Housing

GOOD MORNING!


These past two weeks have been a bit stressful for students because it's housing lottery time. Every spring students are sent a lottery number, which they use to try to get the housing they want. Saint Mike's has great housing: Alumni in the Quad, Founder's on Main Campus, Suites and Townhouses for upperclassmen, and more housing and apartments on North Campus.


For next semester, my friend Cait and I decided to room together on North Campus. Although I loved living in the Quad this year (everyone you know lives near by & you're close to everything) we wanted to live on North to experience different housing.

This is where we'll be living!

We will be living in Linnehan, a two-floor building (guys on the first floor, girls on the second) that will be completely honors housing next year. So many of our friends will be living with us there, and two of my best friends, Merrill and Emma, will be living right next to us. Linnehan also has a kitchen that's open to the whole house. A bunch of us have already discussed having Sunday breakfasts together. We're going to be like one big family next year! (Also, for anyone worried about living on North because of its separation from Main Campus - there are constant shuttles that make several stops on North and Main; the whole ride to/from campus is only about 5 minutes).




 On the topic of housing, some of you prospective students may know that we don't give room tours here at SMC - since our students live on campus all four years, our rooms are like our homes here. We don't want to disrupt students who  may be studying or sleeping in their rooms (which has happened!) by touring their dorms and rooms all day.


SO instead, our ingenious Tour Guide Coordinators created a video about all of Saint Mike's housing. Lots of students helped out, and it gives you a great view of all the different housing available for your four years here at SMC. Check it out the 'SMC Kribs' Playlist here - FYI this video is also shown after your campus tour!


As always Formspring me with any questions - I love to help!

Tuition Runs Out Day

Happy Monday!


So most of you prospective students probably don't know that every year Saint Michael's College celebrates "Tuition Runs Out Day". I'd never heard of this before starting school here, but it is basically a day to thank our incredibly generous alumni.


Technically, our tuition only covers about 80% of our time here at SMC - every year there is a day on which tuition "runs out" and the rest of the school year is funded entirely by friends, family, and alumni. This year, that day fell on Friday, March 23. It's pretty incredible when you realize just how much our alumni donate to make our time here at Saint Mike's as amazing as it is.


In order to celebrate "Tuition Runs Out Day," and to properly thank our alumni, there was a video contest, hosted by the Office of Alumni and Parent Relations, and judged by members of the Alumni Board of Directors...



Challenge:
Film the most creative 2-minute video you can for our 20,000 alumni that highlights what matters to you as a student at St. Michael’s College.



My  friend (and future roomie!) Cait and I decided to make a wonderful video, and we won third place! Check it out below!

We had SO MUCH FUN making the video! It was great to be silly with all of our friends, and of course we were happy to thank our alumni! I had no idea that our alumni were so generous, and I really am grateful for all that they do.

And of course...check out the WINNING VIDEO! It was adorable and so so so accurate.

I have kind of a crazy week ahead of me, but I'll be sure to blog some more - I just have so many things to share lately! Formspring me with any question!

SPRING BREAK

Ah spring break...it was just one short week ago, and yet it already feels like a distant memory. Kind of.


For spring break last week (before going home) I visited my brother in New York. He goes to NYU, so he was right in the heart of New York City in East Greenwich Village in Manhattan.

We had SO MUCH FUN being in NYC together. While we don't hang out all the time at home, we do go on adventures together every so often. It's been a little strange not seeing him while we're both at college, so it was great that Nick & I got to spend a couple days roaming the city.


SO Saturday morning I flew to New York from the Burlington Airport. Since I had a 6 AM flight I had to wake up at 4 AM...terrible but totally worth it. Also, I flew Jet Blue, which so cheap! I definitely recommend checking out Jet Blue's prices if you ever need to fly in/out of Burlington.

After getting picked up at JFK Airport by my brother, we went back to his totally gorgeous dorm where I met his friends & suite mates. NYU has some pretty amazing dormitories!

This is just outside my brother's dorm building. It's

the facade of an old church.

This is Nick's dorm! He's on the very top, on the 26th floor.

This is the amazing view from Nick's window.

That afternoon, Nick and I went (with all of his friends) to the American Museum of Natural History (for free!). It was amazing and HUGE and so much fun!

I found out that I'd weigh over 3,000 pounds on the sun.

...and only 0.037 pounds on a Red Giant Star.

One of the coolest things at the museum...not sure why there was a giant quid

attacking a whale, but it looked awesome.

And of course, we were all very excited to see the dinosaurs.

On Sunday we mostly just hung out and walked around New York. Nick also showed me some of his classrooms and different academic buildings. We also had some delicious things to eat - we got amazing burritos, went to a BBQ place that served awesome, giant portions, and had wonderful pastries from various coffee shops and bakeries. We also had ice cream at a store called '16 Handles' - it's a soft-serve place where you serve yourself all the ice cream & topping you want, then pay by weight. It was sooo good!

There's so much more to share about my trip to New York & the rest of my vacation at home! I'll blog again this weekend about spring break, 'Tuition Runs Out Day', and next year's housing.. Can't wait to share more with you all! Formspring me with any questions!

Spring is in the Air

Good Morning!

The Monday after spring break, and it certainly feels like spring! It's going to be 70-80 degrees all week it's absolutely gorgeous here!

SO the week before spring break was a bit of a roller coaster for me. I wasn't doing too well in Accounting, and ultimately came to the decision (with help from my professor, advisor, friends, & mom) that I need to withdraw from the class. It was a pretty difficult decision to make, but after thinking about it & researching the repurcussins of withdrawing, I found that if I withdraw, my grade won't count & will not affect my GPA. Instead, a withdrawal will show up on my transcript, which is not a bad thing if you only have one or two early in your college career. Now, I'm pretty happy that I withdrew from Accounting so that I can focus more on excelling in my other classes.


Also, before spring break I found out that I'M A TOUR GUIDE! It may be obvious since I'm a student blogger, but I LOVE talking to prospective students. Since I was in that same place a year ago, I understand how difficult it can be to choose a college. At the same time, I am in love with Saint Mike's & I want to share that love! I couldn't be happier that I was chosen to represent SMC!


In the tour guide realm, I hosted a prospective student (for the day) on Monday. She came to class with me, then we had lunch with a few of my friends. I really enjoyed meeting her & her mom - it was so much fun to show them around campus, and definitely made me even more excited about being a tour guide! The best part? I'm pretty sure they had as much fun as I did (well, at least I hope they did!).



There's more to come later this week - all about my spring break, recent activities being planned to thank our wonderful & generous alumni, & of course my life her at Saint Mike's. Enjoy the beautiful weather! Formspring me with any questions!

The Saint Mike's Atmosphere

Saint Mike's: n. The absolutely wonderful college - with a loving, caring community, beautiful campus, and amazing teachers & staff - that I am lucky enough to attend.


Today I was working on tour guide applications with my amazing friend Cait (because I'm so enthusiastic about SMC that I would just LOVE LOVE LOVE to show some prospective students around!) & we were discussing the atmosphere here. Let me just put it out there...it's pretty much a killer atmosphere.


Since I toured Saint Mike's in high school, I fell in love with the campus and the community aspect that the school had. While I didn't commit to coming to SMC right away, I knew that this school was special (check out my very first blog post which explains this!) - and now I know that I made the right choice in coming here!

Today I saw on the 'Saint Michael's College Class of 2016' Facebook page, prospective students feel the same way as I did ! Here's a look into what some (possible) future Purple Knights are saying:

Another lovely SMC/Facebook moment that I stumbled upon the other day? An adorable status by a Saint Mike's senior:

I apologize for the funky formatting, BUT it just makes me so happy to see other Saint Mike's students/prospective students who love SMC as much as I do!

For any students trying to make their final decisions for college, I definitely recommend a campus tour - especially if you're interested in Saint Mike's! Also, high school seniors interested in Saint Mike's, join the 'Saint Michael's College Class of 2016' Facebook page - it's a great resource to ask questions & interact with other prospective students!

If you have any other questions, ask away! Tweet me or find me on Formspring!

The Benefits of Home VS. College

Hello!

It's another lovely, sunny day here at Saint Mike's! Earlier today I had Accounting, Spanish, and Psych, & right now I'm in work study. Soon I'll be back in my room studying (oh boy!).

So this past week we had Friday off - that meant NO CLASSES and a THREE DAY WEEKEND!

I actually had another class that was cancelled on Thursday (meaning I only had ballet on Thursday) so I left Wednesday night to visit my parents for the weekend in Massachusetts!


I had an absolutely amazing weekend at home! My weekend started off with a new season of Survivor Wednesday night - if you read my blog regularly you'll remember that I LOVE Survivor & even sent in an audition video earlier this year, which you can check out here. Thursday I did some homework & met my mom for lunch (since she was at work, of course). Then I mostly slept, watched tv, and did some hardcore relaxing for the rest of the weekend. I also saw my aunts & cousins at a family birthday party & made some rice crispie treats with my wonderful friends Michelle & Cait!


SO after having an amazing time being home, I decided to talk about the benefits of being at home vs. being here at school:

Benefits of Being Home:

1. My Giant Bed: At home I have a big, queen-sized bed. Compared to my twin bed at school, it's just so huge! Actually, it may be unnecessarily large for a short girl like me...

2. Home-cooked Meals: Don't get me wrong, I love Alliot! As far as college food goes, it's pretty amazing. There's always something delicious to eat & I love chatting with Steve, one of the chefs, while ordering. However, there's just something about eating homemade food - it's delicious!

3. Seeing my Family: This is a no-brainer! While I'm not the type of person to get homesick, I obviously miss my parents while I'm at school. I usually call them every couple of days, but being able to see them is totally different. This break I also got to see some of my aunts, cousins, and friends. After not seeing them for a while, it was absolutely wonderful to see them too!

4. Being Lazy: Of course I'm lazy at school as well, but I feel so much less guilty when I lounge around, watch tv, and do nothing at home versus at school. Plus there's so much less stress to do anything because there aren't any dorm socials or weekend events like there are at Saint Mike's!


Benefits of Being at Saint Mike's:

1. Friends: I am definitely more social at school than I am at home, mostly because all of my friends live so close! Whenever I'm bored I can usually find a friend who's not busy & wants to hang out.

2. My Roommate: This may seem like an odd addition to the list because most people don't like sharing their room. I definitely love having a room to myself when I go home, but I also adore my roommate - she is so sweet and totally hilarious! When I go home my room is just too quiet!

3. Alliot: Although I love home-cooked meals when I go home, it's also nice to have Alliot right close by. Being in the quad, I'm less than five minutes from Alliot. It's great to be able to stop in to grab a snack or some tea in between classes.

4. Activities: When I'm home I miss all my activities, like LBLS mentoring & Lit Choir! They definitely make my weeks here chaotic but I love being busy & seeing my 'little sister' and choir friends.


SO there you have it - in summary, being & school and being at home are both amazing! Now I'm off to get some studying done. If you have any questions formspring me! I love talking to prospective students & bragging about Saint Mike's!

SMC Choir Trip & Exciting News

HELLO!

So as I mentioned in my last post, I am in the Liturgical Choir here at school & last weekend we went on a trip to Maine!

This trip was absolutely amazing! We left Thursday afternoon after classes & returned Sunday evening. During the weekend, we sang at four Masses, two at Catholic high schools and two at local churches. Father Brian (one of the priests here at Saint Mike's who is head of the Edmundite Campus Ministry) came with us and said each Mass.

SO, since this trip was so absolutely fabulous, I thought I'd share some pictures, as well as a few tracks from past choir trips (because the recordings of our trip won't be ready until sometime after lent):

MUSIC:



"Standin' in the Need of Prayer" although this is from

last year, we sang this on the trip

The choir doesn't sing this song anymore,

but I absolutely love it!

We did sing this song on the trip - I love it!

The song starts at about 2:30, but the first

part is an instrumental by Jerome

We did not sing this on the trip, but we

have been singing it recently!

PICTURES:
(here's the really good stuff)

Amelia, Emma & Me at our first Mass

A little difficult to see, but this is Amelia

& Me in Portland when we had some time to walk around

and be goofy. Amelia found a juice bar

called the "Maine Squeeze" & we just HAD to take a picture

Emma, Me, Amelia, & Merrill in Portland!

Me & Emma at one of the high schools after Mass

FIERCE!

Group photo at the second high school!

We just needed to capture the

"NUN BETTER"banner

SO as you can probably tell, this trip was just so much fun! I love choir & it was great to be able to spread our happiness & faith through song! I had a great time with my friends & I really enjoyed getting to know the other choir kids a little more! I also have to give a shout out to Father Brian & Jerome Monachino, director of the liturgical choir, for such an amazing trip! They worked hard to make it a success!

On a side note: Saint Mike's was just named a Fair Trade College -- the first college in Vermont to get that title! Find our what exactly that means here!

If you have any questions about Saint Mike's or about the liturgical choir, let me know! Tweet me!