Last Blog...WHAT?

          Already Dead Week and I have no idea how we got here so fast.
         Freshman year, which seems like it was just yesterday, I felt like my peer mentors were so much older, wiser, and really had this whole college thing figured out. I also remember thinking, I want to be one of them someday! And while we may not have it all put together all the time, I definitely am feeling like our group as a whole will be great peer mentors this fall; these freshmen are lucky to have us. ;)
              I think hearing from the panel last week made everything a lot more real, but it was good to hear more about Brooke and Josh's experience their first time around as well as Megan's two experience. The biggest thing that I took away from the panel was getting to hear about some of the issues that arise. I was surprised to hear that there were many that dealt with butting heads with their co-leader. I'm definitely like Megan where I avoid conflict and try my best to compromise at any and all costs so I'm hoping my flexibility will help me avoid any problems like that. However, even with some issues, it seemed as though everyone ended up enjoying each of their co-leaders and I'm sure I will be the same. I'd love to work with any of you this fall!
            Another thing that I liked hearing about was how each of them went about planning their lesson plans because they were all so different. I now have three ideas that my co-leader and I can decide to use or maybe collaborate a couple of them together. I really liked the idea of always finishing the lesson plan that was due for the week and coming up with a backbone, at the least, for the week after. I think that will be great for when there are weeks when one, or both, of us are absolutely swamped with other things. I could also see myself using Josh and his partner's system and leaving it more opened ended in terms of time. While there are some things that I can do under pressure, I learned this fall that lesson planning is not one of them! I started mine early on which allowed me to randomly think of activities or new information that I had left out.
       All and all, this semester has been a blast! I definitely got a lot out of it, including lots of new friends! I'm really looking forward to the fall and meeting the students of my group, but right now, all I can think of is finding out who I get to work with! Hurry up Thursday!

Peer Mentor in Higher Education

        How is it already the end of the semester?! Each of us has done a fantastic job of leading a section out of Students Helping Students and last week was no exception. I thought the discussion of chapter 11 was a great way to wrap up the book and provide some final information to think about before hearing from the panel of former Hixson Peer Mentors this week.

      First off, the discussion of our interactions with our former peer mentors, whether it was our CAs, our learning community peer mentors, or our Hixson peer mentors, was insightful in hearing what went well with them and what did not. For the most part, I had great peer mentors my freshman year between my Hixson peer mentors and my learning community peer mentors. My Hixson Peer Mentors were very professional and I always felt like they were a great example to follow and knew a lot about the Iowa State community. One of my learning community peer mentors was particularly good at making herself available to me. We e-mailed often and even had a one-on-one meeting to discuss summer jobs. She even gave me the contact information for one of her bosses, knowing they would be looking to hire that summer. I credit them for helping me survive the big transition between high school and college. It's nice to get to see them on campus every once in awhile and let them know that things are still going good.

       On the other hand, I'm not going to say my CA was a horrible peer mentor, but he definitely didn't establish the most professional relationship with a lot of his residents. I was friends with him and thought of him as just that, a friend, not exactly someone I would go to for help if I had a concern. I think this goes to show how important it is to maintain that professional-level relationship with our students and not just become a part of their circle of friends. 

     My favorite part of the class, however, was going around to each peer mentor and having them mention one thing that we would like to provide for our students or one thing that we would like to get out of our experience as a peer mentor. Some of the things were already mentioned in my mission statement, but there were new ones that I hadn't thought of that I thought were perfect, like the "creation of a small family." My section became very close early on with the help of the retreat during the first weekend. We would often get lunch or dinner together before classes. I still talk to a few of them regularly and see a lot of them on campus! 

        One of the main reasons that I decided to come to be a peer mentor was because I had such a positive experience my freshman year and I was missing the participation and connections to the Hixson Program. As peer mentors, I think we've already began to connect with one another and I foresee that continuing through the fall as we help each other become the best peer mentors for our own students. 

      I'm looking forward to Thursday to see which one of you I get to work with more this fall! 

Ethics for Good Practice

         I really enjoyed last week's discussion and think it might be one of the most important of the whole semester. Each of the 12 principles that the book outlined are critical for our success as peer mentors. I think the most important thing for each of us to remember is that when we signed up to be peer mentors, we signed on to being a positive role model for our students and should always present ourselves in that way, even if this means that a Friday night out needs to be cut short because you spot one of your students at a house party that you're at as well.
        Some of the issues that we talked about seemed a little more out there than others, but it was nice to know in advance that some wild things do happen. I think it would be difficult to work in some of the conditions that we talked about like having a student hit on you or having students within your section begin relationships, but I think they can all be worked through if we as peer mentors establish a level of profession at the beginning of the semester. This includes remaining unbiased, not having favorites, and keeping things confidential.
        My favorite thing that was said during class was, "Up, not Out" in regards to the confidentiality policy. While we were going through some of the situations, I was a little confused on what our job was, but that summed it up great. When I was a freshman I would have been comfortable telling my peer mentors anything knowing that the only people they would talk to, if needed, would be people above them who would only be there to help more.
       Going back to the level of profession that I talked about earlier, I think it's important that we also own up to our own mistakes if a situation should ever arise. It would be really embarrassing and I pray that I am never in a situation where I would need to, but I would talk to my students and first of all, apologize for not portraying myself as a positive role model. Sure, it would be really awkward like we all said in class, but I think it would serve as a learning opportunity for the students as well as for myself. I really don't anticipate this happening, but at least now I've thought about what I would do if it did.
       Finally, I'm really glad we made that pledge for quality service, great activity Liz and Kim! I thought we came up with a great list and it will be a good reminder to have this fall if our ethics are ever tested. As peer mentors, we're not here to tell our students what to do and what not to do; we're not their parents. We just need to do our best to be as ethical and smart as we can because as they say actions speak louder than words!

How to Use Campus Resources

          I choose to practice my referral of campus resources on Timothy's case of not getting along with his roommate because that is a situation that I don't have experience with. I loved my roommate and like in the scenario, still talk to her often. However, I remember by the end of the year last year that there were many people who weren't so crazy about their's showing this is an all too common issue with freshmen and their dorm mates.
       First off, I decided that this a situation with moderate severity. It definitely needs to get taken care of before things get too serious, or crazy as Timothy would say, but no one's life is at stake so taking a little time to think things over won't hurt anyone. Then, I would move on to talking to Timothy more about this problem and asking questions. The two statements that he made, "he's crazy," and "everyone has noticed the tension", isn't enough information to figure out what the real problem is. So my first questions would be based around figuring out what is really going on. Is it something like the roommate is a slob/neat freak or does he come in too late at night or is mean and yell at Timothy? Is he breaking one of their mutual agreements on their roommate contract? Digging into the issue is crucial! I would also ask Timothy what he thought his options were and what he has thought about doing. Sometimes just talking things out like this can be enough to solve the issue if the student realizes that the issue really isn't all that bad.
     However, if it is something serious and Timothy feels like he really does need more help, I would first upfront tell him that I don't know everything about changing roommates or dorms and that that is something that his Community Adviser or Hall Director would be best at. Like we talked about in class, taking this step could be difficult so I would encourage this action by talking about how helpful and friendly my CA was when I lived in the dorms. Additionally, I would remind him that he is not the only person to ever have an issue with a roommate and the CA's are well equipped to assist in solving them. I don't think that it would be necessary for me to personalize this situation unless I happened to know their CA or hall director; I definitely think this is one of those times that we can't walk them to their CA's door or go and yell at their roommate.
     Finally, to followup on this situation, I would try and pull Timothy aside after class or shoot him an e-mail to see if he has done anything about the situation and if yes, find out if that helped or not, and then help him talk through what the next steps need to be if it's not resolved.

Academic Success

       I hope everyone had a great spring break! I know I loved every minute of sitting on my couch watching March Madness with my family, but now I'm regretting not touching my homework for a week...yikes! Funny that I have to write about academic success now, huh?
       Anyways, I loved the discussion that we had that last class about thinking about a time that you thought about leaving Iowa State and what made you stay. I could have sworn I was the only crazy person who thought about it and was a little timid to start talking about it until my partner just let it all out. And I was like, "wait you too?" Always good to know you're not alone!
     My main reason was due mostly to homesickness first semester. Because the University of Iowa is so close to my hometown, a ton of my friends as well as my sisters, went there. It was always where I had wanted to go too, until I found out that I was restricted to ISU due to my major. Only two other girls from my graduating class came to ISU and there's maybe 10-15 others from Durant here now. On top of that, as much as I loved my roommate last year, she was barely ever around first semester because she had an upperclassman boyfriend who had an apartment. It would have been really easy for me to have said, "yep, I don't like it here, I'm transferring at semester," and trust me, I thought about it a lot.
     Tying this back to what what we discussed in lecture, I am definitely motivated internally. Everything that I work for, I know that I'm only doing to better myself and increase my chances at getting an internship and job in the future, whether that means staying in on a Friday night to study or working 40 hours weeks in the summer. I never said it was the most fun thing in the world, but the hard work has more than paid off through my first two years of college.
     Now back to why I stayed at ISU. Mostly, I think it was because of the Hixson Scholarship. I knew how lucky I was to have this much financial help and that I wouldn't get that if I transferred. Additionally, I still loved my major and wasn't ready to give that up either. So I basically told myself to suck it up for at least one more semester and then see. Thank God I did! I had the best end to first semester, finally got to know more people on my floor, connected with my roommate, and ended up meeting my best friends.
     I think this area of homesickness/wanting to transfer is where I will be most able to help the freshman next year because I'm not afraid to admit that I went through it now; it's all too common. The most difficult thing will be getting the students to open up to me, unlike myself. The only people I ever told was my sister and my parents! It wasn't because I didn't trust my peer mentors or anything like that, I'm just not the type of person who talks things out with people because ultimately, I'm going to make the decision no matter what anyone tells me. If I have students like this, I will remind them I'm not ever going to try to make the decision for them, but I will help them find what the real issue is and point them in the direction of resources to help solve any little bit of it.

ISCORE

          Last Friday, I was able to attend two sessions at the Iowa State Conference on Race and Ethnicity. They were Student Leadership and the College Experience: Creating Opportunities for Growth and Success and -ISM's Explored Through the Eyes of George Washington Carver Students. Although both of these presentations were vastly different, the one thing that stuck out to me was how these students were both in programs, similar to the Hixson Opportunity Awards program, that I have never heard of. The first presentation was led by three women from the Student Support Services program, which is strictly for first generation students, and then the second, of course, was facilitated by the George Washington Carver students, who are selected out of high school if they are of a minority ethnicity.
           The first session was a lot different than what I expected. It turned out to be three women telling us about their lives, what motivated them to come to college, and what organizations they are apart as well as what they have learned from their leadership roles. Some of the main lessons that they have learned include communication, organization, delegation, teamwork and responsibility. Some of my favorites included prioritizing, building relationships, learning about themselves, and having fun! From this presentation I was also able to see where all of our student leaders on campus come from besides the obvious things like clubs, peer mentors in learning communities, and tutors. Leadership roles can also be obtained through Greek life, religious groups, volunteer positions like Food at First and Habitat for Humanity, and through jobs on campus.
        Most of all, I think what I learned from these women was that uncertainty is okay. They admitted that there were many times that they really didn't know what to do so they just had to wing it. This was beneficial, even if it was a disaster at the time, because now they know what works and what doesn't work and how they will change things in the future. Additionally, I could also see how much they loved talking about their roles and organizations and I hope that that is what my students see next fall when I am their leader.
         My second session was much different as it wasn't a sit and listen type of thing. Many students had posters hanging up around the Gallery Room that you could look at and discuss with them. All of these posters were about certain "-isms"; I really enjoyed how they were just the common ones like racism or sexism, but ones that I hadn't really thought of like ageism and classism. I liked hearing each person's perspective on the topic and how they thought change could be made. This will be beneficial in dealing with the diversity of my students next fall because sometimes we fall into the habit of thinking that looks are what make people diverse when in reality it's their entire background that makes one person diverse from another.
        Overall, ISCORE was another great learning experience that I have gained resources and ideas on how to acknowledge diversity amongst a group of people.

A Little Bit of Everything

            Last Thursday, Matt and I led the discussion on Leading Groups Effectively, which I thought was a very informative chapter. Of all five practices of successful leaders, I think that modeling effective behavior is the most important. Your group members aren’t going to be excited and actively participate if you aren’t displaying that type of emotion. Additionally, they won’t respect you as much as a peer mentor if they know that you tell them how to deal with a problem, but won’t use that advice yourself. I would say that this practice is the one that I would be strongest at because I’m a firm believer in actions speak louder than words. The practice that I think will be the toughest for me is focusing goal direction. I truly want to help everyone in my group grow each class period, but it’s important to remember that each student will have different goals for the class and will be at different levels of understanding for different topics. Lastly, one of the main points that I got out of the lesson is the importance of evolving as a peer mentor as your group evolves. During the first few weeks of classes, we may have to be more in charge and leading discussions while towards the end of the semester, we should have less of the control and let discussions flow between the students.         
           Yesterday, Brooke and Sam did an excellent job at leading the problem solving and goals discussion despite having to be pushed back a couple of weeks. I really enjoyed flipping the negative statements into positive and SMART goals and hearing the ideas of others. I know that there are many times in my life where I’ve said things like, “I’m going to fail this test,” when instead I should be focusing on how I will positively approach the difficult situation and specifically state how I will approach and conquer it. This ability to flip situations into a positive light will be a great skill to have when dealing with students in the future so that they too can develop this skill and see that everything isn’t so bad after all!
           Finally, I once again really enjoyed the retreat. I think they are a great time to get to know each other better and have fun with all of the ice breakers. It’s always fun to see what each pair comes up with. A lot of people have already mentioned that they enjoyed Kayla’s ice breaker and I have to agree. I remember one of the qualifications to be a Hixson Scholar was to have had to  overcome extraordinary circumstances and it was interesting to see what some of those were. Typically, these things can be difficult and uncomfortable to talk about, but I feel as though the line activity makes it more quiet and comfortable, allowing people to share what they would like. I can definitely see myself using this in my section well into the semester after we all get to know each other so that we can continue to get to know each other at a deeper level.

Understanding Group Processes and Social Media Week

          Anyone else feel like they haven't blogged in FOREVER? Sorry if I run a little long this week, there's just so much to talk about!
          First, I figured I would reflect on Kira and Angie's lesson about group processes. I loved the activity that they choose to do with the Legos. It was interesting to see the people in my group take on roles that maybe they weren't used to, myself included. I was assigned the Encourager role and while I know I am always a positive person and try to motive others in my group, I like to do the work too. It was difficult just having to sit back and cheer on my groups members when I just wanted to get my hands in there and build too. The activity was also beneficial in seeing how one person won't always play just one role. Knowing these new types of group members will be helpful next fall so that we can identify what roles each one of our students will play in our section. Then, throughout the semester we can challenge them break out of their comfort zone and take on a role they aren't used to.
          Now onto social media, which I will admit, I am sort of an addict. I've had Twitter since the summer before my senior year of high school and was one of the first, if not the first, out of my friends to get Twitter. It hadn't really hit my high school yet, but friends of mine that I had met at a leadership conference had encouraged me to get it. Now, almost everyone I know has a Twitter and has had it for a long time now. This is a good and a bad thing.
          Unfortunately, I don't think many people understand how much their Twitter account, or any other social media site for that matter, can have an impact on their future. My favorite tweet that I found last week was "Even though we may use Twitter as our diary, others are looking at it as our resume." It's important to remember that everything you post has your name attached to it and it represents you and the organizations that you are a part of. There really would be nothing to argue if a potential employer pulled up your account and said this is why we aren't hiring you. On the other hand of that, I liked when someone in class mentioned how it could be used positively so that employers want you even more because of it. You can use your Twitter account for all professional things and find great information out there. I choose to follow the Academy of Dietetics and Nutrition account as well as many other practice groups in the dietetic field and I read a lot of great articles that normally I wouldn't have seen. I will definitely continue to follow these groups after social media week.
          Finally, I think it is important that we stress the importance of clean social media accounts to our freshmen next fall. I'm glad I got the lesson early on in my college career. Not that I had been posting inappropriate or offensive things before, it was just a good reminder and now makes me think twice before I post. Because like Zach McCabe learned last week, just because you delete a post doesn't mean it is gone forever.

Diversity Event: Religious Freedom for All

     Last night, I attended the Veritas Forum event Religious Freedom for All: Living Together with our Deepest Differences led by Os Guinness. Os Guinness is a world renown author and lecturer as he was born in China, studied in England, and now travels the world speaking about religious freedom. Although parts of the lecture were kind of confusing and a little bit over my head, I enjoyed the parts that I did understand and agreed with what he said about having tolerance and caring for all people despite what their religious beliefs are.
      Os started the lecture out by talking about how diversity is everywhere these days due to the accessibility and ease of travel, media, and mass communication. This is a good thing, but it does cause some problems in terms of religious freedom. A second issue is that people aren't willing to change some of the old time traditions that may be outdated. In this area, he specifically pointed out the separation of church and state. In the older days, a public square was defined as an area where everyone would gather to discuss issues of common public life. Some examples of public squares around the world include Capitol Hill in America and Buckingham Palace in England. Public squares have since turned from these set places to newspapers and radio shows and today, they are now viral because of social media. That sets up the third issue of today's world where people are now degrading others more easily because of the ability to remain anonymous whereas in past times, you had to brave enough to say something yourself in front of hundreds of people and not behind a computer screen.
       Os then shifted and discussed the differences between religious freedom, freedom of worship, and freedom of conscience. Basically, he said religious freedom isn't the same as freedom of worship and everyone has freedom of conscience because there are no mind readers. Finally, he started to discuss some of the solutions to this big problem. The first solution was to have a civil public square where everyone can talk about their religion. He defined civility as a virtue and duty of all citizens to care for others and tolerate indifference.
        This lecture was a great extension to what I read in chapter 3 in our book and what we discussed a couple of weeks ago in lecture. I do not expect to have students in my group next fall that will all be of the same religion. In fact, some may not be religious at all and that's okay. This lecture helped me remember that my religion, beliefs, and values are mine and no one else's and that there is no need for me to push them onto someone else who has their own. It also helped me learn that my generation, or what Os called the "Crunch Generation" is going to have the most impact on how religious freedom grows through the next few years.
        Overall, it was an interesting lecture that challenged me to think about my own religious beliefs and how different they are from all people across the world and how it is possible to all live together in peace if we can open up a few more minds.

Interpersonal Communication

             Last Thursday in lecture, we talked about interpersonal communication and the many ways that it differs from advice giving. Although there will be times when advice giving is important, like when a clear answer is known, developing strong interpersonal communication skills will be even more crucial while we are peer mentors. Personally, my number one goal as a peer mentor is to create an open environment for my mentees so that I can really get to  know them and help them through their transition into being an independent college student. This goal is going to take a lot of interpersonal communication skills like listening and asking questions to get accomplished.

          I think that I already possess some interpersonal skills already, particularly good listening. However, the skill that I am most worried about and know that I need to develop is to not jump the gun and just give them advice. After reading this chapter and discussing in class, I now know how critical that skill will be to help the freshmen learn about themselves and allow them to become more independent. I loved when Chelsee said that the freshmen need to start figuring things out on their own. I remember how lost I felt first semester last year, but now I pretty much feel like I have everything figured out; I know I wouldn't be like that if I had been spoon fed all the answers freshman year. I think the same thing can be said about being a peer mentor as well. I'm still a little lost when it comes to knowing exactly what to expect and I don't expect to know everything until I've gone through the experience. This uncertainty will allow us to grow. Fortunately,  we have this whole semester to get us a little prepared. I particularly like when we have the chance to practice different situations with each other in class to start creating an inventory of ideas about different common issues.

        Finally,  I think the importance of referrals needs to be stressed. I think a lot of us feel like we absolutely need to help our students no matter what and although that's a great attitude to have, we should not be afraid to send them to someone else if we know that they would be served better elsewhere. Some of the situations that the book brought up were when the complexity of the problem is over your head or when your own personal problems and biases may interfere. I believe that the having the knowledge of knowing when to help and when to step back and let someone else help is another aspect of interpersonal communication that should be respected as much as the others. 

   

No Two the Same

            Being from a small town in eastern Iowa, I wasn't able to experience cultural diversity until I came to Iowa State. However with that being said, I never had a problem with the adaptation. In fact, I thought that some of the sections on Chelsee's worksheet were difficult. I honestly had no preconceived prejudices or stereotypes for people in my country or international people. I've always felt strongly about treating everyone equal and that you should never make assumptions about a person because of what they look like, what they believe in, or what they value most. This is exceptionally important to remember because next year we will have mentees that may seem a lot alike because they are all from Iowa. However, it's crucial that we, as peer mentors, recognize that each mentee is different and will need different things from us.
            The section of the chapter that had the most effect on me was about 'colorblindness'. I have been in many situations where leaders would say something like "we are all the same, it doesn't matter if you're white, black, pink, or purple" and it never really made me think that that could offend or irritate others, but it makes sense to me now. It is totally okay to acknowledge that we aren't all the same and that we can learn a lot about others if we don't try to pretend that the diversity doesn't exist. 
            My favorite part of lecture this week was Josh's activity based around the idea of thinking outside of the box. Like I previously mentioned, each one of our mentees is going to need us in various unique ways. Some of the issues may be easy for us to deal with, but others may test us. Thinking outside of the box is going to be necessary and will not only benefit our mentees, but will help develop our leadership and problem solving skills as well.
           Finally, on another note, I thought that the Coca-Cola commercial was beautiful and incredibly meaningful. Thursday was the first time that I had seen the commercial, but I had seen negative tweets about it. I wish I had known what the commercial was about when my friends were tweeting about it so I could have reminded them that America is made up of so many cultures and that we technically have no national language. Sometimes I think people are entirely to quick to make remarks and not really think about what they are saying and who they could be offending. It is important that we look at things more big picture and remember that we are all different, which is perfectly fine!

Iowa State Leadership Experience

                The ISLE conference was unlike most leadership conferences that I have attended in the past. It was much more interactive and upbeat. I thought this was a great approach to leadership as these are two characteristics that we need to have when we are leading our mentees.
              The first session that I attended was the keynote speaker, Delatorro McNeal II, and he was awesome! I could tell that he was happy to be there and wanted us to have fun too. He used popular movies, like Pitch Perfect and Gridiron Gang, to relate back to how to be successful leaders and college students. He had so much useful information to tell us that I'm sure he could have gone on for hours. My favorite things that he said include, "mentors love you too much to leave you the way that you are" and "you need diversity to have harmony because if two people are the same, one is unnecessary". I love the first one because it inspired me to loudly push people instead of quietly leading by example. This is going to be crucial with the freshmen Hixson next fall; I'm going to have to tell them and push them to keep doing better whether it be with academics or their personal life. Delatorro also mentioned how creating challenges was a way to be leader and I can see myself using that as a way to help freshmen solve problems. For example, if they are having a tough time with homesickness, I could challenge them to attending one club meeting that week of their choice and try to get them more involved and meet new people. Secondly, I liked the other quote because although all of our students will come from the same Iowa background, they will all be unique and it is critical that we embrace that.
              The second session that I attended was called "U ZOO". It was lead by an Iowa State senior which I enjoyed because she is more of a peer to me. As we walked in, we were given a worksheet to complete similar to the MTBI online assessment where we had to rank how certain characteristics described us. This resulted in seeing what "animal" we were. I was a strong koala. From there, we were asked to create an event with our fellow strong animals. The task was very vague so really we could take it in any direction we wanted. Meanwhile, she went back to the audience and told them exactly what we would do based on our animals and prepped them to ask us questions about our event; we didn't know she was doing this! In the end, according to the audience, she was spot on with each one. For the koalas, she said we would be very kind and want to include everyone while keeping them comfortable. We had many plan B's! It was a very interactive session and flew by. As we left, we were given a follow-up packet to read that described how each animal most often behaved, what we are motivated by, and how we could improve on our leadership skills. I can see this a fun activity to use in our lesson plans as a way to supplement MBTI in the fall!
            Overall, I had a fun time at ISLE. It was a great way to hang out with some of the other Hixson peer mentors and get to know them more over the lunch break.
          

Forever an ESFJ

          Step 2 of the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator revealed that like Step 1, I am still an extraversion, sensing, feeling, and judging person. Surprisingly, this was the same type as four other peer mentors! I may have been skeptical of this personality test before, but now that I have gone through the evaluation twice and read through the facets, I'm a believer. This personality type seems to fit me well and will be incredibly beneficial in getting to know more about the ways that interact with others and learn.
           The first facet of this interpretive report breaks down why I am a clear extravert. Four of my five facets were in preference while just one, active-reflection, was midzone. I can see where I am both an active and reflective person. I am comfortable with participating in an activity, but if I'm needed to sit back and observe, that's fine too. When it comes to my learning, I'm more of a person that just needs to sit down alone and study. Interactive activities don't particularly help me like others. My strongest area of extraversion was being initiating; I know I use this a lot when I am around old and new friends. I try to introduce everyone and help the group mesh!
          The distinction between sensing and intuition was a little less clear for me as I was just in the moderate category. To be honest, I thought I would have been very clear in this category because I hate abstract ideas. Memorizing facts and concepts is how I do well in school so I was surprised when I wasn't a 5 under the concrete facet. Additionally, in this section I had one area where I was out of preference; I was more conceptual than practical. After reading some of the descriptions under that set, I'm not sure how I feel about it. For example, it says that I probably would rather have an academic career in my profession instead of being a practitioner. I can tell you right now that I will most definitely be out practicing dietetics in healthcare settings and not researching or teaching about it!
          I felt no surprise when I was a feeling person yet again. I've always been the more caring, make sure no one gets left out kind of person. I'm a listener as well and will always try to empathize and accept everyone. Although I came from a small town with almost no cultural diversity, I've always been accepting of everyone and have never questioned it. Finally, I thought it was interesting that I was midzone for tough and tender, but again, that describes me perfectly. For example, I had a friend in high school that I worked with that started to hang out with the wrong crowd. Initially, I was kind of mean about and basically told him, with authority that I didn't have, that he couldn't hang out with them anymore. But then, realizing that I shouldn't have been so tough, I took the nicer route and told him that he should come hang out with my friends and I instead sometime. I'm definitely a pusher when I think people aren't living up to their fullest potential, but I'm working on being nicer about it.
          Lastly, I am judging person, but not a judgmental person! I like having a routine and being organized. Shockingly, I'm not a planner person though; I just have a giant calendar on my computer that I use for things for writing down quizzes and exams. I rely on my memory for every day assignments. I'm definitely not the most spontaneous person and waiting until the last minute to do things makes me anxious. On the other hand though, I will say that I am an expert procrastinator and almost always regret all the time that I waste, another thing I'm working on and getting better at.
           In conclusion, I liked what Debra said in class when she said everything is situational and how she used the bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom analogy to describe how we will have to be different almost all the time in order to get things done. However, in a perfect world, I think it is accurate to say that I would be most successful when I am able to be a sensing, feeling, and judging extravert!

The Many Faces of a Peer Mentor

               From this week's discussion in class, I was able to get a better understanding of what I would be doing as a peer mentor. At the very surface, I will be the bridge between the students and the Hixson staff because as we all know, it can be a bit intimidating to tell our issues to adults. My main goal is to be able to help them through their issues by being there to listen and give advice that stems from my personal experiences. However, I will never be afraid to admit that I don't know everything and will use my knowledge to point them in the direction of someone or a resource on campus that can help them. I am expecting that as we progress throughout this semester in UST311 that I will be more informed on how to deal with many more situations. This week's introductory activity of role playing as peer mentors and students was a great way to start exploring different, yet common, situations.

                 By reading the first two chapters in Students Helping Students, I was able to see just how many different peer mentoring opportunities were on campus and how I had already interacted with many without ever really realizing it. From community advisers in the dorms to supplemental instruction leaders and tutors, I have dealt with my fair share of peer mentors and luckily for me, most of them have been great. I have reflected back on some of them and want to use some of their techniques with my mentees. Examples include wanting to encourage building a friendship with my mentees like my CA did right of the bat by always taking the time to talk whenever we saw each other or being accessible and allowing my mentees to e-mail me if they have an urgent conflict that they want resolved. On the flip side, I have seen some traits that I do not want to be. A former group tutor of mine would allow people to be rude to her and she would kind of just laugh it off. I think it is standard of the Hixson program to respect everyone and always come with as positive of an attitude as possible. We want to make a great environment for everyone!

                  Also from the chapters, I was able to get a bigger picture of all the types of issues that are common of first year students. Although I had some of my own, I didn't have near as many as what is described in the book so it was good to get a more solid idea of all the different issues like identity crises or alcoholism. I look forward to breaking down each of these issues more in depth as we continue to read on in the book.

               Finally, I would like to mention that I was fortunate enough to attend my first Dance Marathon this past weekend. Not only was it a life-changing experience for me, but it was also another chance for me to interact with other peer mentors. I had great morale captains, who used leading by example to keep our energy up all day long no matter how tired we were. Additionally, I happened to know one of the guys who was on the executive committee. All year long I had seen his posts on social media about stuff he was doing for DM and I loved seeing how great his hard work paid off for a cause that obviously means so much to him. This dedication and passion is something that I hope to find in myself for the Hixson program as it is crucial to the success of peer mentors across campus.

Nicole the Peer Mentor

        My name is Nicole Paulsen. I am a 2012 Hixson Scholar from Scott County. I was born and raised in Durant, Iowa, and wouldn't trade my supportive hometown for any other! I am the first of my family to attend Iowa State as my oldest sister, Laura, graduated from Iowa and my other older sister, Jenny, currently attends Iowa. Fortunately, I have a ten year old brother that I can hopefully persuade to being a Cyclone by the time he graduates high school! My parents have been nothing, but supportive and proud of me as I continue my education here at Iowa State, even if I will never get them to wear cardinal and gold! I am currently majoring in dietetics and have known that I wanted to have a career in nutrition and wellness since the beginning of high school. I'm so glad we have such a great dietetics program here at Iowa State and am very excited for what the future has in store for my career.
        The time that I am at my best is when I am with friends and family. I'm more carefree and fun because I forget about my every day stressors like school and work and just have a good time. I have a big extended family and when we all get together, it can be loud and chaotic, but such a good time. I wish I could see them more often, but some of them live as far away as Russia so twice a year is about as often as we all get together. Fortunately, I have all my friends in Ames and back home that I can hang out with too. It's funny that the people who I am closest to now were complete strangers just a short year and a half ago. They've been so great at listening to me when I need to vent or just being silly with to forget about how much homework we have waiting for us.
        If I could do nothing but read books, not textbooks, for the rest of my life, I wouldn't have a problem. I was always the book worm of the family and have had my mom tell me to stop more than once. To me, it's just so calming and a nice getaway. So if anyone has a book suggestion for me, let me know!
         Learning about the human body is the most fascinating thing in the world to me. I think this most likely stemmed from having a great biology and anatomy teacher in high school. I also loved the professor I had for Biol 255 last semester. I'm an avid Grey's Anatomy watcher and I love when I know what they are talking about when they are diagnosing a patient. I would love to be a doctor, but I have a huge fear of needles so working as a dietitian will be as close as I get to the medical field.
         As far as being a peer mentor goes, I'm not quite sure what my specific goals are yet because I'm not totally sure what to expect. So for now, I would say my main goal is just learn and learn a lot. I've never been in a situation quite like this before so I'm going to do my best to learn from the instructors of the course as well as my peers. I want to be a great peer mentor so that I am useful to the freshmen next year. Hopefully, I will have a much clearer goal in the next few weeks and will be able to update my blog with it!
         Finally, the role that I wish to play for the freshmen students next fall is to be someone fun and encouraging as well as useful to their learning about the college experience. I want them to know that I am there for them if they need to talk or give advice if I am able. I feel like I am a great person for this because I have had a true college experience. I came to Iowa State with only two other classmates, who I rarely saw my freshman year, so I had to make a whole new group of friends. I moved two and a half hours away from home and lived in a small dorm with a stranger. I've been through difficult classes that I didn't exactly enjoy, but managed to get myself to study every day for them. So, I guess what I'm saying is that I have had my own struggles but have overcame them because I had a great support system and I want to be a part of my students support system!