For Welcome Back Week, the University Programming Board had several events to help students adjust back to being at school from a break. We had Comedian Pete Lee come in on Tuesday and he was a huge hit. He was one of the best comedians we have brought to Walsh in my opinion. Why?  Well the next day my abs hurt from laughing so much during the show. He had a lot of us in tears laughing at his jokes. Then on Wednesday was Price is Right. It is just like the show! Students put there names into a drawing before the show starts and then names are picked to come up on stage and be a part of the show. The prizes are awesome too! They range from pencils and notebooks all the way to tickets to the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame and an iPod Touch (the grand prize for this year). Sophomore Kyle Barkhurst played the role of Bob Barker for the second year and the crowd loved him! Finally, ice skating at Center Ice Sports Complex was on Thursday night. A tradition at Walsh University at the beginning of the Spring Semester, around 300 students came out to skate and enjoy some time off campus. I hadn’t skated in about two years, but I enjoyed skating around the rink! It was a great opening week!

Yesterday we had our first big snowfall here at Walsh. A good 5-6 inches of white fluffy stuff fell from the sky Thursday into Friday. Campus has a nice white blanket now, though the wind seems determined to uncover everything or just chill students to the bone. Winter has truly arrived, and although I really do not like the cold (hence me heading off to North Carolina once  I graduate), it means that winter can soon be over and warm weather can return. I was getting worried with all the nice weather that winter was truly going to hit eventually and I was going to be graduating in snow! Maybe thats a little bit of an exaggeration, but still… this nice weather with days hitting even the high 50s had me worried!

So here’s to an amazing semester to come with lots of time with friends and doing my best in classes! Everything is wrapping up. I should be finishing my Senior Honors Thesis in the next few weeks, and even my classes are symbols of my time here coming to an end. I recently read a quote, “Life is short, so let’s go live it.” With it in mind, I hope everyone enjoys every second of this semester, whatever year you are, and make the most of it! Its 2012, you never know if it might be the last semester we have! Doubtful, but have a good time just in case!

Have a good long weekend!!! Here are some pics from this past week:

Out for First Fridays

Marie and I at Ice Skating

Out to dinner with friends

Since the last time I posted, a lot has been happening on campus. The main thing being Fall Family Weekend. Put on by the Alumni Office and the University Programming Board, families fill up Walsh’s campus and participate in a bunch of fun events! Saturday afternoon was filled with a festival in the athletic building with so much do and for all ages!!! Some of the highlights? Wax hands where you dipped your hand in a vat of wax and then took it off and had a model of your hand! Also, we had a salon come and were putting feathers in everyone’s hair for only $3!!! There was also a really neat balloon artist, cool games, prizes, delicious fall food, and sooo much more! My favorite part though???  The KANGAROO!! Yes, we brought in a petting zoo full with two ponies, goats and a kangaroo! It was so adorable! That night, Walsh’s football team played Malone University (our rival school), and WALSH DOMINATED! Way to go cavs! Sunday morning held a delicious breakfast opportunity for families. Several organizations take place in what is called Pancakes on Parade each year, supporting Campus Ministry. Each organization is required to make a different kind of pancake of their choice and families get to try them all and vote for their favorite! This year, UPB made Jack O Lantern pancakes. They were pumpkin flavored with chocolate batter eyes and mouth and stem. We didn’t win, but we had a fun time making them all.

I cannot believe how fast this semester is going by. This Friday I am meeting with my advisor to plan out my classes for my last semester here at Walsh! I do not know how I got to this point so fast! If there is one thing I have learned over the past 3 1/2 years, its to take advantage of every opportunity possible and make the most of this experience! Walsh and college in general has so much to offer you! Classes and grades are important, but so are the people you meet, the relationships you make, and the impacts you make on campus. A recruit’s mom asked me this weekend if I had to chance to do it all over again, would I do it the same way? My answer was without a doubt. I cannot imagine the past 4 years without my golf girls or joining the programming board. Everything I have involved myself in, though it has all brought me a lot of stress and late nights, has also brought me the most joy. I would not redo anything! I will definitely be leaving Walsh with some of the best memories

On the note of taking advantage of opportunities, next weekend (November 4-6) is SHAPE the sophomore Leadership retreat. I am in charge of it this year and am really looking forward to it! Students have the rest of this week to sign up to be a part of it! We fill the weekend with fun activities directed towards gaining leadership skills and learning about personal leadership styles. My core team and I planned it out this weekend and we cannot wait! All Sophomores should go on it!!! As a part of our marketing, we came up with a few commercials. They’re pretty sweet so I am going to try to get them to load onto here if they can.

SHAPE Commercial 1

SHAPE Commercial 2

So that is all for now! Have a wonderful week and Happy Halloween!!!

We knew we had to keep up the hard work going into Sunday though to keep our lead. AND WE DID IT! Though it was a nail biter to the end! We ended up winning by 6 strokes over Wheeling Jesuit and a few more to Mercyhurst (both were on our tails the entire day). I was nervous making the turn. The Mercyhurst girl I was playing with had shot even par on the front nine and I heard that Katy’s Mercyhurst girl shot 1 under! Our Wheeling Jesuit girls were not that far behind us either. But golf is a game of patience and the back nine proved to be a little different for us. I shot a couple strokes better, but the real great part was Katy Collins, who came back from a 4 over front nine to shoot a 2 under back nine!!! She also shot her personal best of 74 that day! Congrats Katy!

Champions!

Our next tournament is this coming Monday and Tuesday in Cleveland. Wish us luck!!!!

In other news…

Being a part of the University Programming Board, I am going to do my best to keep you updated on what is going on on campus!! This week, well tomorrow, Tuesday… we have PRESTON PUGMIRE coming to campus! He will be performing in the Gameroom tomorrow 9/20 at 9:30pm!!! Check out more information and links on WALSH UPB Facebook!!

UNTIL NEXT TIME! HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!

]]> http://www.lifeatwalsh.com/walsh-golf-team-comes-out-on-top/feed/ 0 http://www.lifeatwalsh.com/psych-bio-and-art-oh-my/ http://www.lifeatwalsh.com/psych-bio-and-art-oh-my/#comments Tue, 06 Sep 2011 03:16:33 +0000 Kim http://www.lifeatwalsh.com/?p=1702 Well, I’ve made it through the first week of my senior year!!! I am really looking forward to all my classes this semester, which I must say, is probably a first So I guess I should probably explain why this is the case huh? Let me take you on a tour of my typical week…

First thing Monday mornings, well 10:20am, I make my way to Social Psychology. I have had my professor before and she is really neat. Dr. Barden likes to incorporate a bunch of different media examples into her lectures which make them much more enjoyable to listen to. Typically they have been news examples or youtube videos. Her newest thing this semester is a clicker. Everyone is class is linked up with their own clickers. Throughout her presentations, there will be different poll questions or just a check up and make sure you were listening and paying attention question. The feedback is almost instant on the powerpoint and you get to see how the class is thinking. Her hope is that the poll questions will provoke some class discussions on different topics. I hope this is the case!

After Social Psych, I get quite a break in my day. I don’t have class again until 2pm! Hopefully, this time will be spent studying, grabbing lunch with friends and working out, whatever seems to be needed that day. Once my break is over, I head on over to Human Physiology. This is by far going to be my toughest class of the semester but I am really looking forward to it! I finally get to do a little bit more in the field I am interested in. This class should relate more to Physical Therapy, which I am stoked about! It will be a lot of work and studying and hard exams, but luckily, as you will see, I kind of have the time to put forth a lot of effort on this class.

And that ends my Mondays (and Wednesdays)!!! Fridays look similar just without Human Phys. My afternoons should be filled with golf for the next two months and then its time for homework.

Tuesdays (and Thursdays) start a little earlier at 9:45am when I go to Psychology Seminar. I really didn’t know what to expect from this class and I’m not sure I truly know yet what it will hold. However, I do know we will be setting ourselves up for Psychology Research next semester when we have to design and implement a full research project. This semester we will be formulating a topic and gaining Human Subjects Review (an ethics board) approval. We will also write our literature review. So knowing all this, I am guessing Research will be an extension of this course and the two should work really well one being right after the other.

I then move straight on to my last class of the day, Drawing. I have not taken an art class since high school and I am really looking forward to this one. We will be working on a bunch of different projects throughout the semester. If they turn out well I will be sure to share some of them with you!!!

So that is going to be the typical week in the life of Kim! I am pretty happy with it and I like all of my classes thus far, though it has only been one week I’ll be sure to keep you posted on how everything is going!!! Happy Labor Day!!!

This summer I spent my time at Walsh working on my Senior Honors Thesis, working at Glenmoor CC, observing PTs, applying to grad school (eek!) and having a ton of fun! Walsh is such a different atmosphere during the summer than the school year. There are not very many people here and campus is really just yours. I loved my summer roomies, Heather and Shannon. Both are in honors with me and so we were all going through the deadlines of the proposal and literature review for our thesis. It was good to have people going through the same things.

Speaking of my thesis, its coming along. I’m still working on it and will probably finish it during this coming semester. I am researching low back pain in association with depression and quality of life. Basically, in the end I am going to see if there are any specific low back pain diagnoses that are associated with high levels of depression and low levels of quality of life. The importance behind it is that if there are diagnoses like this then we can also focus on those problems instead of just the physical ones. The outcome should then be more successful and optimal. I have not run analyzations yet, I am still in the process of cleaning my data (since I am working from a past database). It is taking a little longer than I thought it would, but overall I am content with my progress thus far. Once the cleaning is done, everything should basically come together quite quickly.

SOOO… now its the end of summer and I am planning for the upcoming semester! I know I said it already but I really cannot believe it is already here! I am sad to see the summer come to an end. But.. There are so many things coming up that I am super excited about. For one, GOLF CAMP STARTS THURSDAY (well tomorrow)!!! I cannot wait for my golf girls to move back to campus and for us to get started. Its my senior year and it should be a good one! Also, beginning of the semester means that UPB (University Programming Board) starts up! As a board, we went on a retreat this past weekend to get ready for the school year! We have so many fun things planned and in mind and I CANNOT WAIT for a lot of them! This year I am the Leadership Chair (I was Secretary/Treasurer last year). Leadership is in charge of planning and running the Sophomore Shape Leadership Retreat in the Fall and the Freshman Discover… Retreat in the Spring. I have been a part of these retreats as a retreatant or a leader since I was a freshman and so now to be able to plan them and make my mark on them is great! I am looking forward to it and have already started a bit of the planning for Shape.

This semester holds so much potential to be great and I couldn’t be more excited (if you couldn’t already tell). And with that, I don’t think there is going to be a better time to say GOODBYE SUMMER! and HELLO SENIOR YEAR!!!!

NACA

Over Presidents Day Break, myself and a few others travelled to St. Louis, Missouri. The University Programming Board participates in a national and regional conference every year, called National Association for Campus Activities, aka NACA. The point of it is to get discounted rates and find activities and events to bring to your campus. This was the first year I have gone and it was amazing!!! I had so much fun!!! There were several parts to the conference. We attended educational sessions, which focused on different parts of campus activities and ways to improve them. Then we also saw mainstage showcases, lecture showcases and club showcases. The point of these was to find different acts, such as singers, comedians, magicians, and so much more. My favorite part of it was CAMP though. This was the marketplace where you could go and meet and book the acts that you liked. I got to meet so many different people including Hanson, Collins Tuohy, and Nick Cannon. It was so exciting! We booked  a bunch of great acts for next year and I am so excited for them!!! Look out for them in the fall!

Lil Sibs Weekend – The Wizard of Walsh

Every year Walsh invites students to host their lil sibs for a weekend. This year the theme was Wizard of Oz so everything had to do with the movie. When sibs arrived they could make poppies, rainbows, or get their fortune told. That night families could either watch the Wizard of Oz or go see Improv n Cheese perform, an improv comedy group on campus. I went with my sisters to the Improv n Cheese show. They were hilarious! Then on Saturday a festival is held in the gym. To get a heart, you could make a picture frame. To get a brain, you answered brain teasers. To get courage, you made a pennant. To get a home, you could play a fishbowl game. Once you completed two of the four activities you could enter the Emerald City, where you could bounce in a bounce house inflatable or run in a hot air balloon. It was a lot of fun. The rest of the weekend I spent time with my sisters and mom. We went out to dinner with a couple of my friends to Wasabi and went to mass on Sunday. It was a lot fun and I am so glad I got to spend time with my family.

Golf Season Starts

Now, the most current happening is this weekend!!! We are currently at our first golf tournament. Its near Columbus, OH. Ohio Dominican University is the school hosting the tournament. There are seven schools participating. After today we are in 2nd place. I shot a 77 and am in the lead individually. Hopefully we keep playing well and can take the lead as a team tomorrow! I will let you know!!!

That’s all I have for you now! Wish for warm weather!!

David Coleman was just voted as 2011 Entertainer of the Year and has won several years in the past. His books are top seller dating and relationship books available for purchase. He travels all over talking, but he also has a business like the one seen in the movie. David said about 75% of the movie is true and 25% is creative liberties. He does only have 10 clients at a time, but he has never kicked a girl off a jet ski or taken them to Ellis Island tracing their ancestry. He has blown up after eating seafood, though with students after a performance similar to the one he did at Walsh.

It was really cool to have him come to Walsh and speak. I was so happy that we got to interact with him. If you missed him this year, look out for David Coleman’s return February 15, 2012!!!!!

Here’s some pictures from his talk:

This month has been packed with things!!! First let me start off by saying that in the past three years here at Walsh, I have only had one snow day… that was until February 1st-2nd. That’s right! We had two snow days, in a row!!! What a great way to start of the month! In all reality it did put most classes behind and everyone is trying to get back on track and rearrange class projects and tests, but those two days were packed with so much fun for me!!! On the 1st I spent the entire day with friends. Starting at lunch I decided I wanted to make a cake. My friend Courtney decided she wanted to make cookies then. It then turned into Julie coming over and making chips and dip and working on some homework, Monica bringing over musicals to watch (we watched Annie) and Katie Brown coming over and also completing some homework. Anna was also around and Nikki and Kathleen also came over. My apartment was hopping! We had so much fun just hanging out and enjoying our day off. Later that night, I decided to go to the men’s basketball game with Katie Jansen and Bernie. We had a lot of fun there but then Bernie was nervous about leaving. We decided to go and hang out with our friend Jordan. We hung around the rest of the night until Bernie decided to leave. I was nervous about walking down the Menard steps to go back to my apartment because they were covered in an inch of ice, as was the railing. I went up to Monica’s room and chilled with her for a bit. While sitting on her coach, I saw this flashing light outside the window. The sky was lighting up bright bluegreen. It was really neat to watch. I found out later it was some sort of electrical tower having some problems. A lot of people ended up losing power that night.

I would have been happy just having one snow day, but Walsh called school off the next day too. The weather was a bit better, but not great. Roads were still dangerous. So I spent that day relaxing some more… well after I cleaned off my car. I knew I was going to have to drive on Friday and wanted to take care of cleaning my car off before it got any worse. I was hearing horror stories about people having an inch or more of ice on their cars, breaking off handles, or breaking windows. I was nervous, but I knew I needed to clean it off a bit anyways at least. I lucked out and one side of my car barely had any ice on it. I pried into a door on that side and got my scraper. I spent the next hour cleaning off the rest of my car. Here are some pictures of that time:

A couple of my friends (Kathleen, Monica, Courtney, and Nikki Barr) and I went back to my apartment afterwards then and had some hot chocolate and cake (from the day before). It was nice to warm up. After that Brian came and visited me and we got Chinese delivered with Courtney and Kyle. It was a good relaxing day. Not as hopping as the day before but it was still nice to have some time off. If you’re a Walsh student, you know how rare it is to have a day off of school for weather. Walsh is very good about clearing off sidewalks and everything so students can get to classes. But you also know to take advantage of days that you do get because they do not come often. I hope everyone enjoyed their days off!!!

After a couple months of classes, group meetings, and rushed hours spent packing, I met the group, twelve

Kath and I

students and two teachers, at the Newark airport. We were all so excited!!! They departed from Walsh at 1am that morning, drove to Pittsburgh airport, and flew to Newark where we were all catching a flight to the DR. Being from NJ, I was able to go home a few days prior after finals, and just meet them at the airport. It took about four hours, but we finally made it to the Dominican!!! And warm weather!!!

We spent the next twelve  days exploring and traveling all over. We started in the north in the countryside, staying in Puerto Plata and a small isolated village called Rio Grande Abajo. From there we, traveled to the central part of DR, Santiago, a big city in the northern half. Next, we drove all the way to the southern edge and stayed in Santo Domingo, the capital of the country. Finally, we traveled back to the north and spent our last day in Sosua.

The class that was associated with the trip was a history course about baseball. The course was called

Licey Tigers

Sugarball: Baseball, Labor, and Leisure in the Dominican Republic. We read two books before leaving and had a couple papers to write. We also journalled during the trip about our experiences. But naturally, we were really observing everything we had read about when we got to the DR. We got to talk to different people, such as an economist, a Chamber of Commerce person, and a MLB worker. These workshops were able to shed some light on what we were observing as well as teach us about how baseball truly affected the country a ton. Also, since it was a course pertaining to baseball, we attended a baseball game in Santo Domingo. It was really neat! Pretty much just like American baseball in my opinion.

Those two weeks were packed full of activity, and it would take hours to explain everything to you all, so I will just cover my highlights

Homestay: In the small village of Rio Grande Abajo, we all stayed with separate families, in groups of

My host family

two or by ourselves. My friend Kathleen and I, stayed in the same house. Lydia and Alfredo were our host-parents and we had three host sisters. It unfortunately rained almost the entire time we were in the village, but we got to play a lot of dominoes and euchre. Everyone in the village was so nice and really wanted to get to know all of us. We were treated the members of the community and not just visitors. Being in the homes of the families was very humbling because of all the things consider necessities in America versus everything that they consider necessary. Kathleen and I had one of the nicer homes and were each able to have a bed and our family had a dining room, compared to most families having a table in their living room. Each house had a kitchen outside of the main house, and that was its main purpose. The food was all homemade and different than American food. I tried everything and it was all good! Our family was able to mix things up pretty well too. Our time in the homestay seemed like forever, until the end and then we all wanted to go back.

Cascading 27 waterfalls: This was an opportunity that our group had, and almost all of ustook advantage of it. What we did was hike about an hour or a little longer up a mountain. From there, the way to get down was jumping off of waterfalls or sliding down natural water slides. IT. WAS. CRAZY. We literally jumped off waterfalls, ranging anywhere from 5 ft to 40 ft high!!! I was so scared so many times. It was such a thrill and something I will most likely never get to do again. I am so happy I got to take advantage of it!!! Definitely, my favorite part of the trip.

Van taxi

Scavenger Hunt with Local University Students: While in Santiago, one of our activities was to complete a scavenger hunt with some local students. Basically, they gave an extensive tour of the city, letting us in on local knowledge. We got to see the city through their eyes. It helped a lot because one, we learned a lot, two, experienced some new things, and three, were able to walk around the city the next day knowing where to go. One of the things we got to do was use public transportation. While this may not seem like a huge thing, it was quite an experience. Taxis are like taxis here for the most part. Except, instead of just 4 people fitting, plus the driver, the Dominicans fit 6 people plus the driver. Then, van taxis look like they fit about 12 people. But no, typically they squeeze at least 20 people in them. Needless to say, public transportation is a little cramped.

National Park Caves: On our way to Santo Domingo, we stopped at these caves. They used to be caves that were open to the public, but now they are just open to the explorers and those who have specialpermission to enter them. Luckily, we were a part of the people with special permission. The caves were pretty neat. They had some drawings on the wall, the main one we learned about being the birds. The birds had special significance because they were signs where different caves opened and the structure of the cave. For instance, a bird standing upright was a cave that you could walk normally in, whereas a bird hunched over was a cave that was narrow or low. The main highlight of the caves however was the last hallway we went in. Before going into the cave, our leader Domingo told us to just take in the beauty and not scream. We walked in and covering the walls and ceiling were bats (we later found out this was the cave with 6 million bats) I was extremely freaked out, walked arms linked with others and hunched over. To make matters worse, we got to the end of the hallway and Domingo told us he was looking for his friend. His friend was a 6 foot long snake! Luckily, he never found her. I booked it out of the cave so fast.

The Beach: Our last day was spent in Sosua, but what it really meant for the group was time at the beach. We had not spent time on the beach and we were all looking forward to a relaxing day of soaking up the sun. We took so many pictures and spent so much time in the water. It was a teal blue color and really warm. I am not typically someone who spends time in the ocean, but even I couldn’t resist the fun of jumping in the waves. Speaking of the waves, they were so tall! A lot of the time I couldn’t even touch the ground! The weather ended up being perfect and it was so beautiful!

All in all, the trip was absolutely amazing. I could go on and on with stories and experiences, but it really all comes down to the fact that the trip was great. We learned a lot and experienced the culture as a part of the country and not just a visitor. There was no other way to experience everything we did. You had to jump right into everything and take advantage of every opportunity. You had to go in with an open mind and be open to new experiences. For anyone considering going on this trip or any studying abroad trip for that matter, please do. You will not regret it!

The whole group on the last day

Till next time

Classes started on Monday. This semester I do not start class unless 10:20am on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I started the day off with a psych class called Critical Issues in Childhood and Adolescent Development. I am really excited about this class because my hope is to work with kids when I become a physical therapist. This class should lay down a really good foundation about normal vs abnormal development, especially dealing with children. I then went to another psych class, Principles of Learning. I have never had the professor teaching this class so I am looking forward to it. She seems to be a good teacher and has been incorporating a lot of different teaching techniques to help us learn the material. Then, my last class of the day was Anatomy and Physiology. This class is an extension of the first part you take in the fall. This semester will focus on the muscles, instead of the bones.

Unfortunately, my starting time on Tuesdays and Thursdays is not quite as friendly. I start at 8am with my Honors Seminar class. This topic this semester is about Division in Conflict. The question we will be asking ourselves constantly is how war affects the rights and responsibilities of the citizen. I then head to my third and final psych class, Experimental Psychology. In this class, we learn about experimental techniques and aspects in psychology, but we are also going to create our own research project in groups and conduct our own experiments with students here at Walsh. I’m excited to see what we come up with Then, only on Thursdays, I head to my A&P Lab. Again, we will be focusing on the muscles, and this semester that means dissecting a cat. We got to pick our cats on the first day of class. I am not sure if I am looking forward to this or not. Hopefully, it will be helpful with learning about the muscles though.

Classes aren’t looking too bad, but they will be a lot of writing. I have a bunch of big papers and projects to complete this semester as well as my Junior Honors Project still. Once that is finished I can start to think about what I want to do for my Senior Honors Thesis. That proposal is due at the end of the semester and is a good amount of writing. Wish me luck!

As far as fun things that went on for the first week of class… On Tuesday, UPB put on a Welcome Back Week “Find Your Inner Peace” Event in the David Center. Students were able to come by during the day and get some hot cocoa, decorate a cookie, make a stress ball or zen garden, or play to spin the prize wheel. The theme was to find your inner peace so all the activities dealt with relaxation and the prizes at the prize wheel included things to help relax or relieve stress. Then on Thursday, there was free Ice Skating at Center Ice Sports Complex. So many people showed up and everyone seemed to have a great time!!! It was a nice way to start the semester off.

I am excited to see what else is going to be going on this semester. It is going to be a busy one and I will have a ton to tell you about! Look forward to more blogs, hopefully one soon to tell you about the Study Abroad trip to the Dominican Republic I took a part in over Winter Break Till then! BYE!