Halfway done!

Posted on May 18, 2013 by Annie Brown

On Wednesday, my second year of college was officially over! (Almost–I still had to turn in a paper for my Peer Tutoring course, but I did that on Friday.) This semester was intense; I took five classes and an independent study for a total of 20 credits, which made for a busy finals week–I had to complete three final exams and three final papers.

On Thursday, I moved out of my beloved suite 203. It was surreal and bittersweet. My room was reduced to boxes and bags and my walls were bare for the first time since August. 203 and the people I lived with became an amazing home and family for me over the course of two semesters, so leaving it was difficult, even though I was excited to return home to see my biological family. It didn’t even hit me that I wouldn’t be going back until I had almost moved out. However, I said my goodbyes (a lot of them) and left for the summer.

Things have been pretty low key since returning home. On Friday, I spent a lot of time unpacking, but I was able to squeeze in some fun too. I went with my mom and my sister to see Legally Blonde: The Musical at the New Candlelight Dinner Theater in Wilmington, Delaware. The show was energetic, funny, and a great time! And tonight, I went to the high school graduation party of one of my friends. This has all made for a fun weekend!

It’s amazing to believe that I’m now halfway through college. It’s kind of scary, but I keep reminding myself that I have a wonderful summer now and two more years of school to look forward to. Though there’s a lot of uncertainty when it comes to what I’ll be doing over the next few years, I have a great life and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Mother’s Day on the Hill

Posted on May 12, 2013 by Annie Brown

Last year, the spring semester ended just before Mother’s Day, so I was able to spend Mother’s Day with my mom. But because of how the calendar played out this year, I am not able to spend Mother’s Day with my mom this weekend.

Still, Mother’s Day was alive and well here on the Hill, and even though I didn’t get to spend the day with my mom, I did spend a couple of hours with a mom. Once a month, the College and our president, Dr. Roger Casey, invite alumni and other guests to enjoy Sunday brunch in Glar, our dining hall. On these days, the food in Glar tends to be nicer and there’s live music. Yesterday, Dr. Casey extended the invitation online for moms to come celebrate Mother’s Day with their weary and over-burdened students approaching finals week in the dining hall today, and some moms ended up taking him up on that offer.

So today at brunch, my friends and I got to eat with one of my friend’s moms, who came to town from New York to help her daughter pack her things and take them to storage. I haven’t met all of my friend’s parents, so I was glad to finally meet A’s mom, who fit right in with our brunch group. There was plenty of conversation to go around, and A’s mom also checked in with all of us to make sure we were all hanging in there and asked us what finals we have coming up. She also wished us all good luck with our exams.

Overall, it was a lovely brunch, and I’m thinking we should start inviting a different mom every week to eat with us. Especially in times of stress, it’s nice to get a little “mommed,” even if it doesn’t come from one’s own mother.

Earlier last week, I made sure to pick up a card from the book store on campus to send to my mom, which she received on Friday and loved. I’ll be calling her tonight to spend Mother’s Day evening with her over the phone–when I’m knee deep into my paper due tomorrow and need a break for a little love and encouragement

Senior sems are upon us

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Annie Brown

It’s that time of the semester: while all of us are frantically trying to get work done for this week and next week, which is finals week, many of our seniors on campus are finishing up and presenting their senior seminars and capstones.

All McDaniel seniors are required to do a culminating project in their major(s). Some departments call these projects senior seminars (commonly known as senior sem(s) or sem) and some call them capstones. Whatever they’re called, all of these projects require a tremendous amount of work, writing, and research.

I know a lot of seniors who presented their senior sems yesterday, and since they’re generally open for anyone on campus to attend, I had the chance to attend my friend Hanna’s presentation.

Hanna, who is an English major, talked about the rhetoric of Allies (McDaniel’s Gay-Straight Alliance) in her presentation. She discussed how Allies uses rhetorical strategies when communicating with their club members that are different from those they use to communicate with the campus community at large. Learning about this binary was fascinating, and Hanna did a fantastic job researching and presenting her project.

I’m very glad I got to attend Hanna’s sem presentation. Since she’s my friend, I was happy that I was able to go support her. And since I’m an English major who also has a strong interest in rhetoric, it was great for me to see what a senior sem presentation that focuses on rhetoric can be like. The thing that I love about rhetoric is that it can take practically any topic involving communication and analyze it in incredibly interesting ways. While senior sem is a long, daunting, and intense process, I’m finding myself looking forward to my own at the moment. My senior sem will give me the opportunity to research something I am (hopefully) fascinated by and share that fascination with others.

To all you AP test-takers out there

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Annie Brown

If you’re a prospective or an enrolled McDaniel student who is taking AP tests this week and/or next, I want to take a moment to wish you the very best of luck on your exams!

I took a total of six AP tests throughout high school, so I know that you’ve put a lot of work into studying for these tests and that you are likely very tired and very stressed out about them at this point. I want you to know that because you’ve worked hard both in and out of class, you will do fine.

At McDaniel, each score of 4 or 5 you get on an AP test will give you four college credits. Certain AP tests will even help you place out of requirements. For example a 4 or 5 on AP Language and Composition or a 5 on AP Lit will allow you to test out of the first year composition requirement and allow you to dive into what you’re really interested in sooner. I also know a lot of students who have placed out of math and science requirements for getting 4s or 5s on math and science AP tests.

Additionally, the extra college credits will give you what I like to call a “buffer.” If you ever find yourself needing to drop a class for whatever reason, having AP credits will prevent you from getting behind as a result of dropping that class.

If you’re applying to college in the fall (or even the fall after that), remember that even if you don’t get a qualifying score of a 4 or 5 on your test, the fact that you’ve taken an AP class (or several) will demonstrate that you’ve challenged yourself in high school and will help your high school transcript stand out just a little bit more. (But you don’t need to take any AP classes to be admitted to McDaniel; I know plenty of people who haven’t.) In fact, you don’t even need to submit your scores to McDaniel as part of the admissions process.

If you are an enrolled student, I strongly encourage you to take advantage of the free AP score report the College Board will send to any college of your choosing and make sure you send it here! This will show the college all of your AP test scores (unless you canceled any) and will save you some trouble and some money in the future. I have some friends who took AP tests and never bothered to send their scores here, and I have no clue why they wouldn’t.

Again, best of luck these next couple of weeks! You’ve heard this before, but eat well, get plenty of sleep, and don’t study or cram too much. (Trust me–these things help!) Stay calm, and remember that college is nothing like AP tests–and that’s something to look forward to!

Surprise parties are the best parties

Posted on May 4, 2013 by Annie Brown

Today, I had the opportunity to throw a surprise party for one of my best friends on campus, and things turned out great!

Earlier in the week, my friend’s mom, who lives in Boston, called me to ask me if I could pick up a birthday cake from Starry Night Bakery in Westminster and surprise my friend with it. I knew with the help of some friends that we could totally pull off a surprise party, but we definitely had to plan it as we went along.

Before going to get the cake, another friend and I drove to the dollar store by the Food Lion to pick up some decorations. For under $5, we got plenty of decorations to spruce up the Forlines common room where we held the party. If you’re trying to hold a party on a budget, the dollar store is the first place to go for great deals.

Then we went to the bakery to get the cake. I didn’t realize this until we got there, but Starry Night Bakery won Food Network’s Cupcake Wars in 2011. This was no surprise; as soon as I saw the cupcakes, I nearly cried tears of joy because they looked so delicious. The cupcakes we picked up were chocolate with a coffee flavor and espresso frosting, and they were absolutely delicious.

After picking up the cupcakes and a yellow cake with butter cream icing, my friend and I had to rush to decorate the common room and get our friend assembled before the cake got too warm. (Neither the cake nor the cupcakes would fit into our microfridges.)

Eventually, we got everyone rounded up and we texted one of my friends to bring the birthday girl to us.

My friend was totally surprised to see us waiting for her and even more surprised to see the cake! We pulled off a low-key but very fun party with some great music to boot. Planning and celebrating a surprise party for one of my besties was an awesome way to spend my Saturday!

I don’t remember the last time I was this busy…

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Annie Brown

This is been one of the busiest weeks of my life in recent memory. (I know I’ve had weeks just as busy if not more so, but I try to suppress those details!)

I’ve spent the past week laying out a 12-page print issue of the McDaniel Free Press to commemorate the graduating class of 2013. It’s been a lot of work, and being doing it pretty much on my own, because I have the right combination of skills and available time for the job.

I’ve had to sacrifice a lot of my personal and even academic life this week to work on such a big project, but there have been some advantages to it. I’ve known how to use the basics of InDesign, the program we use to do layout, since the end of my junior year of high school, but I now have a better grasp on InDesign than I’ve ever had before. And yes, this is relevant. A lot of places that want to hire English majors for jobs and internships want the people they’re hiring to have familiarity with Photoshop, Illustrator, and/or InDesign, so having the skills that I have is a great addition to my resume.

So if you have any interest in getting a career with an English major immediately after taking college, I strongly advice you to get a feel for these programs. Courses like Editing and Desktop Publishing offered at McDaniel can help you learn them, but some practical experience is also useful. It’s also difficult to get into this class until your junior year, so if you do come to McDaniel and you want to learn these skills, come join the art staff of the Free Press! You’ll get some practical knowledge, and with enough people participating, no one person has to take on the entire layout by herself!

Shakespeare in the Square

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Annie Brown

Yesterday was William Shakespeare’s birthday (and incidentally, his death day), so the English department celebrated in the most entertaining way possible: by hosting its annual Shakespeare in the Square.

Shakespeare in the Square is a fun event (complete with a large birthday cake) held for all students to attend in Red Square, the center of campus. Students read Shakespeare’s sonnets and act out scenes from Shakespeare’s plays. Anyone is welcome to read or perform.

I was impressed by the student performances, which I enjoyed quite a lot. McDaniel English majors are very talented when it comes to reading sonnets and acting out scenes, and some of them are also able to make it funny. (One of my friends read a monologue of Antigonus from The Winter’s Tale and was chased by a “bear”–another friend–at the end, as indicated by the stage directions in the play. Very funny.)

I read Shakespeare’s Sonnet 60, which ended up going pretty well and was awesome for me because I had a chance to do a reading in front of a somewhat large audience, something that is always useful practice for public speaking.

After everyone who wanted to perform something Shakespearean was finished, Dangersauce, McDaniel’s improv troupe, performed a long form improv, a series of uninterrupted related improvised scenes, after interviewing our medieval literature and Shakespeare professor about what she teaches and her academic life. The scenes were very funny and the performers did a fantastic job basing their scenes on things the professor said.

Overall, Shakespeare in the Square was a blast! It was fun for English majors and non-English majors alike, the weather was beautiful, the performers were talented, and the birthday cake was delicious. Happy 449th birthday, Bill!

English majors CAN get jobs!

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Annie Brown

On Monday night, I had the chance to go to a networking event organized for the English department and the Center for Experience and Opportunity (CEO) called “What can I do with an English Major?” The event featured a panel of six McDaniel alumni who were English majors when they went to school here.

The six panelists represented a variety of career paths. A couple of the panelists are current or recent graduate students who now write for publications. One panelist is a lawyer. Another is the director of digital communications and social media for McDaniel College (which I think is a pretty awesome job!). The last two panelists have started their own businesses. One has an online PR and marketing business while the other sells historical costumes on Etsy.

Listening to all of these panelists speak about their careers and what lead to their careers was insightful. A number of the panelists were able to beat their own paths and find and create careers that were right for them after not initially starting out with careers they loved. (It’s important for everyone to remember that their first job probably isn’t going to be the job they end up staying with and falling in love with.)

The panelists stressed the importance of internships and other work experience. As one panelist put it, college is the time to take on internships, because it’s a lot more difficult to work without pay after graduation, especially if you don’t live with your parents anymore.

After the panel was over, everyone in attendance had the opportunity to network with the panelists. I was surprised that so many of my peers left without really talking to any of the panelists, but it gave me the opportunity to speak with almost all of them. I found that talking to the younger alumni was just as helpful as talking with the alumni whose careers are most established. Everyone gave me great advice and I was able to pick up a couple of contacts that I plan on getting in touch with.

Going to this presentation really got me thinking about careers. While I’ve been thinking that my ultimate goal is to continue on to grad school right after graduation for something, I may end up deciding to delay grad school and enter the workforce. If that’s what I end up doing, I’ll need some experience to get hired. Fortunately, I have an appointment with the director of the CEO this week. This will allow me to speak to someone “in the know” about what classes and “career moves” I should be taking. Hopefully, she’ll also be able to point me in the direction of some summer internship opportunities relevant to my interests and my goals.

The Presidents Club: Inside the World’s Most Exclusive Fraternity

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Annie Brown

Tonight, I had the really wonderful opportunity to listen to a book discussion about a book called The Presidents Club: Inside the World’s Most Exclusive Fraternity by TIME magazine editors Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy.

It was really neat to have two high-profile magazine editors come to McDaniel to give a book talk, but what they talked about was even cooler. (I mean, if you think learning about U.S. presidents is cool, like I do.)

The speakers, particularly Duffy were very knowledgeable about their subject–the relationships between current U.S. presidents and former presidents throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. (The term ‘presidents club’ refers to all of the living former and current presidents at any given time.) Apparently, they are the first two people to take on a project looking at and chronicling these relationships.

I learned a number of things about presidents that I would not have necessarily considered. For example, Gibbs and Duffy claimed that presidents from different parties often have better and stronger relationships with each other than presidents from the same party. While presidents such as Reagan and Nixon (both Republicans) and Clinton and Carter (both Democrats) did not get along, pairings such as Truman and Hoover and Clinton and Bush 41 have gotten along quite well.

I also learned that prior to Truman’s presidency, the concept of a presidents club did not exist. Truman was the first president to reach out to a former president, and he reached out to Hoover, who was the only other living president at the time.

I’m very glad I went to the talk. I love presidential history, so my inner history nerd was very happy. Everyone who attended the lecture received a free authographed copy of the book that the talk was based on, so my inner history nerd will be able to experience 500 pages of happiness over the summer when I have some free time.

A trip to Baltimore

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Annie Brown

One of the perks of being in McDaniel’s Honors Program is the chance to go on the annual Honors field trip. This year’s trip was to Baltimore, and for only $5, I had the chance to be whisked away to the Inner Harbor on what turned out to be a beautiful Sunday afternoon.

I spent most of my afternoon at the American Visionary Arts Museum with fellow Honors Program member and e-ambassador Mara. The large mirror mosaics gave us a chance to work on some artistic photography before heading into the museum, where unfortunately, no pictures were allowed. I really enjoyed the exhibits. My favorite exhibit was called “The Art of Storytelling,” which is on display through September 1. The exhibit, which featured several artists, consisted of pieces that had very integral narrative components. I loved the beautiful and intricate fabric pieces done by Esther Nisenthal Krinitz, with which the artist told the powerful story of how Nazis came to occupy her small town in Poland and how she and her sister escaped before being sent to a concentration camp.

After we explored the museum inside and out, Mara and I returned to the Inner Harbor for ice cream and some people watching. Mara created a point system to keep track of all the runners we saw; whoever spotted a runner first would get a point. (Mara won.)

We browsed through a few shops before meeting up with the rest of the group at Bubba Gump’s Shrimp and Seafood to have a tasty and fun dinner paid for by the Honors Program.

After dinner, there was a little time before we had to board the bus to return to campus, so a few girls and I went to the newly-opened Marshall’s (which was not that great) and Barnes and Noble before our trip came to a close.

I couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful Sunday to go to Baltimore and spending time with some of my Honors peers exploring the city was a lot of fun!

Stories from the Hill

Category Archives: Annie Brown