Life is a Gift.

by Jasmine Easter, Random •
By: Jasmine Easter

I know what I’m about to say is very corny and cliché (that rhyme was unintentional), but it is the truth! The past few weeks have been an emotional roller coaster for me: best friend in a coma and a family friend murdered. Not to mention another close family member of mine being diagnosed with an auto-immune disease.

It’s been rough.

All of this to say, appreciate life and those that are around you. Spread positive energy and love. Cherish the memories you have with loved ones and enjoy every second of your life. You never exactly know when something life changing could occur to you or someone you know.

Don’t wait until it is too late to create good memories or show appreciation and love.

Mentor a Mentee

by Jaimison Smith, Random •
By: Jaimison “NV” Smith

Greeting everyone,

I have been mentoring students even before I realized it. Mentoring someone gives me a sense of fulfilment because I helped someone other than myself. It is often an opportunity to learn a bit more about myself through my mentees. Sometime most youth just need someone fitting to look up to. Plus, I can see there is an imprint I leave on each youth I help. It’s as if they will remember me for a lifetime. During my time mentoring, I learned a sense of leadership and responsibility for another. It is also a great opportunity for those who were born as an only child and/or always wanted another sibling. Sometimes it is nice to pass on what I have learned or will learn. With great mentors, a mentee can be shaped into a distinguished and respectable young man or woman.

mentoring

 

My Trip to NY

by Kelsey Jackson •
By: Kelsey Jackson

Hello everyone! I have been a little behind on my posts but from now on I should be back on track.

For my first trip of the summer my entire family traveled to our home town in New York. For us this place is nothing special anymore, however, if YOU are deciding to take a trip to New York I suggest you follow or try a few things:

1. Make sure you do not come alone. Not that it is unsafe here, but you will have A LOT more fun.

2. Make sure you bring plenty of money. While there are many free attractions here, there are also a lot of things you may need to spend money on such as food, transportation, SHOPPING…etc.

3. You must try the pizza, the Halaal- Indian food trucks AND something from the lovely bakeries they have.

4. You most definitely have to travel into the city, mainly Manhattan, and go on a boat ride or walk around in Times Square or even Central Park.

5. Lastly, keep your eyes open because it is very fast paced here and you may end up lost.

6. You definitely need to do some research before you come here to ensure that you get to experience all that New York has to offer for yourself.

Have fun planning your trip to the Big Apple!

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Falyn’s Music

by Campus Life, Falyn Eaden •
By: Falyn Eaden

Today I’d like to share something with you all that I am very proud of. Here is a behind the scenes look at my first video and the finished product of my first video. Hope you enjoy. I think it came out great. After you watch the video like my pages and social networks.    

facebook.com/thatsfal

thatsfal.bandcamp.com

twitter.com/thatsfal

youtube.com/thatsfal

The Benefits of Greek Life

by Campus Life, Christopher Harris, Greek Life •
By: Christopher Harris

After your SPSU Journey Orientation, you’ve had a chance to see some of the organizations that our campus has to offer. The main attraction was, to be expected, the Interfraternity Council’s table.

IFC

The Interfraternity Council (IFC) is the council that governs all of the men’s fraternities (to be contrasted by the sorority’s Panhellenic Council and the incorporated fraternity’s and sorority’s National Pan-Hellenic Council). The organizations in IFC are Pi Kappa Phi (my fraternity), Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Kappa Sigma, Sigma Pi, Sigma Nu, Tau Kappa Epsilon, and Theta Chi. You can join any of them, you just have to know the people first.

But why would you even want to know the people or join?

One of the biggest perks that Greek life has to offer is that there is a huge networking base. In my chapter alone, I have over 300 men who are ready to give me the benefit of the doubt and help me get a job, help out with work, have contact information for anything they themselves can’t do, and they’re full of good life advice. Every chapter has alumni support, but the networking goes beyond the chapter. If you say on your resume that you were involved in a fraternity or sorority then it shows the employer that you already have skills that can be applied to the work place. Greek life involves a lot of communication, organizational skills, time management, leadership, initiative, philanthropic skills, and many other things that go great on a resume. The list goes on.

For example, one of our alumni owns a restaurant. On many occasions, we’ll go to the restaurant for an event and we’ll get a special discount. He’s even given a few of us jobs over the years, based mainly on the fact that we share the same fraternity. It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.

Going Greek is the best thing I’ve ever done, hands down. It’s led to me growing as a person and becoming the man my parents wanted me to be; it’s helped me gain an appreciation for those less fortunate by helping with my philanthropy, Push America; it’s helped give me skills that I can apply both in and out of the class room (PARENTS, did I mention that Greeks have the highest retention rate among college students?).

The benefits of Greek Life are almost too much to write about in one blog post.

If you have questions about Greek life, whether you’re a student OR parent, feel free to comment below. You can also contact the Coordinator of Fraternity and Sorority Life, Anne Montgomery.

If you want to wait a semester or year or even more before you go Greek, that’s fine. School comes first, that’s why we’re here. If you don’t want to ever go Greek, that’s fine too. But I highly recommend you at least look into it. The benefits outweigh the costs.

What To Expect When You’re Expecting (To Start College)

by Academics, Brenden Frazier, Campus Visits, Orientation •
By: Brenden Frazier

So high school’s over. It’s time to grow up a little, start a new chapter of your life, go to college, maybe stop giggling at the word “abatement” (you’re going to need that one.) You’ve already made a few huge steps; Applying to college, choosing a college to attend, and climbing the first of many mountains of paperwork. Now it’s time for one more step;

Orientation.

Orientation can be a fun, exciting, and sometimes scary event. I’m here to help you make it through without feeling like you need to transfer out before you even start. (Don’t worry everyone will soon forget what you did in the middle of the quad with the bean bags and the bouncy castle.)

Ok so lets start with arrival. Your parents drop you off early and go walk around campus for a bit. You see where you’re going to be staying, you see all three students taking summer classes, and you go to the bookstore where your dad buys the matching SPSU sweatsuit, hat, t-shirt, and novelty sunglasses because of course he did. Your mom cries, your dad goes back for the matching coffee mug, and then they leave. Now the fun begins!

Well almost.

First you have to sit through a few presentations. Get learned at a little bit. I know it’s early and I know you don’t want to have to spend all day in lectures (get used to it, kid) but it’s pretty important, you’re kind of making a drastic change in lifestyle. It’s pretty helpful for someone to just straight up tell you what has to happen for you to make it through, so pay attention, you don’t get that kind of advantage everywhere.

Next is going to be lunch, during which you can walk around and talk to all of the student organizations. This one can be pretty fun. This will be the first time you get to talk to someone that’s not orientation staff. These are just regular students that came out to show you what goes on as far as campus life. You’ll come to realize that regardless of what impressions you may have had about people at your new school, most of us are pretty normal… well some of us… ok, at least one or two.

Now you get to have some real fun! Signing up for classes.

Ok maybe not the most amount of fun you’ll have, but again, necessary. Signing up for classes the first time is probably the most important thing you will do at orientation. When it first comes down to it it can be pretty difficult knowing what you need to do and what classes you need to take, but again, you have someone there talking you through every step, and again, it’s very helpful so pay attention.

Next you get to do actual fun stuff. Namely hanging out with your peers. After you’re done with everything you have to do for actual orientation you’re kinda just… let free. Sometimes there will be an event like a midnight breakfast, sometimes you’re just going to be walking around talking to people. Whatever the case it’s a good taste of what’s to come. Orientation can sometimes be a lot of work but it can also be fun. Remind you of anything?

-Brenden

¡Adios Barcelona! Bonjour Paris!

by Kris Peterson, Random •
By: Kris Peterson

I’m writing this entry on a hotel train to Paris! I just have to say how great it is to be able to travel without having to think of cars! It’s brilliant. So Barcelona has been a great experience. I love how diverse the network of the city is but then it’s all tied together. I really got to understand this when on my last full day in the city I reconnected all of the sight seeing with a bike ride through each district.

The most fun part to ride was through a rambla. Which is a road that is divided according to the different types of moving traffic. The street is situated like so: pedestrian/shopper_one-way car traffic _trees_pedestrian/bikes _trees_ one-way car traffic _trees _pedestrian/shopper.

That central lane for bikers is so much fun. I found myself amongst a sea of bikers cruising the city. I felt like a local or that I could be. Oh and their bikes are extended seats and handle bars with small wheels. It is a very modern classy bike. It was rare to see road bikes but when I did they were really nice and not to mention fixed gear.

The very last day was spent at the arc de triumph waiting for the train to Paris. We spent 6 hours people watching. What a great day.

The dogs are all extremely well behaved. I have a theory. The owners must take their dogs out as puppies onto the streets and since puppies have a natural instinct to follow their mother it becomes the perfect time to teach a dog how to follow their owner in a mob of people.

By the time I will be able to post this I will be in Paris! And hopefully I will be ready for my one hour of French to be put to use, au revoir!

The pictures below is the train ride to Paris and the loft I’m staying in Paris. Already off to a good start!

Off to Paris

Off to Paris

My lofted bed

My lofted bed

Paris courtyard

Paris courtyard

Weekend Softball

by Campus Life, Christopher Harris, Greek Life •
By: Chris Harris

Every semester my fraternity, Pi Kappa Phi, holds alumni athletic events that usually consist of competitions between the alumni and the undergraduates. In the fall it’s football, but in the spring it’s softball. So once the semester was over, we grabbed our bats and gloves and went to the fields for an attempt at a fair game.

I say “attempt at a fair game” because us undergraduates were far outnumbered. There were seven of us, including one of the alumnus’ kids, and there were ten alumni playing. We were scraping by, not even having enough people to fill the outfield and stand at the bases. Not to mention that two of our guys were injured (one guy’s finger was still hurt), and another guy’s foot was hurt from a car accident a few months back. We undergrads were outnumbered, and, as you can expect, we lost 18-8. Whatever.

After, we went back to the fraternity house and hung out and ate burgers. The girlfriends and wives who showed up all sat together and had small talk, while the brothers split up (unintentionally) and talked about recruitment strategies for the fall.

All in all, it was a fun time. The alumni had a good time meeting the new brothers and hanging out with the fraternity again, and the young guys had fun getting whooped and talking about important things.

Now it’s just time to practice for football…

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Beachtography

by Laura Sherman, Random •
By: Laura Sherman

After a seemingly endless stream of exhaustion from finals week and the great drain of energy that came with completing my first year of college (HOORAH!), I’m happy to report that I basked in the glory of my Panama City Beach vacation until it burned (with the proper amount of SPF 50, of course).

PCB has no shortage on places to shop- which can occupy me for hours. If you get a chance to go, I highly recommend going on a boat to look for dolphins and ride out to where the water is beautifully as clear as a pool. As you can see, the beach was also the perfect place to catch up on some drawing. =]

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If you’re as into capturing every golden moment of rare vacation time as me, invest in a waterproof case for your smartphone before you hit the beach. Not only will it protect your phone from accidentally being dripped on, but depending on the quality of the case you get- you can bring it out in the water and take some awesome underwater photos.

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If your digital camera sometimes gives you blurry, out-of-focus or over-exposed shots, switch into manual mode and make the shots perfect yourself. Manual mode not only can let you play with getting all your settings just right, but it can also give you the freedom of getting creative with aperture and white balance (I’ll explain in a bit.)

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To prevent over-exposure, a couple of things can be done. In manual mode, go to your aperture settings (should look something like f/11 [reads “f stop eleven”]) and set the number yourself. On a very bright day, you might want a high number vs. in low light, you might prefer a low number. The high number makes for a smaller opening in your lens, letting less light in. Think of it like the dilatation of your eyes. Now, this is just one way to handle it but you are sacrificing “bokehliciousness” with your high f stop. Bokeh is the blurriness you get for all the objects out of your plane of focus, you might know it better as the balls of light you get in an out-of-focus picture of a Christmas tree.
If you like bokeh (and most of us do), you can make your ISO a lower number or make your shutter speed higher for prime photos on a hot and sunny beach day.
If your photos are looking a bit too cold or warm in color, you’ll need to set your white balance. Most cameras have a place in your settings where you can select a white balance. It will have options like cloudy and sunny conditions. Choosing from these will likely get you close to your desired colors. But for optimum control, take a photo of a white towel or paper in the light and set it to your custom white balance.

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At night, the most fun can be had experimenting with long exposures. It takes quite a bit more tinkering with your camera- but once you’ve got the settings right, it’s smooth sailing. Just adjust your shutter speed to 5 or more seconds. The longer these exposures get, the more you may want to lower your ISO or make your aperture smaller (higher f stop). With these, you can use a flash to get surreal effects, use sparklers and do some light writing or just take a really serene long exposure of the ocean.
This is still pretty basic in getting to know your camera, so if you’ve got any questions or you want to go into hardcore in-depth discussions about tinkering with ISO, aperture, shutter speed and white balance- just ask!
-Laura