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It's been a week but I've been working at JMU for a month
Hello everyone - here is what is going to be a solid string of blogs from this guy for the rest of the semester.
I apologize on being so tardy on reporting about my first week back to school but my life has been non-stop since I wrote my last blog almost a month ago. Last week was the first day of classes, but I've been working at JMU for the two weeks prior. I may have mentioned it before, but as an Orientation Program Assistant we train the 240 First yeaR Orientation Guides, also known as FROGs. Well, I just want to congratulate the Orientation program because working with 240 of JMU's most energetic and spirited people gave me even more enthusiasm for this school than even I knew I had. My OPA partner Margaret, who's in a couple of the pictures here, and I helped to train specifically a group of 20 FROGs known as our own FROG group. We spent a lot of time together - almost 13 hours a day for 3 days straight - going through training. We prepared them for all the events that were happening during 1787 Orientation, and helping them adjust to their role as a leader and friend to all the freshman that would be in their group. Honestly though, I feel I learned just as much from my FROG group as they say they did from me. They were some incredible people, that I know I will never forget or fail to appreciate for the rest of my time here at JMU.
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Training was all in good fun, but the rest of the week is what really counted: The arrival of the freshman class. 3,700 students moved in on Wednesday, August 24, and it was a sight to see! When the freshman class arrived, the FROGs got to put everything they learned into full gear to help make the best transition for all of the incoming students. From Wednesday until Sunday there were activity filled days that included game shows, hypnotist Michael C. Anthony, comedian Vic Henley, and a quad fest where there were games for all the students and even cotton candy - Margaret and I helped as much as we could with that.
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My personal favorite was the Pep Rally where I got to get my picture taken with Coach Mickey Matthews, the Head Coach for our National Championship football team.
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Having that much fun really tired me out though - getting up at 7am and going to bed around 2am just to get up at 7am again will really do that to you. And to make things even more hectic, my cousin got married that weekend so I had to go to Wintergreen Resort for her wedding, which was luckily only an hour away.
As you can see there was very little time for myself, so when the first week of classes came it was almost like a vacation for me. When classes started I could finally clean my room, organize my things, and get situated. The first week of classes has been incredible. I'm excited about all of the classes I'm taking. One class I am particularly excited about now is my Senior Project Capstone class. After talking with my senior advisor, Professor Dan Shaffer, I now have a project that Dan started that I am helping execute for him. We were able to get a set of data files about the topography, aquifers, placements of wells to the contributing aquifers, and layout of Interstate 81 in Shenandoah County from the state. With that data we are going to analyze the effect any runoff water from I-81 will have on the aquifers that it runs through, and how much of it will effect the wells that feed off those aquifers. To do this we have to study the direction of the water runoff, and we have a new program called ArcHydro to help us do that. Part of my study with Dan is to figure out how ArcHydro works and what it can tell us about the properties of the streams according to the topography of the land. So right now I am contacting ESRI, the company that makes the ArcHydro software, to learn as much as I can about the program, and then trying it out for the next couple days trying to figure out how it works. The study seems very interesting, combining my interest in GIS with my other interest in Environmental Science. I am really grateful for finding a project that reaches the subject of my two interests.
Well, that's all I'll write about for now. Tonight is Student Org Night, where all the clubs come out and showcase their club to any interested students. Since I'm in so many clubs I'm going to be busy showcasing all my interests.
Talk to you all real soon...
Posted by Simeon on September 5, 2005 03:16 PM | Link | Email Simeon
