Spring Semester

Last semester I was quite pleased with my grades, although I know that I can achieve more and gain better grades. I feel that with the subjects that i chose to do in the fall, my grades were good, because I choose to do subjects that were hard and that I have never done before. This Spring semester, I am hoping to go one step forward and gain a 3.0 gpa. Studying more often and completing all home work and asignements will help me achieve my goals.

Economy

To answer the question will the economy affect me? my answer is i have no clue. I hear things about the economy and how its taking a turn for the worse, however i don't really understand all that. That is why i have no idea if it will affect me. I don't see a change in anything regarding me, so maby it isn't affecting me...

Tierney Cahill

After listening to Tierney Cahills message 'Living Without Fear', i realized that if you have the drive and dedication to do something you think is impossible then you can definatly be successfull. She came from being a teacher to running for the political office, she did not win however, it is a big change. Sometimes in life we really want to do things, however we might not think we can do it, because its not possible. I always wanted to come to school in America to play lacrosse but never thought i would get the chance or opportunity, on top of that i didn't know if i would be good enough. However my friend wen't and did it, he attended New York Institute of Thecnology and wen't on to win a National Championship with them. He told me i could do the same, i looked at what he had done, and this really inspired me to do it. Now i am here! Hopefully i can inspire other English kids that are thinking of studying abroad.

Students not being prepared for class...

After reading the article.. College Students 'get away with' poor preparation, i started to think why that could be. The article basically stated that college students come to class unprepared, which could mean not doing readings, papers etc. This can be for a number of reasons. First of all alot of students are lazy, and if they can get away with not doing work, they will. Some classes at college are easy and even though some people do not take notes in class or do class reading, they can still pass the test becuase the work is not challeging enough. Also some teachers are more laid back and will let the students off with handing the work in late, which is why some students will not do the work when they are supposed to and get an extended dead line, then do it at the last minute. This can be down to the teacher being to lenient with students, however its also down to the student being lazy and taking advantace of their teacher. In some cases students do have a valid excuse and therefore that is fine.

Dead Man Walking!

After attending the production of dead man walking, it left me thinking about the death penalty. The play was very proffesonally produced and excuted and made me think about the death penalty, however my view remains the same. The death penalty is something i have never needed to think about before as it is none existant in England. I have read the book 'The death of the innocents' and also watched the production 'Dead man walking', both about the death penatly, and from this i have seen different situations regarding the death penalty, however i still cannot decide weather or not it is right or wrong. Both sides of the coin have strong arguments. I think it is good how the college has book asingements and productions about real life issues. This gave me chance to think about someting that i have never before had to think about. It is interesting and exciting to see and read about real life situations, and see both sides of an argument. This will help students think more in depth about real life isues.

Alcohol Use at Lees-McRae

I may have many different views about drinking alcohol than other students because of the fact i am from England. In England it feels as if there is a whole different outlook on alcohol use than in the United States. First of all for those who didn't know, the drinking age in England is 18 and it is nowhere near as strict as it is over here. I am used to meeting friends in the pubs to have a quite drink and socalise and also experiancing the night life of Manchester in the night clubs, this is why i feel different about alcohol use, because i am used to being able to drink and i dont see the big problem in that. Whereas in America i am no longer legal to drink therefore i cannot do some of the things i used to be able to do. People anywhere in the world are going to drink before the legal drinking age of their country, whether the drinking age is 21 or 18 people are still going to drink alot younger. In my experiance, at home i drank sometimes at weekends when i was younger and i realsied my limits at a young age. So now i am older, i am alot more sensible when drinking because i am past the stage where you want to get stupidly drunk and i have learnt from mistakes in the past, therefore i am alot more mature when i drink. My agrument is that now i am legal to drive, go out to busy bars and clubs back home etc, I won't make bad decisions, and i wont be in a bar far from home totally wasted and out of control. On the other hand in America the drinking age is 21, so i have met alot of kids who are not used to drinking because they are only 18. I see some of them get really drunk and do stupid things because they dont know their limits. Some of the ways they act remind me of when i was younger, however they are legal to drive, they are legal to have sex, they are at college where their parents can't see what they are up to, so they can make alot more bad decisions due to the fact they are still amazed with getting wasted, that i couldn't when i was younger. What i am trying to get at is that if they had expeianced this when they were my age they would know better to drink drive, or have unprotected sex etc. This is one of my arguments the drinking age is too high in America. The next thing i am going to talk about is a safe ride service at college. This is something i feel strongly about and think all colleges should have. First of all i feel there is a drink driving problem in America, i have witnessed this and herd alot of stories about it through out my years of visiting America. This is something i am totally not used to because in England i have not come across many people who have done it at all, maby 1 or 2. I think the main reason for this is quite simple. In England there is public transport everywhere, from the city to the country side. There are alot of busses, cabs and trains which are easy to use and not at all expensive, therefore when people go out drinking there is always an easy way to get home. Here in America it only seems there is good public transport in Citys and not in the more rural places. Therefore when students go out to partys and drink the only way to get home is a designated driver (DD) or to drive under the influence. When students don't have a DD they may choose to drive under the influence and this does happen. Obiously staff at the college know students drink, as this is all part of growing up, and they must also know that some students make poor decisions when it comes to getting home from parties. So why not have a safe-ride programme? They may argue there is no one who is there to give up time to do this. However i think that if the college offered a Work study to students, which was to pick students up when they have been drinking, no questions asked, i think some students would give up time to do this. This would help solve the problem of drink driving and could even prevent accidents and even death here at Lees-McRae and also other colleges.

Mountain Day 09/22/08

Mountain Day was a great experiance for me and my fellow peers at Lees-McRae College. It is a exciting event that only happens at Lees-McRae making it uniqe and it feels speacial to be a part of it! Its very important that the college keeps the tradition of moutain day alive because its a unbelivable opportunity to learn about the history of the college. I had a wonderfull opportunity to learn about the college and choose attend and listen about the history of Lees-Mcrae and Edgar Tufts ( the founder of the college). In the afternoon i also had chance to hang out with fellow Lees-Mcrae students and staff and enjoy good food and also take part in activities that were set up. I had a chance to meet new people and enjoy the whole experiance with them. It is great the college has this tradition because it brings about the whole family feeling of being apart of Lees-Mcrae.