Growing Up…

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Allison Lavella

As I sat down to write this blog post, the only think I could think about was summer. It finally feels close. The days are getting longer, the sun seems to be out more often, and summer is in the air! I find myself spending a great deal of time daydreaming about my summer plans, spending lazy days on the beach or just hanging out with my friends at home. While daydreaming, I realized something. I am nineteen years old. This summer will be my last summer as a teenager. Weird. Unimaginable. Can that really be true? It’s so hard to believe that this is the last summer of “being a kid”, it’s the last summer as teenagers for most of us. We are growing up.

courage to grow up

I intend to make the summer of 2013 the best summer yet. While I have a summer job all set up, and will be busy, I want to spend this summer relaxing, hanging out with friends, and enjoying being relatively responsibility free. I want to spend a ton of time with my family, as I’ve missed them so much this year! This might be one of the last summers that I am home. Who knows if I’ll have an internship or will have to take summer classes this year. All I know is that this summer I will be home and I am going to enjoy every single minute of it! I encourage everyone to embrace the summer and enjoy it too! With each year we are going to gain responsibility and loose certain freedoms, but this summer, most of us are still teenagers and can act like kids. I hope that everyone has a fantastic summer and enjoys the break from schoolwork. Whether you’re working, learning, or just hanging out, I hope that it is wonderful! Do all those things you plan on doing, but never seem to get around to. Spend entire days in your pajamas or laying by a pool. Stay up all night and sleep all afternoon. Enjoy the last summer of being a teenager.

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End of the Year Portfolio

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Allison Lavella

I’ve started to look through my work from this semester to include in my portfolio. It’s hard to decide what to include, but I think I’ve started to narrow it down. Although we can choose work from either semester, I think I am going to use three pieces from the first semester and three from the second. From the first semester, I am going to use my rhetorical analysis essay, my Ted Talk, and one of my blog posts. I wrote my rhetorical analysis paper on a Google Chrome commercial that depicted a homesick college freshman. This essay really ended up meaning a lot to me, and I think it helped me grow as a writer and as a person. It ended up being one of my favorites, and something I spent the most time on. Not including it in my portfolio would be a mistake. I also plan on including my Ted Talk. I had fun doing that project, and I think it turned out well. I think it’s cool that we have the videos of a presentation. I also want to include a blog post I wrote about missing home. I know that I dwelled a lot on being homesick last semester, but it was something I was struggling with that I used a lot in my writing. From this semester, I am going to include my This I believe project, my persuasive essay, and a blog post. I am not sure which blog post to include from this semester, but I am going to reread all of them to see which shows the most growth and best writing. I loved my This I Believe project, and I think it turned out really well! I also want to use my persuasive essay, as I put a lot of time into it. I’m actually pretty excited to put together my portfolio and look at how much I’ve grown this semester.

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Advocacy Project

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Allison Lavella

For our advocacy project, Colleen and I are thinking of using some stories that exemplify human’s impacts on animals. Here is a rough draft of one. Let me know what you think!

 

June 21st marks the first day of summer and everyone’s favorite time of year. Families pack up into minivans and head for the coast. Everyone looks forward to endless hours in the sun, memories to make, and unlimited relaxation. After all, there is nothing like that first morning at the beach. Parents wake up early to make coffee and pack for a day of sun, sand, and surf. Before the children awake, parents pack snacks, make sandwiches, fold towels, and open fresh bottles of sun block. Once everyone is ready, sporting swimsuits and cover-ups, the family finally heads towards paradise. With sand between their toes, they make their way to the water’s edge. Children race towards the waves at full speed, while parents sit back and watch. In what seems like no time at all, the kids come running back to the chairs, starving from jumping over wave after wave. A loving mother hands her six year old a plastic baggie full of Goldfish as she sits back down in her own chair. As soon as her child finishes the snack, the little girl leaps up, ready again for the water. The attendant mother stands to watch her child as the plastic baggie blows away in the wind, unnoticed.

Off the coast of the Outer Banks, a juvenile loggerhead sea turtle, an endangered species, glides effortlessly through the water. As this creature goes about her daily routine, she begins searching for food. A sea turtle’s diet consists largely of jellyfish, so when a plastic bag floats by, the loggerhead mistakenly moves in for a meal. Living close to a vacation spot, she frequently mistakes plastic for food. Soon the plastic has caused impactions, or intestinal blockages, in the loggerhead’s stomach, and the turtle is left cold, shocked, and floating. In her vulnerable state, birds flying above take advantage and prey on her, damaging one of her eyes. Lucky for this turtle, a Wildlife Resources Commission spots her and takes her to the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center in North Carolina. Here, the sick loggerhead receives treatment for her eye and the specialists feed her a special diet to help her system pass the plastic. Although this particular turtle receives treatment and care, she does not survive. After several surgeries on her eye, the turtle looses interest in food and begins starving. By August, this endangered loggerhead sea turtle passes away, unable to overcome the complications of her injuries.

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Who Have You Become Today

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Allison Lavella

alice in wonderland

I came across this quote today, and it really made me stop and think. As teenagers, I feel like we often try to define who we are, what kind of person we want to be, and where we want to fit in. After reading this quote, I began to truly realize that we are constantly changing. It makes me think that one of the reasons why it is so hard to figure out who we are, is because we never stay the same for long. Everything we do, everyone we talk to, everything we experience, it all influences our personalities. Sometimes things only change a little, but other times, our entire personality takes a shift. Most of the time we fail to realize that we are changing, but it’s true. As we grow up, our personality is always changing.

As I’ve already said, it can be pretty easy to miss the changes our personalities go through. Well, there is less than a month left of our freshman year, and I can almost guarantee that we’ve all changed, at least a little. In the past nine months, we have met more people then we could count, and have hopefully had experiences and made memories to last a lifetime. As the school year winds down, I think it is important to take a little bit of time to reflect on this past year, and who we have become, who Penn State has made us. Our freshman year of college has the potential to shape who we become, and if we don’t take a few minutes to think about this, we may not realize the impact that it had. I know that everyone has a million things to do in the next three weeks. There’s finals, the last days with friends, and packing to be done, but please, take a little bit of time to reflect on the past year.

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Combatting Summer Learning Loss

Posted on April 4, 2013 by Allison Lavella

Growing up, I never thought my school lunches were anything special. To be honest, my school’s cafeteria was really good as far as school lunches go, but I had a tendency to bring my lunches from home. Looking back, I really took the excellent food for granted. Although I was fortunate enough to be able to bring my lunch from home, for some kids, school lunches are the only warm meals they eat during the day. Many low-income families cannot afford nutritious food for their children. During the school year, these kids can have a warm, filling meal while at school.

It is April 4th, soon the school year will be over. This means days of freedom for students and a well deserved break from schoolwork. However, for many low-income kids, this also means a break from the meals they depend on at school. Studies have shown that children that are hungry throughout the summer not only experience health problems, but also are less likely to retain the information they learned throughout the school year. This summer, there is a campaign to supply low income children with meals. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is partnering with schools, communities, and local governments to provide meals to low-income children throughout the summer. They will have designated sites that will give those under 18 a free meal. These sites will be scattered around the country, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture is always looking for new partners to spread their work. I think it’s great that there are organizations working towards improving the lives of the low-income children this summer. Coming from a home where I never had to worry about having enough to eat, or a hot meal every night, I cannot imagine what life must be like for these children. It is not fair for a child to go hungry, and I am glad that this program will be working to supply hungry children with meals this summer.

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“People Will Never Forget How You Made Them Feel”

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Allison Lavella

people will forget

Have you ever had a bad day? Perhaps there was a reason for it. Maybe you failed an exam. Maybe you broke up. Maybe you missed out on an important opportunity. Perhaps there was no reason for it. Maybe it is just one of the those days where nothing seems to go your way. Everyone has bad days, after all, no one can be happy all of the time. Something else that we all know, is that bad days are terrible. I don’t know about you, but whenever I am having a bad day, there is nothing like a small gesture of kindness to make me feel better. It doesn’t take much either. A smile from the barista at Starbucks, or a hug from my mom. Simple gestures that show someone cares about me and wants me to cheer up works wonders.

Lately I’ve noticed that a lot of my friends are stressed out. Many are going through tough relationship changes. Even more are trying to juggle the absurd amount of schoolwork they have been assigned. There is something about this final stretch of school, but everyone seems to be a little stressed, a little worried. I’ve decided that I am going to spend the last month of my freshman year making sure I am kind to those around me. I am going to try to really pay attention to what is going on in my friends’ lives. Most of all, I am going to try to make their bad days a little better. I’m beginning to realize that I can make a difference to someone who isn’t having the best day. After all, when I’m sad, I’d love for someone to be looking out for me. As the weeks wind down, and you spend the last month with your new college friends, remember that their impression of you is going to last all summer. How do you want your new friends to remember you?

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Advocacy Project

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Allison Lavella

After talking today in class, Colleen and I decided to do our advocacy projects together! We think it is going to work really well because our topics are so closely related, and we are going to be able to incorporate both of them into the project. Colleen’s topic is about the mistreatment of animals in zoos, circuses, and rodeos. We would like to use our advocacy project to educate the public about not only the mistreatment of animals, but what they can do to protect them. We want to incorporate both sea turtles and the various animals she is writing about in our project.

circus bearturtle eating plastic

We also began to discuss what kind of project to do. She and I really enjoyed the This I Believe project, and would like to use podcasts somehow. At first we were unsure how to do this, because having two people reading a podcast could become confusing. Then we had the idea of presenting our audience with various stories or scenarios regarding a different animal rights or conservation issue. We plan on putting these on a poster, and accompanying each with a mini podcast.

After talking with Colleen today, I am really excited to begin working on our advocacy project. We are both passionate about our topics, which should make the project fun to do. I’m glad that we should be able to incorporate both of our persuasive essay topics, rather than choosing one to focus on. I think our advocacy project is going to turn out well and I cannot wait to get started!

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Advocacy Project Ideas

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Allison Lavella

As I begin working on my persuasive essay, I have been thinking a lot about my advocacy project. I plan on focusing on the conservation of sea turtles and all of things you can do to work towards saving them from the negative impacts of humans. I like that we have the freedom to choose any type of advocacy project, but I hate making decisions.

While brainstorming for this project, I began thinking about all of the other projects we did this semester. I do not think I am going to do a video for this assignment. I was not great at working on iMovie, and feel like that was my weakest project throughout the year. My favorite assignments this year have been the TED talk and the This I Believe assignments. I would really love to do another podcast, but I am not sure how I would make that work. If I decided to do a podcast, I could pull a lot of pieces out of my persuasive essay. I used a lot of stories and scenarios within my essay to play on the audience’s emotion. I wonder if I could possibly tell the story of a sea turtle that becomes injured because of humans and the impact they have on the oceans and sea turtles. I really am unsure what I am going to end up doing for my advocacy project. I might begin a few different projects to see which works best for the specific subject I decide to focus on.

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Where Are You Spring?

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Allison Lavella

 

 

no winter

 

Spring is such a wonderful time of year! It is the time when flowers begin blooming, the days get longer, and summer is right around the corner. Usually by this time (the end of March) spring is in the air, but this year is the opposite! Instead of sunny days and warm temperatures, we have snow storms. Waking up to the sight of snow on Monday was miserable! I cannot articulate how sick I am of wearing Uggs, sweatshirts, and my big coat, and still being cold! I cannot take another morning of walking to class with my hood up and snow blowing in my face. Don’t get me wrong, I think State College is beautiful in the snow! During the first snowy days I thought it was great, but I am ready for spring. No longer is wearing hats and gloves cute. Having to spend extra time bundling up in the morning is really getting old. I cannot wait for it to start feeling like spring!

There are so many things to look forward to in the spring! The days get longer, the temperature increases, and summer feels like it is right around the corner. The semester is pretty close to being over, but the snow is making it feel like months away.  Let me tell you, I disagree with my quote this week, I think spring may miss it’s turn this year. While there is a lot to miss about our lack of spring, I think what I am missing the most is having the windows open. The dorms are starting to get stuffy. All I want is to have my window open and fresh air moving into my room with each breeze. I cannot wait to see flowers blooming and hear birds chirping. So now that I’ve complained about what I miss, what are you looking forward to most?

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Advanced Placement Exams

Posted on March 20, 2013 by Allison Lavella

Are AP classes meant for everyone? In the past few years, many news publications have reported that AP exams are no longer considered something extra on college applications. Instead, taking these exams are considered the norm. In 2011 18.1% of those graduating took AP exams, compared to 16.9% the year before. These statistics are based on the national level, but similar trends can be seen on a local level as well.

In high school, I had the opportunity to take many AP classes and exams. I was fortunate enough to attend an excellent public school that offered not only a great number of these classes, but that had teachers that were excellent at preparing students for the exams. Upon coming to college and speaking with my peers, I was a little taken aback to discover that there were schools in which receiving a 5 on an exam was unheard of. In most of the AP classes I took, receiving a 5, or at least a 4 was expected. Over spring break, I visited some of my old teachers and we began talking about AP classes. They told me that there was a push from the district to increase the number of students taking AP classes. Currently, at my high school, there are generally two or three sections of each AP class offered, and as I have said, those enrolled generally do well. I think that it is a mistake for schools to push students into AP classes that do not belong there.

AP classes are extremely time consuming and challenging. As many of those who have taken these types of classes can attest, these courses require a great deal of time, organizational skills, study skills, and intelligence. After all, these classes are supposed to be at a college level, and most high school students are not ready to take these classes. I think it is unfair for guidance counselors and teachers to encourage students that are not prepared to take these classes to do so. I feel that will deliver poor results for both the students and the school.

A student who is not ready for an AP class may do poorly, or even fail the class. Instead of failing, they would be much better suited in an honors class. Additionally, if there are more students signed up for AP classes, there will be negative consequences for the school. As more students enroll, the class sizes will increase and more teachers may be needed to teach these classes. Furthermore, at a school such as my high school, where the majority of students that take AP exams do well, their scores will become deteriorate. If those who aren’t prepared, take these exams and do poorly, it will be reflected negatively upon the school. I think it is a bad idea for high schools to encourage students to take AP classes if they are not ready. Taking AP classes and exams is an extremely large time commitment and is mot suitable for all high school students.

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