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.

Hi Folks!

If you live on campus, you are probably used to hearing jets come in and out of our campus. For our last Aviation Career Conference, however, we were paid a very special visit. An ERJ-145 commercial jet from the American Eagle fleet paid us a visit to show prospective students what they could be flying one day.

This was the largest jet to land here at Lewis since we brought in our 737 after it was donated by United in 1999. It was flown by Captain Javier Medina and First Officer Leslie Treppa. Medina is a regular at the Aviation Career conferences and wanted to take his presentation to the next level.

As I said before, these aviation conferences are invaluable to prospective and current students alike. If you are ever considering a career in the aviation industry, I really encourage you to attend one!

On Tuesday, we celebrated Lewis’ 79th Birthday. Lewis brought in all sorts of outside entertainment and set it up outside in the village green. They had a large grill out for dinner and rented out moon bounces. They had an obstacle one that was so fun even though it gave me many rug burns! They also had someone making caricatures, set up a photo booth to take funny pictures, and were giving people tatoos that would last like a month. They also gave out prizes or “birthday presents” like t-shirts and water bottles. It was definitely a fun way to celebrate Lewis’ birthday! Next week we have Easter Break from Thursday the 24th and are off until classes again on Tuesday the 25th. Then after break we only have that week of classes and then finals week the following week. It is very exciting knowing that we just have about 3 weeks left until summer!

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.

With the temperatures reaching the 70s, we are all begining to think outside the…erm dorm. If you’re anything like me, you’re just about ready to get a change of scenery and take advantage of the warm weather!

Many people ask me what there is to do off campus when they come to visit Lewis. Well, dear reader, as I sit here, I am looking at the plethora of ticket stubs that I’ve collected over these past few years. I have several theatre ticket stubs from the local movie theatres. There are about seven movie theatres that I can think of off the top of my head that are all within a 15 minute drive. I also have a ticket from a local concert I went to in Naperville that my friend told me about.

As you make more and more connections in college, you hear about the vast opportunities off campus. For my Intro to Theatre class, I had to attend a play off campus. I chose to go into Chicago and went to a small time play called “Ephemera”. It was so much fun that I have already bought tickets to another play next weekend.

If the small time stuff isn’t your thing, the United Center is well within a 30 minute drive from campus. I’ve seen Dane Cook and seen the Blackhawks play there. They are always having new events at the United Center, and you will be bound to find something that you’re interested in.

If you’re a history buff, the I and M canal (which runs right past Lewis), is chock full of it! Lockport has its own museum and is a lot of fun to just walk through.

So if you’re a sports fan, or into the more underground theatre of Chicago, you’ll never come up short on things to do off campus here at Lewis!

Hello!

So, I had my first actual nursing clinical a week ago. We went to the hospital and actually dealt with patients! My section of 8 students went to Edward hospital in Naperville. We are on the MedSurg unit. It is a very nice unti and actually does not look like a hospital at all. All of us wake up at 4:30 – 5 ish and get ready so that we can make it to the hospital by 6:30. When we get there we are assigned a patient that we will be working with that day, along with a RN and PCT. We start filling out care plans for our patient and listen to the shift reports. Once we introduce ourselves to our patient, it is our responsibilty to do anything the patient needs and work more on getting information to complete our care plans. We do this until about 10:30, and then we go into our post conference, where we can discuss our patient.

The first day is more of a scavenger hunt and introduction day. But most everyone is still very nervous. The next 5 clinicals are more intense, and you are actually doing jobs for the patient. At the end you will have to complete a care plan that will be about 15% of your grade. Clinicals are a great way to experience the ‘real thing’. Many schools do not start them until junior year. Lewis starts it sophomore year to give you that extra practice. Like I said most of us started out really nervous, but I am honestly excited to go back.