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! :)