Center for Academic Success and First-Year Experience

It’s a little scary to say that spring break is only ten days away. Which means that midterms are even closer. I really have no idea where this semester has gone, but I really cannot believe that it is half over! But a lot of exciting things have been happening along the way

For starters, I snagged myself an amazing job opportunity this semester. I now work at ProRehab Physical Therapy in the Chesterfield Valley as a Physical Therapist aide. I get to help patients with exercises and other treatments and I absolutely love it! It is such a great experience.

Also, we finally got some snow on campus, although it didn’t last long (which I wasn’t too upset about). But it was funny to listen to all my California friends talk about their first sledding experience!

And last, but not least, the ice cream machine is back in the dining hall!! Everyone was really sad that it went away but now it’s back and everyone is pumped!

This week there are a lot of events going on! Tomorrow night is casino night on campus. This is an activity for students to play games such as poker, black jack, slot machines, etc. and turn their winnings into tickets to win awesome prizes! Word on the street is there are prizes such as a Nook, a futon, and more! Friday night is the Dueling Pianos. For this, two phenomenal pianists come and play songs at the students’ request. They know almost every song ever made, and its really awesome! I hear there is going to be some really great food So all in all, we are in for a pretty exciting weekend on campus. Cant wait!

Only five more years starting now. So very exciting. That may seem a lot but it is much easier to say than 6 or 6.5. Classes this semester consist of Anatomy and Physiology plus the lab, cultural diversity, medical terminology, abnormal psychology, and  jewelry and metal making ( ). It is a hefty load when considering I am working 20-25 hours between my two jobs. Time management is just as vital as it was when I played soccer last year. Must do homework efficiently when I have time to do it.

Over break, work was a major part of my agenda as well as hanging out with friends. Nearly every night was hanging out till early in the morning, jamming on guitars and watching movies. It was one of the best winter breaks I have ever had. Always seems to fly by though; if there was only one more week…

For this semester my goals are:

1. Better study habits. DO NOT PROCRASTINATE. I already started on a paper due at the end of the semester. Last semester I had to write 4 papers in the last two weeks of classes plus all my finals. Was not an enjoyable time of my life haha.

2. Take a bigger role in CRU. CRU, formerly known as Campus Crusade, is a nondenominational Christian organization on campus that meets up with other schools in the area (MoBap, UMSL, Merrimac, etc.) During spring break a group of us will head to Florida for a mission trip. Pretty legit I must admit.

3. Have fun. I think my friends makes this easy but I had to put it on here. My past three semesters as a college student have been incredible and I expect nothing less than that this semester

Now I must continue on my paper about the different culture that occurs in the film Step Up with Channing Tatum. Good stuff. Adios.

I really cannot believe that this year is already half way over. It really flew by! I can honestly say that I had a really great first semester. Although it was a very easy semester, it was nice to be able to ease in to things and really get the hang of college life. But I am also missing that easy schedule considering I’ve been doing all kinds of homework already this semester! But, I have to get used to it sometime right?

This semester I am taking:

Chemistry 2- this class is going to be a challenge because I have not taken chemistry since senior year, but it has been really interesting already and I’m really excited to be starting science classes. It just gets me one step closer to the in depth PT classes!

Abnormal Psychology: I have only had this class twice and I love it already! Its very interesting material and my professor makes every class really fun!

Western Cultures: This class is an elective,but it is also a First Year Experience class. This just means that there are only freshman in the class and it helps us get used to everything around campus. I have a really great class, I can tell it will be a good semester!

American Literature: This is also an elective, but I really love literature so this class is great! There are lots of books and assignments, but its interesting and the homework is just keeping up with the reading so it is easy to keep up!

So that’s my semester. If this one flies by as fast as last semester did, I will be blogging about summer before I know it! But in the meantime I will just be enjoying everything along the way! So that is all for now

The weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas break are winding down so fast! I can’t believe that finals are already here. It seems like in high school I was counting down the days till I was out of school, and now I can’t even keep track of where they go! These past two weeks have definitely been the busiest I have been all semester. So many last minute projects, papers, and tests, and not to mention all the preparing for finals. It has been a bit stressful, but I can honestly say that I have (almost) successfully completed my first semester of college! YAYY! I am so excited for Christmas break, but I really don’t know what I am going to do with all of my free time. Lots of R&R. Can’t wait!

Maryville’s campus is soo beautiful around Christmas time though! There is a huge Christmas tree up in the dining hall, and all of the buildings have christmas lights up. I love it! Everyone is so festive! It really lightens the mood in this stressful time. But I can’t get too distracted becuase I have LOTS of work to do. Keeping my fingers crossed for a good set of grades

Thanksgiving Break has arrived!!! So exciting. Last two weeks were full of tests, papers, and late night studying but I made it out alive. Now after I return from break, we only have three weeks and then Christmas Break which is 5 weeks. So crazy how fast this year is flying by. I can’t believe I have half way through my second year already… I feel like I just graduated high school.

Today is the first Monday of break and I find myself working from 8:30 to 4:30 between work study and my St. Luke’s job. Not a great way to start a break, but (and that’s a big but) I am leaving Tuesday night to go Snowboarding/Skiing in Breckenridge, Colorado with my church for 56 days. Now that is the way to end Thanksgiving break! I have never actually snowboard before…so that should be interesting but I am hoping I will catch on fast. I do have four days to master it. the main goal is to come back with no broken arms or legs, no flesh wounds, and with a memory. I don’t feel like that is asking too much! Haha.

Well I hope everyone has a blessed Thanksgiving. Enjoy family and food.

Friday is finally here and it is officially time for Thanksgiving break! I am so excited to go home and see all my family and friends that have been gone so long. It was all I could think about all week, but there was a lot to do to keep me occupied! Along with my regular studying, I had a few extra papers to do this week. It was not hard at all, just a few extra projects. On Thursday night I was treated to a delicious Thanksgiving dinner. Residential Life offered all work study students a free Thanksgiving meal in the dining hall if you went with your work supervisors! So we all met up and walked over with our wonderful bosses, Kathy and Kelly! It was actually really fun to get to have dinner with everyone that I see in the office all the time. I am the only freshman in the office, but everyone is so friendly and I had a lot of fun! Once I was finally able to move after eating all that food, my friends and I went to see the Breaking Dawn Pt. 1 movie premier at midnight!

There is a movie theater about 5 minutes away from campus so it was so easy to get to! I absolutely LOVED the movie. I am a true twilight fan ever since I read the books. If you have only watched the movies I definitely recommend you read the books because they are soo much better! and in turn they make the movies better:) but I am just about ready to head home and enjoy a nice and relaxing week at home. (with lots of turkey involved of course!) Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

First off, I need to apologize for slacking on my blogs. I’m still new at figuring all this stuff out! These past few weeks so much has happened!

We had our fall festival two weeks ago which included so many activites! The lip sync and the Mr. Maryville contests were hilarious! There was a comedian one night who was so funny and friday night there was a bonfire and an 80′s band, and even though I was not around then I still thought they were great! They played lots of music that we all knew! Not to mention everyone was following the Cardinals all week! WORLD SERIES CHAMPS!! Even some of my friends who aren’t actually Cardinals fans couldn’t help but follow. Sadly I could not go to the formal Saturday night because I had to attend a wedding, but from what I heard it was awesome! It was held at the Ram’s Club at the top of the Edward Jones Dome so I can only imagine how great it was!

This past week was another busy week, but in turn it flew by! Next thing I knew it was time to start preparing for this week! The Campus Activities Board held a karaoke night on Thursday which was so fun! (and had really good food) It is never a problem trying to find a free meal around here, but who’s complaining? I cannot believe that Thanksgiving break is only two weeks away, this semester is going by so fast!

This week is registration week, which as a freshmen is rather nerve wracking. Everyone sets up their “shopping cart” of all the classes they want to take next semester and wait until their day to sign up! For upperclassmen this isn’t such a big deal but the freshmen do not get to register until the last day, which is Thursday. So I am really hoping my classes do not fill up! 7:00 am is going to come really quick Thursday morning, but I am actually really excited to sign up for my classes! 

Well that’s all for this week! Toodaloo

This may very-well-have-been the week from you-know-what. I Anatomy and Physiologyed my life away. I literally found myself up at 2 in the morning Sunday-Thursday studying the trochanter and trochlea and coinoid prosses and coirocid process. Who ever named all the bones in the body needs to have a serious talking to. A femur is a femur; there shouldnt be 500 different parts on the femur! Butttttt… it is interesting to learn the correct terminology and then feel all brilliant when you throw it out in public situations. “Ow, I just hit my olcerion” or how about ” Don’t give me the III phalange”. It helps it stick.

This week on campus has been our Fall Festival Week (think of homecoming). It has been sooooo much fun; this week ranks in top 3 during the school year. Let me break down the week:

Monday: Mr. Maryville   It is basically a male beauty pageant with a swimsuit contest, talent, formal, and interview. Very entertaining. Mr. Brady Griffith (also President of Maryville Student Government) won Mr. Maryville. Here is a video from the event:

http://www.youtube.com/user/CABMaryville#p/u/8/avH7OPPWXac

Tuesday:  Spirit Day (parade and tailgate)           The parade was a new thing this year but they had the pep band playing Lady Gaga andfree food. A good amount of people showed up and then we all went to watch the women’s volleyball game.

http://www.youtube.com/user/CABMaryville#p/u/7/vVCEImrSWNc

Wednesday: Lip Sync      What is lip sync you may ask? Basically think of a music video. Each team does a series of songs and dances/performs while lip singing…. PLEASE WATCH THESE THEY ARE HILARIOUS.

Warning: you will encounter awkward dancing and cross dressing if you choose to watch the following youtube films.

First place: Grease, Team Spirit:

http://www.youtube.com/user/CABMaryville#p/u/3/SJOhWkuyDTY

Second place: 90′ mix, Potter Hall-  Team Transformed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSncyPonZ5w&feature=share

Third: Team MSG

http://www.youtube.com/user/CABMaryville#p/u/6/QCLcLI1z0wE

This video http://www.youtube.com/user/CABMaryville#p/u/4/oDAlCxPxOGM was another team. They did not place but were very entertaining.

Another treat after the show was a performance my Notorious, the brand new a’capella group on campus. They were amazinggg! Here are two videos from their performance:

” I Won’t Say I’m In Love”    http://www.youtube.com/user/CABMaryville#p/u/1/PVQcdYYdkNI

“Fix You”:  http://www.youtube.com/user/CABMaryville#p/u/0/D8yUhysM1VQ 

Thursday:   Cardinal watch party and Comedian       As hopefully you all know the Cardinals are in the world series. Can we just take a moment to admire the [6th] game that happened last night. Down by 2 in the 8th and 9th and then a walk off homerun in the 10th to win it! That my friends is good baseball. Tonight is game 7; all or nothing! We had a huge watch party in the auditorium with the game on, pizza, drinks, friends, the whole shabang. Craziness. After that the comedian Kyle Cease performed. I heard he was absolutely hilarious!!

Friday (today):Bonfire        Before the bonfire, I am sure there will be another watch party for the cardinals. GO CARDS! The bonfire is this massive well, bonfire. I honestly have never seen one so large. All the students make s’mores and mingle and at the end recieve free shirts for coming to hang out at a bonfire. How legit is that?

Saturday:  Fall Formal      Yes, there are still dances in college. In fact, they may be better than high school dancing. This year the dance is at the Edward Jones dome where the St Louis Rams play. There is apparently a ball room in the top of it? Going to be sooo legit. Got my dress last night and ready to go get my dance on! I can not wait!

Adios.

Bones are all I think about currently. Kind of an awkward thing, I will say, but being a Physical Therapy major I guess knowing the bones of the body may be slightly important. Next week  brings upon one Anatomy & Physiology test and one practical. What is a practical you may ask? Let me describe my experience of my last lab practical…

It was a foggy day, with a slight breeze and the threat of rain in the sky. I walk into Kern 2245, set my books down, and raise my eyes to find fifty stations set up over…. CELLS. THEY WERE EVERYWHERE. Reticular and Epithelium and Cartilage and Hyaline and Mitosis and Arrector Pilli. I was hoping I would just wake up and come back to reality; but no. This was real life. For 30 minutes I circled the 50 questions… cautious as I approached each; never knowing what to expect. The most scariest thing occurred when I walked up to station 25 and (dun dun dunnn) I wasn’t sure of the answer!!! My heart started racing; my palms damp from the protruding sweat. Nooooooo.

Okay, so it wasn’t that bad. At all. It was difficult but studying makes it 100% easier. I pulled a high A on the practical and was pleased but there was one station I walked up to and wasn’t sure of the answer. You just make an educated guess and move on. College is difficult; you will not always no EVERYTHING.

This weekend was full of excitement. Saturday included a bonfire and s’mores at a friend’s house which was a lot of fun. Sunday included church and then an indoor soccer game, which we won boo ya. Also the….

ST LOUIS CARDINALS ARE IN THE WORLD SERIES

First game Wednesday to bring home a winner! Also this weekend men and women’s soccer brought home a winner against Past Kentucky Wesleyan on Sunday. The men won 5-1 and the women 2-1, scoring with 5 minutes left. Good weekend for St Louis sports, minus the Blues unfortunately   but the season is still young.