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  1. SHOtime Day 3

    August 23, 2014 by Diane Cascioli

    I think the third day incorporated some of the best activities with which to end SHOtime.  For example, the “Distinguished Faculty Lecture” with Dr. Alley was entertaining and informative, which I think gave the freshmen a taste of an engaging larger-class (about 300 person) lecture that they may encounter at their time here at Penn State.  Then after lunch, the incoming class was split up into book discussion groups.  I helped to facilitate a discussion on Malcolm Gladwell’s “David and Goliath,” and Dr. Gutgold even sat in on and gave input about her thoughts on the story as well.  It was a little difficult to keep the conversation flowing at some points, as some students seemed too shy to volunteer to participate while others dominated the discussion.  My main goal throughout was to try to have everyone’s voices heard during the discussion, so I tried to prompt questions towards those who were not speaking up or poll them on their overall opinion about the story.

    I liked that the “SASH” this year involved mini-tours of the buildings because I think that was a helpful addition I could have used as a freshman last year.  After dinner, “Late Night with the Dean” was definitely a great way to wrap up the orientation process with humor.  I really enjoyed all of the different coaches attending, as well as President Barron, because I felt more connected to various aspects of the school other than solely Schreyer or solely academics.  Also, I think the Final Bow was a good way to avoid chaos after releasing everyone from LNWTD because it provided more of a structured way to end the night.

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  2. SHOtime Day 2

    August 22, 2014 by Diane Cascioli

    The second day of SHOtime definitely brought about a different vibe than the first.  For instance, I started noticing the freshmen consistently hanging out with some new friends they had made and interacting seemingly more comfortably with the mentors, as well.  “Making the Most of the SHC” seemed to be really helpful for them when it was regularly interspersed with funnier components, as sometimes the material would drag on for a longer portion and I would notice students drifting off accidentally in their seats.

    At the “Case Study Initiative”, the freshmen seemed to be really engaged with questions, even if the speaker (or topic) did not necessarily directly pertain to their major, which I thought was interesting.  I enjoyed helping to lead a CSI group too because I was then able to eat lunch with a new group I hadn’t met yet and interact more closely with them at Pollock.  I also overheard a lot of students say that they thought the panels at “Excellence Beyond the Classroom” were very relevant and useful.

    I think the “Class of 2018 Challenge (Lip Dub)” was a great way for me to interact with even more freshmen, as we all stayed in one place for a while talking while the different run-throughs were occurring.  I saw a lot of students signing up for various clubs at the “Involvement Fair”, too, which I think helps them feel like they are already a part of this school, even right from the beginning.  I then attended the “Book Discussion Facilitator Training”, which was extremely helpful in generating ideas for effective facilitators, as well as thinking of potential questions to ask the next day.  “The Brain Show” was a great conclusion to the day; keeping people laughing and working as a team with new people on the stage.

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  3. SHOtime Day 1

    August 21, 2014 by Diane Cascioli

    I am a floater.  Initially I was wary that I wouldn’t be able to make a connection with the incoming freshmen if I didn’t directly know them through a mentoring group.  However, I feel like floating is allowing me to reach out to so many more students than I anticipated.  Even from the start of move-in & arrival, a few other floating Orientation Leaders and I walked around to all the open doors moving into Atherton, learning people’s names and helping with activities like constructing a book shelf in order to relieve any potential stress with the transition process.

    I then helped to decorate Redifer for the Spirit Dinner with streamers and balloons lining the entryway.  During the icebreakers before dinner, I was able to go around to almost all of the mentoring groups and join an activity, which I thought was a really cool, flexible aspect of floating to interact with more people.  Afterward, I helped as a point tracker for the scavenger hunt.  I think this system of posting pictures to Twitter was a huge improvement from last year because it was a really efficient way to easily see where each group had been.  The energy at PlayFair was really great, as well, and I think it gives the incoming freshmen an idea of the school spirit at Penn State in general (not necessarily just in Schreyer).

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  4. Big Fish in a Small Pond

    August 1, 2014 by Diane Cascioli

    “David and Goliath” was not the read I expected it to be.  I usually do not enjoy Malcolm Gladwell books as much because I tend to lose interest with all of the factual elements he generally includes in his pieces.  This book, however, was surprisingly entertaining, and I felt like many of the elements were very relatable to college students, especially in Schreyer at Penn State.  The entire concept of the book relates to school in general, for we as students are consistently faced with obstacles we have to overcome (whether they are in the form of an upcoming presentation, approaching finals week, or going to an internship interview, for example).

    The one portion of the book I was particularly interested in involved his discussion about whether or not it was advantageous to be a big fish in a little pond or a small fish in a big pond.  This really resonated with me as a Schreyer student, as I’m sure most of you got offers to potentially more “prestigious” or possibly Ivy League schools.  According to “David and Goliath” though, choosing Schreyer over these other schools was one of the best decisions we could have made.  Now at Penn State we have the capability to stand out as big fish in a smaller pond (although not too small when we do have 40,000 people with all of main campus).  Rather than potentially struggling at one of these “higher-ranked” schools, we have the opportunity as a part of Schreyer to interact with other scholars and participate in some of the most cutting-edge research while still being able to attend football games on the weekends with Nittany Lion pride.  I read this whole section of “David and Goliath” as a testament to exactly the reasons why I chose to come to Schreyer, a place where I could really enjoy school and succeed as a big fish in a smaller pond, and hopefully you will too!

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  5. Get Ready for a FreshSTART at Penn State

    June 19, 2014 by Diane Cascioli

    There are a multitude of ways to help contribute to service that you will learn about upon your arrival in the fall.  One particular service opportunity I was lucky to get involved with at the very beginning of my freshman year at Penn State was FreshSTART.  This is a day of service on one of the first weekends at school in which incoming freshmen can participate.  Hundreds of freshmen new to Penn State are split into random groups and assigned different locations and tasks to complete during the day.  In my personal experience, my group helped to mulch and paint bricks at a local recycling site.

    This day is an incredible opportunity to get involved from the very start of your first year here.  It allowed me to become more familiar with the local community right away and feel more at home in this new place I was living.  Also, FreshSTART was a great bonding experience in which I was able to make many new friends; ultimately making the campus feel even smaller and less daunting from the beginning, as it felt more comfortable to be able to see familiar faces all over campus after the day of service.  Also, I was so passionate about FreshSTART that it actually allowed me to gain a leadership position for next fall as a mentor to incoming freshmen throughout the day, so hopefully I will see many of you there!

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  6. My Favorite Honors Course

    May 11, 2014 by Diane Cascioli

    Honors courses have been the best part of my academic experience at Penn State thus far.  I’m a rising sophomore, so I was recently in your place as an incoming freshman.  I was initially nervous about the concept of taking honors classes in college, where they were no longer weighted in my GPA like they often were in high school.  However, just because these classes were considered honors did not necessarily make them harder (I actually think these were my easiest classes here).  This is because I had the opportunity to get to know my professors on a personal basis, since these classes were much smaller than my lecture-style General Education courses.  I also got to know the other students in the class very well due to the smaller size, which made studying for tests or working on group projects much easier to communicate with one another to achieve.  I also found my closer relationships with these professors made it much easier for me to feel comfortable asking them questions whenever I was confused with an assignment or may have needed extra help with a certain concept.

    I have honestly enjoyed all of my honors courses here so far; however, my favorite was Comm150H I just took in spring semester.  I am a double major in education and English, so the course didn’t directly pertain to my major (yet it was my most enjoyable so far).  This course was about cinema art and films.  The class was set up in a way that on Tuesdays we met in the State Theater downtown (which was super cool to have class in a local movie theater) with the entire Comm150 course (not just honors students), and we listened to a lecture about the current topic and then watched a movie that dealt with the topic (getting to watch movies for class every week was basically the greatest thing ever).  Then on Thursdays, the smaller honors class of about 12 people met in a room on campus to have a discussion of the concept for the week and often watch clips from other films that further demonstrated the ideas we were learning.  I got to meet people outside of Schreyer and still have the opportunity to benefit from the smaller class size each week, which made Comm150H my favorite honors course at Penn State so far!

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