How to Rock Orientation

Happy Sunday! Hope you're all having a lovely summer!

With less than a month until all you 'class of 2016' students move in, you must be all excited! I'll be on campus throughout orientation & I'm looking forward to move-in day & to meeting all of you!

Before my orientation last summer, I was super nervous about my first year of college, and especially of move-in day and orientation. For lots of students, your first year of college is tough. It's absolutely fabulous, but it's also the first time you live away from home, you need to make new friends, you're more independent, and you have a more difficult course load. Even the most prepared students can get overwhelmed with all of that. During Orientation, it's important to take a deep breathe and to live in the moment. Forget about everything else and focus on moving in, meeting friends, and learning about Saint Mike's.

SO, HOW TO ROCK ORIENTATION 101:

1) Talk to everyone!

Just be friendly! The best way to make tons of new friends is to talk to everyone around you at orientation activities, in your hall, or while getting breakfast in Alliot. Remember that everyone is trying to make new friends, so they'll be overjoyed if you initiate conversation

2) Meet your roommate

This is a no-brainer. During orientation is a great time to get close with your roomie. Organize your room together, go to orientation activities or eat in Alliot together. Basically just get to know your roommate. Establish some rules for your room (like no guests past 12 pm during the week or clean your dishes after you use them) and make sure you have a mutual respect for one another. Your roommate can definitely become your best friend - I'm super tight with my roommate!

3) Attend every orientation event

This can be hard to do. When making new friends during orientation, it's easy to start spending time with them and stop attending orientation activities. While it's not the worst thing in the world (I mean, if you're skipping with friends it means you've already made friends - go you!) it's definitely beneficial to go to orientation events. This is because 1) they're fun (the 'Fun for All' on Friday night is so hilarious and 'Connections' shows you what an amazing, supportive community Saint Mike's is), and 2) the orientation leaders spent a lot of time planning them just for you!

4) Talk to your O-leaders

Your orientation leaders applied to be an O-leader, THEN went through a rigorous selection process, THEN had to attend training days before move-in. As upperclassmen, they know a lot about Saint Mike's. They know how to get over homesickness, which professors are great and which simply enjoy assigning mass amounts of homework; they even know what the best food in Alliot is, and which foods should be avoided at all costs. They know a lot about SMC and they want to share it with you!

5) Call your parents

If your parents are like mine, they're worried about you adjusting to college! I'm not saying that you should call them every single day, morning and night (in fact, that may be a tad bit unhealthy) but you should definitely check in with them to let them know that you're doing good. After all, they're sad to see you leave them after 18 years!

6) Find your classrooms

Basically just prepare a bit for Monday morning classes. Check out the mail room, know where the library is, find your classrooms, make sure you have all your books. Getting ready for classes, even just the tiniest bit, will really calm your nerves come your very first college class.

Hope these tips helped! Check out the orientation schedule here. If you have any questions about move-in, let me know! I'm so excited to meet all of you! Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Super Awesome College Tips

Hi everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July & are having an amazing summer!


A it gets closer & closer to move-in day (49 days to go!) I wanted to give all the first-years some tips for an amazing first year of college! Here goes:



1) Take advantage of campus resources
Moving in to college is kind of scary. Yes, it's amazing and fun and totally awesome but it's also a huge change. Don't be afraid of using all the resources around you! Orientation leaders are so happy to answer any of your questions, as are other students, staff, and professors. Everyone wants you to be comfortable & happy!

2) Alliot is pronounced 'ally-o'
This was by far the best advice I ever received before coming to Saint Mike's

3) Be friendly!
It's hard to be outgoing & friendly to everyone during orientation, especially since you don't really feel at home at Saint Mike's yet. No matter what though, it's extremely important to talk to people! No need to go crazy, just be a little friendly, chat with the people near you at orientation activities, and leave your door open when you're in your room so you can meet people on your floor.

4) Make a good impression on your professors
Obviously it's hugely beneficial to have your professors like you. More than that, when your professors know that you're a good student, they'll be more inclined to give you grades to reflect that. About 99% of this has to do with actually doing good work, but the other 1% has to do with how your professor feels about you. By arriving early or on-time to class, being respectful to your professor, contributing to class discussions, and going above and beyond on papers and assignments, especially early in the semester, professors will definitely like you and want to help you succeed.

5) Have fun!
Freshman year is a strange time because it's all about getting used to life on your own. For many people, college is the first time you're out on your own, away from your parents. You need to make new friends, get used to a new room, take harder classes, eat cafeteria food, etc. Everything is different and a lot of freshmen year is about exploring Saint Mike's and the surrounding area. While this is scary and nerve-wracking, it's so much fun!



I'm so excited for all you first-year students & I can't wait to meet you all next month! If you have any questions email me or send me a tweet!

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!