Lewis University Navigator Blogs

Will County Regional Office of Education and Lewis University are offering 11th and 12th grade high school students and incoming Lewis freshmen, sophomores and juniors the opportunity to participate in a STARTALK language program from June 19 through July 9.

STARTALK is a project of the National Security Initiative, a multi-agency effort to expand foreign language education in under-taught critical languages by funding new and existing programs and to provide incentives and rewards for foreign language learning. The overall mission is to increase the number of young Americans learning and speaking critical need foreign languages by offering creative and engaging summer learning experiences for students. The 2011 three-week STARTALK Chinese, Arabic, and Russian language programs will be conducted daily for 6 hours. Cultural events include field trips to Chicago’s Chinatown, the local Mosque, Chicago’s Arab American neighborhood and a Russian restaurant. Two main benefits of the STARTALK program are no tuition costs for the students and the ability to earn three university credits of foreign language.

No previous language skills are necessary, but admission to the program is competitive. To apply, please visit http://www.lewisu.edu/startalk/. The application deadline is June 5. Those accepted into the program this summer are able to choose to study Chinese, Arabic or Russian.

As you all should know from my blog “Best Weekend Ever”, starting Friday, April 8 the Best Weekend Ever starts! This includes a concert Friday night by Jason Derulo at the Student Recreation and Fitness Center, the performance starts at 8:30pm but the doors open at 7:30pm. Everyone has been anticipating this great event put on by the Student Governing Board and the Pulse. To go along with the Best Weekend Ever, Saturday April 9 is the big spring formal! Bedcheck’s VIP Party, is aboard the Navy Pier’s the Odyssey. The Odyssey is a gorgeous yacht that is stationed right in Lake Michigan. The event starts at midnight but buses from Lewis load in the Student Recreation and Fitness Center at 9:30PM. Everyone that plans to go will have a great time…a night to definitely remember from college.

Along with the Best Weekend Ever, Lewis University’s Phillip Lynch Theatre is hosting the newest play here at Lewis, “Shakespeare in Hollywood”. The play is by Ken Ludwig and it shows on April 8 through 10 and April 14 through 17. The hilarious play is based on the 1930′s and the way Hollywood shaped the movie scene with all the sparkle and glitz. It’s the latest hit from Ken Ludwig author of Broadway’s “Crazy for You,” “Lend Me a Tenor,” “Moon Over Buffalo,” and “On the Twentieth Century.” “Shakespeare in Hollywood,” has some fun with the production of Warner Bros. 1935 film version of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Also some of my fellow Navigators have a few of the main parts of the play and they include; Christopher Hueg as director Max Reinhardt and Sean Barber as Oberon. Evening performances begin at 8 P.M. Sunday matinees begin at 2:30 P.M. In addition to the Saturday evening performances, there will be a 4 P.M. Saturday matinee performance on April 16. Tickets are $10 for adults and $9 for seniors/students. Tickets are $8 for groups of fifteen or more.

So this week at Lewis the freshman that are going to be sophomores and all of the other upper classman applied for housing for the school year of 2011-2012. This process for many can be a difficult one but if you follow the steps you are given by residence life then the process will be a piece of cake.

The most important thing about the process is to make sure you fill out and complete your housing application and emergency & missing person contact forms. After all of the paper work is done you can start to plan your next years dorm situation.

First of all if you decide you want a certain roommate living with you the next year make sure you have talked with them about where on campus you would like to live. The upper classman dorms available are Cody, Dorothy Day, DeLaSalle North, DeLaSalle South, Fitzpatrick, Mother Teresa, North, Pope John Paul II and Ryan. All of the dorms have both singles and doubles available except DeLaSalle South. All are accommodating and on campus. After deciding who you are going to live with and where you are going at, you have to make sure rooms are available for what you want. You search through an online database that tells all of the rooms available then pick one that suits yourself and your roommate if you are interested in having one. Make sure you register the room under your name, and you are all set with living on campus for the next year!

I have found that living on campus is a great experience, and it really gives you the full effects of college. You meet great people, get involved in many activities and help yourself to be more independent!

Starting next week Lewis University Broadcast students like myself will be on WLRA 88.1FM raising money for Advocate Hope Children’s Hospital with the fundraiser called “To Kill a DJ”.

In 1999, Lewis University’s WLRA and Advocate Hope Children’s Hospital in Oak Lawn, Illinois partnered together in order to raise money for the hospital’s Family Assistance Fund. The Fund provides practical assistance to patient families who, through no fault of their own, are suffering severe hardship due to an unexpected illness and either social or economic deprivation. More specifically, the funds go towards paying for such things as critical prescriptions for children, overnight lodging, clothing, and groceries when these items are sorely needed. To raise money, WLRA created the bi-annual event, “To Kill a DJ,” which sees DJs in the program manning a 6 hour non-stop broadcast, with some students going even longer. As of right now, I know that Jodi Steinberg, a Broadcasting studen,t will be going on the air for 80 hours straight, which is an amazing accomplishment! During these hours on the radio us students have raised money for the children’s hospital. I will be on the air at WLRA 88.1FM for “To Kill a DJ” next week on Thursday, March 17 from 6:00pm to 12:00am if anyone is interested in listening.

Lewis University has done a great job working with the children’s hospital over the past years and on January 20, 2010, Lewis University was honored by Hope Children’s Hospital with a plaque on the donor wall for raising over $34,000.

If you would like to donate to the fund, you can do so by writing a comment on my blog or emailing me at shelbytray@lewisu.edu. All donations are tax deductible and greatly appreciated by myself, Lewis University and Advocate Hope Children’s Hospital.

Coming up in the second weekend in April, the Student Governing Board (SGB) and The Pulse are presenting the “Best Weekend Ever”! As part of the “Best Weekend Ever,” Lewis will be hosting a spring concert, as well as spring formal the following night. Starting Frida,y April 8, 2011, Jason Derulo is in concert at the Lewis University Student Recreation and Fitness Center (SRFC). The tickets are twenty dollars each and each student may buy up to six tickets per Student I.D. The show starts at 8:30PM, but the doors open at 7:30PM. Finding out Jason Derulo was coming to Lewis was a long and anticipated event because all of us students knew there was a performer coming but did not find out until February 21 that he was the entertainer that he would be live for all of us to see on April 8.

As the second part to the “Best Weekend Ever” on Saturday April 9, 2011 the SGB and the Pulse are hosting the Bedcheck’s VIP Party, which is the spring formal and it is aboard the Navy Pier’s the Odyssey. The Odyssey is a gorgeous yacht that is stationed right in Lake Michigan. Everybody that I have talked to that has been to past spring formals has had an amazing time. The tickets are forty dollars per ticket or seventy five dollars per couple. The event starts at midnight but buses from Lewis load in the SRFC at 9:30PM.

The “Best Weekend Ever” is just one great event Lewis hosts. Lewis is always coming up with ideas to make student life fun and active. The programs and entertainers that Lewis brings in always adds something special to this already great campus. You will never get bored at Lewis, because there is always something fun and exciting to do. It is especially nice that Lewis plans these great events that will be in our college memories forever.

As the school year of 2010-2011 goes on for all of you seniors I know that some of you may be worrying about how you are going to pay for college next fall. Do not let the money issues worry you to much but do take advantage of all the opportunities that are given to all of us students.  Make it a goal to apply for scholarships and grants that fit your criteria and needs. Filling out a piece of paper and maybe writing an essay can go along way. Those papers can help so that when you graduate you have as little debt as possible. Do some research online and talk to your guidance counselors about scholarships in which you can apply for. Many scholarship do require certain things like a high GPA or that your decided major be something certain. If there is a community foundation in your area make sure you look at their website and the scholarships they can offer to you. Many of the deadlines have come and gone but do not stop looking for grants and scholarships that you can apply for. Take the risks and fill out scholarships that you may not think you will get because in the end you might just be rewarded. Most scholarship applications take at most an hour and require a transcript to be sent in but that little of time can give the money you need to be debt free. I know as a college student that I will have some loans but I know that the scholarships I received are helping me pay my tuition.

There are many websites which can direct you to the right site to get scholarships. Like I said before check out your local community foundation and do some research on scholarships that go towards your decided major. For example I am a Broadcast Journalism major so I used a search engine to look up “Broadcast Journalism Scholarships”. There are also scholarship websites that direct you to more scholarships such as Fastweb.com and Scholarships.com. Take the time to fill out all of the information for a scholarship because the money can always help with tuition payments and take a little weight off of your shoulders so that you do not have a lot of stress about money. Do some research and apply for everything you can!

As all of you who are going to be residents next year move into your dorm rooms there is one big tip I can give you from my experience. The big tip is to meet a lot of new people and friends. You are not alone in wanting to meet new friends.  Everyone else that will live in your dorm hall will be looking to meet new people and get that true college experience. Make sure you are really nice to new faces and that you may even get to know that person. Also while you are in your dorm make sure to stop and take the chance to meet others that live in your building or on your floor. Making friends that are around you can really help the process of living away from home. You will have your friends from high school or home but you want to make sure to get involved with others that surround you. Even if you are shy, try to break out of your shell and meet some new people because those fellow students could someday be great memories from your college years when you look back.

Make the most out of being in college. Meet new people, create new friendships, and most of all have lots of fun. Well and of course do lots of studying and focus on school work, but try to have fun while you do it!

This is the last part in The Dorm Life. I hope all of you enjoyed the segment and maybe even take some advice for next year!

So after leaving the nest and heading off to college you are now responsible for yourself. There are some very important things you must to do stay healthy. They are eating healthy, getting enough sleep, exercising often and making sure you clean your clothes and room. Some good ways to eat healthy at Lewis is the great salads that are offered at both Charlie’s Place and the Courtyard Cafe. At every place you eat on campus their are healthy choices, just make sure most of the time you are picking the right foods that are good for your body.

All college students at one point will brag about the time they stayed up all night or how they go to bed a three in the morning. You should not follow in those foot steps so you should get the recommended 7 to 8 hours of sleep every night. In the end and after a long day of school it is great to get some school so that you are well rested for another long day.

Lewis offers a great Recreation Center that is filled with lots of activities such as the cardio room that has treadmills and ellipticals. The Rec Center also offers a very well equip weight room, and they also offer fitness classes that are run by very good teachers. The class come in a variety from Cardio Jam to Yoga. Along with working out the Recreation Center also offers many club teams and intramural sports. Sometime there is even open gym so if you wanna shoot the basketball around you can.

Living in a clean environment is always a good idea. Make sure you regularly wash your clothes. Lewis has washers and dryers in every dorm hall and it is free to use the facilities - you just need to bring your own laundry detergent. Also cleaning your room is a good way to stay healthy, vacuuming or sanitizing the surfaces of the room would help a ton.

Make sure as a college student you stay healthy it will only help you in the end!

It’s natural for some homesickness to accompany your first two or three weeks of adjusting to college dorm life. You’re in an entirely new environment. On one hand, there are no more curfews, no constant reminders to do your homework, no questions about where you’re going, or who you’re going to be with.

On the other hand, you’re on your own for what might be the first time in your life. No one’s cooking your meals, except maybe the cafeteria staff. No one’s making sure your homework gets done or that you get up for class on time. No one’s washing your clothes. The freedom accompanying college dorm life can be both a blessing and a curse. However, during this major transition, many students find that the biggest hurdle they face in their first college dorm life experience is homesickness. Make sure
you are sharing your exciting and/or trying experiences with people from home can help dispel feelings of isolation and loneliness. You may actually learn that you’re not missing much. However, if feelings of homesickness and depression persist as a result of college dorm life, make sure you talk to someone about them.

As your going through your last year of high school and are preparing for what might be your first year of college dorm life, you probably have a lot of questions and concerns. You may be facing the first time you’ve ever shared a room, especially with someone to whom you’re not related. What if you don’t get along?

For many of you, this will be an entirely new experience. First off, relax. You’re certainly not alone, every other freshman in the dorms will probably have the same fears and concerns. Take advantage of the time before school starts to prepare yourself.

When I first walked into my dorm room on move in day, I met my roommate, someone who I had never met before. I was scared and excited about living together. At first we both did our separate things and had separate friends. As time went on we spent more time together in our room and outside. We started to have the same friends and same interests. Now that we have been through almost half of the school year together I have found that we have become best friends. I have learned that you can only have a successful stay in the dorms if you and your roommate get along. I am not saying that you have to be best friends but try to get along. A good way to do that is by just talking to your roommate. Make sure you always say hi when they walk in the room and maybe start a conversation. When you are going to get lunch or dinner make sure you invite your roommate every once in awhile. I know that you and your roommate are not going to like all of the same things but try to comply with some of their needs and wants, just like they should do with you. Make sure you are honest with your roommate and tell them how you feel, especially when you are bothered by something they do. Try to get to know one another, maybe tell them stories about your life and interests and then they do the same.

I know from seeing other people that are unhappy with their roommates that they can feel uncomfortable in their room, which should never happen because it is both yours and your roommates dorm room. It is possible to change roommates but try and make the roommate you have work. It needs to by a two way thing though, both of you need to try to make things work. If you are both not into making each other feel comfortable it will never work. Just make an effort to get along with your roommate.  It will help you in the end, and you might be able to start a great bond that can last forever.