Learning to Cook

Posted on June 22, 2013 by Cherie

So this summer I made the decision to stay on campus and take summer courses, the most important summer course I am currently taking is one I will most likely use for the rest of my life….cooking…

Herb Chicken and Cheese Tortellini

I never considered myself to be a good cook or to really enjoy cooking but, since I have taken up the pursuit of cooking (mostly so i wouldn’t have to pay for a summer meal plan) and also because I would like to cook whatever sounds good to me that day.

Some simple tips that I can give you are buy meats in bulk, separate them into portion sizes and freeze them. When you want meat just pull out however many portions you want and cook it. Buy your vegetables and fruits and Fry’s, they are a few cents more but, way better than the fruit and veggies at Walmart. Canned foods, dry pasta, and top raman are cheap!!!! These are great because you can mix them with cooked meat, pasta sauces, or veggies and have a tasty balanced meal. Do not waste all your money on fast food, you can pay about $3 a meal if you make it yourself instead of $10-$15 a meal if you eat out, this can drain your paycheck really really fast!!!

Red Velvet Cake

There are so many other tips I can give you, but so little space to write in so the best and very last tip I can offer (unless you comment with a question or helpful tip) is GO ASK YOUR MOMMA!!!…….or you auntie, or someone who can cook…..Google works too 😉

Summer Job -The YMCA

Posted on June 21, 2013 by Adam

Hey there readers in this blog you will learn about tips to finding a summer job if you are in high school or college so that you can make some spending money or just cash for gas. I will talk about somethings to look for in a job like any prerequisites and then my own personal experience that may help you.

So for those of you students out there that are looking for some money and or a job to keep you busy and start to build your resume. So for those that are looking to really start your resume and earn some money, The YMCA foundation is a great place to start! They have many opportunities for those that are age 16 and up. The company treats its employees very well. as i have learned from experience. But the best way to look for a job is by going into stores or business places and personally asking a manager if there are open positions available. This is the best way, sometimes they may give you some paperwork on the spot to fill out other times you will need to go online.

Some might think that they do not have many options and just get stuck with a job they do not want, this is not the case most of the time. look for SEASONAL positions as a way to start, usually water parks or any amusement park hires just before summer seasonal employees because the summer is a busy time.As friends and family about any jobs they can think of that could possibly hire.

Do your homework. You should always know what the job position requires physically as well as the description of the job. Such as life guarding, you should of course be a good swimmer. As well as the hours the business will require you, consider any summer classes you will take, if you have a car or take the bus.

A good idea for saving money is opening a checking/savings account at a bank. For students in high school or college the account is free of charge. You must of course be 18 or have a cosigner if not.

From personal experience i have worked every summer since sophomore year in high school and I have found it beneficial to start working summers because now i have a lot of money and I am still pretty young. I started at Knott’s Soak city for two summers as a lifeguard and now have a position at the YMCA as a lifeguard. I definitely prefer the YMCA more, the pay rate is better, the scheduling is way more flexible and i get free access to the gym and pool. On top of that it looks really good on a resume for any position. Not only does working in the summer have benefits but more then like;y you will meet some awesome people.

Thank you for reading, I hope you have been informed!

Junior Year Is Over!

Posted on June 20, 2013 by Maddie

High Five after I passed my Private Checkride!

Hello Blogosphere, I know I went a while between posts there! I got so swamped that I had to take some time off. I have to admit that this was a very, very busy semester for me. I didn’t really get a chance to sit back and think about everything that I had done. Looking back on the semester, I realize that I accomplished a lot! Since I last wrote, I made it through checkride season and finally got my Private Pilot Certificate for Rotorcraft! Yay! I also got the opportunity to go to HAI’s Heli-Expo in Las Vegas which was mind-blowing. My picture even made it into the rotorcraft pro magazine, woo! Another one of Embry-Riddle’s students Celeste Hadley also had a picture of her accepting a scholarship from MD helicopters which is awesome! I also turned 21 during finals week, and still managed to get an A on the final I took the next day. In fact, I got A’s on all my finals! I’m pretty proud of myself.

My course load this semester was made up of RS 300: Observing Asian Cultures, SIS 328: Intelligence, Analysis, Writing, and Briefing, and LCH 102: Mandarin Chinese II. It was the highest workload I’ve had from 9 credits, ever. On top of that, I was doing Private II ground and flight, which kept me really busy as I studied for the three stage checks/checkride I had this semester. Intelligence, Analysis, Writing, and Briefing (or IWB, as we call it) is basically an advanced Intelligence Writing course, which I’ve touched on before. Basically, we learned about methods by which to condense and present data in a concise manner. We also continued to write intelligence briefs about a country of our choosing, to keep our writing skills sharp. Mandarin Chinese was also a continuation upon the course from the fall semester. We learned at a faster pace this semester, and practiced putting together more complex sentences.

Our presentations are not as boring as this one apparently was.

RS 300 was my most difficult course. There were 5 female students in the course, including myself. That’s some girl power!! During the course we would have focus weeks on different countries or regions within Asia. Every class period, each student would give a 15 minute presentation on a specific topic about the culture of the region we were focusing on that week. Our presentations were on topics such as religion, folklore and myths, cooking and eating practices, history, war and revolutions, popular culture, and global business interaction. Writing two fifteen-minute presentations every week was a ton of work. On top of that, we were also assigned reading from our textbook and some multiple choice questions to answer from that. But I’ve mastered the art of going from nothing to ten slides with notecards and talking points in about 3 hours, which I predict is going to be a valuable life skill for me (At least I hope so). But whoever coined the saying that whatever you put into an activity is what you get out was absolutely right. Not only did I learn a ton of information from this class, I also learned to appreciate the fact that we have a wealth of knowledge at our fingertips. All of the information that I learned was a direct result of our own research, and it made me realize that I don’t need to get a PhD to become educated on a subject matter.

Fire!

Posted on June 19, 2013 by Zach

Even though there was already some information about the fire here in Prescott posted I figured I would add some information from the flight aspect of how it is effecting us here. As of yesterday afternoon (June 18th) a TFR (Temporary Flight Restriction) was put up just outside of the Prescott airport airspace. The flight restriction only covers the area over and around the fire so the ERAU flight line is still functioning and conducting flight training in the surrounding airspace that is unrestricted. The fire has grown to around 7,000 acres in just 24 hours. Fire aircraft have all priority for departures and arrivals into the airport so flight training is expecting slight delays as the tankers arrive and depart. Two DC-10 aircraft, converted into fire bombers, have been dispatched to the fire here and are operating out of Phoenix’s Mesa-Gateway airport as they are too large to operate out of the Prescott airport. Three other fire airplanes, and at least three other fire helicopters are currently based at the Prescott airport and have been flying all day long. I currently live just across the street from the airport, and have taken a lot of time to watch the aircraft as they operate. The DC-10 is currently the largest operating fire bomber, and is extremely awesome to watch. Growing up in northern California I am no stranger to wild fires, but I must say that being able to see flames from my window is something that really hits home. The fire is still not contained at all, but is not a threat to ERAU, the airport, or the general town of Prescott itself. I have taken several photos and videos that I will attach. I hope everyone is staying safe and out of the way if they live near the fire!

Fire Time Lapse

Fire Aircraft Taking Off

Flames on Granite Mountain as the sun sets.

I drove as close as I could to see the fire before it was very large but the Sheriff already had shut down the road within a few miles.

The DC-10 is a tri-jet airliner converted into a fire bomber.

The view from my apartment!

Smoke from the fire reached the AZ/UT border in just 8 hours!

Favorite Classes!

Posted on June 19, 2013 by Maddie

This week, I get to tell you all about one of my favorite classes I’ve taken in all my time at ERAU! It was difficult to pick just one of the incredibly interesting classes that I’ve taken, but I decided to blog about COMM219: Speech. This class is required for a lot of our majors on campus as a way to help you improve your public speaking skills. I had this class with Sally Blomstrom as a professor, who was an absolute joy to learn from. I highly recommend taking any course that she teaches. Over the course of the semester, we completely broke down the speech writing process and studied lots of different ways to effectively or ineffectively deliver a message. We wrote different types of speeches, from informative to persuasive. We also studied ways to add or detract from the message using varying types of media. Overall, the course made me much more comfortable speaking in front of my peers.

My favorite of the projects we took on in this course involved local elementary students. Their teachers submitted ideas relating to the science, technology, and engineering fields, and groups of students from our class got to choose a topic and put together a presentation about it. My group got “Electricity” as a topic. It was a really great exercise in tailoring your presentation to a very specific audience. Not only did I actually learn about electricity and alternative forms of energy, but it was so fun to be able to hang out with elementary school kids! They all had such interesting questions and we all felt like we were helping the future generation get interested in science.

After every major assignment, Professor Blomstrom would ask us to submit a self-review of how effective we thought we were and areas that we thought could have used improvement. Most of the time in classes, you move on past assignments without having much time to reflect on what helped or didn’t help you earn that grade. If you earn a bad grade, you simply tell yourself that you need to work harder next time. But having a purpose to sit down and really evaluate where you went wrong and where you went right in an assignment can keep you from “working harder” at making the same mistakes next time. I felt that I improved more throughout the semester because of these self-review assignments. My takeaway piece of advice for this week is not to count out your general education classes! They can be some of the most enjoyable and informative classes that you will take, if you have the right attitude.

Fire Season??!!

Posted on June 19, 2013 by Cherie

I am sure many people across the nation have heard about the 7,000 acre fire burning in Prescott right now, I am writing to assure you that there is no imminent threat to the Prescott Campus of Embry Riddle. The faculty and staff are in constant contact with the Prescott Fire department and the other entities that are battling the blaze. Again there is no threat to the campus as the fire is heading away from Embry Riddle.

There is quite an extraordinary view of the wildfire from campus however, some of the pictures students have taken are featured here, but do not fear the campus is by no means in danger. Please see the Prescott news website for further updates on the current situation. At this point the fire has no threat to the campus, and faculty members are maintaining contact with the fire department to gather further information. There is no threat to the campus or of evacuation at this time. Other updates are available at the following news sources: AZ Central Daily Courier ABC 15

Stick Around in the Summer!

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Maddie

Summer is the best time of year for activities in Prescott. Not only is the weather gorgeous, but normally you have more free time to get out and do stuff outside! Some of my favorite summer memories are from camping trips or hiking trips. It’s so much fun to get away from town for a little while and explore nature. For this reason, I think it’s a good idea to stay on campus over the summer instead of going back to your home town for the summer break. It’s also a really good time to get a couple of classes out of the way so that you can take a lighter load during the semester.

The underground lava tube!

There is a cool spot to camp and hike near Flagstaff called the Lava Tubes. It’s a big underground cave/tunnel that you can hike into, and there are dispersed camp sites around the area. A couple of summers ago, a group of admissions employees went camping there together and it was a ton of fun!

One of the most well known spots for swimming in the area is called fossil creek. It’s over an hour drive away and a bit of a hike on top of that, but there are awesome cliffs to jump off of into the water. All of my local friends also love to go tubing down the salt river. It’s in the phoenix area, and it takes you about three hours to float from the beginning to the end of the river. You rent tubes for all the people in your group and one extra to put a cooler in for drinks, and you tie them all together and float down together.

The Top of the Waterfall!

Another fun place to hike and camp is called wolf creek. It’s only about a 20 minute drive from our campus, so it’s a lot easier to just go on a spur of the moment decision! Wolf Creek is this big stone waterfall, but you have to catch it at the right time of year for there to actually be any water in it. Unfortunately, we did not do this. But it’s still a really short, fun hike to do. Someday I’ll make it out there when there is running water and report back.

Water Volleyball at Our Pool–Sweet!

You’re also definitely going to want to visit our on campus swimming pool! It’s heated now (yay!!!) and it’s open every day from 11am-6pm. And it’s free and right on campus, so what’s better than that?

One of the biggest reasons that I like to take summer classes is that you take fewer classes at a time, so it’s much easier to get really into the classes you take and learn more. Instead of having class only two or three times a week, normally you will have class everyday for at least an hour and a half. This really allows you to get to know your professor better. Taking summer classes also gives you some freedom to take fewer classes during the semester. If you only take two classes in the summer, that allows you to reduce your course load by three credits each semester. One class can actually make a big difference, especially during midterms or finals week, when you’re studying for all your classes at the same time. If you are a flight student, you have even more incentive to stay over the summer because your tuition is usually discounted in some way. It also gives you the freedom to focus on flying and flight courses without having to worry about your other academic courses.

Night Running

Posted on June 12, 2013 by Cherie

Recently as a result of the heat (about 90+ but no more than 98 F) I’ve taken to running on the school’s track at night and boy is it gorgeous!!! As I run I get to watch the sun go down and the breeze on the track, which is a rubberized running surface with a field at its center, is really cool and pleasant.Which brings me to the reason for my blog!! 😀

A portion of the track behind our the Head Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Coach Chris Bray

The track can be used by all members of the campus community, for whatever your purpose is, recently a new athletic sport on campus has began using the track as they are starting up Women’s and Men’s Cross Country teams in the Fall of 2013. If you are interested in perhaps being recruited by one of our athletic teams I encourage you to check out our Athletics website where you will find a list of teams and information on how you can get started as an athlete at Embry Riddle. A visitor’s guide to Embry Riddle is also available for you to view if you are interested in coming to the University for a tour of our campus and meeting with a coach.

So whether you are extremely athletic or fi you just like to run for fun, feel free to join us and check out our athletic teams, we would love to have you here as an Embry Riddle Prescott Eagle!!

Military Influence at Embry Riddle

Posted on June 12, 2013 by Cherie

Embry Riddle’s Flight line in Prescott AZ

So today, when I was out giving tours one of our potential students expressed a concern that they were not entirely comfortable with living on a campus that had a large military affiliation. When I looked more into the topic after our discussion of the campus’s military affiliation, I discovered that some people who are interested in attending Embry Riddle think that is a Military Academy.

I would like to dispel that thought as much as possible, Embry Riddle does have military ties as a result of the two ROTC detachments on campus and also because many veterans choose to attend school here. However, we are very very very far from being any sort of a military academy, even though we do have a military affiliation we do not try to force students to join any ROTC or other type of military service. Our ROTC cadets and veterans live among the other students, we are college students as well and we are happy to get to know you, no matter what your chosen pursuit is.

You will not feel any pressure or discrimination from anyone on campus, we are a diverse campus and we are always ready to accept new students and get to know them, their dreams, pursuits, and their personalities. 😀 Some of our students come from places all over the world, such as China, the Middle East, and Europe. We know that everyone has a different background and different goals for their lives because of their previous experiences. It is our goal as a campus to promote a feeling of community among our students so that no one will ever feel like they do not belong at Embry Riddle.

When considering colleges to attend please think of Embry Riddle firstly as another college, look into the various majors we offer and if one interests you please apply, we would love to welcome you to the Embry Riddle family. And again, it is true there is a military presence on this campus but, the cadets and veterans are only your fellow students, we do not want to pressure you or make you feel uncomfortable should you consider attending Embry Riddle. We will welcome you just like any other student and we look forward to potentially meeting you in the future!!

Temple Run….Don’t play it!!!!!!

Posted on June 11, 2013 by Cherie

So I’m sure you have noticed the unusual title of this blog, it is because I must warn you not to play temple run!!! It is sooo addicting and soon you will find yourself playing it in class, at work, in your dorm room, etc etc etc. Then the game will sometimes delete your progress so that you have to start all over again… 🙁 NOT FUN!!

My lesson with Temple Run is actually one that applies to all college students….DO NOT get addicted to a game. Sure, games are fun and relaxing at times however, if you come to enjoy them to much they can damage your ability to pay attention in class and to succeed in school.

There are so many studies out there about game addictions, I encourage you to look some up on Google and most of all don’t be that kid (we have all see one, ewwww) who comes to class with terrible personal hygiene because they spent all their time in the last few days playing some video or computer game.

Phone games, thankfully don’t have repercussions as bad as the one I mentioned above but, they can still hurt you by being a distraction in class, so again take my advice and DON’T DO IT!!!