Student Blog

Looking Ahead

Wed, 01 May 2013 12:20:10 -0400

Hi, everyone!

So, I've made it through my freshman year. Technically, I still have three exams to get through, but I'm prepared to conquer them the best I can. I want to use this last blog post of my freshman year to tell you about what my plans are for this summer and the fall 2013 semester! I remember wondering what NU students do over the summer when I was a high school senior last year, so I thought it might be nice to know what I'm going to be up to.

My summer starts Tuesday, May 7. I have a lot of plans for this summer, including juggling four jobs. I'm going to be a bear builder at my local Build-A-Bear Workshop, which has pretty much been my dream summer job since I was 9 years old. I'm also going to be working the front gate at Darien Lake, so if anyone plans on going to the theme park this summer, you might see me there!

I'm continuing working for my hometown recreation department, where I teach a clay class to elementary through middle school-aged children in the mornings. I am also involved in a writing community called Western New York Young Writer's Studio, which is pretty much my favorite place in the entire world.

Alongside those duties, I am going to be taking two summer courses online from NU to keep on track. One is a communications course, and the other is a religion course based on cults, which should be very interesting! I am also going to be completing Learn and Serve hours in my hometown middle school by helping the French students prepare for their Regents exams. For fun, I'm going to be participating in my first 5K, the Color Me Rad, with my friend Margot Hickey! I'm also hoping to work on my current novel-in-progress, play some tennis again, and enjoy my piano and guitar back home.

I am going to be coming back to campus a bit early this year, for good reason! I'm hoping to get involved with NU Plunge, which some of you might recall reading about from my first post this school year. Maybe I'll see some of you there! I am also going to be teaching an NUB course with Dr. Ciminelli this fall, so some of you future Purple Eagles might have me as your TA!

This fall, I'm going to be taking six courses, which means I'll be pretty busy, not including work study and Learn & Serve. However, I'm hoping to get involved/re-involved in some clubs, including the chapel choir, Future Teachers, EAGLE Leadership, CPB, the Honors book club, and maybe even the French club we've been trying to start here on campus.

One last thing before I finish this post: I'd like to send a shout-out to some of the friends I've made this year on campus. In no particular order: Janene, Carl, Justine, Michael, Margot, Courtney, and of course my roomie, Sarah. Thank you all for making my freshman year so great. :) No matter how often or infrequently we saw one another, you never fail to make me happy to be here at NU!

I'll type to you in the fall, everyone! :) If you have any questions at all, don't hesitate to email shanson@mail.niagara.edu. I'll be keeping in contact over the summer. Have a great break!

The Home Stretch

Wed, 01 May 2013 12:02:01 -0400

Hey, everyone!

It feels like it has been forever, and rightly so. The end of the semester gets crazy busy, but I'm making my way through the end of the semester. I have three exams to complete before I can go home for the summer.

I would like to tell you some of the exciting things that have happened to me these past few weeks since my last post! The first has to do with next year, the spring 2014 semester.

I am planning on studying abroad in Angers, France, for the spring semester next year. I am beyond excited looking into this opportunity. If everything goes as planned, I will be taking 18 credits, all in French, at the Universite Catholique de l'Ouest. Here is the link to CIDEF, through which I would take my program: http://www.groupement-fle.com/component/content/article/112-cidef.

I would like to stay with a host family to totally immerse myself in the culture. It has always been my dream to travel to France, and to be able to live there on a visa for four months would be the best experience I could ever ask for. Fingers crossed that I get accepted into the program and will be able to blog to all of you from France!

Many other fun events have been happening on campus as well. The Andy Grammer concert was so much fun. It was awesome to see everyone dancing and singing along, and all of the performers were very energetic. We also just had RidgeFest, a weeklong celebration on campus. Some of the highlights for me were getting henna, all the free food from the various cookouts, and going bungee jumping!

I also completed the white certificate portion of my EAGLE Leadership involvement. As I've said before, I am most grateful that I became involved in EAGLE this semester, because I feel that everyone involved has some sort of passion to bring to campus. We had a certificate ceremony during which we all were able to meet and commend one another on everything accomplished this school year. I'm looking forward to next year, when I continue on to the next level of EAGLE. I hope some of you consider joining as well!

I'd better continue studying for my exams. My next post will be the last for this school year, but be sure to look to see what I'm going to be up to this summer, and what I plan to get involved in next semester! Type to you soon! :)

Spring has Sprung

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 14:45:52 -0400

Hi, everyone!

It's been quite a bit of time since I've last typed to you. The spring semester has been a whirlwind of activities, both with many NU events to attend and class assignments to complete. I want to tell you about a few NU events I've had the pleasure of attending, and highlight my involvement in EAGLE Leadership here on campus!

On Feb. 23, 2013, a group of EAGLE leaders attended a leadership conference held at Buff State. We listened to keynote speaker Maria Pascussi, the founder of a website and organization called Campus Calm. The link to the website is here: http://www.campuscalm.com/. I recommend anyone who is feeling stressed out about college or courses to check out some of the links on the site. I know that a lot of the information has helped me out already, such as the free stress-relieving kit. This is mainly for empowering college women to succeed, but some of the advice is applicable to anyone!

The conference then split up into three different sessions of presentations that you could choose to attend. I chose a workshop based on finding your leadership voice in a team, getting the most out of college, and avoiding burnout. I am so glad that EAGLE gave me the opportunity to meet other college leaders and get to share my expertise with their ideas. For anyone who would like more information about EAGLE, you can check out our page here: http://www.niagara.edu/eagleleadership. Simply put, EAGLE Leadership includes many opportunities and lessons to improve your leadership skills, both as a student and for the future. Every participant works on establishing goals and figuring out ways to enact them. By far, I am most happy that I chose to dive right into EAGLE Leadership my freshman year, and I recommend that everyone tries it out.

In other news, Campus Activities has provided many fun events this semester! I was able to attend my first Sabres game (which sadly we lost, but it was really fun!) in February with my friends, Margot and Courtney. We're also going to a Bandits game on Saturday, which I've always wanted to go to!

A final note I would like to make to everyone is that Andy Grammer will be performing at Niagara University with Parachute on April 6. I am beyond excited, because Andy Grammer and Parachute are two of my favorite bands to listen to! Hopefully, if I'm lucky, I might get to meet them in person. The concert is open to the public, so if you look to get tickets now, you might be able to attend, too!

Next time, I'll be writing a post about fall course advisement to tell you a little bit about the course selection process for any potential Purple Eagles, and a very exciting opportunity I might have coming up. Type to you soon! :)

Goodness Gravy-cious!

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 13:10:55 -0500

Hi, everyone!

Thanksgiving is fast approaching, so I thought it would be appropriate to count down the top 10 things I'm thankful for at NU.

10. Spring semester is fast approaching! I will be so glad to sign up for classes this Wednesday. I'm looking forward to all new classes, because it gives me the opportunity to learn from different professors and meet new people.

9. Kiernan/Dwyer. It's obviously good to stay active on campus, and I love that there's so many different programs offered to stay in shape. Open ice skating nights at Dwyer are my absolute favorite.

8. The setup/aesthetic of the campus. As the weather begins to get colder around here, it's nice to be able to know that it's generally a five minute trip to a location on campus. I might be more than a bit biased, but I also believe that Bisgrove is one of the prettiest buildings on campus, and I cannot wait to start an education course in the building next semester!

7. Learn & Serve. This should probably be further up on the list for what I am grateful for, but I value most of these equally. It's so great to be able to work in a classroom, actually teaching the students while also observing different teachers' lesson styles. I appreciate that this quasi-student teaching experience starts the first semester of freshmen year, because if I did decide this major wasn't for me, I would have taken a few classes and had actual experience in the classroom to affirm of my decision.

6. The NU Express. Sometimes we just need to get off campus, and there's nothing better than the purple bus that takes us to the outlets and various plazas. It's extremely beneficial for those of us that need to start thinking about Christmas shopping and don't have a car on campus! Because of the bus, I've had numerous adventures that were well worth the trip.

5. The library. I've already rented so many movies from the extensive DVD selection, which have led to many entertaining movie marathon nights with my friends. The library's also just a great place to study or of course pick up a book, whether for reading or recreation. The room for education majors is particularly a favorite haunt of mine.

4. All of the activities I'm able to be involved in on campus (see my previous blog post). Although sometimes it's stressful to schedule my time for them, they're a great way to feel even more a part of NU. I know they're giving me experience that I will hopefully someday be able to use on my resume, and I have fun taking part in them.

3. Tim Hortons in Gally. Laugh all you want; the French vanilla cappuccinos are the only thing that keeps me going!

2. My dorm room. Clet has a homey atmosphere that I honestly haven't felt in any of the other dorm buildings. Since it's smaller, most residents know one another, so we tend to be almost like family.

1. My new friends. I've met so many wonderful people on campus, no matter how corny that sounds. There's always someone that I can cross paths with to brighten up my day. So many people are willing to be there to make me laugh, and I just hope that they know I appreciate it.

Of course, I do have to mention that I'm equally as thankful that Thanksgiving is next week, so I get to go home to my family. I will be happy to just be able to be back in my own room, relaxing and finishing writing the novel I'm working on for NaNoWriMo. I can't deny that I've also been anxiously waiting to get back to my piano at home. My mom's huge home-cooked feast will be disappearing fast once I get home!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Type to you soon! :)

New Year, New Semester

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 13:10:56 -0500

Hi, everyone!

It feels so good to be back on The Ridge with everyone else. Winter break gave us just enough time to recuperate from the fall semester and get ready to focus on the spring! I was happy to find out I would be returning to campus with sophomore status, based on the courses I took in high school and the credits I earned last semester.

So far I've enjoyed all of the new professors I've met for my spring classes. I particularly like Creative Writing, which shouldn't come as a surprise since I love to write! I know that Honors Philosophy and French will be challenging for me, but I'm working on maintaining a schedule that will allow me to have adequate study time. I'm most nervous about having a night course on Wednesdays this semester, since I still find the concept of taking a class in the evening to be strange. But I'm ready to tackle the challenge head on! :)

Of course, with coming back to campus in the new year, resolutions are a topic that seems to pop up every now and then. My personal goals are to create a schedule in which I can go to Kiernan, get ahead on assignments and manage eating healthier options, rather than just grabbing fast food at Clet or Gally. This semester's going to be about evaluating options for me.

As prospective students search the NU pages for reasons why they should be a Purple Eagle, I hope you will find the blogs that I and other students have been writing to be helpful. If you have any questions that you'd like an answer to, or a topic you'd like me to write a blog about, I'd be happy to respond to any comments below or write to you from my email, shanson@mail.niagara.edu.

Type to you soon! :)

Involved #OnTheRidge

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 14:14:03 -0400

Hi, everyone!

Halloween has just passed on campus, so now everyone's excitedly counting down to their Thanksgiving dinner back home. Even so, there's still much more to do on campus until Thanksgiving break! I personally have a lot of events to attend thanks to the extracurricular activities and clubs I'm involved in.

It's so easy to get involved at NU, because we have more than 100 clubs to participate in. I thought I'd take the time to explain to you some of the activities I'm involved in on campus.

NUFTA

Niagara University Future Teachers Association is a club open to all students in the College of Education. We have many social and professional activities to participate in, such as workshops regarding teaching strategies and enhancing our resumes with opportunities. It's fun to attend meetings with all of my education major friends and exchange ideas and experiences during club meetings.

EAGLE

EAGLE leadership is a club on campus devoted to enhancing the leadership skills of every student who participates. Ideally students are a part of the program for all four years to achieve all four certificates. There are a series of one-hour workshops to attend throughout the year, centering around specific skills to cultivate to help others in society. Luckily, for students like me that have class during the time of the meeting, students also have the opportunity to complete online assignments and watch videos of the lectures. There are also many community service challenges to take part in.

NUCAP

The Niagara University Community Action Program is a club devoted to community service. Students are allowed to volunteer to work with the poor, disabled, elderly, youth and sick. One of my favorite events I took part in was the Buddy Walk during the Peach Festival in Lewiston. It's so nice to be able to pick community service opportunities that fit into my schedule, and just have fun doing volunteer work with my friends. Some events that we're really looking forward to is a visit to the ASPCA and the one-day gingerbread house making program on campus.

N-ZONE

The N-ZONE is the official Niagara University school spirit club for students. For just $10, we get the exclusive membership to sit in the designated N-ZONE section, the N-ZONE t-shirt and free tickets to games on campus. I love going to hockey games with my friends and cheering our team on to victory!

Niagara Index

The Niagara Index is our student-produced newspaper on campus. We meet and discuss ideas on events to write about happening on campus. There's no better feeling than seeing your byline printed in the school paper! It's such a great opportunity to be published and have your work read by other students.

Those are just a few of the major activities I'm involved in on campus! Of course, there's many other events always happening around campus, such as Late Nite and other activities sponsored by the Campus Programming Board. The good thing to remember is to get involved in things you love to do, but don't overcommit yourself. You can't give clubs your all if you're always focused on getting responsibilities completed for another club.

Type to you soon! :)

Gaining Experience with Expertise

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 13:45:01 -0400

Hi, everyone!

I find myself in the middle of midterms week. For me, that means studying, writing essays and completing necessary homework. I feel that if you take enough time preparing for your tests or essays for midterm, there will not be a major issue to deal with.

However, that is not what I want to talk about through this blog post! What I really want to talk about is:

Learn & Serve

A lot of prospective students coming into Niagara have questions about the education program and its requirements. For the most part, you can find a simple breakdown on the education website or through pamphlets sent through the mail or given at a Discovery Day/Open House. I'd like to take the opportunity to share my experiences as a new student going through the Learn & Serve (L&S) program, so as to give an example of what your L&S experience might be like if you become an education major.

To do so, I will reference assignments I had to complete. The fall semester of freshman year for me started with EDU214, a class centered on cultural inclusion in the classroom. We talk about making all students feel welcome and accepted in the classroom by reading textbooks, sharing examples and partaking in discussions about solving different issues. It is required for class that we complete at least 20 hours of L&S. After each visit, we go onto our online supplement called Blackboard Learn and write up a journal entry about the experience we had that day in the classroom.

I attend L&S on Wednesday afternoons for two-hour sessions. Placements are scheduled around your course load, sports and work-study schedules. It is required that we look professional for our placement, which means that men wear nice pants and a nice shirt with shoes, and women wear something like a dress with a blazer, an appropriate-length skirt with a nice top, or dress pants and a nice shirt. Then the L&S vehicles drive us to our placement in the nearby school districts.

I currently take part in L&S at an urban school placement. I work with a kindergarten classroom for an hour, and then a third grade classroom for an hour. My experience is a little different than other L&S students because I am in the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) program. At this school, I work with 15 different ESL students on rotation. I've worked more with particular students who seem to need more help than others, but I've still been able to gain experiences in a variety of situations. To show you exactly what this is like, I will close with three excerpts of my journal entries for EDU214:

DAY 1:

(Kindergarten) "I went to the kindergarten classroom and was told that there was a new student there on her first day, and I could sit in the corner right there. I sat down with the little girl, who was sweeter than most other kindergartners I met there. She seemed very intimidated at first, but I put on a very cheerful voice, asked her what she was doing and gave her little compliments so that she'd open up. Gradually, I got a smile on her face and she told me a little bit about her family, as well as how she just moved to a new house in Niagara Falls and how she was scared of speaking English incorrectly to others. She taught me a little bit of Spanish while I was there, too. She also told me that she knew the alphabet, even though she was working on a worksheet for the letter M, and proceeded to write out "moon," "monkey," and "moo" with pictures all on her own..."

(Third grade) "When the teacher released the students back to their seats to try to write out their compositions, I decided to help one of the ESL students that was raising her hand but the teacher was too busy to help. It was difficult to understand her due to her accent, but I gradually adjusted and got used to it. She had me help her auditorily work through some words and I was proud of her working her way through her spelling and repeating the word for me to make sure she comprehended it."

DAY 2:

(Kindergarten) "I ended up working with the same little boy on a reading exercise. I charted his progress as he read a picture book about animal moms and babies. His biggest problem was that he kept reading "and" as "is." I kept trying to show him how the two words look different so they're pronounced differently, but I don't think I made much progress. However, despite that small glitch, he read through 12 pages with just the use of my finger pointing at each word. He knew how to read and say "giraffe," "zebra," "elephant" and "polar bear." I thought that was technically pretty advanced for a kindergartner."

(Third grade) "The third graders were learning cursive Es and Hs, as well as continuing their creative writing story. I ended up working with a student who had been mischievous toward me the previous visit. This day, he was very passive and willing to learn from me. He has a very low English writing level and continued to revert to his native language. I helped him write out his story, but he has obvious confusion with verb tenses and spelling."

DAY 3:

(Kindergarten) "The teacher immediately had me pull one of the ESL students out of the lesson into the back corner table with his yellow folder. Instantly, he became very restless and whined about how he didn't want to work with me. The teacher had me take him away from their favorite lesson of the day, singing songs about being kind, the months, days of the week, autumn, hygiene, etc. Obviously, the music was blaring and the students were excitedly shout-singing along, and all this student wanted to do was go over by his friends. I could hardly focus on teaching with all of the noise."

(Third grade) "I observed the teacher's lesson on teaching feedback for creative writing. He then had me show how to use a dictionary to look up words and explain the importance of filling out their personal student dictionaries with words they don't know and need to correct the spelling of in their writing. I spent a lot of time working with an ESL student who struggles with capitalization, punctuation and verb tenses in her writing (and tenses in speech as well). To the best of my ability, we tried to focus on some new vocabulary words and I helped her begin to make corrections in her creative writing piece. I feel like I had a good impact in the third grade classroom this time - especially since my teacher took me off to the side and shared his CUPS feedback technique with me: Capitalization, Understanding, Punctuation, Spelling."

It's obvious that L&S experiences have their ups and downs, just as real-life teacher experiences do. I feel this is perhaps the biggest learning aspect of L&S, not necessarily learning how or how not to teach, but learning to adapt to your students and their strengths and weaknesses. My best advice with L&S is always having an optimistic attitude, regardless of the day you had before arriving at your placement or the experience you've been having in the classroom.

Next time, I plan to write to you about some clubs I'm involved in on campus. Type to you soon! :)

Everything's Falling Into Place

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 15:07:10 -0400

Hi, everyone!

Autumn has finally hit NU, and boy does it get chilly in the morning and at night! Students walk around with Tim Hortons or a coffee/tea/hot cocoa from Clet to keep warm and awake. I myself have become quite fond of the chai tea from Clet, but that's beside the point. I want to take this blog to tell you a bit more about courseload, because schoolwork definitely is an important part of college.

Courses

Right now I'm taking six courses for the semester. Content varies, as do professors' teaching styles. The class I'm most fond of right now is actually Math for Elementary Teachers, which surprises me because I was never fond of math in the past. The difference is that our professor goes out of her way to make sure we understand every part of the concept and teaching techniques so that we will be prepared to teach that math to our own students in the near future.

Studying

Studying is definitely a big part of success in college. Flashcards and highlighters are two of the best pieces of advice I can give you. I use a different color highlighter for every subject: religion is yellow, writing is pink, education is green, French is purple, NUB is blue, and math is orange. This helps me organize all of my notes and due dates in my planner as well (more on that later). Flashcards are especially useful with vocabulary terms and memorizing concepts. I suggest setting aside a half hour each day at least four days before a test. Cramming definitely won't help you understand everything you will be tested on.

Best Study Spots

The first few weeks of the semester, a group of my friends would meet up on the second floor study wing of the library. We'd proof read each other's work and make sure we all had time to de-stress every once in a while. However, as the semester continues, assignments pick up and we mostly study in our dorms, where we can control how loud or quiet our room is and have less distractions. I know a lot of people also like to sit down and study in Clet, as well as people who sit outside when the weather is warm enough. Personal preference will lead you to where you will best focus on your studying.

Organization/Time Management

My very best piece of advice for you is to manage your time. I was never an organized person throughout middle or high school, but now I can't imagine not keeping track in a planner. In fact, I have two planners that I always carry around with me: one contains all of my assignments and class/work study schedules, and the other contains important due dates, club meetings and things to remember (birthdays/holidays).

I have a weekly whiteboard above my bed for assignments for the week and a whiteboard opposite that where I list my daily to-dos. Another important thing is scheduling sleep. It might sound silly, but when you've somehow only had four hours of sleep before an especially long lecture, you're going to be embarrassed if you start nodding off. Plus, if you catch up, you can plan more time for friends (like for a super quirky New Girl second season premiere party!).

Next time, I'll update you on what Learn and Serve is and how my very first day at my placement went. Type to you soon! :)

Purple Pride

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 15:43:00 -0400

Hi, everyone! My name is Sarah Hanson and I'm a member of the class of 2016. I'm so excited to blog for all of you, because I know that the student blogs helped me feel more comfortable about going to NU when I read them last year. I want to use this blog post to introduce you to a little bit about me and what I've been up to these past couple weeks.

Major

I'm a student of the College of Education here at Niagara. Our education program is so unique, because freshmen start working in the classroom right away with something called Learn & Serve. I have not received my placement yet, but I'll be sure to let you know when I do! I am pursuing a double major in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and French. In the future, I'm planning to dual minor as well in literacy and writing studies, to make myself more marketable for careers after college.

Dorm Life

I live on campus in Clet, the dorm located right next to Clet Dining Hall. A lot of people are always anxious to know how the dorms are set up, so I figured I'd try to tell you here. In my room, we have two closets, two beds, two desks, two chairs, six shelves, two mirrors, and two shelve/nightstands that can stay under or be brought out from underneath the desks.

Everyone on my floor loves living here, because it's always so quiet and peaceful. Yes, we have our occasional bursts of energy and decorate the hallway or have an impromptu dance party to the Wobble, but otherwise we're known as the studious dorm. It's nice to know that if you want to go to bed at 10 p.m., you totally can without any disturbances. (Then again, when you have an awesome roommate, there's no way you're going to bed at 10 p.m.)

Speaking of roomies, I need to introduce you to mine! The picture is of me on the left and Sarah on the right. We're both holding the stuffed animals we stuffed at the O'Shea Carnival. (My raccoon is named Raphael.) Yup, we're both named Sarah, and it's fantastic! Our friends know us as Sarah^2 (squared), or by our nicknames, Sunshine and Samoa.

It's really funny to joke around with Sarah, because she's always bringing up weird facts about living in New Jersey. She's really sarcastic, which totally goes along with my giggles! One of my favorite roomie activities is when Sarah picks up her guitar or uke and has me sing along with her to pop songs (we really like Owl City and Mumford and Sons.) I actually met Sarah through Facebook, which just goes to show that social networking can sometimes produce fantastic results!

PLUNGE

Sarah and I were granted the awesome opportunity to move into our dorm early and get acquainted with the Lewiston and Niagara Falls areas through NU PLUNGE. PLUNGE is a three-day program that runs prior to New Student Orientation. We did a lot of different community service projects, played fun games, ate yummy food and explored our faith.

We have named some of the people we met through PLUNGE our Plungers/Plunge Family, including our friends Andrew, Ashleigh, Emma, Justine, Kate, Matt, Sunny and Vanessa. We continue to see each other around the library, Clet Dining Hall, or through chapel choir, which some of us joined. I highly recommend PLUNGE to anyone interested in meeting people early on in college!

Friends

Speaking of friends, I'd like to talk about some other people we've become acquainted with around campus. Justine introduced us to her roommate, Janene, as well as Carl. James joined our group of friends because he's a Jersey native like Sarah, and Margot and Hanna live in our same dorm hall. Michael, my fellow blogger, is hilariously sarcastic and I'm so happy to share some education classes with him; and he introduced us to his friend Courtney! Our CAs, Meg and Elysia, are also so much fun! Obviously, you can tell that we've already met a bunch of friends, and will hopefully be meeting even more people! It definitely helps to be yourself and have a bubbly personality when you're getting adjusted to college life.

Coursework

Finally, of course I need to talk a bit about the first week of classes! College classes are definitely different compared to high school classes. You definitely need to pay attention and keep up the pace with what the professor is discussing. Overall, the homework has been pretty easy; I've already completed my first paper with just the most minor of complaints. Professors give ample notice for due dates, so time management is the only thing that will be either your friend or foe.

Arguably, I've already had my fair share of late nights/early mornings, but that has been my decision and I'm aware of the price I'll have to pay the next day (Thank goodness for Tim Hortons!). The dorm room is most likely the best place to study, due to the quiet atmosphere, but I prefer to study in a group with all of my friends at the library. I'll write more about that later.

I suppose I've typed more than enough for now, so I will update you on further subjects in my next post. Thanks for reading! :)