About Amber Slater

I'm a junior English and Spanish major with a Writing minor. I work in the Writing Center, run cross country, and edit the News section of the McDaniel Free Press. Last semester I studied in Costa Rica, and I'm contantly scheming a new plan for travel. I'm a fan of tea drinking, hammocks, and The New Yorker.

Movie theaters near campus

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Amber Slater

This weekend, a friend and I went off campus and saw the new The Great Gatsby movie. It was a great break from studying for finals and we were both struck by the amazing costumes, crazy party scenes, and how perfectly Leonardo DiCaprio fit the role of Gatsby.

Source: http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/50d3273ceab8ea6a3700000b-960/the-great-gatsby-leonardo-dicaprio.jpg

Seeing the movie reminded me how many theaters there are around campus. For anyone who wants to check out a new film, check out these locations:

Westminster Town Mall. The main draw of this theater is its proximity to campus. I have friends who have walked to the mall from campus for movies, food, and shopping.

Gettysburg Village. If you have a car, heading to Gettysburg is fun because it is right by the Gettysburg Outlets. The theater is really clean and usually not very full, and they have awesome stadium seating.

Hunt Valley Regal Cinemas. This is where I went this weekend! Like Gettysburg, it has stadium seating and lots of places to shop and eat. My favorite places to visit besides the theater are Noodles and Company, Wegman’s, and Ulta.

Carroll County Arts Council. If you’re looking for something nearby but less mainstream, the Arts Council is only a few blocks from campus. They hold foreign film festivals every year and this week are doing showings of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Lincoln. You can also check out local art while you’re there.

It’s always fun to take a break from reality and see a movie, and what better time to take a few hours off than finals week!

Last two weeks in the Spanish house

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Amber Slater

As the year comes to an end, so does my time in McDaniel’s Spanish house. For the past few days, my housemates and I have been celebrating the awesome year that we’ve shared together. On Friday we had a picnic with a few of the professors in the department and tonight was a surprise going away party for our house director, who is from Argentina.

The picnic was fun because, like all of our other parties, it involved food from all over South and Central America. I live with seven native Spanish speakers, so throughout the year I have learned a lot of new recipes from various countries. At the picnic we had dishes like horchata, which is a creamy drink, and platanos, or fried plantains.

After eating we played some games and made a big pyramid that lasted for about a second before we all fell on the ground.

Tonight, two of my housemates planned Karina’s surprise party and invited several McDaniel professors and students. There was a ton of food and Karina got to hang out with the friends she has made and the students she has taught.

Living in the Spanish house has not only improved my spoken Spanish skills, but also given me the chance to learn about the Spanish speaking world and make some great friends. I’m always sad to leave McDaniel for the year, but I think this year will be particularly hard because I’ve had such a great living situation for the past year.

Contrast Lit Mag next year

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Amber Slater

After posting about my plans for Palabras to Words next year in a recent entry, I figured that I would do the same for Contrast, our literary magazine. I recently met with this year’s editing team to learn about what putting a magazine together entails, and we discussed some awesome initiatives for next year, including:

Doing a reading with a guest author. Public readings are a great chance for authors to share work, practice flow and rhythm, and gain feedback from others. We were thinking that next year we might invite a spoken word poet to come and read some work along with inviting students to read what they’ve been working on.

Implementing themed workshops. During the fall, Contrast club members will meet on a bi-monthly basis to participate in structured writing sessions, which could be on topics such as character development, setting, conclusions, etc. Workshops might also involve writing activities such as “found objects” writing in which club members would draft solely based on objects (quotes, pieces of art) that we’d bring in.

Having a fall writing contest. This has been an element of Contrast in the past, and I’m looking to bring it back. Students would enter toward the end of the semester, the top three would win cash prizes, and those winners would be published in our magazine in the spring.

If you’re interested in becoming involved with the creative writing community at McDaniel next semester, be sure to stay tuned for meeting dates and sign up for our mailing list at the fall Involvement Fair!

Palabras to Words Plans

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Amber Slater

I have recently committed to being Co-President of Palabras to Words, our ESOL tutoring club, for next year, and I am incredibly excited to strengthen the organization’s presence on campus. Right now, not a lot of people know that the organization even exists, and I plan on launching a campaign to attract both community members and student tutors next year. Some specific ideas that I’ve been turning over for next year include:

Making the club more accessible to women. Right now, we meet on Sunday nights and only have male students learning English. My advisor suggested that this might be because we meet at dinnertime and women might need the time we meet to make sure their kids are ready for school the next day.

Adding a childcare option. We also may have a lack of women because there is no one to watch their kids while they learn English. We are thinking that if student volunteers offer childcare during our tutoring sessions, then more women would be able to take advantage of our services.

Reaching out to local organizations that support Spanish-speakers. Two non-profit organizations, United Hands and Headstart, aid Spanish-speakers who need help settling in the area. Connecting with them would allow us to reach more people in need of English tutoring and help us learn about the needs of the local Spanish-speaking community.

Starting an ESOL tutoring workshop. Currently, we do not have any tools for new tutors to learn how to best interact with their tutees, so my goal is to connect with the graduate ESOL department at McDaniel and try to informational session on ESOL tutoring so that new tutors feel more comfortable with their commitment to teach.

I’ll be sure to update the blog as these goals come to fruition, so stay tuned!

Getting naked for cancer

Posted on April 28, 2013 by Amber Slater

This summer, junior Kev McClellan is running from San Francisco to Baltimore with the organization 4k for cancer to benefit the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults. Along with physical preparation for the trip, members are asked to raise a minimum of $4,500 throughout the year.

In order to raise funds, Kev organized a “Naked” race, in which participants in the 5k and 1 mile races wore minimal clothes, such as bathing suits and spandex. About 30 people entered in the race, many of whom had been participants in Relay for Life the night before. We spent about half an hour hanging out beforehand, comparing running attire and goofing off.

All of us before the race!

The mile was the first event, and the course was essentially a lap around campus. Members of the service sorority Gamma Sigma Sigma were positioned throughout the course in order to point runners in the right direction. A lot of participants don’t typically run, so it was really exciting to see them cross the finish line for the mile.

The 5k course was very similar to the mile course; it involved two loops around the school. The weather was perfect for running in minimal clothes, and my friends and I enjoyed all the blooming trees around campus as we ran.

Overall, the race was a great time, and by the end people were already mentioning how they were excited to come back and do it next year!

If you’re interested in learning more about 4k for Cancer or donating to Kev’s fund, check out his page: http://4kforcancer.org/profiles/kevin-mcclellan/

Contrast and Free Press upgrading space

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Amber Slater

Our two main student publications on campus are the Free Press, which is the student newspaper, and Contrast, our literary magazine. I’ve been involved with the newspaper since I was a freshman, and next year will be my third year as the News Editor. I’ve also become involved with Contrast during this year and will be serving as the Co-Editor during senior year.

Next year should be a particularly exciting time for the Free Press and Contrast because an extreme overhaul as far as space is occurring. The Free Press currently has an office, but it is not in a central location on campus and because of that we don’t draw much of a crowd to our meetings. Contrast does not have its own space on campus at the moment.

When the next school year begins, both organizations will be occupying a room on the first floor of Hill that currently houses the Writing Center, which will be moving to a larger room across the hall. Having a space just for student publications will hopefully give more presence to these organizations on campus and increase the number of students who submit to both publications.

We have just started planning how we want the space to look, but we want to keep all of the Free Press archives in the new room and start a bookshelf for Contrast that will house old issues as well as books with writing prompts. We also want it to be welcoming to all students who wish to write or contribute to student publications.

I think that our writing organizations are important because they allow students to experiment with writing outside of the classroom. There is a freedom in writing for Contrast or the Free Press that is not necessarily afforded when the work is graded. I am really excited to see both of them grow and flourish when the new space is available next year.

Trumpeters inductions and fundraiser

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Amber Slater

On Monday of this week I was inducted into Trumpeters, an honor society exclusive to McDaniel. While it began as an organization which recognized only female students, today all campus leaders are encouraged to apply in the spring of junior year. Current members look at GPA and campus involvement and leadership when deciding who to invite to the group.

I was one of four students selected this year, and between us we represent many campus organizations, including ROTC, SGA, our two service fraternities, the track team and swim team, and many more. The goal is that the Trumpeters, as highly involved members of the McDaniel community, will continue to serve as leaders and examples to the rest of the school during senior year.

A new initiative that the current senior Trumpeters have planned this year is a “Fun Fest” to support our local Boys and Girls Club. We are setting up carnival games in the center of campus, and anyone who pays a dollar to play them receives a raffle ticket. We are raffling off items such as gift cards to tanning salons and local pizza shops.

Other student organizations are going to set up games at our event in order to help raise money for the Boys and Girls Club. For example, the Writing Center is creating a “pie a tutor” station in which students can pay a dollar to see their favorite (or least favorite) writing tutor get pied in the face.

I’m really excited to become involved with a group of students that is already heavily involved in campus activities but still makes time to plan an awesome charity event. I am hoping that next year my class of Trumpeters will carry on the Fun Fest tradition that has been started this year!

Palabras to Words

Posted on April 14, 2013 by Amber Slater

Each year, I try out a couple new clubs, hoping to meet other people like myself on campus who share my interests. Sometimes I continue going after the semester ends, and sometimes activities get replaced with something new. One of my major extracurricular undertakings this year has been Palabras to Words, our ESOL tutoring club. Adult native Spanish speakers come to McDaniel to work with students on their English skills. I had been interested in joining during my first two years at McDaniel, but I was also scared that my Spanish wasn’t good enough to communicate and help teach English.

I decided to go this year because my spoken Spanish and confidence had risen significantly after spending last spring in Costa Rica. What I learned is that it’s not exactly necessary to know Spanish if you want to teach English, depending on the level of your tutee.

I work with Mateo, a man who lives in Frederick and has been in the United States for the past ten years. He is studying to get his GED and hopes to join the military after he passes. He is also learning to play guitar, is interested in philosophy, and is a big fan of The Doors.

During our hour-long tutoring sessions, Mateo and I have worked on reading comprehension, pronunciation, vocabulary skills, and grammatical concepts. We’ve even done some math for GED preparation. My favorite exercise that we do together, however, has to do with song lyrics. Because he loves The Doors and classic rock in general, I like to pick the lyrics to a song each week and take some important words out. Then, we listen to the song together and he figures out which words are missing. This is a great way to build vocabulary and help him understand the songs he likes to listen to on the radio.

Working with Palabras to Words has allowed me to learn what teaching ESOL involves as I have thought about getting certified after graduation. I’ve also had the chance to keep working on my Spanish and meet some awesome students and community members. All in all, I definitely want to stay involved with this club for the rest of my time at McDaniel!

Relay for Life fundraising

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Amber Slater

This year I am participating in Relay for Life for the first time with a team from the Writing Center where I work. Being on a team involves both personal and group fundraising in the weeks leading up to the event on April 26^th. For me, personal fundraising has involved sharing my goals with my family and sharing my fundraising page via social media. As a group, my team is focusing on two major projects: a raffle and collecting tips.

The tip jar idea was my boss’s, and it stemmed from how many people pop into the Writing Center to use our stapler. Now, at different stapling hotspots around campus we have tip jars encouraging students who use public staplers to donate their change when they use them.

The raffle project is my favorite method we are using to gain funds because we have been reaching out to the Westminster community for donations and have enjoyed an overwhelmingly positive response. My coworker and I went to some local businesses the other day to talk about Relay for Life and in just an hour we had a gift cards from both CUP, a local tea shop, and Classico’s, a family-owned Italian restaurant. We also got a promise from an Italian deli to fill an entire basket for us.

Besides the places where we secured definite donations, we explored some cool places on Main Street, such as a bookstore called Eclecticity that displayed a ton of local art and had a room where you could fill up at bag of books for $5!

I was a little intimidated by the idea of approaching businesses for donations, but the response has been so positive that I am looking forward to making contact with more organizations. And, of course, all this fundraising is making me really amped for Relay for Life in general!

Admitted Students Day

Posted on April 7, 2013 by Amber Slater

Today was the first of two days for admitted students on campus, and I spent some time talking to prospective students about both our study abroad programs and the English department. After talking to so many people, I found myself repeating a few nuggets of knowledge to pretty much everyone, which I would like to share here:

There seems to be this misconception that studying abroad will make you fall behind, and that’s just not true. I was just a minor in Spanish before I left for Costa Rica, but I picked up so much Spanish credit while I was abroad that I only needed to take a few classes here at McDaniel to finish up the major upon my return. The key is planning with your adviser and the International Programs Office to make sure that your credits will transfer.

Don’t put yourself in a box. We really love hearing students say that they are undecided at Admitted Students Day because they will most likely explore various fields of study and student organizations before organically coming upon the best fit. I talked to students who did not feel that they could study abroad or take writing classes because of the major they had chosen, but I really encourage exploring all options for study, especially when we have to fulfill the McDaniel Plan anyway!

You can combine areas of study to fit your needs. I met some students who had interests that spanned across a couple of our majors, such as English, Communications, and Cinema. It can feel daunting when you are looking at the information for all of our different majors and minors, but it is pretty easy to study all the things you love by doing dual majors or taking on a minor. Be sure to talk to professors in all the departments you are interested in because they have probably had students with the same skill sets and will know from experience how to accommodate your interests.

Happy Admitted Students Day! We will be holding another one in one week on Sunday, April 14.

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