I’m FREE!

I am officially done with finals.

Want to know the best part about my last final though?

I got to take it laying in bed! I didn’t have to venture out into the cold, and onto campus to take my last final.

Now I just have to pick up all of my notes that I threw around that you see in the picture posted above.

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I am not a graduating senior this semester (I’ll be graduating in the summer) but I have a lot of friends who are graduating this Saturday, so I’ll be there. I should be signed up for a lot of tours in the next coming weeks, so if you’re getting a tour I may be your guide. Other than that, I’m going to go enjoy this newly granted freedom of academic obligation.

Talk to you all soon.

Shay.

Although I feel prepared for finals, as prepared as any student who doesn’t have all the answers, I’m still not looking forward to this week. It’s just been engraved into my mind that finals week is the storm before the calm, and I am not looking forward to the storm. I have four finals in total this week. I just got done with my first final this morning for my Graphic & Printing course and surprisingly it went really well. I have two finals tomorrow and one final exam on Wednesday.

This week for me has, and will continue to consist of preparing for finals, working out, going to work, and looking for another job. I love my job as a Student Ambassador (btw I received an award at our end of the year banquet the other day; how cool!) but I am not the type of person who enjoys idle time, and volunteering can only get me so far. Job shopping for me is going well so far. I have three interviews on Thursday, and a few next week, so hopefully all works out for me.

Anywho, I’m about to continue trying to act like I have a life this week. Will be back in touch with you all soon.

Beautiful Skies Over Western.

My university is beautiful . . . and I realize it more and more as my time here dwindles down. I’m preparing for finals. Not too much though. I am a thorough believer in not studying or cramming before finals. If you haven’t learned the material you need for your final in the 15 weeks of class you’ve had, then 3 days of studying (for multiple classes) will not get you anywhere. That is why I promote going to class and not skipping. So, the way that I prepare for finals is to review the materials and notes I’ve taken away from the semester.

It’s worked for me for a couple of semesters now, and I am definitely stress free (during finals anyways) because of it.

Talk to you beautiful people later.

Nacho Cheese!

Ha ha ha! I’m funny right?

So one of my friends gave me an amazing idea on what to talk about in these blogs! Instead of telling you all of the things that you should do when you come to Western, I should show you some of the amazing things before you get here! It’s impossible to do everything on my list of five things you should do when you visit Western (in some of my older blogs) if you’re only here for a day or so.

So today, I’m going to talk about my favorite thing ever . . . FOOD!

I love food, and let me assure you, the food at Western is AMAZING! The food at Western is so good that as a 4th year student who doesn’t live on campus or have a meal plan anymore, I put money on my account to go into the dining halls on campus and stuff my face.

As students at Western who stay on campus we get 4 meal plan options.

01.) 10 Meal Plan (you have access to the dining hall/late-night carry out 10 times a week)

02.) 15 Meal Plan (you have access to the dining hall/late-night carry out 15 times a week)

03.) 20 Meal Plan (you have access to the dining hall/late-night carry out 20 times a week)

04.) Gold Meal Plan (you have unlimited access into the dining hall a week)

My personal favorite was the Gold Plan . . . just throwing that out there.

At Western we currently have 5 fully functioning dining halls, and one hall that is strictly for carry out meals. All of the dining halls have specially menus as well as a rotating menu. For example . . .

- In Valley One, the specialty menu is the sub shop. So Valley One will ALWAYS have subs available, but they also have the menu that changes everyday.

- Valley Two has stir-fry.

- The Hoekje/Bigelow dining hall has the “American Grill” so they always have hamburgers, fries, and hot dogs.

- The Burnham dining hall is “Extreme Greens” which is delicious! You can get these freshly tossed or chopped salads with up to 5 toppings in them. They also have the best ice cream machine on campus. Trust me, I’ve tried them all.

- Bistro 3, my favorite dining hall on campus, is based around healthy and ethnic foods, so they always have foods from different countries being served. Also, the pizza is in this dining hall is the best in Kalamazoo! Okay, maybe second best, but I go to Bistro 3 just for the pizza some days. Unless I want a deep dish pizza, Bistro 3 is the spot.

Now, I know some students have heard the story that after a while dining hall food gets old, and it doesn’t help that all movies with a college student have the character talk about “Moms cooking.”

I won’t lie, sometimes you do feel like that, but with all of the options on campus it doesn’t happen as often as you think. Honestly, every time that I go into the dining hall I eat fries with nacho cheese on them. I ate cheesy fries for two and a half years straight and did not get tired of it before I left for my Disney College Internship.

Student’s get creative with how they eat food. We make stuff up, and that’s how the food stays interesting. For example . . . (this is the part where I was going to post a picture but I must have deleted it) My friends and I like to make ice cream waffles with toppings. So we have a mini waffle machine that makes 4 waffles, so you make the mini waffles and you put soft serve ice cream and whatever toppings you like. Personally, I love to put banana slices and caramel syrup on my ice cream waffles. It tastes amazing!

Luckily, and I don’t know too much about it, Western is in the process of building a new dining facility that will be two stories! I’ve seen the layout for it and it’s going to be super cool. It will have a wing station, sushi station, pasta, pizza, and salad stations! So maybe sometime in the near future, one of you future Student Ambassadors can blog and tell me all about it.

So, as a recap.

I personally believe that Bistro 3 is the bomb,

Food doesn’t get boring (even if you’re eating cheesy fries for the majority of your college career),

The Gold Meal Plan keeps you full (and kind of cool),

and Extreme Greens in the Burnham dining hall is most likely where I’ll be having lunch tomorrow afternoon.

One of my friends and I in Bistro 3!

If you have questions or a topic you want me to discuss let me know! Send me a message!

Oh hello again beautiful people!

All of us who blog talk about our time at Western, and we try to give you advice about fun things to do and ways to excel in classes but we’ve failed to talk about a major part of our lives here at WMU. Everyone who blogs on this page for Western are STUDENT AMBASSADORS!

I must admit, we’re some of the coolest people on campus. (No, seriously. We’re some of the coolest people on WMU’s campus & in the Mid – West area)

As WMU Student Ambassadors we’re usually some of the first students that you come into contact with either by phone, tour, or by giving a student panel in a city near you. We’re obviously real students, who have classes throughout the week but in our free time we help out prospective students. We’re usually the people calling from blocked numbers asking you how your school year is going. We also call to see if you have questions about WMU, tell you that you’ve been admitted, or keep you up to date with what’s going on at Western.

Student Ambassadors are also the students who facilitate your official campus tour! If you’ve ever had a campus visit with a school or a program we’re usually the ones who are smiling in your face then too! We also get to travel to different schools, and cities across the Mid-West. For example last October, or maybe it was November we got to travel back to my old high school to do a mass on-site admittance to WMU which was AMAZING! Throughout my time at WMU as a Student Ambassador I’ve been able to travel to cities such as Detroit, Romulus, Troy, and Chicago to talk about my time in college and how much I enjoy being at Western.

How awesome is my job right?! If you’re interested you should apply when you get here. But below are some of my coworkers and I on the go!

Traveling!

Look! We’re at Ford Field in Downtown Detroit, MI. (with cool VIP passes)

Look at that cool “W” on my cheek! Ignore our faces though. Lol.

Honestly, although we have an amazing job that allows us to do some really cool stuff, I don’t hang out with these people only while I’m on the clock . . . we hang out in our free time too! My coworkers aren’t simply my coworkers, they’re my friends . . . my second family.

Student Ambassadors hanging out at the football game!

Finals are next week. There is a week of classes left to force myself though. This semester has been very stressful. Have I mentioned this before? I feel as though I may have. Having 19 credit hours, an internship, a job, all on top of life and being a perfectionist is . . . busy to say the least. But, I’m ecstatic that there are only two weeks left. I don’t know what to do with myself! Ahhhh! I’m taking Summer I off, and I’ll complete the classes that I need to graduate in Summer II.

Anywho, I thought that I would share a couple of pictures from my Facebook page with you guys. This is how my 2012 – 2013 school year went. Woot, woot!

The exhaustion never ends. I’m a WMU Senior taking 19 credit hours. Crazy right? Two Communication courses, a Graphic Printing course, two Psychology courses,  and one Psychology internship. I love it all, but like I mentioned before, it’s tiring! Graduation seems so surreal, but I am excited for it. Honestly though, I think I may be more excited to actually see grass on campus, a lot of the snow has melted! *does random dance in chair*

Not much advice I want to give out to you all today unfortunately. I just wanted to check in with the students who may or may not be reading this blog. Hopefully there is someone reading this blog other than the people in my office. With senior (or even junior, sophomore, or freshman) year coming to an end, I must remind my seniors and juniors to not stress out so much. Take one college application, scholarship application, cap and gown, or senior picture at a time. It does not seem like you have enough time to do it all, but coming from a college senior, believe me, you do. Enjoy prom and graduation. Also, please hold on to a huge chunk of the money you’ll be receiving at your Senior Open House (if people still do those anymore) that cash will come in handy when you’re craving pizza or in need of ramen later down the road.

I will hopefully be back tomorrow with another blog entry and 5 MORE THINGS TO DO WHILE VISITING OR ATTENDING WMU!!!

- Shay

I’m pretty sure that the snow day that we had a few days ago will be the last of my college career. Thursday, January 31, 2013 is actually the first snow day that WMU students have had since 2011! Luckily, I didn’t have to endure the 2012 winter season since I was in Lake Buena Vista, FL. working in Walt Disney World Resort. That’s beside the point though. I wasn’t prepared for the winter season at all and every bad day that we had I was crossing my fingers for a snow day.

I started off our wonderful snow day in Waldo Library (as usual) studying, and catching up on some homework. I left Waldo Library around 2:30a.m. (as usual) to find the campus with a fresh inch or two of snow on the ground and my car. So, while a friend of mine was so generously wiping off my car, I decided that it was time to embrace the season and play.

The less eventful conclusion to my day consisted of sleep. A lot of sleep. Yup. “2013 Snow Day” = complete success in my book. By the way, I am such an unintentional overexaggerator . . . . that is definitely not an inch of snow on the ground.

The studying never ends as a college senior, and “senioritis” is making studying quite difficult for me I might add. With my undergraduate college career coming to an end I’ve decided to have a “real” moment with all of you prospective and current students . . . HAVE FUN! As much as we are in college to study, we need to learn to relax and have fun (especially all of us the overachievers). There are over 400 Registered Student Organizations for students to join, but remember, being a member of an organization is not the only way to meet new people or have fun on campus. Students can enjoy the beach down in South Haven (obviously when the weather is better), go go-kart racing, even snowboarding. Heading out to explore the community, and to have fun within the community is a great way to have fun and meet new people. Maybe after my exam and before my 6:30p.m. lab I’ll go out and do something. If I do, I’ll keep you all posted.

For now, let me push through this “senioritis” . . .

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THINGS YOU SHOULD DO WHILE VISITING OR STUDYING AT WMU

01. Attend a Broadway show at Miller Auditorium (Les Miserables: Jan. 29 – Feb. 3, 2013 / Wicked: Apr. 24 – May 5, 2013)

02. Visit Goldsworth Pond (hopefully the swans are out . . .)

03. Try to use all 500 free prints of paper throughout the semester (current students)

04. Interested in Medical School? Hopefully no one forgot about the $100 Million donation the university received to create one! Head downtown Kalamazoo to check out the site in person, or keep yourself updated here . . . http://www.wmich.edu/news/2012/10/2192

05. Also, did you know that WMU had a magazine?! Check it out in the link that follows . . . http://www.wmich.edu/magazine/

A few days ago I went to see one of my Psychology professors in his office during office hours and it turns out, he’s not a robot like I thought, he’s a person, a REAL person! By the way, office hours are blocks of time throughout the week that professors leave open for students to meet with them to discuss classwork, get advice on furthering your career, etc.

I spent about an hour and a half talking to my professor during office hours, 30 minutes focused on an assignment I was worried about, and somehow the next 60 minutes or so were spent talking about graduate school, different paths of Psychology, and likes along with dislikes about certain areas of Psychology. I walked out of the office with “WHOA” written on my forehead, with a hypothetical bright red sharpie marker. Within those 60 minutes of free conversation, the teacher-student barrier were broken, and honestly, if my professor wasn’t my professor we could be friends. How cool is that?! After that conversation about both my assignment and about Psychology overall, I gained a new respect and career based admiration for my professor. I’ve also been walking around with the thought, “Oh my gosh, my professor is a PERSON!” in my head for a couple of days now, so I had to post this to let you guys know.

I suppose what I want you to get out of this blog post the most is that our professors want you to succeed! They’re also not these scary, standoffish figures that the media has forced us to believe growing up, you can talk to them, about almost anything! I never expected to gain so much knowledge out of a 90 minute conversation before I walked in to his office, and I’m sure some of my peers have felt the same about going to office hours with their professors. The first step though, to discovering this out for yourself, for getting good grades and asking for help when you need it, is to go to office hours with your professors. Next to choosing Western Michigan University for my undergraduate degree, going to office hours is the best decision I’ve made as a student.

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THINGS YOU SHOULD DO WHILE VISITING OR STUDYING AT WMU

01. Meet with your professors, or the professors of a department you are interested in Majoring in.

02. Make your own mini pizza in Bistro 3 Dining Hall. My mouth is watering just thinking about it! Need food, arghhh!(You can eat there even as guest, ask the Admissions office about it during your tour or you can walk up to the door any pay with cash or credit.)

03. Go to the 3rd or 4th floor of Sangren Hall and check out the amazing view of WMU’s Campus and Kalamazoo.

04. Yell out, “Hey Broncos!” and see what people respond (because they WILL respond . . . It’s a Bronco thing.)

05. Check out the art gallery of student and/or traveling artist work inside of the Richmond Center. It’s free!