Multicultural Discussions

Hello everyone!

This week I decided to highlight another part of my week that I really enjoy. I first got to know the multi-cultural group last Spring through a friend of mine that would always disappear to get pizza around the same time every week.

One of these days I finally was hungry enough to follow her to get a slice of pizza and that's when I met Shu Fen, a Rockhurst professor and counselor. The conversation and friendly environment helped me come back nearly every week since that first time. I know that as college students, it's hard for us to make time in our days to reflect on our thoughts and experiences, but this discussion group has helped me do it in a fun way without even realizing it.

It's a safe space where we can talk about our thoughts with ethnic and gender issues and we all bring different perspectives to the table since we come from different backgrounds. We support each other and offer career and even relationship advice and it's just especially nice to have someone hear you out when you've had a bad day.

This week I brought my laptop and took a few silly pictures to start off our meeting:

We're a lively bunch (as I'm sure you can see!) and we meet on Tuesdays at 3:30pm in Massman in case you would like to join us. We even created a video tonight about what we're all about:

Join us either this year (or next year if you're a prospective student) and I'm sure you'll always feel at home. 

Have a great week!

Jackie

Happy Chinese New Year!

When you think about Kansas City, most people think about great barbecue, powerful water fountains and perhaps vast sceneries of miles of open fields. I wonder how many people actually remember that Kansas City is home to a world-class museum called the Nelson Atkins Museum.

If you haven't heard of it yet, I'm positive that you will have to visit for an art class no matter where you go to college in Kansas City. It's known for being the largest collection in the midwest and for housing a rare Caravaggio painting of St. John the Baptist. Luckily for Rockhurst students, it is only about a five minute drive from our campus and most of the exhibits are free to see. 

This week I was able to attend their Chinese New Years celebration on Friday evening. I went with a high school student that I mentored and we had a blast. We were able to get a picture together in front of this huge Buddha:

We arrived just in time to watch the dragons dance to the beat of drums. It was incredible to see how colorful they were and to watch them move. The eyes and mouths of the dragons were able to open and close and they were not afraid of getting intensely close to your faces. Below is a clip that I was able to capture of the dragons: 

We were also able to walk around the museum. They had several activities going on at the same time and there were hundreds of people there that seemed to really be enjoying themselves. 

Hopefully you will be able to visit the museum once you are a student as well!

Feeling incredibly blessed!

Hello everyone!

Today I want to talk to you about "God-incidences".

I'm sure you know what they are...
They are those moments when tiny miracles happen in our lives. When you feel like God has interfered in order for you to go down a certain path or learn a special lesson.

There's no other way that I can explain how I was able to submit an application for a $2,400 just a day after first hearing about it and actually get it.

On Wednesday night, a friend sent me a text message to tell me to pick up an application for first-generation college students. The only catch was that it was due Friday.

This wasn't completely out of the ordinary. I think I'm a natural-born procrastinator and I'm sure I would have procrastinated until a day or two before the deadline regardless of when I first heard of the scholarship.

During my lunch break on Thursday, I hurried to the Financial Aid office and picked up the application. I had to fill out a quick sheet with information, complete a bio, submit at thank you letter and a picture of myself.

I got to work on the bio first and thanks to all of my practice with law school applications--I was done in no time.

I had a friend proof-read it and I jetted over to our printing center to beg them to print a picture for me. I was able to e-mail them a picture and they had printed within five minutes. Next was the thank you note, after my acting class I hurried over in the cold weather to the XL dorms to grab a thank-you note from our SOL room.

I had to re-write the note several times because I kept making mistakes. Luckily, I got it done and submitted the entire application to Deborah in the Financial Aid office.

I wasn't sure how long I was going to have to wait, but I nearly jumped out of my seat when I read the e-mail on Sunday that I had won the scholarship.

It all seemed so unreal to me, but it has taught me to always take advantage of the opportunities made available to me. Some of them will pay off--literally!

Speaking of scholarships, if any of you are reading this and are thinking "Man, I wish I could win a scholarship..."

Check out the Greater Kansas City Hispanic Scholarship fund at:
http://www.gkccf.org/scholarships/hispanic-scholarship-fund

The application is due March 1st and it is incredibly easy to fill out.

See ya next time!

Making plans and "Making Movies...

This week marked the first meeting for our Student Organization of Latinos for this semester.

I am still in awe of how much we have grown as an organization and I'm sure that 20 years from now I will still be able to look back and remember some great moments.

This semester I am especially looking forward to an opportunity to bring some caliente (Spanish for "hot") music to the Rock. We have played before with the idea of bringing Latino performers to Rockhurst and it looks like this may be the year.

We've narrowed it down to a local Kansas City band named "Making Movies." They are the kind of band that you can find on a Saturday night playing at your favorite Crossroads district bar, but lately they have even been featured on the Spanish CNN channel.

Here is a sample of their music:

This is one of my favorite songs from them and you can bet it will be on the list of songs performed if we are successful at getting them here.

Hopefully we will be able to book them within the next few weeks so our students can enjoy a great local band.

Enjoy the song and have a great week! :)

New Classes, a little nostalgia and hot chocolate...

Well, after finishing up the first few days of full classes, I am quickly seeing that it is going to be a great last semester for me.

I am already finished with my Core and Major requirements so my schedule this semester is full of fun electives. I am taking a psychology course called Sex & Gender that will analyze how gender identification is perceived in today's world, another course on Anthropology which is great because our professor is so experienced in the field that I really feel like we're just watching the History Channel for an hour every day.

I'm also taking one of those intense half-semester courses. The classes are extremely long from 5:30 pm to 9:45 pm so I am really glad that my professor uses a lot of group discussions and videos to keep us engaged.   I'm also happy that I'm taking a Sociology class because I can already see that it's going to help me better understand other people.

Lastly, I am super stoked about taking an Acting class with Dr. Proctor. It's been four years since I've been on stage and it really feels like I'm coming home.

I'm starting to realize how fast these last few years have gone by and I get an incredible feeling to see new faces on campus because I just know that Rockhurst is going to help them grow as students, Christians, and real-world ready professionals.

Although I am a senior, it seems like Rockhurst has one more opportunity to offer me. For the past few days I have been hearing all about Gamma Phi Beta, a new sorority that is starting a chapter here and they are looking for recruits to help. One of their girls stopped me on the Quad to have some hot chocolate. I don't know if it was the hot chocolate on this bitter cold day or her hospitality that has won over my attention, but I definitely think I'll stop by their informational meeting next week. I've always thought about going Greek and this has just helped me realize that it's never too late to go after your dreams.

Last week before finals...

The week before finals is definitely the most stressful week every semester. But it's hard to blame professors for having end-of-the-semester projects due at the end of the semester.

Not only are we up all night finishing the papers we have procrastinated working on for the entire semester, but sometimes we have up to five different classes to cram for.  I can only imagine how much sales for coffee and energy drinks spike up because of sleep-deprived  college students.

Luckily, Rockhurst extends their library hours until 1 a.m. for us and even provides midnight snacks. THAT I can at least look forward to this week! College students LOVE free food.

In other news, I received the honor of sitting on a student panel for our Rockhurst Board of Trustees during their meeting. I'm always so humbled by the quality of students that accompany me at Rockhurst. We all brought great feedback to the table and it was great to see that the trustees really wanted to hear what we had to say.

Finally, I was able to see the "A Christmas Carol" at the KC Repertory Theater which is conveniently located across the street inside UMKC's campus. I had a blast and it helped me sit back and relax just before a stressful week. Below is a picture of me sitting at the Cratchit table just before the play.

Good luck to everyone on their finals and I'll see you next week after all the madness is over!

Surviving the LSAT

From reading previous posts some of you may know that I'm applying for law school this year. Going to law school has always been my dream because I've felt a moral inclination to help defend people and their causes which is mostly rooted in experiences with legal problems my family has faced in the past.

This inclination was even more so fueled when I started working with pro-immigrant organizations throughout Kansas City and the rest of the United States. Through the experience I was able to meet immigration attorneys both in the private and government sector and I haven't been able to envision myself doing anything else since then.

The application process to get into law school, however, is not the easiest. Mostly because of one aspect in particular--the LSAT. The Law School Admissions Test is comprised of five 35 minutes sections of Logical Reasoning, Reading Comprehension and Logic Games.

To help others that may be thinking about applying to law school, I decided to publish an article I wrote about methods you can use to study for the big test in my Intro. to Journalism class at Rockhurst Univerisaty with Dr. Clune (which I definitely recommened!). The article is entitled, "The LSAT Nightmare." Enjoy!



The LSAT Nightmare

 

Your palms are sweaty around your No. 2 pencil. You have read the answer choice B and C twenty times, but you just can’t figure out which one sounds the most correct. Perhaps this is when you realized you should have opened up that KAPLAN LSAT prep book a few more times.

Taking the LSAT for the first time can be a nightmare. Maybe it’s the room full of law school candidates that makes you nervous or maybe the fact that  your performance will decide if you make it into law school or you drop out of college and move into a cardboard box under the Swope Parkway Bridge. Okay, just kidding, but when you are thinking to yourself during the middle of the test, everything always seems worse than it really is.

So how do you prepare to tackle the big Law School Admissions Test? When I asked Kansas City corporate attorney and Harvard Law graduate, Ramon Murguia, he said that it really is a hard test to prepare for; either you have it or you don’t.

KAPLAN and other test-prepping agencies, however, have their own opinion. They have created an incredibly successful and profitable LSAT preparation market for those who want to put in the time (and money) to learn.  Whether you want to use self-study books, intensive review courses, multiple week courses, or tutoring, they have the resources to help you.

When choosing the best studying strategy, make sure you assess your own personal studying habits and capabilities. Ask yourself the following questions:

1.      Do I have the self-discipline to study at least an hour each night?

2.      Do I think I will be able to go back and decipher why I answered test questions incorrectly?

3.      Am I looking to improve less than 10 points?

4.      Do I have less than four weeks to study?

5.      Is paying $1,200 or more for a prep-course going to be a challenge for me?

If you answered “No” to all of these questions then you might want to consider taking a course through either KAPLAN or PowerScore. These two companies are both known for their high success rate and they both also offer guarantees on their services. If you don’t score as well as you had hoped, you can repeat the class free of charge.

Jacob McMillan, a first-year law school student at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kan. can recall his positive experience with his on-site KAPLAN course. “I absolutely hated the logic games section, but by the time I took the exam I had learned to diagram games and I scored pretty decently,” he said.

Both KAPLAN and PowerScore offer a variety of online and on-site courses that usually last about six weeks. If you are in a crunch and just need to lay a foundation to study on your own, PowerScore offers a 16-hour weekend course that covers all of the basics.

If money is an issue or if you would rather study on your own, self-study books are available for surprisingly affordable prices through Amazon.com. They can be used as a pretty effective studying strategy if you can create a studying plan and stick to it.

Monica Ramirez, a Harvard and Stanford Law graduate remembers studying for the LSAT on her own. “I started studying for the LSAT three months before I took it,” she said. “I would take a practice test almost every night.” Can you imagine yourself being so committed? If you can pull it off, you might find yourself scoring above a 160 just as she did.

Try not to get too anxious about the exam. There will be other parts to your law school admissions application where you will be able to show the committee why you should be admitted.  Regardless of what studying method you choose to pursue, just remember one thing: It is just a test and you are more than just a number.