Blog #3: Personal Statement

I am involved in Band at my Bryan Highschool. Band is like my second job, it is the hardest thing I have ever done. I go to practices Tuesday and Thursday nights all during the first half of the school year. The Band is required to learn and memorize their music and drill. I am the Drum Major, meaning I run the entire thing. My job is to keep everyone under control and make sure they all stay on task. I run the band essentially by myself as far as student leadership goes, alongside my band director.
The only other leadership in the group are the section leaders, they are in charge of their own instrument. The section leaders make sure that everyone understands the music, can read it, knows where they're going in the drill, and has what they need learned by our upcoming performance. Majority of our performances are at friday night football games. Last year, my first year of being Drum Major, we were not able to perform on our own field, because they were re-doing the turf on our homefield.
Band lasts all year long and is a full-time commitment. In the wintertime we switch over to Concert band, which to be honest, is a bit less stressful. We still have competitions, but we are concentrating solely on the music and not the drill as well. Like I said, Band is like a second job, or like my family. I am with the same people every day in my first block all year long, tuesday and thursday nights, the friday night football games, the 9/11 ceremony, the parade, the concert band competitions AND all of the fundraisers. :)

Blog #2 My First Week as a College Student

So, the first day of classes I actually had to go to U.S. History and I looked at the class requirements and what we would be covering and realized that I had already taken that class under dual enrollment, at my highschool. I told Liz and Maria about it and they changed me over to English so I wouldn't be stuck retaking a class, I obviously didn't want to retake.
The second day of classes for everyone was my first all over again. When I got into class I just joined in and realized that the class itself was mostly discussion. Then toward the end the teacher, Helen, handed me a TON of papers, I felt overloaded. How could I have missed that much in only one day??
The first day was the hardest, and it took a couple days to get used to her way of teaching. She doesn't lecture us or try to hammer a whole bunch of facts into our heads, day in and day out. She talks to us, as if we were her peers or equals and she holds extremely intense discussions in class.
For example, the other day we were asked what is the difference between being trained and being educated? We talked for a very long time about it, and decided that being trained means that whoever is training you makes you into exactly what they want you to be and that being educated means you are offered the chance to think for yourself.
Just yesterday, she put this thought into our heads to end class... She said do you believe that you are born with a sex, but choose your gender? We talked about it more today, the question meaning that you are born male or female, but you choose whether you are feminine or masculine.

I found discussion today, and every other day, extremely interesting. :D

Blog #1: Residence Life With Summer Scholars

>>To be honest when I first was accepted into the program and then realized that I would have to stay in the dorms for five nights, I was nervous. I didn't know exactly what to think about it, I was very thankful for being offered the opportunity to earn college credit, but I was scared to meet new people. When I got to the dorm I met one of my roommates, then we were told we had to board the bus. I found two of my friends from school that I already knew and sat with them on the bus, I wanted someone familiar.
>>I didn't know where we were going all I heard was that we were heading out to Ashland, NE. I had no idea what the trip was going to consist of, so I just ate the turkey sack lunch they had made for us and road the bus. I actually ended up meeting a couple new people on the bus itself, I talked to the new people for the rest of the stay in the dorms. When we got there, it reminded me of when I used to go camping when I was little, a lot of amazing trees, trails and even a lake where we ended up paddle boating.
>>Then I found out I was part of the Mighty Beans group, and they told us we were going to an obstacle course. When we got there I did not expect anything that I saw, I thought the course was going to be really boring, but it definately wasn't. I didn't do very much at that obstacle course, it was the middle one and not a lot of what it had to offer appealed to me. The second day we went was a different story, I absolutely loved it. The largest obstacle course was really quite impressive, forty feet in the air and then once you climb the second level it's fifty feet in the air. I was terrified majority of the course, but the zipline at the end was an amazing reward. :)
>>The idea of doing the obstacle course right away in the program was a very good idea, because it forced us to connect with people and literally hold hands with strangers. Personally, it made me closer with the other students in the program, especially those in my group. :)