Hundreds of students, dozens of benefactors, steak, creamery ice-cream, the Penn Stater Hotel, and inspirational yet heart felt messages from both students and sponsors, the 2014 Agricultural Department Scholarship & Awards Banquet was certainly the place to be on Thursday November 16th. Not only was there the opportunity to make new friends with some of my fellow agriculture majors, I was also able to interact with some of the various scholarship sponsors, many of which have been involved in the department since they were in college themselves. These benefactors are not just Penn State graduates, but they continued their support for Penn State and its students for some, over fifty-five years. The best part of the banquet, other than the pumpkin Creamery ice-cream, was having the opportunity to thank our scholarship founders and to see just how much of an investment they make in each and every student who they have allotted a scholarship.

One of the speakers, Brent Sutton, a senior majoring in Forestry said this of a Penn State, “It is more than an education, it is an experience,” when he reflected on his time spent here at the Pennsylvania State University. This statement could not be more true. One of the reasons that the scholarship donors continue to donate their funds and energy towards Penn State college students is that they loved their experience at Penn State, and now as wealthier individuals of society, they have the honor and opportunity to give back to the newest generation of Penn Staters, especially those who are studying agriculture just like they themselves did once upon a time. Other remarks by Sutton included, “Remember why you have gotten these scholarships, what you’ve done to get here, and the opportunities that they represent,” and, “It takes a special kind of person to start a scholarship,” both of which really struck a deep chord in me. Just to think that complete strangers are giving not only their hard-earned money, but also their time and dedication to serving the students of Penn State is such an amazing thought, and to see that unfolded at the Agriculture Scholarship Banquet touched me even more. The donors believe in our generation, and not only do they believe in us, but they are actively choosing to enable us to chase down our crazy dreams, and to be the best that we possibly can be. Thank you to all the scholarship sponsors, trustees, and founders, for you make a world of a difference in the life of a college student.

At this point in college, after having settled in and having begun to dig into the meat of our classes, we are now halfway through the first semester of our freshman year. By now, most of us have realized this all too sad truth, that we do not have enough time to do all the things that we would like to do. Along with this, there is a saying that is, “There is sleep, studying, and a social life. Pick two.” This statement is so very true for college students, and especially me at this given point in time. This makes me question, why do we not have enough time? Do we have too much work? Are we studying too hard? Do I really need that much sleep? But when will I have time to hang out with my new college friends? All of which are valid questions, and with that said, the two you pick out of the category can change at any given time.

The sad choice that all undergraduate students must make on a daily basis.

Prioritizing is a huge part of college, and most times sleep and studying should come before socializing. However, no one can study all day without interacting with their fellow people for an over extended amount of time, and so at some point the priorities have to change. As my brother said, “College is around 30% about getting a degree, and 70% about finding out who you are, what you love, and growing up”. Although my brother is a great student and excellent role model, I might disagree on his ratio a bit. Maybe more of a 60% getting a degree and 40% finding out just who exactly you are and who you want to be, but who am I to say as a freshman in comparison to the experience of a senior. With all of this being said, college is one of the best times of our lives. There will never be another time in our entire existence when we will be around so many people our own age, at the same stage in life, and we should really treasure that. Studying and sleeping are two very important parts of college, however, friends are also very valuable assets. I will leave you all with this: Don’t kill yourselves too much with studying, sacrifice some sleep on occasion, and make some great friends, because they might just end up being your very best friends.

People blog because they want the words they write to mean something to someone. Whether that be a personal, professional, passion, humorous, or fashion blog, having the ability to blog gives peoples the opportunity to express themselves. In this sense, blogging is a form of art. Why do people paint, draw, play music, write poetry? For the same reasons that they blog.  Blogging, in the same way that people can express their feelings through painting or playing music, is used to put feelings into something tangible. Similarly, art is not merely meant to be an expression of your own emotions, but additionally, the artist wants other people to see that piece of artwork and feel something. Whether that be anger, joy, empathy, or any other emotion, blogging seeks to be a conversation of emotion and ideas between the blogger and their readers. The internet is a big place with an exponentially large amount of information, but when people find common subjects to talk or blog about, the internet becomes a little smaller and less intimidating.

People often accept identities that are placed upon them, and these identities can be created by others or even by themselves. Blogging allows people to create their own identity, share their passions, beliefs, and ideas. However, even though blogging can informative, or even a way to relieve stress, some questions to ask are why are these people blogging? Why don’t they actually go do something? Why sit in front of a computer screen and share your opinion when you could just tell someone in person?

To these questions I would say that there are many different types of blogging, and some blogs are more civically satisfying or engaging than others. On one hand, a blog post could reach millions more people than having individual conversations ever could, but on the other hand the point could be made that blogging is a one sided conversation where someone just spills their mind out on a page, with no desire for comments or a rebuttal, hiding behind a computer screen. Personally, the best blogs that I have found are the passion blogs. Travel, passion, picture blogs that portray a hobby or just something that they are so excited about that they can not help but to share it with the rest of the world, even if the rest of the world does not care. Overall, there are both good and bad sides to blogging, but like anything else, the purpose of the blog, and the audience that it is intended for are really what makes the blog purposeful or not.

Emma Watson, the Harry Potter girl from my childhood book series, has most recently appeared at the U.N. as the new ambassador for U.N. Women. Many of you I’m sure have seen this video posted all over Facebook, twitter, etc, and I myself have seen the video pop up in my newsfeed multiple times, but only tonight did I finally decide to watch the video. And in all honesty, I do not believe that there is a better woman to deliver this speech than Emma Watson. Watson spoke about feminism, a word that has been tainted over the years to gather distaste in people’s mouths. Man-hateing, overbearing, and bossy are all words that Watson used to describe the misdirected feelings associated with feminism. Personally, I think that it is about time that the world addresses gender role issues like unequal pay, parental roles in the household, and more over, the world needs to redefine what it means to be a man.

Emma Watson, is the perfect woman to address this topic. Change will come with our generation, and so who better to call for change than a young woman from our generation. Not only do women love her, but the men of our era adore her as well, and I believe that they will be more inclined to listen to her plea for change than that of Hilary Clinton or Beyonce. As Watson said, Women deserve the same opportunities, authority, and respect as given to men. I agree with Watson’s speech in its entirety. There were a few things that she talked about that resonated deeply with me. The first, was when she explained that the HeForShe campaign was not only to benefit women, but that by redefining gender roles, men would reap the benefits as well. No longer will men need to be kept away from home in order to retain their masculinity, or more over, conceal their feelings. This was one of the biggest points that she made. Men have always been taught to conceal their feelings, and have been taught that it is wrong to show their emotions and to be vulnerable. Why is this the case? Why are women supposed to be more open with their feelings?Redefining gender roles would help both men and women, by placing them on equal footing.

When men do not have to feel in control, women will be able to stop behaving in a totally submissive manor. A fact that struck me, upon watching the video, was that the top killer of men in the U.K was suicide. This completely astounded me. How is it, that in just an advanced world, men feel so trapped that they have no where else to turn, save death. This is both deeply saddening and eye-opening. This “HeForShe” campaign is the first feminist campaign to call men into action, and for that, I commend all of those involved. How many times this year, as Penn State Students have we received notifications of a sexual assault occurrence? More times than I care to remember. Now just imagine what that rate of sexual assault is among the underdeveloped countries in Africa, where women have next to no rights. If at Penn State, in the United States of America, we have had so many incidents, it sickens me to even think of the atrocities that occur in the corners of the world, that go unnoted because of the gender inequality, and the mentality that women are less than men; that the value of women is less.

The last point that Watson drove home was and I quote, “If not me, then who? If not now, when?” I believe that this is something that we should all think about. I do believe that we have both a responsibility and the privilege of making a difference. We have been charged, as both citizens and leaders of this world to improve the world, and what a better place to start, then with the equality of the sexes.

Public speaking is an extremely real fear. Among adults, public speaking is one of, if not the greatest fear that they have. Why is this? I believe it is one of the faults of society that has placed public speaking as the number one fear. Speaking in front of peers is often harder than in front of a group of people whom you have no clue who they are. The fear of public speaking is not really the primary fear, but rather the fear itself is generally fear of rejection, scrutiny, or maybe simply sounding uninformed or stupid. Whatever the actual fear is, people are petrified of speaking. Personally, I can say I suffer from this irrational fear. My whole body goes weak, if I lock my knees I might just fall over, my hands sweat, my face turns bright red, my voice shakes and it sounds like i’m going to have a breakdown and cry, and honestly, when I am giving my speech I have no idea what is coming out of my mouth, nor can I think of any original thought that I haven’t already thought over. And when my talking time is finally over, if someone would take my blood pressure and heart rate I am convinced that it would be a medical miracle that I would be alive because my heart races so fast. And still, knowing that this happens whenever I speak in public, I continue to get nervous every single time I give a speech. Maybe it is an underlying anxiety issue, or maybe simply, public speaking terrifies most people because they just never were taught how to voice their opinion well. Whatever the cause may be, lack of confidence or maybe fear of failure, i’m sure it varies slightly from person to person. Conclusively, public speaking has always been and will most likely always be one of our biggest fears as people, but we should be taught, just like any other fear, to overcome it.

My ideal utopian world is a place where people behave like respectful individuals, there is no lying, cheating, stealing, murder, screwy politics etc. Everyone does his/her very best for not themselves, but those around them. Being civic is being engaged in the community, fulfilling political duties, looking to better the community rather than simply oneself, and helping those in need. Essentially, I dare say that communism is what an ideal world would be, minus the corrupt politics.  Maybe not quite communism, but just the sense that everyone will do their best for others, whether that be taking care of the homeless, and feeding the starving, but we could even give the homeless homes. It really depends how far you are willing to go, but then there is the other side: humans are innately corrupt. Even if this is how most people chose to behave, there would still be people who would take advantage of the system. A utopia is not plausible, because human nature will always get the better of someone, unless we are all brainwashed. We are generally programmed to take care of ourselves, and so an idea of a perfect community is impossible because everyone will not agree, and certainly not everyone will comply. However, the utopia that I would like to see in our world would be that of respect, integrity, understanding, education, empathy, handwork, and above all else, action. Something that we are missing in our world is action. Many people would like to see the world become like this utopia, however, all of us lack the ability to change the world on our own, and as a result, no one takes action. In today’s society, there are a lot of people, who have a lot to say about everything, however, they do not have the action to back up their endless spewing of words. Basically, I would like to see the world become an integral place of action to make the world a community that we feel safe in, and desire to be involved with.