SJC Student Blogs

The papers are turned in, the packing is almost done, and spring break is here! Arizona, here I come.

Oh, and I've gotten the OFFICIAL offer for my summer internship; I just got the email about having 'interim clearance'! Yay!

On Friday we had a Rocky Horror Picture Show part down at Cup o' Joe, so that was fun. It was so much cooler than last year. This year we had more props for everyone to use and we actually got the audience participation cues to work on the DVD. We had a good crowd and had a good time. (:

On Saturday I helped with a Missionary Outreach spaghetti dinner. It was a fundraiser for Tanzania, and we had it at the local VFW. Apparently there was a competing fundraiser the same night, so we didn't have a particularly large crowd. The people that were there were extremely generous, so it was a successful fundraiser. I had a good time and ate a lot of spaghetti! (:

Mostly I've just been working and doing lots of homework, mostly writing papers. Classes have been fun. We're done with One Hundred Years of Solitude in Core 8. That's a very interesting book, it is like nothing else I have ever read. As of today we've had our last class discussing the death penalty in Constitutional Law. We've focused on different aspects of that one issue all this semester, so the group dynamics in that class are going to change once we get back from break and the discussion topic changes. As far as extracurricular stuff, Bible study has been fun, even though it has been less Bible study and more girl talk. It works. The papers and everything are under control, but I definitely have plenty of work to get done over break. Our spring break is next week, so I'm really excited! I'm going to Arizona! Yay yay yay!

There's been plenty going on last weekend and the weekend before. I don't have pictures ready from this weekend yet, but I think this is more than enough for the moment.

There have been a lot of basketball games, but I didn't make time to go to any except the last regular home games. Both the men's and the women's games were really close and really exciting. There are more games here soon because both our men and women Pumas made it to the Great Lakes Valley Conference.

My good friend Patricia with the school band, our Lady Pumas, our cheerleaders, the dance team about to spring into action!, our mascot Joe Puma, and our men's team all made for a great afternoon of basketball!


The church sponsored a little Mardi Gras party. Before it started, while a snowman was being made, the footprints of a monster were discovered. :.P






The biggest excitement, by far, has been mock trial. It is over now, but we all put a lot of time and energy into it. This picture is from a really nice dinner that the team went to with some alumni. They helped us out and did some last-minute coaching from a real legal perspective. They maintained a connection with the school so they got treated to an amazing dinner and the current mock trial team enjoyed it too.

The rest of these pictures were taken by Jean Monfort (the lady with the cool scarf), or with her camera. She and her father (the gentleman in the blue shirt) were our coaches. They've been helping us out with the case since last semester and they've been very generous with their time.

We were in actual Will County courtrooms over in Illinois, so that was really cool. This is a silly posed picture, but it shows how nice the rooms were in which we competed.

I had a lot of roles in the competition. I did a couple of cross examinations and questioned one of our team's witnesses and did an opening statement. For those responsibilities I wasn't memorized like I probably should have been, but the other part of what I did came together really well. I was a witness, and the role evolved into a very quirky one. Here I am in my quirky witness regalia. Everyone on our team got ranked as either a "top lawyer" or a "top witness" from at least one judge, and my top markings came when I was in this getup.

That's all folks!

This week has been an interesting one - There has been some pretty big stuff going on back home that has been fairly important. But that has little to do with what's going on with school and my various SJC adventures. I am currently in the midst of a grand adventure- MOCK TRIAL! I'm sitting in a hotel right now getting ready to work on memorizing an opening statement. And typing up a new cross examination. We competed today and the first round we were up against a really tough team. I feel like we held our own, but there is no way we actually won. The second round we might have actually won, I'm not sure. We'll find out eventually. I'm having fun with it and learning a lot about it. There are definitely curve-balls in the mix and I'll write more about it when there is not more work to do for bright and early tomorrow!

1) Kelso - dressed to the nines for his role
2) The final bows - everyone was out and on stage
3) The theater - I think it is just such a beautiful stage, with really nice detailing all around the edges. I'm really glad it was restored in time for me to get here. This view is from where I was standing with my spotlight, up above everyone.
4) This is the booth - the behind the scenes aspect of things is really cool too, here are the the sound and light boards which are almost as cool as the decorations on the wall. Everyone who does tech for a show writes their name up somewhere.

I don't leave campus as often as a lot of people do. This is the best place for me to get my homework done, and I find plenty to do here. My friends are here, and I have everything I need between my dorm and the caf. I'm pretty good at making/finding my own fun. That being said, it can be nice just to have a change of scene. I went down to Lafayette this weekend to visit old friends, and it was really nice. Lafayette is less than an hour away, probably closer to 45 minutes, and going there can be a real treat. I found a bunch of books (for myself and for my Young Adult Literature class) at an awesome used bookstore that I didn't even know existed. I also got to have some really nice Indian food, so I really enjoyed that. That was getting off campus for fun, but sometimes there are other reasons. I've been at school since coming back from winter break, and everything has been alright here. But sometimes there's stuff going on at home and it can be difficult to be away from that. Even though there isn't anything that I need to do at home or would do differently that I would here. Sometimes there is just a disconnect. When my mind is on something else, listening to people talk about papers and exams is placed in an entirely different perspective. I think school work is very important, but it pales in comparison to LIFE - the person you are, the love you share, and the life you lead. Life isn't an assignment, and it isn't enumerated in a syllabus, and it doesn't go according to schedule.

So, what has been happening at the Joe? There is plenty of life here. There are also a couple of papers. There are also plenty of club meetings...
- I missed the Super Adventure Club ski trip on Saturday, but I'm sure that would have been great. I'm looking forward to hearing about it and seeing pictures. Mock trial practice on Sunday went really well, and tonight there was a lot going on.
- The Columbian Players and the Improv group (Production Under Construction!) have been trying to work through the logistics of bringing in someone to lead workshops since last semester. Plenty of those setbacks were my error, and even still I'm forgetting things and not getting everything right. I guess that is just part of the learning process and I'm hoping everything in the future goes smoother. Nonetheless, TONIGHT WE FINALLY HAD OUR FIRST WORKSHOP!!! I was only able to be there for the first half hour of it, but it went really well from what I saw. There were just under 20 of us, and everyone seemed to be having a good time. It lasted for another hour after I left so there was plenty of excitement that I didn't partake in. And that's why there's next week. More of the details will be sorted through and I'll be able to be there for more of it. We should have a series of three improv workshops and hopefully we all get a lot out of them.
- Constitution Committee and Student Association meetings are definitely interesting. Constitution Committee lasted for about a half hour, and we spent most of the time discussing one issue about a technicality in a certain Article 1 Section 9. The Student Association meetings last closer to an hour and a half and they deal with anything and everything. I'm having fun being involved in the decision making process in a way I wasn't before. I'm also enjoying it whenever one of my peers preferences a statement with 'From a political science perspective...' or 'From a legal perspective...'. I got a little applause when I noted in discussion that a "'slippery slope' is a logical fallacy" because other students who have taken a Logic class were thinking this and saying it in asides. (Yes, we are applying what we learn in class to the real world. Even if it is the real world of student government. It is still fun.)

The plays went really well for all three performances! The cast did an awesome job for every show, and by the last one I didn't mess up with the spotlight at all! Even the first couple of nights I think I did a pretty good job. I was a little early on one cue, but it didn't cause any problems. Major kudos to the theatre expert John Rahe for being exceedingly patient with me! I had never been a follow-spot operator before and with his help I'm now capable.

On Saturday there was a Presidential Scholar competition, and that was pretty fun to help out with. My friend Morgan and I basically just answered questions and chilled with very nervous, very capable high school seniors. Lots of those kids seemed like they would be really good for the school, so I hope most of them make the decision to come here.

Sunday's mock trial practice was very encouraging --- but the competition is less than a month away! It is sneaking up on us even as we are preparing... I'm really excited about how things are coming together, but I'm definitely going to get more nervous as the time for the competition gets even closer. My ultra-competitive personality wants to WIN!
Sunday night we had a "Guess Who?" party through M.A.C. down at C.o.J. --- (MAC is 'Make a choice' - an organization for activities to provide alternatives to alcohol on campus and CoJ is Cup o' Joe, the free student-run coffeehouse!) My ultra-competitive personalty was not afforded a "win" for "Guess Who?", but I've come to terms with it.

We had a Columbian Players (--- Drama Club) executive meeting and a general meeting --- and I am PUMPED! We have big things planned for the semester and they are really coming together! I'm really excited and hope everything works out! I'll write more specifically about the objects of my excitement once they have actually come to pass.

I've started a little group-led Bible Study group with some of my closest girl friends. It has been less Bible Study and more girl talk, by and large, but it is still really nice. Last night there were seven of us there for at least part of the time, so that's really good. I had to leave early because...

The Constitution Committee of the Student Senate has work to do! We are going through the Constitution article by article and making edits or suggestions or writing question marks in the margins. It is going faster than I thought it might, so that's good. I'm definitely going to understand the rules and regulations of student government really well after this process, so that's good. But there is still a lot of work left to do, so that might be good but it might also be tedious. We had an 'emergency' meeting of the Student Senate called to pass the budget for the semester, and that lasted less than half an hour, so that's definitely good!

This blog disproportionately represents the time I spend in meetings... because when I'm trying to remember the recent happenings of my life to blog about, mostly extensive amounts of time reading textbooks come to mind. I could write about my struggle/ultimate victory of discovering the distinction between the 'realist' and 'neo-con' schools of thought, but that has rather little to do with student life and is probably not interesting to most people. Perhaps more interesting is the idea of putting political, moral, and economic philosophers into a ring for a steel-cage wrestling pay-per-view event to determine the winning philosophy. Fukuyama is a clear winner based on video evidence. The Machiavelli v. Nietzsche match is going to be the pay-per-view event of the century and the winner is still up for debate.

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Play practice is going well... I have never been a follow spot (aka spotlight) operator before, but I am slowly getting the hang of things. We are putting on three different student-directed one act plays and they are coming together really well. And I'm learning how to use spotlights!

Yesterday I bought a plane ticket for spring break -- I'm going to Arizona! Last year my friend Sarah came to school here. She's from Colorado and she wanted to be closer to her family, so now she's going to school in Arizona because she has other family there and it is so much closer to home. Of course here she is dearly missed, so me and one of my other friends are going to go and see her! I'm really excited; it seems like such a long time from now even though March 6 is approaching much more quickly than I realize.

Today I went to the police office. Not because I did anything bad! Because I need to send my fingerprints in to the feds so I can get security clearance so I can get a summer internship. Major accolades and thanks to my friend for the ride. So rarely do I need to get off campus that I don't have a car here.

Classes and everything are still going well... as soon as I post this I am going to buckle down and make a presentation about Cuba!

Here's Stephen Colbert's take on the whole 'Cuba' thing, I'm trying to figure out how to work this in to my presentation:
"Miami's Hispanic population took to the streets last night to celebrate Fidel Castro temporarily stepping down from power. Way to go America! Our plan to slowly deteriorate his health over the course of 50 years is working." --Stephen Colbert

I think probably my favorite thing about the beginning of a new semester is getting to know new people. Because this is such a small school it seems like I recognize almost everyone's face. This may or may not actually be true, but that's the way it seems. However, I don't always have a name matched up with every face, and each new semester makes that less and less true. Core is especially interesting in that respect, because those are classes that everyone takes. So I'm getting to know people from pretty much every department that I've seen around but haven't necessarily gotten to know before. Sometimes we end up focusing on fairly trivial topics, but sometimes we're called to answer important questions. Yesterday in Core 8 (Intercultural Core focused on Latin America), my teacher asked, "What is the most important thing in your life?" The individual answers my classmates gave were interesting to hear, and for some reason my mind really latched on to that question. I think I've heard it asked before, but for some reason it seemed more relevant now than before. The more I think about it, the less sure I am of my answer and the more important knowing the answer seems.

In the political science department there are some people I've had half a dozen classes with, and it has been really fun to get to know everyone. I like that throughout the department we have vastly different opinions from each other and still get along really well. This semester I have a couple of political science classes with a professor that by some quirk of scheduling I've never had before. He's really smart, and the even though we're only a couple of weeks in we're already talking about some complicated and quirky topics. Today's scenario: in regard to diplomatic immunity, if you are the son of a consulate worker be careful with your cell phone in Venezuela! Be even more careful with your cell phone in Russia, even if the exact scenario is less likely to occur.

This is a link to Fr. Tim's Photography Page He takes really great pictures all over campus! I was much too preoccupied on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to take any pictures of my own, but he more than compensated for my inaction. The first link is to his main photography page, this is a link to the MLK pictures he's uploaded. This is our speaker's promotional picture that was in our programs and everything. She was so good! The planning committee for this whole event really did an awesome job putting everything together and made an excellent choice bringing her to campus.

This semester has started off well! It has been less than a week since the last time I updated and so much has already happened in the space of just a few days.

Thursday I had a mock trial practice that went pretty well followed by a Cup of Joe meeting that went even better. We have lots of parties and events planned for the semester and I am so excited! I submitted a sketch for a ceiling tile, and it was approved. So now I get to paint a design on a ceiling tile that will get to stay down in the free coffee shop until the ceiling caves in! Which hopefully isn't for a very, very long time because I like it down there and because if this ceiling tile turns out the way I am imagining it then it will be pretty cool. Lots of the other tiles are painted already and I want to add mine to the mix.

Friday night to Saturday morning was the prayer vigil that they have every semester. I went for a couple pretty good chunks of time, but I didn't stay for the whole night like a couple of people did. It was really nice.

Saturday night was the 2nd Annual Orange Juice Party! Last year we threw an Orange Juice Party so that we'd all be in one place to hang out the first weekend back from winter break. The orange juice isn't spiked or anything like that, this is just an occasion to play cards and party games. This year we made it a tradition, and it was really fun. Some different people came this year. This time around I think it was bigger than last year, but I can't remember exactly how many people were at the first one. This year we had 30 people come for at least part of it, so that was a pretty good turnout.

Sunday afternoon was our first afternoon mock trial meeting, and it went really well. I'd gotten a couple of forensic entomology students to get involved because the case involves them as expert witnesses. This mock trial competition is between lots of different schools, and we are one of the only a few schools in the country to have a forensic entomology program. So in this part of the case we should have the upper hand. We also have a judge, and will probably have more than one, that are working really closely with us. My competitive nature is gratified by this, and I'm getting more and more excited because it looks like our team is really starting to come together and focus.

Sunday night was the Cup of Joe opening and that place was packed! Our lovely little free coffee shop hangout was closed for the first week back so that the people covering the shifts could figure out when they could cover shifts and to do some extra cleaning. When it did open there were a lot of people there and there were so many games and conversations going on that it was impossible to keep up with who was where doing what. Fun times.

Today was the Martin Luther King Jr. program! It went really well. It was put together really well and the guest speaker that was brought in did an excellent job. Patricia Russel-McCloud was very entertaining, and what she said was relevant both to Reverend King and to us as college students. I actually spoke right before her, because I had submitted an essay into our competition and won. I was really nervous about reading my essay and it went pretty well. The younger kids that went before me were really cute. I've had butterflies in my stomach for most of the day. I think I did pretty well, but our guest speaker really left a strong impression. Props to the planning committee on this one, she was a great choice! The band played, the choir sang, and a couple of really deserving staff here got awards to honor their contributions to the school. It was a really neat program and I am not going to forget any part of it anytime soon.

Classes started on Monday and I'm trying to get into the swing of things. I'm figuring out a new routine for a new schedule and meeting my new classmates and professors. There's also paperwork I have to do and a work schedule to figure out. Everything is going well, and break is definitely over! I'm really excited for my classes and it looks like the workload will be less this semester than last. My books are coming in and I can say for sure I am going to be reading a TON! Everything looks interesting, so that's good. The student senate meeting tonight was interesting and included lively debate; Columbian players are going to have a much more full semester than we did last time. It seems like every club is meeting already, and I am going to call a MAC meeting pretty soon myself. Hmmmm... getting organized and keeping busy... I have big plans for this semester, so I'm holding my breath and jumping in!

The main dangers in this life are the people who want to change everything - or nothing.
-Nancy Astor (1879 - 1964)

The semester is drawing to a close. I am going to get so much sleep next week. This week has really thrown off my routines, and I need to focus! At the moment student life is studying, or at least it should be. I have finals in History of the English Language and Philosophy of Law tomorrow. So by tomorrow I need to have a more thorough understanding of the great vowel shift and the purpose of civil law. Right about now I wish I had more finals that were class discussions over pizza instead of tests.

I've spent a little bit of time on Christmas stuff, and quite enjoyed the Christmas festivities down at Cup o' Joe. There should be some pictures of that at some point. There were certainly some shenanigans! Unrelated to Christmas, I introduced several people to the movies Agnes of God and The Godfather over the weekend. I also went down to Lafayette to see The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day. So I'm making up for lost time in regard to movies.

Probably the most exciting thing for me recently is that I heard back from one of the internships I applied to! The application I put in to the State Department seems to have gotten me a placement at the Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, VA. I don't know any details and am currently involved in a massive game of phone tag with my potential employer. Well, I don't think I'm going to be getting any money, so 'employer' is perhaps a misnomer. I don't know whether this placement is going to go through or not, but I've made it through the initial process so that's a huge step in the right direction! Life plans and travel plans both can be so complicated!

Anyway, back to property law... only one day left...

It is the spirit and not the form of law that keeps justice alive. -Earl Warren (1891 - 1974)

A judge is a law student who marks his own examination papers. -H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)

Yesterday myself and five of my classmates went to my professors' house and had a nice evening. We had dinner and watched a really funny movie spoofing the discovery of Nixon's Watergate cover-up. At the end each of us left with a whole pizza! When I returned to campus I was greeted by the prospect of a full night's sleep. Not all of my classmates were so lucky, some of them returned to the prospect of writing more papers.

For the last few days my life has been papers. Specifically, two papers. The one on the philosophy of law ended up being almost 15 pages and the one on Richard Nixon's foreign policy ended up being almost 20. Even though I've been researching for several weeks I still devoted almost all of my waking hours to writing in the last few days.

Yesterday I also attended my first Student Senate meeting. I didn't know what to expect, but I think that I will definitely understand the ins and outs of how stuff gets done here much better now! Once I got there I found out I was going to be on the Constitution sub-committee, so apparently I'll be re-writing the Constitution. Not the United States Constitution, for the Student Senate. :^P

On Friday I took a little time off of Richard Nixon to dance the night away!


Annnnnd...

Yeah, we're awesome. (:

It is not a question of who dances but of who or what does not dance. - Ruth St. Denis

You do your best work if you do a job that makes you happy. - Bob Ross (painter, smart guy, paint brand, PBS entertainer, role model, and wearer of a bold hairstyle)

I have a really awesome job. I work in the library here on campus. It is really a great opportunity. I'm scheduled to work about 12 hours a week. If I don't want to go in it is very easy to get someone to cover for me. I have some responsibilities, but I have more than half the time completely to myself. Often even more than that, depending on the shift. I help people out, put away books, that kind of thing, but when I've done what I need to do I generally have a good chunk of time to study. Plus, I'm getting paid minimum wage! So, not only am getting classwork done that I would be doing anyway, but I am also getting paid to do it! This provides me with more than enough spending money, and there are other perks. The professional staff and other student workers are really fun. The professional staff are also really generous! Today we had a library staff Christmas Party. I had class until the very tail end of it, but it was still amazing. Homemade lasagna is absolutely divine. Not to mention the seemingly infinite supply of cookies. We get treat bags on other holidays too, but this time it was on a whole new level! Yum! The professional staff really is amazingly generous in regard to both resources and time. Working for them is an absolute blessing!

Pretty much all other excitement pales in comparison to homemade lasagna. Yesterday I did a lot of scurrying around. I got a free H1N1 shot, so I suppose I'm healthy now. Later I had a meeting with a professor to make sure I was headed in the right direction on a paper. (Hello, Professor Watkins! I now know you're reading this! :'P I'll go back to working on that paper in a minute.) After that I had a meeting for the mock trial team. I am really excited because I had such a good time with speech in high school (State Champions '08!) and this is vaguely reminiscent of that. I have a very competitive nature especially in regard to speech, so I might actually be a little too enthusiastic for this particular situation! The final meeting of the day was for Habitat for Humanity. I am really grateful for all the support that club is getting this year. So many students are really involved. Particularly this year's freshman class is a real inspiration. Earlier this week there was a comedian brought to campus by SUB. He wasn't much of an inspiration, but he was really funny!

I need to get back to a couple of papers. I'm going to be working on them all weekend, but I'm still going to make time for some fun! The winter formal is tomorrow evening, so I'm looking forward to that. That should also be a source of some pictures. (:

I had a great Thanksgiving, and now I am ready for the 'pop pop bang' of two weeks of classes and one week of finals. ('Pop pop bang' is a movie reference, 2 imaginary points to the first person that names it!)

I'm taking a break of swimming in articles from law reviews because I've had a little excitement!

I've gotten an email from the Department of State that I'll know whether I've made it through the first round of the selection process by mid-January. That application was due in early November (which seems like forever ago!), and until now I've had no clue when I would find anything out. For all I knew I'd find out about whether or not I had an internship six months from now instead of having at least some indication in about one and a half months. Well, I guess I still won't know for sure, but at least I know now that it is being processed and that I'll have a little information about my application status relatively soon.

I also got an email about the class elections, and myself and my running mate won! So now I'm president of my class,* and my friend Adam Ruggles is v.p. I really didn't expect us to win, because our opponents are two very friendly, outgoing, well-liked people that know a lot of people. Apparently the favorable opinion of those two is well-matched because somehow Ruggles and I came out ahead! I'm surprised, flattered, grateful, and really excited for this year and this responsibility!

*My class identity is actually kind of complicated. I consider myself a "shmunior." I came into St. Joe with the current sophomore class, but hope not to graduated with them. I'm hoping to graduate with the current juniors. How is this the case? I was very blessed to go to a large, public high school with awesome academic opportunities. I graduated in a rather small class of 754 people, this year there are more than 4,000 people attending my high school! Because there were so many people, a large variety of classes were able to be offered. From my sophomore to my senior year of high school, I ended up taking 8 AP classes and 8 AP tests. (If you have the opportunity to take an AP test, do it! It couldn't hurt but it can really help!) Of the 8 tests I got a '3' or higher on 5 of them. Of the AP tests for which I had a 'passing' (3-5) score, here I got credit for all 5. From those 5 AP tests, I got 30 credit hours. Because credit wise I basically came in as a sophomore, I should be able to graduate a year early. The credits are all especially helpful, because none of them ended up going to 'electives.' I was granted credits that matched the tests I took that went to Core (comprehensive general education), my Political Science major, my English minor, and my psychology credit even met a requirement for my Criminal Justice minor! Because of how it all worked out, I should be able to, with a full credit load and good fortune, be able to graduate after three years with a double minor! Of course I work very hard to make that happen, but my high school and college circumstances are what make that possible.

Speaking of high school, shout out to my Warren Warriors! This past weekend my high school football team won the state championship! Best in the state! I am not particularly involved with Warren Football at this point, I don't even know if I know any of the current players personally, but no affinity with a school ceases entirely with graduation. (: So this affiliation is going to be maintained.

I don't really have any pictures of my current happenings, but if I thought anyone would like to see a picture of me sitting reading legal briefs or checking my email I would make it happen.

To end with a quote in light of my electoral success -
"The great secret of power is never to will to do more than you can accomplish." - Henrik Ibsen
(To be honest, I only recall having read one of Ibsen's plays in full, and it is arguably the most famous - "A Doll's House." It is an interesting read, very strange but I recommend it. I think I might turn this blog into a book club! Hahah!)