Search results matching tag 'Honors Program'

Happy 18th Birthday to me!

BUTaylorM — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:40:00 GMT

I am 18! How exciting! I started off this very important day with a shower... I don't know why I am sharing this with you but... alas, I am. I had class from 9-12 and had lunch with the girls. I took time to watch, embarrassingly enough, the Hannah Montana movie (I cannot believe I am admitting this. It may be removed upon further judgement). At this point, I am doing anything to avoid homework or studying or anything of the academic sort.

I think I am still in the childhood mindset that birthday's are supposed to be some huge extravaganza. Birthdays are supposed to be filled with fun and parties and sweets and no cares or worries, right? Well, I suppose, in a college-y way, it was. I had more wall posts on my facebook than I care to share (thanks friends!), lovely Katie S. made me a card (thanks, girl!) and my dear friend Laura bought me cake and peppermint ice cream (she knows me TOO well). Once again, I am finding college's little moments really mind blowing. Every time I find myself doubting anything, my unit friends seem to pull me back together.

On my 'birthday' high, I made a list of goals for my upcoming college years (like a new year's resolution...only on my birthday) and I have decided to share it with you in hopes that you all will keep me motivated to stick to my goals!

Have a 3.5+ GPA this fall semester-- after that, hopefully, it's all looking up
Apply for the Honors Program (I got in at admission but failed to turn in the application on time... how foolish of me)
Study abroad (Spain or London, please)
Get a job at Borders/Barnes & Noble (I am an English major, after all)
Intern/work/volunteer at a library
Become a big sister (and I don't mean my parents have another kid... haha)
Rush/Pledge --If I don't do it, I'm afraid I'll regret it.
Read a book (not for school) every 1-2 weeks
Get ahead; Don't fall behind
Make someone's day everyday

I think these goals are realistic and I am going to try my hardest to attain them. In writing these goals on this very important birthday, I vow to follow through.

Introductions are so nerve-wracking

BUOlivia — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 22:46:00 GMT

Hello everyone! My name is Olivia, and I'm a sophomore here at Butler. I try to keep busy, so I hope this blog will be at least mildly entertaining.

Let's see. I:

A. Am a dance major

1. so I'm in the JCFA building, Lilly Hall, more often than not.

2. and I have wanted to come to Butler for ballet ever since I was thirteen.

B. Have a secondary major in English Lit

1. which might change into a minor--we shall see.

2. and I am taking twenty credit hours.

C. Am in Butler's Honors Program

1. though I'm not taking an honors class this semester.

2. and last semester I took the best class ever--Design, Ecology, and Community.

D. Am the pledge trainer for Sigma Rho Delta

1. which is the honorary dance fraternity.

2. so I'm looking forward to getting to know the new dance majors.

E. Am part of the Butler Catholic Community's Leadership Team

1. and I attend Mass on campus every week.

2. and I just went to the BCC's Luau and made some new friends.

D. Was on the literary magazine staff last year

1. so I know Christina, one of the other Bloggers.

2. though I'm not sure I have time to participate this year. (*sob*)

Whew! What else should you know about me?

I enjoy reading, knitting, dancing, and petting rabbits-not really in that order. I have been trying to learn to speak Welsh for about two years now: Dw i‘n dysgu, ond dw i ddim yn gallu dweud dim byd. Ddim ots! My roommate draws fashion sketches and wields the bassoon; my friend down the hall speaks Latvian fluently. I have friends who go to the gym with me, friends who watch Doctor Who with me, friends in whom I confide, and friends who just make me laugh. I tell you this so you have an idea of how diverse Butler students really are. I love the fact that--corny as this sounds--I never know what each day will hold.

Good-bye for now!

P.S. The Welsh is, "I am learning, but I cannot say anything. Oh well." So true.

Welcome Week 2009

ChristinaL — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 21:18:00 GMT

Butler is always a welcoming place but we really up the friendly factor for Welcome Week, which is when we have orientation for the new students and celebrate everyone coming back to campus. I have always LOVED Welcome Week, because it's a great reunion after a summer away from friends, and it's so exciting to have new students at Butler. All the upperclassmen (especially the sophomores) love having new people around who don't know very much about Butler, mostly so we can feel smart by answering their basic questions, I think : ) I kid. Really, we love the prospect of new friends who will join our clubs, be our classmates and bring their own passion and fun to the Butler family.

I got to play a much bigger role in Welcome Week 2009, because I served as a Student Orientation Guide for first year students. This means that I helped to make sure the whole move-in process and initial transition to college was smooth and fun for all the new students. I also got my own group of 10 students to get to know better in a small group, which was SO much fun! I had dance majors, so that was something outside of my own Butler experience, but I wouldn't have wanted anyone else after spending time with my amazing group.

Let me give you a little rundown of Welcome Week, because there was so much going on! Hopefully this will give you an idea of what it's like to start college at Butler.

Saturday

Move-in began at 8 am! People who are determined to get a specific side of the dorm room arrive right at the stroke of 8 to beat out their roommate... and then move-in calms down until about noon or so when all the locals are awake and people from out of town begin to arrive. There is a whole team of people from Residence Life (like RAs) at the dorms to welcome all the families, but the Student Orientation guides, fraternity & sorority members, and Campus Crusade members were also out in the parking lot to help carry boxes from the minivans to the dorm rooms. It's amazing how fast moving in goes when you've got 10 upperclassmen waiting on you, carrying all your stuff! This year was especially exciting for me because Michael, a good family friend from my hometown, is a first year at Butler. Here you can see him and his roommate Andrew in their new room at Ross Hall.

On Saturday afternoon, we had Honors Orientation for all the new members of the Honors Program. All new honors students can choose to have an Honors mentor if they would like, who is an upperclassman in the Honors Program (like me!) that is there to answer any questions and help them adjust to college. I have a group of three freshmen mentees! Emelia is an English major, Jeremy is Pre-Pharmacy and Marcella is Music Performance, so we are a very diverse group, but we all have an interest in the arts, so we bonded quickly. The Orientation was a few hours long, and we had some time to chat, as well as games involving play-doh, arts & crafts and "speed friending." We already reunited with some other Honors students last week to go to a play at the IndyFringe theatre festival, so I'm glad to have met more creative, engaged students like me. Here was the whole group of Honors kids before we left BU for our cultural outing:

Saturday night there was an activity for all the new students called The Quest. I think it is something like group charades, but I sadly couldn't be there because I had to be at my internship!

Sunday

Sunday morning I was up bright and early again to help more new students move in. It really is amazing how much stuff you can fit in a dorm room (and your parents' car.)

This was a fun day because everyone was outside hanging out and campus finally had some life to it again! From living here this summer, I can tell you that it gets pretty quiet without all the lovely Butler faces to fill our neighborhood. Some of the fraternities had free cookouts outside and there was a big tent full of info for all the parents to calm their fears! haha.

Then we had Academic Convocation, which is where all the new students, families and the faculty come together to listen to our University President speak and officially begin their academic careers. Right after convocation, everyone splits up to meet with their Orientation groups, lead by the Student Orientation Guides (SOGs). (We have acronyms for everything at Butler.)

As I said, my group was 10 dance majors - 9 women and one man. What I found most exciting was that NONE of us were from Indiana. They are literally from everywhere around the country except the Midwest, and I am from the Chicago suburbs, so we pretty much made a giant circle around the United States with our homes: DC; California; Washington state; New York City; Orlando; Austin, Texas; New Mexico! It was fun to see people from everywhere united by their love for dance. I've got to say, too, that everyone in my group was SO smart and talented. They have worked so hard to get to such a high level of dance, so it amazes me how dedicated and passionate they are at only age 18 or 19. Meeting them definitely made me respect the Butler Ballet program even more than I already did. Here you can see my wonderful group! (Have you noticed a theme? Pictures with the stone Bulldog are a Butler must.)

Sunday night we had an evening in Clowes Hall, our big concert and arts venue, where we got to see a great movie made by Student Government Association starring the exec board in their own version of "The Office." Hilarious. We also heard an informative and funny lesson on how Facebook and Twitter are taking over the world (especially in the job market). Then we had a comedian (Wendi Fox) who talked about her experience overcoming alcoholism... sounds depressing and a little bit like 10th grade Health Class - but she's actually really funny and thoughtful! It was definitely one of my favorite parts of Welcome Week.

Monday = Academic Day

All the new students and Orientation Guides read a great book over the summer called Listening Is An Act of Love, which is about the StoryCorps oral history project. This non-profit records ordinary people interviewing another person to hear some of the stories from their life. The results are SO interesting and touching! You've got to read the book or listen to some stories online. My favorites are the ones with old married couples interviewing each other (be prepared to cry about how sweet they are), but there are also some really interesting historical stories, or stories about overcoming struggles. Definitely a great read!

Anyway, we had the author of the book, Dave Isay, come to Butler to talk to us about StoryCorps and that whole project! Afterwards we had a book discussion with our small groups and a faculty member. We also had some activities and discussions about diversity and academic expectations. Important stuff to know.

Monday night we had Playfair, which I cannot really explain except that it is an event where the whole freshman class is outside on the grassy Mall, and all insecurities and shyness goes away. You HAVE to meet new people, but they make it fun with activities like finding everyone with the same month birthday as you and then having a cheering match between all the months... okay, maybe it sounds lame, but it's actually really fun, and there's nothing like playing like kids again to take away the awkwardness of meeting new people!

We also had Casino Night from 9 to midnight to provide some late night fun. Everyone got to play casino games with fake money in order to win prizes, and we also had Alex Anglin from the basketball team DJ-ing and lots of people dancing. I was, of course, one of the hard core orientation guides dancing until the last song at midnight! : )

Tuesday

For the last day of Welcome Week, there was an optional event called Bulldogs Into The Streets, a day when groups of BU students take buses all over the community to do service projects at different locations and meet new friends. Always a blast... but I couldn't go this year because of internship work.

Tuesday night was Block Party, where all the student organizations set up tables on the mall and you can learn more about what they do, sign up to get further emails from them, and OF COURSE (this is college), collect lots of free stuff. I always love Block Party because being involved on campus is a huge part of Butler's culture, and it's great to see the diversity and excitement of the almost 150 different clubs we have.

By Wednesday when Welcome Week ended, I was so excited for classes to start! Welcome Week was so much fun, but the schedule was intense (as a guide even more than when I was a freshman!). I never knew that welcoming new students required quite so much dancing like fools and other silliness from the Orientation Guides! haha. But, I was happy to do it to lighten the tension and make everyone's first week at Butler just what it should be - comfortable, fun, full of new friends, and EXCITING! Yay for four more wonderful years for these new students. Like my friend Joe said, the new students make me jealous and wish I could stay at college for four more years. Enjoy it, because it goes by so quickly!!

Race to the finish

ChristinaL — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 20:34:00 GMT

Hello everyone! What a CRAZY week it has been... I have alternated between nights of almost no sleep, trying to meet deadlines, and then nights when I slept for nine or even eleven hours straight, trying to catch up.

Here's is what's keeping me busy:

1) Course scheduling: I think this actually gets harder as an upperclassmen when I get to register first! The reason? SO many upper level classes are in the late afternoon/at night. Great for sleeping in. Not great for the fact that they overlap and I have to make tough choices about what to take.

As of right now, I am signed up for Philosophy of Feminism (requirement for my Gender Studies minor), American Women's Writing (my research seminar for English Lit), Hispanic Masterpieces (300-level survey course for my Spanish major) and Media & Cultural Criticism (will count for Gender Studies... but I'm mostly taking it because this is something I can see myself using in my writing career. For example, last night I went to a play downtown and I'm working on a review for it for my NUVO internship right now).

I know that's not a lot of classes (only 12 credit hours), but I can also get 3 credit hours for writing my honors thesis. I think it will be a good idea to block aside that time so I don't get too stressed writing my thesis! There is also a program I am considering where I could be a "writing fellow" and assist a professor with teaching their First Year Seminar class (part of the core curriculum) and help out the first year students with adapting to college writing. I already do this for my job as a Writer's Studio tutor, but it would be nice to get some classroom experience in case I decide to go to grad school and have to teach undergrads.

2) Volunteer work: takes up time... but is definitely the stress relief in my busy schedule.

For my Panhel position, I have been advising a group of new sorority members from all the houses called Junior Panhel. They have been hard at work planning a week of service projects and they went so well. We focused on helping different groups - on "Animal Day," sorority members went to the Humane Society and Animal Care & Control. On "Elderly Day" we went to nursing homes, and on "Kids Day" we went to after school programs. I volunteered for one of the nursing home projects and it was SO much fun! We did a craft with some elderly ladies and got to talk with them. They really love having activities scheduled in their days, and I like getting advice from people who have seen it all. My craft buddy, Pat, wants to tell all the women out there that it is VERY important to get a job with your own benefits - don't rely on a husband's benefits to support you in your retirement. Good advice! It was also so much fun to meet some Greek women from other sororities that I didn't know before. It was awesome that we could all come together and make new friends while supporting a great cause. Snaps to the freshman women who planned these excellent opportunities!

On Friday, several brothers from my band fraternity, Kappa Kappa Psi, spent the evening remodeling our band storage room in Hinkle Fieldhouse. We had to dismantle the old shelves, carry the heavy scrap wood a long way to the dumpster, and then build the new shelves that we had raised money to order. It was definitely a learning experience... we had three shelving units to assemble, and we did each of them in a different way! It took a while, but we were really proud to have finished this project - it will be a huge help for all the band and cheerleaders who use this room regularly. Here are some before and after shots:

3) HOMEWORK! There is so much to do!

I have spent a good chunk of this weekend (whenever I wasn't catching up on my sleep) reading and doing research. I am reading novels for two of my literature classes and a very dense history book. It is fascinating though, because it's about immigrant working women in New York who organized all the factory workers to demand unions and better wages and rights for working women. I am also in the middle of doing research on these women, because I'm writing a big paper about how these women contributed to the women's suffrage cause. They were very inspirational ladies! If this interests you, I recommend the book we're reading: Common Sense and a Little Fire, by Annelise Orleck.

So, these things have been keeping me busy, and I have a meeting and event packed week ahead of me. April at Butler is always crazy busy, but a good time. I hope I can keep a decent balance between work, fun and sleep this week/ For now, I'm going to get back to that theatre review, find some dinner and then more research/reading.

To my high school senior readers, I know that this can be a stressful time in your life, too, as you try to make a college decision, so if there are any questions I can answer for you, please send me a message or comment here. Good luck!

So, what's this early registration thing?

ChristinaL — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 13:07:00 GMT

Hey everyone! I always know that it's getting close to the end of the year when Early Registration starts and our campus is full of parents and high school seniors every Friday. It always makes me smile to see the next generation of Bulldogs!

Since some of you are probably coming to Early Reg soon, I asked my friend Michael to talk to you guys about what Early Registration is all about. He is one of the students who is planning your orientation for next fall! You'll see him on some of the panels or giving tours at Early Reg days, so feel free to say hey and tell him you saw him on YouTube. He's a friendly guy : )

(Please visit the site to view this media)

When I came to Early Registration as a freshman, I wasn't even sure that I wanted to go to Butler. I was still really torn between here and Wash U in St. Louis, and I didn't know how to make the big decision! Early Reg definitely helped me to get a better feel for the professors and the campus and I think it swayed my decision a little bit! A lot of Early Reg is just info sessions for you and your parents, because there IS a lot you need to know about becoming a college student. You can also do other typical campus visit stuff like take a tour, shop for new Bulldog gear at the bookstore, or try out some of our campus food options.

However, the most important thing that happens at Early Reg is signing up for classes! I loved this, because I got to sit down with the Head of the English Department and ask ALL my questions (you better believe I had a lot!). He helped me choose my classes for Fall 2006 (gosh I'm old!) and his recommendations for classes and professors all turned out to be great. It was cool, because he remembered me from Scholar's Forum when I came to interview for my scholarship, and so he really knew who I was and talked to me about how much all the professors wanted me to be a part of the Butler English Department. That made a huge impression on me when I was making my choice, and I'm glad it did. At some other colleges I visited, the profs acted like I was lucky to even be there, but at Butler, every day my professors show up excited that they have the opportunity to teach us... that's what they like to do!

Dr. Watts was also very helpful in introducing me to other students and faculty in the Department. He found an English 185 class and a freshman Honors Class for me to sit in on so I could meet students around my own age (and some of those people I met that day - who are seniors now - are good friends of mine today! kind of cool to think back on...). He also introduced me to a senior English major who was a tutor in the Writer's Studio (aka the campus job I have now) and she sat down on the Studio couch with me and answered ALL my questions for at least an hour. Every little thing. That's how much people love our department and this school and want to share it with new students.

So basically, I just want to encourage all of you to get the most out of your Early Reg day! If there is something you need that will help you make your college choice, ask for it! Go visit your potential department and talk to students and professors that have some free time or are waiting around for a class to start. These people will answer your questions honestly and give you all the details that your Admission counselor or tour guide don't know. Actually, feel free to approach anyone at Butler and ask them a question - we are friendly people, I promise.

Oh, and a few words of registration advice... if you are not a huge science fan, take Genetics and Evolution! A lot of it is about ethics which I found fascinating and our "labs" were not too science-y (although we did have to breed fruit flies for a month!). And if you get invited to the Honors Program, take an Honors class. It's a good way to meet other very cool freshmen and the topics are fun. And don't stress out if you get 8 am classes. You probably get up even earlier than that now for high school, so no big deal, and I PROMISE that by the time you are a junior or senior you will have days like I do with no class until 4 pm or free Fridays. If you have other questions about registration or a specific professor's style, you can always message me and I'll tell you what I know!

I also hope to meet some of you soon in person, because I am going to be sitting on a few panels at Early Registration days with the other Student Orientation Guides. If you see me, please come introduce yourself and say hello! It makes my day. Hope to meet you soon!

Pharmacy Electives

AshlenC — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 22:08:00 GMT

Every semester, we're given a time when we can sign up for classes the following semester. The time you're given depends on the number of credit hours you've taken. Now that I'm going to be a fifth year senior, my sign-up time was really early compared to everyone else. In addition, I've got extra "phantom" credit hours because I'm in the Honors program. That means that I'm signing up ahead of most people in my pharmacy class, which is great when we're all fighting to get a spot in the professional elective that we want!

Thankfully, I did get a spot in the nutrition elective, and I'm really excited to take the class next semester. However, it was a tough choice to make, because there were a couple other options I thought were really interesting as well. Apparently one of the other options I was looking at (Internal Medicine) was popular with my classmates, because it's already full, despite the fact that a lot of people I know don't register until tonight or tomorrow.

A lot of the pharmacy electives focus more on the clinical nature of pharmacy. However, for students considering the retail route, there is a Medical Spanish class, and a Medical Spanish Service Learning class as well. The Service Learning class is very hands-on....students get to volunteer and put their Spanish skills to work! I imagine that the diabetes elective would also be very helpful in the retail setting.

Until later,

Ashlen

Best of Butler at Honors Weekend

ChristinaL — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 04:44:00 GMT

Whew! Honors Weekend is finally wrapping up! This is the weekend when Butler hosts a number of events to recognize outstanding students, including the Top 100 Banquet, Honors Program events and academic college awards. It is one of my favorite times of year, because I really get to learn about all the amazing scholarship,research, service, and leadership that my classmates are doing. They always inspire me to be a better student and citizen after I hear what they've been up to. Now that I am an upperclassman, I know most of the people winning the awards, which makes it even more fun.

Friday was the Top 100 Banquet. This is an event sponsored by the Alumni Association which recognizes 100 outstanding junior and senior students for their achievements in the classroom, their character, and their leadership and service in BU extracurricular activities and the community. At the banquet, the Top 10 Women and Men and the Outstanding Female and Male student are named.

I was totally shocked to be named as one of the Top 10 Women this year! Seriously! Typically the Top 10 is mostly made up of seniors so it was quite a surprise, but also a great honor to receive that award during my junior year. Although I can think of many more people who are very deserving of that award, I do put so much of my time and passion into Butler, so it was exciting and rewarding to be recognized for this. I really liked that the focus of the Banquet was thanking our families, friends, and professors who have helped us make it this far, because I would be nothing without the constant support of all my loved ones.

Here are the 2009 Top 10 Women and Men. I was so honored to stand beside people I really admire on this campus! You can also see our University President Dr. Bobby Fong on the far left.

Today there was a brunch reception for upper-level Honors students - the seniors who just turned in their theses and the juniors who just turned in our proposals and are now hearing back. (Mine got approved - hooray!). I didn't make it to that brunch because my parents, sister and grandparents were here so we all wanted to go out together for breakfast at Cafe Patachou (basically my favorite restaurant in Indy - SO good!)

This afternoon we had the academic awards. I went to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences on behalf of the English Department. I got an award for excellence in literature, which was also surprising (considering I was away from the department studying abroad for half of this year...) but exciting to receive from the professors I respect so much. The thing about LAS Awards is that we are the biggest College at Butler, so our ceremony takes FOREVER. It was so hard to sit still that long... but I do enjoy hearing the Dean read the bio of each student as they accept their award. Like I said earlier, Butler students are AMAZING! It is so cool to hear where everybody has been interning, the awesome schools they are going to for graduate work, and all the community service hours they have logged and organizations they have led.

Another cool aspect of the awards was that nine of my sorority sisters were also winning LAS academic awards this morning. Altogether we represented English, Biology, Physics, History and Journalism! Go Pi Phi! I love having these women around me - their influence pushes me to strive for more when it comes to schoolwork. One of our sisters, Alyssa, is a double major in Biology and Chemistry and STILL HAS A 4.0 going into our senior year. She is awesome and definitely inspires me - not just with her academics but with her integrity and devotion that she gives to all that she does.

Another inspiring sister is my very own roommate, Kim! Kim is a physics major who is basically super smart and amazing at life. Kim did research on black holes last summer through the Butler Summer Institute, an opportunity that pays students to stay at BU and work with a faculty member on a research project. She presented this work at a conference in California over winter break alongside her advisor, and all this work and attention has led her to be accepted in an OUTSTANDING physics summer research program at UCLA. She turned down Harvard for this! Yeah, she's a big deal. We also found out this week that Kim has been named a Goldwater Scholar, which is a hugely important scholarship and honor for science majors (click the link to read the BU press release about her!). I am so proud of her!

Kim and I at the LAS Awards ceremony! It was not quite sundress weather... but I just can't wait!

Anyway, at some point I hope to make up a list of all the really cool things my Butler friends have done, because whether they were honored this weekend or not., people are doing amazing things on this campus, and you should know about it.

It is amazing what an outstanding education and a creative, critical, compassionate mind will do for you! Pursue both wholeheartedly.

Hiding out in an undisclosed location

ChristinaL — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 04:47:00 GMT

So, I hate to admit it, but I have been extremely lame this spring break!

With the exception of some fun NUVO internship activity and putting the final touches on my story which will run next week (YAY!), my spring break life quickly disintegrated into a lot of studying and hanging out with small children.

Last Friday, I babysat for my thesis advisor's 10 year old. He is absolutely hysterical. I love learning the hip 5th grade slang from him (he legitimately says "bff" and "fo sho") and hearing about all the social drama of stealing friends and crushes and bullies and whatnot. It's crazy (and takes you back to the olden days of elementary school). On top of that, many of the professors' kids hang out together, so he was giving me the lowdown on all the offspring of my favorite profs. Hilarious.

We also got to watch Ratatouille, which was cute but made me extremely nostalgic for Paris. You know your post-study-abroad life is sad when Disney movies make you depressed about not being in Europe.

I also spent a lot of time this week learning about babies. My cousin Melissa is 28 and lives on the near Eastside of Indy, and she just had a baby in December. His name is Patrick and to give you my unbiased evaluation, he is probably the cutest kid in the world. I stayed with Melissa for most of this week because campus pretty much shuts down over break, which meant I got to spend lots of quality time with Patrick. He is going through a phase right now where he is only happy when you hold him over your shoulder while standing up. Holding him over your shoulder while sitting is simply unacceptable. So, Patrick and I spent a lot of time walking around the house together to give his mom a break. At three months, he's already 19 lbs... the kid gets heavy! I love him dearly, but I must say that hanging with Melissa and Patrick has given me new insight into how much work babies take. I definitely don't want one of my own for a long long time!

Other than that I have been trying to get as much homework done as possible. I find this to be incredibly difficult when a) immediate deadlines are not looming (I'm a last minute kind of student) and b) Facebook keeps telling me how all my friends are in Florida or Spain or other sweet spring break locations. Ok, not all of them, but enough to make me feel justified in being unproductive.

I have mostly been working on a rather complicated Scarlet Letter/Uncle Tom's Cabin comparative essay which I should have written about a month ago (but my teacher is really nice, and as I mentioned before, lets us set our own due dates.) I also have a lot of Honors Thesis prep work to be doing, since spring of junior year is when you get your project all lined up for approval from the Honors Board. Needless to say, these are both very busy projects, and between those and catching up on emails and some organizational matters for my leadership position, I am quite busy.

On Wednesday, I finally decided I needed to leave Indy and hide out in an undisclosed location where I would be forced to get more work done as I near the end of my catch-up week. So far I'm doing a pretty good job - I haven't left said location since I got here on Wednesday night. I'll give you a hint: it involves home-cooked meals and my dog... but don't tell anyone because I don't have time to do anything fun around here and I wouldn't want to be tempted! Ahhh the life of an over-committed junior. Some day I'll learn not to take on so much in one semester. Maybe.

EDIT: I almost forgot the one "fun" part of my break: The Horizon League men's basketball tournament which we hosted at Butler - you may have seen me on ESPN rockin out on the clarinet in the Basketball Band : ) The game on Saturday vs. Wright State was lots of fun since they are our conference rivals (our fan sections more than our teams). However, the championship was really depressing. We lost by three points in the final seconds after having a (small) lead for most of the game. I think I neglected to mention this part of my spring break because I have already tried to block the loss out of my memory. We're moving on and looking forward! Keep your fingers crossed and thinking happy thoughts this weekend for NCAA tournament Selection Sunday.

Junior year is eating my life.

ChristinaL — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 05:43:00 GMT

Hey everyone! Sorry that I haven't been posting as frequently as I usually do. We are starting to get into the busy portion of this semester and I am feeling a little overwhelmed. Hopefully I can write a long post for you soon about one of these topics, but here's what's up in my life....

1) INTERNSHIP! I love love love it, but it is pretty time-consuming. It's so much fun to have a "big kid" job... even if they don't pay me. You will definitely hear more about this asap.

2) Greek life. I am VP of Education for the Panhellenic Association, which oversees the sororities, and this has been taking up a lot of my time! Mostly because I see this position as a way to really leave my mark on the Greek community and try new things to show people that Greeks are so much more (and usually quite different) than the stereotypes. We had a very successful event promoting women's basketball a few weekends ago (It was Spice Girls themed and we called it Spice Up the Night! Girl Power for Women's Basketball - cute right?) and our exec board went to a Greek leadership conference with 2100 people in St. Louis last weekend.

At Pi Phi, we are also busy with the education process for our new members. Last night we revealed who their Big Sisters are and so I got to help my Little Sis Jackie welcome our newest member of the Moose family, Stephanie! What a fabulous fam : )

3) School! I have SO much reading. Like, I'm not actually sure it's possible for me to finish it all ever. I would estimate I have at least 500 pages a week assigned to me for my three hardest classes combined, and my reading pace is definitely slower because I try to take notes and synthesize it all for later paper writing or class discussions. I'm doing the best I can, but it's definitely taking a toll on my sleep. Don't take two heavy-reading lit classes AND a heavy-reading history class in one semester with an internship. This will not end well for your shut-eye...

4) Hmm... where does the rest of my time go? Probably trying to keep my closet organized and pick up the mess on my floor? This is a daily battle.

5) Occasionally I have some fun. This mostly takes the form of playing clarinet at the Basketball games and dancing like a fool. I was on ESPNU doing just that a few weeks ago.

6) Trying to plan the rest of my life. yeah this sounds kind of dramatic, but I have to make some big kid choices right now such as: do I want to live off-campus next year? Where do I want to spend my summer and what should I do? What should my Honors thesis be?! and then smaller crises like: What am I doing for spring break?

So, I hope to give you a more substantial post soon, but for now it's just about stayin alive! I have another conference this weekend for the Student Foundation at U of Cincinnati. It will be good to see some friends that I have met from other colleges, but I actually wish I had the weekend to do homework. When did my life become so lame? haha.

have a good week!

Tales of Homecomings Past

AshlenC — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 19:47:00 GMT

Today was homecoming, and instead of being at the big game, enjoying the festivities as a senior, I'm sitting on my couch learning about growth hormone and vasopressin. Not too exciting, right? No doubt every other blogger is at the game, dressed in Dawg Pound shirts, yelling at the top of their lungs as Butler comes back to (hopefully) win the game. I've been watching the score, and we were down by a lot early in the game but now the score is 31 - 21 with Butler in the lead! Yay bulldogs!

I'm not the type of person who usually avoids the homecoming festivities. I love homecoming! But considering the amount of studying I have to do, and my current medical condition, going to the game just wasn't in the cards this year. Oh yeah, remember how I've been sick? Well I decided to go to the doctor again yesterday, and it turns out that my liver is inflamed. Want to know why he thinks my liver is inflamed? He thinks I have hepatitis A! That's insanity. I don't know anyone who's ever had hepatitis A. What worse is that there's not treatment. Just lots of rest, lots of fluids, and avoiding things that are bad for my liver (alcohol, Tylenol...). AND I probably won't get better for at least a few weeks and maybe a few months. But back to the less depressing stuff....

I've been to the homecoming games every year, and my favorite part, by far, is seeing and hanging out with all my friends. A My freshman and sophomore year I hung out with the golf team, which was always a great time considering they were my favorite people at Butler! So here are some pictures of all the amazing festivities from the past few years...enjoy!

This picture was with my teammate Sarah during my freshman year. It's one of my favorite pictures of us ever! Sarah and I had a lot of great memories together (she has since graduated and gotten married), including going to Scotland with the golf team and winning a Horizon League championship. Sarah and Paige (in the pictures below) were amazing friends and were great mentors for me to look up to on the golf team.

Paige and I were roommates on that golf trip to Scotland. There were no end to the good times with her! She graduated last year, and I heard she just moved to NYC to be a drug rep. for Eli Lilly!

Kate and Keny are two of my good friends in pharmacy. Kate is possibly the biggest Butler basketball fan known to man. She plays in the Butler Basketball band, and I know she's been counting down the days until the season starts for quite a while now. Keny and I met in when we took an Honors Program class together on Thomas Jefferson. We ended up signing up for another Honors class together on fairy tales last year, and this year, Keny was elected president of the Student Honors Council! Who says pharmacy majors don't have a life? Oh...and Keny introduced my fiance and I...he's such a huge part of my life

By the way - I just realized that I wear my favorite Oakley sun glasses an awful lot! They're in every picture!

So who likes cornhole? A couple of summers ago, my fiance made cornhole boards, and when I came to visit him we painted them together. His mom got Butler bulldog stickers made, and they ended up looking really nice. We pulled them out a lot last year during football games, including homecoming, because I lived right beside the field in the Apartment Village. It was a lot of fun, and I'm disappointed that we haven't pulled them out yet this fall!

Well, Happy Homecoming everyone! It's back to the books for me. Hope to see you all at the game next year :)

Until later,

Ashlen