Midterm Week

Posted on March 11, 2013 by Kaitlyn Vadenais

It’s that unavoidable point in the semester that every student dreads: midterms. Of course they come right before spring break, looming over your head as you’re busy thinking about the beach you’ll be laying on at that time next week.

I always get lucky and usually have a mixture of tests, papers, or projects, making my midterms week something I can begin to tackle earlier. This year I have a paper due for my Native American art class and a test in my Communication class. The paper is just a regular response paper that we have due every other week and this one happens to land during midterms. I just hope I don’t get so caught up in studying that I end up rushing to complete the paper. I should probably start that before Wednesday night…

The test I am not looking forward to because it is one of two test grades for the class, meaning it is a significant portion of my grade. Doing well on the midterm would take the stress off a bit come finals week. The good thing is we have already had two mini vocabulary quizzes which means I am not beginning my studying knowing nothing. That class will be my only one on Wednesday, so I should find it easy to study in the morning before it’s time to take the test at 2:40.

I’ve just got to keep my eye on the prize – Florida in week!

Green Terror Baseball

Posted on March 10, 2013 by Kaitlyn Vadenais

Baseball is undoubtedly my favorite sport, so of course I am a fan of the McDaniel Green Terror baseball team. Like the 22 other sports here, we compete in Division III in the Centennial Conference. Not does this conference denote teams that are all 100 years old and older, it is also the third smartest conference in the nation behind the Ivy and Patriot Leagues.

Saturday was the first home game of the season for the boys and the weather was perfect for it. They played a double header against Penn State York.

My roommates (equally as large baseball fans) and I supported the team all afternoon, cheering on our friends and boyfriends. Not only is the baseball fun to watch, but it is a great social event as many students choose to hang out by the field and root for the Green Terror as well. It was also fun to see the new freshmen doing well on the team.

The boys had a great first showing, sweeping Penn State York and making the sunny Saturday a great almost-Spring day.

Snow Day

Posted on March 5, 2013 by Kaitlyn Vadenais

I thought I was ready for spring. With Daylight Savings Time over on Sunday and the air slowly getting warmer, March seemed to be off to a great start. Mother Nature obviously thought differently.

Tomorrow McDaniel students have a snow day! And while I definitely don’t need anymore snow this winter, I’m always a fan of cancelled classes. Even with spring break so close, nobody can say no to a mini vacation in the middle of the week.

My friends and I are already planning a few fun activities for tomorrow including:

Sledding. The 9-hole golf course in the back of our campus doubles as some of the best sledding in Carroll County. We haven’t gotten enough snow to sled since my freshmen year so I am excited to get back out there and relive the fun times.

Board games. What’s better than getting competitive with some friends over the same games you grew up playing?! We have all the old favorites on deck, including Monopoly.

Birthday celebrations. My lucky friend turns 22 and gets the day off of school. That’s one way to accept your old age. Snow means perfect baking weather so there will be plenty of cake for everyone tomorrow.

Today after class, we went out to get everything we might need for a snowy day inside. I’m guessing this will be my last snow day ever, so I plan on getting the most out of it and enjoying every minute!

The Plague

Posted on March 1, 2013 by Kaitlyn Vadenais

You probably read enough about it on everyone else’s blogs… but it was a pretty important happening on campus last week so here we go – THE MCVIRUS 2013.

A term that was coined by students and the McDaniel Free Press, it is actually a slight misnomer because we are not the only people to have ever gotten the virus. It was gastroenteritis and it was actually pretty common earlier in the winter. McDaniel was just a little behind on the trend. And being a small school, it didn’t take us long to catch up.

As the Editor in Chief of the Free Press, I was excited for such a large event with the possibility for so many stories. I also wanted to lay rumors of food poisoning and other Glar misfortunes to rest. We spent all day Wednesday covering the virus that had been nonexistent before Tuesday night, trying to get the facts straight. Ironically, by the next day half our staff had been hit, including myself.

But it was a small price to pay for exciting milestones. The Free Press made personal records, for site hits, page views and more. My favorite piece was a ‘best of social media’ where we gathered the funniest tweets and statuses about the viruses and shared them with campus. The staff together did a great job and put together some fine pieces of journalism on a time crunch.

If you haven’t already, check out mcdanielfreepress.com for a great look at life on campus!

Campus Employment

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Kaitlyn Vadenais

Whether work study becomes a part of your financial aid at McDaniel or if you just need a job to support that college lifestyle, there are many jobs to be found on campus.

Some jobs are reserved for students with work study. A list is published online, with information on how to apply, and it is updated each semester with new available positions. I work two campus employment jobs this semester. My first is my ongoing duties as an Ambassador with Admissions. That jobs helps me talk to prospective students like you at lunch dates and on tours around campus. My second job is with IT. It is my job to help students and professors alike with problems they have relating to their computers or internet.

Here are some other examples of employment options on campus:

Fitness Center Desk Attendant – Swipe ID cards as people enter the gym to workout

Equipment Room Assistant – Help out with athletics by managing team and school equipment

Pickle Driver – Drive students in the campus shuttle to places around Westminster and to metro stops in the area

Lifeguard – If you’re certified, save people’s lives by working at the pool as a lifeguard.

Phone Caller – Solicit gifts to the school and connect with alumni

And so many more!

Many campus jobs come with flexible hours made for a busy student schedule so they are the perfect solution to making a little extra cash during the semester.

The Library Reference Desk

Posted on February 23, 2013 by Kaitlyn Vadenais

The semester has come for me to do my Senior Seminar, or culminating project for my major. For Communication, this means I perform my own study and back it up with lots of research. And that means lots of time in the library.

The Hoover Library is home to over 200,000 volumes of books. Combined with the Carroll County Library and the Carroll Community Library, that brings our total to about 700,000 volumes. And if that is not enough, we are partnered with the InterLibrary Loan System, which means we can get books from anywhere in the nation, given enough time, free of charge. Hoover Library also has 60 online databases that can be accessed from anywhere with your McDaniel log in.

With so many amazing resources, where would I possibly start?!

Thankfully, there is the Hoover Library Reference Desk. These are the people you come to whose job is to help you look up research for your project. You simply call or email to set up an appointment during their hours and arrive with your topic and what you want to research. The librarians can then help you find relevant research and help you find information on your topic.

Although this type of intensive researching isn’t always necessary, it is nice to know that the help is there and FREE when students need it. I am looking forward to my appointment and the information that I am going to get out of the meeting.

First Year Dorm-ing

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Kaitlyn Vadenais

Being Editor in Chief of the Free Press has some perks. One of those is finding out information before most other students on campus. This week I had the chance to break the news about a change in freshman housing on campus.

For years and years, it was traditional for students to be separated by gender in their freshman year. This fall, the incoming class of 2017 will experience something that other classes have not – coeducational housing. Both Whiteford (previously all girls) and Rouzer (previously all boys) will now be coed by floor and by wing.

This makes McDaniel similar to most other colleges around the country, but does it sacrifice one of those unique ‘rites of passage’ that students have grown to accept, and even like?

Looking back on my freshmen experience, I originally thought it was weird to not live with any boys in the building. But then I saw the boys’ dorm and the constant mess and I was grateful to be sharing with girls only. It didn’t prevent the girls from getting to know the boys, but it helped create more camaraderie among sexes.

Overall, I don’t think the change will be that different and I think that it is a good decision for the college, even if it does eliminate one of McDaniel’s unique characteristics.

100 Days

Posted on February 16, 2013 by Kaitlyn Vadenais

Friday was not just a regular day. It was also 100 days until graduation!!!!!!

With posters displayed on every door congratulating us throughout campus, and letters wishing us well in our mailboxes, the seniors were on top of the world this Friday. The Alumni Office helped us celebrate with free cupcakes and sunglasses, and a raffle to win a free ticket to a senior week event.

My mom, meanwhile, helped me celebrate by sending me a picture of a job advertisement in a newspaper at home. In denial, I decided to pretend that never happened.

My friends and I, who have known each other since the second day of freshmen year, spent a good part of the afternoon reminiscing on some of the things that have happened these past four years, looking at pictures and having a lot of laughs. For dinner, we went out for sushi to celebrate this milestone.

I am not as freaked out about this as I originally thought I would be when I wrote it on my calendar back in August, which is shocking considering I have 100 days to figure out the rest of my life. Maybe by the time we hit 50 days it will feel more real…

February Weather

Posted on February 13, 2013 by Kaitlyn Vadenais

February is my least favorite month. Which might seem irrational because it is also the shortest month, but the weather is the worst.

I thought the groundhog said spring was coming early this year?!

Since the month started, several times a week we have been experiencing flurries and wintry mixes that accumulate to nothing but make walking around campus a pain.

I would like to give props to our grounds crew, however, for always making sure that the walkways and stairways are properly salted, sanded, and shoveled when necessary. I rarely find myself having to walk through even slush on my way to classes.

One morning we woke up and the campus was blanketed in a sheet of ice. Think McDaniel Ice Rink. Although we had a two hour delay that morning, by the time students were making their way to classes, paths were no longer a hazard.

I guess I should be thankful I am not at home and buried under the remains of winter storm Nemo. While my mom was sending me pictures of the snow and the yard, I was sending her pictures of rain and brown earth.

I think we’ve all had enough of the cold and it is time to move on to sun and warmer weather.

Staying Connected With Home

Posted on February 9, 2013 by Kaitlyn Vadenais

Rhode Island and my home don’t seem that far from Maryland and McDaniel, but 7 and a half hours driving or an hour flight are difficult to justify for just a short weekend.

For this reason, I usually don’t go home at all during the semester. For shorter breaks, I will go home with one of my roommates. Instead, I usually just wait until the end of the semester. Four months flies by in college.

Unfortunately, I am not very good at long distance communication either. But I have gotten better since I’ve gone off the school.

Neither of my parents are big texters, so I used to send my mom a few emails a week with my random thoughts, some which required responses, some which didn’t. Now she has an iPad so she can iMessage me and we chat more often that way. I still call the house every Sunday afternoon to talk to her and my dad and swap stories about school and home.

When it comes to my friends, it is easy to send them little texts every few days of things that remind me of them or just to say hey. I am not big on long texting conversations however, so we will try to arrange time for FaceTime or Skype at least once or twice a month to talk about things more in depth. With Twitter and Instagram it also helps us keep tabs on our lives.

Even though I miss my family and friends when I am down at school, it is nice to know that everyone is only a text or phone call away.

Stories from the Hill

Author Archives: Kaitlyn Vadenais