Zumba, Zumba, Racquetball!

Usually at this point in the semester, going to the gym is at the bottom of my priority list. I'm usually stressed and with all my homework, can't justify working out.

But not this semester. I've realized I need the break from classes/clubs/readings/homework and going to the gym is exactly what I need.

Sometimes I use the Clark Racquet Center equipment or spend a morning at the pool. I have also been playing more racquetball with a couple of Writing Center friends because it's a nice break to working out by myself and also just a ton of fun.

In addition to that, I've been taking advantage of the fitness classes Coe offers. During the week I usually attended a class on Monday morning (start the week off strong) and then a class on Wednesday night. The Wednesday night class is Zumba.

I. Love. Zumba. Once you get over the fact of making a slight fool of yourself (Zumba is a LOT of dancing), it is so much fun. This past semester, I always looked forward to Wednesday nights, especially once I started to get a hang of the dances. There's a great rush of adrenaline when you know what the next step is going to be. It's just plain fun.

And, last week, I had the opportunity to Zumba for a good cause. One of the rising clubs on campus is the Cedar Rapids Dance Marathon Club (CRDM). They work year round (and with Kirkwood and Mt. Mercy, local colleges in Cedar Rapids) to raise money for the University of Iowa's Children's Hospital. Their big event comes in the spring, where teams pledge to stand for 12 hours. Lots of dancing occurs, along with games and visitors from the hospital. It's a great event and a great cause.

So CRDM hosted a fundraiser Zumba-thon. They asked for a donation and we got to Zumba for TWO HOURS.

Let me tell you, that was a lot of Zumba. But so so so totally worth it. Not only did I feel better after a solid workout, it was good to know that I was helping to support such a great cause.

My lesson to all: working out is important, especially when you're stressed. I truly believe I've been less stressed this semester because I've focused on balancing school and fun time. It's paying off!

Coe Review Update

Good news, the Coe Review is being printed!

It all sort of happened in a rush. The end of the semester kind of crept up on us and we suddenly realized, it was time to really put the issue together.

Lucky for me, as managing editor, I get to work with some of friends and overall fantastic students. Our poetry editor was Ariana, a good friend of mine. So it was no trouble for us to get together, chat about poems, and create an order of the accepted poems. I had a few late nights putting the issue into InDesign (big shout out to one of our production editors, Taylor, who was a rock star and helped with it). With this copy, we were able to have our manuscript readers give it our first edit and find some errors before we even sent it in for a proof.

Errors fixed, we submitted our issue to Cornerstone (the printing company we use). In less than 24 hours (heck, less than 8 hours) later, we got a PDF proof back. It was then time to call in our editors over the weekend to check for those final errors. Once we were confident, we sent it back to Cornerstone and they began to print copies.

I'm extremely proud of the issue. This was definitely a learning semester for me; I gained some important leaderships skills and really began to understand how much I love being managing editor. I know my pride in the Coe Review will increase even more with our publication release (December 6th!).

I'll post more once we get copies and I can geek out on the issue and take photos of it. But I was just too proud to not say anything now!

Weekend Before Finals Recap

Sorry this is so late. I've had this post waiting to be published but hadn't put the final "Hailley touches" on it. So here it is, better late than never! :)

My last weekend on campus was a memorable one. I had planned on spending Friday night catching up on some homework and it started out that way until I got a text from my friend Joe. He wanted to know if I was interested in co-hosting Blindspot (our talent show on campus) with my other friend Reid. Joe usually hosts but was feeling a little under the weather.

I decided I couldn't pass up a chance to host Blindspot so said yes and 30 minutes later, I was standing in the Dows Theater with Reid discussing our intro. It was a lot of fun and I did well! After Blindspot, I hung out with Reid and his friends and we played a version of Apples to Apples. Again, more fun and a great way to celebrate a week of hard work.

Saturday was spent doing homework and prepping for finals. After a full day of school work, it was time for Coe Monologues.

Coe Monologues was a brand new event this year hosted by our chapter of V-Day, an organization trying to end violence against women. Usually V-Day is active in the spring but this year they wanted to do events in the fall as well. In October, you could submit your own personal monologue and then it could be read anonymously in December. The subject was being a woman, sex, sexuality, and relationships specifically on Coe's campus. I wrote a monologue about my mom and the idea of being strong. I decided to read my own monologue on Saturday. Some people knew it was me and other thoughts I was just reading what someone else had submitted.

Of course, Saturday wasn't my first day reading my monologue. There were 14 readers and 21 monologues that were read in a two-act performance. We had four practices and then our performance. People who came on Saturday were asked for a $3 donation to Waypoint which supports children, women, and families in the Cedar Rapids area. We were able to raise over $350 that night!

It was a fantastic performance. The people there were great audience members and the readers definitely fed off of them well. I am so thankful in being able to read my monologue and be a part of something so fantastic. After the show, I got flowers from the wonderful Alison W. and then went out to dinner with Whitney, Chelsea, and Chelsea's mom.

Sunday was more studying, (what's new?), as well as the final Writing Center dinner. It's weekends like these that remind me why I love Coe so much.

CoeFest 2012!

Last year, Student Senate sponsored CoeFest for the very first time. It was a great success (as you can read about in my blog post from last year). This year, Senate organized the same event: an all day music concert outside on the PUB patio. We had it two Saturdays ago and it was a big success! Seven bands were brought in and students could enjoy the variety of music all day. Senate teamed up with the cafeteria to provide lunch (walking tacos) and dinner (pulled pork and vegetarian options) so students could picnic outside while the different bands played. We tried to hire bands from around the area, such as Diplomats of Solid Sound (they played when I went and saw Obama) or OSG, a funk band from Iowa City. Our closing band was Ryanhood. Although not local, Coe has brought them to campus before and they have developed a good fan base here. They were fantastic. The other neat thing about CoeFest was that it allowed Senate to pair up with E-Club. They handled all the recycling and composting that day and promoted their various programs. 

Awesome E-Club members (and my friends) Alexis and Peter

On somewhat of a tangent, E-Club is a fantastic club on campus. They are doing great things and have lots of members who are extremely passionate about the environment. I would call them dreamers and that is in a positive tone. By thinking big, they are able to be movers and shakers and motivate other students on campus about being activists for the environment.   

Whitney and I getting ready for some great music!

The other cool thing that happened this week was that my dad, brother, and sister came to vist. My brother actually plays on another IIAC soccer team and they were playing Coe! My dad and sister decided to make a trip of it and come see the both of us. So in between listening to bands, I headed over to Clark Field to watch some soccer. Once the game was over, my dad, sister, and I went back to CoeFest. I introduced them to a bunch of friends and we all listened to Ryanhood. An excellent Saturday.

Organization Conference

On Saturday, Student Senate hosted our first Organization Conference. We wanted to gather as many campus leaders as we could to spend part of a day learning about how to be an effective leader as well as passing on important information as a new semester begins. The Senate Executive Board, below, was fired up for a fun day!

L to R: Hayden (Communications), myself (Treasurer), Anna (President), Max (Vice President), and Christina (Recording Secretary)

We had a brief lunch before heading over to Cherry Auditorium (in Peterson) for our keynote speaker, Justin Jones-Fosu. He talked about how we, as leaders, need to be an ACTion H.E.R.O. He stressed the importance of making a mark in an organization yet making sure the legacy and impact of the organization lives on after you are no longer leading it. Justin was also just a fun speaker, often doing crazy things (like singing and dancing) to make the audience laugh.

After the speech, Hayden, Max, and I each had a 20 minute presentation for club leaders. Hayden discussed successful PR techniques, Max showed off our new club pages on Moodle (our online class database/resource center), and I talked about the tasks, like writing checks or filling out supplementary allocations, treasurers should know how to do during the semester. The conference ended with another presentation from Justin, where he discussed how we each have our own social styles. My style is "amiable." Basically, I usually have emotional and personal reactions to experiences and will watch out for everyone in the group. There are four social styles (amiable, analytical, driver, and expressive). We discussed the pros and cons of each and how we can work with all social styles in our organizations. It was a fun way to end the conference.

This was the first time Student Senate had ever hosted an event like this. We did a lot of things right but of course, there is always room for improvement. It was nice to get the executive board together in creating a conference. We hope the organizations that did come got a lot from it; I know the five of us sure did!

Student Senate Promotion!

On Tuesday we had our elections for Student Body President and Vice President.  The race was close but Anna and Max won.  Both are my age and I've had both of them in classes and have worked with them in the Writing Center and Admissions, respectively.  They had asked me to be the treasurer if they won and I accepted. 

On Wednesday night I was officially sworn into office.  I took over for my friend, Whitney, who spent last semester showing me the ropes of being the treasurer.  It's going to be a lot of hard work, but in all honesty, I can't wait.  I love Senate and by being treasurer, I will be able to help the clubs out on campus even more. 

This weekend I'll spend some time getting situated and organize things so I'm ready to start next week.  Be on the lookout for various updates as I navigate my way through supplementary allocations and budgets.  It's going to be a wild ride! 

Scratch Track Wednesday

One of our most active clubs on campus, SAC (Student Activity Committee) hosts a coffeeshop artist every Wednesday in the PUB.  Last semester, I worked in the Writing Center when the artist was performing.  This semester my Wednesday nights are free so Alison W. and I headed over to the PUB to hear Scratch Track.  They had performed on campus last year and were excited to be back for Round Two.

I am so glad I went; we had a blast.  They were lively, had catchy music, passionate about what they were doing, and just had an awesome stage presence.  They even started a small dance party at the very end.  I can't tell you what a fantastic study break this was.  I've included one of the songs they sang last night.  Enjoy!
 

  

Coe Review Poetry Release 2011

Ann with her cake

So a few posts ago I mentioned Coe Review had its publication release for our poetry issue.  It was also the student sendoff for Ann, our poetry professor.  It was a lovely affair, lots of people attended, and Ann loved it.  The event was held in the PUB.  We had coffee, crackers, cheese, fruit, and a small sheet cake for Ann (which she LOVED).  The main event was the reading; Coe students published in the issue read as well as Ann.  I think my favorite moment was when Ann wanted a picture with her cake because she hadn't had a personalized cake since she was ten.  It was so adorable I couldn't stand it.  Miss Haley was there taking photos, some of which I'm including.  As usual, they are fantastic and some of them will end up on our newly revised website which we hope to have up and running in the beginning of the spring semester.  I'll include a link once we are up.  The issue turned out beautifully; I'm incredibly proud of it.  

On tap for next semester: I'll be the managing editor of the magazine again.  It's our fiction issue so we'll be reading some fantastic stories and I can't wait to see how it turns out! 

The Coe Review Staff

Putting Together the Coe Review

Last night I spent a few hours in Hickok helping put the Coe Review together.  We read all our poetry submissions, picked out the very best, and assembled the order last night.  The cover has been completed and just this morning, all the poems were scanned into Adobe Design.  That means our issue is that much closer to publication!  Now begins the process of sending it to the printer, receiving a proof back, editing it for any mistakes, returning it to the printer and having around 300 copies published.  There will be a release party in December to celebrate the issue and any Coe students featured in the publication will have the opportunity to read their poems!  This is always a neat part of putting together the Coe Review -- suddenly all these poems come together in a blink of an eye, we have a publication.  It's exciting and rewarding. 

Senator Reelected!

Good news!  Yesterday was the campus wide voting for Senate seats for the 2011-2012 school year.  Each year you have to be reelected if you'd like to continue to participate in Senate.  This year I ran for a spot in Murray (if you remember, last year when I joined I came in as an At Large Senator).  An email hit everyone's inboxes last night and I'm one of the four Murray Senators!  Our first meeting is tomorrow and I can't wait to see what Justin and Kelly (the President and VP) have in store for this upcoming school year.

Side note: There has been a lot of exciting things happening on campus so look for some more posts soon.

Alpha Lambda Delta National Honor Society Induction

A few weeks ago I received an email saying my good grades first semester got me an invitation to Alpha Lambda Delta, a national honor society on campus.  It's a national honor society for first year students and once you're inducted, you're a member for life.  The initiation happened on Wednesday night in the Perrine Gallery (second floor of the library).  We signed our names into the official Alpha Lambda Delta book for Coe's chapter, received our pin and a certificate and then ate cake in celebration.  Neat honor and neat experience.  

A little history lesson: the society was started in 1924 as a way to the recognize academic excellence of freshman women at the University of Illinois.  The society took off from there and eventually allowed men into the society.  Their motto is: "We shall pass our torches on, one to another."

Shake Your Willie Dance: Shakespeare Themed PUB Dance

Oh hello Shakespeare,

The wonderful kids of Offstage Players (known as OSP on campus) wrote down their favorite Shakespeare quotes and plastered the posters around Gage Union on Friday night.  I tagged along for the fun since Alison is a member and had a good time.  They were making the posters in preparation for the Shake Your Willie Dance in the PUB on Saturday night.  The dance was a BLAST.  PUB dances are always fun and this one was no exception.  A Coe alumnae DJ-ed the event and for three hours it was a dance party.  Favorite song?  Probably when "The Circle of Life" (yes, the epic song from the Lion King) was played.  Everyone on the dance floor circled up and we swayed back forth, singing the song as loud as we could.  It was kind of fantastic.  A great way to spend one of my last weekends here.  And now I'll probably join OSP in the fall!  :)   

Here are some of the quotes we had up.  Can you name the play they are from?

Hamlet

Othello

More Hamlet

Winter's Tale

Budget and Finance Day 2011

Bright and early on Saturday morning I made my way over to Stuart for Budget and Finance Day 2011.  It's an all day affair for every organization on campus.  Pretty much what goes down is Senate doles out money to support the organizations next semester.  The money comes from the Student Activity every Coe student pays yearly.  The Budget and Finance Committee is made up of Senate members like myself: during the semester we approve or deny supplementary allocations (fondly known as sup alls) for clubs who would like more money to do things during the semester.  On Saturday, the treasurers came in, asked for a certain amount of money, explained the justification, and did some trimming because we are running on a tight budget.  It was a long day and by the end, the committee members' fuses were short and wordy treasurers were asked to cut to the chase. But it's all worth it in the end: students are gaining an understanding of budgets and the Senate members are learning about negotiation and how to balance a budget. What I like about it is that I can see where the money is going, I have some say on how the money will be split, and I know what to expect from the organizations in the coming semester.  It's all done now, and we won't have another one until next semester...boy oh boy I can't wait.

Why Are They Not Wearing Shoes?

TOMS

If you walked around campus today, you would have found students walking around in just their bare feet.  I mean it was a nice day but no shoes?  You might think those students were crazy.  Unless you knew what those shoe-less feet meant.  Today, April 5th, was One Day Without Shoes, an event hosted by Toms, a shoe company where every pair of shoes bought provides another pair of shoes to a child in need.  Coe's Human Rights Club (newly created by the way) supported the day by encouraging their club members and other Coe students and staff to give up the comfort of their shoes for one day.  The club is hoping their first attempt at supporting this event gains some publicity, and they really want to plug the event next year once the club is off and running.  I tried the no shoes, and it was definitely different.  When I was about to leave my room, I had to tell myself I didn't need anything else, I was set to go.  Got a fair amount of weird looks and can only hope more people participate next year.  Couldn't do it the entire day though.  Tuesdays are my busy days and I couldn't go everywhere I wanted on campus with no shoes.  It's a great cause though and I'm excited to see what other events the Human Rights Club will do.

Is That a Comma Splice? The Joys of Coe Review

Mondays are always busy days but I didn't get back to my room until a bit later tonight since I spent two hours in Hickok.  The Coe Review is in the final stretch of putting our fiction issue together and tonight was an editing night.  The magazine was printed out and the readers sat around with various pages reading the stories and editing them if needed.  We made sure all the words were there, words were spelled correctly, and if there are any comma splices.  Oh  comma splices, how writers love but hate them.  What is a comma splice you may ask?  It's when a writer puts two independent sentences together with a comma, failing to use a connector, a semicolon, or a period.  And of course the other thing we had to look for was if an "error" was an actual error or a stylistic non-error put in by the writer.

After reading the stories I'm excited to see the issue all published and ready to read; there are a lot of good stories in there, some even written by Coe students.  Looking forward to see the issue in print, to attend the wrap party, and show friends and family what I've been working on Monday nights.

Together For Japan @ Coe

Coe hosts students from all over the globe and the students in the spotlight right now are the students from Japan.  It's scary to hear all about the earthquake and the tsunami and see all the damage on the TV screens and in the newspaper.  The Japanese students who are at Coe formed a group called Together For Japan @ Coe to raise money for the relief efforts and had a presentation yesterday to share their stories.

Haley and I went and it was very emotional.  Luckily all the Japanese students' families are all right but they shared moments where they weren't sure if all was okay.  They also shared some movies they created with images from the quake and tsunami.  The presentation took place in Kesler Auditorium, in Hickok.  There were a lot of students and faculty who came to show their support.  After the presentation the group was outside the auditorium collecting donations and giving out rubber bracelets with the words "Together For Japan @ Coe" on them.

I enjoyed the presentation and although I was sad at the destruction there were some inspiring moments.  The students kept talking about the spirit of Japan and how everyone was working together to get through this disaster.  A small boy in a grocery store put his candy bar away and elected to give all his money to a man who owned the store.  Or a lady who was offering her bathroom to strangers walking home since transportation is at a standstill in some places.  It's small acts of kindness such as these that gives me a lot of hope for the people in Japan and for the whole world.  If we could be that way all the time, think about what we could do.  

V-Day and Vagina Monologues

What is V-Day?  That's the first question I asked when I heard about it last February when I was visiting Coe.  Well, V-Day is a "global movement to end violence against women and girls" (from the website).  Coe is actively involved in the cause and this week did a variety of events to support the cause.  At the end of the week the Vagina Monologues were performed in the PUB.  Again I bet you're wondering what the Vagina Monologues are.  The Vagina Monologues are a bunch of monologues promoting and celebrating female sexuality.  There are funny ones and sad ones but the girls at Coe who read them did a fantastic job.  They were excited to be reading them and gave the monologues life.  It was $3 to get in with all proceeds going to Waypoint in Cedar Rapids.  This was their third performance and there were a fair amount of people there.  I wish more people would have showed up, the money is going to a great cause and the issue is something that isn't regularly discussed in everyday conversation.  The performance reminded me of my good old forensics (or speech, depending on what state you're from).  I miss reading prose such as the monologues aloud and hope I get opportunities through the next three years to get a forensics fix in.  

First Senate Meeting!

So as promised, here's a little recap over my first Student Senate meeting last night.  There's about 30 senators and we are all seated in a square in the ever so popular Lynch Room (behind the caf and below Upper Gage and it's used a lot by Coe students).  Anyways, this was exactly what I was looking for.  There was that same Student Council feel I was missing last semester.  I think there's a great group of people on Senate and we have the ability to do a lot of great things.  The meeting ran in a Robert's Rules style with motions, voting, and a motion to adjourn the meeting.  The President, Vice President, Treasurer, and other various committees gave reports and I can't wait to be a part of one in the near future.  We discussed a variety of things such as TVs to be installed in the PUB, faster internet, and the homework we were assigned for next week's meeting.

Overall, a HUGE success and can't wait until next Wednesday!

Coe Review and Alpha Nu : Two New Adventures!

A resolution I had for this semester was to become more involved.  So far, I'm right on track!  First, I joined the Coe Review.  Coe Review publishes two issues a year: poetry in the fall and fiction in the spring.  Anyone can submit to Coe Review and after we're read all the stories, we pick out the best ones and make a book.  Coe Review was actually one of the reasons I came to Coe.  Since I'm an English and Creative Writing major, this is right up my alley.  The advisor for Coe Review is Gordon Mennenga who is also my Honors Composition teacher.  Coe Review meets on Monday nights in Hickok.  I'll keep you updated as the release dates draws nearer.

The other club I joined was Alpha Nu.  It's not a sorority but instead a literature society.  We meet on Tuesday nights and talk about literature, movies, and other stuff.  Next week, we are traveling to Prarire Lights, a bookshop in Iowa City, to hear poems by Elizabeth Bishop.  Although Bishop has passed away, next Tuesday would be her 100th birthday so they are having a reading/birthday celebration.  Many of the Alpha Nu members are Writing Center consultants as well so it's nice to get to know them better.

So, those are two new things I'm up to.  Still waiting to hear about open Senate seats.  As usual, I will keep you up to date! :)

The Votes Are In!

So just wanted to give everyone an update on the elections.  The voting occurred yesterday and the winner was.....(insert drum roll here)  Justin and Kelly!  Congrats and I can't wait to see what the Senate will do in the upcoming months!

Oh and good news on me possibly being a member (since I was so inspired by the debates) : I talked to my buddy Whitney and she said that at large elections are coming up and I could run for one of the spots.  I was psyched and will be keeping my eyes peeled for the seats to be open!