the Essentials to the Dorm
My suitcase to come back to the dorm today was pretty funny.
All food, plus two pairs of shoes.
Does anybody like that food? This is a pretty decent gathering of favorites for me.
Henderson Cafeteria Napkin Board
The cafeteria here isn't the greatest in the world, but they are open minded. They have invented one of the finest ideas I've seen on campus. They call it,
the Napkin Board
Every table in the cafeteria has a napkin dispenser in the middle. Students can take a napkin and use it to post suggestions to the board. The staff then reads the suggestions as they walk by the board, and tries to improve.
Sadly, people usually use the board to just be negative. A common post would be something like,
"MY FRIES WERE COLD, AGAIN. DO YOUR JOBS"
I try to be a little nicer, because although the food really isn't that good, the staff works, REALLY HARD. They are an extremely motivated, hard-working crew, that deserves a pat on the back, not a spit to the face.
I try to keep it light, because it can get ugly if there goes a few days without somebody speaking up with a kind word.
That being said, I don't just put "THANKS GUYS, LOVE YA!" up there. I'm trying to get a message across, too.
"You did not do a good job washing your hands"
At Henderson, I spend quite a bit of time at the MBSF.
Missionary Baptist Student Fellowship
The group has a house-type hangout across from the famous Henderson fountain. The building is pretty sweet, and being a college student place, it's got some witty stuff lying around.
In the guy's bathroom, they've got this sign posted. I love it.
Nature's Refuge
Tonight's Refuge service went well. A lot happened, but there were 2 key points.
both of them fly.
Soon after the first song, I see something, something pretty big, fly through the air across the room. Looked like somebody had tossed a hacky sac or something. This hacky sac started soaring from one side of the room to the other.
Nobody was throwing a hacky sac in church, it was a bat, in church.
This bat was going bizzerk. Swooping down low by heads, way up into the catwalks, back and forth, front to back, bizzerk. It managed to distract the majority of the group for the majority of the worship. It landed on the ceiling, upside down, above the pulpit. I guess it wanted to take a break and hear the sermon.
After the sermon, the band came back up and played a few more songs. I felt something tingling my right hand.
When I mix, both hands are on the board, resting on the edge, with fingers spread to the faders.
But, something was tickling my right hand, and with our friend Tom the Bat flying around, I lifted my hands to take a look.
There was a ladybug, trying to journey from the LR faders to Ch. 1. My hands were blocking the road (board tape highway), so I kindly removed the double road-block temporarily for our lady.
She was just sitting next to my hand, tickling it, basically asking me to move. As soon as I lifted my hands, she charged forward and got out of my way. It was pretty funny.
Ran the service tonight between 87 and 104dB. too hot?
Panama's: Claudia Gonzalez
A very exclusive group of students attend Henderson from out of the country. Claudia Gonzalez is one of the exclusive – an international student. Students may not realize it by looking at her, but Gonzalez calls the tiny country of Panama home.
Claudia, pronounced more like the cumulus puffs and less like vaudeville, lives on-campus, and is part of the Henderson International program.
International students hear about Henderson through various ways. Smith said, “Some find us through recruiting agencies, others come to us because of a relative who attended Henderson, and still others just find us on the Internet.”
When asked about how she found the campus, she stated that Henderson visited her school, and had an exhibit setup. She spoke with a representative about coming here, and getting involved in the biology department.
According to Drew Smith, director of International programs, Henderson has 103 students from 30 different countries represented on campus. “Claudia is our only student from Panama,” said Smith.
In Panama, a child can attend the public schools for free, or, to get any quality of an education at all, pay to attend a private high school. Gonzalez’s parents weren’t really left with an option, and had to find a way to put her through private school. Since Gonzalez was privileged enough to attend a rigorous private high school, she was more than prepared for Henderson classes. She is now a sophomore majoring in Biology, and is doing well in her classes because of her Panamanian preparation.
Gonzalez attended one of the most difficult high schools in Panama, and had to persevere to graduate with the GPA that she did. Once out, she had to persevere to make it all the way to Henderson State, and to make it through her rough Freshman year.
With Panama being relatively small, the majority of their income comes from the famous Panama Canal that the United States constructed there almost a century ago. With such a tiny country, and such high fees for the usage of the canal, the country should be an economic paradise. However, the government of Panama is not a perfect system. Every four years, just like the Democratic system of America, elections bring a new leader into office. Here in the United States, this is usually a smooth transition, with no significant change upfront. A new person coming into office turns the poor tiny country upside-down. “Everything changes” Gonzalez says, “If you had a job before, your chances of keeping it are slim.” When a new party takes office, they fire the majority of the old administration is fired. “It’s like a rollercoaster,” she says, “you could have a great job for four years, and then you’re on the street.” The only thing to do is to wait for the office to switch again in four years, and live on what you can until then.
Making it to Henderson State was not an easy task for Gonzalez. She had to arrive with only a suitcase, and set up a dorm room to get her through an entire 9 months without a home visit. Her first week here was the most difficult. Since she had nothing but the suitcase worth of belongings, she had to go shopping immediately, just to have the bare necessities to live. However, with no car, and no friends here on campus, it was her caring suitemates that took care of her. “Without them giving me a ride, I don’t know what I would have done,” said Gonzalez.
Smith said, “I understand the value of international experience as well as some of the challenges of living and studying in another country. He has visited 11 foreign countries, receiving his PhD from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
When an international student comes to the United States, they are allowed into the country because they have been issued an F-1 visa. They can only remain in the country if they are full-time students who take the minimum number of credit hours each semester, not counting summer terms. They cannot work off campus unless they apply for and receive a work permit.
“I don’t care where I am in the world, as long as I’m with my people,” said Gonzalez. Keeping in touch with her friends and family back in Panama can be an expensive chore. A ten-minute phone call costs Gonzalez over $5.
Gonzalez has had to work hard for her college career. She has traveled thousands of miles just to attend class here, and has overcome some major trials to make it as far as she had. Leaving home to go off to college is hard enough for students in-state. Tacking on the element of coming from a foreign country does not make the process any easier. But, Claudia Gonzalez is a persevering Panamanian, and she’s doing just fine here.
Smith had nothing but positive things to say about Gonzalez. “Claudia is a wonderful and bright student. She has excelled in her studies here at Henderson and I am confident that she will do well in whatever she chooses to do."
