Blog #4 Personal Statement

“Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it.”- Russell Baker, a quote that reminds me of today quite often. Reason that I will always remember this quote is today’s current event of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The BP oil spill is a current event that interests me as it brings up many questions. Such as how are the people that live along the gulf coast affected? How will it affect the environment? How long will it take to fully restore the environment?

How are the people that live along the gulf coast affected? Well many people are affected as the oil spill has made many fishermen lose their jobs. Since the oil slick is too thick killing much of the wildlife in the gulf. By affecting the fishermen it is also affecting local restaurants that depend on the local fishermen. Tourism to the Gulf States is also affected as many of the beaches have been affected as well by the oil. Not only is commerce and tourism affected by the oil spill but the local marine environment as well.

So how will the oil spill affect the environment? Well it has destroyed a lot of marine life making parts of the gulf inhabitable. Fortunately some animals where saved but had to be cleaned off as much of the wildlife was covered in oil. The bad news is that many of these animals can’t be released back into the wild as if they where they would be covered in oil again. Now the question is how long until the oil leak can be stopped?

How long until the oil leak can be stopped and how long will it take to fully restore the environment? No one knows exactly when and how the oil leak will be stopped since there have been many attempts and all have failed to successfully stop oil from coming out of the well. For the environment not much can be said either but that it will be a very long time before it is even restored or even fully cleaned up. It will probably be generations to come before the planet can recover from this oil spill.

All in all, the BP oil leak is one of the worst disasters up to date on oil spills. I know that it is difficult to stop and people are getting impatient. I believe that this issue can be resolved if BP can just delay any more oil from coming out and during that time close the well. I hope that this issue can in fact be resolved as I don’t want to hear in the news that we have entered day 365 of the oil leak and the consequences due to the leak for that huge amount of time.

Blog #3 Personal Statement

“There is nothing noble about being superior to some other man. The true nobility is being superior to your previous self.” – Hindu Proverb, a quote that I will always remember thanks to my Soccer Coach Michael Bailey. Coach Bailey stands out in my life since he shares the same passion I do for soccer but his ability to relate moments in a game to real life situations. I respect and admire Coach Bailey because of his leadership, teaching, and coaching abilities.

Coach Bailey’s coaching ability is one that is different from most. Coach Bailey works with all three teams at Elkhorn. He focuses on building up a style of play introduced to the freshman team building it up to the Varsity team. Since Coach Bailey likes working with all three teams the younger guys get to play with the older guys which helps develop the younger guys’ skills to a higher level. Coach Bailey would never put any of the younger guys on the spot when he introduced a new drill he would have the Varsity guys try it out first. His coaching abilities end up being more of a learning experience from one another.

Coach Bailey not only coaches soccer he teaches player’s in the classroom as well. Coach Bailey after each Varsity game we have like a small class before we go to the actual practice. On those days it’s the only time freshman don’t practice with the older guys. On those days in the classroom we study video from our previous game where we study the things we did right and wrong. On those days as well Coach Bailey will give us worksheets about adversity, what to do at different times during a game, etc. and sports and motivational articles.

Motivation was the biggest leadership characteristic’s that Coach Bailey possesses. Coach Bailey motivated the team in good and bad times. He would often say that playing on the Freshman/JV teams winning and losing doesn’t matter the most important thing is getting better and would often refer to the quote of nobility, but for Varsity losing really isn’t an option because the overall goal is to be playing at Creighton in May. In practice he would show his leadership by trying to keep a positive attitude with a few exceptions due to people not focusing. The only thing Coach Bailey asks out of everyone is to try your best and to be better than your previous self.

Taking a few things learned from soccer can be applied in my college experience. From Coach Bailey’s classes I was able to get the strategy of analyze things and being able to improve off of it. So now after every test and seeing how I did based of how well I did on it I try to determine whether or not to continue my study habit or if I should change it in order to improve my score in the class. The big idea that I have picked up from Coach Bailey is just be better than your previous self, which I believe will help me throughout college inside and out of class.

My First Week as a College Student

The first week as a college student just flew by. First week I learned how life is like being a college student living on campus and from living at home. During the first part of the week I was still living at Scott Hall. During those days prioritizing was very difficult most of the summer scholars just wanted to have fun, making it more difficult to focus. While living at home prioritizing school work is much easier as there aren’t as many distractions from other people. In the days I lived at Scott Hall and attended school I felt very lucky as the only homework I had to do for the week was read a few pages from the book and documents at the UNO Blackboard. Learning how to handle distractions and having time management will come a long way in living at campus if I decide to do that.
Not only did I have to find out how college life is like from home or living at campus. I found out how college professors are like. I am enrolled in History 1120 with Dr. Scherer. Dr. Scherer reminds me a lot of my football coach/ AP History teacher Mr. Wortman. My college professor reminds me a lot of my high school teacher because they both tend to move the class pretty fast and just keep talking without slowing down unless someone where to say something. Other than that the course is different than a high school class because our professor doesn’t care if you show up to his class or not or even take notes of his lecture (not a good thing to do). I can’t really say if this class is easy or not as I haven’t had anything for a grade yet until I take my first test tomorrow.
It is good to know that I am not alone and that I am with nine other summer scholars taking the class. I am fortunate to have a study group led by our RTA Caitlin Sheley where we can help each other. In our study group we help each other by clarifying anything we might be confused on or by helping each other with our notes. By having a study group twice a week it just makes things easier from transitioning from high school to college. With all that being said wish me luck tomorrow as it will be my first grade in history!

Residence Life with Summer Scholars

How many people can say that they lived on campus without graduating from high school? Not many that’s for sure, but I am one of those who can say yes as I am fortunate enough to be a part of the 2010 Summer Scholars Program at UNO. By being a part of the program I was given the opportunity to live on campus at Scott Residence Hall. Part of me was excited and couldn’t wait to live on campus but another part of me was nervous as I was going to live with people that I have never met before and not knowing how I was going to spend my time there.
As I arrived checked in to my dorm, I ran in to two of my three roommates Paul Nguyen and Rafael Estrada. The moment I saw Paul I was relieved to see someone I had met before during the school year and got know many new friends from Papillion-LaVista, Millard North, Millard South, Burke, etc. (Sorry that I didn’t mention everyone’s school little short on time). My third roommate Garyth Barnes is an interesting person as he is a very open minded person and knows how to lower tensions within the group and can get laughs going among me and the other scholars. I got to know many people at Carol Joy Holling Camp. We were split into three groups mine was called Super Fly! At the camp my group and I built trust and confidence with each other by completing tasks such as rock climbing, high ropes course, and other challenges.
Not only getting to know my fellow scholars was cool in my stay at Scott Hall but also the RTAs. The RTAs are awesome as they kept us occupied with many activities such as Mojo Scavenger Hunt, Outdoor Fun , etc. They also helped us through any questions that we had throughout our stay. All of them gave us the respect we want and in return all of the scholars did as well. All I can say is thank you all and see you at class Car'Lika, Jarett, Caitlin, Miguel, Koua, and Tricia.