First Year Experience #7

I went to a Carolyn McCaskill presentation about the perception of African American ASL signers. I had to wake up early on a Friday morning… which I m used to waking up at noon, but after listening the presentation, it was very much worth waking up for!

First, she introduced us by having a central question, and everything else would be centered by the question, is African-Americans’ signing different than the whites? Why? McCaskill showed us some videos and theories, we could see a significant difference from African American signers to White signers. African Americans would use their two hands a lot more, and their signing space is a lot more wide. Also, McCaskill did a lot intensive researching on discovering the African Americans’ view of the signing difference between African Americans and the whites. McCaskill traveled over six different states to do some interviewing, and she managed to give us some examples of how the signing of African Americans and Whites are different and how they are changing.

Overall, the presentation was well researched, and she gave us the accurate information, and I enjoyed the presentation, I learned a lot as well.

First Year Experience #6

Whole homecoming experience was memorable for me, because of non-stopping adrenaline whole week with the class spirits and competitions. Homecoming week included the judges who will determine the winner by the halftime of football game with the check of one thousand dollars towards the class-winner. Everyday there is the theme for us to dress and show up at the marketplace at 12:30 with our spirit so the judges could tally how many members from our class actually dress according to the theme. And every night, there are activities such as basketball combining with football, ping pong, charades, and class skit where judges determine the best doer to get the higher points. The hype lasted only a week and I didn’t exactly participated whole event because of my commitment to football.

My reaction to the homecoming week was little disappointing. My school’s homecoming has the more spirited and lively students than Gallaudet students. I expect the week to be chaotic with all wacky costumes and disguises; instead they all only wear the costume at 12:30 so they can get the points. They would take off their costumes after judges approved the tallies, and to me, that is not the true spirit of homecoming. I truly miss the spirit I had back at Indiana School for the Deaf. And most of students always stay in the room doing something else instead of supporting their class. Most people always say high of homecoming and my expectations were set bar high, and after I saw the event, I changed my mind quickly.

First Year Experience #5

Peer Health Advocates decided to host a workshop about the drugs and alcohols. The workers, dressed in red polo shirts, set up the projector in the Benson Hall lobby along with many brochures about health tips such as pregnancy, safe sex, and alcohol consumption. I planned to ignore the workshop but one of the workers added that it is a FYS credit, so I stayed throughout the workshop. Since there were only ten students who showed up, so the workers decided to go with the different plan with the idea of playing games to make whole thing exciting for all of us. Ten of us were split into three different groups and for each question that comes up on the slide, we choose our representation to answer the question. Whoever gets the most right wins the prize. The questions were basically about the symptoms for alcohol poisoning, what to do when a friend is drunk, or how to resist a peer pressure.

The game was actually fun because of the competition and the intensity among the students I really know. The questions were pretty easy, but some of them were obscure and nobody would know the answer. But that’s what it makes the presentation more fun for all of us. At the end, my group didn’t win, but a second place winner. Yay. The prizes were creative, and we, second place winners, received a free shirt, free cup, free magnet, and limitless number of free condoms. I love when PHA gives out free condoms in every workshop. Excluding the freebies, the questions and workshop PHA workers presented were resourceful. I admit that there were several things I never heard of it before, which it would be an aid for a problem in the future. Overall, I enjoyed whole thing and I will continue to attend more workshops that PHA provide. And the next one I heard will be about condoms and sex items. It should be interesting, and of course I will laugh it all the way.

Library Research Project with Richard Spiecker

First Year Experience #4

As a requirement for all First Year Seminar students to take a library research project, I decided to attend a Library Research Workshop at Merrill Learning Library to learn how to use ALADIN program. The workshop itself was very brief and it summed all information into 20-minute presentation. The workshop was in the basement of the library and there was only five students who showed up for the presentation.

I say the presentation is little beneficial for me because I learned only one new thing about ALADIN program. The information I learned from a librarian in the FYS class provided the same process of using program like the workshop's presentation. I expected little more attendance from the students at the workshop, and I could tell that the presenter kept the information brief because there were few students. The only thing I learned from the workshop was that ALADIN is the most effective way to find the articles in Gallaudet's very only library instead of searching for the articles all over in the library. I only showed up the workshop because my FYS teacher told me so. I will have a library research project coming up and I pray that I will do great on it. I believe the workshop is not exactly a necessity to all of us because a librarian's sources during the class time were sufficient and we all understood how to use ALADIN program. Last, I also showed up because I wanted to earn an extra credit. :)