update on project

I am at the point with my project that I feel stressed out about what the final paper will entail. I have my subject but I am unclear about exactly what I want to answer and portray in my paper. I plan on mapping out the whole portfolio this weekend and rethinking what point I want to make. I have conducted interviews and have made the physical map of where I am studying, I am just trying to figure out the contents of the paper. I have all the information I need, I just need to organize it! Hopefully it will all come together this weekend! 

glossary for project

Belmont
The Upstairs- athletic offices where study hall is, and our coaches offices are
Greek space- Bruin Hills clubhouse which serves as greek storage
Boardroom- where our meetings are held
BM- mandatory business meetings once a month
CD- weekly chapter development meetings
Grassy knoll- grass field located outside of Curb atrium
IFC- fraternity office located in Beamen 
Beamen- school wide hangout center


Vanderbilt
McGugin- athletes only hangout center 
Frat row- street where all the fraternities houses are located
Sorority row- street where all the sororities houses are located
Vandypants- tight yoga capris which the sorority girls wear
Running of the pigs- When the frat guys line sorority row on bid day to check out the new freshmen girls as they run to their new sorority house
The field- lacrosse field
Vandy van- shuttles that take students around campus


BOTH
Beepers- freshmen fraternity pledges who have to dd during their pledge ship 
Sorostitute- a sorority girl who spends all her time at frat houses sucking up to the brothers

Big/Little- your assigned family in your sorority

TFM- Total frat move website (quotes typical frat guy language)

TSM- Total sorority move website (quotes typical sorority girls sayings)

Bid Day- They day girls find out which sorority they are in 

interview

For my project, I interviewed a lacrosse player at Vanderbilt who is also in a sorority. Her name is Paige Cahill and she is a Theta. I wanted to talk to her about being in both a sorority and an athlete, and see what she says about the two different lifesyles.

symposium

I was not able to attend the "Night with Maya Angelou", but I was able to attend the panel of five women, including Angelou, the next morning at eleven am. I was excited to attend because I heard such great things from the night before. Students were allowed to ask questions to the panel about whatever they wanted. THe most memorable thing Maya talked about that stuck with me the most was when a student asked for advice on being a singer. Maya told her first off to take care of her body becuase her body was her instrument. Take care of your body and maintain it like you would a real instrument. She then said to remember that every song you sing, you sing to God. That really stuck with me because God provided people with the ability and talent to sing. Why would we use our God given talent to cuss and sing degrading things? Every song you sing you sing to God has stuck with me and I have thought about that every time I have played music since. I really enjoyed listening the panel, especially Maya Angelou. It was a great opportunity.

discourses

It was very interesting reading about different discourses this weekend. At first you think of discourses as being broad and limited, but then once you think about it, you come to the conclusion that they can be very particular and detailed. When you think about discourses you think about the usual ones such as different races or gender, but the discourse I found in a video takes place within the same person. For example, I am in a sorority and play basketball for my college. Both of these discourses are extreme opposites. The way I interact with my “sisters” is totally different then how I interact with my team. For the video I chose, I chose the same type of thing. I chose a student athlete, which is two different discourses for one person. They align in the way that focus is involved in both and routine is involved in both. They collide in the sense that you strive to achieve totally different thing. Studying is a very quiet, still focus while basketball is a loud, physical focus even though it involves mental preparation as well. In this commercial that is played every year during March Madness basketball tournament, it shows how athletes are “going pro in something other than sports”. Sometimes people do not realize the extra effort that goes into being a successful student while being a successful athlete. This video shows that athletes can be more than a “jock” while it displays the two different discourses