End of the Semester

This has been my favorite semester of Paideia so far. No offense to Cait and Brady, I miss you guys, but I think it does have to do with the smaller number in general. I feel like we’ve all gotten more comfortable with each other and that’s had a positive effect on our meetings. I really enjoy spending time with everyone, and I’ve found that Paideia has become a mix between a break and a class for me. We’ve maintained the academic content with the discussions, but most of the time I just feel like I’m hanging out with friends. I think that this time is really important, actually. We always talk about how none of us have any free time and we rarely do anything for ourselves. Dr. G. gives us a hard time and insists that we need to find ways to relax and take some time away from school, and I almost feel like Paideia is part of that time for me. (I hope you’re not insulted Dr. G, I think this is a good thing!) This semester has kind of been a whirlwind one…I really can’t believe how fast it’s gone. It’s getting harder and harder to pretend that the future is distant and to ignore the thoughts that will soon be necessary. I start Capstone next semester, I start applying to Physical Therapy schools in the summer, and evidently time is just going to keep passing more quickly.

I’m borderline clueless about what I’m going to do for Capstone. I would like to do something applicable to Physical Therapy, because I feel like that would be most beneficial for the future (aka getting into grad schools). I’m acutely aware of how beneficial it could be for my experience as a student and my resume if I can do a really good Capstone, so I’m feeling some pressure already. However, I know that I’m extremely lucky to have such good professors in my department and I know I will benefit immensely from them (more so than I already have). I plan on presenting at the Student Works Symposium, but I would also like to present somewhere else as well. I need to talk to professors about this but I think it would be a great experience.

Unfortunately, it looks like I still won’t be able to study abroad. Because the Kinesiology department is so small and relatively specialized, there aren’t many options for a semester abroad. I would love to do a summer trip, but it just doesn’t make sense financially for me. I talked to Dr. McLean about finding an internship abroad, but he wasn’t able to find anything. I actually did go on the Service Learning Trip to Jamaica in Summer 2008. We hadn’t technically started meeting for Paideia yet, but I’m going to see if this will count as a last ditch effort. If not, I may have to drop the program.

I’m hoping it doesn’t come down to this, because I’ve really enjoyed Paideia thus far. I say it every semester, but we HAVE to get together more outside of class!

Reflection on Discussions

Overall, I liked how the presentations worked out. I genuinely enjoyed hearing about everyone’s interests, and I thought that everyone did a good job finding something that represented their major and that kept the class intrigued. I think that it might have gone more smoothly if we had our whole cohort, which I guess is only 2 more people, so maybe that wouldn’t have mattered…the point is that maybe more perspectives/contributions would have taken the discussions more in depth. Plus we all know Brady would have stirred things up.
As usual, I felt like the readings kept me thinking about things outside of my own bubble throughout the semester. Even though this is a liberal arts school, I think that we get so focused on our classes/major (especially as we get into upper-levels) that we really need something to pull us out of our own minds. I really enjoyed Steven’s reading. I’m not going to lie, I cheered the day that I finished with my Biology credits…but the excerpts we read were written in such an interesting style—one that I’ve never associated with science. It was a nice break from my Kinesiology work. I probably wouldn’t take the time to read anything like that if it weren’t for our discussions.
If we continue to do this next semester, though, I think we should all lighten up a bit. I know that I was a bit sense about picking a topic and about presenting…and I think that it would have worked better if I wasn’t so worried about making it into a presentation. I think if we approach as just talking about something we think is cool, everyone will feel less pressure to turn it into a formal discussion. I think our cohort does a good job in discussions, though. We’re all relatively talkative and I feel like we all bring something to the table.

Off Campus Experience

I’m going to be honest, I didn’t go to this event for the purpose of completing the Paideia requirement. However, it was definitely a stretch for me, and I definitely think I benefitted from attending. Earlier this year, one of my best friends, Porscha, lost her Dad passed away. Some friends and I went to the funeral near Dallas. Porscha is African-American, and clearly so is the majority of her family. The funeral was held at a traditional, Black Southern Baptist church and it’s safe to say that I felt relatively out of place. It didn’t help that by the time we got into the small church, the only spots left were behind the pulpit, facing the pews. Nonetheless, we were glad to be there for Porscha.

As the service started, I was fairly uncomfortable. It wasn’t like any church service I’d ever been to. Honestly it was just like the movies depict it, with the Preacher yelling a lot and a continuous stream of “Hallelujahs” and “Amens” from the congregation. As he continued speaking though, I became more and more comfortable and it wasn’t long at all until I was thoroughly enjoying myself…as much as is possible at a funeral. This Preacher wasn’t presumptuous or “holier than though” like so many pastors I’ve encountered in the past. The sermon wasn’t monotonous and boring, it was emotional and raw. He didn’t attempt to be verbose and excessive; his message was simple and real: This guys was awesome, and it sucks that he’s gone.

The service wound down and we made our exit without getting a chance to see Porscha. I wouldn’t say that this experience was life-changing, and to be honest I probably won’t start frequenting South Baptist churches. However, I do think that the service was much more comforting and reassuring for me than any service at the Methodist churches I’m so used to.

On-Campus Event: Student Body Forum

This week I went to the Student Body Forum. I was pretty impressed with the number of students who showed up and even more impressed with the number of students who actively participated with questions. There were a few issues that were discussed that struck a chord with me…

On the proposal of changing the name of the school: I don’t have exceptional strong feelings on this either way. Thanks to Dr. G. I’ve heard the research about how a more “prestigious” name could increase the quality of our student and faculty applicants. I’ve also heard about the effect that a new name could have on our reputation: bettering it amount Texans and causing people across the nation to actually know who we are. I have to admit, the thought of people seeing my degree and not only recognizing the school but being impressed, is nice. On the other hand, I love our name. I might be a little more sentimental than most about it, but I grew up hearing about Southwestern. All four of my grandparents came here together; anytime we were driving through Georgetown we would stop and drive through campus while my Dad pointed out the places where his parents first kissed and first lived together. I love these memories and I love memories that this school holds for others. The more I think about it though, the more I realize that changing the name won’t change the school itself. In fact, I will probably enjoy my memories of Southwestern a lot more if my degree from here is the ticket to my success.

On the proposed changes/improvements to the athletic facilities: I couldn’t believe how many athletes showed up for this forum. I think this shows, however, that they are serious about their needs. I completely agree that the facilities need to be improved. Even for the size of Southwestern, the resources our teams have are absurdly insufficient. I mentioned it in class, but I really almost went to TCU because of their Student Life, specifically their recreation building. I think Southwestern administrators hide behind the fact that this is a very intellectually challenging school with students extremely focused on academics. They use the academic aspect of the school to justify not paying attention to the athletic aspect of the school. Personally, I think that SU does a good job of appealing to the concept of a Liberal Arts education and how it applies to more than just academics: we have an extensive arts program, we have all kinds of student organizations, etc. Athletics is just as much of an integral part of this concept, though, and they need to make sure they don’t neglect this.

Overall, I think that the Strategic Plan just needs to be hammered out a bit more, and the committee needs to do a better job of explaining everything to the students.

First Blog of Fall 09

1. I’m sure most people will say this, but I like the idea of everybody bringing in something interesting from their major to share with us. I don’t think it has to be very in depth, just a pertinent article or two. To foster discussion I think it would be good for the presenter to also come up with a few questions pertaining to the topic, so that we’re not just aimlessly talking about what we read.
I still think we should keep the Newsweek articles coming, just as something to fall back on. I enjoyed the discussions we had about those. Unfortunately, I probably won’t stay informed about current events unless I’m somewhat forced to do so, which is really why I’m a fan of the Newsweek idea.
Since we’re talking about plans for the semester, I also want to mention that, with only 6 of us this semester, it should be easier to plan some outside activities. I know it’s crazy, but I usually enjoy hanging out with you guys…..so let’s be friends.

2. Honestly, I don’t have much interest in continuing to work with the Boys and Girls Club. I know most people had a good time there, but our experience was negative enough that I’m pretty much done with it. I am, however, volunteering at the ROCK (which I did last semester as well, and just want to point out that it’s pretty fun and that I voted for it….). I might be slightly biased, because by working at the ROCK I’m getting hours of experience for Physical Therapy, which I need to apply to graduate schools. Regardless, I’m glad I can make time for it, because the experience is really rewarding. Last semester I worked with a little girl, Ilina, who smiled more than any kid I’ve ever seen. (Let’s remember David’s comment about how working at the ROCK would be depressing because the kids would be “sad”……clearly false.)
My time at the ROCK relates to “Understanding Human Behavior” in ways that I wasn’t expecting; while the actual kids I work with do provide good “subjects,” I found that some of the most interesting interactions occur between the parents of the children, the volunteers, the therapists, etc. They’ve formed a community of sorts and it’s really uplifting to watch them support each other.

3. My research is actually extremely intertwined with my civic engagement: my plan is to do a research project at the ROCK. The Physical Therapist who works there, Nancy, wants me to help with some research they are currently doing in which they look at the balance and core strength of kids before and after they ride the horse. I’m really interested in this topic, but I’m not sure if I can use it for my Capstone/Paideia research because I didn’t develop the original question. I need to talk more about it with my professors. Either way I feel like I should do some research related to Physical Therapy since that will be what grad schools want to see. Also, I would prefer to do something with kids, since I really enjoy working with them and that’s what I want to do eventually.
Since there are only two professors in the Kinesiology Department, I don’t have many options for whom to work with; it just depends on who has more experience in the field that I want to work. Dr. McLean’s focus is Biomechanics and Jimmy’s focus is Exercise Physiology.

4. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll be able to study abroad because of financial reasons. If I were able to, though, I would want to do a summer program because I really can’t afford to take a semester off and it’s not very likely that they will ever have Kinesiology professors teach abroad.

Student Works Symposium

I attended the Students Works Symposium paper session related to the natural sciences. Taylor Jones and Alexis Ritzer talked about their project working with Armadillidium vulgare, also known as the roly poly. There is a bacterium called a Wolbachia that commonly infects the systems of the A. vulgare. This bacterium can only be based from a female to her offspring, and as a result the Wolbachia have evolved to feminize the male A. vulgares they infect. This increases their chance of being passed on (surviving). In some populations of A. vulgare, this feminization has caused a sex ratio skew, with more females than males. When Jones and Ritzer collected samples of the isopods, they found skewed sex ratios in three of the samples, though they did not find any Wolbachia. I find this project extremely interesting; the fact that this bacteria and isopod have coevolved for so long that the bacteria has actually changed the distribution of sexes in certain populations is amazing.

Anna Frankel talked about her work at Sea Turtle, Inc. in South Padre Island. She discussed their philosophy, which is summed up in a cause-and-effect cycle that included education, interest in refuges, desire to conserve a species, and generating revenue. It is by using this cycle—focusing on educating—that they generate an income for their own non-profit organization and are able to donate to others.

Colin Kyle presented the project he’s been doing with Apple Snails. He did three different experiments examining the egg-laying preferences of them. He tested whether or not the snails prefer natural or artificial material, elephant ear leaves or other plant leaves, cylindrical or rectangular objects, and tall or short objects. He found that the Apple Snails preferred natural material, elephant ear leaves, cylindrical objects and had no preference for short or tall objects.

At the poster session, I spent the majority of my time looking at Nick Parker’s poster presentation about torture. I thought this was interesting, especially since we discussed this issue one day in class. He stated that while it is virtually impossible to monitor torture, he does not think that the United States should condone torture. A lot of his arguments are issues that we talked about during our discussions, such as the fact that torture has always occurred and the fact that implementing anti-torture laws would be extremely difficult.

I was somewhat intimidated by the fact that I will have to make a presentation similar to these in just two years. The projects seemed to be at such a high level and I’m not so sure I will be there by my senior year. Overall though, I was very impressed by the students’ presentations.

End of Conflict Resolution Program

All things considered, I think our sessions went fairly well. I wasn’t able to go to the first session, which my group said was the most difficult as far as getting the kids’ attention. It might be because of this, but I really didn’t notice the “discipline” problems that Daniel and Gerald mentioned before our project. This could also be attributed to the fact that we worked mostly with the Torch Club (a specific group of kids who were selected because of their behavior and “promise”). Even so, the kids were interactive and pretty interested when we were teaching. Of course, they were talkative and they goofed off, but I expected that.

Despite their good reaction to the actual activities, I honestly don’t know if they got the message of the program. This is mostly because there were different kids at each session. It was hard to have any kind of repeating theme when we couldn’t reference past sessions or ask the kids to recall things they’ve learned. There was also some confusion about what we planned before the sessions and what Daniel wanted out the program. We based the curriculum on “Conflict Resolution” and Daniel wanted us to focus more on “Peer Mediation.” While some of the objectives of the Conflict Resolution program can mold themselves to Peer Mediation, they are two different topics. Before the last session, we tried to change the plans to achieve this goal, but I’m not sure how effective it was.

I think that this program achieved a few goals: we got the kids involved for a half hour in something that was more than their normal recreation activities. However, I’m hoping that the kids gleaned something that was more meaningful as well. I honestly don’t expect the kids to do much peer mediation, and I really don’t even expect them to share with others what they’ve learned. If they just remember the skills we taught them enough to personally use them, then I’ll be happy.

I think that the most valuable parts of this experience were the things we learned about volunteering and working with kids in general. I hope that, by coming to the club several times, the kids at least understood that we were interested in interacting with them. I also think that we learned some things about the need for effective communication. If anything, I think this taught us that we can’t assume or take for granted the fact that someone has time to organize events outside of their actual job.