Engaging Diversity

Last week we had a guest speaker, Denise Williams who is part of the ISU Faculty and presented a terrific lecture on diversity, and she wasn't at all afraid to probe us and put us on the spot. I have been to numerous diversity events on campus and love getting new perspectives on how other people generally feel toward stereotyping and discrimination.
One thing I really liked was that she showed the video from NWC which not many people had seen however I attended the event last year and it was really eye opening.  Another part I really liked was that picture activity where students could text in answers to her question. This activity gave me numerous ideas to implement in my UST 111 lesson plans, and was an extremely useful experience. I feel like an activity like this in a way breaks down different barriers and encourages a more open environment and discussion amongst the group presented to. Another big plus was the ice cream and toppings! That is one thing I really enjoyed when my peer mentors were able to bring snacks and treats and I hope to be able to do the same for my section. Getting to the end of this semester I am getting really excited about becoming a peer mentor and will be looking forward to it throughout the summer and my internship.

Reflection on DST progress

I wasn't able to attend last weeks lecture where we discussed the DST project because of an internship interview in des moines; however I have been able to attend two sessions of filming. The first session was a scene in my old dorm hall, Roberts Franklin, where sebastian still lives. It was a very productive day of filming, and I believe the scene we filmed will be a comical cornerstone of the project. The second session was also successful because there was a greater turnout, and more people were actually able to attend letting us get a tremendous amount of filming done.
My biggest contribution to the project so far has been the first session of filming where I was in a tae kwan do outfit and really got into character. Although I did not sign up for editing on the project, I would really like to have a part in finishing it up and polishing the finished product. Overall I have really enjoyed this project and look forward to seeing everyones' hard work be exemplified in the finished product.