Diversity Event: Truth is on Its Way

Truth is on Its Way!

I went to the diversity event called Truth is on Its Way. It was a lecture with guest speaker Nikki Giovanni. She grew up during the 1960s Black Arts Movement. She is one of America's most distinguished and widely read African American poets, authors and essayists. She has been a very well spoken activist for a quarter of a century and is determined as ever. She fights for civil rights and equality in education. Nineteen of her twenty books are sill in print today. Some of her books are Black Feeling, Black Talk, and Black Judgement. She also writes children's books.

She shared with us the process of her children's book, Lincoln and Douglas: An American Friendship. It was about how Ab Lincoln and Fredrick Douglas had a friendship in the sense that they were both working towards freeing the slaves. She told of a story when Ab Lincoln received too much change and was honest enough to give it back. It was only a nickel but a nickel would have bought an acre of land in Lincoln Heights at the time. Lincoln Heights is where all the African Americans fled to from Cincinnati when the lynching was going on and it is where Nikki grew up. Lincoln and Douglas had a few things in common like a dry sense of humor and they both loved food.

She also read some of her love poems. She told us, that if you are not in love, you should be. Get rid of the ideas about what you think love is or who it is and just find something, anything that you love.

She is an African American, who is constantly fighting for her rights and others. She is currently a professor at Virginia Tech and has survived lung cancer. I found her very inspirational. She definitely has a strong voice and knows where she stands.

My favorite quote of hers was, "All you have is your voice."

Resources

Last week, we spent the class period traveling around campus to find where all the important campus resources are located. It was a lot of fun and I think it was a great team building activity and it incorporated information that we will need to know for next fall. My group decided to find the easier places but we learned that there are A LOT of donations of different areas on campus. It was a lot of fun to race around and find out new things about campus.

I found out last year, that it is a very effective tool to take your students to different places on campus. There are places like the Study Abroad office and the Career Counseling services that we know about, but our students might not be familiar with. It is really helpful to students to show them were things are located so they feel more comfortable going there themselves. I think it is important that we as peer mentors have a good base knowledge of the resources around campus. Although, I know it is hard to know about ALL the resources so we need to be effective in finding out information and getting back to our students about it.

I think we can be a good tool for each other when it comes to campus resources. It is important that we share our past experience with other peers to help them reach out for their students. I know that last year we fed of each other as peer mentors a lot and it was a very successful tool. I am constantly trying to learn more about Iowa State, and what is has to offer. I have found that you can learn the most by just checking places out yourself, and researching what different areas on campus has to offer.

Have a great week everyone!

Goals

I thought that Karen and Zach did a wonderful job explaining and facilitating their lesson on goals. I think it is important to take a look at how we make our goals and really map out if they are manageable or not. I sometimes catch myself setting goals that I know are far beyond my time limitations or skills. I know that I should set my goals high, but I also need to keep in mind how I operate as a student and a person. I know that if I set goals that have a lot of time constraints that I will feel trapped. I like to have a list of things to do and come up with a plan but I know that I may very well change that plan 100 times before something gets done. I do work well under pressure, but I need to be under pressure at the last minute for that to work out. I cannot make my schedule so tight that I have not time to do things I want to or to unwind.

I think SMART goals are great for short term goals. I know I have set a few smart goals that I would like to reach before dead week, so that my finals will not be as stressful as they usually are. I know that I will have to work hard in my free time to reach these goals, but I think that they are very reachable goals. I need to sit down, and decide what my Four M’s goal is going to be for the rest of my college career. Every time I think I have my next two years planned out, I find out new information and it changes my perspective. So I really need to do so long term planning, to help me guide the rest of my time here at Iowa State. I really liked how this lesson got me thinking about my future, and really gave me some tips for when I do really take time to set goals.

Have a great weekend everyone!