The first pice of advice I can give is start STUDYING NOW!!!!! You want to start studying now this way you can study a little bit at a time and it will give you a chance to absorb the information easily. This if you start studying now and study a little bit at a time you can be ready for your finals. Another reason why I suggest that you start studying is now is because it has been proven that cramming for exams does not work. It may seem like you will know the information but, you will not be able to keep the information.

The next pice of information I can give you is if you have a math or science finals go to the math science resource center. The resource center can be your greatest ally since they are very helpful and are willing to help you. They also offer workshops for math 104,108 and most of the science classes, but these will fill up very quickly so you need to sign up fast. Make sure you go there with questions about something that you don’t understand or you have your quizzes and test and they will help you and make sure you understand how and why you got that wrong.

The last piece of advice I can give you and I think this is most important piece of advice I can give you is just to relax. I know your thinking to yourself “what does he mean relax”? Trust me and stick with me here. There is one thing that is going to happen is you’re gonna get frustrated and get mad and all other kind of reactions but ,if you relax it can help. If your get frustrated you will not be able to concentrate and you wont be able to study and if you don’t clam down you’re gonna drive your self insane. If you relax and calm down and take on one final at a time you will be better off trust me here.

This is my advice for you guys take it or leave but, if you don’t take at least one of my tips I think you will just do fine. I wish you all the best of luck with your finals and hey after your done you are free from school for three months or a couple of days if your taking summer classes.

First I am sure you all know since I have sent you emails but it is time to go see academic advisement and get ready to register for Fall classes and/or Summer classes. Since you are all under 30 you all have the “EF” stop which only gets removed when you go to Academic Advisement session. Once you go there they will help you decide which classes you need to take, now you need to play the waiting game till you registration opens and you can register for class. I do not know when your session is but, if you go to esims and look on fall 2012 it will tell you the date and time you will be able to register. My advice here is look at the classes that are open and make your schedule and copy the codes so when it comes to your time just enter the codes and hopefully you all will get the classes you want at the times you want.

The next big thing you need to start looking at is the grade that you might receive in your classes. You need to look at your syllabi and see how your grades are broken down you need to look at in class work,homework,quizzes,tests and class participation. Sometimes one of these categorizes weigh heavily on your grade and I find that a lot of professors focus on class participation and I have seen that one part can really kill your grade and the moral of he story is that if you have not participated a lot in a class so far I suggest that you start know. If you are not happy with some of your grades on quizzes and tests I suggest you start buckling down and get ready for the final because that can help raise your grade.

The last big thing you need to worry about are your finals and I know you have already went through finals already but, it will be a tad bit different this time around. If you recall last semester we started off with the hurricane and this caused us to skip what we call “reading day” which is the day off the day before finals. Since the last day of classes is May 15th and reading day will be May 16th so that is a day off before finals begin. Then Finals start May 17 and run through May 24th and after that you are home free and hello summer or more classes depending on what you are planning to do this summer. If you do not know the date for your finals you can always ask your professor or you can find them on the John Jay website.

I hope that some of this did give you information you didn’t know or gave you the inspiration you need to get off the fence and get the higher grade. I hope all of you enjoyed your spring break and now lets start now to finish off the semester right.

Now your thinking do these laws really work? Well here is an example of how they don’t work in 2003 Prince George’s County, MD they put on ban on Pit bulls and they wasted $250,000 on trying to keep Pit bulls out of this county. It didn’t work at all because, people will not give up the pals so easily what happens is that owners put their dogs in hiding which only harms the dogs since they do not get exercise and they will not be able to see a vet if they are sick. The only people that lose are the good owners who take care of their dogs and love them very much and the dogs who are well trained and friendly.

So what can the states do to make sure that the dogs and people are safe? Some states have thought out a plan to make sure everyone can be happy and safe at the same time states like New York, Texas and Illinois favor laws that identify, track and regulate dangerous dogs individually, regardless of breed, and prohibit BSL.

Now here are some facts from the CDC noted that many other factors beyond breed may affect a dog’s tendency toward aggression—things such as heredity, sex, early experience, reproductive status, socialization and training. These last two concerns are well-founded, given that:

More than 70 percent of all dog bite cases involve unneutered male dogs.

An unneutered male dog is 2.6 times more likely to bite than is a neutered dog.

A chained or tethered dog is 2.8 times more likely to bite than a dog who is not chained or tethered.

97 percent of dogs involved in fatal dog attacks in 2006 were not spayed/neutered:

78 percent were maintained not as pets, but rather for guarding, image enhancement, fighting or breeding.

84 percent were maintained by reckless owners—these dogs were abused or neglected, not humanely controlled or contained, or allowed to interact with children unsupervised.

If you would like to learn more please vistit the ASPCA website:

http://www.aspca.org/fight-animal-cruelty/dog-fighting/breed-specific-legislation.aspx

First you want to know how to read your degree audit what that means is know all the classes and credits that are on the audit. My advice would be is trying to get all of your general requirements and introductory courses out-of-the-way. The reason why you want to try to get them out-of-the-way is because, when you get into the Junior and Senior year you are gonna want to start focusing on your major and your major courses. Then you want to look at all the classes you have to take for your general requirements and your major classes and add up all the credits. If you notice that when you add them all up it comes out to less than 120 credits which is the minimum you need to graduate. This is normal this will leave some space for you to take electives or you can look into taking a minor.

Next you want to think about the workload for each semester some advice that I would give you is that you never want to put 2 classes that have to deal with each other in one semester. Let me clarify what I mean is that you do not want to take two classes that having something to do with the other. For example I would not recommend taking a science course right along with a math course. I feel this way because I think the work load would be way too much but, if you feel you can handle it then go right ahead this is juts my own opinion.

My last pice of advice is that is doesn’t hurt to talk to an academic advisor. I know you saying why would I do that? I recommend this because first you wont have to be in a big room with another 30 people and waiting for someone to help you. If you want you can make an appointment at the office to talk to an advisor one on one and they will give you all the information and answer all your questions. So if you do have any concerns they will always be there to help you.

I hope that all this information has helped you but, remember you still need to go to you advisement sessions to register for the fall. Please if you haven’t already make an appointment so that you may resister on time and get the classes you want. If you wait to long their will be very slim pickings and you will not be happy so please go and register.

The first thing you want to make sure you do is take in a lot of vitamin C for those of you don’t know Vitamin C helps your body build up immunity which can fight off illness. Where us Vitamin C found? Well I am sure you know you can find Vitamin C in oranges but, orange juice works just as well. You can also look into actual vitamins such as daily multivitamins or actual Vitamin C tablets which I personally like to take because I always forget I have oranges or orange juice. Not only vitamin c can help you stay healthy but if you are sick now it is not to late to take it because it can help fight off the illness.

Now taking your vitamins is all well and good but, it is only a step not the solution to making sure you stay healthy the nest thing you should look into is keeping your self in shape and active. I bet you’re wondering how does working out help you stay healthy? the reason for this is that you are keeping your body active and by staying active it does help build your immune system and keeps it strong but, it also keeps all your others systems active. I know that some of us do have money issues they don’t have their parents pay for a gym memberships and you have struggling just getting by paying for school and just eating the bare minimum. There is a solution John Jay does offer a gym for free but, you do have to fill out a physical form before you can start working out. other ideas you can use is take the stairs instead of the escalator or elevator. Or you can get off one stop before your stop on the train or bus and walk the rest of the way.

One last thing that can really effect your health during the semester is the food you eat. Now what kind of food can effect you and your health? there are a couple different kind of foods you want to avoid are foods that hold a lot of fat,sugar and foods that hold no nutritional value. Of course you want to eat your fruits and vegetables because they hold vitamins but, you also want to focus on getting your proteins such as fish, and chicken. You can eat your red meats but, try not to eat a lot of them since they do carry high fat content.

I hope that these tips will help you in some way but, these are not guarantees they will completely keep you from getting sick. These are tips that will help cut down the risk of you getting sick because, we both know you can’t miss class and its miserable being in class while sick. On that note enjoy the weather and study for the midterms.

Now how do you make a good impression on your professors? The first thing i have to say is that it starts the first day you walk into the class room, the professor recognizes students who sit in the front compared to the back and trust me a lot of professors notice it. By Sitting in the front of the class it shows you are there to learn and you plan on trying to take in everything that the professor will throw at you. Now something that professors always watch for is texting some professors say they do not tolerate it and they don’t enforce but they will keep that in mind and remember that.

Next you have to actively participate in class and put effort into your papers and quizzes and tests. Something that I recommend doing is talking to your professors after class about what you just talked about. Then start talking about some current events that are similar to what is going on in class by doing this it shows you are taking and interest in the class. Something I would also recommend is going to the professors office hours and go to talk about papers and see how you can do better in the class.

By doing all of these most professors will be willing to help you out with anything you need. Some professors do have a lot of pull and highly regarded so it doesn’t hurt to try to get on their good sides. So hit the books read the newspapers and listen and just enjoy all the classes you have.

When I first came to John Jay all I knew in the world was that Google can help me with anything and all throughout high that was good enough but, now we are in college and sometimes it will not be good enough anymore. In my English 101 class my professor then gave me some other resources to try that you can use through John Jay’s Library. First you want to go to the John Jay Library’s website and then you want to click on find articles tab and then click on the Database tab. Now that you are there you have so many options to find articles and resources you can narrow your search by narrowing it down to one topic,type in key words, or search through that different databases.

The database I am going to tell you about in which you can find articles is called JSTOR  and this can be a very helpful tool for your research. To find this you need to click on the J and it will be the second one from the top and click on it and you will come upon the search bars. Now that you are on the homepage of JSTOR now there are many ways to search for your topic you can narrow it down my field, you can find something by the date it was published and you can search by, different fields and you can add as many fields as you want.

Now I am not saying that you should always use this site and I am not saying you can not use Google I am just trying to give you some more options as you all go on in your tenure here at John Jay. I still today use Google but, if I have to write an eight to twelve page paper I would then go and try these databases. One thing to always remember is to make sure that you always cite your work to give credit where credit is due.

So why is a routine good for you during the semesters? I find that it is good to have a routine because if you are used to doing something over and over again you don’t even think about it you just do it. To establish a routine yo want to try to wake up at the same time everyday you have school and give your self the same time to get up and get ready. Then you want to try to take the same train or bus or start walking what ever way you take to get to school at the same time. Then go to all your classes and set time aside for you to grab lunch hang with friends or study what ever you feel like doing this way it will give you time away from the classroom.

why you don’t want to have an erratic routine is because you can wind up getting lost in it. What do I mean when I say you can get lost in it? What I mean is that if you don’t try to stick to the same thing everyday you might forget the time you were suppose to do something or wind up being late to class or work.

Why sometimes I find you shouldn’t have a routine? I find that most of the time the same old routine shouldn’t get carried over into the weekends or breaks. I find that these are our times to cut loose and do what we want not a time to follow a self-made schedule. If you start falling into a routine on breaks or weekends trust me life will start to get very dull. Once you go through this a couple of times you start to feel like you’re in a rut and you feel life is boring and you don’t want to do anything even though you want to change it.

So my advice make a routine for yourself during the week when you have work and school but, when you have free time away from school and work cut loose and be spontaneous. This is the time to enjoy these years because you don’t have many fun years left so enjoy them while you can.

First Genoa, Italy They are offering Two courses Urban sociology (Soc 201)which is taught by Professor Ocejo and the other course is Political Prisoners, Political Imprisonment(Soc 275) and it is taught Professor Trimbur. The prerequisites to Soc 201 is Eng 101 and Soc 101 and for Soc 275 the  prerequisites are ENG 201, SOC 101 or ICJ 101. The information sessions for this program are February 2,6,16 all take place at community Hour which is 1:30-2:30 in t520.14. If you wish to apply for these programs you must fill out your application and they can be found in 3209 N. The deadline to hand in the application is March 9th this program can teach you a lot but lets take a look at the others.

The next trip is to Bali Indonesia this trip isn’t just for under grads this is also open to grad students. The two courses that are open to you as undergraduate students are Soc 204 social Deviance who is taught by Professor Adamczyk. The other class is  Psy 399 multicultural issue in phycology who is taught by, Professor Raghavan. The prerequisites for Soc 204 is Eng 101 and Soc 101 and for Psy 399 you need Sta 250. unfortunately I found out this one program has already closed sorry about that but maybe you will be interested in the next one.

Lastly you have Santo Domingo Dominican  Republic this trip is also open to grad students but, I wouldn’t worry about that. The first course you should look into is LLS 242 United States foreign Policy In Latin America which is taught by Professor, Barrios. The next course is PHI 393 Latin American philosophy which will be taught by Professor, Estevez. The requirements for LLs 242 are ENG 101 and sophomore or Permission by the instructor and same goes for PHI 393. The information sessions are February 7,15 and March 6th and applications can be picked up in rooms 3207 N or 3209 N and the dead line is March 9th.

I know I Juts gave a brief preview but if you are interested go to this link http://www.jjay.cuny.edu/academics/3683.php and click on the one you would like to know more about. To find out if any of these courses will apply to yu take a look at you degree audit and see if the one your interested in apply’s to you Major or you could always take it as an elective. The information packets will give you information on to apply for finical aid or scholarships. I encourage you all to eventually to do this while you are here cause it will be a great experience.

First you should ask yourself how did you do last semester? Then you should ask yourself if you met your own expectations? Now say you did good and you met your own expectations last semester all I can see is great work and keep it going, but if you feel that you feel short you should take a look back and ask yourself some of these questions. How much effort did I put into my classes? Could have I put more into my work? Did I do everything that was requested from me? Did I hand everything in on time?  After these questions you can find out a lot about yourself and your work ethic.

Now that you have answered these questions and if you were not satisfied with some or all your answers yow ask your self what can I do to make things better? This is the time where you should set our goals for yourself  like what is the lowest grade you will except this semester?  What do you want your GPA to be after this semester? Now comes the part to set up a strategy like how much time will you spend on each class? Will I go to the math and science resource center if you are having trouble with math or  science? Will you go to the writing center to attend workshops or have them edit your papers? All of these may seem time-consuming but they will not only help you this semester but for a very long time.

Now that you guys have your strategy for the spring semester its time to think about the long-term like what major are you thinking about. Remember you are not locked into a major until your junior year but it does not hurt to start getting the basics out-of-the-way. First you have to look at what kind of job you would want to get into after college and find out what major would work with that career. If you don’t know what you want to pick as a major think about what peaks your interests and if you would want to try the unknown or stick to what you know. The main idea is that you will want to do something that will make you happy and not caring about what other think about your choice. It also doesnt hurt to some investigation like talking to people who are in that major, the adviser for the major or take an introductory class and see if you like it.

Now that everyone has the goals set for the semester and I have you thinking about what majors  might  interest you. I wish you all good luck this semester and I expect big things from everyone.