Monday, March 31, 2008

First Day

Today was a very exciting day. Not only was it the first day of classes (I didn’t have any today), but my first day of the internship. Ms. Ware, Rebecca and I met at a diner around the school today to discuss the deliverables. Ms. Ware was very nice and she was very detailed about going over the information. Tomorrow I am going to her house because we will be going to NYC for a conference. I was a bit nervous about going to the city on my own so she was nice enough to take me with her.

Tomorrow I have my only class that I take on campus. I was going to buy books today but I got lazy after my meeting and decided that I will buy it tomorrow. SGA officers are having a meeting tomorrow at 4pm. We decided that we will collage pictures in order to decorate the student center. Last quarter we talked about doing this in order to bring some spirit into the room and make it more of a home for students.

We are also planning to have a collage day for students. They will be able to bring in their own pictures of them and their friends and make posters to put in the student center. It should be a really fun activity. This event is very similar to “Inspire Your Heart with Art Day”. Look out for the event!

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Back to Business

Spring break is officially over in 4 hours. I went to Vermont for a week, and it was nice to breathe in some fresh air! Many things were closed because this was the last week of the season, but we got a lot done. We went skiing, visited museums, hiked on trails and enjoyed the beautiful mountains. I would highly recommend visiting Vermont.

Despite this week being my spring break, it seemed like it was just as busy as if I was in school. I received many e-mail from different people in school. I was somewhat expecting this, so I brought my laptop with me on my spring break. I didn’t want to fall behind, so on my off time I tried to respond to as many e-mails as I could.

My last quarter ended pretty well, and like I wrote in my last blog I enjoyed all the classes I had. In my Arts in the Contemporary Society class I was positive I was going to get an A, but instead I got a B+. This really confused me because I got an 88 out of 96 possible points. I e-mailed the professor about the issue because I also did two extra credit assignments which were worth 2 points and were not applied to the grade. This brought my grade to 90 out of 96, but I still had a B+. The explanation that I got from the professor was that I got a B on my research project and because of that my grade is a B+. She also mentioned that my 2 extra credit points were added to another assignment which brought the grade up to an A but it didn’t change anything in my grade. The professor was very good at answering quickly, but I still don’t get it. I just let it go.

Tomorrow I have a meeting with Ms. Ware, which is my internship employee. She is very friendly, and I can’t wait to have lunch tomorrow. We are meeting in a diner around the school, and Tuesday I’m meeting her other partner in NYC. They are launching a new service, and we are meeting to discuss the deliverables and what is expected of me.

In addition to me being there, there is another intern position that she opened up. The internship was given to a student named Rebecca. I talked to her on the phone, and she sounds very nice. I like the fact that we will be in this together and we can bounce ideas off of each other.

This week is going to be very busy and tiring. I enjoyed my break, but now it’s back to business.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Done Deal

Ugh today was that time again where I had to sell my books. It’s always painful because I spent about $400 for my books and only got $124 back. I feel so ripped off! I use the book for only few months and I barely got anything back. I sold 4 books. I learned my lesson last quarter and sold my books ASAP this time. There is a limit as to how many books they can buy back so it’s first come first serve.

Today I have also taken my last final for the quarter. It was in my Human Sexuality class. The test was 150 questions and it covered about 8 chapters. In that class we only had a midterm and a final exam. I really wasn’t so fond of this setup because I feel like everything gets piled up all at once. I like to get things done as they come at me but instead all this information from all these chapters are all mushed together. It can get a bit confusing with all this detailed information but at the end I got an 88% on my final. I’m pretty impressed since it was 150 questions!

I really enjoyed all my classes this quarter. The professors were great and the classes were entertaining. I feel like I have learned a lot and I’m looking forward to next quarter. It will be a whole new experience with having an internship and taking two more online classes. SGA meetings are now going to be run Tuesday at 4:00 in the Multimedia Room. Don’t forget to join us!

Monday, March 17, 2008

Something New, Something Old

Great news! This morning I got a response back from financial aid and if you pay out of pocket for your school bill, and then get financial aid you will get refunded what you paid. This makes things a little easier for me knowing that.

Today I took my last test for my online class. I must say the test was a little challenging, but if you read the materials it wasn’t all that difficult. Sometimes answers can be tricky because more than one answer is possible, but lucky for us the test is open book!

I have to gather pictures for SGA. Starting the new quarter we will make collages out of all the events that we have. This way we can decorate the student center and make it more welcoming. Incoming students will have an overview what Berkeley is about and the kind of activities that we run. I enjoy doing arts and crafts as do other SGA members. It will be a great way to bring us together and enjoy each other’s company.

I have not talked about the bulletin board in a while. Well, despite it being just a bulletin board surprisingly it’s a lot more. There were controversies that were raised, some people had issues with it, and others loved it and so on. To me, it’s still just a bulletin board. The original plan was to make the new bulletin board exclusively for Student Development. Last week Dean Hughes approached me because a staff member asked him if they could use a piece of the board for other announcements. He didn’t want to make a decision on his own so he asked the SGA what we thought about it.

When I was approached about it we came to a great agreement that ¼ of the bulletin board will be shared with others, and ¾ will belong to Student Development. I wanted to share the board because some people that may have objected to it will now be interested in using it. This way they will see our point of view and see the benefit of it. I think its passing on a great message across. This message is that you should hear what others have to say to determine the needs for something. Don’t make assumptions because something has never been done before so it may not need to be done now. Adaptation is key to success.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Tying the Ends

On Friday we have concluded out presidential interviews for Berkeley College, and the choices were tough. The four individuals were all very different but all had a great potential. There are two candidates that stuck out in my mind. I really can’t wait to find out who got the job!

Last week I was having some issued with financial aid, and their still pending to be figured out. I have not yet done my taxes, but I have filled out my FAFSA’s online. The reason I have done that is because when filling them out, you have an option of choosing Will File/Will Not File/Filed when it came to your taxes. I have filled them out based on all my W2’s but come to find out that the school will not take those FAFSA’s. You have to have your taxes done, bring them to school, and THEN they will be accepted. I am working on all that this week. Now I will know for next time.

My other confusion was that you have until April 15th to fill out your FAFSA’s, but you school bill for the spring is due March 28th. Obviously these deadlines don’t match so I had a question that I e-mailed to financial aid. My question was since I have until April 15th to do all my FAFSA’s, could I pay my bill for the spring out of pocket and if I get any financial aid (TAG) will I get refunded the money that I paid out of pocket. I sent my e-mail to finaidgm@berkeleycollege.edu on Wednesday but I have not heard any news back yet. Since tomorrow is already Monday and the deadline is getting close I will have to call them and find out the details.
This is the last week of school and its finals week. I’m trying to get everything done between my final papers, financial aid, internship etc because I am going away for a week at the end of March. Hopefully everything works out well!

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Day Full of Events

Today was such an exciting day! Several students and I have been selected to participate in selecting a President for Berkeley College. Today was the day that we interviewed two of the candidates, which was really exciting. I have never done anything like this and it was a very fun experience.

We met at 9am and went to the interview at 9:15. The candidate was not actually with us, but we were linked through a teleconference. We had a TV, camera and a speaker and it felt like we were really there when we really were not. Both candidates sounded great, and we tried our best to give an honest opinion about how we feel they would fit into the Berkeley family. Tomorrow we have two more interviews and then the decision will be made who will be chosen. I’m glad Berkeley considers our opinion as students.

Since we had a break between the two interviews I was able to make it to the Chillax Day activity. It was so much fun! We had free food, drinks and even a masseuse!!! That’s right, we all got free massages. I couldn’t believe it when I saw it. Nancy and I helped Ms. Young set up so that she could take care of other things. People were painting picture frames, door tags, and much more. We had music, card games and different discussion going on as well. We had a great outcome, but I hope next time even more students join us!

Check out the pictures?

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Middle States

Today was a very important day because we met with the Middle States to review the college so that it can be reaccredited. Accreditation is very important because when a college is accredited, students are able to get financial aid as well as move on to other institutions. All this pretty much means is that your degree is worth something.

We all met at 11:30 in the Student Center to get ready for the meeting. We then went to the boardroom to meet with the Middle States representative. Some people were nervous but it died down fast when everyone saw that the representative was very down to earth and friendly. They even served us lunch! We originally thought that lunch was going to be served after the meeting but he was so nice that he let us eat during the meeting. The cookies were a big hit with me!

We started off talking about things that we like about the school and what made us to come to this college. This seemed very simple to answer because everyone is fond of Berkeley. Some other questions included if we know anyone who has dropped out of Berkeley, what we would change if we were president, how well does the staff listen to us, do we have anyone to go to when we have a problem, how big are the classes, how good are teacher student relationships, are classes at a good learning level etc. It was a great overall experience.

Today was also our last SGA meeting for this quarter. I can’t believe how fast it went by. We have some new ideas and projects coming up as warm weather approaches. One thing we thought up is to make collages of all our event pictures. We do so many activities that this would be a great way to decorate the Student Center. We also want to make a Collage Day during an activity period. Students can bring in their own pictures with friends and family to make one big collage of the Berkeley College Family. It will be a great way to bond everyone together as a Diversity event

Friday, March 7, 2008

Internship is Out of the Way

I am very excited to say that I now have an internship! I had my second interview on Wednesday with Ms. Hinds-Ware who is a partner in the company Verify-ED. Our second interview was over Yahoo Instant Messenger which I thought was very cool! I like it when people use to modern technology to accomplish duties. The best part of the position is that its 100% telecommuting, and I don’t actually have to travel anywhere except for certain events. Ms. Hinds-Ware said that she will open another internship opportunity so that I can have help with research. This is a great opportunity.


I noticed that Berkeley started a new form of advertising. People are now coming into our classrooms during class and making announcements. Last week it was an announcement about dropping out of classes, and this week we got one about some walk or event going on. My Microeconomics teacher was a bit confused because he was never asked to do any event announcements. We never ended up getting the announcement after all, but I did read some of the paper that was brought into the class. Not getting the announcement might have been a good thing, because we were running short on time for our lesson anyway.


Yesterday I had a meeting with the Berkeley Interim President. We met at 10:45am to have a small discussion with Dean Hughes, and at 11am we headed to the Knupel Hall. There we waited for the President, and when she arrived she was very friendly and down to earth. We talked about what to expect from the Middle States review, and what are some of the possible questions they may ask us. She made it very clear to us that we should tell the truth, express how we feel and be ourselves. I can’t wait!

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Getting Things Done

The middle states review is coming up soon, and we are working hard to prepare. We want to make a good impression and express our thoughts about Berkeley College so that we can give a great example for the school. On Thursday we have a meeting with the school president and on Tuesday of next week we are having a meeting with the middle states committee.

Great news!!! The bulletin board is up and running! Last week we got the news during our SGA meeting that it was here and now it’s up. We got a beautiful sign for it that says that the bulletin is sponsored by SGA. Having the bulletin board go up was very exciting because we have all worked so hard to get it. It’s such a simple thing, but it’s so amazing how much effort this took!

Classes are slowly coming to an end, and currently we are doing surveys to see how we liked our classes and professors. I love that they do this because the school gets an idea of what works for students and what doesn’t. This way they know what professors are doing a good job, and which need an improvement. It’s almost as if we are hiring our own professors by our vote! I am a person who loves to express her opinion, and I really enjoy doing these surveys.

As you know, I have been interviewing for an internship which has been quite an interesting process for me. On Thursday I have sent an e-mail to Mr. Castro, who is an advisor in the career services department, about other internships I am interested in. We got an e-mail with a list of internships available and we are able to pick which ones we can apply for. This confused me a bit because t he list only had about 10 internships on it, and some of them weren’t even marketing internships. I know there are a lot more students looking for an internship this quarter, so I’m wondering what happens when all the positions on the list are taken?

Anyway, tomorrow I have a second interview for my internship and it’s very exciting. I really hope I get this position because it would be very convenient and a great opportunity to grow with the company.