Week 15: The Last & Final Blog

Good morning, afternoon, evening, or whatever time of day it may be for you as you read this. As shown by the title, this will be the last blog I do for the fall semester here at Georgia Southern and is possibly my last blog. Now I know what the title of this blog entails, and it may seen quite depressing as another thing in my life comes to a close. Despite this. this blog will be a time to look back at my takeaways, good times, and interesting moments from my first semester of college and my experiences in my FYE class which I have been referring to every single week throughout my blogs. Hopefully, I hope that all who may be reading this take something away from the blogs that I wrote about whether it be something funny, intriguing, or maybe even controversial.

The focus of this blog is going to be around two particular weeks/blogs, and the particular weeks from the semester that I will focus on are picked based on two things: The week that helped me towards planning and having the right mindset for the remainder of my college career and the week that left a spark in regards to touchy or impactful topics. The two weeks that follow the previous descriptions were weeks 9 and 10. Week 9 was a continuation of the previous week as our class tackled a topic that we did not know we would be dealing with in the semester. The topics and questions that we were asked in the classroom troubled some, but the conversation held in the classroom and the blogs posted that week presented a lot of different perspectives about the current matter within our university's campgrounds. If you are not aware or are confused what I may be talking to, I will let the words of fellow student Michelle help you out a little bit: "These past two weeks at Georgia Southern have been very impactful with author Jennine Capó Crucet visiting to speak about her book and the events that came after". So yeah, the few weeks after Crucet came and spoke on campus about her life and experiences was filled with interesting topics as every single person in the class had their own views of what went down and how they felt about it. Typically I do not like to join in on these conversations because I do not want to word something wrong so here is a snip of my view on the Crucet incident: "I also have felt a bit embarrassed and disappointed in both sides of the book burning controversy because it is burning bridges and relationships between the university staff, students, and many other people. I know there is a reason for everything in this world, but I would like to move on from the series of events that has taken place the last few weeks". While I did feel a little uncomfortable throughout those talks in class, the talks and the situation with Crucet left an impact and can not be ignored when looking back on the highlights of the semester.

Jumping over to the week after the Crucet talks, our class jumped to a topic a bit more relaxed. Despite this, I felt as the conversations and the activities from that week left an impact on me and has a spot in my heart. The conversation on Monday started out with talking about 'DegreeWorks' and looking over the curriculum sheets that set the path of each and every one of our college careers. After looking over the college planning sheets, our class "participated in an activity that helped us determine what values are important to us as values help set ourselves up to be the person we wanna be". This activity allowed me to set my mind on what I needed to focus on personally in order to make progress towards the person I want to be in the future. Some of the things that I am even doing now contradict the values and characteristics of the person I wanna be. The activity also made me do a gut check on why I was on college and why I was doing mechanical engineering. I kinda related to how Matthew felt about engineering before college: "I only chose it because it sounded cool and would impress my friends and family". I started thinking about mechanical engineering initially because I was good at math, the career field had solid pay, and it dealt with the fast cars I watched growing up. Stepping into the college world and getting a feel of the atmosphere it provides allowed me to set up a plan for my life. As I start to march forward in my college career, I am continuing to set my purpose and my goals so that I know what I wanna be and what I wanna do with my life. As I said in my week 10 blog a few weeks ago, I believe that "a big part of who I am is wrapped around the idea of being able to be as successful and efficient as I can throughout my life in order to have a family of my own one day," and I want to do what it takes to make that happen.

In my introduction blog at the beginning of the semester, I said that "even though I am only forty minutes away from home, I am still able to live out the full college experience". With my first semester in the mirror, I can truly say that I was able to live out the full college experience as I was able to stay on track with my classes, make some great friends, and not be locked up in my room for 15 or so weeks. I have had a lot of talks with my parents in regards to how my semester is going and what my direction is going to be in the future. I tried to do the best to keep my family back home at ease by powering through some of those rough classes and long days. I have struggled and fought through these first weeks of my college career, and I am hoping for the best when grades come back Sunday. I want to thank everyone who has been with me through every step of the way, and I can not wait for what the next semester holds. Thanks for listening!

Sources

Sydnor Intro Blog
https://sydnorcollegeexperience.blogspot.com/2019/08/introduction.html
Sydnor Week 9
https://sydnorcollegeexperience.blogspot.com/2019/10/week-9-extended-make-your-home-among.html
Michelle Week 9
https://michellegibson25.blogspot.com/2019/10/week-9-discussion-on-past-week-of-events.html
Matthew Week 10
https://matthewahonorsfye.blogspot.com/2019/10/week-10-degree-engagement.html
Sydnor Week 10
https://sydnorcollegeexperience.blogspot.com/2019/10/week-10-degree-engagement.html
Images
Time-to-say-goodbye-1200x628-compressed.jpg
Picture of that person is me lol

Week 13: Diversity & Inclusion IV (Motorcycle Diaries)

Good evening or afternoon or anytime of day that you may be reading this. Since this blog is up after the 9 day Thanksgiving break I had and two to three weeks after the last time I posted something, I will spill out of bit more detail of how the last few weeks went including the semi-relaxing Thanksgiving break.

Before the break, every class was starting to approach the conclusion of their respected courses. Throughout the week for my English class, I was working on brainstorming and setting up for my big first draft for the third and final major assignment in the class. Along with preparing a big paper, I had to prepare to a huge Calculus exam on Thursday. Ever since the beginning of the semester, Calculus has presented a lot of challenges to me which is odd since throughout high school I enjoyed Mathematics. With the Calculus exam behind me, my mind was excited for the Thanksgiving week ahead. The Saturday leading into the break presented some anxiety and stress before my actual break could get started. On Saturday, I spent several hours trying to complete my rough draft for my final assignment in English. After being drained of my mental energy, I fortunately had an entire week to gain back my energy and stock my belly up with some nice Thanksgiving day food. I got to contribute somewhat to Thanksgiving by making Pumpkin pie which turned out a lot better than I expected. The Friday after Thanksgiving was not filled with Black Friday shopping but with Christmas preparations. I got to put Christmas decorations on the Christmas tree we just got. After Friday, I made my journey back to Georgia Southern to prepare for the final two weeks of the semester. Now to do the usual, I will go over the few weeks in my FYE class sessions.

Over the last four FYE classes, we have been going over the same general area of topic dealing with the film of Motorcycle Diaries which came out 10 or so years ago. We watched the beginning portion of the film in class, but we as students were tasked with watching the rest of the film during our free time. The film 'Motorcycle Diaries' is essentially about two guys from Argentina journeying by motorcycle and various other ways of transportation up the countryside in order to go through places like Venezuela and Chile in order to journey up South America's western coastline. Aside from watching the film, we learned about the main character who essentially is 'Che' Guevara who was a major figure of the Cuban Revolution after Che saw many injustices throughout his countryside trip. In one of our classes before the break, our class was presented a TedEd video that displayed both sides in regards to supporting and opposing Che Guevara's actions as a human being throughout his years in cultivating the Cuban Revolution and sparking many different places to fight against their governments, flawed systems, and countries. As usual, our class was presented a handful of questions regarding Che and the movie we watched. Some of the questions reflect back to our current day society in modern day problems like justified armed conflicts and the even the use of firearms in today's world. While we were not able to tackle all the questions, the questions gave the class and me a chance to reflect on the amazing lives that we are given in this country and not take what opportunities we are given for granted as we have it so much better in the United States than billions of people do around the globe. Thank you for reading and I'll write since again in the near future.

Week 12: Evaluating Information & Academic Research

Good day to all that read this blog! If you read this blog weekly, I do the 'usual' and will go through the course of my week quickly and then lead into the discussions and topics addressed in the FYE classes from Monday and Wednesday of last week. There is not much to go over from the last week but there are some highlights. On Monday, I had to get up early in the morning in order to sign up for classes for the spring semester. Getting up early to do that made the rest of the day pretty long and tiring as I typically don't wake up prior to 7 on a weekday. Besides that, the beginning of the week was bland like normal but the week got interesting one I got to Thursday. On Thursday, I got to play in a kickball playoff tournament since the team I was on won a game earlier in the season. We won the first game of the tournament off the other team forfeiting. Winning that game we made it to the final four. Our competitors did decide to show up, and we ended up playing a good game but ended up losing in the end 11-9. On Friday, I had to attend a 'round table' discussion for my ENGL 1102 class over establishing a topic for our up and coming paper for the class. I enjoyed listening to other people's ideas for topics that related to their research and fields of study. In the midst of a bouncy up and down week, FYE classes tackled quite an interesting set of topics that will extend further into my college career.

On Monday, we spent the majority of class talking about evaluating sources that news come from. To get straight to the point, the gist of the class period was to identify what sources, sites, newspapers, magazines, etc are reliable and can provide trustworthy information. Our professor presented a powerpoint presentation which provided screenshots of articles from various different various, and all the students were given the task to identify what sources are reliable and which ones are not. After this fun and interactive presentation, we were given another task to complete out of class. Out of class before Wednesday, we as students were required to come up with a powerful research-type question that we could provide sources towards our 'research'. We had to get one source from a news type article and another source from the Galileo which is an online library source that allows us as students to look up detailed research and topics. With our professor not in class on Wednesday, we spent the whole class analyzing and depicting how reliable and credible our two sources were with the 'CRAAP' standard which identified currency, relevancy, authority, accuracy, and purpose of the writing. My two sources went over the topic of alternative fuels and countries trying to switch their cars over to electric in a set amount of time. Both of my sources followed the guidelines pretty well. The only standard that was iffy for the news type source was the accuracy because particular data was not repeated in a different source.

Personal Reflection

Doing research on several different topics and ideas this week proved to be very crucial as I am doing research in my ENGL 1102 class for a big assignment. The topics and assignments I am doing in my FYE class line up pretty well with what I am doing in the Composition class which is very helpful as it gives me time to do more research and look into my topic a bit more as I am essentially doing mirror assignments in two classes. Thank you for reading my blog once again this week, and my sources for this blog are listed below.

Sources:
https://www.aiip.org/resources/Pictures/AIIP%20Website%20Icons/AIIP%20Research%20Icon.png

Week 11: Preparing for Registration & Meaningful Inquiry

Good evening, morning, or whatever time of day it is that you may read this. This last week and a half has been clumped with many academic assignments and tasks to complete including preparing for my spring semester classes and doing a bunch of laundry. As usual, before I get to the big topics from my FYE classes after I go over a brief analysis of my week.

Starting off the week was a terrible, no good Monday. On Monday, I spent several hours wrapping up a huge project for my Engineering Graphics class. Finishing that project was a grueling task and covered up a hot amount of my time on Monday. After that task was completed, the rest of the week went a bit better and according to plan. On Tuesday, I went to a FYE Success Series about succeeding through struggle and persevering through college and life to pursue the goals in front of you. The kickball playoff games I was supposed to play during the week got postponed. Besides having a slow and busy start to the week, Wednesday and up through the weekend were less stressful and allowed me to focus on my goals and tasks moving forward. Now onto the FYE topics from the last week which are relevant to the upcoming tasks in front of me in my college career.

On Monday, our class was visited by the Honors Advisor of Erin Martin who helped go over some important things regarding the upcoming date for early registration for spring semester classes. Martin went over some of the essentials steps and tips in order to get the classes we want as fast as we can on the day of registration. We also went over all the possible problems and error messages that could arise when we are signing up for classes. We are required to look over if we have any holds or preexisting conditions on our account before we sign up for classes because that will affect whether we can sign up for classes or not the day of registration. In the midst of registration, there will be many Honors students fighting for limited spots in particular Honors classes which means that I will have to set those classes as I priority to get to first day of registration. Before class on Wednesday, we had to read an article over the 'Art of Powerful Questions' to prepare for discussions in Wednesday's class. Starting off Wednesday's class, we answered a few questions on a sheet of paper regarding the article that we read. One of the questions on the sheet asked that if we could ask a powerful question regarding any of the discussions over the semester what would it be. My question asked about how the FYE class would impact us here on out throughout our college careers. While some people could give a simplistic answer to this and depict a given circumstance or situation, anyone could give a different perspective on how the FYE class from this semester could or could not have an impact on ourselves throughout our college career. Referring back to the article, the art and complexion of a powerful question can impact how a person responds to a question and how they access the situation at hand.

Personal Reflection

Going over class registration and powerful questions this week was very impactful and important. Registering for classes is very crucial as it sets me up for my next semester at Georgia Southern as I continue to work towards my goals in college and to become a mechanical engineer. Being able to make sure everything goes right in the registration process is very important as well. Asking powerful questions and questions in general is heavily important because I need to be able to step and ask the right questions that will benefit me and allow me to complete the tasks at hand. I thank everyone that read my blog this week. Sorry it was not filled a ton of information and shorter than usual. Listed below are the sources to articles and pictures used in this blog.

Sources:

http://tiny.cc/ycs2qy

https://www.adolescent-psychiatry.org/2019-registration

https://academics.georgiasouthern.edu/honors/student-resources/curriculum/

Week 10: Degree Engagement

Hello everyone and welcome yet again to another blog by yours truly. Now if you have read up on the previous blogs up to this point then you probably know the drill and how this blog is going to be constructed. I will lead off with the usual summary of my college life over the last week followed by the topics discussed in my Honors First-Year Experience Class. Reading this far, you are probably dedicated to reading the whole blog post so I'll do my best to keep you engaged to what I am addressing throughout this post.

With midterms, major assignments, intramurals, and Homecoming Week looming around the corner, the week was bound to get feisty and busy real quick. The start of the week went by similarly to the beginnings of past weeks as my Calculus, Composition, and Engineering classes dictated my time and grabbed a hold of my learning focus. Wednesday was a long and interesting day as I had a lot of studying to do for exams and a kickball game that my team won that evening. Thursday was even longer than Wednesday as I woke up at 5 in the morning to continue my studying for my Calculus exam which took place later that morning. I went to my Geography and Engineering Processing Lab classes to finish out the academic part of my day. After those classes, I went to the Statesboro fair with a group of friends. I ended up getting Fried Oreos which were very good. The weekend has been plagued with rain as I tried to go to the football game on Saturday with my dad and step-mom, but the rain forced us to leave the game soaked and disappointed in Mother Nature. 

In the midst of a busy and fast-moving week, important topics were discussed in our FYE class regarding our personal values and the what mindsets we have pursuing our degree in college. On Monday, we took a look at catalogs and curriculum sheets for our majors as we are entering the period of setting up our classes for the next semester of college. We also participated in a activity that helped us determine what values are important to us as values help set ourselves up to be the person we wanna be. We started by picking out 15 values from a list and narrowing it down to 5. The core values I believe are important for myself and are apart of who I am are accuracy, efficiency, success, purpose, and family. A big part of who I am is wrapped around the idea of being able to be as successful and efficient as I can throughout my life in order to have a family of my own one day. While I want to be a great mechanical engineer, I also want to be an amazing father figure and husband for when that time comes.

On Wednesday we continued the activity regarding our personal values by discussing them with fellow other classmates and why we chose the values we did for ourselves. After the discussing we watched a TEDTalk video with Maurice Ashley speaking about how setting goals is related to chess. In chess, advance and experienced players look at several outcomes moves ahead for them before they move a corresponding piece on the board. Using this concept, we can look ahead at the goal we are achieving and work our way backwards in order to see what we need to do to accomplish the tasks and goals we set for ourselves. Using this mindset will allow myself to see where I need to be and what I need to do to in order to get my.college degree and obtain the life that I want for myself down the road.

Personal Reflection

After this week's schedule and discussions, it has definitely had me questioning if I am doing what I really want to be doing with my life. At the end of the day, I want to be doing something that I can excel in and enjoy. I know regardless of where I go there will be good and bad days but I want to amplify the amount of happiness I can possess throughout everyday life through the career and lifestyle I am in. It is definitely good for me to look at my personal values and see if I am on the right track in order to achieve happiness and get the life that I want past college. Thank you so much for reading my blog and acknowledging my moments and FYE discussion from the last week. As usual, sources for videos and pictures referenced are listed below. 

Sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v34NqCbAA1c

https://catalog.georgiasouthern.edu/undergraduate/allen-paulson-engineering-computing/mechanical-engineering/mechanical-engineering-bsme/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ImyM90XHJQ

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614043/instead-of-practicing-this-ai-mastered-chess-by-reading-about-it/

Week 9: Extended 'Make Your Home Among Strangers' Discussion and More

Good afternoon to anyone and everyone that is reading this blog! I will do the usual rundown of my week and proceed to analyze the discussions that I had in my FYE class last week. Since our class spent the majority of the week going over the speech given by Jennie Capo Crucet at a FYE Success Series event last week, this blog will be present less info and detail than others in the past.

My week went fairly well and mostly according to plan. Monday was very busy with all the classes, an Honors Advisory Board meeting, and a kickball game at 10 at night. Tuesday went according to schedule as well, but I did find out the dates of two upcoming exams for Calculus and Geography which ramps up the stress and studying for the next two weeks. I had an advisory meeting to discuss the workload and the classes I would be taking for the spring semester of my freshmen year. I was a little shocked when my advisor said that I would be only taking 13 credit hours next semester, but I was then told that I was ahead in credits with some of the dual enrollment credits that I carried over from high school. Having those dual enrollment credits cancelled out some of the classes on the schedule that I have already taken. This also means though that I am kind of trapped due to me not being able to take certain major classes next semester because I have not completed classes like Calculus II and Chemistry yet. Besides that, my week went pretty smoothly the rest of the way. Now onto the discussions from my FYE classes last week.

Starting off on Monday, each student in the class was presented with a sheet a paper that asked us questions regarding the speech given by Jennie Capo Crucet the previous Wednesday before class and how we felt about the speech. We were asked if the speech made us feel uncomfortable, and we were also asked on our personal opinion on why particular students at Georgia Southern burned the 'Make Your Home Among Strangers' copies in protest of the book and speech given. To give a quick backstory, Crucet's speech highlighted her journey to becoming a professor and why she does what she does today. In the midst of her speech, she angered some people with her strong tone and her speech against the ways of white privilege in her past and in the present day. A group of students got together to burn her books out of their anger, and some students showed their displeasure through Twitter. These series of events made national news across the national over the course of the last week and a half. We reviewed and looked over some of the things that Crucet mentioned in her speech and discussed some quotes from the speech. On Wednesday, we looked over some of the responses from within our class for the questions given in class on Monday. We highlighted some of the responses that stuck out to us and was the most surprising. Some of the responses also opened up the conversation to talk about Crucet's tone during the speech, diversity, freedom of speech, and many other topics. After looking at Monday's responses, we looked at the article "11 ways white America avoids taking responsibility for its racism". The article by Dr. Robin Diangelo indicates that people can say racist comments without even thinking about, and it happens unintentionally in lots of cases. People. whites in particular, not realizing that they have or can say racist comments out of the blue sounds absurd and does not apply to them at all. 

Personal Reflection

To be honest, I have not enjoyed discussing things the last two weeks not because of the controversial and difficult topics but because it is hard for me to say something from the perspective and person that I am. I feel like that my views and standpoints in these type of conversations does not mean much. I do not want any bad intentions to come out of this because I typically do not have a good point or idea to relay in class when we are talking about anything. I also have felt a bit embarrassed and disappointed in both sides of the book burning controversy because it is burning bridges and relationships between the university staff, students, and many other people. I know there is a reason for everything in this world, but I would like to move on from the series of events that has taken place the last few weeks.  Thank you again for reading my blog once again, and the sources used for the pictures and article mentioned in this blog are listed below!

Sources:

georgia-southern-university-jennine-capo-crucet-book.jpg

https://www.salon.com/2015/06/16/11_ways_white_america_avoids_taking_responsibility_for_its_racism_partner/

Week 8: 'Make Your Home Among Strangers'

Good afternoon to all my readers! I am here to give you yet another quick rundown of my week and my FYE discussions. This week surely was interesting, but I will try to get to keep it as condensed as possible.

To go over the week from my point of view, we start off with Monday which was filled with interesting changes and surprises in itself. In my Engineering Graphics class, I found out that my professor ended up in the hospital over the weekend. I will not go into detail about what happened to him but he is doing alright and getting physically better as he should be able to return to teaching our class within the next week or two. I participated in the Honors LLC Advisory Board meeting as well where we discussed the plans for our first event in the Honors LLC. Tuesday went relatively smoothly as every class went according to schedule those days. Wednesday and Thursday were mediocre days as I had a Math quiz to deal with early in the morning. I also attended two FYE Success Series in the evening which I will get to later on in this blog. Thursday was a pretty slow day even throughout the two flag football games I played that evening. Friday, Saturday, and today (Sunday) have been the better portion of the week with time for me to relax and catch up on some of the work I did not do throughout the week. Now onto the FYE class and Success Series experiences from last week.

Before Monday's class, we were set with the task to read Chapters 1-18 in the book 'Make Your Home Among Strangers'. Considering it was a book that all freshmen students were required to read, I did not have high expectations about the book to be honest because I thought it would have repetitive information and not tell me much that I do not know. Reading the book was kinda rough because the main character was a confusing person to follow with personality wise. The character, Lizet, has a problem with academic dishonesty in the early stages of the book with plagiarism and wasted money to come home for Thanksgiving during the fall semester even though she should have been saving her money for school. Lizet has a few complicated relationships as she struggles to maintain a relationship with her boyfriend Omar which eventually falls through and a friendship with Ethan which also has problems due to Lizet's personality in not being able to address her problems efficiently throughout the film. Despite the many problems I saw within the book and its main character, the book did a good job highlighting several themes that are important to college freshman like dealing with academics, fitting in at college, and dealing with financial troubles which are all concepts that I can relate to.

During Monday's class, we took a quick 'quiz' over our knowledge and views on the first chapters of the book. After the quiz, we read an article called 'Against All Odds' that depicts the real story of Gasper Leiva journeying to the United States from Cuba in order to give his family the American life that would be better for them. The man would go on to be a Spanish professor at our University of Georgia Southern even to this day. The trouble with Cuba and the United States in the late 1900s and early 2000s indirectly spoken in the article would be put on display through the Elian Gonzalez Raid. This event was shown and depicted through the character and political problem with the 5 year old boy of Ariel in the book 'Make Your Home Among Strangers'.

We did not have class Wednesday, but I went to the FYE Success Series to listen to the speech of Jennine Capo Crucet who wrote the book 'Make Your Home Among Strangers'. The speech was mainly about the journey of how Crucet became a professor at the college she teaches at and why she does what she does for a living. She also took a good chunk of her speech talking about white privilege in the past and today's society. After her speech, there was a time period dedicated to a Q&A session with the author. This led to a student asking a question regarding to why the author talked about white privilege and 'why she thinks she has the right to come in here and talk about it'. This lead to tensions between the author, the student, and the rest of the audience. After this event, I attended another FYE Success Series called 'Beat the Blame Game' that discussed how victims and people can be viewed in cases of sexual assault.

Thank you for reading this blog once again! Sources relating to the speech, topics, and pictures used are featured below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BJUta-9BsU
https://www.amazon.com/Make-Your-Home-Among-Strangers/dp/1250094550
https://clipartstation.com/quiz-clipart-1-4/

Week 7: Diversity & Inclusion 3 - Instructions Not Includec

Good afternoon everyone! As usual, I will give a quick rundown of the week before jumping into the lesson and topics discussed in my FYE class this week. Classes started to ramp up this week in regards to the workload as the majority of classes are headed towards the midterm. Calculus and English were the two classes giving me a lot of busywork and assignments to crack down on. While I do not completely get the concepts being told in both those classes yet, I feel like I am not too far off from having a grasp on things. Away from classes, I was able to play my first flag football game on Tuesday. Our team did not do well overall but I was able to get an interception in the game which is a positive takeaway. On Friday, I was able to go back to my hometown to enjoy dinner and the Atlanta Braves baseball game with them. I came back to the college campus on Saturday to enjoy the rest of my weekend. Now time to backtrack to look at the topics from Monday and Wednesday's FYE class.

Before the Monday class, I was tasked with watching the film 'Instructions Not Included'. The film follows the life of Valentin Bravo who is left with Maggie, who is supposedly the man's daughter, by the mother. Valentin's inexperience as a father figure shapes up the film to be an interesting movie as Valentin does his best to provide for his daughter. In Monday's class, we were given a three question pop quiz to refresh our memory on the film and to generate discussion later on in the class. After writing down our responses, we took the time to discuss the themes in the film. I discussed with fellow classmates Matthew, Tonilynn, and Alicia about the themes in the film. Some of the themes we discussed were child custody, parenting, selfless love, and fear. Another thing we talked about in regards to the film was a scene that stuck out to us the most. The scene that stuck with me the most was the scene where the Valentin risked his life to jump from a thirteen story building in order to save the daughter that he barely knew from falling into a pool. That scene in the movie was an example of selfless love where the dad laid his priorities and life aside for the safety and life of his daughter.

On Wednesday. we continued the discussions from Monday and gave details on the stereotypes highlighted in the movie. Early the movie. the main character, Valentin, was depicted as a 'man whore' because of his lifestyle of getting and hooking up with numerous tourist chicks in Acapulco, Mexico. Valentin also provided justification to himself for trying to take Maggie back to her mother by saying that Mexico has 'drug dealers', 'police corruption', 'muggings', and many other things to profile his home country. Our class also took the time to go over any other key points or topics in the movie with fellow classmates including the surprising closing scene which throws the film's audience off.

Review and Reflection

To get more feedback on the film for this blog, I looked at the review of the film on variety.com which basically highlighted the major scenes and detected the change of the mood throughout the film. The review claimed that the film went from iffy to comedic to tragical. I pretty much had a similar view to the film as I believed that the film was not going to be that great considering all the sexual and 'kissy' scenes to start the movie but it progressed into a loving father and daughter film that ended in sadness. I enjoyed the film overall but it was sad that the movie ended the way it did.

Thank you once again for reading the blog and here are the sources for the sites and pictures used.
https://variety.com/2013/film/reviews/instructions-not-included-review-1200594529/
https://www.alternateending.com/2013/09/there-could-never-be-a-father-who-loved-his-daughter-more-than-i-love-you.html
https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/instructions-not-included

Week 6: Diversity and Inclusion 2 - 'Documented' and 'White People'

Hello to anyone and everyone that is reading this! Before I dive into the this week's topic, it is time for a quick rundown of my week. The week started off like any other with a routine schedule of classes and assignments to do. The week started to get interesting once I got to Thursday. On Thursday morning, I had an exam for my Geography class which I thought went relatively well. In my Engineering Processing Lab later in the afternoon, I made too deep of a cut on a certain part which basically means that the dimensions of the final product will not line up to what it should be. I was supposed to have a flag football game after that class but it ended up getting cancelled due to the other team not being able to attend. Besides those things, the week went pretty smoothly and nothing over the top happened. Now to get to the topics discussed in my FYE class.

Our discussions and readings for this week were a continuation of last week's topic. Before class on Wednesday, we had to watch the films Documented and White People which based on the titles would  generate some interesting in-class discussions on Monday and Wednesday. On Monday, we discussed the film Documented and our views and opinions on it. The film was centered around a man by the name of Jose Antonio Vargas. Jose was born in the Philippines and came to the United States at the age of 12 to live with his grandparents. While he came to the United States, he did not come to the United States through legal terms. Jose did not find this out about himself until he was 16 years old when he was trying to obtain his driver's license. Jose came out as a 'undocumented immigrant' through the article named 'Outlaw' in the New York Times. Since then, Jose has been fighting against the media and laws in order to give undocumented immigrants like himself paths to citizenship. The film was pretty solid overall except for the fact that Jose has been pushing off most connections and any forms of communication his mother. I was acknowledging Jose's viewpoints and pushes for better  laws towards undocumented immigrants but the situation with his mother kind of hindered my ability to support Jose and the causes he was pushing towards. I felt like Jose was taking out his frustrations and sadness with his situations in the United States out on his mother. While I can understand that Jose can not handle the topic about his mother, I think that he should have dealt with his mother the way that he did.

Before Wednesday's class, I took the time to look over a short interview of a lady by the name of Pam Gonzalez. This interview was done by the website defineamerican.com, and they asked what it means to be an American. Pam claimed that an American is a person with their own personal story that does not bring down other people down and their personal stories. I agree with Pam's statement as the American population as of today if filled with people of every background and increases the diversity within our country.

On Wednesday, our class went reviewed the film White People and talked about other modern day issues revolving around races. The film was hosted by Jose Antonio Vargas, and Jose went around to several different places to inspect the lifestyle and opinions of white people in today's society. The film jumped around a lot as it did not have a centralized goal or point. Despite this, the film had some great points and statistics regarding the position of white people in society today. While white people heavily populated the United States in the past, 'whites' are emerging as a new minority as less than 50 percent of the high school graduation class of 2015 which was 4 years ago so that means the population of white people in the United States continues to shrink as many different people of many different backgrounds come into the United States. After discussing the film, we were put into student groups to discuss the two films we watched over the last week and tackle questions regarding them. I had some solid discussions with Gracie and Enysa as we pretty much highlighted the topics and general concepts of both films.

Personal Reflection

I was not heavily intrigued and involved with discussing and giving feedback this week as I typically do not want to say anything contradictory or something that may come out my mouth the wrong way. Despite this, the lessons from this week also provide me with the opportunity to listen and view the situations and modern problems that other people are dealing with and how those problems and situations can or does affect me. 

Thank you for reading my blog once again and here are the references for the pictures and videos mentioned and used. 

Sources:

www.defineamerican.com

www.time.com

www.cnn.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zjj1PmJcRM

Week 5: Diversity and Inclusion

Before I dive into this week's topic, I want to go over some highlights and adventures from the last week or so. I have failed to connect myself to my audience and inform you guys on how I am doing in general. So I will take a little time to tackle that and let you guys in on my college life.



This last week was pretty bouncy to start knowing that I had a bit of work and studying to do before the week's end in order to keep up with the demanding and grueling pace of the college life. In addition to my workload, I had my first exam on Thursday in my Calculus class. I felt confident in how I did overall but I do not think I got an A because there is always that one question I know how to do before the test but forgot how to do the problem once it sits in front of me on test day. Away from the classroom, I have been able to do several things. Two Saturdays ago, I was able to participate in Step-In To Statesboro which was an event dedicated to viewing the sites and history of Statesboro along with exploring several volunteering opportunities to fulfill the requirements for the Honors Program this school year. On Monday night, I participated in the Honors LLC Student Advisory Board meeting as the Treasurer and had positive and beneficial conversations in regards to what the club would do moving forward. Besides those things, I have been taking time to clean my dorm room, relax a little bit, and exercise on a daily basis.

Along with all of those events last week, our FYE class tackled yet another interesting topic that could be viewed in many different ways. We spent the majority of Monday and Wednesday class time addressing the topic of immigration. Our class spent Monday watching the first part of the film 'Which Way Home?' which followed the journey of several young children trying to get into the United States illegally on train cars. In order to finish the film, I watched it out of the classroom on Tuesday. Over the course of the film, many heartstrings were pulled as there were many scenes showing the hardships many children and families go through in their home countries that are clouded by the issue of poverty. It was sad to see the extent that people are willing to go through in order to get out of their countries and try and pursue the slight chance at a better life because many people have died trying to get to the United States. On Wednesday, we spent the class time going over the film and how we felt about it. We were put into groups to discuss the film. I was put in a group of fellow classmates Will and Avery, We discussed the director and the purpose she had for the film. I saw the film as a chance for the director to give the countries where migrants come from as a slap on the back of the head because there is the question of 'why would their countries let this happen to their citizens'. After discussing that and finishing out our class, I took the time to look over the video of 'International Migration' on Youtube. The video laid out some key points on why people migrate from their home countries (jobs, money, better life) and why people think migration of people into countries is troublesome (loss of nationalism and expenses for helping migrants).

Going over the topic of immigration in a college environment is definitely touchy as people have their own set opinions on the issue. While this is completely fine in a well constructed classroom like my FYE class, situations outside the classroom dealing with the topic can be very problematic. While I want to promote the film 'Which Way Home' and spread awareness for children in rough life and financial situations in Mexico and Latin American countries, there is only so much I can do as a college student to support and possibly help people in those poorer countries. The discussions also provide me with the opportunity to be grateful for the life I have and make the most of it because I could have been born or placed anywhere else in the world.


Thank you for reading my blog this week and here are some sources of the pictures and references used!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOZmqIwqur4
The HBO documentary 'Which Way Home?'
https://media.npr.org/assets/news/2010/02/25/kevinandfito-a2f769d8981e26dcb42e963ec593d6f3ab461525-s800-c85.jpg
https://webstockreview.net/explore/clipart-books-teal/

Week 4: Growth Mindset, Academic Basics, and Academic Integrity

After returning from our off week due to Hurricane Dorian, it felt very much like the very first week of school again with having to cram in a lot of work and study time for classes throughout the week. While getting to Friday and the weekend was a relief, let's explore what topics our FYE class covered over the course of the week.

Since we did not have classes two weeks ago to cover the content from week 3, our class spent the Monday class discussing ineffective and effective classroom discussions. Our FYE professor paired us with partners to discuss what we believed were effective and ineffective ways to participate and get involved in classroom discussions. I was paired with a girl by the name of Ebeni. We had a great discussion and we both mentioned various ideas on how to and how not to participate in class discussions. We mentioned that being attentive, acknowledging other people's ideas, and building off other people's ideas are some efficient ways to be involved in classroom discussions. Interrupting other people who are contributing to the discussion and disregarding other students' ideas are two ineffective ways to participate in classroom discussions. My partner and I had some good ideas and tackled the general concept of the differences between ineffective and effective classroom discussions as rest of the classroom has pretty similar ideas to what we mentioned in our partnered discussion.

On Wednesday, our class spent time talking about the two main types of mindsets and academic integrity. To start off, the two mindsets a person can have are growth and fixed mindsets. A fixed mindset is very natural for every human being to have. Having a fixed mindset is when a person believes that they can not improve themselves in certain areas and are limited to the skills and abilities they have. While most people have this mindset at times, it can be unhealthy as it traps ourselves from self-improvement. This is where the growth mindset comes into play. A growth mindset allows ourselves to improve our skills by embracing challenges and learning from the criticism and mistakes down the road of life.

After discussing growth and fixed mindsets, our professor went over academic integrity. While no one wants to admit that they have cheated on something or someone or plagiarized material for a paper or assignment, there are many instances in life that students and adults alike have not been academically honest in order to try to shortcut tasks on a daily basis. A prime example from even my past is when a student looks over at another person's test to see how they answered a particular question. In college, cheating on assignments and taking other people's material incorrectly for assignments can be crucial as doing this can lead to severe punishment. A student's academic dishonesty can get them removed from the university and the classes they are taking. All those classes would be labeled as 'withdrawn' which according to out of class reading is worse than dropping a class. A student can only drop a class within the first week of classes which also allows there to be no penalty to the student's record. Withdrawing or being removed from a class or college hurts a student's college career as withdrawing means that a student receives no credit for the courses that they started and do not get the money back that was paid for those said classes. In edition to looking at the difference between dropping and withdrawing classes out of class, I also took the time to look at the the purpose and use of multiple tabs in the Georgia Southern student portal in order to be able to complete tasks and address my needs at the college more efficiently.

Personal Reflection

After Wednesday's FYE class, I was reminded of needing to have a growth mindset with everything I do. I know that I am typically pretty bad at fixing myself on a belief that tears down my confidence. In the past, I was not good at writing papers because I was fixed on the thought that I could not improve my writing skills and vocabulary knowledge. I felt like that I have been writing the same way since my freshmen year of high school. The lesson this week was a reminder that I need to be able to be flexible and improve on my writing skills by practicing my writing and reading books to absorb fresh vocabulary to use in class assignments. 

Thank you for reading! Here are some of the sources of pictures and documents used.

Sources:
http://www.attachmax.com/51/postXVII/two-people-talking-clipart.html/collection-of-free-conversationed-clipart-person-conversation-with-two-people-talking-clipart
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Xy_eX0IozQa8wtX8hxIo7HCjjaLqogf5/view
https://academics.georgiasouthern.edu/fye/academics-101/registration-terminology/
https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/b/mindset-mind-set-mental-psychological-attitude-head-man-human-vector-illustration-146918699.jpg

Week 3: In-Class Discussions & Speech on Campus and Beyond

Due to the presence of Hurricane Dorian on the eastern coast on the United States over the last week, classes across the whole campus were cancelled including my FYE class. This means that I was not able to participate in any class discussions with the professor and other students last week. Despite this, there is still work to do and information to share. Over the last week, I have conducted research on the topics of participating in class discussions and speech on campus and beyond. Looking over the importance of in-class discussions, I went over a couple articles and sections from a book. The book by the name of They Say, I Say by Cathy Berkenstein and Gerald Graff had a chapter that talked about the importance of building on points or ideas mentioned in discussions. The text emphasized the importance of continuing a discussion in a classroom or a group. When a person wants to do this, they can add more detail or provide their own point of view on a particular idea while sticking close to their opinion while building off the idea mentioned by the person previously speaking in the conversation. In the past, I have been guilty of tracking away from the concepts and ideas that people mention in a conversation. Whenever I don't totally agree with someone's ideas, I want to defer away from the concepts mentioned before which it selfish a bit on my part. I also looked at any article by lifehack.org that talked about essential communication skills that a person does not learn through school. Showing confidence while speaking, listening to what others have to say, asking questions, and acknowledging the opinions of others are some of the important skills that can develop a person as a speaker. Communication is key in today's society because being able to efficiently communicate and relay concepts to other people is the one of the major gateways to success. If you can communicate effectively to someone, you can make people who are listening to your ideas understand and maybe even appreciate and accept them.



After looking at communication in the classroom and the world around us, I dug into the importance of speech on campus and beyond the campus. While communication is very crucial in today's world, making sure you don't say something controversial or offensive is also important. Even though the first amendment protects the right to freedom of speech, our generation is wanting to strip this away starting on university and college campuses. Citizens in our country that are part of this new and rising generation believe that the first amendment is shielding people who spread hate speech. Young adults and college students are wanting to restrict what people say in order to not feel offended or hurt emotionally. Taking away the right to speak freely can be seen as either positive or negative. Getting rid of free speech protect citizens from the hate speech of others, but it would not allow people to protest and defend what they think is right. There are lots of people wanting to sacrifice their ability to protest or go against government policies in order to protect their personal feelings from being hurt by verbal speech. There is a fine line of whether people should speak freely or not, and a person's standpoint on it would probably be determined by personal experiences. On the college campus I am on, there is not a person to jump to your side to support you whenever someone speaks out of tone or cruelly to you. The world is not going to treat us kindly on our journeys in life. In spite of this, we have to realize what is important not only to ourselves but the world around us as well.

Personal Reflection

While I did not get many opportunities to speak and converse with other people this week, I was able to learn that talking to people efficiently is important to me. There are times that I do not feel like I convey my ideas to people right as I stumble over certain parts of my ideas. I want to become better at talking to people because as a mechanical engineer I need to be able to present my drawings, designs, and work to other people so that they can understand what I am working on and what I need to do better.

Sources:
https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/10/25/16524832/campus-free-speech-first-amendment-protest
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/first_amendment
https://www.lifehack.org/582780/12-essential-communication-skills-that-arent-taught-in-schools-at-all
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1U47Tn-SKpwcQHY_GKHBIcJkViCpijJdt/view

Week 2: Intro to Honors and Time Management

     As the fall semester of college gets into full swing, our FYE class on Monday took the time to address what students do in the Honors Program and what requirements they have to fulfill within the first year of college. Dr. Engel, Dr. Desiderio, and Erin Martin are three faculty members that help maintain the Honors Program at Georgia Southern University went over meeting the requirements for the undergraduate thesis and experiential learning. For freshmen, volunteering is the only way to earn hours to experiential learning. Each Honors student has to complete at least 25 hours towards experiential learning. One of the experiential learning opportunities I am looking into is being an Honors Ambassador where I can tell other people about the Honors Program and what it has to offer at different events including the Eagles Preview. The faculty were willing to answer any questions that we asked, and I definitely appreciate them for their time and being able to inform us about what it takes as an Honors student. 

     On Wednesday, our peer leader of Taylor Close led the class by showing us videos and conducting activities to address the issue of Time Management. Taylor showed us a video on how a student can manage their time poorly by procrastinating their work and plagiarizing other people's material. Wanting to do the opposite of what the student in the video did, our class discussed what it takes to manage our time properly and get tasks done in a timely manner. As a class, we mentioned that having a planner, starting on assignments early or a good bit before the deadline, and leaving your schedule flexible so that a person has time available if something were to come up. After discussing the video, we tackled two different activities. The first activity was focused on us working together in groups to complete tasks on a given list. Each task awarded a specific number of points, and each team had to strive to get the most points out of any team in a set time period. My team, with the simple name of the Lions, only scored about 70 points which was the least of any team. The reason why we did not get a lot of points is because our team got caught up on big tasks that did not reward a lot of points. This situation can relate to our college lives as we have to weigh out what tasks and things on the schedule weigh out the other things. Basically, which things in our daily lives do we give our attention to and prioritize on a daily basis. The next activity we did was individually based, and each student had to find a way to spend $86,400 on whatever we wanted. If we did not spend the money, we would not be able to use it at all. With this money, I could buy things like a car, clothes, and even silly things like Flex Tape and Mac & Cheese. At the end of the activity, we were told that spending the money was like how we spend our seconds in a day because there are 86,400 seconds in a day. Each day is critical in our short lives, and we have to make the most of our experiences in life. This also means that we have to decide what our priorities are in life so we can set our minds to those priorities.

Personal Reflection:

After sitting through my classes in FYE this week, I told in a lot of advice and pointers on managing my time. Time Management for me is crucial because it impacts the current days and the days and weeks to come. Planning things out on a planner or an app is important to me because it allows me to set up my day and roll through it at ease knowing I got everything worked out. I also learned that I don't need to cram every big task on one day because it can lead to problems. If something, for example, were to come up on a Saturday night that would require my full attention that night and part of Sunday, I would not be in a good place because I would not be able to complete most of my stuff I had crammed on Sunday. With this said, I need to be better at spacing my tasks out so that my schedule can be flexed a bit if it needs to. One of the ways that I can manage my time is using the app  Any.do. The app is very easy to use as it allows you to set up a list of tasks for you to do and you can set reminders through the app that reminds you of what you should be doing or when something is due. I now have the ability to chose between the app and the planner, and they will both be useful in keeping track of what I need to do on a daily basis. 

As you can tell from this post, I had a lot to talk about from class this week as I am wanting to extract as much information as I am given. 

Sources:

https://students.georgiasouthern.edu/counseling/resources/self-help/academic-success/

https://academics.georgiasouthern.edu/fye/students/first-year/time/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31mfgrZpLus&app=desktop

Week 1 Blog: Campus & Community Engagement

With the first week of college classes beginning, students are trying to get settled in with their classes and become more comfortable with the workload and schedule that they are given. In the midst of the chaos of the first week, students, like myself, need to find ways to become more open and willing to accept help from others around us. With this in mind, students have plenty of chances to act on the opportunities available as there are plenty of peers, mentors, resources, and faculty willing to assist and provide healthy relationships that will give students a firm standing in their freshman year and onward.

Our First-Year Experience class tackled the word 'engage' in order to depict what the word meant to ourselves and others and show what it means to be engaged. Many students had a different point of view or perspective on how they interpreted the word 'engage'. Some peers in the class mentioned that to be engaged meant to be attentive or aware of the conversation or the situation at hand. Others claimed that being engaged meant to be involved in a conversation, group of friends, or even the local community. I spoke of how being engaged means to be present in the situation and participate in whatever a person may be doing. After our class discussion, we watched a TED talk called 'The Other 4.0 That Matters In College & Life' where Jullien Gordon talks about the importance of making the most out of your college experience. The speaker says that with the rising price of college and the uncertainty of getting a job after college, students need to not just tuck themselves away in their dorms just focusing on the academic side of college. Students need to get involved in their campuses and communities and capitalize on any opportunity that is presented to them. Connections and support with people will help push a student's goals and dreams further as having just a 4.0 GPA and a degree will not guarantee a person a job.

While being engaged in our campus and bettering ourselves is important, students like myself tend to be uncomfortable asking for help from others. Alina Tugend of the New York Times wrote an article called 'Why is Asking for Help so Difficult?' to give detail on the reasons why people have trouble asking others around them for help. For me, I hate to ask for help sometimes because it makes me feel uneasy and vulnerable as I do not like depending on another person for assistance with my own problems. I typically do not want to burden another person with my issues. Even though I feel this way, being vocal about my concerns and situations with my life is crucial because it will be more efficient to be straightforward in asking what I need help with then trying to figure things out myself.

Personal Reflection

The weekend before the first day of classes brought on its own types of stress and worries as I was unsure that my financial aid and scholarships would come in before the payment deadline for my first semester of my college experience. This stress trickled down into my classes on the first day of the semester as I was not very focused during classes since I was worried about if my classes, food, university fees, and housing were even paid for. In the midst of this, there are resources and people on the Georgia Southern campus that can assist my questions and concerns so that I could focus on my academics. While I was slow at first to ask for assistance, it was and still is very crucial for me to ask for support. After dealing with my financial worries, I can now focus on my academic needs. There are two major places that I can go to address my academic needs. For my struggles in my English class I can go to the Academic Success Center which is located in the Henderson Library. The Success Center can provide a mentor or tutor to me in order to develop and improve my knowledge in the English classes I have. The Writing Center located in the Department of Writing and Linguistics is another place that can help me in my English classes as the center can help improve my writing. The center provides sessions where they can help improve my writing style and guide me to resources that can further my knowledge and perspective in writing. These two resources will be detrimental in improving my speech and writing as it will help me gather up my thoughts when I am talking to another person or engaging myself in a conversation. Going to these centers also provides the opportunity for me to engage in my campus as I am getting involved with several different programs and centers in order to better myself. Bettering myself in this way will allow me to set my best foot forward and focus harder on my dream by making steady progress in my major by completing and gaining knowledge in my classes.

Resources:
https://academics.georgiasouthern.edu/fye/students/first-year/on-campus-resources/
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/07/business/07shortcuts.html?pagewanted=all
https://onbeing.org/blog/the-disease-of-being-busy/
http://cogdellmendrala.com/portfolio_page/zach-s-henderson-library/
https://cec.georgiasouthern.edu/it/

Introduction

Hello everyone! My name is Garrett Sydnor and I am from the small town of Glennville, Georgia. I am a freshman at Georgia Southern University, and I am a mechanical engineering major. I am enrolled into the university's Honors Program as they provided me with scholarship opportunities to be able to do what I want to do to further my career and my dream to become an engineer for NASCAR one day. I chose to go to Georgia Southern University because of the scholarship opportunities, the small community feel, and the higher education that allows me to reach my career goals. Even though I am only forty minutes away from home, I am still able to live out the full college experience. On a more personal note, I enjoy watching football, baseball, anime, and NASCAR on a regular basis. I like to sketch, practice simulation racing, and run in my free time.