Stephanie Dulany

Making connections and diversity are important in life as far as communicating with others around you. The acitivity we did in our last class was called "cross the line." The point of the activity was to watch your peers as they answered serious, private questions by crossing the line in the room. By seeing the individuals answering their questions, and their reactions, I was able to better understand them from a friendship/peer standpoint. This activity showed us how diverse we all were, yet how, on some questions, we had connections with some we may not have thought possible. This activity really opened my mind up to steer clear of judgments and to communicate with one another solely on the task at hand. This outlook will help me to communicate better with our project's affiliates. One of our community partners is Girl Scouts, and this tool of communication is very necessary when trying to work out problems/details, set up meetings to discuss our project, and so forth. You can get involved with ProjectAware by going to www.projectaware.org. We help to try to keep our local water sources clean and share the importance of having clean and safe water. We will try to take a few field trips to local rivers and lakes to clean up, and it is a good way to give back to your community.

Delaney Sweeney

I thought that the speaker was pretty interesting. She did a good job of keeping our attention and making it as comical as she could. I did not like the exercise we did when we had to cross the room; it put people on the spot. Questions were asked that shouldn't have been, especially after one of our summit members dad's just passed away. Our community partner does not have a website, but I will post the national partners website-- PROJECT AWARE.

http://www.projectaware.org/

Project AWARE is a non-profit organization that promotes water quality and education. Others can get involved by joining Project AWARE and doing their part to keep our rivers, lakes, and oceans clean. Anyone can join for free and get information they need to start their own project or to join some one else's.

Abby Williams

On January 27 we had a class session focused on communication.  I think the communication skills we learned were very helpful and will be useful in the future. These will particularly come into play as we communicate with various community partners such as the 4H group and the Girl Scouts.  We also participated in "the line game" and were able to learn things about everyone else in summit park, as well as in our own house.  It was interesting to see who we share opinions or characteristics with that we did not realize before.
We have a lot of exciting projects coming up this semester, so keep checking back with us! We encourage you to get involved with our water clean-ups, learn more about Project Aware, or become a member at: http://www.projectaware.org/

Heather Wharton

The class presentation on making connections and diversity was very interesting.  I found out things about people whom I live with that I did not know before.  I also learned that many of us had the same feelings towards certain subjects.  The activity was not supposed to single anyone out, but many times people were singled out.  It was a little awkward to be part of the smaller group and stare back at the larger group.  The key point I took away is that we all go through the same emotions.  This activity will help me in working with my community partner by being able to express myself in ways that my community partner can understand.  I will also be a better listener in order to understand my community partner.  This semester we are having a lake clean up with the 4H group and a lake clean up with the Girl Scouts!  We want you to keep in mind that our project is to help protect our water sources! If you want to get involved and make a difference go to http://www.projectaware.org/ and sign up today!!

Stephanie Dulany

My Vision Statement:
There are things that I want in life, things that make me happy, things that I do well, and even my weaknesses. My vision statement is going to explain my life in a couple of sentences, providing key qualities that make me as a person. I will begin with my weaknesses because we all have them. Mine include a few literal things such as writing and not being able to whistle, but with a few more personal things like not having much self-controlling, letting things get the best of me, and even procrastination. These are things that I need to look more closely into and figure out how to turn them into my strengths. Things that I do well include playing sports, especially dancing, drawing, and just caring about others. Everyone who is around me would say that I am a very lovable person and they can tell that I actually care. Things in life that make me happy include caring for others, especially my boyfriend. My boyfriend in general makes me happy, especially knowing that we may be getting engaged and married soon. One more thing that makes me happy are dogs. There is not a dog in the world that I could hate; it's just how I am. Things that I desire to have in life include wanting to travel, have a job that gives me great income AND that I love, and having a happy family. I never want to be divorced, and I want to have the world's best children. I want to be their soccer mom, take them to dance practice, help them with their homework, everything. All of these aspects make up who I am as a person, and, frankly, I am satisfied with them.

Delaney Sweeney

My SMART goal relates to the goal area because it is educational, social, recreational, and professional. It is education because we are teaching students about water pollution; something they might not know a lot about at this time. It is social because we are interacting with different groups of students and adults. It is recreational because it relates to water, which many people use as a recreational object for boating, fishing, etc, and it is professional because we have to be responsible. We have to teach other students and many of them might look up to us for directions and advise; we have to be professional and organized because we are doing this project on our own. It's up to us how successful we are.

Stephanie Dulany

It is important to set goals, not only for your career, but for your whole life ambitions. I have my own goals that I try to achieve in life, as well. Before yesterday I was pretty adamant about my goals for my career. I had the exact idea that I would like to become a Physician’s Assistant, however, yesterday I just got the idea of becoming a Dental Hygienist. I explain this because I can show how often and easily goals can change. As for my goals in general, I would like a job that offers me good 9:00-5:00 hours, Monday-Friday so that I can have my evenings, weekends, and holidays off to spend with my family; but I would still like a career in the medical field somehow. I have other goals in mind for my life as well, though. I would like to get married in the next couple of years. I would like to be able to get a job right after I finish whatever education I am in at the time. After a few years of work, I would like to, hopefully, have enough money to start a family. My goals get pretty specific when I say that I would like to have 2 children, along with land and a nice farm house on it. However, my most important goal that I want in life is to stay married and live a long, happy life with my husband, so that my children do not grow up in a broken home like I did. Goals are good for a person to have because they give you something to strive for. When you finally achieve those goals, there is a great amount of satisfaction that comes with the happiness you get when your goals, years ago, finally turned into reality.