Living on Campus or Commuting? Which is Better for You?

This Video Has Me Stressed

  I am not going to lie not one bit in this blog post about the video project that I have to do for my INQ class. I have to create a video post on a certain topic that basically has to give first year students some advice. I am really stressed out about this video for a couple of reasons. For starters, I don't know how to make a video on imovie. Secondly, I still don't have a topic to talk about. Not only that, but I think its going to be very awkward video taping one of my professors. Lastly, I have no idea how I want my video to look like. My mind has been going blank. Thankfully I have a friend who has given me an idea. This idea is to talk about whether commuting or living on campus is better. I think this is a big question first year students have when attending college. Some students decide to commute because it is way cheaper for them or they just don't want to get away from home. The students who commute miss out on the opportunity to live on their own in college. Other students want the experience of living on their own. I plan to ask questions that help first year students decide on what to do. Some of these questions are:

• Are you a commuter or a resident?
• If your are a commuter where do you live?
• If your a resident what hall do you live in?
• For a commuter, Do you find commuting easy?
• For a resident, How do you like living on campus? etc

  I hope thorough my video students can gain some helpful advice. Who knows, maybe a commuter might change their mind after watching my video and become a resident next semester or next year.

All This Free Time

   In college you have so much time on your hands. With all this time comes procrastination. Procrastination is putting off work until a later time. In high school I would procrastinate all the time. Whenever I had a project due I would wait until the day before to do it. I knew once i got to college I would have to change that. So I did. In my INQ class, my professor asked the class to write down everything that we do for a whole week straight to see see how much time we spend doing homework and how much time we spend doing other things. I found that so far I'm balancing my time pretty good. I most of my work before its due that way I have more time for me. Even though I get most of the work done, I still get off track when I'm doing the work. My roommates are a HUGE distraction. I spend all of my time with my roommate because were just that close. When we try to do our work we start to goof around and it takes us a little longer to do some work. But I found a way to manage my time. I found that making a schedule works best for me. On Thursdays I get out of my last class at 4:30pm and as soon as I get out I make a To Do List of all the things that I have to do before my next class. Usually on Thursday I do a draft of my next blog post and my online math homework. Then throughout the weekend I spread out all of the readings that I have to do. I usually spend about 10 hours all weekend reading and writing down my notes. During the week I do my homework as soon as I get it for each class so I'm not back up on the weekend and this way I don't have to rush at the last minute to try to get it done. It is very easy to get side tracked when you have have a lot of extra time before and after classes. So find a strategy that works for you, so your time will be manage.

Get Involved !

   On Wednesday September 19,2012 I attended the club fair. It was held in the academic quad in front of the student center. Every single club that is here on campus was outside that day. There were so many clubs and organizations, that I was so tempted to join all of them. Since there was so many, I lowered my options to only three clubs that I was really interested in. The first club that I signed up for was The Organization of Latin American Students (OLAS). This organization tries to raise latino awareness on campus and helps out latino students who may need help. As a Latina student, I felt really connected to this organization. The second club that i singed up for and plan to join is Colleges Against Cancer. I signed up for this club because my mother has cancer and I want to help in anyway that I can. The last club that i signed up for was ProCon. ProCon plans a lot of fun events on campus. For example, they had the New Boyz come for a welcome back concert. I would like to join ProCon because I want to plan fun events on campus for students to enjoy and to make this campus fun. I know that being apart of three clubs, trying to balance a job, and do my school work will be a challenge, but I'm willing to give it a shot.

An A+ Blog

   In my INQ class we were asked to create a blog. Every week my class has a blog post due on a certain topic. At the end of the week the class receives a grade for that weeks class. In my opinion there are two blogs that I think deserve an A. The first blog that I think deserves an A is Tcube by Taylor Delmae. Her blog shows her own personal style. Taylor speaks the truth in all all of her blog post also. Not only that, but she is a good writer and includes pictures with almost all of her post. Taylor's creativity also comes out in her blog. Her blog tittle and post titles are eye catching; I can't help but read them. Tcube is an A blog in my book. Another blog that I think is an A is College Living by Natalie Savoy. Natalie's blog expresses how creative she can be. Her blog is fancy and fun. She has well developed details about all of the topics she writes about followed by a picture. What makes this blog so unique is that instead of having everything written out on a page, she has all her topics written on flip cards. I haven't seen any other blog with these flip cards. Both Taylor and Natalie have an A blog where they write about similar topics but express them in different ways.

Tips from my INQ class

   These past few weeks have been a little over whelming for me. I had to adjust to my class, using a community bathroom, and living with two other girls. (Yes I'm in a triple.) But fortunately I have this great class called inquiry that has given me a few tips when it comes to adjusting to a new environment. There are a few tips that stuck with me that I would like to share with you. One of the most helpful tips that has helped me out in my classes was on how to take notes so that you can capture the main points of a class or lecture. My INQ professor showed me how to write down questions that I may have so that we can discuss them in class. Also not to write down everything that the professor says word for word because you may not understand it. This way you can write down the main points and write it down quicker. Another good tip that i got out of this class was how to set goals for myself to become successful in life.  Setting goals for myself allows me to come closer and closer to what has to be done. I set goals for myself that I want to achieve so that I can be happy and successful. My INQ class is suppose to help me learn how to be successful during my four years here at SCSU. So far its helping me a lot and giving me some good tips. I'm excited to continue to receive more tips from this class.

Southern Connecticut State University vs. Saint Augustine

 Today I experienced my very first college football game. Southern Connecticut State University played against Saint Augustine in their first home opener of the season. SCSU was leading the game by 14 points in the first quarter. Then things started to get a little rocky. Saint Augustine took the lead and won the game. The final score was 30-14. Even though we lost, I still had a fun experience. Before the game started there was free food and t-shirts just for southern students. At the game there were a couple of different things going on. Outside the gates were lots of people cooking out and loud music playing. Not only that, but there was a table set up that allowed people to register to vote for this years election. Inside the gates were the loud fans cheering for southern. The best part for me was the halftime performance. The St. Augustine's marching band did an amazing job. They had the crowd on their feet. At the end of the day, even though southern came out with a loss, I still had fun. I can't wait to go to another sporting event.