Wow! What an exhausting week it has been. My WR 135 class has finally begun the last stages of completing our final research paper. I am excited in a way and yet, I am sad it will be all over with. I struggled this past week to find the final component to my paper - someone to interview. My problem was that I didn't want to interview someone who was too commercialized (e.g., Dr. Phil, Martha Stewart) or just some random person. However, while I was looking through my email address book, I found the perfect person - Mark Wandle. Mr. Wandle was my eighth grade history teacher and a huge role model for me during high school, but someone who I wasn't too terribly close to. I conducted the interview via email and I couldn't be more please with his response's and I cannot wait to use them in my paper.

This past weekend, I attended the ASWOU leadership retreat. I have very mixed feelings about the retreat as a whole (most of the them on the negative side) but I do feel that the retreat helped further bond the members of the Student Activities Board. However, one of the positive parts of the trip was the ropes course. I had been dreading this all weekend, but I made myself do it and I am really glad I did. For the first time in my life, I allowed someone to hoist me up onto their shoulders (I am not the skinniest person in the world) so that I could reach up, grab the hands of two people at the top of a twelve foot wall and help pull myself the rest of the way over the wall. It was one of the most amazing experiences in my life and I am so glad that I did it. It made me prove to myself that I can do things I am not comfortable with and that trusting people is sometimes the only way you can get from where you are to where you need to be. -- AshleyErb - 14 Nov 2005

I didn't know where to post the additional weekly reflection statement about the internet that we had to do, so I am posting it below this one.

Part A: 1) Most of the research I have done this term has been centered around my WE 125 research class. In conducting research for that class, I have used the “regular” sources of information (e.g., books, magazines, the world wide web, and journals) but I was also introduced to a whole new world of research opportunities - online databases. I have been using the databases offered by Hamersley Library and the information I have found through them has helped immensely with my research. 2) The biggest benefit I have found when using the internet is simply, its convenience. I can conduct research from the comfort of my dorm room, from the Werner University Center or in my favorite computer lab in the library. However, there are two major drawbacks to the Internet. First of all, most of the websites out there lack credibility and secondly, it can take awhile, when using a search engine, to find a web page that really relates to the topic at hand. Part B: 1) Yes, I have used the internet for my personal research, probably on a weekly basis if not a daily one. Just the other day I was searching for air plane tickets so that I can fly home for Christmas. Also, I am from Montana, so MapQuest^? has become a favorite website for me. I am always using it when I have to go somewhere new. MapQuest^? has been a lifesaver for me. 2) We did not get the internet in my household until I was probably a freshmen in high school. My dad didn’t see a point in it and now that I have opened his eyes to the endless possibilities it has I cannot see him ever getting rid of it. My family especially likes having it now. It is a huge venue for us to be able to communicate with each other. I am constantly sending my family email messages informing them that school is going great.

-- AshleyErb - 14 Nov 2005
to top