Professional Seniors

You’ve seen Ned’s Declassified: School Survival Guide; this is your college survival guide. 2 seniors and 1 super senior provide you with advice, tips, and hacks!

[professionalseniors]

Happy Friday Everyone.Here’s a song you can turn up to. Have a lit weekend.

[professionalseniors]

fact of the day: rejection

did you know that j.k. rowling’s “harry potter and the philosopher’s stone (the original english title) was rejected a whopping 20+ times and was considered to be a joke? all the while poor rowling was a struggling single mom, but nonetheless persevered. we can’t even imagine what contemporary culture would be like without her amazing series. so no matter what rejections you face in life, remember that persistence can get you somewhere, if you are truly dedicated and disciplined. 

[professionalseniors]

mood of the day

it’s dark, cold, windy, oh, and it’s thursday, so basically the same thing. we hope everyone has had a productive week! only 13 more hours till friday :)

[daisystudies]

20 important study skills/tips i’ve learned from my professors

1. start studying a week before every quiz/test. seriously.

2. watch youtube videos/ted talks on the topics you are learning about.

3. get lots of sleep! sleep helps you process the day’s events, including what you learned.

4. write out your notes. it’s proven that handwritten notes help you learn better than typed out notes.

5. don’t just read what your professor gives you. find academic journals, books, etc. that correspond with your subjects.

6. read the news! especially in the social sciences/humanities, connecting concepts with current events helps you understand and process more easily.

7. exercise! this doesn’t have to be going on runs or lifting weights, it could even just be going for a 20 minute walk. just get your blood pumping, it’ll help you focus.

8. study at your desk. it may be tempting to study in bed, but your brain connects your bed with sleep, so you’ll get tired more quickly.

9. reviewing notes doesn’t have to be something you sit down and do for an hour. skim through them and test your memory while eating breakfast!

10. expand your study time throughout the day to avoid burnout. for example, rather than studying for 5 hours straight, study for an hour here and there in between your activities.

11. make your notes organized and easy to read, but not distracting. bright colors and flashy notes may seem better, but can sometimes distract from the purpose of the notes.

12. use apps such as quizlet. this way, you can go through definitions while waiting in lines or walking to class.

13. it’s more important to know concepts rather than facts. for example, you should be able to take what you know and apply it to different situations, not just the situation the textbook gives you.

14. just because the professor doesn’t require you to read textbook, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. it helps explain concepts in a different way than your professor, and a lot of times hearing two different explanations for the same concept helps you understand it.

15. read in advance. read the textbook before your professor begins going over the chapter, so when he/she does, you can easily follow what they are saying.

16. do any extra credit work that comes your way. even if you don’t need the extra boost now, you might later.

17. go to class!! if you always skip class and show up at office hours completely lost on the concepts, they’ll laugh in your face. they’ll take you 100x more seriously if you show up.

18. however, if you are sick, take a day off. it’s more beneficial to you in the long run. 

19. learn how to say “no”. if you have an 8 am the next day, don’t stay out until midnight with your friends. 

20. don’t stress too hard over quizzes. if you expect them to go horribly, they will. you got this.

[professionalseniors]

wind down wednesday

today’s wind down wednesday jam is a true winding-downer. enjoy this strikingly beautiful piece by max richter on a meditation of virginia woolf.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_9WNifGn4g

[professionalseniors]

what the hell is culture anyway?

well, it’s a lot of things. you may just think of it as a group of people with their own ideas, but it boils down to a group of people with a collective set of values and norms. this is clay shirky’s conclusion, and the consensus of almost every sociologist. 

all of us college students are part of an educational culture, and our universities have expectations, rules, regulations, blah blah blah, that they expect we conform to. shirky discusses educational culture in “cognitive surplus.” consider this. 

in 2007, avenir, an engineering student at Ryerson enrolled in a chemistry course and discovered that it was hard as shit. who would have thought? he eventually became the leader of a FB study group of 146 people, and was threatened with expulsion by his school, because they expect their students to come to their own answers, and that using FB was an illegal media to use in this setting. but avenir argued that a FB group was no different from a study group on campus. it’s still part of the social world. 

shirky uses this example because the group had 146 students, which as he points out, is too big a group to host on campus or elsewhere. and this is a problem, because there’s no doubt that some students were freeloading. despite the fact that the group had a rule, or cultural norm, that everyone had to contribute, there is a degree of personal discipline needed in order to fulfill their cultural duty to each other, and this puts the idea of education at risk if students can just join an online group and get all the answers to their homework.  

so kids, the main lesson here is don’t take a damn chemistry course in college. curiosity killed the cat for a reason. 

but really, if you’re going to be in a study group, try your best to understand the material as best as possible instead of showing up empty-headed with no ideas like our president. and if you’re a leader, never give the answer. always guide your peers by asking simple questions that lead them to the answer. this is called inductive learning. it’s hard, but worth it. let this be your culture. 

you’re welcome. 

[professionalseniors]

Opportunity Knocks

“Before the rise of file sharing, you could give a CD to your friend,but once they had it,you didn’t. This was the normal case for recorded music,indeed for any physical object. Sharing a book or a magazine or a pair of shoes is what economists call”rival” sharing;if I have my copy of VanillaIce’sTo The Extreme,you don’t, and if you have it, I don’t. A song on your computer,though, is different, because with digital music I can give you a copy while keeping mine”. -Cognitive Surplus

Todays generation has access to various different aspects of the internet. The internet has advanced over the years. The fact that the internet has advanced over the years has truly transformed society, and the way we perceive technology today. Technology has so many options know. You can listen to CD’s, Stream music on Spotify, Pandora etc Now there are so many options for everyone to get connected , and to be able to stay in tune with society. #generationxyz #music

[kparque2-blog]

The Groban Effect

“Professional activities can be more publicity visible (and indeed,many professional groups seek public visibility, whether in the market or the media,as an explicit goal). This has accustomed us to take notice of behavior:people who act from intrinsic motivations-amateurs-operate in relatively private circumstances, while people who act from extrinsic motivations operate in more public ones”. -Cognitive Surplus

Many people all of the world like different types of music . A lot of people like Josh Groban’s music. People were so touched by his music that they decided that they would do something nice for him for his bday. They donated to an organization. As I read the story about the donation, I couldn’t help but wonder what were the true motivations of the people who donated in his name. Did some do it out of the Pyrenees of their hearts, or did some do it to obtain recognition from Groban himself?

Both questions can be considered valid, but I think that a little bit of both were displayed. When I say both I mean both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations were displayed. Intrinsic motivations were displayed because Groban’s fans desired to make a donation in his name instead of their own names, therefore, directing the praise towards him. Also, they displayed extrinsic because they wanted to surprise him for his birthday.

Many times in life we can have either intrinsic or extrinsic motivations or both. We can be focused on doing things for the greater good. Anybody can display these motivations especially online. Seeing that Groban influenced people who are big fans, but have never met him to start a donation process is remarkable. It shows that a group of people can be altruistic , and show the positivity of the internet’s power.

Saying this, the internet is a place that anything can be done in the click of a button. The internet is a force all on its own and some people use it for good or bad reasons. Some people use it to donate or to start organizations, some might start phony organizations with the idea of acquiring money from innocent people. It’s all about a person’s motivations, and at the end of the day people from the internet stood for a cause that effected people across the world. No matter how big or small the action or motivation might be it can cause beauty or harm, and in this case it caused” The Groban Effect”.

[professionalseniors]

It’s Wind Down Wednesday. We hope everyone is having an amazing week.

#winddownwednesday #sunflowers

[professionalseniors]

wind down wednesday

some nice chill lennox for your wednesday winding down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAOHuJ2aXao

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKrKHOUcNvY

[professionalseniors]

“When it’s 1hour until Humpday” #AlmostWednesday#Humpday

[professionalseniors]

some good news

ever heard of clay shirky? you should. he’s a writer and teacher particularly interested in internet technologies, and he has some good news. according to shirky’s tedtalk, the internet has created a space for collaborative projects that can benefit society, and there are over a trillion hours a year (yes you read that right) “up for grabs” that allow people to be creative with these internet technologies. shirky coined the term cognitive surplus to describe the free time we have that allows us to do creative things in the first place, and the number is only increasing. as long as there are generous organizations, we can take advantage of cognitive surplus. 

so this is great news for people, but especially for you and i, the blooming members of society that still have the ability to impact the world.

shirky’s overall thesis is that cognitive surplus will change the world, if we use it as a force for good. in his book “cognitive surplus,” he provides social, political, economic, and even historical examples of it in use. one of the more remarkable examples comes from the south korean protests of 2008, when thousands of teenage girls took to the streets to protest south korea’s renewed trade policy over beef imports from the US. many of the girls protested because they received news from “the rising gods of the east.” a bloody boy band. they made the post on their popular website, and the teenage girls were concerned enough about public health that they took action. 

what’s amazing about this example is that the boy band did not even try to spark a movement. the protests, which were peaceful and family friendly, all occurred over a simple post. 

cognitive surplus isn't always going to work that way. but the point here is that our content can reach wide enough audiences to make a difference either in our lives, or for society. hell, journey found their replacement because some philippino dude posted his covers on youtube. 

so, my advice here is that for those of us who are creative, take advantage of these trillions of hours, either by making a blog, or youtube channel, or by connecting with people online to take part in social changes and so on. the world is yours to take on. 

[finding-avalon]

“One day you will thank yourself for never giving up.”

— CKP, Finding Avalon

[scholasticbabe]

Who’s the shit? YOU’RE the shit! Never forget that.

[cwote]

the most important kind of love :))

[professionalseniors]

your confidence booster of the day :) 

[professionalseniors]

fact of the day: rising to the top

this one is inspiring. albert einstein was considered too stupid by his earliest teachers, and it was thought he’d get nowhere in life. i don’t think i have to explain the miscalculation. one more thing, he loved music, and was a good fiddle player. creativity was important for einstein, not just on the side as a breather from science, but in his work as well. imagination was behind many of his theoretical concepts as much as physics and math were. 

[professionalseniors]

late night jams

a late night jam. come get it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hMy0rnHQv0