Monday, March 29, 2010

Relaxation!

The long wait for Spring Break is finally over and we can all relax! Just think, a week ago we were stressing over our finals and hoping we studied everything that we needed to know for all of our exams. That's way over now! I hope everyone got the grades they were hoping for.

Here we are...Monday, Monday!! Two more days left of this wonderful month of March and then we move into April! April Showers Bring May Flowers!! As for a wrap up of today, I ended up working for a few hours since I have been out of work for a week now due to being sick, so it was nice to be back and catch up. I also made some phone calls today, which was a total success. I got the nice people today! Haha Just kidding!

When I got home today, I actually received and email from the National MS Society asking me to do an interview about the MS Walk I am participating in. I submitted my MS story and everything I had dealt with when I was diagnosed and was asked if I would be interested in doing some media coverage in regards to it. I think this is a great opportunity to give everyone a little sense about the lives of those with MS, like myself. I will definitely let everyone know how that goes when I do complete the interview! Probably sometime this week!

I hope everyone's break has been great so far! Keep on enjoying it and get ready for the 80 degree weather that is on its way for this weekend! :)

Friday, March 26, 2010

Spring Break!!


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So it's Spring Break, but where is the Spring Break weather? Last I checked, coldness and rain was not a great way to start off Spring Break!

Twelve weeks have gone by and now it's time to empty out the folders and get ready to start all over again! I actually got an EXTRA early head start, and ordered my books for next quarter already. I think of it this way. If I don't order right away and wait till last minute, my books will arrive super late, and then I will be behind, but if I order them early, I will get them a couple days before classes even resume and I won't have to worry about anything. I went to the buyback on the GMT campus with my friend the other day to sell back some books and afterwards I told him I wanted to go get the ISBN numbers for my books for next quarter and his expression was like "Are you crazy?" But, my reasoning was a good one in his opinion when I told him. When I got home, I did another buyback to another company who was offering more money for my books, and then went right ahead and ordered my new ones. Now I really can enjoy my vacation without the worries about books and what not. I also figure that by the time those books come, and the check comes for the books I sold back, I can just pay everything off and not have to worry about bills later on down the road. There is always a method to my madness!

To wrap up the past twelve weeks, I was actually getting a little nervous. It seems that the last 4 weeks is when all classes start throwing all the work at you, and you find yourself crawling out of a pile of papers. Somehow I managed though. It just seems like nerves can get the best of us when the pile of papers before us, just keeps growing, before you can even start to work on making the pile less.

I presented my final project with my group, which I was so happy it was them, because we all worked so well together. Again, my only problem with presenting, is that my nerves get the best of me. Even though I was part of a group and usually feel more comfortable like that, that wasn't the case this time. That was the critique I received, that I went to fast and that I needed to connect more with my audience, which I know! I ended up emailing him later that afternoon because I was so worried I did horrible, but he advised me that I did great and not to take the critique to harshly, which made me feel so much better. It just feels good to have that done and out of my way!

I also took my Fiction final yesterday. I was worried about that too because I have not been feeling so great since Wednesday, so concentrating was a nightmare, but I think I did pretty well. Just waiting on that grade, which is killer! It's part of the nerves again, you know you did well all quarter, but you want to see that letter grade up there just so you know!!

Oh and since I forgot to do this during the week, I wanted to post the pictures from the Shakespearean Theatre on the Drew University campus. The class, Special Topics in the Humanities, will be working with the theatre constantly, so I will be posting a lot of updates and any shows that may be of interest to some of you! Here are a few pictures: It's absolutely gorgeous down here!


With that being said, go enjoy your Spring Break and I will keep everyone up-to-date with any news that needs to be shared!! Enjoy!!

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Finals Week!!

Two days into this Finals Week! How is everyone doing? I presented my final in my Global Social Change class today, and have never been happier to have a presentation over with! Then I came home and finished off my last math exam. So only one more final to go, and I am officially on break!! It can't come soon enough, that's for sure!

Other than finals week, it's been pretty quiet! In order to prepare for my last final on Friday, I need to analyze the movie, The Sixth Sense. I have seen it before, but I want to watch it once more to make sure I am completely confident with that I need to write about on my exam. We are taking a look at the camera as the narrator of the film and how they use the camera to not show us what is really going on until they are ready too. Other than the movie, I will also need to analyze a story and do a double dramatic analysis about a story that we have not covered in class.

I feel pretty confident but I like to get a good idea of what I need to know and what I need to do in order to prepare myself.

I hope everyone is having good luck with their final exams and are just as ready as I am for break. Just think in 2 weeks, we start all over again! (I know, I'm pushing it now!)

Enjoy the rest of your week and best of luck to everyone on their exams!!!

Friday, March 19, 2010

TGIF!!!

Friday is here! Finally right? At least it's beautiful and just about 70 degrees out so that we can finally start our spring cleaning and get some nice fresh air!! I am loving it, that's for sure!

I hope everyone had a great week and is prepared for finals next week! Scary thought that this quarter is actually coming to an end! I am excited that's for sure!

Today I took a visit to the Shakespearean Theater on the Drew University campus with Professor Farrington and a few others in regards to the Humanities class I will be taking next quarter. It's called Special Topics in the Humanities. As part of the course, we will be going to the theater and engaging in several activities related to the theater and shows they will be putting on. This is the first time that Berkeley College is forming this connection with them, so we are hoping to expand it as time moves forward. There are a lot of students at the GMT campus who are dedicated and committed to the theater so it's really cool. This is my first time being involved in anything like this, and I am playing a major part in this whole class in regards to organizing and helping get everything off to a great start. The cool thing about this course is that it incorporates just about a little of every major at Berkeley. For example, marketing, management, and business administration play a huge role in the theater business. You never know what you can do with these areas, and theater is one of them. I had no idea what I was getting myself into when Professor Farrington asked me if I wanted to become involved, and now I am really glad that I am.

Later on next week, I plan on interviewing Professor Farrington and my partner in crime in this course, Rob Berrios. Just so everyone can get a feel of who they are and their major part in making this course possible!

It's going to be such a great experience and the meeting we had today, went very smoothly and the people are awesome. We even got a tour of the theater, which was a very cool experience. It's really nice to see everything from their perspective and not just from the audience. So start looking forward to having a lot of play information posted and of course a lot of news about our Open Door Theater at the GMT campus. We have some great shows coming up and I can't wait to start filling everyone in on all these new opportunities I am indulging in!


With that being said, I am going to end this and tell you all to get your butts outside and enjoy this beautiful weather! Have a fantastic weekend!

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!


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I hope everyone wore green today! At work today, my boss walked around and was like ok good, we are all wearing our green today! I even had a green Powerade drink with me, so I had double the green! Tonight is cornbeef and cabbage night at my house, as well as many others I am sure. Did anyone get a chance to go into the city for the parade? I wish I could have!

I figured I would throw in some St. Patrick's Day fun in this post. I was on Yahoo! this morning before I left for work and I came across a phrase saying "Why do we pinch people who are not wearing green on St. Patrick's Day?" Well for starters, I never heard of this, so I decided to click on it and here is what it says:

"Its an American tradition... in the 1700s, They thought if you wore green, it made you invisible to the Leprechauns, which was good because they would pinch anyone they could see. So the pinching is to warn and remind you about the Leprechauns."

I thought that was pretty interesting and decided to share it!

I also decided to do a little search on Google by typing in St. Patrick's Day and there is a lot of information that comes up. It's interesting to just read through all the different articles and read about some of the traditions that people follow on this day. Of course, not everyone is Irish, or has Irish in them, but we can all make a day of fun out of it.

Besides the St. Patrick's Day festivities, I do want to make mention of an event occurring on the Garret Mountain Campus tomorrow. The Spring Job Fair is tomorrow, March 18th from 10AM to 1PM in the Knuppel Hall Community Room! If you do plan to go, please dress professionally and bring along copies of your resume! Also, if you have any questions, you can always visit the Career Services office for their assistance!

Nothing new has really come up since last nights post. I heard my route to school is finally open, so I am hoping not to run into any problems tomorrow because I need to meet my group bright and early before my first class! Since I was unable to attend on Tuesday, I need to make sure I am there for them tomorrow!

Enjoy the rest of your St. Patrick's Day and the yummy dinner you are hopefully going to eat!!

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Bring on the nice weather!

What a gorgeous day! It was nice to finally see the sun and not the rain. Although the rain has stopped, we are still dealing with the aftermath. Thousands are still without power, as well as many without a home, due to the excessive flooding. I send my best wishes to all those families who have to deal with this.

I actually wasn't able to get to campus today due to road closings. I was thinking of going another way until I got a call that the way I was going to go, was at a dead stop due to so much traffic. I figured I would just take the day off and work from home. That's just what I did. I also was assigned my group project today, but had to do that through email since I couldn't be on campus. I am in a group with 4 other people dealing with Healthcare. My particular topic in the group that I have to research is the concept of re-emerging diseases. My group is pretty on top of everything, which is definitely a good thing. I did a little research today and typed up an abstract of my subtopic, which needs to be prepared for Thursday's class.

Here is what I typed:

Re-Emerging Diseases
For my part in this project, I will be discussing the problems that we are facing in healthcare due to re-emerging diseases. Re-emerging diseases are known as diseases that were present in the past and are said to have been taken care of, but are seen resurfacing today. It’s important that we focus on developing effective strategies that will help our population handle and control these re-emerging diseases much better than in the past. The more that we research this issue, the more knowledge that can be released to the general public about how to protect themselves.


It only needed to be a few sentences, so this is my general overview. I will present this to my group and then we will put all of our abstracts together and create one that applies to our topic with all these subtopics included. This is the start of this project and my group seems pretty together and focused, so I am looking forward to working with them.

Other than that, I worked on my online classes work today as well. They are coming to an end quicker than I realized so, there is a lot I need to get done and submitted by next week. I feel pretty confident though that I will have it done by this weekend, but you never know what might come up.

Also, I want to advise everyone to check out the new addition to our blogging, which is the accounting blog. If you are an accounting major, or looking to explore the accounting major, this is a great way to check it out and learn all about it!

As the quarter comes to an end, I am going to keep reminding everyone to get to financial aid to clear for the Spring quarter and to also pay your bill! Don't wait until last minute!!

Enjoy the rest of your week! Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!


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Sunday, March 14, 2010

Happy Birthday to me!

So why am I posting on my birthday? I figured I would pop on real quick. I am getting ready to head out with my family for a few hours. I tried to go out last night to Dave and Buster's, but my luck wasn't so great! They closed the highway!!! That totally made me go crazy, so after an hour they finally had us all turn around in the south lane and go north on it! That was a first for me! Instead of trying it again tonight,we postponed the festivities until next weekend! Sounds like a better idea to me!

Now I am officially 20! I feel old! It's been off to a great start so far. I got a new Ipod and a game for Wii, so I am set for the rest of the week! New toys=lots and lots of fun!

Enough about that for now though. We are approaching week 11, which means next week is FINALS WEEK! DUN...DUN...DUN! I am looking forward to finishing up and calling it quits for a week. This much needed relaxation is going to be wonderful. Just begin to prepare yourself for your exams or any projects that you need to do, and take your time. The worse thing you can do is rush through the material and drive yourself nuts.

I see people in my discussion boards for my online classes saying that they always rush themselves and feel like they know the material, then they get in front of the test, and totally blank out. It happens to all of us, we just need to take our time! That is my advice to everyone!!

Enjoy your last day of this rainy weekend and prepare yourself for a rather busy week!

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Where has the week gone?

So I am having a hard time with the fact that it is already Thursday! On a better note, my birthday is on Sunday, so there is something to look forward to, except for the fact I lose an hour of sleep because Sunday is daylight savings day. At least I have a day off on Monday! Just remember to change those clocks so you aren't late for work or school!


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Two more weeks of classes, and only one week till final exams! Don't panic! You can always visit the tutoring services and get some help in preparation for your exams! For my Fiction class, we will be doing an essay based on a double dramatic analysis of a story and for my Global Change class, we will be doing a group presentation. It's always nice to work with other people, so I am looking forward to that. Not sure who is in my group just yet, but I will find that out over the weekend I believe.

Things are winding down, so there is not really much going on. What are everyone's plans for the weekend? Tomorrow I will go to work, and then I have to go to the dentist and run some errands. Then hopefully go out with some friends for my birthday. It's suppose to rain, but not on my parade! I will celebrate rain or shine! I keep telling my mom that I am going to be 20 and that I am getting so old. I keep saying, "MOM!! 30 years till I'm 50!" Go ahead and laugh, but yes this is what I think!

I saw a teacher from my elementary school today and she just hugged me. She said there are always those select few students you remember and always think about. That was something nice to hear, but when you hear them say "Oh my, look how grown up you are!" you think to yourself, oh nooooo!It feels good to be older now, but time just needs to slow down!

I hope everyone has a great weekend! It's not that far away! Also, I am going to keep mentioning this, but get those bills paid and financially cleared so that you are good to go for the Spring Quarter! You don't want to be stuck paying any late fees, now do you?

Have a good one! :)

Monday, March 8, 2010

Spring is in the air!


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Good Afternoon! It's the dreadful Monday again, but at least it's gorgeous out and not extremely cold! Spring is in the air! I got a head start on my week, and began working on some homework. My birthday is this Sunday, so I want to get as much as I can out of the way, since I have a pretty eventful week!

I have been doing a lot of revisions to my schedule for the upcoming quarter. I started out taking all online classes, then switched to 3 online classes and one on campus, and then today, I made yet again another revision. So now my schedule is two classes on GMT campus and two online, similar to this current quarter. I figured if I was going to take a class on GMT anyways, I mine as well take another so I am not only coming down for one class. I decided to take Principles of Finance and Special Topics in Humanities as my two on site classes. Then I will be taking Business Law 1 and Advanced Database systems online. I think I am set on this schedule for sure this time!

I also began my search for books that I will need next quarter. I like to get an idea ahead of time, so I don't have to rush around last minute worrying about books and getting them on time. As far as book buyback goes on the Berkeley campus, I did see the advertisement which says books buyback will be March 22-March 25th (10:30AM until 6:30PM) If you need to sell back books, now is the time to do so! I found a website which will pay me back just about $100 for two books, so always try to look online and see if you can make more money. Two sites I often use for book buyback is www.collegebooksdirect.com and www.abebooks.com

Some of the titles they do not buy back, so if that is the case, you can always bring them to Berkeley. I will need to do that with my Microeconomics books that I have since neither one of those sites are buying them back. If anyone has any other sites for book buybacks, let me know. I would be glad to check them out!

Hopefully everyone dropped any classes they needed to drop last week and are in the process of finishing up their schedules for next quarter. Now is a good time to also visit Financial Aid to fill out any paperwork that needs to be filled out and to clear yourself for the Spring quarter!

I hope everyone has a great week! I will keep everyone up to date with any news that would be of importance to you. We are approaching the end of the quarter so now is the time to study hard and end the quarter on a good note!

One last thing, the surveys have been sent out to your Berkeley emails, so if you have not yet taken the surveys, please do so ASAP!


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Friday, March 5, 2010

Some things to keep in mind!

TGIF! I hope everyone had a great week and now is ready to have an even better weekend. At least we can cancel out the snow for this weekend! I worked for a few hours this morning, and came home this afternoon to finish up some homework and now I am officially in weekend mode! It's been one of those weeks for me, so just glad it's coming to its end!


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Just to put some reminders out there. Tomorrow, March 6th, will be the last day that you will be able to drop any of your classes. If you have a class with a bad grade and don't want to ruin your GPA, you might want to consider dropping it and preparing yourself to take it another quarter! Advisement has agreed to open up tomorrow, Saturday from 9am-2pm for any students who need to stop in to complete this process! After tomorrow, you need to stick it out and get through the class! Just keep that in mind!

Also, for this quarter, Berkeley will be doing something new in regards to the SIRS (the evaluations about the class) and will be going paperless! We will begin receiving emails from ETS (Education Testing Service) that will be asking you to evaluate the classes you are enrolled in this quarter. Please be aware that the email will not be coming from a Berkeley address, but from ETS, so do not disregard these emails. As far as I am concerned and from what I have been told, the surveys will be available tomorrow, March 6th until March 25th. Please take the time to complete these surveys and provide any feedback you can that can help improve the class or if you feel the class is perfect as it is, put that down. Berkeley pays close attention to these surveys, so the more replies we receive the greater chances we have of improving the courses. Just be on the look out for those emails!

Just another quick reminder, if you haven't created a schedule for the Spring Quarter, you must do so before the classes close up. Some of them are already filled, so chances are you will not get the classes you really want. I recommend getting that done ASAP and meeting with your advisor. Some of you may also need to re bundle for the Spring quarter as well. I know I do, so I will be doing that soon as well.

As we approach Week 10, do your best to keep up with your work and begin gathering some material for the Final Exams! I was given some material already for my Global Social Change class, so I need to start looking over that.

I hope everyone has a great weekend and keep in mind those above reminders! They are IMPORTANT!

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Welcome to March!

My birthday month! YAY! So far March has come in like a lion, so let's hope it goes out like a lamb. So the other day I meant to post since it's been one year since I first started blogging, but never got a chance to. Happy one year to my blog! :) As I wrap up and look back on everything, I have come a long way with my education and have been working hard to keep up with all my goals I wish to fulfill. I appreciate everyone taking the time to read my blogs!

Here we are in Week 9! Let's hope we can make it through this week without any big snow storms to get in our way. I felt like I haven't been to class in so long because of all this continuous snow fall. That groundhog wasn't kidding when he saw his shadow and brought us along 6 more weeks of Winter!

Since it is week 9, this means it is the last week for you to withdraw from any of your classes. An email was sent on behalf of advisement to remind you to do so this week. I will copy that email here for anyone who may have not seen or checked it out.

Hello.

Please be advised that this is the last week that you will be able to withdraw from any classes. The Advisement office will be open Today, Wednesday, and Thursday from 8am-8pm; Friday from 8am-5pm; and Saturday from 9am-2pm. If you would like to withdraw from any classes please stop by the Advisement office and see an Advisor during the hours mentioned.

Thank you,

Christine Ranucci
Berkeley College
Administrative Assistant
Room 204
10-6 M-TH & 9-5 F
(973)278-5400 x1301
ctr@berkeleycollege.edu

Please do not wait until last minute to withdraw if you need to do so. It's best to get it over and done with so that the process goes smoothly! Only 4 more weeks to go, so if you aren't withdrawing from any classes, continue to work hard and do anything you can to end up with that passing grade, and no paying the teacher won't cut it!

Also, the Berkeley College Fashion show is coming up this week! The Berkeley College Annual Fashion Show is Thursday, March 4th at The Venetian, starting at 6:00PM. ($35 for students and $45 for guests!) OR...you can try to WIN a TICKET, by coming to tomorrow's Activity Period (11:00AM-12:00Noon) in the Student Center at GMT. This is something to keep in mind if you are looking for something to do on Thursday night!

I just finished up a 4 page paper for my Global Social Change class about nations and nation-state. I found several reliable and very informative sources that support my statements very well. I kind of feel like I have to many quotes, but after rereading it several times, it all fits my descriptions and enhances the understanding. It feels good to have this paper and my math paper out of the way. My next focus will be on my Microeconomics paper about the Benefits of Competition. This is an extra credit paper, and you never know when you may need it, so I am taking full advantage of that!

As for the rest of this week, I will be working, and studying for a math test. I will also be watching American Idol and pointing out who my favorite is this season. So far I haven't been able to pick who I really, really, like so I am hoping that someone will catch my attention within the next 2 weeks!

I hope everyone has a great week and remember to visit advisement if you have yet to make your schedule or if you need to drop a class! Don't wait until last minute!