For your first blog post, I would like you to write 250-350 words or so introducing the classmate you interviewed to the rest of our class. Take care with this short piece, for it is our first impression of you as a writer, as well as the first impression of the person you interviewed. Make it interesting, make it fun, and try to capture the person in writing and use quotes, brief stories, and any other vivid details you can discover to enrich your mini-profile.
For example, if I were to interview myself and post the result, I might write something like:
Place matters to Professor Geoffrey Bateman, which is why his current research is so important to him.
"I think the different regions of our country shape us in important ways," he says. “As a teacher and scholar, I'm interested in studying the literature and cultural history of places, especially the American West."
Having grown up near Portland, Oregon, his interest in the West has evolved since childhood. He grew up exploring everything from the majestic Columbia River Gorge to the misty Oregon coast; he hiked the Pacific Crest Trail and hung out in quirky urban spaces of Portland and Seattle.
These experiences may help explain his current research on the queer frontier. His dissertation explores the cultural representations of sexuality in the American West near the end of the 19th century.
"It's a particularly rich period for sexuality studies,” he observes. "Sexual identity was not nearly as cut and dried as it became in the mid to late 20th century. And when you consider how racialized identities and gender norms factor into this understanding, you have a veritable explosion of fascinating material."
But his interests aren’t only historical. Professor Bateman believes strongly that historical research must speak to contemporary issues, especially those that are politically charged.
“Literature and history offers us a way to rethink current problems, and for me, I think the most rewarding I can do historically is to show others how texts from the past allow us to re-imagine our lives today.”
Such engagement means that in his first-year writing courses, he tries to find meaningful ways for students to practice their writing. Ideally, he wants them to connect abstract rhetorical concepts and research methodologies with ideas and problems outside our university context.
“Ultimately,” he says, “I want students to feel confident that what they’re learning in my classroom not only prepares them for the rest of their time at DU, but also starts them on a much larger journey of being an engaged citizen for the rest of their lives.”
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Josh Rosenholtz
Josh is from Summerville, Boston next to the city of Cambridge. He lived very close to Harvard University, but moved out here for the experience and to be different from all of the students who remained in the east. He has no idea as to what he wants to major in, but desires to establish a business in the future. The choice to move to the west, a place that he had never been to before, has been a great decision. He loves the mountains. Although he used to ski back in Boston, he proclaims how it is nothing like the mountains in Denver.
He lived with a family in Spain for four months. He initially went in as a foreign exchange student with just vocabulary experience, but left as a fluent Spanish speaker. He likes to play hockey, but doesn’t play for DU. He does play for club roller hockey, which consists of a bunch of frat guys. It’s a lot of fun and he gets a good laugh, seeing that there is a plethora of hilarious “characters” that play. He works at a 24 hour fitness center here in Denver. All styles of music are his favorites, which is also one of his guilty pleasures. He loves techno music and can not resist the tune.
He has not engaged in service learning before. However, Josh looks forward and is excited to engage in community service. Last quarter, he participated with project angel heart and project cure which is a huge warehouse that sends medical supplies overseas to third world countries. He was engaged by a close friend named Tanner, who also referred him to this class.
He enjoys reading short stories. He is currently reading “I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell.” It’s a true story, but is not to be taken seriously. It is very funny though, and describes the life of a college student. He enjoys creative writing styles and fictional writing. He has never been in a class that has opened those doors and got him involved in this type of writing, but he is keeping his eyes open for a class that involves this type of writing.
Josh seems like a really nice person with an adventurous and outgoing personality. Making such a move where he came across the country to an unfamiliar place, displays courage, independence, and individuality. I look forward to working with Josh in Writ 1133-02 this quarter.
Liz De La Rossa.
Liz grew up in Mexico, but is very proud that she lives in Denver now and is able to study here at DU. She is 18 and a freshman at DU. She loves to dance, draw and play soccer along with listening to every type of music. Some of her favorite artists are Spanish, Franco De Vita and Shakira.
Growing up in Mexico, she liked to party and going to the mountains. Now she enjoys visiting.She describes herself as very talkative and absolutely loves to approach new people and make friends with them. She absolutely hates serious people and will do anything to make others laugh.
Her mom would describe her as impatient, sometimes lazy but really organized. Her friends would describe her as fun, talkative and crazy.
As a guilty pleasure, Liz enjoys anything with cheese on it, especially cheesecake.
Jeff Larson, a hater of poetry, but a lover of periodicals and adventure novels. This love of adventure novels can be attributed to Jeff’s adventuresome lifestyle. Jeff loves to play almost any sport, but especially soccer, mountain biking, and skiing. Being from Lake Oswego, Oregon, Jeff spends much of the winter weekends at Mt. Hood, but now hails at Breckenridge, Keystone, or Steamboat.
As described by himself, Jeff is an easy going, fun loving, literal type of person. As an advocate, Jeff has spent a lot of time doing service learning. In Oregon, Jeff has worked at the food bank, as well as various other places.
One morning in early September, Jeff woke up and found himself at the University of Denver. While this was not an accident, Jeff chose to attend this university for the location, but mostly for the business school. When Jeff rocks out in his room, it is typically to bands such as Fall Out Boy, Linkin Park, Jay Z, and Daft Punk.
While innocent looking, even Jeff has a little edge to him. Jeff’s guilty pleasure is eating cold stone ice cream, daily, with his girlfriend, Archelle Grajeda. Jeff has found a love for home made sushi because his girlfriend’s grandparents are full blooded Japanese.
When it comes to trying new things with Jeff, he is open for anything. Jeff has learned many new skills at DU such as pool, ping pong, foosball, and, like most kids in the world today, downloading music and movies.
While this is just the tip of the iceberg about Jeffrey Robert Larson, the tip of an iceberg took down the titanic. Jeff is one deep puddle.
Kelsey Ferguson is a freshman at DU. She grew up in Southwake, Texas, about 45 minutes outside of Dallas. She describes Southwake as a nice area, but not very down to earth.
At DU Kelsey is majoring in biology and hopes to become an ophthalmologist. She also plays D1 lacrosse here, which she considers to be her proudest accomplishment outside of school.
Beside lacrosse Kelsey enjoys arts and crafts and the outdoors. She likes reading. Her favorite types of books are fiction novels and her least favorite thing to read is analytical writing. Kelsey’s favorite author is Jonathan Safan Foyer. Kelsey also likes all types of music except the extremes, like hard-core rap and some country.
Other interests of Kelsey’s are watching all kinds of sports, which is why she really likes the Olympics. She said that she watches them all day when they are on. Her favorites to watch are figure skating, gymnastics, and all kinds of skiing. She’s also a football fan.
Kelsey says that she is a little shy and more of a listener than a talker. Others probably agree with that statement she says. When she wants to indulge, McDonalds is her fast food of choice or she watches bad TV.
As for past experience in service learning Kelsey volunteered with a Spanish program in high school. She worked in a hospital with new mothers who did not speak English. As far as service learning goes, Kelsey says she like it because, “It feels good to get out in the community and help out.”
Deven Swanigan
Deven hails from Benton Harbor, Michigan a smaller city in the western part of the state. Deven lives in the suburban area of Benton Harbor, about 45 minutes from Kalamazoo. He chose to come to DU because of the opportunity for jobs and a good education, he was awarded a full academic scholarship and this also attributed his decision.
Here at DU, Deven is a double-major in Psychology and Spanish. He hopes to travel abroad to Argentina during his junior year to further his Spanish study. On campus Deven is involved in the Social Justice Living and Learning Community. He also works for the Sodexho Catering service that runs the dining halls on campus from their office in the Driscoll Center.
His involvement with the LLC has allowed him to work with the “Community Re-Entry Project” a service project that helps inmates leaving the prison system get settled after their release. He volunteers there for several hours every Friday.
Deven’s favorite book is To Kill A Mockingbird because of the issues of race and equality dealt with in the story. The portrayal of a lawyer defending a his client without judgment because of his race appealed to Deven because he hopes to become a lawyer in the future. Because he is very organized, his favorite type of writing is research writing.
In his free time Deven enjoys going to the movies, going out to eat and listening to music, especially, hip-hop/rap, R&B, gospel, and alternative. He plays both basketball and baseball on occasion as well. When it comes to activities, however, travel is by far his favorite. Deven seems very enthusiastic about seeing and experiencing many different things.
My interview with Kristin Bueb
Kristin Bueb is an art history major here at DU. She says that this was the best art program for her in the state. And coming from West Minster, Colorado she wanted to get away from home, but not that far.
As far as books go, Kristin does not have any favorite authors, but her favorite book of all time is Ella Enchanted. It brings back memories of her childhood and all of those childhood memories. When I asked her why she liked the book, she laughed and said, “Because I’m a girl.” As a writer, Kristin, used to keep a journal religiously. However, now that she is so busy with college writing for her classes, her journal writing has become more infrequent. You could say that her classes are her new motivation to write.
In high school Kristin played tennis, volleyball, and lacrosse. She loves them all, but now only plays them for fun. She also loves to watch movies and listen to music. Comedies are her favorites like Finding Neverland and Cars. “Chick flicks” are her guilty pleasure along with television shows like “The Hills”. “I like all kinds of music, but right now I am really into eastern European gypsy music.”
Throughout her high school career she has helped with numerous Service Projects. Her favorite one was a blanket war where students donated blankets to project Linus. This was her favorite because of the personal ties she has to the organization.
When asked to describe herself she came up with the following adjectives: kind, crazy, spacey, and truly caring. From what I have met of Kristin Bueb so far, these all seem to fit her well.
Joe Bassetti is originally from Mercer Island, Washington about 5 miles from Seattle. He is 18 and will soon turn 19 on April 7th. In his hometown what he liked the most was to be on the lake either wake boarding or swimming. Also he used to love riding his bike “when I was younger I used to ride my bike”
Joe for fun loves to go skiing and machines, fast engines that is. Skiing is one of the reasons he decided to come and join the Colorado community. As for his favorite car, it would be a blue GT Mustang; motorcycles are also in his list.
The kind of music he likes to listen is rock, country, reggae, and hip hop. His favorite artists would be Sublime, Eagles, Nirvana, and Red Hot Chili Peppers. As for sports there is baseball skiing, and water sports.
Joe is most proud of teaching Sunday school to third grade students in the community back in his Hometown.
He loves to eat Italian and Mexican food. His Guilty Pleasure would be having a sweet tooth, for him everything is good when he has some chocolate.
When asked to describe himself he answered “I need excitement, I get bored easily, I love adrenaline” (things that are fast) He also said his mom would describe him as fun, stupid at times, regard personal safety. His friends would say he is fun loving, talkative, inpatient, obsessed with mortised vehicles.
His name is Collin
Went to catholic school for all of his high school years.
What he loves most bout life is family friends, expression (music), and real happiness, “real happiness is never alone, there is always something or someone else.”
What he hates most out of life is hypocrisy, people that don’t honor your word, people with bad character, and people who take advantage of others; he finished with saying, “Do unto others as you would like them to do unto you”.
Loves fiction, love reading to death, and I thought to ask him who his favorite author was and he said, “There are so many that I’m in love with”. But his all time favorite is good old Shakespeare.Doesn’t like thrillers or any of those sobby romance novels
Collin didn’t want to go to college, he wanted to take a year off but he got a good amount of money from DU.
He likes to ski every weekend. He thinks of himself as a big outdoors person, because he likes to go hiking fishing, and loves sports such as swimming and soccer, he says he loves “spending time with people I like” (recently got a girlfriend).
What he doesn’t like about music is, middle age crisis people (Enya, Lenny Kravitz), new age country and 99.9% of techno. But he loves loves LOVES…..Jazz, Classical and Rock. He was awarded a diploma for the American College of Musicians; he got to play for two hours straight at their concert! He is very proud of this.
Guilty pleasure….dun dun dun!
He is a dork and loves to read, he is also a very bad eater you can always find him eating a big oily pizza for breakfast.
Ellen Terry, a native of Everett, Washington was so kind as to let me interview her on topics involving the service learning and writing aspects of this class and also aspects of her personal life.
On the topic of writing, Ellen informed me that her favorite kind of writing is fiction and adventure writing. “My favorite author is John K”, Ellen informs me, “and I would have to say my least favorite kind of writing is research”. In high school, she was a member of an honors society that did a lot of volunteer work and her english class volunteered at a retirement home. She is excited about the service learning aspect of this class because “I like helping people and having an opportunity to learn more about other peoples’ situations”.
In terms of Ellen’s personality, her favorite types of writing fit perfectly because she is a laid back person and very active outdoors, with hiking, running, skiing, and snowboarding as her favorite fun activities. She is also most proud of the climbing she has done on several mountains, and the friendships she has. Her favorite kind of music is pretty much everything, “and my favorite band is the Rolling Stones”. Her favorite sports to watch are skiing, soccer, football, running, and olympic sports. “I am very excited about the upcoming summer olympics”, Ellen tells me. Her guilty pleasures include chocolate and watching movies from bed and she intends to major in environmental science.
Vince Miron
Vince left St. Paul, Minnesota for a break and he did it all on his own. The University of Denver seemed like the perfect option to get away while getting a quality education in business, being the first in his family to go to college and for a guy who will try just about anything once, coming to DU without even touring the campus was nothing compared to bungee jumping.
Vince has a lot of things in his favor, being the optimistic, friendly person that he is; there was no way that this situation could turn out horribly. As long as he kept that childlike fervor that is evident in his love of animated movies such as Disney’s Cars, The Incredibles, or Finding Nemo, nothing could bring him down. Though he claims to be a disorganized person, his past endeavors in organizing and setting up service events through his school says otherwise. He helped organize a blood drive and a Change Wars competition between various schools in St. Paul to raise money. He is also very proud of the time he has spent working with Habitat for Humanity which totals three years of service.
Although writing isn’t something that Vince considers a favorite subject of his, he says that all he needs is a good topic, preferably one he can choose, and he has no trouble writing. The majority of the time he finds to write is if he is writing for class. While writing in his free time isn’t really an inspiration for Vince, he found some from another’s writing in “In the Time of the Butterflies,” which he read in high school. It is about the poor standing up for what they believe and against the rich dictators of a South American country. Vince also enjoys reading mystery or horror books for some lighter reading, his favorites being Stephen King or Dean Coontz.
If Vince had the time and money he would be an avid musician, his dream being to own a xylophone which he played in a brass band back home. However Vince settles for 90’s rock or a good horror movie when he has free time.
Vince Miron is a man of many inspirations, perhaps the one he is most proud of is that he is a 1st generation college student, and he feels that he is the reason that he is at DU and that he likes having Denver as his place of choice to get a break from the home that he still loves.
Jacquie Granados
Having attended North High School in Denver for the entirety of her high school experience, Jacquie Granados came to the University of Denver with a renewed enthusiasm that only a change of scenery brings. On a full scholarship, she has been extremely grateful for the opportunities she has provided herself and is eager to act upon them.
Jacquie’s family and friends are of fundamental importance to her as a solid foundation of love and support in her life. She is happiest when she can connect with the love of God through her experiences and relationships, and it is obvious she tries her hardest to spread as much of that love as possible. Jacquie is enthusiastic to repeat the service learning writing course with Professor Bateman, as she enjoys giving back to the community, which has been a large part of her life. Her Favorite service activity was becoming involved with the annual Dia de la Mujer Latina in north Denver. Intensely focused and concerned with women’s rights issues, this was the perfect opportunity for her to help and connect with underprivileged and mistreated women in her community. The fact that she is an active, service oriented citizen may stem from the fact that what upsets her most is the absence of compassion she sees on a day to day basis. The sad realities that abuse, mistreatment, and hatred are so prevalent today coerce her into taking any actions she can to stop them from continuing to be so.
Though she does not consider herself a particularly strong writer, Jacquie loves getting completely immersed in reading books. She tends to stay away from the more factual, academic side of writing and envelopes herself in emotionally appealing material. One of her favorite books, written recently (1997) by the consequently famous American author Mitch Albom, is called Tuesdays with Morrie. This book typifies the category which Jacquie finds the most appealing to read, containing a heart-wrenching yet evocative and thought-provoking plot dealing with death, relationships, and a connection with God.
A true thespian, Jacquie’s proudest accomplishment outside of school was her role in helping the theatre department at her school raise $80,000 in six months to travel to the “Hugest theatre festival in the world.” She played a lead role in the production “Simply Maria, or the American Dream” that was put on in Edinburgh, Scotland for the festival. Jacquie also is excited to start playing softball for the club team at DU. Her guilty pleasure is Myspace.
David Lindskog is an 18 year old student at Du. He is from the bay area of California, right outside of San Francisco. Since middle school he has been playing percussion instruments and is now a music major interested in Jazz and classical music. He chose DU for its amazing music program and the Newman Center definitely solidified his reasoning behind his decision to go here. He has an ambition to possibly be a music teacher as well as playing in an orchestra. Although, he is not sure what exactly he would like to do as a profession, he is certain he wants to do something involving music.
David would hope that other people see him as a nice person. People that know him obviously see him as being very talented musically and a successful musician in percussion instruments. He skis every so often but is not very interested in sports. He agrees that he has a guilty pleasure in playing video games, and stated that video games and music take up most of his free time.
David is currently living in J Mac, which he enjoys, but he finds that he surrounds himself mostly with friends from the music school. Next year, he plans on being a Resident Assistant in Centennial Halls although he is not sure exactly at this point which floor he will be posted.
He has not done very much service learning, but he is looking forward to seeing what kinds of things are to come out of a class like this.
Thank you all for such lively, interesting and compelling introductions! I'm looking forward to working with all of you and getting to know each of you as writers and people. I think we'll have a very productive and enriching time together.
Here are a few moments from your profiles that were particularly striking to me as a reader: Colin, your explanation of Jacquie's involvement in la Dia de la Mujer Latina was very thoughtful. Ryan, your profile of Jeff was effectively playful, and your concluding line--"Jeff is one deep puddle."--was great. Kelsey, your overall pacing and tone seemed just right for this kind of writing. And Kristin, I think you were able to capture something imporant about Vince's background and decision to come to DU.
And for everyone else, I was very pleased with your work, as well. Throughout the quarter, I'll identify effective moments in all of your writing, so keep up the good work.
Let's keep writing!
Ryan Woods grew up in Aurora, Colorado, which is a suburb located in southeast Denver and has lived there his entire life. He has always loved living in Colorado because of the great weather and fun environment. The type of music Ryan listens to is a fairly wide range including alternative rock, punk rock, country, and rap. His fun, sarcastic, and friendly personality as he describes himself makes him a very busy person from the various sports and interests that he has.
Ryan Woods has many activities he enjoys outside of school. These activities include lots of sports including playing baseball, soccer, lifting weights, and playing frisbee with friends. His favorite sport that he has been playing ever since he was a little kid was baseball. At the University of Denver, he explained to me what he is proud of in his life: “Bringing baseball back to the University of Denver by forming a club team and finding players to join.” Further outside of baseball and school he adores his amazing girlfriend and spends every moment he can with her. Ryan’s athletic build does not put a halt to his guilty pleasure. His girlfriend and him thoroughly enjoy getting free Baskin Robbins ice cream on a weekly basis and seeking out and preferring Chipotle burritos over the food at Nelson Hall. Because of his interesting and fun personality, Ryan will be a prime candidate for the Writ 1133 class.
Ryan has always been successful at writing and seems like an avid and enthusiastic writer. He enjoys the types of writing such as non-fiction and writing that incorporates real-world events. Although the types of writing he doesn’t like are poetry and analysis writing. Neither types of writing interest him but especially analysis writing based on a past experience from his last quarter writing class. The last main point I interviewed him about were his motivations for service learning and attending the University of Denver. His motivation for service learning is it makes you feel good and it’s a first-hand experience that you can learn a lot about. Next he explained to me his motivation for attending the University of Denver, which is the good psychology department and he believes the university is very prestigious. I enjoyed interviewing Ryan and learning about his personality. He was a very kind and interesting person to meet.
Aimee O’Brian is an outgoing 18-year-old from Detroit. She is a psychology major here at DU, but holds a wide variety of interests. In high school, Aimee was involved in the lacrosse, field hockey and ice hockey. Her ice hockey team was able to go to nationals and place second. In addition to these, Aimee was well known in high school for her artistic prowess and ability to work metals. Service learning has not played a large role in her life up to this point. However, she has participated in some soup kitchens and clothes drives in her recent years. Although she is not sure what she is not quite sure of what she wants in her future, she believes DU to be a well-rounded school at which a good education can be found in many places.
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