LMU Students

Dia de Reconocimiento

In 5 days the centennial class of LMU will be crossing stage and becoming professionals and ready to take on the world. We have gone though many ups and downs throughout out college lives but I think most of us will do it all over again to obtaining a college degree. Many of us are first generation and the first one in our families to earn a college degree. Nonetheless this great accomplishment couldn't have been done without the guidance, support and encouragement of our parents. LMU does various ceremonies to celebrate various accomplishments of your college career. 

 

There was one in particular I was very excited to participate in, Dia de Reconocimiento (Day of Recognition). This ceremony not only focuses on giving the graduates an opportunity to thank theirparents. The ceremony starts with a mass and after continues with the celebration. The student along with her parents approaches the front and the student hands his/her parents a plaque thanking them for their efforts and support. While he/she is giving them the plaque, the parents put the DIA sash on their son/daughter. After there is a lunch reception.

 

I was very happy to participate in this beautiful ceremony and thank my parents for all of their support and encouraging words. I highly recommend all Latino students to participate in this ceremony and acknowledge the true leaders and number one fans in their life.

 

Latino Overnight Shout Out!

This past week, I was a host for an Admission Program called "Latino Overnight" where I housed two great senior in high school guys and met alot of great people through this program.

It is awesome to help out kids as they start to deside if LMU is a fit for them and from what I saw at the Mixer we had on one of the the nights, I would be proud and happy to call each and every one of them LMU Lions!

Shout out to my boy who reads my blog! you know who you are!

Thank You to all that showed up to make this even awesome!!!!

Peace

B-Riv

 

Senior Getaway 2012

The weekend before Easter, Campus Ministry hosted their annual senior "Last Getaway", which is the last opportunity for seniors to retreat away from campus and into the wilderness of Santa Barbara. There we camped out... sort of. We were in this campground where they had cabins, complete with bunk beds, loft, kitchen, and bathroom. As far as the group went, we did small and large group activities that centered around our dreams, passions, and future. Faculty and staff from LMU's various departments were also present to give talks and share their life stories. Mixed in with these talks were also plenty of free time and fun activities. On Saturday we had lunch at the Firestone Winery, which was created by the son of the tire mogul who created Firestone Tires. We were given a tour of their lovely vineyard and also tasted some of the wine in their cellar.

The retreat was more than just an opportunity to hang out with my closest friends. It was reflective and emotional. Four years at LMU truly does fly by. One advice I have for the freshmen, transfer students, an prospective members is this: take advantage of the opportunities (both obvious and sutble) and resources you have at LMU. If you do, you will notice that the people who work on campus become more than just people. You begin to form relationships and put faces to names. They may become role models and mentors. The people who work at LMU do so because they love working with students, us. You will see the genuine care that they have for us all.

So I would like to thank Briana Maturi (Housing) and Tom King (Center for Service and Action) for being great mentors and an inspiration to me. 

 

JRA '12

Standing up for what you believe In!

Over the past weekend a group of my friends and I created a team and participated in Relay for Life by the American Cancer Society.

A background of Relay for Life:

You create a team of close friends and fundraise money to go toward cancer research and hopefully one day finding a cure.

As a CLC, Christian Life Community, leader I chose this group as my team and we all banned together for the common good to Fight against caner. We adopted a motto that I have been using for the past 3 years of "We will walk all night to help the fight." As a sold group we walked the whole event and raised over $2,700 as a team! We rocked it and made me a proud Team CLC Captain!

A great quotation that one of the Cancer survivors stated was from a Rocky Balboa movie. It was "Does not matter how hard you hit, its how you get hit and keep moving forward, how much you can take and keep moving forward, thats how winning is done"!

It is a great life motto for all aspects. 

Never get up!

Keep moving forward!

B-Riv

New Housing Assignment

Hi everyone,

 

The semester has been going really well so far and it seems to be coming to a close really quickly! We are already starting to think about classes for next year and we finally found out where we will be living next year too. The nice thing about LMU is that all freshman and sophomores are guaranteed housing on campus if they want it. For freshman, you get to rank the dorms in order of preference and the housing office assigns you to one. They usually do a pretty good job of making everyone happy. Everyone I know received at least their first or second choice. This year I am living in Whelan Hall. It is a great freshman dorm! I have had so much fun living in Whelan this year and almost all of my closest friends at LMU are people who live in Whelan with me. Luckily, all of the dorms on campus are super nice; even the older ones like Whelan. Next year I will be living in Rains Hall. The housing selection process for sophomores is lottery style, so getting your first choice is all about luck. Rains is a suite style dorm and I will be sharing a suite with four other girls (all of whom currently live in Whelan). Rains was not my first choice, but it is still a really great dorm in a really good location, so I know living there next year will be awesome. I am super excited about it! I am already thinking of decorating ideas!

 

-Meredith

 

Weather Report

Coming from the desert, you would think that I could not complain about the weather here in Los Angeles. You are correct; the weather is beautiful on the bluff but it is also tempermental. 

We have our different emotions of weather:

Wind - when it is a workout just walking to class because you get hit from wind in every direction.

Rain - where half of the student body takes the day off because they do not want to get wet and then the Professors realize the commitment of other students and hand out free extra credit! (This is a good day)

Wind/Sunny Day - it is too cold to wear just a t-shirt but it is too hot to wear pants and a sweater. It is confusing weather to say the least but all you have to do is make it to the classroom and hope that the rooms will be chill - not too cold and not too hot!

Sunny Days - These are the days that I love and am glad I live in Southern California! Everyone is chilling in their bro tanks and everyone is tanning in Sunken Gardens. These are the beautiful days when you can do homework outside!

 

Well that is the weather report from LMU!

 

B-Riv

Decisions...Decisions...

Decisions are a great part of adulthood....

Everyday of college life we have to make small or big decisions...

we have to decide whether to work on a paper or go out...

decide whether we stick to our first major or switch...

decide whether we continue on to graduate school or travel for a year.

 

Whether a decision is small or life changing...it will have a consequence and an outcome. No one ever knows 100% what the result will be at the end. All we can do is analyze the pros and cons at that moment and hope for the best.

 

Sometimes we don't have time to think about alternative decisions. Things can come up without notice and we can either seize an opportunity or continue on our plan...but then you start thinking.."will i regret it later?" 

 

College is the perfect time to learn how to identify a good decision vs a bad decision...we are soo close to facing the world and the decisions are only going to get more intense!

 

When you make good decisions  everything falls into place, most of the time.

Adrienne

 

Best of Luck!

 

Alternative Break: Sacramento

Adjusting and settling back into student mode is something I am still working on. That's due to the fact that I just came back from an Alternative Break trip put on by LMU's Center for Service and Action. Students participate in a week of service and immersion during their spring break. Trips are generally broken down in two ways; focus of service and geographic location. The program provides trips that are both domestic and international, while also focusing on causes such as food justice, environmental justice, homelessness and HIV aids, child disabilities, and conservation, among other issues. 

Last year I went as a participant on an alternative break trip to Catalina Island for conservation work. This year I decided to apply to be a leader because of my positive experience my junior year. I was fortunate enough to be chosen to co-lead the Sacramento trip with fellow senior, Tina Alvarado, another veteran to the AB program.

AB Sacramento focuses on food justice, organic farming, and community building. We worked mainly with a non profit called Ubuntu Green. Our first day was spent traveling seven hours from campus to the Hostel in downtown Sacramento, nearly 400 miles away. The very next day we had our orientation and then went straight into working on a vacant lot behind a liquor store. What we didn't know, however, was that we were being filmed and interviewed for the local Sacramento news! (http://www.kcra.com/video/30547231/detail.html). The moving experience and transforming the lot really boosted our cause and made us work harder throughout the week. In terms of other service experiences, we worked with other community gardens in the area, we canvassed several neighborhoods about the opprtunity to have their own garden box and seeds, with no cost to them, and had a lot of fun working on an urban farm in the middle of the city. Our group also had a day off where we were able to tour the state capital building, famous museums, and old town Sacramento.

The group dynamic was simply wonderful and we had students from different majors and grades, including one staff member from Student Housing. Our reflections at the end of the day were also profound and insightful which helped add to the group dynamic.

After two successful alternative break trips, I am a huge advocate for the program. I highly recommend that each LMU student takes advantage of the program and all it has to offer. The program is a shining example of how students genuinely live out part of LMU's mission statement of encouraging the growth of the whole person and being women and men for others by using their spring break to serve others. Go Lions!

-JRA '12

Spring Break Fever

Everytime we have a nice long break ahead of us, the Professors love to give us a reality check of why we are in College and make us cram, crazy, and cry. These are the 3 C's that will get me through College.

1. Cram

    You take 6 weeks of knowledge and note taking and study it all in one night for the midterm the next day! This of course is not a great strategy but I am young and have not figured out a better way for me to study.

2. Crazy

    You feel really tired all of the time because you are working on papers left and right for all of your classes. You value energy drinks and chips more than sleep and warm soup. You have the idea of wanting to give up and just turn in the towl and just skip it all to run back to the comforts of your family home. REALITY... you only have 3 days of work left and you can get a whole week off!

3. Cry

    You either cry because you are done with it all or you cry because you turned in your 5 page paper and forgot to title the paper. Getting points knocked off for silly mistakes is not fun but you learn. Some also cry because they doubt themselves of their knowledge.

 

Be confident and positive! You will Succeed!

B-Riv

End of First Placement for Student Teaching...

This is the 8th and final week of my first placement as a student teacher. It is bittersweet. This means I have 8 more weeks to go before I graduate from LMU. I have 8 more weeks to learn as much as possible from my master teacher. I am very excited to start at my new placement, I will be in a 4th grade dual-immersion in Spanish. These past 8 weeks have been a GREAT and WONDERFUL experience. The second graders are the sweetest and smartest kids. My master teacher was very supportive and allowed me to spread my wings. I am very lucky to be in a university that cares for and nourishes students to graduate with great skills.  It also provides us with some experience under our belts. It is actually kind of funny because right now LMU is on spring break. One of my classmates, who is not student teaching, thinks that it sucks that I am not in spring break since I am student teaching and have to be at the other schools. Honestly I prefer to be teaching than on break. Every day, I come home tired and needing to put my feet up but I LOVE it! I've started thinking that if I love it this much and am willing to put in the extra hours, when I get paid to teach it will just be a bonus!! 

 

Well, I have to get ready to attend a Teach for America event in a few hours. Hope everyone is enjoying their spring break...although the weather here in LA is not spring like.

 

Good night!

 

-Adrienne Soto