Living the life at a District Convention

I was out of the OWU environment and I enjoyed another stay in a hotel. This time, I was in the Marriott in Dublin right by the Tuttle Crossing shopping center. I had never been to Tuttle Crossing so seeing the area was a new experience for me. I arrived at the hotel around 5 pm last Friday and I stayed at the Marriott until Sunday afternoon.
The occasion you ask?? Well, I was at the Marriott in Dublin for the Ohio District Circle K District Convention. This year, Ohio Wesleyan had the distinct honor to host the District Convention. This meant that I was heavily involved in the program. I helped set up the beginning of the welcome program and I was elected a delegate for the most important House of Delegates, which decides what changes need to be addressed and voted through to take effect. I spent a good amount of the weekend looking at the changes in the District's structure for its events.
The rooms were comfortable but I did not get to see much of it because I was in the sessions for most of the day. I did not get much sleep while I was there; I was doing a service project one night and working on homework the other night. I woke up around 7 am each day to work out and to get breakfast on Saturday before the general session. I did not go to any of the workshops because I was catching up on work and looking at the items we were to discuss at the House of Delegates.
One of the favorite things I liked about Circle K District Convention besides the open interaction with people in other Ohio Circle K group was the Banquet Saturday night. There is such a sense of camaraderie between everyone and the food was excellent. The Banquet also had an awards ceremony to it- I loved seeing people earn their awards as I know that they worked hard to earn these awards. The keynote speaker, our own Megan Evans, was funny and inspirational at the podium, making for a most interesting speech. Afterwards, I headed up to the District Board's suite and chatted with the board and our International Sub-Region E representative, Christa Fry. I got to chug some hugs and below in one of the pictures is the start of a devastating trend of chugging sugary deliciousness. I finished off the night putting down 12 eight ounce hugs. By the end of my devastation, I was full and ready for bed (it was around 2 am when I finished).
I would like to thank Kristen Lear, our District Convention Chair, for enduring eighteen months of planning and getting everything ready for us in the Ohio District and for never wavering from your passion. You have done us all proud and I am happy to be your fellow OWU Circle K'er. You did your thing last week out there and made it look so easy. I cannot wait to work with you again.
Okay. The rest is explained through the pictures of the bottom of this page. Enjoy.




































From me to you, with ODCKI (Ohio District Circle K International) love,
Hasani Wheat
Class of '10

Leaving Ohio Wesleyan for a weekend in Pittsburgh- aka Jubilee 2009

Hello anyone. I am back on campus after traveling to Pittsburgh for Jubilee 2009. I am tired and excited from the trip. I did not catch much shut-eye, partly because I thought the gym in the Doubletree would be open much earlier than 8:00 am and partly because my roommate was snoring very loudly. While I was in Pittsburgh, I woke up at 5:30 am on Saturday and 5:15 am on Sunday. There were times during the plenary sessions on those days where I wanted to fall asleep (not intentionally, of course). Nevertheless, I pulled through and stayed awake for the entire conference. Most of this energy that kept me up was pure adrenaline, the kind that I normally use when I have to stay up or pull an all-nighter at school. I am really I got to attend the conference and to go to all of the breakout and plenary sessions as well as a couple of Jubilee Africana and Latino sessions.


I did not really do any work while on the trip. Doing work was impossible in the day because I was at sessions all day and most of the night. I completed the Disorientation Map blog that was required for my Geographic Information Systems class and continued to read up on my Untapped book that is about the oil in different countries in Africa such as Nigeria and Sao Tome. Other than that, I really did not do much classwork.



I went to all of the plenary sessions. The speakers were really good though I must admit that the Saturday evening plenary session was a little long for me (around 3 hours of being in the same area with little sleep can be quite tough). Nevertheless, hearing speakers such as Gabe Lyons (author of UnChristian), Bill Strickland, and Andy Crouch (Author of Culture-Making) made me want to understand situations in which I can encounter at school. For instance, understanding a person who is totally different spiritually from me. Sometimes, Christians tend to judge people because they are not like them. Christians at times tend to be hypocritical and use their religion as a method to cover their nature. Christians are like any other people on the planet. Christians and people who are not need to communicate with each other so we all can better understand the other's perspective. I would be open to that kind of communication if granted to me especially on campus. This information at the plenary sessions was practical and easy to remember.



The breakout sessions were alright. The first two were not what I was expecting so I did not take as much out of them as I would have liked. This was the early morning session so I was still recovering from my almost sleepless night. My first breakout session was about faith in the film making industry. Honestly, I really did not get much out of this session. I felt that the speakers emphasized the film making industry and how to get in more so than faith in the film making industry. I was somewhat bummed because I had a decision between the Becoming King session and this session and I chose this one because of my Film class last Spring. I took it for what it was and listening for the entire time.



The second session was also not what I expected but this time, I was a little more involved. The topic was The New Era of Responsibility and Isaiah 60. There were technical difficulties at the beginning. The session was interactive and I was talking to people about the topic for the majority of the program.




The third session I attended was about Technology and Faith. I am a technology person, my major incorporates technology in it, and where I have been interning for the past two years incorporates technology as well so I wanted to know how can technology and faith be incorporated into each other. The speaker was Jack Swearengen, Emeritus Professor of Engineering at Washington State University. As a Geography major, I feel that it is possible to incorporate technology and faith into each other; I have to look at the whole spectrum of the technology I am using and not only use common knowledge that I have acquired over the years so to use faith as a crutch for whenever things do not go as planned. The session was intimate, interactive, and beneficial to my major and possible career. I am glad to have went to this session.



The final session was about family. The speakers were Carlos Sepulveda, President and CEO of Interstate Battery System International, Inc. and Daniel Sepulveda, Punter for the Pittsburgh Steelers- father and son. I liked this session because the session was personal and it did not hold back any strings. The experience of a family in a person's faith is important. It is important to me and it was important to the speakers. I learned a lot about my own experiences of faith with my family.


I believe that it is important to maintain my faith on and off campus. It was important to me to attend Jubilee because I felt lost in my journey with my faith. Right now, I feel strong in my faith and that I want to learn more about how to utilize my faith in all aspects of my life; the good, the bad, and the ugly. Well, this is my little commentary about leaving OWU for a weekend to attend Jubilee this year.










Fighting the good fight until the end,
Hasani Wheat
Class of '10

Dinner At Chaplain Power's House

Okay. This is weird. The pictures are correctly displayed on the blog however in typing my blog, I do not see the pictures. I only see the HTML code that makes the pictures appear on the blog. That is really interesting. I wonder if that has happened to other bloggers lately?? I usually use the pictures as a guide but this time, I will have to do without.


On to the regularly scheduled blog for the week... I was at my chaplain's house on Friday. I was blessed, honored, and humbled all simultaneously to be invited into Chaplain Jon Powers' home last Friday. I knew that he lived close but I did not know that it was in walking distance of my house near Park Street. I had a busy day already because of the Multicultural Student Weekend; I hosted a prospective like I usually do during this annual event. I realized that I needed to head over after working out. I arrived around 5 pm and I was happily greeted by Mark Miller (see right). Oh... you ask what is the occasion?? Well, I am going on a Spring Break Mission Team to Rosebud Reservation in Lakota Nation, which is located in South Dakota. Why am I at Chaplain Power's house? He is one of my faculty advisors for the team and he invited the team over for dinner. Awesome, right?!?!?!


The meeting with at Chaplain was actually a pretty cool session. There was eight of us including the Chaplain (yes, the team is pretty depleted on Friday, but I had a good time). We chatted casually about the day and our hectic schedules outside of mission meetings. Then, we had dinner, which was spaghetti and salad. The food was delicious. I contemplated doing the next dish when we come back on Fridays at 5. Why not- it is a learning experience. We chatted some more. We talked about the different types of professors on campus and how they have impacted us. I like hearing the perspective of my peers about a professor I had because I know 9 times out of 10, the response will be extremely positive.


On to the meeting portion of the dinner at Chaplain's house. The meeting was short and simple. We designated leadership positions for the team. My main responsibility as a leader on this trip is to document digitally the things we do (obviously, I have to get permission to take pictures because we are in foreign land and I do not think the people will be comfortable with me snapping pictures every twenty minutes). Basically, I am the videographer and the camera guy since I manage this blog and another one on Wordpress. Medical forms went out and I recently filled out all of my info as a precaution. I do not want to imagine being injured on the work site even though I know this does happen. I will try my best not to let it happen to me.


I enjoyed my first experience being in Chaplain Power's home. I felt at ease and at home. I like the laid back setting where we still were able to get work done. I cannot done that Spring Break is less than a month away and that I will be on a reservation. I never thought in my wildest dreams that I will be on a reservation but now that I am, I am going to humble myself and enjoy the experience for every precious moment. This was a great way to talk about the trip in general and to utilize time that was given to me when one of my professors canceled class today. I have a meeting soon so I have to prepare for that now.









Learning the importance of the Lakota Nation through education and immersion,
Hasani Wheat
Class of '10

A day of an "untypical" OWU student (Not written by me)

Readers,

I wanted to give me a perspective of life on the Ohio Wesleyan campus through the eyes of a person that was not myself. This way, you can understand the rigors (or lack thereof) of the college life from a person younger than myself. Okay, here is a schedule of one of my friends. I asked him if this was okay with him so I am not putting anything I have not cleared or authorized with my friend. None of the writing is my own. Here it goes...

by Vincent Tung Tran
Monday, Feb 2nd 2009

Waking up at around 9am, turned off the alarm, sleep in for awhile.
9:15am - there it rang again - the annoying alarm.
9:16am - rushed into the bathroom to take a shower.
9:45am - put on my clothes, grabbed my bag, didn't even make up my bed, clothes scattered all over the floor
9:55am - rushed out of Stuy and headed toward my STAT 230, which started at 10am.
10:12am - finally got there after talking to a Singaporean chick on the way to class.
10:33am - i checked the time, the class was boring.
10:34am - started to talk to a fellow sitting nearby, told him about the party on Saturday and how i passed out that day.
10:48am - checked the time again, phew, almost done....
10:59am - the professor just took away 9 minutes of freedom in my life
11:01am - got out of class, walked with some friends backed to Ham-wil. Didn't - met Abhi and Tyler as I was walking near Sturges ... almost slipped
11:19am - checked my mailbox and received a fine of $70 from the University
11:25am
11:35am - went back to Stuy to get my book to study for Chinese test
11:43am - got home and had some snack and drink
12:00pm - got a phone from Abhi - omfg! late for lunch! Rushed out again
12:05pm - at Phi Delt, all other pledges were waiting for me and.... a bit annoyed i guess...
12:06pm - lunch! !!!
12:15pm - up to the study room and revised for Chinese test with Eric.
12:43pm - Eric and I went to class.
1:00pm - In class, prepared to take the test
1:01pm - revised by the teacher and then the test.[it was an exciting class so i didn't really look at the time in between]---------------------------
2:01pm got out of class - went to University Hall 107 to ask for my off-campus application.[spent quite a lot of time there and finally they found mine>
3:05pm - got home, took a shower and then went to Phi Delt.
5:45pm - was waiting for my dinner and found out that i had to be on the staircase
6:01pm - yey! Dinner and then clean up
6:48pm - back in JP's room - played some games and then we went to library with Spencer.
7:09pm - study time
11:49pm - went home and then sleep

Well, this is definitely not my type of schedule on any day of the week but I think this effectively shows the kind of life a student can have at OWU.






Trying different things,
Hasani Wheat
Class of '10