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.