Personal Refelection on Change: Sarah Lee

Everyday changes are happening within people whether it is for the better or for the worse. Changes have the power to truly make a significant difference in someone’s beliefs, actions, or mindset. Personally, one specific event helped me to truly appreciate the importance of family, especially during hardships. 
Throughout middle school and high school, I moved several times due to financial issues within my family. I was never close with my parents and our relationships did not alleviate as I grew older but instead became worse. However, following my freshman year of high school, it was clear that my parents had declared bankruptcy. Still young and naïve, I was angry at my parents, simply believing that everything was their fault. Moreover, I was merely upset by the fact that I would not be able to purchase everything that I had always wanted or live my life how I used to. However, one night my parents approached me and the next few moments were a blur of words mixed with tears, of fear mixed with regret. My mother was apologizing that she was unable to give me the life that she had always wanted to give me. I was heartbroken and felt remorse for the times I was only thinking about myself.
It’s amazing how a person’s view can change when the veil of selfishness is lifted because after I had talked with them that night, I was no longer angry at them. Tribulations truly do bring people together; especially family members. I've come to realize that my parents were the ones who shaped my life. They are the ones that drive me to succeed. And they represent all the qualities I admire: sacrifice, determination, and unconditional love.


Picture Provided by Clip Art on Office Online

Personal Reflection on Change: Erica Romero

As a team we decided to each do a personal reflection on a major change that has happened in our life. Here is Erica Romero's reflection on how becoming a Vegetarian has changed her life:

Let’s make one thing clear—I’ve never loved a big, juicy steak. My mother always had an issue come dinnertime, when my father would request a prime rib and I would stare off, barely touching my food. Once I came to college, I knew I had to follow my heart and convert to vegetarianism. Making this change when first entering college was pretty challenging and I admittedly didn’t get the proper nutrients initially, but gradually I’ve learned what to supplement with my meals and couldn’t see eating any other way. I’d love if reading this leadership blog could in some way inspire you, and if it can make you a little closer to realizing that you’d like to become a vegetarian, even better! So what are the main reasons to become a vegetarian??

YOUR HEALTH:

Our nations top three killers: heart disease, cancer, and strokes. It has been scientifically proven that vegetarians have "lower rates of death from ischemic heart disease, lower blood cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, and lower rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and prostate and colon cancer".

• vegetarians have a 20% lower rate of mortality from all causes
• meat is full of traces of antibiotics, hormones, toxins, etc
• obesity and its related diseases are very very rare in vegetarians
  
  

THE ENVIRONMENT:

Clear cutting in forests in order to make room for cattle grazing at our current rate will leave us with NO AMERICAN FORESTS in 50 years. The burning of these forests releases 50-100,000,000 tons of methane into the atmosphere per year. (Along with hazardous CO2 released by burning oil and petrol in factories and abattoirs associated with meat and dairy production). There is much more energy in grain (what is fed to the animals) than energy consumed by the humans that eat these animals. In fact, 20 vegetarians could live off the land required for one meat eater.

• if all Americans became vegetarian, it would free enough grain to feed 600,000,000 people (the population of INDIA)
• the water used to produce 10 pounds of steak is equivalent to the average consumption of water for an entire household for an entire year
  
  

THE ANIMALS:

Easy enough--put yourself in their shoes! No matter your view on our neighbors and co-inhabitants of this planet, no living thing deserves to be treated with the indecency that an average cow or chicken is treated with every second of every day in America.

• each year 15,000,000,000 land animals are slaughtered for food
• unwanted male chicks (because they can't lay eggs) are gassed or pulped while their sisters go to the battery sheds
• cows would naturally live up to 20 years but are slaughtered after 5-7 years when their milk production begins to fall

Going vegetarian is a life choice and not as difficult as you may think. Basically everywhere you go there is an option for you and hopefully all of your vegetarian friends. This article is of course just a friendly suggestion hoping to shed some light on an environmentally friendly “change” to consider.

Photos: (c) Ian Britton - FreeFoto.com

Promoting Change: Getting Involved

One of the articles we wrote last semester was about how to get involved, I feel this can be linked to this semester's idea of change since it helps you change yourself.

Getting involved on campus will help you grow and develop as a person by the many different experiences you can encounter, a well as helping the organization change with your fresh perspective.

Here is information about how to get involved in order to help change and develop yourself and Binghamton University's campus:

How to Find Involvement Opportunities
Justine Heroux

Binghamton is a huge university where you can find just about any club. The only problem is how? It can be very overwhelming looking at all the different fraternity and sorority flags hanging in the library, or reading all the different GIMs (General Interest Meetings) offers posted on B-line. So where do you start? First, you need to figure out what you are interested in, or determine what you are good at. Do you like to do arts and crafts? Do you want to help teach children? Maybe you are more interested in sports. Determining what you think is fun, fulfilling, or stress-free will help you pick out a few involvement opportunities to participate in.

The next step is to start researching areas where you can find involvement opportunities, keeping in mind what you know about yourself. I have provided a list below which has a lot of information on where you can find different involvement opportunities. However, there are a great number of websites and campus offices that I did not list. A good rule of thumb when trying to get involved is to ask questions. Ask your classmates, your resident assistants (RAs), anyone on campus, as to how they are getting involved and how you can get involved. Attend a few general interest meetings listed on b-line and see if you like them. Do you think you could stick with this long term? Does it fit into your schedule? Do you enjoy being involved in this organization and spending time with its members? What kind of opportunity does this provide you with?

If you feel the club is worth your time and effort and most importantly makes you happy, then you have found the right one. Getting involved in different things on campus is important. By joining various clubs you meet new people, get a sense of pride for your school and your organization, have something to list on your resume, and even develop new life skills.

The best places to check are;
1. B-line emails or the b-line.binghamton.edu website
B-line informs you of new and upcoming events, activities, and general interest meetings for different groups on campus. Depending on how the group advertizes, they let you know who the event is open to, how much it costs, when and where, etc.


2. PAWS website at Paws.binghamton.edu
This website tells you about all the different SA Organizations you can join, and the events that these clubs are holding. There is a search box to help you look for an organization and find out what it is about. You can also join an organization’s list serve so that they send you information on their meetings and events. The website also posts upcoming events on the home page that you can click on, read about, and decide if you want to attend or not. It is a great website to play around with and get to know.


3. B-Involved website at involvement.binghamton.edu
This website is just like PAWS, except it is for non- SA Charted organizations such as; Division I Athletics, Peer Assistants, University Departments, Fraternities/Sororities, and Club Sports. It has an events calendar on the homepage just like the PAWS website, and you can search and join organizations. However, the best part is that this website provides you with a co-curricular transcript, just like your academic transcript, but with a list of the organizations you are involved with outside of class. It is also a great site to use and get to know.


4. On campus message boards
These are the cork boards that are located all over campus in the different academic buildings (especially in the lecture hall, the union, and library north). You will find tons of postings from different student groups to activities on campus. Just take a look as you’re passing by!


5. Your Residence Hall, Community, or Dining Hall
Where you live is a great place to start to get involved! There are always posters both on bulletin boards and walls that advertise upcoming events and different organizations. You can even find advertisements on the dining hall tables. If something interests you, go! Ask questions! Try attending some of your hall events you will get to know more people, learn about what others have done throughout their time here at Binghamton, or what they have heard about. I would encourage you to check out your hall and area-wide council meetings. At each meeting they talk about new events, ways you can be involved in those events, and many members from various clubs come to speak at the meetings and get their organization known.


6. Campus Recreational Services website, at www2.binghamton.edu/campus-recreation/index.html
This website informs students about Intramurals, Club Sports, Fitness and Wellness, Aquatics and Outdoor Pursuits involvement opportunities.


7. XCEL Center in the University Union West 208G and the XCEL website at xcel.binghamton.edu

The center provides you with many opportunities to be involved around campus and develop your leadership skills. The website even has a link on the homepage on how to get involved! It has a list of places and programs on campus to help you “get connected” as the website states. If anything, just stop by the center, and talk to one of the XCEL consultants about getting involved! You can even apply to be an XCEL consultant on the webpage.


8. Campus Life in UU South 145 and their website campusactivities.binghamton.edu
The website has various links to different involvement opportunities and events on campus such as Volunteer Programs, Late Nite Binghamton, and major campus events. You can also read the Campus Life’s mission on the website to see what they are all about.


9. Binghamton University’s webpage Binghamton.edu
Binghamton’s website contains many links and information about opportunities on campus. You can look around using the search bar, or the current students tab. It can get you to websites such as XCEL, information on Fraternities and Sororities, and Outdoor Pursuits just to name a few.

10. The Career Development Center (also known as CDC) located in the Bartle Library Ground Floor, South LSG 500 or North LNG 300. Also at www2.binghamton.edu/career-development-center.

The center provides many resources about involvement opportunities on and off campus, as well as different programs you can attend to improve your involvement on campus and your potential careers. They have a link on their homepage as well that provides students with information about campus and local events to get involved in.


These might be specific websites and places for Binghamton University, but even if you do not go to BU, you can apply this mentality to any school or really anywhere. The act of taking initiative is what it important. Be a leader for yourself, motivate yourself to do things you want to do. Change it up a bit! :)

Photo: Binghamton University website, binghamton.edu

Change!

The new topic for our future posts this spring will revolve around the idea of change.

What is your definition of change?

Check out the comments to see the different view points on change!

Photo:(c) Ian Britton - FreeFoto.com