campus safari

For this weeks Campus Safari I met with the head of the Sports Management Department, Dr. Panza.  I was nervous at first to meet him but he was actually such a cool guy.  We talked for a while about classes but then we started a casual conversation about jobs and how in the sports world, employers tend to hire females for the wrong reasons.  He told me it was going to be tough but I had to always remember my goal and not let others view me for other reasons.  He also reminded me to keep my Facebook, Twitter and any other social medias clean because my future employers will definitely see them. 

we're measured by a number.

My midterm grades were actually pretty good!  In high school I was always on the verge of C's but most of my midterm grades here were high B's and low As.  My GPA would be around a 3.3 if these were my final grades, which is pretty good for me.  I'm never fully satisfied with my performance in school but I think I'm on the right track to where I want to be at the end of the semester.  I think if I put in some more effort I could end up with my GPA in a place where its never been before. 
My effort is accurately represented by my grades.  I put a lot of time into my classes because I know I wont be successful with the same amount of effort I put into my high school work.  I know that in order to understand the material from each class I'm going to have to study out of class more than I'm used to.  Its a little hard to get used to but I think I'm finally getting the hang of it.  
I know I want my grades in college to be higher than my high school GPA because I'm basically ashamed of it.  Most people wouldn't be but I just don't feel it accurately portrayed my performance and intelligence whatsoever. A GPA is an average of 4 years.  Obviously theres going to be points in those 4 years when things happen that you wont be able to perform as well as others.  This is something I've always thought of......

run it run it

Call me crazy but when I get stressed out, exercising makes me feel better.   Whenever I get in a fight with my friends I go for a run to clear my head, come back and reassess the whole situation.  So, needless to say, this time of the semester, I probably could run from here to California and still not have a clear head.  But I tried anyways... This week I have 3 midterms so a run was definitely in my cards.
I wasn't really sure where to go running since i know New Haven isnt the greatest of all neighborhoods so me and my friend Jenn decided we were going to go to the football field and run around the track.  We went at night because we knew no one or any teams would be there.  We started running and I quickly realized how out of shape I was.  During the cheer season I could run 4 miles without breaking a sweat, I ran a 5K this summer and now here I was barely able to run a mile.  It was eye opening but even running a mile was better than not running at all.  So we ran...
When we stopped running, we did an ab circuit and then we decided it was time to walk back, we were wiped!  It really helped to clear my head and whenever I work out, I feel so good about myself after.  So basically this made me realize I need to start doing this regularly and I might have a lot less stress!

Heres a picture froom the FUNNEST 5K ever created!!

Nothing Like High School

At the beginning of the semester, I thought by the time midterms came around I would be ready to kill myself.  Surprisingly, I’m doing pretty well in all of my courses.  I’m extremely proud of myself because when I don’t want to be somewhere I usually give up.  Southern is somewhere where I just don’t think is the school for me but I know that if I want to transfer anywhere, I have to keep my grades up and I’m pretty sure that’s why I’m trying so hard.

         The class that’s giving me the most trouble is definitely Statistics (Math 107).  My SAT scores placed me in this math and I’m always up for a challenge in this subject but this is a challenge I don’t think I was expecting.  My professor is pretty hard to understand as well which doesn’t help the fact I get lost so easily.  The concepts we are learning are pretty difficult and we also move at a very fast pace.  On my midterm I got a 73, which isn’t a good grade, but for some reason, I was extremely proud of it. 

         My personal goal for the semester is to achieve a GPA over a 3.0 and at this point I have that.  Now I’m striving for a 3.5 so from now until December 18, I will be putting all my effort into my studies.  Cutting down my “social” time will be a little difficult but I know it’s for the best.  I’m not looking to cut this time out completely, just not go out EVERY Thursday or EVERY weekend.  This is an attainable goal I just know it will take a lot of time and effort and I’m ready for it!

Campus Safari

This week I went to the Majors Expo in the Student Center.  My roommate had to go for her inquiry class so I figured I would go check it out.  I actually was surprised at how much information I got out of it.  I've been thinking about switching my major to Education and this helped me a lot.  A lot of the majors had display boards with facts about the major then courses that you would have to take, along with some FAQs.  I realized that Education would require a lot of time and effort but I also realized how much interest I actually have in it.  I love helping people become better at whatever they strive to accomplish and this is the main priority of a teacher.  So, thanks to the Expo, I decided that one day, I'll be Ms. Castellano (hopefully)!

I took a picture of the Education board, here it is!

failure cannot happen without an attempt at success

In the book Mindset, readers are introduced to the idea of failure as a good thing.  When someone “fails” at a task, it just means that they didn’t accomplish their self-defined success.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  When you don’t accomplish something, you keep trying for it.  You put countless hours of time and effort into something until you reach success.  Failure serves as motivation.

            I never really thought of failure as something that could be good.  My parents always taught me that failure just wasn’t acceptable in my house.  There’s always been pressure on me to succeed and I guess added pressure to set examples for my younger brother.  I never really dealt with this too well and I was beyond stressed out but I would hide it well and put on a smile in front of them.  Failure isn’t something anyone enjoys but it’s a sad reality of life.  We can’t always succeed, especially if we don’t put time or effort into our goals.  Failure is inevitable, and we must accept this.

            As we discussed before, success is something that each person defines differently.  I fell that failure is the same.  To me, failure is when you let yourself and your peers down.  It is discouragement.  To another person, failure might be when you simply don’t accomplish a goal.  Going off of this idea, failure cannot happen without an attempt at success. 

coach beth?

Well, getting out of my comfort zone is something I hate and I’m terrible at it.  But, I did it anyways.  My old high school cheerleading coach now coaches a much more elite high school’s team and I love going to watch practice.  This weekend I went home and she knew I was going to be back in Boston and asked me to go to practice.  I obviously love seeing successful teams so without a doubt I went.  But, she forgot to mention something.

         At this practice, I wasn’t here to watch. I was here to coach.  I was in charge of 15 girls, some of them only being a year younger than me.  I don’t really like being in charge because I don’t know how to manage the power.  I also am not too great at getting mad so if the girls goofed off, I probably wouldn’t do anything.  Coach Shana told me that she knew I could do it and so I stepped right in.

         Their competition routine has already been set up in pieces but I had to figure out what they were spending their time practicing on.  So I started with their stunts and had them do each sequence a few times so that I could figure out what areas needed the most work.  After I realized how receptive the girls were to me, I knew that I could do this.  They respected me even though I wasn’t much older than them and I was so thankful for this.  I wasn’t surprised because I thought they weren’t respectful, I was surprised because I always doubt my abilities.

         I’m glad that I finally got the chance to actually coach a team even though it was for one practice. It really got me thinking and I came to the conclusion that I would love to coach my own team one day.  It definitely would be a lot of work but it is something I will definitely be looking into in my future.

For this weeks Campus Safari, I spoke to my Writing Arguments professor, Anastasia Brooks.  I asked her a few quick questions and here they are!

How long have you been teaching?
-I'm going on my 15th year right now actually.

Have you always taught college?

-Mostly college level courses yes.  But I have taught high school as well.

Do you prefer high school or college?
-Definitely college.  The students just bring the knowledge that they get in class so much further.  They understand the material and question it rather than just accepting it and memorizing it for the test and erasing it from their brains.

If you had to give one piece of advice to succeed in your class what would it be?
-I would tell you to be in class, be prepared for class as well as participating in class.  Always hand everything in on time and if you can do those simply steps, you should be all set for this class.

     So far I really am intrigued by this book.  My favorite part is the fact that we can grow our mindsets.  I never really thought of your mind and mentality as something you could grow but when you think about it, thats how we learn and become smart.  One example the author used was the fact that we can undo our mindsets.  She tells us to think about when we were doing a puzzle of some kind and it started to get really difficult and we just wanted to stop doing it and wanted out.  This is an example of the fixed mindset.  When we think about enriching our experiences and for example, finishing the puzzle, we are growing our mindsets.
     I really like this example because it basically deals with comfort zones and how we have to break out of them. This goes right along side with college and the new lifestyles.  Like in my video project, I am having a tough time being away from home.  HOWEVER, home is my comfort zone and part of my "fixed mindset".  By moving away and coming to Southern, I'm becoming open minded and growing my mindset by adapting to my new style of living.

  This book is closely related to our discussions in class.  Mindset is basically all about how our minds are much stronger than any other organ in our body.  Mind over matter can get you so far in life because if you believe you can do something, and dont let your fixed mindset get in the way of you, success will always be accomplished!

     

a little more difficult than i thought...

Attached to this post is my video project!  It was definitely a lot more work than I thought but I'm really impressed with myself and the finished project, enjoy!

Interviews with:
Sarah Angermann
Sam Angermann
Emma Vita
Jennifer McCarthy
Lisa Bono




Video Project #1