Berkeley's Cutest Pet

I think SGA needs a change in gears. For the past few weeks we have done a lot of activities that have involved arts and crafts, being creative and showing what you can do. It’s a really great concept but I think it’s starting to get old within the student body. Less and less students are coming to our events because it seems like it’s the same thing over and over again. When we had the Siete De Mayo fiesta event we had a wonderful outcome. It was something new, we had music and it got people involved. We have to do some brain storming at today’s meeting to see what we can come up with.

Yesterday was the Pet Event and it was a nice outcome, but I think we could have had a much better turnout. We collected a decent amount of money for the local animal shelter, people had fun and we got a lot done. We sold picture frames for $1 and dog chain key tags for $0.50. We thought the dog chains would come engraved but they didn’t so we had to improvise. We got a bunch of sharpies and students were able to decorate their own dog tags! It was really cool and a lot of people got them so that they can make one for their pets.

The pet picture contest is going great, much better than I anticipated that it would. I got about 13 pet picture submissions and their all so cute! The contest will be very hard to choose because every pet is so adorable. We have decided to do the voting today in the main building between 5 and 6pm. This way we can get the evening students to participate and make them feel important. They will be the ones choosing our cutest pet! Would you like to meet the candidates? Here they are!

Pet Picture Contest

I must say that weekends never seem long enough. I feel like I just had class, and its already back to Monday. I’m happy to know that next Monday we have off because of Memorial Day!

This week will be interesting because we get to do an activity on Wednesday which is donating profits to a local animal shelter. I have always tried to do something for pets because it’s a nice gesture and animals can’t help themselves. We also have a pet picture contest where students will be able to submit their pet pictures and the prize is a $20 gift card to Target. If you would like to enter a picture send it to akopec157@gmail.com.

I’m happy to hear that for my Changing Family class I have no graded homework assignment for this week. Because it’s a holiday weekend our professor decided to cut us some slack and only assign us reading, videos and discussion board. Something cool I’ve noticed in this class that I have not had other professors do it use voice e-mails. Whenever we have an assignment, our teacher sends us feedback through a voicemail that we can access online. This makes it a lot more personal and it’s nice to see that they took individual time out to send you a voicemail. I have never had any other classes do that.

Flower Hour

You know what’s cool? I was talking to Rebecca which is the girl that is also doing an internship with me, and she is taking an online class just like me. The only difference is that he teacher is teaching it from South America! The professor had to move but she was still employed at Berkeley. She said they need specific times to contact her because she’s in a different time zone, but I think that is so cool! I didn’t know it was possible.

Flowers flowers everywhere, especially around the Garret Mountain campus! On Wednesday we had our Flower Hour event and it was great. One professor brought her whole class over to plant flowers and paint pots. Ms. Young being as talented as she is, made pots for all the SGA officers and members. It was a really nice gesture and my flower is currently getting watered in the rain today. Check out our pictures from the event…

My internship and classes are going well. My eyes are starting to feel the strain of being in front of a computer for extended periods of time though. We have not had any other events to go to recently, but I’m sure we will down the line. I’m disappointed we don’t have a discussion board for one of my classes this week. We didn’t get one because the professor wants us to concentrate on our paper about Marriage VS Single people. I just finished it, and it was really fun to write it and interview people.

Animal Paws

Ugly weather always bums me out. I don’t know why but whenever the weather is bad I always get moody, cranky and unmotivated. One thing I must say is that Mother Nature has been exceptionally good to us during our activity periods. Every time we have 70 degree, sunny weather. This week will be no different!

Tomorrow we are planning on having an event called “Flower Power”. We will be decorating flower pots and painting. We love to do arts and crafts, especially since we even see the toughest guys come out and paint with us! It’s very funny to see.

Next week were doing an event for animals. For the longest time I have wanted to do something where we can sell things to raise money for a local animal shelter. I love doing things for animals because unlike people, they cannot help themselves.

Ms. Young, the SGA crew and I have been trying to come up with different ideas fast for the event. Our original event didn’t go through so we needed to act fast to come up with something. We will be making and decorating animal bowls, and filling them with goodies. These goodies will include pet foot, towels, toys etc. Students can decorate the bowls for free, but we will also be selling picture frames for a $1 and key chains for $0.50. In addition to that each student will receive a paw to put their name on it. We will then decorate the student center with the names of students that donated money to the cause. It will be a very eventful and good deed event!

Minute of Fame

Today was the photo shoot and filming that was done at the Garret Mountain campus. I came in to meet someone at 3pm in the Student Center, and I was the last one to be filmed. They told me to be myself, speak about what I really feel about the school and enjoy myself. Well, I did just that! I was asked several questions about the campus and I had nothing but good things to say.

Later on I had some pictures taken in professional wear as well as casual wear. We even went outside to take pictures in front of one of the most beautiful trees on campus. We took come pictures leaning against the tree and some laying in the petals from the tree reading a book. The weather ended up being perfect for this thing. It was a really nice experience.

Later on we had our meeting where there were more pictures taken. Today was a special day because it was Ms.Youngs birthday! The Dean along with Ms. Coppola crashed our meeting and brought us a cake! We had some left over chips and salsa from yesterday as well as lots of drinks. We had a mini party to celebrate the event.

Siete De Mayo was such a great success! We had a lot of chips and salsa, drinks, piñatas, sombreros, games such as pin the tail on the donkey and much more. I came early to help Ms. Young prepare and set everything up. We had a great helping crew of students who were great as well.

At first people were a little shy to do things, but everyone warmed up quickly. We had 3 different piñatas and they were all busted! It was funny seeing people trying to hit it and people were shouting directions that were totally wrong! With the game pin the tail on the donkey people were doing the same thing. The winner of the game (whoever got the closest tail on the butt) won a free Berkeley t-shirt and a sombrero. Next week is Flower Power, so I hope many students come out to paint a flower pot!

Check out my pictures!

Busy Week of Events

Today while I was substitute teaching I saw another Berkeley College representative. I went up to her to introduce myself, and she was very friendly and passionate about her job. I saw her making rounds around the seniors and everyone seemed to like her attitude. It’s nice that Berkeley offers assistance to students who are not sure of what to do after high school or are not sure what to go to college for. It can be a very complicated decision.

This week is full of events! On Wednesday we are having the Siete De Mayo event where we will have food, games and a lot of fun. Berkeley is very cultural and we like to celebrate holidays that are important to other cultures. Also on Wednesday after the activity period I have a conference meeting for the strategic planning committee. I made a list of things I want to discuss and bring to the table. On Thursday at 3pm I am scheduled to film for Berkeley’s new commercial and website. I’m not sure what they will need me for yet, but it will be a fun experience. I will bring back pictures!

In my Changing Family class, we are discussing a very fun topic, “Dating”. Sometimes the professors leave the discussion board open and instead of them giving us a certain topic to write about, they give us the opportunity to express anything we want or start our own topic. For our graded assignment for the week we have to explore several dating websites and write about them and what we think about them. Do they work? What are they looking for? How do they make matches? It’s a very interesting topic especially since people have been trying to figure out the formula for love for the longest time!