Allison's CAS Blog

       On January 28th, I felt the will to help one of my friends who has been recently injured at the gym. Because she hasn't been to the gym in a long time and her injury requires long term recovery, I decided to help her with some workouts she could do while in that period of recovery. I invited her to come along with me to Sportsplex in Carrollton to get a workout in, but a workout that is simple, effective, and will lead her towards a safe recovery. Her leg was injured while playing volleyball this past October. Since I am a former volleyball player, I took it upon myself to empathize with her situation the best I could. I knew that it was hard to be physically active at this time so that one of the main reasons why I took time to help her.  We started with simple arm workouts. She wanted to be bold and go for bench presses. We both took turns spotting each other while the other was doing the workout. After about thirty minutes of weights, we made our way t...

       On January 11th, I got the pleasure to attend a zoom call with author and sociologist,  Dr. Mary Gatta. Some of her works include Waiting on Retirement, Not Just Getting By , Public Policy on Democratizing Access to Education for Marginalized Groups, and All I Want Is a Job! Unemployed Women Navigating the Public Workforce System. I connected with her through professor, advocate and former Florida president of American Association of University Women, Dr. Pat Dewitt. Dr. Dewitt is a family friend of ours and was open to conversations about future majors and career paths for me. She mentioned Dr. Gatta's name when I mentioned going into sociology. After a few days, Dr. Gatta reached out to me via email and wanted to set up a Zoom meeting to introduce ourselves and to have a conversation about possible pathways for my future!      The Zoom started by me telling her my interests. I told her that I am interested in human behavior, religiou...

       Just recently, I have gotten the opportunity to give back to people in the community for the Christmas season! At my church, we have a gift drive every Christmas. They're called Angel Tree Gifts. On the tree, there are little angel cutouts with a child's name on it, their size, and interests. Not too long before the drive started, my dad gave me 200 dollars for the holidays to give to people in need. I took it upon myself to grab an angel from the tree and buy presents for that child.      My friend and I decided to take a trip to Target because I figured that it was the best place to get toys and clothes! The boy I received the pleasure of giving gifts to was five-years-old. That lets me know what to shop for so the present could be age-appropriate. I decided to get a toy dinosaur, because who doesn't like those? I also bought a transformer monster truck along with some sweaters and a pair of shoes. It was really easy to do this kind actio...