The Robins Awards :)

This week is one of the last weeks before it gets SUPER crazy with final projects, papers, presentations, and exams. Last night was the Robins Awards.

The Robins Awards are the most coveted of all Utah State honors. They reward students and faculty for hard work and dedication to their individual goals, as well as the goals of USU. The awards memorialize William E. Robins, a campus hero who had a rare quality to turn his vision into Utah State's vision. Robins was a Sigma Nu at Utah State who served as USU's student body president in 1949. He was the primary and initial visionary of today's Taggart Student Center. Each year, the gallant event is held in the evening, and several awards are presented. The ceremony is followed by the Spring Formal dance. Throughout the years, the name of Bill Robins has stood as a symbol of the best efforts students can offer. As a memorial to him, the night's feature award is called the Bill Robins Memorial Award. Other awards include: Achievement of the Year, Woman of the Year, Man of the Year, Organization of the Year, and the Val R. Christensen Service of the Year.

I was nominated for Woman of the Year and to my surprise was named a finalist, and to my even greater surprise (which I still can't believe) I was awarded Woman of the Year! I really did not think that I would win so I didn't really thing of what to say so my speech thingy kind of sucked, but I feel so honored and humbled. Wow, I still can't believe it!

Service Week

So last week was Service Week. I was really busy with Aggies for Africa doing all sorts of things to raise money for a non profit organization called Mali Rising. It is based out of Salt Lake City and raises money to build schools in Mali (a country in Africa) through community efforts. After we raise the money, and provide the building materials the villagers and community members in Africa build the school themselves. This is a better way of helping build community and aid at the same time by having them be invested and work as hard as we did to raise the money to build the school that their children will enjoy (a much better alternative than just dropping a school that we build and leave there.) Aggies for Africa worked with the Val R. Christensen Service Center and various class project groups to raise money. Kalai, a popular guitarist and vocalist came to do a benefit concert and it was really successful. We sold our newly designed t-shirts, had luncheons and dinners to also raise funds, as well as accepting donations. We are closer to our goal but have not raised all of the money yet, but we are optimistic and proud of how much we have raised so far.
http://malirisingfoundation.org/index.html
check out the website :)

April fools!

So last week was April fools day and I woke up to quite a funny surprise. Our door was duct taped shut....it was pretty funny, except for the fact that I had to leave to get to class. My big group project was due on April Fools Day and I wished that it was just a joke and my professor would say "Just kidding, you don't have to turn in your 20 page papers!" (but don't worry, it was a group project with 4 people and we each had to write 5 pages...no big deal!) So it was kind of a relief to get that over with. I am officially going to study abroad in France this summer and next fall semester; I am so excited! After that I am going to spend a semester in Africa at the University of Ghana studying geography. It sounds really expensive but the study abroad program I am doing is set up so that I pay USU tuition at a foreign school and any financial aid or scholarships that I have go toward paying for it. It is really awesome. It has been a bit stressful doing all of the paper work and figuring out passports, visas, etc., but it will all be worth it when I'm at the top of the Eiffel Tower overlooking all of Paris! woo hoooo!!! I really need to get ready for my final exams, projects, and presentations, so next week is going to be intense. Have a good week and GO AGGIES! :)

Quintessential college....

This has been a pretty average week, with a few exceptions. It was pretty exciting, we made bran muffins on tuesday night at like 1 am, it was a nice little adventure. I have a few big research projects that I have been putting off....but I'm going to get a really good start on them tomorrow :) no worries. My roommates and I had a series of random adventures last night. I was going to go to a dance party at my friend's house but we decided to get food and then go to first dam to eat it. But of course, Amy had to go the ATM at good ol' wally world. While we waited in the car we had a dance party in the parking lot. And then we had another dance party in the Wendy's drive thru while we waited for our order. Then we went to First Dam and went on the dock to eat it and saw some crazy awesome people canoeing in the middle of the night!

Saturday I woke up early to go to an Turbo Kick work shop at the Logan Rec Center. It was super fun, you can watch the video!

I went to a scholarship dinner for the College of Natural Resources and I got to meet my scholarship donors and have my mom and grandma come to see it. It's really nice to be in a smaller college because there is a lot of scholarship money. I got one scholarship, the Timothy Leary Memorial Scholarship for $450 and another, called the Quinney Undergraduate Scholarship for $3,600 for 3 years and there is an opportunity to apply for $2,000 in support of an academically meaningful  experience in my junior or senior year. It is so so wonderful now that my original scholarship that runs out this year, I can still pay for school. Yay! :D

LUAU!

Aloha my friends! This weekend was the PSU (Polynesian Student Union) Luau. It was so much fun preparing and practicing in order to put on such a great event we started practicing in February for the luau in March. I was in the Hawaii implement, Fiji, New Zealand Poi, and New Zealand stick dances. There were dances from the islands of Hawaii, Fiji, New Zealand, Tahiti, Tonga, and Samoa. Before the show there was delicious food It was so much fun to learn the dances and learn about Polynesian culturre. Something really fun about luaus is when people in the audience (usually family members or family friends) come up while you are dancing and give you money :) it's pretty awesome! Some people make paper necklaces out of dollar bills and give them to the dancers or just throw money or tuck it into their costume. I love the multicultural student services at Utah State. It is so great to be able to have a great education academically, but also be able to experience other cultures and have a good time while you're at it! Cheeeehoo!!!!
check it out on youtube! search for PSU LUAU 2009 :D (or username pahscuzeme)

Final Elections traditions week and midterms :/

Wow so the final elections finished up right before Spring Break! And a well deserved and needed break it was. The week right up to spring break and elections was indeed crazy. Traditions week had a bunch of fun events tied to the elections. Monday through Friday there was always something exciting like the presidential debate with free Aggie Ice Cream (YUM!), two free showings of Twilight, a sweatshirt swap, free Scotsman dogs while meeting the ASUSU candidates, the elections announcement, a comedian, free candy on the Hello Walk, and of course Founders Day. There was a SWEET (and free :D we like free things in college...) Love You Long Time concert in the TSC Sunburst Lounge where people could also meet the candidates.
This same week I had two mid terms to study for, which luckily went well. And finally Spring Break came! woo hoo!

Primary Elections

Hi friends! ASUSU Elections were last week and it was pretty exciting. All of the candidates campaign and have a fun time with that. I live in Honors House in the LLC (Living Learning Center) and it is really nice there. I planned a study abroad program to let people know about the great opportunities available through the USU Study Abroad Office. My friend who has studied abroad in Chile, Uganda, and Nicaragua came and told us about her experience and answered some questions for us. (This picture is of a little town called Annecy in France where I will be for 2 months this summer before my semester at the University of Saint-Etienne in France.) After studying in France for 7 months, I'm going to study for a semester at the University of Ghana :) I can't wait!
(this is from the study abroad photo contest)

We're still practicing for the luau and it's going to be great!!! Multicultural student services is sponsoring a Polynesian showcase of music and dance featuring the cultures of Samoa, Tonga, Hawaii, New Zealand, Fiji, and Tahiti. We're going to have amazing food catered by the Pauni Family. I'm dancing in Hawaii, New Zealand, and Fiji! It's going to be on March 20th and it is going to be so great!