Give

Remember I mentioned that I was the VP of Communications for American Marketing Association (AMA) at NCC? Oh c’mon, I know you REMEMBER right right right? Oh well, we had our last meeting of the term today. For the rest of the school year, we will be having a ‘Clothes and Food’ drive as part of our community service. So at today’s meeting, we decorated boxes and divided them up to be allocatedat all the dorm rooms on campus.

Take

The one thing I always take away from activities like this is a sense of satisfaction and pride almost. We were in classroom Goldspohn 30, nothing fancy, but everyone had such beautiful and sincere smiles on their faces while we were decorating the boxes. To be honest, I’ve never seen all of us so united, at least not with a smiling face~ lol. I felt good being around a group of people who honestly and innocently care for those who are less fortunate.

One more take on a personal level is that, I believe everyone cares, to a certain extent. But they give excuses such as, ‘I don’t have the time’, ‘Who’s gonna help me?’, ‘How would I know if I’m helping the right person/people’, ecetera… Perhaps our views on charity and serving the community have been fogged up by scams of big, so-called non-profit organization that did not put their gathered resources to appropriate use- *clear throat*. Perhaps all of these and bigger problems in our lives have made us lose faith in the good of humanity. But if we all contribute in some small ways, it would definitely make the world so much better, much less complex. That’s just me saying. =)

Me, Ashley and Liz rocking our PJs!

Dear Readers,

We’re going into Week 7 here at North Central College. WOW! Time flies!!!

Week 5 was Homecoming Weekend and hereby I would like to congratulate our new Homecoming King and Queen, Nico Nepomuceno and Antonia Jankowski!!!

This term, classes are more challenging than I had expected. Seems that my method of studying for one of my classes is not working out at all. And I’m still trying to figure out what went wrong- No, I did not procrastinate. I’ll definitely have to meet up with my professor and seek his advice. That’s definitely something that our professors here at NCC strive to do. They have office hours where students can come and meet with them without making an appointment, and students can also schedule appointments out of those office hours.

Enough on that, I recently found out something about the Lederman Scholars Program where top-high school students around the area can earn college credits while still in high school. To me, this seems like a golden opportunity for students who are ambitious and wish to graduate early from college. I know I would have jumped to it had this opportunity came up when I was still in high school!

I was not feeling well on Halloween and did not get the chance to really enjoy it. However, my friend had a costume party and I dressed up as  a football player! Did you do something fun or outrageous? I hope you had a great Halloween celebration regardless!

That’s all for now peeps! See you next week!

Dear Readers,

I was asked last week if it was easy to make friends at North Central College. Frankly speaking, it was a good yet a baffling question, at least to me. First of all, how you define ‘friend’ differs from how I see a ‘friend’. I actually think I have more acquaintances than I have friends. I know a lot of people here but I don’t know them at the same time if you get what I mean. To me, having a few close friends that I can trust is all that matters. So my answer could have been, you make a lot of acquaintances here at North Central and you’ll find a few that you’ll hold close and dear to heart. Is it a little too pragmatic of me? Well, you can decide.

Then again, I remembered being asked, are there sororities and fraternities at North Central College? The reply is ‘no’. But any institution or location where people are congregated for the same or different purposes, there will be cliques. So yes, there are a lot of cliques and groups here at North Central. I try to be one that is not related to any sort of clique because this gives me the option to know some really amazing people from say, the theatre program, education program, business program and individuals who are both actively involved and less involved at school. My point is, when you hit the real world, most likely you can’t control who you’ll meet. There is diversity anywhere and everywhere these days, so why not start getting use to it and learn something out of it while you the opportunity stands before you. And diversity I’m talking about  here is not restricted to nationality or background but also personality, the attitude and aptitude.  I really think North Central provides a good balance for that learning experience and you, the individual can decide if you want to immerse yourself in that sometimes nerve-wrecking, yet invaluable and insightful experience.

People say you find your friends for life when you’re in high school and most likely in college. I’d like to vouch for that because I know people whom I’d want to keep in touch with for the rest of my life here at NCC. No matter where you go, if you feel like you’re not fitting in, give it a chance. If you fail, you found a place that wasn’t your clique. Move on. If you succeed, you have just found another place in this world where you can unleash your potential and spread your wings and fly.

This is me in a four-seated propeller jetplane. I really don’t know what it’s called. But we didn’t take off because the cross wind became too strong. =’[ But it was a cool experience anyway!

Have a good one everyone!

Hello readers!

It’s been a while. I spent all summer long without you and you without me. What a shame. =)

First of all, I procrastinated on my first blog. I don’t know where to start because I’ve so much to tell and I just don’t want you to have to spend an hour reading my blog. So follow-up on my weekly blog and you’ll definitely find some useful information!

Remember that I mentioned something about doing an internship for the summer in my last blog? The internship experience was invaluable! I loved every minute of it and I learned so so much about different softwares, analysis and corporate culture and environment. Had I had the time, I would have definitely continued it. My ex-co-workers at ULTA were the best people I could imagine working with and they made my internship all the better. I miss it so so so much. =’[  I worked with the E-commerce department at ULTA and helped in improving the different functions and measured the performance of these functions in order to provide a higher online shopping experience. See www.ulta.com and try to guess what I helped them with! Just leave me a message and I’ll get back to you!

Other than doing my internship, I took off about ten days to go on a vacation with the family. We went to Florida and it was so much fun, excitement and very little sleep, at least that’s what I think! My favorite part is still swimming with the dolphins. I’m thinking of changing my major to Marine Biology so that I can become a dolphin trainer! LOL.. But, that would make me stay in college for another two three years?? NO WAY!

Fall hit me without any warning. Summer seemed to have just flown by without saying goodbye! Uggh.. RUDE! I felt like a first year student again on my first day of school. There are so many new faces on campus and my eyes were weld up thinking and reminiscing those good old days when most of my friends still go to school here. Now that they’re all graduated, feels like I don’t know anyone here anymore. Oh well, that’s life in general aint it? People somehow always leave, although some temporarily and some permanently. It’s those that hang around no matter what happens that are kept so close and dear to my heart. On the other hand however, it’s a splendid news for North Central College. The publicity that North Central has received over the past two years have increase tremendously and this year alone, there were about 800 new students on campus, a whooping leap for a small 59 acre campus like this. *Claps*. I TOLD YOU all along that North Central is a good place to attend school. So why wait? Come check it out yourself. Apply at the Office of Admission to do an overnight visit and see it for yourself the real student life!

Till then,

You all rock!

The school year has finally ended, on a great note.

It was another year of awesome experiences with my friends and at college, and a good year of learning for me, not just academically, but also on the personal level. I had a lot of friends who graduated this year. I could have walked with them at the graduation, but I have decided to extend one more year at North Central College and added 2 more majors to my Bachelor of Arts in Marketing and Int. Business. Seems to me that it is the best thing to do- to stay in school given the state of the economy. On the other hand, many of my friends have been offered jobs and will be starting or might have already started this very minute. Therefore, to all the job-seeking individuals out there, don’t give up! It’s gonna work out somehow.

So anyways, if you or your children or niece/nephew are going to be attending North Central College next year, spot for me! I will definitely be around.

Wondering what will I be up to all summer long? This summer will be a productive summer for me. I will be doing an internship with ULTA and vacationing in between. I can’t wait to start at the internship! I already like the team that I will be working closely with at the internship. So, there’s gonna be lotsa fun, lotsa anxiety, lotsa excitement, lotsa learning, lotsa challenges and hopefully lotsa sleeping hours too! What more can I ask for? =)

I miss my friends though. Everyone’s back home working and will only be available during the weekends, which will be spent with family. Oh well, we’ll survive somehow. Anyway, moving out was a pain because the dorm room got more and more comfortable overtime and you just tend to accumulate more and more stuff. And when I say stuff, it’s really just STUFF, stuff that you don’t need, stuff that you keep for no apparent reason, stuff you kept since High School that was meant to be a memento but you dont even remember what it was for- THOSE are the STUFF that filled my dorm room. LOL. Luckily my uncle had a big truck for that. Else, I’ll probably be holding a garage sale at the school parking lot!

A friend of mine said, “…sometimes it’s better if we don’t say goodbye. Save the tears, save the hugs. Because we gotta hold on to our faith and believe that we will meet again and our paths will cross again, someday. Someday.” To all my beloved friends, here in the states and friends from all over the world that I’ve come to love, thank you for everything and let us all make a difference in the world, in the very near future! All the best.

I don’t know if I will be coming back as a blogger for North Central College again next year so I just want to take this opportunity to thank all my readers out there and wish everyone a great summer! Good luck also to students searching for a college and starting at one. You’ll do great if you do it your way! =)

Quoted from a song, “If I could do it again, I’d do it the same…” 2008-2009, Definitely one of the best years of my life. Decisions are an everyday thing. Make a right decision from the beginning and you will never have to regret it. I made quite a few big decisions this past year, including extending one more year at North Central College. I don’t know if it’s the absolute right thing to do, but I believe it’s the right thing to do. Hope you feel that way too with all the upcoming decisions that you’ll be making! Best wishes to all.

Dear readers,

School’s flying by! It’s already Week 8 at North Central College which means summer break will be here soooooOON!
The weather has been awesome and my friends and I have just enjoyed walking/strolling around downtown Naperville and relaxing whenever we can.

Something exciting happened last week. It was my birthday!!!!! Well, I’m not a very big birthday person so that wasn’t really the highlight. The highlight of last week was the Honors Day, and I was formally inducted into a Marketing Honor Society, Mu Kappa Tau! *Claps* My uncle and aunt came for the ceremony and together with some other friends who were inducted into the different honor societies and their families, we were off to Olive Garden for a deliiiiiiiicious dinner!

Come the end of the week, it was Springfest!!! I really have no idea about the bands that were invited, only that they had some awesome songs!!!! So I definitely procrastinated a little bit on Saturday and took it easy on myself. And then, it was back to a little bit of studying, a little bit of slacking and a little bit of fun every now and then.
What can I say, life is awesome!

Marie, Christine, Me and Jess after the Honors day outside of the restaurant

Yup, we go for the ‘funny’ faces… See you next time!

Week 5 and Week 6 = STRESS!

Midterms midterms midterms! That was what I’ve been having for the past week and a half up till last night (5/6). My caffeine-filled body finally got to rest and go to bed early for the first time after so long. If I hadn’t procrastinated all weekend long, I probably didn’t have to stay up as much as I did. But really, when the sun’s out and there are multiple awesome weekend programs that the college has put up for the students, would you stay in the room and study? NO. College is not about getting good grades, although very important, it’s also a time to find out who you are, search for your own niche and get to know people around you, people you might stay in touch for the rest of your life! Anyway, enough life lessons, I have lived that long! But I am sticking to my words, sacrificing a few hours of sleep in return for a great time with your friends and still getting work done effectively is my daily mantra!

What where the activities that kept me away? Here you go…

Asian Student Konnection (ASK) invited a comedian to our college on Friday night. HILARIOUS! There are some things that the comedian mentioned at the end of the show that I strongly disagree with, but I really appreciated the part where he spoke about diversity and the different ways of embracing it; very insightful in that way. While the comedy show was going on, Relay for Life in support of the American Cancer Society was having their own walkathon in the Gregory Arena here at North Central College. At NCC, we focus a lot on giving back to the community and this is simply one of the many programs that we have here to allow for students to participate in voluntary work and benefit the society as a whole. I was there last year but unfortunately was not able to make it this year. Overall, my friends who went told me that it was a great success and they were able to collect enough money to contribute towards the organization.

I worked Saturday morning and did some homework for a few hours before it was time for Mr. NCC. I had a few friends who were in it and had a great time watching them perform. Mr. NCC 09′ goes to Sunbir Gill, a very charismatic poet, at least for that night. He wrote his own poems and recited them to the crowd. LOVED IT!

I slept in on Sunday and by the time I had lunch, it was time to go to the last game of our women’s Lacrosse team! NCC lost, but we won in spirit. The last game’s admission was free because the team decided that they would want to do charity along with it; they wanted to help a 4-year-old cancer patient. The little girl was there throughout the game, being really enthusiastic and was cheering the whole time. She had told a friend of mine, who’s on the Lacrosse team, that the different colors on her wristband meant something. It was heartwrenching to hear it from my friend, moreover from the little girl herself. She has so much courage and energy to live her days despite surgeries after surgeries and all I can do apart from donating whatever money I had on me, is say a silent prayer.

After the Lacrosse game, I laid outside for a while to enjoy the nice weather and by the time I opened my eyes again, it was 6pm!!!! And I stayed up till 3am to study for my midterm. LOL.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Cancer Survivors!!!! Yooohooooooooo~~~~~~~~

I remember writing in one of my previous posts that I didn’t know how to ride a bike.. But over the weekend, it was so gorgeous out, my friend insisted that we should go bike riding. So, whatever, I went ahead… I had my own bike and the task was to hunt down a Cardinal bike so that we’ll each have one. I got off to a good start, being able to go on my own for a stretched distance, only with a bunch of accidents right after.

Let’s see what i ran into: bushes (i was bounced off the bike), huge rocks (and i flew over my bike, landed on my bottom.. my roommate died laughing.. imagine that for yourself, it’ll probably make your day ten times better), cars parked (i stopped before scratching it, but i hurt my wrist), and I generally just stopped and fell off the bike! =/  Got bruises all over my leg and hands again..!! oh well, theres a price to pay if you wanna learn isnt there?

Not to forget, this past Thursday, I had one of my wisdom tooth pulled out. I was deprived off solid food for more than 48 hrs and I was staaaaaaaarving… but i cheated. I ordered rice at lunch on Saturday and just swallowed them all the way through..what a lovely feeling to have a full stomach..!

Hanging out with the girls (Me, Sanja and Kaitlyn)…

Greetings to all the readers out there,

My Week 2 at NCC ended with a great note. The formal presentation that I mentioned in my previous blog took place on last Thursday, April 9, 2009 (Check out the picture we took in the end through the link provided above).  I am still in disbelief that the meeting actually happened and it was truly an invaluable experience and honor for both my teammates and I. We worked hard for the project from the very beginning, not knowing that this opportunity was in a close distance, and our hard work surely paid off when the CEO showed interest in our project, which led to the face-to-face meeting. The warmth welcome, the friendly executives and the insightful conversation/discussion we had and so much more that day made my week, my term and my overall college career ten times more exciting than it would have been.

Important to note, without our professor, Brian Hanlon, we couldn’t have done it. He inspired us in everyway he could and he was there at the meeting to provide us with mental support; an exceptional professor/mentor that’s hard to come by. Thank you!

Abraham Lincoln once said, “And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” If I could put a twist on it to match with the context of my/one’s college life, I would go, “And in the end, it’s not about how much time you spent to make the effort. It’s the consistent effort you made every single time.” That way, hard work pays off.

PS: I hope everyone had a good Easter weekend cause I sure did!

In case some of you wonder about the title:

MC=My own initials

AG=My teammate for the presentation, Andrea Georgiou

EY=My teammate for the presentation, Eric Young

BH=Our professor for the class, Brian Hanlon

Welcome back to North Central College Spring term 2009!

First of all, Week 1 flew by! 9 more weeks to go and I’m done……..??!! That IS scary!

Anyway, it was good seeing all the familiar faces again although I still think that Spring break was a little too short =’[

Highlights of my Week 1

• Cardinal bikes are back!- Although I still have difficulty riding them, because… *clear throat*, I don’t know how to ride a bike. Someday, I am going to master it!
• I am currently busy getting ready for a formal presentation at the headquarters of a firm which my classmates and I had done a school project on (the execs found out about it and invited us to go in for the presentation), excited and nervous at the same time.
• Went to the “Oh, Coward” show at Madden Theater here at North Central. It was like a biography of Noel Coward’s works. My favorite song from the show was “If Love Were All” performed by Mandy Nousain.
• Sunday= homework day.

Have a good one everybody!