Our DST video turned out awesome!  I can't wait to see how much the freshman students like it in the fall!  I know that we have a great example to show them (:  Thanks to Megan for all her hard work editing the video last minute and Cole and Kat for being team leaders, as well as for everyone else who helped.

The peer mentor panel that we had in class on Wednesday turned out to be very helpful.  They had a lot of good information to share with us, and it sounds like we are going to have a really rewarding experience.  The question I asked was about what you do when you have a student that is leaning towards going home and discontinuing their college education.  The answers I got from them were ones that I was expecting, but I really do hope that I don't have to deal with this situation because it is one that you can't help as much with as you'd really like to.  It would never be a good thing to see one of your students decide to discontinue their schooling, or to be in a place where they feel they are uncomfortable and is not for them.  As I'm sure we all do, we hope that each and every student enjoys the college atmosphere and succeeds to their full potential.

We had a fun time at Allie's house yesterday!  I really liked spending time with you all, and was also fun to hear about the retreat and what activities we get to do!  This one is very similar to the retreat I participated in when I was a freshman and i had a lot of fun, so I am really looking forward to it.  Not so much eating the donuts off the string though (:

Hope you all have a good week, and also hoping to get those purple shirts!  If not, Kat and I will make a new "purple" squad!

Look where we're at, the semester is almost over!  Hard to believe.  Only two more weeks of class, then finals week; let the fun work begin (:

This week's class was about attaining higher education with peer mentors, covering a lot that we have previously in the semester.  When we made a list on the board of all of the peer educators we could think of on campus, I was kind of surprised of the amount we actually did have.  The university really wants us to succeed, and therefore gives us many resources to do so.  However, we have to take advantage of these resources in order to do so.  This is a message we need to make sure to deliver to our students.  In order to use these resources, you have to seek out the help from them.  Having a problem is okay, you just have to make sure to use the resources that we have here on campus to solve them.  Really, almost any kind of problem you could be having or dealing with, can be helped here on campus.  From a doctor's office, counseling, tutoring, living, food sources, to anything, it's here on campus or really close by!  This is the part of college that's really nice, as long as you use your resources, they are here for you!

We then listened to Chelsea teach us about the leadership article that we read before we came to class.  I really found the article interesting and am glad that we covered this in class.  It's really interesting learning how the brain works and how we can train it to accomplish being a great leader.

We finished filming out DST project today, which was fun.  I am really looking forward to seeing the final product on Wednesday in class.

See you all then!

Diversity Event: Charlie the "Trans-man"

I attended a diversity event this past Wednesday that turned out to be quite interesting.  Easten and I were the only two from the Hixson group that went to this event, and turned out to be the only two there as well that only attended for a class.  The other ten or so were from the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender club/community here on campus.  Also there, were Charlie's grandmother and younger sister.  It was more of a communication lecture where everyone could talk and ask questions and share their own stories and journeys.  I was really surprised how open everyone was, and also open to share their stories with everyone else.  Being one of the two there who were heterosexual, I really had to put myself in their shoes with every word they said.  A lot of the feelings they shared I had never really thought about.  

Charlie was a female that went through his journey of transformation in college.  He is now a senior here at Iowa State and is graduating in May.  As a child he described himself as liking boy things and never really being girly.  He identified himself as a lesbian until he was 18 or 19 years old, never really knowing what transgender was.  Charlie shared his whole story openly with us, and his family even got up to talk about his transformation with us.  They discussed how it made them feel and how they learned to cope with losing their little girl and gaining a man, now Charlie.  His sister's speech really stuck in my head.  She spoke of how religious she is, and how her religion tells her that she is not supposed to love Charlie because of the way she is.  She spoke of how she had to overcome that aspect of her religion and realize that Charlie, whether her brother or her sister, is still her sibling and that she will love him no matter what.  To have such supportive family members really makes me happy for Charlie.  I believe that no matter what gender or sex he is attracted to, he deserves to be happy just as we and his family do.  

Overall, I really learned a lot from this diversity event.  I'm glad that I went to this, as it really opened my eyes to how someone who feels so different from the rest of us can be dealing with these issues and we don't even know.  To see Charlie out and about in Ames, I would have never known that he used to be female.  It just goes to show how everyone has their OWN story, and we need to take the time to listen to these individual stories in order to get the most out of life and its lessons.  

This week in class, it was my turn to teach.  I really enjoyed teaching the class with Cole this week.  It went pretty smoothly, as I thought it should after getting to see many of you teach us before we went.  I thought that the topic we had to teach is definitely an important one.  Having good ethics as a peer educator can depict whether you are an effective leader/teacher.  All of the topics we introduced, as well as what Allie and Chelsee introduced are all situations which very likely could arise while we are teaching.  It is, however, comforting to know that we have Debra, Allie, and Chelsee to seek advice from if need be.  Just as we have them, we also have the rest of us peer mentors as a group to talk and consult with.  Although Megan, Easten, and Sebastian have done this one year already, the rest of us are in the same boat.  We are all being peer educators for the Hixson program for the first time, and I'm really looking forward to the experience with all of you.  I hope that you all took something away from our lesson, and feel more prepared for these types of situations in the fall.  Remember that you can always consult your book for advice as well!

Tonight was the etiquette dinner that the Hixson Student Board put on.  I am really glad that I went because I really learned a lot.  I'm glad to have the opportunity to learn such things through this program.  She gave us some really great lessons, stories, and insightful information that will be really useful in the future in formal dinner situations such as banquets and dinner job interviews.  She was very knowledgable on the topic, and was very willing to answer any questions that we had.  I really enjoyed her.  I also really enjoyed myself at dinner, getting to talk to some of the other Hixsons and other peer mentors.  Overall, it was a great experience.

Hope you all have a fun and SAFE Veishea!! (:

"Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did."
                   -Newt Gingrich
The end of the semester is coming to a near close, and I'm sure we are all equally stressed out with the amount of tests we are having!  I know that I am!  Stick in there, summer is just around the corner!

If you need a little study break, watch this video. It sure got me to laugh.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AMpugNjTKk

In class this week, we worked on some digital storytelling footage, which I thought was rather fun.  I really think that our video is going to turn out awesome and I can't wait for the freshman to see it for an example this fall.

Cole and I met with Allie and Chelsee on Friday to go over our lesson plan, which I think went quite well.  We had some good discussion, as I hope we do in class as well.

Can't wait for you all to listen to our lesson on Wednesday, hope you enjoy it and come with your thinking caps on!

This week's lesson was all about using your resources on campus.  I thought that Megan and Jessica did a very good job of coming up with their lesson!  I really thought that they put some very creative work into it!  Their clues for the different resources on campus were very fun to listen to.  I found it a little bit troubling to come up with unique clues for my campus scavenger hunt, so I thought that they did a very nice job!

I think that using your campus resources is a very important tool to be able to master.  Being able to get help in many different ways when you need it is very important.  It ties in with being self-reliant and being able to get yourself the help you need, when you need it.  If you are aware of most of the helping resources on campus, you are more likely to use them and to get the help you need.  Whether you are sick, struggling with a class or paper, wanting to socialize, help with a situation with housing, and much more!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter Sunday!

This week's class was very interesting for me.  We started off having a class discussion about the Harlem Shake video that has recently become the latest trend on YouTube.  After Allie had told us that we needed to have a discussion about putting it in our digital storytelling video, I started to wonder the reason.  After the discussion and the videos we watched on Wednesday, I now realize that we really shouldn't put it in our video.  I didn't realize that these people were that offended about this video.  I had never even thought of where this mocking video of the Harlem Shake had originated.  This is one question that I would someday like to find an answer to.  I really felt for these people who felt offended at someone mocking their culture.  I would feel the same way if it was something I identified that strongly with.  Overall, I'm glad that we had the discussion in class, I thought that it was a very good topic to discuss, and it was a very mature and interesting conversation.

The second part of class, Shelby and Stephanie taught us about our learning styles.  I automatically knew my learning style before we took the test.  However, I thought that the test was a really good and creative activity to do for the class.  I assume that a lot of the incoming freshman that we will be teaching might not know their learning style; it would be a good activity to do with them!  I really enjoyed them teaching class on Wednesday, I thought that they did a fantastic job!

I hope you all have a wonderful spring break this week, see you Wednesday!