Reflection Paper

On September 6, 2017, I were documented for an incident that involved a University Housing policy violation. I was charged with violating the University Housing Alcohol 1.2 policy. With my violation, came consequences. I met with The Residence Conduct Coordinator to discuss my actions and came to the conclusion that I would have to schedule a meeting with The Campus Alcohol and Drug Education Center (CADEC) and with that, a reflection paper.

My preferences changed as I grew older. By age eleven, I was reading Young Adult Fiction, which challenged me more than children's novels. The Harry Potter, Maximum Ride, and Lord of the Rings series enthralled me, and I waited desperately for each installment to be released. It was also during this time that I read my family’s collection of classics. The cultures and time periods in books like Austen’s Emma, Lereaux’s

I entered freshmen year as a confident reader, choosing “The Kite Runner” for a class project. That book was very mature and had dark themes, which I was unfamiliar with. “The Kite Runner” tore the veil from my eyes and forced me to deal with unhappy truths in the world which I didn’t enjoy. This distaste led me to take a break from reading for freshman year. However, my passion for books was stirred when I read “In Cold Blood”. It was the first non-fiction book I supremely enjoyed and helped introduce me to a new genre. Finally I read “East of Eden” and enjoyed it. This book on my ideal bookshelf symbolizes that I

Writing has never been one of my strengths. Even in high school, when I took an AP English literature course, I did not enjoy writing papers if need be. Since I did not fancy writing papers, I never developed a systematic writing process. I would write the paper last minute and pray for an A, but college doesn’t work like that. When I came to college, I placed into music classes first so that I could develop those skills, thus leaving my core classes (including English) on the backburner. Although I do not regret this decision, having a two-year gap between English classes made it difficult to readapt. Instead of spending hours practicing instruments and music theory, I faced the challenging task of shifting gears to spend a majority of my time behind my laptop. How was I supposed to manage this new workload?

I grew up in an Adventist home, both my parents are teachers for an Adventist school and my grandpa is a pastor for the SDA church. I don’t have one of those stories of not knowing God or learning about him in a miraculous way. When growing up I went to church every Sabbath and didn’t question it because that was what we did. I got baptized by my grandpa when I was twelve, and started going to my church’s youth group every Wednesday. I continued this lifestyle for a while, it wasn’t until high school that I started to become more relaxed with my relationship with God. It started with me skipping church, I skipped because I would be too tired to get up that early, or it was because I would go on backpacking trips. My senior year of high school is when my relationship with God hit rock bottom, I had two people close to me die. One was a friend that I knew from going on mission trips and seeing them at Walla Walla tournaments, the other was my best friend since kindergarten. They died decently close to each other, and it made me question the existence of God. I would ask myself if there was a God why wouldn’t he save them. Both like me grew up Christian, and both were more involved in the church and showing others God. After that I stopped going to church all together except when I wanted to see my friends. That summer I worked at camp, and while it was a good experience I still hadn’t forgiven God. I got to the point where I knew that there was a God, but couldn’t care less

When I was looking at which college to attend I was not sure what exactly I was looking for. After going on visits and recruit days, I learned that I wanted to go to college at a place that valued academics just as much as athletics. I also wanted coaches that care more about the player than they care about the result of the player. One other thing I wanted was a place that I felt I would be able to fit in. Now that I am here I have goals that I need to meet in order to make my time here worth it. I have academic, athletic and personal goals that I look forward to being able to accomplish in my time as Augustana.

I have always been a believer of second chances, wanting to help people who find themselves in difficult situations within the law. To help people get another opportunity, that I firmly believe everyone deserves. Have we not always been taught to learn from our mistakes, and become better people because of them? I simply cannot accept that a few poor decisions can and should define a person for the rest of their life.

This is my second year at Longwood. Before coming here, I attended Richard Bland College with the hopes of being a pediatric physical therapist. Throughout the years at Bland, the hopes of being a P.T. changed. I have had different career goals I wanted to be a juvenile probational officer and a social worker. I always knew I wanted to work with kids and be an important figure in their lives. I grew a liking to kids when I became an Aunt. I have two nieces and two nephews and over the years as I watch them get older I enjoyed being around them. Every time I attend a family gathering you could always find me hanging with the kids. It was much easier to be myself around them because of my personality. I consider myself as an energetic, silly, playful, and compassionate individual. My journey at Longwood has not been easy due to my academic situation, choosing a minor, and future.

Arati, even though you missed one day, you caught right back up with us and was able to understand most of the material all by yourself. I was impressed when you told me that you did one of the modules on game plan at home. You have shown dedication and an honest will to learn. You showed creativity when you decided to incorporate your love for music in your final project. I am glad that you learned a lot this week and remember to continue with your education in technology.

According to care.com, over two million children have a parent who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan. At the beginning of third grade, my father received a letter from the government stating that he would be deployed for almost a year in Iraq. Nine years later, it registers that this experience helped me grow in many ways. Not only does it prove out that what he did and what he went through made and continues to make such a large impact on me, but his being gone encouraged me to value the time I have together with people. Once you don’t have the opportunity to be it affects you in countless ways. Such a big event in my life showed me how much I rely on him as a father, a friend, and a teacher, but it also showed me that when things are difficult I am able to handle them independently.

As I planned this learning experience I consulted with both the teacher and director of the program about their science curriculum for the month. I knew I needed to plan an activity inclusive of science themed dialogic reading. Since, the class was beginning to learn about the senses, we collaborated about splitting the class into two groups. One group would be with a teacher doing a sense of taste activity, while I would have the other group doing a sense of smell activity. My activity was inclusive of fresh herbs from my garden and a book about smell. I prepared the dialogic reading as well as brought along a felt board with yes and no pieces. After I read the story I passed around the various herbs for the children to smell and explore. Once they decided if they liked the smell or not they would place a yes or no piece on the board. The languages of learning I referred to was investigating what smell they liked the best and exploring through using their hands to touch the fresh herbs. As a result, they learned new knowledge about how their nose works. For instance, I had with me lemon balm, which obviously smells like lemons. The children assimilated the smell to that of lemonade, since that is what they are most familiar with. Additionally, my lesson supported standard: 10.1 PK.B Identify and locate body parts by understanding what sense is responsible for what action. As well as 2.4 PK.MP Use mathematical processes when measuring; representing, organizing, and

Ever since I started going to school, my parents always expected me to perform at an elevated level. Being the only child, it was difficult for me to fulfill their wishes. As I grew up, it became more challenging as I felt like I was always being compared to my cousins for not performing as well as them.

On September 12, 14, and 19, 2017 I had the pleasure of tutoring Haven. Haven is a nine-year-old, who is in fourth grade at Mark Twain Elementary School in Hannibal, MO. In each session, we would work together for 60 minutes. I was able to learn a lot of things while tutoring. First off, going in to tutor Haven and not knowing really anything about her and her learning preferences. It was hard not knowing what strategies helped her the most when reading or which ones made it more difficult for her. But that is going to be with any student(s), you just have to go with the flow. You will learn those things as you get to know the student. That is what happened with Haven and I, within the first tutoring session she let me know her learning preferences and what she liked. Then within the sessions we were together, I knew which strategy helped her while reading and what she struggled with.

The other day my Dad and I talked about the Republican primary winner for the Senate seat in Alabama, Roy Moore. I remarked that I found the ten commandments statue Moore placed in the Alabama State Judicial Building, and his refusal to remove it, repulsive. I told him I thought this was a gross violation of the first amendment. The federal judge in 2003 who ordered the statue’s removal agreed with me, arguing that it plainly signaled an endorsement of religion. My Dad decided to play devil’s advocate, though he agrees Moore is heinous and is appalled by how the GOP establishment has accepted him. He asked: don’t most of America’s laws stem from the word of God? Was James Madison saying that American citizens shouldn’t be held to the ten commandments when he called for the prohibition of a national religion? I looked into the case after talking with him. The state of Alabama’s Judiciary stated, "Indeed, we recognize that the acknowledgment of God is very much a vital part of the public and private fabric of our country,” before announcing Moore’s removal from office. The Alabama government agreed with Moore, but removed him because he would not follow a federal order. I asked my Dad why he thinks people believe it would be okay to put the ten commandments in a state building. He responded by telling me about some of his dilemmas as a Christian today. My Dad is searching for morality in 2017 — to him it is absent from our society because of how we have strayed away from

The policies I was found in violation of are Use/Possession Drug, Allowing a Guest to Violate Visitation Policy, and Failure to Comply.