Well, this week was pretty crazy. It was sort of a wake up call to me that this this year is going to be different from last year. Wednesday was my first exam, for my calculus class, and it really caught all of us off guard. Last weekend we started cramming in all the information on the practice exam, while working on all of our other homework. I ended up getting a B+, which was kind of disappointing since all the points I lost were from one problem, a one step problem at that. Tuesday night was three hours in the library working on calc and physics homework, and studying for my exam Wednesday. All of my classes have picked up in pace a little, and one thing teachers are absolutely adamant about is the late work policy. I learned that one the hard way.

A lot of my weekend was spent creating a flash animation/narration for a story in the book Arabian Nights. First we spent a couple hours recording voices and transforming them into female and Darth Vader voices. After that I had to draft up some characters that a 3 year old with a crayon could have drawn better. Finally we reached the stage where we added sound effects, music, and of course, the Star Wars intro. It’s because of that and other copyright law infringements that the video isn’t posted publicly 🙁

The highlight of my week, which seems to have become a feature on my posts, was getting a replacement phone for my Samsung Glyde. It was a touch screen and would randomly click somewhere very distant from the location of my finger. I just got my LG Versa in the mail and it’s great. It’s actually intuitive! Another added bonus is the tilt accelerometer that shows a full keyboard sideways but just T9 and numbers if held portrait. Overall, it’s a much better phone and I’m very happy with it. Lastly, it allows AAC files which means it’ll play all of my iTunes music.  It’s good for me since I couldn’t fit my iPod in my pocket with my phone, keys, and wallet anyway.

I got my bed raised this week, which the maintenance guys took to heart.  My bed was on the middle of the riser, about a foot off the ground.  I am now three feet off the ground, which is awesome!  I know have to either jump into bed or climb up my chair and dresser if I’m feeling lazy.  Getting down is a little easier, slide down the side and you’re already upright 🙂  Sorry, no pictures this week, but I hope to write in the next couple days after the ROTC ropes course tomorrow.

Where does all the time go? Is it just me, or is it disappearing?! I go to school and do homework and then it seems as if my time is up! I need to try to fit in some more blogging, but school has consumed all my time. And I now have two other jobs! Data entry and TAC.

In Data entry, I get to enter new students into our system and put down all their information. In TAC I seem to have a lot more fun because I get to make calls to people who are interested in ERAU and see if they would like to come to our events and if they would like some more information about ERAU. It is pretty fun. Today was my first day doing TAC. It took me like 10 minutes to get up my courage to do the first phone call, after watching Brittani make about 3 calls. But finally I did it, and could you believe it went to voice mail?? lol. I got so worried for nothing. Then calling became easy, especially when you got a hold of excited people! I loved it when they started asking me questions about ERAU and the events, it made me happy. I worked from 5:30 to 8:30 just making calls. I did 37 phone calls. Doesn’t seem like much, but it is when you have to put information down as you talk. Although it was confusing at first, I must say this is probably one of my favorite jobs so far. 🙂

Enough about work…School is good. I still enjoy my classes, but for some reason I’m counting the days until Thanksgiving break. lol. I guess I have a good reason since I’m having a huge family reunion in Las Vegas. I get to see cousins and aunts that I haven’t seen for about 5-10 years! But I know it is also that need for a break from all this stress. It is crazy to try to fit in so many things in such little time.

So, my classes are alright, but really helps make school better are my sorority girls! Alpha Xi Delta! It is so funny because I was a girl who swore she would never go Greek. I felt that they only cared about partying and doing bad things, but I decided to go to an event and now I see how awesome they are! These girls act as a group of sisters, they would do anything for each other and they never make anyone do anything or go anywhere they do not want to go. They are also a sorority who do community service. As soon as I met them, everything felt right. I truly do like these girls, and it is great to know girls on this campus, since they are so few here. I am very excited for tomorrow because I get pinned! They accepted me in and I get pinned tomorrow night. Then we have classes for the next 11 weeks or so and then we get to swear in. I cannot wait for that day! If any of you were questioning the morals of Greek, do not worry, they are good people. And everyone on this campus cares about their education first! We would not be here if we didn’t, but going Greek just helps with developing a solid personal life on top of great academics. I would definitely recommend going Greek! If you are a girl think about Alpha Xi Delta!

Now going off campus, my apartment is going good. Learning a lot of new things that I never realized when I lived at home. I have definitely learned to clean up messes right away, especially when it comes to dishes and food! Otherwise the whole apartment will start smelling like said food, and God forbid that food get stale!!! EWWWW!!! lol. Living on my own has helped me grow and I am happy I went with this choice.

Well, I think that is good for today. Hope all are doing good in their classes! Have a great weekend. And as Ms. Tusa would say, “Wash your hands and eat chicken noddle soup”! (Since flu season is here…)

Anyone else going Greek?  I never thought I would, but low and behold I am!  All throughout high school I always told myself that I would not go Greek because they were all just stupid party boys that did not care about their education. 

Last year at the student preview day I got to see the clubs that were here at Embry-Riddle and I was so excited to see what I could start doing this year!  Finally, after going around and talking to clubs like Mixed Martial Arts, Mile High Airsoft, and the Anime club, I realized that there were a few tables left: the Greek tables.  I was at the event with my dad and I just did not know what to do because there was really no way around except to go past them, so I hid behind my dad and told him to walk towards the door so the Greek guys could not talk to me.  We started walking and all was going well.  Just before we got to the stairs heading to the doors, the worst thing I could imagine happened: one of the guys actually came over and started talking to me.  At first I was scared, but I pulled myself together and introduced myself, praying that this encounter would be quick and painless.  Quite the opposite.  My dad walked over to the table and started talking to the rest of the guys from the fraternity.  I did not know who they were but all I remember was seeing the letters for their “cult” as I called it back then.

After talking to them for what felt like forever, my dad finally seemed to be satisfied and we said goodbye and left the club fair.  I remember telling my dad on the way to the car that I hoped I never got involved in a fraternity because all of those guys looked so stupid like they were only in college to party and I was going for my education.  He told me to just wait and see, claiming I might end up changing my mind.

When I arrived at Embry-Riddle, the first night of staying in the dorms was crazy!  All of my suite mates were getting to know each other and having a great time playing poker.  Randomly, someone knocked on our door and two older students asked if we wanted some pizza.  We invited them in and introduced ourselves.  They then invited us to go hang out with them and play some poker with their friends.  Only a few of us decided to go, myself being one of them.  When we got to the house, I was looking around and on the walls I saw a some picture frames with a bunch of students’ pictures on them.  When I got a closer look, I saw that I was not just hanging out with some older students, I was hanging out with some guys in a fraternity!  Not really thinking anything of it, I just went on to play poker and get to know the older guys.  During the game, one of the fraternity guys invited us younger guys to hang out with them the upcoming weekend to get to know us better.  Before I knew it, I was bonding with all of these really cool older guys that were not only good students (they had told me so themselves)  but normal college students that went out and did things like brothers.

Over the weekend, the older guys introduced us younger guys to more of their “brothers” and it was when I met the last of the brothers that I finally put two and two together: these fraternity guys were the ones at the table I had talked to a few months prior!  I could not believe my eyes when I started to recognize them and I was appalled that I had talked them down so much during the schoolyear because these guys were like mentors to me at this point!  I began to freak out and all of them looked worried until I explained that I met them all at preview day.  They laughed and some of them remembered me and the day went on.

Over my first few weeks here at Embry, I have been spending time and bonding with these great guys from Sigma Pi (I asked what the symbols meant at one point).  We have been cliff diving, had a Bar-B-que at HAAS, and just hanging out together when there was nothing to do on campus.  A few days ago, there was an information meeting for the fraternity and I attended.  At the meeting, the members talked about what they did as a brotherhood and gave some testimonials about their first few weeks as freshmen on campus.  They also told us that the next night they would be holding interviews for potential brothers.

The night of the interview I wanted to impress, but at the same time I wanted to let the guys from Sigma Pi know that I wanted to have fun at the same time.  When choosing my attire, I went with a tuxedo!

I was just trying to have some fun and go with a James Bond look, but I just did not seem to capture it…oh well!  I went to the meeting and it was about the equivalent of a job interview (minus the resume).  It only lasted about 10 minutes and I was finished.  I went back to my room to wait for 7 p.m. on Friday (today) night when I will hopefully be accepted into this new brotherhood!  Wish me luck!!!

One of the awesome perks of a NASA internship is the tours that you get of cool aerospace locations. During my 6.5 month internship at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center I got to see a variety of aerospace research and development organizations, which have further inspired me to be an aerospace engineer.

The first tours that we got were of the NASA Dryden facilities. We toured several hangers and got to see several interesting aircraft as well as the Crew Exploration Vehicle for the Constellation/Orion project that will take us to the moon.

Inside the Cockpit of a 747 that carries the Space Shuttle Orbiter back to Florida

Climbing the stairs into the 747

Standing in front of the 747 that carrries the Space Shuttle back to Florida after it has landed on the dry lake bed at Edwards Air Force Base.

Ikhana is an Earth Science Unmanned Aerial System that was housed in a hanger in the same building that I worked in at Dryden.

This is the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) for the Constellation/Orion project that will return man to the moon so that he can build a permanent base there. Dryden's role in the project is to design the abort systems for the CEV, which is basically the capsule that houses the astronauts. The abort systems were recently tested at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

Here I am sitting in one of the F-18s at Dryden

The next big tour that we took was taking a drive up to China Lake, which is another dry lake bed, like the one at Edwards AFB that the shuttle lands on, where NAVAIR tests their aircraft and some weapon systems. Unfortunately, due to the classified nature of the facilities, I was not able to take any pictures.

We also got to see the communications satellites and mission control rooms at the Goldstone Deep Space Network, where they monitor communications to distant satellites and probes currently exploring different regions of the galaxy.

Me and fellow Dryden intern, Teressa, stand under the largest dish at Goldstone.

Later we got to see the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. It was funny because before we went, I pictured the scientist and engineers of JPL to look like they did in the 1960s with dress pants and button down shirts and short haircuts. When I went there, I found that my picture of the JPL researcher was not at all accurate. Some of them were even wearing t-shirts, shorts, and flip-flops. I also didn’t expect JPL to be as beautiful as it was, with the green hills around it and the old trees around the campus. It had a very academic atmosphere, which makes sense because it is also part of Cal Tech. The campus was very in touch with nature though. There were deer just walking between the buildings, which were really exciting for many of the touring students to see. I was also surprised at how large the Mars landers Spirit and Opportunity are, when I saw their sister at the center.

Standing at the entrance to JPL

Outside the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at JPL

These were the deer that were walking right up to buildings and through the campus at JPL

This is the sandbox that the JPL engineers and scientists use to test rover maneuvers in before they test them on the rover on Mars.

Really awesome sign at JPL that makes Kerianne happy 🙂

Getting sick during the academic year is one of the most difficult challenges you will go through as a college student. School doesn’t stop when you get sick, and if you are sick enough that you need lots of rest, and therefore have little time for much else, you are going to get behind.

On this Labor Day, I had just about the worst headache I’d ever had. It felt like my head was in some vindictive machine designed by Jigsaw from the Saw movies that squeezed the entire top hemisphere of my skull.

It was really strange, coming on completely out of the blue, and ibuprofen couldn’t dull the sharp throbbing. Not even a little. I spent most of the day lying in bed, not doing much of anything, because I could barely even see through the pain let alone think.

Tuesday morning I got up and the pain seemed to be almost gone, but by the time I got through my first class, it was back with a vengeance. I went home at 3 in the afternoon, and slept for three hours, got up, ate, and went back to bed for another 9 hours.

On Wednesday I decided I really needed to get it checked out and headed to health services after my 8:00 class. After I described my symptoms to the visiting doctor and she did a quick evaluation, she determined that I was suffering from a sinus infection.

Now, Thursday night, after a few rounds of antibiotics, the pain is very dull and continuing to dissipate. My work load, however, has not dissipated, it had has grown immensely in the three days in which I have been practically useless. While I was ahead in my classes before, I am now barely keeping up. I know I’ll be able to catch up, and it’s just a matter of time, but while I’m catching up it’s going to be rough.

During my internship last spring and summer I was very fortunate to enjoy all of the benefits of a full time employee, including vacation time and sick leave. Although I didn’t need or use nearly as much sick leave as I was given, I did need to take a few days here and there to fend off stomach viruses or soothe an aching head and low grade fever.

I had the luxury of calling in sick when I was ill, and the really cool thing was that I still got paid! It was a really difficult concept for me to accept, and I only used it when I felt I was not in a state in which I could do productive work, but it is a huge perk of working in the real world. And although it may or may not be typical, it was my experience that I just picked up where I left off on my projects when I got back. I’m sure that as I climb the latter in the Engineering world in my future, that won’t always be the case, but as an intern it was.

At Riddle, you don’t miss class unless you have Swine Flu. When you are in a challenging major, you have to go to class, because without the lessons and notes you will get lost later on. In college, sometimes there really is no rest for the weary.

I never thought that I would say this about a college campus, but it’s strange to look around and actually see PEOPLE!  During preseason, campus was a ghost town, so that’s how I got used to ERAU.  Now campus is teeming with students, walking around with friends at the dorms, catching up on homework in the library, or catching a bite to eat at Chartwell’s.  I love not being one of the only ones here!  Parking was considerably easier two weeks ago when there were no other cars here, but heck, I’d rather have people  and walk a hundred more feet to my car then get a front row spot and be by myself!  So as you can tell, I’m excited by the fact that school started!

My classes are so much fun too!  I’ve only gone to four days of school so far (thanks to my team’s San Diego tournament a couple weeks ago) and I love it.  I am used to having four classes a day from high school, so this whole only-having-school-twice-a-week thing is really working out for me.  The only difference is that in high school I got a lunch break and here I have to shove trail mix in my face in between classes so my stomach won’t die on me.  Somehow I think I’ll live.  I start off my day in the Davis Learning Center with Themes of the Humanities with Professor Malnar.  We discuss pop music, culture, society, and how the Beatles fundamentally changed the way music has evolved.  I love that class because I love oldies music anyway, and it’s just so interesting!  Next I rush to the King Engineering Building for IT 109, Introduction to Computers.  Right now we’re learning how to work Microsoft Word 2007 by making ads and posters with art and borders and different fonts.  I had a class like this in high school, Graphics Communications, so I got finished with my assignment relatively quick.  Next we’re learning about how to use the internet.  🙂  My next class is Principles of Management, where we learn about managing companies, leadership, and the ethics involved therein.  My last class of the day is Intro to Global Securtity and Intelligence.  We are reading a very thought provoking book, Warrior Politics, and I really like it!  I love learning about history and the tendencies of human nature, so this book seems to be the right one for me!

Of course, along with all my classes I still have volleyball, church, making new friends, studying, homework, and TRYING to keep my room clean.  I also joined the Swing Dancing Club, (and we have our first meeting on Thursday!!), and my volleyball team and I are becoming tighter as the season progresses.  I love my girls!

This is my team and I in the beautiful San Diego. 🙂

Our team is finally complete, with Marcella Lachowski as a part of our team.  Our next game is September 15 against Southwestern College at 7 pm, at ERAU.  It’s going to be fun, one, because we have our whole team! and two, because one of my high school teammates is on the Southwestern team!  I’m so excited!  Our team is coming together, and it will be interesting to see what we can do! 

So wish me luck, with volleyball and classes!

I believe that there are several aspects to a person’s well being, and to be fully healthy one must be mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually well. Every once in a while I have the opportunity to experience a day that is just simply good for the soul. This Sunday was one of those days.

This weekend I made the relatively short trek down to Phoenix to see a good friend who was in town visiting his friends and fellow graduates of Arizona State University for Labor Day. A former resident of the Valley of the Sun, he was excited to suggest a few spots in Tempe for us to spend the day.

My goal for the day was simple: no real plans, no stress, no work, no worries, and no rush. I was excited to simply relax with a good friend and enjoy a few sights and places that I’d never seen before.

The first place we visited was the Desert Botanical Gardens in Tempe. Until I spent a reasonable amount of time in the desert, both in Arizona and California, I couldn’t really see its beauty beyond its stark desolation and lack of vegetation. I have slowly grown to recognize and admire desert beauty, and the botanical gardens exhibited how beautiful the desert can truly be, even when it’s about 100 degrees outside, which it was.

We could have enjoyed it a little longer, but the heat drove us onto Mill Avenue, and into some cool stores and restaurants. We stopped in an awesome Irish Pub for lunch. It went really well until I suddenly came down with what I assume was heat sickness. I went from talking and laughing to sheet white, weak, and trembling, with a headache, dizziness, and nausea in just about a split second. After about five glasses of water, some saltines, and a mixed drink of ginger ale and Sprite, I was as good as new, with a new respect for the heat of the desert. It was the first time I have been so affected by the heat. Next time I’ll drink more water.

From Mill Avenue we journeyed to the Phoenix Art Museum, where we strolled through several inspiring, thought provoking, and beautiful exhibits. My favorite piece of art was the abstract sculpture that didn’t really look like anything from a distance, but when you stood in one particular spot, the entire thing came together as a U2 aircraft. It was so exciting. I definitely had an uber nerd moment.

From a distance it looks like some strange abstract piece of modern art

But when you look at it from the right angle, it becomes a U2. Pretty cool, huh?

After that he showed me around ASU, and a few of the places he used to frequent, then we ended with day with dinner with one of his friends at this awesome restaurant, with melt in your mouth steaks, good company, and great conversation. I went out and bought Friedrich Nietzsche’s On the Genealogy of Morals today, if that gives you any idea of how deep the dinner conversation went. All in all, the day seemed to rejuvenate the soul and made me ready to take on my week.

The past week has been fairly busy.  I guess the most notable thing was my being hired as an assistant for Doug Dickey in the admissions department.  I’ll be doing mostly website related work: posting calendar events, updating broken code, and updating the Facebook account.  My second week of classes wasn’t too bad, although I had a little more homework than the first week.  In our Lego class, we began construction on our monster of a vehicle for the upcoming competition.  We have to build and program a robot to grab or scoop golf balls and then take them and drop them in a hole before returning to the start point.  My partner, Brittany, and I pretty much finished the building last week and I worked on some of the program blindly yesterday so I can test in in class next week.  I’ve also started work on a flash animation for my honors class that tells a narrated story.  I’ll see if I can post it when it’s done.

It’s definitely nice having a three day weekend to get everything done and relax also.  The only issue is the crazy weather here.  For example, I walked into a Horizons (school newspaper) meeting yesterday when it was fairly sunny.  We took a 15 minute break and…well, the video below explains.

lighting_crop

It was absolutely pouring with a ton of thunder and lightning.  You can here the rolling thunder in the background; sometimes one thunder clap would last ten seconds.  It’s pretty much like that every afternoon, except not as bad.

It started raining on us last night when we were out catching frogs at the lake.  We ended up bringing back two and decided to get an enclosure at Petco.  After much consideration and a little help from the guy at the counter, we ended up with a Beta fish (below);  He is yet to be named.  As for the frogs, we set them free behind our dorm when we returned and they are living happily in the wild again.

beta fish

This morning we went hiking in the dells, which is several miles of rocks surrounding all the lakes.  They’re really neat and I got some cool photos.  We did a lot of rock climbing for a couple of hours before heading.  I can say without a doubt that everyone was completely wiped out when we got back.  Someone told me their abs hurt from having to breath so much.  Hopefully we will all be acclimated soon, especially with having to run in ROTC.

Below are some rock climbing pictures

So I would venture to say that I am not the only person that is afraid of scary movies.  I do not mean that they creep me out or give me the shivers, I mean scare the living daylights out of me to the point where I cannot sleep that night.  Unfortunately for me, I cannot get enough of the adrenaline rush that will imminently come along with it!  This past week I saw my first horror flicks, the newer Friday the 13th and The Haunting in Connecticut.  Here are the pictures I have from my experience.

The worst part of it all was that everyone but my friend Noah and I were not scared, but found their enjoyment from playing tricks on us and laughing at us when the scary parts showed up on the films.

As you can cleary see, my couchmates are laughing at what just happened because I am sitting there scared to look at the screen.  );

The worst prank made Noah hide under the sink and made me curl up in the fetal position.  Even though my friends can be quite cruel when it comes to pulling these pranks on us, I know that I will keep watching because as scary as they are, that adrenaline rush is just too exhilarating to pass up!

After being away from school for 8 months, in a completely new state, job, and lifestyle, it feels like such a long time since I was last taking classes. Coming back to the school school and seeing campus again after my time away was a great feeling. When I drove onto campus memories of my freshman year, the first time I had come to ERAU Prescott and seen it as home, seemed to flood my brain.  I couldn’t help but smile at how much I have changed in the last two years, my first two years of college. In fact, I can confidently say that I have changed more as a person in my first two years of college than I changed from the end of the 4th grade to the end of the 12th grade.

In this blog entry, I’d like to take a chance to reminisce about the beginning of my freshman year, when my transformation truly began.

College is very different from high school. It is way better. Like many high school seniors plagued with senioritis, I was “so ready to leave” and “uber sick of” high school. I remember getting so excited when my schedule came in the mail for my first semester of college. I went right to my brand new computer with my course catalog in hand and looked up the description of each class while I typed each day’s schedule into an excel spread sheet, like the nerd that I am.

The freshman year of college is a huge adjustment and it’s all about learning how to prioritize your time, live on your own, and a little about your coursework too, I guess. College gave me the chance to start over and be myself in a very accepting environment. Embry-Riddle gave me the chance to go to a school where everyone, like me, has a dream that they are working towards.

It was so exciting to move into my dorm room and meet my new roommates. I was so anxious to get started with my new life that I slept in my room the day I checked in. Most of my roommates stayed in the dorm that first night, although I think one or two went to stay with their families in their hotels. I remember looking up at the ceiling that was about two feet from may face in my loft bed, trying to go to sleep but staying awake thinking about how this was where I was going to live for the next four months, the first time I’d live away from home, and how strange, new, and exhilarating it was.

Rooming with students of my major gave me an instant group of friends that I have so much in common with. Traits and quirks that I had always exhibited, I found I shared with several of the students in my classes.

I don’t know that I have ever felt as good on my birthday as I did on my first birthday at Embry-Riddle. I am a September baby, and after a couple weeks into the school year, I was prepared for a little sadness on my first birthday away from home. Unexpectedly, my roommates went all out to make my birthday outstanding. They all went and painted the rock for my birthday, bought me a cake, and a gift, decorated my room with streamers, woke me up by signing “Happy Birthday” to me, and made sure that I couldn’t feel an ounce of remorse at not being home for my birthday. It was a very uplifting experience.

As I assume it is for almost everyone, my freshman year in college was very different than anything else that I had experienced before. It was really surreal. At first, it didn’t feel like school at all, actually it felt like I was at summer camp. I remember sitting in class on my first day and watching the clock as it approached 9 am, the end of my 8 am class. It may sound silly, but I was actually expecting to hear a bell ring at the end of the hour, but instead the professor simply announced that class was over. I walked out of the classroom in a daze. On the one hand, I felt a little weirded out that there was no bell in college, and on the other hand, I was excitedly reveling in my liberation from the bell.

For the first two months of school I was so wrapped up in all of the new people, clubs, classes and experiences that I didn’t have time to really miss home.

After a while though, it sets in that this isn’t summer camp. Not only is this still school (but don’t get me wrong, it’s way better than high school), it is your home for eight months out of the year, and you change so much over your first few months without realizing it. Until you go home and see how little has changed there, you don’t realize how much you as a person have changed.

College changes your entire outlook. While you are in school you are free to be whoever you would like to be. For the most part, the parental control in your life is switched off. The final say on when you sleep, when you eat, when you go to class, what clubs you join, whether or not to go to parties, even what brand food you eat is your choice.

During a summer internship at the Johnson Space Center in high school, one of my mentors told me that “There are three things you can do in college – sleep, study, and party. Now pick two.” For the most part I have found this to be true.

Balancing all three is very difficult because the more time you spend on one activity, the less time you have for the other two. If sleep and grades are your priorities, you can get 9 hours of sleep every night and make the Dean’s List, but you don’t have much time for partying.

You will also learn to live on a budget in college, basically dirt poor for a few years. One time, during my freshman year, my mom sent me $50 in the mail. I thought “Awesome! Now I can go out and party with my friends.” But as I was getting ready I realized that we were on our last roll of toilet paper so I decided to go grab some before the evening started, but then as I got into my car I saw my gas tank was empty. Well, there went that 50 bucks.

Although I love my life as a free college student, I miss the days when Pop-Tarts and Fruit Loops replenished themselves in the cabinet, doing my laundry was free, I ate name brand food, and I had great water pressure in the shower.

In college, for the first time ever, you don’t leave peer pressure when you go home at night, because you live full time with your peers. You learn about how people with completely different upbringings compromise to get along. You will have roommates that you love to hang out with and others that you will have to work through minor to major annoyances with.

One thing a freshman never needs to worry about at Embry-Riddle, is feeling welcome and finding a place at school. It is very easy in this small school to get involved in clubs and organizations. In addition, fellow students are friendly and looking to make new friends just as much as you are, and the faculty members are extremely supportive and willing to help you succeed in any way that they can.

My freshman year at Riddle was nothing short of amazing. Although my life has continued to change, and in some ways get better, I am sure that I will remember my freshman year of college as one of the best years of my life.

Waiting in line during my Orientation in August 2007

The Rock on my Birthday Freshman Year

The back of my birthday rock

The decorations that my roommates put in my dorm room Freshman year for my birthday

My suitemates and a couple of our friends a couple weeks into freshman year at the top of Thumb Butte at sunset