Albertus Blog

Albertus Blog

Thursday, December 20, 2012

I'm Home!

I'm finally home from school! I had to stay at school an extra 4 days to be on duty.  The men's basketball team had a game vs. Yale on December 19th and because some of them live out of state or had no way of getting back and forth to school everyday for practice, they had the option of staying in my building.  Six boys stayed on my floor in an empty room; seems intimidating but they had rules to follow and they were tired most of the time due to practice.  I'm happy to be home though because when no one is at school, it's weird! The campus was so empty and it just didn't feel the same.  When I came home I packed 2 suitcases and I'm starting to think I probably packed too much for a little less than a month home but oh well!  I've been super busy with work, too.  I've been working every single day at Abercrombie and the holiday shoppers are keeping me busy at work!  Over break I'll try to blog about some fun holiday things to do and any other activities I get myself into :)

Monday, December 10, 2012

Finals Week!

Finals week is upon us and most college students are stressed out.  Luckily, most of my finals were papers or presentations so my finals are over with (woohoo!) I can finally breathe a breath of fresh air.  One nice thing that Albertus does to try and help students calm is providing them with a snack cart!  The snack cart just stopped by my building and I'm writing this right after I got my snacks!  The snack cart stops by every year during finals week and provides students with some small snacks to munch on while writing papers or studying.  We get the choice of picking two small snacks whether it be chips, crackers, granola bars, some candy and we also get either water or Capri Sun.  The snack cart is just a nice gesture to students to encourage them to keep studying and pushing through their finals!  So whether you have papers, presentations, or tests, keep pushing through your finals because you're almost done :)

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Christmas Night!





Last Night, we had Christmas Night in the pub!  We provided students with graham crackers, frosting, candy, and other groups to not only munch on, but so they could make a gingerbread house to take home with them.  While this was going on, we also played Christmas cartoons that students could enjoy as well.  This was a smaller event that we did, so we did something a little different with it to advertise.  A member of SGA created a winter-themed cross word puzzle and hung flyers up across campus letting people know about them.  The crossword puzzles were allowed to be picked up from Erin Morrell, assistant director of student activities and orientation, on Monday, December 3rd.  The first person to hand the crossword puzzle in on December 4th with all the words correct won $25 cash.  Fellow SGA member and student blogger, Matthew Brancaccio, won the prize!  All students that came down had a great time and showed that even in the midst of finals week coming up, their still ready to have some fun on campus.

Becoming an Albertus Tour Guide

I've noticed that more and more often students at Albertus are asking me how to become a tour guide on campus.  It's actually pretty easy to join the program.  You can make an appointment with Jessica Ballas, an alum of the college and a assistant director of the Admissions office who oversees the tour guide program.  Once an appointment is made with her, you interview with her (make sure you dress your best!) and she asks you some questions like why you want to be a tour guide.  If you are chosen, you are now a tour guide and ready for your training! 
I became a tour guide the beginning of my junior year.  I'm really passionate about Albertus and I wanted another way to get involved on campus, tell others how much of a great school Albertus is and get paid for it!  What's better than talking about something you truly enjoy and still being able to get paid for it?  Once I started with the program, I was really nervous.  I don't like speaking in front of large groups of people, so I was nervous to speak in front of group tours.  In training, I received a packet with a lot of information about Albertus that I had to read on my own.  The packet included information on each residence halls, the history of the campus and athletics.  It was interesting to find out information about the campus that I didn't know before!  Did you know that Rosary Hall, the  library on campus was actually a wedding gift from parents to a daughter? Or that Siena Hall had Tiffany jewels encrusted in the building (which are no longer there), or that each of the mansions were actually someone's home before the college purchased them?  You can find all this information out in the packet!  After I read the packet, I was required to "shadow" a tour.  You can shadow as many tours as you feel necessary.  The point of shadowing a tour is so you can see how a real tour goes with someone else.  Every tour is going to be different every time and you can never really expect what will happen but as long as you know your facts, you'll be good to go :) 
I've been a tour guide for a year now, and even though I know a lot about the campus, there's still some things I don't know or don't know how to answer when people ask (like when they ask about a major other than business.)  If you don't know this information, it's OK!  You can let one of the admissions counselors know that they were asking about it, and they can direct the question in the right direction.  It's weird that I hate public speaking, but I actually prefer to do group tours.  I like being able to tell a lot of people about the school and I like being able to tell others how great of a school Albertus is and what we have to offer here. 



Rosary Hall