College Chronicles: I Am a Student

January 16, 2009 by nina
Filed under Blog It Out, Bitch

Several people have asked that I write about my college experience and since I’m so psyched about this coming semester I will. Every Friday, the 2^nd blog of the day at BIOB.com will be a College Chronicle (thanks Chrissa!) instead of an entertainment blog. This works since I don’t have a show on Thursday nights that I review. At least, not until next season anyway.

First, back story for all the newbies:

I went back to school in 2007. I applied for my Associate’s in Journalism. It has taken longer than 2 years for several reasons. For one, I had to take a placement test since as a non-traditional student it would stand to reason that I’d been out of school awhile. I scored excellently on my reading/writing entrance exam, and on my math? Not so much. So, I had to take two “learning support” math classes, or as I affectionately dubbed them, “Ree-Ree Math.” Those two math classes didn’t go towards my GPA. Which sucks ’cause I got A’s in both. During my first semester they also mistakenly told me to take a “Choices for Life” class which I didn’t need. When I figured it out about a week or so into the semester and dropped it, it was too late to pick up anything else.

Then, there are four levels of foreign language. I need the final two for a Journalism degree. Unfortunately, since I wasn’t fresh outta high school I couldn’t just jump into level 3 Spanish; I had to take levels 1 and 2 first. Now, that’s five slots where I could have been taking classes towards my major. Also, I took off two summer semesters to be home with Kali while she was out of school, and last semester since I’d just given birth two weeks prior to it starting, I only took one class.

After this semester I only need a creative writing class and another journalism (Features Writing), and I’m done. Hopefully, both will be offered either online or in the evening. Then I’m taking advantage of my school’s transfer agreements with several 4-year universities which state that they will accept anyone from my college as long as they graduate with a certain GPA (varies by school.) I’ll be attending UGA at Athens to get my BA in Journalism with a focus on either newspaper or magazine reporting.

Back story over.

Now, I’m taking three online classes; Biology, the accompanying lab, and Spanish 2002 (4^th level), and two in-class courses; Basic Newswriting and Intro. To Mass Communications.

I should point out now that I believe going back to school was the best thing I’ve done for myself next to marrying Donny and having my children. Since I’ve been taking all online courses since spring 2007, I’d forgotten the thrill I get from participating in a classroom setting with an instructor and other students. I also forgot how annoying it can be since most of the students are young and dumb, ask stupid questions, and think class time is for sharing their limited and irrelevant life stories.

Before every semester I buy fresh supplies. Every semester. Each class gets its own notebook and folder for hand-outs and homework. I buy highlighters, pens, pencils (even if I’m not taking math or science), and post-its. I get a fresh day planner to track when assignments are due. Even though I’ve been bent over and raped at the campus bookstore more times than I can count, I still get a thrill out of buying new textbooks each semester. I love going over a new syllabus and seeing what’s in store for me each week and I get a sense of accomplishment highlighting over every completed week and assignment. Yes, I’m a nerd.

I haven’t done anything in my Biology class yet, so there’s not much to share there. I did look over the syllabus for the lab and some of the other documents she has posted on WebCT (or iCollege) and noticed there’s some sort of field trip planned. Um, I am so not a field trip person. And from the looks of this one there’s a boat involved (I don’t swim) and some kind of hike (I don’t hike) and touching of sea life (I don’t do animals… especially wet ones.) Hopefully, by the time this trip rolls around I’ll be in better shape and more jazzed about it.

I’ve not yet done anything for Spanish, but I’m a little nervous. I took level 3 Spanish more than a year ago and I’m beyond rusty. And it’s conversational Spanish so she kinda frowns on even writing in English (that’s what I DO!) Just like when I took level 3 Spanish online, twice I’ll have to record myself with another student having a conversation in Spanish and submit it for review. It’s not so bad because the program they use allows me to do this with a microphone on my laptop, butt ass naked if I desire, and not have to actually meet with the other student.

Now, on to the good stuff!

You guys already know that I was ten minutes late to my first journalism class, Basic Newswriting, on Tuesday. (I was five minutes later last night. Grrr!) I’d totally miscalculated traffic, how big the campus was, and how horrendous parking would be. I was not the only one late, just the latest, as the instructor said, “We’re gonna have to do something about this time,” when I walked in.

MOR-TI-FIED.
Thankfully, he didn’t say it in a douchey way so I just apologized and took the first seat I could find. Mr. H. started explaining that he’s been a journalist for over 30 years, and has been published over 4,000 times. He’s currently an editor for a magazine geared towards the construction industry. He told us that we would do so much writing in that class that it might very well be more writing than any of us have written in our lives. He obviously doesn’t know who he’s dealing with.

Mr. H. is one of those instructors that not only knows their subject, but enjoys it and even more importantly, he enjoys teaching it. I literally got teary-eyed when he was explaining that we were going to learn how to find news, organize it, and write about it. He explained that he would take everything we’ve learned about writing since the third grade, toss it away, and teach us how to write like reporters. This is what I’d been waiting for! It made college algebra, pre-calculus, public speaking, and every other class that caused me anxiety when I signed up, completely worth it.

“News can happen any time,” he warned, “In fact, as your editor I need you to write 300 words on you registering for this class… in third person. Your deadline is 15 minutes. We’re holding the presses. Go!”

Everyone looked around in confusion for a moment, but once we realized he was serious, it was on! I loved it. Some people blanched at having to come up with 300 words. 300 words for me would be a short blog. I let loose. It was exciting and fun. After that exercise he suggested that we go out and get an AP style manual and informed us of our two big projects for the semester.

One is a group project where we’ll actually put on a news program and the other is the opportunity to interview an actual professional reporter. Anyone we want from TV, newspaper, or magazine. He said that in past semesters students have interviewed local people as well as people from major cable news networks like CNN. Mr. H. told us that they usually don’t say no when contacted, and that the worst that will happen is that our calls or inquiries aren’t returned. I can handle that. I have a short list of 3 people. Two national and one local. The first? Chris Matthews, of course.

Don't judge me!

My next class of the night is also taught by Mr. H.: Intro to Mass Communications. It’s a very interesting class. So far, we’ve looked at the evolution of media and the responsibility of it. My homework this weekend is to interview a senior citizen about how media has changed in their lifetime and then type up a report on it. I’ll be bugging my 82 year-old Grandma on Sunday. Oh, and my homework for the basic newswriting class is to get today’s paper (Atlanta Journal & Constitution) and measure the column inches of each article in the first section, note relevance and prominence, and discuss our findings.

You guys, I am so ridiculously inspired it’s not funny. After BN class last night, I was one of the last ones to leave (I was in no rush as the next class started in 15 minutes and I knew he wouldn’t beat me to that one!) as I gathered up my laptop. Mr. H. asked if I thought I’d be overwhelmed by the writing.

“Oh, no. That’s what I do. I write everyday. No offense, but I’m gonna kick this class’ butt.”

And I totally meant it.

P.S. I hope it goes without saying that just like the Friday weight loss blogs, I encourage you all to share your school stories, frustrations, and aspirations, etc.

Tags: basic newswriting, biology, college, introduction to mass communications, journalism major, online courses, spanish 2002, university of georgia at athens

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Rogue

Girl.... I started school again and OMG i regret leaving a private college for these CUNY schools. I go to John Jay in the city and damn, these CUNY schools are bugged. This is my 3rd semester there and tell me why for the 2nd semester in a row, my professors decide not to teach the class the night before the 1st day of classes.

That situation got me really pissed and upset. Im waiting on the chairman to take care of the situation as I type this. And its like their waiting till last minute to do anything about it which really stresses me out even more. They should just tell me im better off transferring into another class and dropping this one. Ugh, school.

Anyway I hope you do well this semester and Good luck!

College Chronicles: I Am a Student

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