The Last Blog

For a non Catholic person, this class still has a lot of value. Even though Francis was a Catholic, his views weren't only Catholic,they were universal. His life is something everybody can value for reasons other than religions. His love of nature and his respect for all human beings is something that everybody can benefit from. If everybody, Catholic and non-Catholic, lived even a little more like Francis, there would be a lot less problems. Learning about how these teachings apply to us today helps us realized that our lives can be way less complicated and that can benefit everybody even if they aren't a religion at all. I think Francis' teachings are reflected in a lot of other religions as well as simple humane actions, but they are more intense with his faith, which is why Catholics get more out of it, but everybody can benefit.

Dom's reaction

After volunteering at the community house, i felt like i really had accomplished something.  We were originally supposed to help with the garden but since the weather permitted it, we switched to the food pantry.  When Keesha told us that she had been meaning to send food out to people for Thanksgiving but just didn't have the time, I knew that she really wanted us to be there and help out.  At no time at all did I feel like we were intruding.  We stuck to the room with the food pantry and almost cleared the shelves of food within 2 hours.  During the process of boxing up cans and food, I enjoyed knowing the fact that this food probably wouldn't have been able to be sent out to people in need without our help and it really motivated me to work hard.

Bridget's post even reaction

I think this project went very well. We were able to package pretty much all the food and filled up almost all of the boxes. While doing it, I realized how much of a difference we were making. We were giving people food, a basic necessity. To a lot of us, the need for food has never been too big of an issue. This service project opened my eyes to how many people are in need in this community and how much a box of canned goods can really help them. I enjoyed this service project and thought it was a lot of fun.

Abby's post project reaction

I think our project went really well. It was too cold outside to dig up the garden so we ended up making up boxes of food for families in need for Christmas. I had a really good time and really felt good about the work we were doing. Keesha, the lady in charge of volunteers, kept saying how helpful we were to her and the other people that worked there because they had so much other work to do that they wouldn't have time to get their food pantry emptied. It also felt good knowing we were giving people food for the holidays. We got a lot done and made a lot of boxes for the people in need.

Jakes post project reaction

I felt that our group project went very well when we went to the community center. When we got there due to weather we weren't able to dig up the garden like planned, but got to do other nice work inside. The work that we did was packing food boxes for families in need in the Sioux City area. They were discontinuing their food pantry program our job was to clean the shelves and put things into the boxes evenly. We were able to finish our job by putting the canned goods in the boxes and the center will put some kind of meat in the box to finish it off and have it to the families by Christmas.

Dom's preliminary

My feelings toward our service project at the community center are kind of mixed.  I want to help and feel like I am actually needed, but also I don't want to feel like I am just getting in the way. I want the employees to see us as contributing not as dumb college kids just trying to get a grade. I hope our time at the community center will be productive and successful.

Bridget's preliminary

This service project excites me. Where I am from, we liked to live in a "bubble". Many people worried about themselves and only themselves. We didn't like to acknowledge that there were a lot of people needing help in our community, people who were not as fortunate. Although I did a lot of service through school, I still wish I could have done more. I am excited and kind of nervous for tomorrow. I am excited to do some more service in the Sioux City community and just be able to lend a hand, even if it's in the slightest. I think it will be fun and hopefully a great learning experience. Habitat for Humanity is a great organization and I am lucky I will finally be able to do service for them, I just wish it didn't have to take 18 years for me to get involved in their organization

Jake's preliminary post

I am excited to get out and do this project because it is one of our last things that we need to get done for this class before break. The thing that I am not to excited for though is that we will be cleaning up a garden so we will be outside and sometimes it can be cold in Iowa in December. One thing I am wondering about is what kind of garden we will be cleaning out, since we are helping the community center I wondered if it will be a community garden or if we will actually be going to a person's house to assist them. Overall I am ready to do this project.

Abby's preliminary post

I am pretty excited for this project. It is not my favorite kind of service but since we had schedule conflicts this worked out best for us. I like working with homeless people best but this will be fun still. I know that even though it may not seem like it's doing much, it really is. We are reallynhelping the people who work at the community center because we are making their job easier so they can teach English classes and work on other projects. I am nervous because I am not very good at physical labor but I will do my best. I am also nervous because we didn't get the time to be super organized so it's a little hectic for my taste. Otherwise I am excited to do service because it is my favorite thing to do and to talk about.

Proposal: Abby, jake, Bridget, dom

For our service project we will be goin to the community center on December second at 2 pm to 4 pm. We will be cleaning up their garden and getting it ready for the winter as well as some various other projects they need done that they will tell us about when we get there. One of our major problems is that we don't know all of what they are going to have us do. We were informed that we will be doing little other things that will really help out the people that run the center so they can focus on other things, but we are unsure of what these tasks are. Notknowing this preventsus from preparing ourselves for these things. Another obstacle we have is the fact that when cleaning up the garden we might be working outside and it's cold. We will overcome both these obstacles by dressing for going outside.

In spetember after our first paper I wrote thAt I thought I wrote about meaning well but didn't go into depth as much as a should have. For this third paper I think I was better at depth and explination. There really wasn't much meaning to describe so I can't really compare on that, but this paper was much improved on the first one. I had more organized analysis and better balance between statement and analysis. It was easier to understand and more efficient.

Event blog post 5

I participated in the canned food drive for Doyle Leadership scholarship students. This was on Sunday,November 13th at 2:00 in the afternoon. We were split up into groups by random drawing of numbers. Then we were assigned an area in the neighborhoods surrounding Briar Cliff. We went there with our group and collected food for the food pantry from the houses. I was with a group of a few freshman and then upperclassmen. We totaled probably eight people for our area. The week before the soccer team went around and passed out fliers telling the people we would be coming around to collect so some people had bags of food out on their porch all ready for us. The houses that didn't have stuff out already we had to go knock on their door and ask if they had anything. Our group was in two cars and so the other car got there first and knocked on some door and people didn't have anything to give because hey couldn't afford it so we went do the other half of our area where people were better off. We split up and went door to door. A lot of people weren't home but one guy particularly stuck out to me. He told us that his wife was busy so he had to pass on giving anything. That bothered me because it was clearly an excuse and nit a very good one. Could he not go and get one can himself? If he could afford it then just say that you don't have anything. The person I was walking with agreed with me on this. We all thought it was for a good cause but they should have chosen the area more carefully because part of ours wasn't financially stable enough to give. This situation is similar to when I volunteered for the salvation army. My friend and I rang the bell for an hour at one of the red buckets. We were outside a store entrance in a mall in a very nice part of town. A lot of people gave and we collected over one hundred dollars in the hour we stood there. Some people really didn't have cash on them because a lot of people use a credit card especially around the holiday season and some people just had some change which the scrounged for us. Some people didn't even look at us or avoided walking by us. I thought that wasn't very nice because what's a coupled cents? And if you don't have it you don't have to give but you don't have to avoid us.

What would have happened if they had found the medical supplies on you?
What was the most interesting thing/most interesting person you saw there?

We talked about how Moses was totally different that Galli in that he showed the civility of the conversation between Francis and the Sultan. I didn't really notice it because i read them so far apart. I thought it was an intestine contrast.

The first most important would be enlightenment about the differences in thought about women in other countries. I always new the differences but I just thought it was stupid but we talked about the reasons and the feelings of them and how they look at it. The next one was the thoughts of true chivalry. That it was kind of sexist in the reasons. Like a woman should wait for a man to open the door like we were helpless. I never realized that. I just thought it was to impress us but it was kind of oppressing and now I understand feminists a little bit more even though I still like the door opened for me.

Article

BBC news website. Afghan women's rights under threat, say UK charities published October,3 2011

This article is awesome because it sheds light on the problems in the middle east we don't usually hear about. It shows the distessof women there and that it's not just about the fighting its about their rights. They are having trouble because their rights and progress may be sacrificed for a deal with the Taliban. That is not usually the side of the story we hear. We usually hear about the leaders and the oil so it is awesome to hear about the women.

Bcu events blog 4

On October 13 th I wnt to a source panel at the stark stage. At 7:30. I was sitting towards the back because we were only a few minutes early and so most of the seats were already taken. There were a lot of people ther. Some were there becaue it was a Doyle leadership event but many of us were there because it was something we were interested in hearing about. It was really interesting that there were quite a few adults there. Usually at events at the stark stage at this time of night it is all college students but there was a surprising number of adults present. This event had three presenters whontalked about different aspects of gay or lesbian life. There was stuff about children in foster care and stuff about marriage and stuff about the difference between kids raised by gay or lesbian couples and kids raised by straight couples. I thought the most interesting was the speaker about foster care gay and lesbian kids and about the kids raised by gays and lesbians. I think my major in social work probably contributed to why I found the one about foster care so intriguing but I thought it was sad the way they were treated without love and were moved around more. In think other people reacted the same to that fact as I did; we were all shocked and sad that someone would treat a child about that. Then we heard about the kids raised by gay and lesbian couples. We were all shocked to find out that if one parent dies, the other doesn't get custody even if they were raised their whole life by that parent as well. I always thought there might a difference in kids raised by lesbian ir Gaya parents because they would probably be bullied more and theynwould act out but it turns out they are often more caring and compassionate than kids raised by straight parents and will standup to others being bullied. This answered my questions and probably a lot of other peoples. Tis experience was unique to me. I have never been to anything like it because this was a topic I didn't have a lot of experience with and I have never been to a panel like this. I have nothing to compare it to because it was such a unique and eye opening experience for me.

Most interesting thing I thought in class

I thought about government and how it really works. I have always thought that the government needs to help people and they need to pass laws to protect it's people but o never thought that laws were hard to pass on purpose. I thought about how it is kind of screwed up that it was supposed to be impossible to get anything done in this country. For the readings for today's class there was the Sudan

Week 6 post

I think I have definitely learned how to multitasking even more than I did in high school. I start doing things a lot earlier. I do homework whenever I have time, even if it isn't due for a while because I never know how much time I will have later. I also make sure I spend a good amount of time on stuff because there are less points available in my classes and so everything is worth more. I have become less a obsessed. I used to get As on absolutely everything and now I am happy with Bs and Cs because I know at doesn't mean I failed. I still have the same work ethic but I am learning to balance social and studying. I was actually the opposite of what you would think because I used to study like all the time but now I am learning to make more time for friends unless I have a big test then I need to take time. I have developed the ability to sleep even with people running down my hallway screaming and I have become ninja in the morning when my roommate is still asleep and I have class. I think a university student is good at balancing and gets involved and has friends and studies and works hard for everything(at least a good university student). I think I am on my way there. I am sill working on getting as involved as I want to be and still making more friends and learning to balance it all with getting good grades. I think my vision is definetly changeable and not very clear. My sophomore andjunior year at this time I think I will be confident in what I am doing and look back and laugh at myself this year because I will have it figured out so much better. The only thing. Have figured out now is my way around and meal times. I will have more of life figured out by then.

Bcu community events blog #3

On October first I was a cheerleader at the BCU homecoming football game at one in the afternoon. I was on the track because I was cheering for the game. I couldn't see the game most of the time but I got to see a few plays and I also get a very good look at the crowd. There were students along with a lot of adults and families at the game. The students stood at the fence right in front of us at the front of the bleachers while the families and adults sad in the bleachers. In the beginning if the game nobody scored. It was pretty boring for everybody. Then the other team scored. Then the scored a field goal so the score was ten to zip. A lot of people left because they figured it was a loss, but then we came back and scored a touchdown and a field goal also tying the score. At the end we thought we were gonna scare again winning the game so we were all anxious and nervous but we didn't, putting the game into overtime. We won e coin toss so the other team went first trying to score. We not only prevented that but they fumbled and we got the ball. The crowd went insane. I have never seen adults jump that high off their seats in a long time. Then we scored and won the game. The crowd went absolutely crazy because we thought we were going to lose for a while. This game brought me back to the state championship my senior year of high school. We won in overtime almost the exact same way we did. It was different because the stakes weren't as high and it wasn't as intense because it was just a regular game. But I loved cheering all the same. It made me so happy because I love exciting games because that makes cheering fun. The crowd was great because they were so supportive of us and the football team. I thought it was a great start ton homecoming Saturday. I think my action was the same as everybody else's. These are the games everybody loves. We want excitement and victory because ournteam isn't that great so it's a big deal for us to win. We were all very proud of the team for pulling through the way they did.