Student Senate is Back in Session

I feel so official now that I’ve received my Student Senate nametag. It has a magnetic backing so there’s no chance of accidently poking myself. I’ll be able to wear it to events I’m involved in with the Student Senate.

Student Senate meetings are a great place to learn about all the upcoming events on campus. At the West Bend campus there’s a Valentine’s dinner and show on February 13, a blood drive on February 22, and several BINGO events coming up. The representatives of other student clubs shared info on what they’re doing this semester. Check the “Events” tab on my page for further information and upcoming events.

I was hoping to go to the NACA Conference for Student Senate this spring since I couldn’t go to the other conference last fall, but due to a scheduling conflict I won’t be able to go to this one either. Members who have gone to those events in the past say they are a lot of fun. There are numerous entertainment acts to preview at this conference. Based on what the students see and like, they come back to campus to make suggestions on entertainers we should bring to the campus.

I’ll be seeing some of the Senate members again soon during our Student Activities Committee meeting. We’ll be discussing and planning future events for the West Bend campus.

If you’re a student and looking to get involved, you can find information about Student Government here: http://www.morainepark.edu/services/student-life/student-government/ - student-life

My First Web Developer Club Presentation

At our last Web Developer Club meeting I was the student presenter at MPTC’s West Bend campus. Since I have a background in art I was able to teach my fellow Web club members about art aesthetics and how they can be applied to Web design. I was very excited to have the opportunity to talk about things like color theory and unity. I was able to explain the reason why you can’t put green text on a red background and how to create elements on a page that work together.

I know quite a bit about art, but I also did some research specifically relating to Web design, and I was able to pass on my resources to others so they could learn more. I feel like we all benefited from the presentation, including me. I have a clearer sense of what an attractive website looks like.

Since the presentation didn’t take up too much time, there was time left for our club president to show us a site that allows a design team to organize a project they are working on together on a digital board. Had I know about it when I was in Web Site Design, Implementation and Maintenance class, we could have saved a lot of space in our email accounts.

This club is great for Web design students who want to go beyond what they learn in the classroom. I think of it as an additional college course on Web-related topics. You come to the meetings to learn new things yet there’s no books to buy or tuition fees to pay. Many students come from different backgrounds and have an expertise in certain subjects. Some students are great at knowing what the next big thing is in technology and communication. It’s not a big commitment, because we only meet once a month. Nobody is required more than to just show up to the meetings, but everybody is encouraged to share their knowledge.

My First Student Activities Committee Meeting

When I joined Moraine Park’s Student Senate in West Bend, I also decided to take part on the Activities Committee. It’s like a branch off of Student Senate, but we are specifically in charge of planning and running activities on our campus.

On Monday we had a meeting to discuss our holiday party. We really want to make it an entire day event on December 6 from 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. Nothing is set in stone, but we would like to have another casino event. We had one last spring, and it was fun and well attended. If you’d like to read about it, check out my blog entry, Last Blast: Casino in the Cafeteria at http://moraineparktech.blogspot.com/2011/04/last-blast-casino-in-cafeteria.html.

Like I said before, nothing is set in stone, because we are still in the planning stages. We need to contact the casino company to see if they are available. There will probably be bingo as well, in the early afternoon and the evening. We usually give out gift cards to winners, but we may also have some gift baskets, too. We’re working on providing free beverages and food for the students such as coffee, hot chocolate, cookies, chili, and sandwiches.

Once everything is set, I’ll give you an update on the details.

Kindness

November 13 is World Kindness Day. With all the problems going on in our contemporary society, it’s not easy to switch our mindset from “what’s wrong” to “how can we make things better in our own individual way?” It’s these little random acts of kindness that reminds us there are people who care. When we perform random acts of kindness, we are reminded that we aren’t powerless to make a difference.

Whether you do it for a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger, it really is little things you do for people that can make their day better. One day I was at work and it was lunchtime. I couldn’t open my bottle of water no matter how hard I tried with both my hands. They were red and sore and I was irritated. One of my co-workers saw I was struggling and left the room. He came back with pliers and opened the bottle for me. Finally, something that day went right. I was in a better mood now all because somebody took one minute out of their break time to help me out. I really think it’s things like this that help people get through the day.

During this month’s Lunch ‘n’ Learn we discussed random acts of kindness at MPTC’s West Bend campus. It was nice to talk about something positive. We talked about how people have shown kindness to us and how we show kindness to others.

We also shared ideas of how we could show kindness on campus. The simplest things to do are to say hi to people in the hallway, open doors for people carrying things, and picking up things off the floor. You can help your classmates when they are struggling with an assignment or task. You can ask people to go to lunch or dinner in the cafeteria after class. All these things don’t require any money or lots of time, but if you can make somebody’s day a little easier or a little nicer, it makes a bigger impact in the world than we realize, especially if we are all doing these things every day.

If somebody shows you kindness today, make sure you pass it on!

New Student Orientation

Last Wednesday I went to the New Student Orientation at Moraine Park Technical College in West Bend to represent the Web Developer Club. Different departments of the college and student clubs gather in the lobby to answer questions and give information to new students.

This time last year I was one of those students. I remember talking to many faculty, staff and students. They had a lot of information to share, and it was a lot to take in. They gave us good advice about college like to not take too many classes at once if we already had busy schedules and to only take out the minimal amount of loans. Those loans have to be paid back after you graduate.

This year I sat next to a person representing the Instructional Assistant club. Like me, she had information to share about her club and an interest sign-up sheet. I explained what the Web Developer Club did last year and why I thought it was a good idea to join a club. As I explained to the people I met that day, clubs are good for networking, learning, résumé, and fun. There’s a club for nearly every program. It’s definitely worth checking them out.

If you’d like to see what clubs Moraine Park has to offer, visit the student clubs page: http://www.morainepark.edu/services/student-life/student-clubs/

And if you’re in the IT-Web Developer/Designer program, join the Web Developer Club this fall!

Fourth of July

Just about every year I start my Fourth of July celebration at the Fourth of July parade in West Bend. This year it was packed despite the fact it was so very hot outside. One of the floats had a machine that shot mist into the crowd. The kids in the crowd really enjoyed that.

Later in the afternoon, I met up with my friends and went to the park. We brought a cooler along and had a picnic. It’s a good idea to show up early to claim a spot. It’s nearly impossible to move around easily or to find people after dusk. Calling someone’s cell phone and telling them your standing next to a tree isn’t the easiest way to meet up with someone after 8 p.m. at the park. I also brought my new giant checkers set and cloth game board, like the one we had in our fifth grade classroom. I just love it. I’d almost forgotten how to play it’s been so long.

The fireworks show was nice. It wasn’t windy and we picked a great spot so the fireworks were easy to see. They had beautiful golden fountain fireworks that everyone ooed and awed at. Unfortunately, the batteries in my camera died before I could take a picture of them.

It seems that every year the rest of the summer flies by really quickly after the Fourth of July. Soon it will be August 22, and I will be in class at Moraine Park for the fall semester.

My Summer Visit to the MPTC Library

It’s been more than a month since the end of the spring semester and I haven’t spent any time on campus since then until recently. I had a morning free, so I decided to stop at the MPTC library for a few hours.

While walking through the halls, I noticed some construction going on. It looks like the West Bend Moraine Park bookstore is getting a makeover. There was a sign saying it has moved temporarily to a different room.

The campus was a bit livelier than I had expected it to be, though not as busy as it is during the fall and spring semesters. I suppose there are quite a few people taking advantage of summer classes and the library’s computers. The cafeteria was open, too.

I spent my time looking through some Web design books. There is a section in the library where those books are kept so it was easy to browse. I freshened up on some basics and learned a few new things. If I have time, I’ll come back in a few weeks to browse through the books again. Only two months of summer vacation left!

IVC: Interactive Video Conference

Being in the IT-Web Designer/Developer program, I have become very familiar with IVC - Interactive Video Conference - system. Many of our classes are taught this way.

IVC allows students from different campuses to have class together using video and microphones. I can be at the West Bend campus with classmates while the instructor and other classmates can be at the Fond du Lac campus. We can see and talk to each other through the cameras and microphones. We can also see what the instructor is doing on the computer on a separate projection screen.

The first time I saw a IVC microphone was a few years ago. I thought, what an odd looking mouse? It’s about the same size as one, sits on the table and has a long cord. There are several of them in each room that is IVC capable. If you’re in an IVC class, make sure you turn your microphone on when you want to talk otherwise the students at the other campuses can’t hear you. Similarly, turn it off when you’re done speaking; otherwise people can still hear you! Everybody does one or the other at least once.

I’ve also used IVC for meetings with people on other campuses. It’s really a great way to connect the campuses in real-time. Recently, we had a meeting about our student blogs and I got to meet Kirsten, the student blogger from the Beaver Dam campus (Note: Check out her blog by visiting the Links tab on my blog page). I was able to meet with people from Fond du Lac and Beaver Dam while staying in West Bend. I didn’t have to drive all the way to another campus. That’s a good thing with gas prices being so high.

Even though I understand what IVC is I sometimes forget, along with other abbreviations, what it stands for. Here’s a link to an MPTC page that shows some common abbreviations you may need to know when looking at class schedules:

http://www.morainepark.edu/programs-and-courses/class-schedule/abbreviations-class-schedule/

My JavaScript Final Project

These past few days I have been spending a lot of time working on my final project for my JavaScript class. Web and graphic designers are notorious for being unaware of time passing and the necessity for food and sleep. I had to make sure I took breaks when I was working on it in the library at Moraine Park’s West Bend campus on Wednesday.

It’s an interactive application. My theme for the project is an aid for new artists to help them learn art basics. I’ve created a list of words and their definitions, and I’m working on making a quiz. Using JavaScript, a programming language, I’m writing code that will swap images with other images that show the answer to each question when you hover over the original image.

I still need to add more JavaScript to make it interactive. There is a long list of criteria to follow that goes all the way back to things we learned at the beginning of the semester. Luckily, I can look back through previous assignments to refresh my memory. It’ll be a nice item to add to my online portfolio to show future employers or clients what I can do for them.

West Bend Student Senate Meeting

Unfortunately, the Earth Day campus clean-up was cancelled due to snow on Thursday. It seems silly to think that we’d have standing snow at the end April. I was looking forward to spending some time outside, especially after this long winter. Instead, they held a short meeting in room T-208, which is upstairs. There aren’t many rooms upstairs at MPTC’s West Bend campus. In fact, this was my first time upstairs. Had I not looked at a map, I would not have known the room was upstairs.

This Student Senate is a group of exuberant people. The president even brings his own gavel to meetings! They were very welcoming and happy for me to join them for the first time. There are definitely perks to being involved in this group. Just for participating in a Student Senate meeting, you get a voucher for a free lunch in the cafeteria for the day. During their next meeting it sounds like they are going to Tomaso’s for pizza. I’ve heard they go to leadership conferences, too.

While I was there, they needed to discuss a few business items on their agenda. Other clubs can ask the Student Senate for money for trips. A club from the accounting program is going on a trip to Nationals in May.

The senate was making last minute arrangements for next Wednesday’s event, Last Blast. It’s a casino-themed event. There’s going to be casino games, free lunch and door prizes. One of the door prizes I heard them talking about is a TV. The event will be in the West Bend cafeteria from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. It’s free for students. I’m really looking forward to it.

The Earth Day clean up is rescheduled for the last Thursday of the semester. There will be more details posted later on flyers and on the events calendar on the Moraine Park website.

It didn’t fit into my schedule this semester, but I’m thinking about joining Student Senate in the fall. I think it would be fun to come up with and plan events for my fellow students.