June 18, 2008 San Francisco, Salzburg, Vienna and Paris!

School is over! - at least for this semester. I can’t believe that I just finished my third semester at USF! So far this has been the most exciting semester I’ve ever had!  This year I became more active at school as the public relations chairperson for the International Student Association. As the P.R of ISA I organized a movie night—- we presented Paris, Je t’aime - and I also organized the community service project at Project Openhand. Seeing most of the members of the executive board participating was an enjoyable experience not only for me, but for all of the ISA members. In my classes, even though I had some difficulties in one or two courses, I did very well in the end. It is challenging to be involved in school clubs and organizations, being an active and efficient participant, and maintaining good grades. It is a little tough, but not impossible. Furthermore, after five months of classes I can say that I met some good classmates and very interesting professors. I already miss two classes: modern literature and rhetoric and composition. In early January I was selected to represent USF in a 10 day seminar program in Salzburg. The seminar is called Global Citizen: America and the World. I met great people such as Monica Talag, Anika Steig, Jennifer Jacobelli, Meghan, Layken and the other USF girls. We also got to meet students from Tarrant Community College (Texas), and students from Salzburg University. As part of the seminar, we all went to Dachau, a Nazi concentration camp 2 hours away from Salzburg. It was a mind-blowing experience going there. It was hard to see that some people were (and still are) able to cruelly harm humans. We closed the seminar with a group project presentation. As part of the project we had to research about immigration problems in Europe. Then we constructed a 10 minute presentation about the topic. Everybody had lots of fun doing that project. My group researched about the migration problem between Germany and Turkey (and we thought that Americans and Mexicans were the only countries dealing with migration problems). After the presentation we were invited to a classical music concert for almost one hour, and then we had dinner with all the members of the seminar. My Salzburg trip was definitely a great way to close the 2008 spring semester. After Salzburg, Anika, Monica, Jennifer and I went to Vienna. It’s a beautiful city. We toured Vienna for the three days we were there.  After Vienna, I visited a friend I met at USF, Adeline, a French student who came to USF for one semester in spring 07. Since then we became good friends, and every time I go to Paris or Lille I know I can visit her and her friends. Anyways, I just wanted to share a little about my experiences during spring 08 at USF. I will try to write more about Salzburg and Paris.   Enjoy your holidays,   Erick

April 25, 2008 Volunteering at Project Open Hand

Last Saturday as part of ISA (International Student Association) community service project, members of ISA’s board volunteered at Project Open Hand, which is a charitable organization. The main objective of Project Open Hand is to provide “meals with love” to seniors in San Francisco and Alameda County, and people with serious illness. Project Open Hand was founded by Ruth Brinker, a retired grandmother, in 1985. Since then Project Open Hand continues its labors with the active participation of volunteers. In fact, it always seeks service-oriented people to help in its different volunteer opportunities, such as: working at the kitchen, volunteering to work with chefs, cooks and other volunteers to prepare meals; volunteering at Grocery Centers, volunteers who work in the Grocery Centers and help clients by filling grocery bag orders and other tasks; delivering meals, volunteers who deliver food around San Francisco; serving meals to seniors; and volunteers who help at the Senior Lunch Sites around San Francisco by serving meals with a “smile.” The ISA assumed that by volunteering at Project Open Hand, USF students would promote a culture of service that respects and promotes the dignity of seniors and people living with serious illness in San Francisco. Furthermore, USF students would encourage social responsibility by fulfilling USF’s mission to create, communicate and apply knowledge to Bay Area community. Finally, USF students would acquire new perspectives and experiences, which are essential components of a high quality education in our global context. As a group we ended up satisfied knowing that we helped less fortunate people than us. We are planning to go back to Project Open Hand on May 10 at 11am. If any of you are interested, please free to contact me to my personal email: erick45ar@hotmail.com Erick

April 25, 2008 It's that time of the semester

This is my third semester at USF and I enjoy every minute of it.  I have met people from different parts of the world, which has helped me to open my perspectives about other cultures and beliefs. I also made good friends whom I consider a very important part of my daily life at and outside of USF. Academically, I had the chance of meeting very supportive and helpful professors. There are a couple professors whom I will never forget because they have influenced my life in certain ways. Some of them have pushed harder than others but I understand that they did because they believed in my potential as a student. It is that time of the semester in which I looked back at the things I have done in the current semester and makes me feel proud of myself. This semester I have participated more actively in some organizations at school, such as ISA. In fact, I am very proud of being part of the International Student Association because I think ISA promotes the different cultures we have at USF. It is that time of the semester in which I plan my goals for the next semester. Definitely, I want to be more involved around school. I will try to be part of another international organization at school. I enjoy meeting new people especially if they come from a different background than mine. I just wanted to share all these things with you. What does this time of the semester mean to you?

April 14, 2008 Representing USF in The International Student Leadership Conference

Hi everyone.. It has been a while since I posted a new entry on my blog, but here you go, I want to share some interesting news. Almost two months ago,  I interviewed for the Public Relations chairperson position at the International Student Organization (ISA). Since I have been in that position, I have been meeting new people and working very hard with the ISA board. As one of my tasks,  I represented USF and ISA in an International Student Leadership Conference in Virginia at James Madison University. I went with ISA’s Vice-President, Gizelle Chua, and Christina Sanchez, the director of the International Student Service office. Even though we only were there for one day, we met lots of interesting people. Most of them were international students from the east cost. In fact, Gizelle, Christina and I were the only ones from a west cost university. According to the information we got, there were approximately 200 students from 63 countries and 23 schools!. All the students were assigned to be in groups of 12 people, and then to form a big circle. Afterwards each person crossed his/her hands with two different people. Once everybody in the circle did it, we were in a giant ball. It was a total mess. Our task was to return to the original position without freeing each others hand. It was very hard the key was to work in group and to be patient. After many tries and lots of uncomfortable positions my group and Gizelle’s did it. After the first ice-breaker activity, we went to the different workshops about leadership offered in the conference. In these workshops, we learned about leadership as a “transaction between leaders and followers” and how communication creates meaning.  We ended the night with a dinner with all the international students. Some students sang and danced typical music from their countries.

April 03, 2008 Spring 2008

It has been more than a month since I came back from my winter break in Peru. I have to admit that even though I wanted to come back so badly to San Francisco as soon as I could, I got a bit disappointed because of the weather here. At least during the last two weeks of January, San Francisco got lots of rain almost every day. Thank god the weather is a bit better now; and seems to get better every day. As many of you, I already started school. This semester seems to be more challenging than the two previous ones, as I am taking more quantitative classes such as Statistics and Pre-calculus, which demands lots of practice and dedication. In addition to my quantitative courses, I am also taking two classes that I enjoy so much; Rhetoric 120 with professor Holler, and Modern Literature with Professor Seeley. What I like so much about these classes is the freedom I have to express my ideas. For example in Rhetoric, I write a lot (sometimes more than I should). Right now, I am working on a paper about Hillary Clinton from a Machiavellian perspective. This is going to be a very interesting paper, as I find Hillary Clinton a controversial politician. I will make sure to share some parts of my essay in my blog. In my Modern Literature class, I also express my ideas, but in a different way than in Rhetoric. Usually, professor Seeley allows us to talk about what we think about every book or story we read in her class, which is amazing because each student has a different perspective from what we read. Furthermore, this helps other students to analyze and understand the text from other’s eyes. Anyways, I just wanted to share that with you. I hope everyone is doing well. Gotta go back to finish my Rhetoric paper, which is due tomorrow I am struggling with some ideas Till next blog.

November 30, 2007 My first job: learning about loyalty and trust.

No more important duty can be urged upon those who are entering the great theater of life than simple loyalty to their best convictions. ¾Edwin Hubbell Chapin   If you ask people about their first job, I am convinced that many of them will declare they did not enjoy their first job. For my first job, I worked as an assistant for a financial company for nearly two years. I can say that my first work experience was not bad; in fact, it was great. I have learned about trust and loyalty, and I consider these two values as a base in my daily life. One of the first things I had to deal with on my first job was to gain my boss’s confidence, which I gained everyday by showing discipline, and being consistent with what I said and did. What I remember most from my first work experience is the day my boss gave me almost $20,000 to make the company’s payments¾one of my main tasks. Until that day, I had not managed that amount of money. I was very nervous, because I was supposed to make payments of more than $19,500. However; I did not realize until the end of the day that I only make payments for $19,400, having an extra $100 in my final balance. My first reaction was to recalculate each payment I made that day, to see whether I calculated wrongly or did not make all the payments. In that moment, I realized I had two options: to take the extra money and omit to say that I had an extra balance of $100 or to tell the truth. I decided to inform my boss about the extra $100 I had in my final balance. My big surprise was when he said that he purposefully put extra money in the payments to test. When I left the office that day, I felt so good for doing what I did, and by knowing that the level of loyalty and trust between my boss and I was getting stronger every day. Since that experience, I believe strongly that loyalty and trust are important values for all aspects of my life, it not only makes us better persons, but also being loyal with the people, and being loyal with our own beliefs.

November 21, 2007

November 21, 2007 Being an international student (part i)

As an international student living in the U.S., I can tell you, based on my experience, foreigner students confront many difficulties at the beginning of their life here (and sometimes during the whole time they live here.) Some of these difficulties are language, cultural differences, and the fact that we live away from our homeland. Although there are more difficulties that an international student must face living in another country, I will explore three issues since I consider them the common (based in conversations I had with other international students.)   Not being a native English speaker always has been an issue for me. My native language is Spanish, which I am very proud to speak; however, because of the endings in Spanish are different than in English (usually Spanish words end in vowels), I always have to be careful to pronounce the end of each word. Practicing the pronunciation and endings are the key and every time I catch myself pronouncing incorrectly, I start over again. Thank god I had the good fortune of talking most of the time to patient, helpful people that understand I am a non-native English speaker.   However, there are people that do not understand that speaking another language is hard (many of these people do not speak another language!). I just wish that if they go to another country, which has a  language they do not speak, they find someone patient and helpful. Therefore, if you are a foreigner and you have experimented difficulties in speaking the language I would encourage you, first; be patient with yourself if you feel frustrated with your pronunciation, second;  avoid speaking in your native language (I have noticed that many international students tend to speak in their native language with friends from the same country, this does not help at all!), third: if you are an English native speaker; please try to help and to be patient with a foreign student, because you never know in life and you might end up in another country, and speaking another language. (To be continued ) Erick Irigoyen.

October 26, 2007 My Life in San Francisco

My name is Erick Irigoyen. I am a transfer student from Lima-Peru, the homeland of Machu Picchu, and the two-time Women’s World Surfing Champion: Sofia Mullanovich. Currently, I am a junior, majoring in International Business. I came to San Francisco almost one year and a half ago, and I can tell you that this city never stops amazing me. If you are not a native from the Bay Area, I am pretty sure you will enjoy living in San Francisco. It is a small city, moreover, there are so many things to do. You can visit museums, go to the theater (many Broadway shows come to San Francisco every season), go to the movies (I love going to the movies with my partner twice per week), go biking around the Golden Gate Park, go sailing on the Bay Area, and so much more.   Particularly, I love going sailing on the bay and biking around the Golden Gate Park. If you have the chance to go sailing on the Bay, you will love the beautiful, spectacular views of the city. At least that it is what I feel every time I am sailing in San Francisco. Also, If you love sports, you should go biking!, the views and the different parts of the Golden Gate park are great (If you do not have a bike you can rent one online!). Otherwise, if you do not enjoy exercising, I would recommend you to take a walk around the Golden Gate Park in a warm, sunny day.   I have to admit that at the beginning I did not like two things about San Francisco: having to walk the steep hills and catching a cab in the city (they are also quite expensive). However, now I am used to walking around the big hills in San Francisco (if you can walk at least 20 minutes non stopping, you will had done your cardio routine for the day, I affirm it!). I also have learned how to deal with the cab problem (I just take a cab every time I go to the airport, and have to go to a place that it is far away from where I live). So, if you are new in San Francisco, enjoy this wonderful, beautiful city. Check on line what is going on because there are many events, street fairs and shows almost every weekend; many of them are free.   Erick Irigoyen.