Can you hear me now?

Hey all,

This past week we were emphasizing communication. The first thing I think about when I think about communication is talking, but this is not the whole 'shabang.' Communication involves many ideas and responsibilities of all the parties involved. Why talk if nobody is listening? Even though sometimes it happens haha. Good communicators are also some of the best listeners that I know. Growing up my mother always said I had very...selective, hearing. I just think it was because cartoons were more fun to listen to then cleaning the litter box or something like that.

In reality, communication makes the world move. From something as simple as a traffic light signal to a virtual meeting around the world. Communication is everywhere, obvious or not. As peer mentors, communication will be key to our success with the students as well as our leaders. Talking is something I can do, active listening, and making the person believe you are listening is something that I can work on.

See ya Wednesday!

Diversity at it's finest.

Hey all,

Last week in class we did some talking about the diversity of cultures and people on campus. I was well aware of the massive amounts of foreigners and the home grown corn eaters like myself. What really took me by surprise was when I recalled a conversation that i had recently had. At the same time I was talking to people from, Sudan, China, the US, and India. This was something that I didn't think about at the time, but during class I was taken back by the fact. Being from my little town of 700 or so, diversity is at a minimum. At the same time, I am very open and try to be as understanding as possible when it comes to cultural differences, which I think helps me adapt well if needed.

This is a very diverse campus, the differences should be embraced because they shed light into the future of where many jobs may be heading, globally.

See you Wednesday!

Taylor

Family Matters

Hey all-

This past week was another success at getting me to do some deeper thinking. With our discussion about what really matters in our lives and what we care about I was filled with a lot of thoughts. The thing that always surfaced no matter where I tried to take my thoughts was family. My grandparents are experiencing a lot of health issues lately. Since many of you don't know, I was born when my mother was in high school, my grandparents are whom i shared the first 5 years of my life with. For this reason I view them as more then grandparents but more like my actual parents, seeing them go through all the health issues is hard for me. I can't imagine what is going to happen when I don't have them there to go to, it will be like losing a parent. Among all of my thoughts of why religion, health, friends, and many other things, it is obvious that family is my top priority and I would be lost without them. They have raised me and instilled all of the other beliefs I have into me. They shaped the person I am. They get me through many tough decisions in life, even if they're not there. I just step back and wonder, would my family be proud of my decision? I've made it this far in life pretty successfully by asking that one question in critical moments. I hope you all have something in your life that you are proud of and truly love. There is no better feeling in the world!

Much love.

Debra and Rex's Session

Howdy ya'll-

Not sure why I started with the "howdy ya'll" I don't have a southern accent at all. Oh well. Last Friday I attended the session about social networking put on by Debra and Rex. Out of the session I learned various ways that social networking sites such as facebook and twitter are being used in classrooms as well as a means of communication among professionals. I thought it was interesting to see how in a short period of time, social networking has grown so large. It seems to be just a way of life for people my age since we grew up using technology, but just recently it is really starting to have more of an impact in the teaching and professional world.

One of the coolest things I remembered from the session was the application in which you could see all the different ways in which people are connected by clicking on their profile. I thought it was interesting and notice that most of the time people seem to always have a friend in common.

MBTI Discussion

This past Sunday we had a retreat for the Hixson Peer Mentor Program. The main focus of the dicussion was about the MBTI. MBTI is a survey given that can help you see what kind of learner you are. This can be helpful to know when trying to pair leaders and for us individually to improve study habits. The first part of the results tells you if you have a preference for extraversion or introversion. My result was that I had a pretty significant preference for extraversion, meaning i draw my energy from the extern and out things. The second sections was between Sensing and Intuition. I have a preference for Sensing which means i prefer to look at the facts instead of theory which is very true. Third part was between Thinking and Feeling. I have a preference for thinking which means i try to make the logical decision based on the situation. This doesn't mean that I don't care what people think though. Lastly was a preference between judging and perceiving. I was a far on the perceiving side as possible, which explains why I'm doing this post the night before I have to turn it in. This just means I like to be spontaneous and often work under pressure. I thought it was very interesting that a lot of the engineering students in the class like myself ended up in the ESTP category. Overall I don't think I changed too much from my freshman year, but it was a good refresher on the survey and the meaning or the survey.