Hello, as you can tell from the title, my name is Rachel. I am from a small town in central Illinois by the name of Chillicothe. Here in Iowa I am involved in the Swing Dance Club and the Quizbowl Team as well as playing my French Horn in University Band. Swing and other forms of social dance are my latest passion and I am excited to see where they take me. I used to say I was shy until I got to know someone. Now I say that I am shy until dancing is an option. Aside from dancing, quizbowl, and band, I am a former St. Jude patient and current St. Jude runner.

Dancing has helped me to become more confident in a social setting. One of my main goals for this course is to improve and become more confident in my speaking skills. My other goal is to learn how to write a better donation request letter for my St. Jude Run fundraising campaign.

Recently I received a very sweet letter from my Grandma. As you all know, the first few weeks of the semester can be very stressful. My grandma’s letter brightened my day. It also reminded me that it had been nearly two weeks since I had talked to my family. In the letter, my grandma mentioned how happy she was that my brother and I had gotten along so well while I was home on break. Grandma’s letter may seem sweet and innocuous, but it was full of rhetoric. By combining the pathos of happy family memories from break and the kairos of sending the letter at a stressful time, my Grandma persuaded me to call not just her, but also my parents and brother, all in the same day.