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