Campus Sing!

Last night one of our sororities, Chi Omega, put on their annual canned food drive competition called "Campus Sing." It's a night where all of the Greek organizations and the independent students get the opportunity to show off their... er singing skills, well some people sing, or attempt to, but it's mostly turned into a dance contest. I have to say this is probably ranked highest among all of the events on campus because everyone get involved, and the end result usually is a lot of laughing and merriment. Every year there's a theme, last year it was "The 90's" and this year it was "The Evolution of the Artist" so this year every group got to chose an artist and show their evolution through song and dance, the girls all chose performers: Beyonce, Brittany Spears, Justin Timberlake, Michael Jackson, Will Smith; but the some of the boys went with a more unconventional artist like Picasso and Salvador Dali, but there was also The Temptations and Garth Brooks. I unfortunately didn't get to dance because all of the rehearsals were at the same time as Kimberly Akimbo rehearsals (which is now done! Thank goodness.) But I did get to watch which is always fun.

The most important object of the night though was to collect as many cans as possible for God's Pantry, a food pantry that serves people throughout Fayette County, and Transy donated enough cans to run 6 of their pantries for a week, over 15,000 pounds of food! And not to brag or anything, but my sorority donated the most cans, over 3,000 cans of food! It's a really cool event, and one of my favorites at Transy. :)

That's all I have for now, but I'll leave you with this video of last year's performance by the brothers of Delta Sigma Phi, def my favorite in the two years I've seen it. Have fun!

Did they have brains or knowledge? Don't make me laugh!

So, I've been working with Michael Cronk in the Career Development Center on my resume and we've made some great alterations to it. The whole objective of my visit was to get some advice on a summer internship and hopefully get some of that much needed networking to find a position for the summer. Last summer and the summer before I was in an engineering co-op at Rolls-Royce in Indianapolis, but since I decided to change my major from the Physics/Pre-Engineering route to Computer Science and Spanish I couldn't really stick around there for the coming summer. Not to mention it's hard to be so far away from all of my friends and my boyfriend for the whole summer. Anyway, I'm excited to try out something new in the Computer Science field and stay in Lexington for the summer. Now that I've fixed my resume, the next step is to meet with Susan Rayer, the Director of the CDC, to find the perfect position for me this summer. Let's cross our fingers for something good!

My Friends Aaron and William from my Rolls-Royce Co-Op

I'm sure some of you are thinking that I'm being a little over achieving with the co-op and internship talk, but I'll tell you my co-op experience helped me realize that something I thought I was sure I would love to do, wasn't exactly the right thing for me. So, this is me telling you to get out there in the field you think you'd like to be in and do the work that the people are doing. You can go through your whole college career loving all the classes you take for your desired career, but you could get into the work-force and find out that you don't really want to be an engineer and really wish you would have taken more communication classes so you could be doing Journalism. Transy tries their hardest to make sure this doesn't happen by requiring classes from all sorts of disciplines but you may be surprised once you're out there in the workforce. So, this is me, Abby, your friendly Transy Admissions Blogger telling you to get out there as soon as you can! (I started second semester of Senior year.) It's not something you have to wait around for.

Respect my Authority!

Ok, here is is folks, the Friday before Spring Break I found out that I got a position on the RA staff! I even know where I'll be! Next year I will be the RA for the Front Hall on Fourth Floor of Forrer Residence Hall. Guess what? That's a first-year hall, so if any of you lady readers decide that Transy is the place for you, there's a possibilty of me being your RA! Cool, right? I'm not sure if I've talked about the set up in Forrer before but I'll give it a go.

Areal Photo Courtesy of Google Maps, Enhanced by Yours Truly.

Forrer isn't really a stand alone building, it's connected to the Campus Center and the Cafeteria. In the picture above: Forrer is the area outlined in red, the Caf is outlined in Green, the Campus Center is in Orange. Our pool is inside of the campus center and that's outlined in blue. But we're talking about Forrer. Forrer is four (4) stories of residential housing + a floor with a reception desk, mailboxes, our campus DPS (Department of Public Saftey) office, all of the Sorority Chapter Rooms, and a computer lab.

Each residential floor is separated into 3 different "halls" -Front (Purple), Back (Blue), and Side (Yellow). The first and second floor house all of the sororities, two on the first floor: Side and Back (there is no First-Front because of the front lobby) and two on the second floor: front and back; the third hall (side) is an "unaffiliated" or Indy (Independent). The Third and Fourth floors are reserved for First-Year girls. Third back is also used for upperclassmen overflow, there's a funny story about room selection last year and me getting the crappiest number to sign up for a room and almost having to live up there, ok so it's not that funny...

So I hope that's not too confusing, but if it is, feel free to send me and email or post a comment.

Boys- Your housing is much more simple, all Clay Hall is First years, except for the fourth floor where some Indy upperclassmen men live. Davis Hall houses all four Fraternities and some Indy upperclassmen as well.

That's all I have for you right now, but check back later!

It's a beautiful day!

Yes indeed, it almost looks like spring is actually here folks! Put away the parka and the ear muffs and you should probably pull out the rain boots, but not today. Today is BEAUTIFUL!

Last week was Spring Break, I, unfortunately, didn't go anywhere exciting but home. Indianapolis was pretty gloomy the whole week but a couple of days were decently warm and I stayed busy helping my dad out at his office and helping my high school with their musical. I was much more interested in helping my high school because they're doing the same musical I did my sophomore year, Cinderella! I was a step-sister and my older sister was Cinderella, it was a great time.

That's me in the middle, Calliope

Anyway, we're all back on campus now trying to get out minds back into the swing of things, I'm sure you know exactly how that feels, and we're all enjoying this beautiful weather. I know I mentioned earlier some of my favorite nice weather hang out in Back Circle, but I thought I might give you all some more of my favorites around campus because:

1. The steps of MFA (Mitchell Fine Arts Building)
   This is the perfect late afternoon study spot the steps are shaded by the best trees but if you venture out into the sun the stone steps provide a perfect amount of coolness on a warm afternoon.
   
   
2. Haupt Plaza
   Right in the middle of the academic side of campus, Haupt Plaza is equipped with benches and the view of everyone walking to class. It's perfect for people watching or a long lunch with something greasy from the Raf (The Rafskeller) or sitting after class with a group of friends.
   
   
3. The Lawn outside of BSC (Brown Science Center) and Hazelrigg
   This is my favorite spot for classes outside, probably because my Calculus I and II professor, Dr. Stufflebeam, treated us to class here a few times complete with white board and everything needed for a good lecture, well maybe the attention wasn't quite all there. :)

Now, all I really want to do is go lay out in the sun, but alas I'm at work for another hour. I have rehearsal for "Kimberly Akimbo" tonight; we only have six more rehersals before opening night! If any of you live in Lexington and want to come see a Transy Theatre Production, our performances are next Thursday, Friday, and Saturday March 26-28 at 7 pm in Little Theater.

Until next time!

Scholarships!

This week and last week have been busy with prospective students on campus, to be exact the finalists for the William T. Young Scholarships are here for their interviews. It's kind of exciting to think back senior year when I had to chose a school, and for me at least a lot of that choosing depended on the aid and scholarships I got from the schools I applied to and Transy did a really good job making sure that they weren't beat out by anyone else. Now, I unfortunately didn't apply to Transy until after the deadline for the Willie T scholarship had already passed but I did apply in time to qualify for the rest of the scholarships. The Willie T scholarship is a full tuition and fees scholarship but there are also plenty of other academic scholarships ranging from $10,000 to $7,000 a year.

I just thought that would be something useful for you all to check out!

Later Gators!

I put my thing down, flip it, and reverse it

So today SOL (student orientation leader) applications were due, and I, um, didn't get mine done :-/... It's all good, because I got an interview for the RA position, well it was actually two separate interviews, one with two of the Head RA's (HA's) for next year and one with the other HA and Bob Brown, the director of Residence Life. I thought they went well but there are 18 girls interviewing for 6-8 positions, so we'll have to see and hopefully in a couple of weeks you'll find out that I'll be an RA next year. (Knock on wood!) I still need to finish my AA application and just in case I don't get anything, I'm also going to apply for some study abroad scholarships for next year. But anyway, I know you all, as prospective students have miles and miles of applications ahead of you so start early and work hard on them, don't let those deadlines fly by!

Speaking of being a prospective student, I've been asked to share with you the Top Five Things that I liked about Transy as a prospective student... so here it goes!

1. Transy is a small university, about 1200 students, but it's not out in the middle of nowhere! Lexington is a great city and Transy is close enough to stuff downtown or a short drive away from all sorts of great stuff, AND if you like football and big school sports you can always be a UK fan, I mean most people here are. (I stand by my back up school Purdue for the big sports stuff. Sshh, don't tell anybody! )
2. Athletics at Transy are good, but they aren't so intense that they take over your entire life. You know, I was going to swim and I was excited because I would have been able to do that and still have time and energy to devote to my studies.
3. The campus is really pretty. I had looked at a few schools in Indiana where the campus had no trees! It was really important to me to be somewhere that makes me feel good when I'm walking around in the different seasons, and Transy has that. There are green places and trees and flowers and all sorts of growing things.
   
4. The professors are excited about the stuff they teach and the class sizes are small. When I visited, I sat in an upper-level physics class where the professor sat at a table with the eight students in the class, if someone didn't understand something, the professor could sit down with the student and see what was wrong.
5. Everyone seemed really excited about me being there. From the other students in the classes I sat in on to everyone on the swim team, to the people around campus, they all made me feel really welcomed and even better, wanted.

So, for all of you folks out there, I suggest you come for a visit to really check Transy out, I'm not lying when I say, I came to Transy because I fell in love with it during my visit and I know you could too, so don't be scared away because of something you see online or hear from a friend, try in out for yourself and schedule an overnight and if you do, shoot me and email I'd love to meet up and talk, I mean you already know me!

I'll talk to you guys later! Go out and have some fun!

'Tis the season of applications!

Yes dear readers, it's true all the applications for campus positions are out and about, and I'm all over it. From Campus Center Manager to RA (Resident Adviser) to AA (Admissions Assistant) to SOL (Student Orientation Leader) to all of the scholarship applications it seems I spend more time writing about myself then writing for my classes. Let me stop and say, I love Transy, and I'm always looking for ways to try and give back a little to the community, so I've gotten applications for RA, AA, and SOL and I would be thrilled to be able to do any of them. So far, the only one that's been turned in is my RA application and last night was the "RA Carousel" which is kind of like a big group interview. When we got there we were assigned a group, so like a carousel, we went around with the group to six different rooms and did different activities, like draw characteristics for the perfect RA or talk about our views on different campus policies or build an RA team from a list of applicants. It was actually pretty fun but it ran long and I was late to practice for Kimberly Akimbo.

Speaking of that, we started blocking this week and it feels good to be back on stage. I did so much theater in high school that it was kind of weird not to be on stage, or acting, and I was afraid that when I got to college I wouldn't be able to do any at all since I wasn't going to be a Drama major, but thankfully there's folks of all sorts in all of the drama and musical groups on campus regardless of my unrelated major. And if I would have followed through I could have done swimming as well. (I'm only reminded of this because I'm writing at work in the Campus Center and the swim coach just walked by.) That was def something I was impressed with when I visited Transy, was that people could be involved in so much. I know athletes that are in as many theater productions as possible and AA's that are also active in Greek Life or Student government.

The moral of today's story? Transy rocks (as usual) but also the people that go to here rock out all over campus while keeping their grades up and their heads on straight. :)

I'll catch you cats on the flip-side. Later.

PS. My picture was taken the other morning for "looking really cold" it got onto the Herald Leader Website at least.