My Top 3 Fall Activities at ERAU

My favorite semester is fall, not just because I’m coming back to school and my friends but because there’s some great adventures I’ve made into a yearly tradition. and I want to tell you about them. I hope you try these out when you get here!

Snowbowl Ski Lift, Flagstaff, AZ. One of my favorite off campus events I enjoy Top of Snowbowldoing in the Fall is driving an hour and a half north to the city of Flagstaff driving around downtown and towards the San Francisco Peaks. Here in Prescott we get a fair share of fall foliage around town and even more closely here on campus. However, one of the best places to view fall foliage is in the city of Flagstaff. As a guy that was born and raised in New Orleans there is no such thing as fall foliage. The seasons down south are a lot less defined as it is in most states around the country. I still to this day get very excited when the Fall season starts because of the impeccable beauty it shares throughout Northern Arizona. I try to make time to take a trip up to Snowbowl every year in late September. At Snowbowl you can ride the lifts up to the very top peak of Mount Humphries and get a chance to look out and see miles and miles of crisp beautiful yellow, red, and orange leaves surrounding the San Francisco Peaks and throughout the town of Flagstaff, smelling the fresh aspen trees as you ride the lift up to 11,500 ft. the highest mountain peak in the state of Arizona.  It is honestly one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had while living here in Northern Arizona. It is one of the most relaxing and de-stressing day events that really help keep you leveled when the fall semester workload is beginning to pick up. Another really cool thing that you get a chance to take advantage is that they have amazing sales at the ski shop located at the bottom of the lift. You can take advantage of the exceptional deals and pick up some great snow and ski gear to impress skiiers and snowboarders once the winter season gets into full swing.

Off Campus: Go Kart Racing, Scottsdale, AZ Whenever I have the need for speed Racing!I love to drive down an hour and a half south and visit Octane Raceway and go Go Kart Racing with my friends and fraternity brothers to take a break from studying. Octane is located in Scottsdale, AZ which is a city located to the east of Phoenix. Scottsdale has great shopping and some amazing restaurants so there’s a lot to check out while you’re down there. Octane Raceway has a very challenging course that takes you from the inside of the facility to an outdoors patio lounge area where you get a chance to feel the very dry hot air from the Phoenix dessert. The Karts go up to 45 miles per hour so there’s a lot of power for you to get your urge for speeding and racing out of your system. Its so much fun taking a break and coming down to race with my friends because it gives us a chance to hang out get a little competitive and just have an incredible time with each other.

On Campus: Halloween Haunted House sponsored by the Safety Center If you are like me and enjoy your occasional scream here and there around the Halloween season you don’t have to look too far. Our Robertson Safety Center puts on a Channeling Jimizombie-themed haunted house that utilizes their crash site as the backdrop. There’s nothing more exciting than the eerie feeling of wrecked planes surrounding you while zombies pop out at every corner crouching over bent propellers and behind crushed fuselages. It was so much fun being able to have a moment where my friends and I could laugh at each others facial expressions as the suspense of not knowing what was behind each corner or even next to our feet etched the most amusing look of fear on our faces. I honestly hadn’t laughed so hard in so long. It helped make that Halloween season one I will forever remember here at Embry Riddle with some of the most amazing people I have been so lucky to have met during my years here.

 

Here’s an update: Just went to Flagstaff this past weekend for the fall colors again!

Flagstaff 10-17-15

Flagstaff 10-17-15

My Lake Powell Adventure – College is so much more than you think!

Imagine getting in a car one Friday and driving four and a half hours to the border of Arizona and Utah to spend the weekend on an island with 75 of your friends. That is what last weekend was for me. At Embry-Riddle I have been highly involved with Chi Alpha which is a campus ministry group that focuses on crazy adventures, and building community.

Powell Car (Small)
This past weekend was Chi Alpha’s Lake Powell Adventure. For this trip, we carpooled out to Lake Powell, boated to our own island, and played on the water. There was boating, tubing, blobbing, water-skiing, cliff jumping, salsa dancing, campfires, great food, and even better friends.
Powell Beach (Small)
Friday night we arrived on our island to find three campfires, dinner, and s’mores. Some of the boys decided to go night cliff jumping while the rest of us talked and hung out around the fire. That night we slept on the beach under hundreds of stars. It was beautiful.
Saturday started with a bang. My friends and I decided after breakfast to go cliff jumping. It was terrifying but worth it. Then it was on to tubing and water skiing for the rest of the day. Because of all the different water activities some people would be on the boats, others cliff jumping, relaxing, and even blobbing. If you  do not know, a blob is an inflatable bag of air that someone sits on the end of, while another person jumps and catapults them into the air, it is really cool. Even though I decided not to get blobbed, there is always next year!
Powell Blobbing
The day ended with a relaxing campfire again. This time some of the boys decided to create a mote with a fire in the center, which allowed us all to be together. We ate, sang, and bonded under the night’s sky.

Powell Fire Pit
Then we packed up and headed home on Sunday. Four and a half hours in the car is a way to build a friendship that you never thought you would have. The car ride to Powell was very entertaining. Singing to Disney, and rocking out in the convertible was an experience I will not forget!

Powell Group
It is hard to capture the love I have for Chi Alpha and the trip in this post. But the relationships and adventures I have had through this organization are amazing and I know will stay with me long after college.

Before you head off to college everyone says to get involved, and it is true. Being a first year student, I do not know what college would be like without the clubs and organizations I am a part of, and the people I have meet through them.

Hello! I’d like to introduce myself…

JefferyMy name is Jeffery Boudoin I’m from New Orleans, LA. I am a senior here at Embry-Riddle studying Aeronautical Science minoring in Global Business. My goal is to fly for British Airways flying multiple incredible routes all over Europe. I have been in love with aviation for as long as I could remember and decided to come to Embry-Riddle to pursue my dream of being a professional pilot, studying in a place where everyone shares the same passion as I do for flight.

Excited to be blogging for Embry-Riddle

Hello! I’m Amelia and I am excited to be blogging for Embry-Riddle. I hope you will come back often to see what it’s like to be a student here at the Prescott, AZ campus. I just love it and I know you will too. I will write more about me soon! You won’t want to miss it so follow me. As well, let me know if there is anything you want to know about. All of us bloggers would be happy to write about it.

Me

It’s Official I Have My Own Blog!

Hello everyone my name is Carlos Apodaca. I am officially a new blogger at Embry-Riddle! You will see older posts from me because I was a guest blogger this past summer.

I am fCarlos - soccerrom Obregon, Sonora, Mexico. This is my first semester as a Freshman but I’ve been here since January 2015 attending an English course that I just graduated from through the Embry-Riddle Language Institute (ERLI). Also, I am going to be involved in the wrestling team. This is something I am very excited about. I am studying Global Business as my degree program and am loving it too. The things I most like to do are wrestling, watch movies, hike to as many beautiful places as I can (Chi Alpha is making a lot of hiking trips), rock climbing, fishing, rock concerts, reading books, playing chess, and of course I love soccer!

Chi Alpha Embry-Riddle

Chi Alpha Embry-Riddle

I hope everybody is having an awesome fall semester! Blogging is a great way for me to practice my English so I’ll be posting more throughout the year.

Part 2 – How to Succeed as a Student-Athlete at Embry-Riddle

In my opinion, the most important factor for a student-Athlete to be successful is diet and good eating habits. The fact that they train and go to school every day, all week, all year causes them feel two or three times more tired than a normal stuFood Pyramiddent. Athletes are always running on 3000 revolution a minute every day trying to recover muscle, finish projects, homework, resting, going to the training room in case of injury, preparing food, getting ready for trips, losing weight, and more. Diet is essential!! Good eating habits will provide enough energy and vitamins to do all the activities that a student-athlete has to get done every day. A bad diet based on fast food or a lack of nutrients is totally destructive not only for your sport but also for the most important factor that keeps you here – your career as student.

One of my favorite dishes chicken mole with rice. So good and healthy!

One of my favorite dishes chicken mole with rice. So good and healthy!

A bad diet would cause you poor muscle recovery after training, poor attention in class, and can make you feel more tired than normal. If an athlete is not eating the correct food his/her body is never going to recover to keep up with the high-speed lifestyle student-athletes live in.

Breaks, holidays, and time off is a two-edged sword for Student-Athletes. Holidays and breaks are something I personally love because it’s when we take a huge breathe of fresh air into our bodies and we can go back home for more than a few days to visit our family and friends. The thing is that we are not only students, we are also representing Embry-Riddle in athletics and breaks are the perfect moment to get out of shape. This certainly happened to me over the summer when I went back home. Everything was perfect – I saw family and friends and relaxed a little. But, I knew that if I wanted to come back in good shape for the next season I had to keep running a minimum of three times a week and do some other exercises. The first week I did what I had to do, I was very motivated, but after some weeks I got lazy and I stopped training. I was at home, no school, no tournaments, and of course good food, basically no stress at all. After summer break, the time to come back arrived and when I got back to the normal training I was totally devastated. My body wasn’t ready for that level of training. I had three very hard weeks to get used to the intense training again. I was sore, exhausted, and I got a knee injury. Right then I made a promise to myself I will never do that again, ever!! Now even if I am on a break I will keep moving, exercising, running, and preparing myself for whatever new challenge is coming!

Being a Student-Athlete is often, actually, never easy. I have had times in my life when I was so tired – tired to a level that I cannot sleep, tired to a level that I got sick, tired to a level that the only thing I wanted was to give up. In those moments, sometimes I think “Why I am here? Why am I doing this to myself? Why?!! This does not make any sense! I would rather be sleeping until 9 AM, only going to school and not dealing with physical pain. Instead I have 5:00 AM training in winter, then school, then afternoon training, then homework and today is just Wednesday! Not even half the week is gone and the worst thing is I have to do laundry because I don’t have any clean sock for tomorrow!” Yes, I can get overwhelmed. Once that has passed, I remember that I want to be successful, that I want to be the best, that I want to be a great person for society, and then I remember that every single drop of sweat, every 5 AM training, every single second in the wrestling room and the classroom are totally worth it.

Keep It Up and Never Give Up!!!

Take My Advice: Wisdom from a Senior (as in graduating this year!)

As the sun began tA young meo peak through the window of my room at 5:30 am breaking through the night’s previous invasion, I couldn’t help but think to myself “How do people in this state survive during the summer when they are awakened at such an early time?” Before I could even get overly grouchy, a surge of excitement filled my body. This was it! This was the beginning of a new start. This was the start of my adulthood. I was no longer in my childhood home, I was in college.

At first, of course, it’s a little intimidating but I knew my parents had done everything they could and more throughout my childhood to prepare me for this very moment. Going off to college is an incredibly rewarding and fulfilling experience and now as a senior, as I look back to 2012 when I started my very challenging and rewarding journey in obtaining my bachelors degree in Aeronautical Science, I realize that there is honestly no more exciting year as Freshman year.

To this day my best and most profound memories are from when I first started my journey here at Embry-Riddle – seeing new faces, experiencing a new state, experiencing a new culture. It was all incredibly exciting.

Ok, so the first day isn’t only exciting, there are moments where things are a little scary but I’d argue that actually helps the college experience. It challenges you to get out of your comfort zone and really be who you’ve always wanted to be. This is a new start; this is a new chance for you to get it right. High school is over; you never have to worry about working on assignments that you feel are pointless, well only your humanities class work, but you’ll soon realize that those classes are an easy GPA booster (so don’t blow them off).

ExSedona!plore everything that Prescott has to offer.
Don’t be afraid to jump in your car and just spontaneously drive to every corner of this impeccable state. Arizona has an incredible landscape. You can drive 50 minutes north and feel as if you just entered a Christmas wonderland with all of the pine trees surrounding every corner of the city of Flagstaff. Then you can drive 60 miles south and really experience what it’s like living in a true inferno (Phoenix) which will lead you to jumping in a tube and floating down the famous Salt River. This is just the beginning. You have so much to accomplish here!

Introduce yourself to Friends.people you see around campus. We really are a family oriented campus. You will soon realize this once the fall semester comes to a close and you’re back at home thinking life is so boring without your ERAU “crew”. The people you meet at this school will truly become your extended family and will be the people who help you build memories that you will carry with you for the rest of your life.
The friends I have made at this school continue to remind me that I made the best decision in choosing Embry-Riddle as my place of study.

Fall 2015. Senior Year. Capstone. Yes!

Hey there fellow students/potential students here’s an update on how my first month back has been! So, as you know, I am a senior in Aerospace Engineering and this semester I am working on the Preliminary Aircraft Design course of my Capstone Project. It has been pretty fun so far but is definitely hard. The courses you take prior to the capstone do help out a lot in your preparation for designing an entire aircraft from scratch. But really how cool is that — an entire aircraft from scratch!

I am also continuing to pursue the research I was working on over the summer. Hopefully, the data processing will allow us to write a paper on the research. If we are able to write it then I am hoping that the project will help me in my professional career in the Air Force.

Yes, I am in ROTC here and it rocks!!ROTC I am in my fourth year and I have the position of female cadet retention in the detachment. It is super fun because I get to meet cool female cadets, encourage, advise, and PT with them!

That’s pretty much all that I’ve been up to this semester so far, keep checking my blog for more updates, fun, facts, and useful info! If you have any questions for me please feel free to comment below 🙂

 

How to Succeed as a Student-Athlete at Embry-Riddle

Carlos - wrestling

ERAU Wrestling!

athleticsSoccer, wrestling, and volleyball are just some of the sports Embry-Riddle has on campus for any student to join (see all of them on our sports website). Mostly the head coaches from our teams go out to do recruiting around the U.S. or in my case another country (remember, I’m originally from Mexico), with the purpose to bring them together in a team. Many student-athletes are chosen to get a scholarship to help them pass through college. Even though getting a scholarship in a sport is a great success it also brings many responsibilities and challenges to those who agree to take it. I know this because I’m proud to be on the ERAU Wrestling team (check out my signing notice).

Student-Athletes will have many challenge and responsibilities. One of the most challenging obstacles to overcome is finding the balance between college (homework, meetings, projects, etc.) and training (rest, eating habits, trips, etc.). Time-management becomes a critical skill for student-athletes. This skill will help you find time for every single activity you have to get done between college life and athletic life, also allowing you to give 100% in the school and 100% in the training.

In my personal experience, this skill took me too long to understand and develop to an optimal level. For example, early in the semester I made my schedule for homework, training times, rest and recovery times, etc. Everything was ready for the following week, but on Wednesday when I was supposed to sleep at 10:00 PM because I had training the following morning at 5:30 AM, a friend invited me to go watch a movie. “No big deal,” I thought to myself, but the movie started at 10:30 PM and ended at 12:00 AM, and so by the time I was back home it was already 1:00 AM! You can imagine what happened – I got 4 hours or so of sleep. I was tired for my training the follow morning, tired for the classes after training and too tired to keep doing the things I was supposed to get done in my weekly schedule. Time management is the most critical skill in college life. Ironically, our worst enemy is our self. In college, nobody will chase you telling you when to sleep, eat, or do homework, all of those duties are up to you.

“Conquer first yourself, then the world will fall at your feet.” -Augustine

Another area I consider critical for student-athletes is the balance between homework/classes and the sports season. Fall sports have already started. For example Cross-country is going to have its first trip-tournament in couple of days and Volleyball has already traveled.

Volleyball at Embry-Riddle

Volleyball at Embry-Riddle

These student-athletes have some challenges to break down. First, they will have some days away meaning homework, lessons, notes, and precious time in the classroom is going to be missed. They have to make prior arrangements with the professor before the trip to ask them for homework and maybe even time extensions for due dates. The good thing is that faculty here at Embry-Riddle really support us and are helpful. Another good option is to ask friends in those classes to back them up with notes and help with homework. Second, if they got the assignments, notes, and help from their friends they still have to get them done before or after the trip and keep up with training and practice. I know, it sounds hard but it is possible and totally achievable! I’m proof.

The Embry Riddle Prescott Campus Golf Team

The Embry Riddle Prescott Campus Golf Team

To be continued…Part 2 coming later this week.