Berkeley College has been having quite some fun with all the creative ideas that SGA and Ms. Young, have been coming up with! When I was in college we started doing the JDRF walk and collecting donations for JDRF. We had a ton of fun doing this so I noticed that the tradition has continued. I have to find out how it went this year but I love their flyer and they motto that they came up with! Check it out:



From what I can see Berkeley has gone such a far way just from the time I have graduated. When I look at their website it looks so good that I cannot even remember what it used to look like. We now have all these events posted on the website such as plays, career fairs, art galleries, etc. where before you had to log into Blackboard in order to view any events. I am very eager to continue following up with Berkeley and seeing where it goes next.

One thing I have to give Berkeley huge props for is that it never uses models for its advertising to the students. I feel that Berkeley gets its warm feeling and a trusting feeling towards students because it has true Berkeley students that give examples to potential students on what the college is about. The students on the front page are Berkeley students, the career fair pictures are Berkeley students and event the professors on the page and real Berkeley professors.

You know you can feel good about a college when it’s not afraid to show its own students work. Berkeley is proud of the work that it’s done with its students and that makes us as students proud to be Berkeley graduates.

Halloween is Around the Corner!

Halloween is just around the corner, and I have been on a Saw watching spree. So far I have watched Saw I, II, III and IV. Today I should see Saw V and then my life will feel complete! It seems like every year Halloween looses a little bit of its holiday feel. I remember when I was a child everyone went trick or treating with their kids! Our town used to have to set a curfew for kids to stop walking from house to house but last year it was nothing like that. We barely got any kids coming to our house or even walking around the neighborhoods.

I’m guessing since the world has gotten a little more dangerous in the past few years parents are a little more fearful for their kids. First it was the envelope powder that killed people, and then it was contaminated candy and let’s not forget all the kidnapped children that have been all over the news lately. Parents instead of sending their children trick or treating send their kids to Halloween parties with their friends that are monitored by parents. In a way I do believe that is the better alternative but it does lose a lot of the Halloween spirit.

Today is already Wednesday and the week is just floating by for me. I work 2 late days so I could accommodate the evening students and this kind of confuses my life cycle making my week go by so much quicker. On Wednesdays I go over student grades and let them know what they have to do in order to pass. Some students care, and some don’t. Some tell me they will do something about it some tell me they will do something about it and never do anything. Sometimes I feel like I am talking to a tree and sometimes I feel like I just want to bang my head over the wall because you can tell someone something 10 times and then when their dropped they come crying to you. I guess that’s just how the world goes sometimes.

Student Loan Changes

Student loans are something that almost every student has to face unless you are one of the very few lucky ones. Student loans are given to students in need of financial aid based on their income information. Loans com in 3 different ways: Subsidized, Unsubsidized and Parent PLUS loans. The difference between Subsidized and Unsubsidized is that Subsidized is interest free until 6 months after you graduate and Unsubsidized is not interest free.

I have taken out student loans for my education and have finally started paying them off in May. You have a 6 months grace period after you graduate to find a job and get yourself stable so that you can start paying off your loans. When the paying off time comes you have a choice of consolidating your loans and keeping them separate and letting Sallie May send you one statement. Now, the trick with consolidation is that it’s best to consolidate if your interest is more than what is currently offered. For example I have 5 different loans and for all of them I have different interest rates. One has a 2.8%, 4.7% and the rest are 6.8%. It wouldn’t make much sense for me to consolidate my loans right now at 6.8% when I am paying less interest on some of my loans.

The reason I am mentioning student loans is because there have been some changes going on with student loans. In recent months my bank account has been getting charged more from Sallie May than the Sallie May website has been stating. This is like you seeing your credit card bill is $100 but you are being charged $130 a month for your bill. I decided to give them a call and I found that apparently one of my loans has been sold to the Department of Education but Sallie May still manages it.

What this means is that Sallie May is charging my bank account more so that it can also cover the other loan that is under the Department of Education. There is no specific reason why Sallie May has sold certain loans and not the others so there is no need to worry if your loan was sold. They were simply restructuring their company and this is what ended up happening.

If you see any changes in your billing give Sallie May a call as soon as possible so you can find out what is happening to your account. The man I spoke to on the phone said that most people did not get notification about this change even though they were supposed to. It’s important to keep all your information together and keep track of your payments because it’s very easy to lose track of things. Stay on top of your bill and make sure you call as soon as something doesn’t make sense to you about your payments.

Small Thought

This morning I was at the store and I had a small gift card for it. At first I didn't really know what I wanted to get but then I saw some really pretty fountains and smelly diffusers. Then my train of thought was do I want to get it for my house or do I want to get it for work. After pondering for about 3 minutes I had a thought. My thought was did we ever noticed that we spend more time at work than at home? I was thinking to myself where will I get more use out of it home are at work and the answer was very clear! WORK!

Sometimes people think that work is all about making money but is it? If you have to spend most of your time only to earn money are you working to live or living to work? I believe that many people need to ask themselves these questions before starting college. What is it that you want to do? When do you want to do it and how do you want to do it? What goals do you want to achieve in your life? What time frame do you want to achieve them in? Who do you want along with you achieving these goals. its amazing how many jobs you can narrow down by simply asking yourself those questions.

For example if you want to be a business man and own your own business you have to be flexible. You have to have a partner who will want to sacrifice some things with you. You may not be able to take off from your business whenever you want so many vacations may not always be an option. Maybe you want to travel the world so working for a big corporation that allows you to travel and do business in many places is a great option for you. If you enjoy working with children maybe you need to be a teacher. If you like to read maybe you should be a researcher.

There are many career options for everyone but first you need to ask yourself some very basic simple questions. Doing what you choose to do will take a lot from your life so make sure you re doing something worthy and something you really enjoy. Money is not the most important factor in your life and when you are in a store looking a fountain to put on your desk, make sure its a desk where you enjoy spending time at.

Interesting Weekend

The weekend has come and gone and its time to get back in business. Saturday my school had a show called "Beauty Within". We decided to run a hair show for family and friends to raise money for Domestic Violence Abuse. The show went really well and the students really had fun with it. My Sunday on the other hand was not so good. First thing in the morning I realized my long time fish named Jimmy died. He was happy swimming in the morning and then by the time 10am came around he wasn't really swimming anymore. I cried, I pouted but in the end everything was ok. I knew he was in a better place.

Later on that day I decided to go to the pet store and see if I like any other beta fish to replace my Jimmy. The fish tank looked very sad and empty without him so I needed to replace him quick. Once I was at the store I walked around and came across one of those large talking parrots that hang out on a stand and talk to you. For some reason this parrot was looking at me strongly and swaying back and forth. At first I didn't know what that bird was doing so I just went to turn around and walk away to keep looking for a pretty fish. As soon as I turned around the bird jumped off the stand and started flying towards me! it clawed its feet in my hair and attached itself to me! Now this bird was about one foot long and quite heavy! I ran around the store screaming because I had this huge bird stuck in my hair!

When the clerk came out he took the bird out of my hair and said the bird has been doing it all week. I thought to myself that maybe they should tie this bird down since they know the issue that's going on with this bird! Apparently the bird got attracted to my neon green ski jacket and my long hair that was down. He must have thought I was a friend or something! So not only did I loose my fish but then I got attacked by a bird too!

So I thought that was the end of my bad luck but little did I know. Later on I decided to go get a small bar table so I can put my wine on it and my wine glasses. I went to the store, got one and it took me about an hour and a half to put it together. This little bar table was really a pain in the but to put together. When I was finally done I wanted to go it a test run and come to find out that the bar does not hold standard wine glasses, it has a be a specifically fitted glasses! I was so frustrated at that point I just took the whole thing apart again and returned it.

Lucky for me Monday was a lot better. On a better note, whenever the weather gets cooler and the leaves start turning colors I get in the holiday spirit. Before we know it all those holidays will be around the corner and we will all be in a celebration mood. I think that my favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. I think its my favorite because I never got to celebrate it in Europe and now its like an additional holiday I get to celebrate. I love getting the family all together and talk about things we haven't had a time to catch up on all year. its great having those people around you that get together with you at least once a year to show you that they care.

Log In

Yet another week has passed by and today is finally hump day. For the longest time I didn’t know what people meant by hump day but I finally asked someone and got my answer. Wednesday is called hump day because it’s in the middle of the week. It’s that day where we are finally half way through the week and we are getting over the hump of the week being almost over. The answer was so simple this whole time and I can’t believe I didn’t get it.

For some reason I sometimes have issues logging into my Berkeley account after I have not logged into it for a while. The other day I was trying to log in and it was not allowing me to. I knew that Berkeley has created new passwords for students where the password is more complex and not so easy to crack, but my new password was still not working. The good thing about Berkeley is that they always have help available.

When I couldn’t log in I simply went to live chat help on the Berkeley website. They transferred me to the right department and I got to talk to a woman that was very helpful. She reset my password and within 5 minutes I was able to log into my account without any problems. I was able to do all that without even picking up a phone. Just a few clicks and my problem was solved. Many times I hate talking on the phone, staying on hold, and having to explain my situation 5 times to 5 different people. This service was great and very helpful.

There are many events going on at Berkeley all the time but one caught my eye that I am very interested in. Berkeley is presenting a play called B Free Franklin that is acted out by students of Berkeley College. This play is playing on many dates and everyone should come out and see this play to support Berkeley students.