For your first blog post, I would like you to write 250-350 words or so introducing the classmate you interviewed to the rest of our class. Take care with this short piece, for it is our first impression of you as a writer, as well as the first impression of the person you interviewed. Make it interesting, make it fun, and try to capture the person in writing and use quotes, brief stories, and any other vivid details you can discover to enrich your mini-profile.
For example, if I were to interview myself and posted the result, I might write something like:
Place matters to Professor Geoffrey Bateman, which is why his current research is so important to him.
"I think the different regions of our country shape us in important ways," he says. “As a teacher and scholar, I'm interested in studying the literature and cultural history of places, especially the American West."
Having grown up near Portland, Oregon, his interest in the West has evolved since childhood. He grew up exploring everything from the majestic Columbia River Gorge to the misty Oregon coast; he hiked the Pacific Crest Trail and hung out in quirky urban spaces of Portland and Seattle.
These experiences may help explain his current research on the queer frontier. His dissertation explores the cultural representations of sexuality in the American West near the end of the 19th century.
"It's a particularly rich period for sexuality studies,” he observes. "Sexual identity was not nearly as cut and dried as it became in the mid to late 20th century. And when you consider how racialized identities and gender norms factor into this understanding, you have a veritable explosion of fascinating material."
But his interests aren’t only historical. Professor Bateman believes strongly that historical research must speak to contemporary issues, especially those that are politically charged.
“Literature and history offers us a way to rethink current problems, and for me, I think the most rewarding I can do historically is to show others how texts from the past allow us to re-imagine our lives today.”
Such engagement means that in his first-year writing courses, he tries to find meaningful ways for students to practice their writing. Ideally, he wants them to connect abstract rhetorical concepts and research methodologies with ideas and problems outside our university context.
“Ultimately,” he says, “I want students to feel confident that what they’re learning in my classroom not only prepares them for the rest of their time at DU, but also starts them on a much larger journey of being an engaged citizen for the rest of their lives.”
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Ryan Fregeau was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. The reason why he chose DU was because of its size, LEP program, the mountains and loved it overall. His favorite breakfast food is cereal. He likes to snowboard, play tennis and watch college basketball. After graduation, he could see himself working related to real estate.
He is currently the rush chairman in Lambda Chi Alpha. If he could be any electrical appliance, he said that he'd probably be a refrigerator. Ryan definitely enjoys Colorado and likes the change from what he is used to back home. His favorite musician is Jo Jo. One of his favorite vacation spots would be either Mexico or Cape Cod.
Emily Williams, a first year student at the University of Denver, enjoys the state she has grown up in and looks forward to the new opportunities that await her. Her decision to stay close to home is based on here close relationship with her family. Emily says, “DU is the perfect size for me in comparison to schools like Colorado University and Colorado College,” and she also looks forward to being a part of the future journalism program that she has been asked to attend. For now however, she is a Communications and International Relations major.
Emily’s life revolves around her passion for service work and she participates in many service activities. In her senior technology program, she teaches senior citizens how to work the Internet and email. She believes it is important for everyone to be updated with the means of communication as it helps the seniors stay closer with their families. The guide-dog training program she works with has her training future guide dogs socialization skills and much more. She recently flew to Portland to see her puppy graduate and meet the dog’s new family. In her future, she sees herself managing a non-profit organization or even working with the UN.
As for now, she works at Borders during the summer. She enjoys competitive swimming, her dogs, and Sex in the City. Emily also speaks fondly of her journey across Western Europe where she traveled through Spain and Italy. She says her favorite vacation spot is Italy, specifically Florence, where she has climbed the famous Dome and seen some of the most incredible artwork in the world. Emily is content with her DU experience thus far, but she also looks forward to continuing her education and delving further into her service work.
Mike Sergott is an nineteen year old from infamous San Diego, California. He came to the University of Denver for the sole reason of wanting to explore and to leave his home state.
Mike is an avid fan of breakfast and his favorite breakfast food is "cereal." He is a very active individual who participates in many activities outside of the classroom. Some of those activities are: club lacrosse, snowboarding,traveling, and simply just hanging out.
Although Mike likes to have fun, he is serious about his studies and his future. He is a business major here at DU and hopes to one day run his own company upon completion of his graduation.
As being an active individual on campus, Mike plans to rush the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity in the spring. This works out well for him because I am the rush chairmen for the fraternity.
On top of all that information, here are a few random, interesting facts about Mike. His favorite electrical appliance is the refrigerator and would if possible be one. He claims to have no guilty pleasures but we all do. He prefers dogs well over cats. And lastly, he likes to to travel to Mexico and the Caribbean islands. Overall he is a pretty well rounded guy who enjoys life.
Rebecca
Rebecca is from Centennial, Colorado and has lived there all her life. She absolutely loves Colorado and has lived in the same house here whole life. Rebecca loves to travel and has been to Europe twice. Once with her family, which proved to be quite the experience, because the car they rented to get around ended up being too small for her and her five family members. Another time she went with a school group and found that trip to be far less enjoyable because everything was so structured and planned out, she likes to be able to take her time when she travels and see what she wants. Her dream is to back-pack across Europe one day. Rebecca’s other hobbies include crocheting, which she usually does while watching movies or her favorite TV shows on DVD. She also enjoys reading and has a job at Circuit City, which she works at once a week to earn extra money for school. Surprisingly, Rebecca considers herself a dog person because she is allergic to cats, but I had her pegged as a cat-person all along. She is an English and Spanish double major with hopes of teaching either of the subjects in a high school after graduating college. Rebecca picked DU because she sort of always knew she was going to go here and also because her mother works here, so it is affordable for her to attend. She does not participate in Greek life, because it never really seemed all that interesting to her. Some of the funnier things about Rebecca include, that her favorite breakfast food is cereal more specifically Lucky Charms, because she says “After you eat all the cereal the milk tastes like a milkshake!” In addition, if she could be an electrical appliance she would be an egg-timer, because she saw one shaped like a cute little chicken once and thought that seemed like her. Interviewing Rebecca was lots of fun and we have a lot in common.
Margy Rosé is a business major from the very exciting town of Edmond,Oklahoma. But she was born in Littleton, Colorado and missed Colorado, which was one of the reasons why she decided to attend the University of Denver. She lived in Colorado until she was ten years old and has finally returned for college.
Being back in the Rocky Mountain area for college is definitely a plus for Margy. She loves being outdoors and Colorado is the perfect environment for some of her favorite activities such as hiking, camping and especially skiing.
As you can tell, she is a very active person and she enjoys waking up early to work out and then eat breakfast. Breakfast is her favorite meal of the day and she enjoys all types of breakfast foods. One can never go wrong with cereal and a scone makes her day complete.
As a college student, it is important to find that balance between school and play and some of Margy's hobbies include photography, playing piano, and working out. She use to work for the Clarion and is planning to return working for them as a photographer. Look out for her pictures!
College is a time of learning and finding out about you as an individual and that is exactly what Margy is doing at her time here so far. Her goals after college are not set in stone yet and she would just like to take classes to figure out what interests her. She does have a strong interest in business marketing right now.
Although both of her parents were Greek, she does not consider herself to be a sorority person and does not find it too appealing. But she is very involved on campus in different organizations. She is a member of PLP, and the marketing chair for RHA, and the leadership team. Margy loves breakfast food, and would be an egg mcmuffin maker out of all the electrical appliances. Her reasoning behind it is that all the ingredients and pieces are uncooked and un-pieced at the beginning but after going through the maker and comes out a beautiful sandwich. At first the appliance can be seemingly useless but in reality it is very cool and useful.
Outside of class she really enjoys sports such as soccer and spending time at the Ritchie Center.
Margy loves both dogs and cats but has only owned cats but would love a dog to have as a running partner.
She really does love being active in the outdoors and her favorite vacation spot if Canada where she has done a lot of hiking! Tea+hiking=perfect vacation for Margy!
Ignacio comes to the University of Denver all the way from Caracas, Venezuela. He decided to attend DU after attending a college fair in Venezuela and feeling that DU recruiters treated him the best, answered all his questions and saw him as a valuable potential community member and not just as a number. Previous to coming to DU he had visited Denver and knew that this was the city for him because of the mountains.
Since arriving at Denver he has been studying Business and enjoying the weather and activities that Colorado has to offer. While not studying or working at the Ritchie Center, he loves to workout, ski, hike, and camp. He is also an active tennis player and says that he enjoys doing anything athletic. When not being active, he likes to watch TV and Ignacio recently purchased a Nintendo Wii, so he is taking up video gaming again. His other guilty pleasures are caramel cone ice cream, dibbs, and donuts. True to his Venezuelan heritage, Ignacio’s favorite breakfast food is Arepa, a traditional Venezuelan dish prepared by stuffing pre-cooked cornmeal bread, much like an English muffin, with meat and cheese.
Here at DU, Ignacio is not active in Greek Life. He says that this is due to the fact that he has never been interested because he never really knew much about it and he has always had his focus on other things, such as his wife. Ignacio has been married for almost five years to a woman he met in Venezuela. Ignacio and his wife are both studying here at DU.
After college Ignacio hopes to own his own business that is hopefully related to fitness. He does not want to own a gym because he has already done that back in Venezuela. Even though he plans to be a business owner, hopefully he will find time to return to his favorite vacation spot, Margarita Island, off the coast of Venezuela. He grew up going there and he said that you can easily find a nice serene spot to relax, the island offers amazing surfing and wind surfing and is always fun.
Ignacio seems like a very interesting man that will have quite a bit to offer to this class.
Interview with Abby
Hello blog readers! Today, I would like to introduce you to a fun and interesting member of our class. Her name is Abby and she comes to us from Broomfield, Colorado. Here at the University of Denver, Abby has a major in International Studies. She decided to come to DU because it is in state, and pretty close to her home base in Broomfield. She loves living in Colorado because it is beautiful here and every season is wonderful. She also thinks it is pretty cool that Condoleezza Rice attended the same University because it makes her feel slightly superior to her friends at the University of Colorado at Boulder and Colorado State University. I have to admit, I think that is pretty cool too. I asked her about her favorite breakfast food, and she was delighted to tell me that breakfast is her favorite meal of the day. She also likes eating breakfast foods for other meals like dinner. Her favorites include Belgian Waffles and huevos rancheros. One of her hobbies is playing the viola. Some of her other hobbies include bike riding and ice climbing. She developed her love of bike riding this past summer and it is something that she really enjoys. Abby said that ice climbing was fun and terrifying at the same time. She also participates in an intramural dodge ball team here on campus. That sounds like fun to me. After she graduates from DU, she plans to do a lot of traveling. She has also considered studying economics after she graduates, or going to spend some time down in South America. She is not currently involved in any kind of sorority, because it is simply not her thing. Quite frankly, I do not blame her, I am not in a sorority either. Outside of classes, Abby enjoys some good video games, Guitar Hero and Rock Band to be specific. One of her guilty pleasures that she indulges in is the music of Enrique Iglesias. She laughed a little when she admitted to that. Here are some other random facts about Abby. She greatly prefers dogs to cats, and she often goes home to visit her dog P.J. Her favorite spot to go on vacation is Paris, France. And last but not least, if Abby was an electrical appliance, she would be a toaster, because everyone knows that the best food comes out of a toaster.
She's cool! Get to know her!
-Nina
Devyn is a future ski bum as she said “realistically I will be a ski bum for a couple of years after college and eventually move on to Law School”. Originally from Sun Valley, Idaho she moved from Vermont to Denver just 3 months ago in search of the perfect outdoor playground where she can enjoy all her hobbies like cycling, skiing and hiking all in the same place. She loves being outdoors doing anything active especially cycling which takes most of her time off from class. Her favorite breakfast food right now is a breakfast burrito because it’s quick and convenient. Devyn is not active in Greek Life in part because of lack of information and interest. And part because she thinks most people join for a social aspect and she believes she has that social aspect covered through all the sport activities she enjoys, she gets to meet a lot of people through those. She thinks of herself as a dog person except when it comes to her cat, but she admits the cat is more dog than cat anyway. Her guilty pleasures are Ben & Jerry’s Coffee Heath Bar Ice Cream and Karaoke (her neighbors love her for that). Her favorite vacation spot is backpacking in the mountains of Idaho where she can get away from it all. If she could be an electrical appliance she thinks she would be an air conditioner since she does not enjoy heat.
Janis “Don’t even get me started about Facebook” Sakai was born in Chicago, IL. She is a student the University of Denver because the money is right and the scenery is nice.
Favorite Breakfast Food: “Blueberry Muffins... and I mean Blueberry!”
Janis is worldly, enjoys reading and plays a mean violin. If nothing else Janis will acquire from DU a love for the Rockies and a business degree.
Greek Life: “Uh, that is so 60’s”
When Janis gets a little overwhelmed, Italy is the only place that takes the edge off. A dog lover of sorts, Janis misses her little ‘snookums’ back home. Here, she resides on what is known as the “party floor” of her dorm. But while her friends and roommates break out the beer bong, Janis is breaking out the Wilde, Nietzsche and Wittgenstein.
Electrical Household Appliance: “Egg Timer....What?”
Constantly surrounding herself with good people and good spirits has served Janis well. An affinity for the inner city, Janis can take you to the hottest spots in Denver. From Double Daughters in Lodo to “the sticky” here on U Boulevard, Janis would be happy to introduce you around to the people you need to know.
This Class: “Greg is cool... I guess.”
Who is this mystery girl sitting in the second row? She is more than just her dark hair and professional dress.
Motivated might be one adjective to describe her.
On top of her current job as a student at Denver University and working toward her accounting major, she spends most of her free time working one of her three other jobs: a sales clerk at American Eagle, a work-study researcher for the provost, and an accounting intern at her Uncle's firm in her hometown Aurora, Colorado.
To supplement her studies she is also involved in the Creativity and Entrepreneurial living learning community on campus, a fine fit, and part of the Alpha Gamma Delta Sorority. She knows she cannot do it all and oftentimes finds her work and study schedule in conflict with her social schedule; however, somehow this incredibly motivated woman finds the time to get everything done!
She might be a math person, an aspiring accountant and one day possibly state treasurer, but her passion feeds her creative side. She has taken ballet for 12 years, was captain of the Pom team in high school, and currently takes ballet lessons at a dance studio in downtown Denver.
When she is not folding clothes, doing her research, crunching numbers, or on her toes she indulges in her favorite TV show or one of her favorite novels: One Tree Hill and The Princess Diaries.
Her future looks bright and promising.She has the motivation and the drive to achieve her goals and the experience needed to get there. Looking forward, she loved Denver and Colorado but her dreams are bigger than the city of Denver. She has her sights on the busy and bustling, East coast, possibly Philadelphia.
She would compare her personality to that of a hair straightener; a miracle-worker, fixing the frizz, and smoothing out the details.
Have not figured her out yet? Who could be this motivated, talented young woman? Her name is Jessica Choe, and if you have not yet, you should be looking to her to network, connect, and maybe for a bit of inspiration.
Though one might have expected Nancy Sullivan to have come to Colorado to escape the cold, grey climate of Chicago, she says that the weather wasn’t the reason; it was just a plus. She actually left her home just north of the Windy City to attend the University of Denver and the Hotel, Restaurant, and Tourism Management program. Nancy’s dream after finishing her degree at DU is to manage a resort, preferably someplace tropical, or open her own chain of spas. She said she knew she wanted to attend DU after a campus visit during her junior year. “Once someone told me it was sunny in Colorado,” she said, “I was in.”
Since moving to Colorado, Nancy has learned to snowboard. She also has kept up her passion for soccer; she plays on DU’s club team. In addition to her active lifestyle, Nancy enjoys traveling. She recently spent five days in Cabo San Lucas, her favorite vacation spot. Nancy said she enjoys Cabo “not for the touristy stuff, but for its beauty. You’re in the desert and then you’re at the ocean.” Nancy also enjoys traveling in Europe, especially Italy. “Venice is my favorite, there is no place like it,” she said.
Though she admits it’s a strange question, if Nancy could be any appliance she would be a toaster because when she was young she liked watching the animated TV series “The Little Toaster.” This is fitting since her favorite breakfast food is the classic French toast. She also admits to watching VH1’s new show “Rock of Love,” even though she says, “it’s like the tackiest show, but I love it.”
Hanna is a Colorado Girl. She has lived in Aurora, Colorado her whole life, in the same house in fact, and knew she wanted to go to DU for a long time. “It was pretty much my dream school,” she said. While at DU, Hanna is studying English with plans, after many years of school, of becoming an English professor.
Cereal is Hanna’s favorite breakfast item, Cinnamon Toast Crunch in particular. “The milk actually ends up tasting better than the cereal by the end,” she says with a smile.
In high school, Hanna actually played volleyball for her school’s team. She’s thought about playing for a club team here, but hasn’t had the time. When she does have free time, however, she enjoys reading and watching movies.
While she considered pledging, Hanna decided not to due to the time and money commitments it requires. “I have some friends who are in a sorority in CSU,” she said, “and it gets really expensive for them.”
For the past two years, Hanna has worked at Starbucks. “Once you get the drink recipes’ down, it’s not too bad,” she said. “But in the morning before they get their coffee, some people can be kind of crazy.” Now that she’s in college she works mostly during the breaks.
Were she to be a household appliance, Hanna thinks she would be a blender. Although she sites no particular reason for this, I think it makes since considering she works with them regularly at Starbucks.
Hanna considers herself “Not strictly either” when it comes to being a cat person or a dog person. At home she has two cats and a dog, so she’s partial to both. Her mother, on the other hand feels slightly differently. “She probably loves that dog more than my brother or me,” she laughed. “We’re going to have real problems if anything ever happens to him!”
Hanna’s guilty pleasure happens to be infomercials. “You know those late night 30-minute commercials? I don’t know what it is about them, but I’ll just sit there and watch them!” she said. However, she does enjoy real TV programs as well. In the past school year Hanna and her roommate Janis have watched the first 3 seasons of Veronica Mars and House as well as the first 4 seasons of Gilmore Girls on DVD.
Europe is of Hanna’s favorite places to travel. In particular, she loves Switzerland. “It’s just so green there!” she said. About 2 years ago, Hanna was fortunate enough to travel to Europe through EF Tours, and international travel program for teachers and tours. On her trip, they went through England, France, Switzerland and Germany. The next place Hanna would love to go is to Venice, Italy. “Hopefully I’ll go there after I graduate,” she said.
Thank you all for such compelling introductions! I'm looking forward to working with all of you this quarter and getting to know you better as writers and people.
Here were a few moments that I found particularly effective in these profiles: Nina, Margy, and Benjamin, your opening lines really got my attention, good work. Hanna, your quote about Rebecca's take on Lucky Charms was perfect. And Rebecca and Emily, I thought your integration of quotes throughout your profiles were particularly engaging. Last, Benjamin, your contrast of the beer bongs and philosophers made me laugh out loud. Nice touch. But who's Greg?
For everyone else, I was pleased with your introductions, as well, so keep up the good work. Throughout the quarter, I'll highlight the effective contributions of each of you. Thanks again for your initial engagement!
Let's keep writing!
Benjamin is from Denver, CO. He’s had a permanent residence here all his life, and loves it here in Colorado. Ben chose DU because of the close proximity to home and because it has a good liberal arts school.
His favorite breakfast food is Cinnamon Toast Crunch. He claimed, “I hate to say that cereal is the best breakfast food, because you can really eat it anytime you want.”
Ben works three jobs, and he writes a lot. He writes for Westword, the Denver Gazette, and Up Front.
Because of his busy schedule, he doesn’t really have a lot of time for hobbies.
After college, he would like to go to Law School and practice corporate law. Ben isn’t a part of Greek Life. He thinks that it’s just not for him.
If he could be any electronic appliance, he would choose to be a waffle iron. “No one has them anymore. Nowadays, everything is frozen.”
Someone actually has made him a MySpace account before. Since his last name is Paige, they used a play on words and titled it the “I Hate Ben Paige.”
His Guilty pleasure? He rides the light rail back and forth. He just doesn’t tell anyone about them.”
He likes dogs, but can’t stand cats. "They're just way to...catty."
Ben’s vacation spot is Ibiza, Spain. “It’s where all the crazy Europeans go to party. It would be great to go and see it.”
Sarah Brehm, a current freshman at the University of Denver, was born in Wayzata, Minnesota where she has lived all of her life. She was raised by her two parents and has two older brothers that she is very close with. Sarah decided to attend the University of Denver because of its city location, its strong business program, its beautiful campus, and its short distance from the mountains. She has enjoyed her first year but is eager to take new classes and find a subject of interest, which will direct her toward a future career. Sarah is currently a Business-undeclared major, but is seriously considering switching her focus to HRTM, where she feels she could have the opportunity to take more interesting classes. She also feels that the HRTM School will provide her with a top-notch education that it is known for nationwide, as well as allow her to travel to different places around the globe. Sarah has a deep passion for travel and service that led her to Africa during her senior year. During this trip, she felt a deep connection with the people and hopes to study abroad there during her junior year. In her free time, Sarah enjoys being active. She played varsity soccer and basketball all throughout high school, and enjoys playing on the intramural teams here at the University. Sarah also loves the outdoors, and enjoys running, skiing, hiking, and rollerblading. “If it is sunny and warm outside”, says Sarah, “I have to be outside. I can’t get any work done on a beautiful day!” Her favorite place to run is at Washington Park, about a mile from her dorm, and her favorite ski resort is Telluride, Colorado. Sarah is also a member of the Gamma Phi Beta sorority and really enjoys the things that they do and the causes they support. Sarah has always been passionate about social service, and through her sorority she is able to get a lot of people on campus involved. She is also a tour guide for the University of Denver. “I know when I was applying for college, the tour guides had a huge effect on my decision”, she says, “I love being a tour guide because I can brag about my school and hopefully influence kids to come here!” Sarah lives a very busy but exciting life, and is eager to see what her future holds for her.
In case you haven’t already noticed, Nina is an energetic girl.
When asked what kind of electrical appliance she would be, Nina responded with an answer that was both original and surprisingly accurate. "I would be a coffee pot--because coffee is the greatest. I mean I really love it. A lot. But also, I've been told that I can make people hyper, kind of like caffeine. So yeah, I'd be a coffee pot." This is a fitting symbol for someone with Nina‘s personality. She is enthusiastic, especially about her new life at DU.
Nina grew up in Parker, Colorado--your typical suburban community. She decided to come to DU because of the scholarship she was awarded. Her extracurricular activities are quite diverse; while she claims to have “absolutely no hand-eye coordination,” she is a skilled dancer, actor, and singer--a total triple threat! Her talents even earned her the lead role in DU’s musical production, “The Talking Bird,” which is quite an accomplishment for a freshman!
Besides performing, Nina also enjoys cartoon sand video games; her favorites are Spongebob and Halo, respectively. She seems like the kind of fun-loving person who is always having a good time, and she will no doubt bring a lot of energy to our class.
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