Hey everyone!

So there are only three weeks left of the semester!!! Even though the semester has been winding down, there  has been no shortage of events going on on campus!

This past Friday was Nancy Kreiter Research Day, in which students from every discipline presented their research papers, posters, or performed musical pieces for family, friends, and the campus community! It was a great opportunity for students to present their work. The event happens every year, and in addition to being able to see/hear wonderful presentations from fellow students at the end of the day there is an awesome picnic where everyone comes together to eat, listen to music, and see who won awards for their presentation! I was a first-time presenter this year and had a lot of fun!

This week is also loaded with exciting events, because this weekend is SpringFest! The weekend is going to kick off Friday with the Color War! In this event the classes compete against each other in a capture the flag style game. The big difference is that in order to get tagged out in the game a student has to be hit with paint! It's going to be a messy, colorful blast! On Saturday are the Carnival and Foam Party! And all of these events are completely free to Notre Dame students! A big shout out to our Campus Activities Board for putting all of the SpringFest events together. This organization is one example of the many ways you can make a difference as a student on our campus by getting involved!

I'll be sure to post tons of pictures next week of all the festivities!

Oh yeah, and just an update on the countdown- 26 DAYS TIL GRADUATION!!!!

Just a quick update for anyone interested- softball is going great! We've got 5 wins so far (and definitely more to come). This weekend we have an overnight because we have double-headers on Saturday and Sunday which is going to be tons of fun. Every time I remember this is going to be my last season as a Notre Dame athlete I want to cry because all of us are practically family! Anyway, wish us luck and I'll keep you posted!

Hey everybody!

This week is spring break, which in my case might as well be called softball break! We had six doubleheaders scheduled for this week, but due to weather we've unfortunately had to postpone two of them. Our most recent double-header against College of New Rochelle brought our first wins of the season! First game we won 20-5 and second game we won 17-0! Also, our pitcher Tawny got the first no-hitter in school history during the second game!

Overall, this softball season has been great so far. We have a lot of talent on the team this year, and we've been really competitive in our conference games so far, which is awesome. The team is coming together as a family and I can't wait to see what the rest of the season brings! 

Hey everyone!

So I'm going to make this a quick post because I really need to get back to studying, but I just thought I would let everyone know that yesterday I got my acceptance letter for graduate school at The George Washington University!!! It was my first choice so I'm unbelievably ecstatic. I'm going to be pursuing a Master's of Science in High Technology Crime Investigation! This is the first time I've really had to come to terms with what life will be like after graduation and I am so excited! Overall, I would say getting accepted is a testament to the caliber of education that I got at Notre Dame and my level of preparedness to leave this University ready to take on the world. I wouldn't be where I am today without the amazing faculty, staff, and students at this University who have pushed me to succeed and molded me into what I am today. Anyway, I'm going to go back to jumping around my room excitedly about this and doing homework, but I'll leave you with a picture of where you'll find me next year! Talk to you soon!

Hey everyone!
So this past week we had my all time favorite Notre Dame tradition... 100 Nights! I've been looking forward to it since I transferred here as a sophomore. So basically, 100 Nights is a celebration of the senior class having 100 nights until graduation!!!! Technically our exact 100 Nights was Thursday the 14th, but they didn't want to mess up everyone's Valentine's plans. Anyway, the first portion of the celebration is the cocktail hour, in which students celebrate the evening with...

....Faculty (this is my fellow Criminology student Brandi and I with our advisor Professor Tuer)...

... Staff (this is my roommate Mindy and I with our amazing Athletic Director Erin Foley)...

... and fellow students! (this is a picture of my whole graduating class that was in attendance!!)

I loved the cocktail hour because it was an opportunity to leisurely see the campus faculty and staff, talk about the future, and be embraced as a future alumna (which is especially cool because so many of our faculty and staff are alumnae themselves!) At the end of the cocktail hour, our campus acapella group, Pitch Fit, sang to us as we traveled from Noyes House to Doyle Formal, where dinner was held. Along with Pitch Fit, underclassmen engaged in another old Notre Dame tradition called Lantern Chain. This year was revamped so that as we walked over to dinner the underclassmen wished us well and lit our way with sparklers! It was a lot of fun and I really liked getting to see all of my underclassmen friends! This is the best picture I could find of it, sorry it's blurry! 

So once we reached Doyle Formal, the seniors all had a big formal dinner together with some fabulous decorations: 

I loved having a chance for the seniors to celebrate graduating in 100 days on our own, together. The dinner was great and afterwards we gave out senior superlatives! That was so much fun because so many of them were spot-on (I'm looking at you Christine aka Most Talkative). My roommate Mindy and I were so excited that we were voted Dynamic Duo!!! I also got voted Most Likely To Succeed. Here's a picture of Mindy and I accepting our superlative with the presenters, our friends Janie and Shy! 

After dinner, we all went out and celebrated on the town! This year, our class took a charter bus down to Powerplant Live in Baltimore and had arranged specials at Howl at the Moon and Mex's! This is us on our way:

Overall, I had a great time and it's a night I will never forget. I've found that sometimes in the regular day-to-day repetition of going to class and practices it can be easy to forget how amazing an overall college experience has been. 100 Nights reminded me how close-knit and loving the Notre Dame community is, and how great of a time I've had here. Here's to hoping that my last 87 (yes I'm counting) days at Notre Dame are as fantastic as the past two and a half years have been! 

Hey everybody!

A lot has happened in the past couple of weeks! Here's an update on all the craziness that has been going on in my life:

1) Practicum- So the semester is off to a pretty good start. I'm taking Psychometrics, Christian Social Ethics, The Criminal Justice System, Independent Study and my Criminology Practicum. Practicum is a senior outcomes course required for several of our majors/minors that involves a 120-hour unpaid internship in your field of study. It's a great way to build upon your professional experiences and apply what you've been learning in the classroom. For my Criminology minor I am doing my practicum internship with the Maryland State Police! The people I'm working with are great and I've had a blast so far. And for anyone who's wondering, I did my practicum internship for my Psychology major at the Springfield Hospital Forensic Psychiatry Unit. So as you can tell there are internships available for a wide range of interests! One of my favorite part about Notre Dame is that they build things such as practicum into your curriculum to ensure that you're really getting the professional and networking experience to give you a leg up for after you graduate.

2) Career Fair- Speaking of professional development, my friend and fellow student ambassador, Christine, and I recently attended the Loyola Career Fair! Notre Dame has developed close relationships with several of our neighboring colleges (i.e. Loyola, Towson, Johns Hopkins etc.) and developed something called the Consortium. This means that Notre Dame students are allowed to attend most events on the neighboring campuses for free! In addition, thanks to the Consortium, students are allowed to take one class per semester at one of the neighboring schools as a part of our regular tuition! Anyway, the Loyola Career Fair was great- there were around 70 businesses there and Christine and I had a fantastic time networking and giving our resumes to potential employers!

3) Notre Dame Day- we recently had one of my favorite traditions of the year at NDM! Notre Dame Day is a day when the campus comes together to celebrate our history, our values, and the achievements of our current students/faculty/staff. The entire campus community comes together for a big luncheon and we have speeches about our history and give out several awards. Our very own Angela Baumler, Interim Director of Admissions, received the Distinguished Staff Award! No one deserves it more than her. I was honored to be asked to do the preliminary remarks and introduce this year's theme: love transforms!

So yeah that's about it for what's been going on in my life! I've got a lot of exciting stuff coming up in the next week or two, including: the start of softball season (!) 100 Nights (I'll tell you more about that later this week), and getting my (maybe) acceptance letter to graduate school!!!

Hey everybody!

Sorry it has been so long since I last posted! As you can see I survived finals week safe and sound! I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday and has gotten 2013 off to a great start. Since it has been so long since I last posted, here's an update on what I've had going on lately:

1) Winterim- This January I have been taking a winterim class, HIS352: Honors: Educating Women in the United States. Winterim is the period between fall and spring semesters (this year winter term is January 7th - January 25th) in which students can take a class for free at the University. The class I am taking is a part of Morrissy Honors Program and examines the history of women's education from the colonial period through the mid-20th century. I personally enjoy taking a class over winter break because it is an opportunity to take a class for credit and keep myself intellectually stimulated when I would otherwise be sitting on the couch at home watching daytime TV. 

2) Basketball- The season is in full swing! Last week we got a HUGE win against Cedar Crest College, one of our conference rivals. We've definitely shown the conference that even though we are a young team, we are a force to be reckoned with. I'm so proud of my teammates and how much we've grown in the past couple months. I can't believe my senior game is coming up on February 2nd! 

3) Ravens Nation!!!- I just had to share this with everybody. I have been a Ravens fan all my life and I am so excited about making it to the AFC Championship! Notre Dame of Maryland University is a proud supporter of the Baltimore Ravens and has lit up both Gibbons Tower and Fourier Hall with purple lighting to show our love for our hometown team! GO RAVENS!

Anyway, spring semester is starting up on February 28th and I am definitely looking forward to it. As a last component of my criminology minor I am doing an internship with the Maryland State Police! I'll keep you posted on how the semester starts off in a couple of weeks!