Holiday Travel

Posted on November 24, 2013 by Cherie

No matter how you will be getting home for Thanksgiving this year, the most important part of traveling is safety. I know we all hear this every year but, it is still essential to practice safety as you make your way home this holiday season.

So some things to look out for if you are driving are:

1. Driving late at night/tired

2. Ice on the road or bad weather conditions

3. Vehicle maintenance issues- before you head out check your oil, brakes, coolant….etc.

If you happen to be flying home:

1. Print your boarding passes and arrive at the airport early!!

2. Do not leave your items unattended EVER

3. Don’t be too friendly with strangers….yes we have heard this a million times but it still applies!!!

If you are just going down the road or across town:

1. Be aware of driving conditions

2. Do not rush, its better to get there late and in one piece than not at all…..

And of course no matter how you travel use your common sense. The main idea is to have a wonderful holiday and come back safe!!! On that note, Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!!!

Veteran’s Day Events

Posted on November 5, 2013 by Cherie

As we all know Veteran’s day is also fast approaching so you might wonder, what the students of Embry Riddle Prescott do to honor our veterans……well….we do alot of different things. From the ROTC side of life we do a veteran’s day parade, the Honor Guard (my team!!!!) does a 24 hour Vigil at the veteran’s memorial hospital, and we go out to the veteran’s hospice to keep them company throughout the day.As for the rest of the campus, not much really goes on because our students go out into the community to get involved with the events in downtown Prescott.

No matter who you are and what you do, just take a moment this Veteran’s day to stop and thank a veteran for their service. They volunteered to do what only 1% of Americans do, and have made immense sacrifices to ensure the freedoms that we take for granted daily. They should ever be forgotten, and neither should or POW/MIA.

With that said, have a good, fun, and safe veteran’s day. I look forward to participating in Vigil and the Parade again this year so you might be able to see me there if you can find me (I’m short and hard to see because i blend in with all the Air Force Blues) !!!

Thanksgiving Break is on its way!!

Posted on November 5, 2013 by Cherie

In about two weeks Embry Riddle’s Prescott campus will be celebrating Thanksgiving Break, and boy are we ready for it!!! We have a mixture of students who go and home for Thanksgiving and those who do not. If you should choose not to go home during Thanksgiving do not fear, we are here for you!!!

Our Dining Hall staff actually cooks a full Thanksgiving dinner for students to enjoy and professors always invite students over to their homes to celebrate as well. Last year, I was unable to go home for Thanksgiving, so me and a bunch of friends went over to my MATLAB professor’s house for dinner and had a wonderful time 🙂

Luckily, I will be going home this year and even though the break will only be four days long (because of travel time) I am very excited. There is nothing like a good home cooked meal and enjoying old traditions. Although now that we are all old college students, we can begin to make our own!!

So no matter where you will be celebrating this year, have a good time, and don’t be lonely!! The Embry Riddle community is here to welcome you and Thanksgiving is one of our favorite times of year 🙂

P.S. LOOK FORWARD TO THE TURKEY COMA!!!

Test Off

Posted on November 2, 2013 by Cherie

This Saturday, right before Dining In (hyperlink to other blog!!!) the Honor Corps teams will be having our major exam called Test Off. To be a part of the teams and perform in the community all team members must pass test off. This will be my second time going through it, and I can’t really say that I’m excited, I honestly just want to get it over with.

Each team does Test Off differently, as a part of the Honor Guard Test Off includes knowledge, skills, marching, performances, and inspection. The knowledge portion is a written 1 hour exam over a packet of material that all the teams in Honor Corps must know verbatim. Our skills test covers skills with both flag and rifle movements, while our marching test is basically an FDE that all teams must pass. Each member of the Honor Guard must command one flag posting ceremony as part of the exam and pass with at least a 90. Then there is a 2 hour inspection during which you are drilled on procedures, knowledge, and critiqued on how you wear the ceremonial uniform.

This is a lot to prepare for however, we train 4 days of the week in order to achieve a high level of excellence. In the end it all pays off because we get to perform at the cardinals game in phoenix, in flag retirement ceremonies, funerals, etc. It is a real honor to be a part of a team that exists to pay respect to those who came before us. It is for this reason that I participate in Honor Guard and take the time out of my week to practice. So, on that note I will be off to Test Off this Saturday to reaffirm my status as a Guardsman and continue honoring those who came before. Wish our team luck!!

Warrior Week

Posted on November 2, 2013 by Cherie

This week in Air Force ROTC is what we like to call Warrior Week. It is basically the week that we all bring the competition to prove which flight is the best in the detachment. The week includes flight competitions in sports, knowledge, and fitness. As well as costume contests for Halloween and wrapping it all up with an event called Dining In.

So we are beginning the week by constructing costumes, and wearing them to lead lab on Wednesday. I am not sure what my flight has decided to wear quite yet but, the overall theme of Warrior Week is combat superheros so it should be pretty interesting. I’m thinking superman T shirt and BDU pants, that superhero-y right?

Alpha Flight, the coolest flight Ever!! We won the costume contest!

Then we will have a bunch of sports, hopefully not cow tongue Frisbee like last year….that was really gross but amusing to watch. When the sports are all over then we will do knowledge competitions, and here at Dining In who won Warrior week and earns the Warrior Flight of the semester award.

Dining In, like I said earlier is a military tradition where the detachment gets together and enjoys each others company. During this time we have toasts to those who came before us and those who can no longer join us in our traditions. After the toasts, there is something called a grog, it is really really really disgusting but, if you did something really dumb durign the semester you are called to the grog. If you don’t have a witty rebuttal then you must drink a cup of grog to the last drop. If anything is left when you flip the cup upside down you have to take another serving!!!!

When the grog is all done we will eat and listen to guest speakers talk about their military service. When we are all done it is time for some fun, we go outside and have an epic water balloon fight between flights. At Embry Riddle we have Dining in at the Flight line in a maintenance hanger so its pretty entertaining to see people running around in costumes in the airport parking lot with water balloons.

Pumpkin Carving

Posted on October 27, 2013 by Cherie

Today some of our RA’s or Resident Assistants organized a pumpkin carving contest in preparation for Halloween. Some of the pumpkins were pretty awesome and others just plain gruesome. Overall though, the event was just another goofy even that we have here at Riddle to bring our students closer together around the holidays.

Our student body comes from all over the world, so when participating in events such as the pumpkin carving party it is entirely possible that you may meet someone who has never taken part in the tradition before. I met two such people today and it was really cool to be able to hear about their countries and make new friends all because of a simple tradition!

Events like this bring all of our students closer, and create a community on our campus that is unlike any other. We all love it here and we would like to invite you to come on over for a campus visit and experience it yourself. For a campus tour click here and learn more about what Embry Riddle Prescott has for you!!

Volunteer in the Community

Posted on October 22, 2013 by Cherie

Volunteering is a fun opportunity that can have amazing rewards in regards to personal growth, I strongly encourage you to go out there and get involved in the community wherever it is you choose to go to college. Some ways that Embry Riddle Prescott students get involved are: volunteering in local schools, tutoring, awareness walks, air shows, and cemetery cleanups.

Since I have been a student at Embry Riddle Prescott I have volunteered in vigil, cemetery cleanup, benefit auctions, air shows, and cemetery research. The one volunteering project that probably stands out the most, besides vigil is the cemetery work. Its kind of strange for a college student to be going out and cleaning up an old cemetery that know one even remembers, but it is something that i enjoy doing.

Embry Riddle’s AFROTC Honor Guard

I really like this project, as unlike my other volunteering experiences it is an ongoing effort to honor the veterans and other nameless individuals that are buried in a forgotten cemetery not too far from Prescott. The reason I have grown so attached to this work is that I actually had my first performance as a member of Honor Guard in that cemetery. Since then I have wanted to continue honoring those who lay at rest there, and my hope is to remind others to honor them too.

So what I mean when I say that volunteering can enhance your character is that you might find a passion in a very strange place, that overall will make you a better person. Ever since I began to volunteer in the cemetery I have achieved a greater respect for life and a curiosity about those who are unnamed. It has been a year since we started the project and every day I work a little on it, hoping that I will get closer to finding their names. There hasn’t been much luck but, within the next few years my goal is to inspire others to continue this work and to not allow our predecessors be forgotten.

So as you can see, volunteering has made a positive impact on not only myself but, on the community. Now people know about the cemetery and our work there, we are getting an even bigger following every year. It is my hope that others will find their own passions while volunteering and will pursue them in order to make not only themselves, but their community a better place.

October West Festivities

Posted on October 4, 2013 by Cherie

So as most of you probably know October West started this week and its been going great so far!! We are all very excited for the Air show to start tomorrow, myself and a few of the others bloggers will be out there so if you recognize us please feel free to say hi 🙂 The coolest part of October West this year, besides the planes of course, was the unveiling of the Prescott campus’s very first completed Jet Dragster!!!!

We are all very proud of the work that this team has put in to produce the first Prescott dragster, just 4 years after the project all started here at our campus. The recognition of this hard work started with a fly over, speeches by the chancellor, Chris Larsen (the founder of Larsen motor sports), and finally a demonstration by Elaine Larsen.

The demonstration was so cool!!! At Riddle we love jet engine nose and this car was all engine!!! Intense flames poured out the back as it rolled its way across the tarmac and fans roared, it was seriously amazing!! If you were lucky enough to be at the event you could even feel the pulses from the engine firing. Some sweet pictures are included below, please look through and enjoy. If you can be at the Prescott Airport tomorrow, be there so you can have a look at that dragster and join in the festivities 🙂

Fall is Finally Here

Posted on September 30, 2013 by Cherie

Even though the leaves aren’t changing yet, you can feel it in the air here at Embry Riddle Prescott: Fall has arrived!!!! The monsoons have been gone for about 2 weeks now and the winds have returned making it a little bit chilly out there. So for all of you newbies its time to break out the cold weather gear, and if your from California like me, you might have to go buy some.

I would just like to share with you what my favorite parts of fall are and see if maybe you would like to share with us here at Embry Riddle as well 🙂 So the top things I like about Fall are:

Scarves- They are warm and stylish!!

Hoodies- comfy for class and studying

Cookies- In the upperclassman dorms we have ovens to make them in!!

Stew- Reminds me of home, and its a delicious way to warm up after a long day

Hot Cocoa and Tea- Relaxing and awesome.

Pie-Just because pie is awesome 🙂

and………(Drumroll please)….Halloween!!

I really have no idea what I will wear for Halloween this year, although last year my friends and I dressed up as skittles 🙂 We ran out of colored T shirts though and I ended up being the random skittle in the bunch, but it was still a ton of fun. During my freshman year we had a few engineers who made their own costumes and wore them to classes, so if you love fall as much as we do then this is the place for you!!!

Please stop on by and visit us here in Prescott, we would love to have you join us in our Fall Fun. To schedule a visit just click here!!!

Ruck at Riddle

Posted on September 24, 2013 by Cherie

What a Ruck looks like

Good Morning everyone!! I just completed a 5K 40lb ruck for PT this morning and I’m feeling great. It was seriously so much fun!! So I was just curious to see how many of our readers are veterans, current military/ROTC, or CAP/JROTC who have done a real Ruck march. Please comment below and share your fun/not so fun experiences about Rucking.

For those of you who do not know what a Ruck is, it is basically a really long walk/jog with an extremely heavy backpack. It is not as bad as it sounds, if you have gone backpacking before then it is pretty similar to that. Most of the time for Rucks you will be using an old backpack and a 35-40lb sandbag, depending on the individual you may decide to do more than that however, for Air Force PT this morning the sand bags were standardized at about 40lb per person.

So my fun Ruck story from this morning begins with a lack of a proper backpack….yes not a good thing. The back pack I brought to PT was way to small for the sandbags, this resulted from the fact that my regular class backpack is so shredded that it would not stand a chance against a 40lb bag of sand. (I need to go shopping and get a new one, in Air Force ROTC you will ruin on average about one backpack per every 8 months). So rather than not going on the Ruck I grabbed a bag of sand put it on my shoulders and went for it!!

It actually wasn’t too bad, I fell a little behind because balancing 40lbs is a little bit more difficult than carrying it on your back. But, myself and the other cadets on the Ruck all finished within good time and with awesome experiences to share. I could write on and on if I wanted to but, if I would like to address more specific topics/stories/questions or whatever you would like to hear so if you would like to hear more about my morning or share your own story please comment below we would love to hear from you!!