Portfolio

In case anyone reading my blog is interested in majoring in one of our wildlife programs I thought you might be interested in my Wildlife Ecosystems and Management course that is the senior level course for most of our wildlife programs. For our final project we have been assigned to develop a portfolio based on a number of different aspects of wildlife management. We were given about a dozen options and had to choose the ones that we wanted to do in order to fulfil the maximum number of points allowed for the project. Some of the options consisted of analyzing 2 different wildlife management plans made by state government, critiquing 5 different wildlife management issues currently effecting our region, attend and summarize a professional wildlife meeting, etc. This project was assigned at the beginning of the year and is due tomorrow so I thought you might be interested in what some of the workload actually looks like during junior and senior level courses. If you have any questions about what work is like at Unity or anything else feel free to ask me any questions! Have a great day!

Graduation

I can still remember my first day at Unity. Setting up my room, meeting my roommate, saying goodbye to my parents, the usual first day of college milestones. Most of my readers are probably going to be having a similar experience this fall, however, I would like to talk about the other end of the spectrum for a moment. Unity College’s graduation ceremonies.

Seniors end classes on April 29th this year which is a Friday. Graduation weekend is composed of both May 6th and 7th which are the following Friday and Saturday. On Friday May 6th  is Senior Awards Night. This is where graduating senior are recognized for everything from athletics, resident advisors, academic achievement, community service, etc. This is accompanied by a banquet dinner and each senior is allowed to complimentary guests and additional tickets can be purchased. On Saturday May 7th the commencement ceremony is held at 1pm and this is a first come first serve seating arrangement. there are approximately 1,000 seats and the usual graduation ceremonies are held as well as a few additional awards such as the Presidents Award, Deans Award, Faculty Award, Members of the Loon Society, etc.

If you have any questions about graduation or anything else for that matter feel free to ask!

Bowling Team

Unity college decided to try its first attempt at a bowling team this semester. The athletic director, Chris Kein, sent out an email and asked for people s names and bowling averages. I was lucky enough to be chosen as one of the 5 students to represent Unity in the tournament. For the past few weeks we have been going to the bowling alley, on Sundays, all expenses paid (travel, shoes, games, etc.) and have reported 5 team scores and 5 individual scores. Out of 60 bowlers, as the stats stand right now, 3 of our teams bowlers (including me) are in the top 20 which means that they will proceed to the playoffs unless enough of the other teams bowlers improve their averages. Our team score is currently ranked number 1 out of 11 teams by 20 pins and will most likely be the number one seed going into the playoffs next Saturday and Sunday in Lewiston. We all seem to have a great time every sunday when we go to report our scores. If anyone has any questions about this or any other activities at Unity College feel free to ask!

Presidential Seminar Final Project

As the year winds down at Unity (3 weeks left of classes!) we are being assigned more and more of our final projects. I was lucky enough to be selected to be part of a seminar class taught by the college’s president Mitch Thomashow. I have blogged about this course several times from the reading journals, Camden conference, bed and breakfast, etc. For our final project we were simply asked “What do you want to learn about?” I have always been into music. I started taking guitar lessons in the 3rd grade and haven’t stopped studying it since. So I mentioned that I would like to study music and how it takes a role int he Chinese culture. Our president liked the idea and even showed me a book that I could get to help study not only the history and theory behind the music, but it also has songs to learn from different time periods that have been very interesting. I cannot wait for this project and am ecstatic that Unity allows its students to be assigned projects that they can really be passionate about, and not simply have us write a research paper every time we take a course.

Crime Scene Project

Summary of my mock crime scene project…

Situation: At 9:00 AM you receive a call to meet with a complainant at the Pittsfield shooting range.

The complainant: At approximately 9:30 AM on Thursday, March 31st, myself and co-worker Paul Dapkus met with Tim Blake who was plowing out the shooting range with his tractor. He explained to myself and Dapkus that he was plowing out the range when he stopped his tractor to take a smoke break. While taking his smoke break, he heard a gurgling sound in the woods. He looked into the woods and saw a body, he then immediately called and reported what he saw.

The Crime Scene: Paul and myself then slowly approached the crime scene. Paul took photographs of each step along the way. We found a trail of footprints that led up to a body about 50 feet into the woods. Further investigation found two shot-gun shells, one about 10 feet from the body and one about 25 feet from the body. We collected the two shells, shirt from the body, and a piece of paper that was nearby as evidence. We also found the path of the shotgun pellets (trajectory) and collected a few pellets from a nearby tree.

Analysis: After analyzing the shot patterns on the shirt and the locations of the shotgun shells, we were able to conclude that the shooter most likely shot once from about 25 feet away from the body, and then again at point-blank range.

Interviews: Our first interview was with the original complaisant Tim Blake. We interviewed him as to what time he found the body, whether or not he had seen anyone else in the area, and, since we had identified the body, whether or not he knew the individual. He said he did and that he knew where he lived. So we then went to interview the victim’s brother who lived nearby. The brother told us that he had called him that morning and he said that he was going to the shooting range to meet with Tim Blake about a skitter that he had for sale. This was exactly the information we were hoping for. Since Tim had lied to us about why he was at the range we are now set up to interview him again later today and we are going to attempt to gain either a confession or enough information to get a search warrant for his property to search for both the murder weapon as well as any other evidence such as blood on clothing, etc.

I will continue to update my blog as we get closer to solving our case, if you have any questions feel free to let me know.

37 days…

With 37 days until graduation I can see the anticipation growing within my fellow classmates. It seems to be a mixture of emotions containing joy, mystery, nerves and leaving behind that which you have known for such a long time. However, at this point in our lives, the number one thing on every seniors mind is what are we going to do the day after we get our diplomas. Suddenly loan payments will be due, we will need to find housing, buy food, find a job, etc. Even though we will be on our own, Unity does its best to prepare us for the future and the rest of our lives. I think that this is the perfect time of year to talk about some of the services that I have seen Unity offer to students so that you can learn what life is like on the other side of the college experience.

One of the first options you have when you graduate is whether or not you want to go to graduate school. For most graduate school students, the application process really starts during your junior year of undergrad. This is because there are tests for grad school, different schools require GREs, LSATs and other standardized exams. The Career Resource Center is great for recommending books, study techniques, etc for these exams. You may be wondering how you can comprehend all of the different information for applying to different schools. The CRC also offers meetings where they go over the application process, allow students to ask questions and explain how to set up appointments for individuals who may have multiple questions.

Of course most students do not go on to graduate school immediately following undergrad. So for the rest of our class, there is the question of where are jobs available? At Unity, it is nearly impossible to go throughout your senior year without hearing about multiple job openings each month that are available to Unity Grads. Professors are continually talking about openings and some go as far as to assign students to come in with job announcements from time to time that they feel they would qualify for. But, in case you manage to slip through the cracks, the CRC is always there to assist you in your job search, help with your resume, teach you how to undergo a job interview, etc.

If you have any questions about how Unity prepares you for something specific feel free to let me know!!!

Finals have begun!!!

I recently received my first final project assignment of the year so I thought some of my readers may me interested in what it is going to entail. This is for my Conservation Law Enforcement Capstone class and will take up that lab portion of the class for the rest of the semester. For this final, we are going to be directed to a crime scene in groups of two. This crime will either contain a dead animal or a dead person. We will have to analyze the crime scene by diagramming it properly, collecting evidence, producing a trajectory line, etc. Once we have analyzed the crime scene, we are on our own to use all of the skills we learned in class and past classes to solve the crime. We can use techniques such as finger printing, cast molding of foot prints, ballistics testing, etc. We also will use interviewing skills that we have learned to talk to suspects, witnesses, complainants etc. Throughout the process we will be writing case reports, memos, search warrant affidavits, etc. This final will incorporate all of the skills we have learned up to this point and also allow us to use our own logic and common sense the way that we would if we were working in the field. I personally am excited for this process to be underway and I will update you all as I begin the investigation. Have a great day!

Freedom to Choose

As I have mentioned in several of my previous postings I am currently in the Presidential Seminar on Asia. We spent the first half of the semester studying for and learning about the Camden Conference but now we have transitioned into phase two of the course which requires us each to take on a research project that we can tie into the curriculum somehow. I originally tossed around some pretty typical scholarly ideas like the economy of China and the legal systems of the country. But I thought that during my last semester here I really wanted to do something not only interesting but also something that could allow me to have a little fun. So I proposed my idea by saying that it is socially accepted that China’s culture has been closed off to the rest of the world for a long time (relatively speaking). Therefore, I (being a musician) would like to study the music of China and how their basic structure of their music relates to ours. I will then take what I find and relate it to whether certain styles of music are considered sad because we have been taught, or is it more of a human instinct to relate certain scales to certain emotions. Not only did the president of the college accept my proposal, he even had books to recommend that cover the musical stylings of other countries. I can truly say that I am excited to start researching this project and that it will help expand not only my intellectual horizons but also my musical capabilities.

Spring Break!!!

So as soon as I get out of work today I will be heading home for spring break! We have all seen the movies where people take road trips, fly to Cancun and all over the place for vacations. But the truth is, being senior year, a lot of my friends and I are using these two weeks to finalize our career decisions so we know what we will be doing in 2 months after we graduate. I for example am planning a trip to Pittsburgh to look at the law school and surrounding area since the school is one of my top decisions. One of my best friends Clover is going to Maryland and Florida for two job interviews in which he is extremely interested in. Another one of my best friends Matt is going to a fisheries conference that will have many great career opportunities available. If you have any questions as to what people are doing after graduation, and how they have prepared/are preparing for full-time jobs feel free to ask. Thank you for taking the time to read this!

Cool Projects

There have been some very interesting projects taking place by students here at Unity College. In the fisheries lab you can see we have a fish tank set up with plants growing on top of it. At first glance you may simply think this is a project on top of a fish tank. But the two are actually interconnected. The plants growing on top of the fish tank are actually connected to the tank. I am not sure the specifics on the operation but the water is fertilized by the fish which helps the plants and is in turn filtered by the plant soil which helps the fish. This is just one of the many student projects going on at Unity. If you have any questions about projects that are more closely affiliated with your major I will feel free to answer them. Have a great weekend!!!