At the start of the semester, I was prompted by my professor to join the Criminal Justice Society and did so immediately. We have meetings every other Monday from 4:00-5:00 PM, typically with guest speakers coming to talk to us about their specific branch and what they do in the law enforcement society. Thus far we have had a member who works with the Department of Children Services, a professor at ETSU who is a retired highway patrolman, a lieutenant at Johnson City Police Department, and a forensic scientist.
We volunteered on multiple different occasions such as assisting the mentally and physically disabled catch fish at the Legion Street Pool as well as at a couple of other events. We also took three trips; the first, to the Alcatraz East Crime Museum in Pigeon Forge, the second, to the UTK Anthropology department in Knoxville, and third, to hear about the Salem Women who were falsely accused and prosecuted for crimes they did not commit. Overall, this was a very positive experience for me and it informed me of a vast different number of options that I can pursue in the future. Being that this is only the first semester, the spring will only bring about more fun opportunities and chances to learn about criminal justice and law enforcement.
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Three things to get me closer to my goal: Federal Criminal Detective
1. Continue to consistently sit in on the Criminal Justice Society meetings and attend various volunteering opportunities and field trips so as to become a familiar face in the criminal justice career and gain experience. 2. Study adequately and get all my work done so that I'm properly prepared for tests and able to obtain high grades. 3. Speak with my Guidance Counselor about future classes I should look into and be taking, my interests in the future, and what I want to do in life. I am taking Introduction to Psychology and, as a result, must complete AT LEAST 5 SONA credits for the class. Being the overachiever that I am, I completed 10 credits for the course and partook in multiple programs of study, listed below.
Friday, September 1, 2017: Online Communication, 0.5 credits Thursday, September 7, 2017: Motivation and Self-Regulation, 3 credits Tuesday, November 7, 2017: Women’s Reproductive Health, 0.5 credits Wednesday, November 8, 2017: REACH, 2 credits Wednesday, November 8, 2017: Cancer Communication, 0.5 credits Wednesday, November 8, 2017: College Students’ Health Behaviors, 1.5 credits Thursday, November 16, 2017: Sex Ed and Sexual Behaviors, 2 credits I found these programs of study to be particularly interesting and quite relevant to both my studies as well as in regards to being a college student. I find that my most important values are open-mindedness and humility. To be humble, you must have an open mind. This helps both relationships and career aspirations as you are recognized to not judge and instead be patient and understanding, and ultimate trait people both in the work force and in personal encounters. My ultimate goal is to work as a criminal detective, and in order to succeed at my job, I must be open-minded to all possibilities and remain humble at all times. This not only helps my cases, but who I am as an individual.
I found my experience with the theatrical performance, Playhouse Creatures, to be moderately enjoyable. I have never been the biggest fan of theatre, unless it was The Nutcracker ballet at Christmas time. It was actually a new experience for me and was incredible to watch how fluidly and gracefully the five actresses were able to maneuver around the stage and recite two hours’ worth of lines without falter. The breaking of the fourth wall and interacting with the audience kept the attention of viewers and left them on the edge of their seats.
A great movie, piece, performance, etc. will leave you either laughing, crying, angry, or content. This play did an excellent job of incorporating humor into the mix while still addressing the serious issues of gender inequality and misogynism. The actresses themselves portrayed their characters wonderfully, emphasizing the central points and making it almost an enjoyable lesson on respect, perseverance, and dedication. The storyline was not my favorite, especially since it was a play…about a play. Although it was very much original, it felt too incepting to me and I had difficulty keeping up with the plot and what, exactly, was going on. It was as though I would read a book with a page torn out every fifteen pages; I still got the gist, but every so often had to pause and think “Wait, what’s going on?” Despite my personal bias, I still thought it was a great performance, I just was not in favor of the content. I did, however, love the accents and observing as the talented young women never broke character! Ultimately, Playhouse Creatures was a relatively positive experience. I have no discontent or hatred for the play, I just found it to be a bit monotonous when I wasn’t preoccupied with laughter. I would definitely recommend the play to anyone who is a fan of theatre, but not to one who this would be their first experience. I firmly believe that if I had been exposed to a topic that more directly equated to my interests as a first play, I would have had more respect for this piece and been expecting its content. I brought with me an abstracted canvas painting of the Massai Mara tribe from Kenya, Africa. It features people, native trees/plants, mount Kenya, tribal homes, and animals. It's important to me because of my strong love and passion for traveling the world, learning about other people and cultures, and the sheer fact that it reminds me that I embody the earth and connect to it no matter where I go, and make my home.Review
The Absurdity of Truth exhibit that accompanied ETSU’s Native American week was by far my favorite display of the semester. John Feodorov created works of art varying from two-dimensional mixed media to short films, my favorite of which was a piece that he created titled “A Black Snake Comes to Navajo Land.” It portrayed such a strong representation of the struggles Navajo people face and accompanied the overall theme of destruction as a result of capitalism and imperialism. Artist descriptions are a key element in understanding the artist’s perspective, but it is essential that such summaries still allow the viewer to interpret his or her own meaning for the artwork. Feodorov does an incredible job accomplishing this with all of his individual pieces, as well as with an overall description that captures the exhibit beautifully. The strongest line that caught my attention was this: “If you walk away from this exhibit thinking ‘Gee, Native Americans are such spiritual people,’ then both of us have failed. If, on the other hand, the work prompts you to ponder about how, in many ways, we share the same struggle, I propose that the next question we ask is, ‘Great, …how can we work together?’” Feodorov in himself is an incredible individual. He is humbled and does not wish to bring attention to himself, rather, to bring attention current, on-going world and environmental issues. Using his words from his lecture, “I think it’s a mistake for artists to only know about art. It is essential for people to become familiar with what is happening in the world, and what has happened already. This allows you to express feeling through your art.” This is an accurate and essential element to becoming a good artist and, through him, I began to see art from a different point of view that I had not before considered. Ultimately, Absurdity of Truth was a beautiful, eye-opening experience that was positive as it didn’t put blame on any one race or ethnicity, but instead acknowledged the imperfections of the human race as a whole. I believe that this is an approach more artists should take; if you are going to try and change the world, why not be creative while you’re at it? Earlier today, I helped out with setting up the Honors College tailgate which included dragging four massive tables over from Ross Hall to the Honors House, a grill, and preparing hot dogs, chips, drinks, handing out shirt to the honors kids, etc. We had quite a few people come and take part in the tailgating despite the rain and unusually brisk weather which was amazing. Fraternities were set up both directly across the street and diagonally from the Honors House, prompting people to come check out our stand and promote interest in the honors family. It was a nice experience and seemed to have a very positive effect on the surrounding student population.
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The above slideshow is of the many different animals, both endangered and not, in their natural environment of Kenya, Africa.
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