One of my top goals for this semester is to land a good internship to explore this Summer! Over Winter break, I’ve been crafting my resume and doing extensive online research for them. So far, I have 3 theatres in mind!
During the first week back, I also sat down with my theatre advisor to discuss recommendation letters and my current plans. It’s always so nice to chat with her to make sure I am going in the right direction. With all our theatre professors being heavily and extendedly involved in the Chicago Theatre scene, I know I’m in good hands. Currently, it looks like I’m in a pretty good place so let’s keep our fingers crossed. I’m also quite sure about my current choices for application but the School of Communications’ Career Week is also right around the corner!
I am a Communications Studies major with minors in Theatre and Creative Writing so there are honestly A LOT of options and I’m super excited to discover even more beyond my online hunt during Career week! With this combination, it is also a tad more difficult for me to craft a fitting resume for my myriad of interests and involvement so the workshops the Career Week is provided will come in handy! I’m buzzing – let’s go let’s go let’s go!!!
HEY, I ALSO MAKE VIDEOS!
HERE’S THE SUCH A ‘BLER PLAYLIST:
Such a ‘Bler: Spring 2019 Student Organization Fair!
With a new semester comes a whole new Student Organization Fair! This is a showcase of the student organizations currently active at Loyola in hopes to spark student interests and provide mediums for exploration outside daily academics. I was back again with the e-board of Diminuendo Literary and Arts Magazine. I am currently the AD/PR Chair and am super psyched for what this semester’s got in stored!
We are Loyola University Chicago’s longest running Student Literary and Arts Magazine. We curates, edit together and then publish two issues of student literary and visual art each year! Our editorial staff includes three main committees – AD/PR, Tech and Design and Digital Media. On top of that, we have two co-presidents, a treasurer and secretary. Our most recent issue is said to be our best and most competitive one yet, so I was pumped to encourage even more submissions for the next!
In between my enthusiastic speels, I roamed Gentile Arena for any possible new adventures. I always try to do a round in case there are any new organizations or if I suddenly decide to finally pick Soccer back up. I’ve been to every one since my freshman year, and there is at least 5 new ones each time! There honestly is something for everyone. I highly recommend passing by even for a short stroll because that’s where I found Diminuendo Fall of Freshman year and I have been so grateful ever since!
This e-board is excited for a brand new explosive issue! Our Fall 2018 issue can be found at Connection’s Café in the IC and on our website: diminuendoluc.com.
Stay tuned and most importantly, try something new this semester!
A glimpse at the spread for Finals Breakfast. December 12, 2017
It’s been a year since my First Finals Week, and I still remember how nervous I was about my exams. It was my first time taking a final exam in the U.S. and I was definitely overwhelmed with homesickness and stress by that point in the semester. I had started studying for Finals a little in advance, and since I did not have any exams until Wednesday, my nervousness was just building up. My friends were well into their finals week and I hadn’t yet taken mine, and I just wanted to be over with everything and head home. Thankfully, I was able to come across a couple of activities that helped relax a little and bring me to a mental space where I felt ready to tackle my finals.
On Tuesday, as the first two days of Finals drew to an end and I kept studying for my first exam the next day, I decided to go with my friends to Loyola’ Finals Breakfast. Every Tuesday of Finals Week, SAGA offers LUC students a late-night breakfast for everybody to take a break and enjoy good food in great company in order to be ready for the final half of Finals. I was amazed at the amount of students that were there, and I was so excited to be eating breakfast for dinner, as Loyola’s Finals French Toasts are delicious! I had such a good time with everybody and my friends and I were happy to have gone to the Breakfast and take a break.
Furthermore, it is widely known that Finals Week can be a very stressful time for us all. That week was definitely stressful for me. Therefore, to help students relax a little, the Wellness Center hosts a Study Day Stress Relief event every Wednesday of Finals Week. The Study Day Stress Relief takes place in the IC and offers several de-stressing activities like Badge Making and coloring sheets, as well as massages for students. When I went, it allowed me to catch a break from studying and afterwards, I was able to concentrate a little more on myself at a time in which studying and stress take up much of my time.
Activities like these allowed me to be able to concentrate on studying and give my best on my exams without forgetting to take care of myself. They also let me get through the week on a happy note, and by the time I was done with my Finals, I not only felt relieved, but I felt like my trip back home and my month-long break was worth it.
Now, as I prepare for this semester to be over, I recall the advice my Sociology professor gave me last year “You’ve taken exams before, and you’ve done well, because you’re here now. This is just another exam. You’ll do well on this one as well.” I wish you all good luck with your Finals, and hope that you all take care of yourselves as well!
The Fall 2018 Womxn In Leadership Loyola Executive Board. December 03, 2018
When I applied to be WILL’s Social Chair for the semester, I was excited about coming up with activities for the whole General Body and bringing together our members in order to share the sense of community that I feel in WILL. So when I was told I had to organize and host the Annual Winter Gala, I was ecstatic, but also nervous.
Since the beginning of this semester, in E-Board Meetings, I was always asked to keep in mind the Gala and to come up with ideas for it little by little, and to get all food orders and equipment reservations done in a timely manner. However, I had no previous experience organizing, much less one of this magnitude and with all the procedures that Loyola requires. I didn’t know how to get orders submitted for the catering and had no idea how to come up with a budget that wouldn’t empty our funds. As the semester went on, and October came, I was asked to get all orders in place in order to avoid problems on the day of the event. Inside, I was so scared to do something wrong and disappoint my whole team.
Nevertheless, my team, my first E-Board, are the greatest people, and I was constantly supported and helped by all of the members in preparation for the Gala. Our Treasurer and friend, Amy, had helped me get all things done with SAGA and Aramark so I didn’t have to worry about my budget not being approved or my orders being cancelled. Our Co-Presidents, Kira & Maggie, were behind the process since the beginning, and constantly checked in with me to see if there was anything that I needed from them. Maggie and Maanasa, our Community Outreach Liaison, helped me reach out to our prospective performers, as I had little connections with artists on campus. And the whole E-Board helped me set up on the night of the event for it to look as beautiful as everyone present deserved.
The days before the event, everything was ready. I had gotten all the decorations I needed (with the help of my mom), the food had been ordered and the equipment checked out (shoutout to Amy for helping with both), the performers had all confirmed and had kept in touch with me for the logistics of their performances, and everybody in our E-Board was aware of what they needed to do on that evening. However, I was still nervous that I would mess up, that the event would end up being a fiasco. More than anything, I was afraid no one would come, that I hadn’t attracted the attention of enough attendees. I was so nervous, and I was hoping for the worst.
To my surprise, the event was a success! Everybody loved the performances and commented on the decorations. There was barely any food left at the end of the evening, and everyone had commented on how fun the event had been. I was relieved that something I had come up with had worked. However, I know that nothing of this would have happened without all the help of the current and the new WILL e-boards, who not only helped me set up that night, but also gave me moral support and helped me all along the organizing process. I would say this was a really good learning experience for me, one that will help me now that I am Education Chair for WILL. I will now think about others, especially my Committee, when preparing presentations on a weekly basis and creating good content for our organization, and won’t hesitate to ask help whenever I need it. Because Rome wasn’t built overnight, and it wasn’t only built by one person either.
Yes, yes, I know – there’s been an awful lot of posts about the holidays at Loyola. We can’t help it! You know what they say, it’s the most wonderful time of the year!
So, I wanted to talk a bit about one of my favorite organizations on campus, Alpha Psi Lambda National, Inc. They’re a co-ed Latinx-interest fraternity and as I write this, I have some sort of feeling like I’ve already made an appreciation post about them… but I went and checked and didn’t see anything, so that’s good.
I see a lot of Alpha Psi Lambda because they’re another multicultural interest group (not exclusive) like my own sorority. Their members are sweet, driven, fantastic, and beautiful (I only think they’re alright, can you tell?) and all of their events are super fun.
In fact, over the weekend, they had two events that I had so much fun at!
The first was making Christmas stockings for children of the Boys and Girls’ Club: they provided the items, from crayons to little toys to bubbles and so on, and personalized stockings (giant stockings!) for the kids, they just needed a few hands to help fill them. And fill them we did! After we finished, there was even gingerbread houses to make and hot chocolate to drink. The Boys and Girls Club is Alpha Psi Lambda’s dedicated philanthropy, and they have several events and fundraisers over the year to help them, as well as volunteering directly. I’m always impressed by what Alpha Psi Lambda does and how many of them show up to support their events, given that everyone has busy and involved schedules!
The second event was the Latinx Wonderland, a night of delicious food, karaoke, board games and laughter! It was planned, organized, and presented by their one associate member – like a member in training – and I went with two of my roommates and had an absolute blast! Most every semester they have an event like this, and it never disappoints. We played musical chairs and balloon-popping games too as a group, with Alpha Psi Lambda members from all around Chicago. Honestly, I was busy having too much fun to take pictures, so these are all from the first event.
Such a ‘Bler: Sophomore Fall 2018 Student Organizations!
I am currently pursuing a major in Communication Studies at Loyola’s School of Communications and there are a lot of student organizations featured:
The Loyola Phoenix: This is Loyola’s student newspaper. Being an award-winning student newspaper is definitely something worth applauding. I myself have expressed interest in the publication for its professional coat and commitment to weekly issues. Its articles are extremely up to date, informational and stylish. I was editor and chief of my middle school’s newspaper, before it crashed due to our low population of word nerds but that’s beside the point, and this would be a stack of paper fourteen-year-old me would look at in awe.
Having also met some of the writers myself, the space behind the print is one really worth entering. They eagerly welcomed me since last year and as of the beginning of sophomore year, I honestly considered joining their Arts and Entertainment Section. But I am quite convinced that I am perhaps too abstract for their choice of writers. We’ll see where things go!
Kettle Camp Studios: KCS is Loyola’s student production team. Each semester they write and produce an original web show which is then posted on their YouTube channel. Like the Phoenix, their work is extremely professional and oh so pretty. After watching their past series, I attended a few meetings and went on set as a crew member of the Production and Post-Production team. I even got to make a small cameo as an extra in the evacuation scene of the new series: Incidental!
I eventually had to drop out because my schedule was getting out of hand and I felt like I couldn’t deliver my best efforts to the team, but I am definitely considering rejoining next semester! I miss these shutterbugs heaps.
Diminuendo Literary & Arts Magazine: While the magazine isn’t sponsored by LUC’s School of Comm, I still wanted to mention it because it is the student organization that I’ve been most involved in and been involved in for the longest. As of this year, I am Diminuendo’s AD/PR Chair!
Every semester we publish a free issue that supports and promotes student artwork and literature. The creative works are submitted by students, reviewed anonymously by students, then assembled by students into a magazine. With every release of an issue, we have an event open to the public, whereat the published artists read and present their work. For several years now, faculty have participated in our open mic afterwards presenting their favorite works, and sometimes works of their own.
Our Fall 2018 Issue was just published last Friday and copies can be picked up at Connections Cafe in the Loyola Information Commons now! I couldn’t be prouder.
It’s been great fun and I can’t wait to see what next semester will be like…stay tuned!
How’s finals been for you? Here’s a sneak peak of my theatre scenic practicum final: it’s a miniature drum set. It’s not quite finished yet but I’m getting there. All the other scenic students are also wrapping up their work so it’s been quite an exciting atmosphere in the scene shop.
I’ve been stressed if I am honest. But things around campus have been very jolly so my energy are sort of still intact. The Christmas tree in the Damen Student Center is up and beautiful. Everyone gathered for the annual lighting with hot chocolate and the Damen ice rink! There’s one week left, and well two weeks until Christmas but my roommate and I also put up our Christmas tree for extra motivation.
The sun was also sweet enough to shine so prettily through my window this afternoon. Marquette South Hall really isn’t that bad guys, it even smiles at you sometimes.
I’ve been seeing a lot of events around campus lately, from build your own break parfaits at Damen Dining to holiday movie nights. I think I’m going to see the Polar Express tomorrow at the Damen Cinema as a study break. It’s honestly weeks like these when I feel extra grateful for campus activities.
Freshman year, I was accepted into Loyola’s Leadership for Social Change Learning Community last year (here’s a picture of some of us at the Learning Community 360 Retreat last Fall semester). This year, I returned as an LC alumnus to talk to some new LC Ramblers about my LSCLC experience and my Loyola experience as a whole.
They were as enthusiastic and determined, maybe even more, as I remembered my community being. It was interesting to hear their questions regarding student organizations and opportunities available at Loyola. One even voiced that she was concerned she was behind with her involvement (though she’s in her fall freshman semester and in 3 organizations and is looking for an internship!) I was very impressed and applaud them because I only got my job this year and am still looking for an internship. But I made sure to remind them to take things easy.
During freshmen orientation, we were advised to join 2, and not 5 organizations as a start. I of course joined around 5 which I eventually learnt as of Spring semester was a bad idea. I eventually slowed down and found my rhythm. I told them my story, but then again that’s just me. I know for sure that whatever they choose, they will go onto achieving inspiring great things! I’m excited for these new LC ramblers and the differences they will make for Leadership and Social Change.
Last Friday was an extra special day for us creatives of Diminuendo Literary & Arts Magazine because we it was our Fall 2018 Issue release party!
Diminuendo is Loyola’s student-run literary and arts magazine and every semester we publish an issue of original student art! Submissions are received from ramblers and are reviewed anonymously and put together into a beautiful spread by our editorial staff. This year I’ve had the honor of being elected AD/PR chair and it’s been incredible. But I honestly couldn’t have done it without my empowering e-board and dedicated members.
Enthusiasts joined us for a night of great company, great food and celebration of great art. Each artist was recognized and those who wrote a literary piece read theirs out. There was also an open poetry mic at the end.
This issue is said to be our most competitive one yet! Personally, I would frame it on my wall. The team really stepped it up this round around and I can’t wait to see what we have in stored for next semester. You can pick up a copy from our magazine rack in Connections Café in the IC now! We also launched a website this semester: diminuendoluc.com.
The Damen Student Center had its Annual Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony! This year’s event was held on Thursday, November 29th, at 5 p.m. in the Damen Student Center Atrium. The tree was officially blessed by our partners in Campus Ministry and was officially lit at approximately 5:10 p.m.
Damen Student Center provided a chocolate fountains (and all the trimmings), gingerbread house making, a synthetic ice skating rink (skates provided), and pictures with Santa Claus! There was also plenty of hot chocolate that was served with yummy marshmallows and chocolate!
Here is a link with all the pictures, and if you missed it this year, be sure to stick around for next year! It is open to the community as well!
