Sarah

Hey Hawkeyes!

It’s been a busy weekend! Saturday was an awesome day for On Iowa! Ok, it was still a little too warm and humid but it was great besides that. We had some great discussions about what it meant to excel at Iowa and what activities we wanted to engage in. We also discussed bystander intervention in tough situations. This discussion was what I was most nervous for, but I had no reason to be. My small group students were extremely mature and took this discussion very seriously without making it kind of dark and depressing. I am extremely proud of how all my first year students responded when I asked them for one way they, as individuals, would feel comfortable reacting to a situation in which someone may need help. They did so well with that discussion that I also talked with them about the benefits of delaying drinking. They had some questions for me and they responded really well to it. They did such a great job discussing these tough topics and were such responsible adults about the situations that I didn’t get to play all the icebreaker games I had planned. I’m totally Ok with that though. Our discussions were much more valuable and I think (hope) it made them feel more prepared for the responsibility they have now that they’re in college. They will truly uphold our Hawks Helping Hawks commitments. I’m really happy I had such an amazing group. I couldn’t have asked for a better group. I hope they all have an awesome year and that they remember me enough to wave when I excitedly wave at them in passing on campus. I hope I was able to impact them in some way and make their first year in this amazing journey just a little bit easier. At the President’s Block Party following convocation, I saw two of my students hanging out and it made me so happy to see that at least they both felt like they had a friend to sit with and eat dinner with for that day. I hope they stay friends and that the rest of the group will also say hi to each other when they walk by on the way to class. All these hopes and experiences are the reasons why I put so much time and energy into being an On Iowa! leader. It really is incredibly rewarding and I love having the chance to help a few new students have a better year because they(hopefully) felt comfortable asking all their questions.

Sunday was the day Code Red said goodbye. It was really “see you later,” but it seemed like it was goodbye since we wouldn’t be spending hours and hours together anymore.

Red Squad: Code Red!

We did an activity that I did last year with Teal Squad, where we have a yarn ball that gets thrown around the circle and we make a web. Whenever a person caught the yarn ball they had to say why they joined On Iowa! and how they think it helped them. We had some very personal stories in Code Red in which people said that Code Red had helped them overcome some very big issues. A lot of us(me included) were tearing up listening to our friends share their achievements.

Our red web. We’re all connected and will always remember each other! Go Red Squad!

After this extremely touching activity. We decided we needed to quit crying (after the huge group hug) and play some of our favorite icebreakers (yay!). After 5 minutes of icebreakers we were laughing so hard some of us were crying again. I loved my whole squad so much. They had such fantastic, unique personalities! They really taught me what it means to be yourself and find your own style of leadership. One of the things I showed my students was a video from Kid President, his pep talk to students and teachers. In the video, Kid President talked about how we’re teaching the world something everyday and that we need to realize what we’re teaching the world around us. We need to be teaching the world who we are and what we believe. I think it’s true for everyone and it made me think about what goals I want to achieve this semester. I’m working on writing them all down and making sure I’m sticking to them.

The first day was pretty uneventful. I was one of the lucky ones who didn’t get rained on and my first class of the day was even cancelled. I also had mentor training for the Women in Science and Engineering mentoring program. I’m so excited that I live so close to my mentee again this year and that she seems to like me as well! I also love the fact that my mentee from last year still hangs out with me. I absolutely love everything I’m involved with this year. I’m so excited for everything I’ll get to be a part of!

I’ll try and update again at the end of the first week to let you know how the whole first week went!

By the way, holding to tradition: I’m cautiously optimistic for Polymer Chemistry 🙂

Hey Hawkeyes!

I hope you guys are having a fantastic week! I certainly am having a blast!

Thursday was my last move-in shift for moving people into the dorms and I got to meet a bunch of people in my building, so it was really cool. I also worked a shift at the On Iowa! check-in table which was a lot of fun. I worked with a girl from Green Squad and we had a lot of fun teasing each other when we checked-in a student  from the others squad. We both got super excited when we meet someone from our color.

Yesterday was the big day. The day where we have a single short squad meeting and then get our small groups. We would scream and cheer when we saw Red Team people walking towards us. We also chanted Green Squads roll call back to them, but with Red Squad in it. Both Green and Red were trying to out cheer each other. Red totally dominated.

This year the leaders lined up on the sidewalk and two on the end would move to the grass. The first group of 20 students would be paired with one of the leaders. Once they had their 20, they could head to their classroom. I was so excited to get moved to the grass and get a small group. I ended up with 18 in my group. They were a fantastic group and participated in my whacky icebreakers (that I absolutely love!). We had a little bit of classroom time before heading to the Excel Lecture, which happened to be across the river. It was a great opportunity to get to know my small group better through very diverse conversations. In the Excel Lecture we learned about things to do and not do to be successful at University of Iowa. The professor was really great and asked for student leaders for contributions which, I think, helped the new students hear a current students perspective. After the lecture my group (minus two students who, I think, followed different group when everyone left the lecture hall) played a game to help us learn everyone’s name which brought a lot of laughs and some misunderstandings (“Tiller whales” for one). We have a lot of double names in my group and that made it a bit trickier.

After a slight… umm… detour… with my group, we arrived at dinner and mostly sat together. We had a great conversation about classes and some great resources. My small group had a lot of great questions and I know they’re going to have a fantastic year!  Following dinner, we went to Kinnick and had fun. They had a DJ playing music and we took a class picture (On Iowa! Leaders, RAs, and Band members are the outline) with the class of 2018 in gold shirts. Here’s a picture of my Small Group outside Kinnick in their gold shirts. Aren’t they great?!

My Small Group!

Red Squad hung out together on the field and had a ton of fun. We even had a tug-of war with multiple color squads. I love my squad so much and the other squads are so awesome.

Red Squad on Kinnick Field(minus a couple leaders)

Making the “I” for the class of 2018!

The whole class of 2018 at Kinnick!

Some of Red Squad just chillin’ on the turf.

Fireworks at Kinnick-so cool!

I’m not sure whose idea it was, but we had a gold vs. black tug-of war. The OnIowa! leaders were wearing black shirts from the outline of the “I’ and as I mentioned previously, new students were the gold. Although the black team put up a good fight, the gold did win the tug-of war.

Tug-of-war on Kinnick field.

I’m so excited for today! I can’t wait to see my Small Group again! I’m bringing candy for them. They just don’t know that I’m going to make them do an icebreaker for it!

So until later… OnIowa! Go Hawks!

Hey Hawkeyes!

This week has been so busy! It has also been a lot of fun. I get more and more excited every day as we get closer to the On Iowa! program to actually start!

Tuesday was our final day of training for the program. It was also my favorite day. We played icebreakers and practiced answering hard questions as we cheered on our fellow Code Red members. We learned that the word “princess” should probably not slip out when talking to parents (very funny moment from one of the more serious guys on the squad). We also discussed more of the schedule and logistics for Saturday and Sunday. It was a long day of training, but by the end you feel so close to your squad leaving them is really sad.

The theme was Wacky Day.
Think we accomplished that? 🙂

I absolutely love the energy, positivity, and ideas each of these people bring to the group.

Giants, Wizards, and Pixies

One of my favorite games to play was one I actually learned in my honors primetime workshop my first year. Pixies (tickly fingers and giggling) beat giants (arms raised over head with growling), giants beat wizards (waving your finger like a wand), and wizards beat pixies. It’s a team game where each team decides what magical creature they will be and then they come to the line. When the leader says “Go!” or “Who are you?”, each side does their respective motion. The winning side must try to tag the losing side before the losing side makes it to their “home base” (tree, wall, backpack). If the losing side is tagged, they must join the winning side. So it’s like Team Rock Paper Scissors with a tag element and some fun actions.

Dance Party at All-Team!

Who doesn’t like dancing?! It really helps get the energy back up and get everyone moving around. Everyone gets really into it!

Red Squad: Code Red’s flag
The back has all of our names on it. We’re pretty loyal to Red Squad.

Yesterday was the first day of the major move-in days. I love helping people move in. It’s so fun to talk to new students about their majors, activities on campus, and what they’re most excited about. I talked to a pre-med student, an art major, a psychology major, and a math major among many others. It also feels so great to be appreciated. I had a lot of parents tell me how easy move-in was for them. Some of them had moved multiple kids to college and they said that moving into Iowa was by far the best. We try really hard to make it easy and fast.

Herky even helped me and my friend move a student in. He helped drive my cart and get in line at the elevator.

I would also like to point out that that is my first picture with Herky and I would really like another one! I’m so excited to help with move-in again today! I also get to help with OnIowa! check-in so I’m looking forward to that as well.

Last night was also the East Side Spirit Night. It was a great time for students to get to know each other while doing school spirit activities like spray painting a hat, painting a picture frame, and tie-dying shirts. They also played some games which turn out to be a lot more fun when you have a lot of people playing.

The icebreaker “Hey, Me Too” at Spirit Night

This is a great icebreaker and turns into fun chaos when you have a group this big. A lot of Code Red came and spent time doing activities and talking with new students.

Spirit Night Code Red attendees

It was great getting to interact with some of the students we’ll be meeting with tomorrow in our small groups before going to Kick-Off at Kinnick.

Hey Hawkeyes!

OnIowa! leaders are getting so excited to meet their small groups and we are having a blast in training. Yesterday we talked about welcoming our small group and introducing ourselves as well as going over the schedule and logistics for Friday. We’re learning a ton of ice breakers and team building activities. One of the team builders involved Code Red pairing with the Purple Grapes, so of course we were Code Grape. We had fun learning the importance of communication with teamwork so our marshmallows wouldn’t float down the chocolate river. We were divided into teams of 18 and we were given 10 paper plates (the “marshmallows”). We had to cross the “chocolate river” by getting the whole team across by stepping on the marshmallows. The catch was that if a marshmallow wasn’t being held down by someone’s foot, it would float away(be taken away from us). So we all had to work together to pick up a foot and share a plate with another person.

I personally love icebreakers, not the awkward ones that no one wants to do, just the ones that trick you into opening yourself to the group. I like the ones that help start a conversation with the person next to you, even if it is about how weird it is. I love learning all about new icebreakers and getting to try them out. I think I’m most excited to do icebreakers with my small group on Friday. I’m working on compiling an entire list of all of my favorite icebreakers so I can just pull out a different one at any free minute!

We also talked about how to handle tough questions (like ones we may not know the answer to, or are, in general, not relevant to the goal of On Iowa!). It can be one of the scarier parts of the job. You, as a leader, are in front of 20 first-year students that are starting their college experience with their own expectations. You have no idea what they’re thinking about, what background they come from, or what they want to know more about. The On Iowa! planning staff does a fantastic job of helping us feel more prepared for situations we can’t predict and it definitely helps alleviate the worry. In all honesty, we (the leaders) are here to help the transition to college a little easier and give a group of first years or transfer students a face and a name to see as a guide to answering their questions. If we don’t know the answer, we know someone who does and we will do our best to help you have the best, most successful year here at University of Iowa.

Red Squad: Code Red

I’m so thankful that I have such a great team backing me up through this whole week. This is my awesome cast of Code Red leaders.(The only picture I could get to load is the funny one; guess it was meant to be).

They have all been so supportive and encouraging as we figure out what our own leadership style is. Every one of them as been willing to make suggestions or offer advice on dealing with different situations. You can tell that helping people means a lot to them and that’s how you know that the whole OnIowa! program will be absolutely amazing! I couldn’t have asked for a better cast and I’m so excited to continue training and leading our small groups through the program. Thanks, Code Red!

Hey Hawkeyes!

So yesterday was the first day of On Iowa! leader training. It was so awesome to see my squad again! We played some ice breakers to test our memory of names. Just so we’re clear, Maddie’s name is not “Darn it!” The game we played involved having to remember the other person’s name at the drop of a hat, or should I say blanket? Our captains held up a blanket and each team sent someone to the blanket wall, when the blanket dropped you had to say the name of the person you were facing before they said yours in order to get them on your team. It made for some pretty funny moment and some introductions when neither one could think of the others name.

We also ran through what Friday will be like obtaining our small groups. It was very entertaining with a lot of enthusiasm. Next was dinner. We were told we would be having pizza in the IMU. Well, after our practice they took us to the IMU and put us on buses. We were really confused. The bus load of confused Code Red and Dancing Lobsters (our two sections of Red Squad), arrived at the Coral Ridge Mall with the other confused colors. We were then informed we would have pizza, pop, and popcorn at a movie. It was a huge surprise! The movie was called  “Hundred Foot Journey” and it was a fantastic movie. We had so much fun watching it together. It was so cool that a group of 200 people could have a movie night together! I love my squad and I’m so excited for what this week will bring!

I’m off to another day of training and fun! Good luck to all those moving into today for Iowa Edge or Honors Primetime!

Hey Hawkeyes,

It’s the start of a new school year and I’m so excited to be moved into my room at the University of Iowa!!!! I’m an On Iowa! leader again so I’ve moved in early and we’re going to start training today. I’m on Red Squad this year, Code Red cast to be exact. In the spring we had two training days to help prepare us for the training we’re doing this week so we got to meet our squads and spend time with them, but this week will be even better for getting to know them. I’m so excited for all the training and even helping with move-in on Wednesday and Thursday.

I think I have all my school supplies ready and I just need a couple more books to be really ready. The school year hasn’t even started and I already know it’s going to be a great year! I’ve already met a bunch of first years that are moving onto my residence hall floor and they’re all really friendly and excited about getting involved. I hope everyone is feeling ready for the school year! I will post a bunch more this week about all the On Iowa! stuff going on so watch for more updates!

Hey Hawkeyes!

I hope everyone has been staying warm. It hasn’t been an awfully cold week which is kinda nice. However, since it has been warmer the walkways are sloppy with melted snow and sand. When you’re wearing snow boots it really isn’t so bad, but when you need to look nice and wear dress pants with nice shoes it can be a bit difficult. I had a meeting, two classes, and then an interview on Friday and I discovered the previously mentioned difficulty.

I ended up wearing my dress pants tucked into my snow boot with my shiny heels packed in my backpack next to my notebooks. When I got to my interview, I stopped outside and changed into my heels while shoving my boots into my backpack. The interview went well and I’m really excited about that opportunity. I also have two more interviews coming up in the next week and I’m kinda nervous about them. I have all these great opportunities that I’m really excited about.

It’s that situation where you want to get all of them because they’re all amazing but you know that you have to choose between them because they’re all happening at the same time. All of them would provide great experiences and help me develop leadership as well as other skills. I’m hoping that by this time next month I’ll be able to report that I have been offered all three positions and will start the pro and con lists. But until then the only thing I can do is prep for my two interviews and hope.

In other news, I took my first midterm this past week. It went really well, but I’m still nervously awaiting the grade. This next week will bring two tests (both of which I’m a little nervous for) and of course they’re on the same day so my brain will be mush by the end of Wednesday. Luckily, with this past Friday being Valentine’s Day, the stores had some great sales on chocolate so I will be well-prepared for doing homework while eating chocolate that night. At least with two tests it means I have a one less quiz and one less homework assignment this week. My friends and I are falling into a routine of homework along with planning ice cream breaks and movie nights for when we get the homework done early. Hopefully I’ll have time to get my camera out soon so I’ll have more pictures to post of all this snow.

Talk to you all later this week and I’ll let you know how the interviews and tests go.

Hey Hawkeyes!

I can’t believe it’s only the third week of class! I’m so used to my schedule already. Most my classes are falling into a routine(weekly homework and quizzes), which just means that I can now plan out my schedule a little more. I have a class that is only on Wednesday nights and I’m still worried about forgetting to take the quiz before class so I’m hoping that I’ll fall into a routine for that class soon so I don’t have that mini heart attack before I remember what day of the week it is.

My first round of tests is quickly approaching though. One test in the upcoming week, two the next week, and one the week after. I think I’ll have a little bit of break until after spring break (note: I think, it’s not definite yet). I’m really enjoying a few of my classes but haven’t started really disliking any of them yet. My friends and I are still constantly doing homework, the only difference now is that we’ve been trying to finish the homework a couple days before it’s due. With this goal, we’ve had more time to go do fun things, like going to an improv show. This show was a a combination of three different groups. It was a great way to laugh at the end of the week. All three groups did a great job of making the audience laugh and knowing what material to focus on based on how the audience responded. If you’re looking for something to do, definitely check out these groups, they usually post upcoming shows on Facebook.

Great White Narcs

Janice

Paperback Rhino

All the groups doing some improv together

I also had the opportunity to volunteer at a Girl Scout Badge Day hosted by WiSE. The activity I helped with was making drinking straw boats, where we talked about buoyant forces and larger surfaces to support more weight.

Talking about the physics behind buoyancy and boats

If there was an odd number of girls, I would be paired with the lone girl. The first girl I was paired with, I felt really sorry for. She wasn’t feeling well and I had no clue how to build a decent boat. The next girl already had a plan when I walked up to her and I did a fantastic job taping the straws together. Our boat held 141 pennies! I’m not sure who was more excited: me or the girl scout.

The amazing boat that held 141 pennies

Even though the record ended up being 189 pennies, I was still pretty proud of our boat(even though I just put the tape on). It was a lot of fun getting to know the girls and watching them get really excited about the number of pennies their boats held.

As some of you may know, last weekend was also Superbowl Sunday. We had a Superbowl party in our lounge.

Superbowl!

We ordered pizza and had chips, carrots, grapes, and meatballs. It was also my friend Abby’s birthday so she shared the birthday cake her family had brought her. It was nice to just spend time with friends and relax(although I did more homework than game watching). Hopefully the rest of the semester continues to be as stress-free as the first few weeks have been!

Spring semester is kinda deceptive since this weather is definitely not spring.

Hey Hawkeyes!

Staying warm? I’ve been trying to! Luckily, most of my classes are pretty close to each other. For example, on Wednesdays I spend 3 consecutive hours in the Chem building for 3 different classes. However, I have decided I need to find a scarf made from a different material; I’m tired of picking scarf fuzz off my face when I get to class.

The weather is one of those things that you never thought about in high school. You knew there was a foot of snow on the ground and the temperature was below freezing, but that just meant you had to climb into a cold car and drive to school wearing gloves. Once you got there, you were in the same building for the whole day. In college, you have to be way more prepared. You really need a good pair of boots, a good winter coat, gloves, a hat, and a scarf. Most the time when it’s just cold, it doesn’t feel too bad outside. It’s the wind that really makes you feel the cold. It makes your ears and nose cold really fast. And the nearest bus stop isn’t necessarily all that close. After one of my night classes I decided to just walk across campus since that would be faster than waiting for a bus. When I finally arrived at my dorm, I decided that plan will be revised for the next class.

Now that we’re going into the second week of class I feel like this is when all the first week reviews of old information are wrapping up and all the classes are moving into new information. Which basically means that now is when you need to figure out where you’re going to get help if you need it. Maybe that help is from a tutoring center, the teaching assistants, or even the professor. Now you just need the motivation to get up and go get help, which can be kinda hard when the weather is so cold. Sometimes, even the motivation to go to class is hard to find when it’s this cold. I find that if you can take hot cocoa or coffee with you to class, knowing that when you get to class and can drink something warm makes it just a little easier and sometimes that’s all you need. I keep hot cocoa, coffee, and apple cider in my room just for that reason. I also found that having a leak-proof travel mug helps your day go slightly better; it’s not a great start to your day when your coffee mug slips and spills on your notebook. In this weather you can use boiling water and by the time you get to class your hot cocoa is at a completely drinkable temperature. 🙂

Good luck to everyone in the second week of school! Let’s make this an awesome semester!

Hey Hawkeyes!

Glad to be back to another semester? I am! Well, ok, I’m still nervous about my classes but I’m determined to make this semester even better than last semester. But first a little catch up on some of the activities leading up to winter break.

To start of the fun of finals week, Women in Science and Engineering hosted their annual cookie decorating party for the living-learning community. As always there was lots of frosting, sprinkles, and of course ugly sweaters. It’s so nice to relax for a few hours, eat some cookies (not all of them are pretty enough to be donated), and drink hot cocoa while watching it snow. We always have a lot of fun mixing new colors and creatively decorating the different cookie shapes.

Cookie Decorating!

Here’s some of the cookies I decorated:

Let’s just say it’s a good think I’m chemical engineering and not anything that involves decorating.

Then, of course, was the fun-filled week of studying and taking tests like a crazy person. I had five finals so I knew I had to be on top of studying. Luckily, I have some great friends in my classes so we had some major study sessions in my floor’s lounge with the white boards.

Yay! Thermodynamics!

I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it again, you really need to know how you study most effectively. If I’m trying to learn something, I need to be by myself. But if I’m reviewing or practicing, I like to be with other people working on the same things. Especially for long math problems or complicated organic chemistry reactions, other people can catch your mistakes as you’re making them so you don’t have to re-do the entire problem just to get the right answer. I also like hearing other people’s methods for remembering patterns or formulas we need.

Almost done with finals!

Another great way to study is to make review sheets for yourself. I like to go through all my notes and make a list of the main topics with a couple of the more detailed concepts and then follow my sheet. For math, I made a list of concepts with check boxes next to them and would do practice problems until I got several right and then would check it off. I would also use the back of my review sheets to make short notes about little details that I would always forget, like a step in a problem or a key definition. When I left for the final I would glance over the review sheet one last time as well as look at my list of common mistakes so the correct answers were in my head before I took the final. All of my finals went pretty well, so I guess my system works for me.

The view from the front of Old Capital on my way to a review session

One of the other fun things that was up before finals week was the bulletin board design. Each floor has a bulletin board that’s decorated each month with creative ideas. In the Women in Science and Engineering Living-Learning Community, half the board is designed by the RA and the other is designed by the LLC programmer, who is in charge of planning events that go with the floor’s theme. I thought this design was absolutely awesome. It was a map of the United States with a world map below it with road maps as a background. All the residents received a pin with a string tied around it that had our name attached. We were to put the pin on the most interesting place we would be traveling to over winter break. It was really cool when everyone had put their pins in. Some people were taking family vacations to places like Mexico or Washington D.C., some people were taking classes in India, and some were simply going home to places like Florida or visiting family in Africa. It was interesting to stand at the board just turning over little pieces of paper to read the names and see where everyone was going.

My floor’s map

It was also easier  to ask everyone how their break was when we got back because you knew what cool places they had been to. It was definitely awesome to see everyone again. It’s weird when you get used to seeing people everyday or just hearing the sound of their voice down the hall, and then all of the sudden you don’t have that any more. The first night we were all back, the girls on my floor were up and down the entire hallway trying to talk to everybody. It took me a couple days to unpack because I kept getting distracted with talking to everyone. My group of friends went out to eat as soon as everyone was moved back in on Monday night. When we left dinner, we realized it was snowing really heavily and, since I absolutely love how pretty snow is, I thought campus looked beautiful so I had to take a picture.

Pentacrest at night in a snowstorm

Break definitely helped me feel relaxed and a lot more ready to take on another semester. By the end of first semester I always feel so burned out and I’m so thankful to have a month off class and homework, especially the homework part. Technically, Tuesday was the first day of classes, but I only had two seminars that are actually a lot more of talking, discussing, and participating. That basically means Tuesday did not feel like a school day, Wednesday definitely felt like a school day though. I had classes from 9:30 to 2:30 and then from 7-9. Talk about a busy day. I can’t wait to fall into a routine with my schedule. I think the class I’m most cautiously optimistic for is a class called Drugs: Their Nature Action and Use. The class is about why medications react the way they do in the body and cause the side effects everyone worries about. We will also be discussing how new medications are developed. I think it will be a really interesting class and I’m going to learn a ton. My advisor says it will help me decide if I want to study the pharmaceutical side of chemical engineering or if I want to look at some other areas of chemical engineering. I know at least one person in most of my classes and look forward to making some new friends. I think the most exciting parts of new classes is the possibility of new friends to talk to and new information to learn.

One of my New Year’s Resolutions is to set aside more time to blog so I’ll try to stick to it! Until next time, have a great first week!