My First Post in Iowa Lakes Blog

Hello-- I'm glad you're taking time to read our college blog. Our web page editor "jumped on it" when I barely mentioned that I could write in this blog as one of the faculty/staff from the Emmetsburg, Iowa campus. So, here we go.

This takes me back many moons to when I was writing each week for my high school newspaper. I'm sure our college administration will hope that I don't get as controversial as I did in those days. My high school principal was invited to appear on Good Morning America, because I exposed that he was locking mischievous students in a "slammer" all day. The wire service picked it up from our small town newspaper where the high school page appeared. He, of course, refused to appear on the show, and I, of course, was very disappointed they didn't call me instead. It could have been my ticket to fame and fortune. But, instead. . .

Twenty years of my life have been spent walking these college hallways and usually landing in Room 533. This is where, as of lately, I've spent my days listening to students and student speeches. I find the students and our classroom time to be fascinating, amazing, motivating, often funny, often sad, and always enriching. This is a challenging career and not easy at all if you want to do it well. I want to do it well, so I'm constantly working toward more engaged students, motivated students, and students that are better able to think critically. Besides working with students "on the ground," I also teach public speaking online to students across the state. Yes, it is possible to take public speaking online, and I'll share more of that experience at some point.

The students and I will be traveling down a pathway to informative speeches in the next couple weeks before our break. This week, students will be finding good examples of informative/demonstrative speeches on youtube.com to share with the class. I'll share a few of their favorites with you next week.

Our college leadership changed this past week, in an unexpected turn of events. Change is never easy, but I'm very optimistic about our college future. We have our first ever female president in Val Newhouse, and I believe she is also the first college president to reside in Emmetsburg. She knows our campus faculty and staff well and that should be an asset for all of us and the students. I wish Val the best in this key leadership position.

I was visiting the Iowa Historical Museum in Des Moines this weekend and I found a significant Iowa quotation to use as a closing tonight. It seems important for hope as we look out at our frozen tundra in late February and our national economy.

"The land being fertile, never failed to produce good crops. . . .We always had plenty; our children never cried from hunger, neither were our people in want."

MA-KA-TAI-ME-SHE-KIA-KIAK
Black Hawk Sauk
Autobiography

Cross your fingers, as March should be arriving within a week.

Renee

Fasination

There is so much going on at Iowa Lakes. Mid term is coming up in a few weeks. So I am studying like crazy. There are some study groups that you can join. So it helps allot studying with other students. It also helps to get to know more people. Spring break is also coming up. I am excited for that because my fiance is graduating from Basic Training. So I get to go see him. Then he starts is AIT's 4 days after that. We got to go to Chicago this year with our MA Program. So I got to see a lot of cool sites. So I can't wait to go see Jake. It snowed this weekend so I'm not so happy about that. I have a lot of papers due this next couple of weeks. So I better get to them.
Susie

No More Winter Please!

Ugh!!!! I regretfully type this today as I look outside and see loads of snow in Emmetsburg! How ridiculous is this?? I think its crazy! Yesterday I took off to Mallard to do some things at Alex's house and it was simply raining and I thought nothing of it, well as the afternoon/evening progressed I soon went outside to the shop to get something and I looked around and saw nothing but SNOW! Crazy!! I couldn't believe it. Needless to say the roads weren't the greatest coming back to Emmetsburg last night. I'm very excited as Hotel and Restaurant Management is taking off tomorrow for Minneapolis! Although, I have lots of packing to do to get ready I am very excited. I'm not sure if its what were all going to do that excites me or it's the pure fact that I'm getting away from E'burg for just a little while. I hope that when we return some of this snow has disappeared. Emmetsburg seems to be very hopping tonight as the hotel I worked at is nearly booked for the night; which is good because that means there is many people in and out of town doing a variety of things. Well as I better get back to working the afternoon, I will write when we return from our trip! I'm sure there will be plenty of fun stories and things to share! Take care E'burg! See you in a few days!

Finally Some Sun!

Well what can I say, I'm finally glad to see some sun peaking out in Emmetsburg today. It's been a few cold days.. I miss that nice taste of spring we got, I think it put a spring in every ones step at the college.

The Hotel and Restaurant Mgt class is very excited as we are taking off for Minneapolis on Sunday for a fun trip of seeing hotels, going to the Upper Midwest Hospitality Show and having some fun at the Mall of America! We've all been waiting a long month or so since we've came back to school for this trip, were excited to get out of here for a few days and see some new things! That's all we can seem to talk about!

Student Senate is doing great! We had a weekly meeting this week and got lots of things done. Student Senate will be sponsoring "Root Beer Fest" on March 3rd in the gym at the Wellness Center in Emmetsburg, were very excited to have lots of fun and play some games!

Emmetsburg was sure moving slowly this week with the cold weather and wind. I took a couple of students that play basketball for ILCC yesterday back to Estherville to get on the bus for a game and boy the wind pulled the car all over the road!

Its such a nice morning as I get ready for school, I'm glad to see the sun out! But I better get ready as another full day of school and work is ahead for me!

First Blog

Wow! I really don't know what to say! This is my first "blog" for Iowa Lakes Community College. So I guess I will start out by telling everyone a little bit about myself. My name is Amanda , I'm a student at Iowa Lakes Community College (ILCC) in the Hotel & Restaurant Management Program. My goal with school is to complete two years here and then transfer to a 4-year college for food science. I hope someday to become a dietitians in a hospital or school depending on where this road takes me.I was a 2008 graduate of Emmetsburg High School, and grew up in Emmetsburg my whole life. I am an only child, both of my parents work for the Emmetsburg School District. I became a huge fan of ILCC in high school when the high school paid for classes here at the college. It was a great opportunity to accomplish some of my college classes for free and get a break from the boring days of high school.I have many hobbies; I'm an avid reader and I love to cook. My boyfriend who is from Mallard Iowa is really into cars and more and more I'm interested in them. Mainly the colors but hey that's a girl thing. I also like being outside and working on the computer. Cooking is fun for me. I've always been interested in it along growing up with my mom she is an awesome cook and I look to her for good advice. I originally started going to ILCC for my AA (Associate & Arts) Degree to eventually become a teacher, but I soon decided that field wasn't for me and chose to join H&R Mtg. It's a blast, we have lots of fun everyday weather its in the kitchen cooking or in the classroom hitting the books.I am also on Student Senate at ILCC. Student Senate was a great experience to get out and meet new people and do many new things at the college. We put on events and activites for the college to have some. Were a great group of friends and always have a good time.Well I must sign off for now as I have a weekly senate meeting!