Looking at art

October 1, 2020

The first art piece that stood out to me is called ‘Rolling Fire, Eastern Lyon County, Kansas, 2005’ by Larry Schwarm from Kansas. This pice is a C-print.

This piece stuck out to more than most because of its color. It is a very bright orange color that filled the print and the edges are a darker tint of orange. I also really like how the smoke of the fire is still the bright orange but you can tell the difference between the smoke and the fire because of the movement of the photo. This pice reminds me of back home when farmers burn their fields.

The second piece I chose is by Phyllis Sloane, from Illinois called ‘The Straw Hat, 1983’.

This pice is a screen print and it is of a woman looking sad and lonely sitting next to a bag with a jacket and a straw hat sitting on top of it. When walking up to this pice I felt sad. The more I looked at it I noticed bags sitting next to her and instantly started creating scenarios why she would be sitting there with bags looking sad.


Personal Narrative Final

September 30, 2020

I just turned sixteen. I could drive wherever I wanted to go, well kinda. I was saving my money up for a car for a while now. My mom told me that we could go look at cars next week. I was so excited I just couldn’t wait to get my hands on a pair of keys and go cruise around with my friends. 

My sister, Haven, came home from college the week of my birthday and I begged her to let me take her car out to go see one of my friends. 

I could tell that she was nervous to take her car.

“Katy, you are only allowed to drive my car to Sidney and back. That’s it.” Haven said to me while I was running to her car. 

While driving to Sidney I was thinking to myself, “I don’t know why my mom and my sister only let me drive certain places. Driving is so easy, and I am a good driver.”  

My mom only allows me to drive to the grocery store and makes me call her right when I get there so she knows I made it there safely. But this time I did not have tot tell my mom when I get to my friends because she was out of town.

I got to my friend’s house in Sidney and we rode around the town three or four times. We were blasting music singing every song on the radio station before we became bored with the town we were in. 

“Hey, we should go to Nebraska City to go get something to eat,” said my friend, Beth. 

In the back of mind, I knew Haven said not to go anywhere but Sidney; however, I also was thinking it wouldn’t hurt if we just ate and came back. Nebraska City is only about 10 minutes away from Sidney. 

“Yes, let’s go!”

Driving to Nebraska City with no care in the world, Beth and I stopped and ate Mexican food. While at the restaurant, I told her what Haven told me about only driving to Sidney. We both laughed it off.

Driving the back way from Nebraska City to Sidney, Beth told me to take a gravel road because it was faster. 

When I turned on the gravel road, I instantly had a weird feeling and knew that I shouldn’t be driving on this gravel road, because:

1.I never really drove on a gravel road before. 

2. this gravel road had steep hills.

3. I shouldn’t have driven to Nebraska City anyways.

About two miles into the gravel road we came upon a really steep hill. I freaked out a little bit and the car started fishtailing. I could not correct it. 

Beth was screaming in the passenger seat. 

I was freaking out because I knew we were going into the ditch. 

The car went into the ditch. I blacked out. All I knew was that the car was upside down and I had no idea what to do. 

In a frantic, I could not find my phone.

“Beth find a phone and call 911.” 

As I tried crawling out the window of the car to find the help I knew exactly where I was. 

We landed in front of the house owned by the family Haven babysat for in the summer. 

As I heard police sirens coming down the scary gravel road, I ran up to the house and asked if they could help me get Beth out of the car. She was stuck in the seatbelt. 

The owner of the house saw the whole thing happen and was already on his way down to help us. He thought it was Haven in the car. 

“Haven is going to kill me and I am never going to be able to drive again.” I kept thinking and saying over and over again. 

Once Beth got out of the car the police and our parents arrived and asked us a series of questions. 

“Have you been drinking?”

“Were you texting and driving?”

“Why were you driving on this road?”

“Making it out alive with no scratches or injuries you guys are very lucky.”

Not thinking at all we could have died, the thought of Haven not having a vehicle was in the back of my head. 

When I got home it was awkward. Haven was happy that no one was hurt but mad because I went to Nebraska City and she no longer had a car to drive and had no way to get back to school. 

As painful as it was, it crossed my mind that I should give Haven my money. The money I saved and was going to spend on my car that I had been patiently waiting to buy. 

I walked to the bank the next day and pulled my money out. I was in tears because I knew this was the right thing to do but it was all my hard work gone. 

“I should have never gone to Nebraska City.”

I gave my sister all my money. 

Haven was speechless when I gave her the money. She seemed surprised but happy.

“Back to square one. No car. No money. At least I am alive.”


Personal Narrative 1st draft

September 28, 2020

I just turned sixteen. I could drive wherever I wanted to go, kinda. I was saving my money up for a car for a while now. My mom told me that we could go look at cars next week. I was so excited I just couldn’t wait to get my hands on a pair of keys and go cruise around with my friends. 

My sister, Haven, came home from college the week of my birthday and I begged her if I could take her car out to go see one of my friends. 

“Katy, you are only allowed to drive my car to Sidney and back. That’s it” Haven said to me while I was running to her car to leave to go to Sidney. 

I got to my friend’s house in Sidney and we rode around the town of Sidney three or four times. We were blasting music singing every song on the radio station before we became bored. 

“Hey, we should go to Nebraska City to go get something to eat,” said my friend, Beth. 

In the back of mind, I knew Haven said not to go anywhere but Sidney; however, I also was thinking it wouldn’t hurt if we just ate and came back. Nebraska City is only about 10 minutes away from Sidney. 

“Yes, let’s go!”

Driving to Nebraska City with no care in the world, Beth and I stopped and ate Mexican food. While at the restaurant, I told her what Haven told me about only driving to Sidney. We both laughed it off.

Driving the back way from Nebraska City to Sidney, Beth told me to take a gravel road because it was faster. 

When I turned on the gravel road, I instantly had a weird feeling and knew that I shouldn’t be driving on this gravel road.

About two miles into the gravel road we came upon a really steep hill, I freaked out a little bit and the car started fishtailing. I could not correct it. 

Beth was screaming in the passenger seat. 

I was fracking out because I knew we were going into the ditch. 

The car went into the ditch. I blacked out. All I knew was that the car was upside down and I had no idea what to do. 

In a frantic, I could not find my phone.

“Beth find a phone and call 911.” 

As I tried crawling out the window of the car to find the help I knew exactly where I was. 

We landed in front of the house owned by the family Haven babysat for in the summer. 

As I heard police sirens coming down the scary road, I ran up to the house and asked if they could help me get Beth out of the car, she was stuck in the seatbelt. 

The owner of the house saw the whole thing happen and was already on his way down to help us. He thought it was Haven in the car. 

“Haven is going to kill me and I am never going to be able to drive again” I kept thinking and saying over and over again. 

Once Beth got out of the car the police and our parents arrived and asked us a series of questions. 

“Have you been drinking?”

“Were you texting and driving?”

“Why were you driving on this road?”

“While making out alive with no scratches or injuries you guys are very lucky.”

Not thinking at all we could have died, still, the thought of Haven not having a vehicle was in the back of my head. 

Haven was happy that no one was hurt but mad because I went to Nebraska City and she no longer had a car to drive and had no way to get back to school. 

As painful as it was, it crossed my mind that I should give Haven my money. The money I saved and was going to spend on my car that I had been patiently waiting to buy. 

I walked to the bank the next day and pulled my money out. I was in tears because I knew this was the right thing to do but it was all my hard work gone. 

“I should have never gone to Nebraska City.”

I gave my sister all my money. 

“Back to square one. No car. No money. At least I am alive.”


This is what I believe

September 24, 2020

I believe that participation in activities for the youth develops life values, lifelong traits, and have a positive impact on their lives. 

Growing up I never understood why my mom would make my sister and I be a part of 4-H every year. My mom always told us, “it was good to have this experience.” I would just look at her like she was crazy because I just saw 4-H as having to sit through long boring meetings, do projects, and always have to talk to people around the community. 

Now that I am older I can relate back to these experiences and see why my mom made us be a part of 4-H and why it was a good experience being a part of an organization in my youth years. 4-H helped me shape who I am today. 

4-H has taught me three major life skills that will stick with me and I will use them for the rest of my life.  

The first skill is public speaking. During 4-H I learned how to run meetings. I was so nervous when it was my month to run a meeting. I didn’t want to get up in front of people and talk and tell everyone what needed to be done. I was so scared I was going to mess up. The more I did it, the more comfortable I got, and eventually, I wasn’t scared anymore. It was a breeze to run a meeting and communicate on what needed to be done after practicing. These public speaking skills will always serve a role in my life. 

The second skill is Healthy living. 4-H taught me building blocks that lead me to a healthy lifestyle. 

We would have clubs to teach us the basics of cooking and stitching, such as how to cook things from scratch using the tools we were given and how to stitch back up a piece of clothing if it had a hole in it. These are huge basic skills that everyone should be comfortable with. 

The third skill I learned was confidence. Instead of kids being stuck in the house all day playing on their phones, youth activities, such as 4-H get them involved in real-world situations and off the couch and help them get out of their shell to learn how to interact with people outside of their families. 4-H gave me so many opportunities to be confident by meeting new people, entering numerous contests, and speaking in front of large crowds. 

Getting youth involved in activities can help them shape who they are for the future, teaching them life long skills. This is what I believe.


How COVID-19 is impacting the Morningside College community

September 16, 2020

While students at Morningside College are happy to be able to attend in-person classes this fall, there are still some concerns about COVID-19 wandering around campus.

Many different things on campus have changed since the start of the pandemic. There are seating arrangements in classes so you can’t sit by your friends, mandatory mask mandates, and some classes are fully online now so students feel like they are not grasping all the information and feel distracted by outside things when not in the classroom. 

As Morningside is trying to keep the college running as normal as possible while meeting all of the mandatory guidelines, students are concerned about the future for Morningside and how it’s all going to be affected by COVID-19.

Lauren Kipp, a junior at Morningside, noticed she wasn’t feeling too well the third week of school. She went to get tested for the COVID-19. While she was waiting for her test to come back, Morningside made her move out of her apartment and live on the third floor of Dimmitt Hall until she got her test results back.

“I didn’t know what to do because I was just sent to a room and I didn’t want to leave it just in case I was negative. I didn’t want to be around positive people.”

After five days, Lauren finally got her test results back and they were positive. She learned that she had to stay in Dimmitt for another week. When she found out that she was positive she wasn’t scared to leave her room anymore to shower, walk to get her food from the lobby, etc.

“I just feel bad for people that are negative and living in the same hall as the positive people,” said Lauren. “No one really knows whats going on in isolation/ quarantine floor. There isn’t guidance on what to do while we are here.”

Lauren’s fear for the future is that Morningside College is going to move fully online and things never going back how they use to be.

“It is hard doing everything online because you can’t ask person to person questions without the whole class hearing.” Lauren said, “It is really hard being personal even being in class because when we are wearing a mask, no one seems like they want to talk, and it is really hard to make friends that way.”

Emma Schmitz, a senior, says her last year isn’t going the way she expected. Emma hasn’t been in contact with anyone on campus that has COVID-19; she is taking precautions. All of Emma’s classes are face to face.

“My biggest challenge now that we are back at school is making sure I am making the right decisions like staying inside when I need to.”

Emma thinks that Morningside is doing a pretty good job keeping students safe while attending on campus.

“Morningside is doing a lot better than most colleges by keeping us informed,” Emma said. “The college does put a lot of fluff to make us feel better, making the emails a lot longer than to be.” 

Emma is majoring in Art Education and she has been preparing for the last four years to teach in person. “My biggest fear is just not being prepared for teaching online,” Emma said. “We haven’t thought about what happens if we stay online. I am also nervous about students not even having art class in the future if we stay online.” 

As shown, many students on campus have a lot of nerves and different concerns for this school year. Chris Spicer, Vice President of Academic Affairs, strives to keep everyone up to date and informed about the protocol week to week.

“We are constantly looking at a variety of factors. Externally, any actions taken by the Iowa Governor have to be adhered to. We are also in frequent communication with Siouxland District Health who is able to provide data and trends regarding cases and hospitalizations in the greater Siouxland area. Internally, our COVID-19 dashboard is incredibly informative as are regular conversations with Student Health. All those factors are taken together, holistically, to determine our operational levels” said Chris. 

Morningside operation levels: 

GREEN: All normal operations have resumed with exceptions for highrisk individuals. 

YELLOW: Risk is considered low to moderate for all but high-risk individuals. Learning and working will take place primarily in-person, with some guidelines in place to limit contact and large group gatherings. 

ORANGE: Risk is considered moderate to elevated for all but high-risk individuals. Students and employees are present on campus but will utilize more options to learn and work remotely or to limit in-person contact.

RED: Risk is high for everyone. Most of all students and employees will utilize remote working and learning options. The campus is following directives from state and national authorities.

At the beginning of this school year, Morningside told the campus that they would do anything possible to continue to protect the health and safety of Morningside while sticking to Morningside’s mission. 

“Most aspects of campus have had safety modifications made, from classes to dining services to co-curricular experiences, but who we are and our mission hasn’t changed. Students are receiving a high-quality education, learning from bright faculty who are experts in their respective fields, and gaining valuable co-curricular and experiential learning experiences,” said Chris.

While concerns are still wondering about campus Chris Spicer has advise to the Morningside community: 

“Have patience and don’t panic. The entire world is in a constant state of turmoil, and everyone is having to solve problems that didn’t exist 8 months ago. The entire Morningside community has worked incredibly hard to be able to bring students back to campus this fall, and it will take the entire community to be able to continue to do so. Students have a role to play as well: wear your mask; don’t gather in large groups; stay home if you are sick or have been exposed; practice good hygiene.”


Draft #1

September 9, 2020

While students at Morningside College are happy to be able to attend in-person classes this fall, there are still some concerns about COVID-19 wandering around campus.

Many different things on campus have changed since the start of the pandemic. There are seating arrangements in classes, mandatory mask mandates, and some classes are fully online now.

As Morningside is trying everything in their will power to keep the college up and running while being safe, there are still a lot of things that students think the college could do. Students are also concerned about how their plans will be affected by COVID19.

Lauren Kipp, a junior at Morningside, noticed she wasn’t feeling too well the third week of school. She went to get tested for the coronavirus. While she was waiting for her test to come back, Morningside made her move out of her apartment and live on the third floor of Dimmitt Hall until she got her test results back.

“I didn’t know what to do because I was just sent to a room and I didn’t want to leave it just in case I was negative. I didn’t want to be around positive people.”

After five days, Lauren finally got her test results back and they were positive. She learned that she had to stay in Dimmitt for another week. When she found out that she was positive she wasn’t scared to leave her room anymore to shower, walk to get her food from the lobby, etc.

“I just feel bad for people that are negative and living in the same hall as the positive people.”

“No one really knows whats going on in isolation/ quarantine floor. There isn’t guidance on what to do while we are here.”

Lauren’s fear for the future is that Morningside college is going to go fully online and things never going back how they use to be.

“It is hard doing everything online because you can’t ask a person to person questions without the whole class hearing.” Lauren said, “It is really hard being personal even being in class because when we are wearing a mask no one seems like they want to talk, and it is really hard to make friends that way.”

Emma Schmitz, a senior, says her last year isn’t going the way she expected. Emma hasn’t come in contact with anyone that has COVID-19 or been sick during this pandemic, she is taking precautions. All of Emma’s classes are face to face.

“My biggest challenge is now that back at school is making sure I am making the right decisions like staying inside when I need to.”

Emma thinks that Morningside is doing a pretty good job keeping students safe while attending on campus.

“Morningside is doing a lot better than most colleges by keeping us informed,” Emma said. “The college does put a lot of fluff to make us feel better, making the emails a lot longer than to be.”

Emma is majoring in Art Education and is worried about her future being a teacher.

“I’ve spent the last 4 years learning how to teach in the classroom and not learning other methods.”

Many different things on campus have changed since the start of the pandemic. There are seating arrangements in classes, mandatory mask mandates, and some classes are fully online now.

As Morningside is trying everything in their will power to keep the college up and running while being safe, there are still a lot of things that students think the college could do. Students are also concerned about how their plans will be affected by COVID19.

Lauren Kipp, a junior at Morningside, noticed she wasn’t feeling too well the third week of school. She went to get tested for the coronavirus. While she was waiting for her test to come back, Morningside made her move out of her apartment and live on the third floor of Dimmitt Hall until she got her test results back.

“I didn’t know what to do because I was just sent to a room and I didn’t want to leave it just in case I was negative. I didn’t want to be around positive people.”

After five days, Lauren finally got her test results back and they were positive. She learned that she had to stay in Dimmitt for another week. When she found out that she was positive she wasn’t scared to leave her room anymore to shower, walk to get her food from the lobby, etc.

“I just feel bad for people that are negative and living in the same hall as the positive people.”

“No one really knows whats going on in isolation/ quarantine floor. There isn’t guidance on what to do while we are here.”

Lauren’s fear for the future is that Morningside college is going to go fully online and things never going back how they use to be.

“It is hard doing everything online because you can’t ask a person to person questions without the whole class hearing.” Lauren said, “It is really hard being personal even being in class because when we are wearing a mask no one seems like they want to talk, and it is really hard to make friends that way.”

Emma Schmitz, a senior, says her last year isn’t going the way she expected. Emma hasn’t come in contact with anyone that has COVID-19 or been sick during this pandemic, she is taking precautions. All of Emma’s classes are face to face.

“My biggest challenge is now that back at school is making sure I am making the right decisions like staying inside when I need to.”

Emma thinks that Morningside is doing a pretty good job keeping students safe while attending on campus.

“Morningside is doing a lot better than most colleges by keeping us informed,” Emma said. “The college does put a lot of fluff to make us feel better, making the emails a lot longer than to be.”

Emma is majoring in Art Education and is worried about her future being a teacher.

“I’ve spent the last 4 years learning how to teach in the classroom and not learning other methods.”


It’s the little things.

September 8, 2020

Daniel Ver Steeg married his high school sweetheart, Erika. They started dating their junior year in high school. Erika asked Daniel to prom, then they went on a couple of dates to Hu Hot, and then the rest was history.

Daniel and Erika’s married life isn’t what people imagine it to be. They are a very busy couple, when they have an open night they try to do things together to keep the romance alive.

“I don’t just want to be roommates, I want to be together and do things together.”

Daniel described the couple as, “complete opposites.” Erika likes to read, watch reality TV, and more calming shows. While Daniel likes sports, and more of the action shows.

Something that Daniel and Erika have in common is that they both like to play a video game called Minecraft.

The happily married couple has their own computers to play Minecraft on. Playing side by side in the same world of Minecraft they have two different goals when playing.

“When playing, Erika plays peacefully and focuses on building houses, while my main focus is to get to the ender dragon.”

“When the time comes I’ll be fighting the ender dragon alone” said Daniel.

Even though Daniel and Erika have a lot of differences, they still keep finding the spark to keep their marriage alive.


Reverse Scavenger Hunt

September 4, 2020

When trying to give out my yummy treats to people they seemed mostly confused.

Walking into Hannahs’s room, one of my roommate’s I asked her to have one of my yummy gummy treats. She looked questionable about it at first but then she grabbed one. Before she opened it she read what was on the package to see what exactly she was getting herself into. 

When Hannah opened them after looking over the packaging she but one gummy in her mouth. At first, she wasn’t sure what to think of it. “They are just a little bit sour,” she said sarcastically as she made a big sour face. 

After the first gummy she didn’t know if she wanted to eat anymore. When she looked at the packaging again she commented on it and said “interesting” Then she ate two more gummies and put them away from here. She only ate three gummies before she was done. 

I asked her if she was going to eat the rest of them and she gave me a weird look and said “Do I have to eat the whole thing?” I replied saying you can eat how many you want to eat. And then she returned on what she was doing before I bothered her confused. 

Next, I asked my other roommate Emma,  that was sitting on the couch if she would eat the gummies for me. She gave me a confused face and said “sure.” Emma ripped right into the gummies and started tasting them one by one. 

Thinking hard what they tasted like she commented “Am I allowed to eat them all?” I replied, “you can eat as many as you want.” 

When sitting there observing Emma eating the gummies she was describing how the gummies were. “That one was sour. They are chewy but then not that chewy,” said Emma. 

Emma seemed to like them she ate all of the gummies out of the package. Once she ate them all she asked, “where did you get these from because I will probably buy them, they are good.” 

To give out the rest of my yummy gummy treats I laid them on the center counter of the library on the second floor. There weren’t many people in the library so not a lot of people got to see them. 

One student passed by them but did not even acknowledge the treats. 

The second student that passed by the treats seen them from a distance, waked up to them, looked at me to give him a signal. I did a little nod and he grabbed one and walked away. 

Another student passed by the treats looked at them weird and kept walking. 


Sketch #1

September 2, 2020

Topic: What is college student’s concerns while attending college during the COVID19 pandemic.

Many people have mixed reviews on the coronavirus. When working at the library I will sit back and watch people to see how they act, if they sit close to people, and if they will wear a mask. I will also ask a couple of students about what there thoughts are on COVID.

People I’m going to interview:

  • Senior, Emma Schmitz
  • Senior, Hannah Sibbel
  • Junior, Lauren Kipp

Topic questions:

  • Do you feel safe when going to class?
  • What are the biggest challenges have you faced going to college while in a pandemic?
  • Do you have any worries about your future because of COVID19?
  • What can Morningside College do differently regarding COVID19?


Leads

September 2, 2020

https://www.thecut.com/2020/09/pilots-report-seeing-a-guy-in-a-jetpack-flying-over-l-a.html

What grabbed my attention when looking at the lead of this story was that not every day you see a guy flying a jet pack so when I saw the lead it made me want to read more about it. I was thinking “why is a guy up that high in the air for a pilot to see him?” “I didn’t even know jet packs were real.” “I wonder what the full story is.”

1.) Only in LA, you can see a guy flying 3,000 miles above the ground.

2.) Los Angeles International Airport reported that their plane had just passed someone wearing a jetpack 3,000 miles above the ground.

3.) A guy wearing a jet pack has been spotted 3,000 miles about the ground.