HOPS- Humans of Penn State

This week I decided not to do an interview, instead I wanted to take this week to do a reflection and check in with my readers. I really love doing these interviews. It helps me learn a lot about the community I live in as well as learn a lot about myself. I am learning so many new things and new lessons, and I hope you all, my readers, are gaining the same amount out of my blog.

I want to get a little more interactive with my feedback today. Im going to interview you, my readers, on how I can improve on my blog.

1. What am I doing well with my blog?

2. Where can I improve?

3. Do you find entertainment in my posts?

4. Should I add more images, videos, or any other visual aids like some of the other blogs?

5. Do I need to be more serious with my questions or more funny? Where should I change things up

And finally,

6. Do you all have any ideas for questions that you would like to see me ask my interviewees?

Please answer these questions in your comments this week. I like to do these sort of check ins to see how my blog is going so that I can get the most out of it for me and for my readers. This would be a huge help to me if in fact, there are places that you all see that could use a little improvement. Thank you so much and please do not be shy with your feedback!!

Jenna Kalman

From: I am from Plymouth Meeting, pennsylvania.

Major: I am undecided but currently deciding between bio behavioral health or Rehabilitation and Human Services.

“who has/had the biggest influence on your life?”

“My biggest influence is my father.”

“what lessons did that person teach you? and how do you incorporate it into your everyday life?”

My dad has taught me that there are bigger things in life. You have the power to control the outcome of anything. With everyday life, I have tried to be the best that i can be. If I fall short, I know that tomorrow can always be better. Tomorrow is always the start of a new day and you can either wallow in the sadness of yesterday, or pick yourself up and change your tomorrow. I look at my father and the lessons he has taught me and I realize I would not be as good of a person as I am now if it weren’t for him.”

“what is your biggest wish/life dream? (realistic or not)”

“My life dream is to grow up and enjoy whatever I do and have an amazing family of my own. I cannot wait until I can pass on the lessons that my father has taught me to my children and my family, so that they can grow up with the attitude I had grown up with.  I want to make a difference in peoples lives for the better. Whatever that means and however I can do that,  I want to. I just love to help!”

Name: Olivia Walencik

“What is you major?”

“My major is Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) because I want to be a speech pathologist”

“Where are you from (now and originally?)”

“I’m from New York, born and raised. Specifically Long Island. If it counts, now I technically live in State College because I’m a Penn State student. My family is originally from Poland, both my parents are Polish and my sister now lives in Krakow. We go to visit her and Poland very often, I love it there. And I do speak Polish at home, with both my parents.”

“Do you like speaking a different language at home?”

“I love speaking a different language at home. It really represents my culture, who I am, my history and how I’m devoted enough to learn it’s language. It also makes me feel extremely close to my parents and my heritage. While I learned the language it also helped me learn about my culture and who I am, and where my family came from.”

“What is your favorite thing?”

“My favorite thing is at the moment is my sorority. I love all of the girls and all of the new friendships I am making.”

“Why does it bring you joy?”

“It brings me joy because there are so many opportunities and ways of contributing to Penn State within it. It helps me give back to the community through our philanthropy, and also helps me to get involved and really make this huge school smaller. And obviously because I’m making new lifelong friends every day, which is really amazing to think about.”

“How do you incorporate that into your everyday life?”

“I incorporate it into every day life by balancing my school work and sleep with the amount of time I try to be with my sorority and all the activities they have planned. It really is time consuming and there are a lot of various commitments, but at the end of the day I love it and love spending my times with them.”

“What is your name?”

“James Read”

“Where are you from?”

“I’m from Edinburgh, Scotland.”

“What is your major?”

“My major is science… so just general science right now. I’m not sure what yet, but I will hopefully figure that out soon.”

“Do you like having an accent?”

“As for the accent, yes I do like having one. Its fun and unique… plus Americans love to hear it.”

“What makes you feel alive?”

“For what makes me feel alive, I race bikes so I get quite the rush when racing either mountain bikes or road bikes. Its very competitive, exciting and makes it seem like nothing else matters in the world. All you are focused on is you, your bike, and the path in front of you. Nothing else is real, the rest of the world are just flashes of colors as you pedal faster and faster to come out on top.”

“How are you going to use this adrenaline and motivation for the future?”

“I’m not sure how it will help me in the future, but I guess it will give me a good hobby and something to be passionate about. I can continue to do it throughout my whole life, either racing still, or just riding for fun and exercise. I can also channel the drive and emotion I put into racing, and use it in my everyday life. I can use it to push myself in my studies, through a career and whatever I end up doing with my life.”

Alexandra Grund

Philadelphia

International Politics major

“What do you want to do with your major?”

“With my major, I want to either work at an embassy or work for someplace like the CIA or homeland security. A government job working with politics basically”

“What was the happiest moment of your life?”

“Okay, so the happiest moment of my life was deciding to go to Penn State, no joke and yes that sounds cliche, but its true. Just because it’s had such a positive affect on my life, there’s not a day that goes by that I wish I weren’t here at this school. It really did make me a better person and I’ve had the most fun here in my entire life. Not to mention, I have met the most amazing people in my time here. Sadly, being a Junior, my time here is running slim, which is very upsetting.”

“Is leaving Penn State the saddest thing to every happen to you?”

“No, the saddest moment of my life would be the passing of my grandpa when I was 12. It was extremely unexpected but it really had a strong affect on me. I am now much more appreciative of the people in my life and don’t take them for granted. Because honestly, you never know when something could happen to them (god forbid), But sometimes, you need something like that to just shake you and wake you up, and really make you realize how important people are to you.”

“What drives you?

“The will to succeed and be the best person and athlete I can be drives me. Being a part of the Penn State hockey team helps this drive and will to succeed. Winning the big ten or a national championship and getting good grades so that in the future I can get a good job to one day help me comfortably support a family.”

“Where do you get this motivation from?”

“My parents motivate me because of all they have done for me and the money they spend to give me the best life I can have so I want to do all I can to make them proud and be the best and most successful person I can be. Hopefully one day I can return the favor, make them proud, and help support them. I would not have been able to do the things I have accomplished so far in my life without them behind me.”

“How does this influence the way you look at life”

“It influences me by helping me stay positive no matter what happens and giving me comfort and confidence that I can overcome any obstacle thrown my way. With their support and my work ethic and persistence i will be able to overcome any obstacle.”

This message was sponsored in part by Penn State hockey… WE ARE.

“Where do you find passion?”

“Well, being an art major, I would say my passion comes from my love for art and creativity. I am not only passionate about my drawing and painting, but from that passion I have learned things that I never thought I could do! I taught myself to sew. I was never forced to learn, and my mother barely ever did. But it was an acquired and developed skill that I sought out from my own creative curiosity. I just love all things creative, which is why I think I am such a passionate person especially when it comes to artsy things. However, I have a fear of not succeeding. I love to try new things and I try my best with everything I do. But when it comes to the creative aspect of things, I always want things to work out like I envisioned them in my mind… So every time I start something new… I fear that I won’t be able to do it and it causes me to doubt myself. But usually they do work out! So I’ve learned to stop fearing failure and just try because, if you never try, isn’t that technically the worst failure of them all?”

Blog Ideas

HOPS- idea coming from HONY (humans of new york) Humans of Penn State. Look around, take pictures of individuals and interview them. Smalls things like happiest moment, or biggest fear. Get to know the people around us.

http://www.humansofnewyork.com/