And so begins my junior year.
The first week or so of my fall classes has been...hectic....but overall not too bad.
It's kind of like riding a bike in a sense...a bike with a messed-up wheel and no brakes. But I'm sure I'll get used to it again before too long.
I'm at my work study (at the marketing department again), so this will be brief, but I wanted to say hi again.
That is all.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Profile: Dustin Schwartz
Sophomore Dustin Schwartz loves to rope.
“I’ve probably been in over a thousand rodeos since I was in third grade or so,” Schwartz said.
All that practice paid off this past October, when Schwartz won the National Roping Competition in Guthrie, Oklahoma.
Nationals aren’t the end of the road, though. Schwartz is continually preparing for upcoming rodeos. He ropes every day during the summer, and as often as possible during school.
“I rope for practice three or more times a week and go to jackpots on the weekends. Every night I also throw100 loops at the roping dummy. While I’m at school I rope the dummy as much as I can. It is like any other sport; the more you practice the better you will be.”
The national roping title has been his career highlight so far. Schwartz won the #8 team roping with Dexter Becker of Beaver City. The team won with a time of 33.03 seconds for all four steers they roped, giving them the fastest total time in the competition.
“Down at Nationals, the kid that I won it with [Becker], we didn’t know each other,” Schwartz said. “But we both knew the same guy, and we walked up and wanted to rope with him, and he told us to rope together instead. So we ended up roping together and winning it [Nationals]. So it was kind of cool that we had just met some random guy end ended up winning a National competition.”
Schwartz also placed seventh overall with team member Darren Smith of Wellfleet with a time of 41.88 seconds.
“The competition at nationals is extremely hard,” Schwartz explained. “In order to get a national USTRC [United States Team Roping Championships] shootout I had to win at either a state or a regional level. There are ropers there from every state in the U.S. and also people there from Canada and Australia, including NFL football players and PBR [Professional Bull Riders].
Schwartz, who has been roping for most of his life, said his father taught him everything he knew, and that they train and practice on their ranch outside of Mullen.
“Mullen has a population of about 500 people, so everyone knows everyone. I live on a ranch where I help my dad raise Corrientes (Mexican rodeo cattle) and train our roping horses.”
One important factor to Schwartz’s success is Randy, his five-year-old quarter horse.
“Every night that I practice roping I rope off of him [Randy] to keep him in shape and ready for competition,” Schwartz said. “I also ride him when I move our cattle from pasture to pasture. To have a horse in top condition he must be able to trot two miles. Randy is one of the top horses in the country because I have spent countless hours training him. I keep him legged up and I wrap his legs to prevent injuries; a horse that knows he will not get hurt will perform better.”
First-year student Cammie Schwartz, Dustin’s younger sister, has also been involved in rodeo activities, although she said she participated mainly for the fun of it, and isn’t as competitive as the rest of her family.
Cammie said her favorite part of watching her family rope is when they are able to do it together.
“The best is when my dad and my brothers are partnered together, or when my brothers are partnered together and do well. My dad had a lot of success with rodeos, so it’s cool to see my brothers kind of following in his footsteps.”
Schwartz said one of his favorite parts about going to rodeos is getting to meet a wide variety of people, including country singers and world-class ropers.
“I like getting to meet a lot of people,” Schwartz said. “It’s a really good time overall.”
Schwartz has met a variety of singers, including Charlie Daniels, Red Steagall, Life House, Dierks Bentley, and George Strait.
Schwartz’s family attends quite a few rodeos throughout the year, although they try to stay close to home.
Cammie said that she enjoys watching her family rope.
“It’s really cool,” Cammie said. “When you’re at a competition it’s kind of nerve-wracking, just because you never know what’s going to happen. Sometimes it’s just bad luck; you draw the wrong steer or your partner doesn’t do well. But it’s awesome when they do well and you get to see it. It always makes you proud to be like ‘Oh yeah, that’s my brother.’”
Schwartz is also involved with football and track at Doane, and is a Directions student as well. He is studying Computer Science, with a minor in Math.
After graduating, Schwartz plans to manage the arena of a man from Kearney.
“This would involve me training horses and roping cattle, giving roping lessons, giving riding lessons, planning and scheduling rodeo events, along with many other jobs,” Schwartz said. “He [the owner] is very understanding and is going to let me take off work whenever I need to so that I can go to my rodeos.”
“I’ve probably been in over a thousand rodeos since I was in third grade or so,” Schwartz said.
All that practice paid off this past October, when Schwartz won the National Roping Competition in Guthrie, Oklahoma.
Nationals aren’t the end of the road, though. Schwartz is continually preparing for upcoming rodeos. He ropes every day during the summer, and as often as possible during school.
“I rope for practice three or more times a week and go to jackpots on the weekends. Every night I also throw100 loops at the roping dummy. While I’m at school I rope the dummy as much as I can. It is like any other sport; the more you practice the better you will be.”
The national roping title has been his career highlight so far. Schwartz won the #8 team roping with Dexter Becker of Beaver City. The team won with a time of 33.03 seconds for all four steers they roped, giving them the fastest total time in the competition.
“Down at Nationals, the kid that I won it with [Becker], we didn’t know each other,” Schwartz said. “But we both knew the same guy, and we walked up and wanted to rope with him, and he told us to rope together instead. So we ended up roping together and winning it [Nationals]. So it was kind of cool that we had just met some random guy end ended up winning a National competition.”
Schwartz also placed seventh overall with team member Darren Smith of Wellfleet with a time of 41.88 seconds.
“The competition at nationals is extremely hard,” Schwartz explained. “In order to get a national USTRC [United States Team Roping Championships] shootout I had to win at either a state or a regional level. There are ropers there from every state in the U.S. and also people there from Canada and Australia, including NFL football players and PBR [Professional Bull Riders].
Schwartz, who has been roping for most of his life, said his father taught him everything he knew, and that they train and practice on their ranch outside of Mullen.
“Mullen has a population of about 500 people, so everyone knows everyone. I live on a ranch where I help my dad raise Corrientes (Mexican rodeo cattle) and train our roping horses.”
One important factor to Schwartz’s success is Randy, his five-year-old quarter horse.
“Every night that I practice roping I rope off of him [Randy] to keep him in shape and ready for competition,” Schwartz said. “I also ride him when I move our cattle from pasture to pasture. To have a horse in top condition he must be able to trot two miles. Randy is one of the top horses in the country because I have spent countless hours training him. I keep him legged up and I wrap his legs to prevent injuries; a horse that knows he will not get hurt will perform better.”
First-year student Cammie Schwartz, Dustin’s younger sister, has also been involved in rodeo activities, although she said she participated mainly for the fun of it, and isn’t as competitive as the rest of her family.
Cammie said her favorite part of watching her family rope is when they are able to do it together.
“The best is when my dad and my brothers are partnered together, or when my brothers are partnered together and do well. My dad had a lot of success with rodeos, so it’s cool to see my brothers kind of following in his footsteps.”
Schwartz said one of his favorite parts about going to rodeos is getting to meet a wide variety of people, including country singers and world-class ropers.
“I like getting to meet a lot of people,” Schwartz said. “It’s a really good time overall.”
Schwartz has met a variety of singers, including Charlie Daniels, Red Steagall, Life House, Dierks Bentley, and George Strait.
Schwartz’s family attends quite a few rodeos throughout the year, although they try to stay close to home.
Cammie said that she enjoys watching her family rope.
“It’s really cool,” Cammie said. “When you’re at a competition it’s kind of nerve-wracking, just because you never know what’s going to happen. Sometimes it’s just bad luck; you draw the wrong steer or your partner doesn’t do well. But it’s awesome when they do well and you get to see it. It always makes you proud to be like ‘Oh yeah, that’s my brother.’”
Schwartz is also involved with football and track at Doane, and is a Directions student as well. He is studying Computer Science, with a minor in Math.
After graduating, Schwartz plans to manage the arena of a man from Kearney.
“This would involve me training horses and roping cattle, giving roping lessons, giving riding lessons, planning and scheduling rodeo events, along with many other jobs,” Schwartz said. “He [the owner] is very understanding and is going to let me take off work whenever I need to so that I can go to my rodeos.”
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Summer at Doane- First Day on the Job
So, I will be on campus over the summer, working with the Marketing Department. It's nice, because working for them also doubles as my journalism internship, so it's kind of a 'two birds with one stone' situation. However, this means I get to live in Smith hall, sans air conditioning...so far it hasn't been too bad, though, so hopefully it stays pretty cool.
I actually started my job today. I'm there now, in fact...it's been fine so far. I haven't had a whole lot to do (just writing and sending out some press releases), but I'm sure it'll pick up some once there's more people here (three of them are gone today). I'm pretty optimistic, even though I've never had a full-time job before.
Ah yes, I'm also working another job, which will be 8 hours a week, so all in all I'll be working around 48 hours a week. Not too bad, but still more than I'm used to. I guess we'll see how it all turns out.
I actually started my job today. I'm there now, in fact...it's been fine so far. I haven't had a whole lot to do (just writing and sending out some press releases), but I'm sure it'll pick up some once there's more people here (three of them are gone today). I'm pretty optimistic, even though I've never had a full-time job before.
Ah yes, I'm also working another job, which will be 8 hours a week, so all in all I'll be working around 48 hours a week. Not too bad, but still more than I'm used to. I guess we'll see how it all turns out.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Finals week so far
It's that time again- finals!! Who doesn't love finals?! Well...a lot of people, I'd guess. Especially me. However, it does mean free finals snacks at Tiger Inn (I think they have them every day this week- you should go check them out!). I only have on 'official' exam this week, and one take-home exam, but then I have lots of lovely papers. I'm working on an 8-page paper today, and another 8-page paper tomorrow. And I did a 5-page paper in Spanish yesterday. Good times, I tell ya.
In any case, you should leave me a comment about what all you have to do this week!
In any case, you should leave me a comment about what all you have to do this week!
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Cinco de Mayo
For the past couple years, at least (I'm not sure how long before that), Doane has had a Cinco de Mayo celebration. This year, however, I didn't hear of anything going on as far as school sponsored activities. Do you think the multicultural office is doing its job, if the only things we seem to celebrate are Black History Month and maybe one other holiday? Leave a comment and let me know!
Monday, May 3, 2010
Finals Week
So, with finals being next week, I have cut down on updating my blog. Unfortunate, yes. However, it's been somewhat necessary with my workload. So, this post is going to be reader-based. Sometime this week I will be doing an audio story about what students do to prepare for finals and not get too stressed. So that is my question to you! It'd be great if you left me a comment and let me know what all you do to stay calm and prepared for finals week. Thanks, guys!
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Procrastination
So, as we near the end of yet another Doane school year, I've come to realize that I may have been procrastinating too much...now I have three papers (one 5-page and the other two are 8-page papers) a twenty minute presentation on Pakistan, and a book review. All to be done within the next week and a half.
My point? It might be a little too late to say "don't to what I do," for this year at least, but I think I've learned my lesson; while procrastination is OK in small quantities, you shouldn't let it take up too much of your time.
So, if you've been procrasting, let me know!
My point? It might be a little too late to say "don't to what I do," for this year at least, but I think I've learned my lesson; while procrastination is OK in small quantities, you shouldn't let it take up too much of your time.
So, if you've been procrasting, let me know!
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