I’ve always been a good student who was in class every day, even when I was sick. I did my homework, made A’s and B’s, but when I graduated high school, I realized I had no idea what I wanted to do. I needed a plan, but I seriously felt so overwhelmed with all the options you’re given once you graduate high school.
I hated not knowing what to do and being this person just rolling through life. But it absolutely had to happen that way in order for me to figure it out. I had gone through high school doing everything everyone always told me to do and it got me nowhere, literally.
It took years of being in and out of college, experimenting in different jobs, and different settings before I found what I liked. My advice to early-college students – it’s absolutely OK with not knowing exactly what you’re doing. There is no manual for this, but if you stay persistent and patient, you will figure it out. In the famous words of Thomas Edision, “I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
As a high school senior, I felt pressured when I noticed my peers were applying to and planning to attend four year universities. But, I never felt obligated to follow the crowd and pursue something that I knew wasn’t for me. Going into college, I wasn’t sure about many things, but I was sure I wanted to attend a community college and I had my reasons.
Affordability – Community colleges are known to be much cheaper than four year universities and the price variation is one of the biggest reasons why many students attend community colleges.
Smaller classrooms- I’ve been accustomed to classrooms with no more than 30 students my entire life. I wanted to make sure that my transition from high school to college wasn’t too different because I didn’t want to overwhelm myself. Auditoriums with about 200 students sounded too overwhelming. I also like the idea of small classrooms because it allows for the students to establish a relationship with the professor which makes it easier to communicate about your school work.
Staying local- Community colleges are meant to serve and be available to those in the same community. I was really fond of the idea that I didn’t have to drive far to attend my classes. It makes showing up to class so much easier.
At the end of the day, there is no certain medal or certificate that one gets for the school they attend. Instead it’s about being financially smart and responsible. No one’s accomplishments should be judged by the type of college they attend.
When beginning a new semester, it’s important to establish a positive mindset. Although it may be dreadful and really stressful, it’s crucial to lay down the basis of wanting to learn and succeed.
I enjoy looking at the bright side of things. For example, school gets me back into a specific routine and makes me feel like I have my life together. It allows me to stay organized and keeps me busy so that way I prioritize important things.
At the beginning of each semester when I’m feeling down, I like to remind myself how much of a privilege education is because so many others don’t get the same opportunity. I included some tips below that may help when starting a new semester.
Stay organized- I like using my “reminders” app to remember assignments/exam dates etc. It’s so much easier and convenient to store things on your phone.
Set goals- All goals are valid, no matter how big or little. Make sure to set a few, it helps keep me grounded and focused.
Give yourself time- I know it’s really difficult not to procrastinate but school feels like a breath of fresh air when you don’t pile up a bunch of assignments before the due date. I like giving myself 3 days before the due date, not too soon or too late, it’s more like a meeting in the middle.
Over the summer NVC student Allie Sanchez used camera “traps”—motion-sensor cameras affixed to trees—to conduct an exploratory study of campus wildlife. Having been bitten by the “research bug” last year while studying, presenting, and publishing on students’ knowledge of climate change research alongside other NVC students, Allie embarked on a student-faculty, extracurricular study of her own design.
Allie worked with Dr. Scott Walker in Geography and Environmental Sustainability to plan out where to place three camera traps around wooded parts of our campus and to map their locations using geospatial technology. For eight weeks Allie checked the cameras and retrieved the photos to determine what wildlife roams NVC day and night. She discovered raccoons, whitetail deer, opossum, skunk, a sounder of six feral hogs, coyote, grey fox, and a black-crested titmouse—a small bird common to this area. She was unable to “capture” any wildcat images.
Allie said “all this experience alone is worth more than a four-year degree.” When asked exactly what that means, she stated that she learned “not to be intimidated by something that seems monumental by taking a big project and breaking it down into smaller pieces.” She learned how to plan research, do a literature review, conduct statistical analyses, work with her research colleagues to write a peer-reviewed journal article, and present at a professional academic conference alongside graduate students and faculty from research-one universities—schools like the University of Texas-Austin and Louisiana State University.
She stated this work has boosted her self-confidence and she now finds herself doing some literature review work at UT Health San Antonio where she works as a full-time administrative assistant. Allie is moving on to Texas A&M-San Antonio this semester to pursue a BS in Biology with a concentration in Ecology.
Students interested in doing student-faculty research in Geography and Environmental Sustainability as an extracurricular activity, or for GEOG 2389-Academic Cooperative (independent study) elective credit, contact Dr. Scott Walker, [email protected]. Dr. Walker can also update students on the new BS in Environmental Science Field of Study coming in 2020 and discuss transferring to UTSA’s upcoming Environmental Studies BA degree.
Are you destined to be a leader? Do you want to improve your self-esteem? Gain valuable networking skills? Or are looking for a motivating group of peers to help you achieve your goals?
Look no further than the National Society of Leadership & Success honor society at Northwest Vista College. This is the nation’s largest leadership honor society and the first honor society to become accredited as a leadership program by AdvancED. At the college level, the decade-old NVC chapter is the largest leadership organization on campus. Last year, members participated in over 3,800 hours of engagement on campus and over 1,000 hours of service in the community to earn the U.S. President’s Volunteer Service Award.
For the last three years, the NVC chapter was placed on the NSLS Founder’s List, one of the highest honors of NSLS’s Pillar Program. Based on the 10 best practices (pillars) of a healthy chapter, the National Office developed the program to help set up chapters for long-term success. This year, the NVC chapter earned an additional four pillars making their pillar total 14.
“We have an amazing group of dedicated student leaders. They have all graduated and are attending universities this fall,” said Kelly Blanco, NVC chapter advisor.
NSLS provides a step-by-step program for members to build their leadership skills. Upon completion of the program, members receive their leadership certificate and are able to list their affiliation on all statements of personal accomplishment, including their resume.
Membership is for life and provides access to benefits including scholarships and awards, employer recruitment through an online job bank, and discounts on computers, and much more.
Students are selected by their college for membership based on either academic standing or leadership potential.
The popular show “Shark Tank” has a simple premise: find a solution to a problem and if you can make money off of it, you may find yourself leaving the show with an investor.
This premise opened the eyes of Northwest Vista College students who put their Shark Tank skills to use last semester. The Northwest Vista College Discovery & Innovative Competition offered a platform for students to pursue an idea, innovation or discovery project they were passionate about. Working in collaboration with faculty mentors, students developed their idea over three rounds of training to create a written business proposal and then give a presentation in front of judges.
Instead of investors, four students received seed money from Alamo Colleges’ The Learning Company to execute their projects. The winners also received an opportunity to attend “The Future Festival” earlier in July in Philadelphia which focused on the development of ideas. In addition to The Learning Company, the NVC Student Activity fee provided prize money for the top four winners of the competition.
“The Future Festival gave us a unique opportunity to understand some of the biggest trends affecting our business, life, and the world. Before the conference, we knew that research helps us formulate our strategy for any project or decision,” said Calvin Fogle, assistant professor & program coordinator of the NVC Business & Entrepreneurship Institute. “But we did not know about the extent and efficiency of research that companies are able to do with data analytics.”
For the students involved in this project, some will never forget it, such as Analisa Rojas, who created Studipedia, which has the goal to create short college videos tailored to a specific course. She’s hoping to solve the problem that most study videos are too general. As part of the process, Analisa had to write a reflection of her experience:
“This phenomenal journey, that started with a concept idea and morphed into the incubation stage for my presentation, was an educational voyage that tested my motivational endurance, pushed me outside of my comfort zone, and taught me the value of entrepreneurship,” said Analisa who won the grand prize of $1,000 and will begin implementing her business with the help of the seed money.
Three other students won prize money provided by the NVC Student Activity Fee: Farhana Khan won the second-place prize of $900, Adrian Arevalo received the third-place prize of $800, and Shantal Rivera snagged the fourth-place prize of $700.
Two of the winning student proposals focused on reducing plastic waste and recycling, and the other business proposal is a digital application for the eye care industry.
Calvin said the competition was targeted to students in Institute of Health and Biosciences, Institute of Creative & Communication Arts, Institute of Science & Technology, and the Institute of Business & Entrepreneurial students.
He added students also received content-specific training and were shown how to prepare budgets, and how to manufacture and market a product. He said a huge thank you goes to the NVC Business Council, and The Learning Company, which is a collaboration between the Alamo Colleges and local business leaders to train the next generation of entrepreneurs and innovators.
“We created the competition to support entrepreneurship and innovation in the classroom with a platform for students to pursue an idea they are passionate about,” Calvin added. “A lot of times we don’t see our impact, but reading the reflection papers by the students provided us some good feedback of our attempt to expand innovation and entrepreneurship.”
Contest winner Farhana Khan wrote in her reflection paper:
“When the Discovery and Innovation Competition was first announced earlier this spring at Northwest Vista College, I was sure not to participate in it. I assumed that competitions like that are for scientists or business-oriented people. However, during the spring 2019 Faculty and Student Mixer, Professor (Ralph) Mendez asked a simple question, ‘Do you see a problem around you?’ That question made a lot of students start sharing ideas during the event. I took out my pen and paper and started writing the issues that I always wanted to fix. Within a week, I had six to seven problems and possible solutions for them.
Still, I was not sure how far I would go. But I knew that there is a 100% chance of failure if I don’t try. The experience of going through the idea formation and business plan, although painful at times, is well worth the effort. It conditions the participants to be solution finders, not whiners.”
NVC faculty are already preparing for the next competition, which will have sign up dates of Aug. 26 to Sept. 15. Winners will travel to an entrepreneurship conference in New Orleans in January. For questions, email Calvin Fogle at [email protected]
The Northwest Vista College Pre-Health Delegation (PHD) club had another successful, well-attended event with over 100 student participants.
The event featured health professionals who volunteered to talk to our students and offered a glimpse into their careers and academic journeys. Our health care professionals were:
Linda Doyle,PharmD, RPh-Pharmacist, Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital
Raphael Guerra DDS- Dentist, owner of Raphael Guerra Family Dentistry
Kenny Hogan, DPT, PT- Physical Therapist, co-owner of Stratton Rehabilitation
Isabel Ramos- Lebron, MS, RDN, LD- Dietician Wellness Education Manager- San Antonio Food Bank
Students interacted with our panelists and asked them various questions. It was hosted by PHD President John Pinion and VPs Samantha Williams, Aisha Landeros and Alice Heugel.
The PHD club is NVC’s Health and Science Student Club and is currently recruiting officers and members for fall of 2019. Interested students can submit their applications to be a part of the club via AlamoSync throughout the summer and will be notified in August. Just search for NVC Pre Health Delegation on AlamoSync.
You never know what you are going to find by taking a microbiology class at Northwest Vista. A bit of clarification is needed in a recent science experiment done in campus bathrooms by students.
Initial test results showed there might be some strains of the bacteria Chlamydia and Staphylococcus in some of the tested areas.
Further discussion with faculty showed it’s unlikely that the organism from the student experiments found on the hand dryer is actually a Chlamydia species. Staphylococcus species are commonly found in restrooms and other areas humans frequent, according to NVC Microbiology faculty Dr. Adam Reeves.
Also the bacteria Chlamydia does not survive well outside the human body and typically is only contracted through sexual intercourse. To learn more, check out the CDC website. While Staph can live outside the human body and is common in many public bathrooms, NVC’s cleaning service uses hospital-grade disinfectants daily in the bathrooms.
Remember to always wash your hands and nails and cover any open wounds, and never walk barefoot in public areas. To learn more about staph infections, go here.
NVC’s Dr. Reeves gave some more details about his classes’s experiment:
I will start with the protocol of how we find and identify microorganisms.
Students are encouraged to swab areas and streak their swabs onto selective media.
The student then isolate colonies on agar plates to grow for DNA amplification of a 500 nucleotide sequence within the rRNA gene (https://jcm.asm.org/content/45/9/2761).
The amplified sequence are then sent off for sequencing before the sequences are compared to a database for identification.
We did have a sequence come back that indicated that we could have isolated a Chlamydia strain. Here are the problems:
Chlamydia species are obligate intracellular parasites, which means they can only be grown in cell lines and our colony grew on an agar plate.
The rRNA gene sequencing comparison has many limitations, including:
It has poor discriminatory power for some genera, meaning the results are often incorrect.
The DNA databases, private and public, are dependent on the “deposition of complete unambiguous nucleotide sequences” and how labels are applied to each sequence. This means that not all databases contain all sequences and the sequences could be labeled incorrectly. (https://jcm.asm.org/content/44/4/1359.long)
Other issues relate to the researcher’s ability to perform the DNA isolation, extraction, amplification, and purification procedures, which all contribute to the ability to correctly sequence a sample.
As for the “Staph” strains found, micro labs have found isolates in the bathrooms by putting the samples on selective and differential media. This means that we are highly confident that a strain exists on the surfaces in restrooms, but we would have no clue that pathogenicity (ability to cause disease) of the organism.
Reasons to not be concerned:
Staphylococci are normal microbiota on your skin and mucosal membranes, which can commonly be shed to surfaces.
National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) South Texas Chapter Spring Audition was very successful for Northwest Vista College on April 6 at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi.
Ten singers from Northwest Vista College competed against singers from colleges and universities in our chapter. NVC was recognized with four finalists and one semi-finalist:
Hector Tobar and Luis Gonzalez in Second Year College Men (Classical Division)
Lorena Del Angel and Ana Delaney in Upper College Musical Theater Women, and
Natalia Jasso in First Year College Women (Classical Division) as a semi-finalist.
NVC Instructor Dr. Minkyung Lee said “I am very thrilled to share this wonderful news with Northwest Vista College, and it’s such a great honor to be recognized myself as a teacher for these outstanding singers. I am so proud of all their hard work and amazing attitudes to support each other and special bonding to be proud of singers who represented Northwest Vista College.”Congratulations to all winners and participants:
Luis Gonzalez – 1st Place in Second Year College Men (Classical Division)
Ana Delaney – 1st Place in Upper College Musical Theater Women
Hector Tobar – 3rd Place in Second Year College Men (Classical Division)
Lorena Del Angel – 3rd Place in Upper College Musical Theater Women
Natalia Jasso – Semi-finalist in First Year College Women (Classical Division)
Serena Hernandez, Thalia Moreno, Kristin DeGennaro, Ashley Rodriguez, Elizabeth Potts were also recognized with high scores and only a few points away from being semi-finalists.
Dr. Lee added that “this incredibly fine day of singing couldn’t have happen without the following supporters: Special thanks to our amazing pianist, Bogum Park from the University of Texas at Austin for her fabulous performance on the piano to add artistic touchups for beautiful performances with the NVC singers. Also, we are very thankful to NVC Music Coordinator, Daniel Smith and Chair of FAPK, Karla Ellis, for a great deal of support and encouragement during this audition preparation.
More than a dozen current and former Northwest Vista College psychology students, along with NVC psychology faculty, Anna-Marie Evans, Jen Fox, and Don Lucas attended the annual meeting of the Southwestern Psychological Association (SWPA) from April 5-7 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Established in 1953, SWPA represents American Psychological Association members living in Arizona, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas. SWPA promotes and strengthens psychology’s scientific, professional and educational facets.
In addition to attending workshops, invited talks, research symposia, poster sessions, and research paper sessions — several students presented their original research to standing-room-only audiences!
Kiana Kelley, Diane Goguen, Tailar Matthews, and Kristelle Cefre presented their research titled, “Dispelling Sexual Myths with Higher and Virtual Education.”
Areayla Jeanpierre, Valerie Ortiz, and Marin McDaniel presented their research titled, “What is Your Sex IQ?”
Maimoona Palwala, Chris Lowell, and Kristina Martinez presented their research titled, “Sexual Language is implicitly More Offensive to Females than Males.”
Ethan Berry, Christian Salazar, Jacqueline Tucker, and Jacqueline Dominguez presented their research titled, “Does Childhood Adversity Affect Overall Well-Being?”
Additionally, during the SWPA award ceremonies, Ethan Berry received national recognition from the American Psychological Association and was awarded for his services in the Northwest Vista College chapter of Psi Beta.
Several students have on-going research projects they plan to present at next year’s annual meet of the SWPA, which will be in Frisco, Texas.
How does one just know what they want to be?
As a high school senior, I felt pressured when I noticed my peers were applying to and planning to attend four year universities. But, I never felt obligated to follow the crowd and pursue something that I knew wasn’t for me. Going into college, I wasn’t sure about many things, but I was sure I wanted to attend a community college and I had my reasons.
When beginning a new semester, it’s important to establish a positive mindset. Although it may be dreadful and really stressful, it’s crucial to lay down the basis of wanting to learn and succeed.
Are you destined to be a leader? Do you want to improve your self-esteem? Gain valuable networking skills? Or are looking for a motivating group of peers to help you achieve your goals?
You never know what you are going to find by taking a microbiology class at Northwest Vista. A bit of clarification is needed in a recent science experiment done in campus bathrooms by students.
More than a dozen current and former Northwest Vista College psychology students, along with NVC psychology faculty, Anna-Marie Evans, Jen Fox, and Don Lucas attended the annual meeting of the Southwestern Psychological Association (SWPA) from April 5-7 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
