8 minute read
Lifestyles
KAMRYN TOMLINSON, DN DESIGN; GETTY IMAGES, PHOTO COURTESY; CHEGG, QUIZLET, SPARKNOTES, CLIPPINGS COURTESY
SOURCES TO SURVIVE
Five websites every college student should know about
Being in college, it can seem like things are a lot more challenging and tough. Students need tools and hacks to make the college experience easier. On the Internet, students can learn effective study habits and access digital copies of textbooks and answers to questions that may not have been discussed in their classes. Here are five websites to make every college student’s life a little easier.
Rate My Professors
Before scheduling their classes, students should do a quick search for reviews on the teachers assigned to the class. Rate My Professors lets students research and rate professors, colleges and universities. This website allows students to communicate with each other about which teachers they should be excited to meet and which ones they should avoid.
Chegg
Buying textbooks from the bookstore can be expensive and leave a big hole in a student’s bank account. Chegg allows students to rent or buy physical books and have them delivered to their dorm or apartment. If students would rather not lug around heavy textbooks, e-books can be rented on Chegg for $6.99 per month. At the end of the semester, students can return or sell their textbooks on Chegg as well. Looking for an internship? Internship applications can be found on Chegg, along with tips for students like how to craft a winning resumé, nailing an interview, career advice and more.
Socratic
Sometimes, it’s difficult for students to find all the answers to their questions after one Google search, or the material their professor is teaching just isn’t clicking in their brain. Socratic is an app created by Google that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and search technologies to connect students to helpful websites that can answer their questions. Students can use voice search, type their questions or take photos to look up answers to their questions. Socratic works for all subjects and has a browser tool that allows students to do more in-depth research on their subjects.
Quizlet
Many students find studying with notecards an effective method for preparing for exams, and Quizlet provides students with a way to do that all online. With Quizlet, students can create their own study sets for subjects or they can look at ones that have already been created and shared with the public. To quiz themselves, students can read flashcards, take tests and play matching games to help retain the information.
SparkNotes
College students often don’t have the energy or time to read the books assigned in their classes. When students are looking for a summary of a chapter in a book, SparkNotes is a commonly used website for high school and college students. SparkNotes has hundreds of guides on English literature, math, science and other subjects for students to read through summaries and critical analyses. Each guide has a quiz for students to take so they can test themselves before an exam. For students reading work by William Shakespeare, SparkNotes provides “No Fear Shakespeare,” an online or textbook side-by-side translation of his work into modern English.
A CONNECTION
Like No Other
Nancy and Sierra Machinksi pose for a photo after one of Sierra’s softball games when she attended Ramapo College in Mahwah, New Jersey. Sierra graduated from Ramapo in 2018 and will graduate from Ball State at the end of the fall 2021 semester. KIMBERLY MACHINSKI, PHOTO PROVIDED
Fall 2021 Ball State graduate finds uncommon connection to grandmother.
Maya Wilkins
Reporter
It’s 1957. Poodle skirts are “in,” Elvis Presley songs play all over the radio and drive-in movies are popular destinations for teenagers. Trending news topics include integrating schools in Little Rock, Arkansas, and the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union.
It’s 1957, and Nancy Mattice Machinski is preparing to graduate from Ball State — the same school her granddaughter, Sierra Machinski, would graduate from nearly 65 years later.
Nancy was born and raised in Chicago and spent two years attending a junior college on the south side of the city before a friend had convinced her to finish her last two years at Ball State, studying speech and hearing therapy.
“I was hesitant,” Nancy said. “It was a new experience. I had never been away and stayed away from my home before, so I was anxious and just trying to figure out what I was going to do.”
While at Ball State, Nancy was a member of Tri Sigma older than me. I was afraid to get stuck with some young punk.”
The two married in 1958, after Robert graduated. Until then, Nancy worked at the
Indiana School for the Deaf in Indianapolis for a year or two. The Machinskis then made their way to Denver, where Robert went to school to receive his master’s degree and Nancy taught a class of deaf children at a local school.
The Machinskis moved to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, after living in Denver for about seven to eight years. Nancy continued to
- NANCY MATTICE MACHINSKI,
1957 Ball State graduate
sorority, acted in campus theater and was a member of a girls’ marching group. There, she met her husband, Robert Machinski.
“We were at a dance that was to make new friends and meet people,” Nancy said. “We met … and he said he was just a freshman ... but, later, I found out he had been in the service, and he came back to school. I thought I was older than him, but he was work with deaf students for eight years at a high school in Muncy, Pennsylvania. In total, Nancy said she spent 28 years teaching.
“It’s so funny how you get out into the world and you do what you thought you were going to do, but, when it leads to another thing, it’s just amazing,” Nancy said.
Since graduating from Ball State, Nancy has been back to campus for a reunion and said she was “in awe” of how it has changed since she was a student.
“When I went to school, it was Ball State Teachers College,” she said. “It’s tremendous. I can’t get over how they’ve expanded the buildings and everything. It’s more like a university than just a teacher’s college.”
This awe turned into excitement for Nancy, especially when she found out her granddaughter, Sierra Machinski, would be attending Ball State after she finished her undergraduate education at Ramapo College in Mahwah, New Jersey, in 2018.
“I was just so excited — I couldn’t believe it,” Nancy said. “My jaw dropped. I said, ‘You did what?’”
Nancy said Sierra was her only grandchild who looked into attending Ball State because the rest of her grandchildren attend schools on the east coast and are not from Indiana.
Sierra studied applied behavior analysis and works at Y.A.L.E (Young Adolescents Learning Experience), a private special education school, as a teaching assistant. Once she graduates, she plans on becoming a board certified behavior analyst (BCBA). She completed her Ball State classes online because she works full-time in New Jersey.
“I actually have a close friend who also recently became a BCBA, and he was a couple semesters ahead of me in the program, and he highly recommended [Ball State],” Sierra said. “Then, I got the whole background about how my Mimi went there, and that’s where she met my grandfather, so that pretty much sold me on it.”
Sierra said she and her grandmother have always been close, but they don’t see each other very often because they live about a three-and-a-half hour drive from each other.
“It brought us closer,” Sierra said. “She went back [to Ball
State] with one of her best friends from college, and she was so excited to tell me all about it, but just being able to share those memories that she had from college was the best part about it.”
Sierra and Nancy both said they will not be attending the fall 2021 commencement ceremony Dec. 18 due to COVID-19 concerns, but Sierra said she is thankful she was able to attend Ball State and share the experience with her grandmother.
“I’ve learned so much in the last two and a half years,” she said. “I feel very prepared and excited, and I’m beyond grateful I get to do these classes online and be able to learn all this stuff and have it readily available. As far as being able to [attend and graduate] from the school that my grandparents went to is just amazing.”
Contact Maya Wilkins with comments at mrwilkins@bsu. edu or on Twitter @mayawilkinss.
It brought us closer. She went back [to Ball State] with one of her best friends from college, and she was so excited to tell me all about it, but just being able to share those memories that she had from college was the best part about it.” - SIERRA MACHINSKI, 2021 Ball State graduate
Nancy and Sierra Machinski pose for a photo at a family Christmas event one year. Sierra said she and her grandmother have always been very close, which makes her time at Ball State even more special. KIMBERLY MACHINSKI, PHOTO PROVIDED
What’s this?
A clip of The Daily News from Feb. 3, 1956, shows the casting for an on-campus showing of ‘The Flies,’ in which Nancy Mattice Machinski acted in. Machinski was very active in on-campus theater and was in multiple shows during her time at Ball State.
