Albertus Blog

Albertus Blog

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

MBA course


 


I have officially started my first MBA course at Albertus and it has been a experience so far.  At Albertus, we do have a Accelerated Degree Program where if you decide later in life that you want to go to college, you can do so.  The program is set up for working adults to attend class once or twice a week.  The classes only last for 8 weeks (hence the "accelerated" part in the name.)  We also have a graduate program at Albertus, set up the same way.  They are 8 weeks each and at an accelerated pace.  I started my first MBA course called "Ethical Issues in Business" about 2 weeks ago.  It is a blended course which means we only meet once a week, but you must post your assignment and forum online to get credit for the second online virtual class.  I'll be honest, the class is definitely not what I thought it would be!  I'm so used to being in the undergraduate program and knowing everyone in my classes, having people to talk to, and knowing the professor.  I walked into the class for the first time and I was so intimidated!  Everyone in the class is significantly older than I am- probably in their 30's-40's.  I also didn't know the professor because she is an adjunct professor so she is not always on campus.  After the first class I was feeling really uneasy about the course.  I wish I had someone in the course that I actually knew, and I felt like I couldn't keep up at the accelerated pace.  We go over 2 chapters each class via Power Point and it's a lot of lecturing.  After meeting with my advisor, he told me to keep the course and that I could push through- it is only 8 weeks!  Today was the third in class meeting we had and I'm feeling better about the course.  I do have to do a 8-10 page paper and a presentation on a case that is in the book we purchased which is due by March 4th so I need to get moving!  It's weird because I thought that this would be my easiest semester, and I feel like it's my hardest one so far!  Even though the class is difficult, this really is testing my time management skills as well as my ability to prioritize and organize.  I just know that by May I'll be ready to walk across the stage and receive my bachelors and by next May, receive my Master's degree.  Hard work really does pay off in the long run, and even though I may be struggling now, having a Master's degree will help me excel so much further in life :)

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

How to Go to Infinity & Beyond with your Resume!

Every month, a requirement to being an RA means that you have to do a floor function.  This semester, we are required to do two for each RA (a total of 4 floor functions for my building.)  My co-RA Alex and I typically would always do the floor functions together and because we are so close, we decided we would still help each other out at these events.  We are required to do one educational program where the residents are learning something and one social, where the residents have fun and get to know each other.  Tonight is Alex's floor function "How to go to Infinity and Beyond with your Resume" (notice the cheesy Toy Story reference!)  Her event is an educational one and we planned it together.  We thought about what is something that many residents may not know how to do.  I thought about when I was a freshman/ sophomore and I remembered not knowing how to write a resume or a cover letter.  We decided to plan an educational session where they will learn the fundamentals of writing a perfect resume and cover letter.  We bought Albertus folders from the Albertus bookstore and cut out slips of papers with the steps to writing a resume/ cover letter.  Which ever group puts these papers in order correctly, gets a folder.  We are also going to provide them with pizza.  I hope this educational program will go over well and the residents will learn something new!  In order to advertise, Alex made shooting stars and posted them all around the building.

Toy Story hall decorations

I haven't blogged in a while and I apologize for that! I've been sooo busy with R.A. training and starting classes!  I thought that because this is my last semester, I wouldn't be so busy or my course load wouldn't be so hard but I feel like it's the hardest it's ever been.  I'm trying not to let the stress get to me because I know that I just need to get done what needs to get done. 


For RA training, we had about 5 days of training- just basically going over all of our procedures again, having some fun, and doing hall decorations!  Overall, I think my co-RA and I spent a good 26 hours working on hall decorations in total!  So crazy but we decided to go all out on hall decorations this semester because we knew it'd be both of our last times being able to do so.  In my previous blog, I gave you a little hint as to what the theme was.  Figure it out?  If not no big deal- the theme was Toy Story!  Toy Story is a movie that everyone has seen at least once so we thought that our residents would like it.  We started with the common room and made it "Sunny Side Day Care" from Toy Story 3.  We cut out rattles, toy blocks, a big tree and made a sign outside of the common room saying "Sunny Side"
   
Sunny Side sign outside the common room






Also on the first floor, we had a hard time picking what the theme would be for the floor because there aren't really any flat walls on the first floor.  Due to the fact that the building is so old, many of the walls are ornate and have designs on them.  We decided to go with something simple and put cowboy boots, stars that said "Deputy" on them (for Woody) and put planets on the walls as well (for Buzz.)  We also put quotes from the movie around the walls.

Going up the stairs, we cut out clouds because in the movie, Andy's room has clouds all over the wall.  Leading up to the second floor, we cut out a big sign and wrote "Pizza Planet" on it just like the first movie.  We decided to make the second floor alien themed.  We cut out stars, space ships, and I made aliens (which took me at least 5 hours to make only 15!)  We also made a huge claw machine.

Claw Machine
On the third floor, we made it Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head themed.  We made and cut out huge Mr. and Mrs. Potato Heads and also cut out eyes, noses, ears, and shoes and put them all along the wall. 

We also had to cover the two bulletin boards that we have in our building.  We made the second floor one a toy soldier themed one that has Albertus facts on it and made the first floor one an upcoming events bulletin board.
Upcoming events bulletin board

Toy Soldier bulletin board
We also had to make door tags for each of the residents.  For this, we just printed out pictures of characters from the movie and glued them on construction paper and put their names on it.  There was enough characters for everyone to have their own door tag and we didn't have to repeat any characters.  It was A LOT of work but it was fun to bond with my co-RA and once we got into it, we kept thinking of great ideas.  Most nights we stayed up until 1 am making things and on the last night we stayed up until nearly 2:30 am putting everything up!  Even though it was time consuming, everything turned out great & we will find out next week if we won the competition for best overall theme!

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Moving in TOMORROW..

Well my winter break has come to an end as I will be moving into school tomorrow.  I must be moved in by Friday to start RA training again, but moving in a couple days early will make it easier on me.  I'm excited to get moved in and start my last semester at Albertus.  I'll be starting one of my masters courses as well so I'm excited to put forth what I've learned in my undergraduate and put it towards my masters work. 
With moving in means having to think of new dorm decorations for my residence hall, McAuliffe Hall.  My co-RA and I decided to think of some ideas last semester, but never really settled on anything.  With some of my spare time, I picked an idea, ran it by her and got the approval to go along with it.  I don't want to spoil it because it is supposed to be a surprise, but I'm happy to get it started and I hope my residents will like it!  Here's a little hint..






Can't figure it out?  Well I guess you'll have to wait and see until I post pictures up on my next blog!

Saturday, January 5, 2013

My Winter Break

I haven't blogged in a while due to working every single day, so let me start off my saying Happy New Year!  With 2013 comes the thought of this being my last semester.  It's weird to think that I'll be graduating in May I feel that the time has flown by here!  I'm going to start two of my master's courses this semester and I'm really nervous to see what they are going to be like.  Someone who took one of the master's courses last semester told me that I have to create a lecture plan for a class and present it and when I heard that my heart dropped!  Presenting/ talking in front of large crowds of people is not my cup of tea but I know I need to get used to it. 
So over this winter break, I really didn't do much except work pretty much every single day at Abercrombie and Fitch.  If you have never worked retail during the holiday season, you're lucky!  It becomes a mad house, especially working in the mall and trying to find parking is even worse.  Luckily, I made it through and my pay checks have been pretty awesome so that I have been able to save up money for books and such for this semester.
One thing that I did over winter break, and that I'll be doing tonight, is attended the Men's Quinnipiac Hockey game with my parents.  My parents have season tickets because my dad loves hockey and my parents had extra tickets for the game.  I went along and had a fun time.  It was nice to be able to spend time with my family because we haven't had an outing like that in a long time.  During the game, it started snowing pretty bad out and by the time we left there was at least 3 inches of snow on the ground and the snow didn't stop until about 1 am the next day.  Quinnipiac University is located in Hamden, CT (my hometown) and is right off Whitney Avenue, a main street in Hamden.  Quinnipiac recently opened up the TD Bank Sports Center which is about 3 minutes away from the main campus.  They opened it up a few years ago and the men's and women's hockey and basketball teams play here.  The stadium is really nice and if you ever get the opportunity to go, you should! 
QU Bobcats Ice Hockey

   
QU TD Bank Sports Arena 



Another thing I did over this winter break was go to NYC to see two of my friends.  I spent one day with one friend and we just hung out and got sushi and the next day I spent the night at my other friends house for her birthday.  That night, we went out to a hookah lounge located in Manhattan called Karizma. Both friends houses I went to, I met from Albertus.  It's really cool being able to visit friends from out of state that you've met at school.  I took the train to NY which is located in New Haven and makes stops throughout CT until you get to NY.  I got to NYC frequently because it is located so close to home.