did while at the gym, he changed it up by actually showing us. I also really like his creative blog post titles, they make you want to keep reading them.

Another blog that I feel is "A" worthy would be Tina's blog which she called "The Triumphs and Troubles of Tina". I like the creative title and how it has a nice ring to it, it makes you want to read and find out what her triumphs and troubles are during her freshmen year in college. Some of her posts are really long but she did a great job of splitting her writing up into different paragraphs which makes it an easier read instead of just one big paragraph. She is very thorough in her posts and adds lots of details, making me want to keep reading. All of her posts not only fit the requirements for that particular post but she went above and beyond and really added a lot of her own personal input and opinion.


The last person I feel who deserves an "A" on their blog would be Nicole's blog. She called her blog "Nicole's Deep Thoughts". I really like her background it contrasted well with her font style/color and she had great pictures added to each post. One thing I really like about her blog was that she didn't use the same font for each post. They all looked different and caught my eye in different ways. For some posts she used bigger fonts and others she used smaller fonts. Her post about what college means to her is similar to mine and I really liked that because I felt like I was the only one who didn't think college was just a place to come party and "hang out", that it is a place for work and to work toward becoming successful. 


Everyone had really good blogs, but these are the 3 that really stood out to me and I enjoyed reading these ones the most. Good job guys! :) 

Professional Blogs

The first professional blog I searched was a Dance Blog. Dancing is my favorite hobby so I thought it would be interesting to see the different things people write and share with others in the dance community. This specific blog post was about 7 highly effective habits in ballet training. This post looked interesting to me because I used to take ballet for many years and know all the ballet terms they were referring to. I really liked how this blog was presented, the colors were attractive and I liked how they made bullet points instead of just writing a long boring paragraph about all of it. Also the use of large pictures makes the blog look really good and really stands out. 

The second blog I searched was cooking blogs because I enjoy cooking and learning how to make new and different kinds of foods. For the love of cooking was the name of the blog. There are many pictures and recipes to look at and on the side there are categories of different types of foods, sauces, side dishes, desserts, etc. The different blogs give a list of the items you will need to make each thing and then explains how to make it. This seemed like a helpful yet fun and creative way of displaying different recipes and instructions.

This blog was different from the dance blog because the way of presenting the information on each was different. In the dance blog the information was presented in a way that was glitzy and eye catching and the food blog was more neutral toned and relaxed. I really liked how both blogs didn't just type long paragraphs of information about the topic, they separated it up making it look easier to read. Reading and looking through professional blogs has given me a chance to see how to make my blog posts look different and more interesting instead of the same every week.

Day of Service

Today I participated in the day of service, along with hundreds of other students here at SCSU. The day started off at 8 o'clock this morning in the student center where we had to go check in and get our site assignments. We had breakfast and got our lunches to bring with us. My site leader was Mark Parrott and our group went to work at the West River project site. This was a beautiful trail with a river flowing down the left side and trees lined on either side of the trail. Our job here was to clean up the shrubs and branches that had fallen all over the path during hurricane Irene. We raked leaves into piles and threw big logs and branches into the woods. There was also a lot of garbage, clothes, bottles etc. in the woods surrounding. We went around with gloves and big black trash bags and put every piece of trash we could see and reach into the bags. We worked in pairs, so part of the time I would hold the bag and my partner would throw stuff in or she would hold the bag and I would pick up the trash. We all had a lot of fun working together as a team and helping clean up the site. Although we worked primarily in pairs, doing smaller jobs, we then got together to clean it all. This was a great experience and it felt really good to help out and do something for the New Haven community as part of a group all working toward the same goal. We worked at our cite for about 2 and a half hours because we were running a little behind schedule getting into groups and on the buses etc. Even though we only worked for a short time, it still felt great and we did a really thorough job. When we left the site looked so much better than it had when we first got there. The picture on the top left is me picking up trash from the woods!

This is a picture of some other students in my group walking down the path also picking up garbage and putting it into the bags. I really enjoyed this service day and am looking forward to the next one in the spring!

Deep thinking and working hard

The article called "How to become a deep thinker at college" really caught my eye because that is what we have been talking about in this class and my critical thinking class. We have been discussing how to think deeper about a particular topic or idea and to analyze it and give our own ideas and meaning of what we read. The advice I got from the article was that becoming a deep thinker requires 3 steps; One, to chose a mixture of courses that all seem interesting to you, two, calculate the number of hours per week you will need to handle the workload for these courses, and three, then double this total and keep that number of hours free in your schedule. The author of this piece seems to think that you need lots of time and can't be rushing from one activity to another all the time. Becoming a deeper thinker is a process and you need to do all the right strategies to get there.

           I somewhat agree with this, but part of me also disagrees. I agree that choosing a mixture of courses that are interesting to you is important and can help you be more engaged in your courses, but I disagree with the part that says you need a lot of extra time. When I think of being a deep thinker I think being busy and being involved in different things actually helps because it gives you many different ways to look at things and be engaged. Having too much time I feel can be bad and cause a student to become lazy or only do the bare minimum for the work they need to complete. For example, being on a sports team could make a student want to work harder and become more involved so that they can continue to be on the team and participate.

        The second article that caught my eye was one that somewhat goes along with the deep thinking article called "Work hard or work smart". There is a big difference between working hard and working smart. Working hard is really applying yourself and working hard whereas working smart is normally just working to find an easy way to get your work done faster. You need to have a healthy balance of the two and don't just do one. Working smart= making a plan, making a plan can help you schedule the time you need to work hard. This goal of working hard can be applied to any area of life. I connected to this article because being in college now I really do feel as though I need to make schedules and plan out my time more carefully than I had to in high school.

Articles of advice

The articles found on : http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/opinion/06collegeadvice.html were very interesting and had a lot of useful information to give new freshmen in college. I read three different ones that all gave different interesting advice.

             The first one I read had two pieces of advice they thought were the most important. 1. How to chose the right teacher and 2. For all students to take a composition course no matter what. It will really help you out throughout college and be beneficial in the future knowing the correct way to right and speak. Another one of the  articles I read gave you do's and don'ts of what to do in class and also told  how to stay involved with the university. I found reading these articles very helpful and interesting to read because I could relate to them now that I'm actually in college. Now I can apply these tips to my active experience now.

             The marshmallow video was also a really cool video to watch. The test performed in the video was to put a marshmallow in front of children aged 4 years old and they were told to wait to eat it until they were told they could, and if they waited they would be rewarded with another one. This video focused on temptation and the power to overcome it. Some of the children waited but some didn't and just went ahead and ate it. It later said in the video that the children who waited and had self discipline were doing better off in life, they got good grades, were more happy etc. and the children who gave in and ate the marshmallow on the spot didn't get great grades and weren't as happy. I personally don't think that the marshmallow test had any connection to the success of the kids today. At age 4 I don't think they really have the mind span to grasp the concept that if they wait they will get more in return, they want what they want when they want it. Self control is something I think that is learned, so as their lives went on I'm sure they encountered experiences where they had to use self control and from there on they learned and grew as a person. What is the definition of success? That can be answered many ways and could have endless arguments about the true meaning of the word. What were the children's motivation for waiting? Maybe they did understand that waiting was the right thing to do, who knows. People find motivation different ways.

A warm welcome for the freshmen at SCSU

The New Student Convocation for the class of 2015 was held on Wednesday September 7. This ceremony was very new and interesting to me. Although it was very short they covered many different things that we need to keep in mind as freshmen. The main purpose of the ceremony, I felt, was to formally welcome us all into the Southern community and for us all to make a pledge that we will work hard and get involved. I thought the most interesting part was when the 6 or 7 students from our class were on stage lighting candles and reading their commitments and promises to the school out loud. Dr. Battle gave a very inspiring speech about the importance of working hard and finishing our education in the four years we are supposed to because going any longer than four years becomes much more expensive. He really enforced that our number one goal should be to really focus on our work. Some people felt as though he was scolding us or trying to discipline us, but that is not the message or feeling I was getting from him or any of the other speakers at all. It was very cool to see a majority of my graduating class all in one room together, it made everything seem so real to me and made me excited to start my college years off the right way. I feel that this ceremony was a very important event that all freshmen should have gone to and all that went will be glad that they did.

What college means to me

College to me, is a place to further my education and be successful to be able to have the career I dream of having. College is also a place to meet new people and possibly form life long relationships with them. Overall, it's a very new exciting journey that I have begun. Right now I am starting my four years to get my bachelor's degree in early childhood education. After I graduate with my degree, I want to continue my education even further and go back to school to get my master's degree in speech pathology. After I get my master's degree I hope to get a job working in either a school system or a children's hospital setting as a speech therapist for young children. I'm very excited to be getting educated at SCSU for this particular career because they have a great speech program here. I will need to work very hard to get into the speech therapy program, but that is just more motivation for me to do my very best and work my hardest. Currently, my goal for the semester is to keep my grades up and make the dean's list and for every other semester  following. Other goals I have are to become involved in many clubs and activities so I can meet people and learn new things and work with others doing something we all enjoy as an activity. I expect my classes not necessarily to be hard but for the workload to be heavy and consistently heavy, so I need to transition and manage my time wisely. My first impression when I hear the word college I automatically think of all the fun things and new opportunities I will have and just the experience of finally living on my own with friends. That's not all I think about though when I hear college. I know the work is very different from high school and so are the teaching methods from high school teachers to professor's. At first that thought scared me but I now know all of my professor's and for the most part can tell their teaching styles. I think I will adjust well and I aspire to have a great experience and go for all of the things I want to do and I hope my end result is the one I am reaching for.

All about me :)

5 words, things, or concepts that define who I am : caring, fun, outgoing, family oriented, and dance.

Being caring is a big part of me and who I am. I am always considerate of others no matter what. I care a lot, maybe a little bit too much sometimes. I like to feel like I'm cared about so I really like to show those who truly matter to me just how much they are really cared for in return. 

 I am a very fun person, I always like having a good time and being out or around other people. Having fun  is important to me because I feel that's how you can meet new people or make a better connection with them and relate more closely.

Being outgoing for some people can be hard but for me, once I meet new people, it is easy for me to open up and have conversations. I like that I'm outgoing so that I can talk to others and make them feel more welcome and possibly open them up too so they feel comfortable around me.

 I'm a very family oriented person. My favorite thing to do in my free time is be with my family. My family always has a bunch of get togethers and we all love hanging out. I babysit my younger cousins often and I really enjoy doing that. My family is huge in my life and a very important piece of who I am. They have taught me so much and continue to support me throughout all the decisions I have made and will make in my life.

Dancing is my favorite hobby and my biggest passion. I've been dancing since I was three years old and have participated in many different teams, and styles of dance. Dance is important to me because it really defined who I am today and has helped me stay active and involved.