2008 April Archive at Ben, ‘11

Archive for April, 2008

The End of the Beginning

April 25, 2008

Classes are now officially done for the year. It’s unfathomable to me that this year is already done. All I have left is three finals and then I am no longer a freshman. I’m already done with CORE and Sculpture. I just finished my harp and it turned out really well. Because it’s Sculpture, it’d be impossible to have an in-class final. I had a take-home final for CORE and started that right away. I just submitted it and am now free from CORE for the first time all year. Now, all I have left is a tough Leadership final and manageable Math and Economics finals on Monday and Tuesday.

My portfolio of work in Sculpture

My harp that I made

The stress level around campus is steadily rising and everyone is ready for summer. With stress rising, I got a care package from home courtesy of the Residence Hall Association. It has popcorn, trail mix, and other nice snacks for while I’m studying. I think it’s meant to simply help us realize that we still have a family and that they ware subtly reminding us to take a break from the library and go eat. Well, maybe not that extreme, but I have seen people in the library for a full day. It is now the busiest that I have ever seen it. Looks like some people put off some projects for a bit too long.

A care package for finals week!

The weather has been amazing and people just want to relax and have a good time in the sun.

Our lake on an amazing day

University of Richmond’s tower on a sunny day

I don’t blame people for wanting to get outside. I was outside for several hours on Saturday and had a great time. Student Government was given the chance to break in our new high ropes course, so six of us went through the whole thing. It was a ton of fun. It was challenging at times and I did fall a few times (mainly because of my partners, of course), but it was a great way to spend part of the weekend. The last thing that any of us had on our minds were our papers and finals and tests coming up. I’m so excited because they’re opening it up again this weekend and so five of my friends and I are going to do it again.

Our awesome group that tackled the ropes course

We were slow to learn and not very trusting at first

“I think I’m horizontal”

Our group at its finest

The zip line to get to the ground

Because Relay for Life was rained out the previous weekend, we held our luminaria ceremony on-campus. It had been raining for several days and was still raining, so it was held inside. It was very short, but it capped our Relay for Life. We raised $25,000 in all, I believe.

One of my family’s luminaria at the ceremony

Relay for Life Luminaria Ceremony

Because stress is starting to increase, the new group that I am in, Council for Christian Unity, decided to give out free Popsicles to everyone who was passing through the commons. So, I helped for a short while. Everyone really seemed to appreciate them. Groups regularly do this and it’s a nice touch. I’ve seen brownies, Blow-Pops, Popsicles, cookies, hot chocolate, freezies, and other fun things being given out.

Another event dealing with the increasing stress and frenziness was Subject to Change on the quad. Subject to Chance is our improv comedy group on campus and so they did a performance and got us to lighten up and remember to laugh. It was well attended and a much-needed break.

One predominant theme, though, that has tied this week together has been burgers. I went to the Cellar (our on-campus restaurant) after the ropes course on Saturday. I also went to Capital Ale House on Monday for Dollar Burger Night.

Jimmy and his friend at Dollar Burger Night

Then, our Cabinet held a giant cookout for the Freshman class. My Cabinet partnered with the Westhampton Freshmen Cabinet and did a nice barbecue on the Westhmapton Green. We had hamburgers and hot dogs (which us guys grilled), as well as chips, cookies, lemonade, iced tea and other fun snacks. We had about 200 people attend and were forced to do an emergency store run to get more supplies. It was a great success and a nice way to end the year. I think everyone had a good time hanging out, playing Ultimate Frisbee, and eating food.

We didn’t really know what we were doing at first
Our master grillers from my Cabinet

Two of my friends working the grill

Cooking up some burgers

An amazing day and an amazing turnout- 200 people!

On a side note, I found out this week that I was accepted to be on leadership for CDRT next year. So, I will be planning the trip to New Orleans for Spring Break. I don’t know how it happens, but it seems like every organization I am a member of, I am also on leadership for. I’m hoping that I’m not stretching myself too thin. I’ll soon find out.

That’s all for my last week of classes. I’m ready to move on and will need to see what finals have in store. I’m not too worried, but it’ll be a relief to have them done. One of them accounts for 40% of my grade, so it’s pretty important. I’ll let you know how everything turns out once I’m done and then I’ll try to do a Semester in Review again just to reflect on everything. Good luck to all of the prospective students if you have not made your decision yet.

Quote of the Week: “A conclusion is simply the place where someone got tired of thinking” -Arthur Block (in honor of ending classes; the quote wasn’t meant in this way, but I thought it was a humorous connection)
Thought to Ponder: Who gets to keep the pennies in the wishing wells?
Shout Outs: Anyone I’ve neglected all year
YouTube Video of the Week:

In honor of finals week (This would never happen here. We have much smaller classes and the teachers immediately know who we are)

Published by Ben on April 25, 2008 in Class Cabinet and Campus Events. 0 Comments

The Calm Before The Storm

April 18, 2008

In one week from today, I will be done with classes for the year. I simply can’t believe it. I’m almost a sophomore. However, I have to get through finals the week after classes end before I can get to summer. I won’t bore you with the monotonous details of my life this week. Instead, I’ll just focus on the main events this week.

The main event of the week was registration for me. I’m all set for the fall semester. I will be taking Campaigns 2008 (Political Science), Rhetoric & Public Address (Rhetoric), Justice and Civil Society (Leadership Studies), Financial Accounting (Business), and Software Tools (Business). As you can see, I’m taking quite a diverse range of classes. With a liberal arts education, we can do that. However, I do feel as though I’m supposed to start knowing what I want to do with my life. I’m definitely not there yet. Maybe by next semester.

Looking ahead to next semester again, I volunteered to join another group on campus. I know… there actually do exist more groups on campus than I am currently involved with. We have almost 300 clubs and organizations, so I’ve found so many that I want to be a part of. The most recent one is called Council for Christian Unity (CCU). The 13 Christian groups on-campus are each allowed to have a representative on the Council and we work together to keep open communication and organize a few events. It’s fairly minimal commitment… or so I am told. I’m representing the Methodist group. So, I’m now a member of the Methodist group, Council for Christian Unity, and lead team for InterVarsity. Additionally, I’ll be the Sophomore Class President, possible officer for the Collegiate Disaster Relief Team, member of the Campaigns 2008 program in Lakeview, and tour guide in the Admissions Office. And those are just my official commitments. We’ll see how next semester goes. I guess that I should have counted all of my extracurricular activities as additional classes as well.

Speaking of my activities, my new Cabinet has been approved and we’re ready to start working. We are wrapping up the year by doing a barbecue with the freshmen women. Us men are grilling hamburgers and hot dogs and we’re praying for good weather. The Admissions Office also keeps me hopping. I gave three tours this week and also participated in an online chat, which was fun. Maybe some of you saw me on there, perhaps.

Admissions Chat with friends!!!

For CORE, we were assigned to see “The Meeting”, which is a fictional meeting between Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. It was produced by the students here at the University. It was very well done. For the class, we had to write a question that was inspired by the play and why we asked it. I finished up my paper and am ahead of the game. The only thing I have left in all my classes is a take-home final for CORE, a Macroeconomics debate, wrapping up my harp in Sculpture, a math test, and a few finals. It’s really not as bad as it sounds. All the readings are done now.

However, I want to make it clear that I take time to do plenty of fun things. This week was no exception. My good friend, Jimmy, had a birthday, so I baked and frosted a cake for him at my friend’s apartment and we threw a surprise party. It was fun to relax during the middle of the week, eat cake, and just hang out with friends.

The awesome cake I baked for Jimmy

The birthday boy

Birthday party with friends

The women also have a tradition here called Bellis Fest. They had free cotton candy, sno-cones, popcorn, hot dogs, bungee runs, and a mechanical bull on an 80-degree, sunny day. It’s part of a larger event called Westhampton Weekend which runs through the weekend.

Free sno-cone, cotton candy, hot dogs, and popcorn

The bungee run at Bellis Fest

A group of my friends also wanted to go to the James River Friday afternoon and have some fun with a rope swing that is there. They grilled hot dogs and we swung from the rope swing. The water was freezing cold, but we still liked the chance to get off-campus and explore. Later in the evening, I also went into downtown Richmond to watch “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” with some friends.

Getting ready to swing

Dropping into the James River

Grilling out on the riverbank

So, life continues to be busy, but I really can’t complain. Everything is quite manageable right now and I just hope that it stays that way. Next time I write, I’ll be done with classes for the year and I’ll be hunkering down for finals. That’s all for now, I’m out to enjoy the amazing weather that we’ve been having here.

Quote of the Week: “Success is how high you bounce when you hit the bottom” - General Patton
Thought to Ponder: Why does “lake” come first (Lake Michigan) and “river” come second (Mississippi River)?
Shout Outs: Grandma (who always takes the time to read my posts), Diane and her apartment mates for letting me use their oven to bake my cake, my new Cabinet
YouTube Video of the Week:

An amazing college prank

Published by Ben on April 18, 2008 in Class Cabinet, Campus Events and Student Government. 0 Comments

An Inaugural Weekend

April 13, 2008

This past weekend had some of the best and worst times since I’ve arrived here. Our President, President Ayers, had his inauguration and that made Friday amazing. The students had classes end by noon and we all went to his inauguration ceremony to celebrate his induction as the University of Richmond’s 9th President. We had delegates from a ton of schools come to pay respect and participate in the ceremony. We had representatives from Oxford, founded in the 1100’s as well as a local community college founded in the 1970’s. The ceremony was well done and we had Virginia’s Secretary of Education speak as well as Richmond’s mayor (who was the first black governor in the U.S.) Douglas Wilder. We even had Harvard’s President, whom is a good friend of President Ayers, come and speak as well as participate in a symposium on the Civil War with President Ayers.

Everyone here at the University of Richmond loves President Ayers. He is always around and is a constant presence. He’ll be leading the cheers at basketball and football games, listening to student concerns, and giving lectures on a variety of subjects to students here. He even stopped by the table where I was selling Homecoming T-shirts and bought one. President Ayers is also a teacher, which was a big surprise to several freshmen students who signed up for a history class with him. They had their classroom listed as the President’s House. Anyways, everyone loves him and it was great to spend a day celebrating what he’s done and what we’re looking forward to doing alongside him in the coming years.

The inauguration ceremony in the Robins Center

Student groups performed all throughout the afternoon

A bluegrass band comprised of University faculty performed during a picnic lunch

The events were held all over campus under big, white tents. Lunch was great with fruit, turkey wraps, croissants, tuna salad, and much more. Everything looked amazing. For dinner, they hosted another picnic lunch with fried chicken, biscuits, fruit, cookies, pork sandwiches, and lots of other great food. The weather was absolutely incredible all day. It was in the high seventies with clear skies and sun. It was the perfect evening with warm weather, kids playing Frisbee on the green, listening to a live band perform, and relaxing with friends. School was the last thing on anyone’s mind.

They brought in quaint trolleys to shuttle all of the attendees around

An elegant picnic dinner under the big tent

Amazing food at the picnic dinner

As the night progressed, they brought in a live band to cover all of the hits from the past fifty years. President Ayers even deejayed his own after-party with a playlist of his favorite songs. It was a lot of fun to hear him act as a deejay. He’s so down to earth and just a great guy in general. They provided plenty of snacks of trail mixes, chicken wings, and lots of other appetizers as the party went on into the night for alumni, students, and faculty. I left at 9:00 to go watch the movie at the Pier, National Treasure 2, and then tried to prepare for a long day on Saturday by going to bed early, which ended up being at 2:00 AM.

Saturday brought Relay for Life. I was the captain for Team InterVarsity. We were short on people for a while, but ended up with ten members. We were all set for the big day. I had bought food and rented a tent from the Weinstein Center. We had raised almost $600 and were ready to go. We arrived at 10:00 AM, set up our tent, and registered. However, the perfect weather could not continue and it starting pouring. It was a torrential downpour for a while as we all huddled in a cement building to ride it out. It lightened up and we held an opening lap. However, the downpour had toppled tents, soaked all of our sleeping bags and blankets and pillows, and dealt us a tough hand. The rain was expected to continue all day, so the coordinating committee was forced to cancel it. We did get in one lap, but no one questioned the decision to cancel it. However, once we got back to campus, the rain let up and the rest of the day and night was clear and pleasant, which was a huge downer. I was ready to be there all twenty-four hours and walk as much as was needed to represent our team. The luminaria ceremony will still occur next week, but we’ll just have to look forwards to next year. The University of Richmond’s students managed to raise over $25,000 and get 350 students involved.

I made this awesome baton/ bubble wand for our team to use during Relay for Life
Josh, David, myself, Dianne, Emily, and Katie were all set to go

I tried to shelter myself from the downpour

We were waiting to get into the building to take shelter from the rain

We rode out the storm by playing Applies to Apples

David proudly used our team’s baton

Since Relay for Life was canceled, I had a free day for the rest of Saturday. I had done my homework on Friday so that I wouldn’t have to do it after Relay for Life. Now, I had plenty of time and a soaking tent on my hands. I read ahead in CORE while drying the tent outside and then starting packing up my room. I know that the semester still has three weeks left, but I like to be organized and have a plan for where things are going. I packaged up a ton of things that I wouldn’t use again and sent them back home. Then, I sorted through what I needed for the summer and what I wouldn’t need until the fall. It takes much longer than you might think to pack up your life, but I’m all organized and now I won’t have to be frantic the last week of the semester.

Sunday brought church, a bit of studying and working ahead, but also relaxing time by watching movies and gearing up for next week. It looks to be fairly slow, but that could change. Next weekend is Accepted Students Day, so campus will be flooded and I’ll be kept very busy. That’ s been my weekend. It’s flown by like weekends always do, so I’d better sign off. Have a great week and I’ll catch back up with you at the end of the week.

At Sunday brunch, my friend craved a Rice Krispie bar, so she
made her own, which took her ten minutes to do

King Duck (the one with the bump on the head) and his minion race towards the
bread which the local community members are feeding them on Sunday morning

Quote of the Weekend: “Life is like a rainbow. You need both the sun and the rain to make its colors appear” - Author Unknown (In honor of both the literal sun and rain this weekend)
Thought to Ponder: Why would a Washington state law ban lollipops?
Shout Outs: My Relay for Life team
YouTube Video of the Weekend:

A video done for promoting Penny Wars through InterVarsity, which is being used again this year. A lot of my friends are in it, which makes it quite funny. Penny Wars uses spare change to raise money for projects throughout the year and scholarships for the Rockbridge retreat. Thanks for the video, Tom