Hey all,

First I will talk a little bit about myself!! I absolutely love animals, my family members called me Dr. Doolittle for the longest time a little embarrassing I might add but hey what family does not embarrass their children. I have owned many different animals as pets such as hamsters, gerbils, mice, hermit crabs, a Pueblan Milksnake, Bearded Dragon, cats, budgies, a Cockatiel, an assortment of little lizards and horses!! Many of my pets I owned at one time and people would say our home was a zoo. I am very outgoing and love to spend a night at the movies with my friends and family. The majority of my spare time is spent out at the barn. I have been riding horses for 8 years and currently have a 4 year old Welsh Cob gelding that I have been training from a 2 year old.

As for my schooling three years ago I started my studies at Grant MacEwan University in Bachelor of Science transfer and my goal was to complete the two year program and apply for Veterinary Medicine at the University of Calgary or University of Saskatchewan. Well as many of you may know the area of study you choose can and will change many times during your schooling so I decided to transfer to the University of Alberta's Animal Health Science Program. I am currently registered in my second year majoring in Performance and Companion Animals and have recently decided to complete a double major adding Food Animals to the list. Although applying to vet school is still on the list my plans are now to focus on becoming an Equine Nutritionist or a Food Animal inspector. On the side I would also like to have re-sale horses and instruct beginner riders. My ultimate goal would be to have my own boarding and training facility however a good job defiantly is a must first.

In regards to communication I use Hotmail for my personal e-mails for work and to keep up to date on promotions from my favorite websites. I also use MSN messenger occasionally to chat with old friends but the majority of the time I use Facebook to keep in contact with friends and family or to stay aware of what is happening with those nearby and further away. I have an university e-mail account which I use only when needing to contact an instructor with questions or concerns. After starting the ALES class I have joined Twitter and am finding it to be a very interesting form of social media and it is fun to follow others without having to "accept a friend request". My cell phone plays a very important role in communication whether it is a text message or a phone call my friends, family and colleagues can get in touch with me. Finally I use YouTube quite to bit to learn some extra information, watch videos on topics I enjoy, keeping up with what is happening around the world or to have a good laugh as we all know there are many funny videos posted every day!!

I am very excited to complete the ALES 204 course at the U of A as it seems to be an extremely fun way of learning about different forms of communication. For a summary about what takes place in the ALES 204 class click on the link for a short video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chSFLkt3YaU&noredirect=1. I also enjoyed the following blog created by a student in 2011, it really shows how creativity and communication can do hand in hand: http://ales204wilsonl.blogspot.com/2011_12_01_archive.html.