Auggie at a Glance - Sam Smith

I'm now a Contributor to the Echo, Augsburg's newspaper, writing the "Auggie at a Glance" piece. Great, huh?
For those unaware, "Auggie at a Glance" is a way for the Augsburg community to stay in touch with the cool things Auggies are doing. Last week, I wrote about Sam Smith, our current Day Student Body President. I figured it'd be nice to post my pieces online, after they've been published, so enjoy!

Average college students waste away their time at school, remaining out of public view and disregarding opportunities for leadership. Sam Smith, however, is not an average college student.

Currently a junior International Relations major, Sam is Augsburg’s Day Student Body President, making him responsible for approximately 2,000 of his peers. He acts as their liaison to Augsburg’s administration, including President Paul C. Pribbenow and the Board of Regents. Sam’s schedule consists of a full course load, and six to seven meetings per week (including Student Government’s (StuGov) approx. three-hour weekly meeting). A weighty task for any student, but Sam is no stranger to politics.

Homecoming Prince at Stillwater High School, Sam grew up in a family entrenched in the public sphere. His mother is a teacher at Bruce F. Vento Elementary School in St. Paul, and his father boasts an impressive resume, having served as the State Commissioner of Revenue under Jesse Ventura, and the Director of Finance for St. Paul under Mayor Chris Coleman. Sam’s older brother is a Peace Corps volunteer in Ukraine.

And now Sam is paving his own way through politics. As a first-year, Sam jumped at an open Senatorial position in the Day Student Government, and helped bring A'viands to Augsburg. Most students would call that sufficient enough as a collegiate accomplishment, but Sam didn’t stop there. He was later named an Orientation Leader and a Summer Community Advisor for Mortensen Hall. In his “spare time,” Sam functioned as Editor of The Echo’s Sports section. After all that hard work, you’d expect someone like Sam to take a break--but he didn’t stop. Last summer, Augsburg’s Office of Undergraduate Research and Graduate Opportunity awarded Sam $2,000 to study online communities, and what it means to be a social person in the age of anonymity, disembodiment, and technology. As Sam put it, “I got paid to play computer games.”

But Sam’s ambitions didn’t stop there: last year, after a hotly contested election against his “best friend…and inspiration” Juventino Meza, Sam was elected the 2009-2010 Day Student Body President. According to Sam, “Everything I’ve done at Augsburg has prepared me to be the Student Body President—my work with StuGov…with ResLife…with Orientation. It’s all showed me ways I can be effective.” Sam also said he likes to think of the position as one of stewardship, rather than one of politics.

And yet, Sam has no delusions about his responsibilities: “Ben [Ben Krouse-Gagne, Sam’s running mate and the current Day Student Body Vice President] and I won only by about 40 votes [out of 500 votes cast]. We have people we’re going to be accountable to this year.” Sam’s goals for his time as Student Body President include a sustainability plan modeled after Macalester’s, and changing the apathy among Augsburg’s students. Pressed, Sam explained: “There is a select group of students who make the decisions for the…larger community. I’d like to see more students get involved…care more…about how their student activity fee is used, how their tuition is used…and to hold StuGov accountable.”

But Sam won’t be Student Body President forever. He has two years left, including this one, and he intends to make good use of them. This January, he’ll be joining a faculty-led study abroad trip to Nicaragua, where he’ll study globalization and women’s movements; next fall, he intends to study in Africa for a semester. Though still a long way off, Sam predicts he’ll work in an embassy, following in the footsteps of his grandmother, who is currently finishing assignments at an embassy in Montreal.

One thing’s for certain: Sam Smith has already demonstrated himself to be a true public servant. He invites you to join him every Wednesday night at 7:30 P.M. in OGC 100 for StuGov meetings, which are open to the entire Augsburg community.

Post-grad plans and other thoughts

I'm sick.
I don't think it's H1N1, but it's definitely more than seasonal allergies, which I get every year around this time. How do I know it's more? My body aches, my head feels like it could pop, and I had a fever (albeit, a small one) earlier. Mitch made me tomato soup for dinner, though, and I had a Naked juice, so I feel a little better in spirit, if nothing else.

Mighty Mango, my favorite Naked flavour

Living off-campus is interesting. I mean, Mitch and I have been off-campus since last April, but it never ceases to surprise and annoy me. Last night (around 3 A.M.), we had a group of drunk men outside our window. How they got back there, I have no idea, because our bedroom window faces another apartment building, and the space in-between is fenced in. About five minutes later, at least two drunk men were in our hall, pounding on our neighbor's door and dropping f-bombs. That lasted about a half hour. The drunk men finally left, but the damage was done--neither Mitch nor I slept well the rest of the night.

Today sounds like it's been a good one, no?

At least the things that matter to me are going well. I'm meeting with Dixie Shafer (head of the Office of Undergraduate Research and Graduate Opportunity) at the end of October to discuss my post-grad options. I have a lot of said options, but the hard part is, with two general majors under my belt (Comm. Studies and International Relations) and a lot of interests (politics, media...), picking something is difficult.

I met with Leah Spinosa de Vega earlier this week. I'm thinking about going abroad again, but nothing's official, so don't get excited. It was a lot easier to study in Japan for a month two summers ago than it will be to study in Japan for a semester next fall. I have an apartment now, and a dog, and unless I manage to score some pretty sweet study-abroad scholarships, my chances of actually going again are very, very slim. But it's exciting to think about.

Classes are going well. In Japanese, we're finally moving on to stuff I don't know, and my other two "regular" classes are cool beans (Political Patterns and Processes, and History of U.S. Foreign Relations). My fourth class, as you may know, is devoted to research--which also rocks. I did an initial thematic analysis of my Ocarina of Time notes earlier this week, and soon (today or tomorrow, actually), I'll be starting Wind Waker. Studying video games is a sweet gig, I know.

Go Link!

Tomorrow, our History of U.S. Foreign Relations class is having lunch with a delegation of Iraqi officials who are visiting Augsburg. We were instructed to not shake hands of anyone of the opposite gender, but my professor said pictures should be O.K., with the consent of the delegation. I'll do my best to take some pics for y'all to see, but don't count on it--if it seems like asking to take a picture would be rude, I won't do it.

So sleepy...
Nap-time.

Imma busy beeeeee

Well, well, well. The summer is over (for all intents and purposes, though the weather doesn't seem to notice), and classes at Augsburg have begun once again. And with the start of this term's classes comes my perpetual state of busyness. I don't mind so much, really, but occasionally complaining is therapeutic.

I'm taking four/five/six classes this semester:

• POL 158 (Political Patterns and Processes). First impressions? My professor is a totally cool hippie lady.
• HIS 332 (History of U.S. Foreign Relations). First impressions? WTF! It took me four hours to read the first assigned packet. I love to read, and I love to learn, but man-oh-man...
• JAPN 111 (Japanese 1-A). First impressions? I've taken this course before, in Japan, so it's a piece of cake...for now.
• COM 499 (Communication Studies Research). First impressions? I'm studying video games. It's baller.
• HON 340 (Junior Colloquium). First impressions? The class happens only once per semester, and our first session isn't until late October. More on this weird Honors course then.
• HON 470 (Student/Faculty Collaboration:Research Thesis Requirement). First impressions? It's a non-credit course, just so my transcript can show I've completed the Honors research requirement.

These four/five/six courses will be my life for the next four months. Well, those courses plus Student Government (our first full meeting is tomorrow), Homemade (we're getting t-shirts soon! Yussss), and work (Comm. Studies desk and the Speakers Lab).

In other news, Per is doing great. He likes to eat things out of the bathroom garbage, and he occasionally munches on the drywall, but he's getting enormous, and someday he'll be a well-behaved mature dog. Mitch is also great. His hours got bumped up, and he's expecting a raise in the next week or so.

Mitch and Per snuggling.

I miss playing Pokemon, but I've been pretty diligent about doing my homework the day it's assigned, so maybe some Pokemon-ing is in my near future...maybe this weekend, even!

I love Luxray.

And Arcanine.

I'm as much of a political news junkie as ever. Got a question about the health-care debate? I've got your back. I'm aaaall over it. Otherwise, I don't think much has changed since the summer. I have a lot of neat experiences under my belt--most of them random--but I think it's sometimes the random, unplanned experiences that have the most effect on you.

Stay tuned to No, I Am a Cat for news on my life as a junior at Augsburg College.

At a Twins game with Mitch's cousin.