Drake SJMC Newbie
Transferring to Drake
Transferring to Drake University from the University of Iowa was kind of a shock for me academically.
If you don’t know, the classes at the University of Iowa aren’t that challenging. It also didn’t help that I spent my first -and only- year at Iowa doing classes online due to the COVID 19 pandemic (I’m not going to go into any detail, but let’s just say that everything’s a whole lot easier with Google by your side).
Therefore, when I arrived at Drake University I was overwhelmed by the amount of work in all my classes, particularly Reporting and Writing Principles, known simply by all JMC students as J54….
JMC 54…
In this class we had to write an article every week, interviewing at least three people for each article.
This took a lot of time out of my day, and as a result made me somewhat resent the class. However, I’m glad I took it because it helped me learn how to manage my time well, forced me to meet people I would have never met otherwise, and most of all become a better writer.
Here is an example of one of the articles I wrote for this class.
Fall Break: Is it Worth it?
October 22, 2021
Students at Drake University were glad to have had a fall break this semester, but are unsure whether or not they’d prefer having a full week off at Thanksgiving instead.
“I don’t feel like it [fall break] was strongly necessary for me,” said junior Kaylin Vos, a vocal performance major. “It was nice to have a breather, because it’s been very busy recently, for I think a lot of people -so it was nice- but I think I could have done without it.”
Vos said she went back home to Pella, Iowa for the break, spending her time with family, singing at a wedding, and doing homework.
“Most of my friends at other universities, they have a week for Thanksgiving,” said Vos. “So that kind of would have been nice, because I went home but didn’t see anybody I knew really. So, I’m kind of on the fence.”
Vos said she has a pretty big family that tries to get together whenever they can. She said her family likes to do a lot of activities during Thanksgiving, and planning around everyone’s schedules can be difficult.
“Currently, we kind of have to choose between either my mom’s family and my dad’s family,” Vos said. “So, if we had more time maybe I could see both.”
Alexa Johnson, a junior majoring in health care administration, agreed with Vos, preferring a full week at Thanksgiving and no fall break.
“I don’t really like having to go to class those first two days,” Johnson said.
Johnson is from Rapid City, South Dakota, which is nine hours away from Des Moines. She said that because of the long distance she has to travel to go home, it would be nice to have a full week at Thanksgiving.
But even though she said she’d prefer the entire week of Thanksgiving off, that doesn’t mean she didn’t enjoy her fall break.
“I think I needed some sort of mental break, kind of a way to destress,” Johnson said. “I hadn’t seen my family since before school started because I’m nine hours away. So yeah, I think in a way it was necessary.”
Luke Hofmann, a first-year graduate student in the school of education, said that he thought fall break was necessary as well
“I do like it [fall break],” Hoffmann said.
He said that in Minnesota -where he grew up- schools had MEA, which was their own sort of fall break in which kids got a Thursday and Friday off around the fall.
“It’s nice to have that little break,” Hofmann said. “You can go on little mini vacations, or just have time to hang out.
Hofmann said he spent the whole fall break “locked” in his apartment with his new kitten Csikos -which means striped in Hungarian.
“I mostly played with Csikos the whole time,” Hofmann said. “And then I did end up watching the entirety of ‘Squid Game.’ I think I watched that over Sunday and Monday, just two days binging it. It was good.”
Hofmann said that even though not having the full week at Thanksgiving is a bummer, he likes things the way they are.
“It’s a little inconvenient having to go to school that Monday and Tuesday,” Hofmann said. “But I think I would prefer it this way.”
Jas Kakar, a sophomore majoring in AI and data analytics, said that he also likes things just the way they are.
“I think it’s nice how it is now,” Kakar said. “Rather than one whole break, it’s divided into two. It gives us like two breaks to recoup and just relax and do your thing. And that’s the better alternative.”
Hofmann said that not having a fall break last year, due to COVID-19, left many people burnt out by the end of the semester, which possibly is why Drake decided to bring back fall break this year.
This year Thanksgiving break is from Wednesday, November 24 to Friday, November 26.
Want More?
If you liked this article and want to read more, feel free to check out some of the articles I wrote for the Times Delphic -a student run newspaper at Drake University.
