yo professor! mentor me!

As I think about a faculty member that would help me grow in my accounting field and mentor me if I needed, I see someone that has experience and knowledge in accounting. If I had to choose a faculty member right now it would be Anne Clem. She is my current professor in Accounting 284.

She is a very good professor because she is very passionate about accounting. Anne teaches as though she truly cares about each and every one of her students. She makes her class enjoyable to go to and actually makes me want to come to class every day. I feel as though she would be an excellent mentor because I believe she would take her passion for teaching and focus it towards helping and teaching me to prepare me for a future in accounting.

Anne received her bachelor’s degree from Iowa State in 1990 and her PhD from the University of Texas in 1997. She has done empirical research in financial accounting and capital markets. I feel as if her experiences in financial accounting would be very helpful to me in my accounting degree. She not only teaches Accounting 284, but Accounting 495/595. These are upper level classes that I will be taking during my senior year.

I think it will be very beneficial to make a connection with Professor Clem as a freshman so that she will be able to guide me through the next few years of college and then help me finish up with the upper level accounting courses my final year. Finding a mentor will not only help you throughout college, but they will help you have the best experience in each class. I think that by just asking Professor Clem it would help me immensely throughout my journey at Iowa State.

ISU Ski and Snowboard Club

The ISU Ski and Snowboard Club is the second largest club at Iowa State. They have a variety of trips and weekly events for members to partake in. Members of the club also receive special discounts at several sporting goods stores in the area as well at Seven Oaks in Boone. The club seems very laid back and has a fun environment which is why I would love to join.

They have a club meeting once or twice a month. At the meetings, everyone gets to enjoy free food and drinks as well as social with other members. They discuss upcoming events and trips. They have several trips available during Thanksgiving break, Winter break, Spring break, and an end of the year trip. For example, this year for their Winter break trip, they are traveling to Breckenridge, Colorado. The club is offering a very cheap price to go there for a week and stay in a luxurious condo. The members also receive lift tickets, discounted ski and snowboard rentals, lessons, and exclusive entertainment. Many of the club members have described the trips as “epic”!

It is a club that encourages everyone to join even if you do not know how to ski or snowboard. I have only snowboarded a couple times (each time I spent more time on my bottom than on the board), but I am still very interested in joining because I want to learn to get better. I want to improve so that I can keep up with my friends on our annual trip to Minnesota. But I also want to learn and improve so that I can enjoy actually staying on my feet instead of having several painful bruises after snowboarding.

Although I have not joined yet, it seems like a very fun opportunity to get involved in. It would be a great way to meet tons a new people as well as get involved in something that I am interested in. This club is very appealing to me because it will allow me to become involved in something that will take my mind off of school work.

Ever since I was in grade school, I’ve always been relatively shy and unconfident when speaking in front of people. At the end of my senior year I was forced to face my fear of public speaking. Every year the faculty and all the members of the senior class vote on two people to speak at the graduation ceremony. I was very surprised when I was pulled into the principal’s office one day during the final weeks of school and told I was voted to be a speaker. Although I was honored to be selected, I was very uneasy about talking in front of hundreds of people at graduation.

I remember going home from school that day and thinking “I have to finish this speech in one week and I have no idea what to talk about!” I began by brainstorming for ideas and memories from grade school, but I didn’t think any of those were good enough for my speech. But just as I seemed to be the most stressed out, the idea just hit me.

I furiously began writing a speech about how our class is like a puzzle. We all have a special meaning and purpose in our puzzle. But as some of us think that our puzzle is the only puzzle, we are only about to find out that our puzzle is just one small piece in the puzzle of life. After writing the speech and proofreading it about a million times by not only me, but several of my teachers, I finally handed it in. As most people would think writing it would be the difficult task, I disagree, because now I had to do the hard part, actually read it at graduation.

If I had learned anything about myself throughout high school, it was definitely that I hated talking in front of people. I mean don’t get me wrong, I looooove talking, but anytime I have to talk in front of even a class of 15, I get a weird feeling in my stomach, my voice quivers, and I get very sweaty. I decided that to try to avoid screwing up, I would just memorize my four page speech and that is exactly what I did. I practiced my speech over and over and over again until I knew almost every line of it.

When graduation day finally came, I delivered my speech (only messing up once) and it felt amazing. I received so many compliments on my speech and my public speaking skills, skills that I didn’t even know I had! I definitely felt that I was at my best on graduation day because I confidently delivered a speech in front of over 500 people, when before I was scared to even speak to a class of fifteen. The opportunity to speak gave me a whole new kind of confidence that will stay with me forever.