FOCUS

Hi All,

It has snowed twice here in the last week! I cannot believe it. The last few years KC has has such a mild December.

Well as this post is titled....FOCUS. It will be the theme of this week for me. In case you have not heard this coming Thursday starts exam week at Rockhurst. I am lucky I get to take all my exams this week and go home this weekend instead of having some next week also. With the conference I am planning coming up in January and finals ending later than normal it will be nice to have those extra few days of break.

Last week, I found out I got exempt from one of my finals. It was such a good feeling because I had worked so hard all semester. It was a really challenging class but I had poured so much time into studying in that class that it felt good to have my hard work finally pay off.

Additionally, last week I also got my philosophy exam done and my term paper in the class turned it. It is such a great feeling to be finished with a class. I enjoyed this philosophy class a lot more than I enjoyed the one I had last year. This year I took Ethical Theory. It is part of the core required by all students at Rockhurst.

This week I have
-Wednesday: Operations Management Final
-Thursday: Study Day!
-Friday: Corporate Tax and Business Law.

With all the Christmas activities going on and hearing Christmas music on. It is extra hard to focus.  Last night Rockhurst had their annual Christmas Concert. I was unable to go but I heard it was great!

Keys to finals week:
- Focus---Give yourself study breaks
-Keep the end in sight- As Father Curran says "This too shall pass" for some finals week may seem so long but it is really not.
-Take it one final at a time
-Eat Healthy
-Get a lot of sleep
-Enjoy finals week. For me I actually enjoy finals week there is a lot of extra time to study and everyone is excited about the upcoming break.

What keys to finals week do you have to add?

Thankful

Hi Everyone,


Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! It was a very chilly thanksgiving here in Chicago. I think they said it was the coldest thanksgiving in twenty some years! Crazy how cold it has been so early. It normally does not get this cold until Januaryish. When there is no snow but it is so cold. You look out the window and think "oh its not that cold outside" but then you walk outside and that cold wind hits your face.

It has been a fun Thanksgiving break. On Tuesday, I had a meeting for my internship downtown Chicago with the hotel staff where the conference I have been planning is going to be at, then I took my sister to lunch at The Walnut Room. It is a really pretty restaurant inside of the flagship store of Macy's. It was Marshall Fields. It has been open for like 100 years.

Here is a picture of my sister and I there.


Then on Thanksgiving day we did a 5k Turkey Trot Run to raise money for local charities. It was really a great time. There were over 6500 runners. It was pretty crazy. I had my best time in a 5k time ever. It was a great flat course to run.

Here is picture of me and my sisters from the race:


The rest of break I have spent relaxing with the family, trying to get mentally prepared for these last few weeks.  Yes, we are all wearing donate life shirts. We ran the 5k as part of the "Team Illinois" we are all big organ donation supporters.

This break was great to just be home and spend the time with the family. It made me realize how blessed I am to have such an awesome family! I thank god everyday for the blessing they are today

Hawks Make it to the Elite 8!

Just wanted to share this fun email that went out to all students on Friday night!

Hawk Fans,

Thanks to all who attend last nights Midwest Regional Soccer Victory!!  The crowd, and the team were outstanding!  Tomorrow, we have a chance to earn a trip to the NCAA Final Four in Men's Soccer, in Augusta, GA.  This would mark the first time for the team to advance to the Championship Round of the NCAA Tournament.  Let's get behind the team tomorrow, and make the day an event to remember.  Game starts at 1:00, but be on the lookout for updates throughout today, for events leading up to the game.  Let's turn out our students, alumni, faculty, staff and fans.  Come to the events, bring a friend, rally your sorority or fraternity, bring your dorm floor.  Last night was a great turnout.......how many more can we bring tomorrow?  Cheer Squad, I need you there!  Dance Team, I need you there!  Rock E. I need you there!  Drummer, I need you there!  Student Senate, I need you there!  Social Mentors, I need you there!  Alums, I need you there!  Athletes, I need you there!

Activities will start at 11:30 with food, music and fun.  Be on the lookout today for details on Rockhurst Social Media, and emails.  Text your crew now.......let's get this celebration started!!!  We can build momentum by attending the Women's Basketball Game tonight at 5:00 in Mason-Halpin.  The Chiefs will be around next week.......This is a weekend for our community!  I look forward to seeing all of you at the games this weekend!!

Athletics will provide free tickets for all who attend!!!  Wear your blue.

Coach Burns
GO HAWKS!!!

Sibling Rivalry

Hi All,

Hope you have been having a good week! This past week the Rockhurst Men's Basketball team played at Loyola University in Chicago. Loyola U. in Chicago is a Division 1 school so if you listened to the radio or watched the ESPN ticker close enough you could see Rockhurst's name. It is one of the few times that Rockhurst's name is on there. I was listening to Chicago radio that morning and hear Rockhurst's name mentioned.

As I mentioned before one of my sisters attends another one of the Jesuits colleges. She goes to Loyola U. in Chicago. So her and my Dad attended the game (we had a little sibling rivalry) I even convinced her to wear her Rockhurst gear (for at least half of the game). Rockhurst played well but ended up loosing to Loyola U. Better luck next time Hawks! On Friday Nov. 26th the Rockhurst Men's basketball team plays at the Sprint Center if you happen to be in the Kansas City area make sure to come out and cheer them on! More details about that game can be found on the Rockhurst website.

This game at Loyola used to be over winter break back two years ago when it was I went. It was fun to watch the team in my hometown!

Thanks to my sister for the pictures!

Catching up after being gone

Hi All,

So sorry for the blogging delay! I was at a conference all last weekend! It was the National Collegiate Honors Council Annual Conference. It took place down at the Sheraton in New Orleans. It was an awesome conference full of nerdy people from honors programs at colleges and universities nationwide. The conference website is: http://nchchonors.org/annual-conference/2013-conference/

This was my first time ever being in New Orleans so it was a great escape from the routine and ordinary of the semester. Especially at this time in the semester when we are in the midst of a long stretch of full weeks it was nice to take a little vacation. It always makes coming back a transition and busy catching up from all the work that didn't get done at the conference. New Orleans certainly has a unique flavor to it. It grows on you after a little while. Haha. The French Benigets (or something like that. Not quite sure how you spell that) but there are super good in my opinion they are ten million times better than donuts. The hotel was pretty awesome we stayed up on the 32nd floor.  Great view, great workout room and a nice pool. More to come on the conference in the coming weeks!

This the my fourth National Collegiate Honors Council Conference. I went to present on behalf of the Rockhurst University honors program to present on best practices for fundraising your honors program. It is a great honor to be asked by the honors director to go and present at these conferences.


The theme of the conference was conflict, transformation and creolization. The description of the theme was, "Since its beginnings as a French colony in 1718, New Orleans has ever been a focal point of social and geopolitical conflicts. Evolving from the intersection of Native Americans, French and Spanish explorers, colonists, nuns and priests, as well as African slaves and free people of color, these confrontations resolved over time into a new synthesis by a process now known as Creolization. The cradle of jazz, Mardi Gras, and savory Cajun cuisine, New Orleans is a paradigm for the creativity that emerges from multicultural interplay. With the resurgence of Spanish language and culture brought by a new wave of immigrants following Hurricane Katrina in 2006, as well as the incursion of new investors in abandoned areas, cultural conflict and development continues to color the city. The resulting confrontations among values, languages, religions and artistic endeavors will continue to transform the city of New Orleans as a rich and unparalleled source of creative cultural synthesis."

Fall Break

Hi All,

I am catching up on my blogging (2 posts on one night). Sorry! For some reason this semester I have always set aside time to blog every week but something always seems to come up. I enjoy taking the time to blog and share what is going on here at Rockhurst with all of you! I hope you enjoy reading it!

Anyway, today ends fall break for all of us here at Rockhurst. The dorms stay open over break but when I say it is pretty much dead over break it is dead. On Tuesday I took a flight back to Chicago for 36 hours. In that 36 hours I had a meeting about a project I am working on in Haiti and got two of my wisdom teeth pulled then headed back to Kansas City.

Fall break is a great time to just relax, catch up on a little sleep and oh get some homework done (or at least have hopes of getting homework done) Haha.

I cannot believe I register for classes tomorrow for the last time here at Rockhurst. It is my last semester. It should be a little bit of an easier semester for me. More to come next week on which classes I get into.

This week starts my next round of exams (2/3rds of the way through the semester). Hard to believe this semester has certainly been one of the more interesting and challenging semesters I have had here at school.  More to come on that in another blog.

By the way a cool event: Dan Rather, a part of the Rockhurst leadership series was supposed to come and speak last week had to reschedule for next moth. Want more info? http://www.rockhurst.edu/news/article/leadership-council-brings-legendary-journalist-dan-rather/

"Rather will be this year’s Rockhurst University Leadership Series speaker, with the legendary journalist speaking at a luncheon scheduled from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday, Nov. 11, in the Basie Ballroom at the Downtown Marriott, 200 W. 12th St. in Kansas City, Mo. The luncheon had been postponed from an earlier date due to illness.
The title of the presentation is “Dan Rather: Leadership Principles From the World’s Most Powerful Leaders.”

From last week

Silence... One of my favorite Pandora stations is the relaxation radio station. All around you always hear people talking it is nice to break it up with just some relaxing music for a change.

Hi All,

Hope everyone has had a good two weeks. First, I want to apologize for not getting this up last week. Last weekend I went on a campus ministry sponsored silent retreat. It was really nice to escape the routine and head out to the country for 24 hours in silence. The fall colors had just started to turn so it was picture perfect to say the least.

My birthday was last Friday so this retreat was in a way my birthday gift to myself. It was something I had never done before I figured what the heck give it a try. I was able to do some reflecting on what I am being called to do next year and reflect back on the past 4 years here at Rockhurst. When people say college flies bye they are not kidding.

The place we went to for the retreat was called Christ's peace out in Easton, Kansas. I have to admit as we were driving out there I have never before seen numbered streets get as high as they did out there. I think we got up to 212th street before we finally got there. The retreat center is on 60 plus acres and each of the 6 of us that went on the retreat had our own cabin. It felt like a scene out of a story book, a little private cabin out in the woods.

I really enjoy the variety of retreats that campus ministries puts on. This was my third different type of retreat that I have been on through campus ministries. Freshman year I went on both the "Frosh Get A Away" which a freshman retreat giving freshman a chance to hear from some upper classmen and meet fellow freshman. The other retreat I went on my freshman year was called Retreat on the Rock. It is a smaller in terms of group size retreat consisting of longer personal talks and small group time.

I personally encourage all those at Rockhurst to go on at least one retreat while they are here. Campus ministries subsidizes them to  make them really affordable. :)

Here is a quote about silence:
“We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence to be able to touch souls.”
--Blessed Mother Teresa

Sorry for the Delay... A break from the exams

Hi All,

Happy end of homecoming week to all those at Rockhurst. This past week has been homecoming week which ended last night with the homecoming dance. Since we do not have a football team here at Rockhurst we do the parade of the homecoming court at the Soccer game on Friday night.

This week also happened to be midterm week for a lot of us here at Rockhurst. As my short blog entry said on Thursday I finished my exams...for now.... It is nice to have one exam under my belt in every class! This past week I had my Corporate tax exam and my philosophy 3100 (Ethical Theory) exams. Both went amazingly well (at least from how I think I did on them). We shall see for sure when I get them back but it is always a good sign when you finish an exam and you feel good about it.

The week before last I had exams in Advanced Accounting, Business Law and Operations Management. Those all went decently. I am one of those impatient people that can hardly wait to get my grade back on my exam once I take it. I am not sure quite why but I hate the waiting. Haha.

Oh...exciting news Rockhurst just posed the course times for classes for next semester. The other evening I was starting to plan on which classes I would take. It is hard to believe I am registering for classes for the last time. The way it works at Rockhurst is your register by the number of credit hours you have taken thus far (ie so seniors register first). A perk about being in the honors program is that the students in their get to register a few days before they would normally get to thus helping them get into upper level classes before they fill up.

Also, on the bright side fall break is next week! Hope you all have a fantastic week. The weekend weather here has been great. I am off for a run. I will be blogging again soon!

Done!

I just got back from a 6 mile run and finished my last midterm. Sorry I have fallen off of the blogging world a little bit! More to follow this weekend or sooner maybe!

Longer Blog Coming Soon!

Hi All,

Sorry. It has been a very busy weekend and I have an exam tomorrow morning plus a take home exam due Thursday!! Plus lots of other work to do! I promise I will post a long blog as soon as I can!

It was a very busy weekend around Rockhurst with the Hopkins 5k and family and alumni weekend.

Check out the Rockhurst Facebook page for tons of pics from the weekend (hint there is at least one of me). Good luck finding it.

The heart of the semester

Hi All,

Alright the honeymoon period of the beginning of senior year has officially ended!

Reality has set in. You know the period when you just have to keep up on your reading and all the beginning of the year festivities are going on. My first exams of the semester is this coming week. This is when it really matters (it has mattered all along but you know what I mean). It is the time in the semester when 20% or more of your grade in a course can be determined in the course of an hour long exam. A lot of my courses this semester are set up where we have 3 exams per semester. It is hard to believe that already about a third of the semester or a sixth of my senior year has passed.

This week I have a business law exam and possibly an Intro into operations management exam (our professor said he would tell us Monday if the exam is going to be Wednesday or if he is going to push it back a week). Both of these classes are part of the core that every business student in the Helzberg school of management has to take. I really appreciate the business school core in addition to the school core. The business school core has made sure that we are well rounded and knowledgeable at least on a basic level in all the various aspects of business from organizational communication to accounting to business law.

On Thursday I stopped in to say goodbye to one of my former business school teachers who had taught me micro computer operations and marketing. He has been teaching here for countless years and has certainly impacted countless number of students.

Here are a few quotes for the week.

"Do what you can with what you have where you are" -Theodore Roosevelt

"Never frown because you never know who might be falling in love with your smile" Justine Milton

P.S. One final note I have this awesome application on my phone called motivational quotes. It has countless quotes and changes them every so often. It certainly offers some good food for thought.

Iggy Week

Hi All,

As you might recall from my blog entry last weekend, I mentioned that this past week is Ignatian Heritage week. It was a week packed full of events. It started off with Fr. Bill, Director of the Jesuit Residence here at Rockhurst giving the homily at the student mass last Sunday. For the gospel they read out of the Saint John's bible that was commissioned by the Benedictine monks of the Abbey of Saint John in Collegeville, Minn. The Director of the project came to speak on Wednesday night as part of the Ignatian Heritage week events. The Director came into his position before the idea was brought to Saint John’s to do this bible, it just kindof fell into his lap. Tim Ternes the Director of the program was a great speaker, he filled Mabee theater with students, faculty, alumni and community members for his talk.

I have to say it is amazing to see this reproduction of it up close. There are 7 volumes of it that make up the whole bible. It is the first time in nearly 500 years that there has been a hand written bible. This is the heritage edition of the bible. There are only 299 reproductions of it.

“Saint John's Abbey and University commissioned The Saint John's Bible to ignite the spiritual imagination of all peoples throughout the world,” Ternes said. “Their goal was to commission a work of art that illuminated the Word of God for a new millennium, in a way that is relevant to the 21st century.” To read more click here: http://www.rockhurst.edu/news/article/saint-johns-bible-coming-rockhurst/

The artwork in the Saint John's bible is simply amazing how it is contemporary and relevant to this century. There is actually a photo of the twin towers weaved into the prodigal son artwork in the bible.

On Tuesday, we had our annual mass of the Holy Spirit asking the God to send the holy spirit’s blessing upon the university this year. This is a tradition that is done by every Jesuit school. Afterwards we had a Renaissance themed lunch. It was a very nice mass and the lunch was very yummy.

Other than that my classes and my internship are keeping me busy. 

Hope you have a great week!

Below is a picture of the bible.  

Quote for the week: "Our greatest battles are that with our own minds" -Jameson Frank

A Great Short Week!

Hi All,

Hope everyone had a fantastic Labor Day last weekend! It was a very relaxing Labor Day for me. I went for a long 6 mile run in the morning on Labor Day! The rest of the day was spent on just working on reading ahead for classes and doing some work at my internship. 

This week has gone so fast! Tuesday felt like it should be Friday but after that the rest of the week flew by. Having Labor Day off I got to miss the busiest day of classes which was nice in a way. Now this week reality of a full week will set in. I am interested to see how it is. 

Last week the Honors Program had it's first event. For members to remain active in the honors program they have to attend 2 events each semester. These events range from academic focused events to pure fun events. The event last week was about studying abroad and one honors student who studied abroad shared about their experiences. I have really enjoyed the honors program has put on over the last few years. I am now President of the Honors Exec. board. The Exec board works extremely hard to organize the events for the semester as well as facilitate communications among the program members and helps to maintain the honors room. The honors room is a study room only for honors students in Sedwick with couches and tables. It is great to go in there and relax in between classes or to work on a group project. If you are considering coming to Rockhurst make sure you apply to be in the honors program. You will be glad you did.

This week is Ignatian Heritage week! Next week in my blog I will talk about the exciting events that take place on campus during Ignatian Heritage week during my next blog entry.

In honor of Ignatian Heritage week here is a picture of St. Iggy here on campus.

Quote for the week: “Work like you don’t need the money. Love like you’ve never been hurt. Dance like nobody’s watching”  Satchel Paige

P.S. I hope this weather cools down its been soo hot lately!

A week done

Hi All,

So the first full week of classes are done and we already have a three day weekend for the Labor Day. Labor Day serves as a nice break for those students who are getting a little home sick and need a taste of home. At schools like Rockhurst where a lot of students come from places within 4 hours away a majority of the students here go home for the labor day weekend. I was at my internship on Friday and came back, thought to my self, where did everyone go? and I was like oh yeah Labor Day weekend.  Anyway, I needed the three day weekend, I have been busy with my internship and also with a Haiti water and education project. Campus has been coming alive this past week. We had the free stuff fair on Wednesday where all the clubs and student organizations have a table so that both the incoming freshman and returning students can get a taste of what all Rockhurst offers and decide what they want to get involved in.

This weekend I got to take a break from doing homework and watch the Notre Dame Fighting Irish win their first game of the season. It is so exciting to have college football back on! I am a big college football fan. If I had to choose my favorite sport of the major sports to watch it would be college football. I am one of those that likes college over pro. Sorry, to those of you who are huge pro football fans. There is something magical about college campuses on game day weekends.

Anywho, Rockhurst hasn't had a football team in a very long time. We were undefeated back when did have a team though!

Hope you have a great start to your week.

Me at the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance Student Association Table at the Free Stuff Fair

Happy Labor Day!

Service

Hi All,

Hope everyone had a good week. Classes started on Wednesday and the class reading assignments have already started to pile up but hey what would college life be without them. I am excited to have this be a full week of classes so I can get back into a routine. For me routines are really nice and help me to keep a low stress level.

Anyway, I wanted to take this blog post to reflect back to what I did last Sunday. As some of you may not know every year as part of freshman orientation all the incoming freshman along with community members and upperclassmen participate in the Finucane service project. This service project was a part of orientation my freshman year that I really enjoyed!

This was my fourth year participating in the Finucane service project. We went to a community garden where we helped them clear bush out from around fruit trees that are growing. These fruit trees are for anyone in the community to come pick the fruit from which I think is a really neat concept. Father Curran, the President of Rockhurst even came with our group. I really think it is so neat that father still participates in the service project. Make sure to check out the pictures at the bottom of this post from our service project site.

I think it is really a great way for upperclassmen to set an example for the freshman going along with them to do service projects. A lot of the sports teams and greek organizations on campus also participate in the Finucane service project.

What a great way to instill one of the Rockhurst's core values in the freshman by doing this service project. It also introduces them to a wide variety of organizations in the community where they can go to do service learning projects for classes in the years to come. Since the freshman go to sites by orientation groups likely they have friends in other groups that went to other sites so that each one after sharing their experiences with their friends in other groups now knows about 4 or 5 places to go to volunteer in the community at least.\

Reflection is also big here at Rockhurst. To end our time at the service sites the orientation group leaders, lead the group in a reflection which is a really nice thing to do because it can be so easy at times to loose sight of who you are doing the service for.

Quote for the week: "True courage is taking another small step each day toward achieving your vision"

My goal for Senior Year... Magis

Hi All,

So as I have been blogging I have been thinking about how cool it would be to have a theme for senior year.

For those of you who don't know how this works is Rockhurst every year picks a theme for the year to focus on and this year the theme for the year is Magis or "More". So it is a pretty broad theme and the university will have an easy time incorporating the theme.

After reading the book "The Time Keeper" on our family vacation to myrtle beach and reading through a website that listed the best quotes from the movie I found this: “There was always a quest for more minutes, more hours, faster progress to accomplish more in each day. The simple joy of living between summers was gone.” 

My goal, wish and prayer for this my senior year (my final year, my last harah, my final chance to leave an impact on Rockhurst, a community that has given so much to me over the years) is:

-To live each moment present to those around me and always striving to use them for the "Magis" and the greater glory of God our father.  

I have a habit of misusing time in ways that do not further this and this year as Honors Program and Nonprofit Student Association President's I have the chance to really leave a mark on this university and set those programs in director of the "Magis".

The Honors program is all about the "Magis" of knowledge and intellect. 

The Nonprofit Program is all about the "Magis" of serving others  and wanting more from life.

A quote from the book, “He cried that night for all that he had lost, but he would say it taught him a valuable lesson: that holding on to things "will only break your heart.”. There are some things and past relationships in my life that I need to let go of they only break my heart keeping them. I have also tried to simply my life in terms of the amount of stuff I have. 

I have given myself this goal of living this year for the "Magis" and making the most out of my time here.

As a friend of mine who is the Residence Director in McGee said that they are putting the "Magis in McGee"! 

Unpacking

Hi All,

As I sit here writing this blog it is hard to believe that I am back for my final year at Rockhurst. 

Where has the time gone?... Time there are some points in life when time can not go bye fast enough and there are other times in life when time cannot slow down enough and we wish we have more time.

On one hand I am excited and ready to be done with college and get out in the world to see what it has in store for me. On another hand I can hardly believe this is my last move in day. Hard to believe. As I told people my sister was moving in to school for the first time I thought to my self this is the last time I'm moving onto a freshman campus. This is the last year I get to help welcome new freshman to campus and see them all say goodbye to their parents as they wish them well on the next part of their life's journey. 

But life is a journey and part of that journey is accepting that in some stages in life you have to accept that they come to quick ends but that is only because the next stage in life is that much more exciting. I hope that makes some sense to you as a reader. 

Over my past vacation we listened to a book on tape called "The Time Keeper" by Mich Album. I really liked the book. It has a slow start. 

Here are two quotes from the book

“Try to imagine a life without timekeeping. You probably can’t. You know the month, the year, the day of the week. There is a clock on your wall or the dashboard of your car. You have a schedule, a calendar, a time for dinner or a movie. Yet all around you, timekeeping is ignored. Birds are not late. A dog does not check its watch. Deer do not fret over passing birthdays. an alone measures time. Man alone chimes the hour. And, because of this, man alone suffers a paralyzing fear that no other creature endures. A fear of time running out.” 

“As mankind grew obsessed with its hours, the sorrow of lost time became a permanent hole in the human heart. People fretted over missed chances, over inefficient days; they worried constantly about how long they would live, because counting life’s moments had led, inevitably, to counting them down. Soon, in every nation and in every language, time became the most precious commodity.” 

Wow where has summer gone?

Sorry this was supposed to be published weeks ago it just never happened. Haha.

Hi Everyone,

It is great to finally have a few minutes to take a blog. I have been meaning to blog for the last few days I have just never had time to. Sorry I have not done it sooner. I cannot believe we leave for vacation this week. We are headed out to South Carolina to do some exploring (mostly just relaxing at the beach) is what it will most likely be.

It has been a perfect weather weekend here in Chicago. I think it was like 81 here out.

I have been busy with my summer internship for the nonprofit leadership studies and trying to start getting ready for another year. It is hard to believe my last and final school year is almost upon me. My sister is applying for a desk assistant position at Loyola which is cool that she is following in my foot steps of being a desk assistant at Rockhurst. Still being a desk assistant at Rockhurst was one of the highlights of my year!

Well sorry this is a short blog but I should go run literally!

Another week of Summer has passed...

Hi All,

It is hard to believe that another week of summer has flown bye. I do not even know where this week went to. It seems like yesterday that I was blogging last when really it was over a week ago. Hard to believe.

Yesterday our family had tickets to the Chicago White Sox Game so I went. It was hot but fun. It was a good game too. It is always funny when the biggest cheer was in the 4th inning when the Sox scored. It was not only because the Sox scored but because it also happened in the 4th inning. You might ask what is so special about the 4th inning while Dunkin Donuts here in Chicago runs a promotion that when the Sox score in the 4th inning everyone wins a free small iced coffee. It is funny to see how the excitement level increased with everyone winning the free coffee. Also, at the game yesterday was the most successful "Wave" through the crowd that I have seen in a long time. It went around the stadium twice, at least. It is interest to watch how when more people are doing the wave in the sections approaching your section you are more likely to do it. Anyway, I must let it be known that when it comes to Chicago Baseball I am a Cubs fan through and through. I only go to Chicago White Sox games because my youngest sister and my Dad are big Chicago White Sox fans.

Here is a picture my mom took of my Sister and I at the game 

In other news I am starting to look in Grad School. So Wednesday, I went to meet with the program director of Notre Dame's Master's in Nonprofit Administration (MNA) program. I really like Notre Dame's campus and they are supposed to have a really good program. It was good to sit down and talk with their program director and hear more details about the program. Knowing that there is a good chance I will be going to grad school also means it is time to start thinking about the GRE. You know how in high school you think that ohh once you finish the ACT you are done with standardized tests... haha such a joke. Anyway so this week I should take some time to start reviewing for the GRE. Good thing is that your GRE score is good for 5 years so once you take it and are happy with your score even if I defer grad school for a few years I will not have to retake it.

Also, the learning center at Rockhurst does offer GRE preparation materials so I am going to be sure to make use of those in the coming months leading up to the test.

This week looks to be a pretty typical week as summer weeks come. I found a living social (like Groupon) deal so my Dad and I are going kayaking tomorrow evening so that should be interesting. Otherwise it is a week to plow along and hopefully get a lot of work done for my internship and try to spend some time enjoying summer (before it escapes). Anyway hope you have a great week. I found this quote hope you like it.

Summer Internship

Hi All,

The title of this blog post is deceiving because the internship I am currently doing is not just a summer internship. It is one I started back at the end of March and will continue till the end of this coming academic year/my senior year (aka till late Spring of  2014). Sorry I have not talked much about my internship till this time. It is not because I am not enjoying it or anything. Much to the contrary- I am really loving my internship and is giving me some fantastic experience.

My official title is AMI Planning Intern for an organization called the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance. The Mission of the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance is to strengthen the social sector with a talented, prepared workforce. They are based out of Kansas City, down in the Power and Light district for those of you Kansas City people. The Nonprofit Leadership Alliance is the national organization that certifies nonprofit professionals. I am currently enrolled in the program through Rockhurst University so through doing the Nonprofit Leadership Studies Major at Rockhurst I will also receive my CNP Designation from the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance. So once I graduation I will be able to put MY NAME, CNP. To read more about the program Rockhurst offers in Nonprofit Leadership Studies check out this link http://www.rockhurst.edu/academics/undergraduate/majors/nonprofit-leadership/overview/

Back to my role as the AMI Planning Intern. You might be wondering what is AMI. AMI stands for the Alliance Management/Leadership Institute. AMI is the national institute held every January for the students seeking their CNP designation. All students before they get their CNP have to come to the Institute at least one time. Over 550 students will come this year to the conference along with campus faculty and Social Sector Leaders. At the Institute there will be workshops for the students to go to, Keynote speakers, a case study project where the students go into the community and work on a real issue a nonprofit is currently facing and many other neat things! I will be sharing more over the coming weeks and months!

I am working on putting the Institute together from details about the schedule to the fundraising aspect. Over the coming weeks and months I will be sharing more with you. To learn more about the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance visit: http://www.nonprofitleadershipalliance.org/aboutus/aboutus.html#sthash.jxWkYJYz.dpbs

Inspiration

The Motivation Blog! I have dedicated one blog post to motivation. Hope you all enjoy. Rockhurst has motivated me to be the best leader that I can be!

4th of July

Hi Everyone,

Hope everyone had a great fourth of July! Here in Chicago the weather was the best it had been all summer. It did not rain for over 4 days (I think that is the longest period of time over the summer that it has gone without raining). 

On Thursday I went for a bike ride with my Mom. It was a great morning for a bike ride. We ended up going like 16 miles it was so much fun. We went to a family friends house for dinner in the evening. The afternoon was spent just cleaning the house and relaxing. One of my friends came in this past weekend and we were having a gathering at our house over the weekend.

More on that to come. I found this cool quote! Hope you enjoy it!

Catching up with an Old Friend... A summer blessing... And a book

My favorite part of the summer is getting a chance to catch up with friends who I have lost contact with over the last few months. There are those friends who you loose contact with over the years but are always there for you. On this occasion I was excited to catch up with her but didn't really except to have the great conversation that I had. It came at just the right time too. You know how when you you and a friend both have busy lives doing amazing things (trying to change the world and everything haha just kidding) but anyway then when you finally have the time to catch up its like amazing. Catching up with this friend I walked away like God was really present. I really enjoy friends who you can openly share about your faith journey with. We both have a servants heart I feel like just wanting what is best for others and always trying to put others before myself. 

We shared about the ups and downs we have had since last talking to each other and what our next year has in store for us. She just graduated and is now going to start a year of service. Wherever God places her the people there will be so blessed by her presence. She is off to her summer job till she starts her year of service in the fall so I am not sure when I will get to see her next but I sure enjoyed our visit. Its those moments when your not always expecting it God graces in some special way. 

My friend before she left dropped by a book. She gave me the book Adam to read this summer. It is written by Henry Nouwen. I cannot wait to get further into it! It is amazing the impact a book can make on a person.  On the topics of books Rockhurst has selected some really good books the past few years for the Freshman reading books two of my favorites from past years have been. 

For a full listing of the books that Rockhurst has used in the past years for the Freshman Common Reading book check out this link: http://www.rockhurst.edu/student-experience/first-year-experience/theme-book/ 

The book for this year is The Freshman Survival Guide - Nora Bradbury-Haehl & Bill McGarvey. Are there any incoming freshman reading this blog who have read it? I will be curious to see how all the incoming freshman like the book. 

Rockhurst really tries to incorporate the freshman book throughout the year so I am really excited to see how they plan on doing it this year. 

I always like to end with a quote: This is a long one but I really like it so enjoy! 

In solitude we can listen to the voice of Him who spoke to us  before we could speak a word, who healed us before we could make any gesture to help, who set us free long before we could free others, and who loved us long before we could give love to anyone.  It is in this solitude that we discover that being is more important than having, and that we are worth more than the results of our efforts.  In solitude we discover that our life is not a possession to be defended, but a gift to be shared.  It's there we recognize that the healing words we speak are not just our own but are given to us; that the love we can express is part of a greater love; and that the new life we bring forth is not a property to cling to, but a gift to be received. (from Mornings with Henri Nouwen).

I am always curious to see who is reading my blog! Please feel free to comment if so inspired. 

New Look to the RU Magazine

Hi All,

Hope everyone's week is going good. The rain seems like it will never stop here. Some areas of Chicago got nailed with 3-6 inches of rain we only got an inch today but never fear we have gotten a lot of rain other days lately. I think it has rained everyday this week and every other day last week. One of my highlights of the day was going for a bike ride with a good friend from high school. We went on a new part of the trail they had built along the river that runs through our hometown. Total I think we went like 16 miles.

By the way look at the picture below what we got in the mail today! The newly redesigned Rockhurst University Magazine!  (YEAH sorry the picture is sideways).

Jealous you didn't get a copy? Have you gotten yours yet? What are your thoughts? Well you can always read the online version of the magazine. The link: http://issuu.com/rockhurst/docs/rumagazinesummer2013?e=7081428/3718317

Ohh and did you check out the answer RU Video Promo that came out the other week... and guess who is in the Hawk Costume?? ME! 

http://vimeo.com/68231897 

More highlights from my week will be coming soon! Maybe tomorrow if I have time! 

Life...

Hi All,

Hope everyone is enjoying the summer! The weather has been fairly cool here in Chicago so far this summer. As is the theme across the Midwest there has been a lot of rain this summer. It seems like it is raining here every other day. I went for a bike ride the other day with a with my friend from high school and we made it the first 8 miles without rain then the heaves just opened up and it started to rain. We ended up going for like a 16 mile bike ride. It was great. I love long bike rides. In the recent years they have added a lot of bike trails around Naperville where I live.

On the topic of biking. A few of my friends at Rockhurst have bikes. Kansas City is a great biking city. They have the Trolley trail which I have talked about before in my blogs. I have run over half of it and I love it most of my runs at school consist of at least part or all of it on the Trolley trail. It is a limestone trail which is nice and softer but the water from heavy rains does not drain off as fast. There is also a bike nonprofit across the street from Rockhurst where if you volunteer for them 10 hours you get a free bike. They collect old bikes and take them apart and build new bikes. It is really awesome!

Here is a picture!


It was really fun catching up with my friend. She is an RA so it was nice to talk about the world of working for Residence Life. It is funny how similar the programs are run and how easily you can relate your jobs to one another. Like how checkout works and how some RA's end up helping other RA's with their end of the year paperwork. We also talked about the future and graduate schools. It is amazing how fast college has flown by. I commented to her Senior year of college after senior year of high school. Applying for Graduate Schools.

Anyway I am enjoying an evening NCIS with my Dad

Happy Father's day weekend to all men out there. We are called to be fathers in some way.




Let's all find someone to believe in. It is the greatest gift possible.

Graduated

Hi everyone, hope everyone's week is going good!  This past weekend was my youngest sisters graduation party. It was a lot of fun. We had family come in from Kansas City, Omaha, South Bend, Greendale, WI and Indianapolis. We had all kinds of food at the party. My sisters and my mom homemade all kinds of desserts.

It was great to see all my extended family that came in for the part. It is hard to believe that my baby sister has graduated. It was great to see her so excited and so excite to move onto the next phase of her life. Currently as I write this my sister is going through her orientation at another Jesuit School, this one is here in the Chicago area.

We kept watching the weather for the party and there was always a thirty percent chance of rain. All week it stayed at a 30% chance. When the party started it was a little cloudy but it looked like the rain would hold off then about 2 hours into party I walk outside and I turn my head and see this sheet of raining coming down  and before I could even walk back into it started absolutely pouring. It wasn't like it started to drizzle before hand. It was as if the heavens just opened and poured down. We probably got 3/4th's of an inch of rain that afternoon. None the less the rain did not spoil the party. It was a great weekend with family.

Now I finally feel like I have started to settle into a bit of a summer routine. I am not one who needs a routine everyday but it is nice to have a routine that you can at least work from. I do work side jobs for neighbors during my free time so that always manages to keep me busy between them and my part time internship.

Two good quotes I found. Hope one of them you find good!

Its been a while...

Okay, Now after a few week break I am back at it blogging away. I will try to do a few entries this week to catch up since the end of the school year.

The last weekend of school as part of my job with the office of Residence Life I helped to close up the Residence Halls. It is always crazy to see how fast the campus can get so quiet. I have to admit it is kind of fun for a day being on a quiet campus. All the busyness died down and all the stuff had stuff to do just no one was in a rush which was so nice and peaceful. While I was around I helped out at the Mass that is always held on the friday before graduation and then I helped out at graduation that Saturday. One of the secondary reasons I helped out with graduation was that then I got to see how it all works for next year and tell my parents what to expect. Being the oldest I have always experience events like graduations first in our family. On the Sunday after graduation I helped to move all the senior out of the on campus housing and then in the evening the office of Residence Life takes the staff out for dinner to celebrate a year of hard week. In a way it was a little sad this was my second and last year working for Residence Life. In a way it will be nice because I do have my internship at Nonprofit Leadership Alliance planning their annual conference to take place in January 2014 in Chicago!

After the weekend moving others out it came time to move out my self. On monday I had dinner with one of my wonderful friends and headed back to Chicago. I took a different way back since I was going to stop and see my sister at Bradley University and help her pack up some of her larger objects. It was nice to get a change of scenery on the way back (speaking in relative terms that is the scenery of farm towns can only change so much). It was fun to see my sister and she even took me out for lunch/dinner. I am not sure if it was because I was hungry or if it was actually super good but I had a fresh fish sandwich which was super good. In a way I really don't mind the 8 hour drive that much it is nice to have some time to your self to just think and channel surf the radio and find interesting things like the reading of hog prices and some great country music stations :)


Anyway this is at least an update of the first part. A lot has happened since I shall write another entry tomorrow.  

Here is a cool pic/quote I found:

Final week of classes and SNOW

Hi All,

It is may 3rd and we have snow on the ground what is wrong with this picture. The Royals had their game canceled due to snow yesterday. I have to admit I am from Chicago so I thought nothing can beat the crazy weather that Chicago gets but I have to hand it to you Kansas City 80 degree days in January and snow on May 3rd this is pretty crazy. On Monday it was 86 out and I commented to a friend after I got back from a run that it was almost too hot out and now today the high is only like 40. People walking back from classes in flip flops and when it is snowing out was a funny scene I have to admit.

Anyway enough about the weather, I am officially done with classes for the semester time to celebrate right? .......oh wait there are those things called finals coming up next week, kind of important. I am very fortunate to only have two in class finals next week. My two in class finals are for Accounting Information Systems and Philosophy 1000, Reality and Human Existence Which I have to admit has been my hardest class at Rockhurst so far) so that is how I will be spending my weekend. I have one take home final due next week as well then freedom for the summer right?? Oh wait I work for Residence Life as a Desk Manager and as part of our contract we have to stay though the Sunday after graduation to help check out all the seniors. All the moms get to help their recent college grads move out on Mothers Day, what a great way to say "I love you Mom" now come help me move back home" in some cases. It is crazy to see how quiet campus gets so quickly. I have to admit I am kind of sad my time as a Residence Life staff member is coming to an end but how does the saying go "Everything happens for a Reason" or "When one door closes another opens" Once everyone leaves and it is just the Residence Life staff on campus you almost feel like you have the whole campus to your self. Then a week from Monday I am going to make the 8 hour drive back home.

Well that is it for now. I am off to go study with a few others for Philosophy. Hope everyone enjoys their weekend!!!

I saw this just a friendly inspirational reminder:

Time with my sister!

Hi All,

I am so sorry I got so busy last week that I did not get a chance to blog. This has been a fun weekend so far and I thought I would take some time to blog before I get to my homework (aka I am procrastinating a little bit longer). I was so lucky my sister Hannah decided to come and visit me this weekend (she is a senior in high school and deciding on here where should go to college). It was really some great bonding time for us that she decided to come and visit me for the weekend. Last night was SAB’s annual spring concert last night. Jared Nemon and Love & Theft came to play, two country artists for those of you who are not educated on country music. Rockhurst concerts are a lot of fun, normally spring concerts vary on the genre of music that they have for them. The fall concerts are normally the country ones. This year it was reversed. It is a fun way to start and end every school year with a concert! The concert was a little cold with the rain (I am not quite sure why they did not have it inside to be honest but oh well…) So that is the main reason (besides seeing her brother of course that my sister came in).

Then today we went to go volunteer at the Warrior Dash along with others from the honors program. If anyone has not heard of the Warrior Dash you should check it out. It is crazy, not necessarily for everyone but it was fun. Groups can volunteer at the Warrior Dash and they Warrior Dash makes a donation to the organization they are with. It is a certainly a unique volunteer experience.

Yesterday I went to my internship in the morning at Nonprofit Leadership Alliance. I have been there about a month now and I am really enjoying it! It will be nice to still be able to be home this summer while having an awesome internship. I am planning a conference in Chicago that will take place in January of 2014.

 

Well that is the update for now. One more week of classes then finals! Finals week should not be too bad so that is good. I just want it to feel like spring/summer we are so overdue it gets warm then it gets cold again and then warm. Spring temps us so often but has not been here to stay yet. We have also gotten a ton of rain lately.

Oh when I get more time this weekend or sometime this week I will blog about the two honor society inductions I have had this past week and the Nonprofit Senior Lunch I went to on Thursday.

Here is a really good prayer I found:

Lord Give Me Your Strength

Give us your strength, Lord. Because sometimes things get tough, and we are ready to quit.

Give us your love, Lord. Because sometimes people reject us, and we are tempted to hate.

Give us your eyes, Lord. Because sometimes life gets dark, and we lose our way.

Give us your courage, Lord. Because often we are put under pressure, and it’s hard to do what is right.

Give us yourself, Lord. Because our hearts are made for you, and we will not rest until we rest in you.

By Fr. Mark Link, S.J.

Volunteer Management Class...Badges Rock Program

Hi All,

Hope everyone had a great weekend. The weather has been almost perfect here in Kansas City! Believe it or not another week has pasted and we are one week closer to the end of the year! This past weekend has flown bye. I had a fantastic run with a friend of mine this afternoon it was nice to catch up with her. Since we do not really see each other during the week our about weekly runs give us time to catch up. Today we went 6.5 miles. (it was super super windy outside I am not joking either, I come from the windy city so I know what wind is). Anyway, it was like a perfect temp outside to run.

Along the way one thing we discussed was what this type of tree that was budding was that has a "fishy" smell to them. Once I got back and googled "trees that smell bad" I came across it. It is called a Bradford Pear Tree http://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/callery-pear-bradford-pear. There seems to be an abundance of these trees around this area. I am still not quite sure why so many of these trees would be planted around here with the smell they admit.

We had a fantastic Volunteer Management Project with the Girl Scouts that will be my next blog entry. It is a busy start to this week but later this week I will post about it. It was an amazing experience.

Below are a few pictures from the weekend. We did a secession on safety for the Girls. These are girls coming from the inner city troops. We has three groups of 60 girls. For this project we planned the program recruited the volunteers and executed the event.

Here are a few pictures below:

The Girl wanted to pin her SWATCH on me instead of pinning 

The Girls are working on making first aid kit to take home with them. They got a badge for going through this.

We made a poster for this activity which we are presenting at the Rockhurst Festival of Student Achievement this week. 

Hope every one has a good week. This weekend a staff member said, "Every girl has the right to safety". Just take a minute to think about it. 

Running and Spring!

               As you can see in my picture below signs of spring are starting to appear on Rockhurst’s campus (the little green things are tulips coming up). Which is exciting for multiple reasons one of those is that spring is a sign of warmer weather. I do not talk about running much in this blog considering how much I love running (I run about 6 days a week for about 4 or more miles per day). For me running is a great stress relief. I started running when I was in 6^th grade and joined the cross country team in 7^th grade. I love being able to run outside.  Going to Rockhurst puts runners like me in a great location because we have the trolley train and loose park so close to campus. The trolley trial is like .75 miles from campus and Loose Park is like 1.5 miles from campus. Running this time of year outside is so enjoyable you do not have to worry about being too hot or too cold.

                While I am on the topic of running my friend and I have taken it upon ourselves to restart running club. I was surprised when I came to Rockhurst my freshman year how many people liked to run. Running club existed for a while my freshman year but then the people running it just got too busy. We had decent attendance at running club my freshman year. So my friend Amy and I are restarting running club we already have over twenty people who have signed up which is really exciting!! We are going to start doing group runs next week. It was really encouraging that we already have people volunteering to lead the runs. As I am sure I have blogged about before there is a 5k on campus that a lot of students participate in. 

Also if you are ever just needing some encouragement and a friendly reminder of how good we have it watch this video. It is the Cancer floor of a children's hospital singing the song stronger. This past week I was talking with a friend about how fortunate we are in life. After that conversation I could not get this video out of my mind.                             

Quote for the Week  

"It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God. 2 Corinthians 3:5" 

Happy Easter!!

Hi All,

Hope everyone is having a good Easter weekend! I was fortunate enough to be able to come home for Easter weekend. It has been fun to be able to be home with  my whole family. This is the first time we have all been home since Christmas break. My sister and I had different spring breaks so we did not get to see each other over spring break.

Easter Sunday has been a quiet day for us, we went to 9:30 mass this morning and it was really nice. Church was packed this morning, the choir sounded great and it was great to see family friends who were there. To make it even better the homily was great! The church was decorated so nicely.

Last night we went to the Easter Vigil. I have to admit it was long (at like 2.75 hours) but it is always so exciting to welcome new members into the church and just welcoming in Easter.

I grew up spending a lot of time at the church volunteering with different projects etc so it is fun going to church. It was also nice to see some of my friends who were back from college for the weekend.

On Thursday night we went to church to the Holy Thursday service. At our church everyone has the opportunity to wash their families feet at the mass not just wash some people's feet like at some churches. Then on Friday afternoon we went to the Junior High stations of the cross. They did a great job! My mom was in charge of coordinating the stations of the cross.

This week looks to be a busy week. This is the last 5 week stretch of classes then finals. The weekends get really busy as honors inductions come up and other things. More details to come in the following  blog entries. This week also my internship enters into full swing.

Hope you have a great week! Enjoy the Easter Sunday!

Exciting events and holy week

Hi All,

Today Palm Sunday marks the start of holy week.  This evening we had a nice student mass to observe the start of this holy week for Catholics all over the globe.

This past week was super crazy. Which started off with Lisa Ballantine, the founder of the organization called  FilterPure came to campus. On Monday night some of us that went to Haiti last year got to go out to dinner with her and that was great to her more about her organizations work and where she sees her organization going in the future. Then after a very delicious dinner at Brio (I must say there mini desserts are really good :) I had this strawberry cheesecake one) Lisa went to give a presentation to the student body at Rockhurst. We had about 60 people come to talk which was a really good turn out for an SAB (Student Activities Board) event! SAB was even nice even to provide snacks at the event. The talk was really well received  She spoke about following your passion and being open to where ever God might take you in life. She told the story of how she re engineered the filter design and has been able to distribute over 60,000 filters to date (pretty amazing if I must say so myself). If you want to learn more about the Rockhurst efforts with FilterPure I invite you to check out www.filterpurefilters.org/ru.htm. If you click on the FilterPure logo on that page you will be taken to their main site where you can learn more about FilterPure as well.

Lisa stayed through Tuesday when we had Karokee for a Cause which is sponsored by Voices for Justice. The event features various organization on campus singing, all for a good cause. This year Filter Pure was the beneficiary of the event. We raised like $900+ at that event. Considering the water filters produced by filter pure cost only $35 per one that is a lot of water filters that will be able to be distributed to the region in Haiti we are working in.

On Friday I got an internship offer for this summer which is super exciting I will post more details about that down the road.

Ohh by the way Rockhurst just got dumped in with snow. We got about 6 inches of snow over night. It is a little crazy to get a snow storm this last in the year. In Chicago it is normal but in Kansas City I do not think it is quite as normal.

Well I have to get up bright and early tomorrow morning as I register for classes for the fall semester tomorrow at 7am! Being in the honors program a perk is that honors students get to register for classes before all the other undergraduate students. :)

Hope you have a blessed holy week.

Two Popes in Prayer

Thought everyone might enjoy this.

Spring Break

Last minute trip to Phoenix

So my dad and I had decided to take a last minute trip to South Carolina over spring break because it was a good deal ($130 round trip it can't get much better than this). However, due to an impending snow storm that was coming into Chicago we were able to change our travel plans to going to Phoenix for no additional cost.

Our flight times were a little bit crazy we got into Phoenix at about one am in the morning after a layover in Dallas. It was certainly nice to get out of the snowy weather in Chicago. The weather in Phoenix while we were there was 80 and sunny all three days. It couldn't have been better. It was nice just to spend a lot of quality time with my Dad. He is so awesome. I had been to Phoenix a few times before but it is always a nice city to go back to.

We spent a day and drove two hours south of Phoenix to Tuscon. The University of AZ is located in Tuscon. They have a really nice campus. It felt strange to be on such a big college campus. All in all, I really like the smallness of the Rockhurst campus. It is nice knowing that you can get anywhere on campus in 5 minutes or less.

A lot of the time on trip was spent hiking, biking, playing tennis and just relaxing by the pool. All in all it was a really great trip. The only thing I was not crazy about was our 2:10am departing flight back to Chicago.

Here is a picture of me at a park outside of Tuscon, Az. This is a fantastic park. This picture is take at, at least 7000ft elevation.

Sorry for the Delay...The ups and downs

Hi All,

I want to first off apologize for the delay in posting. The week before spring break was crazy then spring break was crazy and wow already we are done with one week.We have one more full week this week and then a four day week and then we have a four day weekend for Easter. 

The week before spring break went really well. I we had a snow day on Tuesday which was nice then I just had two days of classes and my break started. My sister Hannah was really excited to see me when I got home. I hadn't seen her since I left at the end of winter break. That is the one disadvantage going to school so far from home. I guess though at the end of the day it makes the time we have together even more special.  With the spacing of the breaks it turns out I am able to be at home seeing my family every 8 weeks or less. I will always be a family boy. I got to be home for my sisters birthday which was really cool! 

I have to admit the week before spring break was not all perky. I got some tough news I did not get rehired for the Desk Manager. It was really tough for me. I have since gotten over it. A quote I keep going back to a lot lately is, "God will never give you more than you can handle. If it seems to be too much on your plate, remember, not everything comes easy in life but he's giving you this load because you're strong enough to handle it ". As one door closes another door opens. That is what I keep telling my self. The waiting to find out what that door that opens will be. I am really pleased with the people that got hired. 

I have an interview for an internship this summer next week. I am really excited for it. 

The snow just followed me home.  I ended up going to Phoenix for part of my spring break with my Dad. It was a great trip. That is another blog. Hopefully this weekend I will have time to write another blog post about it.

There are some exciting events coming up at Rockhurst in the coming week. I cant wait. It will give you something to look forward to! Anyway... if your reading this blog and wana know something about me?/ About RU? or have a topic you want me to blog about comment on this post! 

A tribute to our first Jesuit POPE!!

Snow Day #2

Hi All,

Today is snow day number #2 here at the Rock (Rockhurst). It is crazy enough to get one snow day let alone two snow days! Anyway it came at about the perfect time of the semester. It is certainly nice to have a few days just to relax and hang out with friends. Snow days in an neat way draw the campus together. No one can go anywhere off campus so it draws people together. I watched a lot of people sledding outside my dorm room. There is a good hill to sled down my the baseball fields. A lot of college students found sleds somehow or pieces of cardboard to go sledding on. I will admit campus is really pretty all snow covered. There is almost something magical about it. One of my friends and I ventured over to the cafe before most people were up and it so cool because not many people had been out in the snow yet.

The Rockhurst grounds crew and students who work with them have done an awesome job keeping campus clean the past two days. During the heaviest snow yesterday morning they keep shoveling trying to keep the walk ways clean.

Snow days are not all the common at Rockhurst. This was the first snow day we have had in two years. The ones we had two years ago were the first ones we had in something like 6 years. Something that is funny is that this year Kansas City has had more snow than my home town of Chicago has had.

Have a great week! Fun digging out to all those who have snow outside. This has been a crazy weather year.

Here is my weekly quote. Another one from Steve Jobs:

The Waiting Game

First off a big thank you to the one competitive scholar who responded to my last blog post. If there are any other competitive scholars out there feel free to still comment!

With lent already upon all those who are catholic. I feel like I am coming to an end of my waiting game...

Things I have been waiting to hear on:
1. The Truman Scholarship. The Truman scholarship is a $30,000 graduate school scholarship given to about 65 college juniors every year. Each university across the country is allowed to nominate up to four people for the Truman scholarship. I was the only student from Rockhurst that was nominated for the Truman Scholarship. It was a great honor in and of itself to be nominated for the Truman scholarship. Each university that participates in this has a faculty adviser that oversees and helps guides the students through the process. Rockhurst has not had someone win the the Truman scholarship in a long time.

What is really awesome about this scholarship is that there are basically no strings attached. Those who win the scholarship can use the money at any graduate school of their choice. The only catch for the scholars is that 3 out of their first 7 years post graduate school have to be spent working in public service (aka for the government or for a nonprofit organization). Seeing that working for a nonprofit is how I plan to spend my life the one requirement is easy for me.

2. Desk Manager. This past week I had my rehire interview for the on-campus job I currently hold as Desk Manager. I have had the position for the past two years. I will be the first to admit the job has it's challenges but it is a great job overall and I feel so fortunate that I get to be part of the Rockhurst Residence Life Staff. Within the next two weeks I should find out if I am going to be rehired for my position as Desk Manager. I am really excited to hear back about that because it determines my living situation for next year. As crazy as it is, all the housing applications for next year have already opened and deadlines for certain upper-classmen housing options close as soon as March 1st.

3. There are two other scholarship applications that I have finished up over the past few weeks and submit for review this coming week. It will be interesting to see if I get either of those scholarship applications.

4. There is a lot more I am sure. I have to decide what I am doing this summer for work.

Have a fantastic weekend I will post more after I find out about the Truman scholarship. By the way the Truman Scholarship has a funny twitter feed. It is quite entertaining to read. Yesterday they posted a picture of all our applications.. . 


And finally I leave you with my quote for the week. I found this cool website that had quotes from Steve Jobs.. so that is why I have picked his quotes for the next few weeks.

I pray that I may be crazy enough to think that I can change the world. 

Anyone reading out there have any questions for me RU related or just life related?