My name is Adriana Figueroa, and the community I belong to is the Hispanic community. I have always had great pride in being latina and it is the community in which I have always felt most comfortable. Both of my parents are from Puerto Rico and have passed down many of the traditions that they, as they were growing up, have also followed. Everything from the food, to the music, to the dancing, and language are all things that I feel I have in common with the rest of my latino/hispanic community.

I am Emily Unger. I was born and raised Mechanicsville, VA with both of my parents and my older brother. All my friends at school think I live out in the boonies because of the name of my town, but Mechanicsville is just suburban America. I am a nursing major here at JMU, and although trying to get into that major is very stressful I would not have wanted to go to another school. For my narrative I plan on writing about being a part of my high school track team. Although I did not run for all four years track was a major part of my life and taught me so much. I learned a lot about how people perceive you based on your actions and it really shaped my life and my time spent in high school.

Hi, my name is Kristina Janitschek, but everyone just calls me Stina. I was born in Germany, but I am a dual citizen of Denmark and the States. While that sounds pretty exciting, I just grew up in Woodbridge, Virginia; a calm, but pretty awesome town if I do say so myself. I recently decided to major in Elementary Education (I hope to become a fourth grade teacher--that was my favorite year of school), and I'm planning to double major in Communications. For my narrative I've decided to write about the most influential community in my life. There are many communities to choose from, as I'm sure you all experienced, and choosing to write about this one does not diminish my appreciation for the others. But the community I feel I can write most passionately about is rowing. I've participated in over six sports, and rowing is by far the greatest one; and as corny as it sounds I feel rowing is more of an art than a sport. Being on a crew (rowing) team, is like getting automatic family. Everyone just gets along, and it works out perfectly. I'm looking forward to telling you guys all about how much my four years of rowing shaped me into who I am today, and how much more there is to it than sitting down and moving your arms back and forth (rowing is actually only ten percent arms). As a team, you have to be perfectly in tune with the other members, otherwise you don't move forward. Actually, you can quite literally stand still. Just like my coach always used to say, "You're either syncing or you're sinking".

My name is Connor Massei, and im from Warrenton, VA. I am currently undeclared but am leaning towards a sports management major. I have an older brother that is a sophomore at JMU. When I was 2 my parents divorced, so I have no memories of living with both of them in the same house. I lived with my mom in Arlington, VA until middle school when I moved in with my dad in Warrenton. I have lived primarily with him ever since. In my narrative I plan on writing about how having divorced parents has affected my life.

My name is Alanna Herman and I am a psychology major and Spanish minor. I want to be fluent in Spanish and I would like to study abroad in Spain. I lived in Reading, Pennsylvania for most of my life but my family is currently in the process of moving to Massachusetts. I have one older sister and two miniature dachshunds, Olive and Franklin. Ever since I was in elementary shcool, I have always wanted to play the violin. After ten years of playing, it still remains one of my passions and it has played a large role in my life. In my narrative, I plan to explain the power of music and how it has impacted me.

My name is Christopher Davis and I am a Health Sciences major from Chesapeake, Virginia, which is near Virginia Beach. My lifelong dream has always been to somehow help people in life, whether this would be through medicine, volunteering or even teaching. Physical Therapy became a true dream of mine when I injured my knee my sophomore year. I was doing therapy so much that I began to truly love what they were doing. As hig school went on, I volunteered at therapy facilities and thought maybe I could fulfill my dream of helping people by going into the practice of physical therapy. Also, it could possibly bring me a job with Duke basketball. The community I am choosing to write about is Duke Basketball. Since I was 4 years old I have been following Duke with all my heart. It is a true passion for me and a special community I feel happy to be a part of. In this narrative essay, I want to explain why it's so special to me and why I follow it like a religion.

Community

My name is Christian Erik Coker. My parents are still together and I have a 30 year old sister. She has two little girls of her own. I am a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, half native american male, born and raised in Virginia Beach, VA. Ever since I can remember, the beach has been my backyard. When I was around 6 years old my parents let me ride my bike to the beach by myself. From there I fell into a community that is internationally known and locally respected, the 1st street surfers. I had no idea at the time that I was going to be part of any group. I just wanted to surf and 1st street had the best break. Every day before and after school I would meet my friends at Jr. Market, then we would all ride our bikes to the beach and go surf. To be a part of my community you have to live in the area near it. And if you don't, get the hell out! Most people would call my community unwelcoming and violent, we call it protective of our territory. The way we were brought up was to show respect to those who were older than us or surfed better than us. Also, it was the older generations job to make sure we knew our place in the line up and our responsibility to the beach. I remember once around the age of 13 I threw a piece of trash in the sand. Three older surfers saw me do this, picked me up and stuffed me into a trashcan for what seemed like an hour. Now sometimes we would get picked on like this for their amusement but most of the time the hazing and abuse taught us lessons about respect for the earth and for the community.

My name is Jeremy Mento and I am a Finance major who would like to someday become an investment banker. I have two brothers and I live in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I am a snowboarder on the Ski and Snowboard Race Team at JMU. I also have other hobbies which include fly fishing, music production, and wake boarding. When I graduate, I hope to live in NYC.

For my community narrative I plan to write about the fly fishing community I belong to. I want to explain the characteristics of fly fishing through my own personal experiences. For the research part of my narrative, I plan on studying the medical and stress relieving effects that fly fishing has on the body.

Blogtastic

My name is Kevin Katz and I am a freshman Sport and Rec Management major here. I come from Centreville, Virginia. I love movies and have over 300 dvd’s in my collection. I love comedies most of all and I am always laughing. I keep active all year long and have played just about every competitive sport including soccer, swimming, baseball, basketball, rugby, football, wrestling, and anything else that sparked my interest. I have three brothers that are ages 23, 21 and 16. The 21 year old Will is a senior here at JMU and a big part of why I chose to come here. I plan on writing about my rugby community for my personal narrative. I was on the team for my four years of high school. The team was a great community because it was compiled of people from five high schools in the surrounding area which created a very diverse, but very successful team.

My name is Jason Staub. I'm from Centreville, Virginia (outside of DC). I'm currently undeclared, but my plan is to work in a recording studio. Music has been a huge part of my life. I am a multi-instrumentalist (I play drums and guitar). For my narrative, I plan on writing either about the musician community or my hometown, which has also had a big impact on who I am today.

My name is Chris Hudgins. I'm a Sport and Recreation Management Major and I am from Norfolk Virginia. I have a younger sister and a dog and I love sports, especially lacrosse. I have played lax all my life so for my narrative I have decided to either write about the lax community or about 757. In case you don't already know 757 is the Southeast region of Virginia also called Hampton Roads. It contains 7 cities which are Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Suffolk, Hampton, Newport News, Portsmouth, and Chesapeake. 757 is a very proud community and very diverse. The lax community is very proud as well and very tight knit.

Community Narrative

My name is Shannon Connolly and I am from Midlothian, VA (outside of Richmond). I am the oldest of four, with one brother in high school and two sisters in elementary school. I have not yet declared a major because I can’t seem to make up my mind about what I would like to try to do with my life, but I’m hoping to have a better idea by the end of this semester. I am on the JMU Varsity Cheerleading team, and while most people have come to know me for that aspect of my life, there is another similar yet considerably different side to me that not many people know about. I have been an Irish dancer since the age of five and have competed and performed around the world. For my narrative, I would primarily like to explain the concept of Irish dancing for those who know nothing about it but I would also like to write about being a part of the Irish dancing community and how it has impacted my life both through the immense involvement that is required of me to compete against dancers in the highest levels and the allegiance that I have come to feel for my Irish heritage.

My name is Erica Wise. I'm from Scotch Plains, New Jersey. I am a marketing major and also want to do something with broadcast journalism. My friends are my life and I love my youth group that I am a part of. I can no longer participate in it since I am too old, but I still stay involved as best I can, and have maintained my friendships that I've made throughout the years. Because I've been a part of my youth group for so long, and have had so many accomplishments while being in it, I consider it my personal community. There are so many things that people don't understand about being part of a youth group, and I intend to share all of those responsibilities and accomplishments in my narrative.

My name is McKenzie O’Connor and I’m a freshman majoring in Communications. Ever since I was a little girl I’ve always wanted to come to JMU. Purple is my favorite color, which led to me choosing this University! I love to sing in the car and shower and love to dance everywhere! I’ve played soccer, basketball, and lacrosse, but prefer dancing. I was one of the captains on my high school’s dance team for two years. My favorite kind of music is anything you can move to. These hobbies relate to almost all teenage girls. It was fairly easy to make friends in my dorm whom shared the same interests as me. For my community narrative, I plan on writing about being a member of Hoffman Hall’s first floor. My dorm is sometimes called the Hoffman Hotel because it was recently redone. The first floor consists of all girls. As you can imagine, it is drama and estrogen filled. I am hoping to research how people interact when they are confined to quarters and studies with their same sex.

Prep Community

I'm Steve Dombrowski and I am from Washington Township, New Jersey. I love sports and music. I also have a 2 year old golden retriever named Riley. For my essay I've decided to share the uniqueness of the Prep Community. St. Augustine Prep is where I went to high school and I plan on sharing how we are different than most high schools. Through sports, academics, and even alumni events the Prep's "Brotherhood" still goes strong.

I came up with a few different ideas to write my narrative on. Some topics include my vegetarian lifestyle, growing up in a smalltown, and being a musician. I'm leaning towards one of the first two for several reasons. With a vegetarian paper, I could explain the "why" factor to my audience (and I have more than just one reason why). With a "smalltown" narrative, I could really show the characteristics of my super-rural hometown and even share some humorous anecdotes on the topic. Either one I feel comfortable writing about.

Blog #1

My name is Kelly Waters. I'm from Flemington, New Jersey. I have two older brothers, a cat, and a dog. I'm a psychology major and hope to be a clinical psychologist one day. I live on a golf course and during high school my team won state championships for New Jersey all four years. Considering a large part of my life has been dedicated to golf, I consider myself part of the golf community. For me, the most interesting part of golf is the unspoken language between players. Simply teeing off first could be considered completely rude. I plan to research the most absurd etiquette rules for a golfer.

Nicole Lee | Letter-writing Community

Here is an example to follow for your first blog post. You do not need to copy my format! Just make sure you do two things:
1. Introduce yourself
2. Share your idea for your community narrative

My name is Nicole Lee and I'm a fourth semester graduate teaching instructor at James Madison University studying Writing, Rhetoric, and Technical Communication. I love JMU and I have a yellow lab puppy named Madison. Since I was an undergraduate student here, I've worked for Orientation, Residence Life, and Summer Conferencing. Some of my hobbies include freelance writing, ballet, yoga, and skydiving. 

For my community narrative, I'm planning to write about being a member of the letter-writing community. One of my best friends lives in Colorado, and we write each other handwritten letters on a weekly basis. Even though we call and email each other, too, I love writing and receiving letters from her. I believe letter writing is a lost art since most long distance communication is conducted through digital technology today. For the research portion of my narrative, I'm planning to look at how email communication differs from sending paper mail through USPS in terms of type and quality of writing.

Welcome to our GWRTC103 Community Blog!

Welcome, bloggers!

We'll talk more about the blog in class, but, briefly, we'll use this space to brainstorm writing topics, share ideas about our readings, and expand upon discussion points that come up in class. You will each gain administrative rights to the compose, revise, and comment throughout the semester.

See you in class!