Amanda and her blogs

Last time I talked about that the result of  the major choosing in my survey is quite shocking. And I did not talk about the decision I made for myself as an international student.

Well, this is never an easy decision to make. I am fully aware of that the college time is so valuable that I cannot afford to make a random decision with no reason. I need to consider carefully what might be useful for me after I graduate because the brutal competition out of the campus will be waiting for me at that time. However, college is also a place where I am supposed to spend time in achieving myself and it would be a wonderful opportunity for me to study the things I really like.

People are usually greedy. From my perspective, the decision between these two options will never be easy for anyone to make, including me. On the one hand, it is the subject that can be really helpful for me future. That is to say that with the professional knowledge of this subject, I can find myself a decent job. A decent job with high salaries means too much in this ruthless society. On the other hand, it the subject that I desire to learn more about it. All my interests are on it and I am willing to devote myself into this subject even though it is a hard major.

 

Take myself as an example. The subject I love most is psychology. I want to learn everything about it; I want to understand the way our brains’ make the decisions, every reason behind our action, and the strategies to control the feelings. There are so many things about psychology that I want know and right now, I still want to know. But, I did not choose psychology as my major.

I did a a lot of thinking before I made this decision. I checked the salaries that I may able to receive after I graduate; the result is that the salary is even far below the average level. I also realized that it can be more difficult for an international student to read tons of files and books.

All these factors are the reasons that I did not choose psychology as my college major. I know that it’s is an interesting major, but I want to get prepared for me future also.

So, I guess I am just like those 90 percent international students; I made the decision that I chose a major that is not my favorite, but it can be really helpful for my future.

Right now, I doubled finance and computer science as my majors. I know it sounds like that I can find the best job in this world after I graduate. But, it is also really exhausted. To be honest, I am still not sure whether I made the right decision or not, but I think maybe I can come up with something new after I do more study on my survey results.

Yes, I want to still do more thinking about this problem for myself.

There will be more…….

Enough for today’s blog. And here comes my best blessing to all my readers and everyone:

And btw, not only every night;

Let’s make it every single day!!!

The survey I am doing is a list of questions which ask students about their attitude towards core classes, major classes in SCU and how they consider the relationship between these classes to their future jobs.

Right now my survey is not completed. But I looked through the preview, I observed something interesting.

I got 24 responses since I sent the survey to both international and local students. In order to make the survey result looks fair, I made sure that the number of the international students and the number of the local students are same. And here are some results.

I noticed that most of the  local students and international students in my survey claimed that they like the core classes in SCU. Even though some of the international students complained  that the core classes sometimes can be really stressful, I think it is understandable. Because the second language issue, It is, indeed, can be more difficult for international students to engage in core classes because the core classes need to have a deep understanding  to the project under some conditions. However, some international students argued that the classes can be tough, but they think these classes actually very helpful and meaningful.

The biggest difference is the major choosing. 

According to the survey, 90 percent of the international students said that they will choose a major which they do not like at all, but this major can be really helpful for their future development. And all the local students clicked the button which means that they will study what they really like.

This is a shocking result because the result is basically opposite!!!

This is totally a question that I need to do more research after I get more data. And I believe that the more data I get, the more accurate explanations I can find out. There must be reasons behind this survey result. I know that right now this survey only has 24 responses, but I believe that the result at least means something.

Maybe it’s about culture, family education, competition, or maybe it’s just personal decision.

The survey is not over, and I will dig more……

Oh, and you want to know what did I choose?

I will tell you later…..

Enough for today’s blog. And here comes my best blessing to all my readers and everyone:

And btw, not only every night;

Let’s make it every single day!!!

 

How beautiful and elegant these two pictures are!!!

In pictures, these were the first group of women who chose to study in Santa Clara University after SCU became a co-educational institution.  The women who hold the newspaper with the word “TRADITION SHATTERED” printed on, was Martha Patricia O’Malley. This tall, blonde and tanned girl had the honor of being the first woman applicant at Santa Clara. She told the reporter after she visited the campus that everyone was nice to her and she believed that if people in this university could treat the other girls like her, there should be no difficulties.

And the picture on the left was the campus life of these girls. I obtained this picture from Santa Clara Magazine and according to the magazine, these girls were the first group of girls who chose to study in SCU after SCU changed the policy.  It is such an old photo and I can even hardly find any uniforms look like those right now.

I know this may only look like that females began to go to Santa Clara University and college life may have some changes. But, from my perspective, this change means more at that time. According to a newspaper I read when I was doing the research in the archives, a male student claimed that if females would begin to show up in SCU, then the classes in this college really needed to change to fit for these females. Classes about washing machines, cooking and cleaning tools would be necessary.

It’s normal that people cannot accept the change immediately, and some people even believed that this was such a terrible change. But, what was comforting was that most of the Santa Clara University students announced that it’s true that the old Santa Clara tradition died on March 21, 1961. However, now it’s up to them to build to a new tradition. Santa Clara University students didn’t settle for the mediocre. Santa Clara University students won’t rest again until this university earns a reputation as the best coeducational university in this country. 

I believe this is definitely a good start not only for the females who wanted to go to SCU, but also for the whole California educational system.

I will do more research and provide more detailed statements when I do the further research. This is just a beginning.

Enough for today’s blog. And here comes my best blessing to all my readers and everyone:

And btw, not only every night;

Let’s make it every single day!!!

 

Michael Kleine used “hunters” and “gatherers” to describe two kinds of models that people usually choose to do their researches. And personally, this figuration he used is excellent.

He pointed out in the article that when a “hunter” do his research, he usually walk into the world with a strong sense of purpose and direction. The hunter will use his skills and strategies to kill this game. And when a “gatherer” do his research, he usually choose to look about widely, making sense and use of the food he discovers fortuitously. Namely, a hunter finds what he is looking for, a gatherer discovers that which might be of use.

How precisely he described the ways we choose to do the research and I can even see myself from his figuration.

I remember that during the research in the archives, I read files about co-education in SCU and I googled everything that I was not sure because I needed to have the most accurate and clear understanding to these terms. I searched those interrelated files as many as possible and I chose to ignore those files which were seemed to have nothing to do with my topic. And I can see that at that time, I was like a hunter; I knew what would be effective and helpful in my research. So the moment I walked into the archives, I had a strong sense of purpose and direction that I need files about co-education and history records of big events after and before 1961. All these files can be really helpful for my research and also offered me a clear clue about what was going on at that time. 

So I think I consider myself as a “hunter” during the research process and I was not a “gatherer”. I raised questions in my mind and then I went to the archives to seek the answers. I did not walk into the archives with an open enough mind. I narrowed my ideas only to co-education in SCU and never expanded any further perspectives or questions. Michael Kleine’s “gatherers” theory can be a new challenge for me. I can imagine a much broader expansion of my research if I did not finish my research with a too strong and too narrow purpose.

My research can be a totally different version if I can be a hunter in the archives, and at the same time, I also be a gatherer. As a hunter, I can collect the information which are related to my topic directly and do not get confused and lost in the archives. As a gatherer, I can seek files which may be relevant to my topic and then they might become the crucial points which can also expand my research. And then my research did not have to be only about the co-education; I can maybe talk more about the females’ college life after the changes of policies, the progress the females made after they were admitted to SCU, and the changes of the males’ attitudes to this event, etc. Just like the examples I listed that they will so many further and related topics which I can develop in my research.

Michael Kleine showed his readers two wonderful ways to do the researches. And I believe it would be extremely helpful if someone can find the balance between the “hunter” part and the “gatherer” part. The research may too narrow if the researcher is only a hunter, and the research can also be too lax if the researcher is only a gatherer. People who are smart enough that eventually can play parts will definitely become excellent researchers.

And last but not least, I do hope that I can be smart enough one day to play both parts during my research process.

Enough for today’s blog. And here comes my best blessing to all my readers and everyone:

And btw, not only every night;

Let’s make it every single day!!!

Stop collecting them!!! U need to organize them!!!

I never did any serious research before. So when I walked into the archives at the library, I was terrified. I had no idea where, how I should start my research. I still remember the feeling when I opened the first files’ box; I felt everything in that box was relevant to my research topic, and at the same time, I felt everything in that box was irrelevant to my research topic. I was even shocked by myself that I could even have ridiculous thoughts like that.

Then I started my long-lasting reading and tried so hard to find anything that could use for my research. My research topic is: Why did Santa Clara University become co-education in 1961 from a private Catholic males’ college. I read files about co-education in SCU, events happened couple years before 1961, and I even read some files about students’ feelings during the years of wars. And the truth was that I literally took 107 photos in the archives because I was so afraid that I might miss something essential to my research. But, my mind was still empty like a hole even though there was 107 photos in my phone; I did not know where to start, what to write, how to write at all.

And you know what I did which was kind of awesome? I went to the archives again because I mistakenly believed that the reason I cannot start writing was that I did not collect enough significant data and information. So the second time, I took 60 more pictures in my phone.

Then I started taking notes about the photos I took in the archives. I needed to select those pictures meticulously and found out the information, articles, and data that can be effective in my research. And then I realized one thing that I wanted to scream so hard that why didn’t I understand it before; The data in the archives is infinite.  I can never all the information I need if I don’t know how, and when to end the research in the archives. I can keep collecting, reading and spending my whole life on making sure that I have rich sources, but I can also collect enough effective files and then I organize them into a complete, detailed and accurate research.

The thing I realized is that collecting data is not the only important things in a research, and the ways I organize, arrange the data to make the claims, have my own arguments and make conversations with my readers are also really vital.

A great researcher never actually needs thousands of files to support his research because he can always find appropriate numbers of documents and then organize them effectively.

So just like what Barney said: the world is a mess and I just need to rule it.

The archives can also be a mess sometimes and I just need to rule it.

Enough for today’s blog. And here comes my best blessing to all my readers and everyone:

And btw, not only every night;

Let’s make it every single day!!!

 

Hey, welcome back guys!!!! Today I want to share something that many of you guys may not know about our college; Santa Clara University-SCU was not our college’s original name.

That’s right. I still remember when I was visiting the SCU campus during the orientation, a senior student told me all those beautiful palms on campus were friendly gifts from University of Southern California because it hoped that Santa Clara University can change its name. Once upon a time, Santa Clara University was called University of Santa Clara, AKA USC. But, University of Southern California also can be called as USC. Yes, such an interesting coincidence.

I did not actually pay any interest to this whole changing-name story at first because I like this name “Santa Clara University” a lot. But, I noticed this change again when I was doing the research in the archives. In some letters, newspapers, and files,  at first, people used USC, and then suddenly, people began calling it SCU.

I decided to do a little research in order to figure out that why did exactly people change the name of the college. People around me kept telling me that because the president of University of Southern California asked University of Santa Clara to change its name because people can be easily confused if they kept having the same abbreviation. However, the president of University of Santa Clara proposed that he can change the name, but University of Southern California needed to buy some super expensive palms for University of Santa Clara.  And according to the rumor, the president of University of Southern California agreed and University of Santa Clara changed its name to Santa Clara University.

But, after the archives research, I realized that this was not the true story. I found it on Santa Clara Newspaper and I learned about what actually happened through the report. According to the report, the name change was announced in the mid-1980s. And the reason that people in college made this decision was that they just simply realized that Santa Clara University might sound better.

And literally, that was the whole story.

Oh, if you are still thinking about then where did Santa Clara University get those palm trees, I got the answer too: Former University president William Rewak claimed that this whole thing had nothing to do with USC. USC did not buy the acronym with the $2,000-a-piece palm trees that line Palm Drive. And at last, he said:” We bought the d*** things from nursery.”

Enough for today’s blog. And here comes my best blessing to all me readers and everyone:

And btw, not only every night;

Let’s make it every single day!!!

 

I had a really terrible day.

The truth is that right now when I am explaining to you guys what happened to me today, I still feel really, really terrible and awful.

SO here is what happened, yeah that’s right, you guys better listen to me carefully, CUZ I will not tell this story twice!! (Evil and desperate face)

There was one time I skipped my economy class and the consequence was that I missed that one million dollar news: THE PROFESSOR CHANGED THE DATE OF THE MIDTERM!!! And since I didn’t know anyone in that class (and I still don’t know anyone in that class, so what), I did not know that change at all. So I planned to review the exam on Tuesday because from what I knew the midterm was on Wednesday. But aha. I did not know that professor changed the midterm from Wednesday to Monday. So, I guess you smart guys can easily image the look on my face when the professor asked the whole class to get ready for the coming midterm. And that moment, I am telling you the truth that something deep down in my heart broke.

I finished the exam with nothing in my mind. My world fell apart. I did not know what can make me feel better, but my life needs to continue. I need to finish my assignments from other classes. And guys, that’s how I saw her blog.

https://blogs.scu.edu/lschreder/2017/04/10/spring-at-scu-3/

She did not post some serious topic at that time but when I saw her blog, my heart did feel much better. I love the way she described the spring, the grass, the sunshine and the life in SCU. And all of these reminded me of the spring in my hometown, Beijing. The spring is Beijing is never as soft as in California. It is always still dry and cold and there is no way that I can see grass anywhere. Lily is right, SCU is “Claradise” . 

Thanks Lily, I really appreciate that warm blog you posted, and it did comfort me a lot after that horrible midterm.

Anyway, enough for today’s blog. And here comes my best blessing to all my readers and everyone:

And btw, not only every night;

let’s make it every single day!!!

 

 

First of all, let me introduce Tirabassi’s four principles before I explain how these golden-principles helped me with my research plans.

 

1. Principle of selectivity: the researcher’s understanding of how archivists select and omit artifacts for a given collection.
2. Principle if cross-referencing: the practice of searching across documents for contextual traces that clarify an archival document’s rhetorical situation or that confirmed, corroborate, clarify, contradict a fact or point cited in a given document.
3. Principle of categorization: the development of keywords and finding aids that help researchers access information in the archive.
4. Principle of closure: the researcher’s understanding that there are inherent gaps in archival records and that while the archive is complex and rich, it cannot be searched exhaustively.  Finding the ending point or knowing when to make an exit is an essential part of archival research.

Above all are Tirabassi’s four principles of how to make research in an archives and I am going to inject these four principles into the topic I chose.

There is a picture at Santa Clara University’s library: a girl was holding a newspaper while the newspaper was announcing the news to everyone: TRADITION SHATTERED. And a question was also raised in that picture: Did you know? Santa Clara University first became co-ed in 1961. This is picture totally attracted my attention and suddenly I became so desperate that I wanted to figure out what happened at that time.

Obviously, if I want to have a clear and accurate idea about this event, I need to do a lot of research which means a great amount of reading. I felt confused and scared when I first walked into the archives at the library; there were so many files, documents, newspaper, books and letters I need to read to figure out what happened before and after that special year-1961. And there were also numerous of questions in my mind: Why Santa Clara University became co-ed in 1961? Why 1961? How did people react after they were told this news? Luckily, these principles offered me a clear and useful guidance about what I should do in the archives.

1. Principle of selectivity: I realized that I needed to select the sources which would be necessary and useful in my research. There were too much information in the archives to appear in my research. What I have to do was focus on the information that can answer my questions and collected the useful information together.
2. Principle if cross-referencing: When I was doing the research, I found out that there was something mentioned by the president of the university, or mentioned by the local newspaper was blurred. There was no detailed statement about these information so it became difficult for a researcher like me to understand the situation at that time. For example: the president of Santa Clara University in 1961 told the newspaper that allowing girls to attend Santa Clara University was also good for economy. And he never explained why Santa Clara University needed much more money than before, But, as a researcher. if I want to make a complete, reasonable, and detailed research of the topic I selected, it was my responsibility to try to find the accurate answers not only for myself, but also for my readers; there is no way that I can just leave this problem like that. So I checked a book called “the history of Santa Clara University” and I especially paid attention on the events which were couple years before 1961. This book provided me the answer I need: The number of the students in SCU doubled during that time, so Santa Clara University was in great need to enlarge and expand the campus. But, at that time the economy was not optimistic because of the wars so it became extremely hard for SCU to get the fund supporting. The whole economy issue then became one the factors which caused SCU to change its policy; The tuition from females can be used to expand the college. 
3.  Principle of categorization: Because the information in the archives were rich, so it was normal that many files will not be necessary for me to use in my research. In order to make my research process more effective, I ignored some files directly, like: SCU academic progress, SCU sports development. 
4. Principle of closure:  As a researcher that I need to realize that researching may never have an ending. So I need to make the decision that when I can stop collecting and gathering the data and start to analyze and organize it. It’s true that the more valuable data showed up in the research report, the more detailed and excellent the report can be. But, it is vital for me to find the balance. I stopped the research when I made sure that I had found enough sources to explain the whole event. 

Tirabassi’s four principles offered me a clear direction to my whole research process and they definitely made my process become more effective.

Enough for today’s blog. And here comes my best blessing to all my readers and everyone:

And btw, not only every night;

Let’s make it every single day!!!

 

I have to admit that I feel a little puzzled when I realized that I need to actually write down something to show people the process of my research to some topics I picked.

Personally, I think any “research process” should contain enormous projects and terms like sources seeking, claims declaring and perspectives interpreting, etc. So, breathe, breathe, breathe and here comes the research process I arrange for myself at first.

1. I will confirm a specific topic of my research first but at the same time, I also want to make sure that this topic is not too limited or too narrow to develop some further thinking and studying. That is to say that I will keep the study direction and my personal attitude to this research topic open because I believe that my thoughts may change during the further seeking of the sources to enrich my research.

2. After I target a range of my topic, I will start use google to have a better understanding to the topic I choose. This step may seem unnecessary, but I think it is essential for me to have a accurate and comprehensive recognition to my topic.

3. Then I will start collecting the files, sources, and reference I need to substantiate my research from websites and libraries. Many similar researching from those specialists will definitely offer me a more broader stage of my topic and support my perspectives in various ways. I will also may start my own survey(like some interviews or questionnaires ) to the topic I have interest in because the survey experience enable the researching process more objective.

4. After I have abundant information about my researching project, I will finally begin to settle down my own mind. At this step, I will determine the studying aspects and pronounce my own claims. The sources I collected before will help to make my claims more credible.

5. During the whole research process, I will not only make simple statements about my researching step, but also I will make conversations to my readers and voice my opinions to the topic loudly. I will raise my own questions about this topic and show people the place I stand as a researcher of this topic.

Above all is the process I may consider when I do the research. And after I read an article called BEAM: A Rhetorical Vocabulary for teaching Research-Based Writing, which gave me a better understanding to the way I should use to do the research.

 

In the article Joseph Bizup made clear announcement that research-based writing can be really difficult and confused for students because they may have hard time utilizing the sources and making claims accurately and effectively.  So Bizup came up with the “BEAM” way to help students understand, distinguish and utilize the sources correctly and effectively to accomplish their own research-based writing assignments, which I think is legen-wait for it-dary!! LEGENDARY!!

And here are my understandings to the “BEAM”

• Background: It is usually the facts in common life and people consider it as common knowledge.
• Exhibits: Interpretation to the examples or terms.
• Arguments: The conversation the writer usually made with his reader to agree with, disputes an idea and sometimes even develop his own further thoughts and opinions to the topic he chose.
• Methods: The way the writer chose to write his research process and some specific ways he utilize to finish the research.

 

 

 

I think this BEAM theory offered me comprehensive platform to arrange my researching work. its all-sided guidance can be really helpful when I feel confused about how to do the research effectively and accurately. These four factors about the researching process enabled me to understand that I cannot only explain the sources I found the reference or Internet, but also I need to add my own understanding to it. And my opinions to the topic are also really essential because this can be the way that I make conversations with my readers to let them know my perspectives to the topic I chose.

Now I think I have a new perspective to this term “RESEARCHING”: that it is never a fragmented board which is formed from everywhere sources. However, it is formed by the authoritative facts, detailed explanation, powerful arguments, and a cautious way to organize these factors together.

Enough for today’s blog. And here comes my best blessing to all my readers and everyone:

And btw, not only every night;

let’s make it every single day!!!

When I was viewing some websites to relax myself from the classes, this picture totally attracted my attention. Ok, ok, I know that there are some weird Chinese on the picture and you may have trouble understanding what information this picture is trying to delivery. But, just chill, here I am and let me explain.

Actually, most of the information on that picture all contained Chinese and English, except the Chinese on that green board. It said: Top 100 students whose scores are the highest in this final exam. And there are information like students’ names, classes’ numbers and their glory high scores.

And I believe now it is easy for us to understand what this picture is trying to do; It demonstrates a totally opposite way that Chinese and American schools used to cope with their students’ scores. That is to say that Chinese schools prefer to publish all the scores of their students, especially those best ones’. But, American schools, however, choose to keep the grades only to every individual and make sure the grades are private.

I, an international student, had most of my student’s life in China and just began my college life in California, I have to say that I have a really complicated feeling about this grades’ results coping way.

And I want to say it out loudly that: I really hate the way that Chinese schools choose to deal with students’ grades.

I know that in this country most of the local students may have no idea about how I felt when I was in middle school and high school that all my exams’ grades had to be on a giant board after every big exam. Then, let me tell you how I felt. That is: I feel literally like S***.

This whole “grades on boards” thing not only violate students’ privacy, but also makes everything really creepy; Just think about that your information is on a giant, stupid even ugly board and anyone walk by can see it; Of course, they can even see which subject you are good at or bad at because come on, all your scores are on that board. And trust me when I say this, after a long time, people would easily judge your ability only according to that stupid board.

“Grades on the board” is a pretty normal and even popular thing in Chinese schools because schools consider this way as a strong encouraging way to motivate students to study harder; If you do not study as hard as you can, your not beautiful grades will be exhibited on the board and trust me, that’s the moment you begin to feel like s***.

Things may seem easier for those students who have good grades and their names will be always on the top, but the pressure is unspeakable and horrible. I had this “grades on the board” experience for six years and it dragged me into the pressure abyss for so many times. Once my name is in the top rankings on that board, I had to work extremely hard just to make sure that I would not fall into the bottom rankings; it is not that big deal but it is not decent for sure.

Days like those sometimes can be nightmares.

And things changed a lot after I attended a college in California. The school will never publish my grades to anyone but myself. And professors will also never judge me just based on how well I did on my exams or assignments. Most importantly, I found that I did not become lazy just because I know that other people will not know my grades anyway. However, I still work hard every day, and the feeling that I do not have to worry about the “grades on board” can be really helpful to my “too much pressure” issue.

Enough for today’s blog. And here comes my best blessing to all my readers and everyone:

And btw, not only every night;

Let’s make it every single day!!!