Sustainable Volunteering

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Amber Slater

As today was International Pancake Day, my friends and I headed over to IHOP for a short stack of pancakes. Rather than paying the regular fee, guests are encouraged to make donations to Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals after the meal. We entered the building at 10AM, and the walls were already covered with slips of paper that people who had donated money had signed.

Seeing all those signatures made me start thinking about giving back, and how college students can volunteer sustainably. While it’s great to pop into IHOP and donate money, there are a ton of opportunities on campus for regular volunteerism.

Looking for a way to give back to the community regularly? Here are some examples of things you can do on campus:

1. Check out the Center for Experience and Opportunity. They can set you up with local organizations which relate to your interests and career goals. In this sense, volunteering can be not only rewarding emotionally but also a potential line on your resume.

2. Join a Greek organization. Each social fraternity and sorority has a philanthropy element. The fraternity Phi Kappa Sigma, for example, supports the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of America. Additionally, our two service fraternities on campus, Alpha Phi Omega and Gamma Sigma Sigma, focus specifically on community service.

3. Consider joining a sports team. Similar to Greek organizations, each team holds service events for athletes. For example, my cross country team volunteered at a half marathon last semester.

4. Clubs also do community service. If your interest is training service dogs, you can join the Puppy Club and even live in their affinity house. If you’re interested in making a global impact, the Advocacy Team focuses on issues such as global hunger and human trafficking. Involvement fairs at the beginning of each year help students get an idea of the broad range of student organizations our campus houses.

Though our schedules are busy with classes and work, there are tons of opportunities to make a local and global impact, whether through one-time events or extended volunteering through an organization. If you take the time, you’ll find a cause and a project that suits your schedule and interests!

The Perks of the Meal Plan

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Amber Slater

Even though I was on campus during this past Jan term, I opted out of a meal plan in order to save some money. Though I love cooking and experimenting with new recipes, I did find that I missed going to our cafeteria, Glar, or grabbing some food at the pub. Now that the semester has begun, I’ve been using my meal plan pretty much everyday.

For those on the fence about getting a meal plan, here are five instances when our dining services really comw in handy:

1. Exhausted mornings- Whether I was up too late writing a paper, talking to friends, or just didn’t sleep well, sometimes I just feel like I need to kick start my day in the cafeteria. My staples are omelettes, which are served until 9:30, and coffee. I’m not usually a big caffeine drinker, but the combination of filling food and a cup of black coffee helps me get through the day when the night before was long.

2. Post-workout- I run cross country and track, so usually after a long workout I’m starving and not really interested in going back to my kitchen and spending time cooking something. It’s nice to have hot food on my plate when I’m tired without any work or clean-up involved.

3. Between classes- There are few things worse than sitting through a lecture while your stomach is growling. Often, I find myself with an hour to kill in the middle of the day, at which point I hit up Glar in order to make sure that I’m full, energized, and able to pay attention during class.

4. Themed nights- Typically on Tuesdays and Thursdays the chefs organize special themes for our dinner in Glar. The schedule for this semester has been posted, and I was excited to see some old favorites like sushi night mixed in with new themes, like a vegan dinner!

5. 11:30PM- You know the feeling. It’s late, and you’re craving mozzarella sticks. With our meal plan, we have meal exchanges that allow us to order food in the Pub until 11:30. Eating in the Pub at night is a great way to take a study break and catch up with friends after a long day.

After living on both sides of having a meal plan, I am definitely glad that I’m able to use one this semester. It allows me to eat with my friends and at times that are convenient for me!

Giving feedback about our cafeteria

Posted on November 29, 2012 by Amber Slater

Every few weeks in our cafeteria, the first few tables are covered in tablecloths and reserved for students who wish to talk with our head chef, Jamie, and General Manager, Rita. I always passed these tables feeling pretty jealous, partially because the dinner they served always looked awesome and partially because I wanted to speak with Rita and Jamie about my dining experience at McDaniel.

Tonight, I finally got the chance! During the dinner, students in attendance both expressed their concern about certain elements of our dining hall while also praising the staff for certain meals that they’ve really enjoyed. There was a diversity of students with various priorities in the dining hall. For example, some students were concerned about seeing more meat during the weekends while others spoke up about wanting to see more fruit during breakfast hours.

I sat near Jamie, and he was open about his plans for our cafeteria as well as our suggestions about what we’d like to eat in the future. He said that some of his plans include adding more international foods because a lot of students have given a lot of positive feedback on nights when there are international options. For example, there was a night recently when a chef showed us different Indian recipes and we were able to sample things he made as well as various Indian spices. Jamie said we should be expecting more demonstrations like this next semester.

The quality of the food in general has improved greatly during my time at McDaniel, and I feel like this is partially due to their willingness to accept ideas from students and then use them. I can’t imagine the difficulty of serving a campus of hungry college students, but our staff seems to be doing a great job at keeping the individual in mind.

Last cross country meet of the season

Posted on November 11, 2012 by Amber Slater

Today was our cross country Regionals race at Dickinson’s cross country course in Pennsylvania. The course is notorious for its difficulty in the wooded sections during the middle section, but we had ran it before this season and have done a ton of hill workouts since we started training in August.

For two of our team members, it was their very last cross country race ever. Joy and Kristen are both seniors who have been with our team since freshman year. Joy has aspirations to run marathons when this school year ends! Luckily, we have two more seasons of track to run together before we graduate, so it didn’t feel particularly sad.

Today was also special because I got to run against two of my high school teammates, one who is a sophomore and another who is a freshman. We were all captains of the team during our senior year and still maintain contact. Hannah, who is in her first year of college at Johns Hopkins, won the whole race today! It’s awesome to see her succeed because I remember her very first day of cross country practice when she first joined our high school team.

Though I felt a little apprehensive about racing today because I wasn’t sure if I was mentally ready, the friends I raced with reallly made me glad that I did. From people I’ve met here at McDaniel to those who I ran with back in high school, my running friends are some of the most important in my life, and they keep me coming back to the sport each year.

It’s been a great season, GTXC; I can’t wait for track!

Aerotek extern day

Posted on November 8, 2012 by Amber Slater

This week I had the opportunity to learn about the marketing department of Aerotek, a staffing company. I was invited through the English department, but there were also students from the Business and Accounting departments present.

We headed to their office in Hanover, MD and were greeted by the Internal Recuiter, who stayed with us throughout the day as we toured the building and listened to presentations from representatives of various departments.

Two things really struck me about the company: the large number of McDaniel graduates who now work there and the family-owned feel. Some of our presenters began their talk with describing what McDaniel was like when they attended and it was still called Western Maryland. Additionally, we had the opportunity to have lunch with alumni who now work at the company. It was heartening to see graduates in a successful business atmosphere.

We also learned about how Aerotek believes in organic growth, meaning that a lot of executives begin in entry level positions and are promoted over time. Most of the people we talked to had began at the company right out of college and had people reporting to them within a year.

Additionally, we got a chance to speak to the CEO and CFO of the company, which I thought was pretty indicative of how much the company cares about forming relationships with future and current employees.

The externship day gave me a chance to learn about how business functions and marketing as a career field, which I hadn’t given much thought to in the past. I think that this is one of the greatest aspects of college: the ability to learn, to experiment, and to explore new opportunities.

Dangersauce

Posted on November 5, 2012 by Amber Slater

The Homecoming experience at McDaniel is pretty systematic: get up and watch parade (or sleep in…), go to football stadium, wander from tent to tent catching up with people and eating, cheer for football team when something exciting happens, etc.

While I did all these things and had a blast, I’d have to say that one of my favorite parts of Homecoming weekend was not as well-attended or well-known as the football game. While a lot of people were getting in their post-game nap, Dangersauce, our student improv group, hosted a show in the theater.

Dangersauce is comprised of about 10 students who put on improvisational comedy shows on campus. On their Facebook page, they guarantee that all jokes are “unrehearsed, unscripted, and completely hilarious.”

The Homecoming show was the second that I’ve attended this semester, and both have totally been worth the dollar that I’ve spent to get in. For about an hour, the members play games that involve a few members or the entire group.

My favorite games involve audience participation, such as the one last night where a troupe member was sent out of the theater while the audience was asked to decide where and how a grisly murder occurred as well as who perpetrated the crime (We chose a public bathroom, exorcism, and the Pope, respectively). After we decided, the member was called back into the theater and guessed as the rest of the cast acted out the crime.

Since it was Homecoming, a lot of former members of Dangersauce came to see the show. For the final game, they were all called up on stage to participate, and it was cool to see what a long-standing tradition Dangersauce has been on our campus.

Interested in joining or just learning more? Check out their Facebook.

Halloween Bingo!

Posted on November 2, 2012 by Amber Slater

I once thought that bingo playing could be lumped into the same realm as knitting, but as a college student with about $22 to my name the idea of winning prizes just for listening to someone call out numbers and marking them on my card is incredibly enticing. Therefore, when I read about last night’s Halloween bingo, I was amped to go.

Local vendors such as The Pottery Loft, a paint your own pottery studio, donated over 40 prizes for the event. Luckily, there were only about 30 people in attendance, so almost everyone won something! I won both a coffee mug and a baseball cap. My friend who had never won bingo before won four times, including a $10 Barnes and Noble gift card!

Besides the free stuff, I was eager to attend because the event was student-organized and sponsored by APO, one of our service fraternities, The Animal Welfare Club, and The Puppy Club, an organization that trains seeing-eye dogs. All of the proceeds benefitted The Humane Society, which will definitely need the donations after Hurricane Sandy. The presidents of each organization that contributed to the bingo said a few words during a break, and it made me really proud to see that different student organizations had reached out to each other in order to support a common and worthy cause.

Last night was a prime example of why I feel that no student could ever get bored at McDaniel. First of all, there are events every night, either organized by students or The Office of Student Engagement. Additionally, the wide range of clubs and organizations on campus, like the Puppy Club or Animal Welfare Club, offers students a chance to get involved and meet others with common interests.

Taste of Latin America: El Caribe

Posted on October 27, 2012 by Amber Slater

Last night was the 6th Annual Taste of Latin America dinner, hosted by the Hispano Latino Alliance (HLA) here on campus. Many of my housemates are in HLA, so I went to support all the hard work they’ve been doing on decorating, selling tickets, and working on song and dance performances for after the meal.

When we walked into the dinner, we found that it was decorated like a cruise ship and that buffet tables lined the walls. I could smell foods that reminded my of my time in the Carribean, such as platanos, which are similar to bananas and fried. I was also excited to see that they were serving flan, a sweet dessert made with condensced and evaporated milk.

After eating, we got to watch a video that an HLA member made about growing up in Cuba, a performance of Ojalá que llueva café, and a bachata dance. The song was probably my favorite part; you can check out the original version here!

Events like this might inspire you to spice up your Spanish, even if it’s not the language you’re studying here at school. Here’s a review of some Spanish words that you might need at a restaurant or dinner:

Los cubiertos- Silverware

Plato- Plate

Tazón- Bowl

Aperitivo- Appetizer

El plato principal- Main course

Postre- Dessert

Quisiera ____- I would like _____

No need to feel stressed

Posted on October 24, 2012 by Amber Slater

It’s easy as a freshman to feel overwhelmed by the never-ending assignments that pile on your desk or the amount of due dates scribbled in your planner. As the years go on, it can feel similarly daunting to take classes outside of your major or even take a 3000-level class in your own field of study. Luckily, there are several steps that you can take to remedy the stress caused by difficult coursework.

The five-step plan to get the grade you want:

Set goals. When you know that you’re about to start a rough semester, think about what you’d like to accomplish. Do you want to go for an A? Or maybe just gain more of an appreciation of the subject matter? Write down your goal and try to look back on it throughout the semester.
Take advantage of office hours and tutoring hours. All professors have time slated in their week to talk to you about upcoming assignments or things that you don’t understand. Additionally, a lot of departments offer tutoring hours on a weekly basis. Making the extra effort to talk to your professor or attend a tutoring session shows that you’re dedicated to the class and can help sort out questions you might have.
Use a planner. On top of all your school work, you’ll have to balance your work schedule and meetings, so make things easy on yourself and write down all of your commitments rather than trying to memorize them. I write down everything from lectures to reminders to get my hair cut.
Start in advance. This should seem like a no-brainer, but it can be fairly hard to execute when you have a class, work, practice, and are attempting to maintain a social life. Try to block off manageable chunks of time to research for that big term paper that’s due at the end of the semester starting about a month in advance. That way, you’ll be organized and maybe even finished when your classmates are starting to freak out about how little time they have.
Drill your vocabulary and facts. This can apply to Spanish vocabulary, math formulas, or dates for a history class. Make flash cards and when you have a few minutes to spare during a car ride or while waiting for a class to start, pull them out and flip through them. When it comes time for that big test, you’ll feel less of a need to cram and the answers will come to you more easily.

Tough semesters don’t seem quite so ominous if you take time to plan and make the effort to write down assignments and communicate with your professors. Even though we’re currently more than halfway through the semester, you can still employ these ideas to boost your grades for finals or start using them next semester!

Home football game

Posted on October 21, 2012 by Amber Slater

I’m not always able to watch our home football games because of cross country meets, but we had this weekend off from running! While the weather was awesome and would have been great for a run, I instead was able to tailgate with my friends for the entire game.

Here at McDaniel we’ve been recognized by the Weather Channel as one of the top seven tailgating school in the nation due our bowl-like stadium. You can check out the article I wrote about it last year for the Free Press here! A grassy hill surrounds the field, which is sunken into the ground. For every game, different organizations set up tents and students move from one to the next, hanging out and watching the game.

People even take the pains of bringing couches to the game! That’s me all the way on the right enjoying the game with some friends in the Phi Kappa Sigma tent.

Even though we lost in overtime today, the game was lively and exciting, and I’m really proud of the team’s effort. It was a day of great weather, great friends, and a great game, and I can’t wait for our Homecoming game in a few weeks!

Stories from the Hill

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