Students@UM-Flint

Our campus is joining other schools in the area in a challenge to be the most fit! We will be battling against Mott Community College and Baker College throughout the month of February. You can get entered to win awesome things just by participating!

Head over to the Commit 2 Fit! website and get registered – the challenge starts TOMORROW!

Now I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not at all athletically inclined. I’m the one who gets winded when I have to go up a flight of stairs on campus. For this challenge, the goal is to have 30 minutes of ANY activity; they just want you up and moving! My plan is to play Just Dance every day, because it’s super fun and just about the only time I really “work out.” (I have to trick myself by playing a game in order to exercise! Ha!)

We’re lucky enough to have access to our wonderful Recreation Center, so if you want to participate you will have all of that equipment and space available to you (you just have to be taking Winter classes and have your MCard when you walk in). Or you can go my route and find ways to be active at home. You track all of your activity online on the Commit 2 Fit website, and the college or university with the highest average minutes per participants will win the Commit to Fit! traveling trophy! Each person who reaches the 840-minute goal (that’s 30 minutes a day every day) is entered to win many prizes including gift cards and cash prizes up to $100!

On top of all that great stuff, you can be entered to win an iPad Mini, too! Every time you tweet during the challenge and use the hashtag #Commit2Fit you get entered to win. Don’t forget to include #umflint, too, so we can all watch each other’s progress.

I look forward to tackling this with all of you, so go and start being fit NOW! 🙂

Last week, I decided to spend MLK Day participating in the community service events being hosted by the university. I got up bright and early to go eat at the Volunteer Breakfast in the Michigan Rooms, where I also received a certificate for free lunch and my free volunteer tshirt. After eating I went to the service site I had previously picked out: Adopt a Pet in Fenton. It’s an animal shelter, and I had been wanting to go visit anyways so this gave me the perfect opportunity to do so.

There were lots of volunteers, which is always a great thing to see! At Adopt a Pet, we helped clean up some areas of the building and were able to walk the dogs and play with the cats. I spent most of my time in a room with two cats who had been separated from the rest for “bad behavior.” They had been either in some way aggressive or bullied the other cats, so I spent time working with them to promote better behavior so that they could hopefully be moved back in with the rest!

Once I had my “cat fix,” I returned to the university to give blood. I love giving blood whenever I can, so I jumped at the opportunity to check that off my list on MLK Day. After donating, I drove over to the Humane Society of Genesee County (because I just love animal shelters!). They had some UM-Flint students there as well who were helping to make decorations for Valentine’s Day and were able to see some of the critters available for adoption. I work at the Humane Society, so it was nice to be there not as an employee but instead as a volunteer to help out. I spent some quality time with some of our animals, which I don’t get to do that often while working.

Overall, the day was a great success! I’m glad our school provides us opportunities to give back to the community. It always feels amazing to be able to give back. How did you spend your MLK Day?

I’m sure you can remember in middle and high school getting a day off in mid-January and rejoicing in a 4-day school week. In recognition of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we now have the opportunity to turn that day off into a day on—a day of service and giving back.

UM-Flint’s Diversity & Education Services and local organizations come together each year to present the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service.  This Monday you have the chance to do a number of great things and volunteer with one of 11 local organizations, in addition to some events happening this week.

• Understanding Race Theme Semester Kick-Off – TONIGHT at 5:30PM in the Kiva
  • Viewing of “Race: The Power of An Illusion” followed by discussion
• 34th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community-Wide Tribute Dinner – Tomorrow at 6:00PM at the Sarvis Center
  • Annual dinner celebrating the life and accomplishments of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

For more information about these events, click here or contact Diversity Education Services at (810) 762-3169.

Monday, January 21 is the Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service.  The agenda is packed for the day and you can give back in a variety of ways.

• Volunteer Breakfast – 7-9AM in the Michigan Rooms
  • Join your fellow volunteers for breakfast and get pumped up for an amazing day of service.
• Blood Drive – 8:30AM-1:30PM in the Happenings Room
  • Do your part and donate!  Donors get a coupon for a FREE large one-item pizza from Papa John’s Pizza.
• 57th Presidential Inauguration Viewing – All day in the Loving Cultural Center
  • Stop by to see the swearing-in of the 44^th President, Barack Obama.

You can also register to go out into the community and volunteer at any one of these great organizations.

• Adopt-a-Pet
• Boys & Girls Club of Greater Flint
• Carriage Town Ministries
• Flint Eastside Mission
• Flint Public Library
• Genesee County Habitat for Humanity
• Humane Society of Genesee County
• Let’s Have Some Art
• My Brother’s Keeper
• Our Home Transitional

If you’re interested in signing up, visit the Day of Service website!

Volunteering at Adopt-a-Pet in 2011, we got to play with some of the animals, like these cute little critters. (Credit: Christofer Machniak)

This is a great chance to give back and make an impact in the community. My first year I volunteered at Adopt-a-Pet and had an awesome time with fellow students helping out. Last year I volunteered at My Brother’s Keeper, and it was great to lend a hand with some of their projects.

(Credit: Christofer Machniak)

Wherever you go or whatever you do, take a moment to think about why you’re there and just how much of a difference you can make through your service!

The week we dread the most and love the most is here.We dread it because we have exams in the various classes that we taken over the course of the semester. Now that exam or that paper makes the biggest difference in your final grade. We love it because the next week after finals is graduation. I have been taking my finals and writing papers over the last two weeks, my last one is tomorrow and I am so happy to be done. I don’t mean to rub it in your face or anything—like every one of you I have put in WORK. I encourage you to finish up the semester strong. I know you might be fed up with the semester already, but keep your head up. It will soon be over. This is just to wish you all the very best of luck in your FINALS!!!

I also want to use this medium to congratulate the graduates of the WINTER CLASS OF 2o12 who walked across the stage yesterday. The commencement was filled so much joy, happiness, and a lot of proud families, friends, well wishers, faculty, and staff. The chancellor gave a remarkable speech about Regent Libby Maynard and described her with this quote: “Well behaved women who work hard for the greater good of mankind go unnoticed.”  Regent Maynard was ending her tenure having served as a Regent for the past three decades. I was inspired to hear about Regent Maynard’s journey, and it definitely motivated me to want to do more for my campus and community. The university also honored Dr. Dee Dee Bridgewater with an Honorary Doctorate degree. Ghada Alkiek had a speech that just summed up the University of Michigan-Flint wonderfully well, and I was just glad I was able to witness it all (of course with my camera as well). I wish you and yours a Happy Holiday.

Here are some snippets from the wonderful day:

GO BLUE!!!!

If you remember at your orientation, you were told how important it is to get involved on campus and the benefits you can receive by doing so. If you went through orientation this summer, you might remember Grace telling you about the awesome experiences she’s had, and the conferences she’s gotten to attend, through the Anthropology Club. At the beginning of the month, I got to attend a conference for one of the clubs that I’m in, the Campus Activities Board (CAB).

CAB is the programming board here on campus and we bring students, staff, faculty, and the community free events, like movie nights, game shows, novelty items, and more. One of the conferences that we attend each year is the NACA Mid-America Regional Conference. NACA is the National Association for Campus Activities and they host regional conferences throughout the nation for programming boards to attend and find acts.

Some of E-Board with our advisor Jessie Hurse and comedian Ronnie Jordan.

This year, NACA MAM was held in Grand Rapids and our E-Board spent five days together looking for new performers and activities to bring to campus. Agencies and performers from all over the country come together and present their talent during different showcases and “camps” throughout the day. Here we get to see how the performers perform live versus watching DVDs and it’s an opportunity to interact with the performer in-person and get a feel for them before bringing them to campus. This was my second time attending NACA MAM and it was a great experience for me, especially now that I want to go in to Student Affairs, and maybe into some aspect of Student Life.

We had a blast during this trip, checking out a lot of up-and-coming talent, and we even booked three acts for next semester. To our privileged readers, you get to see the line-up before the rest of the student body. 🙂

– Samuel J. Comroe – February 5
Sam’s a hilarious comedian from Los Angeles who I’ve actually seen on NBC before, so it was great to get to see him
perform life and meet him during camp. (PS. He was on Conan a few weeks ago!)
– Xclusive – February 19
Xclusive, aka Kenneth Paryo, is a comedian/dancer who you may have seen on America’s Got Talent or So You Think You Can Dance. He’s amazing!
– The Asia Project – March 19
These two blew all of our minds during showcase at the conference.  They’re a spoken word group and they’ve got a great message.

E-Board waiting for a showcase to start.

Morals of the story: Take advantage of all of the clubs or organizations we have to offer on campus. Whether you join a club related to your major or a club just because you love Harry Potter, it’s a great way to get to know people and further explore your interests, and maybe even travel. Also, be sure to check out some of the great events that are hosted for students on campus. There’s always some event going on here, and you definitely don’t want to miss out!

Hello everyone,

I hope everything is going well with you all! I know the feeling we are all getting around this time, and we can’t wait for Thanksgiving break to be here. I attended a motivational forum over the weekend and a story was told. It goes like this:

Dad: Son, things have been hard for me this year and I cannot provide the Christmas gifts that you want. It has just been really hard.

Son: Dad, I understand, but I want to thank you for all the gifts and the wonderful Christmases you have given in the past. I really want to thank you for being a great father and for working hard everyday to provide for me and the family. I just want to let you know that I love you and appreciate you.

The dad thought to himself and said, ” I’m going to do everything I can to get all the gifts my son wants this year.”

The moral of the story is that we should always be grateful no matter the circumstance, no matter the challenge, because we lived to fight another day and we are blessed with the essentials of live.

I was so thankful to be in the midst of students, faculty, and staff who participated, donated, and volunteered in the Mrs. Lula M. Hurse Happy Holiday Give-Away spear-headed by our Student Life Director Jessie Hurse. The goal of the Food Drive was to donate 150 turkeys to 150 families. I was just in awe of how the University of Michigan- Flint students, faculty and staff rallied around to help. They put away their Friday plans to be there, and of course Chancellor Person, Vice Chancellor Mary Jo Sekelsky, and Assistant Vice Chancellor Bill Webb  of our wonderful school were present and in full force. It was such a beautiful sight to see as everyone there did it with a smile and from the bottom of their hearts.

Here are some photographs from the remarkable day.

I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving filled with joy, happiness, and God’s Blessings. Go Blue.

Tolani

GO VOTE & GO BLUE!!!!!

I love the fact the American system gives me the opportunity for my VOICE to be heard, and the fact that a lot was sacrificed for me as a woman and as an African to vote makes it that much more important. I implore everyone to go out and VOTE today. This is an opportunity to show how you feel and to project your VOICE to make a difference in  how the American government is run. As college students, it is essential that our VOICE is heard because decisions made now affect our future in terms of employment, living standards, children, and so much more.