Forcht Leadership Series

Forcht Group of Kentucky Leadership Speakers

Location: O. Wayne Rollins Center

Date: April 9, 2013

Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm

Math Contest

University of the Cumberlands

Location: Gatliff Chapel

Date: April 12, 2013

Time: 8:00am - 2:00pm

Cirque Ziva

Presented by Southeast Kentucky Fine Arts Assoc

Location: O. Wayne Rollins Center

Date: April 13, 2013

Time: 7:30pm - 9:30 pmTime: 7:30pm - 9:30 pmTime: 7:30pm - 9:30 pm

TABLE OF CONTENTS

REVOLTUION - Fall 2013 - Page 2

SURVIVOR: FINALS WEEKA few tips for making it through the most stressful week of the year.

3Work out

Stay Hydrated

Breathe

Catch some ZZZ’s

P&P: Prioritize & Plan

PHOTO SPREAD:A look at the life of students on campus. 6SHOULD YOU GRADUATE EARLY:GRADUATE EARLY:GRADUATE EARLYThe Pros and Cons. 8

“What better feeling could there be? While everyone else still has another semester to go, you can wrap up your fi nal exams knowing that you’re done forever.”

CONTRIBUTORSREVOLUTIONEditor in Chief –Editor in Chief –Editor in Chief Christin MillerAssistant Editors – Natasha Jones, Timothy Wyatt Creative Director – Kelly AllenFaculty Adviser – Jeremiah Massengale

Contributing Writers – Kelly Allen, Jannica Brady, Abbey Cherry, Ashley Lingard, Kasey Malone, Shelby Muff , Andres Pedraza, Ryan Poynter, Caleb Vander Ark, Whitley West, Solomon Whitaker, Alex Williams, Matt hew Williams

Contributing Photographers – Chloe Gu, Erin McMullen, Kristina Smith

REVOLUTION is published quarterly in partnership with Th e Patriot Newspaper at the University of the Cumberlands.

Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of REVOLUTION, advertisers, UC staff , faculty, administration, alumni, or trustees.

Copyright 2013, all rights reserved

To subscribe to REVOLUTIONPhone: 606-539-4172Email: thepatriot@ucumberlands.eduRates: 1 year (4 issues) U.S. $15

Postmaster:

Send address changes to

The PatriotUniversity of the Cumberlands7609 College Station DriveWilliamsburg, KY 40769.

SURVIVOR:: FINALS WEEKBy Kayla Hedman

Over the course of fi nals week students usually have two goals: (1) Do well on exams

(2) Keep stress to a minimum.

Students are usually seen double-fi sting caff einated beverages, munching on sugary snacks, shuffl ing around papers and books to fi nd a place to lay their head, and it’s not uncommon to sleep as much in a week as one would in a single night. Dr. Michael Colegrove, vice president of Student Services, said: “Staying stress-free is important, but stress is not inherently bad for students. Th ere is an ideal level of stress for each one of us, which that helps motivate us to do our best. When we are functioning at that ideal level, we are suffi ciently pushed to do our best, yet not paralyzed by the results of excessive stress. Th e goal is to fi nd the ideal stress level and then try to stay there.” External stress emerges because studying should be one’s top priority and unfortunately, no young adult likes to admit that their social life has to be set aside for a bit, he said.“In order to perform best on fi nal exams, one must remember the basics: stay active, get plenty of rest, eat a good breakfast, all those healthy study-tips that students have been told since grade school. In addition to that, one must fi nd time to escape studying and take time for them-selves.” From a student perspective, surviving the gauntlet of oral presentations, exams, essay writing, and projects, in the weeks ahead, here are some techniques UC students suggest will successfully minimize stress and maximize effi ciency. Take advantage of on campus programming during and prior to fi nals week. Many colleges help their students to de-stress during fi nals week by off ering school-sponsored events. Check into what UC off ers; Th e Campus Activity Board and the Student Government Association off er special student events, and free midnight snacks in the dining hall. Area churches like Main Street Baptist Church off er free coff ee and organized study breaks.

Work out

Short exercise breaks can help relieve stress, socialize, and burn off the extra sugary calories you may consume. Take a jog down-town, ride your bike to campus, do yoga, take a kickboxing class, play pick-up basketball, or go to the wellness center and get your fi tness on. Exercise helps you focus, it gives you additional energy, and it releases endorphins to make you feel bett er. In order to make deadlines, stick to 30 minutes of exercise a day. If you must, bring a book to study while you’re on the exercise bike or treadmill. If exercising is not your thing, progressive muscle relaxation is a technique many people fi nd helpful. Systematically go through the major muscle groups of your body, tightening, holding and then relaxing each group. Start at the top of your body and move down (face; neck/up-per back/shoulders; arms; abdominals; upper legs; lower legs; feet/toes).

Eat Healthy

Oft en, students eat even more unhealthily during fi nals week than they do the rest of the semester. With a time crunch, they go for quick, tasty, on-the-go foods and mindlessly much away until they are left with an empty package. Th is is a big mistake. Junk food gives you instant energy or a sugar high, but it aff ects your concentration and memory and will end in a food coma or sugar crash. Eating healthy food will energize you and increase your concentration and retention. Fruits

and vegetables are best; they have the required vitamins and nutrients to prevent sickness and give you energy. Simply eating a healthy diet is an easy way to help manage stress and get good grades during your fi nals.

Stay Hydrated

Your brain works best when it’s hydrated. Dehydration causes fatigue and headaches, which will distract you from your work. Caf-feine dehydrates you more, so for every coff ee you have, have a glass of water. Your body and mind will thank you.

Breathe

When you are in those moments when your stress level is climbing, take a deep breath for four counts, hold it for four counts, and exhale for four counts. Try this a few times. You may be shocked at how much bett er you feel.

Treat yourself to lunch before your fi nal

Get away from campus and get your mind off of studying if you have a spark of confi dence. Check out local restaurants like El Dorado’s, the Root Beer Stand, and Milly’s On Main for some tasty, brain food.

Catch some ZZZ’s

Everyone has diff erent sleep habits, but it is never healthy to pull an all-nighter. Make sure to get the sleep your body needs. Sleep will improve the quality and retention of studying, even though you may have less study time. Less is more.

REVOLUTION - Fall 2013 - Page 4will energize you and increase your concentration and retention. Fruits REVOLUTION - Fall 2013 - Page 4will energize you and increase your concentration and retention. Fruits

Take breaks

Studying non-stop is actually not helpful. Aft er a long period of studying, your concentration will be broken, and the material that you are trying to learn will not be retained well. Studies show in order to really grasp information, the brain needs time to absorb what it has learned. You should use short breaks to exercise, eat, rest, talk to friends, watch TV, go outside, or do some other activity that takes your mind off

the study material. Th e most important thing is that you do something for yourself and reward yourself for gett ing some work done.

Select a good study space

Do not just start studying anywhere. Find a quiet, orderly place. Unfortunately, your dorm room is probably a bad place to study. With all the familiar objects around and your roommates hanging out, it would be too easy to get distracted. A peaceful environment will be an immeasurable help to your concentration.

P&P: Prioritize & Plan “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” If you start studying with-out a plan, you are likely to focus on the wrong material or get distract-ed. Plan how to allocate your time and what to study.

Ask for help

Many students are afraid to ask for help. If you do not under-stand what to do or study, ask someone. You could speak to your profes-sor during offi ce hours, or talk to your friends and classmates. You are all working together and in the same boat. Th e professor wants to see you succeed and so do your friends; they most likely will be glad to help.

Call friends

Talking with a trusted friend or family member about how you are feeling helps because most of them have been there, done that or are in the same boat as you. Talking things out can have the immediate ef-fect of reducing stress levels. Sharing with someone else helps us feel we aren’t alone which can be so helpful.

Write research papers and make projects early

Most of the time, professors give plenty of advance notice before a fi nal paper or project is due. Don’t procrastinate on these when you know you’ll need to study during fi nals week.

Use study groups

Learn the mate-rial by yourself, and review it by explaining the subject to the study group. With the right group of people, you can learn more about the topic then you could by yourself. Diff erent perspectives and observa-tions are good to be exposed to. Choose your study group wisely.

Double-check your exam times

When you are taking many exams in the same week, it is easy to confuse the times. Write the time on a sticky note and put it on your books, desk, or computer. Missing an exam is the easiest way to fail.

What are you telling yourself?

Lots of stress is about our perceptions and the messages we are giving ourselves. If you are telling yourself that only an “A” will do, when you know there is no chance of such a high grade, you may be sett ing yourself up for excessive stress that gets in the way. Check out your perceptions and replace irrational expectations with a more ratio-nal one.

Stop wasting time

College students always procrastinate by browsing on Facebook, Twit-ter, Youtube, and other social media and pop culture websites. It’s bound to happen, but if you turn off your Internet connection when it’s not needed to study, you can avoid the distraction.

REVOLUTION - Fall 2013 - Page 5

REVOLUTION - Fall 2013 - Page 6

By

Erin

By

Erin

McM

ulle

n

By

Abb

ey C

herr

yB

y A

bbey

Che

rry

By

Abb

ey C

herr

yB

y C

hloe

Gu

By

Chl

oe G

uB

y C

hloe

Gu

By Chloe Gu

REVOLUTION - Fall 2013 - Page 7

By C

hloe Gu

By C

hloe Gu

By Erin McMullen

By Erin McMullen McMullen

By

Erin

By

Erin

McM

ulle

n

Forget those shiny new presents under the tree this year—because if you’re graduating early this December, everyone knows that earning your diploma fi ve months ahead of schedule is the best gift of the season! Once fi nal exams are over, you can head home for the holidays knowing that you’ll never have to open a physics book or write another Eng-lish paper again. Ever.Graduating a semester early can be a huge relief, but at the same time, it can also leave you with mixed feelings—especially once your friends are back at school hanging out aft er class and partying it up on the weekends, but you’re in the “real world” where staying out ‘til 2 a.m. is, most likely, no longer an option. So why graduate a semester early in Decem-ber? We talked to three dif-ferent students who made this decision, found out why they did it, how they weighed the pros and cons and most importantly, how you should go about mak-ing this decision yourself.

Making the decision For some alumni, making the decision to grab their diplomas a semester early wasn’t a de-cision they lost sleep over. “Graduating early was something that I’d thought about for a while the fi rst two years of college,” said recent University of the Cumberlands graduate Christy Reed. “It was that goal that seemed so great,

but that you weren’t sure you could actually achieve. I didn’t want to overdo it and cause myself undue stress, but it was during my junior year that I seriously started to look into what was involved in graduat-ing early. I soon realized that I just had to strategi-cally plan my schedule for the next three semesters and then I’d have enough credits to fi nish early!” Reed knew she wanted to pursue a career in advertising, and felt that his time was bett er spent in the workforce rather than continuing to be in the classroom. Having felt stifl ed with the liberal arts cur-riculum, Reed said that she was determined to gradu-ate with full force given all her “passion for entering the workforce and frustra-tion with academia.” But for other students, committ ing to graduating early can simply come down to those dollar bills.“Since I’m paying for college myself, saving myself over $10,000 was appealing,” said recent UC graduate Kelina Smith, who wanted to study abroad like her friends but instead opted to skip out on studying abroad so she could graduate a semester early. However, while money was the main factor that pulled her to graduat-ing early in the winter, she also said that “having the ability to take a long break before jumping into the job market is nice, too. Th e decision to graduate early was an easy one to make.”

While making the decision to graduate a semester early may seem easy for some, for others, the answer isn’t as clear. Check out our

list of pros and cons below before you submit your ap-plication to graduate early!Should You Graduate

a Semester Early? By Taylor Truden

REVOLUTION - Fall 2013 - Page 8

Th e Pros

You save money. We all know that college is not cheap. Like Kelina Smith, recent UC graduate Joshua Coleman is paying for college himself too. “Saving a semester’s worth of tuition was a huge drawing point,” he said.Christy Reed agreed saying, “I’m saving a whole semester’s worth of studying and academics. For someone who has such a fi rm grasp on what they’d like to pursue for a career as I do, it is a huge deal!”Instead of making payments for an unnecessary semester of tuition, you can instead use that money to make pay-ments on major investments like a new apartment or car for your new, adult life—and not on extra loans.

You can get a head start on the job search. “Graduating early gives you a bit of an edge as far as the job market is concerned,” said Reed. “For something as competitive as advertising, it’s great to have any edge possible—and if that means me being ready to immediately fi ll my dream position, and it opens up in February or March or whenever, I’m still ahead of the huge bott leneck of graduating seniors fi nishing up in May.” For all of you overachievers, putt ing in the hard work now can defi nitely pay off later when you have a job lined up in the spring, while your former classmates are still in school. Smith, who will start training for TeachOverseas next year where she’ll teach for a year in Kazakhstan said, “If I didn’t already know what I was doing aft er May, I know that entering the job market months before my peers would be a defi nite advantage. But knowing exactly what I’m going to be doing aft er May in November made the last month and a half of school so diffi cult to get through. It was senioritis all over again. I cannot imagine what it would have been like if I knew in November and was graduating in May.”

You’re done! You can relax.

What bett er feeling could there be? While every-one else still has another semester to go, you can wrap up your fi nal exams knowing that you’re done forever.“I also think a pro is fi nishing while you’re still motivated to do work,” said Smith. “As tough as it was to stay moti-vated during the last few weeks of classes, I know it will be a lot more diffi cult for my friends who are graduating on time.” Probably one of the best perks of graduating early is that’s once it’s over, you don’t have to necessarily stay motivated if you don’t want to. If you don’t want to get the jumpstart on the job search, you totally don’t have to. You can celebrate the fact that you’ve completed your higher education in less than four years and can throw yourself a party or even just park yourself in front of the TV and catch up on all those “Walking Dead” episodes you missed. You can take a nap. Go on vacation. Or just sleep. Ahhhhh.

Th e Cons

Saying Goodbye Unfortunately, graduating early also means having to say your “good-byes” early as well. “Th e hardest part of graduating early has been saying goodbye to all of my

friends,” said Reed. “But in the end, it’s worth it for the money I’ll save and the leg up I’ll get in applying for jobs over May graduates.”

Going through loopholes. Be forewarned: graduating early involves more than simply handing in a sheet of paper with your intent. Instead, “Graduating early means you have to work hard to fi t in extra credits you need to graduate and a lot of times, that means jumping through hoops to get the registrar at your school to cooperate. It’s super stressful because you’re your own best cheerleader when you graduate early and you’re the only one making sure that you can really do this,” said Smith.

You may feel left out. Saying goodbye to college also means saying goodbye to the college social scene. “Everything happens so much quicker if you graduate early,” said Pollitt . “While all your friends are still reveling in the fun parts of senior year and haven’t really started to stress about looking for jobs, you have to be extremely organized and work a lot more to fi nd that job soon.”It’s true. While you’re working during the 9 to 5 hours, your friends are still cramming for exams at night, going to basketball games together and bar hopping on the week-ends—the only way you’ll see what your old roommate did on the weekend is by looking at her Facebook photos the next morning. “I am worried that it will be weird when my friends go back to school and I won’t. I think it’ll weird for them, too,” said Kelina Smith. “Cumberlands doesn’t off er a ceremony or anything for December grads, so as soon as my last paper was turned in, I was done. Just like that. I’m going back to Williamsburg in May to walk with the rest of my class—but aft er a few months living in the ‘real world,’ the idea of going back to college, even if it is just to go through all the pomp and circumstance of graduation, it’s an odd thing to think about. My classmates will have had those last few months to bond and celebrate the upcoming end of college when I have been living outside of the col-lege bubble for the same amount of time.”

Regardless of your decision, be sure to weigh the pros and cons equally before you reach for that diploma.“Th ere are defi nitely advantages to graduating ear-ly, but it means making some sacrifi ces, too,” advised Pollitt . “When it comes down to it, you have to decide whether you’re excited and ready for the ‘real world,’ or if you need that last semester to fi gure out what you want from life.

You know what works best for you. Trust that instinct.

REVOLUTION - Fall 2013 - Page 9