Summer Time

Summer is finally here! Spring 2010 was an eventful semester and boy am I tired! I enjoy the feeling of accomplishment as much as the next person, but I am definitely looking forward to a change of pace.

Some of my accomplishments this Spring include...

1) completing my second semester of graduate school (4.0!)
2) landing a job at the Aquarena Center as a Nature Interpreter
3) finding a church that I love (Oakwood Baptist in New Braunfels)
4) attending a weekly Bible study
5) being initiated into Kappa Delta Pi Honor Society
6) representing the College of Health Professions in the House of Graduate Representatives (student government)
7) being elected President of San Marcos Student Reading Council
 
Like I said earlier, I'm definitely looking forward to taking a break from academia. I love school, but every now and then it's nice to not have to worry about homework. Besides working at the Aquarena Center, I plan to do A LOT of reading. In addition to starting some books that have now sadly been in my possession for a year now without so much as having read one page, I would also like to review some of my textbooks from college, particularly my sociology books. There are many correlations between the information I learned as an undergraduate sociology minor and what I am now learning about human development as a graduate education major. The common thread between everything that interests me seems to pertain to the core of the human being, why we are the way we are, and what we can do to positively effect change in the creation and development of human life and existence.

I'm looking forward to thinking and growing in new ways this summer. :-)

A Winner's Blueprint For Achievement

This was on a poster in the LISD main office and it was too good to pass up so I wrote it down. It's nearly as good as Scripture in my book. I'm going to try to read it every morning as a way to prepare myself for the day.

"A Winner's Blueprint For Achievement "

BELIEVE while others are doubting.
PLAN while others are playing.
STUDY while others are sleeping.
DECIDE while others are delaying.
PREPARE while others are daydreaming.
BEGIN while others are procrastinating.
WORK while others are wishing.
SAVE while others are wasting.
LISTEN while others are talking.
SMILE while others are frowning.
COMMEND while others are criticizing.
PERSIST while others are quitting.

-W.A. Ward



More words of wisdom:

"We are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it, since nothing is perfect... because in the process we will catch excellence."
-Vince Lombardi

"Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit."
-Aristotle

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader."
-John Quincy Adams

Making The Grade

What is Academic Success?

What are the characteristics of a successful student? While the definition of "successful student" has changed over the years, today's collegians need to know a great deal more than reading, writing, and arithmetic in order to succeed. According to key business leaders in the US, students who are to succeed in 21st century America must be:

1) able to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information

2) able to effectively communicate with others

3) proficient in science, mathematics, computer skills, foreign languages, as well as history, geography, & global awareness

4) capable of collaboratively working in diverse settings

5) leaders who see projects through to completion

6) responsible decision makers who are self-motivated

7) and ethical individuals who are committed to their families, communities, and colleagues

(Nidds & McGerald, 1996)

http://www.chiomega.com/