Meet Brady Eischeid

Hey, 2013 Hixson Scholars! 

My name is Brady Eischeid, and I am a 2010 Hixson from Guthrie County, majoring in Agricultural & Life Sciences Education. I also happen to be one of your Hixson Peer Mentors for this fall! I’m so excited to get to know all of you and introduce you to the greatness that is Iowa State University.

In this post, I’m going to give you a few pointers about all of the resources that are available to you at Iowa State when it comes to career services. Let’s face it: one of your biggest goals for your Iowa State adventure should be earning a degree and figuring out what you want to do with the rest of your life. Sometimes, that’s easier said than done! Hopefully this blog post can give you a couple of ideas and steer you into the right direction.

For general career advice, the best resource on campus for you might be the Career Exploration Services website, which contains several links for career counseling, workshops, and resources that may help you with deciding what you want to do after college. The link for the website is http://www.counseling.iastate.edu/Career%20Exploration%20Services.

But wait, there’s more! Each college has their own specialized Career Services office, which can be a big help if you have declared your major. The Career Services office locations for the 6 undergraduate colleges are listed below:

                  Agriculture & Life Sciences                  15 Curtiss Hall

                  Business                                  1320 Gerdin Business Building

                  Design                                             297 College of Design

                  Engineering                             308 Marston Hall

                  Human Sciences                       131 MacKay Hall

                  Liberal Arts & Sciences              107 Catt Hall

Career fairs are also a great way to find both full-time and part-time employment, as well as internships. Each college hosts a career fair at some point during the semester; these specific dates can be found out by asking your academic adviser or visiting your college’s Career Services office!

Need a little extra money while you’re a student? There are plenty of employment opportunities both on campus and in the city of Ames – and there’s a good chance you may even find one to match your interests or career path! I’ve worked on campus since I was a freshman and I have enjoyed it immensely! The easiest way to find on-campus and some off-campus employment opportunities is to log on to AccessPlus and click the “Student” tab. On the left side of the screen, you will see a link for “Student Job Board.” On the Student Job board, you can filter by category, area, location, and so on! You can also find a position on the Student Job Board that will pay you through the Federal Work-Study Program, which is an aid option for students that have financial need via their FAFSA.

I hope that you learned a little bit about what’s available to you for career services! If you still have any questions about career services, or if you have any questions about the Hixson Awards Program or Iowa State University, do not hesitate to contact me! My email address is eischeid@iastate.edu. I really can’t wait to meet you all this August – have a great rest of your summer!

Meet Tanner Lewis and Courtney Harder

Hello and welcome to the Hixson Program!

My name is Tanner Lewis and I’m a 2011 Hixson Scholar from Mitchell County.  I am majoring in Chemical Engineering and I will be one of the peer mentors for the fall.  I am also one of the Programming Chairs for the Hixson Student Board.

The Hixson Student Board, aka HXSB, is an organization that works with the Hixson Program to provide various activities for Hixson Scholars throughout the year.  The Executive Board consists of a President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Programming Chairs, Publicity Chairs, Intramural Chair, Webmaster, and First-Year Class Representatives.   Being first-year Hixson Scholars, you will all be able to apply to be one of the two First-Year Class Representatives.  This position will inform HXSB of first-year Hixson news and report on HXSB news and upcoming events to the first-year Hixsons. 

Here are some of the HXSB events we had last year:

Tailgate:  Early in the semester, HXSB hosted a tailgate for one of the football games.   It’s a typical tailgate with food, music, games, and your fellow Hixson Scholars of course.

Pumpkin decorating:  The title doesn’t do the pumpkin decorating justice.  There is obviously some pumpkin decorating going on, but there is also food and plenty of time to acquaint yourself with some Hixson Scholars.  Just remember, you don’t have to be an artist to make an awesome looking pumpkin.

Pool Party:  The pool party was held in the State Gym Pool, where you could get some swimming in or relax in the hot tub.

Game Night:  This was a night of all sorts of games, food, and prizes.  There was a Mario Kart 64 tournament, Just Dance, and various board games.

Dead Week Study Break:  You’re first dead week might be a little rough, but you can come to this study break to relax a bit during the endless studying.

This is a general overview of the Hixson Student Board and most definitely doesn’t cover everything about it.  If you have any questions about HXSB, Iowa State, where to find the best chocolate milk in Ames, or anything really, feel free to send me an email at tclewis@iastate.edu.  I look forward to seeing all of you in the fall.  Enjoy the rest of your summer!

And now, a word from your Hixson Student Board President! 

I hope you’re all ready for the awesome adventure that awaits you at Iowa State..especially within the Hixson program! I’m Courtney Harder, a Junior in Agricultural Business and your 2013-14 Hixson Student Board President, and I’m writing to tell you about great opportunities within the Hixson program, including Hixson Student Board (HXSB).

First of all, HXSB has a bunch of great events for all Hixsons to participate in, including game nights, pumpkin decorating, Christmas card decorating, etc. These events are a great way to interact with Hixsons of all ages and sections, providing you with many valuable connections throughout your college and professional careers. Plus, they are tons of fun!

Our planned “kickoff” event is a pool party, which we hope to hold the first Tuesday of the semester (Aug 27th). The planning of this event is in the works, so we will be providing you with more information on this event later on in the summer. Look for emails and/or letters for more information!

As freshmen, many of you will be looking to gain leadership positions right off the bat, and HXSB provides a great opportunity for you to do so! We will have 2 Freshmen Representative positions, in which you will serve as a liaison between the Freshmen class and Hixson Student Board. This was my first experience within Hixson Student Board, and I definitely recommend it to all of you! We will provide you with information on the application and interview process at the beginning of the school year.

On behalf of Hixson Student Board, we look forward to seeing you in the fall and we hope you Enjoy Your Adventure at Iowa State!

Meet Stephanie Jensen!

Hello Hixson Scholars! My name is Stephanie Jensen and I’m a 2010 Hixson Scholar from Marion County, majoring in Interior Design. I’ll be one of the peer mentors for the fall and couldn’t be more excited to meet you all! 

Now some of you might be thinking, “Study abroad? But I’m only a freshman!” Yes - it does seem rather early to take part in this opportunity, but why not? If you have the chance, you should take it. I may be blunt when I say that, but it’s true. Speaking from my experience in Fall 2012, studying abroad in Rome, Italy was the best semesters of my whole college life. I will never regret every Euro and dollar spent, trips made and missed, friendships made, the gelato and cappuccinos consumed, and the outrageous amount of pictures taken. I can definitely go into detail about my study abroad experience, but I won’t since it would take hours. In the fall, please please please ask me if you have any questions, comments, want to see pictures, or just talk about my experience with studying abroad! Anytime, any place.

Study abroad can be intimidating at first considering (from my own viewpoint) that I didn’t know anything about the whole process and how to prepare for it. I knew for sure that I had to get a passport and plane tickets, but other than that, I was completely lost. My situation may be a little different since I am an interior design major and the program is pretty set-in-stone for the fall of your junior year. However, the preparation is similar. Later on in my blog post, I’ll list some tips if you plan on studying abroad in the near future (which I hope you will greatly consider!). 

Now to get technical, Iowa State offers Study Abroad Shorts – these are exactly what the name says. Short. You can either spend your spring break or 3-4 weeks during the summer at your wanted destination. That of course is dependent on if they offer a “short” for the area you want to visit – as of now there is: Belize, Bahamas, Italy, China, and Spain. These shorts are if you don’t want to spend a whole semester abroad and if you just want to get a taste of being away. If you would like to study abroad for a semester (or a short for that matter), the next step would be to talk to your academic advisor to see what they offer for your major and college (Liberal Arts and Science, Engineering, etc.). Then I would suggest talking to someone in the Study Abroad Center in the MU (Memorial Union on campus near the Campanile on Central Campus).            

Remember those tips I said I would tell you about? I’ve included them below – Study Abroad Tips and Advice:
1)    It is worth every penny.
2)    Get your passport and plane tickets ASAP.
3)    The cheapest plane ticket isn’t always the best – look around for dependable airlines or go to your local travel agent.
4)    Keep up on the language that your country will be speaking (if going to a non-English speaking country of course)
5)    Don’t be afraid to ask questions!
6)    Go out of your comfort zone!
7)    Enjoy the country. Meet new people. Learn something new everyday – there are so many opportunities just waiting for you to try!
8)    You will find out more about yourself and possibly figure and narrow down more goals in your life.
9)    Look up transportation options ahead of time so you know what to expect when you get there and what can be the best bang for your buck.
10) The meaning of pack light will become even more apparent when you actually begin packing everything for a whole semester.

 I can’t wait to meet all of your bright and shining faces in the fall! If you have any questions/comments about any of this, please don’t hesitate to email me anytime over the summer! Here’s my email address: sjjensen@iastate.edu  ENJOY your summer!

Meet Shelby Lemmon

Hello Hixson Scholars!

My name is Shelby Lemmon and, like all these other lovely people, I’m also a peer mentor for the Hixson program! I’m a 2011 Hixson Scholar from Carroll County majoring in Event Management. The Hixson program is one part of Iowa State that I’ve become greatly involved in, but another huge part of my involvement here is with the Greek community!

I just joined the Greek community last year, as a sophomore, and although I’m still a bit new to the whole thing, going Greek has hands down been one of the best decisions I’ve made at ISU!

Let me just start off by saying that I do realize that there is a stereotype about Greek life – the media likes to portray sororities and fraternities as these groups of college kids that just want to party and have fun. Unfortunately, a lot of people believe this is how it really is, which is why many college students never even consider going Greek! To be honest, I’ll admit that this is the image I had of Greek life when I first came to Iowa State, which is why joining a sorority never even crossed my mind.

It wasn’t until a few weeks after I moved into the dorms that I really began to reconsider this image I’d built up in my mind about sororities and fraternities. I lived on an all girl floor in the dorms my freshman year, and a lot of the girls I met and became friends with were in sororities! They weren’t at all like the sorority girls you see on TV and in movies – they were all down to earth, honest, caring girls who really just wanted to become involved and meet new people.

And that’s exactly why I decided to go through formal recruitment last year. I still wasn’t sure I wanted to join a sorority, but figured “what the heck, I’ll be in Ames anyway – might as well see what all the fuss is about!” So I signed up, paid the $25 participation fee, and went through formal recruitment. Formal recruitment, or “rushing,” as some call it, is basically six days of meeting people.

Let me break it down for you:

·      Day One: You’ll meet with your formal recruitment group, which is a group of girls living in your general residence hall area or floor who you will be with for the remainder of the week.

·      Day Two: You will go to all fifteen chapters, talk to girls, and learn a little about each one of them.

·      Day Three: You visit nine of the chapters (narrowed down by both you and the chapters themselves) and will see them each perform some funny, entertaining skits!

·      Day Four: You’ll go to six chapters and will be given house tours of each.

·      Day Five: As the final day of visiting the chapters, you’ll go to just three. You will have one last chance to ask any questions and really get an idea of if you could picture yourself in one of these sororities. If, after this last day, you decide you want to join a sorority, you will have the option to preference it and, if the chapter preferences you back, you’re in!

·      Day Six: The big reveal of what sorority you’re in, and you will also get to meet your new sisters!

Because so many girls are doing recruitment and each chapter can only house so many girls, those who go through recruitment do not always get their first choice. But as clichéd as this sounds, everyone ends up where they are meant to be! I know quite a few girls who did not select the sorority they are in as their first choice, but they love where they ended up and wouldn’t trade it for anything.

With all that said, I realize Greek life may not be for everyone, but how are you going to know whether or not it’s for you until you give it a chance? I’m still friends with a lot of the girls that were in my formal recruitment group and have found friends for life in many of my sorority sisters. Greek life provides students with many campus leadership opportunities and also with a way to give back, as each sorority or fraternity has their own philanthropy they fundraise for through various activities throughout the school year.

I’m sorry this post got so long, and I’ll wrap it up; this is just something that I’m very passionate about! I truly believe there is a chapter for everyone, and I’d encourage anyone who has any questions at all to send me an email! I promise my response won’t be as wordy as this blog post. :)

So if you have any questions – about Greek life, recruitment, fraternities, or Iowa State in general – please don’t hesitate to email me at stlemmon@iastate.edu! I really can’t wait to meet all of you in the fall. You’re going to LOVE Iowa State!