ULC - PAL Peer Mentor Blog

I have been told about goals. They are S.M.A.R.T, they keep you motivated and focused, and they are a source of pride for every accomplished step along the way. Yet, goals meant nothing to me until I realized: I have the ultimate power over my goals; my personal goals are a tool to create my vision of my future. That means I get to set goals to accomplish the things that I want to do. With this power I create statements that reflect personal values. These statements strengthen my short term motivations to achieve a long term vision. I now have goals to work towards which are meaningful and serve the purpose of bettering who I am as a whole.

My goals are personal: I will transform the way that stress affects my performance in everyday tasks.

My goals can serve a dual purpose: I will focus and get my daily to do list done with enough time to relax before I go to bed.

My goals are for myself and others: I will take all the wonderful information I have learned in PAL training and use it to facilitate my education as well as others.

My goals can be for the whole world: I will think and make intelligent choices when it comes to consumerism and reducing waste.

It is in this way that I can use my goals to shape who I am in the present and for the future.
That is something that inspires me.

Posted 05:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This week I earned $400.00 for participating in a research study on campus. Sure, I had to do grueling workouts on a treadmill, eat strange lentil porridge, and give a few vials of blood, but I’m pretty sure that it was worth it. Plus, the grad student carrying out the research was able to collect some (hopefully) valuable data.

Different research groups on campus are often trying to recruit students as test subjects in their studies. The time commitment varies widely: the study I was in required approximately 20 hours, whereas many other studies only require half an hour. In order to thank participants for their time, an honorarium is often offered. So students get a chance to make a few bucks, and the wheels of research keep on rolling—sounds like a win-win situation, doesn’t it?

Watch for ads on bulletin boards across campus and special announcements made on PAWS. Departments like Kinesiology, Psychology, and Computer Science often need human participants if you are at all interested in contributing a bit of time to research. Besides making some extra money, the experience can give you new insight to how actual research is carried out in the various fields.

Christina C.

Posted 08:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)