Merry Christmas

I don't know if anyone is still reading this, but I just wanted to say I had a great time with all of you this semester. I learned a lot and was inspired to embrace my feminist roots and carry on the work of those who have gone on before us! I hope everyone else was inspired to make a difference in the lives of others. Even the small things count; in many cases it is the small gestures of kindess that make the biggest impact. Thank you all for a wonderful experience. I hope you all do well on finals and then are able to breathe a little easier, enjoy Christmas, and get ready for another semester at GSW!

our group did our presentation on wednesday, and it went really well. our group worked really well together and we thought our presentation was going to be short because most of us were nervous and i know i dont like to talk infront on a class but it actually lasted 20 minutes and we had a video.

In Awe. Pure Awe

For the Tuesday and Thursday night class.

The groups that went tonight - you left me in awe. Your honesty was only surpassed by your humbleness. Your stories were so personal, so deep - that I could not believe you felt comfortable enough to share them. Personal battles with cancer, domestic violence cases, and countless stories that truly need to be told in our ever changing world. Thank you for allowing us in your lives tonight. After tonight, I knew that this class was worth all the laughs and tears throughout the semester. Each of you are now a hand print on my heart, and I thank you so much for letting me in your lives. I hope our friendship doesn't end with this class.

This blog needs to be kept open for us to keep in touch. I know that in the coming weeks and months, our lives will change - our stories will become deeper - and we can be there for one another whenever we need that second opinion, someone to keep us stable, accountable - someone who can be that shoulder.

Again, thank you for being an inspiration to me. You all will be with me forever.

Your friend, Tyler Willis

Time to Rock and Roll!

Group 7 is set for our presentations tonight, and we are excited to share our experience with our class. It is definitely something I will carry with me for the rest of my life. I am also excited about the next "health spotlight"! I have received a couple of phone calls from people who saw our ad in the paper and was interested to know when the next one was. I also got a call from RCI director, Gayle Alston. She was interested in possibly speaking about how caregiving impacts women's health. Also, we had our event where I live--at the Starlight Place community room. My property manager organizes events for the community and they are also held at the community room. She was so excited when I asked if I could hold the event there. She asked if we were going to do it again sometime in the future. So, there is definitely a desire and need to do this. So, I just think that it should continue, maybe once per year. I'm willing--how 'bout it awesome group seven??? ;) I enjoyed the presentations on Tuesday, especially the "self-defense" group's. Looks like you guys had as much fun as we did! I know we all will benefit from taking this class. I also liked the "body image" group's concept. The only thing is--I didn't have a bad experience in the dining hall. The stuff was good (to me), and they had a variety of choices, some healthy and some not. My mother (also a student) was with me and she enjoyed it too. Maybe that day was just a good day, I don't know. We chose the salad bar, it was fresh that day. We only went that one time, so I really can't comment much on it. (There is just one dining hall on campus, right?) I guess the point of our project was to emphasize the importance of making good choices for your health. That will mean that a person will have to choose the salad instead of a burger if he/she wants to live longer. And, it is not always about quantity of years. It is about quality of life. No one wants to life out their days battling obesity and the diseases caused by obesity. I was on YouTube reveiwing some of our videos, and when mine was done playing, a video popped by another Aisha (not me), and I played it because I liked her name :) Anyway, she was talking about how her university dining hall resembled a mall food court. They had a Burger King, a Sbarros, and a KFC. I agree--there should be better choices. But, when it boils down to it--the choice is yours...

(If you want to see that youtube video, I think that you can put in "Aisha in PR" in the search box. BTW, PR stands for Puerto Rico.)

AY Alaman

Random Post

I spent a lot of time thinking about this before I posted it, so please - don't think I'm just saying this because I'm a "worry freak."

I know that at the end of our class (TR 7:30 - 8:45), a lot of us started to have conversations about the random difficulties that we all incurred, but honestly we all need to think about the actions that could happen if we send a letter to the school. If we include any names in the letter - it could be jobs lost, her reputations ruined, etc etc etc. We as students could also have some type action taken against us. If we really want anything to happen, I think that if we all came together as a class - discussed what happened to each group - write down what happened, then call and ask the president if he'd be interested in hearing about it...... then that could be easier on the entire situation.

I just know that if we send a letter to the school calling people out, then there definitely will be some type of reaction -- and I personally do not want anything negative to come from such a positive class.

Tyler Willis

Our group was responsible for the Body Image Project. I think that our project went very well. However, some things did not turn out the way we expected. The results from our survey were interesting to me. All of the participants were college students and this shows how they view their own body image.
Since we are sending the results from our comment box to Cody King and the Dining Hall Administration, I hope that we see results in the near future. It seems to me that the food is getting worse than it was last year. Hopefully they are willing to take the comments into consideration without it hurting their feelings.
I think that our presentation we smoothly. We presented all of the results from the surveys, comment box, and movie night. I was impressed with the participation that we had for all of these events.
I learned so much last night during our presentations. I really enjoyed the self-defense presentation becasue it could be useful in everyday life. I also enjoyed working on this project with Michelle and Joe.

There was a blog I posted the first week of Nov. but I cannot find it (not so good with computer stuff) so here is a retype of Nov. 9th...
We were at a great star and we had at least changed our idea three times when i finally came up with the great idea of doing a youtube.com video of the campus folk at G.S.W on their ideas and views on feminism.
The group loved the idea!!
and we were off worrking on the proposal! We each have our own little parts in the project and at the same time when we meet we get together and help out each other on all of our responsibilities...
We were off to a great start and well prepared to propose and show our press release at a pretty early point and time! yay!