For my final FYE video project I am going to record a video about all the different things that I student can do on campus. At Penn State there are so many different things to do and activities to do that people don’t even know about. My project will show all the different things, tune in, in one week to see my video about the different activities and things to do at Penn State.

Logline: A Penn State freshman adventures the unique campus for his final 3-5 min video, finding different activities and things to do.

All separate blog posts turned into one

As a Penn State student I took my first trip to the learning center the other day. I have been waiting for my appointment for so long and I was so glad to finally be able to go. At my appointment I meet with a really nice student from Penn State and he was very helpful. We reviewed my previous English essay and he gave me pointers on things that I might need to work on. He also helped me critique my thesis statements for future essays and I think it really helped me a lot. One other thing that we went over was my next English assignment that is coming up. He helped me with brainstorming ideas for any essay in the future and helped brainstorming for this one. He also helped with structuring my essays and how to really fulfill my thesis statement.

Overall it was a really good experience and I know that I will definitely go back to the learning center in the future because they re very helpful and nice people.

Next

On Saturday July 23, I took a trip to the Union Cemetery in Bellefonte. The day started by me waking up at 7:30am to go get breakfast at the dining hall before Professor Nichols was picking up a group of us at 8:20am. So, at around 8:30 Professor Nichols arrived to pick us up a big SUV and we packed about 7 people into the car and headed to the cemetery. On our way to the cemetery we got to drive through the middle of Bellefonte and we drove past Talleyrand park which was extremely pretty. I sat in the front seat and I got a little history lesson from Professor Nichols about the town and Bellefonte and it was extremely interesting, considering that Bellefonte was one of the first towns in the history of Pennsylvania.

After we arrived to the cemetery, I instantly got to work and started with a weed wacker. I was firmilar with the weed wacker, because I have used one many times before helping my Dad with the lawn. I weed wacked all around different headstones and made sure that I made the high grassed areas look much nicer. I got a lot of work done using the weed wacker, but unfortunately I wore my nice shoes and they got a little dirty.

After I was done with the weed wacker I moved on to shifting headstones with my classmate Ryan McLaughlin. Some of these headstones were hard to shift because they were heavy, but when we both worked together it was much easier. When we finished up doing this, we finally got to sit down and take a break. We ate delicious Italian hoagies and then we had dominos pizza and garlic bread. After all that food, Professor Nichols gave us really yummy oatmeal raisin cookies. Overall, it was an extremely successful day and I felt as if I put a lot of work in to make the cemetery look better. I look forward to doing more community service in my future here at Penn State.

Lastly

Well here goes another blog post about the Library.

On Thursday instead of going to our regular classroom in the Willard building, we went to the Library for a mini tour. We met on the stairs outside on the back of the library and we took an awesome picture, along with a video of our class doing the “WE ARE, PENN STATE,” chant. That part was really fun. We proceeded to go inside as we were accompanied by one of the librarians who is a part of the communications and business section for the library.

We got in the elevators and made our way up to one of the upper floors and we went into a computer lab room. We got a presentation on how to use the Penn State library website and how it can help us to do research by accessing databases. She also showed us how to use our resources in the library for when we will need to check out a book, magazine, or anything. One feature on the website was that there was a little pop up on the screen and you can chat with a librarian if you are to ever need help with anything. She explained that everyone in there is very good at their jobs, and that they love to help out the students.

After she talked for a bit, we each logged onto computers and actually got to do some of this stuff she was showing us, on our own. I went into a database and found articles that were very good, and that I am going to be using for my mini case study. I learned how to navigate the website on my own, and I learned how to navigate through different databases.

All in all, it was a very successful and helpful time that I had in the library. I felt as if I learned a lot of helpful things that I can definitely incorporate in my next 4 years at Penn State.

So far my time spent here at Penn State has been awesome and has been worth every second of being here. Part of why my experience has been so awesome is because I have the Im building at my disposal whenever I need to go. Unless it is closed. The Im building has so much to offer and I will tell you about some of my favorite things to do in the Im building.

First off, I have been playing basketball ever since I can remember, because I was pretty much born into it. My Dad played basketball at Texas A&M and my Mom played tennis at Mount St. Marys, I also have an older brother who also loves sports and played sports, specifically basketball. So, basketball and sports have been a huge part of my life and I feel like they have partly shaped me into the person I am today. So having the ability to go played basketball whenever I want at the Im building is very important to me. There are always people playing and even if I don’t want to play I can always just go and shoot around.

Another part of the building that I love is the gym. When I got up to school I made a goal for myself and that was to workout on a weekly schedule and to not get side tracked out miss workout days. The gym has become one of my favorite places to go because working out feels so good and the exercise is good for your body.

Lastly, after I get done working out I go to the smoothie place that is inside of the Im building. My order is a strawberry and banana smoothie with vanilla protein and oat milk. It is so amazing and it is also good for my body. Overall the Im has much more to offer and I will continue to explore with the rest of the time that I have here at Penn State.

As a Penn State student, I attended my first office hours with my advisor. I scheduled an appointment at 8:30am to meet with my advisor before class. In this meeting, we talked about my schedule and my next four years at Penn State. My advisor helped me pick a new class for the fall semester, because I needed to change one class and she was very helpful. We went through the class add section on lion path and I can not express how helpful she was. One of the other things we talked about was success at Penn State and how if I ever need help she is here to help me. She also expressed how helpful the people and resources are at Penn State and that we are in the journey together. She told me that we are a team and that I should try new things, and she explained that failure is okay. Sometimes you might struggle, but you can push through it. All in all, it was a great meeting and I felt like I learned a lot and got helpful tips.

As a Penn State student I took my first trip to the learning center the other day. I have been waiting for my appointment for so long and I was so glad to finally be able to go. At my appointment I meet with a really nice student from Penn State and he was very helpful. We reviewed my previous English essay and he gave me pointers on things that I might need to work on. He also helped me critique my thesis statements for future essays and I think it really helped me a lot. One other thing that we went over was my next English assignment that is coming up. He helped me with brainstorming ideas for any essay in the future and helped brainstorming for this one. He also helped with structuring my essays and how to really fulfill my thesis statement.

Overall it was a really good experience and I know that I will definitely go back to the learning center in the future because they re very helpful and nice people.

On Saturday July 23, I took a trip to the Union Cemetery in Bellefonte. The day started by me waking up at 7:30am to go get breakfast at the dining hall before Professor Nichols was picking up a group of us at 8:20am. So, at around 8:30 Professor Nichols arrived to pick us up a big SUV and we packed about 7 people into the car and headed to the cemetery. On our way to the cemetery we got to drive through the middle of Bellefonte and we drove past Talleyrand park which was extremely pretty. I sat in the front seat and I got a little history lesson from Professor Nichols about the town and Bellefonte and it was extremely interesting, considering that Bellefonte was one of the first towns in the history of Pennsylvania.

After we arrived to the cemetery, I instantly got to work and started with a weed wacker. I was firmilar with the weed wacker, because I have used one many times before helping my Dad with the lawn. I weed wacked all around different headstones and made sure that I made the high grassed areas look much nicer. I got a lot of work done using the weed wacker, but unfortunately I wore my nice shoes and they got a little dirty.

After I was done with the weed wacker I moved on to shifting headstones with my classmate Ryan McLaughlin. Some of these headstones were hard to shift because they were heavy, but when we both worked together it was much easier. When we finished up doing this, we finally got to sit down and take a break. We ate delicious Italian hoagies and then we had dominos pizza and garlic bread. After all that food, Professor Nichols gave us really yummy oatmeal raisin cookies. Overall, it was an extremely successful day and I felt as if I put a lot of work in to make the cemetery look better. I look forward to doing more community service in my future here at Penn State.

For my case study we examined and took apart the pieces of Disney’s Share you ears campaign. The campaign all started with the partnership of Disney and make a wish, and the ultimate goal of this was to address children illness and try to help find solutions for that. Disney also tries to help Make a Wish kids grant wishes and over time they have helped hundreds of thousands of kid fulfill their dreams of going to Disney world.

When Disney surpassed the mark of granting 100,000m wishes for children, they launched the #shareyourears campaign. For every social media post that put on the hashtag “ShareYourEars,” Disney made a promise to donate five dollars to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Anyone that wanted to support a noble cause could simply take a picture with their Mickey Mouse ears and upload it to social media. No monetary donation or charity event was necessary, making this an effortless way for people to help. All people from around the country and around the world enjoyed partaking in this idea, because it was simple, easy, and fun. All you had to do was post a picture and Disney was donating five dollars to a really good cause. They donated 1 million dollars and then when they got to that mark they donated another million dollars to Make-a-Wish. 

Disney put in a lot of effort to push out this campaign to all Disney goers. In the parks they had creative walls that I will picture below when you could go up against the wall and take a picture with the ears above your head. They also brought this idea over to the famous Disney cruise lines, with certain areas in and around the cruise ships to take a picture behind an icon part of the ship and post it onto social media while using the hashtag. Another part of this campaign that Disney really did well on was the free advertising and marketing. Just by putting out this hashtag, each time someone posts a picture promoting a Disneys idea, Disney is gaining publicity from it and really good press. This press and buzz from the media was very good for Disney and they also brought the idea over to broadway for the Disney shows. In the playbill on broadway from certain shows like Aladdin, Frozen, Lion King, etc. They would insert a piece that showed the #Shareyourears and that put out the campaign even more for people to see. Also by running this campaign, Disney made even more money from the people in the parks and on the Disney cruise ships that were in the stores purchasing the ears. The overall marketing behind this project is extremely good, but also makes you questions the morals and ethics behind Disney. Could Disney have possibly donated more money? The amount of money they make outweighs the amount they donated by a lot, and a lot of people had questions about the campaign.

Disneys ability to have a good relationship with Make-a-wish is very important for Disney. There are even some very heartwarming stories that come out of the relationship. There were multiple instance where young children with severe illnesses and disabilities were given the chance to grant their wish at the Disneys parks. Each story has a unique touch to it and it can be heartbreaking at time, but also it makes you feel good that people care, and that people are trying to help children that are very sick make the most of their lives, and really experience something amazing. Disney wanted to help people out and in this campaign they most definitely did some part of helping out children battling illnesses.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRkWJD9Q/?k=1

Thursday Thought

If you click on the link above you will be directed to a video on TikTok regarding Nicholas Cruz, who was school shooter in Florida. The TikTok talks about the last part of the sentencing trail and wether he will receive life in prison or death by lethal injection. I feel as if this TikTok perfectly represents the term that we learned, social currency. Social currency is anything that we see or learn about on social media that we can use in an interpersonal conversation. I thought that this was a prime example.

I am certain that this is a perfect example of social currency, because earlier in the week my girlfriend and I were talking about how we have seen this on the news and how crazy everything is. This type of TikTok can spark lots of different conversations, and even questions that it might raise to people. One thing that this question raised to me was about gun control in the US, and if someone of this age should be able to own and have a gun of this caliber. Also, being a student who was once in high school and now in college, it raises the question that maybe there needs to be more security in schools throughout the entire US. There are so many different things a person who watches this video can take away from it and bring this into conversation. It is all about gaining the knowledge from this news clip and taking it into an everyday conversation with someone you know or ultimately anyone.

Ultimately, I learned that even after just watching TikTok’s or being on social media, there is so much social currency out there that can be useful. We can gain so much knowledge from it and it is a very useful thing.

After being in State College for a few weeks now, I have had the opportunity to really adventure the campus and the downtown. I have eaten food at many different places that people have told me to try and I have even discovered some really good places on my own. There is one specific restaurant that I think is a hidden gem, and not many people talk about it. You will find out soon what that restaurant is.

After many trips downtown for food, I have tried a variety of different restaurants. Starting with El Jefe’s Taqueria. I have been to El Jefe’s a few times now and I enjoy it each time I go, and I have even tried multiple different things on the menu. The first and second times that I went I got a burrito and both times it was very good, but the next few times I went I got a burrito bowl and that is my favorite thing on the menu. I put all sorts of different toppings in my bowl and it is absolutely delicious. Also, one time I went my friend got nachos with queso on top, and their queso is amazing. The next place I love is D.P Dough, they have really good calzones and there are lots of different flavors to choose from. My favorite is just a regular cheese calzone and I dip it in marinara sauce. Another really good place that I have visited is canyon pizza. To be completely honest, this was not that good. It was pretty poor quality pizza and wasn’t extremely hot after it was heated up, I had a leftover slice and it tasted better than when I got it in the shop. Another restaurant I went to was Chipotle, I’ve had Chipotle many times before and it never disappoints. It was a very good meal.

Finally, the last place that I have visited so far was Local Whiskey. I have only good things to say about this restaurant because the whole experience was really good. Everything from the service to the food was amazing, it was overall a 10/1o dining experience. I ordered the chicken sandwich and I though it was delicious and would highly recommend people to go to Local Whiskey if you ever need a bite.

I am super excited to try many more new places in State College and I am ready to keep adventuring.

My Friend Tom Woloshyn wearing Titleist golf hat

Student walking to class wearing Class of 2022 High School hat

Female Penn State worker wearing Penn State work hat

UPS driver after delivery wearing UPS hat

The reason why I decided to choose a diverse group of hats for my project is because I personally love wearing hats. I have a very wide variety of hats and when this project was introduced to me, I instantly though about doing hats. In a sense, hats being worn can mean a lot of things including: having to wear them for work, wearing a hat because you like the way it looks, wearing it represent something that you stand for, blocking the sun out of ur face, or simply just because you’re having a bad hair day. Hats can be very diverse and diversity in the society we live in today is something that I value very deeply. In my own words, diversity is  the mix and acceptance of backgrounds or differences that a group or culture might have.

The first photograph that I took was of my friend Tom and we were walking to class. This picture shows him wearing his Titleist golf hat with a nice Penn State Nittany lion logo on the side of it. That photo shows diversity because first it is a mix of both the Titleist brand and the Penn State logo, also it is navy blue. Out of all the people I saw on campus he was the only one with that hat. The next photo is a student who I did not know as he was walking to class with a hat that had his high schools logo on it and the class of 2022 stamped on the back. This shows diversity because he is wearing a hat that was from his high school and it is a high grey shaded hat. Next, I took a picture of a female Penn State worker as she was on her break, she was wearing a Penn State work hat. This hat shows diversity because that is only given to workers at Penn State and the design on it might be kind of rare, it also shows she works for Penn State. Finally, I took a photo of a UPS delivery worker wearing his hat that was stamped UPS. This hat might tell us that he works for UPS and the diversity of the hat stands out because of the brown color of the hat and the fact that it represents the company that he works for.

There are many other photos that I couldn’t include in my blog, but the amount of diversity within State College really amazed me. I saw many different types of hats and each hat represents something different to someone and that is special. Before I took the pictures of each person, I explained that them that I was doing a project on diversity within our community and each person seemed to love that idea. This moved me in a way, and one day I hope our society can realize that people and things might be different, but that doesn’t mean there is any reason to exclude anyone.