New York City

The Student Activities Office organizes school trips throughout the year for faculty, staff and students.  Usually they organize sporting events and shopping trips.  This past weekend was the trip to New York City.  The bus left Saturday morning around 8:00 am and was supposed to leave New York in the evening.  However, I'm lucky enough to have a relative in New York City to stay with.  My one and only older sister is attending Columbia University for her PhD and is living in Manhattan near campus.  She loves the city and I love the free place to stay.  I went on the trip with my girlfriend Alli, her brother Luke and his girlfriend Christine.  Luke and Christine left on the evening bus with the school.  Alli and I stayed with my sister so we could have more time in the city.  We went shopping, walked around the Metropolitan Museum of Art and then I was forced to go to a movie... something about a vampire...she owes me for that.  Oh! By the way, while I was shopping I decided to finally get my new camera.  I bought a Nikon DSLR camera so I will hopefully have a lot more pictures to add in the future.  Unfortunately I didn't take it out much in NYC because I didn't have time to set it up.  I will be taking some pictures around campus in the next few weeks though and I will be sure to add them.  I'm really looking forward to our break for Thanksgiving.  It is kind of hard to call it a break because for me it is going to be time to catch up on everything before the semester ends with finals in a few weeks.  I have a lot of papers, projects, and presentations to finish this weekend.  I hope I have them all finished before Saturday and Sunday after Thanksgiving because I plan to visit my friend Bobby at Penn State again.  I love going there to visit friends, but I'm glad I don't go there full time.  I enjoy the atmosphere at Alvernia much better as it provides what I need for the day to day work, however I am able to visit friends at other schools on occasion.  The biggest suggestion I have for any prospective student is to stay overnight or at least shadow a class at the schools you wish to go to.  It is the best way to determine if you are really going to enjoy the four year commitment that you'll have to a school.  Don't be alarmed...if turns out that the decision you make isn't quite right, you can always transfer to somewhere else. 

As always, feel free to ask me questions.  

You can email me at gilm8443@alvernia.edu

Just a few more weeks

This semester is almost over. November is the last full month of classes (minus thanksgiving) before holiday break. The weather is getting a little colder and the leaves have fallen from most of the trees. There is still a lot of construction on campus as they try to meet the fall 09 deadline for the new buildings. I had a pretty relaxed week last week compared to the hectic weeks I had before.

 It was a welcome break and I was able to get out with my friends. All of my girlfriend's roommates went with me to Applebees in Wyomissing. It is a quick 10 min drive away, but it is worth it for the half priced appetizers. I missed my hockey game this last weekend because I went to a wedding in Altoona, PA. However, I heard that they beat Widener in the only game all weekend. It was a nice break from playing before the three game weekend we have coming up. I took some pictures of Angelica Park which is adjacent to campus because the ground was covered in leaves. It's from a week ago so there are still a lot of leaves on the trees. 

I am really excited for winter even though I forgot to bring jackets. Since I am from Minnesota, I was not able to drive home and get things for winter. I had to call Mom and Dad so they could ship some cold weather clothes to me.

Mid Semester

After a long weekend of hockey games against Rider University (L 6-2) and Neumann College (W 5-4), it is time to start classes again.  This week is the start of the half-way point of the semester.  It is also the start of MOD 2 classes.  Alvernia has classes offered in MOD format that are generally in the evening.  They last half a semester and are usually aimed at the night school and continuing education students.  I am taking a MOD this semester so that I can graduate on time in May.  I am taking Labor Relations (a business class) and it is Monday and Wednesday from 8:00 PM to 10:20 PM for the rest of this semester.  There are a lot of changes on campus in the form of construction.  The bulldozers are hard at work on lower campus while they prepare to build the new residence halls that should be open for Fall semester 2009.  

In my introduction, I failed to mention a few rewarding events that I was a part of so far this semester:

Last year I was asked to participate in the APAC (Alvernia Planning and Advisory Committee).  The committee meets once a semester to discuss the progress of the campus master plan with regard to changes in new construction, changes in policy, and new ideas.  It is a sub-committee formed by the board and includes all of the Administrative Vice Presidents, faculty from various departments, a grad student, and myself the undergrad student. It has been a great opportunity for me to really be involved with the future of Alvernia and it has provided me with some great experience in upper level decision making. 

I attended the Mayor's Prayer Breakfast with Dr. Flynn (our president) and a handful of students.  It was a great opportunity to network as I was able to meet many local business owners and professionals.  I was also fortunate enough to meet with Senator Michael O'Pake. This was a great opportunity for me as a business student, but also a great example of the opportunities that such a small school can offer the students.  

I also attended the Dodge Poetry Festival with Dr. Tom Bierowski (one of our english professors).  My girlfriend Alli is in his class and asked me to go along.  I agreed to go, even though I am not a huge fan of the whole poetry thing.  It was a lot of fun even though it rained almost the whole time.  We got to hear some poets share their work and there was a lot of delicious carnival food.

I will be sure to add some pictures in the next few days!

If you have any questions about Alvernia please ask me.  I work for admissions so if I cannot answer your questions, I can probably find someone who can!

Introduction

Hi, my name is Michael. I came to Alvernia for my freshman year in August 2005. I will be starting my last year at Alvernia in less than a week. I have had so much fun the last three years, built so many friendships, and learned a lot about myself personally and professionally. I work for a major retailer part time while I am at school. However, I try to limit the hours that I am at work so that I have plenty of time for classes, extra curricular activities, and my friends. I also play ice hockey for the Alvernia hockey team and am the captain for the second year in a row. We have already played a few games and so far we are 4-1. We'll be playing Rider University in NJ this Saturday so come catch a game! Hockey aside, I am at Alvernia to study Business Management and will hopefully be starting my MBA here after I graduate in May.