Take Advantage of Black Friday & Cyber Monday

Posted on December 1, 2014 by Cherie

Black Friday and Cyber Monday is the prefect time of year to get those big purchases out of the way at a lower price, and for college kids or our soon to be college kids, this is an excellent time of year to update your technology. Search well because some stores may even have additional discounts for students.

In need of a new laptop? Best Buy always has some great ones available at just the right price!! If your parents will be gifting you these items, be sure to send them to our FAQ for parents that details what you should bring to ERAU including technology. For current students, check out half price books online for those textbooks you need next semester. You might find some awesome discounts!

Amazon is also a great resource for finding discounts on technology or textbooks, so keep that in mind as well. For college students Amazon Prime is free during your first year so and you can get great deals with free shipping when you sign up! As a student you will find this service invaluable.

Happy Holidays and happy shopping everyone, just remember to stay safe out there, no discount is worth your safety. Thanks for reading everyone!

Embry’s Biggest Surprise — The Tight-Knit Community

Posted on November 25, 2014 by Colton

Ever since I was a kid, I had a passion for anything aviation. My aunt was in the Navy and my grandpa was a private pilot with a V-Tail Bonanza. I loved to be surrounded by people who shared the same passion as I had. When coming to Embry-Riddle, I knew I would be surrounded by a community of students and faculty who also loved aviation (since it is an aeronautical university), but I had no idea how tight-knit that community would be. Embry-Riddle is just a large family, with all its members having one common passion and drive: aviation. Not only is everyone pursuing a career in a similar field, but many also share the same extracurricular interests. By the third day of orientation, my suitemates and I built an airplane out of a broken printer we found in the dumpster (no we weren’t dumpster diving) and proceeded to launch it off our third story balcony.

Silly as it seems, the building and launching of the ‘printer plane’ started the formation of a strong bond between my suitemates and I, and made life long memories before school had even started! And the adventures aren’t limited to gliders created from old electronics; within two weeks I had built friendships with several other guys who shared my love for remote control aircraft. Since then, we have built combat airplanes, built and flown multirotors such as hexacopters and tricopters, have had plenty of crashes, and have made tons of memories.

It’s that sense of family that surprised me most about Embry-Riddle, and I think it’s a unique community you won’t find at any other university

If you’re interested in seeing the “Printer Pelican 1”, you can watch the video I made at this link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA1GviCfwlw

High Altitude Balloon Launch

Posted on November 24, 2014 by Cherie

High Altitude gondola image taken by an Embry Riddle Student’s Satellite

Last Tuesday, several teams in the Experimental Space Systems course launched weather balloons to test preliminary designs of Satellites. These Satellites collected data about the upper atmosphere and filmed their journey. The launch was the culmination of an entire semester of research, fabrication, and over 7 hours of testing in Embry-Riddle’s very own Space Systems Laboratory. This lab is a unique state of the art facility housed inside the Aerospace Fabrication and Experimentation Building known as AXFAB. It is complete with two vacuum chambers and what most students call “the chiller” which is a small highly insulated piece of equipment that has the ability to simulate the temperature conditions of the upper atmosphere.

The curvature of the earth and rays of the sun in the upper atmosphere as recorded by the satellite

All of the students were very excited to launch and chase down the satellites as the wind carried them across the upper portion of Northern Arizona. If you happen to be visiting us for a campus tour, stop by and meet the teams. They will be in the Space Systems Laboratory, which is one of the stops on our campus tour 🙂

If you would like more information or have any questions please leave me a comment below and I’ll get back to you ASAP. Thanks for reading everyone!!!

— Do not duplicate. All images are property of Juan Gutierrez, Serafino Bohrer-Padavos, Jenna Humble, Sung Saengpetsiriphan, Joseph Christensen; team members on the high altitude balloon launch project.

Embry Outreach at White River Apache Reservation

Posted on November 20, 2014 by Colton

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Something Embry-Riddle is very good at (one of the many things) is community outreach. This year I had the honor to take part in one the ERAU’s outreach programs, in conjunction with Chi Alpha (a program which I am also highly involved in), Innovation Club (also highly involved in), Rocketry Club, and ERAU Admissions. The event was created for outreach and promotion for Embry-Riddle and the pursuit for higher education in general.

Me and about 14 other people from Chi Alpha, a club on campus that revolves around making life long memories through crazy adventures and pursuing our Creator (check it out here >> http://riddlexa.org/ ), trekked off in two vans to White River Apache reservation. Our adventure would take part over two days. The first night we went to their last high school football game and put on a halftime show. It started with Freshman Lee Morris launching off a high-altitude weather balloon, soaring high into the night sky with flashing LED’s before disappearing forever. Secondly, we launched a scratch-built 5-foot tall rocket that we had built using the Student Innovation Center (Innovation club) and some expertise from the Rocketry Club. It featured a cardboard fuselage, 3d-printed fins and nose cone, and a custom motor to send it to 700 feet. It was quite spectacular, and the crowd loved it.

The next morning, we headed off to the local High school, Middle school, and Elementary school. All day, we taught classes on aviation, college, and pursuing a higher education. We were able to inspire kids to high school, to strive for their dreams and work hard to achieve them.

Watch the story unfold here…

This event was definitely one of the most memorable parts of my freshman year so far. It definitely makes me thankful for what I have been blessed with, and gives me a hunger to help those around me pursue their dreams as I am pursuing mine.

Community Service

Posted on November 19, 2014 by Cherie

This past week Embry-Riddle Prescott’s Air Force ROTC Arnold Air Society and Silver Wings hosted a food drive for the Prescott Homeless Shelter in support of their Thanksgiving Feast. This event is just one of many that AFROTC and other campus organizations host to support our community.

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In total there are over 80 different student organizations on the Prescott campus ranging from inter mural sports, fraternities, sororities, and the list goes on!!

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All of our organizations participate in some service project. For example, one of the sororities on campus supports the nonprofit “Autism Speaks” which helps the families of Autistic children.

Another organization, The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers volunteers to tutor naturalized citizens who are pursuing GED’s. This is just barely scratching the surface of how Embry-Riddle students give back to their community.

If you would like to join us in doing so we would love to welcome you here!! If you are interested in visiting click here and if you are ready to apply our application page can be found here.

Thank you for reading everyone!!!

Get Outside! Outdoor Adventure Surrounds You

Posted on November 19, 2014 by Student Spotlights

by Miguel Diaz

Last weekend was really great! On Friday, a good friend who graduated from Embry-Riddle came to visit and we hung out with him for a while. On Saturday, I had my Industrial Hygiene class, and we did our individual topic presentations. After that I was able to finally relax after a long week. But the highlight of the weekend was Sunday, when my friend Alex and I took a few members of the Mountain Club (check out our Facebook page) for a day of rock climbing at a nearby canyon called The Promised Land. The Mountain Club is one of the many student organizations on campus. We are a community of rock climbers and mountain bikers that enjoy one or both of these sports and like connecting with like minded people. As an officer of the club, I love bringing people out on trips and introducing them to the sport of rock climbing. Anyone is welcome regardless of experience or gear ownership. We have taken many beginners and we have plenty of gear that we can loan out to members for use. The only requirement is a sense of adventure!

The canyon is located about 10 miles northeast of Prescott, or directly east of our neighboring town to the north, Chino Valley. There was seven of us going that day. Six students from different majors and even one staff member! Even though the canyon is close in distance, we have to go through some rough dirt roads, so it took us about an hour to get to the climbing area.

We hiked in and started setting up. In rock climbing, each specific path, or line up the rock is called a route, and they vary in difficulty. So we started off by setting up some easy routes up the wall to warm up. Everyone did great and was able to finish them no problem.

We moved on to other routes as everyone was done with the first two. We tried one much harder route that only two of us were able to complete, but the challenge was a lot of fun! We continued on to two others that climbed on some jagged rock leading to a flatter face. Very fun but challenging too! This one seemed particularly enjoyable for most of us, although we were getting a little tired at this point. At this spot I took a picture of one of our members going up the route

And another one of the group as I was descending back down.

After this we moved further down the canyon to do two more routes. One of these routes involved going around a cactus growing out of the wall, and it proved to be quite entertaining to see each other trying to climb up while avoiding it.

At the end, we all had fun throughout the day and everyone enjoyed spending a day outside with beautiful weather in an awesome place with good people. We talked about climbing equipment and gear, about school and classes, joked around with each other, and made plans for future outings. It was a good day and a good weekend for us. And we look forward to more days like these!

Veterans Day Vigil by ROTC!

Posted on November 19, 2014 by Shivam

Veterans Day is a very important day for many students here at Embry-Riddle. Not only does it help students remember sacrifices given by our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines, but it also helps many of the veterans on campus reflect back to their time serving our nation. Embry-Riddle has a large Veterans population on campus and has also been named a Top Military-Friendly University for the fifth straight year.

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The Air Force ROTC Honor Corps of Detachment 028 does something special every year for Veterans Day here in Prescott, Arizona. Honor Corps is comprised of three teams; Rifle Drill Team, Sabre Drill Team, and the Honor Guard. These three teams get together 24 hours before the Veterans Day Parade and stand guard at the Northern Arizona Veterans Affairs Center in Prescott. Being home to one of the largest VA Centers in the nation, the Northern Arizona Veterans Affairs significantly helps the Air Force ROTC community for Vigil. This 24 hour event is called Vigil. The first picture in this blog was taken by me at around 4:00 am. This goes to show the commitment and the courage of the Cadets that volunteer for this self-less event.

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Being an Alumni of the Sabre Drill Team, this year was no different. I started doing this about three years ago, and it was one of the best experiences of my life. Starting at 10 am on Monday, November 10th, our Cadets held one hour shifts to guard the flag pole at the VA Center. The flag was guarded non-stop for 24 straight hours by around 30 cadets, taking multiple 4 man shifts. The Vigil ended at 10 am on Tuesday prior to the Prescott Downtown Veterans Day Parade. By doing this, personally, I have learned quite a bit about myself and what it means to be a future officer in the Air Force. When not on a shift, cadets are usually inside a building, with tons of food, either bonding with each other or spending time getting our homework done. At Embry-Riddle one thing is for sure, as our Colonel always says, “Student First, Cadet Second!”

What has surprised me about ERAU — I Matter to My Faculty

Posted on November 19, 2014 by Vishra

ERAU is a small community, therefore you will be surprised to how fast the faculty and staff learn your name on campus. The professors get to know you within the first week of classes and professor to student ratio on average is 1:18. At Riddle, the professor and the students will know when you miss classes.

At Riddle, a professors’ number one priority is to teach, not research, even though there is plenty of that going on too. The professors put in more effort into preparing their classes and, often, into developing new classes. They even have open door policy along with at least ten office hours per week. All the professors have to grade their own homework, exams and finals, they always read your work and offer detailed comments. In short, I was surprised to see how the professors treated me as an adult and made me feel that I mattered.

It’s true that Embry-Riddle has a lot more men than women. Some may consider it a disadvantage but not me. It took me out of surprise to see how much I am respected by my male peers. Riddle men are incredibly nice and are gentlemen; they bring back etiquette and forgotten gesture! Ladies, you will be surprised at how often the door is being held open for you. I always remember to appreciate the timeless gesture of courtesy they show us.

Between the great faculty and the respect for each other on campus, I’m so glad I chose Embry-Riddle.

Choosing Your Classes

Posted on November 19, 2014 by Cherie

For all of our current students you must register for courses this week for spring!! For Seniors the date was Monday, Juniors (today), Sophomores Wednesday, and Freshman Thursday. It is a great time to take advantage of your academic advisor’s expertise. Meet Heather, Katie and Scott.

They will sit down and identify the classes you need to take each semester to help make sure you graduate on time. They can also help you get into classes that require special faculty approval. Advisors and the records office are here to help you!!!

The registration process is really simple and can be done completely online, for course overloads (17+ credits) there is a form from the records office that you and your advisor need to sign before you can get into the course. But, if you are not overloading credits then go onto your Student Center in ERNIE and use the “enrollment shopping cart” to search and add classes you need to take in the semester. When your enrollment appointment is validated then all you have to do is hit the “enroll” button and “verify” the courses. If any issues arise then your advisor and the records office will help you sort it out really fast 🙂

So its as simple as that, get ready sophomores and second semester freshman, your up next!!!! Hit that button as quick as possible (at 7:30 am ) to get into the classes you need!!!

Internships

Posted on October 31, 2014 by Cherie

All those applications!!!!

It’s almost that time of year again when internship applications are coming out so preparation of the perfect resume must begin!! Many of our first year students get an internship after their first year at Embry-Riddle so take heed prospective students. There are plenty of opportunities out there for amazing internship experiences. Your resume can also get a good summer job lined up for you so you can still make some cash and get a little professional experience whether or not it is at an internship or at a grocery store.

Embry-Riddle actually has a career services department for students who are preparing their resumes for potential employers. You can get some information on the department here. Please check it out and keep us in mind when you come to choosing your college, Embry-Riddle has so much to offer you in college and beyond. Thanks for reading!!!