Proposal

So the proposal process is a lot harder for me than I thought it would. Every time I go over my methodology I keep remembering things that I wanted to put in my project. More information that I still need to add. I also feel like I have to write two methodologies because Im trying to improve recruitment and retention for CAAS and the school at large. Its a lot and Im a little warn out. Worse than that I dont know how to write this budget. I know the things I want to do are going to cost money but I dont know how much. Further more I dont know where to get the money from. This is a project that I am invested in and I want the goals to be realistic and attainable and right now I dont feel that my goals as far as the school are attainable.

Project

As of today, I am still revisiong my review. Im looking for programs that other schools are implementing so that I can have a better model of my own project. The review is still under major reconstruction. I want to wtite a project proposal because Im hoping to be in a position next year that will allow me to actually be in charge of a major project like this so I need to write a project proposal so that I can use it to help me next year.

From Research to Project

YAYYYY!!! I just found out that I was nominated for the Public Relations and the treasuror position on the Exec. Board of CAAS. While I would be happy to fill any position on the Exec board, the PR position would basically put me in charge of recruiting, publicity, and I would have a part in college day. I feel like maybe this position can help me turn this research im doing into a project that I can try to carry out. I know that it probably wont make a huge dent as far as the institution concerned but I would feel a little better if I could make a little dent in retention for CAAS and recruitment when we have college day. I hope I get this position and I hope that I can accomplish some of my goals.

Progress

       So I was able to interview Shazad from the Multicultural student services office and I really learned a lot about some aspects of the recruitment and retention program for minority students, and also its downfalls. He was able to give me some possible avenues to go down and where I can find certain information. My next question then is how do I cite him in my list of sources? 

Big XII

A few weeks ago I was privileged enough to be able to attend the Big XII conference on student leadership and government at Kansas University. What an experience, I would definitely say that this was one of the most inspiring college experience that I have had so far. First it was amazing to be around so many other students of color who are all working to better themselves and the community. There was a genuine sense that people where there to learn and to work, this wasn't some big party. Each day we had speakers come while we ate and talked and inspired us about our futures as leaders. Some speakers talked about how to succeed in college, others on how to better ourselves as a person, some talked about jobs, others spoke about leadership. Throughout the day students where able to attend workshops that were specific to their needs. A few of the workshops that I went to were, how to interview, how to apply to grad school, how to dress for business, and how to be leader. The conference offered the chance for students to network with advisor's, professors, and other students from around the nation. It was a growing experience and something I will never forget. I hope that I am fortunate enough to be able to attend next year.

Progress Report

So I am really getting into the heart of this research project and really trying to find out what kind of recruitment program that SCSU has here. I've talked to a few people involved in it and it doesn't seem like there is any cohesive effort to recruit students. It all seems that individuals go out and recruit and dont really work with each other, so maybe that is problem that could be fixed. A lot of the articles im reading stress the importance of a team of people working together from all fields of the university to recruit minority students. A problem that I am also trying to face is that Im being sent all over campus trying to talk to this that and the other person who maybe kinda deals with the recruiting process. Is there a head person in charge of recruiting? what kind of methods are they using? are they successful?? Otherwise for now Im trying to focus on finding statistics that show enrollment and graduation rates of minority and majority students, both nation wide and specifically SCSU. The information we learned in class today will be helpful for the Nation wide statistics.

"The Professional Mentor Program Plus: An Academic Success and Retention Tool for
Adult Learners," by Chaunda L. Scott and Robert J. Homant,
(2007-2008), Journal of College Student Retention: Research,
Theory and Practice, 91(1), 61-73.

This article was about a mentoring program implemented at the University of Detroit Mercy to help with the recruitment and retention of minority students. The program had three main components, first was mentor/mentee pairing based on academic interest/need, second were required professional development workshops coaching students in the means to "independently work through their academic and personal challenges" and third an intergenerational outreach component, whereby both mentors and mentees participated in a mentoring experience through a partnership with a local middle school. The program showed progress in the slight increase of the control groups' GPA. The literature review was meant to summarize an analysis of the new mentor program at UDM and its success. This was both a qualitative and quantitative study. It combined the quantitative results of the increase in GPA and the qualitative results of very positive feedback from the participants in the study. It was a short article and I didnt see any errors in critical thinking.

What is in the future for Child and Family Welfare services

Maluccio, Anthony N.

The Future of Child and Family
Welfare: Selected Readings


I thought this article present both some really good and unlikely possibilities for the future child and family welfare systems. This article is a selection of readings that present possible problems, solutions, and changes that can be made to the child and family welfare systems. These short readings include topics on the future of child protection, politics of child abuse in America, the general challenges and the welfare of children, the future of family foster care, orphanages, and research agenda for child welfare. The article was very well organized. Each topic had its own section and place in the article. It is also organized in a way that each summary of a topic leads to the following one. I think the purpose of the literature review was to provide an overview of research relating to the topic of child welfare. As for the critical analysis I didn't really feel that the author really didn't analyzed the findings of other researchers, it was more just a presentation of what other authors thought on their perspective topics. In that sense I cannot say that there were any issues in the authors (Maluccio) critical thinking. As for the many other authors presented in the review I do fell some violations were made. For example one summary discussed the issue of child protection and that the public should be involve. This may be a lapse in judgement because at any given time there is a possibility of a child abuser being in the community. It doesn't seem plausible to put trust in the local community to responsible for the child's welfare.

Google tips and tricks

I just got back from my student leadership and black government conference and it was amazing. The only problem was I didnt take down the best notes so that I may continue networking with the other students advisors and professors that I met. Luckily I was about to use the info I had collected in conjunction with google to get the rest of the info that I need. I used the advanced search to find people by their first name and the organization they were apart of. I also limited my search if I knew what region they were from.

Critical thinking gone wrong

This article is about Nadya Suleman, and it violates avoiding emotion and assumes that the family is foreclosing on their house simple because nadya has so many children

By now, we’ve all heard about Nadya Suleman. She had 6 babies, got 8 more… and hasnt had a job in years. She’s been living with her Mom and it has recently been discovered that they house is now in default as she has not made a payment in 10 months. I hope everyone is ready to pay for Nadya Suleman’s babies, because we are doing just that through our taxes.

Research Challenge

Im still having trouble finding more online articles about how to recruit more minority students. Im also still troubled about my group and them wanting me to change my topic. I dont really want to, but it if thats what they want to know then should I just change it?

Research Progress

So I've met with my organiztion every week and they have helped me get the names of the students that came up here for college day and I wanted to contact them to see how the felt about St Cloud. The only problem is that there isnt any contact information, all I have is their names. I guess I'll just haveing to keep pushing the group to get me more contact info. In the mean time im trying to come up with a survey for the students to take that would really give me an insight to what they think of st cloud, if they would ever come here, what didnt they like, what could we do better, did the race issue have anything to do with their choice, if we had more scholarship available would that change things. I need more questions and I need to find their contact information. Does anyone have any thoughts on what other questions I could ask?

GAZA!!!

I really feel that a professor of ours at SCSU most definitely didn't handle himself appropriately the other night at the Gaza panel in atwood. I totally feel that he made himself look bad and that it looked bad upon our school and our reputation. I think that he had a valid question that needed to be answered but that he imposed himself on the panel, wouldn't let them speak when they were trying to say that there would be a Q&A at the end of the discussion where they would answer his question and for him to please sit down and wait until that time. St Cloud state already has a bad rep. for intolerance and although I don't personally believe that this is what was truly behind the professor acting out, but it did look that way to people who where just coming into the room. Its a sensitive topic with a lot of hurt emotions, but I thought the panel had a great presentation and I learned a lot more on the topic. Also, someone did wait until the Q&A part of the discussion and asked the question that the professor demanded that they answer in the very beginning of the panel, and they gave a justified answer. Its unfortunate that the professor had to disrupt everyone else's learning when he just could have waited until the end of the panel. If he had, he would have gotten his answer.

Change of Topic

Okay so I went to meet with the organization that Im working with to get some more information so I can continue on with my project, but then the president of the organization tells me he has a new project he wants me to work on instead. So im a little stressed about what to do. I've already started on my project and I am kind of already invested in it but this new topic is something that they really want me to help them solve. WHAT DO I DO!!!

Research Comparison

One of the first things that I noticed was different about the Great River Regional library than the OPAC was that you could do an alphabetical search. They both had such links as a keyword and subject search. When I did a keyword search on college diversity and found that the books from the Great River Regional Library had more to do with my topic than resulted from the same keyword search with the OPAC database. I had 7 hits with the GRRL and 176 hits with OPAC.

Recearch Obstacles

Normally, I dont have a hard time at all finding resources for whatever research problem or question I am working, but normally I usually turned to articles and journals that I can find on the internet to help me with my research. This was not the case today when I was trying to find books on recruiting minority students to college campuses. It took me longer than usual to find some good candidates in the library. After a bit of tweaking using the advanced research database for books I was able to find three books that might be of use to me. One book was located in the multicultural resource center in the library which I didnt even know existed. I was pleasantly surprised to know that SCSU had a special section for multiculturalism, but I have to admit I was a little dissapointed when I went to retreive my book at the size of the section. It was so small, I would say less than a full walls space worth of books. It was kind of off tucked away in a little corner in the back of the library. But hey I guess a small section is better than no section at all. The other two books I was able to find easily in the basement of the library. I even found another book in the section that I wasnt even looking for that might be helpful. Overall once I was able to refine my search in the database for books, I didnt have to hard of a time researching possible books. Although I still prefer to use articles and scholarly journals.

Personal troubles

So my roomates and I are having a problem coming to an agreement on how to split the rent and bills of our new palce. The biggest issue is that one of my roomates wants to have her boyfriend live in our apartment in her room. But that would be her and her boyfriend would only be paying half of what we have to pay because they are sharing a room. My problem is that she is choosing to have less space by having him live there so why should she get to be compensated with the price. It just doesnt seem fair that we have to pay twice as much as they do to live in the same place. I do understand their viewpoint but its just hard for me to get around.

Thoughts on a problem

Currently I am working with the student organization CAAS (Council of African American Students) to help solve their problem of how to get more students of color to attend this mostly white school. Every year CAAS goes to many Urban schools to recruit minorities to SCSU. While they are able to get the students up here for a tour of the school, many are detered from registering because of the racial issues they have heard about in the media. What can I do to find out better ways to get the students to register here. We need more diversity on the campus but people are too scared to come. Maybe a mentoring program could set up so that the students who do decide to come here dont feel alienated and can have an outlet to express their daily struggles.