Donations and the Holiday Spirit

Having a break is lovely, but having nothing to do drives me nuts! Berkeley College is having a fundraiser where they are collecting new and used toys. These toys will go to kids in the local area as their holiday presents. This was a great opportunity to clean out my spare closet of all the stuff I never use. I donated about 15 computer games, journals, board games, and 2 HUGE bears!

My day started off with trying to get my car out of the snow and ice which took me about 40 min. It was totally stuck, my dad eventually had to come back home and pull my car out. Because I shoved the 2 huge bears in the back seat and the rest of the stuff in the front, my dad thought I was crazy. He said “What, you need two friends to ride with you in the back?” Check out my new friends!




When I got to the campus it was so empty because everyone is on a break. One thing I noticed was the wonderful pine smell. Berkeley College is located on top of a mountain surrounded by trees of all kinds. Smelling the pines and seeing the snow really put me in the holiday spirit which made me feel even better about donating all these toys.

In With the New

Starting with the new quarter, there is some changes coming along in my life as well. As of January, I am no longer only the president of the International Business Club, but the president of the Student Government Association (SGA) at the Garret Mountain Campus. I decided to do this because I really like to be involved and know what going on where. By holding this position I can organize events, look over other clubs, and be involved with not only one club, but all!

With this position comes a lot of responsibility. Not only am I going to represent Berkeley College, but the student body as well. Its important to be available for events such as Club Convention each quarter, as well as meetings. The SGA meetings will be help every Tuesday at 3:30. If you are interested to join, feel free to show up any time! We have a great Vice President named Edgar and our reliable secretary Travis. We hope to have a fun, eventful quarter.

On Wednesday Ms. Young, Travis, the former SGA president, Edgar who was conference in, and myself had a meeting to make specific arrangements. We talked about what the SGA expects from the new members as well as what Student Development at Berkeley expects from us. It was important to go over rules and steps we need to take in order to be a successful organization.

There is a lot of planning and organizing to do, but for right now I’m going to relax and enjoy me two weeks off on my break! Enjoy!!!

Woo Hoo Fall Qurter is OVER!

Classes are officially over today! I’m so excited because I really need a break. I had a few final papers due which went pretty well. The professors were very nice but still kept us busy all quarter. Next quarter I am taking three classes on campus and two classes online. One of the online classes I was scheduled to take on campus but that class was canceled. In order not to lose those credits, they put me in the online version of the class.

I have never taken an online class because I like the in class experience. In order to take online classes you have to pass a short review online to prove that you have the knowledge of using Blackboard. I’m a person who learns by having someone teach things to me, but since I have no other choice but to take the online classes, we will see how it goes.

The Ms. Berkeley International Pageant is back in action with a new name! It is now going to be called Ms. Berkeley International Celebration. Because the name changes the meaning of the event, we have not yet decided if the program of the event will change. Either way, I’m sure the event will be a lot of fun!

Snow here, snow there, snow everywhere! It took me 40 minutes to dig my car out of snow this morning. I am so lucky I did not have classes or any finals today, because I would have definitely been late!

Fashion!

Interested in the Fashion Program at Berkeley? Well, I'm not a fashion major, but here are some cool displays I see around campus that the fashion department does. I thought everyone would like to see them! Its cool how they change every so often and display different styles and eras.

Pizza for the Class!

Yesterday was such a fun day in class! Since this is the last week of regular scheduled classes, the professors are finalizing things and giving us our last tests. Yesterday was our last day of class for my World Cultures class with Professor Kulik (she raises Alpacas!). It was the day to present our final projects, but the professor was kind enough to buy pizza and drinks for the whole class! I was so glad to hear that because I was starving since I didn’t have time to eat dinner before I came to class.


Our final project was about doing a movie/presentation in either Windows Moviemaker or PowerPoint about an experience with another culture. I did mine about Polish Christmas since that is my favorite event of the year. First I talked about what the holiday is about and what are some of the traditions. This includes Polish food such as pierogi, makowjec, karp, sledzie etc. I then went on to show pictures of my Christmas spent in Poland and how I continue the traditions living in America today.


Other students had very interesting presentations. It’s amazing how culturally rich our class was. Almost everyone had a different country that they presented on. Some stories were touching, some were scary and some were funny. One girl told us a story of when she went on vacation and she was kidnapped in Cuba. I cannot imagine the experience that she must have gone through. She said the reason she survived and they released her was because she gave them money. Another story I found interesting was one about a girl who went to Jamaica with her friend to visit family and spend time at a resort. She explained her culture shock and how glad she is to live in the United States. It really cracked me up when she was talking about cows and goats being used as lawn mowers.


I enjoyed that class very much. It touched on a lot of interesting subjects and the professor uses great methods to teach. I strongly recommend taking this class to anyone who is considering. It’s fun, exciting, and you get introduced to things that you have never known before.

Upset But Happy

Today Berkeley College is having a blood drive which is a great opportunity for students to help the community. I got excited when I found out because I have never donated blood before and I wanted to help out during the holiday season. What better way to help someone than to give them a chance at life?

Well, I went to the Student Center at 10am, just to find out that I cannot give blood! This is because I was born in Europe and have traveled there. They are afraid that anyone traveling to Western Europe may have the Mad Cow Disease. I found this to be very ridiculous.

We have such a diverse student body at Berkeley that they may be turning away so much potential blood. I’m sure a large number of students here have been born, or traveled to Europe within their lifetime. I was told that the Mad Cow Disease is a very rare disease that is normally not found in humans but could infect the human species if they eat nerve tissue (the brain and spinal cord) of cattle that were infected with mad cow disease. I’m pretty sure I have NEVER in my lifetime eaten cow brain nor spinal cord.

I just think it’s really sad that so many people want to donate but can’t. Many people in the United States are dying because of a lack of blood and people are being turned down because of such slim chances of having a disease. At least I’m glad to see that Berkeley is trying to make a difference by offering the Red Cross to come to the school. The blood that they receive will be a great gift for someone who needs it the most. There is no better holiday gift to give than life.