Brain Rules

My initial perception of Brain Rules is very interested.  I always knew that exercise helped the brain work better and made everybody feel better, but the book gives a lot of statistics that I hadn’t known.  It is interesting to hear about all of the studies on the middle aged people and the elderly, and I know it is the same basic principle for young adults as well—I have seen and felt the change in myself as well.  My mom is a strong believer in healthy organic foods and exercise.  She walks two miles with our neighbor lady every day, and my mom is one of the healthiest, energetic people you will ever meet.  I have a feeling that the older people in this book who have exercised and their minds are still working perfectly at that age is how my mom will be.  I hope to be the same way, and I exercise now and plan to continue in the future because I know that there is a huge positive effect.  

My Current Classes

My classes are going great!  My favorite class is anthropology 161, and I actually just emailed my professor to schedule either lunch or an appointment in his office to interview him for the paper we are writing for University 101.  This weekend I'm going to the Riverbank Zoo with some kids from my class; we have a project due next week where we have to observe the monkeys at the zoo.  I love that class because the professor is so passionate about what he does, and it's a very interesting/controversial subject for me, growing up in a very religious Christian home.  My other classes are going well too; I've gotten A's on several papers and exams so far, so that is exciting and rewarding for me. These past two weeks have been somewhat stressful though, because I feel like all the professors are giving their exams and assigning papers at the same time--it's quite a change from the beginning of the semester.

Service-Learning Site Visits

We visited the library today that sponsors and houses the Cocky's Reading Express Service.  Cocky's Reading Express goes around South Carolina to underprivileged elementary schools, gives the children books, and promotes the importance of reading.  I am excited to go and actually visit a school with the group, but I am disappointed that almost all of the trips are on Fridays; I have three classes Friday mornings, and one of them is a lab that I can't ever miss.  I am hoping that the volunteer work is still fun at the office, doing clerical duties, but I think that it will be.  I hope to establish relationships with the leaders in charge of the program, and hopefully I can continue volunteering all year, so that I can go on trips to schools in the spring.  I think it would be a really great experience to see all of the kids and help to get them excited about reading--the importance of reading is immense, and it is a great program to further educate all of South Carolina.

Experience as a Capstone Scholar

My experience as a capstone scholar so far has been really positive.  It is nice to be living with and surrounded by students who care about their academics at about the same level as I do.  It is also great to have the University 101 class with people who I see often, coming in or out of the building and seeing familiar faces--especially when I first came to the University of South Carolina.  I didn't have too many expectations when I first came here, not that I really specifically thought about anyway, but everything seems about how I had imagined it.  The southern culture is not very different, and other than seeing cochroaches and lizards, the hot weather and the southern accents, South Carolina is not that much different from Pennsylvania.  I had thought that living in a city would be really different from my rural town, but the USC campus makes it seem like you aren't even living in the middle of a city as major as Columbia. 

Time Management, goal setting, personal challenge

On my Student Engagement Plan, my goals were to work out 5 days a week, join the Flying Gamecock Club, join the Mountaineering and Whitewater Club, find a church to go to, and get A's or B's on all big papers and exams in my classes.  I expect that my hardest goal will be the last one, because it will require a lot of time studying, hard work, and paying attention in every class.  I expect joining the clubs will be easy, because I have already attended the meetings and taken the first step.  My work out goal is probably somewhere in the middle, but I have found a work out buddy (Alyssa) and we found a yoga class that we really like, so it shouldn't be too hard to accomplish.   My personal challenge is skydiving.  I selected this because it's always been something I have wanted to do, but I'm nervous enough about jumping out of a plane that it has not been top on my priority list so far in my life.  I will accomplish it by joining the Flying Gamecock Club and scheduling to jump on the October trip.

Academic Success

I feel that my LASSI results turned out pretty fair.  I had a high anxiety score, which I agree with because I don't worry very much about my classes--I know when I need to study, and I do a good job of studying the right things; on a test, there is never a main idea or point that I have missed entirely.  My study aids score was somewhat low, but I feel that although it is useful to get tutored or ask for help during the professor's office hours, I haven't been confused or overwhelmed at all to need the extra help.  In addition, none of my current classes offer supplemental instruction, so that is not an option for me.  If I begin to struggle in my classes, I am definitely not opposed to asking for help. My time management score was also low, which I do agree with.  I am a little bit of a procrastinator, but usually I put thought into a pre-write, or I begin the paper before it is due--I just save the majority of it for last.   I think I could definitely improve on this aspect of studying, and set aside time to push myself to be productive when I'm studying.

Service-Learning Training

In high school, over the summer, I helped out one of my middle school teachers with my school district's Summer Break program.  He had drama, math games, chess club, and bug class that I helped out with--teaching the kids, playing with them, and helping them put on a play at the end of the two week program.  I also helped out with a soccer camp at a local church every summer as a coach (it's for elementary school kids), and I was a coach at my school soccer program's camp over the summer.  As a member of NHS, we had several community service projects that we did together, such as a day cleaning up and doing gardening for a cemetary in the city, serving food at a homeless shelter, etc.  I also babysat for single mothers at a local shelter called the Milagro House.  We helped the kids with homework, played with them, and formed relationships.  I haven't ever done service connected to a course, and if I could provide service anywhere, it would be at a law firm.  I want to be a lawyer, and I shadowed a few of them in high school, and I loved the atmosphere.   I feel that it would be really beneficial to me as well.

Labor Day - no class

For Labor Day weekend, my friends and I went to my one friend's house who lives in Clemson.  We went to her high school's football game because she had to write for the newspaper about it..it was dragging on and on so we left my friend who lives in Clemson to go to the grocery store to get some food to take home and the gps had us going in the total opposite direction, it took us 2 hours to get home (what should have been 30 min) and it tried to take us down some scary-looking dirt roads!!  We finally got back though... Saturday we spent out on the lake, which was beautiful!!! For dinner we had this really good Mexican food...and two of us dyed our hair later...Sunday was a party with the parents we stayed with..it was really great--we got to meet the Clemson quarterback, who was there... and got lost AGAIN on the way home becuase of the crazy gps...and on Monday we drove back to Columbia!

Lifelines--History of Carolina and Carolinian

My expectations of my time here at USC are that I will really get involved in clubs and organizations and meet a lot of new people.  Coming from Pennsylvania, I don't know anyone here, so it will probably be a challenge to get started, but I love it so far!!!  An adventure I've had was going to my first Carolina football game against southern miss!!  It was so much fun!!!....except we beat them by so much that everyone started to leave..but it was still a good experience!  I haven't encountered anything really unexpected...but I was surprised by how easy my classes are this semester...everyone says college will be so much harder, but you really have a lot more time to do all the work, so it's not a big deal. Some new things that I have tried since coming here are the zumba and yoga classes that they hold at Strom—they are both so much fun!!!

Involvement - Student Organization Fair

The heat was stifling (remember, I'm from the north!), and every time you made eye contact-- you had better be prepared for the bombardment of flyers and clipboards eagerly shoved in your face.  Despite this annoyance, it didn't take me too long to find the tables I was looking for.  Six flyers (eventually I learned not to look directly at anyone holding them), two condoms (hidden between a folded flyer of the student health organization), and a lollipop (something good for once!) later, I finally reached the women's club soccer table and waited in a line to write my email and get the tryout times...and I saw at least a hundred other names signed up!  But I still plan to tryout next week, so we'll see how that goes.  I also found the flying gamecock table, which I plan to join and skydive as my personal challenge of the year.  I'm considering joining INK as well--since I am an english major, but I'm not sure if my schedule will allow it.  If I could start my own organization, it would be a beach soccer team/open gym type of thing in the sand courts at Strom.  My soccer girls back home would take a trip every summer to the beach and play a tournament in the sand!