ISLE and Peer Mentor Conference

When I first found out that we had to go to two conferences I wasn't too excited to go. I didn't want to give up most of my weekend to go to something that I didn't want to go to. But, it was something that I committed to doing so I went.

The first conference was the Peer Mentor one. We were required to go to two sessions so I chose the only two times that worked for my schedule. The first session I went to was about strengths, learning what your strengths are and the strengths  of the people that you are mentoring and how that affects your team. A lot of what they talked about resembled the MBTI talk that we had the day before. Although it was close to the MBTI talk, I still was able to take a few things out of it. They really hit on the importance of learning how each strength affects different situations and how to work as a team. It really made me excited for when the first year students take the MBTI test so that as a mentor I will have a better understanding of how our section can work as a team.

The second session I went to was about social media. This session I didn't take as much away from as the first one. They talked a lot about how they had used social media to promote their group. As Hixsons, thats not what we really use social media for. We use it as a way to communicate and encourage all of the other Hixsons around us. We aren't asking for likes, or follows, because it is already prestigious on its own.

The next conference was ISLE, or the Iowa State Leadership Experience. I had to work all morning so I missed around half of the conference but I was still able to attend four sessions during the afternoon. My favorite session I went to was what color is your brain. Although it also was like our MBTI talk it put a new perspective on it. They talked about how the brain is split into four quadrants and how we use all of them but we favor one of them. The color that I favor is blue. Blue is all about numbers and being organized. This pretty much sums up most of who I am and I was satisfied of how they did it.

Although I originally wasn't excited for last weekend, it turned out to be a good learning experience and I am glad that I was forced to go.

MBTI Part Dos

ESFJ, these four letters accurately describe who I am and what my personality is like. This is the second time in a row that I got ESFJ. After the first part of the MBTI test I was quite sure that ESFJ is where I belonged.

E - Extraverted. I talk a lot. Its who I am and who I always will be. The first two letters talk about where you find your energy. Introverts find their energy from themselves and by thinking. While extroverts find their energy by the others around them. This describes me so well. I find motivation and my drive from everyone else, not from me. When in a group of people I am usually the one spurring on the conversation and keeping everyone involved. Unless I am feeling lazy, then I just don't care a whole lot. To paint the picture of how extraverted I am. For the past two tests I have been a 30 in extraverted and al of the facets were at a 5 for in-preference.

S - Sensing. Sensing is all about using your five senses to find your information. I am a very reliant on what I can see, smell and touch. It takes a lot of faith for me to believe something is true if I can't use my five senses to find truth in it. I also am very detail oriented. I tend to shy away from the big picture and just focus on the little things and how they affect the bigger things.

F - Feeling. Feeling is about how you make decisions and what factors go into those decisions.  I care about people as my main factors. If the decision that I make harms somebody or they don't agree with it then I will try as hard as I can to make it right with them or to settle whatever their doubts are. Compassion is a really big characteristic in my life. I love the feeling of being able to relate to people and being able to be compassionate and empathetic for them.

J - Judging. Judging and perceiving are how you interact with the outer world. I am 100% in the judging margin. I plan everything. From when to wake up, to what I am going to wear for that day. If something isn't planned that I start freaking out and don't feel comfortable at all. It is in my comfort zone to feel like I have everything in control and that nothing can go wrong.

So what does all of this mean and how does it help me lead a group? It lets me realize what I am good at and how I can use those in contrast with the strengths of my co-leader.

Second week of blogs and class

This week in class we talked about what some of the main problems or questions that incoming freshman would have coming into their first semester at college. Going into class I hadn’t even thought about frequent problems that they had. I was only thinking about what I had experienced and what situations I had gone through. It was a big wake up call that I need to start preparing and preparing myself for the coming year.

Something that I think is the most relevant thing to think about is that every student is going to have to find out who they are and who they want to be in college. I think they will have lots of questions about how I handled it and what advice I would have for their situation. But there would be some things that I never had to go through. For example, I never had to deal with homesickness because my home was only 20 minutes away. This would take some preparation and thought on how I would handle that question.

One of the things that the booked did really well was laying out all of the things that people struggle with during their first year at college. For example they talked about how most first year students can have troubles with adjusting to living with someone that they might not get along with first semester or living with integrity even though there is no one watching over your shoulder. 

I was kind of surprised to find that this book actually had some information that would be useful to apply in my time as a peer mentor. In my experience most books that are supposed to be helpful in teaching you things, aren't usually pretty good. But, with the first two chapters of this book it has made really excited for the rest of the semester and to see how it prepares us to be peer mentors!

First Blog as a Peer Mentor!

Hello,
My name is Sam Hausler and I am a sophomore majoring in Finance. I have lived on campus for the past two years in Larch hall, and yes I love polar bears! But I am not writing about polar bears, I am writing about myself. I was homeschooled up until my junior year of high school when I started going to Ankeny Christian Academy. I graduated from ACA with a class size of 11. Thats right, 11. So not a big change from being homeschooled. Then I came to Iowa State where my first class has over 300 students in it. That was a big change, but the change has ultimately been good and helped me to grow as a person.

The time when I am at my best is when I am around people I love, doing something that I have a passion for. I am a very emotional person so when I there is something I am passionate for, it motivates me to continue to work harder and try to do the best job that I can do.

What I enjoy doing most is connecting with people. I feel like I can use things that have happened in my life and things that I am still going through to relate to people and help them through tough times in their life.

Something I enjoy learning about is things that I can apply to everyday life. I don't like the classes when the teacher just says things that you could never use either in your future or now as a student. I understand that not all things are applicable to your major, but when they can tie something back into an application, then I enjoy those classes or lectures.

My goals as a peer mentor is to help transition freshman into their move to college. I was blessed to have many older students that could give me advice and help me to not make stupid mistakes. Another goal that I have is just to simply be there for the people in my group. I want to be available and someone that they know they can come to outside of class and recitation.

The role that I would play is something that I kind of talked about in the last question. To always be available to the students, and to give them things that I have found helpful in my transition.

Sam Hausler

Diversity Event

The diversity event that I went to was Candy Crowley discussing what happened during the campaign process and her post-election analysis. Walking into the Memorial Union I didn't know what to really expect to listen to during this talk.

Having this be the first presidential election that I could actually vote in, I was actually interested in what each candidate stood for and their policies for different things. So when I found out that she was going to talk about why she thought that Obama won the election my interest immediately increased. Once I saw what she what she looked like I realized that I had seen the election that she had moderated.  

One of the main things that she talked about was why she thought the election went the way that it did. I agree with a lot of things that she said. For example, she talked about how the Democrats focused on getting votes from the cities, which is usually the case for every election, and that the Republicans focused on the suburbs, also usually the case. But during this election the Democrats got more votes than usual from the cities while the Republicans got less than usual from the suburbs that they counted on to bring in votes. The other main reason that she gave is that Obama won a lot of the votes from the Hispanics. Obama won around 70% of the Hispanic votes, while Romney only got around 30% of the remaining voters.

It was really interesting hearing an expert in politics talk about the election and why everything turned out the way that it did. I'm glad that I went to this event because it drew my attention more than the other ones would have. Would I have gone to this if it wasn't for the Hixson program? Probably not. But am I glad that I went? Absolutely.

How I've grown, what I've learned

This semester has been really good for me as a Hixson Scholar. I have been so blessed to have a great section and two peer mentors that really care if we do well or not. I couldn't have asked for a better first semester as a Cyclone. Over this semester I have grown a lot and learned a few things and this is that this blog is about.

This semester I learned a lot of things, I learned that you actually need to study at college and work hard to get good grades, you can't just coast by like I could in high school. I needed to actually put myself out there and talk to people in order to make friends, the talking part isn't very hard for me. I learned how to work as a team and that everyone learns and communicates in different ways. This was a big learning experience for me because I like everyone to learn and do things my way.

I have also grown a lot this semester. I have grown in my understanding of who I am and how I react to certain situations. Whether this was with the MBTI test or other tests that we had to do. I grew in a way that I found out that I can live an entire semester away from home.

My first semester at Iowa State was fantastic and I couldn't have ased for a better experience. I have been surrounded by great friends and fellow students. I am looking forward to see what happens in these next three years.

What The Hixson Award Means To Me

Finances has never been a worry for me. My family was in the middle class and I just assumed that we were normal. Then when my dad passed away because of cancer the Spring of my Junior year, while everyone was thinking about what to do next, I was thinking about how I was going to pay for college. Fear crept in when I couldn't think of a way to pay for college, especially with price of college not getting any cheaper, without taking any loans. My Junior and Senior year I worked as hard as I could in hopes of possibly getting a scholarship. I have heard so many stories about people getting in a large amount of debt because of their college loans that they couldn't pay off. My dad has his masters degree in Biology and I remember seeing him mail bill after bill to try and pay all of his loans off. 

When I started to look for scholarships, I was trying to decide whether to go to The University of Northern Iowa or Iowa State University. When I saw the Hixson Scholarship I knew immediately that this was the perfect scholarship for me to get. The fact that one of the requirements really showed me that they were looking for people who had gone through something tough and was able to persevere through it. The fact that it was worth a lot of money also attracted it to me. What I decided, without telling anyone, is that if I got the Hixson scholarship then I would go to Iowa State. Then when I received the news that I had received the scholarship I ran around the house yelling. Not only because I had just received a great honor, but because I knew finally where I was going to go to college. 

In conclusion the Hixson Award means more to me than an amount of money. It means to me one of the reasons why I came to Iowa State and that I have people that are willing to support me and believe that because of the things I have gone through they think that I have the ability to succeed in college and in life.