Capstone Project: The "IDK" Class

My group members are: Kaitlyn Zelhart, Sam Bohne, and Hailey Williamson
According to the University of Missouri-St. Louis 30 to 40% of students enter college undecided and have no idea what to study. For those that do know eventually in their college career between 75-80% will change to a different major. When thinking about what we wanted to do for our Capstone Project my group members and I definitely kept this mind. Then it hit me. Why not make a class for freshmen devoted to helping them figure out what they want to study? My group members agreed. Is it fair that as 18 year olds we should go into make a life altering decision completely blind? No, it isn't. Some people in high school were lucky and go to do things like job shadow and that gave them an inside look at careers they were interested in. While this is helpful it only shows you that one angle. It doesn't give you a look at all the work and classes you have to take to be able to do that career. So I thought "Why not make a class that combines all of these things?". So we formed the "IDK"(I don't know) class.

The next step was to research things dealing with this idea. We looked up things like career choosing myths, different methods of picking a major, and helpful tips. With all this we compiled what we think should be the main big parts of the curriculum.

The next thing to do was figure out a neat and interesting way to present out information. I had heard of a website called Prezi. Prezi is the powerpoint of the future. It is extremely interactive and keeps the audience interested. So we thought it was the right sort of media to choose for our presentation. In it we discuss the big main projects for the "IDK" class.

Here is our project! Hope you enjoy!

The IDK Class on Prezi

Blogging Reflection

The semester has quickly come a close; obviously it’s a happy time for teachers, students, and the like. As we embark on our breaks and eventually our next semester classes I know I will for sure take what I’ve learned from this class and apply it from here on out. This class completely changed my whole view of writing. In high school we were brainwashed into thinking the only type of writing we’d do in college was formal, 3.5 essays complete with MLA format. But in one of the first classes we were told to throw all of that out the window. With blogging it’s important to keep your readers interested. My first piece was so formal I’m sure I bored everyone to tears. But then I started looking at the blogs I had chosen for my reading list. They had personality, they had style, granted they were fashion blogs but still I paid attention to how they wrote and what it is they did to keep me interested.  So through this class my writing evolved and I developed some personality, learned to include facts and statistics without it being a snore, and how to be flexible enough to write about anything and make it interesting.

            Like I said above personality and style is something I really lacked when we first started blogging. I tried to do that by adding in a little sarcasm sprinkled with a few rhetorical questions and voila just those two things added an immense amount of style. I feel I did this best in my post “What is College Good for?” In this piece adding style was crucial.  I also thought a way to include style easier was to try to find new angles on this topic that other people hadn’t used. When your writing is unique that makes your writing a ton less boring because it’s not repetitive like everyone else’s posts with the same points. And adding that style makes it stand out even more. This piece did it in certain areas. When I included the quote about how college educates the whole person and makes us more literate cultured beings I opened a whole new angle. I think it bumped up my style points a bit.

            The next thing I improved on was taking a sort of boring topic that requires facts and statistics and making it interesting. The piece I thought I did that best in was “Is College Good Enough?”. I used several long statistics but with interesting ways of explaining them I think it made it much less boring. This one was a challenge for me because since I had just moved away from the extremely formal writing. So when I knew I had to present facts my first inclination was to be overly formal. But I went away from that and inserted style like I mentioned above and it made this piece a very interesting read.

            The last thing I improved on was being able to write about not only things I was interested but also things I thought were hard to right about. When we had to do the piece “Why College” I wanted mine to be super different from everyone else’s. So I decided to take it to a whole other angle and talk about my road to finding the right school and how it was affected by volleyball recruiting. I think it was certainly different then what anyone has wrote. It was a challenge to initially come up with how exactly I was going to answer that question. To me it was vague but it helped me develop the ability to be able to write about anything.

            In conclusion this class taught me an awful lot. It made me a very diverse writer because I can do the formal MLA style or I can do the very stylistic, authentic voice, or I can do a fine job mixing the two. I’m glad I found a way to mix the two but to also really develop my voice. It will certainly help in the future.  And make any writing assignment I’m given from here on out a breeze.

Photo Credit: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/30311/10-Amazing-Blogs-About-Blogging-to-Start-Reading-NOW.aspx

Share or Die

In the book Share or Die by Cory Doctorow it has story called “Thing’s as Which I’ve Been Asked to Dress”. Naturally with the word dress in the title I thought it would have something to do with fashion. Boy was I wrong. Granted had I read the sub heading that said “Life in the Nonprofit Industrial Complex” I probably would’ve gathered that. Instead it was about a woman who became a professional activist.

I wasn’t familiar with this term “professional activist” until I read this story. Nor did I know it was an actual career. This woman worked at a woman’s anti war organization. With there being so many different types of non-profits to give us a good mental picture of what type she worked for she called it the “crazy aunt”. That could also be used as a description for the jobs she had to do. She did many jobs most of us would call odd. Some of the things she said she has done include chaining herself to an oil barrel and building a blockade out of school desks. 

Those weren’t even the weirdest. For some protests she had to wear different costumes. One involved her wearing a dress with one nipple exposed covered by a pink peace-sign nipple pasty. To harass a congressmen who made comments about “social security, tits, and milk cows” she and a few others dressed as cows. As if those aren’t bad enough  to signify a media whore she wore a French maid lingerie costume with major news corporation logos covering her exposed parts of her body.
One of the mini stories that I found extremely interesting is when she attended an event where Hilary Clinton was speaking. She convinced security she was an intern and managed to get in the same room as Clinton then proceeded to yell that she was a war monger and was doing nothing for the women of Iraq but voting to keep bombing there homes. My first thought when I read that was "WOW!".  To do something like that is borderline crazy. But if you believe in what you are saying then kudos to you for being brave enough to say it.

She said in the beginning of the story that working in corporate America with the downtown offices and and people dressed in suits repulsed her. So this line of work seems to be right up her alley. To me this as a job would not be ideal. I am much more conservative and would not be comfortable with the assorted outfits or just being so outspoken about my opinions. But I do think it is cool that she is able to have a job that allows her to stand up for what she believes in. Although it may be odd to her it's much better than some average desk job.

Is college good enough?

Teenage years are very stressful for many different reasons. For me I found myself constantly wanting to pull my hair out especially when it came to college. That may be a little bit over dramatic but the reality of the situation is that there was a lot to take into consideration when thinking about college. As if the cost wasn’t enough to send you over the edge, reports and articles started coming out about how a college degree did not guarantee you a job and things like that. There are a few reasons that really make you wonder, “What’s the point in even going to college?”

            What most college students lack when up against other job candidates, who have been previously employed, is one word: experience.  That is what sets “us” apart from “them”. Yes, you may be doing internships and such but that can only get you so far. Financiallypoor.com says it perfectly: “It’s hard to land a job without experience, but you can’t get experience until you land a job.” That’s precisely one of the problems. How are we as college students going beat out people who have been in the field for 5, 10, maybe even 15 years? The fact of the matter is we probably won’t. Not only are we not gaining experience, but also lots of college grads don’t think college even really prepares them for a job. And that goes beyond just the experience.

            In a poll done by the Time magazine it shows that 74% of college grads say that college gave them intellectual growth. 69% said that college gave them maturity. And only 55% said that college prepares them for a job. Well at least college teaches us something right? Wrong. We need to demand more from our institutions of learning and the faculty who teach there. In an article for the New York Times written by Gary Gutting he says” They (students) see most of their courses as intrinsically “boring,” of value only if they provide training relevant to future employment or if the teacher has a pleasing (amusing, exciting, “relevant”) way of presenting the material.” He then states that professors expect this and in turn give B’s or higher for at it’s best “adequate” work. We need to be challenged. We as students need to buck up and learn that college isn’t just about partying and having a good time. I’m not saying don’t have a life but people need to realize that in as short as four years maybe less (depending on what year you are) you will be on your own…also known as adulthood. We are setting ourselves up for failure by not showing up to class everyday ready to learn and not putting as much effort as possible into completing assignments and studying. This by no means is all on us though. Professors need to expect us to be ready for class and to study and to penalize those who don’t. If they would rather party all night and not give time to their assignments and studying so be it, and let it affect their grade. Don’t clump everyone in the same group and assume that that is everyone’s prerogative when they start college.

        Now that I have finished all my ranting and raving, I’ll bring a more optimistic viewpoint to this topic. College in it’s own way actually does somewhat prepare us for being apart of a workforce. In an article by College Parents of America it states that college teaches us deadlines and being on time matters, there is a limited number of sick days and personal days, we have to have good communication skills, and such.  So if and when we do get a job we will have been taught the very basics about what to expect when dealing with bosses and fellow employees. Not only is it doing that, but some big-time schools are making it possible for people who wouldn’t normally be able to go there get some form of schooling from that institution.

            In the article “The Crisis in Higher Education” by Nicholas Carr he says “This fall, many of the country's leading universities, including MIT, Harvard, Stanford, and Princeton, are offering free classes over the Net, and more than a million people around the world have signed up to take them.” This was news to me. With some college degrees adding up to around $100,000 this is a great way to get a college education without spending all of you and your parent’s cash flow.

College is definitely being put under the microscope, as it should be. It has its flaws like the lack of experience your receive, complete un-preparation for jobs, and it’s decreasing un-rigorous curriculum. But it does have its positives like how to deal with very basics scenarios and norms of having a job and it is making it easier for financially unstable people to get a degree. Hopefully as time goes on these kinks with college will get ironed out but for the time being we should try to soak up as much helpful information we can so that we at least leave college with something.

What is college good for?

Every year more and more people question why they should attend college. They ask “Is it worth it?” As the price of college continues to increase people will continue to ask these questions. If I weren’t on scholarship I would certainly be doing the same thing. Seeing people $40,000 in debt is a bit of a “Debbie downer”. But what people should remember is that college educates the whole person, allows you to figure out what career path is right for you, and makes it easier to find a job.

            In an article by the New Yorker, Louis Menand said, “College exposes future citizens to material that enlightens and empowers them, whatever careers they end up choosing. He prefaced this quote by saying that when people enter college they choose a career path by how much success and financial rewards it will bring. I agree with his statements because people are only worried about how much money they will make and not becoming a more well rounded person. In college it is required to take general classes as a freshmen. These classes allow us, as students, to learn more and make us more literate and cultured beings. In an article by the Daily Beast it points out that “Being able to engage others intelligently about art, music, and politics may actually make you an enjoyable person to be around.” You never know when you’ll have to pull out some random knowledge to better your conversations had with others. The music and history classes may seem random at the time, but you may decide you like these classes and want to continue to study them.

            When students first enter college they think things like “I’d like to be a doctor because I would make a lot of money” or they automatically choose to major in Business because they think that degree will allow them to make lots of money. With the whole doctor scenario I personally don’t think that a lot of people realize how long they have to be in school or how much time it takes to actually become a doctor. In an article by the Huffington Post it says “Studies show that nationally, 60 percent of students graduate in majors different from those in which they began.” People really have no idea what they want to do when they first enter college. During the first year you have plenty of opportunities to go to Major and Minors fairs or talk to professors in different fields so you can learn more about what your interested in and really get a feel for what you’ll be learning in the coming years. Once you get the degree in what you chose it definitely helps you get a job in that field.

            Getting a job is hard in this economy but if you have a degree it makes the search much easier. On About.com it says “Having a college degree is becoming increasingly important in the job market. Consequently, having a degree now will open doors for the future, which will in turn open more doors and make you more marketable later ... and the cycle continues.” When it says it’ll make you more marketable it means that you would be a valuable asset to the company and that you’ve had training that’ll put you a leg up.

            All these points are important to remember when we ask ourselves all those questions about whether or not college is good. Not only will it help in finding a job, but it also educates the whole person, and helps us find the right career path.

Why College?

For blog post number two we are supposed to reflect on the question, “Why college?”  College is one thing that has never been up for debate. I always knew I would go to college. It has been hammered in my head that I would go since grade school, so I never considered any other option. I feel that having a college degree is essential for most people to thrive in our society today.  Yes, some people make it in life without one, like some of the millionaires of the world. But I felt like that would not be the right route for me personally. For me the question was not “Will I go to college?” but instead “What college will I attend?”

            Playing club volleyball (which is AAU teams that play after the high school season) had its pros and cons. Although I had almost no free weekends because of travel and missed lots of school it gave me tons of exposure to be recruited by colleges. I also got to visit some really great schools. In club volleyball depending on how good you are and what club you play for you start receiving letters of interest around the age of 14.  At that age it’s a bit overwhelming because as a freshmen in high school you haven’t put much thought into college. You have no idea what you want to study or how far you’re willing to go distance wise. At that point I knew I was going to college but I had no idea where.

           

            When you get into your sophomore and junior year that’s when you start going on visits and when coaches start narrowing down their list of recruits. It’s really exciting to go on these visits because you get to see many different campuses and it gives you an idea of what size school you’d like.  As a sophomore most of the visits are classified as unofficial visits. Which means that you have to pay on you transportation to get to the school, meals, etc. When you are a junior and senior you go on official visits, which are paid for by the school.

            My sophomore year I went on unofficial visits to Butler and Northwestern. At Butler it was a small school with close proximity to my hometown of Louisville, KY which is an hour and a half away. It had a very nice campus with neat landscaping. Location wise it was great because it is in Indianapolis, IN which is a big city with much to do. At Northwestern it was a much older campus. It is also considered a pretty prestigious university. It had a beach within walking distance of the campus. Which I found to be odd since it was in Illinois, but nonetheless that was a nice thing to have. Northwestern also had lots to do where it is located. Academically I couldn’t have gone wrong at either school.

Unfortunately as seasons progress the recruiting process can be very wishy-washy in the sense that one week your talking to a school and the next maybe one of their players got injured and they end up needing to recruit a different position that is not the one you play. It is very common for a school’s recruiting needs to change because things happen so fast and they find themselves scrambling to find that specific position for the next season. That’s what happened to me with these schools in particular. 

My junior year I visited Wake Forest, St.John’s, and JSU. Wake Forest was a nice school also. It is also prestigious academically. The campus was very nice.  It was a bit farther from home. It is located in North Carolina and is a smaller school. St.John’s was a really cool school. It is located right outside New York City, which would’ve been amazing! It had a nice campus that was relatively simple to navigate because it is a smaller school. One downfall was that it was so far from home. I had the same thing happen with these two schools like the above schools I mentioned.

            My senior year I finally visited JSU. I loved the small town feel; I also liked its close proximity to Atlanta because that’s one of my favorite cities. What made me choose JSU were the people, class sizes, and the volleyball team. Since I’m so far away from home (6 hours) I knew I was going to need to feel like I had a family down here and I definitely got that with the volleyball team. It made me not some home sick. The class sizes we perfect.  I knew I’d have a rough time in a large class setting because I have a hard time focusing. So the fact that my largest class would be around 30 people thrilled me! But one thing I can’t forget to touch down is the people. Southern hospitality is the perfect word to describe the people of Jacksonville, AL. Everyone here on my visit was so sweet and made me feel so welcome. That definitely was another thing that sold me on JSU.

Since arriving at JSU I have realized I made the right choice in the college decision-making process.  I couldn’t have asked for a better school that had everything I wanted. I hope I continue to feel this way the rest of my years here at JSU.

All About Me

Hi everyone, my name is Taylor Long. I'm a freshmen here at JSU. I was born and raised in Louisville,KY. My birthday is March 4th. I'm 18 years old. My parent's names are Julie and Jason. I have two brothers whose names are Taron and Jae. I have three sisters whose names are Justine, Chania, and Zoe. My family situation is a bit different in the sense that I just met my brother Jae and my sisters when I was 16 because we all have different moms. This was a very surreal moment in my life just because I grew up with only one brother (Taron) and then to meet 4 other siblings was very cool but also a tad bit overwhelming. But I'm glad that I was lucky enough to have not just one sibling but 5.

I attended private catholic schools for all of schooling prior to JSU. One of the main rules was that a uniform must be worn everyday. So now one of my biggest challenges as a college student besides making it to class on time is picking out what I’m going to wear everyday. This may sound trivial but to me it’s important.  It prompted many shopping trips this summer that I can’t say I didn’t enjoy. But since I'm on the volleyball team and practice everyday I don't really have to energy to get dressed up.

As I mentioned above I am on the volleyball team. I came on a visit to JSU last January and I loved the campus and the southern hospitality. All summer I was busting at the seams because I was so excited to get to come to JSU. So far I''m loving it and I hope I love it just as much as the school year continues! I looking forward to getting to know you all better!