Summer and gearing up for next year
David - Thursday, July 05, 2008 - Nothing really has been going on since my last blog. The only new developments are attending summer school where I am taking Art and Speech Communications. Both classes are very interesting and I am learning a lot about my hidden talents. At first, I was a little bummed out that I was going to take summer school as it takes one month of my summer for academics but overall, I am glad I am doing it. My art teacher is very artistic and really loves his profession. He has taught me so much about art and even about the medical field.
He's a very interesting person and I am glad I am enrolled into his course. My speech professor is very young and its very easy to relate to her. She knows a lot about speech as she use to be on the speech team in college so learning what she knows has been fun these three weeks.
In terms of ASDU, we have been working on freshmen orientation and welcome week. I am proud to announce that ASDU has voted in favor of hosting Boat Dance in October. More details will soon to follow so keep your eyes open! Also, I finally finished the constitution! We changed the structure of ASDU this year and as President, I had the pleasure amending the document. Only took me two months but it was very tedious! Other ASDU updates, for the first time in three years, ASDU will be having a retreat on August 19th from 9 AM to 5 PM in which members will learn how to be an effective leader, understand the heritage and background of Dominican University, and visit the convents/retreat center and Dominican. This will be a great experience for our members to get to know each other away from school and meetings.
Oh yeah...I forgot to mention my trip to the Panetta Institute. For those of you who don't know what the Panetta Institute is I will be happy to explain! Leon Panetta who was the former chief of staff to former President Bill Clinton developed this institute in public leadership and service along with this wife Syliva Panetta who as an alumna to Dominican University. For nine days, all the CSU Presidents, Santa Clara and Dominican University participated leadership seminars where leaders from all different backgrounds came to speak about leadership in their fields. The fields included: city, federal and local officials, religion, athletics, television, etc. This was a great bonding experience for me as I was able to meet so many different presidents all over California. I learned so much about being a leader and I can not wait to convey my learning's this fall semester.
In exactly one month,I will be 21! I don't have anything planned yet but I am sure something will come up. I just can't wait to go back to Dominican! I miss all my friends and I am very excited to spend my last year with the Dominican community. I have a huge feelings this will be the best year Dominican has ever experienced since 1890!
David R. Ramirez III
