Exciting Time for Seniors!

Hi Everyone!

So i'm not sure if the weather gods read my blog or what, but I'm SOO happy about this warm weather finally! I've been down in the dumps since it's been so cold and I couldn't do anything outside, but now I'm so excited!! I can't wait to have a day off to celebrate by going to the pool or beach!

Speaking of celebrating, it is definitely a time for both high school and college seniors to think about celebrating the end of an era! May is not too far away and graduations are looming, which can be daunting but exciting at the same time. As a second semester senior at UT, I am feeling super anxious about graduating. It's time for me to start thinking about joining the "Real World" by getting what I refer to as a "Big Girl Job". I've been looking online at different sites that are geared toward helping college graduates find jobs. Since I am looking for a job in admissions at a college in the Tampa Bay area (hint, hint to anyone who works at UT), my friend pointed me towards a website called HigherEdJobs.com. I have found a plethora of information about jobs in the administartion field all around the country and a few in Tampa as well! Although I haven't applied anywhere for a job yet, the website had been a huge help in opening my eyes to my opprtunites come May.

High School seniors are also in an exciting time as well. My little sister, Kelly, for example, is a Senior at Canton High School back in Massachusetts and she is just hearing back from the colleges she applied to right now. She has gotten into Loyola University in Maryland, Coastal Carolina University in South Carolina, as well as Clemson University in South Carolina. I am SO proud of her for getting into those colleges and I'm sure she will get into the other colleges she applied to as well! Kelly and my parents were actually on a cruise this past week when the acceptanec letter to Clemson came in the mail. My older sister, Christina, was very clever and sweet and made sure Kelly would know she got into Clemson the second she got home by taping the letter to the front door of my parent's house! Great idea, right?


Kelly is Tigertown Bound by getting into Clemson!

Picking a college is a huge step in a person's life. Deciding where you want to spend the next 4 years of your life is huge, especially if you are considering a college or university not very close to home. A few words of advice when choosing a college:
1. Choose for YOU - Always remember that the college you pick if for YOU, not your parents or anyone else. DO NOT let someone (ie your parents, counselor, etc) pressure you into going to a school you do not love. You will not achieve your full potential at a college you are unhappy at. Choose a school based on what enviornment will make you happy and able to feel comfortable.
2. Picture yourself there - Before you make a final decision about a school, take a minute and picture yourself there. Does the campus seem like a place you would feel comfortable living? Will you be able to enjoy yourself for 4 years as well as work well academically? Could you possibly see yourself in the area of your college after you graduate? All of these are questions you should ask youself because if you answer No, you probably will not enjoy yourself
3. The further the better - Speaking as a true homebody, I was extremely nervous when I decided to come to Florida for college when my family and everything I was used to was back in Massachuestts. I can't stress enough how happy I am that I came this far away for school. I have met people that I will be friends with for the rest of my life here and wouldn't trade any of my experiences for anything. College is most likely the only time you will be able to go anywhere you want and explore while still having a pretty solid connection to your roots. I highly recommand going somewhere besides your hometown for school to experience something new!

No matter where you end up in college and thereafter, your success and happiness depends on your attitude toward the future. As long as seniors have positive outlooks on the next steps in their lives, whether it is college or a "Big Girl Job", success is on the horizon!

Enjoy your week :)

is is Spring Break yet?!

Hello There!

Well, it is still freezing here in Tampa. The weather is not helping my ridiculous cold either! It is not fun walking from the parking garage to Plant Hall in 53 degrees. Most people look at me strange when I complain about the cold because I'm from Massachusetts. They all say, "what are you talking about? aren't you used to the cold? you are from the north!" C'mon people, I moved to Florida for a reason: I HATE THE COLD! Although I will be going to North Carolina next weekend to go skiing, I'd still take a vacation at the beach over the snow anyday!

Speaking of vacations, Spring Break is just around the corner! (Thank God!) In just 2 weeks, we will all have a well-deserved break from classes and UT. March 7th through the 14th marks our week of freedom. Being from all the way up north, I don't go home for spring break like many kids do when they are from around the area. My freshman year I stayed on campus at UT with a few of my friends and had a blast. All the dorms stay open as well as a few of the eataries around campus, so you are more than welcome to stick around! Lots of students stay on campus and go to the pool during the day and hangout around Tampa at night. It's a refreshing feeling to be able to just enjoy your surroundings, especially if they are new to you like they were to me freshman year, without schoolwork to worry about.

If staying around UT isn't what you had it mind for a "break", there are TONS of other options! My junior year I took a cruise to the bahamas with 23 of my friends...yes, 23 friends. We had the largest group of all at the location we stayed at and we had a blast! We hung out on the beach, took banana boat rides, and got to be around hundreds of other college students just trying to have a good time like us. It was an amazing experience! Many student like to go other places in Florida for spring break, such as Panama City Beach, Daytona, and Miami. All of those places are just a few hours by car and definitely worth checking out.

No matter what you choose to do for Spring Break, you will have a great time! Talk to your friends and figure out some plans so that you all can enjoy your week off from school!

I thought I went to School in Florida?!

Hello Everyone!

I wanted to blog today about the weather. I know it's seems kind of irrelavent to UT admissions, but I had to vent! What is going on with this cold weather?? I've been here for 3 1/2 years and it has never been this cold for this long! I'm used to going to the pool and walking on Bayshore around this time of year, not digging through my closet for my Northface jacket! Although I am disappointed in the temperture, I have found plenty of things to do that do not constitute being outside.

Around the Tampa Bay Area, there are a multitude of activites and events to attend when the weather is not in your favor. Downtown Tampa has recently revamped their look and create a beautiful park and museum right across from campus. The Tampa Museum of Art opened on February 5th and has had an overwhelming amount of support and interest from the residents of the city. There is also a Children's Museum set to open soon in the same area.

Speaking of cool museums, there are a few others that you might want to check out! The Henry B. Plant Museum is right on the UT campus in Plant Hall. The Museum features replicas of how Plant Hall used to be set up when it was a hotel owned by Henry B. Plant. A bit further away over by USF there is MOSI, Museum of Science and Industry. If you are familiar with Boston, MOSI reminded me alot of the Museum of Science up in Boston. It is a lot of fun to explore and exhibits change regularly. One museum that is also a bit further away, but worth checking out, is the Dali Museum in St. Pete. There are many of Dali's beautiful works all around the museum.

Well, I hope that the weather gets warmer soon so I can go to the beach, but in the meantime I will be looking for more cool things to do indoors! I will keep you all posted if I find anything extraordinary!

Happy Tuesday :)

Studying can be done here, there, and everywhere!

Hello!

I haven't posted in a while because I've been really busy with school and work. Classes are starting to pick up so I've been doing a lot of reading and studying. I've also been working as much as possible so I can save money for my trip to Europe in May! This isn't just any trip, it is a trip that is part of a class I am taking this semester! I'll tell you more about that in a minute...

I wanted to talked about Study Abroad opprotunities at the University of Tampa. Now, I had always said from day one of my college career that I had no desire to go abroad. I felt I was far enough from home being in Florida, why did I need to go anywhere else? I had heard a lot about the different Study Abroad programs UT offers, but I wasn't that interested. My roommate, however, decided that she wanted to get more information about it. She went to a Study Abroad Fair on campus (Which are held a few times each semester for all students to check out) and got information about studying in Australia. My roommate is also from Massachusetts, so I asked her why she'd want to go half way around the world to try something new when she was already 1200 miles from home. She explained to me that she would never have this opprotunity again and wanted to see a different part of the world. I totally understood that and started to think about what I could do.

My roommate was right, there may not be another opprotunity in your life to go somewhere totally different and study for a few months other than in college. Study Abroad programs are available for students to go all over the world. Just a few places where UT has students studying right now include Florence, Barcelona, London, Sydney, and even a semester at sea. Studying abroad is an amazing opprotunity for students to explore the world while still being educated by an affilated university or college.

If you didn't want to spend an entire semester or year away, UT offers travel classes, which is the route I decided to go. As part of the curriculum of a class, students spend 7 or 14 weeks in a class at the UT campus and then, in either the winter or summer, travel to the countries that were studied in the class. For example, I am taking a Speech class at UT for the second 7 weeks of this semester. We will be studying the different types of speaking that are done in 4 different European cities: London, Munich, Barcelona, and Rome. After the semester ends in May, about 30 of my classmates and I will travel to those cities for a 2 week trip to witness first-hand what we have studied in class. 4 faculty members will be going on the trip with us, so we won't be left on our own in europe (my mom was a big fan of this aspect of the study abroad program I decided on)

UT offers so many amazing programs abroad that I can't give it justice. Here is the link to UT's Education Abroad website that you can check out if you are interested!
http://www.ut.edu/education-abroad/

I hope everyone has a great weeked! :)

Exciting Events All Around UT!

Hi!

Hope everyone is recovering nicely from Gasparilla! Although priates do invade Tampa Bay once a year, many other exciting events take place all year long at UT as well as around the area. In the past, UT has been the host to many different media events that have given our school a great amount of publicity! It's always fun to tell your friends that you had someone famous on your campus or has a cool national event in the city you go to school in! Here a just a few of the "once-in-a-lifetime" events that I have experienced in the last 4 years at UT

-The Today Show came and did a live broadcast from outside of Plant Hall in September of 2008. Hundreds of students woke up bright and early to go see Matt Lauer and Al Roker during their morning show.

Students with signs line up outside of Plant Hall to watch the Today Show (picture taken from http://pics.tampabay.com/?method=view.image¶m=63302¶m=188&category=845)

-The Tampa Bay Rays made it to the world series in 2008! It was an exciting time all around the city with fans rallying for their team and creating amazing spirit all over Tampa (Even though I am a Red Sox fan and was very bitter about the Rays beating the Sox in the playoffs, it was still a lot of fun to be in the area during this time and be part of the fun!)

(Picture from http://tampabay.rays.mlb.com/mlb/ps/y2008/matchup.jsp?series=lcs_a)

-The Superbowl was held in Tampa in 2009. The Steelers/Cardnials game was held at Raymond James Stadium which is just a few miles from the UT campus. Tampa was exciting the whole week before the Superbowl even happened with celebrities all over town and tons of parties!


-President Obama came to UT last Thursday to conduct a Town Meeting with citizens and students. This was an amazing event that had the whole campus buzzing. Some students waited in line for up to 6 hours waiting to get tickets for the event which turned out to be a great success!

(Picture from http://www.ut.edu/gallery/events/Obama/pages/obama17.html)

Those are only a few of the events that have taken place in the Tampa Bay area as well as at UT while I have been here. There is always something to look forward to in Tampa and always events being planned for later. If you decided to come to UT, you can be a part of all the fun as well!

Have a happy Tuesday! :)