Finally a college graduate!

This past Sunday was great – I have heard so many horror stories about 4 hour-long graduation ceremonies that I was quite worried. But ours did not take too long & it seemed like we were out of there before we knew it.

I was hoping to have time to write before my graduation, to cap off some things before the school year ended, but as always – there was a ton of stuff going on. The last time I wrote was in mid-March & a couple of neat things, other than graduation, have happened.

The History/PS Club went to Gettysburg for the weekend. The Club officers planned the trip – there were 3 officers who went & one was unable to go. Altogether 17 students and one faculty member went. Being the president, I was in charge of keeping everything in line with the help of VP Tim and Secretary Dan. Everyone had a great time, there are a few things I would do differently next time, but for the first time in Gettysburg & the first time planning a trip for 18 people we did quite well. We left Thursday afternoon, arrived in Gettysburg in the evening & then went on a Ghost Tour in downtown Gettysburg around 8:30. The rest of the evening people got settled into their hotel room & went swimming. Friday morning our tour guide picked us up and it took us most of the day to tour the battlefield. It was his first time to give a tour to anyone, but was under the direction of an experienced tour guide that helped him out and added things here and there. They did a wonderful job, both were young guys so I thought it helped to keep the students interested for the most part. Then we visited a museum, I dunno if it was really worth it – probably not. The evening was left free, some people stayed in town to walk around, others went to get dinner & then returned to the hotel. It was cold all day Friday & sprinkled here and there, I’m sure some were happy to be nice and warm at the hotel. Saturday we visited a couple more museums in Gettysburg & this is one thing I wish we would have done differently. I thought because of the Visitor Center moving to a new location (the following week) that there would not be much left to see in the old one, but because the new one would not be opening until the weekend after we were there, I decided to do some local museums instead. We should have checked out the Visitor Center first, seeing that it was free, and then if there wasn’t much there then we should have went to the museums.

Saturday afternoon we drove to Harpers Ferry, in WV where we were taken into the small town by a shuttle. Most of us went to the John Brown museum & from there everyone dispersed for the afternoon. Some of us walked up to Jefferson Rock – which had a beautiful view of the River, Harpers Ferry, and the surrounding area. Some of the guys and girls continued to walk up to an old church and cemetery and others returned down to the town to walk around the shops. I think everyone enjoyed HP – the weather was great & we spent just a enough time there for no one to get bored – plus there was a lot of things to see and do, we probably could have spent another hour there easily. Saturday evening once again was dinner & free time. I wanted to give people free time each evening because I knew some people had school work & others were just plain tired. Museums and the such weren’t open after 6 anyway, and this gave all the students time to sit back and relax and really enjoy the weekend. Sunday we returned home, but first stopped in Harrisburg on our way home to see the National Civil War Museum which was a wonderful museum. The layout, the artifacts, the information was all just great… I would encourage anyone to go there if they ever have the chance.

After I returned from the trip the next 4 weeks was just crazy. With four weeks of classes/finals left and graduation it seemed like there was never a second to spare. I also finished my internship at the Warren Public Library and worked my last few hours at the Academic Success Center on the UPB campus. I also handed over all the club stuff to Debra and Tim – kind of sad to see it all go away, but at the same time getting all that stuff off my shoulders felt great. The History/PS Club got the Club of the Year Award from SGA (Student Government Association) & I know we worked so hard to deserve that. I hope they get it next year too!!!

What else… hmm… we had the Honors Convocation on April 10th. I received the University Scholar (top 2%), the Janet McCauley Behavioral and Social Sciences Divisional Award, and the Outstanding Social Sciences Researcher Award. The ceremony was held in the Theater on campus & I’m not sure how many people attended, but a lot of other students were awarded for academic excellence and other divisional awards.

My classes turned out well – along with my finals too. I enjoyed each and every one of them. Archeology and 20th Century Europe classes just flew by, I can’t believe that I am finished with them. I got A’s in all four of my classes and ended up with a 3.966 for my final GPA & graduated with summa cum laude honors.

Now that school is over with I really don’t know what to do with myself – this week anyway – haha. I think I’ll start working at PGE pretty soon again, as soon as I hear back from my boss what day he wants me to come in. It will be my last summer working here… hard to believe this is my 5th year working at PGE. I’ll also be hostess at the Kane Country Club on the weekends & a filler for other spots when people need the night off. It will be good to have that little extra money coming to help pay for gas & other little things.

And I want to read, novels, classics, trashy love novels… lol… just about anything but a textbook. I love to read, I miss reading for fun throughout the semester & that is usually one of the first things I do on break or during the summer. In fact, I already finished my first book – Plain Truth – by Picoult? (Spelling?) about a Amish Teenager and the differences b/t our values & law system from the “Plain” way of life. It was good!!! It starts a little slow, but I couldn’t put it down by the time I got towards the middle of the book.

I can’t wait for my graduation party. We still have to set a date, but I think it is going to be sometime in late May. I didn’t know if it was tacky to have one when graduating from college, but everyone had such a great time at my high school graduation party & at my brother’s graduation party that I thought why not? It is so nice to see people and just hang out and eat some good food together. We have such a huge yard, and a half of a basketball court that the kids just love to run and play while all the adults just hang out. Then we have a great fireplace with lots and lots of room for people to gather around, so usually later on lots of people go up there to hang out. I’m excited to see lots of people I haven’t gotten a chance to see over the past couple of months.

 

Finally some news!

It has been way too long since I have taken the time to write in this blog. So much has happened since I the last time I wrote.

My last semester has been extremely busy, a far cry from what I thought it would be like. It seems like although I am only taking four classes since I only needed one more class to graduate that I picked up more activities to more than fill in the empty time. Plus there is internship applications and scholarship applications that seems to gobble up every free second that comes my way.

Besides all of that – some great news about graduate school – I was chosen (after an extensive interview) to be one of two workers at UPMC Mercy, Brady Library of the Health Sciences to work there throughout the school year. They are going to pay half of my tuition, so it is a great award that is really going to help me pay for grad school. I should be finished in the summer of ’09 and will work for UPMC Mercy all three semesters. I am still planning on looking for a job in the Pittsburgh area once I graduate.

Secondly, we already have our apartment lined up for the fall. Three of us will be living together in a cottage in Frick Park – about two miles from the Pitt campus. It has a lot of character, exactly what we wanted since we are all History majors. Plus it is a Historical Building of Pittsburgh – what a coincidence! Anyway (yeah I know I am a dork) the biggest obstacle and fear for me is walking to and from the bus stop back to our place. Other than that, I love the area – it is mostly college students and is not right downtown. I think getting the lease and all of that out of the way so early was one of the best things that we could have done – now all we have to focus on is finishing up our senior year and earning some money over the summer to help pay for the costs of living.

It still does not seem like I am graduating. But I am so excited about all that jazz… it is kind of hard to believe how much that piece of paper means to me. OK – I know it is more than a piece of paper, it is the education, but that is what it all comes down to – having that piece of paper as proof.

Well I hope to have time to write a couple more entries before the summer – but if not, I hope you will all follow along with me to graduate school where I take on a whole new adventure in the big city!

 

First Week of the Spring Semester

So the first week of the spring semester is over for me.  Some of you may still have one more day of classes, but I lucked out this year and got a good schedule.

I only have two classes this semester on campus.  One is Archaeology and the other is 20th Century Europe.  To fill up my credits to be a full time student I have a Directed Study for Political Science and then my internship at the Library.  I started at the library this past Monday working for 7 hours – learning everything one could possibly know about the Reference Department at a public library.  Not only that, but I also got to meet much of the staff and got to get an inside look at all the other departments.  They gave me a lot of training manuals to read over at home and while at work plus an outline of learning objectives that I should have under my belt by the time that I leave in April.

Besides all of that my mom had open heart surgery this past Tuesday.  It’s really an eye-opening experience.  I’ve been driving up there after classes and on my days off & will go back up for the day tomorrow too.  She’s doing well, so you couldn’t ask for anything more…

Besides that I’m still working at the Academic Success Center for a couple hours each week to help with tutoring students.  I have really enjoyed working there & not only does it help students with their studies but it also is a good way of learning my academic strengths and weaknesses.

Nothing else exciting – trying to figure out what to do with my spring break is about the only exciting thing to think of  besides graduating in April  

 

Finals are Over & Christmas is Almost Here

Congratulations to all of those who survived their first (second…third… fourth…ect)semester & finals.  Towards the final days I thought I was going to go crazy if I looked at one more thing of study material… and after I returned home I abandoned the computer for 5 days b/c I was on it wayyyy too much to write my capstone paper throughout the semester. I think it came to 29 pages & an A in capstone so all the work was well worth it.  Now if anyone cares to read a 29 page paper about the changing perceptions of Queen Elizabeth I, get a hold of me… haha… right – anyway.  

This semester went by extremely fast.  I don’t think I have ever been more busy in my life – but it was worth it! It’s been a while since I have been able to write… too long.  Updates – I was accepted into the Master of Library and Information Science Program at Pitt for the Fall 2008 semester.  The History Club sponsored Dr. Frederick to speech on the JFK assassination.  We had a great turnout and we hope to be able to sponsor another speaker for the spring semester.  The UPB Panthers Against Tobacco (PAT) had a successful Wing Night with 4 local businesses participating and around 152-54 students showing up.  In the spring we will do Smoke Free Bowling so I hope to see all of you at that!! The History Club and Literacy Club teamed up to pull off a wonderful Dickens’ Dinner.  It went really smooth and the guest kept telling me that they had a wonderful time.  My finals went well, my grades turned out really well, and I got an internship at the Warren Public Library for the spring semester.

I got to “relive” my abroad experience a few times this semester.  1 @ the Vira Heinz Luncheon and 2 @ the Freshman Seminar gathering at the end of the semester.  I hope the presentations from Dean Evans, Professor Champlin, and myself inspires the younger class-men at UPB to start researching abroad opportunities.  Like I said, there are a million ways in which you can finance an abroad education – summer, term, or year – no matter what there are ways out there to do it for much less $ than you would expect.

So with my final report in from the Dean, I’ll be graduating in April.  It’s exciting, yet weird because I’ll be back in school within a few months.  The MLIS program is for 3 semesters at Pitt and then I’ll be out into the working world.  I’m not sure where I want to go after I get my masters degree.  I always thought going south or west for a few years would be nice but as I get older I have really begun to love PA and have understood the value of being near the family.  For now, it is finding an apartment in Pittsburgh – not as fun as I thought it would be.  But I’ll keep looking… and hope something is available that suits me.

I better get back to my Christmas Project for someone special.

Cheers & Happy Holidays!

 

Something good to read

The class of 2008 is graduating in 5 months.  I thought that this article would be something helpful – short and sweet to help all of us soon graduating to keep our first job for more than just a few weeks.

 http://msn.careerbuilder.com/custom/msn/careeradvice/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=1173&SiteId=cbmsnhp41173&sc_extcmp=JS_1173_home1&GT1=10563&cbRecursionCnt=1&cbsid=4ba8d7f584fe4dc3bd33adc2f6bcc4af-248458077-RE-4

 

Training

Would you expect to walk into McDonald’s and go to place an order but… oh wait… she doesn’t know how to place an order?  Or would you expect to go to the movie theatre only to realize that you have to wait 10-15 for your ticket because the person working at ticket booth does not know how to do their job?

It seems as though this school is overrun with work study students that do not know how to do their job.  I work at the ASC as a tutor throughout the week and I would be SOO embarrassed if I did not know how to tutor in social sciences or in other words, do the job that is asked of me to do. 

Library – inter-loan? Umm did you say inter-loan – hold on.  (To so and so) do you know what the inter-loan books would be and where they would be? All the while I am thinking… Umm… wait, what!? You (not all library work students) work at the library and they are paying you -PAYING YOU- to check out books and you don’t know what an inter-loan library book is? 

 It’s freakin’ 10 weeks into the semester and SOME (not all) people at the service desk still do not know how to 1.) set up tables 2.) check to see if someone picked up a drop-off package 3.) to see if anything is reserved on AstraWeb 4.) know how to find a Club’s locker key (I actually had to tell someone what folder they looked in to find the color-coded key directory and what drawer the keys are found in).  And those are just the things that I asked of, so there could be much much more that they don’t know how to do.

And the gym? “Umm… we loan out equipment? Oh you must mean pool equipment or no?  Not pool equipment? So you are saying we loan out ____.  Umm… if I knew where it was I would get it for you, but my boss isn’t here today so I wouldn’t know where to um get the um equipment that we can loan out.”

Come on guys – Bradford is a tiny tiny campus. Can’t we at least train out work study students before they come in to work?  It reflects badly on the school, makes the 20% of student who are doing 80% of the things on campus waste their valuable time, and can only make the job of full-time employees here at the school much much more difficult. If the student is not doing the job, someone has to be, right?

 

Reading Through…

Reading through my own blog… now is that self-centered?? Anyway, reading through my own blog I can’t believe that I did all of those things, seen all those places, and met so many wonderful people. 

I don’t know how many times I can say this without freaking women out – go abroad!!! Goo!! I would go back this Spring semester if it wasn’t my last semester at UPB.  So go… lol… what are you waiting for? Go get a Vira Heinz Application or one of many other scholarship applications available through the school.

P.S. Did I mention that I miss their grapes and baguettes? Not to mention the train…and you know what, even their quirky rain sometimes.  Okay – the rain, that’s stretching it to being romantic about it because it’s in the past (and we all tend to view the past as the good old days)… still… lol… where else can you show off your cute umbrella almost every day?

 

It’s been too long!

I was going to get to bed early for once, but then I realized it has been way too long since I have wrote in my blog.  The site’s address was the last one in my pull down site memory and I couldn’t even remember my user name… that’s how long it has been. 

So much has happened since I last posted on my blog. 

One, the History/PS Club has finally come alive again!  We are raising money right now, so if you want a homemade and hand-painted chocolate sucker let me know & I’ll hook you up.  We are also collecting gifts, shoe boxes, and donations for the operation Christmas Child program.  Then in November we’ll be sponsoring a lecture by Dr. Frederick on the JFK assassination and in Dec or really late November we hope to cooperate with the Literature Club and sponsor Dickens’ Dinner.

I’m also a member of the PAT executive board.  We are trying to enforce the non-smoking entrances policy and I believe it has reached SGA as of this past Tuesday.  Before we know it the Wing-Off night will be here.

And personally? We’ll I’ve been running around like crazy as I usually do to try to get everything done.  I started my research for my capstone paper on Queen Elizabeth I (seeing the new movie was a part of my homework – how fun).  The paper will go along the lines of something like… the way in which historians perspectives of the Queen have changed throughout the 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th century.  I’m sure I’ll have to narrow it down a bit once I get more research under my belt.

Then there is graduate school.  I applied to Pitt Main MLIS program… just waiting now for the committee to make a decision.  I should know within two to four weeks… its very nerve racking!! If I don’t get into Pitt’s program, I’ll keep my GRE test appointment in November and apply to other MLIS programs on the East coast.

Oh! And most important – the Vira Heinz Luncheon at UPB is less than a week away!  Lauren, Rachel, and I will give a small presentation about our study abroad experience and then answer questions.  If you are a woman who is at the sophomore status and has a 3.0 or better think about applying!!! As you can see from my blog, it was a life changing experience that should not be passed up!!  So I hope to see all of you on Tuesday at 11:30! And bring your appetite – the three of us tried to pick out some great foods from Great Britain.

 

Week 3

Week 3 is already here? And already half way over for me (no classes Thursday).  Time is flying fast and I am trying to take advantage of every little free second. 

I talked with my parents, my grandmother, my friends, my professors…ect.. and I have made a decision about graduation – I’ll stay here – be insured, keep my grants and scholarships and graduate in April.

I have also picked out a couple graduate programs and schools – nothing official but as close as I have ever been. 

The work keeps me busy.  I don’t have Senioritis yet… haha.  But I do get distracted with so many decision to make about graduate school.  Then I try to find time to squeeze in studying for my GRE’s.  I wish i would have started studying for the math part a long time ago.  Math is my biggest weakness and I just hope that practicing and practicing will knock some common math sense into me.

We got the History/PS club started off this semester quite well.   Some new people signed up to be members at the club night and hopefully some will actually come to the meetings.   One of the professors is going to be a speaker for us – hopefully we will have a good turnout to that too.  Then some how we have to raise money in order to fund a trip this fall and hopefully get funds for a trip this spring too. 

That’s all I got to talk about now… as always – more later!

 

Back to School at UPB

It has been a week since all Pitt students have returned to their campuses for fall classes.  It also is the beginning of my senior year at UPB.  All through college I talked about how I couldn’t wait to be a senior – and now it is here – and unfortunately… my day is just like any other day when I was a junior or sophomore.  I am taking my History Capstone with Dr. Frederick which seems to be the most (and maybe the only) senior-like thing about this semester.  

To my surprise? I like all of my classes and I like all of the professors too.  I start my week off with Dr. Thomas (yes… I know you probably gasped) and his class, 18th Europe.  Its a lower level, one that I never got around to taking.  But fortunately, I spread out my upper level requirements throughout the years and therefore I am not left taking 4 or 5 upper levels each semester of my senior year (like some unfortunate people).  Next… at 11:00 I go to the class of Ms. Energetic-Champlain for Physical Anthropology.  She keeps everyone awake and teaches with such passion that the class goes by extremely fast.  Then at 2:00 I go back to Dr. Thomas for Ancient Greece.  This is my class schedule for M/W/F.  Then Tuesday I have my Capstone from 6-8:30 and no class on Thursday.  The last class of mine is online – Design, an art class where we are using Adobe Illustrator to make different effective designs.

I am also suppose to add a Direct Study in Political Science (bringing my schedule to 18 credits) because that is all that I need to graduate.  SOO if I wanted to, I could graduate this semester – Fall 2007.  So most people would jump at the chance… I did at first, but now I am not quite sure.  It’s a complicated decisions with lots of things that students don’t think about when they are in college.  One – what would I do? An internship… okay… but most don’t pay, at least not well – so if I had rent, food, insurance, ect… to pay would it really be worth it?  Two – insurance.  I’m under my parent’s insurance up to the age of 25, as long as I am a full time student.  Going one semester – or 4 months – without insurance doesn’t seem like such a bad thing.  But with my cochlear implant, if something went wrong… which it likely would b/c that’s just usually how it works out for me – then I would really be in a pickle.  Three – almost everything is paid for this whole year.  I was fortunate to have lots of scholarships and grants and didn’t need to take out a loan.   Finally – I’m not sure if… when December rolls around that I will be where I thought I would be when graduating from college.  I’m sure I will never be entirely prepared as I thought I would be to leave UPB and travel to Graduate School – but I know that with one more semester, I could have 4 to 5 more classes under my belt.  Which means 4 to 5 things I know more about than I did in December.

Class time soon… write more later.