Transfer - Words of Wisdom by Julie

It's not easy getting ready to transfer to a big, 4-year school. There are times in the process when, to me, it didn't even seem logical. I was never very good at the whole "hurry up and wait" thing. I found out recently that I was not accepted into the Cornell School of Industrial Labor Relations, one of the most competitive of all of the schools at Cornell, so Social Philosophy at SUNY Cortland will be an excellent backup. As much as I love Corning Community College, it is time for me to move on and achieve all of the bigger things I have planned for myself.

Since I am about to complete the process, I want to share some words of wisdom for students who will be transferring later on.

First, talk to an advisor. Talk to any advisor. Just make sure you are comfortable sharing things about the process you are going through with them. Remember that they are here to help and guide you if you will let them, and take advantage of that. Advisors have all sorts of information and contacts that you will realize you never even thought of. They will be there if you need a shoulder to cry on or a congratulations on your acceptance to a school. Your advisor understands that transferring isn't always easy.

Don't be concerned about knowing what you want to spend the rest of your life doing when looking at schools. The Director of Admissions for one of the schools I applied to gave me some great advice in an email. He said, "If you are sure what you want to do for the rest of your life right now, you likely will have a difficult time in college. Your college experiences will change you and as a result your interests might change. No one should waste that much money if they aren't happy. And who says that you ever have to make a decision? You could paint for a while, teach for a few years, and retire from a long and successful career as the CEO of an up-and-coming company that produces the next iFad. Go to school for what pays the bills but if that doesn't make you happy, make sure you find something that does to participate in on the side." I completely agree with him too. Being open-minded leaves more room for opportunity to come a-knockin'.

You can apply to as many schools as you want, but you need to have a plan, a backup plan, and a Plan C so you know that you won't let your future fall through the cracks. Many students apply to at least one "reach school", a school they have a chance of getting in to but their grades or test scores are a bit lower than the average usually accepted. Cornell ILR was my reach school. Make sure that the backup plans you have will satisfy you too. If you don't make it into your reach school, it is so much less stressful being content with a second choice school you have gotten accepted to.

Those are the three most important things I've learned in my time as a student who is actively looking to transfer after my graduation in a few weeks. Always remember that your education is primarily for your benefit and then secondarily for the benefit of whatever industry you plan to go into. Use the resources available to you. There are plenty of them out there if you are willing to take the time to look.

And as I often say: We don't find ourselves. We create ourselves.

Good luck, all!

A Look Back by Ryan

This is a sad post for me to write, as it will be my last post of the year. School is coming to a close, and finals week is reserved for nothing but school. The last day of classes is here, which is always bittersweet. It's great to look forward to summer and not being in school, but it is hard to say goodbye to the fun and the relationships that have been built over the school year. For my final post, I thought I would take a look back at my time as a blogger for CCC. It has been an incredible ride, and I am so thankful for this opportunity.

When I first walked into admissions last semester, I wasn't looking for a blogging job. I was just looking for any kind of work I could find. I was told about a potential blogging program, where student bloggers would share stories of their life at school and special events on campus. I love to write, so I offered to be a blogger and became part of the initial team. During the first semester, we had multiple meetings to plan the implementation of the blogging program. We made an initial site, which turned into the full-fledged blog you are reading now.

Once the second semester began, we got to work actually blogging. I was in the middle of basketball at the time, which provided a lot of rich material for posts. Once the season was over, my attention shifted and I was able to write on a variety of topics, from studying methods to baseball to special campus events. I greatly enjoyed posting and reading the blogs of our other students bloggers. We had special events for the whole Student Ambassador staff such as a Jackals game that was the subject of a special post earlier.

Overall, it was a fantastic year and my sincere thanks go out to everyone who helped with the blogging site. It was a great experience and it really flew by once we got going. Thank you to everyone who read this as well. I hope to see you again soon!

-Ryan

SpringFest by Ryan

After a long, full semester, the school year is finally drawing to a close. The last few weeks of school are a strange time for me, as I balance the biggest workload of the year with getting my summer plans in order. There are minor details like preparing for finals and looking for a summer job that often get overlooked because of the important things, like softball starting. As the semester winds down, it becomes harder and harder to concentrate as you look more and more toward summer finally being here. It seems like there's an inexhaustible supply of energy that I can't wait to release. Thankfully, the Student Life office has us covered: SpringFest!

SpringFest has been a ton of fun so far. Every day there have been different events and giveaways in the Commons that have been awesome. One of my favorite events was the Minute to Win it day. In the main dining room in Commons, there was a table that had a bunch of minute-long races on it, based on the popular t.v. show. There were events such as building a pyramid out of 36 plastic cups and then taking it down, or my favorite, using only one hand and attempting to pull every tissue out of a tissue box, all within a minute. The games were fun and the prizes were cool.

Yesterday, there was a free ice cream day in the Commons. Students received a cute little puppy-shaped stress ball while standing in line, which turned out to be a big hit. The ice cream was very good, with a bunch of toppings set up on the self-serve table. The intramural department also gave away prizes based on the level of participation in intramurals during the school year.

As the year draws to a close, take advantage of these opportunities to relax a little and escape the pressing finals mindset. There are fun things happening all over, and it does the body good to get out once in a while. Have a fun day!

-Ryan

Student Disability Services by Ryan

After interviewing Mary Parks for my last blog post, I realized that I should see what support CCC offers students who are deaf. After all, if I was a deaf student looking for a college to attend, I would be much more inclined to attend a school that could meet any needs that might come up. I went to Student Disability Services in the lower level of the Commons Building looking for answers. I was able to interview Allision Zimmermann, the program coordinator, and Delia Hall, the program assistant. After the interview I was very pleased to find out that CCC offers several ways for deaf or hard of hearing students to more easily assimilate to college life here on campus.

Many of the devices they told me about I had never considered or observed in a classroom. If students are hard of hearing but not completely deaf, the school loans an FM system. The student carries it to each class, giving a small microphone to every professor. the student has an earpiece, which receives a boosted signal from the professors microphone, allowing the student to hear the lecture as it is given. For fully deaf students, SDS would provide an interpreter during all needed times such as class periods. If the students need extra notes, arrangements can be made with professors to provide Powerpoint notes or get in touch with other good notetakers in the class. In the past, SDS has even taken notes for deaf professors when people have made presentations in class.

Overall, there is quite a bit of support for students with minor to major hearing issues. Student Disabilities Services does a great job of providing students with specific needs, the neccessary accomodations to survive and prosper in the college environment. If you are interested in contacting Student Disability Services at CCC please stop by Room 149 in the Commons or call them at 962-9262.

-Ryan

Words Are Better Sung Then Written by Jenn

"When the silvery moon shines through the fluttering leaves..."

That is not a random quote. Well, actually it is but imagine the harmony of a men's choir singing this poetic line and you have(drum roll please)the Corning Community College choir ensemble joining their voices to create their last debut for the year.
Tomorrow (May 13th) at 12:30 in room R004, our choir will have-- as I mentioned above-- men solos, lady's solos, but mostly a 4 to 6 part harmony of men and women's voices. Although, we have to admit as Lou Bleiler our choir instructor said the other day, men's choirs just "flutter your heart" is how she put it! Although, maybe that's just for ladies cause I'm having a hard time picturing the dudes telling each other their solo "fluttered their heart"! We also have several students performing solo's. Some of them will be performing piano pieces and I believe we have a Debussy solo performed on the flute. In addition, I'm really looking foward to listening to our vocal solo's. If you've never gotten the chance to stop by a concert, let me encourage you to try this one because I think it's going to be one of our best! Let me put it like this, usually the practice before the concert we eat up all the time we have and more, however, today we were let out early because we are just that amazing!

Practically Messin' with Stressin' by Jenn

After my last post I thought I post some practical ways I personally like to deal with stress. I'm probably not the best person to offer ways to de-stress. In fact, I'm probably one of the worst cause all you mom's are probably like "kid, if you think you have stress now, just wait"-- I know! But let me just share the ways I personally deal with stress. As I mentioned in my last post, writing stuff down is my number one love. If I even have a little tiny itty bit of stress, I just write down what I have to do and when I can do it and suddenly-- POW! no stress! It works like magic. I find a lot of times that little things clutter and add unnecessary pressure. Like doing laundry or taking overdue books back to the library or remembering to pull the change out of the jeans I wore yesterday. Tiny things that are important but will take minutes add up to become monster piles! That is why I love priority lists.

I also found out that cleaning really does help. I don't mean like the whole spring cleaning dig that takes 5 days to finish, but just straightening up to de-clutter really helps my mind say "ok, we got this". One of my favorite ways to take a deep breath is to play the piano. I like to play mad songs and a few soft and happy or maybe meditative tunes just to help me settle emotions. I realize not everyone can do this but maybe for you this looks like popping in a Spanish classical guitar CD, or some Debussy.

I'd love to hear some other thoughts on how others deal with stress! Got any ideas?

Interview with Mary Parks by Ryan

I have been taking my first Sign Language course this semester, and I have loved it so much I've written an entire post about it. It's been a very eye-opening experience. The professor, Mary Parks, is deaf, and at first I was nervous about my ability to succeed without ever having taken Sign Language before. Mary has been an excellent teacher and I have greatly enjoyed learning the language. I was able to sit down with Mary and ask her some questions related to working as a deaf instructor at a nearly all-hearing school.

Me: how long have you been teaching Sign Language at CCC?
Mary: (smiling) 8 years

Me: What have been the challenges being a deaf professor at a mostly hearing school?
Mary: My challenge is to educate students in ASL. In the past, many students, parents, and children did not familiarize themselves with Sign Language. the need [is] to expose the Deaf Culture to hearing people.

Me: What has been a good experience?
Mary: At the college, most students in the class have no experience with eye contact and only use visualization. They learn eye contact in the class.

Me: What are a few things that hearing people should know about deaf people or deaf culture?
Mary: Number one is that eye contact is not rude for deaf people. (this was a hard thing for me to learn when I first started class.) Number 2 is to learn the differences between deaf and hearing culture to enhance people's perspective.

Me: How do you communicate with other hearing professors?
Mary: to communicate effectively, other professors have to learn ASL. If they do not know Sign Language, we alternate writing notes. I prefer professors learn Sign Language so I feel like I'm a real person.

The interview was great and made me think a lot about learning Sign Language. I think this is something that everyone should attempt to learn. It's not like Spanish or French, where English words are similar and people can communicate with a combination of words and gestures. Sign Language is a way of life, and everyone should be able to communicate at some level with deaf people.

In the next post, I will follow up with an interview with Student Disability Services on the support structure available for potential deaf or hard of hearing students. Have a great weekend!

-Ryan

Seeing Red (Blood Cells) by Ryan

Today, The Red Cross hosted a student blood drive in the main dining room of the Commons building from 8-2. Blood drives are amazing events that we take for granted far too often. The blood given truly helps to save lives and giving blood is a selfless act that everyone possible should participate in.

I wasn't even aware of the blood drive until I saw the signs that were posted near Commons. When I went in, the setup was pretty amazing. They had taken our normal dining room and completely converted it into an efficient system to draw blood. I was there early, around 9:45, but they were already going strong and had a line. I found out that there are two ways you can give blood: the normal way, and double red cells. Only people with certain types of blood can give double reds. Hospitals are in need of these double red givers, so people who are eligible are asked to give. When giving double reds, a machine separates the red blood cells from the plasma, taking a double portion of red cells but returning the plasma to the donors body. The process takes a bit longer, but it lets the red blood cells be taken and used right away.

I found out I was eligible to give double reds, so I signed up. Due to sports injuries I've had quite a few needles before so this was nothing bad. Even if you are bothered by needles or feel faint after giving blood, they take good care of you and let you rest. There were food and drinks afterward, and the workers were very friendly throughout the whole process.

Whether or not you've given blood before, please consider it in the future. You will be helping save lives, and that is just about as noble a cause as there could be!

-Ryan

It never ends... until graduation by Julie

The life of a college student can be crazy. Parents don't realize that a full-time student normally has enough work to equate it to a full-time job. Add in work-study, clubs and organizations, sports, and even outside jobs and sometimes even I am amazed at the way we get things done. I'm not advocating lack of sleep, by the way. But knowing how to best balance your sleep with your college career and still be able to function afterward will help you be successful in college and after.

That being said, this semester has been nuts. Classes, papers, midterms, meetings upon meetings upon even more meetings, conferences, and still trying to have time to have a social life have made me feel like I am behind in most everything (even when I am not). Sometimes it is easy to get frustrated when it looks like everyone around you is just goofing off, and other times you really cherish the moments you get to goof off yourself.

And then comes that moment when you can take a big sigh of relief, look at what you have accomplished, and declare it good enough. That moment came for me a couple weeks ago. I had caught up on all of my assignments, got my final pieces of my application into my potential transfer schools, and still have time to write. Now I am sitting back, looking at all that I have accomplished in the last two and a half years and realized... life really is good.

When you have that diploma in your hands, you will look at it and realize how lucky you are to have had all of the opportunity you have been given during your experience. You forget all of the struggle, late nights with papers, lab makeup sessions, and chasing your professors around. I think at that point we also realize that for as many times as we were sure it would never end, it really just did. A new door is opening, and that is what college can do for us. It opens doors into this big awesome world that so many students want to save.