Mr. McDaniel!

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Robert

Mr. McDaniel is a contest held once every year by Alpha Sigma Tau sorority on campus. This event is always fun since it is the sister event to the Ms. McDaniel competition hosted by the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. The events are known for being more comical than serious in comparison to other competitions that go by a similar name, and this year was unique for me because I was selected to compete in the AST’s Mr. McDaniel competition.

Of five competitors, two of my brothers were also selected to compete. There were three Alpha Sigs, one Phi Delt, and one Phi Kapp in total and each of us offered a unique take on comedy. The first event was formal wear, which was pretty basic. As we went onto stage, one of the ASTs hosting the event would read us a question and we would do our best to answer in a way that would appeal to the crowd. A few of the questions were given to us before the event so that we wouldn’t make complete jerks of ourselves on state; but most questions were given on the spot to show how quick we were on our feet.

The competition was more than anything just to entertain the campus and help the ASTs raise money for their sorority. Judged by two students, one randomly selected by the ASTs and the other the current Ms. McDaniel, and a faculty member, the criteria were most visually appealing, crowd appeal, best answers to the questions, and of course, general sense of humor; criteria that brought out the best in each contestant including myself.

In the course of the night, we saw one guy rap, too much speedo during the swimwear portion of the competition, I performed a song I had learned earlier in the day, and one of my brothers brought out a harpoon and stared seductively at the audience…which was interesting. Though I didn’t win, I thought it was a great opportunity and a really good time.

Let the Greek Games Commence!

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Robert

Monday around 4:30, the opening ceremonies for Greek Week were held on the ANW quad. Each year this tradition serves to commemorate the spirit of interfraternal togetherness and competition. Monday was simple field games like tug-of-war, water bucket relay, hoola-hoop passing, and a crazy relay where one person spins around a bat the runs to a chair and is fed a number of gross things.

Since it was boys against boys and girls against girls, Alpha Sig’s only two competitors were Phi Kappa Sigma and Alpha Gamma Tau (mostly known as the bachelors). I was surprised, since most of the bachelors are football players are football players and since most of the Phi Kapps have played highly physical sports that we did really well. We won the tug-of-war competition, the hoola-hoop passing competition, the sack race, the wheel barrow race and number of others.

If that wasn’t enough excitement, today was swimming events. At 7 all of the greek organizations gathered in the pool for a number of…interesting challenges. The first two were your typical biggest and smallest splash contests which we placed second and first in respectively. I was lucky that none of the Phi Kapps had anyone as skinny as me for the smallest splash contest. Then the events went on to include a race to gather rings off the bottom of the pool, a regular relay, crocodile wrestling, and even an animal noises challenge.

It has been a lot of fun and Alpha Sig will go into the track and field games of tomorrow leading by ten points and it’s truly an exciting time. Reasons like this are why college can be so much fun. Sure I’ve had to put a few assignments aside to make time for it, but it’s worth it. Who needs sleep anyway?

A Very Alpha Sig Night at Bdubs

Posted on April 18, 2013 by Robert

A while back I blogged about a philanthropy event that I organized for my fraternity at a local gaming place, Players. It was a huge success. Well tonight the Alpha Sigs hosted another fundraiser at my direction, a fundraising night at Bdubs (Buffalo Wild Wings) to help raise money for Relay for Life.

Typically money for Relay is raised by going door to door essentially asking your friends and neighbors for money. Since we live on a college campus, however, and only really have immediate access to our families, it is important to get creative. So I had the idea a while back to use a restaurant that’s popular on campus, like Bdubs, and see if they wouldn’t give me like 10 or 15% of the profits on a given night if I could rally the campus to come out and eat.

Well this is apparently a common thing for them. The manager set me up with a printable ticket format that said “Alpha Sigma Phi Relay for Life Fundraiser” and said that I would get 15% of whatever was sold as long as the customers presented that ticket (By the way, never miss an opportunity to get out there an build professional relations with business owners). So I printed out 1000 tickets and for the past few days my brothers and I have been standing outside of Glar (the dining hall) handing them out to everyone walking in, instructing them to go to Bdubs Thursday from 6-9 and help support our cause.

Well as you would imagine, by the third day, our peers were getting a little tired of us giving them tickets that they would likely throw away as soon they got out of sight. 6pm rolled around and I was worried people might not show up at all, but I was gladly surprised to find the exact opposite. There were McDaniel kids everywhere, taking up a large part of each section of the restaurant. Just goes to show you what impact a little bit of persistence and a good cause can have on a community. The good food doesn’t hurt either! I love my fraternity job!

What just happened in Annapolis?: In-field lectures at McDaniel

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Robert

One really cool thing about college in general, and specifically about McDaniel, is the chances it provides for students to get first hand experience in whatever field they are involved in. Tonight that experience manifested itself in a chance to meet two Maryland Senators who came to McDaniel to talk about what happened in the most recent state legislative session that ended at the beginning of April.

For those who might not know what I’m referring to, each year for 90 days, the Maryland Delegates and Senators are in session passing bills and making laws for the state. Since that session just ended, and I’m lucky enough to be a political science minor and be in a State and Local Government class this semester, I got to hear first hand how the proceedings went.

The two senators Edward Kasemeyer (fun fact: McDaniel Grad in 1970 something) and Joseph Getty were very experienced and have each been in the Maryland Senate for a number of years and have been through multiple sessions. What was also cool was getting insider information on new laws that are being passed such as the raise in gas and alcohol taxes, as well as the passing of the gay marriage law in the previous session. One bill I didn’t even know was up for debate was an environmental conservancy bill that proposed a tax for a each square foot of impermeable surface on your property.

If you’re interested in government and law, definitely check out the Political Science Department. They do a good job of getting students in the field, not only with events like this one, but with paid and unpaid internships, field trips to Annapolis and Washington, and experienced professionals like Dr. Herbert Smith who even currently is a lobbyist in Annapolis and used to work as a campaign advisor for nominated politicians.

Intramural Volleyball: Trying New Things

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Robert

Let me just start this one by saying, I’m not very athletic. I’m pretty skinny and I guess you could say I’m toned but not extremely strong or coordinated so when it comes to playing sports at McDaniel, I’m not the first guy on anyone’s mind. I swam in highschool and I’ve always been a decently fast runner so I don’t mean to make myself out to be some kind of loser, this is just to say that Tebow or Jordan. That said, one thing I have really enjoyed at McDaniel are the intramural sports.

Joining my fraternity has been helpful in this field since it gave me a nice gateway into intramurals, this spring especially since I finally have a softball and indoor soccer team that I can just be a part of without signing up. I’ve played all of these sports before though, what’s new this Spring to me is indoor volleyball. I had no idea it was such a fun sport! Having never played before, I wasn’t sure how it would go, but the fraternity had their first game today and I did not do as terribly as I had expected.

Our first game was against the Phi Delt fraternity. They were pretty good. They snagged a girl from the volleyball team to play for them (kind of cheating in my mind but whatever), and then they had another guy on their team who was pretty good. We were better. We lost our first game after staying tied for most of it, then won the second by a landslide. It all came down to the third game in which we had kept a decent lead on them until they snuck up on us in the end and won. The second game was against Phi Kapp fraternity and they crushed us. It might have been that we were tired, or that they were really good, but either way we didn’t stand a chance.

It was a great learning experience though, especially for a non-athlete like me. My brothers taught me how to set, how to block, and a number of volleyball terms that I wouldn’t have ever known otherwise. It was a great bonding experience even if we lost and it’s nice to know that even if you might not be the best at something, there’s still time to learn at McDaniel.

Lia Purpura Came to Speak!

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Robert

Tonight was very unique. A guest lecturer and poet, Lia Purpura, read tonight at the annual Bothe lecture, a lecture held every year in honor of Judge Elsbeth Levy Bothe of the Maryland Circuit Court who donated generously to McDaniel in support of the arts and passed away this past March. Normally lectures like this will be accepted as extra credit by professors, but luckily for me I’m an English major, and a successful poet like Mrs. Purpura cannot come within my vicinity without each of my professors grabbing me by the back of my head and shoveling poems and all sorts of advice about the future down my throat.

What made it interesting was that I actually had two classes that made the lecture mandatory. One was my Intro to Lit Methods course which is the introduction to the major and conveniently has been covering poetry for the last week and a half, the other was a creative writing class centered entirely around poetry. The latter obviously focused more on Mrs. Purpura’s presence on campus and my professor actually got her to come speak to the class about her life as a writer.

I was shocked to find that I actually enjoyed hearing the perspective of a seasoned writer. Like many college students, I have never really appreciated a guest lecture. I mean I already sit for a minimum of two hours in class being lectured, I’m not going to be the first in line for an hour long lecture after classes are over. In any case, as far as mandatory guest lecturers go, Lia Purpura was very interesting. She was eccentric and enlightening; she even offered a wealth of useful advice during her session with my poetry class.

Her reading was unexpectedly ambiguous. Having never been to a reading, I didn’t know what to expect, but I thought it would be structured as a poem followed by an explanation. Instead, Lia read fluidly from poem to poem, pausing once or twice to offer minimal context for the poem. I was hoping she would give a better window into her writing process, but what she gave was simply a well rehearsed reading. No complaints though, it was still a very good experience and a good example of the type of first-hand learning that McDaniel makes possible.

Road Trip!!!!!

Posted on March 23, 2013 by Robert

I think the value of a good road trip has been lost among our age group. For example, some of the best memories I will take from the year’s Spring Break will be from the 13 hour drives there and back with two of my best friends. Regardless of this, three other friends who also came with us to Florida will be flying back, and they have no idea what they’re missing. After all, nothing will help you get to know somebody better than 13 hours of close, personal interaction. It’s an invaluable piece of the college experience, in fact, I would argue that you have not lived unless you’ve packed up the car with a few of your closest friends and driven through the night to a tropical destination of choice.

For the trip down, Rachel and Stevie arrived at my house at 1am and we began our perilous journey to Florida. On the way down we drank red bull, exchanged funny stories, listened to Taylor Swift, Mackelmore, JT, Calvin Harris, whatever we had on our iPods; whatever was necessary to keep ourselves awake. We took shifts for sleep, always making sure that the driver had someone awake keeping them company. It wasn’t easy but by dawn we had made it to South Carolina in record timing. In five more hours we were smelling the fresh ocean air of Cocoa Beach, driving with the top down on the Florida coastal highway blasting Luke Bryant and loving life.

The drive home is less exciting, naturally. We still have the radio going, but it’s raining and the impending classes on Monday have us all a little down in the dumps. Is still fun though, and I wouldn’t trade the experience for the world. Rachel has been reading to us from a book she has to read for her Spanish class which hasn’t been terrible to listen to.

Go on road trips with your friends! And don’t text the whole time either. Because ultimately your friends now will be your friends forever and this is how you’ll get to know them the best. Well, in my opinion anyway.

What to do when nobody’s around

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Robert

To be honest, the rare occasions where the entire campus clears out for breaks and only a few students who have a reason to stay into the weekend are occupying the dorms are the best! The showers are always empty, it’s quiet, the lines in Glar are short, and you can park really close to your dorm building. If you’re one who gets bored in this type of situation, or just get bored in general, I thought this might be a good time to list

What there is to do in the Westminster are for a college student:

1. The Mall – It’s within walking distance, has most major stores, a decent movie theatre, and is certainly a great way to spent an afternoon where you don’t have much to do.

2. Players Family Amusement Center – I’m only listing this one because I wasn’t even aware of it until this year, but Players is like 5 minutes from campus and has cheap laser tag, batting cages, bumper cars, and lots of other cool stuff. It may seem kind of lame but don’t knock it until you try it, cause I had a blast.

3. Bowling – Taneytown Bowl is 20 minutes away, is fairly inexpensive, and is fun for a group of people who are bored on a Thursday evening or something. I think the bowling class you can take through the Phys Ed Department bowls there also if you’re interested in going bowling on the school’s dime

4. Gettysburg – Definitely here me out on this one: Gettysburg is awesome. The outlets are fun if you’re just looking to window shop or if you’re looking for a cheap pair of fresh shoes from Payless. If you’re a history buff, which I know I am for whatever the reason, you can take part in all the fun historic Gettysburg Civil War stuff. And around Halloween, they get some cool haunted house type stuff going on. They have a website where you can find all of that stuff.

5. Baltimore – If you’re into the club scene, there are plenty of under 21 clubs in Towson and Fells Point. These actually become increasingly popular for those who are of age to drink during the weekends, and campus safety runs free shuttles to these locations for anyone who asks.

So I hope this has given some helpful insight into what there is to do at McDaniel. If none of these suit your interests, Green Terror Productions, is always running fun weekend activities; shows at the Hippodrome Theater skiing at Liberty, I went to Hershey Park last Fall, and plenty others and those usually cost between 5 and 15 dollars. I’ve never seen one that costed more than that. Anyway, food for thought.

My Dream of Becoming a Tour Guide Come True

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Robert

I think we can all admit to having a dream at one point or another in our lives, or at least something we want to do really badly. For me, ever since I began the college touring process I’ve wanted to be a tour guide. Something about the idea of introducing myself to a stranger and showing them why my school is such a great place to go. Today I took my first real steps towards making that dream come true when I shadowed a current tour guide and learned the ropes.

In the Office of Admissions, there are three different stages of what they call “ambassadoring,” which is just another term for being a representative of the college, and you get to do different jobs at different stages. Currently I’m an unpaid green, which is the bottom tier. I mostly just performs small jobs around admissions. From 5-8 today I made phone calls on behalf of admission, informing prospective students that they had not fully submitted their applications. This and other jobs of this nature are examples of unpaid green jobs. The next level is paid green which is just an intermediate step to becoming gold which is my goal.

Earlier this morning, I shadowed my friend and tour guide Kelsey as she gave a tour to a nice family from Potomac, Maryland. I got to see what a tour route looks like, as well as get a feel for what information touring families expect to hear. It was insanely different from the other side, and it’s hard to believe that only two years ago I was doing the same thing. What was also an excellent experience for me was finding out that the father of the prospective student on the tour was a member of Alpha Sig from the Gamma Beta chapter.

For me today has really confirmed my dream to go gold and be a tour guide. It’s a chance to meet people, to network, to spend some time outside on a beautiful day like today, and talk about myself…all of which I enjoy. I also encourage all prospective students to take a college tour. Not just at McDaniel but any school you’re interested in. You really learn a lot. I’ve been at McDaniel a year and I had no idea that Campus Safety offered rides to classes if it’s cold out and you don’t feel like walking across campus. Just goes to show, never too late to learn something new!

McDaniel Helping Heroes Helping Hopkins

Posted on February 22, 2013 by Robert

Last night an organization on campus called Heroes Helping Hopkins hosted a night at Buffalo Wild Wings, Bdubs, to raise money for their cause. The Heroes organizes volunteers to go to the Hopkin’s House, which is a residence next to John’s Hopkin’s Medical Center for parents and families of patients to stay at an remain close to the hospital, and help provide food, comfort, and warm beds to people in their time of need.

As a nice gesture, the brothers of Alpha Sig attended and helped promote the event. Though it was an unforeseen benefit, it actually ended up reflecting very well on the fraternity. This entire week while we’ve been recruiting at the table I talked about last week, we also passed out the coupons that students needed to show when they paid their bill so that 15% of the money they spent would go to Heroes.

Then last night a good number of us showed up in letters to do our part, and the turnout was phenomenal! I saw a good number of students show up in the period of time I was there from 6 to about 7 and the event went on until 9. It was awesome to see so much of the campus come out to support a good cause and really made me optimistic for the Bdubs night we are hosting in April to help us reach our Relay for Life fundraising initiative of $2,500. We also managed to kill two birds with one stone since we invited some prospective new members to join us for dinner.

When you come to college, charity and donation are not necessarily objectives on your radar. So for good causes like Heroes it’s nice to see how the community will respond when you ask them to. Apathy is always a problem among college students but it seems that with a little bit of advertising and some good food, motivating the masses can be done.

Stories from the Hill

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