Service-Learning Site Visit

After visiting the site where I will be doing my service work, Hand Middle School, I was excited to get started. The school was extremely nice and I can’t wait to meet and get to know my kid. I’m just worried about making sure I do everything right. The leaders of the program told us that if mentoring is not done in the right in the right manner it can actually be detrimental to the kid. They handed us a really big packet with all the information for being a mentor in it. I just hope I can absorb enough of that information and be a good mentor for my student. I want to gain from this experience a greater appreciation for service learning. Really want I want from this is to help the kid that I am assigned. It would just be really nice for me to be able to help somebody else out.

Patrick Hickey - Presentatioin

So far, I have had a good experience as a Capstone Scholar. There are always lots of different activities planned so if you want to you can be busy almost all the time. However, the Capstone program is not very demanding so it does not detract from other activities that you might want to pursue. My experience thus far at USC has been a bit different than what I expected. I did not expect pledgeship to be the way it was. It was very stressful and really hurt my overall experience. The past week since I dropped has been more enjoyable and what I had previously expected. Dropping was hard because I had grown close to some of those guys but if I choose I can always go back in the spring. As far as school goes it is not easy but I haven’t had much trouble getting good grades.  

Time management, goal setting, personal challenge

One particular goal I set for myself in my Student Engagement Plan is to try and get a 4.0 this semester. I feel like it would make college a lot easier if I started out on top instead of always trying to dig myself out of a whole. It’s going to be difficult juggling everything I have going on, I already have no free time, but I feel as though I am capable of pulling it off through hard work and dedication. My personal challenge is to be a more outgoing and sociable person. In certain situations I am shy and not as gregarious as I would like to be. Being able to talk to people in any social setting is an important skill to have. It might feel a little uncomfortable at first to try and do this. One tactic I might employ to achieve this is to kind of role play and act like someone I know who is more comfortable in these settings.

Academic Success

I didn’t feel as though my LASSI scores correctly reflected where I was academically. However, I don’t totally blame LASSI. I don’t think I answered the questions as well as I could have. After about question 50 I began to get tired of responding to such similar questions and started to rush and not think the questions all the way through. I feel like some of my academics strengths are that I’m able to keep a cool head and not get too nervous for academic tests and work. I also am pretty good and understanding the main points of what something is trying to tell me. One are where I really feel like I could improve in is my time management skills. I tend to procrastinate on certain tasks, which makes it hard on me when a deadline approaches. To try and change this I’m going to try and keep a schedule, we’ll see how it goes though.

Service-Learning Training

When I lived in Savannah I would go to Forsythe Park just about every Sunday to help feed the homeless. Also, one summer I went to Guatemala for two weeks where I worked at an orphanage helping teach orphans basic English and Math. However, this is the first time I’ve ever had service connected to a course. If I could provide service anywhere I would go back to Latin America and continue to help out there. The place I was at was such a beautiful place and full of so much potential. Most everybody there was so nice and I feel like I should go back and help those people out some more. Despite their tough situation, the children at the orphanage were still happy and full of energy. This inspires me to go back and help them realize a better life where they have the some of the luxuries we have in America.

Involvement- Student Organization Fair

When I went to the student organization fair the other day I felt a bit overwhelmed. There were all these people coming up to me asking me things. Also, there were so many people there that it made it hard to get a grasp on things. All the commotion made it hard for me to decide which ones I wanted to go up to. The two organizations I would potentially join are the wakeboarding club and the mountaineering and whitewater club. I enjoy wakeboarding; it’s what I spent a majority of my time doing over the summer. Also, I’m a big fan of hiking and enjoying the outdoors, which makes it a good idea for me to join the mountaineering and whitewater club. If I could make one organization I would make the Grateful Dead Appreciation Club. I really like listening to their music and there are so many songs that they made we would never get tired of listening to their jams.

Labor Day

This weekend I went back to my home in the Savannah area. I am really looking forward to go home and relax and get a break from pledging. I miss being able to relax and being spoiled by my mom. I can’t wait to eat some good home cooked food that I know will be healthy for me. Also, I look forward to sleeping in my big, soft, actually comfortable bed. My main goal for this weekend will be catching up on sleep. As far as Labor Day goes, I’ll be spending it on the road back up to Columbia to take a test for my fraternity. However I plan on being able to still be able to sleep in late on Monday because I only have to be back in Columbia by 5. After I finish with that I plan on doing some schoolwork that I need to get done for the week ahead. Woohoo.