Finals, Break, Hooray!!

As it snows in Colorado I'm reminded about how enjoyable winter break is. I have the rare opportunity to stay at UNC during winter break and help out with housing. I am doing walk throughs of the campus houses and residence halls, as well as being on duty in Lawrenson and Harrison Hall. Along with that I get to park in close parking and enjoy the peace of campus. It is beautiful to see the snow and the campus still alive even without the normal movement of people going to class.

As a recap to the end of the semester Finals week was fun, and oober stressful, I had a lot of stuff due, but it was good. Other than that I house sat the first week of break, it was alot of fun and I had the opportunity to relax and take a load off.

Well until I have more to tell- LATER!!!

A Black Friday...

Turkey, cranberry sauce, naps and of course Black Friday shopping. One of my favorite days of the year just happens to be when an entire city wakes up at 4 in the morning and waits outside in the cold for stores to open, trampling the workers inside who must let them in. It is my third straight Black Friday that I have attended in Greeley, and is a lot of fun. Last year I stayed over break to work the desk at Harrison Hall, and in the midst of all of the working and Mighty Ducks watching, three of us went to Walmart and Circuit City spending far too much money, but receiving plenty of goods.

This year we planned for the best. Thursday night we hunted down a paper...which was no easy task since the entire town was out, so we ended up with a Ft. Collins Coloradoan (so ironic). We planned our morning so that we'd hit the best stores in order by when they open. First we went to Kohls and picked up some of our lesser items. Another RHA executive bought 10 games that we are using to give to children at a local non-profit, others bought picture frames and sweaters. Next we traveled to Walmart, which is the most challenging shopping trip of a Black Friday- the store is open 24 hours, but they guard all of the "sale" items until 5:00, when crazy people swarm in to get 2.00 movies, cheap tvs, xbox 360s, portable dvd players, craft items and more. It is really an amusing thing to watch, everyone is very focused on themselves and getting the items they want.

After Walmart we went to Circuit city which also opened at 5:00, I bought several more DVDs there, bringing my total to 7 at that point. After Circuit City we had one last stop at Target whcih opened at 6:00, they also had some amazing movie sales, like Cars, Transformers and other newish movies. What I found to be the most amusing was that four of us went and by the time we got to Target my car was sooooo full that everyone had stuff on their laps, or wedged between them. One of the Hall Directors bought a 42" TV, the Xbox, and then another friend bought a Cricket (craft cutting thing), vaccum, pot/pan set, while my friend Jaime bought a hodgepodge somewhere between both of them.

As the morning ended we all looked forward to going back to bed, just as the sun was rising. It was so much fun, a tradition that I'm sure I will keep, for a very long time.

Hey IACURH! Whose the best?

The title of my current blog may seem bizarre, but extremely relevant to my life currently. As a member of the Residence Hall Association I attend three conferences through out the year for leaders. We share ideas and further the work of leaders in the region and nation for the residence hall community.

This years regional conference IACURH which stands for the Inter-mountain Affiliate of College and University Residence Halls, was held in in Boulder, CO at the CU campus. School from Idaho, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, as well as Alberta and Saskatchewan all attend.

It is such an exciting experience. People cheer, do roll calls, create banners and displays, and swap school items it is such a blast and a great opportunity to network with people from other schools! It's not just a time to be crazy though, school attend for the reason of improving the hall they live in. It is an awesome leadership experience that UNC offers to those who enjoy the residence halls and what they have to offer.

The reason for me to tell you about them is that I am now the Regional Communications Coordinator of Presidential Relations. It is a position that works with the region to accomplish changes in the halls and works with the National Association of College and University Residence Halls, INC.

UNC has numerous of these opportunities to offer with leadership. It's a great experience!

Busy. enough said.

For a quick update: Midterms are over, it's getting colder in Greeley, about one month until Thanksgiving Break and a month and 1/2 until finals.

Life is busy, busy, busy. In about 20 days I'm going to a conference at CU-Boulder, so we're in the midst of preparing. The conference is for the Inter-mountain Affiliate of College and University Residence Halls. Schools from Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona all attend to share ideas. At this conference I'm bidding for a position called the Regional Communications Coordinator of Presidential Relations and RHA Development. This person helps Residence Hall Associations from around the region to improve. It's a great opportunity, but will make this conference much busier than usual.

The new residence hall (the one I'm not living in) is underway. It is crazy how fast they build these buildings. It is great to see them work so quickly and to know that in just 10 months there will be two new buildings done.

Well, I have more, but for tonight that's my update.

UNC Homecoming

It was quite the week at the University of Northern Colorado. Homecoming is always exciting, especially when you're a bear. The week began with the Hanging of the Colors; almost 2000 ribbons were tied onto trees across campus. On Monday UNC participated in the normal homecoming activities- Banner Contest and afternoon BBQ. On Wednesday the Residence Halls participated in the Lobby Decorating Contest- which is judged by the Residence Hall Association Executives. We go from hall to hall and rate each lobby on a criteria comprised of sustainability, resourcefulness, use of hall mascot, incorporation of Bear Pride and the homecoming theme. It was so much fun to go from hall to hall and see the excitement in students faces. The six of us received our degrees from Superhero School in one hall and in the next partied with Buzz Lightyear and his friends. It was a jam packed evening, but it is one of my favorite things about homecoming.

On Friday RHA put on the Bonfire. It was a lot of work, but we had a good turn out and people love to come down and watch us burn the mascot for the upcoming game. After the fire dies down the firework show began played to a variety of music. Friday night, the UNC Bears Hockey Team played CU- Boulder and beat them 7-4. It was a great game!

Saturday was the busiest day. The day began with the homecoming parade. Then at 1:30 was the home football game where UNC beat Idaho St. 29-9, for our first win of the season. The week was completed with the annual Homecoming Formal, giving everyone the opportunity to dance the night away.

It was a great Homecoming.

To teach, or not to teach. That is the question.

Well actually the title of this blog is a little misleading. I have never questioned whether or not I wanted to teach, but these days I wonder if I want to teach middle school or high school.


Currently I'm observing at a local middle school, and granted I'm only there for 6th grade Speech/Drama, but it's hard. After observing last semester at a high school, the change to 6th graders is drastic. It's not so much the difference in age, but I imagine that does have something to do with it. I think that the biggest difference is the teaching and the style of theater done at each school. When I was in middle school our theater program was excellent. We did two mainstage shows a year at the high school and the theater classes focused on character development, stage basics and being heard by the audience. In the middle school classes I'm currently observing we spend much the time discussing a reading of a short story, or dealing with a variety of classroom management issues which seem to drain much of the time from class. I'm told that in previous years the speech/drama classes were not together, which made the drama class more focused on dramatic literature and acting.

My main point I guess is that middle school theater is very different, but I think I like the students more. Their cluelessness about theater is refreshing, especially since at UNC I'm surroudned by knowledgable actors and technitions who eat, sleep and breathe theater. I think there is a great opportunity I could have to build a middle school program, giving young students the tools they need to succeed in life and go on to high school theater. Who knows... I guess finding a job will be the first priority, whether it be in a middle school or a high school.

Flawless

Well life is busy. It's been a while since I had the chance to post. RHA is busy, classes are busy, and I'm generally just busy... I've had an exciting couple of weeks since the start of classes. It takes some time to get in the groove of things, especially with so much to balance. Some days I go from observing at a local middle school to one class to a theater class to my education seminar, it's craziness. I love the fast pace though, it keeps me motivated and keeps me from procrastinating since it eliminates any free time i would have spent procrastinating.

My advice is to always search for balance, but don't shy from doing what you want to do. I think if I were anybody else I would look at my schedule and think that it was too hard or something, but each person has the potential to attend classes as well as be involved with a job, club or campus organization. College is of course about alot more than just classes, it's all about the journey to the degree and the skills/ connections that are made throughout. If you just go to class for four years and do nothing else, have you really prepared yourself for what lies ahead? Have you taken the opprotunity to have fun and discover who you really are? That's what UNC, and any institution is all about.

Keep rowing, that's what is impotant!

Onwards and Upwards!

Once a Bear, always a Bear. Today I helped new bears enter into their first hours of college here at UNC. Seeing families drive up and ask where they are supposed to go to check into their rooms. It was exciting to see everyone unload boxes, TV's, new bedding and watch parents say goodbye to their new freshman. It is always encouraging to see them and know that it is a new year.

For those of you who are just beginning to think about where you will go to college don't stress too much. There is a college or university out there that will fit your needs. In some cases it may be UNC or another school, who knows, but remember to look into everything from housing to majors, picking a school you'll love is about much more than just school it's about what else you'll do from clubs, becoming a RA or joining a Greek organization. There is something for everyone, its just a matter of finding it.

Anticipation and expectation

It's less than a week until Opening Day. Next thursday students from across the world will come to Greeley, Colorado to get their keys and move into their rooms. For some, like myself they'll get to be the inaugural group of students who will live in the New West Campus Residence Hall- South where it still smells like new floors and paint. It's exciting to know that classes are just around the corner and that everything is new. New grades, new people and new chances to be great.

I'm looking forward to the year and to the new students who will be living on campus. Even though I'm excited I know that the semester will go by fast and we'll soon be preparing for spring semester. It's college and it tends to fly by keeping everyone on their toes.

Of course from my end of things I've seen the excitment building, but wehn I was a freshman it was exhillerating to move in to my room and make friends so quickly. It's such a new environment, but it's worth it!

Different Lens'

Perspective. Clarity. Taking a step back or focusing in. During a retreat this weekend, one of my supervisors had a group of 70 student leaders fold a sticky note in half, and then in half again. She then had us tear out a small circle where all the corners met, and unfold it. We held the sticky note out in front of us and looked through the small whole which allowed us to see one person, and then we brought the sticky note up to our eyes and looked around again, noticing that we could see everything. The point was simple: sometimes we need to either focus in on the details, or take a step back to look at the big picture. I'm a very big picture type of person, but putting it into the context of being able to change how I focus, and to what degree is something that I think will help me be more understanding.

When it comes to class, or work, or even my friends, sometimes I need to focus in on the fact that I need to succeeded on the one paper, or that I need extra time to make sure that the people I care about are doing okay.

I guess my point is that we all get tunnel vision to one extreme or another and in college we need to learn to find a balance, and utilize the big picture and the details, or we are bound to miss something vital.

Where I go from here.

This week, (which should have been last week) has been uneventful in the eyes of a blogger like myself. I've found myself in a game of questioning what I want to do, and how I want to get there.

Because I love theater I came to UNC to pursue a degree so that I could teach students in high school about theater. I thought that I would minor in earth sciences and be content learning about great playwrights and then learning about the Paleocene, but what I've found out is that I enjoy a wide variety of interests, one of which being geology, but beyond a certain level I find it to be complicated and boring. So in my continuing search for answers I've been trying to decide what to change my minor to, or if I even want/need a minor.

I've considered ESL since teachers today, or shall I say educators need to know how to help the growing number of students who do not grow up in a household where English is the primary language. In looking at this minor though the thought of taking classes that don't fully catch my interest concerns me, especially as just a minor.

For about a month I decided that I would minor in English, to please all of the people who recommended it as a minor, but that negates the fact that I really do not enjoy English enough to do that, and if I were to have to teach an English class I would pity the students who had me.

I considered other minors too, but I keep coming back to whether or not I actually need a minor, or if I will just survive with the theater degree. I just want to teach theater, not English or math or science, but I know that to some degree to find a job I may need it... will I be able to get a job in two years if I don't pick something and just deal?

Crazy decisions like this are what goes through my mind. I want to know what to do, and of course everyone has an opinion, but in the end it is figuring out what I want to do, and what I'll be happy with come May of 2010.

Roll with the Punches

"Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are." Bertolt Brecht

I'm not sure why we each handle change so differently. I'm sure to some extent we all hope that what we work so hard to establish will remain forever, but even so we change our clothes, we change our hairstyles and even change how we treat others, but change never really becomes normal.

This summer especially has been about change. Two of my friends that I met at UNC went off to Graduate school in the last two weeks, a change that will bring new opportunities to them and to me. My job as President of the Resdidence Hall Association is all about change right now. Changing how our office looks, changing a logo, changing advisors, changing the day we meet. Even our University is changing. In August the new Residence Hall- South will open with new technology in the place of the loved McCowen Hall.

So I guess everything is all about moving on, and moving forward, especially now. Change in college is common, and getting used to things changing is something that takes time and a realizing that college is just a stepping stone between life as a child in grade/high school and becoming an adult, which is the real change that takes place. Someone once said you just have to "roll with the punches" so I guess I'll just keep on rolling and take change as an opportunity to revise my thinking and learn something, maybe a little change is just what I need. :)

http://www.brainyquote.com/

The Green, Green Grass

I love Greeley in the summer. It is by far one of my favorite things about UNC. Seeing all of the grass turn green and the excitement that‘s on every inch of campus. Seeing the hundreds of new freshman coming to orientation and the completion of the new residence hall, it’s a pretty amazing place to be any time of year, but especially during the summer. I remember the first time I saw UNC in the summer. It was my orientation in June 2006. It was hot and I remember thinking how glad I was that there was air conditioning. When I moved in to McCowen Hall in August of 2006 for Lead On, college became a reality and I was definitely nervous, or anxious or just really excited.

A little bit about myself: I’m a junior Theatre Arts major with an emphasis in Secondary Education, and will have a minor some time soon. As a freshman I was the President of the McCowen Hall council, during the year we won for best homecoming float by a residence hall. My sophomore year I was a Resident Assistant in Harrison Hall. I was on 3 south and it was a blast. My residents were awesome and always kept me on my toes. Now going into my junior year I’ve taken on another role. I am the President of the Residence Hall Association. My job entails working to connect all of the residence halls with other halls, campus and the greater Greeley community. I also work at the visitor’s center as a telecounselor.

I guess from here on in I’ll be writing about my experiences I have during the remainder of the summer and throughout the next year. I am excited to be blogging about UNC and hope that it will be interesting, sometimes funny, and helpful to anyone looking at schools.