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Celebrating Students ’13: Caitlin Palmer

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The AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps is not what the website says it is. It’s not what alumni say it is. It’s not even what they tell you it is in member orientation. This government-run community service program is so widespread and so diverse that no two teams in the program will ever have the same experience. For ten months, I IMG_1606traveled from Sacramento to New Orleans, from the Grand Canyon to Lake Tahoe, from El Dorado National Forest to Reno. I drove cross-country twice. One AmeriCorps team went to Hawaii to work on an organic farm. Other teams worked at a children’s camp in Seattle, assisted at the Special Olympics, and were even on MTV’s Inaugural Ball. My team and I finished fixing up over twenty houses damaged by Hurricane Katrina in Port Sulphur and Lake Charles, Louisiana. We served over two thousand meals to volunteers in New Orleans. We cleared brush from five football fields of high fire-risk land, and fought a two-acre forest fire. I’m now certified by the Forest Service as a Type-B chainsaw faller and have my Red Card, a license to fight forest fires. I can use miter saws, pack pumps, and a deep-fat fryer. At the end of all this, I graduated with over 2,000 hours of community service and more life experiences than I thought possible. My time in AmeriCorps had high highs and low lows, and I’m still trying to make sense of it. So when I try to tell people what AmeriCorps NCCC will be like for them, I can’t, because I don’t know. It can literally be anything.

If you want to look into the program, a good place to start is http://www.americorps.gov/

Blogability Workshop

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thumbnailCAZKPTYAMonday, November 23, 8 p.m., Shapiro Center Lounge

You don’t have to be a “writer” to be a blogger.

Join Katherine Bascom ’10 and Lily Mandlin ’10 for a workshop that will focus on how to be successful on-line contributors or blog-entrepreneurs.  Blogging is becoming an integral part of how we communicate.  The informal setting of this workshop will allow you to talk about topics that you might want to blog about, concerns you may have about getting started, and to figure out what kind of “blogger” you want to be.  Activities will be discussion based with a few selections of interesting blogs to get the conversation going. 

Home-baked brownies will be in attendance and you should be too!

 

Ranked Enrollment Requests

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Now is the time during pre-registration to submit your ranked enrollment requests for courses that you thumbnailCAULFOVVwould still like to add for the spring semester.  A ranked request lets the instructor know how you prioritize his or her course relative to others, and will often make decisions based on it, if space in the course becomes available.  The scheduling program also will take into account ranked requests in future semesters.  Keep checking for course openings during adjustment period, but make sure to submit your ranked enrollment requests before adjustment ends on December 1.

Celebrating Students ’13: Stephanie Huezo

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IMG_1620Some people say that family does not always have to be blood-related. I found this out this summer when I visited my family in El Salvador. I hadn’t visited my family there for more than nine years, so it basically felt like I was meeting them for the first time. Everybody was really nice and I had a great time and didn’t expect anything out of the ordinary to happen. Yet a friend of my grandmother’s came to visit her family at the same time that we were there. I didn’t know much about her and didn’t even notice she was there until she decided to stop by and talk. It was then I found out that she believed I was her granddaughter. I didn’t know whether to believe her or not, since I didn’t know much about my biological father. She kept on insisting that I was her granddaughter and everyone kept on saying, “Yes, she looks like fulana de tal’s sister or cousin.”  I fell in love with the idea of knowing my father’s family, but in the end, we all accepted that I was not related to them by blood.  However, that did not stop me from seeing her as part of my family or from her seeing me as part of hers. My time in El Salvador was irreplaceable. It not only gave me the opportunity to spend some time with my family, but also allowed me to add another member to my family.

Withdrawal Deadline: Today at 5 p.m.

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thumbnailCAIGEVKPToday, Thursday, November 19, is the last day to withdraw from Fall semester courses.  You must submit your withdrawal form to the Registrar’s Office by 5 p.m.  The form needs to be signed by your instructor, your faculty advisor and last, by the class dean.

Academic Regulations: Academic Standing

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thumbnailCA2KQXR2It is important that you are familiar with Wesleyan’s academic regulations.  Among the many things that these regulations address is that of academic standing.  They tell you what level of academic probation a student will be on if an unsatisfactory grade is earned or if not enough credit is earned per semester or cumulatively. 

To review the regulations on academic standing, click on http://www.wesleyan.edu/registrar/ARNew.html#ACADEMIC%20STANDING.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Dean Brown by e-mail  (lsbrown@wesleyan.edu) or by coming into the office for drop-in hours.

Celebrating Students ’13: Te’Rhon O’Neal

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This summer I was able to work on the set of the new hit TV show on CBS, “NCIS: Los Angeles,” which is the spin-off to the IMG_1613original NCIS. This new show is starring Chris O’Donnell and LL Cool J. It was a great experience to hang out on the set and see all the behind-the-scenes work that goes into an action TV show. I’ve been on other entertainment productions, but never an action TV show, so it was an interesting change up. Also because my mom is a part of production, I was able to meet all the actors and actresses.  It happened that one of the actors went to Wesleyan, and it was really cool to chat with him about his experience before I took off to Wes myself.