Hixson Blog Post #4

Hixson Blog Post #4

Another eventful school week has gone by and again I find myself thinking where DOES the time go?
(Comment with your answer haha)

Our last class we talked about enhancing cultural proficiency. First off lets define the word cultural proficiency for those of you that don't know it. Cultural Proficiency refers to your ability to interact with people from different backgrounds. We all grew up differently and came from different backgrounds. For example I have lived in Dubuque, Iowa my whole life.  Grew up on a dairy farm where we milked about 100 dairy Holstein cows twice a day. Went to church every Sunday, my parents never divorced, conservative background, and went to basically an all white high school. That was my culture, my background, and group of people that I was surrounded by.  When coming to Iowa State, I was really surprised at all of the different diverse cultures here. It really opened my eyes. My biggest problem coming in was being stereotypical of others. I believe everyone makes judgments and stereotypes to a certain extent. Sometimes it can be uncomfortable talking about some issue, but through learning and being around a diverse group of people you can change. I understand that everyone has different values and backgrounds, it is important for me being a peer mentor to be a major contributor to the promotion and demonstration of cultural inclusion.  My ability to relate to people with differing background can be a strength. 

When reading our book for class I found that these principles are key to my success with cultural proficiency.
Principle 1. All of your assumptions are cultural, and may or may not align with the assumptions and understandings of others.
Principle 2. When exploring the cultures of others, it is necessary to suspend judgement temporarily.
Principle 3. Both context and content are important.
Principle 4. Becoming comfortable with discomfort is possible and necessary to the development of cultural proficiency.
Principle 5. Curiosity and deliberate inquisitiveness provide a richer, more accurate context for interaction.

As being a peer mentor for the Hixson Opportunity Award, I have learned to develop an awareness to cultural proficiency. I will continue to add, omit, and alter some values and beliefs through my life. 

The clones have won 20 straight at Hilton. This ranks 6th in the NCAA Men's Basketball home court winning streak. Wow. An Iowa State commit Maurice Jones is no longer eligible to play basketball at Iowa State, due to bad grades at USC. (do your homework and study!) ALSO one of my favorite times of the year National Signing Day was last Wednesday. I am able to see all of my hard work in the football office pay off. 25 new Cyclones have been added to the roster! Can't wait til next football season.

Have a great weekend and week ahead!

Cole Schlitzer 

Hixson Blog Post #3

Hixson Blog Post #3

Another eventful week filled with great interactive activities.  To start off, in class we got our MBTI interpretive report back.  My results are as follows...the type that I came out to be is ESTJ (Extraversion, Sensing, Thinking, Judging)  It says that ESTJs are typically logical, analytical, and objectively critical.  I tend to focus on seeing things as they are, not as they might be.  I believe this test is fairly accurate and helps not only me understand how I learn, but also how others do.  It was a fun time figuring out everyone's results and comparing them.

On Friday I attended the Learning Communities Mid-Year Institute.  The first session I attended was about multiculturalism resources, programs, and basic terminology.  This session was very informative and I learned about all the resources available for all sorts of help.  I thought the most interesting facts were the Iowa State retention rates among different ethnicity.  The second session I attended was about community building in your learning community.  This one was really helpful with showing us different ideas that work best with community building.  For the first year freshman it will be really beneficial to have great ideas and events that will better bring them closer as a community.  Overall the institute provided me with great information and ideas.

Today I also attended the Iowa State Leadership Experience.  Such a great learning experience and got to meet a lot of new people and here their story.  The whole conference was about how to be an effective leader.  Defiantly inspires you to get involved as much as you can in leadership positions.  One activity we did was a  60 second elevator speech about our skills and how to utilize them with your future company.  You just never know when you will have to give it and always be aware of who you meet, could be your next boss.  Networking is key.

Still sick and congested. Doesn't work well with my daily schedule.  Tonight I will be going to the men's basketball game vs Baylor.  Lets hope we can get an 18th consecutive win at Hilton!  Not much else to talk about, so until next time..

Have a great week ahead!

Cole Schlitzer 

Hixson Blog Post #2

Hixson Blog Post #2     1/27/13

A little late on the post due to getting a cold and having no energy on Friday.

There were no readings due for this week, so I will be mainly talking about class activities.  

Every class we start off with our "Hixson Intros," which entail you to say your name, Hixson year, county, and major.  "Hi, my name is Cole Schlitzer, I am a 2011 Hixson Scholar from Dubuque County, majoring in Business Supply Chain Management.  This helps with practice for the next fall and learning a little bit about everyone.  At the end of your intro, there is always a question that you have to answer.  For example your favorite food, place you want to travel to, best memory, and so on.  This week's question was to list your 3 character strengths and 2 character weaknesses that you need to build on.  My 3 strengths that I listed were that I was social and   can work well in group setting, I am very helpful to people that need it, and my third was that I can listen and be engaged with a subject whether it be in a group of individually.  I believe that those strengths with benefit and help my come fall when we have to teach the freshman.  On the other hand, I need to work on giving positive constructive feedback.  This will help with giving them tips and values about the college experience.  The second character weakness I need to build on is just general leadership qualities.  Being able to have a personal connection with the students is crucial.  I want to be able to teach and pass on some great advice that could influence their experience for the better.  

We also played a name game to help with learning everyone's name.  I am terrible with names...I think I only know like 5 other peer mentor's name.  I will defiantly need to learn them soon! I think talking to all of them and knowing a little bit more about them will help with that..   One of the last things I did for this week was to take the MBTI test. The purpose of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality inventory is to make the theory of psychological types understandable and useful in people’s lives.(MBTI website).  I am very interested to see my results and see how accurate I think they are. I will defiantly help the first year students with finding more about them.    

Yesterday Iowa State won it's 17 straight home game at Hilton vs the #11 Kansas State Wildcats.  The place was rocking the whole time and was full of energy.  A much better performance than last Wednesday's breakdown vs Texas Tech, which was one of the worst losses I have ever seen by the men's team given the circumstances.  Still have a slim chance at winning the Big 12.  But yesterday's win was a must.  Iowa State (14-5) will travel to Stillwater, Oklahoma on Wednesday to play the Oklahoma State Cowboys (13-5)

Have a great week!

Cole Schlitzer   

Hixson Blog Post #1

Hixson Blog Post #1       1/18/13

This is where I will be creating my weekly reflection blog post about being a Hixson Peer Mentor.  This reflection will be about different class activities, reaction to text readings, or just an analogy to personal circumstances and how I will use this information as a peer mentor.  I will relate how my insights will apply to my work as a Peer Mentor.  This blog will usually be done on every Friday. 

Class   1/16/13

First off I want to say how humbled I am to have received this award and also being able to be a Peer Mentor. During our first Hixson Peer Mentoring class we got familiar with the history of the Hixson Program.  The Hixson Opportunity Award is a half-tuition grant (estimated value of more than $15,000 over eight semesters) to be used at Iowa State University.  Christina Hixson serves as sole trustee of the Lied Foundation Trust. Through her financial leadership, she has been recognized as an outstanding philanthropist. (Hixson Award Website).  

The readings that I had to read for this week provided me with an overview of students in peer educator roles on university campuses.  I will refer to being a peer mentor or peer educator throughout my blogs.  Both these terms have the same meaning.  A peer educator is a student who has been selected, trained, and designated by a campus authority to offer educational services to their peers. The reading also outlined the three components of the learning process: knowledge, skills, and personal integration.  I am going into this training with an open mind and commitment to be the very best I can be.  Be positive rather than negative, be supportive rather than judgmental, and active rather than passive. (as much as I am a passive person I am going to give my all to be very active with this training)

At the end of my post I will write up a little bit on Iowa State Football and Basketball. (I will keep it short)

Wow! What a finish by the Iowa State Men's Basketball team. (12-4)  George Niang provided a clutch layup with 2 seconds left to defeat West Virginia  69-67.  Even after Iowa State choked away a double digit lead in the second half. That extends Iowa State's 16 consecutive home game win at Hilton Colosseum.  Talk about some Hilton Magic....The cyclones take on a terrible TCU team down in Fort Worth this Saturday. Should be a blowout win for the cyclones, I'll take the cyclones (-30) 

The Iowa State football team finished up their season with an ugly loss to Tulsa in the AutoZone Liberty bowl.  (17-31)  Went down to Memphis for a little vacation and had a rather splendid time, besides the game result and the food poisoning! Yikes! Saw a NBA Memphis Grizzly game and the historic Beale Street along with Peabody Hotel (the ducks actually stay in the hotel fountain all day and was a site to see) Next season should be interesting to say the least.  Maybe we can get over that 7-6 and  6-7 mark....anyway I could keep writing more about the cyclones, but as I said I will keep it short. Until next week, have a great day and week ahead! 

Cole Schlitzer 

How I’ve grown, what I’ve learned...

Here at Iowa State I have grown a lot.  Making  new friends, learning new things, and learning how to be independent.  Time management was a huge problem for me, now that I have gotten settled in with college life I am much better at it.  I have also matured a lot while here in college.  Learning how to live on my own and doing my own laundry and being punctual to class are just a few ways I have grown.

Being a Hixson Scholar has been and will be an awesome experience. My peer mentors have been great and I have learned a lot.  I hope some day I can be one and teach incoming scholars the same things they have taught me.  

It is truly hard to believe my first semester at Iowa State is almost over.  But on the bright side this is just the begging of my adventure at Iowa State!

What it means to be a Hixson Scholar

First off I want to thank Christina Hixson again on offering me the chance to receive the award.  Being a Hixson Scholar means so much to me.  I am truly blessed to have received this award.  When I received the letter and found out I was a Hixson Scholar you couldn't believe how overcome with joy I was. This award will help me achieve my goal and my dream to attend Iowa State and find qualities that I never knew I had.  It is amazing that one woman can help out 100 kids to fulfill their dreams to succeed.  It will push me to be my best, knowing someone has the trust in me to utilize the scholarship to my scholastic needs.


Being apart of my group Grey for now, has been an awesome time.  We all like being around eachother and we all have a good time.  I am sure we will continue to keep in touch.  Thanks again and God Bless.


Cole Schlitzer

Social Meida

Social Media is all around us.  The term Social Media refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue.  Some things I learned about social media is that it is always changing every second.  It requires you to be really aware of what is going on, and you always have to be on top of your game.  Another thing I learned is you can find out more about a business way easier.  Sometimes it felt repeatable at times though.  I was really excited to partake in this particular medium.  It was something new I have never done before.  Social media can help you reach your goals by helping you find your business easier and being able to look up and read information about that company.  If you wanted to reach your company you can find all that information online.  Facebook is also is a big part of social media.  With Facebook you can find company's information easier.  Social Media is a huge part in today's world.  Everyday there are more and more ways of interacting through social media.