From a Student's Perspective

I have had the busiest semester EVERRRRRRR!  But I have enjoyed every minute of it.  As a non-traditional (OK, older) student, I sometimes think that there is nothing that will surprise me in my classes.  I must admit that this semester has proven me wrong (again).  I am surprised at how much I have learned—and liked—out of my two communication classes.

First of all, my performance studies class has reawakened creative thoughts with poetry writing that I had long ago forgotten.  Not only has it reawakened them, but I have learned how to better express myself through metaphors and actions.  Thank you, Dr. Chris Collins, for inspiring my creativity and showing me that every one of us has a story and a message that needs to be heard.  My son also thanks you as well because had I not taken this class, I would never have taken the time to write a poem that reflects my feelings about him and my grandson titled “The Gift.”

Second, my beginning video class has been an awesome training class.  I have learned the beginnings of video editing and had fun producing and directing videos.  I must tell you that it is a lot of work to produce a video.  That is, if you want it done right.  It begins with the actual filming down to the nitty gritty of editing.  When you are in the midst of editing, you suddenly realize how bad your camera angles were, how bad the light is, how important it was to get the lighting just right on the green screen, and not to mention, that the audio input makes a huge difference.  Don’t capture video outside on a windy day!  Use microphones that cut down on background noise and adjust the sound so that it’s not blaring on the final video.  Yes—I had all that!

My final project for the video was an eight-minute (minimum) film.  Have you ever tried to fill eight minutes of time on a video and at the same time come up with the plot, the actors, the script, the camera angles and the background music?  It’s not easy when you don’t even know what to make the film about and maintain a full-time job in the process.  Luckily for me, I posted a comment on Facebook about the project and one of my FB friends sacrificed herself as my actress.  She just happened to be one of those people that keeps a superhero costume in her closet….yes, I said super hero, and none other than Wonder Woman…and so began my creative thinking.

I have spent many evenings working late on this project and we ended up with is a crazy film named “ASU’s Legend of Wonder Woman” and yes it is CHEESY.  I say “we” because I had a classmate as a partner.  Yes, they make you work in partnership with other students, and that just adds to the time schedule because you never have a partner who has the same schedule as you do!  Please note that “we” are cognizant of all the flaws in this project, but the flaws have been my road to educating me on how to make it BETTER next time…reeally!

O to the M to the G!  Talk about busy!  Let me begin by saying I had a great idea for my spring semester.  Yep, I decided to be bold and sign up for 3 classes instead of 2 because I had to make up for dropping my Astronomy class.  Well, lemme just say I’m tired and it’s only been a month!  I hear Dr. Phil asking, “What were you thinkin’?”

Besides working Monday thru Friday, 8 to 5, my spring classes are, Performance Studies, Beginning Video Production and Critical Reasoning & Logic. It was a bit ambitious and I’m feeling it right about now, but I promise to reason logically as I progress through this semester and avoid vague and ambiguous memories so as not to confuse myself! (I’m confused already, does that count?)

Having said that, I have to tell you that I’m really (reeeally) enjoying my Performance Studies class.  It’s a sophomore COMM credit for my degree plan and it was a choice between it and debate.  I debate in my everyday life already and could not conceive of the notion of debating for causes that I don’t get to choose or that I don’t get to create and onto which I can’t add just a slight touch of drama!

But back to Performance Studies, this class is so much fun.  I really didn’t know what to expect but I am finding out.  We perform Slam Poetry.  At first I was skeptical of the whole thing but as I get deeper into it, it really is a lot of fun.  I feel like it’s a practice of public speaking of sorts, but throw in the ability to add the “drama” that I was talking about—it’s perfect.

Some of my classmates are still on the fence, they fear standing up in front of the class and performing, but I think this class will give them the ability to lose that fear.  We had to memorize someone else’s work for our first performance but we will be writing and performing our own poetry soon and for the grand finale our professor has a friendly competition in mind with his other class.  The best of the class will go up against the best of his second class for a final best of the best.   The competition will be performed with a live audience, yep that means YOU or anyone else interested in coming to see us lose our fear of being the center of attention or lose fear of having complete and total focus on us….Dr. Phil is asking again, “???”  (click for a listen)

70 years ago, on December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and America entered World War II.

I’m not going to give you a History lesson here — we all know our history.  What I am going to do is reflect on two recent speakers that the Multicultural Center and HSI speaker series brought to ASU.  I was privileged along with about 1000 other people to be able to listen to Samuel Tso, a Navajo Code Talker and Iwo Jima veteran, tell his story about how he along with his people helped America win the war through their unbreakable code.

It was a compelling story — I felt as if we were sitting around a campfire and I became lost in his recollections of youth, both before becoming a Marine and after coming home.  He lived through the battles yet saw much death and destruction.  He is a hero in many ways.

One of his stories made us all in the audience very sad.  After coming home from the war, he was returning to Gallup, NM, but only had enough money for a ticket to get to Arizona so he decided to hitchhike his way home.  A man from New York picked him up and agreed to take him home because he was a war veteran, a Marine.  Along the way the driver decided to stop at a diner for food.  He ordered burgers and beer.  To his surprise the owner refused to serve Tso, because he was an Indian.  The man from New York protested that this was a war veteran and how could they refuse?  The diner owner still refused.  They did not serve his “kind.”  Tso’s reaction to the ensuing confrontation was to tell the driver that they did not need to argue and get into a fight over him.  They left without being served. He told us about the prejudices that he endured after the war and in teaching the young of his tribe how to deal with prejudice his advice was—“You swallow your saliva and you move on.”

Let’s fast forward in history and let me tell you about another speaker I was also privileged to listen to this past August.  John Quiñones is a broadcast journalist and host of ABC’s “What Would You Do?”

Quiñones is a Mexican American and he also captured my attention in his recollections of growing up in a home where his parents did not speak English.  When he was first enrolled in school he couldn’t understand anyone.  He fought learning the English language but he did learn and he went on to college, earning his bachelor’s and then his master’s degree from the Columbia School of Journalism, realizing his dream in becoming a broadcast journalist.    He laughed at his memories of school advisors who encouraged him to seek trades in mechanics or other labor jobs.  But, he had one teacher who believed in his writing and encouraged him to pursue his dream.  Today, he is a 7-time Emmy Award-winning journalist, the little boy who couldn’t speak English.

Now why am I tying these two speakers together you ask?  You may even be saying “reeeally?” right about now, but I always save the best for last.

Quiñones showed us an episode from “What Would You Do?”  This particular episode was at a New Jersey Deli.  The “situation” was the diner not serving Spanish-speaking laborers.  (You with me now and how these two stories relate?)  The laborers couldn’t speak English and were trying to order food.  The owner refused and even asked them to leave because they didn’t serve their “kind” there. Sadly some customers waiting in line shamelessly agreed and also made comments asking them to leave.  Many of the scenes were very sad, and yes I held back tears, especially during a scene where Quiñones asks a laborer “How does that make you feel?”  I think we can all answer that question.

But it was not all bad.  Quiñones went on to tell us that although there were many who joined in the discrimination, there were yet many more that stood up against it.   His compelling video went on to show the passion of those who were not Hispanic standing up for the laborers and against the unjust treatment.

Tso showed character in living his life by the example that you cannot let situations like this hinder you in life and that you have to “swallow your saliva and move on.”  Quiñones has been able to make us all say “Shame on you!” to those who discriminate against minorities in the same situations that Navajo Code Talker and Iwo Jima veteran Tso had to live through almost 70 years ago.

Thank you ASU—your speakers have resonated a spirit of pride within me.  As a minority I continue to pursue my dreams because of those who came before me, whether they are heroes of war or heroes who ask “What would you do?”

When was the last time you listened to a live marching band?  As a non-traditional student, I have to say my days of listening to my high school band at a football game or pep-rally are long ago.  So imagine my delight as I walked across campus one afternoon to hear the band.  Yep, the ASU Marching Ram Band was practicing on the campus grounds moving from one area to the next.

There’s nothing like the sound of drums and trumpets and all those instruments to get you all pumped up about something, anything!  It was nice.

Parump! Parump!….and just imagine right now your best get-cha-going sound from a football game! Imagine having that sound in the background as you are sitting in an office working on a computer.  Does it make you type faster? Do your feet start tapping? Would you admit if it did? Ha!

Well, my typing is faster, my feet are tapping and heck, my head is nodding with the beat!

If you want to hear what I’m hearing take a look at this video created by our office student videographer, Logan Reynolds, thanks Logan, he ran outside and took video for me as I came into the office exclaiming how awesome it was and if I only had video——thereby making my wishes come true—watch with me for the experience and march on!  Go Rams!

My Introduction to Radio and Television class is proving to be very interesting.  I’m learning the background of original communication.  You know, before (b4) computers, cell phones, Facebook, Twitter—  the old days, when all you had was a box; TV or radio.  You had to make sure and be home in time to watch your favorite television show.  Now we have DVRs.  We can record and watch at our convenience.  We also have 100s of channels to choose from, instead of the basic 3 I had growing up.  I can’t even decide what to watch anymore.  Too many choices.  I’m too indecisive.

I’m also learning how to create audio files and voice overs.   Our assignment this week is a 10 second Public Service Announcement (PSA). There’s a 10 second time limit on it.  Have you ever tried to get a message out in 10 seconds or less that was supposed to improve others?  It’s not that easy.  Specs for the PSA are; 1) must have music in the background throughout; 2) must use three (3) sound effects in the background; 3) my voice as the “voice over” ; and 4) I need to “mix the sound”.  Yep, all that in 10 seconds. I won’t tell you how many times I recorded myself to cut my voice over to 10 seconds, nor will I tell you how many times I had to go in and delete my breathing spots, you know those, when you pause to take a breath as you speak—-and I barely made the 10 seconds.

When I finished up my spot, I asked my son to give me his opinion on it and let’s just say he had lots of advice and told me (his mom) that he knew “I could do better!”  Thanks son, I needed that.   So for what it’s worth, I have left it as is, because I only had 10 seconds.  The message is how disconnected we have become from each other by all our “connections”…so I want everyone to “unplug” from all their devices and sit down to dinner with the family for a face-to-face chat.   And notice I’m putting this messge through on my “connection” to the world in a “blog.”  Can this be called an oxymoron?    Here’s your PSA folks; Unplug!       Face to Face Chat!

For those of you waiting on pins and needles to find out how my Astronomy class is going, I have some news.  I decided to drop the class.  Now before you pass judgment and do the sad shake of your head thinking “oh no, she didn’t, ” let me explain.

This was not an easy decision to make.  You have to understand, I’m not a quitter, ever! I’m highly competitive and I strive to win in everything.  This class just got the best of me.  I was not making any headway on the complicated math lab problems.  I’m sorry, but I’m not a math genius, I tried really hard to comprehend the material and I just didn’t get it.  This class was not a core requirement and if I had stayed with it, I was looking at a possible failure.  Think about it, I would fail in a class I didn’t HAVE to take!  So I cut my losses and learned a valuable lesson.

Research the class you select next time.  Find out what you are getting yourself into before you just select it.  I’m also going to go online and read the syllabi that are now required to be posted.  I’ve lost valuable time on this one but I keep walking on the path ahead of me.  Time passes and lessons are learned, both good and bad.

As for the good that I came away with, in my short time with Astronomy—I look up to the skies at the stars with a deeper appreciation, a little bit more knowledge of what makes up their matter;  but I really don’t care how many light years away they are, how hot they are compared to the next one, or whether they are moving towards me or away.  It’s just the sky, dark at night and lit up during the day…I’d much rather focus on the Earth and what is happening with my peeps…really!

So, I decided to take Astronomy as my science credit.  Not because I like the study of the stars and planets, but because someone told me it was easy.  Imagine that, an “easy” college course.  Well, that someone was so wrong.  It’s not easy, at least not to this communication major.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the lecture and the planetarium and I’m learning so much about space and the solar system and the universe.  It’s very interesting.  My problem is the math.  YES, I said math! EEK! Did we not have an entire semester of my complaining and we all agreed that we were done and NEVER AGAIN would we put “me” through math.  Well, someone forgot to mention that Astronomy is riddled with math.  And this math has to do with astronomical units and conversions from kilometers to light years to m/u’s–whatever that means.

And if the class didn’t confuse you enough with its perception of distance, let’s add an astronomy lab, where you can have MORE MATH.  Oh and this math is “astronomically” difficult for this little earthling.  I’m talking Einstein’s E=mc(square)—let’s all say it together— “REEALLY?”.  Yes, really.  Somebody Help Me!

So now you understand my Dilbert insertion.  I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me this semester.  Sigh. 

I think the attached photo of my friend Jayna shows how I felt when I found out that I did not, yes I said did not, pass my English CLEP exam—Confused!

What do you mean I didn’t pass? How could I NOT pass?  And there’s no feedback either? Reeally?

Suffice to say we have THE picture. I guess this goes to show that “you can’t always get what you want”—thank you Rolling Stones for that phrase.  It really helps my motivation…reeally! Ok, not really.  I’m not happy about this situation.  But I’m not giving up.  I have no idea what I did incorrectly but I will not give up.  Here are my two choices:  1) Take English 1302 or 2) Retake the CLEP in 6 months.   I’ll think on it.  I may take the CLEP again in 6 months.  At least now I know what to expect and maybe this time there will be a better topic to write about.  I don’t think I can disclose the topic as I’m sure I’ve acknowledged with blood that the test would remain confidential and that if I utter one word on the topic somewhere in CLEP-land someone will hear it.

For now, I forge on preparing for the fall semester.  I will pocket my 12 SCH from the Spanish CLEP and be happy that I got those.  It was not a wasted summer if we look at the “gains” instead of the “losses.”

We’ll close the chapter on CLEP—for now anyway.  But you gotta love the expression in this photo:  major confusion and the perfect visual to go with my thoughts.

Success tastes like rich chocolate ice cream with pecans and caramel…yum.  That’s what it felt like to earn 12 semester credit hours on my Spanish CLEP.  Yep! I did it.  I felt like I needed the buzzer from Staples, “that was easy!” Reeally! I’m still awaiting the results of the English 1302 CLEP, it may be a couple weeks before I get that back, but the Spanish CLEP makes up for so much.

My advice for anyone who wants to take a CLEP is to order the Collegeboard Study Guides.  They tell you “exactly” what you can expect  and they are an amazing source!!

If I get the 3 credit hours for English, then my summer total will be 15 SCH.  It’s as if I went full-time for an entire semester.  That’s sweet!

So for now, I’m just sitting back, enjoying what is left of my summer eating my ice cream!

My “nothingness” has gotten boring.  I guess I can only do ‘nothing’ for so long but then I get anxious.  So here’s my plan.  I am going to study and take the CLEP on Spanish.  I don’t know how my score will go, but I could potentially get 12 credit hours.  That would be “reeeally” awesome!  I’ve sent off for my CLEP Study Guide and have until mid-July to take the exam.

While I am at it , I’m also going to try and see if I can CLEP the 2^nd English core class (1302.)  I don’t really have expectations on getting those 3 credit hours, as I really don’t know what to expect.  But I shall give it a try—I have ‘nothing’ to lose….well maybe just the exam costs, but that is little to pay if I get the credit.

My point is I wish I knew about CLEP early on.  I would have taken my English 1301 test and saved myself the misery of sitting through that class.  There are a lot of opportunities to take CLEP exams and earn credits for subjects that you are an “expert” on and not waste your time on classes.  Not that you’re wasting time, (and money,) but you could be enrolled in another more challenging subject where you can do what you are in college to do……learn!

So, I’ll check back with you later and let you know how successful my attempt is.  Hopefully I will get it all and then I can check off some more courses on my degree plan and march along my path.

Hasta luego!