Hot Cookie Friday

When I first heard of Hot Cookie Friday it immediately caught my attention. Just the name of it catches my attention. Hot cookies are always good and who doesn't like fridays? Before they started them this semester I was looking forward to it. It's safe to say that I had some high expectations for it. There was a big problem though. Hot cookie friday is scheduled for 2-4 pm. I have a biology lab scheduled for 2-445 pm. So up until the last one I was not able to attend HCF because attendance is mandatory for my lab. I was only able to attend for less than 5 minutes. I got a cookie and left because I really didn't want to be late for my lab. It was a good cookie and they stuck by their word because it was hot. Next semester however I will hopefully be at every Hot Cookie Friday.

Capstone Conversation

The Capstone Conversation that I attended was presented by the dean of the College of Mass Communications, Charles Bierbauer. He was a CNN correspondent for twenty years. during that time he was the senior White House correspondent and covered the Reagan and Bush administrations for nine years. He is an award winning journalist and has been to many countries and has a wide variety of amazing experiences. He talked to us about how the media effects our perception of the world. He said that while we can receive information from the media we shouldn't let them change our thinking and individual ideals. He also advised us to not believe everything we see and her in the media. There is a good amount of media that we should be aware of and know that it may not be true. He also talked about the different types of media, whether they are more conservative or more liberal. He said that while media is supposed to in the middle that is not always the case and to look at many different media sources to develop your own opinions.

Personal Challenge

My personal challenge was to go to a yoga class. I chose this because I have never had the opportunity to go to a yoga class but have always wanted to. I knew that since I was a beginner some of the things that would we would do would be hard for me. The poses that we did and the stretching were definitely the most challenging part. Since I am not very flexible I felt pretty stupid trying to do all of these weird poses. Also I was one of the few guys that was in the class so that made it a little more embarrassing. But I was able to get over the embarrassment and make it through the whole class. After going I look forward to attending another class second semester.

Game Day

Im looking forward to seeing family. That is always what I looked forward to the most growing up. Also the food. No meal is better than Thanksgiving day meal. From the turkey to the cranberry sauce I love everything. This year starts a new tradition for me though; coming home. Since being away for college I learned that I've always taken for granted being home around friends and family. Now all my friends are going to be back in Lexington and my brother is as well. My brother will be graduating college soon and I'm going to be away from home from now on so this year marks the beginning of the tradition of coming back to Kentucky.

Leadership

I think my strength as a leader is my optimism. I am always able to keep the spirits up and make light of a situation. Also I think that my actions are a strength. When I lead I try to do it more through my actions and less with words of inspiration. While I am a loquacious person I do not often inspire people with my words. I think my weakness in leadership is some times I don't stand up for things when I should. I dont voice my opinion when I should. I aspire to be a leader and to be some one that people can look up to. I'm not going to try very hard to have a leadership position but if one presents itself ill take it.

World Is Flat

My mentee and I have talked about his and my academic success a lot over the last weeks. He is doing very well in school and has a bright future ahead of him if he keeps up his good work. Also he gets me thinking about my own academic success and what I should be planning for in the future. My student and I have connected pretty well. We talk about sports, music, school and other things in life. I try to be as open as possible with him to make him feel comfortable. I believe that he has learned that he can trust me. Truthfully I will be pretty sad to stop mentoring. It felt good to know i was making a difference. Also I liked being able to connect with some one who was kind of a little sibling to me. I never had a younger sibling so it was good to have that almost brotherly feeling. Being looked up to is always good.

Spirituality

Religion, faith, and spirituality are not the same thing. They are all components of each other but do not depend on each other. Just because you have one does not mean you have the other. As we talked in class I think that faith is the base for both religion and spirituality. Religion to me is how people express the spirituality. My religion is Christian, more specific I am Catholic. I have faith in God and I have a specific spirituality as well. The South is known as being part of the Bible Belt, mainly Protestant Christians. However I think that USC is a lot more diverse than that. Like many colleges there is a diverse group of people, with that I have met people and seen people of all different religions and beliefs. USC while being in the South is a great place to discover knew people and ideas.

Relationships

The relationships I have formed here at USC are new friendships. I have met many people that I really enjoy being with. It is a really good feeling to know I have made good friends. These friends are being an advocate for success because they are here for the same reasons I am. I am here to get a good education in and outside the classroom and the friends I have made are here for that too. To have a group of friends that are helping with my success is key for me to be successful in school and in life.

Week 11

So far I am very happy with my overall experience at Hand. The student I am mentoring is very smart, outgoing, and active. These three things have led him to be very successful so far in middle school. The school itself is very organized and involved with their students. I have asked my student about his study habits, his homework, and other things for school. I think that studying habits now are very important because it effects how you study for the rest of your school years. My three questions would be these: 1. What do you do outside of school? 2. What do you like doing outside of school? 3. Can you incorporate the things you like to do outside of school, with your school? I think that these three questions can get a student thinking about getting involved with his school. The three questions about academic success would be: 1. What do you want to do when you grow up? 2. What do you like studying now? 3. What education do you think you will need in the future?

Wellness

I believe I am leading a balanced college student life. I study when I need to and so far my studying has been effective. I also go out with friends and lead a good social life. During down time I study but also work out a lot. I think the active aspect of the college life is over looked by social and school. I feel that I am very balanced and when something more important comes up I can still balance my time and life. Truthfully I wish I had more time to workout more and to sleep more. At the beginning of school I worked out often and took naps on a regular basis. But now since school has gotten more time consuming I have less time to do both. I think I'm going to have to give up some social time to go to Blatt and then take a nice nap after. I need some me time. And besides without my health I can't effectively study or go out with friends.

Week 10

My first experience with my mentor went very well. I was comfortable talking to him and I felt he is also comfortable talking to me. We got to know each other pretty well and I am happy that we are interested in a lot of the same things. I have not yet figured out exactly what his needs are. He is very well rounded and seems to be on top of things. But I think there is something more. On my next trip I will dig deeper to see what he wants out of having a mentor. My student is very involved with Hand. He is in band and also plans on playing basketball and other sports for his school. Personally I need no support right now dealing with my mentor. I am very glad to be mentoring this specific student and feel that I have the tools to do so effectively.

Diversity

My definition of diversity before coming to USC would be people with differences coming together to work together and being equal. That is a pretty basic definition but thats how I look at it. I think that diversity is only true when all the people get along and work together. Without being equal I think it is putting down one group of people and it is oppressive. Diversity can be through appearance, but can also be through beliefs and experiences. My view since being at Carolina has pretty much stayed the same. I came from very diverse schools and places so I am used to the large amount of diversity here. In some ways it is more diverse in my home town than it is here so that is kind of a difference. As we were told during our tour of Hand it is a very diverse school. While it is in a affluent neighborhood there are a large population of students that are not as well of as others. Also there is a mix of many races and ethnicities. While I don't know for sure, I can assume that there is a very diverse amount of beliefs and experiences that are shared among the students.

My Major and My Life

I chose my major months before coming to South Carolina, months before I knew for sure if I was coming to USC. Immediately after learning that there was a such thing as exercise science I decided I wanted that to be my major. Through high school I became increasingly interested in exercise. Not just doing it, but how it happens, what happens, and why it happens. This major fit me very well and I am happy with my major. My problem is that its not a passion of mine. I really don't know if I even have a passion. But I guess thats part of growing up is finding that passion and make into a living.

If money and education were not factors I would spend the rest of my life doing three things; traveling around the world, living in exotic places, and spending time with my friends. Since being a kid I've loved traveling and going different places and seeing different people. I don't know what it is but there is just something about discovering new places that excites me. When I say "living in exotic places" most people may immediately think of a beach or something like that. But I mean unique places. I want to spend a few months in New York City, then maybe a couple in L.A. After that I think I would go to South America and spend some time down there. From there I would want to hop around the world until I was suffice with my travels and return back to where ever my friends and family would be.

I don't really think that connects to my major at all. That's because I don't really want to have a career that has to do with my major. I don't want to do physical therapy, personal training, be a nutritionist or anything like that. Maybe I'll travel around and world and look how different people exercise. I don't know.

Information technology

When I went to the meeting for the lacrosse club I was very excited. I love playing and had been out of the game for the longest time in the last 4 years. I am itching to play and really want to get involved with the team and all the guys. I was happy to learn that this organization was actually well organized and seemed to have a good structure. I had heard that club lacrosse was unorganized and that it was just a bunch of guys that went out and played sloppy lacrosse, but this was not the case. I was glad to see that this was treated like an actual team and everyone was devoted to playing. While I love playing and really was excited to play I am not sure if I will be able to stay involved with the lacrosse team. It costs a pretty good amount of money and I dont have any of my equipment lately. Luckily I can still get involved into second semester so I will definitely look into that.

Hand Middle School Visit

Hand is a very nice middle school and my first impression of it was that everyone is very involved within the school. There was a lot of work on the walls and posters displaying what is going on in the classes which I really liked. I really hope I can grow as a person through this experience and learn that I can make a difference in the world.

I was able to meet with my English 101 professor during this week. I learned that he has many published books and works of poetry. He is a very accomplished writer and that sheds a new light on him for me. My advice would be to be confident and outgoing when meeting with a professor. And also try to make an impression so your professor will get to know you and remember you well.

9/18/09

When reviewing my LASSI scores there are two things that stand out to me; my attitude score, and my anxiety score. These were my lowest and highest scores. My attitude was low, which I thought was very incorrect. I have a very good attitude about college and am trying my hardest because I know it is going to set me up for the rest of my life. I have had a huge attitude change from senior year in high school, to my first year here. My anxiety score was my highest and I expected that because I seldom get nervous before tests. I kind of wish that I did get a little more anxious because then it would motivate me more to study and work harder on the test.

I am very excited to mentor at Hand Middle School. I have cousins about that age and its fun to get to do stuff with them and hopefully that is how it will be at Hand. I know I would have liked to have someone to talk to at that age so I am going to try my hardest to be someone they can go to and talk to about anything. There is a part of me that is nervous about it because I am worried that I may do something wrong on accident, but I know the chances of that happening are very slim.

First post

My name is Tom Moecher and I'm from Lexington, Kentucky. I came to USC to study exercise science. I'm very excited for this next year and it has already started off great. USC is everything I expected it to be, everyone is really nice and it is easy to meet new people. I love the weather and the city of Columbia is great. The Carolinian Creed is very relevant in my live because it is a code of ethics that I have tried to follow my whole life. I admit I have not always followed the rules but I think of myself as an ethical person. I was very impressed by the Student Organization Fair it was surprisingly well organized and set up. It shows a lot about all the organizations there and how they are well run. I potentially would join the lacrosse club and the fitness club. I love playing lacrosse and working out so those are two things i would really like. Besides lacrosse and working my hobbies are any other sports, hanging out with my friends, and playing some video games.