Kaplan University Chapter Newsletter November 2014 Issue

1 © 2013, The National Society of Collegiate Scholars, All Rights Reserved.

Hello Scholars of the NSCS Kaplan Chapter! My name is Roselynne Ramirez and I am your freelance coordinator and business writer for the NSCS Kaplan Newsletter! The NSCS Kaplan Newsletter Team would like to proudly announce that this is our November Anniversary Issue!! We would like to thank all you readers for your support, and feedback regarding the newsletter, we cant believe just a year ago we were working on our very first issue and to date have released 7 issues!! We could not have done it without you, our readers and the awesome team behind the newsletter. As many of you know there are a lot of exciting things happening within our chapter for the month of No-vember and December. New Member Induction Ceremony, Toys for Tots Drive with the University of Houston Chapter ground campus, extended Blood Drive, and the Jared Box Project!! Be sure to check your emails and our chapter Facebook page for updates on these events! If you would like more infor-mation on the Toys for Tots Drive please email our Vice President of Social Media at kun-scs.vpsocialmedia@gmail.com A message from our Chapter President- " I would like to give a shout out to our VP of Social Media, Wes, for working so hard on the Toys for Tots Drive in December! It's exciting for our chapter to have their first ever "ground" event." Wondering what the Jared Box Project is? This is an NSCS wide event for November. We would like for you to participate and send us photos. The website has all the instructions, http://www.thejaredbox.com/ November is also Gratitude Month!!! We are super grateful to all of our advisors through Kaplan and NSCS for their support, we have a great member base, not to mention the amazing members who have worked so hard on our chapter newsletters. We would like to also show gratitude to our awesome Chap-ter President for leading this amazing chapter!! Readers, we are currently looking for your articles on your favorite winter recipes for our upcoming Janu-ary Issue! Please send in your articles to roselynner.kunscs.vplan@gmail.com. Write in and be heard!! -Roselynne Ramirez

Kaplan University Chapter Newsletter November 2014 Issue

2 © 2013, The National Society of Collegiate Scholars, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

KUNSCS Meeting Room Link:

https://khe2.adobeconnect.com/nscshs/

1

Book Lovers

Day!

2

Daylight Savings

Time Ends

3 4

Election

Day

5 6

“Navigating Your

Way to Success”

Webinar @8pm

7 8

New Member

Induction Ceremony

3pm

9

KUNSCS Election Kick

Off! 6pm

10 11

Veteran’s

Day

12 13 14

Officers Meeting 9pm

Newsletter Meeting

10pm

15

16

New Member

Orientation 6pm

17 18 19 20 21 22

23/30 24 25 26 27

Thanksgiving

28

General Membership

Meeting 9pm

29

November

December

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

1 2

Toys for Tots Drive @ University of Houston

3

“Navigating Your

Way to Success”

Webinar @8pm

4 5 6

7

Pearl Harbor Day

8 9 10

“Making More Time

in Your Day” Webi-

nar @8pm

11 12

Officers Meeting 9pm

Newsletter Meeting

10pm

13

14 15 16

Hanukkah

17 18 19

General Membership

Meeting 9pm

20

21

First Day

of

Winter

22 23 24

25

Christmas

26

27

28 29 30 31

New

Year’s

Eve

**Calendar events are subject to cancellations and changes on

a monthly basis.

Kaplan University Chapter Newsletter November 2014 Issue

3 © 2013, The National Society of Collegiate Scholars, All Rights Reserved.

In honor of the KUNSCS newsletter’s one year

anniversary we would like to spotlight our

staff members to give you, the readers, a

chance to “meet” who is behind the scenes

bringing it to you!

Megan Hemling, Editor

I have been editor on the news-letter committee since its first issue a year ago! I am in my third year at Kaplan, studying in the Bachelor’s in Health and Wellness program. I am hoping to be graduating in September of 2015. My goal is to become a certified Wellness Coach to

help people become their healthiest and happiest! Be-sides being involved in KUNSCS, I am also a member of the Student Nutrition Association of Kaplan and the Alpha Beta Kappa honor society. This fall I welcomed baby Nico-las (a.k.a. future NSCS scholar!) into the world and could not be happier adding the role of mommy to my resume. In my spare time I blog about wellness at: (http://mind-bodypursuit.blogspot.com/).

Carrington Carpenter, Editor

I am recently a graduate from Kaplan with a degree in Early Childhood Development. I plan on using this degree and going into Psychology for Autism Spec-trum Disorders. I plan to eventu-ally work with children and teens who have autism to help them exceed their educational

goals and live life as normally as possible. I have been a member of NSCS for 2 years now and editor for the news-letter for the past year. It has been such a wonderful ex-

perience and I can't wait to see it grow from years to come .

Stephanie Reeves, Health & Family Writer

My name is Stephanie Reeves-Sifuentes. I am a 28 year old, married, mother of two won-derful girls. I started Kaplan University in 2013 and in De-cember I will be starting my Bachelor of Science in Health Science degree. I am the writer of the Health and Family col-umns for our wonderful news-

letter. I plan to go for a Master of Science in Health Ed-ucation after I obtain my Bachelor of Science in Health Science. My ultimate goal is to obtain a PHD in Health Education. I currently do not work unless you count homeschooling my youngest daughter. I have devoted the last couple years to nothing but school and plan to devote as many more as it takes to obtain a PHD. Thank you all for reading our newsletter and do not hesitate to submit articles or ideas to us. We would really love to hear feedback from our readers.

Robert Griffin, Military Writer

We would like to welcome Robert to the newsletter team. Look for his first piece in our January issue!

My name is Robert Griffin and I have been married to my wife Tammy for 24 years. We have five children and five grandchildren. We also have five dogs, two cats, two turtles, three rats and one snake. I retired from the US Army as a Combat Medic on

11 JUL 2013 after a total combined service of 20 years 6 months (I had a break in service as well as a change in branch of service). I am a Purple Heart recipient and work with several volunteer organizations that benefit combat wounded soldiers and combat veterans. I

Kaplan University Chapter Newsletter November 2014 Issue

4 © 2013, The National Society of Collegiate Scholars, All Rights Reserved.

attended Kaplan University from 2010 to 2012 and ob-tained my AS Degree in Interdisciplinary studies. I will be going back to Kaplan after my last surgery in Decem-ber this year to finish my Bachelor’s degree and then on to my masters. I have written military articles for KUABK, OWLS and KUSMA. I have published articles for Soldiers Angels and various other military oriented or-ganizations.

Small Business Saturday

By: Roselynne Ramirez

As the newest addition to KUNSCS’s news-letter committee, I would like to keep my debuting article relatively to the point as I get my feet wet in the field of journalism. However, do not let its sim-plicity mistake you for a general information article. As a graduate in the field of Business Administration, much of my education was centered on preparing me for the corporate world; and while I appreciate that aspect of my degree plan, my true passion lies in the arena of small business. This is the topic I’d care to elaborate on today.

With Thanksgiving just around the bend, many consumers are preparing for one of the biggest shopping days of the year; Black Friday. As corpora-tions soak in the love of stampeding shoppers bang-ing down their entrances to throw money their way in return of exquisite sales prices, a new trend has arisen in recent years. Adding to the spending frenzy, we now have the enjoyment of Small Business Satur-day, Sofa Sunday, and Cyber Monday [Thank God for online shopping, you’ll need some down time to heal those shopping cart battle wounds and soak those aching feet!]. But there’s a true beauty to admire about Small Business Saturday, which I believe needs to be highlighted in attempts of evening out the play-ing field and detract from dumping all our hard-earned dollars at the doorsteps of the big box stores.

Small Business Saturday has been making

awesome headway as a national event intended to sup-port our nation’s SME [Small & Medium-sized Enter-prises] sector, as well as the consumers’ local economy. While fostering the growth and stability of mom and pop shops, Small Business Saturday in 2013 alone was able to generate a total of 5.7 billion in sales, a 4% in-crease from 2012’s 5.5 billion sales mark (Clark 2013). Still far off from Black Friday’s four-day weekend grand total of 57.4 billion in 2013 [which is actually a decline from the previous year] (Townsend, 2013), one can say it is an improvement!

Now if you’re stuck wondering why you should consider shopping local this holiday season, here is something to bear in mind. Small businesses are a driv-ing force and play a major part in job creation; unfortu-nately, it also a source of destruction when businesses go under (Headd, 2010). Shopping local feeds into sup-porting entrepreneurship and innovation, sustainabil-ity, and keeping competition strong. So support your local small businesses and aid in your community’s eco-nomic growth! For more information as a small busi-ness owner [to participate] or a consumer who would like to rally a neighborhood event for next year’s Small Business Saturday, be sure to check out American Ex-press’ www.shopsmall.com. Clark, P. (2013) Small Business Saturday's $5.7 Billion

Shopping Spree. Retrieved from: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-12-02/small-business-saturdays-5-dot-7-billion-shopping-spree.

Headd, B. (2010) An Analysis of Small Business and Jobs. Retrieved from: http://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/files/an%20analysis%20of%20small%20business%20and%20jobs(1).pdf.

Townsend, M. (2013) Black Friday Weekend Spending Drop Pressures U.S. Stores. Retrieved from: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-02/black-friday-weekend-spending-drop-pressures-u-s-stores.html.

Kaplan University Chapter Newsletter November 2014 Issue

5 © 2013, The National Society of Collegiate Scholars, All Rights Reserved.

Study Desk Tips

Take notes!!!

Take more efficient notes by using abbreviations and sym-bols to jot important information down as op-posed to writing word for word.

Examples: & for and

b/c for because

e.g. for example

For a more detailed list of short hand and oth-er great note taking tips visit: Simply in Con-trol

Holiday Frowns

By: Stephanie Reeves

The holidays are coming

and for some they can

bring depression. We

call it seasonal depres-

sion but the medical

name for it is Seasonal Affective Disorder [SAD] (Mayo

Clinic, 2014). In most cases, those that suffer from

SAD start showing symptoms in fall and the symptoms

continue on into the winter months. In some rare cas-

es, SAD affects people in the spring and summer

months as well. Signs and symptoms of SAD include:

irritability, low energy, issues getting along with peo-

ple, hypersensitivity to rejection, heavy feeling in the

arms and legs, oversleeping, appetite changes, and

weight gain. Major depression and even changes in

those that have Bipolar Disorder are known to hap-

pen with SAD. You should see your physician if you

experience multiple symptoms at the same time espe-

cially if you have thoughts of harming yourself. The

specific causes of SAD are unknown; however, it is

thought that your biological clock, serotonin levels, or

melatonin levels are the culprit. You may be at risk for

SAD if you are female, young, have a family history of

SAD or any other form of depression, have depression

or Bipolar Disorder already, or live far from the equa-

tor (Mayo Clinic, 2014). It is said that SAD affects

young adult females more often than males or older

adult females. If you have suicidal thoughts or behav-

ior, social withdrawal, school or work problems, or

substance abuse issues please contact your physician

right away or call the suicide hotline at 1-800-273-

TALK (8255). Never harm yourself when you feel

down. There will be brighter days.

Mayo Clinic. (2014). Seasonal affective disorder (SAD)

Definition - Diseases and Conditions - Mayo Clinic.

Retrieved from http://www.mayoclinic.org/

diseases-conditions/seasonal-affective-disorder/

basics/definition/con-20021047

Aminaami11. (2013). Smile. Retrieved from http://

www.fanpop.com/clubs/smiley-faces/

images/34322977/title/smile-photo

Stay Connected with KUNSCS…

http://www.facebook.com/nscs.kaplan

@kunscs

http://kaplannscs.wordpress.com

Kaplan University Chapter Newsletter November 2014 Issue

6 © 2013, The National Society of Collegiate Scholars, All Rights Reserved.

leave the pot unattended. This is how accidents hap-pen. Have someone bring the turkey to you after is has been drained, dried, and sprinkled with the sea-sonings of your choice. Place the turkey lifter through the cavity. Now you must turn the burner off. This is where people tend to mess up causing themselves horrible burns. Wearing burn-proof oven mitts for protection, place the turkey carefully into the hot oil. Turn the burner back on after the turkey is in place. Fry the turkey 4-5 minutes per pound at 325° F to make certain that the turkey is fully cooked. When your meat thermometer reaches 170° F in the thickest part of the thigh, turn the burner off. Remove your turkey and place it on a large baking sheet. Let the turkey stand and cool for 15 minutes before removing the lifter. Discard the oil properly after it has cooled. Now it is time to enjoy your deep fried turkey. Enjoy your holidays, Scholars! How to Deep Fry Turkey - HEB. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.heb.com/page/recipes-cooking/cooking-tips/deep-fried-turkey

It’s almost turkey time, Scholars. With the holidays right around the corner it is time to start thinking about how you want to cook your turkey.

Roasting the turkey is the most common and tradi-tional method. What if you wanted to try something different, though? Deep frying the turkey is a deli-cious way to cook it that breaks away from the tra-ditional roasting method. Let’s learn how to safely deep fry our turkey. The prep time is approximately 45 minutes and the cook time is 4-5 minutes per pound of your turkey. You will need a large pot, pot stand, long stem thermometer, propane tank with fittings, turkey no larger than 16 pounds, at least 3 gallons of peanut oil or your choice of oil, meat thermometer, and your choice of marinade with injector. I personally like corn oil. I also suggest if you have a fish cooker that you use that with a larg-er pot. First thing you need to do at least 24 hours before cooking time is to decide where you are go-ing to set up to fry your turkey. It is preferable to use concrete that is away from all structures and vehicles. Make sure your turkey is completely thawed and make sure to remove the pop-up timer, neck, giblets, and leg holders as these will melt in the hot oil. Rinse your turkey thoroughly and pat dry before injecting your marinade of choice. Put your turkey in a pan and cover it before placing it in the refrigerator. Now, it is time to connect your pro-pane tank and place the large pot on the stand. Attach the long stem thermometer to the pot and then fill the pot with your choice of oil. Light the burner and heat the oil to 325° F. This should take about 45 minutes. Do not under any circumstances

Cooking Your Holiday Turkey

By: Stephanie Reeves

Gratitude

By: Megan Hemling

Grat·i·tude (noun): a feeling of appreciation or thanks.

Gratitude, appreciation, appreciativeness, gratefulness, thankfulness, thanks-are all common words this time of year with the approaching Thanksgiving holiday. In fact, the month of Novem-ber is dedicated as Gratitude Month. These words however should not be reserved just for the month of November but hold a place in our vocabulary (and hearts) year-round. Something beautiful hap-pens when we show gratitude…we make others feel good and we feel good ourselves.

Showing gratitude to someone does not re-

Kaplan University Chapter Newsletter November 2014 Issue

7 © 2013, The National Society of Collegiate Scholars, All Rights Reserved.

quire a grand gesture, it can be as simple as saying “thank you” to let that person know you appreciate them and their act of kindness. Although, I person-ally do not know anyone who would turn down a plate of fresh baked cookies! You may just make their day, and yours as well. Notice a pattern here? It’s referred to as the snowball effect creating a chain of appreciation and happiness to all those in-volved.

There is also something to be said about being grateful for the things we have in our lives. Showing appreciation, or counting our blessings so to speak, has a big impact on our happiness and ability to overcome challenges. Practicing gratitude on a regular basis, even for just minutes a day, is incredibly easy and can have a profound effect on your mental wellness. For ideas on how to give thanks or how to start practicing gratitude visit the following resources.

Aaronson, L. (2013). Make a gratitude adjustment. Psychology Today. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200602/make-gratitude-adjustment

Babauta, L. (2007). Why living a life of gratitude can make you happy. Retrieved from http://zenhabits.net/why-living-a-life-of-gratitude-can-make-you-happy/

Gratitude Guru, The. (2013). It’s November! Happy gratitude month! Retrieved from http://allaboutgratitude.com/blog/6438/november-happy-gratitude-month/

Merriam-Webster Inc. (2014). Gratitude. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gratitude

Kaplan Kitchen Korner

By: Megan Hemling

Thanksgiving Leftover Hand Pies!

1 package of 2 ready to roll pie crusts

Leftovers of: (turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, and stuffing)

Just cut the pie dough into 4 or 5 even squares and spread a little mashed potatoes, gravy, turkey and stuffing onto one side of the square. Each pie can hold about 1 to 2 tablespoons of filling. Then fold the dough over to make a triangle and press the sides with a fork. I brush mine with a little egg wash and bake at 350 for 15 minutes or until they are starting to brown.

Bubbly Nature Creations. (2013). Thanksgiving Left-over Handpies! Retrieved from http://bubblynaturecreations.com/2013/11/thanksgiving-leftover-hand-pies.html

In the spirit of gratitude our chapter President, Kathy Gonzalez would like to share a few words: “I would like to say how grateful I am to all of our advi-sors through Kaplan and NSCS for their support. We have a great member base as well, and a terrific set of those members that work on this newsletter in their spare (spare is said sarcastically!) time. Lastly, but cer-tainly not least, I can't say enough about this group of board members I work with!”

Kaplan University Chapter Newsletter November 2014 Issue

8 © 2013, The National Society of Collegiate Scholars, All Rights Reserved.

Contact Information

Tallulah Bowser-VP Public Relations

tallulahb.kunscs.pr@gmail.com

Carrington Carpenter-Editor

carrington.kunscs.newsletter@gmail.com

Megan Hemling-Editor

meganhemling.kunscs.newsletter@gmail.com

Roselynne Ramirez-Freelance Coordinator

roselynner.kunscs.vplan@gmail.com

Stephanie Reeves-Health & Family Writer

stephanie.kunscs.newsletter@gmail.com

Robert Griffin-Military Writer

griffinr.kunscs@gmail.com

Need advice about school? Time Management? Studying? Juggling different jobs at once? Email Dear NSCS at aneishad.kunscs@gmail.com. It is complete-ly anonymous, real names will not be used. We look-

ing forward to hearing from you!

Dear KUNSCS,

I recently received a poor grade on a paper because even though I had followed all directions on the instruction sheet, I did not notice that the rubric was based on different guidelines until I read the Professor’s comments in the gradebook. I worked really hard on my paper and had I known there were additional requirements I would have certainly ful-filled them. I feel that my grade is somewhat unfair given the discrepancies between these two docu-ments. Should I bring this to my Professors attention? I am afraid that it will appear I am just trying to argue for a better grade. What should I do?

-Baffled by Assignment

Dear Baffled by Assignment,

Anytime you have questions about a grade or any matter pertaining to the course, most Professors welcome an email and the opportunity to help you. You could try being honest with your Professor by ex-plaining your confusion over the assignment require-ments and how frustrated you are with yourself for not fully reviewing the rubric. You could also ask if the Professor would allow you to make the assignment up.

The Professor themselves may not have ac-cess to editing the course materials. You could men-tion your concerns over the discrepancy in assignment directions when you complete the end of term survey.