Colorado Vacation

Hi everyone! Great news - I'm home from vacation!


My family vacationed in Colorado this year for a week. We went to Denver, Colorado Springs, and Boulder, and it was soooo much fun!


We first flew into Denver on a Saturday and spent the day exploring the city. The city was gorgeous - it was huge but so clean & there was a big pedestrian-only street that was very adorable. The weird thing is that Denver seemed so empty! After visiting Boston & New York City many times the lack of it just seemed so strange to me.


After that we drove to Colorado Springs. We stayed in a gorgeous hotel & spent a bunch of time relaxing at the pool. We also went white water rafting, zip lining, & biking down a huge 14,000 ft mountain - terrifying but so cool!

The view from the pool at our hotel

Finally, for the last 3 days of our vacation, we went to Boulder. This was my favorite city because it was gorgeous & the city was so cute! There were huge mountains in the background, plus lots of trees (a lot of Colorado was much more desert-like than I expected). Boulder had a busy downtown area, the main part of which was Pearl Street. It was very similar to Church Street - which I loved! It was filled with amazing restaurants & cool, quirky shops.

Part of Pearl Street with mountains in the background

One of my favorite restaurants in Boulder was the Dushanbe Tea House - it was a gift to the city of Boulder from Tajikistan. Not only was it delicious, but it was also very beautiful; the designs were so intricate and I was absolutely in love with the whole place.

A look at some of the carvings, statues, & fountain inside the tea house

All around, it was an amazing vacation. I loved spending time with my family, exploring Colorado, and getting to do some cool outdoor activities.

In other news, I mentioned in my last post that Lauren (my friend & fellow blogger) and I had a super awesome secret. Well now we can finally share it with you all (if you read Lauren's blog you'll already know the secret)! A few months ago we applied to start a branch of Her Campus at Saint Mike's.

Her Campus is an online magazine for college girls, started in 2009 by three Harvard grads. Hundreds of schools have personalized branches, and we wanted to join the ranks as leaders of the SMC branch! Thankfully, we were given the okay last week & we're in the midst of creating the branch & hiring staff! We couldn't be happier & I'm so excited for the branch to launch on September 11th!

If anyone is interested in writing for the Saint Mike's Her Campus Branch, please send me an email! Even if you're an incoming first-year & haven't even started at SMC yet, we'd love to get your perspective & have you write for us.

If you have any questions at all, send me an email! If it's about writing for Her Campus email me here. If it's about Saint Mike's, email me here. I can't wait to hear from all of you & I hope you're all having a wonderful summer!

Summer Adventures

Hi everyone! Hope you're all having a lovely end of school year/start of summer!


To all the soon-to-be first-years, CONGRATULATIONS on graduating from high school! That's a huge deal & while you may be a bit nervous for college, it's so exciting to be a college freshman!


Just a little update on my life...


I have a summer job as a counselor at a local summer camp but, since that doesn't start until the end of June, I've pretty much been chilling at home for the past month. It's been nice to have time to relax, and I've also been able to get a bunch of things done, like look into study abroad programs & start preparing for internships for either winter or summer break (I'm a bit early, I know. It's kinda crazy).


I've actually had a few camp trainings, and I just became CPR & First Aid certified for camp. My other big accomplishment this summer has been beautifying my bulletin board at home. It looked pretty awful but bulletin boards can be pricey, so I decorated mine using some fabric and paint. Here's the finished product:

Ta-da! Decorated & up on my wall!

I have also been working on a super secret project with my friend & fellow blogger Lauren. It has to do with blogging, but not for Saint Mike's (although I of course still love blogging about my love of SMC & will keep it up!). Lauren & I have done some great work together and, if all goes well, we can share our great news with you all soon!


My very last update has to do with a trip I took on Monday with my twin brother, Nick. Nick & I get along well & it's a little odd not seeing him all year while we're both at college (he goes to NYU). When we're home we like to go on adventures - we just spend an afternoon doing something fun, like getting lunch or going to the movies. On Monday we took a spur-of-the-moment trip to Boston & spent the day wandering the city.


First we went to Fanueil Hall & got terriyaki chicken for lunch. Afterwards we got cookies from 'The Boston Chipyard' and then looked at all the nearby shops. Next we went up to Beacon Street. For those of you who don't know Boston too well, Beacon Street is home to super wealthy people & is full of big, beautiful houses. We looked at some houses before going to the State House nearby. At the State House we walked around & saw the Governor's office & the room where they have big meetings and vote. Just before we left we saw Governor Deval Patrick giving an interview!

The State House is right in the middle with the gold top.

Ah, it's such a beautiful building!

One of the houses on Beacon Street.

So that's it! Tomorrow my family leaves for a trip to Colorado where we'll be hiking, biking, white water rafting, and zip-lining for the week! After that I'll upload some pictures from my trip & post some tips & Info for first-years!

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask! Send me an email or find me on Twitter!

'How can I become a blogger?'

Happy Tuesday!


I got this question on Formspring, but I accidentally deleted it and have no way of answering it. Whoops! So sorry about that anonymous-mystery-curious-question-asking-person!


So to answer your question...

First, I'm so happy that you're interested in blogging! Like you, I became interested in becoming a blogger the summer before my first year at Saint Mike's, just one short year ago!


Officially, blogger try-outs are held about once a semester. Usually an email is sent around to all students & any interested students can create a blog & basically practice blogging for a few weeks. Afterwards, bloggers are picked to become paid bloggers & any other interested bloggers are encouraged to stay on as volunteer bloggers.


Unofficially, you can email  our Blogger Coordinator, senior Gabbi Hall, or our Assistant Director of Marketing for Social Media, Christian Camerota. This is the path that I took last summer, however this may not be an option this year - it's all up to Gabbi and Christian.


On a side note, last year in my pursuit to become a student blogger I emailed Alexandra, a student blogger whose blog I read religiously all last summer, and I actually still read now. I emailed Alexandra to ask how to become a blogger, and then met her shortly after school started. I'm so very happy to say that I'm not only great friends with Alexandra, but we're also both team leaders of LINK, one of the campus ministry groups on campus. (My friend Merrill had a similar experience of meeting Alexandra, being inspired to become a blogger, and being a new team leader of LINK just like me!), Here's an adorable Facebook status that Alexandra put up a few weeks ago:

So anonymous-question-asker, I wish you the best of luck! Blogging is a lot of fun & a great way to make friends! I'm glad you're so interested in getting involved at Saint Mike's! If you have any questions, send me an email or find me on Twitter!

New Vlog Post!

Yet another beautiful picture they chose here...

I apologize again for not blogging recently, but be on the look out for more blog posts soon!

If you have any questions, send me a message on Facebook!

Saint Mike's Bucket List

Hi everyone!

As the end of my first year in college is drawing to a close, I thought I'd make up a sort of bucket list of everything that I want to complete (at SMC & anywhere else) before I graduate three years from now in May, 2015. I've already completed a few things, but here goes:


-Become a tour guide
-Live in a Townhouse
-Get an internship
-Join a mentoring program
-Go swimming in Lake Champlain
-Attend an SMC sporting event
-Study abroad
-Road trip to Canada
-Go on a school trip
-Go to the Burlington farmers' market
-Go skiing at Smuggs
-Go on a Wilderness Club trip/hike
-Learn to snowboard
-Go to the Ben & Jerry's Factory
-Take a social media class
-Go climbing on the rock-climbing wall in the Tarrant gym
-Be in a flash mob
-Sing a solo in Liturgial Choir
-Make the Dean's List
-Graduate


Of course these tasks are of varying degrees of difficulty, but I love having goals for the three years I have left here. There's so much to do in Vermont, I need to make sure I get everything done! I'll be adding to this list in the future, and make sure to check out the links to to activities I've already completed.

I have about one week left here at Saint Mike's before I'm home for the summer. Before I leave I still have a bunch of school work (some homework, two final papers, and a final exam) as well as some fun things, like going to a Cristina Perri concert on Saturday & going out to Burlington to celebrate (or I guess 'mourn' would be a more appropriate word?) our friend Vick transferring at the end of the semester.

Congrats to everyone who officially committed to Saint Mike's for next year - I can't wait to see you all in the Fall! Ask me any questions on Formspring or by email. Happy Tuesday!

Fall Class Schedule

Three weeks and the semester is over! Ahh, craziness! Right now I'm a bit swamped with work, but it's all okay since summer vacation officially starts May 10!

A few weeks ago we all picked our classes for the upcoming fall semester and I GOT INTO ALL MY CLASSES! This is truly a miracle because it's the first time I've gotten all four classes that I tried for. And so my next semester's schedule is:

-Managerial Accounting:
 Tues/Thurs, 3:00 - 4:35 with Professor Doyon

This semester my learning style didn't match too well with my accounting professor and I ended up dropping the class. I've heard great things about this professor and he seems energetic and  hilariously passionate about accounting. This class will count towards my business minor.

-Introduction to Philosophy:
 Mon/Wed/Fri, 8:30 - 9:35 with Professor L'Hote

I have work study in the Academic Affairs office, so I work in some of the deans' offices. My work study boss and one of the deans helped me pick my classes for next semester and assured me that this professor is absolutely amazing! This class will fulfill an LSR, a liberal studies requirement.

-General Psychology:
 Mon/Wed/Fri, 9:45 - 10:50 with Professor Adams

This introductory class is taught by the psychology department head. I didn't get into this class during registration, but the professor was great about helping me petition into his class. I was able to get in the day after registration. This class will count towards my psychology major.

-Research Methods I:
 Mon/Wed/Fri, 11:00 - 12:05 with Professor Boynton

This is a statistics class and is another class that I didn't get into during registration. Since General Psychology is a pre-requisite, I had to wait until after registration to see if there were any open spots for me in the class. The professor was incredibly accommodating and let me take the class even though I didn't have the pre-requisite and the class was full. The professor helped me get into the class the day after registration. This class will count towards my psychology major.



I couldn't be more thrilled with all of my classes! All of my professors seem amazing and the classes themselves are really interesting to me.


 Also, I've blogged before about 'Horses and Healing', my First Year Seminar class last semester in which my class volunteered at a therapeutic horseback riding farm once a week. For next semester's 'Horses and Healing' class, my friend Merrill and I were chosen to be Teaching Assistants, meaning we'll help out once a week during trips to the farm. I'm so happy!


So many amazing things have been happening to me lately! Despite all the stress of finals, I can't help but feel so blessed! I have so much more to share; be on the look out for many more blog posts coming soon!

Ask me anything on Twitter! Please!

Wonderful Burlington!

Hello!

As many of you know, the local downtown hang out for us Saint Mike's kids is Church Street in Burlington. Church Street is about 10 minutes away (we take the CCTA city bus system for free with our Knightcards!) & has tons of delicious restaurants, adorable shops, & entertaining street performers. My friend Lauren also blogged about this a bit - check it out!


Last weekend a bunch of us headed into Burlington on Friday to go out to eat & watch the sunset over Lake Champlain!

First we ate at Sky Burger - pretty cheap and SO good!

Then we all walked down to Lake Champlain - the sunset was gorgeous

A bit hard to see, but this is one of my favorite street performers.

Here he's doing a hand stand on top of five precariously balanced chairs.

The rest of my weekend was amazing too! As I'm mentioned before, I'm a 'big sister' in LBLS (Little Brother, Little Sister) Mentoring through the Saint Mike's community service group, called MOVE. On Saturday I went to Pizza Putt with my 'little sister' and we had so much fun! Pizza Putt has arcade games, pizza, a playground, bumper cars, and mini golf...and we did everything! She had a blast and it's sad that I can't see her all summer.




THEN on Sunday, Saint Mike's had Earth Fest! It was held in the gym because it was supposed to rain and there was so much to do - free burgers with all local ingredients, bike-powered smoothies, an amazing band called Mission South (which I'm not obsessed with), tie-dye, a chance to plant some flowers, and free Ben & Jerry's!

My friends Cait & Vick after planting some seeds in Ben & Jerry's containers.

Overall I had an amazing weekend - with all that Burlington & Saint Mike's has to offer, how can you go wrong? This weekend is sure to be amazing too - like I said in my last post, it's parents weekend so I get to show my parents all around SMC & Burlington!

Be on the look out for more lovely posts, coming soon! Email me with any questions!