ISLE

ISLE was actually a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be. Delatorro is great! He is fun and makes you participate in his speech. He is also a great motivator and likes to keep it real! His keynote speech was really good and he gave examples from recent movies of the different types of leadership styles and the pros and cons of them. He gave great requirements to have in order to be a great leader. One is needing to be a great follower. Also, you have to be able to lead yourself before you can lead others.

I went to the first session with Delatorro again because I was hoping to get the 12 important steps in writing my own ticket in college and beyond. I wanted to know his idea of the best way to succeed in college so I could share that not only with myself but with the freshman next year. Unfortunately he did not get through all 12 steps but he said some really great things. The main thing that stuck out to me was, there is no win or lose, there is only win or learn. You can't look at life as winning or losing, because every time you lose, you learn something from that experience. Learning will always get you closer to winning the next time and that is why one should never be afraid to go for things they want.

The second session was about icebreakers. I thought this session was really fun and I wish we could have had more time to learn more icebreakers. The one that was really fun was when there was someone standing in the middle and they have to point at three people and say "cow or rabbit or fire hydrant," then the three people had to perform an action. It was a great way to get relaxed with the people you were around because we had to do funny actions which probably put a lot of people out of their comfort zone. Icebreakers are a great way to open up and feel more relaxed with a group of people one has never met.

The third session I attended I did not like. It was about utilizing strengths but we never identified different types of strengths or how we could use them to our advantage. The ending of the day was great because my name was drawn for a prize and I received a twenty dollar gift card!!! Yay!

Chapter Three

My eighth grade summer I hung out with friends people call "hicks." When this guy asked another boy in my grade if he should go for me or my friend (I know, what a player), the boy said don't go for Kaylene, she hangs out with "hicks." Well, he didn't listen to him, but I feel like my school was really bad when it came to stereotyping people and being prejudice. It occurred especially within the high school girls. If you were older, then you got to boss the younger girls around. Girls in sports would only hang out with other girls in sports. When I was a freshman, I heard rumors that the older girls didn’t like me because I was going out with "their sophomore." I think I was a prejudice person when I was in high school, but I think that going to college has allowed me be on my own and grow into a better person. It has changed how I feel and think about everything. Now, I am more accepting of people that are culturally different. I feel like this will help me be more open-minded and understanding of the different ways people live and act. Being able to be sincere and curious about different cultures will help me be more relatable and I really am more curious about other cultures than I have ever been.

One sentence from this chapter that stood out to me was, "We are all vulnerable and we all make mistakes." I expect from myself perfection and it is hard for me to accept that I am not, but I have been working on telling myself that what happens, happens and nobody is perfect and it is impossible to be perfect. I don't expect anyone to be like me or have the same opinions as me. I don't expect anyone to be perfect. I don’t expect anyone to be smart and understand everything they are taught. Those are important traits a peer mentor has and I think I have them pretty well figured out. One of the tips at the end of the chapter was concentration. Being "in the moment." I have been working on that when I go to my classes, just thinking about the moment right now and not worrying about the past because you cannot change it, and not worrying about the future. This is what a peer mentor should be able to do in order to fully understand people that are culturally different. I thought the book did a great job at describing how almost everyone feels at some point in his or her lifetime and I felt like I was able to relate to the text very easily. It also gave great instructions on how to try to help change the way you look at people that are different. 

Chapters One and Two

I thought the first two chapters of the book were very interesting. The first chapter outlined a lot of points that explains who a peer educator is and what they are here for. A sentence from the book grabbed my attention, "relating with her peer educator was like 'being able to relate to someone who has been through similar experience but still understands and won't judge me for needing input on what may seem unimportant.’” This sentence does a good job of summing up one of the major reasons for having a peer educator. I hope that I can make the students feel comfortable enough to ask me any kind of question because I have had a lot of stupid questions in my lifetime and it is nice to know that someone is there to help you answer them, not because that is what they were hired to do but because they obviously like helping people with things otherwise they would not be peer educators. Also, in the section about peer educators being role models. I definitely agree with that section. There are certain guidelines that give peer educators good reputations. When I think of a peer educator I think someone studious, friendly, confident, and they get good grades, and care about school and people. You want a peer educator to have these qualities because these are the kinds of qualities everyone should strive for in order to learn and succeed and you also want someone you can rely on that will always be there on time and will always be willing to help. I know that I will be able to fulfill the role of a peer educator because this is what I want to do with the rest of my life and I think it is fun to be able to teach students new things and hopefully inspire them to follow their career goals and succeed. I think the second chapter described my feelings of being a freshman very well. Going to college is and was a stressful time for me. It was scary leaving my parents and not knowing anybody and having to face most of the challenges that Students Helping Students lists. I thought that the Hixson class not only helped me make friends and feel more comfortable but it also supplied me with a lot of knowledge about the campus and its resources. My peer mentors were always happy to see us, and they tried to make class fun. I want to be able to inform the students and make it a fun environment like my peer mentors did for me. I think that the class activities we have done so far has really helped to set a friendly atmosphere and they are always great ways to get to know ones classmates.