Bri’s Blog

What if you are a genius?

-Brianna McHugh

“There are two kinds of geniuses. The characteristic of the one is roaring, but the lightning is meagre and rarely strikes; the other kind is characterized by reflection by which it constrains itself or restrains the roaring. But the lightning is all the more intense; with the speed and sureness of lightning it hits the selected particular points – and is fatal.How can someone define genius or label someone to be a genius? Let’s take a look at where the word genius originated.”-Kierkegaard

In Roman mythology (keyword myth) every man had a genius that were ancestors who guarded over their descendants and over time, they turned into personal guardian spirits, granting intellectual powers. The Romans genius was a winged, naked youth. Would you want to be labeled as a winged, naked youth? Well, if you were a genius back with the Romans that is exactly how you would be labeled.

Or would you like to be labeled as a human being that denotes an exceptional natural capacity of intellect and creative originality and have a specialty for leadership? Now, you are dependent on a high level of natural ability. And when you use this natural ability, tailor this natural ability to a singular area of expertise, than you have become a genius in this particular domain.

Or how about you’re a person whose vision of your life’s goal is clear and compelling and have a burning passion to achieve this goal? Do you have faith in yourself and have made a public declaration of your intent to demonstrate your commitment to achieving your goal? Do you plan, hold a great deal of persistence, and learn from your mistakes? Well then I would like to inform you that you’re a genius!

Or lastly, I’m sorry if I got your hopes up with the above information; but if you don’t have an I.Q of 170+ you’re no genius.

These are just a small number of theories defining what a genius is. Every single person is born with certain genes. These genes can vary from intelligence, athleticism, or art and poetry. These genes are naturally made in nature, naturally and automatically inside you, being one of the many things that make a human being.

So, is Tiger Woods a genius at his profession of golf? Tiger was born with genes that assist him in the progression of becoming extremely superior at golf. This, plus the hours and hours of practice is what created and built Tiger into a high-quality golfer, one of the bests. How about if Tiger put the same amount of time on practicing the piano as he does in golf, will he become a genius at the piano too? I think not, because it’s his born natural talent that led him to become a professional golfer. If he had the natural talent to the piano, then he would be playing the piano not playing the 19 holes.

As a response to a fan video from Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 08, Tiger Woods and EA SPORTS demonstrate that the “glitch” Levinator25 thought he found in the game, is not a glitch at all.

Let’s say you have an I.Q of 170+, you had a burning passion and desire to achieve your goal of scoring the perfect score on the S.A.T. This is a singular area of expertise that you have become focused on and you have achieved your goal of the perfect score. So your now a genius because of your I.Q and the fact you achieved your goal. Can you now go to the sculpture building and mold clay into an award winning piece of art? Joe Smoe right next to you has only been in sculpture for 6 months and already has won numerous awards appraising his artwork. You have been studying and taking sculpture classes for the past three years and have yet to even get an acknowledgement on your art.

Three years of dedication 6 months of dedication

But for someone who is a genius wouldn’t you be “smart” enough to receive an award for your art? You have a burning passion and desire to achieve your goal of receiving an award for your artwork. What have you’ve done wrong?

Nothing. You have done nothing wrong other then believing you were a genius to begin with. Someone who donates 20,000 hours into a specific activity can come out with nothing to show. Where someone else could put in 20,000 hours and be an award winning millionaire.

A genius is only as “smart” as the person who made the word up to begin with. So I guess if anyone labels you a “genius” in your lifetime you can come back and say, “Do I look like a naked, winged youth to you?”

“Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind.”-Albert Einstein

Some people tend to believe that genius is the product of a divine spark. They believe that there have been, throughout the ages, certain paragons of greatness — Dante, Mozart, Einstein — whose talents far exceeded normal comprehension. We, of course, live in a scientific age, and modern research pierces hocus-pocus. In the view that is now dominant, even Mozart’s early abilities were not the product of some innate spiritual gift. Mozart was a good musician at an early age, but he would not stand out among today’s top child-performers.

The latest research suggests a more prosaic, democratic, even puritanical view of the world. The key factor separating geniuses from the merely accomplished is not a divine spark It’s not I.Q., a generally bad predictor of success, even in realms like chess. Instead, it’s deliberate practice. Top performers spend more hours (many more hours) rigorously practicing their craft.

The recent research has been conducted by people like K. Anders Ericsson, the late Benjamin Bloom and others. It’s been summarized in two enjoyable new books: “The Talent Code” by Daniel Coyle; and “Talent Is Overrated” by Geoff Colvin.

“Tiger Woods is a textbook example of what the research shows. Because his father introduced him to gold at an extremely early age- 18 months- and enroucaged him to practice intensively, Woods had racked up at least 15 years of practice by the time he beame the youngest-ever winner of the U.S Amateur Championship, at age 18.”- Geof Colvin

“

If you wanted to picture how a typical genius might develop, you’d take a girl who possessed a slightly above average verbal ability. Then you would want her to meet, say, a novelist, who coincidentally shared some similar biographical traits. Maybe the writer was from the same town, had the same ethnic background, or, shared the same birthday — anything to create a sense of affinity.

This contact would give the girl a vision of her future self. It would,
Coyle emphasizes, give her a glimpse of an enchanted circle she might
someday join. It would also help if one of her parents died when she was 12, infusing her with a profound sense of insecurity and fueling a desperate need for success.

Armed with this ambition, she would read novels and literary biographies without end. This would give her a core knowledge of her field. She’d be able to chunk Victorian novelists into one group, Magical Realists in another group and Renaissance poets into another.This ability to place information into patterns, or chunks, vastly improves memory skills. She’d be able to see new writing in deeper ways and quickly perceive its inner workings.Then she would practice writing. Her practice would be slow, painstaking and
error-focused.

Then our young writer would find a mentor who would provide a constant stream of feedback, viewing her performance from the outside, correcting the smallest errors, pushing her to take on tougher challenges. By now she is redoing problems — how do I get characters into a room — dozens and dozens of times. She is ingraining habits of thought she can call upon in order to understand or solve future problems.

The primary trait she possesses is not some mysterious genius. It’s the
ability to develop a deliberate, strenuous and boring practice routine.
This research takes some of the magic out of great achievement. But it underlines a fact that is often neglected. Public discussion is smitten by genetics and what we’re “hard-wired” to do. And it’s true that genes place a leash on our capacities. But the brain is also phenomenally plastic. We construct ourselves through behavior. As Coyle observes, it’s not who you
are, it’s what you do.

The economy is crashing along with the downfall of jobs. Where does this leave the paying college students opinion on the meer fact, why pay for an education to graduate with no job awaiting me?

TROY — As an undergraduate, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute senior Mike
Morrow launched his own company.

Now, he’s looking for a job, but with few responses to his dozens of carefully targeted resumes, Morrow’s startup may become his full-time vocation. With companies struggling and more than 6 million Americans receiving unemployment benefits, college graduates are confronting the worst job market in years. Overall, hiring of college graduates this year is expected to be down 22 percent from the number actually hired last year, according to a survey last month by the Bethlehem, Pa.-based National Association of Colleges and Employers, which tracks hiring trends on college campuses.

A separate NACE survey found that starting salaries for bachelor’s degree
candidates also have dipped, down 2.2 percent to $48,515 from $49,624 a year
ago.

At Siena College in Loudonville, Debra DelBelso, the career center director, said the number of employer visits is unchanged from last year. But “employers who had hired eight to 10 (students) are hiring two now,” she said.Thomas Tarantelli, who directs RPI’s Career Development Center, said fewer recruiters visited campus this year than last, and students who would have gone through rounds of interviews instead have turned to such social networking sites as Facebook to post their resumes and search for jobs. “It’s an entirely different job market this year in terms of how students are looking for jobs,” Tarantelli said.

Many are deciding to put off the job search altogether. “More of our students are considering graduate school,” said Robert Soules, who directs Becker Career Center at Union College in Schenectady. DelBelso
said applications to graduate school by seniors at Siena also were up. Adam Finkle, who will graduate from Siena with a bachelor’s degree in biology, wants to take a year off, working in the fields of biology and
ecology to help him decide on a focus for the doctorate he plans to pursue. So far, his job search has yielded mixed results. Some positions carry modest stipends that won’t cover his living expenses.

“I’m going to have to live off my income,” he said. “I’m responsible for health insurance and car insurance, and I do have student loans.”

Work experience, through internships or so-called co-op programs in which students work for a year for a prospective employer before they graduate, is becoming more critical in finding a job, students and career counselors say.

www.summerinternships.com

It’s a way of differentiating their resumes from those of other students. It’s also a way of discovering opportunities that might not at first seem obvious. Mallory Mason, a senior at Union, spent the summer before her senior year as an intern at Goldman Sachs, an investment banking firm in New York City. “They didn’t tell me they had a hiring freeze,” she said. “We just kept being told they didn’t know if they could hire.” She also applied to the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers for an internship, but that “didn’t work out for me.”

Now, as graduation approaches, PricewaterhouseCoopers has offered her a job and she has accepted. Mason expects that the auditing firm’s services will be in demand as banks and other financial institutions face increased regulatory reporting requirements, and that will make her position “a more stable job.” Some students are trying to distinguish themselves even before they reach senior year. “To me, a resume shouldn’t be something you’re trying to build. It should reflect what you’ve done. Do things,” said Eric Allen, an RPI junior from San Jose, Calif. Allen was part of a recent two-session seminar on entrepreneurship conducted by Robert Chernow, vice provost for entrepreneurship at RPI. The session, titled “Planting Seeds for Success: Becoming More Marketable in a Tough Economy,” was intended to encourage students to consider starting their own companies, or at least to think like entrepreneurs.

“There’s a mindset that goes along with being an entrepreneur that no one seems to grasp or talk about,” Chernow said. Entrepreneurs “are really good at recognizing opportunities.”

Morrow, the 22-year-old RPI mechanical engineering major from Waldwick, N.J., believes he has found an opportunity with his fledgling company. He plans to produce small multi-tool devices for a niche market he has identified. He already has presold 100 of the devices. But he’s still interviewing for a full-time engineering position. He says the job would provide a regular income and health benefits while he builds his startup on the side.

In his area, entry-level salaries typically range from $45,000 to $60,000. “Now, if you can find a job, it’s trending to the lower end of that,” Morrow said. “Two years ago, I could have started at $55,000.” Edwin Koc, director of strategic and foundation research for NACE, said the job outlook is particularly tough in this part of the country, thanks in part to its dependence on the financial sector.

“The Northeast and the Far West are probably the worst off,” he said. Emily Tracy, a 23-year-old from Utica, will receive her MBA this spring from the University at Albany. She posted her resume online, but said that really wasn’t effective.

She also mailed the resume to more than 50 companies, and fewer than five even acknowledged receiving it, Tracy said. Then, in the middle of March, she received an offer from UAlbany’s University Auxiliary Services, which provides dining, bookstore and other operations on campus. She won’t even have to move, Tracy said. College career counselors are contacting employers who visited in previous years, but not this year, to see what jobs they may have. “We’ve identified 75 openings so far,” RPI’s Tarantelli said.RPI and Union also are working with the Albany-based Center for Economic Growth to encourage Capital Region employers to recruit on campus.

Deirdre Sweeney, director of career services for UAlbany’s School of Business, said a group of upstate business schools teamed up for their first ever joint job fair recently in Syracuse that attracted 32 employers. But not all were hiring for full-time candidates.

“Some were looking for interns,” she said. “Some were just getting their presence out there.” Some jobs remain in demand. “Health care — nurses, doctors, pharmacists — these professions seem to be in pretty good shape,” said Union’s Soules.

Accounting and engineering also are doing well, said Siena’s DelBelso. And two-year colleges that offer programs in such fields as nursing and dental hygiene report a boom in applications. “I had close to 300 applicants for 45 spots in dental hygiene this year,” said Mary Claire Bauer, director of admissions at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy. “Nursing had over 800 applications for 145 positions.” But while those fields are holding up, others aren’t.

Hudson Valley’s job fair last year attracted 160 employers. This year, just 70 employers attended, said Gayle Martel, director of the school’s Center for Careers and Employment. Graduating seniors aren’t the only ones turning to college career centers for assistance.Wes Dedrick, a 2000 Hudson Valley graduate who had been in auto sales, contacted Sim Covington, assistant director of the school’s career center, after that business began to struggle.With Covington’s help, the 29-year-old Dedrick found a position with telecommunications provider Time Warner Business Class, a job he called “a really good fit.”

Below is a video of the Hudson Valley Career Fair held last month that was unable to be played using youtube or google video.
http://capitalnews9.com/Video/video_pop.aspx?vids=86014

What is the reasoning Suny Albany has not built upon their campus?
-Brianna McHugh

The campus at Suny Albany was originally constructed for a campus population of about 10,000 students, faculty, and staff! Hmmm? If this is the size of a campus Suny Albany thought would be legitimate for 10,000 people then how is the campus at Suny Albany still functioning with a current and growing population of about 18,000 students?

State University of New York at Albany Entrance

Answer is, it’s not! Students will search anywhere from 10 to 35 minutes to find a parking spot. Then, once you have beat your competitors and have won your parking space, say you now want to do a little bit of work in the library. Last night your printer broke, so the plan is to run in real quick to the Campus Library to print out the paper before class. Well don’t get your hopes up since an open computer at the library is a rare find. Students end up literally stalking people in the library, hovering over their shoulders waiting for someone to be finished with their computer.

How ridiculous is this?

Then there is the Campus Center! 18,000 students we have at Suny Albany and we have one sandwich place Zepps, one soup place Au Bon Pain, and one pizza place Sbarro! Other than the dining halls for students who live on campus, our campus provides us with three places to grab a meal, and sorry students for anyone who is trying to eat healthy with fresh ingredients, because you won’t be finding them here. But we always have lovely Wendys! Who doesn’t love to wait in a 30 minute line for a greasy fattening meal?

Campus Center at Suny Albany

And then if you want to try to burn off these calories, please come to the Racc where you will find 7 treadmills, 4 actually working and a long wait to use them! 7 treadmills? Really? 18,000 students and Suny Albany provides their students with a mere 7 treadmills? Joke! Basically promoting the freshman 15 weight gain!

Suny Albany RACC

Advisors! My advisor does not even know my name. There are schools where advisors and students are on a first name basis, where students can stop by the office anytime of the day and their advisor has the time and willing to be patient with the student to sit down and discuss the student’s problem. Not here! At Suny Albany I’m treated like a number waiting to pick up a ½ pound of American cheese at the deli. The advisors should just shout “Next”, or who knows, maybe they already do!

Hey Suny, expand your campus!