Summing up the term

Hello,

As of today we have about a week left of classes and two weeks until the end of finals. All of my professors are kinda moving toward summing up everything that we have been talking about all term and moving toward actually preparing us for the numerous tests, papers, and/or projects that we have due. 

Just to give you an idea...

Mathematical Problem Solving- Yes, sound easy? It is. This math course falls into the "Common Core" or the general education courses that all students have to participate in. (I will write another post explaining the core) This course goes through trigonometry, fiance, probability, and something else that I cannot remember at the moment. While this course is only one of many I decided to go with the easier class simply due to my lack of interest in math and the fact that I do not have a great need for high math skills. The nice thing about this class is that there are only four quizzes and four tests, therefore... NO CUMULATIVE FINAL! So, that makes  me happy :-)

World Politics- This classes is a great example of using the Core to your advantage. As I have expressed in my description I am a political science minor and to get a minor you must take "American Government" and 8 other poli sci courses, of which three areas have political science courses. So when I'm done with the Core I will already by a third of the way done with my minor. Ok, so World Politics was a pretty easy class assuming that you enjoy politics. This class had one test and two papers on current issues, along with critical thinking blogging assignments throughout the term. This class falls into my core and my minor. It was good, easy, and interesting... the best of all worlds. 

Principles of PR- This class has been overwhelmingly my favorite class this term. It has had a medium work load, but for the most part the professor doesn't just lecture from a powerpoint and podium, rather she is moving around, has the class critically thinking about various and current topics. With two "midterm" like tests and a large project, it remains my favorite. Today we listened to a presentation from Greg Verdino through American Marketing Association about Social Media and Networking. The picture on the right shows a picture of this presentation. Our school works really hard at diversifying the style in which we learn and this is only one example.

Religions Persons and Traditions- My final class is one of our three required religion courses. Being a Catholic college, this is a just a fact that everyone must take religion classes, but there are a wide variety of classes that have nothing to do with Catholicism and therefore make there is no sense of a religion being forces on the students. This class was difficult with a lot of religious theory, but more so due to the number of tests and papers. The thing I admired most about this class is the professor; he was brilliant! A class may be difficult, but when you have someone who knows their stuff and makes you interested, no matter how hard the class you start to enjoy it.

Ok... that was a lot, but those are all the course I am just finishing up with. I guess there are two morals from this story... 1. It doesn't have to be a "major" class for you to enjoy it and 2. If you enjoy your "major" then you have way more fun it its classes :-D

Thanks for reading,
Joe

Open House

Hello Everyone,

For those of you who were able to make it to open house, I hope you enjoyed Mercyhurst College. There are so many exciting things happening here and I can only hope for you to be a part of them.

First and foremost, I would like to congratulate our Lakers Football Team who defeated 3rd ranked California State 31-21 this afternoon. GOOD JOB BOYS!!!

Next, I would like to give a shout out to all of you who I gave a campus tour to today. I hope that I was able to prepare you a little better to make a decision about Mercyhurst. As I said on the tour, please feel free to contact me at anytime: jpudli08@lakers.mercyhurst.edu. Best of luck with your college decisions.

That's it! I'm on RA duty tonight so I'm going to sneak off campus for a while before I'm stuck here for the night.

Peace,
Thanks for reading,
Joe

Fall Break

So, while I am not sure that this falls into the whole "academics" or the "extracurricular" category singularly, I feel as though this is an important part of the whole fall calendar... FALL BREAK!!!

I am currently enjoying beautiful Chicago and my beautiful girly-friend. It is really nice and cool to be in a big city. There is a lot to do and many people to meet, but it always makes me miss the quiet, friendly, and safe Mercyhurst campus. Though Chicago is a great place to visit, it is just such a contrast, which makes me believe that this was a great Fall Break destination, as in it makes me appreciate what I already have.

My girlfriend goes to DePaul University, which is where I am staying. It seems like a very exciting place, but its just too big for me. It's too big in the sense that there are too many people who probably will never meet everyone and I would offer a guess that they are all fighting for the same opportunities.

I remain so blessed at Mercyhurst because of everything that I am able to do and be involved in. I love my girlfriend and love that she's happy here, but I can just see how she gets stuck in her program and is unable to expand too far from there.

Mercyhurst has a nice campus with nice people and nice buildings, world class programs and world class professors... its the best of the suburbs and cities, and is small, but not too small to not have resourses.

I love Mercyhurst and I hope some of you will too.

Thanks for reading,
Joe

Midterms are over

I just wanted to check back in and let you know how the week turned out. Today ended up being a BEAUTIFUL day. While I finished my tests yesterday, I just had a paper to turn in before I was free, but what made it even better was the fact that that SUN was out ALL DAY. Now this is significant simply because it has rained all week and has been utterly miserable... the sun somehow makes everything better.

I know this was all random and off the hinge, but I'm alright with that. It is such a beautiful night that I am going to go for a beautiful night jog.

Have a GREAT WEEKEND!

Thanks for reading,
Joe

Midterm

Midterms, Midterms, Midterms.

This is one of the two weeks from hell (I think I can say that). This week is the week that makes you realize what has been being fed to you for the last 5 weeks. There are papers, tests, and most of all... STRESS.

Beyond the normalities of life... meaning all of the things that I am involved in beyond the stress of academics, continue throughout this week. All of clubs, work, and meetings, plus the addition of RA duty, papers and exams make for a very stressful week.

Needless to say, I will be very thankful for this week to be over.

Thanks for reading,
Joe