Off to the bookstore...

Hello Everyone,

Thank you for your continued support of my blogging endeavor. Today I present to you the first of what I hope to be the future of many video blogs. Please excuse my amateur video recording... I'm still working on it. Enjoy! 

Thanks for watching,
Joe

Back at Work...

Hello everyone,

I would first like to offer my sincere apologies for my lengthy absence. If you are unaware our term ends right before Thanksgiving so I was I little overwhelmed with papers and tests. Fortunately I survived and refreshed after a nice week and a half break, plus we only have a three week sprint to Christmas. So, no complaints.

On a sad note over break one of our students, Jenni-Lyn Watson went missing from her New York home, only for her remains to be discovered this past Saturday in a local park. Jenni-Lyn was a Junior Dance major and will be seriously missed by many on campus. Through this tragedy the Mercyhurst community has held prayer services, we're sending a bus of interested students to attend her funeral, and have started fundraising for an organization that deals with missing children, which played a large role in the search for Jenni-Lyn. While I would never wish this situation to happen it truly exemplifies this community and the connections and relationships that is intertwined within it. Our thoughts and prays go out to Jenni-Lyn, her parents, family, friends, and specifically all of those who were active to the search.

While this was a very sad note to return to school on, classes are restarting so it is once again time to get back into the routine. This term I have one Mon-Wed-Fri class and three Tues-Thurs class (not the most preferred schedule). I have Crisis Communication, Philosophical Inquiry, Communication Techniques, and Catholic Symbols and Traditions.

As always I am very excited for my communication classes. Its awesome to be excited about your classes because you know that one day you are going to actually be called on to apply what you've learn. Its nice to know that I've enjoyed learning it so I can only hope that I will enjoy using it. My philosophy course I cannot say that I am excited to take, but I have to take it so it will be good to get it out of the way. As for my Catholic Symbols and Traditions class it will also be my last religion class, seeing as we have to take two, but the last religious studies course, which I also took with this professor, was truly enjoyable purely for the brilliance of this professor (Montevecchio if you were wondering), so for that I am excited.

Well, that is my update. Everything is getting back into order, but I can only imagine what this term has in store for me.

Thanks for reading,
Joe

P.S.- My birthday passed over break so I am now a proud owner of a Flip-Cam, so I hope to be able to include more videos in my posts, so keep an eye out for those!

Summing up the term

Hello,

As of today we have about a week left of classes and two weeks until the end of finals. All of my professors are kinda moving toward summing up everything that we have been talking about all term and moving toward actually preparing us for the numerous tests, papers, and/or projects that we have due. 

Just to give you an idea...

Mathematical Problem Solving- Yes, sound easy? It is. This math course falls into the "Common Core" or the general education courses that all students have to participate in. (I will write another post explaining the core) This course goes through trigonometry, fiance, probability, and something else that I cannot remember at the moment. While this course is only one of many I decided to go with the easier class simply due to my lack of interest in math and the fact that I do not have a great need for high math skills. The nice thing about this class is that there are only four quizzes and four tests, therefore... NO CUMULATIVE FINAL! So, that makes  me happy :-)

World Politics- This classes is a great example of using the Core to your advantage. As I have expressed in my description I am a political science minor and to get a minor you must take "American Government" and 8 other poli sci courses, of which three areas have political science courses. So when I'm done with the Core I will already by a third of the way done with my minor. Ok, so World Politics was a pretty easy class assuming that you enjoy politics. This class had one test and two papers on current issues, along with critical thinking blogging assignments throughout the term. This class falls into my core and my minor. It was good, easy, and interesting... the best of all worlds. 

Principles of PR- This class has been overwhelmingly my favorite class this term. It has had a medium work load, but for the most part the professor doesn't just lecture from a powerpoint and podium, rather she is moving around, has the class critically thinking about various and current topics. With two "midterm" like tests and a large project, it remains my favorite. Today we listened to a presentation from Greg Verdino through American Marketing Association about Social Media and Networking. The picture on the right shows a picture of this presentation. Our school works really hard at diversifying the style in which we learn and this is only one example.

Religions Persons and Traditions- My final class is one of our three required religion courses. Being a Catholic college, this is a just a fact that everyone must take religion classes, but there are a wide variety of classes that have nothing to do with Catholicism and therefore make there is no sense of a religion being forces on the students. This class was difficult with a lot of religious theory, but more so due to the number of tests and papers. The thing I admired most about this class is the professor; he was brilliant! A class may be difficult, but when you have someone who knows their stuff and makes you interested, no matter how hard the class you start to enjoy it.

Ok... that was a lot, but those are all the course I am just finishing up with. I guess there are two morals from this story... 1. It doesn't have to be a "major" class for you to enjoy it and 2. If you enjoy your "major" then you have way more fun it its classes :-D

Thanks for reading,
Joe