Hey there! I’m Ricky Arvizu. I was born and raised with skyscrapers on my driveway and the beach in my backyard in beautiful southern California.  I’m super stoked to currently be completing my senior year here at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, AZ where I study Professional Aeronautics/Aviation with minors in Aviation Management and Applied Meteorology.  I am also hoping to graduate with a dual major in Aviation Safety Science.

Besides school work, a lot of my time is spent working for the university in the Office of Admissions as the Senior Campus Ambassador/Tour Guide as well as a Social Media Student Assistant and New Student Orientation Leader.  I also work with the nationally recognized community service and leadership development organization Silver Wings where I currently serve on the Southwest Regional X Staff.  If life wasn’t exciting enough, I just completed an amazing once-in-a-lifetime summer internship with JetBlue Airways in New York City, where I hope to continue working upon graduation next spring.

Besides full time school and working almost full time, I do enjoy spending lots of whatever free time I can find with some of my closest friends and my teammates on the Air Force Honor Guard Team (who have basically become like family to me).

You have a front row view to my life as a college senior as I reflect back to all the memories that have made me who I am, the experiences that have placed me here today, and the thrilling months still to come ahead.  Welcome to my blog! 

As is my annual tradition, this last blog before the end of the semester is going to be all about what I have learned this past year at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University! I am nearly finished with my junior year, and even though I thought I learned everything there is to know about ERAU last year, I somehow managed to learn even more about college life this year! So here it goes, my little gems of knowledge that I have collected this past year:

1.  Always be prepared (time-wise and otherwise) for emergencies (such as a broken down car) and realize that it does eventually happen to everyone. No one is immune to bad luck, unfortunately.

2.  The SGA Office in the Student Union has a free candy drawer, and when you’re lucky, there are sometimes Goldfish. Take advantage of this as often as you can!

3.  There are always going to be blocks on your schedule that you have to remove before you can actually register for classes. Don’t wait for the day of registration to go see your advisor! Chances are, everyone else and their dogs are going to be waiting in line too and you probably won’t get all of the classes you wanted.

4.  Join as many clubs as you can. There are awesome clubs like Zumba Club, Poker Club, Harry Potter Club, Sky-Diving Club, Ballroom Dancing Club, and so many more! You get to make new friends and the activities are always fun!

5.  As weird as this sounds, you should actually look at the fliers posted around campus in passing. Sometimes there are awesome under-the-radar activities going on that are not widely broadcasted.

6.  Don’t hesitate to go to Health Services when you’re sick. Even though school and homework are so important, staying healthy is important too! Don’t put off your health because you’re busy! (Such as so many other lessons in life, I had to learn this lesson the hard way!)

7.  There is not one single way to get ANYWHERE on campus. All the sidewalks are like zigzags, so don’t waste your time standing at the crossroads wondering which route is faster. Just pick one and chances are you’ll get to class on time.

8.  The quiet room in the library is a great place to study, especially when you don’t want to be bothered by tons of people making noise! However, if you’re a library-style-social-butterfly, the top floor is where you can study while you hang out with friends (hello, study groups!).

9.  Take advantage of being able to sleep in (yes, sleeping until eight is considered sleeping in!) In the real, working world, you don’t get that luxury!

10.  Take chances! Don’t be so risk averse that you miss out on all the fun and miss out on awesome memories. College life is the best kind, so make sure to enjoy it while you can, because it sure flies by!

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

-Ferris Bueller

With the end of the semester approaching, one things stands between students and summer: finals. It is amazing how one word strikes fear in the eyes of most students. However, instead of dwelling on the negatives, I would like to briefly tell you about my classes this past semester!

First off is Principles of Management, which our professor is also a business consultant. I really enjoyed this course. I have always found that managing things (marching band as drum major in high school or senior patrol leader in boy scouts both having 100+ members) to be fun and interesting and this is basically what the course was! The next class after a lecture was a case study or an exercise that followed the same concepts that were in the chapter, but applied to real-life situations that sometimes our Professor dealt with! That really but a unique spin on the course.

Next is Flight Physiology which was very interesting to learn about how the various parts of the body relate to a flight environment and how the body can provide illusions that lead to spatial disorientation!

Aircraft Performance was a great class, technical, but helpful. The big project of the semester was to do a paper on an aircraft and make performance charts based off of the data that you found. This was difficult, but it was a great learning tool of how the various bits of data change the parameters of an aircraft’s performance!

Lastly, I took Turbine Engines. I really did not know hardly anything about a turbine engine before taking the class, and now, I know so much that I can get nerdy around one! This was basically the professors goal – to beat the turbine information into our heads so we can be intelligent when talking about turbines. The big thing is this class was the term paper on a turbine engine of our choice. I chose mine to be the PW150A, which is found on the Bombardier Dash 8 Q400. And surely enough, I know that engine inside and out!

Overall, this semester was great. I learned a lot in each class (I know this sounds cliche, but I am completely serious!). I mainly took a lot of core classes for my major this semester and I am pleased with the education I have received thus far! Next week is finals, then I can enjoy the relaxing and fun summer! If you have finals, or midterms coming up, may you have the best of luck!

It’s crunch time once more. Finals are coming up next week, and just thinking about it ties my stomach up in nervous knots. On the bright side, IT’S ALMOST SUMMER! All college kids love when summer comes around! Here in beautiful Prescott, AZ, the weather could not be any more perfect. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, a cool summer breeze blows through the trees… and all the Riddle kids are cramming in the library for hours. Figures. I feel nocturnal during finals week, because I literally come out of the library only when it’s dark and time to go home to sleep. So, to take a break from studying, I am going to blog about my final impressions on the classes I took this past semester.

Social Psychology was great. My professor was so fun, and she teaches the subject really well! I love psychology classes, and this one did not leave me disappointed. We learned so much about people’s behaviors and thought processes. It will really come in handy in my job someday! Chinese class was also a lot of fun. I feel like I have learned so much about the language and the culture! I’m excited to continue to take it next fall. Quantitative Methods II was interesting; business Calculus for a GSIS major? Sure, why not? Intelligence and Technology was also a fun class to take. We learned all about spy gadgets and satellites and cool shenanigans having to do with technology. Yes, we did learn about the cool stuff like:

…concealed transmitters…

…lipstick pistols…

…and hidden cigarette cameras! Awesome, right?

International Relations was also really interesting. We learned a lot of theories concerning international relations, including Realism, Neo-Realism, Liberalism, Constructivism, and more! And what’s better is that we are reading a book in class called “Theories of International Politics and Zombies“. It is a really awesome book describing how the different international theories would come into play if there was a zombie outbreak! It is definitely epic.

I’ll never pass up an opportunity to put a picture of Michael Jackson and his horde of the undead into a post. So here it is. And the best part is, it has to do with International Relations! Excellent.

Even though I thoroughly enjoyed all of these classes, I would have to say that my favorite class this semester was Microeconomics with Dr. Carreras. He is an AMAZING professor. I have learned so much from him, and it turns out that I’m pretty good at microeconomics, too! I am one of the few students that has taken the class to get 100 percent on one of Dr. Carreras’s exams. I’m pretty happy about that!

So, all in all, this semester has been one wild ride. I can’t believe how going to school can feel so slow at times, and other times it just whizzes by! Only two more semesters left until I’m an Embry-Riddle graduate! WOOHOO! Everyone out there reading this, study hard! You can do it! There IS a light at the end of the tunnel, you just gotta get there!

“Endurance is one of the most difficult disciplines, but it is to the one who endures that the final victory comes.”

-Buddha

The penultimate challenge for Army ROTC students here at ERAU is the JFTX we embark on tomorrow. It comes right after the dreaded Record APFT (final pt test) and before the even more dreaded finals week. We leave tomorrow morning and expect freezing temperatures, frigid wind chills and possibly even some blisters. All in all, its no big deal compared to the real training and hardcore tactics that the Army really does, but for us juniors this is a big test before our final test at LDAC this summer.This whole week has been devoted to preparing for it and trying to cope with all the other schoolwork we are dealing with. I tried discussing with Liesl Hall about some topics in our class but by this time in the semester the competition in classes becomes rather intense, so Liesl and many others become more introverted so as to protect their grades and dignity while studying for finals. It’s a nature cycle of the ERAU college student, but by now I am used to it, and used to Liesl’s sly and silly behavior. We have just finished numerous papers and projects and I even took part in helping some friends with a project about a female terrorist group. My friends Gianna, Casey and Teri were working on a project for the best class ever, History of Terrorism, taught by Professor Austen, and I helped a bit on their project and watched them present.
Now it is getting late and I planned on writing a lot more, but its time to prepare mentally for one of the last challenges of junior year. I can’t believe I’m almost a senior. I am going to say right now that next year my academic schedule will be more relaxed and I’m gonna have all the fun I couldn’t have the first semester of this year and all the other times school and other stuff got in the way!

One of the great things about Embry-Riddle is how much all of the faculty truly cares about the students. Just this past weekend, the Women’s and Diversity Center hosted an “Outstanding Women Dinner,” held at the Prescott Centennial Center, for women attending the school with excellent academic achievements. There were many members of the ERAU faculty in attendance. It was so inspiring to see so many female students that have done so well at ERAU.

After the rather scrumptious meal, a presentation was given that showed us just how important women are to Embry-Riddle, and some of the ERAU alumni that have gone far in their professions. This included Susan Kilraine, ERAU’s first astronaut. It is amazing how much women have truly changed the world, and a lot of them come from ERAU. The presentation was very inspirational, telling us how important we are to this field, and how we can change the world as well.

Here is Susan Kilrain, an ERAU Alumni and our first astronaut!

Some of professors from each college (College of Aviation, College of Arts and Sciences, and the College of Engineering) each gave an award to the female student that they believed had worked the hardest and had achieved excellence in their academics. It was amazing to be around other females who study and work as hard in their academics as I do. I know now that women make a huge impact on society and our ERAU females, like the ERAU males, are going to be the future leaders of this industry. Embry-Riddle has put so much emphasis on excellence, and unsurprisingly, excellence is what it produces.

“The most effective way to do it, is to do it.”

-Amelia Earhart

I completely forgot to post about the events that happened before the much needed Spring Break. My friends Emily and Rachel came up to visit me from Tucson and wanted to explore Prescott and especially Whiskey Row now that we are all 21 years of age! Following a rather ridiculous stressful week of school and ROTC the girls came up in the afternoon and I showed them my new and much-improved awesome living arrangement. I showed them around the school and although I feared it would only take 15 minutes because it is not that big, it took awhile because I gave them the whole tour of everything our campus has to offer. Admissions would have been proud because I was able to show them all the major sites of ERAU except the Ops Lab (which is the best part) because it was closed. We see ACI, the Library, and our Student Union everyday but when you show these buildings off to incoming students or friends/family they seem much cooler than we actually perceive them because we see them everyday. After I showed them the campus I drove them around the city to get a premature look of what Prescott basically has to offer. We ended up eating dinner at the newest and most delicious site Prescott has to offer, Chipotle, and I got free chips. This may be because I had two beautiful girls with me, which is a rare site in Prescott, and even rarer for a Riddle guy to be hanging out with, except of course for the Queen of blogging Ms. Liesl Hall and our friend Lauren.
We came back to campus in time for casino night where we met up with Liesl, Lauren and our crazy friend Anna and joined a blackjack table. We didn’t leave that table the entire night and had some fun faux-gambling these colorful chips away (I didn’t know what each of them was worth at first so I just bet whatever chips seemed best at the time). I didn’t win anything, as usual, and Liesl didn’t win an iPad like she did last year, so we left before the crowds rushed the exits and went back to my dorm where we had a mini-smorgasbord with the Party Pack of Lime Eegee’s that the girls brought up. Ahh Lime Eegee’s is the 2nd best flavor, second only to Watermelon. Peach & Berries comes 3rd now. The school hosted an event called Spring Fling and it was held in the Student Union. It was packed and a lot of students came. I hope the school provides the dance floor, beverages and fun that it did this year because it was really a good idea.
The next day I took the girls to Chartwells and for them it was a new experience but for me it was another day in the Dolldrums. Chartwells is great, but like any dining facility you can’t help but get used to it after awhile. We went into Prescott again and explored downtown taking pictures everywhere and touring Whiskey Row. There was this shop inside Whiskey Row that lets groups of friends or family take silly picutres of Western times in which they dress up in costumes and pose for these ridiculous and in some cases, lewd, shots. I dressed as an outlaw, Rachel dressed as a cowgirl and Emily of course dressed as a loose saloon girl. We took tons of shots and had a blast doing so but only could keep a few. We eventually chose a few and took them home. That was by far one of the most enjoyable moments I have had in Prescott.
Every time people come to visit in Prescott I take them to Zeke’s because its the best restaurant here. The food was awesome and then we dared to eat The Brownie. It was massive but we did it after dying through a mountain of chocolate, a moat of hot fudge and a whole avalanche of whipped cream. We visited Buddy’s Casino right after just to look around and since we had just seen Contagion we, at least I, were afraid to touch anything. We met up with some of our other 21 year old friends and eventually went to Whiskey Row. Our friend Soren met us there and we had a really good time checking out Whiskey Row for the first time and just hanging out. The girls left the next day but it was by far one of the best weekends ever.

At Casino Night with the infamous Liesl Hall

The Zeke's Brownie

Prescott Shenanigans

Best ever

So fun!

I went to France for spring break to visit my little brother Michael that lives there. The week and a half that I spent there was a lot of fun and filled with French pastries, cheese and wine along with the sights of France. My Mom brother and I visited all the normal tourist haunts such as Paris, including the Eiffel Tower, Parisian Catacombs and the Arc d’Triomphe, as well as Normandy where Michael lived. We saw several historical cities and the American Military Cemetary by Omaha beach. Unfortunately we had to return to the States to come back from Spring break and the semester kept going as if nothing had happened.
The first week back was already filled with presentations, papers and book reports that were due. It seems like the work all piled up because the weeks prior to Spring Break were filled with fun and a rather relaxed attitude. The first day that I was back Prescott was covered in snow that fell for about a day straight. It was funny watching some guy from the school shovel the paths and lay them with salt and then not 30 minutes after he was gone the snow would already have covered the paths he just cleaned.
Right now I am taking a break (actually procrastinating reading another book) and dreading writing yet another book report. Oh well, better get back to work, but hopefully I’ll find another moment to procrastinate very soon.

American Military Cemetery