Friday, January 25, 2013

Meet Your Mentor- Devon


Welcome to the Spring Semester!!



My name is Devon Timblin and I will be your mentor!!  I am from Janesville Wisconsin, the city of parks! It's about 45 minutes south of Madison and surrounded by many small towns that people have never heard of.  I have lived in Janesville my entire life and graduated from J.A. Craig High School.  I am majoring in Psychology and still debating on what I want to do with it exactly.  I have worked for UWM's Student Success Center for almost a year.  I first was hired on, second semester my freshman year, to make phone calls to all WI Covenant students, so I could have called you!  I then worked as an Orientation Leader over the summer and now I am a mentor for the Student Success Center.  It has been a wonderful experience and I have met so many new and amazing people. I am now going into my fourth semester here at UW-Milwaukee and couldn't be more excited. 

This is my first year working with an LLC, I look forward to creating events, and programs for the Wisconsin Covenant LLC and getting to know all of you!   

Thank you,
Devon 


This is my brother, Ben,   and my sister, Nicole.  
My favorite people in the world :) 



Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Meet Your Mentor- Serafina

Welcome to your Spring 2013 Semester at UW-Milwaukee!!



My name is Serafina Payne and I will be your mentor for this spring semester. I am a Milwaukee native but my family is from the island of Puerto Rico. I love to spend time with my friends, family, and of course my dog because I am a huge animal lover! I graduated from Ronald Reagan High School which is on the South side of Milwaukee and this will be my second year at UWM. I am also a Chancellor's Scholar and currently majoring in Social Welfare. I hope to emphasize in International Social Work for my Undergraduate Degree. I also plan to go on towards a Master's Degree in Social Work and Non-Profit Business. I worked over the summer for the Student Success Center as a New Student Orientation Leader so it is possible we met this past summer! This will be my second semester as a First year Mentor and I really love the work that I have been able to do due to the amazing people I have met!
My dog Seeley!

I am very excited for this new opportunity to get to know you all and work with you this semester! I also hope to continue working with Amber as much as possible because she has a lot of experience and she was my my First Year Mentor when I was a freshman! I hope to get to know you all, as well as plan great events and programs for the Community Leadership LLC!

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Meet Your Mentor- Michael

Hello Friends!

Me at my internship.  It was a long day, ha!
Welcome back to your Spring Semester!  So I wanted to take a moment to formally introduce myself.  My name is Michael Hamilton and I am now the Mentor for the Mobile Apps and Creating Your Future LLCs.  In the past I have worked with both the Community Leadership and Creating Your Future LLCs as an RA, so I'm very excited to be back working with my awesome LLCs this year as a Mentor.

A little about me personally... I am from Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, which is about 20 minutes northwest of Milwaukee.  In high school I as involved in band, choir, theater, and student government.  Since coming to college at UWM I have been involved in a few different student organizations, I have worked on campus my whole time here, and I have volunteered as much as my busy schedule has allowed.  Which reminds me, this is my fifth year at UWM, and I am a Social Work major.  Next year I will be going to Graduate school to get a Master's in Higher Education Administration/Student Affairs because I have loved my time working on campus so much.  If you'd like more info on how to get involved, definitely let me know!

OK, so what you can expect from me.  For those of you in Mobile Apps, I will be continuing to come to your classes on Monday and Wednesday, so if you need me at any time I will be available then.  As for students in Creating Your Future, you don't have a class this semester!  Additionally, I have decided to hold online office hours on Wednesdays from 2:00-4:00PM.  What this means is that I will be online, most likely on Facebook, ready to chat with any and all of you.  I will also post a status to let everyone know where I am in case you'd like to speak with me in person.  This is just my attempt to be as available to all of you as possible.

So that is all I have for now.  Your RA's and I are working on some great things to make this semester as awesome as possible.  If you have any feedback, please let us know because we are here for you.  Thank you all, and I look forward to meeting you all this semester!

Best,
Michael
mdhjr@uwm.edu

P.S.

Here is a link to my facebook page.  Please feel free to add me:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100004258298635


Friday, January 18, 2013

Huzzah!

Hi Business Panthers,

RA Michael Ameel here! Wow, this semester went by extremely fast! We accomplished so much this semester I don't even know where to begin! I'll begin by going over some of our events we completed this semester.

The first event we had for Biz Panthers was a Resume Workshop. Our students learned about how to enhance a resume and how to market themselves to employers through a resume. After that we had a Sprecher's Tour in Milwaukee. Let me tell you, it was a blast because our students got to have free unlimited soda tasting! After our Sprecher's Tour we had a RAK-A-Thon team of residents, RA's, and our LLC Mentor's volunteer and help winterize the elderly homes in Milwaukee. It was a great bonding experience. In addition to RAK-A-Thon we went on a highly successful Milwaukee Buck's tour where we got to head to the locker room and play some b-ball at the BMO Bradley Center! After our tour we got discounted tickets and enjoyed the Bucks game. Finally we wrapped up our events with A Key to Academic Success event where Senior Academic Advisor Kristin Roosevelt came into Sandburg and talked with students about why academic advising was important and how to set up an appointment.

We had a great time learning and living with you Business Panthers and on behalf of your RA's, Mentor's, and faculty advisors, have a great break! Take care!

Stay classy (as always),

Michael Ameel

Monday, January 14, 2013

Art & Design Fall 2012

This semester was a great one to be a part of the Art & Design LLC. From the very first class the students were engaged and interested in the projects culminating in a collaborative mural which everyone found out is not as easy as it looks! It has been a great experience to watch everyone learn and grow artistically through the various projects this semester. I have enjoyed participating in the critiques and getting to be a part of the process of each student's work. I have learned so much from both attending the classes every week as well as from the pure passion the students have put into their artwork. I have learned both physical techniques such as printmaking which I never had the opportunity to partake in in my 2D class as well as things about myself from working as a mentor this first semester.


The engagement of the students in activities was great. There were a multitude of events planned both for and by the students including various trips to the Milwaukee Art Museum for MAM After Dark, to the Riverwest Artwalk, a Printmaking session in the Studio Arts & Crafts Center, various movie nights, and even a Holiday Decorating Party. For every event students brought a great attitude and were really interested in learning from the experience.

Not only were students great outside of class, at events, but they were able to work together to learn and grow from each other. For The Tragedy of King Lear play performed at UWM, the Art & Design LLC students were able to create full-size posters hung outside the theatre and on banners in the theatre lobby for the entire campus to see. For their final project they were also able to collaborate on a full size mural consisting of 24 individual paintings incorporating knowledge they gained from research about the Milwaukee River. Although creating a cohesive piece of artwork did not come as easy as expected, especially between the two different classes, the students worked very hard in a short amount of time to incorporate elements of surrounding paintings into their own making the mural a success.


Friday, January 11, 2013

ASL LLC Fall Overview


ASL instructor Christopher Rawlings and mentor Ben Wenzel
participating in a vocab review game.
This semester has gone by so fast! I can’t believe my first semester as an RA is coming to an end.  As the ASL-LLC RA, it has been great to see everyone’s skills develop.  Many students didn’t know any ASL before coming to UWM.  Now I see students having full conversations with others.  Students have gained a better understanding of some of the struggles their Deaf peers face on a regular basis as well as learning what Deaf culture is all about.  Residents have learned this through experience from living in the ASL-LLC as well as from their Deaf Culture class.


Some of my favorite moments have actually been from both LLC residents as well as residents who are not in the LLC.  I see non LLC residents trying to learn ASL and learn to communicate with Deaf residents.  These are my favorite moments because it shows me that the LLC is very influential.  The ASL-LLC is more than a community for those who request it, but as an LLC we try to educate others about the culture and language that we are immersing ourselves in.


All of our events this semester have allowed residents to see different aspects of Deaf culture and different things that Deaf people enjoy doing within the Deaf community.  We started out with Deaf Game Night, which showed students the type of games Deaf individuals enjoy as well as Deaf cultural norms such as sitting or standing in a circle (most of the games involved standing in a circle).  Deaf Bowling night allowed students to have fun while using the language they recently started to learn.  Bowling is also a popular activity within the Deaf community.  Our last event is a study night.  For this event the ASL instructor for the ASL 1 class, Christopher Rawlings, will come to the community to help lead games and other activities that allow students to practice the important aspects of the language they learned through the semester.  This event will help residents prepare for their ASL final exam.   I am proud to see how far the ASL LLC residents have come, and can’t wait to see their skills improve even more next semester!

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Semester Overview- Film


Semester Overview

One semester down, one to go.  The residents of the Film, Video, and New Genres LLC are deep in the midst of completing their first 16mm films.  Every night I am witness to the random bursts of noise caused by residents running down the halls in Batman and Monkey suits while trying to figure out why they caused a power surge throughout the plugs in the hall.  But I digress.  Now is just as much a time to reflect on the year past as it is to acknowledge the present.
This year we accomplished many things as an LLC.  Some of us released our first full documentaries; others began to work on their first short stories.  Many of us learned more about film by watching and all of us learned by getting behind them.  All the LLC members are about to finish a short each, made on real film stock, and are anxiously waiting for their premiere dates (or editing if they are afraid they won’t make that date).  We’ve gone to movies together, we’ve volunteered together, and we have even rocked out at a concert together.  The year has been fun and I have learned a lot about the power that a passion for something you love can bring to students and how all our passions can be put together to make a new whole.
Now we look to next year.  Much will be the same but inevitably there will be some change.  The great thing, however, is that we are all excited to see it.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Semester Review- Communication and Conflict


This semester was a semester that i'm glad i got to be apart of. I think that our LLC has really connected with one another. I am very glad to see that the T-shirts we made for and event are proudly worn by the LLC members. I think that our events have been very good this year we had some to help get connected to the campus and explore what UWM has to offer. I think the one event that stood out was our T-shirt event. We all came up with a design in our community and personally pressed the T-shirts, and then had everyone in the LLC sign the back. I believe that this was an event that was enjoyed if if you were not able to make it to the press time.

I believe that residents got a good sense of attachment to one another. I think that everyone in the LLC gets along well and i often see members hanging out together. I believe that it helped with social connections and just self actualization all together. I think that one of my favorite moments was one day during check in. Just seeing the general interest that everyone had in each others stories and responding to the good and the bad. It was just one of those moments that makes you think, "Wow, this is what I really wanted to happen." When i took the class we developed a little family, and I think that another family was made this year, and i hope that when it is all done people stay in contact mike my family does.



(this was sort of the design we made for our T-shirt event.)
Don't be complacent with silence!


Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Finishing Strong!


Hello Everyone!

It's hard to believe that another semester is almost done and for our LLC students, the first semester of their college career. This semester has had it all and has kept us on our toes at all times. Like I always say, I’m one lucky RA for having the privilege of working with two amazing LLCs that are very dear to me; the Environmental Sustainability & Bio-Math and Lab Rats.

To finish up our semester strong, we had a LLC Dinner Celebration at the Meltwater House where everyone had a great opportunity to make stronger connections with other LLC students as well as stakeholders. It was a great time and the food was amazing.


As a whole, we have had great times, from having nature walks, exploration trips around Milwaukee, game nights, decorating competitions, and even private tours; our LLC has really done it all.  And one of the most important aspects of this job is that I’ve seen my residents grow throughout the semester in ways that I did not even expect.

I just want to say THANKS to everyone for making it an amazing semester!!!