A College Experience

Kelsie LaPlante never had a prom of her own. Her small school and class of 14 students was LaPlante’s life before she experienced the college world. The New England Christian Academy, located in Swansea, Massachusetts, was where LaPlante attended school since first grade. It’s a small school where the students wear uniforms and have to be friends with each other.

LaPlante, who will be 20 this May, grew up in Bristol, Rhode Island and moved to Swansea at the age of nine to be closer to her school. Her junior and senior year of high school she was given the opportunity to take classes in Fall River at Bristol Community College as part of a dual enrollment program. “When I first went there I was 16. I couldn’t even drive myself. Our first class my friend’s mom walked us to our class and it was like wait, were in college now you don’t have to walk us to our class.” That wasn’t the only thing that was different for LaPlante. She describes her private school schooling as “sheltering” and BCC was a different transition.

After graduating Salutatorian, LaPlante planned like most graduating seniors to move away to college. She was planning on attending Lasell College in Newton, MA but her emotions about it were mixed. “I was excited about college but nervous about moving away,” LaPlante said. Once moved in, LaPlante realized this wasn’t for her and a week later she was moved out. She doesn’t know if it was the adjustment that she didn’t like but she did know that she didn’t want to take time off.

Thinking about what to do next, LaPlante thought back to the credits she already had from BCC. She went back to the school and completed her first year out of high school earning her associates degree.

While at BCC one day, LaPlante saw a representative from Roger Williams University. Roger Williams wasn’t a school she originally looked at the first time but she decided to talk to the rep. She ended up applying to the school and was awarded a scholarship because of her good grade point average from BCC.

This is LaPlantes second semester at RWU and so far “for the most part it’s going smoothly.” The school turned out to be a good choice for LaPlante allowing her to commute from home, continue working at Sears, and make time to study and teach karate. At this point in time, LaPlante is considered either a second semester sophomore or first semester junior. This will be determined when she declares a major which is currently undecided.

Still unsure of what she wants to major in, LaPlante is leaning towards Communications and a core in philosophy. So far she’s not active in any clubs but she would consider joining the Public Relations club, PRSSA (Public Relations Student Society of America), to determine if PR is what she wants to do.

Having attended BCC before transferring to RWU made the transition easier. LaPlante said the work at RWU is more challenging than at BCC but attending the community college helped her get a sense of the college life.

A normal day for LaPlante usually consists of classes, karate and then work. She tries to give herself breaks in between classes. Laplante works at her job at Sears a lot on the weekends and then one or two days a week. “I manage it,” she said. “Every time I’m on break I always have to be doing [school work] or I fall behind.”

LaPlante has also been studying karate since the age of seven and is continuing to work hard. She has earned her first degree black belt in American Martial Arts and is currently working towards her second degree. When she is graduated from college she doesn’t want to make karate her life. She currently does it to stay in shape and also teaches a children’s class.

One could say that LaPlante has experienced all different types of college life. Finally settling down somewhere that works for her, LaPlante can now focus on what she wants to do. Whether she is doing something with PR or philosophy her hard work and determination from balancing school, karate and work will help her succeed anywhere in life.

All about me

I grew up in the small town of Norton, Massachusetts where the most exciting thing there was Wheaton College and our one stoplight in the center of town. Oh, and not to forget the restaurant Wendell’s, that was once featured on TV Diner because of its hot wings.

I recently just got my first Ipod this past Christmas and I don’t know how I lived without one. I go on my Facebook more than ten times a day and I’m known as a Facebook “creeper”. Creeping on Facebook is something I enjoy and if anything happens on Facebook I know about it.

I was the third youngest in my graduating class because I went to a private school with no cut off age when I was younger. I would tell people I was younger because I was so smart and skipped a grade but I couldn’t keep the lie going for long. I did recently just turn 18 in October so I was a baby entering my freshman year of college.

I got interested in Journalism around sophomore year when I discovered our school had a newspaper. I ended up loving everything about the newspaper and by my junior year I was co-editor. I ran that newspaper like it was my job. I ate, breathed, and spent almost every afternoon working on the paper coming up with new ways to improve it. At the start of my senior year I had taken an 8 person staff and a 12 page newspaper to a 15 person staff and a 24 page newspaper that could also be accessed on the web. On a good month, I could get 32 pages.

I played soccer from fifth to eleventh grade and ran track for two years in high school. I was that student who joined every club in high school and thought they ran the school. Sport weren’t the biggest thing in my life but I was a dedicated New England Revolution soccer fan.

While writing for the teen section of a local newspaper I had the opportunity to interview one of the players from the Revolution. This would be my first real interview and I knew teenagers and adults from almost five towns would read it. The interview was done through the phone (probably because they knew I would have attacked the player if I personally met him) but I was still really nervous. Once I heard the player get on the phone and say, “Hey, this is Adam Cristman” I almost peed myself. So I quickly got myself together and started the interview. Overall, the interview went well.

I hope to travel the world as either my job or for fun. I’ve already been to about ten states and two countries. I spent a month in South Korea staying with my friend’s family who was an exchange student to my family my sophomore year. That was one of the best months of my life, living and experiencing something totally different to my own life. After traveling to Korea and working in the study abroad office here at Roger Williams, my desire to travel the world is greater.

Net-Newsers

I couldn't imagine my life without the news. I get the news from my cell phone, surfing the internet or even checking my yahoo mail. I enjoy the many resources of technology we have just to learn about what's going on in the world.

According to Harrower, the type of news consumer I am is called a Net-Newser. These types of users are the, "youngest, best-educated, most affluent of the four groups, and they're plugged in to the latest technology (cell phones, wifi, broadband)." Wherever I am, I can get the news through the internet on my cell phone. This helps me stay connected to world news through news stations like CNN while im on-the-go. I love to read the newspaper on the internet whether it's The Boston Globe or a local newspaper back home because its quick and convenient. I would have to say that being a Net-Newser makes staying informed so much easier especially with new technologies being developed.

Tuesday, Feb 2

I went into today's class ready to learn something new and exciting and that's what I did!

Learning about Lasswell's formula was something that I thought was interesting because I had never heard of it. I like how it helps to understand communication better and we can apply it to our everyday life such as when we are reading an article from the New York Times. The exercise we did with Cameron drawing figures from us describing things to him was a good visual of how our language is based off of symbols.

The movie Signs was really adorable and a typical boy meets girl, girl leaves, boy is sad, and then boy and girl are reunited film. As cheesy as this plot may be, the movie taught us that we can communicate with one another without actually speaking.