Wed, 6 Jan 2010Back at School
After a long break at home (almost a month), I am ready to be back at school. I had a good break, which consisted of my birthday, two extended family Christmases, and lots of T.V. The nice thing about college is that your break is in between semesters, so there is no work to be done at home. After a while at home, though, I am always ready to come back to school.
Coming back was an adventure. Since I live closer to Chicago, the snow is not as bad on that side of the lake. Once we got around Lake Michigan, there was lots of snow. We made it safely, however. It is really nice to reconnect with friends that I haven't seen in a long time. I always love coming back to school to hear about people's stories while they were gone and see some of my close friends.
I'm pretty excited about my class schedule this semester. I will be taking Classical Field Theory, Operating Systems, Optics & Holography, Intro to Philosophy, Choir, and helping out with a research project. Now that I am well into my junior year, my classes are starting to lean more towards the technical side of things rather than having mostly general education classes. I like having technical classes because of the challenge that it presents as well as the fact that the classes are more interesting to me.
As I am thinking about my activities to come, I hope you are looking forward to your semester as well. Although high school was never this way, Goshen College is a place where I actually look forward to coming back to school. I hope the college that you choose, whatever it is, brings you just as much joy.
Posted at 15:22 #
Thu, 19 Nov 2009Song Leading
[Blogs about classes: Part 3 of 5]
As a part of the classes I have to take
for my music minor, I am in a song
leading class. This class is interesting
because it gives me real experience and
training about how to lead hymns in
church. Mennonites have a long-
standing tradition of hymn sings, so
this talent will definitely come in handy.
For our final project in the class, we are
going to be leading a hymn sing for
students at the college. I will be a little
nervous, but I am definitely excited for
the opportunity as well. We will be
planning all of the aspects of the hymn
sing, including location, time, songs to
be lead, and technical aspects (sound,
lights, etc). It should be a really cool
project. We will be in big groups, so
the work can be divided between a lot
of people.
This is yet another opportunity where I
am learning that Goshen is preparing
me for real life. The classes I am taking
are directly applicable to the kinds of
things that I want to do when I am
older. This hymn singing class is really
helpful because I now have a skill that I
can use whenever it is needed. I can
also help others learn how to lead
hymns if they want help. The kind of
education I am getting from Goshen is
really important. Plans change, and
Goshen is helping prepare me to
transition well if the things I end up
doing are different from the things I
intended to do.
Posted at 14:54 #
Thu, 12 Nov 2009Chicago (FIELD TRIP!)
[Blogs about classes: Part 2 of 5]
As you may or may not know, Goshen is a Liberal Arts college. But what does this really mean? It means that instead of taking only classes related to your major, you will have to take math, science, literature, wellness, bible, sociology, and music classes as well. It also means that you'll have to endure a little more headache, because you're not quite done with math just yet, but you will be better prepared for any task you are assigned in the workplace.
As part of the General Education requirement, you have to take a Humanities class. This particular class is Humanities: Art and Theater, so we study (yep, you guessed it) art and theater. And last week for class, we went on a field trip to Chicago!
We left around 9:00 in the morning, and got to the Art Institute of Chicago around noon. We got to see the new modern wing, and, after a little homework, got to explore the art museum for as long as we wanted! The coolest part about this field trip was that we got to be independent like the college students we are. Once we were done with our assignment, we had free time until 6:00 pm! For me, that meant that when I got my assignment done, I went to check out the modern wing for a little bit. After that, I went to the Apple Store down on Michigan Avenue for a while, and then had dinner with my parents because they were in town.
When we got back at 6:00, we headed out to the Steppenwolf Theatre to see the production Fake. It was a recently written play about the Piltdown man, the supposed link between apes and humans. The play was really interesting, and it was a great production put on by a professional theatre company. We got back late after a talkback session, at around 2:00 in the morning!
Overall, I had a great time in Chicago. Let this be a lesson that general education classes don't have to be boring, but can be a lot of fun instead!
Posted at 14:09 #
Thu, 5 Nov 2009Warning: Nerd Alert
[Blogs about classes: Part 1 of 5]
I am a Physics major. Although I don't consider myself a nerd, this blog is about what we are doing right now in our electronics class. And it's pretty nerdy (but fun).
In electronics, we are learning about robots. We are using bread boards to hook up LEDs, motorized wheels, motorized rangefinders, and LCD character displays. This is all hooked up (with a nasty massive schematic) to a microcontroller. This may sound sweet, but that's not even the coolest part of the project.
The really neat thing is how we use the robots. We are writing computer code in C, and then compiling it and putting that code on the microcontroller. This means that we can program the robot to do any number of things based on the code we write. We have gotten our robot to play follow the leader, avoid objects in the way, bliink the LED, and interact with it using the LCD display.
This is yet another cool part about Goshen College. Even though it's a small liberal arts school, we have lots of opportunities similar to the big universities. This is an electronics class with 13 students in it, yet we get to work with robots and program computer code that controls them. If this sounds like something interesting to you, come check it out! You can sit in on an electronics class during your campus visit.
Stay tuned for more updates about what a real live college student is doing in his classes!
Posted at 14:39 #
Fri, 30 Oct 2009Upcoming Events
I had a good week this week. Aside from classes, I got to go to two chapels. On Monday, I went to a preview of the Mainstage, Big Love, in the Umble Center. I got to watch part of the play. On Wednesday, I went to a chapel about issues of race, and how our society is still so full of racial unequalities that we have to do something to change it. It was a very good chapel, and challenging as well. Last night, my friends and I went to the Leaf Raker at 11:30 pm to get some pancakes and bacon. Since it's open on Thursdays until 12:00, it has become a weekly tradition of going to get breakfast food late Thursday nights. I'm also looking forward to the weekend I have coming up.
On Friday, I am going to see Big Love at the Umble Center. I'm pretty excited, because lots of my friends are in the show. They have been putting in long hours in the recent months, so it should be a great production. On Saturday, I'll be going to see the men's soccer game. It will be their first playoff game (at home), so it should be a blast. After that, I'll be dressing up as a burrito, and heading down to the Chipotle in Mishawaka with my friends to get a free burrito. We found out about Chipotle's offer: if you dress up as a burrito on Halloween and come in, they'll give you a free burrito. We are going to take full advantage of said offer. On Sunday, I'll be heading to Ohio with a friend to visit her family.
I'm really excited about this weekend. I'll be able to hang out with friends and relax a little bit. One of the nice things about Goshen is all of the opportunities I have to spend time with friends. If you have the opportunity to come visit Goshen, you will know what I'm talking about. The connections you make with people are just incredible.
Posted at 13:50 #
Sun, 25 Oct 2009Fall Break
Last weekend, we had fall break, which provided and excellent time to kick back and hang out with friends. In the middle of both semesters, there is a break to mark the half-way point (in the spring, there's spring break, so why not a fall break?). We had last Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday off, so we had a five-day weekend to do whatever we wanted.
Over this time, I went to Iowa on Sunday to play with a band for a youth group at the Iowa Mennonite Schools. It was a blast, and I got to have a road trip with three of my friends! On Tuesday, I went with a big group of friends to Chicago and spent the day there. We had lunch in Millenium Park, and also went to the Shedd Aquarium. It was a blast! After that, a friend and I took the train back to my house to visit my family. When we got back to Chicago, we connected with the rest of the group again.
This past Friday, we had our second Campus Open House (if you don't know what I'm talking about, you should come to the third one. See http://www.goshen.edu/admission/visit/ for more info). I had a lot of fun showing a group of people around Goshen's campus. The coolest part of this Open House was that there were about 15 students that came from Puerto Rico to visit Goshen's campus. I got to go with them to the Sones de Mexico conert on Friday, which was a lot of fun. On Saturday, I got to go with the students to downtown Goshen, where we had breakfast at The Brew, and then went to the farmer's market. It was a new experience for all of the Puerto Rico students, so it was fun to watch them visit the farmer's market for the first time. Later that day, a couple of friends and I played volleyball with them in the Rec-Fitness center.
These breaks have given me a good chance to relax a little bit, and have fun with friends. Although school can sometimes be taxing (especially the week before fall break), the reward of the break after the fact makes it all worth it.
Zach
Posted at 15:05 #
Tue, 6 Oct 2009My School Year
Wow! It feels like this year has gone by fast so far. I feel like it was yesterday that I was starting to make connections with friends again, but this semester is almost half over! I have a busy schedule this year; I'll be taking Analytical Mechanics and Electronics for my Physics major, Choir, Piano Lessons, and Song Leading for my music minor, and Art & Theater Humanities for my general education requirement. Although it has been really busy so far, it has been a fun year.
One of the things I have really enjoyed this year is the new housing situation I have. Because I am a junior, I get to live in small group housing. A bunch of close friends and I are living in Kulp South. This is a house with a common living room, bathroom, and kitchen area, and there are four bedrooms for the six of us! We decided to split the rooms in an interesting way, though; we have a bedroom (where ALL of the beds are), an office (where all of the desks are), and an entertainment room (where the TV and sound system is). The house has been awesome, and I really enjoy getting to know my friends better. Living in small group housing has the benefit of community living, but also has a good amount of responsibility. We have to keep the place clean, wash dishes, buy food, etc. We also get the chance to have a group bible study every Wednesday night and a community meal every Sunday.
Other than that, I have loved getting to connect with Goshen College students outside of school. Two weekends ago, I went to the annual Elkhart County Relief Sale and bought lots of awesome Mennonite food. I also got to see friends that I haven't seen yet this year and see other Mennonites from Indiana that aren't usually in the area. Last weekend, I went to the Sing & Swing, which was part of an hour after, an activity that the Campus Activities Counsel puts on. Our jazz band, Lavendar Jazz, was there playing, and there was food and swing dancing. The setting this year was awesome because they closed down a street in downtown Goshen and set up a tent for the event.
I hope you enjoy getting to know a little bit more about me and my personal life as a Goshen College student. Until next time,
Zach Yordy
Posted at 13:49 #
Lizzy Diaz
Sammy Rosario
Jenna Zehr
Jennifer Speight
Tim Blaum
