Doing Institutional Goals at TLU

In the second section of institutional goals at TLU the section is labeled doing. In this section I believe the main thing we should take away from it is thinking critically and reflectively and drawing reasonable, supportable conclusions, both individually and in groups. This is a highly valuable skill to take away from our time here at TLU. It can really help us with job skills in the future and for while we are still in school. There are going to be times in our life when we will be forced to work with others, and we might not always like who we work with. Regardless of what we think it will be up to us to work in the group and establish an end product. Thinking in groups requires more knowledge than thinking individually because you have to think in how you would combine your ideas with that of others.

Knowing Institutional Goals at TLU

In the Texas Lutheran University Catalog it lists institutional goals for graduating students. These goals are expected to be experienced and learned through a students time here at Texas Lutheran University. There are three sections of institutional goals. The first section of goals is under the section titled knowing. The main sub article I noticed under the section was achieving a breadth of knowledge in the arts, humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences. I find that it's very important we follow this advice and become well rounded students. With today's society more and more people are becoming educated in various topics. With TLU graduates obtaining an education on numerous items it allows them to interact with others and be competitive in fields that require different experience. It also allows students to further their education in their major, it allows them to think of outside studies ideas and in turn that helps apply knowledge to their topic of study.

Becoming Institutional Goals at TLU

One of the institutional goals for graduates at Texas Lutheran University is becoming committed to active community service. One example I saw of this practice here at TLU was when the majority of the school participated in the Days of the Dogs. There were numerous groups participating in the events such as Greek organizations, TAS, etc. I volunteered with the group Texas Academy of Science. Our project was to clean up about a mile stretch of highway during the day. Getting involved and helping the community really represents the university very well, as well as giving a strong sense of entitlement to the students as they have done a good deed for the community. TLU institutes these institutional goals I believe to graduate more developed and well rounded students for the world. As these goals become achieved the student learns more than just the educational side of things, as they experience things outside of the classroom.

Academic Symposium

This Friday I attended the Academic Symposium, I was required to attend for my Intro. to Theology class. The event I attended was the the Theology presentations by Meredith Price and Kiesha Priem. The main topic was Homosexuality In the Church. In the presentation Meredith took the information from a paper she wrote on the topic and applied it to a power point, solely for the purpose of informing those who attended her presentation easier. The idea she kept hitting on was the fact that it is hard for the Lutheran Church to accept the idea of change. The point was that old school values don't apply to the thinkings of today anymore, we need to change our thinking and adapt it in a way that represents future thinking and progression. The presentation really helped to show ways of thinking toward the idea from the past compared to how the thinking of today should be applied to the topic.

Relating History and English

In my North American History class we are discussing the Mexican Revolution and the topic of independence. This topic could easily help me with my paper on independence. In this instance the definition of independence is changed to reflect the thinking of a country and its best interest. Here again we see the topic of independence taking many forms. In my paper I have chosen to relate the topic to my moving away from home and establishing my true individuality. While I have chosen to focus on this topic this could easily be written about as well in my paper. The connection between my history class and the english class shows how universal education is, and that topics are brought about in nearly every study at universities. I have chosen to include examples from my own life and to focus on the life of college freshman, however if needed I could easily include examples showing how universal the word independent is.

Annotated Bibliography

The subject for my annotated bibliography is on the legalization of marijuana. I chose this topic because it provided a very good opportunity for introducing counterargument and argument into my paper. With all the opinions of people in the world today, any topic could be easily argued either for or against. I personally don't share an opinion either way on the topic, but judging from the responses I have seen from my sources I have come to understand on why there is so much debate on whether weed should be legalized or not. With its legalization the US would make so much more money on taxing it and its distribution. Safety is a main concern others express, however weed is much safer than cigarettes and alcohol. These arguments are the exact reason I chose this topic, it was a very controversial topic that explained two very different opinionated sides on the topic.

Rhetorical Analysis Word

The word I have chosen for my rhetorical analysis project is independent. The definition of independent is very open for discussion. You could argue its when you are financially independent, or just out on your own making your decisions. There is a very wide range when it comes to a definition of any word, specifically the term independent. It won't be very hard to find pop culture opinions on the definition of independent. One of the main groups behind the word in pop culture are women. In this coming age women are holding more power throughout the United States and emerging to become very influential, contrary to that of the older times. The kairos of this project could not have been any better. As a college freshman it is one the first true times I am independent of my parents. Not living under the roof of my parents has been an independent experience and will be a major topic in the paper I write. Below is a link to a video by Destiny's Child showcasing independent women of today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuMmfDWMLgY

Web Pages Assignment

For our speculative webpages assignment our task is to focus on updates and improvements for the Texas Lutheran University website. By doing this I believe it will really help with the quality of our English department here at TLU. A good model for a website that I have chose to use is the Texas Tech University website. On this site the English and Communications degrees are separated into two individual links. An interesting thing that Texas Tech does is provide scholarships online just for English majors. This is the major improvement I have chose to focus on during my project. I believe this would be such a good idea for our university. It would show prospective student that we have something unique to offer them. So for the purpose of the university it would help them with recruiting, while at the same time helping the current students enrolled. By focusing on these minor improvements it will really help to improve our English department here at TLU.