Preparing for Break and Ugly Sweaters

Well, as I sit at home looking back how crazy of a week I just went through, I cannot believe I made it to Sunday. I'd like to share some pictures from the Upper Sophomore RA Ugly Sweater Christmas Party. We came together and celebrated Christmas at my Hall Director's apartment and we played the Bad Santa game. If you don't know what it is, that's okay! I didn't know either. How it basically works is that everyone brings a gift and gets a number. The first person picks a gift, then the second person picks a gift , but if the second person doesn't like their gift, they can steal from the first person and so on. It gets pretty feisty fast, especially if there is a good gift! As you can see in my pictures, we are pretty decked out in our Christmas gear. Gotta love the ugly sweaters!! 

From left to right starting at the bottom row: Meaghan, Marleah, Muna, Sacha, Jeanette, Adam, Matt, Mary, April, Colin and Dean

Making funny faces! 

We also watched the movie Elf and sat around until about 11pm just talking and having a good time with each other! We only see each other once a week at staff meetings! It's great to catch up on each other's lives.

This past week I also had 3 exams on the same day; It felt like finals on crack. Thursday night I had about 3.5 hours of sleep before getting up to take the tests starting at 8am. Whoever said the life of a college student is glorious, was so wrong. Throughout my four years I've heard stories about how easy senior year is. Whoever said that was also seriously wrong, because this has been the most difficult year by far. I see it as just another way to take senior year by the horns and go out with a bang! Well now, it's about 11:03pm and I'm sitting on my couch enjoying some hot chocolate and watching a Christmas movie. I plan on catching up on the many sleep hours I've been lacking lately, so goodnight everyone and have a great and safe holiday!

p.s. if you'd like to look at more holiday ugly sweaters, this site hits the spot!

The Best Ugly Sweaters

Sing We Now of Christmas

As Christmas time is quickly approaching, I wanted to wish everyone a very happy holiday season! This is the last week of classes before we get to go home for Christmas break for 2 weeks. Even though this can be such an exciting time, it can also be the worst. I have 3 tests on Friday, and that is going to be so difficult trying to dedicate all of my time to studying for them! For reasons such as this, I recommend college students to have the best time management skills they can possibly have! In a way it's like I'm taking finals, and really it's just my first exams in the classes.
But also this week I get to look forward to my Ugly Sweater Christmas Party at my HD's apartment on Tuesday and I'm going all out! I will eventually be posting pictures as soon as I can! Above is a picture of my fellow Ambassador seniors and I at our last annual Christgiving dinner. We always get together to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas during the first few weeks of Winter Term and our best Christmas clothes to top it all off.
Yesterday, December 10th, was also our annual Christmas On Campus. The campus invites all of the children from different organizations in Erie (such as the YMCA) to come and celebrate the holiday season with the students. Students can volunteer to be buddies with the children and help them go around and make arts and crafts that different campus clubs provide for them. I sat at the Psychology Club table and helped the children make mice out of construction paper and candy canes. After the children are all done with activities, they're invited into the Great Room where The Night Before Christmas is read and Santa hands out gifts. It's so nice being able to give back to the Erie community since a lot of children don't really get much of a Christmas. One thing that is really great about Mercyhurst is that we are always trying to give back to the community that supports us. I strongly encourage students to get involved on campus with events such as these that I've mentioned! 'Tis the season!

If you would like to become more familiar with Student Life at Mercyhurst, please visit the link below!

Mercyhurst College Student Life

College Students Need Money Too!!

As a college student we obviously don't make that much money, unless we are able to have an off campus job or work study. When I started my first year as an undergrad I thought that I was going to be able to have a work study job on campus, but then my parents told me that I was not eligible for it because they "made too much money." I was so upset and angry at financial aid saying that I couldn't have a job and make any money considering I was going to a $30,000 school. But I have found ways to help make my tough financial situation not as bad as I thought it was going to be.

I want to share with all of you the many ways at Mercyhurst you can increase your bank accounts. But first, everyone should apply for the FAFSA to see if you qualify for any type of scholarship/grant/any type of money at all! If you don't qualify for work study then I would suggest doing the following:

- Apply to be an RA (you get free room/board!)
- Apply for jobs close to campus that will let you be flexible with your schedule.
- Get involved with clubs that will give you a scholarship (i.e. become a tour guide! Usually they pay you to do it).
- Get involved with your professors and see that there are any research assistant or teacher's assistant jobs. The school will pay you for that too!
- Become a tutor. At Mercyhurst there are tutoring jobs that pay you minimum wage for every hour that you tutor. It's really nice cash!

So if you find yourself needing some extra money, I suggest these possibilities to you! You don't have to go 4 years with just lint in your pockets!!

Go to the link below to learn more about Mercyhurst Financial Aid and costs for attending the college!

Mercyhurst College Financial Aid