Diversity Event

          Christina said that my diversity event is allowed to be one of the events I went to for my make up. I got a lot of information out of all four of those events. The one that interested me most was the Planet Money diversity event. The guys were very humorous and kept my fellow classmate and I very entertained.
          Adam Davidson and Alex Blumberg were the speakers at this event and I wish I could compliment them on their ability to keep the crowds attention! They told us all about how in our eyes, the economy all together is going straight down the drain, but really Iowa's is not. Iowa has one of the highest unemployed rates in the nation! They came out and told us that our economy is actually striving compared to many of the surrounding states.
          They talked a lot about Ben Bernankle. He is supposed to be the "superhero" when it comes to our economy and the nations debt. They couldn't stress "superhero" enough because that is what he's being called in many magazines such as Times Magazine. Ben is the Federal Reserve Chairman, which isn't government ran. They are what is in charge of the amount of a dollar bill. This is why he is so important towards debt and economic succession.

Hixson Blog #7

          This semester has been quite the roller coaster ride for me. Not only did I have to adapt to living on my own and doing my own things, but I've had to learn how to take care of my own responsibilities.  I dont have my mom and dad to do the little things throughout the day for me. No more getting laundry done and getting groceries bought. I had to grow up and grow up fast the day I came to Iowa State. I've gotten better at completing simple tasks that I relied on my parents for in the past. Living life on your own is a dramatic change and I'm finally starting to fall into place with this lifestyle.
           This class alone has taught me a lot and changed my thought process on college. It's not just fun and games when you get to college. You are on your own and you need to take responsibility. College is a very serious thing. In order to have a successful future, you need to have success during college. Good grades and success in the classroom is what's going to give you the ability to succeed in the future whether that means going to graduate school or going off and getting a job right after graduation. I want to go to graduate school to be a chiropractor. I know in order for that to happen, I have to get good grades and do well all throughout college. I have benefitted from this class so much. It has given me multiple resources on campus and helped me succeed with classroom assignments.
          I also believe that I've become more of a leader. I've learned a lot from this class. It didn't just teach me about the campus and Iowa State, but it taught me all about being a leader and take control every once in awhile. Thanks to the Video Project, I've become a much better group person. I've learned to work with more people at once and use everyone rather than just one idea in the group. By taking control, I mean leading people in the right direction. Not ruling and taking control of what everyone does, but just positive things. I feel like leading people in the right direction and telling people positive things will help not only myself but everyone around me. Throughout this journey of freshman year, I've changed dramatically and I feel as if it was all for the better. I'm starting to shape out to the person I've always wanted to be and this college journey will only finish shaping me into the young chiropractor I've dreamt of being.

What the Hixson means to me.

          This award means a lot to me. Because I am being awarded with such a large sum of money towards my college tuition, it allows me to chase my dreams and attend Iowa State University like I've wanted to do for so many years. College is definitely not cheap these days and coming from a family with many siblings and not having the highest income, college would be a very tough task for me to complete, not only because of the difficulty in the classes and receiving the proper grades, but being able to afford this large sum of money for four consecutive years.
          I plan on going into Chiropractic after undergraduate school and attending Palmer School of Chiropractic for another three years after Iowa State. This is only going to add to my college debt, but thankfully, half of my tuition here at Iowa State is already covered thanks to Mrs. Hixson. She has increased my success rate by allowing me to attend Iowa State with much less worries when it comes to payments and debt in the future. Palmer will most definitely not be a cheap college to attend, but it allows me to move forward to my dream of being a professional Chiropractor and potentially owning my own practice through chiropractic.
          I have heard many MANY people talk about how their college debt has caused so much stress and such a negative feeling towards attending college. Thank to this wonderful opportunity I have been given, I wont have to worry quite as much as every other student here at Iowa State will in their future. I honestly can not thank Mrs. Hixson enough for allowing me to chase my dreams at Iowa State and aiding me on my journey towards being a chiropractor!

Cultural Diversity

          After the presentation presented by Denise, I learned a lot of new things over the topic of Cultural Diversity. His presentation really made me think about how different things are in places  other than Carroll or Ames, IA. You can't just think everybody and everything needs to be just like you. You have to have an idea of what life is life in other people's shoes.
         By living life in someone else's shoes, I mean there is more to life that your beliefs. Other people have different beliefs and different morals, such as religion. Religion can vary in different regions of the United States. It's dramatically different even going from town to town in Iowa.
            He also stated how different things go California compared to Iowa. Oakland is a very hard, rough placed to live and be apart of. Violence is a huge problem in places like this, but people learn how to live with it and react and live their lives as normal as possible.
          All in all, everybody is different. Just because somebody does look, act, dress, or think the same way you do, doesn't mean you cant talk to them and communicate together. The nice thing about the United States is that we are a very diverse country, and we get to experience other ways of living. In the end, we all need to treat each other with respect and keep in mind, everybody is their own person.

Social Media Post

          For Social Media Week, I chose to do the "create your own resume portfolio in a website". What I did was created a specific resume for the job field I plan to partake in after college. After this I created a website that explains what I want to do and how I plan on doing. This website goes through my steps towards reaching my goals, and what I need to do to succeed along with the resume I can use for this. Its out their now and can be updating or changed as things change during my college years.
          I noticed that these articles did a great job of showing how easy it is to get your name out there and find a career in the field you wish to go into. Twitter especially plays a large role in this. It is soooo incredibly easy to go to any search engine and type in any name and come up with so much different information, some good some bad. So yeah, its a good thing but can also play a negative role on "you" getting out there to the world. Another one of the articles went over how easy it can be to spread news nowadays through social media such as twitter and facebook. You can add a photo or tweet about your plans for the afternoon and the next thing you know, 230 people know exactly whats happening at 3:00! Even if you are located in Mexico or France, if you have a "follower" or "friend" from the United States, they will know whats going on and your news is spread to a completely different country, kind of how Mexico did with their important information in the article. All of the articles went over how GREAT of a thing social media can be, but also how it can be a bad deal. If a future employee wants to see your background, they will go to facebook and see a picture that you may have not wanted others to see. This is a prime example of how social media is bad.
          What I came out of with this was that social media can make or break you. It's shaped how you shape it. If you want to be prim and proper, it can be great for your future and potential places of employment. However, if you go out every weekend and add those pictures of you holding a bud light and you are only 19 years of age, thats where it can all go south. Social media is most definitely a good thing, but you just need to think about what you do on it.

#4

          On Wednesday, October 3rd, I went to a lecture over Environmentalism in the Sun Room located in the MU. This lecture was called "Environmentalism without nature", and it was put on by Paul Wapner. Paul started off by talking about his book, "Living through the end of nature; The future of American Environmentalism". The main point I picked up from this book was that humans have changed the world in so many different ways, it's hard for us to pick out specific things that we can actually call "nature". He really talked about how he believed that climate change would and will ruin a lot of things, including nature as a whole. Paul brought up a specific part of this book where he talked about how people were changing everything around him. He brought up a part where he lived next to a lake, a very quiet lake. Suddenly motorboats and people started appearing and using this "quiet" lake as a source of recreation and he felt that this was damaging the area. It wasn't just nature anymore, it was a loud, crowded area for people to be hanging around all of the time.
          Environmentalism is summed up to be a way to protect nature and the environment that used to be. It is a mix between science over the environment and nature, and governmental policies used to somewhat protect the environment in some way. It is not necessarily scientific and retains more to philosophical thoughts over conserving nature, such as trees, water, and land. Pollution plays a very large role in negative things happening to our environment. Air pollution is damaging our ozone, water pollution is damaging lakes, streams, and oceans in the United States, and even a type of noise pollution can play a role in this. Nature is not nature if people are driving away on a quiet lake in a loud motorboat poling a group of skiers. Anything that disrupts the natural ways of life plays a negative role in this. Paul believes that serious change needs to occur in order to retain our environment. New energy sources need to be invented that eliminate extra negative side effects, cities need to be started that dont produce air pollution and as much toxins to the environment through air pollution, and people need to start thinking abou their actions. I can not say I necessarily agree a hundred percent with what Paul is trying to say, but I definitely do agree with some of it. It would take a lot of work to get rid of all the negative things effecting nature, and unfortuntly I don't think its possible. However, some of these things can be prevented and we can get rid of some of these things. Paul did a good job of opening my eyes to some of these problems, and I will think twice before doing things that could put our environment in jeopardy.

Lecture #3

          Last Thursday, September 27th, I attended the lecture seminar over forest management. It was called "Beyond Spotted Owls and Logging: Forest and Ecosystem Management. It was put on in the Great Hall of the MU by Jerry Franklin. Franklin was a leader of Forest Management in the U.S. He put on the FEMAT which is the Forest Ecosystem Management Assessment Test.
          His main talk was over the Spotted Owls Controversy. Spotted Owls are native to North American but we can't garentee that for long said Jerry. They are near threatened and their population is dramatically decreasing. They are trying to create somewhat of a comeback for this population under the ESA which is the Endangered Species Act. What they are doing in the long run is trying to create logging for this specific species. So far they are up to 1700 acres of strickly forest logging. This is a serious problem because they are dramatically dropping in population. Statistically they are dropping by nearly 50 percent annually.
          Jerry has done a lot of work dealing with the ecosystem management and loggin in America. He did 14 years of Forest Service Research in the Pacific North West Ecosystem, two years as director of the National Science Foundation, and 14 years as Chief Plant Ecologist in Pacific West studies programs. He stated "Ecosystem Management is the main service to conserve the ecosystem and to restore Natural Resources back to their original state".  The main objective of the ESA ( Endangered Species Act ) is to effectively maintain the ethical use of natural resources such as coal, oil (petroleum), and wood. The wood is a main thing that brought on the topic of forest and ecosystem management. Not only is the spotted owls controversy such a big deal, but more and more forest animals are losing their honest to deforestation and if this isn't solved soon, many of these species will be going extinct.

MBTI

          During my experiences with MBTI, I've found out alot about myself. I've come to realize who I really am as a person, and ways I work that I've never noticed. While I compare my self-assessment type and my indicator type, they are both slightly different in fields I didn't really realize until now. I came out with the indicator type this summer and it is ESTP. My self-assessment type was thought out just a few weeks ago, it was ENFP.
          I can tell you right now why my indicator type is different than my self-assessment type. This summer, I wasn't dead set on my studies in Kinesiology and my future plans. I had my doubts about my major and i strongly believe thats what through my score off. I was more confused than anything.
          My best-fit type is definitely the ESTP. I've noticed I'm that type of guy who will search for his own way to do things, just because it shortens up the steps or makes a problem easier. I am more of a direct person, to the point. One of the main things I came to realize with myself is that I most definitely am an Extrovert! I'm very active and like to communicate with others about situations rather than ponder them on my own. I'm glad I had the opportunity to take this test because it gave me the ability to learn about myself and techniques that can help me get through college and my future.

#2 The Next Generation of Ag Leadership

          Last Thursday, I attended my second lecture in the Great Hall at the MU. This one was called "The Next Generation of Ag Leadership", and was based around farming in America and more specifically, Iowa. This weeks was definitely not as interesting as last because Agriculture does not strike an interest to me.
          The man who delivered his speech and told us all about the farming economy was Jim Farrel. He is the President and CEO of Farmer's National. This business not only deals with farming itself, it does much more than that; they own 2.5 million acres of farmland, they manage oil and gas through agricultural senses, and they deal alot with business management.
          Jim came in saying that now is one of the best times to be in Agriculture, it's considered the "Golden Age" of farming. Recently, farming has somewhat "taken off" and land plays a very HUGE part in this. Land is at one of it's highest values as of now, and there are a few problems that the buyers of land are running into. Over 75 percent of the land owners are over the age of 65. Nearly all of these owners have long term plans for their operations; farming, equipment, and land. They either plan on donating the land to places such as Iowa State University for research and learning purposes or they mainly give it to a family or relative. These people who either keep it or donate to different causes are considered the active land owners, they want this land for what it is, and to serve a purpose with it. Only 3-5 percent of the active land owners actually are selling their land for money. Now on the other hand, there are also people known as commercial farmers. They are what give us 93.5 percent of our revenue with farmland. They average 1600 acres of land and use it for a much different purpose. They themselves do not farm the land, they just manage opperations. They want to keep the land and once the market and price for that land increases, they sell it for a profit.
          Recently, the active farmers are adding acres for their farmland. They work to create a profit and once that profit is earned, they use that in order to expand their farms. Investors however are the buyers and sellers. They are more ag knowledgable and good with macroeconomics. They are in it to create a quick profit off of buying and selling the land. The main point to this whole lecture is that there is an extremely STRONG demand and there are more buyers than there are sellers. This isn't necessarily a good thing, they say it may be a potential threat that can derail the ag market as a whole.

Blog #1 Planet Money Live

9-19-12
          Tonight, I went to the lecture "Planet Money" at the MU's Grand Hall. Two men by the names of Adam Davidson and Alex Blumberg explained multiple economic problems with society. These two deal with these problems constantly in their lives. They created a popular documentary based upon these topics, "The Giant Pool Of Money". These two were great to watch because they not only preached education, but they did it with a sense of humor. As if this lecture didn't provide me with enough information, they also have a blog I have checked out and found multiple facts and opinions that intrigue me. They said they planned on coming in with a long speech about how the economy has gone down the drain, which it has, but then they realized our state of Iowa has actually been doing decent during these times. The unemployment rate is pretty low and our economy is actually striving. They said the main question is, "how screwed are we?" This is the problem with our economy. There are low levels of jobs, lowest they've ever been at 6 % job loss. Not only are we at our worse, we are nowhere near recovery.
          Adam told us one of the main reasons for the problems and economy not making a recovery. He put it this way; There are many homeowners who bought a beginners home years ago. Now these homeowners have families with multiple children, causing these beginner houses to be crowded, however they dont want to risk trying to buy and sell a house on the market because of the risk so they are staying safe and remaining in their small, payed off homes. Because of these people not moving into bigger, more expensive house, the smaller, cheaper houses aren't going up for sale. This doesn't give people who are poor and homeless opportunities to spend the little they have in order to try and start something new.
          The country believes there is one "superhero" by the name of Ben Bernankle. He is the Federal Reserve Chairman. The Federal Reserve is not government, it is an independent organization that controls the U.S. dollar. They are responsible for giving money a value and have the ability to create money at will.
          Alex also was talking about how the banks do not want much money and how more money is bad for a bank. The money has to be garenteed back to the owner on top of the interest. Thanks to this, they need to find people who will take out loans and pay back the money with even bigger interest.
          The main picture is the Federal Reserve Bureau wants people to take risk, like moving into bigger homes. They threw in a few technical things I didn't quite understand but that was one of the main points I ran away with. People believe the Ben Bernankle is the therapist of America. He gets inside our heads, our hearts, and tries to change our feelings for the future. Most people have healed from the money scare and are ready to upgrade. Get that bigger house, or that bigger SUV. Ben stated last week, "until such improvements are achieved". This is what Americans were striving to hear from him. He stated that he was all in for fixing the economy and financial struggle in the United States of America.

ISU Bucket List

          Believe it or not, a bucket list has been something I've thought about more than once. It has been something I have thought about multiple times, but never really thought about putting it down on paper. There are more than just one list, there are actually a few. First of, I've completed a large portion, or the first level of my bucket list. My first 18 years of life have been a blast. I've met friends I will never forget, done things I will never regret, experienced many things that I couldn't have done anywhere else, and met my girlfriend of two and a half years here. 

           Now that I'm done with the High School stage of my life, I'm moving on into my college stage. I have many things on this bucket list that hopefully can be accomplished within the four years I'll be here. One of the more obvious topics on my bucket list here at Iowa State is to graduate and receive my B.S. degree in Kinesiology for Pre-Chiropractic. Here I wish to experience the life style of being on my own. Being away from my old friends and family is hard, but its also a step closer to my future life of being on my own. On a less serious note, I also wish to win an intramural championship in some sport whether it be football or basketball. Along with Majoring in Kinesiology, I want to get my Minor in business. It will make more sense when I get into my future life bucket list. 

           After college at Iowa State, I would like to go on to Graduate School at Palmer and receive my Doctor's in Chiropractic Degree. From here on, I would like to start practicing in a own much like my hometown, not to big but not to small. Thanks to my hopeful high income, I want to get rid of all my college loans and start off life without having to be in debt. Once all of my loans are payed off, I have a dream to start my own practice in chiropractic, that's where the minor in business will come into play. 

          Once my career gets all figured out, I wish to get married and have a stable income and a happy family. I hope my income is high enough to take me and my family on vacations yearly, mostly tropical areas lik Jamaica, the Bahamas, the Caicos, etc. My main goal to wrap up my life is to be as stressfree as possible, have no financial issues, and to live a perfectly happy lifestyle with my family. 

Blog 1

The time I personally believe I was at my best or at my top was the night my high school football team beat the Harlan Cyclones. It was a perfect fall night under the lights. The Cyclones had always been a big rivalry team for Carroll High, ever since i was a young boy. The entire week previous to this game was filled with practices and preparations to take down Harlan for the first time in 47 consecutive years in football. This was a HUGE feat for us. We went in the underdogs and came out on top. For the first two quarters we went back and forth scoring touchdown after touchdown, but after halftime we finally broke loose with a 94 yard kick return and after that the momentum completely shifted. We went on to beat Harlan 48-24. The first victory vs. Harlan in 47 years!! We were all at the top of the world at this point. The game was the highlight of my entire athletic career, and will always be remembered. Some of the main points I recall are my first touchdown of the season, and receiving over 160 passing yards in the game. It was quite the experience and i will forever remember it. The next week was amazing. We were constantly being congratulated and constantly getting brought into conversation with town's people over the game. Articles were written in many different papers about us. It was a very special experience.