Shout out to the class of 2014! The countdown to May 4, 2014 has begun (that’s in just 169 days in case you were wondering), and as the day gets closer and closer, the number of people asking you “what’s next?” gets higher and higher. If you’re like me, you’ve had senioritis since Winter 2013 and the thought of what comes after graduation seems thrilling and exciting. However, it can also be overwhelming. I’m an anxious/excited combination when I think of all that’s to come. I’m ready to graduate and go to grad school, and it’s also another step closer to begin wedding planning with my fiancé. On the flip side though, I can feel grad school application deadlines looming, the weight of my honors thesis is heavy, and I am more than ready for the brief respite that will be Thanksgiving break. With all of that said, the thing that’s been getting me through is having a plan and staying as organized as possible.

My first grad school application is due December 15 – that’s in just 30 days, guys. When I think about it like that, I’m nowhere near ready. Luckily, though, I’ve made a to-do list and set more attainable deadlines so that it doesn’t seem so overwhelming. Below you’ll find three things that have been helping me work through this process, but that also apply to life in general.

1. Break down the deadlines. It’s going to seem less daunting if you break down one big thing in to several small things. Most of the applications require transcripts, a resumé, letters of recommendation, a personal statement, and an application fee. I look at that list and I think “Yikes!” However, I set a deadline a couple of weeks ago for my transcripts, I made sure to save paying for the application until I’d gotten paid, and I’ve been setting time aside every few days to develop my personal statement and resumé. Looking at this from smaller deadlines has helped me not want to extend graduation another semester because of the load (although it has crossed my mind once or twice).

2. Leave yourself adequate time to get things together. While the application isn’t due until December 15, I’ve asked the gracious people writing my recommendation letters to complete them by December 1. This leaves me enough time to polish up all of the pieces on my end, and also leaves some wiggle room in case life happens and they’ve been preoccupied with tasks of their own. Rather than stressing out on December 14 if I don’t have all of my letters, I’ve got 2 weeks to work with those people, although fingers crossed I won’t need it!

3. Relax and have fun. Even though moving on to this next phase of life is a big step, take time to just relax and de-stress every once in a while. Getting in these applications, or doing anything else for that matter, likely isn’t the only thing you’ve got on your plate, so make time for yourself and any other responsibilities or commitments. Leave time to watch TV or play video games. This way you get time to do the things you enjoy and also can have time to dedicate to your applications and what-not without being burned out.

While graduation does still seem pretty far away, May 4th will be here in the blink of an eye. Be sure to make the most of your time at UM-Flint and do things that you’re passionate about. As I think about the end of next semester, I also think about all that I’ve been able to do here. One way to keep track of those is by checking out the list of “101 Things to Do Before You Graduate.” How many can you mark off right now? I’ve done 66 of them so far and I’m looking forward to completing 98-101 in the near future!

PS. Shout out to anyone who’s completed number 70 – our first training of the year begins today! GO BLUE!

As a senior (I mean Super Junior, heck yeah!), the second question I’m asked after “Are you graduating?” is “So are you going to grad school?”  Oooh, how I just adore this question -_-  Many juniors and seniors go back and forth with this, whether they should go to grad school or not. And if they want, then the question becomes: Should I work first or go straight through? We’re just starting to scratch the surface are who we are as a person and now we have to decided on such big, costly ($$) decisions like this. Now, there are people who have to do additional schooling, such as aspiring social workers, doctors, lawyers, nurses, accountants. Their decisions have been made about that. See you guys on the other side. But for the rest of us, we are left with tackling the issue on grad school.

The Ghost of Sallie Mae

There are many pros to starting grad school right away, such as a stronger degree when you get out into the work force and at least a two-year break until Sallie Mae comes knocking at your door. On the other hand, grad school piles on even more debt!  So Sallie Mae may chill from knocking for a minute, but when you finish grad school her knocks will be even louder! Plus there are many people who feel that they should go out and get some work experience (it will also give people a little time to collect some revenue) before they go to grad school.

The Little Engine That Could

Going straight through to grad school could be a good idea because you are still in school mode. You’ve just turned in that book of a senior thesis, and how to cite MLA and APA is still fresh in your brain (if it was ever even there in the first place). But in the same case, all those undergrad papers and projects could have fried your brain.  You might need a little break, a little time for some “I’m finally free” T. L. C. This break, however, could lead to a harder transition back into the classroom.  Or maybe it will be like getting back on a bike, where you just ease back in. With taking time off, you may get a job you can’t leave, or start a family and with that, it is harder to relocate to your dream grad school.

Survey Says:

These are some thoughts that run into my head when “So are you going to grad school?” is asked to me. I could go on all day about the issues that make me go back and forth about master’s programs, but I guess the real answer is that you have to do what works for you. If you want to take a break, that’s fine. Just be ready for those loan repayments and make sure you stay motivated to eventually return back to school.  Try not to let life get in the way (I know, easier said than done right?). If you decided to go straight through, that’s fine, too. Just make sure to develop strategies to keep your brain “un-fried”.  Me,  I probably should just be focusing on graduating undergrad at the moment, but I know the time will go by quickly. Eventually these questions will turn into reality and by then my thoughts will be clearer.

…hopefully.

Being a part of the Campus Activities Board (CAB) has been the most influential part of my college experience. Hands down. From the first New Student Welcome Day that I attended, I was greeted by a familiar face that beckoned me over to the CAB table. I figured it was just something to do on campus between classes. I had no idea how influential that decision would be by the time I was a graduating senior.

CAB quickly became my second home. I started spending more time in the office and with my fellow CAB members (or CABbies as we like to call ourselves). I started forming friendships that were stronger than any I had formed my previous year of college. And with any endeavor like joining a club or organization, you get as much as you put into it. So soon, after hard work and dedication, I was selected to be an event coordinator during my junior year. I was excited and looking forward to creating the kind of campus environment that I felt was needed.

Since then I’ve grown a lot. I’ve come to love our members and come to think of them as my family away from home. My role in the organization became more than just having something to do between classes. It was about finding a community. It was about contributing to something bigger than myself. It was about belonging. It has helped keep me afloat during times of crisis. When school and work seemed like too much, I knew I had friends in CAB who, at the very least, could offer me support, understanding and validation.

I also knew I had people depending on me and I depended on them. They’ve kept me motivated and focused. My goals moved from attending classes to get a degree to attending classes to make sure I stayed around to fellowship with my favorite people. My involvement became a driving factor in why I worked so hard to stay at the university.

With that said, I encourage you to find your niche on campus. Get involved and find a group that makes you feel welcome. Do your best to foster those relationships. It will be worthwhile and make your time here all the more meaningful.

What are you doing this week for Halloween?  If you’re celebrating one of my favorite times of year, there are many events being hosted both on and off campus this week as we wrap up October.

Halloween Festival & Costume Contest
The Campus Activities Board (CAB) is hosting a Halloween Festival and Costume Contest tonight from 8-10pm in the Happenings Room in the University Center. They’re offering 2 free tickets to the Crypt for the 3 people with the best costumes and free food for all, so come out in your best!

Free Haunted House Ticket Giveaway
CAB is also giving away 100 free tickets to the Crypt to the first 100 students with their MCards on Tuesday, October 29 at 11am on the 3^rd floor of the UCEN. The Crypt is a haunted house located 10 minutes from campus, and with your ticket you get access to a special VIP entrance from 6-8pm on Tuesday night!

Spooky Town Bash
The Wildlife Club is hosting a community event on Wednesday, October 30 from 6-8pm on the 3rd floor of the UCEN. There will be pumpkin painting, games, crafts, and live creepy crawlies. Don’t miss their Halloween raffle, too!

Trunk-or-Treat
Open to campus and the community, bring friends and family out to the White Building for candy and fun on Halloween from 6-8pm, brought to you by the National Pan-Hellenic Council-UC Flint.

Halloween Charity Drag Bash
Join PRIDE on Halloween for a night of music, fun, and drag from 6-11pm in the Michigan Rooms. Your $5 donation will go toward their Relay for Life team and toward a great night for you! For more information, visit the event page.

Halloween Spook Train
If you’re up for a 20-minute drive, head over to Junction Valley Railroad in Birch Run on Wednesday or Thursday night for a ride on their Halloween spook train!

Little Shop of Horrors
Don’t miss the UM-Flint Theatre department‘s production of “Little Shop of Horrors.” The first show is on Friday, November 1 at 7:30pm. Remember, folks, we get student discounts on our theatre tickets!

A House in Mourning
Visit the Whaley Historic House Museum for their exhibit exploring nineteenth century customs, and don’t miss a candlelight tour on Friday, November 1 at 6:30pm. Be sure to call ahead to reserve your spot if you’re interested in a tour.

If you’re daring enough to go to a haunted house, take a look at this list, and for more events happening in and around Genesee County, visit this list made by ABC12.

If Halloween’s not up your alley, we’re just days away from November and another fall holiday – Thanksgiving! I know we’re all looking forward to a much-deserved, but brief, break from classes and time with family and friends. Until then, stay safe this week and have fun!

Last week was such a busy week!  Especially on Wednesday because after work I went to the International Taste Fest. Seeing that I work in the International Center, I have had the opportunity to see the Taste Fest come together piece by piece. Through the day, I would see flags come in and out the office, preparations of the food, being introduced to the volunteers, ironing of the traditional clothing, it was an exciting experience.

As the clock stuck 5pm, I quickly bolted from my chair to see all the planning come to life. It was everything I thought it would be. There was music! People! Food! Did I mention food? In the Happenings Room was what seemed like a piece of food from every country. Nachos and salsa, pot stickers, chicken triangles, churosssss yes! Some of the food I didn’t even get to try because it was gone before I got there!  Outside in the lobby there were tables set up with activities. One of the tables were giving people henna tattoos. Though the line was long, it was well worth it, for there were some beautiful results. Another table had people from different countries writing your name in their native language. It was cool to see “Janelle” written in Arabic, Hindu, Korean, and Chinese! A guy at the Chinese writing table told me that the same word can written completely different depending on the gender.  (I feel like we as Americans are the only ones who haven’t hopped on that train yet.) Another area was dedecated to racks and racks of traditional clothing from different countries. Some pieces you were even able to try on.

It was just a nice event that gave a crash course on the different nationalities represented on campus. I even saw people from my office there enjoying the fun as well. I am starting to love going to international events because of all the things you learn. I’m so grateful for my job at the International Center and all the people I have met.  This school year is so far so good!

In my time here at UM-Flint I’ve discovered and have been let in on a few tips that make college courses a little bit easier.

I’ve got tips in this post for managing your files and printing on campus. If you’ve already got a method that works for you or already know about the things of which I am about to write then more power to you. I don’t know what they teach in orientation these days. 😛

First up is a tip for those of use who bring laptops to school: Use the remote printing website.

Here’s a handy link.

You can only access the print servers, and thus the site, from campus but all you have to do is upload a file to the site then hit up one of the print stations in a lab or the library to print your stuff out. Super easy. If you are printing in black and white, choose the black and white option to be able to print from literally any of the designated print stations on campus, but if you need color you’ll have to select the specific location you’re headed to as they are made distinct.

No more carrying a flashdrive just for printing or using the public computers!

Second tip: Get a Dropbox account.

Stop lugging around an easily lost flashdrive and start putting all your files in the cloud where it’s accessible from any internet-capable device. You can keep the flashdrive with you if you want to be doubly sure of having an important file, but with Dropbox everything you need for classes can be only a few minutes away at any time if you need them.

If you sign up with this referral link we’ll both get an extra 500 MB of storage. (Shameless self-promotion aside Dropbox is generous with space and if you’re just using it for school stuff or keeping your phone’s photo library synced in the cloud you’ll have more than enough wiggle room on space.)

It’s also good for group projects since you can create a shared folder and anything you put into it will automatically sync with your friends’ computers and be readily usable by anyone with access.

I hope you can put these tips to good use if you haven’t already figured them out on your own. They’ve made my life exponentially easier, and getting in and out of labs more quickly when you’ve got to make it to a class with an important assignment can only be a good thing!

One thing I’ve learned through my years in college is the importance of to-do lists. It’s easy to forget things when you’re involved in three organizations, different classes, and still need to have a social life. As the name obviously suggests, daily to-do lists are just lists created each day with tasks you want to complete. I keep these lists on a pad of paper, but they can be kept on sticky notes, in a journal, or in basically any other form that works for you personally. Here are a few tips to making these to-do lists work for you:

1. Include a variety of tasks with different levels of difficulty:

If you have a list filled with time-consuming, difficult tasks, these to-do lists are going to depress the crap out of you and you’ll feel like you’re never going to complete it. Put small things on it like “email Susan about the bake sale” so you’ll feel a sense of accomplishment crossing it off and more willing to continue completing tasks.

2. Transfer important things you may have not completed to the next day’s list:

It’s really important that tasks don’t just vanish if they need to be completed. Make sure at the end of the day you transfer over tasks you may not have completed during the day but still really need to get done.

3. Check your list often:

Making a list won’t do any good if you never look at it again after you’ve finished it. Make sure you’re checking it whenever you go somewhere. It’s also good to read it over again once you cross something off to refresh yourself on what else is on the list.

4. Don’t go crazy:

Don’t put hundreds of things on the list thinking you’ll be able to complete them all. Be reasonable and that will help make these lists more of helpful reminders rather than evil lists of doom.

5. Include fun things:

People usually hate lists because they’re very depressing to look at if they’re just tons of tasks that aren’t going to be fun to do. Put something fun on there like “buy a chai tea latte” to not only make the list fun, but motivate you to complete more things once you cross it off.

The most important part is to make theses lists work for YOU. One of the biggest failures of organization is trying to use a system that doesn’t work with who you are personally. So figure out how daily to-do lists can work well with your lifestyle and happy listing!!

I never considered UM-Flint when applying for colleges. I had my heart set on Ann Arbor after touring the campus a couple times and had a couple other schools scattered across the state as backups just in case. Halfway through my senior year, after all the priority deadlines had passed, details of financial aid came in and I knew it would not be smart to go to Ann Arbor and rack up a ton of excess debt.

I hurriedly applied to UM-Flint and was accepted. Because I had switched my schools at such a late point in the game, I did the one thing every high school guidance counselor advises against and never visited campus until orientation. Luckily, I fell in love with UM-Flint and the surrounding area almost immediately.

Originally, I had only planned on staying here for a year or two before transferring over to Ann Arbor once I could afford it. To my surprise, I wound up ditching my transfer plans after my first year and decided to stay here at UM-Flint for the duration of my college experience.

The decision was easy enough due to a number of factors; downtown Flint’s ongoing transformation was something I felt like I wanted to experience firsthand, I loved the tiny class sizes here compared to almost any larger public university, and I really enjoyed the more rigorous structure of the Honors program. Everything sort of added up and I figured there wasn’t much point in heading to another university if I could get what I wanted here.

In the end, I’m glad I stayed here. I’ve been able to take some amazing classes and actually feel like I’m participating in them rather than just being lectured at as another face in a crowded room. UM-Flint is definitely smaller than the college I might have pictured when dreaming about my future back in high school but it’s definitely the only place I can imagine myself at now. 🙂

One of the first things I eagerly share about myself is that I’m in a sorority. I’m proud to wear my letters and to help my fellow Greeks prove the stereotypes wrong. This week just so happens to be the most important week for all sororities on campus. It’s Recruitment Week.

I’ve been through recruitment three times now. Once as a freshman when I decided I wanted to join a sorority, and twice on the other side, welcoming new women into our sisterhood. Recruitment is a whirlwind. Day after day of parties, mingling, and trying to find women who fit our organization. It’s a stressful time, but also an amazing experience to partake in from either side.

I’ve realized over the years that it’s hard to explain Greek life. From the outside it doesn’t make sense, but on the inside you couldn’t imagine a life without your sisters (or brothers). You get so much out of being Greek. You get a family, you get to help the community, you get to become a better person.

Greek life is definitely not for everyone, but it’s a decision I would make time and time again if given the opportunity. I wouldn’t be who I am today without the women in my organization and the knowledge I’ve gained from them.

Happy Recruitment Week! Go Greek!

Yes you read that correctly.  It’s me, Super Junior. My friend introduced me to the term and now it has become a part of me. I go by Super Junior because every time I tell people that it is my 4th year in college, their faces are overcome with joy and excitement as they high five me and instantly ask me about graduation, plans after school, if I have a job lined up, so on and so forth. So when I tell them, “oh no no no I’m not graduating this year,” the mood in the room instantly changes and I am graced with an “oh…”, drenched in sympathy as if I just told them my dog just died the most painful of deaths.

Do people not realize that college is not just some 1-2-3 step assembly line?? True, there are many people who finish in four years, some finish even quicker than that. To them, I say congrats. As for the rest of us, many things can happen that prolong our college experience. Let it be financial aid woes, changing of majors, availability of classes, updates in degree programs, undecidedness [that’s probably not a word…ahh “indecisiveness”, there we go :)] there are an array of things that can change your “Anticipated Graduation Date.” The point is to not beat yourself up about it but to embrace it because everything happens for a reason. I mean hey, maybe you needed this extra year. I know I did.

I feel like I’m just starting to get my foot in the door here at the university. For me, it’s too soon to call myself a senior because “senior” makes me think of the last hoorah; a reflective time in one’s life. I mean, I feel like I’m just getting started! I have FINALLY completed the horrendous “OMG whyyyy do I need this?!” classes called Gen Eds. Now that I am in my major classes, I am starting to meet faculty that are helping me build myself up to my intended profession, I just got a job on campus [woo woo! I’m not saying just where yet, I’m too new, call me superstitious…merp] and I can use this super junior year to really become a part of my campus. Plus, it has always been a dream of mine to study abroad while in college  [Canada just won’t do]. Every roommate I’ve ever had has done it and now its my turn. Being a upperclassmen, it is almost impossible to study abroad during the fall and winter semesters but having a extra year in school also gives me one last summer!  Summer 2014 Abroad, Here. I .Come!

So when life gives you lemons, “4th year in college but no graduation yet” lemons to be exact… make a glass of Super Junior Lemonade.

It’s quite tasty if you ask me.