BUMegan's Blog : spring travel

it does NOT feel like it's been a month since I've last written....yikes.

BUMegan — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:15:00 GMT

Tired. I'm just tired! Spring travel, while definitely less stressful than fall travel, has still been busy. It takes some getting used to, working from the hotel on things that need to be done and completed for when I get back to Indianapolis. Life at the end of March and beginning of April has been SO BUSY. I've been working a lot, both with my senior students who are coming to Butler and juniors who are obviously still in the search process. It's hard to switch back and forth between the two, because the perspectives are different, and what you need to talk about is different. Thankfully, everyone has been awesome-the students I'm working with now are so great. It makes my job easy AND fun! This will be the third class I've helped recruit while at Butler, and it's crazy for me to think I've been doing this for three years in June. I never would have thought I would be an admission counselor, but now I can't see myself being in any other field but Higher Education.

I'm just grateful that my experiences at Butler led me to down that path. I went to a high school of about 500 girls, so all of the schools I looked at were bigger. I knew right away though, when I got to Butler that the size was right for me. I knew I wanted to get involved, and give back to my school's community. I didn't quite know what that would encompass, but doing SOMETHING was important to me. Thankfully, it was easy to get involved and I was lucky to have a chance to make a difference. It's funny-when I was a freshman, I was an Exploratory major. I had NO idea what I wanted to do, but knew what I was good at and what I wasn't good at, and what I liked. I realized I needed help deciding, and took a class that guided me to choosing Journalism-PR and Advertising specifically. Now, in that class I took personality assessments, did informational interviews and did a job shadow. I didn't have a car, and one of the things listed was admission counselor. So, I got set up to shadow a counselor over in our office. His name is Nick Sproull, and he currently works for the NCAA. At the time, he was a recent grad and agreed to help me out. I still clearly remember the day I spent with him, never realizing that this would affect the rest of my time at Butler. I got a job in the office as as student that next year, and the rest is history. I think I owe a thanks to Nick, as he influenced me, even more than I realize. This is a crazy, at times stressful but ultimately satisfying career choice. This time of year makes me reflective on the time I've spent on this campus. 7 years!!! (Yikes!) I couldn't be happier though. In school, I met SO many wonderful people. I'm lucky enough that the same is true for my professional career. I love what I do, regardless of anything else.

I know there are a lot of students worried about finding jobs, choosing majors, making life plans. Whatever age/year in school, our current times are not the best. The optimist in me believes that we'll be ok, that those people who are making big decisions will find the strength to do, and to make the best choice for them. We all have different decisions to make at different points in our lives, and especially to seniors-I want to wish you all the best of luck, both HS and college. HS seniors-I hope you all are able to find the best for you in terms of choosing a school, and seniors at Butler-I hope everything goes well with the job search/graduate school or otherwise. I know it's not easy, having lived both sides. But hopefully Butler has prepared you well enough to move on successfully, as we promise to do with the students that choose our institution each year.

To the students who have made the decision to come to Butler-I'm so excited that you've chosen my alma mater. This is a place that is near and dear to my heart, and it makes me so happy to see students of such high caliber coming to register and the like. Good luck, and welcome to the Butler family! If there is anything we can do, please let me know. :)

and so starts a crazy month....

BUMegan — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 15:18:00 GMT

2009 started SO much better than 2008, and for that, I am VERY glad. I am not a fan of New Years eve, as I think people make a really big deal about it, and everything is WAYYYY overpriced. Kinda like this other holiday in February that I'm also not fond of...HA! Anyway, I hung out with a friend who also doesn't like to celebrate and the best part of the night was that we missed the ball drop. We were talking about something, and realized three minutes after the fact that it was 2009. I loved it!! :)

Work started back for me last Monday, but I actually made the trip to St. Louis instead. We had an event for all admitted students at the Renaissance Hotel by the airport and it went SO AMAZINGLY WELL. Everyone seemed really excited about Butler and asked a ton of great questions. I was VERY excited, because I'm from St. Louis and I really want to see it succeed as a strong recruiting area for Butler. Thankfully no one seemed to REALLY mind the heat....being that the room we were in felt like a sauna. I know I was red-cheeked and I was trying REALLY hard not to think about how hot it was. They had turned on the heat and must have turned it to like 80. crazy. Other than that, everything went amazingly well and I was very happy!

We had our next event for admitted students on the 8th, this time at a basketball game here on campus. Again, the event went really well AND we beat Wright State! We have two more events like that coming up, on the 22nd and the 24th. I hope anyone who can go, will make the trip down to campus. Both of the upcoming games should be pretty good...soo....

Butler (as I'm sure many of you read in other blogs) had it's recruitment last weekend. I was very excited to go back to my house and help the current members out with recruitment and the last evening, which is usually when alumni can help. I had a blast, and the girls that are in the house now are amazing! They were very excited about their new members, which made me happy for them. I LOVE getting to go and help them-being in a sorority was one of my best experiences here, and I'm glad I can give back:)

So far these past couple of weeks have been crazy. We have another application deadline today, the 15th, and I've been making a lot of phone calls to students. It's also the start of planning spring travel, which seems crazy to think about when the weather is as crazy as it is, at -1 degrees!!!! Hopefully everyone is staying warm, wherever you are!!

Well that's all...back to reading files. If anyone has questions, please let me know! :)

why is life so boring in january?!

BUMegan — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:13:00 GMT

To be honest, I don't really have a lot to talk about. Life has been pretty uneventful as of late, and while I welcome the change, it also can be boring! I'm hoping this weekend brings a little more excitement back into my life!

There's a movie that's coming out I am really excited to see-27 Dresses. Yes, I know TOTAL girl movie and definitely a chick flick, but I'm a really big fan of Katherine Heigl and James Mardsen so I'm hoping we can go see it this weekend when it comes out! I am definitely one of those people who always think about going to see movies I like, and NEVER end up seeing them. It sucks, because then I forget about them entirely after they leave the theatre. My new goal is to watch some movies that I haven't seen during spring travel when I'm up in Chicago. Spring travel is wayyyyy less stressful, as compared to a really full schedule during the fall. I love travel, and especially love the time I get to spend in Chicago in the spring. It starts the process over with Juniors, and it's a lot of fun to meet the students I'll be working with so early on in their college search process. I don't start though, until March, so I'll keep you posted as to how that goes and where I'm headed!

I had to dogsit this week for a friend....she has a yorkshire terrier that's about a year old, and let me tell you, it really made me NOT want any pets. I go back and forth, thinking I'd like a dog. I think, after this whole thing, I'm giving up the idea permanently. No offense, but I really don't think pets are my thing...as witnessed by my week of dogsitting....

I would, however, like to point out that (speaking of dogs) bulldogs broke the top ten most popular dogs list this year, which is apparently compiled by the American Kennel Club. (seriously! who would have thought they make lists like this?!!) Our mascot, Blue 2, actually blogged about it, and you can see what he said here:

www.butlerblue2.blogspot.com

It's a really funny site, so be sure to check it out!

Other than that, life is pretty quiet here. Colin Powell is coming to speak in about a month which is REALLY exciting for campus. Even now, as a staff member, it still amazes me, the opportunities afforded to the students, faculty and staff here. I'm excited at the idea of it!!

Finally, to end, our basketball team is doing SO WELL THIS YEAR! Props to them, to Coach Stevens and all the other coaches. It's been a great season so far!

Have a great holiday weekend:)