Student Life Activity (Winter Formal)

On December 3rd, 2016 I went to the Winter Formal dance that Campus Programs held. Formal was at the Mr. Tipple's recording studio in Downtown San Francisco. I was really excited to go to this because it was the first time I would be dressing up formally since Prom of my Senior Year. I went with a group of friends. Although the venue was small, it was still a fun dance. For the most part everyone was dancing and taking pictures at the photo booth. It was a really fun atmosphere and I had a great time. I'm really looking forward to going next year. I would definitely recommend this event to other students.

Social Justice Speaker

On November 17th, our FYS class listened to Social Justice Speaker Rose Jacobs Gibson. Rose Jacobs Gibson worked for the San Mateo County of Supervisors for 14 years. She just recently stepped down, but she continues to help her community in any way that she can. While listening to her give her speech, I thought that the Hallmark she most reflected was Hallmark 4. Hallmark 4 states "We Commit ourselves to community service.". Throughout her time of being Supervisor she committed most of her time to community service, and coming up with ways she could help her community. While she was giving her speech the topic she talked about was giving back to people of her community. She also believes that Justice and Peace are two very valuable things in the world that need to be practiced in our everyday lives. This also closely reflects Hallmark 3, "We educate for an act on behalf of justice and peace in the world.".

I aspire to reflect these values in my own life because they very closely relate to what I want to do with my career. Being that I want to work with foreign policy, I have to work for Justice for people around the world along with peace. I need these two values in order to come up with compromise, and compromise is something that is always needed when negotiating with other countries. I also aspire to obtain the type of Leadership that Rose Jacobs Gibson had. She was able to make a difference in her community, and I want to be able to make a difference in the world.

Freshmen Seminar Conference

On November 3rd, 2016 I attended and participated at the Freshmen Seminar Conference. At the conference I learned more about the Happiness class and what their class is really about. I also learned about the Altruism class, and what really differentiates a person that is altruistic, and a person that is hospitable. Being a presenter for our class I learned a lot about the aspects of cooperative and collaborative learning. It was really a difficult task in my personal opinion. It was hard for the entire class to come down to a single agreement. And it was hard to communicate with each other outside of class if we wanted to get a task done, especially with people that are constantly absent. This project helped show me the pros and cons of cooperative learning. If us the students would have been more responsible, and managed our time well this project would have gone a lot smoother. Regarding the other class presentations, I felt like I learned more when people asked questions after the presentations. Because students actually analyzed the information being given to them, and wanted more insight of it.

Call to Action Refelction

On October 11th, our class participated in Call to Action Day. We went on a trip with 5th graders from Ravenswood to the Marine Science Institute in Redwood City. I had so much fun on this trip, not only were the kids entertaining themselves but so were the activities that we were doing on the vessel. We the students were suppose to serve as mentors towards the 5th graders, and I truly believe we accomplished this. The one moment that I realized I was really making a meaningful impact was when I helped translate the instructions of an activity in Spanish to some students who were not very fluent in English. What I learned about the value of service through this activity is that just being able to assist someone with something makes so much more of a difference towards the person that you’re helping. In this case I was able to make the trip more fun for the students which makes me happy. This activity gives me the opportunity to branch out to similar organizations and help as a mentor for students during their trips as well. I would definitely do this again.

From both Sarah Jayne Blackmore's Ted Talk, and Dan Siegel's presentation I learned what a fixed mindset was, and what a growth mindset was. A fixed mindset is worrying about being jugged while a growth mindset is knowing that things can be improved. I personally thought that Sarah Jayne Blackmore's presentation was better because there was more examples that engaged the audience's attention instead of just a long lecture about a topic. The overlap from both presentations was that they both talked about the same subject of a fixed, and growth mindset. The way that their presentations differed was that one was more interactive than the other. For example, Sarah had a little brain and when trying to explain how a certain part of the brain works she would pick up the brain and point to a certain part of it to help the audience understand. While Dan's presentation was more of just a lecture. I found myself getting bored and would often lose my attention.

I have a fixed mindset when it comes to math. I have always had trouble in math, it's my weakest subject. Whenever it comes to a difficult problem, I always think I can't solve it, or if I get a bad grade on a quiz I put myself down. A way a can change this fixed mindset is by simply encouraging myself to work out the problem even if it is wrong. Because doing the problem is better than not doing the problem at all. A way I can help promote a growth mindset to others is by encouraging them to do better in something, even if they think their already good at it. There is always room for improvement.

Hallmark 4

Last week on Friday we got to be informed on our service and partnership with the Marine Science Institute and what exactly we would be doing. Being that we are working with fourth graders from Ravenswood School, we are expected to be mentors for the children. Assisting them with any help that they need, making sure that the children are safe, and being someone that they can look up to while we are there. Ultimately being an older brother or sister for them. Hallmark 4 "We Commit Ourselves To Community Service" seems like the most relevant Hallmark for our planned Community Engagement Activity, and the most appealing to me personally.  Why the CEA? Well, our service is to not only help with the children's learning experience, but to also ensure that the children are having a fun time. While doing this, us as mentors as well learn. We learn how to adapt to teaching younger children, and a wide variety of personalities. This will help us as mentors truly understand the different methods of teaching, and the different ways teaching can be approached. Along with being able to be teaching mentors, we will be creating a partnership with the Marine Science Institute. This is what Hallmark 4 addresses, committing ourselves to community service through academic and co-curricular activities. This personally resonates to my life because I used to attend programs that the Marine Science Institute has. Whether it was a park program, or a church program, I always had an older mentor to look up to and teach me new things. It always made me look forward for summer, and it made me want to become a mentor myself in High School for children at the local middle school. So I'm very much looking forward to this CEA.