Reflect and Discern

Hi All,

To all you out there thank you for reading my blog this semester! I enjoy blogging sorry for being brief at times. This year the theme at Rockhurst was reflection and discernment so now it is time to reflect on the last few weeks. A lot has gone on the last few weeks since Thanksgiving when my last full blog was.

• I'll start at the end. I had no finals and got a chance to meet up with my former internship supervisor and help out Nonprofit Leadership Alliance with some planning for their conference in January. 
• On Thursday I took my last final. It is nice to have 4 accounting classes completed and under my belt. It is really rewarding it is still interesting to me and I have a great group of students in my study group. A few of them I have taken all four of my accounting classes with. 
• On Wednesday I had one final. Additionally, I am not sure if I have mentioned this before in my blog before or not but I am an Accounting and Business Tutor in the Learning Center at Rockhurst (on a side note they set a record of the number of appoints they have had this semester). It is really awesome that at Rockhurst University lets all students come use the Learning Center Tutors for any subject for free (unlimited times too). 
• I really enjoy being an accounting tutor. It is nice because I spent 2-3 hours tutoring someone for my accounting class. I feel like I understand the concepts better when I take the time to explain it to someone. 
• I really enjoy helping people! 
• It is a paid job :) 
• It also looks good on your resume.
• On Tuesday I did not have any final exams. We had a discussion in my developing worlds economics class. It was a great class. We studied how organizations can be effective in dealing with development in third world countries. 
• Monday was a day full of studying since I did not have to take the optional final. 

This is my reflection on finals week more to come. There was an abundance of food everywhere we went on finals week. I am pretty sure I gained a few pounds. :)

More of a reflection on the semester to come. 

Done with finals!

As of about 3:30 this afternoon I was officially done with finals! Ahhh! Thank you God it feels so great to be done with finals!

This afternoon! I had my last final my Cost Accounting one. It was my hardest final but I am so happy to be home in a few days! Tomorrow night we have a residence life staff party then we will be done! So Saturday morning I am making the 8 hour journey home. I don't mind the long drive home actually it gives me some good time to think etc.

Ahhh busy week!

Hi All,

It is getting that time of  the semester. I have a big exam in Finance class Wednesday and if I do good on it I will not have to do take the final in the class! Also I am throwing a Christmas Party and watching the Polar Express on thursday night so it is sure to be a busy week! Check back after Wednesday for a longer blog entry.

In the meantime... there was an awesome awards show on tonight called the CNN Hero's Awards Show. If you have never heard of it before check it out. http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cnn.heroes/index.html Their stories are sure to inspire you.

Have an awesome start to your week and check back later in the week for more!

Thanksgiving

Hi Everyone,

Hope you had a great thanksgiving! Rockhurst students got off of school on after classes Tuesday (although some students took off earlier to go home for the holiday weekend. I survived my classes and my test and took off Tuesday evening to fly home! It must have been international college kids fly night on tuesday evening. I have never seen more college kids all flying on the same night. I would be tempted to say half of the flights were full of college students!

It has been a really relaxing thanksgiving break! I had a productive day running so errands. Then on Thanksgiving day our family went to mass in the morning before coming back and relaxing until we had some family friends over for thanksgiving dinner. Our dinner was a complete feast. It was so amazing. It was really fun just to have time to catch up with family friends and to realize how much we have to be thankful for.

I have gotten connected with a friend who I have lost touch with over the last few years. It has been amazing over break to reconnect with her.

Looking back on the last year I have so much to be thankful for. The Rockhurst community over the last year has continued to be such a huge blessing to me. The opportunities I have been gifted with through Rockhurst have been countless. From the trip to Haiti to the trips to New York and Boston, and the chance to meet Doc Hendley.

Well I only have three weeks left of school. Two weeks then finals week. For me finals week it shouldn't be bad so I am actually excited for finals week!

Have a great week everyone!

NCHC Conference!

Hi All,

Hope you all had a great weekend and have a great week!

I got the privilege of traveling to Boston, MA this past weekend for the NCHC (National Honors Conference in simple terms). It was held downtown Boston. Over 2,000 people from all over the country came to the conference. The purpose of the conference is to exchange ideas between the honors programs at various colleges and universities from across the country.

My friend Phil and I presented at the NCHC conference on the trip we took to Haiti last year and how it plays into the honors senior seminar. The honors senior seminar is a class that is now mandatory for all incoming honors students to take their senior year here at Rockhurst. It will be a really fun class, I firmly believe! What's cool about presenting at a conference like this is the connections you get to make both with fellow students from across the country and faculty members from across the country.

Another cool thing about the conference was getting to meet students from Jesuit Universities from coast to coast. It was fun getting to hang out with them.

Additionally, we did get a little time to explore Boston. For example we went to Boston College and Harvard square. We also had some good seafood in Boston and got to walk around the city for a bit.

Well I got a test on Tuesday and a quiz today (monday). So I will keep this short but hope everyone has a great thanksgiving!

Week at the Rock

Wow! This last week has flown bye. There were lots of exciting things that have gone on around the Rockhurst University campus over the last week. These exciting events included Dinner with the Industry and Doc Hendley, author of the book Wine to Water, which was the freshman common reading book this year.

For Doc’s talk there were about 450 students in attendance there. At the end of the talk Doc received a standing observation from the students who attended the talk. Additionally, there were even a few parents from as far as St. Louis who came to hear Doc Hendley.  In addition to students there were some alumni there. As an added bonus, I got invited to attend dinner with Doc and about 40 other students before Doc’s talk. We had original KC BBQ at the event which was great. (As a student you always enjoy getting free food. No clue why everyone just seems to!). Doc is such a humble guy and is full of so much insight when it comes to working in the developing world. It is so inspiring. I really find his approach, partnering with local organizations who are already on the ground in a country to be beneficial. Additionally, I find it extremely important how he always puts the people first. 

For those of you who have been following my blog over the last year you might remember that I took a trip with the business school to Haiti last January. Doc Hendley has supported an organization in Haiti called FilterPure. To read more about our efforts as we are working with FilterPure click here: http://www.filterpurefilters.org/ru.htm.

It was really neat to get a chance to talk with Doc about his efforts in Haiti and how we can benefit from what he has learned. This project has been my baby since I had the idea for it a little over a year ago so it is really neat to see it all come together. Below are a few pictures from the event and a poster our group made to educate the campus about the issues. 

Sorry for the delay

Hi All,

Sorry for the delay in not posting sooner. This week and last week are probably the busiest weeks of the semester for me. The good news is I have one of them done with and the second one has started.

Last week I had a an essay due for my developing worlds economics class, a Finance exam and an accounting exam. In addition, last week I was also busy helping with an event in Kansas City called National Philanthropy Day put on by the local chapter of the Association of Fundraising professions. Being that I am a Nonprofit Leadership Studies major here at Rockhurst, it is the perfect type of event to help out with. Over the last year I have been meeting with the planning committee and helping them work through the logistics of the event and then was there to provide support on the day of the event. One of the nonprofit classes here at Rockhurst came to the event even. The event went great. In case you were wondering, National Philanthropy Day recognizes the people (both paid and unpaid) in the Kansas City area that have been influential in fundraising for various nonprofit organizations. It was really exciting to hear about this kid who won the Youth award by painting pictures and then donating them to nonprofits to auction off and keep the proceeds. He is still a teenager but since the time he was 6 he has raised over $700,000 for various nonprofits. It was really inspiring to hear his story.

This week Doc Hendly the founder of an organization called Wine to Water is coming to speak. Doc recently wrote a book called Wine to Water. Here is a link to his website: http://winetowater.org/home. Back a few years ago he was one of the finalists for CNN Hero of the year award. Here is a great speech that he made http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-IW1gankbM.

Have a great week! I will let you know how Doc's speech is when he comes to Rockhurst on Thursday evening.

Week one back from fall break complete

.Hi all,

           So week one back from fall break is complete. It is a good feeling to have one full week of classes down. It is getting to be the hardest time of the semester for me. Classes are starting to kick into high gear. In my two accounting classes we are starting to really dive into some tough stuff. This past week has been homecoming week. So there have been activities every day this week as a part of homecoming week . The theme for homecoming week is Candy land. The annual homecoming dance is going on this evening. Incase anyone is wondering I did not go to the dance. I instead worked in the front desk of XL hall so that the other Desk Assistants could attend the dance.

Sorry for not getting this posted sooner this weekend I was working on my blog entry on Saturday evening then I got sidetracked and Sunday was full of a run and homework. It was a perfect day to run through the weather was great and I had a great friend to go running with! This week looks to be busy week. So it will be interesting as always. There are some exciting events coming up in the next few weeks. I am helping out next week at this event called Nonprofit Philanthropy, which is a Kansas City area event in which they honor people who have made a big impact in the nonprofit sector, whether they be paid or volunteer at area nonprofit organizations. It is a really powerful and fun event. That is only one of the events I have going on over the next few weeks. Over the next few blog entries I will describe these events. 

Have a fantastic week everyone!!!!!

Fall Break

Hi all,

I am currently sitting in Chicago Midway’s airport waiting for my flight back to Kansas City. Thus, this is the end of my fall back. At Rockhurst our fall break (really mid-semester break) was Wednesday through Sunday. It has been an awesome fall break filled with lots of time with family. Yesterday my Dad and I went to the Notre Dame vs. Stanford football game. It was an amazing game, Notre Dame ended up winning. The weather was not the greatest, it rained for most of the game but it was still awesome. While I was in South Bend, I got to visit with my grandma who lives there. It was great to get to see her, I had not seen her in a while.

                Other than the trip to South Bend for the game I spent the weekend relaxing at home. I took a trip to the food bank where I did my summer internship this past summer and got a chance to catch up with them which was really nice. Additionally, I did get a chance to do a little bit of homework over the break which gives me a sense of accomplishment for the break.

                It is hard to believe that this semester is already half way over. This next month will be the busiest time of the semester. I have multiple outside of class events that are taking place over the next month, including a trip to the National Honors Conference in Boston a month from now. Prior to the trip to Boston, I have an event called Dinner with the Industry taking place, Doc Henley coming to speak at Rockhurst, an event with the Fundraising Professionals of Kansas City called National Philanthropy Day and finally a Residence Life event called Beyond Words.  Not to mention exams in all my classes. Thus it shall be a fun but busy next month.

While registration for the Spring semester is next week so I should go figure out my class schedule for next semester. Have an awesome week! 

Last two weeks!

Sorry for the extremely short blogging entry last week. It has been a busy time of the semester for me (only two days of classes left till fall break J J J). I have thankfully not had many midterms but many of my friends have been spending this full weekend studying for midterms. Since fall break serves as the midpoint of the semester. Our fall break this year is Wednesday October 10^th to Sunday October the 14^th.  For fall break I am flying home to Chicago and spending time with my family and then my Dad and I are going to the Notre Dame Football game on Saturday. It will be a busy weekend at home but a fun one!

Meanwhile last weekend here at the Rock was Family and Alumni weekend. My Dad and one of my sisters can in for it. It was great to see them I hadn’t seen them since the I left on August first for Residence Life training. Speaking of Residence Life, part of the festivities over family weekend was a breakfast Residence Life put on for all the Resident Assistants and Desk Managers and their families. It was a really great breakfast! They even took family pictures J (see below for ours). It was such a great weather weekend on Friday night they had the soccer games, carnival and cookout. On Saturday afternoon we spent time walking around the plaza because it was such a nice day out! Finally, to conclude the afternoon we went to the annual family and alumni mass which the President of Rockhurst presided at. The three of us helped at mass with passing out programs. It was a really awesome liturgy in which they honored the “Golden Hawks” as well. All in all it was a really fantastic weekend! Although it made for a super busy week this past week having to play catch up because of course the weekend that my family came in I had a lot of homework. Have a great week everyone!

The Quote for the week is, "It took cancer to realize that being self-centered is not the way to live. The answer is to try and help others" - Terry Fox. He was from Canada and after diagnosed with caner decided to start running across the country on one leg since he lost the other to cancer. 

Busy week!

Sorry for not getting a post up sooner but this is such a busy week for me. A longer post will be coming later this week.

But in the meantime check out this link. Haley Long and I were on the news for the grants we received for our respective internship organizations over the summer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSoLh9kpTvU

Hope everyone is having a great week!

As seen on the Rockhurst Website

Rockhurst Interns Work For $20,000 In Grants During Their InternshipsSeptember 18, 2012

Internships are usually a time for students to get their feet wet at a future job. But for two Rockhurst University students in the nonprofit leadership program, their time as interns was used to make a huge impact for their organizations.

As interns, Haley Long, Lenexa, Kan., senior, and Josh Goralski, Naperville, Ill., junior, managed to each secure $10,000 grants to improve their respective organizations.

Long spent two semesters in a 300-hour internship for the Mental Health America of the Heartland in Kansas City, Mo. MHAH strives to promote better mental health of the community and improve the lives of persons with mental illness through advocacy, education and support. It was during Long’s second semester internship that she was asked to write a grant to help upgrade the technology at MHAH. The grant, $10,000 from the Victor E. Speas Foundation, upgraded the organization’s 10-year-old voice mail system and allowed MHAH to switch to voice over IP telephones.

“This was the most fulfilling experience I’ve had throughout my internship,” Long said. “I know that MHAH is an important organization in our community, and especially in the field of mental health.  This grant will enable the organization to continue helping people in the Kansas City area and beyond.”

Over the summer, Goralski spent his time in Geneva, Ill., at the Northern Illinois Food Bank, an affiliate of Feeding America. In fiscal year 2012, the food bank distributed more than 40 million pounds of food to more than 500,000 people. Part of Goralski’s intern duties included researching funding sources that would be a good fit for the organization. Through this research, he discovered that Pioneer Hi-Bred Corporation had recently restructured its corporate giving program. Its U.S. Food Security Grant appeared to be a good fit with the food bank’s Take 50 Food for Health Initiative, which would allow the food bank’s clients access to healthy food options, such as brown rice and whole grain pasta. During his last week at the food bank, the check for the full amount of the grant came in the mail.

The grant will allow the food bank to provide an additional 30,000 nutritious meals to clients in an effort to reduce their risk of diabetes, obesity, and other diet-related diseases.

“This was a pleasant surprise to everyone there because the Food Bank staff had been having a hard time funding this program,” Goralski said. http://www.rockhurst.edu/news/article/internship-grant-awards/

Come Holy Spirit

On Tuesday, Rockhurst had the annual mass of the Holy Spirit on Tuesday September 11^th. This year it just so happened to coincide with the eleventh anniversary of 9/11. It is the one time a year when President Father Curran cancels classes so that everyone who wants to can attend the mass. Plus as an added incentive for attending the mass, (as if anyone needed one) there is a free lunch after the mass. It was a really nice mass bringing together staff, faculty, students, alumni and Regents. The mass was held at St. Francis across the street where the student mass is on a weekly basis. All the Jesuits who reside in the Jesuit residents and were able to came to concelebrate at the mass. We also had a special visitor; the President of St. Louis University came in for the mass. Mass of the Holy Spirit is one of the events celebrated at every one of the Jesuit colleges and universities to celebrate the start of a new school year.

                The music was awesome. The Rockhurst choir did the music. The choir is composed of students, staff and faculty members. I really enjoyed the selection of music that the choir sang. The homily was also really nice. All around it was a great liturgy and a celebration of the Holy Spirit.

                Unfortunately I had class starting shortly after mass so I was not able to stay around for much of the lunch. One of my personal philosophies is that as a college student you never pass up the opportunity for a free meal. College students will wait in long lines for free food.  It was a good lunch of fried chicken, vegetables and baked beans.

                Last week started my first round of exams. I had a quiz and an exam last week and next week I will have a few more. It is crazy to think about that it is already time to have exams. One of my interests is studying poverty and with the new poverty numbers that came out this week. I want to end with this quote: 

“We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.”-Mother Teresa

Well last weekend was Labor Day weekend. Hope everyone enjoyed their Labor Day weekend and their last big parties of the summer. Additionally, I hope that it has been a great summer for everyone.  My labor day weekend was spent doing homework for the most part. For a lot of Rockhurst students Labor Day weekend serves as a time to go back home enjoy some home cooked food and get whatever they forgot to get before they moved in. Now that Labor Day has passed it is time to buckle down and get to work with classes for the next month and a week till fall break which is the midpoint of the semester. I am taking 18 hours this semester so it is sure to be a busy semester for me. My classes are pretty reading intensive this semester. My classes include two intermediate accounting classes, Developing worlds economics class, Community Engagement (nonprofit class), Finance, and Management and Organizational Behavior class. All my professors are really good and my classes are really interesting. So I am sure it will be a challenging but interesting semester.

        Over labor day weekend the campus got a lot of rain which was much needed in the Kansas City area. It was a good motivator to get homework done also because it was not tempting to go outside. Additionally I spent Saturday morning enjoying the Notre Dame football win from Ireland. They played Navy over in Ireland. I am a big Notre Dame football fan and so it was great to see a Notre Dame football victory. Hopefully Notre Dame will keep the winning up. I am probably going to go to one of their football games while I will be home for fall break in October.

“Have a bias toward action - let's see something happen now. You can break that big plan into small steps and take the first step right away.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Start of my Junior Year

I cannot believe that I am over half way done with my undergraduate education. Last week I finished up the work for my summer practicum class for the nonprofit program. The class was to go along with the internship that I did this summer at Northern Illinois Food Bank in Geneva, Illinois. I interned there for over 450 hours this summer. For the class I had to do a presentation to my peers in the nonprofit leadership program here as well as write weekly journal entries. My tasks included grant writing, volunteer recruitment, coordination and appreciation. In addition this summer our family went on a family vacation to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. While we were there it was very nice weather and we hit all four of the theme parks as well as downtown Disney and one of the water parks (which I was not very impressed with to be completely honest). I must admit staying on Disney property but not in a Disney hotel is the way to go because of the free transportation. Going early in the summer was nice too because the parks were not as crowded as they are as it gets later into the summer.

                Additionally this summer I went to my cousins wedding up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was fun because the rehearsal dinner was at the Milwaukee Brewers stadium. It was a great weekend to catch up with my extended family.

                Anyway now back to Rockhurst where I am at now. For those of you who are just starting to ready my blog welcome! Thank you for your readership. I hope you enjoy my weekly blog which will focus on the happenings of my life and the student life around Rockhurst University. This year Rockhurst welcomed their biggest freshman class in the history of over 450 students.

                I am Josh, a junior at Rockhurst University studying nonprofit leadership studies and accounting. This year I am a Desk Manager in XL hall, a Supplemental Instructor for accounting and I am involved in various activities such as a small faith sharing group, the HSOM Social Entrepreneurship Initiative and more. Finally, I am from Naperville, Illinois (outside of Chicago).  Have a great week. I will be posting again soon about my life at Rockhurst.

This is me and my two sisters. Hannah is on the left and Bethany on the right.  

Northern Illinois Food Bank... best internship ever

Hi Everyone,

Sorry it has been so busy for me these last few weeks. I have put in over 350 hours so far this summer with my summer internship. My internship is with a food bank which is a member of Feeding America. The food bank I am doing my internship is Northern Illinois Food Bank which is headquartered in Geneva, Illinois. They help to feed 61,600 people a week in the 13 counties surrounding cook country (Chicago). In the fiscal year ending June 30th we moved over 40.8 million pounds of food last year.

I have done a little bit of everything for them. To be continued

Sorry for the Delay...

Hi All,

I want to apologize for not blogging more consistently this summer. It has been a crazy summer for me so far.  It is hard to believe I have to be back at Rockhurst in just over a month for Residence Life training before all the students come back to campus. This will be my second year being on the Residence Life staff at Rockhurst.

Part of the reason I have been so busy this summer is that my family took a five day vacation to Disney world a few weeks ago. It was an awesome time and the weather was over all pretty good. It did rain more than it normally does down in Orlando but that did not really stop us. Over the short period of time we were in the parks my family visited all 4 theme parks (Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot, and Hollywood Studios) as well as one of the Disney water parks.

There is just something magical (not to sound cheesy) about being down in Orlando. When you walk down main street at the Magic Kingdom you suddenly forget about the outside world and just see the magic all around you. Thanks to my sisters encouragement I went a lot more of the Disney Roller-Coaster type rides this time. Disney's roller-coasters are not that bad at all. 


It was fun to spend the quality time with my sisters. One night my sisters and I stayed at the parks later than my parents did. It was fun running though the park with them hopping on whatever ride had the shortest wait (including the little kid roller-coaster which lasted less than a minute).


One of my favorite parks has always been and continues to be Epcot. There is one ride that takes you on a tour through all this research Disney is doing on growing different types of fruits and vegetables. So they have their own green house inside the park and even use what they grow at the restaurants in the park. Also at Epcot my sisters and I had our picture taken with Mary Poppins (I will have to find the picture and post it next time). 


A final thought on Disney we stayed for the fireworks show at the Magic Kingdom one night. The extensive fireworks show is amazing. What even makes it more amazing is to think that they do it day after day to ensure that all their visitors can have the same magical experience.

Here are two good quotes by Walt Disney: "I don't want the public to see the world they live in while they're in the Park (Disney Parks). I want to feel they're in another world."


"You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality."

It has been too LONG

Hi All,

Sorry for the month since I have blogged last. It has been a fun but crazy last month. Looking back it is hard to believe all the things I have done over the last month. In the last month I finished all my classes and finals. (which all went very good). Additionally I said bye to all my friends at Rockhurst, helped to close down all the residence halls for the summer, hung out for a few days at Rockhurst when it was just the Residence Life staff and the seniors there, and then had an awesome end of the year celebration at Dave and Busters with the Residence Life Staff. Finally after our Res Life party we came back and had mass in the Jesuit Residence and got a tour of it! So that was pretty awesome.

Through that crazy week I had been trying to pack myself up because they day after we moved the seniors out we had to move out. One of the best parts was that last night a much of us stayed up and watched Sawshank redempttion (which is awesome movie). It was just a fun evening though because a bunch of us all just hung out and had fun enjoying the movie and enjoying the friendships we had made with eachother over the last year.

The next morning after only 4 hours of sleep or so I got up and drove 8 hours back to home sweet home Naperville (the bubble as the local kids call it sometimes).

Some of my friends are staying at Rockhurst this summer and working in the Office of Residence Life as Conference Assistants. Basically what they do is help to get the campus ready for various conferences that come over the summer. There was a Mensch Management Business Camp that one of my friends participated in and she really liked it. It is designed for non-business majors or want a quick taste of the business world which can be benefical in whatever field they major in.

Here is picture of the Residence Life staff at our party!

Final Weekends

Hi all,

Hope everyone had a good week. The end of the school year is drawing closer and closer. This past week we had our swearing in of the new Student Senators for the 2012-2013 school year, the Honors student association had our officer transition meeting and yesterday the Residence Life staff for the 2012-2013 school year had their first full staff meeting with all the new Resident Assistants and Desk Managers. It was also a week of realization I think for the seniors as classes are basically over and now we only had two days of classes then finals left. This weekend is the annual Rockstock concert put on by the Student Activities Board every year and then this Wednesday is Student Senate’s Annual midnight breakfast.

            This past Thursday night was Student Senate’s annual BINGO. I will have to admit I have never seen more college students playing BINGO together in one place before. The grand prize for the final black out round of BINGO was an IPAD. Prizes for the other rounds included a 32 inch LCD TV, game system and other great prizes. It is really an awesome event put on by student senate the brings the student body together as one. After the concerts and maybe the midnight breakfasts it is probably the largest gathering of Rockhurst Students in one place.

            This week will be an exciting but stressful week around campus I am sure. Last year I really enjoyed the last few weeks of the year, it seems like everyone is just happy even as finals are on everyone’s mind and in an odd way the common stress of finals really brings the campus together I feel like.

            Finally the wacky Kansas City weather continues it was 90 one day earlier this week and yesterday the high was around 60 degrees. Hopefully there will be some nice weather in store for us this final week.

Hope everyone has a great week and as always thanks for reading!

One more week!

Hi everyone,

Sorry I did not get this up sooner. Life has been a little crazy lately. This past Sunday we had mass out on the quad which was a lot of fun. Although it was a little cold outside, I think it was only like 55 outside and it was windy. One would think by late April it would be warmer. But there again its Kansas City weather, I thought Chicago weather was crazy and I am beginning to learn Kansas City weather is pretty crazy too.

            Yesterday I turned in one of my four papers I have due within the next week before finals. I cannot believe that finals start a week from tomorrow and two weeks from today the year is officially over. It is exciting that the year is almost over and a little shocking that it has gone this fast at the same time. Luckily for me I only have 3 finals so once I get these papers done finals should not be too hard. I am the type of person who would prefer to have term papers to do as compared to doing finals. I just think you get a chance to get your thoughts better if you can write a paper compared to doing a test. I know there are some of my peers who would prefer to take the tests.

            This Friday I have the first Residence Life training secession for next year which will be exciting! It is a chance for all the new Desk Managers and Residence Assistants to meet those of us who are returning next year. I am sure we will do some different team building activities and the Residence Assistants will get their floor assignments for next year. It should be an exciting next week as I wrap up the semester! Hope everyone is having a great week!

Almost there!

Hi Everyone! Hope everyone had a great weekend. Here at the Rock we are getting down to the end of the year. This is Greek week so everyone who are in Greek organizations (not me) have activities all week. Campus Ministries in partnership with Voices for Justice (A Social Justice group on campus) does a Social Justice week to balance out Greek week. In addition this week I have the Business School Scholarship awards ceremony and the nonprofit student recognition luncheon. So those two events should both be awesome event. Additionally this week there is also the festival of student achievement for any students who have been nominated for awards. This is the second to the last full week of classes! It is hard to believe it!

            On Friday night the Office of Residence had a game show night free to all students that wanted to come. Since I am on staff with Residence life I helped to put on the game show. We had a pretty good attendance with about 90 people there. The people who came to the game show evening had the possibility of winning up to a $400 visa gift card (So there was a pretty good incentive to come). The games we played included the Price is Right, Deal or No Deal and Minute to Win It!

            Finally I came across a good quote the other week. I do not know who said it but it is, “I value to power to serve more than the power to lead”. Just stop and think about it. It is a pretty powerful quote in my opinion. Hope everyone has an awesome week! Also next week I will talk about this great talk I went to this past week on leadership done by accomplished businessmen who graduated from Rockhurst. 

Easter Weekend at Home

Hi everyone hope everyone had a blessed Easter with their families! I have been fortunate enough to get to go home and spend the weekend at home with my family which was an Easter blessing in and of itself. I have grown up my whole life going to an absolutely great church and it has basically been like my extended family. So going back and getting to see my families’ friends was great. I have always been involved with helping out around the church so it was natural for me to chip in and help out during the Easter masses. My sister who is a freshman in college also came home for the weekend so it was nice that we were all able to spend it together. We had an awesome brunch for Easter then my parents went to drive my sister back to school because she does not get tomorrow off like Rockhurst does.

It is so hard to believe that the school year is almost over. A month from tomorrow my sophomore year is over. While I was home I went to have an interview with Northern Illinois Food Bank. I would love to intern there this summer, from the interview it looks like it is going to work out so that is exciting. It would be a full time internship lasting pretty much all summer. It is required as part of my Nonprofit Leadership Studies major to do a 300 hour internship with a nonprofit organization so it will be good to get that requirement taken care of.

I was just looking at my planner these are going to be a busy next few weeks until finals start then it slows down. I have four papers due before the 25^th of April. In addition we have some exciting speakers coming to campus over the next few weeks that I am excited to hear.  I am sure I will talk about them in blog entries to come. Rejoice! Jesus Chris is Risen Today!

Holy Week 2012

Hi Everyone, Happy Holy Week to all of you who are Catholic. I hope it is a blessed week for you. This last week has gone by so fast it seems like. I am currently working on 3 papers that have page requirements of at least ten pages double spaced each. They are not all due for a few more weeks but with all three of them due within a two week span I have to start working on them now. The weather has continued to be super nice here which has been awesome (it is almost too hot to run at certain times of the day). It is hard to believe I am saying that and it is only April 1st. 

Today I did a service project with some fellow guys from Rockhurst. It was an awesome way to spend part of your Sunday. One of my friends commented that it was a really appropriate way to start Holy Week. It had never occurred to me to think of it in that way but really he is so true. Doing the service project today continued something I had done at my church for about the past 14 palm Sundays until I came to Rockhurst which was doing an Easter Ham Collection for those who would otherwise not be able to have a ham for an Easter dinner. It was something my Dad got me involved in when I was little and I always looked forward to it. We would normally collect about 1,000 hams. So my pattern of doing service on Palm Sunday continues. 

At Rockhurst we get Holy Friday and Easter Monday off from classes so I am going back home to Naperville to enjoy Easter with my family and attend the Holy Week services at my home parish. Hope it is a great week for everyone. 

So at mass today they played the Song the Summons and the words just struck me today so I thought I would include them: 

The Summons Hymn

Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?

Will you go where you don't know and never be the same?

Will you let my love be shown? Will you let my name be known,

will you let my life be grown in you and you in me?

Will you leave yourself behind if I but call your name?

Will you care for cruel and kind and never be the same?

Will you risk the hostile stare should your life attract or scare?

Will you let me answer prayer in you and you in me?

Will you let the blinded see if I but call your name?

Will you set the prisoners free and never be the same?

Will you kiss the leper clean and do such as this unseen,

and admit to what I mean in you and you in me?

Will you love the "you" you hide if I but call your name?

Will you quell the fear inside and never be the same?

Will you use the faith you've found to reshape the world around,

through my sight and touch and sound in you and you in me?

Lord your summons echoes true when you but call my name.

Let me turn and follow you and never be the same.

In Your company I'll go where Your love and footsteps show.

Thus I'll move and live and grow in you and you in me.

A picture is worth a thousand words (or more)

Hi everyone so this week I am going to let the beauty of the campus speak for itself with the pictures I took yesterday. I know I am not a professional photographer so they are not the best pictures but I think they will at least start to portray the beauty of campus to everyone. If you are around the Kansas City area stop by while the Tulips are still in bloom.

The Quad on a nice sunny March Saturday afternoon

The Library on the Right and Conway hall on the left 

The Mary Statue 

Just Registered

Just Registered

Hi everyone, believe it or not it is class registration time once again for all the Honors Students at Rockhurst. One of the perks that comes with being in the Rockhurst Honors Program is that you get to register for your classes early. It seems so early to be registering for classes already but I was looking at the Calendar and we only have 3 full weeks of classes left after this week due to Easter break in there. The end of this semester will mark the half way point for me in my four years here at Rockhurst which is pretty crazy to think about.

            The weather has been so awesome here it feels more like May than March. They Residence life office even turned on the A/C this week which is another crazy thought back in Chicago I am still used to having snow days until about this time of year. The last two nights I have taken so time in the evening to just walk around campus and enjoy the peacefulness of it all. It is really something special to walk around see the flowers starting to bloom and hearing the Rockhurst fountains back on.

            This is another crazy week for me but I am finally beginning to accept the fact that all weeks in college are crazy. I have an exam today and on Wednesday. I have a paper due tomorrow and another rough draft of a paper due next week. The paper I have due this week is 10-pages long and the one I have due next week is also 10 pages long.

Well I hope everyone has a great week! I will try to post some pictures from around campus soon.  

A great random quote I came across. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.--“I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits.”

Sorry its been a while...Finding God in All things.

Hi everyone sorry its been a while. Its midterms part 2 this week. More about spring break will come later this week. 


Here is what I wrote for a reflection that is going out to all the students this week. Each week one student is asked to write a reflection about finding god in all things. 

“Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in a love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the mornings, what you will do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.” Fr. Pedro Arrupe S.J.

In my two years at Rockhurst I have felt the warmth of God’s presence and love in countless ways. I felt this as I entered Rockhurst with our entire class giving up a few hours to do service before embarking on our journey here. Additionally I have continued to find God and fall in love with him through the retreats offered by campus ministries, conversations with friends and speakers on campus like Fr. Boyle.

When I traveled to Haiti with a group of Rockhurst students over winter break I experienced falling in love with God once again. I not only found God in the people we met but I found God in each person in our group. I remember constantly thinking over the week our group was truly in love with helping to empower others. The group had agreed to take on a multi-year project to help the people of Duchity, Haiti. I think to myself that truly we all felt the love of God leading us to go on this trip. Throughout the whole trip I just felt like God was there, blessing us with safe travels, productive meetings, memorable experiences that will not soon be forgotten, good weather and great conservation. There is something special when you are with a group of people that are called by a common love and are all on the journey to find God.

So I encourage you in the spirit of Pedro Arrupe to let yourself fall in love with God. 

A little bit of Everything

Hi Everyone! Hope it has been a great week for everyone. T-minus 1 week and counting till spring break 2012 for Rockhurst University students. I leave Thursday afternoon to fly back to Chicago it will be great to spend the week with my family. I have not seen them since January 1^st. Please keep all of those who have answered the call to go on service trips both nationally and internationally. I am not going on one of the trips this year but hope to travel on a future one. However I know countless people who are doing a service trip this break.

            This past week the group of us that traveled to Haiti over the break had our Haiti Presentation to the greater Rockhurst Community. In my opinion the presentation went great. Our group did a great job trying to describe an experience that is hard to describe to people who have never been to Haiti before. We had a really good turnout, over 60 students and faculty members attended our presentation.  So now that we finished with our presentation we can start to think about how we want to move forward with the ideas we came back from Haiti with.

            Other than our Haiti presentation it seemed to be a fairly normal week. I had one exam on Thursday and I have been starting to think about multiple term papers that I have to do. I am hoping I can get a large portion of them done while I am home for spring break. I also had my rehire interview for my Desk Manager position for next year so I will find out soon if I am rehired. Concurrently all those students who are interested in being Resident Assistants next school year have been going through their interview process. I have had a great experience as part of the Residence Life staff this year and I hope I can continue that experience next year.

            I apologize for being all over the place with this blog entry next week will flow better.

I came across a really good quote the other day that I would like to share: ‎"I asked for strength, and God gave me difficulties to make me strong. I asked for courage, and God gave me dangers to overcome. I asked for love, and God gave me people to help. I received nothing I wanted...I received everything I needed.”- Author Unknown

New York

Hi all, I apologize for being late in my weekly blog post. You may be wondering why my blog entry is called New York when I go to school in Kansas City. Well this past weekend I spent all of about 42 hours in New York for the Annual Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities Honors Conference. It was a quick but fun trip. Last year Rockhurst has the privilege of hosting the national conference so I got to help with it and experience it as a freshman so it was really fun to go back and reconnect with some of the same students I had met last year. This year the Honors Director Dr. Mindy Walker went along with three other students who are all members of the Honors Executive Board with me

.

            We got to stay at this nice hotel close to time square in downtown New York. So of course we did not only get to go to a great conference which was held at Fordham University but we got to see New York City. The night we got there we walked around time square and went to what we gathered was a famous New York City pizza place called John’s Pizza. Then the second day after the conference ended the students from all the schools went exploring. We went to the Metropolitan art museum as well as Central park and did a lot of walking. I really love these conferences you get to meet students from all over the country coming from all different walks of life. There is no reason that you would every cross paths with them if it was not for this conference but everyone is doing really exciting events both at their university both in the honors program and just at their university in general. For example two are spending the summer in Africa filming a documentary and another one is studying abroad in France next year just to name a few.

            We came back with a lot of good ideas for our honors program. Each schools honors program has their own unique DNA but there are always tips you can take from these conferences as well as just forming relationships and getting to meet a lot of awesome people. 

Finally... Haiti

One of the girls in the orphanage in Duchity, Haiti 

Hi everyone I hope you had a great week. Okay now I finally have a chance to describe the trip I took to Haiti over Winter break with 5 other Rockhurst Students and two faculty members. It was a dream come true for me to go back to Haiti. Ever since I had traveled to Haiti back in the summer of 2009 as part of a service trip I had always wanted to go back.

We traveled to a town called Duchity, Haiti which is the home of the twinning parish of my home parish. It is a 140 mile drive from Port-au-Prince although the drive took us 8 hours. While we were driving out of Port-au-Prince we saw blocks of just tents, this two years after the earthquake. It is crazy to see how different Haiti is and yet how close it is to the United States.

            While we were in Duchity we met with various community groups and school groups listening to their dreams and hopes for the future of Duchity. One group we had met with had dreams of building an internet café/ library and was looking for funding. Shortly into our trip we began to realize that these groups have good ideas however they have very little business knowledge which would have allowed them to realize that an internet café would not be able to be self-sustaining even with a grant to build the building. That is just one example of the various groups we met with. Perhaps one of the most memorable things we did was going to spend an afternoon at the orphanage. The kids there are just so full of life and so much fun to play with.

            For me I felt just this great sense of peace when I was down there, with limited electricity you just are able to be really present to the moment and to the people you are with. Our group is working on different ideas on how to help the community and we hope to return this summer. What really made the trip so great was the group I went with. I could not have asked to for a better group to go with. They are all amazing people with a true commitment to helping those who are less fortunate. Have a great week. 

Watching the super bowl… An end to an interesting weekend…

Hi all, Hope everyone had a great week. I am currently in the lobby of Corcoran watching the end of the Super Bowl with a group of residents. Hope everyone has had a good Super Bowl Sunday. I went to the 6pm student mass tonight and there were very few students there I guess everyone was thinking smart and went this morning. Maybe next year they should consider doing the mass earlier so everyone could still catch the Super Bowl and still attend the student mass. Other than watching the Super Bowl I had a meeting to plan our presentation to the campus on our Haiti trip that I was part of.

            This past Friday and Saturday I was at Mizzou as part of the Rockhurst Delegation for the Certified Peer Educator training. I was supposed to go last year but it got snowed out with the big snow storm that hit the area a year ago. The training covered some good information some of which I had heard before however we did go over some information which I had not heard before. It was probably the most sitting I have done in a two day stretch in the same chair in a long time. We had 5 hours of training on Friday night and almost 10 hours of training on Saturday. It ended with us taking a test over what we had covered. If we got an 80% on the test we will become CPE certified for life. It was a great group of us from Rockhurst that went I got to know them more. . At the training there were over a 100 students from various colleges and universities across the state.

This week looks to be a busy week with an accounting test Wednesday and a two quizzes this week also. So it should be fun. Hope you have a great week. I wont forget to talk about our Haiti trip next week. 

Back at it.

A Screenshot of the NEW RU website :) 

Hi everyone. I cannot believe we are already done with a week and a half of the second semester. I apologize for not getting my first blog entry of the semester up sooner it has just been really busy. One of the things that has kept me busy this last week Rockhurst launched their new website. If you have not seen it yet check it out! It is much improved and easier to navigate.

            I cannot believe that it is almost February and there is not any snow on the ground in Kansas City. In fact I just looked at the weather and it is supposed to be 64 degrees here tomorrow so there is no snow in our near future. I know I was talking to my family back home in Chicago and they got seven inches of snow one time and then they have had a few other smaller snow falls. I enjoy one or two good snow falls for me growing up all my life in Chicago it is just not winter without a few sizeable snow falls. Last year around this time Rockhurst had three snow days!

            This semester looks to be an exciting semester for me with a nonprofit finance class, an accounting class, a global business class, and Honors Macro Economics. Additionally I am taking an independent study to further explore what I started to research with a group of students in Haiti over Christmas break. The week before classes started I took a trip down to Haiti with a group of 5 other Rockhurst students and two faculty members. Stay tuned for my next blog post for more about the Haiti trip including some pictures. It was just a wonderful experience and I could not have asked for a better group of my peers to go with. 

Hope you have a great week!