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!