Tag: Student Life

Recently on March 28,2009, NCSU students participated in Service Raleigh, an annual citywide day of service started in 1998 by NC State’s Student Government and Park Scholars. This year, over 2,000 volunteers from the university and surrounding communities volunteered to lend a hand. Despite the wet and murky weather, students stuck it out and participated in projects that ranged from moving mulch, site restoration, and planting trees. Arriving early Saturday morning, students were greeted with warm donuts from Krispy Kreme, and fresh bagels from Brueggers Bagels Shop. Once full and energized, students joined their organizations and then broke into teams heading for their designated locations. This year I partnered with my sorors of the Kappa Omicron Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.  in efforts to clean up an area located on interstate 440 to correspond with our “Think Pink Live Green” program. Overall it was an experience that made me think twice about my carbon footprint on this earth. I was happy to say that I was “KOmited 2 the Cause” and persevered despite the soggy rain boots and questionable finds.

If you or someone you know is interested in the Service Raleigh Organization, log on to thier website at http://www.serviceraleigh.org/volunteer/volunteer_reg.html

On Monday, August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast. Five years later, the victims of the storm are still suffering. Shattered lives and destroyed homes still plague the streets of New Orleans, Louisiana. As our economic state worsens, those affected by the storm are further afflicted.

On Febuary 24,2008 the Kappa Omicron Chapter, of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc.  hosted a program entitled Mardi Gras. The purpose of this event was to celebrate the traditions and history of Mardi Gras, while also providing a fundraiser to help support the survivors of Hurricane Katrina. In hopes of giving relief to  the victims who have still not received relief and support from FEMA since Hurricane Katrina stuck the gulf coast in 2005, the proceeds of this fundraisers went to The Network for Good, a foundation for victims of Hurricane Katrina.  The program was a great success that touched on the fun and excitement of Mardi Gras, and helped give back to those in need. With only a $1 admission participants received a decorative mask and entrance ticket into a New Orleans setting. With creole inspired cuisine (my favorite), and creative games ranging from charades to go fish (Mardi Gras style) it was a blast!  Despite the shopping for decorations,making the flyers and painting the masks, the program was a lot of fun and it paid off. I am very proud to be apart of such an organization that make others concerns such a serious matter. Skee Wee my sorors!

If  you have any questions about The Network For Good Organization,  Please visit their website for more information:  http://www.networkforgood.org/topics/animal_environ/hurricanes/.

Trombone girls!!!

Sunday, February 15, 2009 was the 4^th Annual Hoops 4 Hope women’s basketball game against Virginia in Reynolds Coliseum.  Hoops 4 Hope is an event designed to raise money and awareness for the disease that ultimately took the life of head women’s basketball coach Kay Yow on January 24^th, 2009.  Thousands of fans gathered wearing pink, the color of breast cancer awareness.  Even the band, the dance team, and the cheerleaders wore pink as their uniforms.  For the first time in its four years, the game was sold out.  About 250 breast cancer survivors were recognized at halftime.   All money raised at the game went to support the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund.  The event raised over $91,000, and on top of that GlaxoSmithKline gave a $200,000 check.  The previous high for the event was $44,000 in 2007.  With the support of the band, the dance team, the cheerleaders, and thousands of fans, the Wolfpack women beat No. 17 Virginia 60-54.

A very crowded Reynolds Coliseum!!

Breast Cancer Survivors at halftime

Me and my friend Jenifer!

I went home a couple of weekends ago to go to one of my cousin’s basketball games. I had never been to a game quite like this one, and I had no idea what to expect. To my surprise, it was an intense and enjoyable experience.

The game that I am talking about is wheelchair basketball. About two years ago, my cousin was diagnosed with Guillain Barre Syndrome. To my understanding, this rare disorder of the nervous system paralyzes its victims, my cousin being one of them.  Everyday she is improving, coming from no movement in her arms and legs, to using a walker and shooting a basketball. I believe that in faith, she will soon be walking on her own again.

A couple of months ago, she decided to play wheelchair basketball. I remember pulling up in the parking lot of the gym, not knowing what to expect from the game. As I walked in, I was surprised. The two teams were warming up for the game. They were doing lay-up drills, making behind the back passes, shooting 3-pointers and foul shots, and doing everything that I would do in a basketball game. They showed me some AND1 moves I’d never seen before! Please believe, that they can, and will cross you over!!!

After the game started, the intensity level sky-rocketed. Everybody was into the game! The players were very physical, and were fouling each other, hard! By the end of the game I was in awe. I was amazed at the skill level of each and every one of the players. After the game (My cousin’s team won!!!) my cousin began to explain to me the amount of work that goes into wheelchair basketball, and how she had to get used to its style of play.  Now, whenever I come to town, my cousin can expect to have one more fan cheering her on at her games.

Me and two of my sorority sisters at the bowl game!

Hi everyone!   I’m Andrea Ertz and this is my first blog.   I am from Burlington, Iowa and I’m a sophomore majoring in Biological Sciences and working toward a minor in Spanish.  I am involved in many things here at NC State including basketball pep band, marching band, Pre-Health club, and I am one of the founding sisters of the Tri-Delta chapter at NCSU.  One of my favorite activities is marching band.  Not only do we get to go to every game without worrying about if we’ll get tickets or not, but we also get to travel to some of the away games!

One of the highlights of my marching band career so far has been going to the Papajohns.com Bowl this past winter break!  Even though I had a pretty rough time getting back to Raleigh in order to go to the game, I ended up making it to the airport at 2:00am after my flight was delayed 5 hours in Chicago.  I was worried that I would miss the bus!  My wonderful friends were there to pick me up at the airport, even though we had to be at Price Music Center less than six hours later.  We left Raleigh at 9:00am Saturday, December 27^th and took charter buses all the way to Birmingham, Alabama. 

This is me and a bunch of my band friends at dinner one night

After our lunch and dinner breaks, it ended up taking 10 or 11 hours to get there!  We stayed in a nice hotel for two nights and it was a lot of fun.  There was a pep rally on Sunday night where our band played and Coach O’Brien and a few of the football players talked.  The bowl game was Monday, December 29^th at 2:00pm.  The game was a lot of fun although Russel Wilson ended up getting hurt in the 3^rd quarter and was out for the rest of the game.  We ended up losing 29-23 but it was still such a fun game!  Our band performed on the field during halftime and that was awesome! 

Reuben Studdard singing the National Anthem

We left immediately after the game and ended up getting back into Raleigh at about 6:00 the next morning.  It was a pretty exhausting trip but I was glad to escape the freezing Iowa winter where there had been snow and freezing rain since I got home on December 16^th.  I definitely appreciated the 60 and 70 degree weather in Alabama!   Although marching band season is over, now I have pep band to look forward to.  Hope to see everyone at some of the games…Go Wolfpack!

Ms. Wuf singing

Go Pack!!

I believe that right before exams, almost every college student begins to stress a little bit.  Just hearing the word “exam” makes me cringe a little. The good thing is that NC State offers different types of stress relievers, such as free coffee and donuts in the library during exam week, and yoga classes to relax. This semester I decided to do my own stress relievers. These consisted of my study group and me renting out a class room and playing Rock Band on a HUGE projection screen for 4 hrs (taking place after our 3hr study sessions), going to sing karaoke with my sister and her friends, and going salsa dancing. By using all of these ingenuous techniques, I was able to relieve all of my stress, relax, and be totally confident in taking my exams. I would study early and make sure that I knew the material, and I would unwind by doing one of these three stress relievers. They must have worked because I did well on all of my exams! This is one thing that I learned in college. Stress only hinders your work, and your body. If you ever feel stressed, make sure to have a stress reliever prepared…or just go play rock band: Either one works!

So I am wrapping up my first semester at NCSU by entering what they call Dead Week. Dead Week is the week before exams when all projects are turned in and no homework is assigned so we can study…so of course I pick this time to write to you guys…because this type of procrastination at least seems studious.

This seemed like a good time to wrap up the semester and tell you guys some things that I learned about State that I would have liked to know.  Looking back on when I was signing up for classes there are three main things I think I would have liked to have known.  The first is that I really enjoy 50 minute classes more than 2 hour classes.  I say this because those are the two main types of classes, lots of short meetings or a few long ones.  Something they don’t tell you though is that those everyday 50 minute classes usually give you one day off.  It is really a personal decision though.

The second thing is lecture vs. small classes.  Lectures are really alot more about you, your computer, and the few people around you in the massive 200 person room.  You meet alot of people who can help you but you don’t have a real connection to the teacher unless you go to office hours. Small classes give you the option of establishing a good form of communication with the teacher and gives more of an opportunity to ask questions, but less people to meet.  It seems lectures are for people who are going to try to go for it on their own and classes are for people who want a connection with their teachers.

The final thing is GRADE DISTRIBUTIONS. You can see how easy or hard a teacher has graded in the past by checking out the grade distributions through MyPack Portal.  The other thing I want to talk about is the freshman repeat. It is something here at NCSU that allows students to make up some of the courses they take their first year. I let my grade in English 101 get away from me and was really worried about it until I found out about this. We get two and basically it is a redo, like Monopoly you’re getting out of jail free but just not receiving the 200 dollars when you pass go.  If you do bad in a class you tell your advisor about it when you sign up for your next semester and you retake the class and your new grade replaces your old one. The only sign left afterwards is a little R beside the class on your transcript.

I am now going to go back to trying to study for Dead Week. Hope these few academic insights from my first semester will help you guys out. Oh and one more thing I learned…procrastination DOES NOT FEEL GOOD AT THE END!!!!

I had some questions from a high school student, which is great and I welcome because it means I don’t have to come up with topics. (Score!) The first quesion I was asked was how was the transition from High School to College, and its probably going to sound like something you have heard alot before, but sometimes you hear things alot because they are true. In High school the teachers and faculty try to help you to succeed. When you get to a big college, it is really up to you to take the initiative towards your own success.  In some classes your teacher might not even know you are in their class. It’s not as sink or swim as it sounds though, yeah its up to you to put in the work, but if you fall behind there are tutoring and help centers for just about every class.

The other transition is going to sleep, a big problem I have found here as opposed to high school is that it is not too easy to hit the hay before about 11 or 12, so if you have early classes…it might not be a fun time.

The next question is about things to do other than sports… and you are in luck at a school like State, because there is a club for everything. I have heard of either a club or group of people who enjoy doing just about everything you could think of. I like to play music and I have found many people to go play with and have a good time. It is really all about being open with what you like doing and you will quickly find other people who enjoy those things too. The person who sent me the questions asked specifically about colorguard and chorus and all I know about colorguard is that I have seen people around practicing and its pretty impressive and as for choruses, there are a lot of A Capella groups around campus. They wanted to know if I am an in state or out of state student and I am in state about an hour and a half from home. 

The final question was about travel around campus and that is pretty easy for me because I love to walk around. I live in Lee and takes about half an hour to get to the other side of campus, so if you are comfortable walking that long, it should be no problem. You can also invest in a bike or a skate board if you know how or want to learn. There is also the Wolf Line, which are the NCSU buses, which are pretty nice buses that run pretty regularly around campus. I hope I was helpful and if anyone else has some questions…bring ‘em on.

While I was trying to think about something to write about this month I decided to procrastinate and go to the gym then it hit me… love it when things work out like that. Carmichael will be a great surprise to anyone who was planning to see something similar to what they knew in high school. It is a gigantic complex with 3 weight rooms that I have been to, a gigantic pool that is deep enough for kids to have a scuba class in it and an indoor track. It houses all the IM sports (Intramural Sports–which are sports where State students compete against each other) and club sports (which compete against other schools). I personally don’t do any sports but I am up there at least three times a week because the facility is great. It’s about a 10 minute walk from Lee and is open most the times a person would feel like working out. They have classes like yoga and Pilates, or meetings with personal trainers, and if you feel like not paying there are free classes that you can take like an abs class and cardio boxing. Funny how I can go from no idea what to write about to having all this, but that’s something I have discovered about state… it doesn’t really matter what you like to do or what you are into all it takes is maybe half an hour of wondering around to find something fun to do.

Later guys.

Homecoming weekend was great. There were lots of games and activities taking place. We even had a concert with Common and N.E.R.D. which was great. A lot of my friends were pulled up on stage and were able to chill with Common and N.E.R.D. One thing that I participated in was called the Leader of the Pack. Leader of the Pack is NC-State’s way of choosing a homecoming king and queen. It differs from any other school because the main focus is not on a student’s popularity, but on their leadership, academic acheivement, and commitment to service in the community and NC-State. I went through the application and interview process and was one of three finalist for the males. As a finalist I had to campaign to get the student body to vote for me. I was also able to ride in the Homecoming parade, go to the Homecoming football game and eat in the Chancellor’s box, and go out on the field during half-time. They announced the winners on the field. Although I did not win, it was still a great experience. Even being considered a finalist was an honor. And although we did not win the football game, it was still a good one, lol. This was probably the best homecoming that I’ve participated in.