Week 3

On the 28th of January my fellow Hixson peer mentors and I went to the Iowa State Leadership Experience at the Memorial Union. I attended two sessions, and the one I found most beneficial was The Art of Interviewing, presented by Mike Gaul, the College of Ag and Life Sciences Director for Career Placement. It was your typical lecture over interviewing, what you should do, what you shouldn’t do, how to maximize your potential for getting the desired position as a result of your interview performance. I’m not going to blog verbatim about what advice he gave, but I thought he did a really nice job with his 50 minute lecture, and it made me a little more comfortable and knowledgeable about the interviewing process. If you’ve never had the opportunity to listen to a similar lecture about interviews, resumes, and cover letters I would highly recommend it to any student at Iowa State. Mike Gaul works with the College of Ag and Life Sciences, but every college at Iowa State has a professional in a similar position. So go ahead and talk to these professionals and have them look over your resume periodically, set up a mock interview, and grasp where in the jobs market Iowa State graduates are being placed, and with what typical starting salaries and benefits.
            It might be discouraging for some students initially to start doing some of these things because individuals might feel that they don’t have anything to separate themselves from their colleagues, or don’t want to accept the fact they they’re one step away from the real world. The truth is that all Iowa State students enter the job market as a valuable commodity, no matter which of the 8 colleges you graduate from at Iowa State. The top employers hire Iowa State graduates for many reasons, but notably because of the hands on experience that Iowa State captivates by using “Science with Practice”. This comes from university applied research, and internships with some of the biggest blue chip companies in the nation.
            That’s why I think it’s important to instill in the minds of our students from day one on campus that by choosing this university they have entered the professional realm, and the time to set yourself up for a successful career starts at day one, boots on the ground at Iowa State University. 

Week Two

This week in class we had did an exercise to share and discuss what common issues freshman often face during their first year at Iowa State. The more I think about it doesn't every freshman at Iowa State face some kind of issue at some point throughout the year? Something I'd like to discuss with my class this fall is that everybody needs help sometimes, especially during the first semester of college, it seems inevitable. The fact is that once you realize the problem what's been done is done, you can't go back to change it, you have to look ahead and say from this moment forth what do I need to do to improve the situation. If you don't know what that answer is then ask a friend, and if they don't know try and seek counseling from a trained professional. 
      The hardest part is sometimes accepting that you have a problem on your hands, because it can seem easy to talk yourself out of accepting it. If you have any doubt that there's a problem then share the situation with a friend or family member and see what they think. If you keep putting off the problem, 99%  of the time it isn't going to fix itself, and it will only worsen.
      An issue that I had earlier this school year was the amount of money I was spending on eating and drinking out. I knew I was going out more than I ever had before, and often bought meals and drinks for my girlfriend and other friends. I knew there was a problem with the issue after the first month of school, but I just made an excuse to myself that I was making up for the past year of deployment. Finally I decided enough was enough and added up the total charges on my bank statement for going out during a month, and calculated what percent of my income it was costing. I've since then set myself on a budget where I've established a weekly cap on the amount I can spend on going out, and if I meet the cap for the week then it looks like I'll be eating Hamburger Helper and renting a Redbox DVD for my entertainment. I wish I would have come to terms with the problem sooner than I did, the biggest hurdle was being able to accept it. 

Hixson Week 1

In the first chapter of our reading I liked how the author mentioned that although we as peer mentors have the potential to be one of the greatest influences to our students in their college years, we might not always know the answer, or feel like we can offer the best professional advice in certain areas. I think it’s important that we realize that as mentors sometimes the best advice we can give our students in the Hixson class of 2012 is the name and office number of a trained professional to deals exclusively with certain issues. Even if we need to discuss certain topics with our students that we feel very comfortable with, you can’t go wrong by giving out contact information to a professional for additional support.

                The second chapter about student maturation and the impact of peers really hit home for me, as I found myself facing many of the examples of students development my freshman year, while in the military, and even as recently as fall semester of 2011 after being away from college for 20 months.
                My freshman year at Iowa State I left behind a farm that I’d devoted my whole life to, a high school class of 35 students, and a structured life balanced between school, farm work, and sports. In exchange I was given the biggest university in Iowa, free time I’d never had before, and a love for the social life. As a result I had poor time management skills, less than perfect study skills, and an imbalance between work and play.
                My time spent in the military has opened up my understanding and growth of understanding others who come from different ethnicities, religions, and socio-economic backgrounds, both foreign and domestic. It was at this time of reflecting on my past three semesters at Iowa State and my military service that everything came full circle for me, and the picture was clear for what I needed to do academically and personally to become the man I want to be for the rest of my life.
                I returned to classes at Iowa State in fall of 2011, about one month following my deployment to eastern Afghanistan. I came back a much better student with developed study skills, better  time management, and a drive to achieve academically. I did exactly that and for the first time I made the Dean’s list at Iowa State with a 3.83 GPA while taking 19 credits. There were some major adjustments to being back stateside this fall and being out of the military mindset, but I’ve since adjusted just fine, and I’m happy to be back to myself and surrounded by the friends and family I’d missed for the past nearly two years.
                This second chapter of our reading is what it’s all about for me wanting to be a Hixson peer mentor, helping students adjust to their new environment, mature into a young adult, and grow into adulthood.