Fiona

This morning I met Fiona walking down 15th Street on my way to campus. I am currently writing this from the third floor of the Joe Crowley Student Union on the campus of the University of Nevada. I am here this early to interview a friend for my podcast, Smart Students Podcast.

Fiona and I parked near the same place, and both happened to be walking to school at the same time. However, she was not heading to a fun podcast interview. Fiona has a hydrological engineering test this morning.

Studying engineering at Nevada, Fiona one day plans to join Engineers without Boarders, and wants to work on projects that will make a difference across the world.  She is planning on studying Spanish in the future, and hopes to travel to Latin America to work.

Traveling abroad is nothing new for Fiona, who followed her mother to the United States from Kenya. She has had two brothers who have also studied in the United States, and has really enjoyed being here.

It was nice getting to talk to Fiona about coming to the United States for college, and making the most out of the opportunities she has encountered.

Ashley

Ashley I actually talked to on Monday and Wednesday this week. She is part of the Pre-nursing Club here at Nevada, and is in the nursing program here. She along with several other members of the club were having a bake sale in front of the Joe Crowley Student Union, and my sweet tooth was very attracted to what they had for sale.

On Monday when we met I talked to her and a few other members of the Pre-nursing club about what they did as part of the club. Their focus is on helping students prepare to join the nursing program, and prepare for life after college.

While we were talking about what made everyone want to go with nursing someone asked me what I am studying. I told them I am a Spanish major, and we talked about how valuable combining Spanish with Nursing would be today. Ashley told me that in order to have a minor and be part of the Nursing Program students are required to have completed the minor before being accepted. For all of the students who I talked to, minoring in Spanish was not an option, since they had already been accepted into nursing.

On Wednesday I was excited to see the Pre-nursing Club tabling again. I bought a Reese’s cupcake, which of course was delicious, and chatted with the group a little. Later on I saw Ashley walking on campus, and she said that they had a great sale, I jokingly said it must have been because everyone saw me buy something, and had to follow me since I am such a trend setter.

The good news for me is that the club will continue with their bake sale next Monday and Wednesday so I will be able to continue fueling my sugar addiction…which may only be good for my sugar tooth, and not actually for me. At least I can blame Ashley for it this time.

Christian

Today tabling in front of our student union at the University of  Nevada, Reno was a group from the Campus Cycling Coalition. Here in the great city of Reno, biking seems to have been gaining some importance as the city begins a process of re-branding and rebirth. Our city is an amazing area if you are someone who loves the outdoors. We have wonderful urban trails, are surrounded by great hiking trails, are minutes away from Lake Tahoe, and have wonderful weather year round.  Biking as a way to stay healthy, a form of recreation, and more and more as a means of transportation seems to be increasing in the area. With more cyclists on the road, bike safety has become a more salient issue.

The Campus Cycling Coalition is working to help students be aware of bike etiquette and safety to help keep them, and other drivers, safe on the road. Today Christian was tabling as part of the club, and we talked briefly about biking to school. I have not biked to school as often as a should. I drive a 2005 Ford Expedition, and sometimes it kills me because I am secretly a huge nature lover and conservationist. I know that biking saves me a ton of gas with my big SUV, and saving miles in my big toy means more $$$ in my pocket, and less CO2 and emissions in the environment.

I don’t bike to school because the rout is not always super easy, as far as safety is concerned, and because I am a little lazy and afraid of being to sweaty in class. When I bike to school I actually make it to class faster, but now that winter is setting in, I don’t think I will ride any more this year.

Christian rides to school from much farther away than me. We talked about how many cross streets he has on his rout to school, and he complained about points that are unsafe or full of thorns and debris.  We both would love to see Reno move in a direction where every street receives a bike lane when it is repaved. We both agree that a bike lane would help open up the streets for more cyclists, and help us feel safer.

Caden

Today I met Caden Fabbi, the Speaker of the ASUN Senate at an event geared towards non-profits. The event featured about six non-profits from the Reno area, and students were able to walk around and talk to representatives from the non-profits to learn about their missions, and how students can get involved. I talked with people from the Sanford Center for Aging, Make a Wish, and more. I am close to graduating, and am hoping to be able to do more volunteering in the Northern Nevada Community once I am done with school.

Speaker Fabbi was tabling at the event for another event that he is working to put on later this academic school year. Last year representatives from an organization called Up Till Dawn visited the University to recruit students to build a club and host an Up Till Dawn event. Up Till Dawn is an organization that focuses on raising money for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. The event works by having people register in teams of six to spend an entire evening, from 12 a.m. till 6 a.m., competing in different challenges and winning prizes. Each team member will raise $100 so that each team makes a donation of $600 that will all go towards St. Jude’s. Fabbi traveled to Memphis with the Up Till Dawn recruiters last year, and participated in the biggest Up Till Dawn competition in the nation. Now he has registered an officially recognized Up Till Dawn club at Nevada, and is working on making the event a reality in at our school.

Andrew

Today the Sierra Club and Friends of Nevada Wilderness, two local organizations based here in Northern Nevada had an event in one of the rooms, the Rotunda, in the Knowledge Center, our library here at the University of Nevada. I got to the Rotunda around 12:45, which gave me enough time to see the end of a photo presentation. I watched the presentation about hiking and taking great photos while hiking mountains across Nevada.

After the presentation I talked to a student named Andrew who had been at the presentation.  Andrew works at REI, an outdoor sporting goods retailer, and loves the outdoors here in Nevada. His boss was the person giving the presentation, and he attended to see his bosses talk.

Andrew came to Nevada from Sacramento, where as a high school senior he began to do some backpacking. Nevada was close to Sacramento, but away from California and home. He is studying business in his first semester at Nevada, and has a number of online transfer credits.

We talked about biking to class, hiking, and just enjoying the outdoors. I encouraged Andrew to talk to one of the Spanish advisers at the University, to add Spanish as a major/minor to make himself more marketable when he graduates.

Mali

I did meet a girl during the short time that I was on campus today, I rush to campus on Mondays and Wednesdays from work and occasionally head strait home after my one class, but I did not ask her for her name. Walking back home from my Spanish class, I walked next to a girl and asked her if she was heading to class. Like me, she had finished classes for the day and was heading home. She had just gotten out of a journalism class and was heading home. She is told me that she is studying journalism and business, and would like to open up her own firm for strategic communications. Our chat was very brief, and I had to go a different direction, so I did not ask her name.

Since I did not have anyone to name this post after, I thought I would write a little about Mali. I met Mali during my two week absence from blogging when school, work, and life overran my free time.  Mali was tabling in front of our student union (I have an entire post dedicated to students I met tabling if you want more info about it) for the newly formed International Human Rights Club. Mali is the president of the new club, and formed it for very personal reasons. She is from Bangladesh, and has had family that have suffered atrocities that violate human rights. She wants to help students become more aware of human rights issues world wide, and be a positive voice for change.  I loved Mali’s story and reason for starting a club (though as I write this it sounds terrible to say that I love hearing that she and her family have been victims of such atrocities as human rights violations). I think what is great about Mali is that she has taken an issue which she has seen, and which she has seen Americans turn away from, and made it a vocal point for her and her club. She is using her position as a student at Nevada to build a platform from which she can hope to impact the lives of many people across the world. She told me that even if her message is only heard by students, she believes that it will still be useful because it can open their eyes, and push them to think in a new direction. I am hoping to have Mali on Smart Students Podcast for an interview in the coming weeks. I think she is a perfect fit for my podcast about student engagement.

Estuaries in Bangladesh

Tabling, Tabling, Tabling

Here at the University of Nevada it is very common to have multiple clubs tabling, or fundraising and promoting club activities, in front of our student union. Out student Union is located right next to massive and beautiful library, and has a large food court. These two things in particular drive students to the North end of our campus on a daily basis. The area between the Knowledge Center (our library) and the Joe Crowley Student Union is often one of the most busy places on campus, and so everyone decides to set up a table and share their class in that area.  I have tabled there multiple times as part of the Spanish Club, and when I have free time I like to swing by and support other clubs.

Today the first person I met tabling outside the student union was Sarah. Sarah is part of the newly formed Best Buddies club. Best Buddies of Northern Nevada is a group which works to match local volunteers with people with intellectual disabilities. Once a match is created they spend time together to help the person with an intellectual disability make a real connection in the world and find a friend to spend time with.  The club at Nevada was set up last semester, and has 50 members! Sarah told me about half of the members have been matched with someone, and that they are trying to spread the word to make sure that people with intellectual disabilities know that there is a program out there to help them. The club is teaming with Best Buddies of Northern Nevada to host a walk at the Sparks Marina next Saturday to raise money and awareness of the program.

After moving on from the best buddies table, I talked to a group of students representing the Relay for Life Committee. Relay for Life is one of the largest fundraisers nationwide for the American Cancer Society. People team up to run a 24 hour race, with all proceeds going towards the American Cancer Society. Groups organize local and regional relay for life events, and here at Nevada we have a club that handles the entire process. The club has existed for about 10 years now, and the current group of student leaders are definitely passionate about the event, and about donating to cancer research. Nick, and Ashley were the two students I talked to about the club and their event, and we discussed having them on my podcast, Smart Students Podcast, for an interview to talk about what Relay for Life is, and how students can be involved.

Finally I met Miranda today while she was tabling for a group called Young Americans for Freedom. They are a club led by her and one of my best friends Eric who I have known since high school. They try to remain nonpartisan, but they promote conservative ideologies, capitalism, and more. Their goal is to help explain these topics in a neutral setting so that students can see multiple perspectives on ideologies to better understand political decisions. Miranda told me that she is also part of the College Republicans club on campus, and that she has been interested in politics since she took a We the People class in high school. She is not a political science major or minor, but still finds ways to e informed and involved.

Cece

On Monday’s and Wednesday’s I work from 7 to 10:30, and then head up to campus for a Spanish class at 11. This usually leaves me just enough time to leave work, drive across town, park, walk to class, and arrive on time. Today finding parking was a nightmare. By 10:45 or 10:50 when I am usually making it to the neighborhoods near campus to park, all of the places I like to leave my car are usually full. Today was one of those days, and my walk to class was a little extra long.

Cece walked by me as I locked my car and set of for class. I said that recently I have had good luck with finding parking a few cross streets closer, and that I was bummed to be walking from so far away. She told me that she lives in a house a little up the street from where I parked, and said that she makes the walk almost every day. She also suggested I bring a bike and bike in from where I park. I told her I had considered the biking option before, but it seemed like a little more hassle than what I wanted.

As we walked on Cece told me that she was heading to a music appreciation class for a test. Jokingly she offered to let me go to her class to take the test. I told her I thought I could since I had a music appreciation class at one point, but she would have to go to my Post-Civil War Spain Era Literature class for me. She seemed to like my idea a lot more than the idea of her test. Cece told me that she is in a lower division Spanish class, and I asked if she had heard of our Spanish Club event from last weekend.

We hosted a Noche De Salsas, with a dance instructor teaching Salsa Dancing and others, and chips and salsas available to students for tasting. 8 restaurants donated chips and salsa, and we had students try them all and vote for their favorite.

Unfortunately Cece said that she did not hear about the event, so she never went. I explained a little more about the club before we went separate ways, and said goodbye. I am hoping to see her in the future to try and encourage her to major/minor in Spanish, and to give her more info about the Spanish Club.

Jessica

So it has been roughly two weeks since I last managed to put up a blog post about who I met at school. I never thought I would get so overloaded that it was difficult to find time even for a five to ten minute blog post, but then midterms, projects, club events, and life really took over.

I was hoping to do a post recounting everyone I met over the last two weeks, but that seems almost impossible at this point. I have not been blogging, but I have still been meeting people each day, and have been incredibly active and vocal on campus. With the Spanish club I was promoting a big event we named Noche de Salsas, where we had salsa dancing and salsa tasting, and through the promotion and the ultimate day of the event I met ton’s of people.  I did plenty of dancing with people I had never met before over the weekend, and was so happy for the chance to meet people and have fun in a new way.

Outside of the club activities, I have been in touch with students for my podcast at Smart Students Podcast, I have been talking to professionals and setting up job interviews (yay!), and I have been spending way too much of my tip money on brownies, shirts, and other stuff that clubs sell for fundraising.  With all of this I have met so many people that it is hard for me to remember them all.

Today I talked to a girl named Jessica at an event held by our student government legislative affairs branch. There was a discussion held about two of the questions that will be on the ballot in Nevada this November. The legislative affairs branch put together two ballot initiative meetings with professionals to represent both sides of the ballot initiatives, and allow for students to ask questions. The discussion today focused primarily on Question 3, which has been a heatedly contested question about taxes for education. The arguments for the question seemed to be very anecdotal and logically poor arguments. That being said, I did enjoy listening to the discussions.

Jessica had attended and was talking with a group of students afterwards. I chatted briefly with the group about their thoughts, and that is how I met Jessica.  She is studying political science, which is where her motivation for attending the event. She also is a completing major or minor, I can’t remember exactly which, in linguistics.  We talked about how I have taken linguistics classes as part of my Spanish major, and how interesting it all is.

Our conversation was brief, but that is what I needed to get back to the blogging.

Diego

As I was walking from our library to our student union today I saw Diego folding up a couple of tables and chairs outside the Joe Crowley Student Union.  As I walked by I asked, “So you are the tear down guy?” to which he responded yes. Diego told me that he was hired by the student union as a freshman and that this is the second year he has worked for them. He said that the work is not too bad and that he enjoys seeing everyone on campus.

Diego told me that he is studying philosophy and hopes to go to law school one day. At first I thought it was a little strange for him to want to study philosophy if he planned on law school, so I asked him what made him choose that major. He told me that he had heard that it was a fairly common major for people who attend law school, and when I though back on who had historically been lawyers or politicians in our country it all made sense to me. After I made that connection Diego had to get back to work, and I walked off.