Final Entry

Well, this is my twelfth entry.  It’s strange how fast this year and semester went by.  I feel like it was only a few weeks ago that we were getting the syllabi to our classes.  Only one more year until I graduate, which is very scary.  This year has definitely taught me a lot, about myself and in terms of academics.  I have taken some informative and helpful classes, and I have learned a few different things about myself.

Cultural Anthropology is a class I took because I heard it was interesting and that the Professor was a really good teacher.  I learned so much about different cultures and what it really means to be in an ethnocentric society.  For a part of our final we have to write a mini ethnography, and I got to write about my recent trip to Israel.  It is so interesting to discuss how cultures are similar and different.  I really enjoyed the class, and even enjoyed writing the 10-page paper.  Next semester I will be taking medical anthropology, which should definitely be intriguing.

This semester I was taking 18 credits, I have an internship that I work at at least 15 hours a week, and I am the co-president of a club on campus.  I have definitely learned more about time management and prioritizing.  I am excited for the semester to come to a close, because I look forward to working and having a good first summer in New York.  I am also terrified because it means I only have a short time left before senior year!

Car Accident :(

Yesterday I got into a really bad car accident.   I was driving down Anderson Hill Road when we came to a complete stop in a lot of traffic.  As I sat there, with my friend in the passenger seat, we were suddenly jolted forwards into the car in front of us, and then immediately thrown back again.  The car behind me had not seen, somehow, that we were stopped, and went full speed into the back of my car.  The car in front of me only had minor damage, luckily.  My car and the car behind me, however, were towed, and will most likely be totaled.

My car had been in my family for 11 years.  It’s a Rav4, and I loved driving Rosie the Rav.  It was my mom’s car originally, but when my older brother’s car broke down at one point, he had borrowed it for college.  And then, once I got my license, the car became mine.  I learned how to drive in that car, and I’ve had some fun road trips in that car.  I was hoping that she would get me through senior year, but unfortunately she didn’t quite make it through junior year.

I hope that I don’t have to pay any money, since it obviously wasn’t my fault.  I will find out at the end of the week for sure, but at the moment it’s killing me not to have my car.  I am very lucky that no one was hurt, and that we are all okay.  It was all Manhattanville students involved in the three cars, which I thought was kind of strange.  But I am very sad to see my car go, and I have no idea how I am going to get around or get home without a car.  Boston is a bit too far away unfortunately.

Quad Jam

Another successful quad jam has come and gone.  I can’t believe all the work that goes into it, and then one day later it’s all done and over with.  This year all of the clubs at Manhattanville were required to become involved somehow in the events.  As the co-president of Dance Ensemble, we decided to perform, seemed like the most common sense thing to do.  However, some groups thought of some pretty fun and interesting ways to become involved, that I definitely wouldn’t have thought of.

Tie dye, ACT shirts, kickball, and a catapult were only a few of the many interesting things going on during the day.  Around 2 p.m. the events began.  Alex, the M.C of the day announced everything that would be happening.  I thought that it made quad jam so much better.  There was never a point where I was bored or didn’t know what to do.  And before I knew it, it was 5:30 and time to perform!  It was a blast performing in front of everyone.  I had performed freshman year, but it was in a big group and wasn’t the best performance we had put on.  This year, however, the eight officers put hard work into the dance and we loved everyone’s reaction.

Even President Berman came out to support us!  He gave me a big hug after and said how much he enjoyed the performance.  His feedback made us feel pretty confident and excited about our upcoming showcase.  He said he looked forward to coming, and we are hoping for a good turnout that we always receive.  

Communications

Communications seems to run in my family.  My mom was a journalism major in college, my brother was a broadcast journalism major, and here I am, a communications major.  Although my mom didn’t follow her major her whole life, my brother is definitely on the right track.

My brother is 24, and a reporter in Fayetteville, Arkansas.  He studied hard at Syracuse University and followed his childhood dream to be on television.  Since he was young, he always wanted to be a sports broadcaster, and he followed the newscasters and studied their techniques.  He had many different jobs and internships around college that helped steer him in the right direction.  After deciding that he liked news broadcasting better, he applied to about 50 jobs all around the country.  His resume tape was full of his best broadcasts and his resume was top notch.  After many responses, he chose the job in Arkansas because it was the best market and somewhere he had never thought of going.  He has been there for two years now, and couldn’t have done better.  He learned about the new culture, often having to fake a southern accent for people to take him seriously.

Communications is an interesting field to work in, because it can literally take you around the country, and even the world.  He never expected to move far away from home, but he has loved the experience.  I hope that wherever I end up, it takes me somewhere new for a while.  I think that everyone should have the opportunity to live someone they’re not used to for a while, and find out what they want to do.  I look forward to the excitement in finding my first job outside college.

Internships/Senior Year Coming Up Fast ..

I cannot believe I am almost a senior at college.  High school seemed like the longest four years of my life, and College has felt like the three shortest years.  The days may drag sometimes, but the weeks are flying by.

I have to say, junior year of High School is definitely the toughest, and I would have to say it’s the hardest in college as well.  This year has been all required classes for my major, and not much time take any fun classes that you take for the sake of liberal arts credits.  I also was told that it is really important to get as many internships as you can in college, because you can get a job out of them once you graduate.  So, taking my parents, my brothers, and my professors advice, I got one this semester.  I have been working as an intern in the Marketing and Publications Department on campus, and I have been learning so much.

I always thought an internship would be getting coffee and answering phones, because that’s how I always saw them.  But I have actually learned more than I could have imagined, and I have been creating and helping to make fliers, posters, and mailers for different big events and activities that will be taking place around Manhattanville.  I will be living on campus this summer so that I can continue the internship and continue learning about graphic design.

As senior year is coming closer and closer, I think of how I still don’t know what I want to do when I graduate, but how my internship is helping to guide me in the right direction.  So, as I said in my first blog, I don’t know where I’m going, but I hope to have a better idea after the summer and next semester.

Mville Communicating

As I walked around campus today I realized that communication around this little college is pretty decent.  Between flyers, emails, advertisements, and word of mouth things get around school fast.  Brownson and the res halls are covered in different advertisements for events, activities, and productions going on.  It never occurred to me how much happens within one day here.

As I went from Brownson to the Castle to the cafeteria, I saw and heard about at least five events that would be happening around campus in the next week.  I think that since we have such a small school, things are easily communicated, and it’s totally different from a bigger school.  After visiting my best friend at UMass Dartmouth, I realized how tiny Manhattanville College really is.  All of the events at UMD are huge, and they have many different facilities for them to occur in.  For example, they had a comedian there recently, and they had to put it in the theater, which held hundreds and hundreds of people.  At Mville, where would we put that many people?

One of the main reasons I came to Mville is because it is so small, and my high school was tiny, so it’s simply what I am used to.  The community aspect of school is much more present in a small college.  The fact that people can put up posters to advertise their event is great, and it is also great that by word of mouth, just about everyone on campus will hear about it.  If a pub party or bake sale is happening, it is very likely that about 75% of Mville will know about it, including faculty and some staff.  I think that is definitely one of the cool things about this school, everyone knows about all the opportunities and events offered each day on campus.