Semester Memoir

Final Draft

Social Network Responses

The course outcome that social networking relates to is "Diversity, Identity, and Differing Perspectives." There is a relationship there that allows the individuals to express their personal identity and observe diversity among others. There are many course outcomes to this class, and the project that we picked (Social Networking) combines many of these together. Academic skills is something that is important in social networking because there is a lot of work that goes behind the scenes that people don’t know about. The diversity is important because people can express themselves through social networks.

We all decided that we wanted to do social networking as the focus for our group because social networking are part of our every day lives, and we wanted to learn more about them and how they help or take away from us. We all (Brooke, Julia and Laura) use facebook on a daily basis, which is a very popular social network.

OUR definition of a community is: People who live close or together and work together to make the place that they live a better place to be.

A social network can also be an academic community. It is a group of people all doing the same thing and working with the same goals and ideas.

On Merriam-Webster Dictionary online, it defines a community as a unified body of individuals. When you combine that with the word "academic" you get a group of people working together in an academic way.

Hamman’s Definion : (1) a group of people (2) who share social interaction (3) and some common ties between themselves and the other members of the group (4) and who share an area for at least some of the time.

Summary of Social Network Theory:

“A social network is a social structure made of individuals (“nodes”), which are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency such as friendship, kinship, sexual relationships, beliefs, knowledge or prestige,” (diigo.com). “Nodes” are the individual actors within the networks and “ties” are the relationships between the actors. So basically, the nodes are the people who are participating in the social network and the ties are the reasons that they are involved. In the 1930’s, social networks began to really take off. J.L. Moreno studied small social networks like classrooms and work groups while a group of Harvard students studied a group of interpersonal relations at work. There is a program called Social Network Analysis (SNA) and it is used for mass surveillance. They used it to examine whether or not US citizens were political threats and to study patterns of how HIV and AIDS are spread through social networks. The power of social networks is very great and can be useful with many different aspects of our world today.

Social Networks and Group Formation:

Social networks are one of the most crucial things in internet and design. They are used in society, the workplace, and for technology. The first social networks were researched in the late 1940s. Mark Granovetter and Linton C. Freeman were two people that published two important articles before the big internet boom. They wrote about social networking and how they believed whether it was based on weak or strong ties. Centralization in a network is something that is also very important. Degree of a point, control and independence are three very crucial things to have in a network. Knowing these things is very important in modern WebPages and sites. Researchers recognize that humans becoming able to make individual choices and ideas affect the progress and changes of a network. Keeping this in mind, a person could apply social networking towards a web creation, but since it is based on human systems it would be hard to predict the outcome of the network itself.

Physical Place and Cyber Place:

“Computer networks are social networks.” Computer supported social networks bringing more people together. Our world functions in networks, whether it is simply one person to another or even in the larger business companies. Social networks are giving people an opportunity to communicate with a larger range of peers. Communities now have less boundaries and more people involved. People and companies are also able to connect with more than one group, which allows our networks to grow. E.M. Foster examined the opportunities and transformations afforded by communication networks that are computerized. There are many positives to computerized communication networks such as, broader bandwidth, wireless portability, globalized connectivity, and personalization. Yet, there are also negative aspects to it such as, increased surveillance and less privacy. Through computers, our local communities are going beyond the neighborhood. People are now able to communicate with one another no matter where they are at.

The Machine Stops by F.M. Forster discussion and our academic community with no "Machine":

The Machine Stops by F.M. Forster is a story about a mother, Vashti, and son, Kuno, who live on the opposite sides of the world due to almost the entire human population living underground in cells. Each person lives in a small cell where their whole life is lived through a machine. There is not very much face-to-face interaction because they communicate through the technological world. Very few people live on the surface of the earth because they have adapted to living with dependence upon this "Machine." The biggest conflict through out the story was that people became so dependent on this "Machine" that they lost their technology knowledge and began to ignore all flaws of the "Machine." Soon, the machine begins to crash and nobody has the knowledge to fix it. If we lived our world with no machine, our academic community would slowly crash. As new generations came along, we would lose all knowledge in the technological sense. We would also lose our common sense of how to greet one another face-to-face and family traditions would soon deteriorate due to dependence on this "Machine." Our world would simply become a place where people do not live through their hearts, but through a machine.

LINK to Personal Pages and Blogs:

Julia Matthews

https://sites.google.com/a/csumb.edu/julia-matthews/about-me

http://jmatthews91.blogspot.com/

Brooke Keith

https://sites.google.com/a/csumb.edu/brookemarie/

http://brooke-keith.blogspot.com/

Laura Bockman

https://sites.google.com/a/csumb.edu/laura-bockman-s-site/

http://lbockman.blogspot.com/

CITATIONS:

Singh, Shiv. September 9, 2007. Social Networks And Group Formation. http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/social-networks

Definition of "community" found on Merriam Webster's Dictionary Website

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/COMMUNITY

Forster, E.M.. 1909. The Machine Stops.

Wellman, Berry. Febuary 2001. "Physical Place and Cyber Place: The Rise of Personalized Networking."

http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/%7Ewellman/publications/individualism/ijurr3a1.htm

First Draft

Social Network Responses

The course outcome that social networking relates to is "Diversity, Identity, and Differing Perspectives." There is a relationship there that allows the individuals to express their personal identity and observe diversity among others. There are many course outcomes to this class, and the project that we picked (Social Networking) combines many of these together. Academic skills is something that is important in social networking because there is a lot of work that goes behind the scenes that people don’t know about. The diversity is important because people can express themselves through social networks.

We all decided that we wanted to do social networking as the focus for our group because social networking are part of our every day lives, and we wanted to learn more about them and how they help or take away from us. We all (Brooke, Julia and Laura) use facebook on a daily basis, which is a very popular social network.

OUR definition of a community is: People who live close or together and work together to make the place that they live a better place to be.

A social network can also be an academic community. It is a group of people all doing the same thing and working with the same goals and ideas.

On Merriam-Webster Dictionary online, it defines a community as a unified body of individuals. When you combine that with the word "academic" you get a group of people working together in an academic way.

Hamman’s Definion : (1) a group of people (2) who share social interaction (3) and some common ties between themselves and the other members of the group (4) and who share an area for at least some of the time.

Summary of Social Network Theory:

“A social network is a social structure made of individuals (“nodes”), which are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency such as friendship, kinship, sexual relationships, beliefs, knowledge or prestige,” (diigo.com). “Nodes” are the individual actors within the networks and “ties” are the relationships between the actors. So basically, the nodes are the people who are participating in the social network and the ties are the reasons that they are involved. In the 1930’s, social networks began to really take off. J.L. Moreno studied small social networks like classrooms and work groups while a group of Harvard students studied a group of interpersonal relations at work. There is a program called Social Network Analysis (SNA) and it is used for mass surveillance. They used it to examine whether or not US citizens were political threats and to study patterns of how HIV and AIDS are spread through social networks. The power of social networks is very great and can be useful with many different aspects of our world today.

Social Networks and Group Formation:

Social networks are one of the most crucial things in internet and design. They are used in society, the workplace, and for technology. The first social networks were researched in the late 1940s. Mark Granovetter and Linton C. Freeman were two people that published two important articles before the big internet boom. They wrote about social networking and how they believed whether it was based on weak or strong ties. Centralization in a network is something that is also very important. Degree of a point, control and independence are three very crucial things to have in a network. Knowing these things is very important in modern WebPages and sites. Researchers recognize that humans becoming able to make individual choices and ideas affect the progress and changes of a network. Keeping this in mind, a person could apply social networking towards a web creation, but since it is based on human systems it would be hard to predict the outcome of the network itself.

Physical Place and Cyber Place:

“Computer networks are social networks.” Computer supported social networks bringing more people together. Our world functions in networks, whether it is simply one person to another or even in the larger business companies. Social networks are giving people an opportunity to communicate with a larger range of peers. Communities now have less boundaries and more people involved. People and companies are also able to connect with more than one group, which allows our networks to grow. E.M. Foster examined the opportunities and transformations afforded by communication networks that are computerized. There are many positives to computerized communication networks such as, broader bandwidth, wireless portability, globalized connectivity, and personalization. Yet, there are also negative aspects to it such as, increased surveillance and less privacy. Through computers, our local communities are going beyond the neighborhood. People are now able to communicate with one another no matter where they are at.

LINK to Personal Pages:

https://sites.google.com/a/csumb.edu/julia-matthews/about-me

https://sites.google.com/a/csumb.edu/brookemarie/

https://sites.google.com/a/csumb.edu/laura-bockman-s-site/

CITATIONS:

Singh, Shiv. September 9, 2007. Social Networks And Group Formation. http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/social-networks

Definition of "community" found on Merriam Webster's Dictionary Website

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/COMMUNITY

Wellman, Berry. Febuary 2001. "Physical Place and Cyber Place: The Rise of Personalized Networking."

http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/%7Ewellman/publications/individualism/ijurr3a1.htm

Fall Break Reflection

My fall break was definitely a trip. It started on Wednesday night, because I had to head back home for a doctors appointment. I was pretty much sick throughout the whole break and stayed in bed. I wasn't able to have a more exciting break like I wish I could have. On the bright side, I was able to spend a lot of time with my siblings, and it allowed me to reconnect with them all. Thanksgiving was good; I love cooking in the kitchen even if I don't like all of the food! Although it is not one of my favorite holidays, it was nice to see everyone again and to have that feeling of accomplishment, because a lot of them said I would never make it to college.

I have changed a lot since I first moved here in August. My whole outlook on life is quite different. In spite of living in the same place my whole life, before college, I realized that I am a well-rounded person. I have always been open to meeting new people, and learning about where they come from. I have improved in managing my time with all of the things I have to do; I have become more responsible and even more independent. Living on my own throughout high school was hard, so going to college and living on campus definitely made everything easier. Coming to CSUMB has helped me find myself, and has allowed me to work towards my dream and my future.

Tuesdays with Morrie

If I were to save any book, it would be Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. This book was written in 1997 and is a true story about a sociologist named Morrie Schwartz and his relationships with his students; one in particular Mitch Albom. Morrie was a professor who was dying from Lou Gehrig's disease. Once Albom graduated from college, he became a columnist for the Detroit Free Press. He didn't see Morrie for 16 years before reuniting with him, because he saw his face on T.V.. Morrie Schwartz and Mitch Albom end up meeting every Tuesday to discuss lifes greatest lessons and treasures. This book is about an old man and a young man finding what the have in common. Every Tuesday, Morrie teached Mitch lessons that involve happiness, love, communication, acceptance, communication, values, and the importance of openness. I personally have read this book a few times and with each read, I learn another important lesson. This book is an eye opener that will never stop grabbing my attention, and holds my heart in it's hand because nothing in between the cover and the back cover is made up. It is a book that doesn't hide reality.

Fahrenheit 451 video project reviews (group 5)

The fifth group that presented consisted of Julia Matthews, Christine Moreno, Cassandra Pauley, and Johanna Stanley. This group worked great together, and they put together a video that would grab the audiences attention. Each group member also worked good individually; you could tell that each one of them knew who and what their character was about, even if they didn't analyze their character consistently through out the film. This presentation was quite entertaining. It was another presentation with a talk show theme, but the talk show was a reenactment of The Jerry Springer Show. Julia Matthews was the host/interviewer while Christine, Cassandra, and Johanna played Fahrenheit 451 characters. Each person in this group represented their character and dressed the part, but it could have been a little better regarding character analysis. Either way, I was still able to learn from each character and know what they were about.

This groups theme grabbed the audiences attention, because it was something that each of us could have easily found and watched on T.V.. I feel like this group really analyzed who their audience was so they could keep attention at all times. It's sad, but true: people arguing and violence grab attention; which is why their presentation stood out. The were smart with their role play, and their use of technology. The sound quality on this presentation was great, but the filming could have been better. It was, at times, shaky and the tops of peoples head were cut out of the frame. Overall, this group did a great job and met all of the requirements.

Fahrenheit 451 video project reviews (group 2)

The second group that presented consisted of Jessica Mendoza-Rivera, Jenifer Morrison, Diana Silva, and Jessica Trainor. This group seemed to work very hard on their project. For their introduction, they chose to have it as a talk show. The introduction played music and was very catchy. All of the members were shown in the video and each character acted well. The interviewer was the only one who didn't act as a character, but did a very good job interviewing each character effectively. The presentation showed a lot about the characters relationships; especially between Mildred and Montag. Clarisse was also a good character to interview, because she was a huge part in Montag's life. Each person in this group dressed up as a character which was a plus. Although they were dressed in character, they were each introduced in the beginning of their interview which added more clarification. I learned quite a bit from this presentation, and the things I already knew, I received further knowledge into the event.

This group had some similarities to my group, but not many. This group did a whole talk show, interviewing all of the characters, while my group did more of scene acting and then went into interviews as a news report. I really liked the talk show idea and I wish my group would of thought of something to this affect. Also, I wanted to incorporate music into my groups presentation, because I know it helps grab a lot of attention as well. This group did a great job and met all of the requirements.

Majors Presentation

For our majors presentation I was in a group with Jessica, Julia, and Michael. Our major was liberal studies because that is three of ours major. When we first received the assignment we discussed who was which major and then started to discuss what we would put in our powerpoint. We did the majority of our work via email. We divided the work into slides; I would do the first two slides, and then one of my group members would do the next slide, and it continued until each one of us had a slide done and the project was complete. After all of us did our part in the project, one of us put all the pieces together and then sent it out it all of us to go over. By doing so, each one of us was prepared to present it to the class.

I think our presentation went very well. Our group communicated through out the project and we finished it smoothly. My major is liberal studies and I know a lot about the major, but by doing this project I learned even more about it. I learned that there are programs for a liberal studies major that doesn't require a student to sit in a classroom. It's a more hands on experience. CSUMB does not offer this program at the moment, but it is still good information because it could help benefit my future. This assignment was fun, and it was very educating.

Swine Flu Emergency!

President Barack Obama declares a swine flu emergency. The declaration was signed friday and announced to the public on Saturday. This action gave Obama's health chief the power to allow hospitals to move their emergency rooms offsite. By doing so, this will help increase treatment and will also help protect non-infected patients. Philip Elliot of the associated press (Monterey Herald) states, "optimistic estimates that as many as 120 million doses of the vaccine could be available by mid-October." There have been more than 1,000 people in the United States that have died from this flu (H1N1); almost 100 of them have been children. Eleven million doses have gone out to health departments according t the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials.

Hospital drive-thrus and drive-up tent clinics have been created to screen and treat swine flu patients. This idea was created to help keep infectious patients out of the public and to also keep infected people away from other sick patients; therefore preventing new strains of swine flu. Officials have said, "The government hopes to have about 50 million doses of the sine flu vaccine out by mid-November and about 150 million in December." There isn't an exact count of how many swine flu cases there have been, because the government doesn't test everyone. But, to confirm how serious this disease is, there have been more than 20,000 hospitalizations.

Two Teenagers Killed

Five teenagers were driving down Archer Street and pulled off to the curb near University Street. One of the backseat passengers pulled out a handgun and shot the other four teenagers in the car. Two of the young boys died, and the other two remain in critical condition. According to Salinas police, this all occurred at about 5:35pm. This is the 24th homicide of the year, and last years record is 25. The shooting is being investigated to be gang related.

2009 Nobel Peace Prize

On Friday, October 9th President Barack Obama was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. Obama is only the 4th president to have the honor of winning the Nobel Peace Prize; the last was Jimmy Carter in 2002. According to the Nobel website, Barack Obama was recognized for his, "multilateral approach on conflict, nuclear weapons, and climate change." The committee of five Norwegian Parliament appointees also recognized him for the "renewed US commitment to international organizations, in particular, the United Nations." The Democratic party leaders were very supportive compared to most of the Republican party. Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele stated, "It is unfortunate that the President's star power has outshined tireless advocates who have made real achievements working towards peace and human rights" (Associated Press Report). Many Republican party leaders are questioning Obama's accomplishments, but the award stands its ground.

Fort Ord Burns

Fort Ord continues to burn a 295-acre parcel, two miles east of Seaside. According to the Monterey Bay Unified Air Pollution Control District, all of these fires on Fort Ord are controlled; fires are being ignited depending on weather conditions. Acres of Fort Ord are being burned to clear vegetation so that munitions workers can remove unexploded ordnance from the former military base. Although this fire is controlled and is a benefit to munition workers, the Fort Ord Environmental Justice Network claims the burn is putting residents at risk by stating, "The soil at Fort Ord is littered with military munitions and toxic chemicals, which are released into the air when the Army ignites the fires." In result, we are left with two questions: Do we put munition workers at risk it save our health or do we save munition workers by putting out own health on the line?

GO GREEN!

"Monterey County launches recycling program for multi-family residences." The State Department of Conservation is trying to help the "Go Green" affect by recycling. The department gave a partnership of local agencies, non-profits and hauling companies a grant to "implement" recycling programs. All of this is happening in the Monterey Bay area multi-family housing units. By doing so, recycling outreach specialists will hand out indoor recycling bins at the Monterey County Health Department's kick-off event. Hopefully with all of this change, the low recycling rate at Monterey County will change. Monterey County is making huge steps to Go Green!

Major Fair

On Wednesday, September 30th,  I attended the major fair. The fair was very organized with all different booths separated by departments. I was able to walk up to different booths and learn more about any major I wanted to. There were also booths about studying abroad in places such as Australia, Denmark, Italy, and many more. I also was given information about financing studying abroad if I needed it, and I learned that there are many grants and scholarships that can help me travel. There was also a food table with snacks if anyone got hungry. Overall this major fair was a huge success. It offered me more information about my college career and how to become who I want to be through out my actions.

Solar Power

  Cities across California are increasing the amount of solar panels to help save energy! Solar panels are just as effective as using electricity and it can save any person a lot of money given time. Salinas, CA has the highest amount of solar roofs in Monterey County with 79 grid-tied photovoltaic installations, According to "California's Solar Cities report." Carmel-by-the-Sea has the second highest amount of 73 grid-tied photovoltaic installations. Monterey comes in right after Carmel with 72 grid-tied photovoltaic installations, and followed by Pacific Grove with 19. Seaside comes in fifth with 15 installations , Marina 8 installations, Soledad 2 installations, and Del Rey has 1 installation. Sand city comes in last with 0 installations, but only has a population of 300. Overall though, it seems like people are really trying to "go green!" More and more people each day are making an effort to save electricity and Monterey County is making that different through solar panels. 

CLUB FAIR!!!

The club showcase was held at two different times on Wednesday; I went to the one from 12-1p.m. I had no idea that there were this many clubs on campus. There were clubs such as an anime club, the starving artists club and even a bicycling club. There were all different types of people with all different interests. I was interested a lot in the greek clubs that were all there. It was easy to sign up, all an "interest" had to do was put down their name and email. Most clubs would contact the "interest" about there events and what- not going on. I really liked being able to see what CSUMB's clubs had to offer. A lot of them were really inspiring to me. 

Connections

In reality, the majority of all people are surrounded by technology. Most people, whether they admit it or not, wouldn't know what to do with out technology because of how much we rely on it. Almost all jobs require some sort of technology use, whether it is email, data collection, or contacting people through a phone call. In my life, I would definitely have a hard time not having my cell phone. This small 4 by 2 inch piece of technology has become my lifeline. It affects my life to great extent because it is my main way of communication. It keeps me in touch with family, friends, and work. It also has the internet to connect me to facebook and email; which are both more ways of communication. 

James Burke comes up with an idea that an elevator is a "technology trap." People just use it because it saves them energy and in some cases it is a necessity; such as if you were in a wheel chair. But, I also think of an escalator as a "technology trap." People don't think about how it was made or why, they just use it because it is there. Although technology has benefited us in many ways, it has also weakened us. Common technology users have become lazy. They take advantage of the resources given because it takes less time.

Every day a person is born and the day that person is born, is the day they start relying on technology. Now there are always those exceptions, but in general, if we lost all technology people would go insane. It would take a while for people to adjust to this new life. Children at the age of 5 are already using cell phones and computers. Most jobs require use of technology. Businesses would crash and the economy would be even more shot. I believe that our society would be completely hopeless with out technology.

If we had a blackout like the one in 1965, I believe we would be a lot better off in some ways, but not all. In some cases, we would have more generators to keep us going and things like that. But, now that our world is so far off from not using technology, people wouldn't be able to communicate properly; people wouldn't know what to do if they had to face a problem by talking to a person face-to-face.

Technology does separate us from our instincts, from nature, and from each other in some way. People have become so in touch with virtual communities and what-not that they don't know how to fully handle communities in reality. 

If an emergency occurs at CSUMB, we have emergency power, but it doesn't last for long. As for electricity in the dorms and dining commons, the power will only last about three hours. Our food supply could only last us for about 2 days if everyone ate their meals on campus. For the most part, we should be able to get our power up and running with in a few hours anyways. Also almost all college students have cell phones, so we would still have some kind of technology on us. Overall, I think CSUMB would be just fine if we had a power outage because we are well prepared with all of the drills we do.

The Pacific Grove Triathlon

 The 15th annual triathlon was held at Pacific Grove, in Lovers Point, throughout friday to sunday. There were two major events going on through the weekend. One being the 'Olympic Distance Triathlon' containing a 1.5k swim, 40k bike, and a 10k run, while the other one was an 'Entry Level Sprint Distance Triathlon' containing a 0.25 mile swim, 12.4 mile bike, and a 2 mile run. The second event is great for first timers, but either way both events take a lot of prepared training.

I attended both triathlon events on saturday and sunday. The athletes on both days were truly an inspiration. My brother participated in the 'Olympic Distance Triathlon' on saturday morning making that his 8th triathlon event to participate in so far. He has been training for the last year or so for this event in particular. 

Throughout the weekend there were a lot of ways to volunteer so my roommates and I did community service with the sorority Theta Alpha Sigma. It was definitely tiring getting up at 4:30am, but well worth it to see the look of accomplishment on each athletes face. Ages ranged from about 10 years old to 79 years old. There were people participating with lost limbs and heart conditions. The triathlon at Pacific Grove was a great way to get a variety of people together that had the same goals by the end of the day: to finish the Pacific Grove triathlon and to earn the sense of accomplishment.

(http://www.tricalifornia.com/index.cfm/media.htm)

Multitasking

Multitasking is common for just about everyone. It allows a person to do more than one thing at a time. In my life, I use multitasking quite often. Even with simple things, like listening to music and doing my homework. Although I like multitasking, there are some times when I can't. Such as when I don't understand math homework or when I am reading, I can not listen to music because I need constant concentration. In the article, "You Say Multitasking Like It's a Good Thing," Charles J. Abate, says the brain is incapable of doing two things at once. But, multitasking is not necessarily thinking about the two things at once, it is more of an action.

I agree with both, myth one and myth two, but I also believe that it depends on the person. In myth one, it talks about how multitasking saves time. Multitasking can save time, but it can get frustrating for people when trying to handle more than one thing at once. In myth two it talks about how "multitasked learning is as good as single-tasked learning," and I also I agree with this. Once again. I really do think that it depends on the person. Multitasking is different for everyone. Some people can handle it and some people can't.  

Jazz Gallery

My overall expression of Jazz: The Syncopation of Democracy, the exhibit, was refreshing. When I first entered the exhibit, I was not interested at all. I've never really been a huge fan of jazz so I didn't connect with it right away. After looking around the exhibit, I've realized that there are a lot of connections between jazz and democracy. Jazz is simply way of life. Each jazz artist puts their life experiences into their music and it's a way of teaching the world. George Gershwin created the song "Summertime" to try and create his own style. The connections between jazz and the American opera can possibly be about real life. In every jazz piece, the artist talks about their life experienced and in the American opera, the director is always trying to portray some way of life. The reason why Nina Simone's lyrics and Tupac Shakur's writing were next to each other in the gallery is because their lyrics had many similarities. But more importantly, Tupac was acknowledging who came before him. In his music, he respects his ancestry. Tupac connects to the current music that resonates with me.

Great White Attacks Monterey Bay Aquarium!

A great white shark is captured and displayed at the Monterey Bay Aquarium! In an article in The Californian, Richard Green writes, "the Monterey Bay Aquarium remains the only institution in the world to exhibit a white shark for more than 16 days." But, more importantly Green states that, "each (great white shark) has been successfully returned to the wild." Now, that is an accomplishment! The great white shark in the aquarium is a 5-foot 3-inch female weighing in at 79.8 pounds. She was caught off the coast of Malibu on August 12. The great white was then brought to the aquarium in a 3,000-gallon mobile life-support vehicle. She is only the fifth great white shark that has been on exhibit since 2004, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium is taking great care of her. 

Mindset: Fixed? Growth? Both?

I approach another chapter in my life, a new chance to make something of myself; all happening at CSU Monterey Bay. Do I have a growth mindset or a fixed mindset? According to Carol S. Dweck, people who have a fixed mindset "believe that they are 'set' as either good or bad" and people who have a growth mindset "view life as a series of challenges and opportunities for improving". Throughout my first week at CSUMB I had a combination of  both mindsets, fixed and growth. On the morning of my first day here, I had more of a growth mindset. I was moving my life into a new city. I was opening myself up to new surroundings and new people. I felt like I had some-what succeeded making it this far, to college. I was on top of the world, ready for a new beginning. But, as the day progressed it started to click in that this is it: my first night on my own, in my own college dorm room with two people I have never met. I no longer had a growth mindset, it had switched to a depressing non-motivational fixed mindset. I let my fear stand in the way of my opportunity to grow. I allowed myself to be content, to not embrace this college experience. In result, my mindset has changed periodically through out my first week of college.

These new surroundings are starting to become a new home and my once unknown room mates are becoming life long friends. Carol S. Dweck states, "you can't keep up with this changing world if you can't grow and can't learn." In two weeks I see myself in a complete growth mindset because I embrace growing and learning. I see myself in this mindset because in my first week of classes I was further educated in the importance of an education and how it will affect my future. I know what I want to do with my future and I also know that with out the ability of growing and learning, a person can not improve their self being.  

Jazz

Lillie Mae Jones, a well known jazz artist is an inspiration. She was an iconoclast in the beginning where she earned the nickname Betty Bebob. She scatted modern bop lines in Lionel Hampton’s more traditional swing band. She was professionally known as Betty Carter. Carter is an inspiration because women have always had a difficult time of getting their voice heard. Yet, through all of her struggles Carter never gave up.

"You had to be yourself if you were going to succeed.” This line was once said by Betty Carter and I am a strong believer in this line. Carter was a strong women who always strived for something new. She was someone that simply wanted to be herself. This inspires me because in our society today, people are affected by their peers and often, in result, are afraid to be themselves. Carter was so successful that she created her own record label called "Bet-Car" and she became a well-known jazz talent scout. What inspires me most about Carter is she taught future generations to find their own voice.