Archive for the 'Artsy Performances' Category

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

Since summer has turned into a rather repetitive cycle of work and game nights and working out for me, I’d like to break out of that rut and try to keep my blog, as some might say, “fresh” and “real”. With that said, I’d like to bring you my Top 10 list for favorite things about the University of Richmond. Hopefully, this will also be of some help to all of the prospective students. So, without further ado, here are my “Top 10 Favorite Things About the University of Richmond”:

1. Financial Aid- For me, the financial aid package that the University gave me is the reason that I am here. I think that is the case for a lot of the students at UR. One in 13 students is here on a full-ride and those who are not on merit scholarships have very generous grants and loans. Even though we are in the Top 5 schools in the country as far as tuition and it costs $50,000 a year to go here, the school tries really hard to make it affordable. The perks that come with the scholarships are amazing as well. I was able to have a weekend vacation to Chicago as well as receive some other great perks all because of the financial aid.

2. Opportunities for Research/Study Abroad/Internships- I didn’t have a very good idea of what I wanted to do with my life when I came here. I hadn’t decided on a major and I knew that I wanted to travel somewhere in the world. Well, Richmond has given me so many opportunities to explore my options right off the bat. They have Lakeview, which is the new residence hall that houses some academic programs. So, I’m exploring Political Science through the Campaigns 2008 program. I’m also exploring my interest in Mathematics by doing paid math research this summer, even though I’m not planning to major in math. Further, some of my friends are exploring other great opportunities, such as working at the Virginia Capitol for Virginia’s Attorney General, studying global health in Peru, or interning at an investment bank in Asia. All of these students just completed their first year at Richmond. With that said, there are incredible study abroad options for after your freshman year. I’m continually amazed at all of the options that we have here. I like to say that Richmond is an undergraduate school that has the opportunities of a graduate school.

3. President Ayers- What can I say about President Ayers? I, along with the rest of the student body, love him. He’s only been here a year, but he is so kind, attentive, and simply amazing. He’s a constant presence on campus and you’ll see him at so many of the events. He leads the cheers at our sports games and attends all the cultural performances as well as gives lectures and teaches an evening history class at his home where he cooks dinner for his students. Since I’m on Student Government, I’ve gotten to know him even more and he is so open to what the students have to say. I could go on and on, but I’d better stop soon. I’m just really excited for the future that he has here.

4. Professors/Small Classes- All of the professors here are great. They have met with me outside of their office hours so many times that I can’t even count anymore. Most of the times that I need help, I’ll just randomly stop by and they’ll drop whatever they’re doing and help me. It’s really great. Plus, they bring their classes to their home and cook dinner for them. The classes are also great because they are so small. The largest class I have had has been 24 students. The entire class gets to know each other really well and I still keep in touch with a lot of my classmates.

5. Fitness Center- Our Fitness Center is only one year old and it is incredible. I successfully avoided it most of the year because I thought I didn’t like working out at the gym. Man, was I wrong. I finally went and I’ve kept on going. I wouldn’t say that I enjoy working out, but the Weinstein Center makes it so easy. The facilities are simply amazing. Everything is free for us and state-of-the-art. Also, they provide great opportunities such as our ropes course and fitness classes. If you don’t want to miss your favorite TV show, like me, then you can either watch it on the TV attached directly to your equipment or on the wall of TVs at the front of the room. It’s really remarkable. Plus, the staff is so nice. I’m currently working with them to bring a disc golf course to campus and they have been very helpful. In short, there’s no reason that someone should get the Freshman 15 at our school.

6. Construction- Most people really hate construction, but I’m really excited about it here. We just completed building a new residence hall this past year. Now, we are renovating a different residence hall. We are also moving the football stadium on-campus, expanding our Business School, expanding the Westhampton Dean’s office, and building a new Center for International Education within the next few years. I also believe we will be renovating our Student Commons in the next year. So, our campus is going to have so many new things to offer that are really exciting.

7. Food- Usually, college food is very limited and not very good. That is definitely not the case at Richmond. We have so many options and all of the food is amazing, especially the desserts. I keep stumbling upon new favorite dishes each week. This week, my new favorite food that I create is a tuna melt. I have yet to get sick of the food here. We also have a Freshens Smoothie place, a Starbucks coffee shop, and our own bar and grill called The Cellar that are part of our meal plan. I love to go to the Cellar on the weekends with my friends and eat their great food as well.

8. Lunch Ladies/Paper Man- We have so many people who work here, but there are a few that can make my day. We have a dining center cashier named Ethel and a paper delivery man from the Richmond Times-Dispatch who are always smiling. Ethel calls everyone “darling” or “baby” or has some fun saying. She can really brighten your day when you walk in for breakfast after a long night of studying. The paper delivery man always says “Have a blessed day” whenever he sees someone and is one of the nicest people you will ever meet.

9. Intramural Sports- I always like to play sports, but was never good enough to continue into college, so I started to play intramurals. I formed a team with my friends from InterVarsity and played football and volleyball. There are some really competitive games, but they are all really fun. My team managed to win the volleyball championship and playing intramurals was definitely one of the highlights of my year.

10. Modlin Center- The Modlin Center is our home for artistic performances on-campus. The tickets are so cheap for students that there is no reason that students can’t go. I saw Broadway superstars, Arlo Guthrie, Bobby McFerrin, professional acting groups, Second City comedy group, and so many more. Each ticket was only $8. The schedule for the next academic year has been released and there are some really exciting performers that will be coming in the fall.

Honorable Mentions: Alumni, Movies at the Pier, the City of Richmond, Wide Variety of Organizations, The continuous calendar of student events that are free, B1 in the Library (Quiet Studying Floor)

Quote of the Week: “We do not quit playing because we grow old, we grow old because we quite playing.” -Oliver Wendell Holmes
Thought to Ponder: Why is there a South Carolina law prohibiting anyone under the age of 18 from playing a pinball machine? Aren’t those the only people that usually play it?
Shout Outs: Any prospective students
YouTube Video of the Week:

This was just really amazing

Published on June 6, 2008 in Intramural, Campus Events and Artsy Performances. 0 Comments

Reflections on Second Semester

Now that my Freshman year is officially complete, I would like to take the chance to look back on everything that has happened during second semester. It gives you, the reader, a chance to catch up on what I’ve been doing and also give a concise version of everything that we have to offer here. For me, it simply gives me a chance to pause and take a collective look at what I’ve managed to accomplish in such a short period of time.

I’ll begin by taking a look at my classes since this should be the main focus of college. However, if you’ve been reading my blog, you may not have gotten that impression at times. I took Macroeconomics, Sculpture, Foundations of Leadership Studies, Calculus 2, and CORE. Even though the final grades aren’t in yet, I am confident that I did well. I really stepped up my work in CORE and I think I learned skills that will help me better manage my other classes in the future. Sculpture turned out to be a lot of fun for me. I’m not very artistic, but it was a nice break to have a class where you have complete control and make whatever you wanted. My workload was very manageable this semester. I buckled down in the library and made sure I was on top of my work. I still am somewhat unsure as to what my major and career will be (which is slowly starting to worry me) and no class has jumped out and enthralled me, but I’m continuing with the path of study that I think will be the best for me.

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The library on Friday afternoons, when I got most of my work done
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All of the books for my classes this semester
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The musical instruments I created out of skulls and wood in Sculpture

Though I am not sure of my path of study, I am exploring several opportunities that may make my decision easier. I am interested in math, so I will be staying on-campus over the summer to do ten weeks of math research. I will be studying the tortuosity and geometric configuration of blood vessels in the brain and how that results in strokes. It pays much better than working at SUBWAY back home and I’m hoping the experience will be rewarding. I’ve heard that the campus during the summer is a pretty fun place to be.

I will also be participating in a program called Campaigns 2008 in the fall. I applied and was accepted to live in Lakeview within the program. The sixteen of us in my program will take a class on elections in America as well as travel to D.C, talk to officials close to the campaigns, create media ads for the campaigns, as well as several other projects. We’ve picked our own curriculum and I’m really excited. I’ll be living in a single most likely and be in a suite with two of my good friends.

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I’ve been tracking the election closely and made sure to vote

I continued to be active in organizations during second semester. Some of my friends have said that I’m too involved. I wouldn’t necessarily disagree with them on that. I continued to serve as Class President for the men of the Class of 2011. My Cabinet and I planned events including a Super Bowl Party, March Madness Party, and Freshmen Cookout. They were all successes, especially the cookout which had over two hundred people attend.

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The Cabinet’s Super Bowl Party
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Some of my Cabinet members at our Freshmen Cookout

A new organization for me, this semester, was Collegiate Disaster Relief Team (CDRT). During Spring Break, thirty of us UR students went to New Orleans to help rebuild after Hurricane Katrina. We gutted a nursing home, painted a house, and even helped with a house for Extreme Makeover: Home Edition since they were in the area. It was a lot of work, but still a good time. However, since I went on the trip, it meant that I would not go home between Christmas Break and August. I have already applied to be on leadership for next year’s trip and we have already begun planning it.

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The nursing home BEFORE
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The nursing home: AFTER
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It was though the nursing home was frozen in time
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Me working for Extreme Makeover: Home Editionn1149750614_30996618_7384-1.jpg
Having fun with friends in the French Quarter

InterVarsity has also continued to be one of my activities. I did not attend small group and large group as often as first semester, but I was still a regular attendee. With InterVarsity, I participated alongside a few other men in a challenge called 3000-12 that required us to do 3,000 push-ups and memorize 12 Bible verses over the course of two weeks. I actually completed them all. I also helped with the Valentine’s Dinner where the men of InterVarsity hosted a dinner for the women. I was part of the kitchen crew and put in a lot of hours helping out, but it was still a fun time. Additionally, I served as the Team Captain for InterVarsity’s Relay for Life team. The event was rained-out, but the University did manage to raise $25,000 for cancer research. Since I am fairly active in InterVarsity, I applied to be on Leadership for next year and was accepted. So, I will attend a training retreat this summer for that.

 

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The kick-off to 3000-12
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Helping out with the IV Valentine’s Dinner
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InterVarsity’s Relay for Life Team
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We tried to make the most of the rain before Relay for Life was canceled

My local church has a group for UR students who attend there. I’ve become more involved with them as the year has gone on. I went over to one of my church leaders’ home for Easter dinner with other UR students. I’ve also tried to attend some of their weekly lunches when it doesn’t conflict with classes. Additionally, I helped them with Rebuilding Together, which helps to fix up needy homes in the Richmond area. I also attended an Interfaith Seder Dinner through my church group. Looking ahead, I will be representing this group next year on the Council for Christian Unity.

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Helping out with Rebuilding Together
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A beautiful cake at Easter Dinner
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The Interfaith Seder Dinner

Besides these organizations, I have worked a lot. In addition to this blog, I work in the Admissions Office. I’ve hosted students, helped with Admissions chats and panels, and, of course, given tours. I enjoy it and have spent a lot of time in the Admissions Office. According to my records, I have given 33 tours in the past two-and-a-half months.

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One of my tours was for some ladies from the Class of 1970

I suppose that you are probably wondering what I do when I’m not doing homework or active with my organizations. Well, I spend some of it supporting other organizations. I regularly attended a cappella concerts, improv comedy performances, and sports games. We had some great events that were fun to attend, especially our basketball team’s win over #16 Dayton.

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Our fans rushed the court after our victory over Dayton
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The Octaves, one of our a cappella group, performs

Besides these performances, I continued to attend a lot of the cultural events at the Modlin Center. I went to a performance of “The Battle for the Pentagon Papers”, “The Baltimore Waltz” (student-run play), Bobby McFerrin, “The Meeting” (University production), Natalie MacMaster (Celtic fiddler), Neil Berg’s “100 Years of Broadway”, and folk singer Arlo Guthrie (my favorite of the semester). They were all very enjoyable and entertaining, not to mention cheap.

We did have three special events occur this semester that I believe are worth mentioning. One was the launching of the first Spider into space. Leland Melvin is a UR graduate and was aboard Atlantis. We threw a fun party with “space food” to watch the launch. Also, President Ayers had his inauguration. It was a weekend of picnics, events, and festivities. We love President Ayers and are glad to see him here. One of the highlights from his inauguration was when he served as DJ for his own after party. Finally, the University of Richmond hosted a squash championship that brought fourteen of the top sixteen squash players in the world to campus. I watched many of the games and thoroughly enjoyed it. I’m hoping that they bring the tournament back next year as well.

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Space Food: Milky Ways, Moon Pies, Big Dippers, and Martian Punchp4114546-1.jpg
President Ayers’ Inauguration
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An Inaugural Picnic
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The Davenport Squash Tournament

Of course, I am a college student, so I hang out with my friends a lot and go to fun events. I have found a core group of guys who I hang out with a lot and are great friends. We made regular trips to Capital Ale House for Dollar Burger Night and also had meals at the Cellar (our on-campus restaurant) almost every week. Additionally, we had fun celebrating each other’s birthdays and getting together for game nights on the weekends or going to the Pier to watch “No Country For Old Men”, “Juno”, or whatever movie was playing that week. We also saw comedians perform on-campus, went to the James River, and attempted the new high ropes course on-campus together.

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Dollar Burger Night at Capital Ale House
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Eating out at The Cellar
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My friends threw a surprise birthday party for me
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Me playing Tarzan on the rope swing on the James River
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Having fun with Student Government on the ropes course

Lastly, I should mention the food here. I am still enjoying a wide variety at our dining center and am still amazed at the desserts that they offer. I’ve stepped up my exercise routine and now regularly go to our fitness center. In fact, I’m almost enjoying it (mainly because I watch my favorite TV shows when I’m there). The dining center has also done lots of specialty nights, such as Oriental Night (with sushi and seaweed salad) and Caribbean Night (with conch fritters and Cuban custard). They also had lots of things for finals week such as Midnight Munchies, a nacho bar, and grab-and-go items such as trail mix and popcorn.

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Caribbean Night at D-Hall

That’s been my semester. I know it’s been active but I’ve really enjoyed it. My friends and I have started doing lots more together and I’m curious and anxious to see what the summer and future hold for me. I’m hoping that I won’t be overloaded next year with Student Government, Lakeview, CDRT, InterVarsity, Council for Christian Unity, as well as work in the Admissions Office. Well, there’s only one way to find out and that is to keep reading my blog next year.

Final Shoutouts for Freshman Year: My good friends (Andrew, Jimmy, and Buddy), my family that keeps the care packages coming and answering all of my phone calls, and the Admissions Office for giving me this opportunity to blog about my crazy life.

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My parents awesome care package for Valentine’s Day

Published on May 6, 2008 in Campus Events, Sports Games, Class Cabinet, Artsy Performances, InterVarsity, Community Activities, Student Government and Breaks. 0 Comments

What a Week

March 7, 2008

So, I’ve spent the past few hours trying to figure out how everything went down. Here’s what I’ve determined thus far:

Who: Ben
What: Took 3 Midterms
Where: University of Richmond
When: One 24-hour span
Why: He doesn’t want to fail his classes
How: THE BIG UNKNOWN

Life had been fairly quiet up until this week. However, everything began to converge the week before Spring Break and my life felt crazy and overwhelmed at times. Let’s take a look back and see what caused this crazy week.

Sunday night was spent relaxing while attending a Bobby McFerrin concert here on campus. He is most famous for “Don’t Worry. Be Happy”, but he didn’t even sing that song. He and his group called Voicestra had a very unique style where they didn’t sing in English, but just with different tones. It was a little weird for me, but a decent performance.

Bobby McFerrin and Voicestra perform

Then, it all began Monday. I found out early in the morning that I was accepted to Lakeview for next semester. I will be in the Campaigns 2008 program and I’m excited. Not only was I accepted, but my friends Andrew, Buddy, Jimmy, and Caleb also were accepted. The odds that we would all get into the program of twenty was quite small. However, we only had two days to accept the invitation and everyone was frantically trying to find out who else was accepted to get an idea for roommates, since the administration refused to release a roster to us. In the end, I’m in it and will figure out rooming arrangements after break.

There was also a meeting for the Collegiate Disaster Relief Team on Monday. We met for the second time and went over the basics for our Spring Break trip. I’m excited to be going to New Orleans, but am also ready for any break in general.

Along with CDRT, Relay for Life has begun to pick up. I’m the captain of the InterVarsity team and we’re a little slow in getting other InterVarsity students to join because it’s a busy time in everyone’s life. There are lots of teams, mainly sororities and fraternities, and, as a campus, we’ve already raised $11,000. If you want to check out my team’s progress and get an idea of what Relay for Life is like here at the University of Richmond, you can find that here.

Also with InterVarsity, I officially turned in my application to be on InterVarsity Leadership next year. It’ll be another activity for me to handle, but I think I can do it. Additionally, I went to Small Group, but was exhausted, so I didn’t contribute much. Everyone in the group was facing a long week and was just trying to crawl to Spring Break. Finally, 3000-12 officially wrapped up. In case you forgot, I did 3000 push ups and memorized 12 Bible verses over the course of two weeks. We got together Wednesday night and some of the guys finished their final 400 in half an hour. One guy was way behind and did 700 in 40 minutes. I had already finished, but still sat around talking and relaxing before heading to my room to do more work.

Right in the middle of the week, amongst hectic studying of finals, D-Hall had a Carribean night and had typical food from the region and brought in a live band. It was pretty fun and a nice break. D-Hall does a great job of providing specialty nights for the students.

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They brought in a Carribean-style band to play their drums and performp3044195-1.jpg
They had Cuban custard, conch fritters, and other Caribbeann-style foodsp3044194-1.jpg
A fruit station with canteloupe, honeydew, kiwis, and coconut next to the palms

Student Government went really late this week due to some important issues and funding requests. Everyone wanted to get out of there to go study, but we just had a lot to cover. I guess it could have been worse. The women’s meeting ran two and a half hours. I showed them the winning design for the class flag for the Richmond College Class of 2012, since I’m in charge of it as the Class Chair of 2011. I would show it to you here, but I’ll keep it a surprise. I think it’s pretty cool.

I have been working on a project that lets students know what Student Government is doing to address their main concerns and wanted to finish it this week. I’ve been in touch with a lot of the administration and just met with the director of Dining Services this week. It doesn’t look like I’ll finish the project by Spring Break, but I tried. That alone took up a fair amount of my time.

Through this all, I had midterms and classes to deal with. I tried to study as much as I could. I was given awesome study guides in all of them and basically knew the essay questions for each midterm, but I still studied a lot. I ended up getting to bed at 4 AM, 2 AM and 3 AM trying to get in some more studying. I voluntarily added the third midterm because it was currently scheduled for right when we got back from break and I wanted it out of the way and felt confident enough about it. All three ended up falling within a 24-hour time frame and I just wanted to get through them. Well, I did it and am still alive somehow. I feel good about them and just have to wait for the grades to be returned.

To celebrate after my last final, I went to the coffee shop, got a frozen lemonade and chocolate peanut butter dessert and did two hours of math homework. Fun, I know. I did realize that I have a ton of money left in my meal plan to spend at our coffee shop, smoothie place, and on-campus bar and grill, so I’ll need to start treating myself a bit more.

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My treat from 8:15 at Boatwright (our coffee shop)

I also celebrated by going to Natalie MacMaster at Modlin. She is a Celtic fiddler and did a good show. I enjoy Celtic music, so I was excited to put everything else out of mind and just relax for the first time this week. She had a cello player in her band that was incredible. Oh yeah, he had just turned fourteen years old. He made me feel like I, for my age, hadn’t accomplished much yet in my life.

A song by Natalie MacMaster and her band

Anyways, this week may not have sounded incredibly busy, but I was always moving. Besides that, the stress of everything catches up to you after a while, along with the sleep deprivation. So, I’m going to get some sleep and then wake up bright and early to embark on a long bus ride to New Orleans to begin our service trip to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina. The trip entails fifty hours on the bus, so I’ll have time to wrap up whatever work I have left at that time.

Quote of the Week: “We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.” — Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.
Thought to Ponder: If bald people work in a restaurant, do they still have to wear hairnets?
Shout Outs: Grandma for continuing to check up on me
UR Spotlight: Mock Trial Our Mock Trial team is doing incredibly well this year. We are sending two teams to nationals, which is a big deal, and everyone who’s in it loves it. I have a good friend who swears “its the easiest/funnest one credit you’ll ever take”. The level of commitment varies, but most people really enjoy it and get pretty committed, some comparing it to the participation level of a high school varsity sport with 6-8 hours a week at busy times of the season. My friend told me that “you aren’t required to go to any tournaments, but you’ll most likely have so much fun that you’ll want to”. The team has participated in at least eight tournaments this year, at places such as Yale, Duke, George Washington, and Rhodes College. My friend who is on Mock Trial says it’s a great way to make friends since you do lots of road trips and flights as well as stay in hotels together (all paid for by the University). I can tell that he’s having a great time and if you’re interested, you can contact me and I will put you in touch with some contacts who know all about Mock Trial.
YouTube Video of the Week:


Give this one a while. I don’t know where the parents were on this one.

Published on March 7, 2008 in Artsy Performances, Class Cabinet, InterVarsity, Student Government, Community Activities and Breaks. 1 Comment