Monday, July 11, 2011

The ILC’s Maiden Voyage to Vanderbilt: A New Beginning

I awoke to the beautiful sunrise, with its double sided rays piercing the window in my dorm room. Luckily they fell directly on the face of my roommate rather me, but he didn’t seem to mind. The time was 6:30 AM and outside it looked as though the day had left us behind, but I was reassured it hadn’t forgotten VSA when I emerged out of my room to get ready for the day.

I was happy to be the first one up and in the bathroom seeing that I didn’t have to share anything, it also created an invigorating sensation in my stomach letting me know it’s time to eat.

I grabbed breakfast a simple bacon, eggs, and waffle combination. We set off to class after meeting our Teacher’s Assistant, or TA, Vanderbilt predominantly uses acronyms, and we met our Professor Dr. David Dunn. He just received his PhD and his youthfulness compliments his knowledge allowing his adventurous teaching methods to be effective with us students.
Our first day in class, we had to prepare a presentation on the former Gush Emunim group of Israel, research how religion influences them, decide if the organization was extremist or not, and present it to the class, starting with only one given website. I really enjoyed starting class in such a creative way encompassing teamwork, communication, investigation and the overall yearning to learn. We also used radio to learn about how ignorance can destroy.
Breaks and meals are great times to socialize with classmates. I’ve met people from almost all the East Coast from Texas to Ohio, even New York to Utah. It is interesting to live in an environment where everyone is motivated and sharp because things like even the level of conversation seem to skyrocket.
Discussions in class seem to travel around the world and through time bringing facts from all of man’s great history. I think our Professor, Dr. Dunn said it best when he told us this is an opportunity for we students to sharpen each other, we should take in all that is said and done so we can be able to maximize the rewards we receive from this program.

In all the first day of class was exciting. We have entered the room of the blacksmith, and we have 20 days of work left before the finished project is revealed.
my group proctor Stephen Siao

1 comment:

  1. Kye,

    No disrespect intended but what kind of map are you looking at? How are Texas, Ohio and Utah seen as being on the East Coast. I'll go along with New York but Ohio's in the Midwest. Texas is in the South and Utah is closer to the West than to the East.

    Just curious, do you have many foreigners in your class? I don't mean foreigners as in Yankees but people that actually come from a different country.

    Your class sounds so interesting, Kye, and your instructor seems to make it an interesting class to attend. You're lucky and fortunate at the same time.

    So you know, acronyms are frequently used at most colleges, businesses and especially in government. The secret ti a successful life is to learn the important acronyms and know where to decipher the others.

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