Courses this semester - Fall 2007

Posted at 12:53 PM, Friday, September 21, 2007

Well, this entry is going to be super-short cos I don't have enough time for anything these days with all the readings, homework and other stuff going on. This semester I'm taking six (6) courses. History of Material Culture I (CMD 131) with Dr. Parker, IS Project Management (INF 321) with Dean Kah, Enterprise Resource Planning (INF 341) with Dr. Bollou, Probability & Statistics (STA 301) with a new professor, Database Systems (CSC 384) with Dr. Grakhov, and Fundamentals of Accounting (ACC 201) with Dr. Muterera. That makes a total of 18 credit hours, which of course is not a big deal. The problem starts when I have to go for 10 hours work-study every week. That's not all, I have joined the media club and I think that too will take up more of my time. In addition to that, this semester every course is just about readings. I mean we are required to read a chapter before we come to class and we can be given a surprise quiz any moment. I've been struggling hard to keep up with the readings by loosing sleep and leisure. I guess this is what it feels like to be a junior - totally time and sleep lacking, haha. God willing I'll be able to cope with everything and earn good grades.

Registration and Orientation, Fall 2007

Posted at 1:57 PM, Saturday, September 15, 2007

For once I don't have pictures of registration and I don't think I have time to go looking for those either. Anyways, this semester things went as usual, actually I wasn't very involved with anything so I can't say if there were any improvements or not. I do know that Admissions check-in was smooth as always. We accepted about 300+ students but only about 190+ have showed up for registration so far. I'm not soo sure of the statistics cos I'm concentrating on my classes which have already begun with loads of readings. All the same, registration for new students was very good, better than ever. But registration for returning students was the usual not very good process. But who can I blame for that? Don't ask me cos I can't say. God willing, next time it'll be smoother.

Here are some pictures of orientation that the admissions staff took:

Coming back to registration, returning students are never really content with the classes they get, they just have to keep coming to change an instructor, section or course. It's the same complaints and reasons they have (Students here just never stop complaining)  - "I don't like instructor X cos my friend told me so"; "8:00am! How can I get up soo early in the morning for classes?"; "I don't like afternoon classes cos I'm not an afternoon person"; "I can't do 4 classes on Moday!"; "Is there any space in a section of Instructor Y? Could you please move me there, I can't go to the Dean to get permission. Please, won't you do this for me?";"I've been here all morning and no one's attending to me, I can't stay in the long line of waiting students";"Can you please give me afternoon classes, and please make sure I don't get Instructors A and B" and it continues, I wish they understood that we have no control over what section, time, day, instrutor and what have you. It's almost impossible to make them understand that WE don't have the authority to change anything. You can see the kind of answer they give when we refer them to the Dean or advisor. Nevertheless, I guess they'll understand someday, God willing. There was some incidents that got me really upset. One was when a student said that she had to take a course and that there was no other way. We did tell her that all sections for that course were full and that she had to take SPECIAL permission to get there, cos it just was not possible. After making all the trouble and finally being admitted to the section, when I printed her schedule and gave it to her can you believe what she did? She had one look at her schedule and said "I can't take this course, drop it please I don't like the instructor!" I got soo upset that I just spoke and said "First you make us go through all this trouble and now you don't want the course?" I mean why do people have to be like that? I can understand that certain professors might not be too welcoming, but I can assure you that if only you pray hard and work hard, everything will go well for you. From my experience, it's not soo much the professor that one needs to consider, it's the effort, time and dedication you put into the course, and your faith in God. If you have these two things then you need not be afraid of taking a course with any professor. Of course I know that certian professors are better than others, even I have my favourites, but I wouldn't mind going to any professor's class if it is what God wants me to do. I just end up liking the professors for one reason or the other, that's God's blessing because on my own, I can do nothing or be anything. Just like the Bible says "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me". Students say that Dr. Quarccoo is tough, but when I was in his class, I can tell you that he was one of the finest professors I've known. I mean calculus was exciting and I enjoyed the class sessions soo much that I looked forward to being in class. I don't know I managed an A- in his course(Calculus I) cos students tell me it's almost imposibles to get anything like an A- or A in his class. My sister Nino had a B+ in his Calculus III class, she really enjoyed his class, and she still thinks that he made Calculus a very interesting course. You see, if you trust the Lord Jesus, He always makes a way for you. Sometimes the road may be rough, but the final destination is soo beautiful that you forget whatever you had to go through to get there. As it is written "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding". Pray and everything will go well with you, just as it went with me because I wouldn't have gotten anything close to a B+ in many courses of mine if I did not trust in God to help me through. Change courses and sections if you want, but don't do it on the basis of your friend's opinion, cos "you are not your friend" as my little sis Mona said to one student. Even Ben Carson describes PEERS as "People who Encourage Errors Rudeness & Stupidity" in his book The Big Picture. You don't always need to listen to your peers cos sometimes these so-called "friends" might lead you astray. Listen to God, and it will go well with you.

Anyways, I guess that's about all that happened during registration this semester. My next entry will be on courses I'm taking this semester, and other entries about Yola will follow soon. I've decided to blog every Friday as I don't have any classes then. God willing, this time I'll be able to keep with my plans. Thanks for your time!

Summer Work - 2007

Posted at 9:59 AM, Friday, September 14, 2007

This summer I worked at the ACIT (African Centre for IT) and the Admissions office.  At the ACIT I was part of a team of 9 (then sophomore, now junior) students - Hamman (technical/project manager), Patrica (designer and assistant project manager), Oma (analyst), Nayyara (coder), Nousheen (designer), Fiza (coder and analyst), Judith (analyst), and Osaetin (coder). I was assigned the job of a designer along with Nousheen and Patricia. however, I was also part of the analysis and programming, as were others like Oma, Patricia, Nousheen, Faiza and Judith. It was like most of us did a little of everything just to get the experience and believe me, it did helped a lot. I mean I've learnt a lot after working there. We were working on 2 projects - one was about developing a healthcare information system and the other was about creating a portal for a group of organizations to enable data sharing. We used JSP and SQL in both projects. Both were web applications and we used the hibernate concept in jsp to link the web interface to the database. Anyways, I'll write more about it in another entry and might possibly put some snapshots of the protoptype (if given permission to do so). We had fun too, wasn't like we were working around the clock! There were some very funny moments, some boring moments, some lonely moments, and moments of frustration. On the whole, I enjoyed the experience, Judith says she'll definitly miss it all, I think I will too. I can remember one very funny moment when Oma, myslef and Judith were discussing on the way Chineese people talk and the way Japaneese talk. Then Oma imitated how the Japaneese speak and I couldn't control my laughter, it was just too funny and all of us were laughing soo hard that Oma even fell off her chair! That only made things worse, cos I had to run out of the room to catch my breath, haha, I just couldn't stop laughing! It's was all really very funny.....Anyways, here are some of the pics we took from back then........

In the first picture there is Nino and Patrica (left-tp-right), with Oma and Judith in the Backgroud (left-tp-right). The second picture shows Nino, me, Judith, Faiza (left-tp-right)  and Nousheen (bottom). The third picture is of course Osas and Hamman (Raju). The rest are pretty obvious.

On the other hand, at admissions we were busy preparing for and accepting new students for the Fall 2007 semester. In addition to that we also spent some time doing Banner Training. The university has puchased the Banner software and admissions was the first department to recieve its training. A lovely consultant from New Zealand came to help us learn the basics, and frankly speaking I learnt more than just the basics. She's very good at it cos she knows how to engage her audience, she even gave us chocolates to make us come early to the trainning sessions, isn't that cool or what? The registration training will take place sometime this semester, I'm not sure when but am looking forward to it.

In essence, things went well except that there was mostly no transportation available to any workplace (ACIT or admissions). So we mostly decided to walk all the way to the destination.  It was a long summer, but I took lots of pics and stuff and enjoyed a lot with my family. However, there were lonely moments and sad times too, God rescued me from yet another horrible moment in my life this summer. I'm grateful to Him for everything and I know He'll continue to save me and guide me, thank you Jesus!

I'll put in my next entry in a few days, and entries with pics I took this summer will follow. Thanks for reading, God bless.

An Evening at Dr. Fonkam's

Posted at 8:37 AM, Wednesday, June 27, 2007

A few weeks back, we went over to Dr. Fonkam's for lunch. Really nice of him to invite us. We were having some repairs at home too so it was a good thing to leave and let the carpenters do their stuff. Anyways, I really enjoyed my time there. It was one of the best lunches I have ever been to:)  I particularly enjoyed playing table tennis with Dr. Fonkam's little daughter. She's 8 years old, half-brazilian and only speaks protugese. She has started to learn English and can understand it now. A pleaseure to meet her I'd say. We spent the time watching funny movies - my fav was faulty towers, a british comedy series- hilarious! The food was super-tasty! We had jellof rice, beans, vegetables, salad, puf puf, and fried plaintain. I thoroghly enjoyed my day. Thank God for such moments in life. I still miss mom a lot, wish she was here. She was the only person I know who understood me and really watched over me like I watch over others. I just pray that God will help me be who I should be, and be with us through this difficult time. I do sincerely thank God for having her in my life, and everyone else. BTW, here are some pictures we took:

PS - I haven't written about what's happening in AAUN recently, I guess I'll do that in one of my next entries. Thanks for your time :)

Today

Posted at 10:20 AM, Monday, June 4, 2007

I have been sick for the past 2 weeks or so. I don't know what I should be writing about, it's almost like I've lost my enthusiasm for blogging. It rained yesterday so we (me, dad and my siblings) went out for a ride and had our lunch out at ABTI ventures. We all had a great time viewing the lovely mountains and coulds. There's this particular vicinity called Upper Benue that we went to; it's just awesome! The scenery from over there is fabulous esp when it's couldy/rainy. Wish I had a camera so I would have taken pictures and posted here. The food at ABTI ventures was also great - Fried rice with pineapple, beans stew, chips, salad, and chicken (fish for my siblings, they love fish. I also like fish ONLY when it's fried). We really enjoyed it except that Dad doesn't like to eat-out. It was the first time we went out together after mom passed away. I really miss her, we all went out together always and it was smashing to spend time with mom and dad out at lunch or going to places, but I know that where she is, the Lord Jesus is there with her and I need not worry too much. Sure all of us will miss her esp dad, he misses her even more than I do, but God is good, and He'll surely see us through. I'm grateful to God for the most beautiful parents in the world! I mean it, I couldn't have wished for better parents. He truely is an awesome God!

Talking about AAUN - there is an exchange programme for students to study abroad at AU Washington for one year or semester. The top students have been selected (about 12 in number) to apply. I heard 3 have already been accepted for the Fall 07 semester. I was really glad for my friend Judith when she told me she had been accepted at AU and with a full scholarship for the fall semester. She's such a lovely and hard-working person and she truely deserves it, we are all thankful to God for that. I've applied for Spring 2008 and am praying for God's will. It will be nice to finally see what US really is. Even if I don't get to go, I'll be able to meet more people from the US that are coming to AAUN for a year or semester. From what I've heard, a lot of students in AU were interested in spending a semester or 2 here at AAUN. This is definitly something to look forward to.....

All the same, we're having summer school for the first time here at AAUN. Many students have enrolled for the summer for different reasons. Some think that spending the ever-long holls at home would be a complete waste of time, others "dread" certain professors and are eager to take the course when someone else who is less scary is teaching the course; others still feel that by doing courses in summer they'll be able to finish the required credit hours. My little sister Mona (Saima) is also taking Calculus I this summer. Actually it was me and my other sisters Noshi and Nino that advised her to take the course this summer so that she wouldn't feel overloaded with courses next semester (she'll be taking 6 courses and doing Calculus at the same didn't seem the best thing to do). I guess I'd also love to do summer courses, it's just that I'm not "finacially-fit" for it. God willing I will be able to take a course next summer.

I've been recieving lots of emails from students newly admitted into AAUN for the Fall 07 semester. Surprised I was at first, but I guess it's nice to hear from different people once in a while. I've already added a few to my Yahoo messenger contacts. It's really no bother to help.

Hoping to blog soon, God willing.

"The LORD gave and the LORD hath taken away, blessed be the name of the LORD" - Job 1:21

Posted at 2:07 PM, Monday, April 23, 2007

It's really hard to understand why things happen the way they do. I lost my mom on the night of 2nd April, 2007. It was the saddest moment in my life, yet I could not cry because of shock. I just don't understand why God chose this time to take her away, I wish I could have done something about it. But unfortunately, I could do nothing. I thank God that I at least got to see her an hour before she left.......we ended classes early that day thankfully. I don't know why I have to feel so bad about it, I mean I know she is with the Lord and I have struggle to be there too......but I just don't know what to do, I had soooo many plans of all 7 of us going to Europe or US this summer.....why did God not answer my prayers? I really don't understand any of it, all I know is that what God has done, He has done for the best because His will is perfect. I can't see the whole truth and that's why I question Him soo much, but I'll always remember this : He loves her more than I.

I really thank everyone at AAUN for their support and love during the one week when we (the Samuels') really needed encouragement. We missed one week of classes, but the wonderful professors said that it was no problem at all. And not just AAUN, but everyone in Yola who's cared for us during that week, especially our neighbours and mom & dad's friends in Adamawa. Everyone has been of great help and I pray to God to bless and reward each and everyone of them for their love and kindness.

I thank God for everything, it just brings to mind the words of a wonderful song "God is good all the time, even through the darkest night, His light always shines". Thank you Jesus for everything, and my prayer is that the Lord guides us all till the end of time, amen.

Thank you for taking time to read my blog.

AAUN New Capmus

Posted at 11:59 AM, Wednesday, March 21, 2007

"Finally I have some pictures of the new site! I got a few from the public relations ofiice, and the rest from the admissions office isn't that cool? Anyways, I couldn't go to the public relations office cos they've been super busy with orientation, not that admissions' not super busy too but I reckoned since I'm working here I could just ask. Thank God I have those now."

That's what I wrote on October 27, 2006. I was supposed to post the entry back then but as usual I became lazy, plus I didn't have enough pictures. I think the real reason is that classes are busier than ever, I mean I just spend time reading some textbook if I'm not in class. This semester is definitly the most tiring. I wrote my INF 360 (System Analysis & Design) midterm exam last night. It wasn't all that great but God willing I'll get a good grade. I still have a INF 252 exam coming up this Friday. Don't know if I'll be prepared enough for that. I really need some rest, perhaps this weekend would help, God willing.

Anyways, now that everything's ready you can see for yourself what  the new campus looks like, enjoy!

The Multi-Purpose Building (MPB)

The Arts & Sciences Building (AS)

Lets go on the journey from the entrace to the cafeteria.........First is the entrance to AAUN, then's the football field that comes on the way as you move from entrance to the buildings. Next is the Multi-purpose building, and after that the Arts & Sciences building. Further along the way is the girls dorm, and next to that is the boys dorm. The cafeteria is the last building on the journey. (Picutes after the MPB and AS are taken withing those bulidings. The first 2 are of the MPB, the remaining 4 are in the AS)

Of course I'll post some more pictures soon, right now this is all I've got. Next time I'll include pictures of the Library, club house, admissions office, ICT center and others. I'm soo happy that Mr. Usman (at the Admissions office) agreed to give me his camera to take pictures.....now I can get all the pictures I want....hmmmm, Praise the Lord!

Spring break! Yes!

Posted at 10:30 AM, Monday, March 12, 2007

Good thing we had a break from classes. Unfortunately it wasn't a break from studies as we had midterms awaiting our return to school. But anyways, I'm grateful to God for the time I got off......could have utilized it better but who cares, God willing my score on the midterms will be good. We have already written 2 midterm exams, I have 3 others to do now that the break is over, not to mention the 3 projects that are yet to be completed... God help us!

I guess I spoke too early about the monkeys, they are actually still allowed to roam the campus, which is not good. I think I should talk to the student government president about it, otherwise the monkeys will always be there to scare students and that means going late to class or not being able to move freely on campus. But I'm surprised that the faculty hasn't done anything about this issue eventhough they know about the monkeys. And please, it's not like I have anything against animals or monkeys, it's just that these two can harm.....on the contrary I love animals, as long as they can't harm me. Just this morning I was almost late for my INF 252 (Telecoms and Data Networks) class because the 2 monkeys were sitting in the way. I had to take my brother Hamman with me cos the monkeys don't usually chase boys.......but the moment I started walking I began to pray (that's what I always do when I see them monkeys). I know it sounds very funny but it's definitly not funny when the monkeys jump or chase. Sometimes it's actually funny though, haha. Anyways, God willing everything will work out fine.

Over and before the break, I found out this really good feature at BibleGateway site..... one can actually listen to the Bible! Isn't that great! Now I can listen to the Bible anytime I'm free in school, praise the Lord! Talking about holiday, I can't wait for the summer break to come. Then I can spend time enjoying myself and with mom and dad. I also watched the Filmfare Awards (Indian movie awards like Oscars in US) and I was glad the winners were people I wanted to win. Kajol (my fav actress) won the award for best actress for Fanaa, and Hrithik Roshan won best actor for Dhoom 2 (one of my fav actors, like Aamir Khan). I also like Shahrukh, infact he was my fav before I watched KANK (after watching KANK he went down on my fav actors list - It is a terrible movie). I don't like Karan Johar anymore either and was very happy when the award for best director went to someone else (same for best actor). All the same, the awards were nice and I enjoyed watching them. Of course I shouldn't spend too much time talking about movies, so I'll move back to studies once again. Like I said earlier, this semester I have 3 projects to complete - in INF 252, INF 360, QBA 201, and regular case projects in INF 350.

For the INF 252 project, we need to find out about how the campus network is connected to the AAUN building networks off campus such as in the faculty housing in Jimeta, or the club house. We've had 2 interviews with the network administrator already and hope to have a few more before we present the final report in April. This is a really cool project and I seriously enjoy it (guess cos I love networks - I'm hoping to concentrate or minor in networks).

For the INF 360 (System Analysis and Design) project, we are meant to investigate and analyze the existing system at any one of the departments. Me and my group have choosen the Bookstore. We are still working on Part I of the project which involves basic understading of problems encountered, as well as business functions and processes. We will begin Part II by next week. I also like this project cos we'll get to do all the DFDs and ERDs, which is totally awesome! I just love doing practical work! You know, that's just one HUGE advantage of AAUN - we get to do practicals and not just focus on theory. Thank God for this wonderful university.

In the QBA 201 (Quantitative Business Analysis) project, we have already conducted a survey at the cafeteria to know students opinion about food served there. We have also done our presentation and finished almost all fact-finding activities. All that's left is to complete the project report and submit it next week. As always, I loved the practical aspect and the use of SPSS in doing the analysis of the data. I think SPSS is super cool, wish I had the full version though.

In INF 350 (Introduction to Operating Systems) we are required to complete case projects at the end of every chapter. However, these projects are different from the other ones I mentioned earlier. I got to learn more about using Macintosh in this course (we do lab practicals where we can practice on the Mac PCs) .........also learned more about Windows but I do hope I learn Unix.

Goodness, look at the time! I have to read for my MGT 201 midterm exam..............hopefully I'll put in another entry soon. I know my entries are starting to get dull cos I don't have pictures and too many topics to discuss. But don't worry, I'll get that done when I find time.

Blogging?

Posted at 12:12 PM, Wednesday, March 7, 2007

It's not like I was doing it on purpose - I've just had too many quizes, exams, projects and assignments to complete, plus I had other work  to attend to (I'm working at two offices now: Admissions and the ICT center) I mean we have a minimum of 2 quizes every week, and maximum of 4, and loads of other stuff. Dr. Shilgba reminded me to update my blog and am glad he did, otherwise I wouldn't have added these two entires. Anyways, I have 6 unposted entires cos I need pictures for each. I'll get those my self if I can find a camera from anywhere. Thank God there are no monkeys on the campus now - that added to delays. I had to check to see if the coast was clear before moving from one building to another......thank Jesus I don't have to do that now! The monkeys were allowed to roam the campus and they were scarring students (mostly girls). Even some of the faculty didn't know about the monkeys untill very recently. Anyways, someone has finally taken care of the situation, phew! Well, I'll keep posting entiries whenever I find time. The only reason I can post is cos we are on Spring break - a 7 day rest, praise the LORD! I'll post in a new entry soon enough, so keep reading....thanks for your time!

Last Semester - Fall 2006

Posted at 12:30 PM, Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Don't know why, but I think I should write about courses I took last semester. Hmmmm, let's see which one should I start with? I know.........

The database course INF 231 (Fundamentals of DBMS) was a cool course, I mean I learnt a lot on my own. What added to my knowledge of databases was the project we did in the course: that really helped. The project involved making a database for the cafeteria records. Dr. Akinkumi even invited the president - Dr. Huwiler to our presentations. Of course we didn't implement the project but it was a good experience all the same.

We also did the INF 102 (Software Applications I) course which like the DBMS course, was very good. The project was my favourite part: it taught me way more than anything else. I was very happy when Dr. Quaye assigned it - that was one of his best techniques to get students to learn. BTW, my group project was about developing a course allocation software using MS Access for the Registrar's office. Dr. Garofalo (VP Academics) even came to our presentation. Actually, Dr. Quaye invited every administrative staff from the various departments that were involved in the different projects. I'm still working on the software at the Registrar's office - making some changes and additions. I think some reports from the software will be used during pre-registration, but am not sure.

Another course I liked was INF 206 (IT Systems: Hardware & Software). Dr. Evgeny Grakhov was our instructor for this course (he's a Russian!). Initially I found it difficult to understand him, but as time went on I got to learn loads, esp in the networking area! On the whole, the course was great and so was the professor! I guess that's cos we got to do lots of practicals both in HW and SW.

I also took ECO 202 (Macroeconomics). I dropped Chemistry II and decided to take this course instead (I guess still miss my chemistry class). Anyways, Dr. Mattrawy taught the Macroeconomics course. I cheered up when I got to learn more about demand and supply, GDP, GNP, sectors of the economy, consumption and saving schedules, Inflation, money supply, Investment, fiscal policy, aggregate expenditure model, etc I really enjoyed studying some topics. Dr. Mattrawy explained some topics really well, and I think I'll never forget some of those terms in Macroeconomics now that I know them  

One of my favourite courses last semester was MAT 121 (Calculus I). Dr. Quarccoo taught that course (he's a Ghanian) and I really like his teaching method. He was a little too fast in covering topics, but somehow (even with his exams every 2 weeks) I was able to learn lots of stuff! We did Trigonometry, Limits, Differentiation, and an intro to Integration among others. However, for some reason I was glad after writing my final exam (cos I had completed the course). I guess cos it was too much work, esp the assignments. Even though my exam papers were not always that good I still think it was one of the best courses I've done. Infact, in this course I had the lowest score I ever had in any exam - 18/50 (36%)! I know, it's pathetic, but I prasie God this score didn't affect my overall grade! Anyways, Dr. Joseph Quarccoo was just sooooooo very funny during classes that the fear of getting the answer wrong was greatly reduced.....at least I thought so. Despite the bad score and enormous work, I definitly miss my Calculus class!

Finally, the sixth course I took last semester was CSC 106 (Principles of Programming II - Java), another one of most favourite courses taught by one of my most favourite professors. Dr. Fonkam as always, was superb at expalining the prinicples and concepts in Java. However, we didn't go too far ahead in the course but I did get to know threading, and some other pretty cool stuff. I just miss Java! I wish I could have taken Data Structures this semester, but unfortunately I couldn't cos the times for Data Structure and Intro to Operating Systems clashed. And I couldn't drop Intro to OS so I didn't enroll in Data Structures.  Dr. Fonkam is taking Data Structures and I'm sure it's as lovely as Java! Infact, data structures is a kind of continuation of Java II. But anyways, I know that the Lord's will is perfect, so I'll be happy with all courses I'm taking this semester and hope that I might take the course in the future.

Speaking of courses this semester, I'm offerring only 5 (phew!) - Telecommunications & Data Networks with Dr. Odinma, Introductio to Operating Systems with Dr. Okunoye, System Analysis and Design with Dr. Bollou, Fundamentals of Management with Dr. Buera, and Quantitative Business Analysis with Dr. Bothchway. I'll write about these course in one of my later entries. Going back to last semester.......taking 6 courses gave me a hard time, and on top of that I spent lots of time on my work study What's more, some of my classes were on the temporary campus and that meant walking there whenever the bus was gone or when I missed it. I don't know how on earth I managed to get things done then..... assignments and exams. Even my GPA was the best I've had yet. I don't understand it, and I guess I don't need to cos I know that the God I serve is able to do above and beyond what I could ask Him to. My Lord Jesus is most wonderful, I mean He always helps me in whatever situation I find myself. I can't thank Him enough for everything He has done in my life. By His grace, this semester is much better, praise the LORD! I have only 5 courses all of which are on the permanent campus, and I don't have to overwork myself for my work-study job either! Thank God for His grace, I am really grateful to God for everything

Registration Spring 2007

Posted at 1:32 PM, Wednesday, January 24, 2007

My favourite professors is looking at the section count of each course in school of Arts and Sceinces, I guess he wants to see how many students have registered for his courses, haha ~ this registration was really smooth eventhough it was seriously delayed. We started 3 hours late, which is definitley not good. But I really really praise the Lord Jesus that he answered my prayer and made everything go well, thank you

Jesus! We registered only new students so far.....tomorrow we begin with returning students and that's bound to be much rougher than today. Anyways, at least this registration went well, I sincerely thank God for that, phew!

Well you might be wondering whom I refer to in my first sentence, try and guess perhaps you might get it right. There are many advisors (professors) present here this time, Dr. Banerjee and Dr. Roy (his wife), Dr. Arvidson, Dr. Fonkam, Dr. Bollou, Dr. Sergey, Dr. Grakhov, Dr. Hansen, Dr. Tarek & Dr. Rasha, Dr. Samuel, Dean kah and Dean smith (etc).......here comes my favourite professor now........

Just had a chat with my fav. professor....he was (as usual) telling me how I choose a major that no one cares about,haha he is just so fond of joking about majors......he says we should all be in his major (which practically speaking is really cool, my second choice after IT would definitely be this major). He's very funny even in class, just makes the whole place so lively.......... taught one of my very favourite courses ...... you still haven't got it have you It's an easy answer if you've been reading my blog...... of course I've had more than one favourite professor and that makes it difficult to guess who this is.....I guess all you can do is keep guessing, haha!

Anyways, this time I really don't have pictures as of the moment, but God willing I'll get those soon enough. Looks like the IT faculty are again having the larger number of students registring, they do look tired and so does everyone else including me……my eyes are red and my back aces terribly. I haven’t eaten properly neither have I had good rest (or sleep to be more specific). Tonight I must sleep no matter what, but I know that tomorrow’s the tougher part of registration, we’ll be registering returning students and that’s totally complicated. Anyways, it’s better to be thankful than to complain cos  I know what the Lord has given me……… as the Bible says “give thanks in everything for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” , Amen!

The Next Day.............

It’s not as organized as one would wish for, but I guess it’s not all that bad.....at least this registration is somewhat better than last time...... I just pray that we organize ourselves better next time. We registered around 90 new students and this makes our student population a total of 360+. That's really good news! The school will be much busier now with lots of people moving around. We've also had some new faculty......In school of IT we have Dr. Odinma and Dr. Okunoye (both are from Nigeria). And from what I know we have two new professors in school of Arts and Sciences - Dr. Fokam (no I didn't spell it wrong cos it's not Dr. Fonkam the IT professor eventhough Dr. Fokam is also from Cameroon) and a new Biology professor. No new professors in school of business that I know of and I think there are some more for IT coming in by next week. Anyways, here are some pics from the registration..........

You should go have a look at Hammna's blog, I think it's super! - And BTW, that's us at registration right above (Left-to-Right - Nino, Mona, Me, Noshi) of course Hamman couldn't possibly be in the pics cos he was the one taking pictures!

Orientation

Posted at 2:20 PM, Friday, January 12, 2007

It did work out really smoothly! This orientation was the best yet! No "glitches" from my point of view but one could argue that registration isn't over yet so perhaps we can't conclude that orientation has been perfect just yet. However, admissions check in was as organized as can be - parents and students came in, provided necessary documetns, updated and verified all information, and left for finance check-in. I guess everything at finance also went just as nicely as at welcome and admissions check-in. Me and Nousheen were at admissions check-in. Nayyara, Saima and Hamman didn't work in the orientation, they were busy with getting registration set. The orientation process went thus: first students came to the Welcome Check-in to get their registration numbers and some other stuff. From there they proceeded to the Admissions check-in (which happens in two offices). The next stop was the finance check-in station. After that, I think students and parents were taken for a tour around the campus and the university club. Later on in the day, students and parents attend a brief discussion with returning students and some administrative staff and faculty. I guess that's about it, not sure what happens next. At least I think I'm sure it happened this way, haha. Anyways, thanks to the Lord I managed to get pictures of the whole process from Admissions office, awesome! All pictures were taken by Mustapha (a sophomore student here who also does his work-study at the admissions office). I think the pictures are great, have a look:

Student at Welcome Check-in

Students at Finance Check-in

Students and parents on tour with Dean Smith (Dean of of Arts & Sciences)

Students and parents tour the University Club

Students and parents have discussions with faculty and returning students

I hope the pictures are good, at least I was finally able to put some. BTW, the picture right above shows one of the auditoriums in the multipupose building. In fact, all check-in stations were in the multi-purpose/general purpose building. The picture that shows Dean Smith on a tour with parents and students was actually taken in the Arts and Sciences building. We'll be having all classes scheduled there this semester. Sound great! Well, it was great seeing no chaos ......hmmmm..........God willing registration will also be smoother this time..........

This Spring Semester

Posted at 8:02 AM, Tuesday, January 9, 2007

Doesn't seem correct somehow "This Spring Semester", there're no signs of spring right now, only dust. We call it the harmattan season. Anyways, it's early morning and orientation is here once again...... good thing it's so much more organized now, thank you Jesus! Hopefully everything will be smoother this semester (including registration). Me and my siblings got to work on the admissions and registration databases over the holidays, it was really cool. That was because we had gone through two database courses last semester which made a whole lot of difference. These were the first ever holidays at AAUN when I was not at all eager to return for classes..... anyways, I guess once the semester starts I'll be more enthusiastic about my courses.

The good news is that I finally got some pictures from the Public Relations The bad news is that I didn't yet get pictures of the new campus But anyways, I'll get that soon enough too. This means that my next entry is going to include some of pictures I got. God willing I'll be adding more entries in the next few days.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS & 2007!

Posted at 12:21 PM, Thursday, January 4, 2007

WOW! The end of yet another year, and I really thank God for that! I'm grateful to God for everything in last year and hope God continues to guide me (and all of us) through this year. I do feel somewhat sad, don't know what's been happening but I pray that all goes well. God willing. 

This time it's really not my fault this entry is coming so late. I was sick for the past few days, and before that I was on Christmas holidays so you see, I didn't have time to write in anything. There! I've defended myself well this time. I still haven't been to the Public relations office to get pictures and other information (lazy as usual), God willing I will within this week or the next. Can't believe I've turned by blog into such a back-dated mess . Anyways, have a wonderful Christmas and joyful new year!

PS - This reminds me, I just wish people would really celebrate Christmas for Christmas, and not other reasons like christmas trees, decorations, snow, presents etc. Wonder who introduced santa into Christmas anyway, someone with evil intent of course so that he/she could take the true meaning out of Christmas and decieve children (and others) into believing rubbish. Anyways, I always get angry when I see such things.....the truth twisted or completely changed to lies.........

I just can't help saying it, but with everything I see this season I just have to - Christmas celebrates the birth of CHRIST JESUS into this world, it's the time when our Savior was born. People should know that, and from what I see on TV and the Internet, it seems like most people all over the world don't know that. I guess Christians should inform others of what Christmas truly is and what the Christmas season really brings- it brings the greatest joy and the happiest news that the Savior has come and that's what we celebrate on Christmas. We can now be saved thanks to God's wonderful love and mercy..... We must always be thankful for the love God has shown us through Jesus.....Remember folks, JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON!

Anyone Reading My Blog Out There???????

Posted at 5:52 PM, Monday, November 6, 2006

I'm putting in this entry to find out if I have a reason to keep updating this blog or not. Well, it's obvious isn't it? If no one reads my blog anymore, then perhaphs I might not update after this entry. If someone does read, then I might continue updating it. Of course I haven't been updating it regularly (as always), but now that the exams are thinning out I'll get more time to spend on my blog. Anyways, moving on to a topic more worthwhile to read, we had a Dean's Quiz competition in the school of IT. Dean Kah made the arrangements and informed the students that were to participate. We were even filmed while the competion was going on! At first I was aware of the camera so I wanted to look ok and not do something horrible with my face, but as time went on, it was hard not to forget there was a camera around. Information Systems majors were given a problem on creating a database for the university's cafeteria. The computer science and Software Engineering majors were given a different problem (define and explain some terms using Alice or something, don't know Nino and Hamman were there so they would know better). I got more and more confused as time went by, because I thought the business rules were not very clear. I'm sure I must have done strange expressions with my face (that will definitly make me look bad on camera). All the same, who cares how I look on the camera, as long as I got my database right. Eventually we got to finish the database. Of course it wasn't complete but our time was over and that was the best we could do. A few days later, I was informed that no winners would be announced because of (ahem) time constraints we had in doing the database. I thought maybe the database we (the IS majors) created were so bad that they couldn't even be graded, haha. Anyways, it was a really cool experience all the same.

Eekk, I still have a Java homework to complete, so keep reading cos I'll keep updating  Thanks and God bless!

Just Tired...

Posted at 7:48 PM, Thursday, September 28, 2006

Gosh! I can't even begin to say how very tiring this semester is. It's like I don't even have time to think, well actually not more than 15 minutes, and that's just not enough for me. The past two semesters I had time to sit idle for 30 minutes, to chat with friends, to sleep and REST. This year its just all about moving between campuses. Catching the bus consumes all the time. Anyway, I shouldn't be complaining as it's the Lord's will that I do this much work. To tell you the truth, at first I thought 6 courses will be too much, but I ended up taking 6 courses and 18 credit hours. Now I see why I was advised to take less credit hours. I decided to drop Chemisty (my favourite course) and am taking Macroeconomics instead. How I wish I could still have been in Chemistry, but I guess it's God's will for me not to take Chemistry this semester. I certainly miss Dr. Tarek's lectures, he's like one of the best professors ever! And not just him but all of my former professors: Dr. Adegboye, Dr Botchway, Dr. Buera, Dr. Hosseini, Dean Kah, Dr. Seider, Dr. Dobson, Dr. Ikoku, Professor Pavlik, Dr. Sergey and of course Dr. Banerjee. Thank God that Dr. Fonkam is still my Java professor, I really really like his style of teaching...he's one of my most favourite professors (and so are all the professors I've had first and second semester!). Anyways, got to go read for my Calculus test which is coming up tomorrow. The new professors are also really nice. I just hope I get good grades at the end of this semester. Hopefully I'll post an entry soon if the occurance of quizes goes down, haha...........

PS - Haven't done anything about posting pictures of the new site, yes I'm that busy (or you could call me lazy, haha). Anyways, I'll try to do that for the next entry.

Start of the Seond Year at AAUN

Posted at 5:35 PM, Friday, September 8, 2006

Registration didn't go as smoothly as before, but on the whole it was ok. Freshmen this year did seem to think there were quite a few number of problems, but hey, we're moving to a new campus and there are bound to be some glitches. Thank God it's over now, phew! But classes have begun, and I've never had to work harder in my life! My first class was Software Applications I by Dr. Quaye, 8:00am in the Windows/Linux lab on the permanent campus. He began the session with a very different lecture: mostly talked about what we did in the holidays, and gave a very brief overview of the course. I'll have to say Informations Systems Networking is a cool major, and it's bound to get nicer as we move along. This fall I'm taking IT Systems Hardware and Software, Fundamentals of DBMS, General Chemistry II, Principles of Programming II - Java, and Calculus I. I'm doing 19 credit hours this semester cos I can't let go of the chemistry course. We're supposed to take 18, but I have Dean Kah's permission to do 19. I only pray and hope I'm able to survive at the end of the semester with good grades. God willing I will. Actually, students missed their flights to Yola, so classes were slowed down for the first week, that's why Dr. Quay was entertaining us, haha. The other classes also began slowly, obviously the professors didn't want the students absent to miss anything important. But by the second lecture, the speed was back to normal, as most students had arrived by then. The Calculus course seems the hardest, but I really like the way Dr. Quarcoo explains things. Dr Grakhov (one of the new faculty) took us in the Hardware course. It's one of my favourites, and I think Dr. Grakhov explained everything really nice. I also had my Java II, DBMS, and Chemistry classes. Java II as usual was fun, Dr. Fonkam is really good at explaining programming concepts and principles. Dr. Akinkunmi (another new faculty. We have lots of new faculty this year) is taking the DBMS course and he is really cool. I can't wait to move on in that course. Dr. Tarek as always made chemistry really interesting. I just love chemistry and am not willing to let go of it (as I mentioned earlier). Well I guess I won't be able to take it next semester. But only God knows, so I'll leave it all to Him.

During Registration - Top picture is Dean Kah (Left) and Dean Smith (Right). Below is Me getting tired, haha along with everyone else that worked on the whole registration and orientation process. I completely forgot to metion that Dean Kah is acting dean of School of Business and Entrepreneurship and also dean of School of Information Technology and Communications. Dean Smith is dean of School of Arts & Sciences. They're both just awesome! I couldn't wish for better deans. Of course I still do miss Dr. Hosseini a lot, I wish he had still been with us, but I guess it was God's will for him to leave. We had more work this time around compared to the last 2 times. And thankfully, we got everything done in time. It could have been better, but God's way is the best, Thank you Jesus!

What else, hmm,let me see....... oreintation was good. We have registered about 140 new students, that makes our student population a total of 300+. Awesome! The new site is absolutely neat! Sorry I didn't yet get permission to post pictures, I need to talk with the Public relations office about that and get those posted as soon as possible. But, I don't know why the new campus feels lonely, probably cos there are not many trees there. Anyways, you can see for yourself when I post the pictures. Since I can't think of anything else to write and I have to leave to catch the bus, I guess you'll have to wait for my next entry to know more about what's happening here at AAUN. Of course you can always goto to other students' blogs, some have been updating regularly. Really got to go, keep checking for updates, but mostly on week-ends. God bless you and me, Amen.

Mental Work Out

Posted at 4:10 AM, Friday, September 1, 2006

Two days back......

The orientation's started! Cool...... I got to rest for 2 days at home while it was going on. Now am here (on the third day) to help admissions office with some work. Noshi, Nino and Raju were helping the first 2 days. Now Nino's resting and I'm here. Everything seems to be going fine. God willing registration will be smoother than last time. Of course there are still some delays, but I guess that will be well before time. Anyway, working with admissions was a superb experience, I got to know a whole lot about databases. Like I mentioned earlier in an entry, all 5 of us (me and my siblings) helped create a database for the admissions office and update their records during the finally-ending holidays. Didn't finish updating everything so we plan to get the records done after registration. We have also been working on the registration database, and am glad to say that that too is done, thank you Jesus! The new version is soo cool, wow......Nino's done most of the programming, she's very good at it! Matco project (first phase) is finished too! How awesome! It's like all the work has finished in the right time frame, thank God! Of course we'll still be improving on most of the stuff, but thankfully the hard part is done........

Today......

Quite a number of new students coming in, great! Nice to see AAUN growing like this. I can't wait to go to the new campus, It's bound to be awesome! I just found out that our IT classes are scheduled in the IT labs (about 4 cool labs). I guess I'll get to go to different labs cos I'm an Information systems major.... I'll post pictures of the permanent campus soon after we've started classes. Right now we're(me & my siblings) super busy with work, doing admissions and registration at the same time. Noshi's had an extra job with Victor for the laptop pick-up. Gosh! That really is a lot, but everyone seems to be too busy. God willing registration will go well, once that's done everything will be organized and well. Ekk! Got to go work now, I'll write in an entry as soon as classes begin (that's 4 Sep, 06). BTW, tomorrow's registration for new students and Sunday's registration for returning students. I pray to God that we don't encounter too many set backs.....

The Middle East

Posted at 2:02 PM, Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Lately the top news on CNN has been the Israel and Lebanon conflict. Most news channels are focusing on that war. Many lives have been lost, and soo much destroyed. Poeple end up pointing fingers at each other, but they never realize that it all started because of something either one or both of each side did. The recent events in the middle east were quite disturbing....Pray to God there will be peace and that His will be done. It's sad to see people dying like this. I hate wars, but I know that sometimes a country is left with no other choice. I don't wish to justify anyone that goes to war, it's only God that knows our thoughts, and only Jesus who will judge us in the end. But I can't help feeling sorry for those who get involved in these disastrous conflicts. Yet I know that Jesus loves them and cares for everyone more than I or anyone ever could. I thought about writing an entry on the events in the middle east, and just before I started, I read this entry from one of the AU blogs in Washington DC. This student also writes about the Israel-Lebanon conflict. I guess you could go check out his blog. http://admissions.american.edu/public/contentPage/contentPage.asp?navID=17&parId=2944&docID=2824

However, I did realize something from these events, the media never tells the whole story. I was watching CBN and TBN last weekend and I heard news that CNN and other major channels had left-out. I mean I don't know why the media always chooses (or prefers rather) to leave out certian information. In the Israel and Lebanon war for example, it was not made clear that the war started because of the hezbollah firing rockets into Israel (I didn't know how to spell hezbollah, got it off Kay's blog). Israel didn't just start war for no reason, they were trying to defend themselves. Of course wars are never good and I pray they never happen, but I know that God's will is the best. Thank God Israel withdrew, now there might be peace. I do know that almost everyone has a problem with Israel, and that's why they try to harm the Israeli people. It's been happening ever since God bought Israel up out of Egypt lead by Moses. As for me, I totally love the Israelites. I feel they are very special and I just love them all a lot. I just wish everyone would live peacefully, but I guess that won't be till this earth passes away. Anyway, I don't know the whole truth about the recent events in the middle-east, but I can say that what the media portrays is only half of it (mostly biased). I do believe that in the end the truth will be revealed to us, at judgment that is.

There's an American univeristy in the middle east, hope all is well there. And BTW, I know this entry is completely off AAUN, but thought I'd just add it, afterall, these events are talked of everywhere.

War is not the answer, I just wish everyone could understand that. Of course not everyone knows the truth so not everyone can understand that, but may the Lord Jesus reveal the truth to to us all. I know my saying this will upset or anger many of you reading this entry, but I know the Lord I serve, and I believe in him. I'm not ashamed of saying this and I never will be, because I know who I have to answer to in the end..... I can look stupid before men, but not before God.

The Business Awards Night

Posted at 1:09 PM, Friday, August 18, 2006

Lately I've been thinking about last year, and I realised that I had completely forgotten to write about profits each business group made. Actually I was waiting for some pictures before I could post this entry, anyway now that everything is ready....... let the entry be written......

Everything about profits was disclosed on the SBE Business Awards Night, before then we were kept in semi-darkness, haha (The Grill most of all didn't want anyone finding out their financial figures, seemed somewhat funny to me, afterall it's not a top-secret thing like they wanted to make it look like)....anywho, the awards night was held during the exams. Some of us thought that we would be wasting precious minutes if we did attend which we could sepnd reading for an exam. Almost everyone had an exam the following day, but we all decided to attend the business awards night anyway mostly cos we wanted to find out who "won" and who "lost" (I'd like to say here that who lost was, ahem, quiet obivous). It all went very nicely I'd say, there were snacks and a speech by Dr. Husseini..... all of the groups were commended for their hard work.....more to the point, Master Minds had the highest profit (about 120000 naira, can't recall the exact figure), no surprises there. The Grill had the second highest profit (about 110000 naira, just 10000 short of the Master Minds). Third in line was Manioc with about 60000 naira profit and last but not the least, Maravilla. We had a loss of about 240000 naira, how sad. You might wonder how that happened, I guess it was the horrible planning we did for the whole project. I mean we thought we had a functioning bakery ready for us as was told by our president Malachi. We spent quiet a lot of money renovating it only to find out later that it was in such a bad state that we would need a whole lot of time and money to make it ready for production. We had to find another bakery real fast and that's when Maryam helped us. She talked to her uncle who allowed us to use his bakery (Alkama Bakery) for baking our bread.  Malachi decided to step down and Maryam was made new president. It was really hard work making up for the money we'd lost so far. We managed to get back about 300,000 naira in 3 weeks (Amazing!). We made money faster than any other group, and I guess this bread-baking business does bring in money. But unfortunately we didn't have enough time to make a profit. Did feel sad, but I know that God's way is the best. If there is anything I can say about Maravilla, it's the fact that our company was more of a company than any other group. We had all these official documents, procedures, and almost all members participated in the business. From what I know, not all members in other groups participated in their businesses. I was thankful to God that though we didn't make a profit, we did manage to run a business successfully.

Anyway, back to the awards night...... like I said, it was a nice sort of place to be in the middle of exams week. I was happy to see Malachy being cheered, and Maravilla being commended for it's hard work. In short, all the groups did great, but even with the good work, there were some troubles present. Anyway, on the whole, felt great to know that we didn't waste our time on the Maravilla project (thank God it's over though, haha).

Sorry the pics are a bit small and the resolution's kind of bad ....

Dr Hosseini's speech was very encouraging, we will definitely miss him, especially during the registration. He did help a lot with the registration process last year, we certainly coudn't have done much without him. He supervised us and helped us understand the whole process. Dr. Rosa (Dr. Hosseini's wife) is one of the sweetest persons you can meet. She was Admin. Assistant to the President. She also left with Dr. Hosseini, I will miss her a whole lot. Here's wishing Dr. Hosseini & Dr. Rosa all the best, and God bless them.

Dr. Rosa                            &                 Dr. Ahmad

PS - Hmmm, I've wriiten this entry super late, guess I was too busy enjoying the holidays, haha.............anyway, the next entries won't be so late cos I have registration, orientation, admissions, end-of-holidays, and classes to write about next week. Hopefully if i don't forget I'll stick to my schedule for each of these entries. Hmmmmmm, just feel like thanking God for everything, most especially for His love....."Thank you Jesus for loving me, and everyone else".