Adieu Mercyhurst University!

Well guys, I officially finished my last final as an undergrad as of this afternoon. It's been SUCH a long and exhausting 4 years, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. The best times I will never forget about being a Laker are all of the great friends I've made, all of the hard work I've put into my grades, and getting to experience all of the fun and exciting things I got to do.

My future is not exactly set in stone yet, because I still have some options about what I'm going to do. I have a job opportunity back home and if I am offered the job I will most likely be working and going to school part time to get my master's degree in Counseling. I also have a couple of opportunities as Graduate Assistants with Edinboro University so I should be hearing more about those positions soon!

Thank you to everyone who followed my blog the last two years, and I hope I have been helpful with decisions about coming to Mercyhurst! So many great things are going to be happening here in the next couple of years, so I do hope that Mercyhurst will give you just as great experiences as I was given!

Best of luck with everyone's college careers and future!

Marleah

Mercyhurst Laker for life! 

Living Up What Time I Have Left At the 'Hurst!

If my Spring Term wasn't as busy as it has been, then I wouldn't have an excuse as to why I haven't blogged in SO long. I apologize...

Well, here is an update as to how my last term as a Mercyhurst University has been going. If you've read past posts, then you would know that I applied to 15 grad schools. I've been accepted to two and rejected from 9. And yes, it's great that I've been accepted 2 places, but they aren't doctorate programs like I really wish they were. I do have 4 more chances to get into one, and even it's highly unlikely I will be accepted, I'm still hopeful every second of every day.

At the beginning of March, the research that I have been a part of for the last year was presented at the Eastern Psychological Association Conference that was held this year in Pittsburgh, PA. My group presented our poster presentation during the Social Psychology Poster Session 1.

From left to right: Jessica, Andrew, Dr. Heerboth, Molly, Veronica, Marleah, and Kristen

The conference went on from March 1-3 and there were many many different speakers and sessions you could go to depending on your interests. Specific sessions that I went to were the Clinical Poster Sessions and attended Community Psychology sessions to learn more about how psychologists are pertaining their work toward the community/public.

Of course I went out and ventured the city of Pittsburgh as well since this was the first time I had ever been in the city. One thing that I wanted to cross off my bucket list was to eat at Primanti Brothers restaurant and that's exactly what I did. It was everything that I wished and hoped for! Here's a picture of myself walking around the city.

Walking around the city with my friend Lauren!

As graduation approaches even closer than ever, I hope that I'll be able to keep my blog updated as best I can! It's been great being able to share my experiences with all of you!

Senior Week Is Coming!

This week is dedicated to all the beloved seniors! Senior Week is a week that is anxiously awaited for all year by the senior class. This year, we are having some amazing events taking place starting tomorrow, Monday the 6th! Below is a schedule of events that will be happening: 

Monday 2/6: Kickoff Party, 7pm in the Student Union Great Room
Pick up your t-shirt, enjoy snacks and mock tails. Anyone who has donated to the Senior Gift fund receives a free t-shirt!
Tuesday 2/7: Bowling Night, 9pm at Eastland Lanes
Pay $2 per game, shoes are included. All 20 lanes are reserved for Mercyhurst!
Wednesday 2/8: Rate Your Pizza, 6:00pm in the Student Union Great Room
Pay $2 to sample pizza from locations all over Erie and vote for your favorite.
Thursday 2/9: Snag a Senior Date Auction, 9pm in the Walker Recital Hall
Show up for entertainment or to bid on a senior date or awesome gift certificates to local restaurants! Everyone is welcome, not just seniors, $2 entry fee.
Friday 2/10: 100 Days Senior Dinner, 5:30pm-7:30pm in the Egan Cafeteria
No need to use your meal plan, this one is free and just for the class of 2012! Grab some awesome food before heading to the 100 Days Party!
100 Days Party, 10pm at the Cornerstone
Drink specials from 10pm-2pm, t-shirts must be worn for entry! Specialty drinks include the “App-ocalypse” and the “Blue MU.” 21+ students only of course! 


We are looking forward to a fun time at every event! Now that it is actually here, I am getting even more anxious for graduation and knowing that my time as a Mercyhurst University Laker is quickly coming to an end. This week is definitely a week to live up the dream of Mercyhurst and enjoy the rest of the limited time we have. Pictures and updates on the events are sure to come in future blogs! 


Just to add some news about the Mercyhurst University announcement, President Gamble informed students of FAQ's that have helped the students get some unanswered questions about the future of the college. If you would like to take a look, please follow the link! 


Mercyhurst University FAQ's

It's Official: Mercyhurst College is now Mercyhurst University

IT'S OFFICIAL! Mercyhurst College is now Mercyhurst University, which was just recently announced this afternoon by President, Dr. Thomas Gamble! I just want to say how great of a feeling it is to know that my class, Class of 2012, will be the first to walk across the stage with a diploma that states Mercyhurst University. It's definitely a great moment for the institution and has many things to look forward to. Dr. Gamble has stated that the change has been in the works for a couple years, but we've finally reached the goal to become university status just yesterday (January 24th) when the Pennsylvania Secretary of Education signed the document that made it official.

There is a lot of press that is going on about the big announcement today, but I wanted to make sure that all future students know that when you come through the gates, Mercyhurst University will be here to greet you and make sure that your four years as an undergraduate student will be successful. There are many opportunities headed the way of prospective students most definitely!

If you would like to read more about this amazing event in history today, please visit the link below! Carpe Diem! Mercyhurst University Announcement

Update On Construction of the New Academic Building

If you don't know already, Mercyhurst is adding a new academic building to the main campus that will open to students in the Fall of 2012. I thought I would give everyone an update on how the construction is going.

Here is an updated picture on what the building is eventually going to look like, but they have added a hallway that is going to be a cross over from the building to the 3rd floor of the library. Everyday so far I've been hearing sounds of the construction company working hard on getting the building ready one little bit at a time. In passing, I have been able to see that the brick is getting put on as well now. Erie has recently gotten hit with a lot of snow and really cold wind chills so I'm sure construction has stopped for a little while.

Mercyhurst students have a lot to look forward to, especially Intelligence Studies and Hospitality Management majors, considering this building is mainly for them! Mercyhurst has it's own website dedicated to looking at the progress of the building and everyone is more than welcome to view it.

Mercyhurst Construction Photos

Senior Class of 2012: Senior Gift!

The senior class is a big deal for a lot of people for a lot of reasons, but what a lot of people don't know is that the senior class also gives a gift to the school to leave a legacy. At least I know when I was a freshman, I had no idea what the senior class gift was until Spring term when it was revealed to the school. As a senior, I am apart of the Senior Gift Committee and has been a great experience so far during the year. It's great to get together with your classmates and talk about what you would like to leave as your legacy to the school.

This year, the committee has just announced to the school that our gift is going to be a "revamping" of the Student Union Great Room, which we are helping Mercyhurst Student Government (MSG) with. The basic idea is that we are going to help MSG turn the union into a game room with big screen TV's, gaming systems, movies, etc. Want to make it a place for students to want to come to and have fun on the weekends or weeknights when they just want to hang out with friends or want to get out of their dorm/apartment. 

Right now the committee is raising money in order to provide the items for MSG. Our basic target are seniors, but we are always looking for any supporters of the college to donate as well! If you will be attending Mercyhurst in the future, then you will definitely get to enjoy the Senior Class of 2012's gift to the college! The picture below is what the union is going to look like when new doors and windows get added to it. If you'd like to read more about the gift, please visit the Merciad article

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 

Lessons Learned from Final Exams

Well it's getting down to the end of my last fall term as a laker. Today I had my Social Ethics final and I think it went pretty well. I have a final tomorrow in Antecedents of Aggression, and Wednesday is my History of Psychology final exam. After Wednesday's final I will be going home for 10 days :) Usually a semester school only has about a 3 or 4 day break for Thanksgiving. But at Mercyhurst we're on the trimester schedule and we get a lot more time off. I love the schedule that Mercyhurst is on, but sometimes it can be a little frustrating compiling a lot of information into 10 week terms.

Since I am applying to graduate school, that adds a lot more work to my already busy schedule. During the past week I have been hiding myself away in the psychology lab for 12-13 hours a day and believe me, it was not such a great idea. Saturday I took the Psychology GRE Subject Test and I only had about 5 hours prior to waking up and going to take the test. Immediately after I was done I went straight back up the psych lab and stayed there until about 10pm. Just from neglecting myself and consuming all my time with my studies I got myself very sick. I woke up Sunday with what it felt to be strep throat, but that ended up going away and turned into body aches, headache, and a fever. I could hardly get out of bed this morning and I knew exactly that this was all my fault.

When your studying for finals and doing everything else in your life except worrying about you, it catches up with you and can turn into a disastrous plan that you thought was going to work. So now here I am in bed trying to explain how you should avoid using your time the way I have. This has definitely been one of the biggest lessons I have learned and sadly I had to learn it the hard way.

Here are some great ways to reduce stress in college. After reading this over, I definitely believe I will be considering to put more time in for myself so I never have to get sick during finals again.

Reduce College Stress

What Do You Want To Do Before You Die? Words From the Wise - The Buried Life Guys

The Buried Life boys

Well hello everyone! Today I want to talk about bucket lists. Everyone should make one, because someone once told me that by making one you can actually organize your thoughts and write down exactly what you want to do with your life. These words came from one of the Buried Life guys, Jonnie Penn. All of the Buried Life guys came to Mercyhurst tonight to talk about their show and give us inspirational words on how to live our lives to the fullest everyday! 

I wish that I could express how much I LOVED it! They actually inspired me to start my own bucket list, and I was able to actually cross another thing off tonight. That thing was to meet the guys from The Buried Life. I got a picture with them and touched Ben while taking the picture (not to sound all creepy or anything), and it was great! Three of them, Jonnie, Duncan, and Ben signed my bucket list, but I ran out of time before I could have Dave sign it as well.

Here is a picture that we got with the boys! Ben put is arm around me:) 

I just want everyone to know that you CAN make a difference in your life, and sometimes all you need is a little inspiration. These guys inspired me to walk up to the microphone tonight and tell them exactly one thing I want to do before I die. What I told them was that I wanted to start up Bikram yoga. I do yoga in my spare time, but I've always wanted to go to an intense yoga session and I feel like that would fulfill that goal! If you really want to know exactly how genuine these guys are, one of my really good friend's has been suffering from an anxiety disorder since high school. She has a hard time being in really crowded places, but she overcame her fears tonight and went to the event and even went up to the microphone to tell the guy's one of her things off her bucket list. Her thing is to ride a bull, and Dave actually told her to come talk to him after the event because he could help make it happen for her. He actually gave her his email to talk to him about it and she's emailing him right now as we speak. Mercyhurst is starting to get really good at bringing in well known people now. This is definitely one of the best reasons for being a Mercyhurst College Laker! 

Here is the link for Mtv's site for The Buried Life, and the Facebook page for them as well! There are a lot of Mercyhurst students who have been posting to them throughout the last few days! MSG (Mercyhurst Student Government) were the one's taking the pictures and we were not aloud to do the group photo ourselves because of time. 

The Buried Life's Facebook page

Mtv's page for The Buried Life

College Life - Through the Eyes of an RA

Being an RA is not a bad thing at all like some people may perceive them to be. It is actually a very enjoyable and fun experience! So let me tell you all about what has been going on lately through the eyes of an actual RA. 

I am an RA (resident assistant) in the sophomore area on campus! RA's are in charge of putting on programs, which are events that help bring the resident community together and of course have lots of fun doing it. Tonight my staff and I got together for our all area program and invited our entire resident community to join us and do something really great for the elderly residents of Erie! We took regular flower plants and painted, colored, and even bedazzled a few of them. As a result, we have created close to 30 vibrant flower pots and are going to fill them with different flower seeds and give them out to the elderly in a nursing home of Erie. 

Here is the Upper Sophomore Staff with our Assistant Director, Michael, and Hall Director, Dean. Dean was trying to be funny as you can tell :) 

Here is the finishing product of all the pots the residents and RA's created tonight! We hope to make the elderly at St. Mary's feel like they are thought of and cared about! 

RA's are not there to make residents' lives miserable and catching them when they are doing things they shouldn't be doing. RA's are leaders of the college who are willing to help other students in times of crisis, in times of need (such as maintenance issues and roommate conflicts), and most of all to bring fun and happiness to the residence hall! It's very tough at times to be in the position of an RA, and sometimes it can be unfair when you are on duty on days, such as Halloween. That means you can't go out and dress up with your friends and have a fun time. You are going to be in your apartment doing rounds around the area when the Assistant Director tells you and to be on call when there are incidents going on. I must say those are the only downfalls of the job, but it is your job and you get VERY good perks for doing it. 

RA's in the freshman area get a free meal plan and free room as well. RA's in the upperclassmen area only get free room, but that's okay because we get an actual kitchen! RA's in the freshmen area do not. So it balances itself out. RA's in all area's also get a stipend of $250 to spend on campus (i.e. food, coffee, etc.). And most of all, the best perk I think we get is the lasting relationships you make with your staff. You become so close and they basically become your second family. I've been lucky enough to have had 2 great staffs both my years as an RA and I love knowing that when I go to staff meetings I'm going to have a fun time being there. 

So my advice to you, if you want to live up the college experience become an RA! It takes a lot of hard work and dedication, but I promise that it will be an experience you will never regret.

If you'd like to learn more about Residence Life and their role on campus, here is the link!

http://www.mercyhurst.edu/student-life/residence-life/ 

Planning Post-Mercyhurst

So, as I have said in my previous blogs I am applying to graduate school. My strongest desire is to attend a Clinical Psychology program, especially either The University of Notre Dame or Case Western Reserve University! These are just 2 of the 14 schools I am applying to (10 Ph.D. and 4 M.A. in Counseling). After completing my Ph.D. I plan on staying involved with research and teaching as a professor of psychology at a university. When I came to Mercyhurst, I had no idea what I wanted to do in the world. But after progressing in my psychology degree, I've realized I want to stay in the world of academia. After all, that is all I really know anyway (18 years of school)!

Clinical Psychology is one of the most competitive programs in the world, and I'm doing everything I can to make myself stand out. This Thursday I will be taking the GRE (Graduate Record Examination) for the second time. It's basically like the SAT/ACT, but much harder. Here is a picture of the book that I've been using to study. 

There are 3 main sections on the exam: Quantitative, Verbal, and Analytical Writing. The quantitative is all about math, the verbal is all about vocabulary, sentence completion, and analyzing an article. The analytical writing is all about supporting or arguing against a statement and explaining the position of an argument. 

It's been extremely difficult to balance studying for this test, homework, all my other exams, meetings, and my classes. You definitely have to be a well organized and timely person in order to do it all! 

The Opportunities Are Endless!

Hi Everyone! I want to share with you my absolute lovely/awesome day! 

First, I'd like to mention that I proposed one of the senior class gifts today to Dr. Gamble (president of the college), Dr. Tobin (vice president of student life), Dr. Livingston (vice president for advancement) and some of the alumni staff. I cannot reveal what we proposed, but it went very well and I'm very excited to be able to reveal it to you later in the year. Meghan K., and our friend Alexa also helped propose with me one of the gifts and I definitely think they agree we were absolutely great! I strongly encourage everyone to get involved with the senior class gift wherever you decide to attend college. First, it is an absolute honor to be apart of and school faculty and administrators know you are the best of the best. Second, you have left a legacy of your own and you have always something to come back to when you visit!

The second part of my day involved the Dean's List Reception! For me, it has always been a goal to get in the dean's list and I finally completed my goal. There was amazing food, amazing people, and amazing pieces of artwork that we got to look at by a featured artist. Here is a picture of the Potato Bar we got to experience! We got to pick our own ingredients (shredded cheese, chives, sour cream) to mix in with mashed potatoes. I've never experienced such amazing mashed potatoes! 

Anyway, that's all for now! Carpe Diem :) 

Senior Year=No Fun

If any of you are interested in pursing a masters, or doctorate degree after you get out of your undergraduate years, then this might be the blog for you! Being a psychology major doesn't open many doors for me with just a bachelor's degree and I've made the decision to apply to Clinical Psychology Ph.D programs. And honestly I'm scared to death of the outcome.

I have always thought of senior year as the BEST year of my undergraduate years, but it's turning into quite the opposite! Never ending stress and anxiety, never ending homework, and never ending graduate school things to do. To be honest, it's probably one of the hardest years of my life. Even if you are not planning on a graduate degree in psychology, but something else, believe me it is still going to get you.

In other news, I am apart of the senior class gift committee, and next Tuesday I will be biting my nails as I prepare to give a proposal to the president of the college Dr. Gamble, and Vice President for Advancement, Dr. Livingston. I am not alone though! Fellow blogger Meghan, and friend Alexa will be biting their nails along with me! I cannot reveal what we will be proposing, but I will say that it will open up many student traditions that are to come at the 'Hurst!

I apologize for the neglect of my blog! But when your busy, busy, busy ALL the time it gets hard to balance everything!! Be involved, but not TOO involved! Take that as a lesson for today :)

Here We Go!!

Hello everyone!! I've finally been given the approval to start blogging for all of you again, and I must say it's been entirely too long. So let's make this year a great one!

I am still in disbelief that this is my SENIOR YEAR!! If you think that high school has gone by fast, then wait until you get to college and it's like BAM in your face faster. So, since not much has happened just yet at the 'Hurst I'll give you the lowdown on how my summer went.

In early June I started my internship with the Veteran Affairs Medical Center at a Behavioral Health Clinic in my hometown of Ashtabula, Ohio. Everyday I went to work to shadow my supervisor, Karen Woodard, from 8am-4:30pm. I have learned so much in just a small period of time from Karen and the rest of the Behavioral Health staff. It definitely reassured me that I want to go on in my education and that I am in this world to help the Veteran community.


The highlight of my summer was going to see Katy Perry in Cleveland!! I can't even begin to tell you how AMAZING it was to see her!

Here is what I call "the excited faces" picture of me and my sister. Also this is the best picture I could get of Katy because she was literally 100 feet away from us while she sang Thinking of You!

I also got to see a lot of my family this summer that came up from South Florida. Unfortunately my grandma passed away at the end of July so that was really hard for all of us to get through. And now that I don't have any more grandparents it's hard to not have anyone there to talk to you when you want some words of wisdom. But then again everyone dies eventually and I know they had their time.

I'm very happy to be back at school and kick off the year right since this is my last and final year at Mercyhurst. Once some events start happening I will keep everyone up to date!! 

It's the End of the Year! It's Crunch Time!

Hello everyone! I hope that you are getting better weather wherever you are, because Erie just doesn't seem to want to warm up. We've had a few nice days with the sun out, but it looks like it's going to start raining again :/ Mercyhurst sure has seen it's share of celebrities through past Springfest's, but we really were blown away last week when we all found out that Frankie Muniz was going to be playing for us! He was so nice enough to take a picture with me and my two friends Meghan (which also has a blog as you probably know) and Faith. It was so nice to be able to have a nice conversation with someone that I've always seen on TV and is really famous! I literally jumped for joy and I have no shame in saying that :) I will go ahead and post the many other photos that I have from Springfest just so you guys can see how much fun it is! 

My friend Faith and I did the obstacle race! 

                                                     Climbing the rope was the hardest                
                                                             part!! We fell a few times!


                                                                                

 


There is officially 1 more day left of classes and on Monday I will be taking 2 finals and I'm finished with my junior year! I cannot stress enough about how nervous I am about next year. Senior year cannot be here yet, I only just started college! You always hear how much people say that college goes by so so fast, but you never really believe them because it's 4 years. They really are not lying when they tell you this, because it feels like yesterday I was a freshman and was just finishing up my 1st year. Now I'm finishing my 3rd and I know that next year is going to go by just as fast as this one. So my advice to you is to live up every single moment that you have while in school. Because the years are going to pass you right by, and you'll never get that time back.

So for all of you that are getting ready to start college next Fall, be ready and live it up!!! I hope to be able to blog about all my experiences to those of you that read these next year. I am sure there will be plenty of things to blog about! Enjoy the summer and be safe!

1 Month Left!!

Happy Easter!! I hope everyone has nice plans with their families today! I am visiting with my family and heading off to work for 8 hours. This post is going to be all about how to keep a job when your still in school. I've been going home to work since I was a freshman and it really is a great way to make money when you're home. College students never really get to make a lot of money during college years because of the inability to have a car and without a car comes with the inability to find a job. And there really aren't many jobs around Mercyhurst unless you'd like to work at Arby's, CVS, or the Cornerstone (if you're old enough!). Work study is also a great opportunity to make money as well if you are given the opportunity to have one!
So, if you have a steady part-time/full-time job right now and you will be getting ready to head off to school soon in the Fall, don't quit your job! The best decision is to talk with your boss about staying on as a seasonal employee. I think that we always get at least some good time off when we're home for breaks and it is a great opportunity to get some fast cash to buy your books, groceries for your dorm, or just to save up!  I've never had a lot to do when I go home for breaks, so its a good way of filling in some downtime.

By the way, here is a picture of myself at the Western Pennsylvania Undergraduate Psychology Conference presenting my research! It was a very exciting day and I was thrilled to finally finish everything I've been working on since the beginning of the year. This year it was held at Westminster College and they did a fantastic job at hosting the events. This is a BIG DEAL for Junior Psychology majors, it is best to start preparing the start of Fall Term for this day!

It's FRIDAY!

Hello Everyone!
I hope everyone is having a FABULOUS Friday! I sure am because I got to go home and spend some time with my family. It was really much needed:)
This week's topic is all about internships. Since I am hard at work trying to find myself one, I thought that there has to be future students out there wanting to know all about how you can gain experience while in college as well. Depending on the major that your in, there are a number of options that students can get their hands on, literally. I also know that certain majors, such as Intelligence Studies, can do more than one internship as well. But since I'm so familiar with Psychology I'm going to share my information with you about it. So, I'm required as a student to complete a 200 hour internship in the Summer between my Junior and Senior year. So, I'm getting pretty anxious as of right now trying to find one, luckily I think that I finally have. You are not required to go to a certain place to complete the hours, you have the many options of finding one that fits you best and in the area of study that you want to get experience in. I have been working very hard to find my way into the Veteran Affairs Medical Center, which is right down the street from MC! Unfortunately, no one has been willing to take me on as an intern, but I did get a call from the VA Outpatient Clinic in Ashtabula, OH, which is exactly where I'm from! I am very happy that someone has found an interest in me and this is why I am home this weekend so I can meet with the Psychiatric Nurse who I've been in touch with. I'm really hoping for the best. If anyone has any questions about finding internships or being placed please leave me a question and I'll answer them!

This past weekend was Major Day and there were tons and tons of students and their families that attended. I was fortunate enough to be able to speak to the perspective Psychology students about what our program is all about! There's one thing with only speaking with faculty, but it's another when you get to speak to students who are actually doing everything that the professors are telling that you get to do. I think that it feels great getting to be able to tell my story and how I ended up at Mercyhurst. I hope that I'll be able to get to know a lot of the students that I got to meet that day in the future. It was great getting to talk to all of you!

Research! Research! Research!...Andddd the Frozen Four!

What a breeze my Spring Term is turning out to be so far, excluding my research! It's SUCH a great feeling to know that all my blood, sweat, and tears are paying off. I've worked so hard these last 2 terms with learning all about statistics and all about what my research will entail. But now....da da da duh!!!...it has finally begun and I can now collect my data! My research is all about how college students use and feel about the counseling center on campus, and I can't give any more information other than that because of confidentiality issues.
But when you're a freshman and you decide to take Intro to Psychology during your spring term, you will be asked to participate in research run by psychology majors. This is where we get all of our participants and is vital that we get as many as we can. You do not have to be a freshman to take Intro to Psychology, you can take it any year that you would like while you're here at Mercyhurst, but it's a very popular freshman class to take.
Myself and the other psychology majors only have a few weeks to collect our data, because at the end or very beginning of April we have to start analyzing our data and prepare ourselves for presenting at the Western Pennsylvania Undergraduate Psychology Conference. This year it is April 16th and we are all presenting at Westminster College. This is like our final exam, except we do not get graded while we are presenting. But I must say we all are very tired and stressed and worn out from all the things that research has put us through thus far. And we all, especially me, cannot wait until it is all over with.

By the way the FROZEN FOUR is this weekend and Erie, PA is hosting this years events!! This is a very big weekend for Erie AND Mercyhurst because this is the first time ever that we are hosting this huge event. Even though Mercyhurst unfortunately did not make it into the finals, a lot of supporters from the community are going to be there and make this great weekend a success! The Ambassador Club fortunately gets to be apart of this fabulous weekend and we will be welcoming guests to the Tullio Arena, where everything is held, and making sure that all of our guests are presented with the best of the best that Mercyhurst can offer!
I plan on taking pictures of all the events, so stay tuned for more next week!