Capstone Activities

     As a Capstone Scholar I am required to attend one social event, one cinema, and one conversation as well as complete a personal challenge and do community service.  I have already talked greatly in detail about my service-learning at Hand Middle School which counts for my community service points.  I will discuss now the four other requirements. 
     The first requirement is to attend a social event.  Mainly these are either Hot Cookie Fridays or Everyones Birthday Party, both of which occur on Fridays at 2 pm.  Thankfully, I was able to attend the first social event before school really got under way because I have a Biology Lab at 2 pm on Fridays that prevents me from attending these events.  I attended the Hot Cookie Friday and would say it was nice.  I tried a cookie and it was good, but you really cannot go wrong with Toll House cookies that are precut and made and all you have to do is stick in the oven.  I met a few people that lived on my floor that I still talk to now and again but would not say we are close friends.  Overall, the event was nice but not too exciting that it would be something I greatly look forward to each friday it is held.
     Moving on to the second requirement which is to attend a Captsone sponsored cinema.  I attended the cinema on "Darius Goes West".  This cinema really intrigued me because over the summer I saw the movie at the YMCA during our training sessions for our special needs program.  I really loved the movie and was excited to see Darius in real life.  I thought the cinema was great!  They showed bits and pieces of the movie that they enjoyed best and spoke on each part and how it was most memorable to them.  I really got to understand the true background to the entire movie and how connected they all were.  I felt the cinema was one of the best to choose to attend because I was able to really connect with the movie by having the director and main actor there guiding the audience through the movie bit by bit.
     The third requirement is to attend a Capstone Conversation.  My conversation had to do with the book, The Naked Roommate.  The author, Harlan Cohen, came to speak about the book and his personal experience.  He spoke about how we as freshman can succeed in college with any obstacle we may face.  We may not necessarily have a crazy roommate but we will have issues that will need to be dealt with.  We will have difficult teachers and classes that will take all our effort to succeed in but we can do it if we try hard enough and have the right mind set.  He was a very funny speaker and really engaged the audience to want to listen and hear more.  I thought the conversation was great and very enjoyable.  I learned a lot about how I should not stress over little things and understand that everyone makes mistakes in their grades but mainly these mistakes are building blocks to do better.  You have to start somewhere and if you start down the only way to go is up!
     The final requirement, besides the community service point, is to overcome a personal challenge.  I really struggled the first few weeks of trying to find a challenge a use.  I wanted to do something that would really push me for more than one time but I also wanted to make sure I did something I knew I could reasonably succeed.  I finally decided on taking the stairs every day and only using the elevator once a day to get to my room on the fifth floor of Capstone.  This challenge really pushed me to use the stairs and be forced to walk up them.  I already walk everywhere and go to the gym once a day and my challenge was just an added push to my physical well-being.  I succeeded in only taking the elevator once a day and eventually got to the point where I never took the elevator.  I found that taking the stairs was sometimes a lot quicker than waiting for an elevator to come and it was more beneficial physically and mentally.

End of Service-Learning

     It has been an entire semester of my service-learning experience, wow does not seem like it was that long to me.  Many aspects of my service-learning were good and bad.  Looking back it is hard to distinguish which was the best experience overall.  I would mostly have to say talking with my mentee and just enjoying the time together was the best experience overall.  I know that helping her with homework and staying organized was important, but I think building a relationship was even more important.  Listening to what she liked to do and staying engaged within her life was really important for her to trust me.  I think this trust will be far more beneficial in future visits then if we just sat there going through what was required and leaving without connecting at all. 
     I feel overall that my time spent at Hand Middle School was beneficial.  It allowed me to venture outside USC's campus and help someone.  I think I gained knowledge of how to be a mentor and help other people just from helping my mentee.  I feel well equipped to get through my freshman year by incorporating some of the ideas I helped my mentee cover. 
     Thankfully, I do continue to mentor at Hand Middle School on Fridays.  I believe continuing the mentoring will only help my mentee further by having a constant force to help her with her homework or listen to her problems.  It will help her gain the trust that someone will be able to support and encourage her at school when she needs it most.  I look forward to making great progress with my mentee next semester and just watch how mentoring changes her in a positive way from where she was at the beginning of the year.

Thanksgiving!

     Tomorrow I leave home for Thanksgiving!  If you cannot tell I am really excited!  It has been well over a month since fall break which means it has been well over a month since I have been home.  I have only seen my parents once since then and am excited to see them.  My brother will also be home from school and I am excited to see him since I have not see him since I moved here in August.  This year Thanksgiving will be at our house which means I get to see the rest of my family too.  By the time I arrive home on Tuesday everyone except my cousin should already have arrived.  So needless to say when I walk into my house there will be a big welcoming party.  This will be nice because after being gone from family for so long it will be nice to have everyone there and I don't have to travel any further than I already have to in order to get home.
     Over Thanksgiving my family is going to do what every other family will most likely be doing.  We will have a big Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday and just sit around enjoying each other's company.  On Friday all the women in the family will go shopping while the men do whatever they would like to do.  I am excited for shopping so I can get all my Christmas presents for my friends here at school and so I can get some own personal things.  Saturday is another big day for my family because Virginia Tech plays Virginia at home.  Everyone is excited for this game because Virginia Tech has already secured a spot in the ACC Championship game and now we can go undefeated in the ACC if we beat Virginia.  Another incentive to beat Virginia is because they are our rival and noone wants to lose to their rival.  Overall, I think this break will be really fun and relaxing at the same time!

Sustainability

      For class today we got to plant trees on campus.  Typically, I am not excited by gardening or landscaping, but it was to support a good idea so I was all for it.  We were planting trees to offset our carbon emission on campus.  To be honest, this was the best way to get rid of this emission because many people, including myself, are not aware of everything they do and how they are affecting the earth. 
     I admit, I am not a tree-hugging, let's save the whales individual.  I use energy and I typically do not use it wisely.  However, my parents are very concerned with saving water and energy so as not to run up our utilities bill.  Some of these ideas have carried over to college with me.  For instance, I take quick showers because I am so used to taking quick showers so as not to waste water at home.  This habit grew on me my sophomore year of high school when we had a drought in Raleigh and everyone was finding ways to conserve water.  Another habit I have is to not run the heat unless necessary.  Thankfully, I am typically a person that does not enjoy heat in the winter because I like to be cold as opposed to hot so the heat is never on in my dorm room.  We do however run a mini-fan at night to add some air to the room because even though we aren't running the heat, it is circulating throughout the dorm and naturally making our room hotter than we would like. 
     Although I am proud of these two contributions I have to supporting sustainability there is more that I could be doing.  Typically, I turn the lights on when coming into the room regardless of the time of day.  I could help conserve energy by only turning the lights on when it is dark or rainy and absolutely necessary.  During the day, turning the light on is not necessary and a habit I should stop.  If I only turned the light on when necessary, there is so much energy I could be saving.

Careers and Fun

     Next week is one of America's most iconic holidays, Thanksgiving.  A holiday surrounded by food and family, what could be much better?  To me, not having school and getting to go home is a pretty great bonus as well.  Being at school for so long and only having been home once, I am looking forward to a relaxing holiday.  This year, my family gets to host Thanksgiving which means we do not have to travel anywhere.  That means I get to sit at home and enjoy being with family and at my house which I have not seen in a long time.  Besides eating and bonding I will participate in the annual Black Friday shopping excursion to get clothes and other on sale items this time of year.  I cannot wait to go home and just relax and not worry about classes! (Well attending class, I definitely have homework over Thanksgiving break).
     In other exciting news, class today was at the University's Career Center.  Basically this presentation outlined the resources the Career Center offered, the importance of searching for a career path now, and the importance of networking early and getting plugged in for future job opportunities.  Thankfully, my parents have been drilling in my brain the importance of knowing what career I want to be involved in and researching the in's and out's of the career before coming to college so I do not have to change it, at least not change it a lot.  I spent a majority of my senior year researching all about Pharmacy and the necessary schooling I would need and how exactly to get into Pharmacy Colleges.  By the time I came to USC I had already made a list of every graduate program I was going to apply too, what extra credits I would need, what GPA I would need, and what PCAT percentile I would need.  This way, I am already aware of how I need to be doing in my classes and staying on top of my goals.  I think I can confidently say that I plan to be a Pharmacist when I grow up, (granted I get into a graduate program).
     One of the main goals I set for myself at the beginning of this year was to find an internship opportunity by the end of this year for the summer.  I knew that in order to get into Pharmacy College having an internship was necessary, and also a great way for me to determine if I am in the right career path.  My dad is very well connected with many pharmacists in many different areas of the job so he is helping me a lot with finding internships.  I plan to contact these different pharmacists over Thanksgiving to set up interviews while I am home in December.  I need to start now in order to have an intership by this summer.
      Ironically, one of the main points I remember from the Career Center presentation is to get an internship.  Internships help you network and help you picture yourself in the career path and let you know if you could really see yourself in that field of work.  This idea really helped reassure me that my search for internships now is a great advantage I will have over my peers later on when I apply to Pharmacy College.  If there is one thing I tuned in well to in the presentation, it was the information on interships.

Financial Responsibility

     Growing up with two CPA's (Certified Public Accountant's) as your parents makes one a little financially sound.  I know my way around saving money and how to invest it in order to get the best possible return on my investment.  My father always has CNBC on to check the latest updates on the Stock Market and takes the updates to make stock changes if something good or bad happens.  He has made sure that I am not loose with my money but that I have a stable understanding on how I am spending it and if the expense is necessary.  I believe I am financially responsible because I am very aware of how I spend my money.  I check my bank statements often and keep up with what I purchase and what I can refrain from purchasing for awhile.  In order for me to not spend all on my money I have my dad transfer it to other bank accounts that I cannot personally access which makes me think I have less to spend then I actually do.  In this way what I see as spending money is significantly less than what I have, but it is all I have to spend so I have to be smart with it.
     In order to achieve goals with my money I set up budgets.  Currently, I do not have a budget of saving money to buy something, but I do have a savings budget in order to create a high amount of interest.  Putting money in CD accounts helps me to earn a lot of interest on money that I do not need immediately and would otherwise sit in a savings account earning minimal amounts of interest.
     Since I am very concerned with saving my money I hope that when I graduate I have enough saved up to live comfortably on.  I do not want to be overwhelmed with many expenses and not a lot to pay them off.  I hope that my savings will pay off and I will have enough to buy a car and rent an apartment while I am starting off in my career.  By investing money in CD accounts and not spending a lot of the money I do have open to spend, I plan on saving a lot in order to accomplish my goals.
    

Stress

     Stress.  Everyone gets stressed, everyone overcomes stressed.  Sometimes I feel like some people are more susceptible to stress than others.  Each person has a unique situation which may make them more stressed out or less stressed out.  I know for me personally my major stresses me out.  Having to plan everything around Pharmacy College admittance and what I want to do for the future can be hectic.  Many times in a week I feel overwhelmed with everything I need to be doing to prepare for my future and accomplishing my goal.  This is all on top of my many classes and work I need to do in order to get good grades and stay ahead.
     With all this stress going on in my life it is a wonder I am ever sane anymore.  For me, without my daily exercise and constant need to earn at least 8 hours of sleep each night, I would be dead.  I would not be able to function properly and overall ruin my grade and any hope of my future.  Sleeping helps my body relax so every time I wake up I feel less stressed then when I went to sleep and have a better perspective on how I plan to accomplish everything I need to do.  Exercise helps me release any anger that stress builds in me or any anxiety I have.  Working this out of my body helps me be able to focus better for what is more important.
     On top of my classes and work and thinking about the future, I also have to make time each week for my service site.  Thankfully my service site is not very stressful.  Many times being at the service site helps me forget everything else I have to do and relax.  The only stressful part is walking to Hand Middle School but I would much rather do that then study for a test or do homework.