Tag Archives: ERAU

Student Life

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When you are choosing colleges or Universities that you might want to attend how much do you think about the student life? Well, most students say that it is one of the most important aspects of their decision and because it is so important wouldn’t it be nice if a current student told you what it was like? Well your wish has been granted!!!

I’m Cherie Gambino, an Engineering student at Embry-Riddle Prescott campus  🙂 In my year or so on campus I have greatly enjoyed my experiences here, from watching movies in the amphitheater to laughing at comedians we have it all. Embry Riddle really tries to focus on the student and what is important to them so we have several campus organizations that operate to enhance your experiences at Riddle. These are Student government, the Board of Campus Activities, Greek Life, the Residence Halls Association, Horizons Newspaper, Riddle Vision, and Riddle Radio. In the fall there are also special programs for incoming freshman such as the Passport Program which hosts all kinds of fun  barbecues, competitions, and movie nights.

Orientation Day 1

 

The campus organizations that organize these activities are active year round so there is at least 2 or 3 events occurring during the week. For example, last week there was a pizza party at the pool, a memorial day barbecue, and a movie night where myself and a few other students got to go see the new Star Trek movie at the Harkins theater.

Some of our other cool events and organizations are listed below, feel free to check them out and get to know the fun side of Embry-Riddle 🙂

October West

Passport to ERAU

Passport Program Events

Organizations

Local Events in Prescott

Campus Tours

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For prospective students many colleges or Universities will offer a Campus tour so that the student may get a feel for the place that they may be living in for the next four years. Here on Embry-Riddle’s Prescott Campus the Admissions office staff and student employees (like me!!) work really hard to be sure that if you choose to tour our beautiful campus, that you have an enjoyable and rewarding experience.

 

Prescott Aerial View of Campus

When you first arrive on campus you will meet up with your tour guide in the Welcome center, which is building 41. It is pretty simple to find, just enter campus through the entrance with the electronic signboard and take the second right leaving the roundabout. You will immediately see the Welcome Center.

 

Once you are inside there may be a small wait and then you will be off on your tour to see the Freshman dorms, Dining hall, Wellness Center, King Engineering, Academic Complex, Laboratories in the AXFAB (Aerospace Experimentation and Fabrication Building), Wind Tunnel Labs, Jet Dragster Lab, Central Campus, Student Facilities, and the Hazy Library. If you are interested in doing Air Force or Army ROTC at Embry-Riddle then you will also be offered the opportunity to meet with representatives of one or both of the detachments on campus.for Aeronautical Science majors a tour of the Prescott campus’s flight line is also offered and can be taken in addition to the campus tour.

Campus Map

After your tour is complete you then have the opportunity to meet with your admissions counselor in order to cover any admissions questions you have about attending the University. Admissions counselors are located inside the Welcome Center as well as the offices of Financial Aid and Student employment so if you would like you may also look into discussing options for aid or employment with these offices after you have met with your counselor.

It may be a long and eventful day but, I can guarantee that this campus with fascinate you and that your visitor’s experience here at Embry Riddle Prescott has the potential to turn into a really fun and rewarding four years in pursuit of one of our unique majors.

Cockpit in Flight

If you would like to join us here for a day please visit our website and sign up for a campus tour. If you are unable to be here in person then I encourage you to take a virtual tour. Additional information on the campus can be found here. However way you visit we look forward to showing you our campus!!

 

Where are the Monsoons?

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So apparently monsoon season in Prescott Arizona doesn’t start until July 🙁 Here I was really looking forward to all the rain and when I didnt see any of it I decided to do a little research…

Weather Patterns

As some of you may know we do have a Meteorology major offered at the Prescott Campus so I took it upon myself to ask a Meteorology student about what on earth is going on. This is what he told me 😀

Monsoons are a phenomenon that are triggered every year as a result of the Earth’s angle with the sun. So when the monsoons occur in Prescott the Earth is at a the steepest angle possible and is even farther from the sun than it is in the month of January.
So the question is this “If we are on Earth and we are farthest from the sun in July how is it that July is warmer than January?” Well, the Meteorologist in training told me that the temperature also has to do with the position the Earth holds in orbit around the sun. Yes we are farthest away from the sun at this time but, our continent is more in line with the rays of heat/sunlight during the summer months which is why it is still hotter in July than in January.

Sketch of the Angle between Earth and the Sun

Of course as an Engineer I really didn’t need to know all this but, its pretty interesting so I thought it would be nice to share 😀 If you have any comments or questions please respond below or if you would like to check out our Meteorology major just click here. Thanks for reading!!!

Cash Flow For College Students

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Hello there readers, if you are a concerned college parent or student worried about having a little extra cash to spend on food or hobbies or just spending too much then you are reading the right blog. In this blog i will go over some great ways to earn money at a reasonable rate and some great college spending advice.

For a personal preference I enjoy working and having at least some spending cash or savings money so I saved up over the past summers but once school came around i hit a dead end, I was spending with not even little amounts of income (besides my parents that is). So once I realized how much I was spending on food and weekend activities I began to invest in looking for an on campus job at Embry-Riddle as well as learning to spend my money wisely.  So here are some tips:

For spending:

1)  When going to the grocery store make a list of all the things you need, that way you have a goal or else you will just be wandering around buying stuff and spending a bit more then you think.

2)  Try to eat healthy, I know it sounds weird but the more you eat sugary junk food the more you will crave it and therefore the more you will spend on it so try to cut it back.

3)  Next is the activity spending/shopping. Again making and using a list of the essentials or wants at least making a list in your head for the purpose you are shopping for is best. It will help keep your mind from wandering and spending cash left and right.

4)  try to hold group events like if you want to go somewhere that takes gas money, if you have enough people going the cost can be very minimal.

Jobs in college:

1)  If you are concerned about not having a job in school, well don’t worry you have plenty of on campus opportunities waiting for you. Schools are normally very open to students working on campus. Most of the time students will have time to work and go to school. (I am talking spending cash or travel money not a normal income that can pay your bills although there are some people who can do that.

2) From personal experience i would get by one or even a half semester before taking on the responsibilities of school and a job just to get the feel of your school work schedule, that is if you are new to school.

3) Summer/Seasonal employment opportunities! Take advantage of them. I gathered myself a large sum of money just from one summer of work and it didn’t take to much effort. Plus it looks good on a resume.

4)  Lastly, Interns! Get involved, not all interns pay but if you find one that does they pay exceptionally well.

Thanks for reading, let me know of any questions.

So Far So Good

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Hello readers, if you do not know already I am a current freshman at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Prescott Campus, and in this blog i will be catching you all up on what i have done all year long in terms of classes, clubs, Air Force ROTC, and more. First off I am going for my Electrical Engineering degree, as well as being a cadet in Air Force ROTC and have so far enjoyed the beginning of my career here.

The first semester, the first semester was pretty difficult because of the transition away from home, but class wise i was not taking anything difficult. Basic classes such as calculus, history, physics, as well as engineering 101, and Air Force 101. These classes are the main classes you will most likely have. I did get home sick for a period of time, but eventually that passed and I got used to living at school. The things I have missed the most were my dogs and home cooked food.

After the first semester i began to realize, this is it, the real deal. So once the second semester came around, I was well prepared. This semester I have taken Calculus 2, Physics 2, Engineering 115 aka (MATLAB), Humanities, and Air Force class 102. Although i am still not into the difficult classes yet i feel more prepared then i was at the end of last semester. My roommates and I enjoy going to the movie theater on the weekends, hikes, and out to eat, there are plenty of great restaurants in town, i suggest going into town and exploring, they have some interesting stores.

Now throughout the year I have been involved in many organizations, and activities in town and on campus. This past weekend i went into town for a chalk festival, held annually, this event is awesome and lots of fun. I also participated in the human society’s dog walk on campus. I am also a part of AFROTC Honor Guard and have done many performance in town as well as out of town. If you plan on joining AFROTC I highly suggest joining one of the teams in Honor Corps, such as Sabre, Rifle Drill, and Honor Guard.

 

The campus is easy to navigate getting to class in about 5 min is really nice. One of my favorite pass times is going to the gym on campus, and hiking across the street.

Hopefully you enjoyed my blog, if you want any more information feel free to let me know.

Finals….

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Its that time of the semester again, the time we all look forward to and yet simultaneously dread. This will be my second round of finals in college and to be completely honest with you, I am soooooo ready for summer!!

My summer plans involve work, and summer classes but, still 4 credit hours and a job isn’t as hard as 18 and two jobs so I’m excited for my upcoming relaxation time 🙂

It is definitely hard to continue being motivated in order to push through your last few weeks but, I figured i might be able to offer you some small tidbits of advice, take them or leave them, its up to you. Some of my proven finals techniques that got me through high school and my first semester of college are as follows, enjoy!!

1. No Cramming

2. A book is not a pillow…although they sometimes turn into one

3. Organize your study schedule, this will reduce stress and help you keep track of your finals schedule

4. Eat healthfully, bananas are great power food for your brain!!

5. Pranking the library during finals week is strictly OFF LIMITS!!

6. Review everything, but only a few times and then pick out the things you need to study the most and focus on those.

7. Relax, you know your stuff, with some dedicated studying you will be fine 🙂

So good luck everyone, I hope my tips and tricks work for you and if you have any to share please leave a comment, i look forward to hearing from our readers!!!

 

Eagle Cards…What are those??!!

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So today I have picked a rather interesting topic to discuss with y’all, I’m sure most of our readers have heard us mention an Eagle card at some point or another and your curious about what we are referring to. Well, the Eagle card is an ID card and somewhat of a Debit card. It can be used to gain access to the dining hall, recreation facilities, and to do your laundry or buy some extra food. As i mentioned earlier it is also a way for the university to confirm your identity as a student.

The typical Eagle Card looks like this:

 

As a debit card it can hold three types of funds, Eagle Dollars, Dining Dollars, and Flight Dollars.

Eagle Dollars is money that you put onto the card. They can be used for buying snacks (when your dining dollars run out), doing laundry, sending mail, and in the campus copy center. There are two ways to get money on your card, put on yourself via blackboard or visit the eagle card office and they will assist you in manually putting money onto te card.

Dining Dollars are awesome, you will come to love them. Basically, its money that your meal plan gives you to spend on items that the dining hall, simply to go, WOW, and the Scholars Cafe sell. It is additional to your meal plan and can be used for items that the dining services don’t usually serve to students but offers in there convenience sales stock. For example, you want some candy to eat while seeing a movie, you can use your dinning dollars to purchase some 🙂

Candy Anyone?

A note about these though: you are only given a certain amount each semester anything you spend above that limit comes straight from your own pocket!!

Flight Dollars are a fund that you can use at the Flight line, you have to put this money onto your card just like you would with Eagle Dollars. I’m not entirely sure about the other details of the Flight Dollars so if you have any questions go ask Jason or Maddie, my fellow bloggers and student fliers!!!

Thanks for reading 🙂

Update on My Second Semester

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Hey everybody so as you know this is my second semester at Embry Riddle Prescott and its time for my update on how everything is going 🙂

Right now I am taking Digital Circuits and the lab, Engineering Economics, Calculus 2, Physics 2, and ROTC courses. They all seem to be going really well but, I think my most favorite course is Digital Circuits Lab because here is where you get to implement what you learn in the class and it is a ton of fun. Pretty much all you do is wire circuits, program circuits with VHDL, create state diagrams, and verify circuit functions with oscilloscopes. It sounds tough but in reality it sooooo easy and you will come to love it once you get a good lab partner and a system for accomplishing the lab.

The class that I enjoy the least is Engineering Economics because it kinda seems pointless to me. I took Micro/macro economics in high school and passed the AP exam but, I had to take this course as an elective as I got credit for all the other electives except this one. All in all I have really low motivation to show up to class but, I motivate myself by thinking that its an easy A that will boost my GPA  and give me a “cushion” just i case I don’t do so well in one of my other courses. Even with this logic behind my motivation it is still very difficult to make myself care about the course. This is the second time I have encountered this in my college career and I’m sure it will become a persistent problem for me and perhaps any other students who are coming into college. The best advice I can give you is to know yourself, know what courses you like and which ones you don’t but, treat them equally as you study and do your homework.

The best way to do this is to follow the tips below:

1. Do the homework you don’t enjoy before doing the homework that you do enjoy, for example, I do my economics homework before doing my digital circuits homework that way I know I will complete it and do it well.

2. Give yourself incentives. Watch a movie or go hang out when your done with homework and continually remind yourself that the work you put into your “pointless class” is really inflating your GPA all to your benefit.

3. Always show motivation in class. This will catch your professors attention and when you need help they will be more willing to help you out as they know that you are taking their course seriously. TIP: Also, they are more likely to round  up your grade if you are on the border line of a higher letter grade and you consistently show motivation in class.

4. Finally, talk about it with others. Tell them you are having trouble caring about the class, they might have the same issue and maybe you both can work through the issue together.

I hope these suggestions will help you if you ever encounter this type of a situation, Thanks for reading!!!!!

SCIDM- Honor Corps

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Hey there I just got back from a cool competition that Air Force ROTC Honor Corps does every year and I just thought I’d tell you a little about it. First off though I’ve got to tell you about the teams in Honor Corps, there are three: Honor Guard, Rifle Drill, and Sabre drill.

I am a member of the Honor Guard and we basically post and retrieve flags as well as doing other events for football games and flag retiring. Honor Guard has the most variety of all the teams and it is also the one that pay most attention to detail, if you plan on being in Air Force ROTC and you want your uniform to be perfect then please join Honor Guard!! Guard is a lot of work between uniforms and performances but it is very rewarding as all we do honors those who came before us in all branches of the military. For example, each year Guard performs a 24 hour vigil for veteran’s day along with the two other teams. Vigil takes a lot of training, time, and dedication but, it is an entirely rewarding experience as it allows you to experience a fraction of the sacrifice that our veteran’s experienced while serving our country.

The Rifle drill team spins (and occasionally breaks) rifles in variations of four to ten man performances.  Rifle team is definitely the more rambunctious of the groups in Honor Corps, but they put on an incredible performance which personally I could never do.  They of course, also help with vigil and perform at SCIDM every year.  If you get the chance to come by Riddle one of these days you can see rifle and the other teams practicing in the lower fields. Practices are exceedingly interesting to watch and we invite you to stop by and check out the teams. You might be lucky enough and get to learn a few moves with the rifle (it’s a fake one by the way so no worries). If you enjoy it then we definitely encourage you to join one of the teams.

Sabre team is the last team, they are the smallest of all the teams in Honor Corps but, they are pretty epic too. I honestly don’t think I could toss a sharpened sabre around all day and hope that my partner catches it properly. It takes a lot of courage and skill to do something like that in my opinion. Despite how dangerous it sounds almost no one ever gets injured so don’t fear grab a sabre and try it out, they are a lot lighter than the rifles that Rifle and Guard have to carry so if you don’t want to be holding a lot of weight Sabre is perfect for you!!  Their performances are also quite impressive, and they performed incredibly at SCIDM.

That’s all I’ve got for now but if you want to see some of our performances please feel free to look at the links below!!

Ten man Rifle Drill Team at SCIDM

Honor Guard Recruitment Video

Sabre Team

Veteran’s Day

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As we all know, Veteran’s Day was this past weekend, so in light of my participation in Embry-Riddle’s activities to support our veterans I would like to tell you about how Embry-Riddle honors our veterans every year. As a little side note, there are a few hundred veterans on campus as well as a few hundred Air Force and Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) cadets.  The campus is very military friendly.

The experience was extremely rewarding and the activities that I was a part of this past weekend will be the most notable memories of my freshman year. I am a member of the Detachment 028 Air Force ROTC Honor Guard Team, which is basically the military group that presents the colors before football games and at other various types of ceremonies.  Each year the Honor Guard Team and the other teams in the Detachment 028 Honor Corps go to the Prescott Veteran’s Memorial Hospital and conduct a 24 hour vigil around the flag. This year’s vigil was my first time performing as an active member of the Honor Guard.  Just being able to stand at attention and endure a mostly sleepless night for the sake of vigil was an incredible experience. It really made me think about why I had chosen to become a member of the team and why I had put in so many long hours at practice when other cadets hadn’t.

The reason is this: millions of people died to protect our freedoms, an almost equal amount have endured incredible hardships as prisoners of war, and countless others have been labeled as missing in action. These brave young men and women never got to say a final goodbye to their families, never got to see their homes again, and because of their sacrifice they must never be forgotten.

This is so important to me as a freshman in the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps because I know that I will be the next in line to take up the defense of this country.  Being a participant in Vigil really changed my viewpoint.  I appreciated veterans before but when I stood guarding the flag as a symbolic representation of those who took up arms in its defense, I truly came to understand the magnitude of the hardships my predecessors had undergone.

Honor Corps Vigil 2012

 

I can honestly say that if I had not decided to come to Embry-Riddle I would not have had the opportunity to stand vigil and I would not have grown from the experience like I did that weekend. This freshman year has been an amazing growing process and my Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps commitments have truly helped me mature. I have made a ton of great friends along the way and become a part of the family that I call the Honor Guard. When I need help with school work they are there, and if I’m having a bad day they are there too.  I have found a home away from home at Embry-Riddle and I hope that you will too!