How a faculty or staff member can help me succeed

As a college student, how well one does really depends first of all on what they do for themselves. Other than just what students can do for themselves, they can also get a little help from others. Someone that could help with a student’s success would definitely be some type of staff member or instructor. People, especially busy college students, need somebody there who they can go to and get advice from.

As a design major, and hopefully an architecture student next year, I have countless areas that I can and need to grow in order to become successful. I need to become better at drawing and technical drawing, using different media to create things, and generally just learn to see things from a different perspective. There are several faculty members who have experience in these areas that could really help me. One of these people especially would have to be my Design 102 studio instructor Cindy Gould. She is a great teacher who has helped me significantly already.

Also, though my studio instructor is very helpful to me, she isn’t actually in the field that I’m going into. My advisor, Clayton Johnson, has a Master’s in Architecture and will be a great resource to me while I’m here and hopefully in the architecture program. Just from the couple of times that I have met with him, I have found that Mr. Johnson is extremely helpful and really has my and the rest of his advisees’ best interest in mind. He is extremely knowledgeable not only in architecture itself but also in what classes I need to take and also how manageable different workloads are. I’m not exactly sure of the graduate schools that he or some of the other architecture faculty have their degrees from but I’ve heard that Iowa State University’s Master of Architecture program is pretty good so I would probably just elect to stay here after undergrad.

Students aren’t always able to do it all by themselves and so they need a little help from time to time. A good mentor to me is someone that will be there if I need a little help, some guidance, and/or some advice whether they are critical or not. I feel that I would really need a mentor who can relate to me very well, such as someone who knows how awful the core design program can be on a student but can say, “hang in there, it will be worth it and get better when you are in your program of choice.” Also, it will be kind of a plus to have someone who can possibly put in a good word for me to the judges when it comes time to apply for my program.

Blog Assignment #2

We were asked earlier this semester to go and check out ClubFest, and thinking that it would be interesting anyway, of course I decided to do so. To me it wasn’t really such a big deal because though some of them seemed fun, I really wasn’t very drawn to join. Also, being a design major and this being my very critical year and not having a lot of free time made it seem like an inconvenience more than anything. While this was all true, Dance Marathon did sort of catch my attention.

The only club or activity that I really showed much interest in was Dance Marathon but I’m still not for sure if I’m going to sign up for it. What I found out about Dance Marathon is that it is a once a year event that happens in January. It is a one day and the whole thing actually lasts 15 hours. Now when I first heard that I was sort of wondering but no it is not just dancing for 15 hours straight.

What happens as far as I remember is that the people who want to participate in the event must raise $200 beforehand which is supposed to be really easy because of the certain fundraising opportunities they have. All of this money that Dance Marathon raises goes to the University of Iowa Children Hospital. There is this whole event going on where people can do other things and there are refreshments and then at a certain time every hour, people have to practice dance. Participants do not even have to dance if they decide they don’t want to. At the end of the night everyone comes together and does this dance together that they learn. The event actually hosts some of the children that are ill and their families at the event.

I thought that Dance Marathon was a very interesting organization and the whole thing could be really fun. It is also more convenient for me because it’s pretty much just a one day thing so I won’t have to worry about being in a really time committed club. The reason that I may decide to do this is for personal interest and obviously not for an academic purpose or anything like that. I think that it if I decide to do it, it will be a really fun and great experience and it will be awesome to get the feeling that I’m really helping somebody out and sort of making a difference.

Why It's Important To Be To Class ON TIME

There are loads of reasons for why to be to class on time. Some of them are obvious such as to be sure that you know whats going on and so that you can do as well in classes as possible. That being said, lets be honest, there are other main reasons for why not to get there late. One of them is just the fact that the last thing that we need is to make classes harder by having the professor get to know us in a bad way. Also, we're paying $6,500 per year for tuition so we should probably go and get our moneys worth. And last but not least, going to class on time just ends up being a whole lot easier than dealing with what happens when one is late...which in this case means posting another blog about the whole subject.

At my best

For this blog I am suppose to tell about a time that I was at my best. Instead of telling about something that happened a long time ago or while in high school, I have decided to tell about a particular instance that has already occured since I've been here at ISU. I want to tell about something that I'm already doing to be successful here instead of something that I did in high school that I can carry over.
My time that i have been at my best is about my Design - 102 Studio. At the beginning of the class our instructor told us to expect to spend a ton of hours at the CoD (College of Design) and not to plan on getting much sleep this semester. Right away we recieved our first huge project for the class and I was feeling very overwhelmed. We were assigned groups for the project and part of me being at my best was just the fact that I clicked with my group and we got along very well and put together some great ideas. Our project was a "pop-up passageway" made strictly out of cardboard and twine.
My instructor wasn't kidding as my group and I spent a rediulous amount of time at the CoD over the next three weeks. We worked very well together and did made improvements on our passageway everyday and every model. Finally, just last week, we finished our project, making it as perfect as one can with such materials and had an incredible presentation. We logged around 65 hours outside of class on this project to make it our best work possible. Needless to say, I can do without seeing cardboard for a very long time.
This project that I just completed in my design studio was definately an instance of me being at my best. This is because of how i worked in my group, my ideas for the project, and working hard to actually get it done and present it. Being a Design major, instances like with this project will continue to occur this year and throughout the rest of my career in the CoD. I know that I can be successful in the design program but I also know that it will take me always being at my best to do so.