The Reality of Term II

It has finally sank in with me that it really is Term II of my sophomore year here at EC, and now that it has hit me, I realize just how much I really am learning and how busy I am. For example, lets review my last week here on campus...busiest week I have had so far at EC!

In my nursing class we are getting closer and closer to attending clinicals, so this past week we practiced some essential skills including bathing, dressing, feeding, etc. We also had 2 quizzes and a skills test, which I did great on! Skills tests are where you put what you learn into effect and practice on your peers. My skills test involved range of motion on my patient, feeding, brushing dentures, putting on stockings, and other skills I will soon be practicing in clinical. It is exciting to realize that in just one more week I will be in the hospital with real patients!

In health assessment, we had a quiz as well and then practiced up on our assessment skills. It seemed to go really well, and I will soon be able to practice these techniques in real life in clinical. This week we did head, nose and throat, where we got to see all of our peers tonsils, look up their noses, and check out their pupils. This week we will be continuing down the body and practicing more skills.

Lab for A&P was REALLY EXCITING! We first began by dissecting and understanding the hearts of deers, some with attached lungs and trachea. It was so much easier to understand how the heart works when there is a real model to use. Despite the horrific and sickening smell, I was able to get a better understanding of how a human heart works. We also dissected our cats again to identify major veins and arteries in the body. By using a cat as an example, it is easy to apply the knowledge gained in lab onto a person, and I now have a clearer comprehension of veins and arteries.

Tap auditions were this past Friday, and tech week has officially begun and is filled with lots of dance, costumes, and routines to memorize. My family will be coming this weekend, and with 9 different numbers in just this one show, they will be seeing A LOT of me! Pictures will be coming next week, costumes and all!

To relax this weekend, I went to the hockey game with my friend, and that proved to be a good game to go to...lots of fighting! It was close, but I am pretty sure EC lost. But either way, I had a good time just relaxing and unwinding before this week began. With tech for tap every night for 3 hours, two quizzes, a paper, classes, tap show Friday and Saturday, and Relay for Life, it is going to be another busy but exciting week! Pictures soon to come of all the excitement on the EC campus!

Kaylynn and I at the hockey game!

Busy, Busy Term II!

Term II is busier then ever, but it is also more exciting then any other term so far!
As a nursing major, I have officially began my first clinical class and it is flying by fast. Last week we learned vital signs, and had to complete a full set between 3-5minutes! I successfully accomplished this after practicing vitals on my roommates (one of the "perks" of rooming with a nursing major)! We also learned all about mobility and positioning patients, which we will be tested on this upcoming week! It is exciting to be practicing and learning all of these techniques, because in just a few weeks, I will be in clinical with real patients and will get to use all of my skills!
I am even wearing my purple and white scrubs, just one step closer to being an actual nurse!

As for anatomy and physiology, this week we are learning about the heart! In lab on wednesday, we will be looking at real hearts of deer, cow, and bear. It will be really exciting to be able to understand how the heart works by recognizing the important parts of the heart on real models. Elmira is lucky when it comes to labs because we are able to have many resources to use to understand the various parts of the body!

For my Women in Society class, we have been focusing recently on personal activism projects that highlight issues related to women. For my project, I am going to design a blog that will be highly weekly issues regarding current events that involve women in society. Once the blog is up and running and is made aware to the current campus via facebook and flyers, I will be able to post the link here so prospective students can see some of the projects students are working on and fully understand what we learn about in Women in Society! It is always helpful to see an example of what we discuss in this class to fully understand it, and with my personal activism project, I will be able to provide this!

This term is proving to be exciting and extremely busy, but by managing my time, I am able to really focus and get all of my work completed! This coming weekend, Tap Ensemble begins auditions and tech week for our upcoming show! It should be just as much fun as last year, and with new songs and dances, will provide the audience with a show they won't forget! There will be lots of pictures to come!

Back to studying, as this week is proving to be filled with the most work so far!

Back Into the Swing of Things: Term II

Term II is in full swing and thus has begun my busiest term EVER!
Let me explain about all of the exciting things going on!

Nursing is slowly taking over my life, but luckily for me, I am finally beginning actual nursing activities. This week I learned how to take vital signs...and I am actually mastering these skills quickly. Nursing is exciting and I have officially put on my purple scrubs and began my clinical class. Soon I will be working with patients and beginning long-term care! I am eagerly awaiting meeting my patients and actually starting to begin one-on-one care! As nursing progresses, I will keep you posted about all of the exciting things I am learning.

In Health Assessment, we are learning to take health histories of patients, an important skill to master to be an excellent nurse. Health Assessment teaches nurses all of the essential skills necessary to assess a patient. I am looking forward to having a vast amount of nursing skills to use on my patients.

Anatomy part II is living up to its expectations of hard work and lots of studying. However, this term we are learning a lot of new things. We have started with information about blood and blood types, and even was able to do a lab about identifying blood type. All of the information I am learning in A&P is proving to be important to the understanding and treatment of patients, especially in emergency situations.

On a more exciting and less academic note, I am excited to be reunited with all of my friends and enjoy the social aspect of being back at school. This past weekend, we all went bowling and out to dinner to relieve stress. It is nice to take a break from schoolwork and just have a good time. I also have been busy this past weekend with dance and costumes for our upcoming tap show! My family and friends are driving from NH to see me perform, and I am looking forward to a fun-filled weekend!


Time for homework and nursing vital sign practice!

My best friend Megan and I, at the bowling alley!

My roommate Taryn and me at the bowling alley!

Holiday Traditions!

Holiday festivities are in full swing at Elmira College!

This past week, students enjoyed a relaxing holiday feast with their professor of choice. Dinner included turkey (which the professors were instructed to carve and definitely provided some entertainment), mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, rolls, corn bread, green beans, corn, stuffing, and to finish it off, cookies and cremepuffs! The Christmas tree and Menorah were lit before dinner, and the Seniors presented Doctor Meier with a nutcracker ornament. After the dinner was finished, everyone say holiday songs and then posed for pictures. Dinner was delicious, and seeing everyone dressed up was exciting!

After the holiday dinner!

My roommate and me before the dinner!

The excitement continued the next day with the annual holiday dance. All the students put on their best dresses and dress shirts, and headed to the holiday dance to dance the night away. Needless to say, the dance provided for some entertainment too, watching everyone do their most creative dance moves. I went with a group of friends and really enjoyed myself! The next day, I am pretty sure that just about every student slept in until noon...it was a busy weekend and we were all exhausted!


My friends and me all dressed up for the holiday dance!

That same day, I went with the rest of the members of nursing club to our advisor's house to make Christmas cookies for our bake sale. After making about twelve dozen cookies, we enjoyed dinner together and of course dessert of cookies. The next day we hosted a bake sale to raise money for Adopt-a-Family, an organization that allows people to buy Christmas presents for people less fortunate, and nursing club adopted a family this year and put the proceeds from the bake sale towards presents for our family. Making cookies was fun, and knowing that the money goes towards a good cause makes it even better.

So now comes the home stretch- FINALS WEEK! Currently, students are studying and finishing last minute projects before finals begin on Monday. Needless to say, I am going to be moving into the library, along with my fellow nursing majors. Before the Monday of finals week we have the traditional midnight breakfast where all of our professors serve us breakfast before we stop eating and sleeping to pass (just kidding, we still find time to eat haha). It is a busy weekend approaching and in just a few days, I will be home relaxing after some hard work. But until then, it is time to study, study, study. Happy Holidays!

November FINALLY Comes to an End!

Oh November, how you have flown by!

It has been quite a while since I have been able to update about life at EC...reason being, November is a busy. busy month! But here I am, ready to recap all of the exciting things that have recently happened.

First, Orchesis, the dance show of term I, took place and was a GREAT success. I danced in the performance, in two Orchesis sponsored dances and one outside tap duet that I successfully tried out and had selected for the show! It really was an awesome show, and it was clear that the student body definitely enjoyed it!

Steph and me before our duet!

Relaxing before the show!

November seemed like a shorter month, especially because we have Thanksgiving break. Once Thursday and Friday came and everyone finished their last classes, tests, and projects, the campus cleared and became empty, as if a plague swept through. I embarked on my 8 hour drive back to New Hampshire, and successfully made it (obviously because I am writing this blog). I am sure like the rest of the campus I enjoyed my break by spending time with my family, and of course devouring the delicious Thanksgiving food (PIES!).

Now that I have returned to campus, EC is getting in the Christmas and Holiday Cheer! My roommates and I have decorated our rooms and common room with Christmas lights and snowflakes. Many of my other friends have begun shopping for presents, and exchanging gifts already. The school has begun preparations for the annual Holiday Banquet and Ball, which take place this Friday and Saturday. It will definitely be another eventful and exciting weekend. This is a fun tradition, and eating dinner with our professors is always entertaining. The dance should be fun too, and provides for excellent photo opportunities as everyone is dressed up and the giant Christmas tree in the campus center will be dressed to impress as well. I will definitely be documenting the entire night with pictures!

The next few weeks begin the studying for finals time, with extended library hours! For every crazy student who decides studying at 1am is the most effective way to pass, this is very exciting because it means extra work time! Midnight breakfast will be kicking off finals week too, and getting served by the EC staff will hopefully encourage us to get studying. Only two-ish more weeks separate us from Holiday Break, and every student is looking forward to the well deserved break after what we know will be an intense finals week!

Speaking of finals, the studying for me as a nursing student starts now!
After the holiday festivities take place, expect a detailed account of the events as well as photo documentation!

Happy End of November, and Beginning of December!

OAR and More!

It has been another busy yet super exciting week at Elmira College! Halloween took over Elmira College, and needless to say, I saw a lovely assortment of "costumes" strolling around campus. Columbia, the freshmen girls dorm, put on their annual haunted house and trick or treating event and like last year when I lived there, they saw hundreds of children come through! After Halloween, all of campus had their focus shifted to the upcoming big event...


OAR!

After much anticipation by all of the student body, the big event for fall finally took place...
the OAR concert! It was awesome, and they played not only their new music but also a variety of their older songs as well! Plug in Stereo opened for OAR, and I personally liked them as well. All in all, the set up, the bands, and most importantly the music was awesome! I think I can speak for the majority of the students that attended that this was definitely one of the best big events here at EC in a while.

My friends and me at the OAR concert!

Unfortunately, now that the concert is over it is back to reality. This week Orchesis auditions took place for the fall dance/Encore performance. I tried out an advanced tap duet with one of my good friends, and to my surprise it made it into the show! I will be in a total of three dances in the upcoming Encore as well as the finale where I will do a short Michael Jackson excerpt with the rest of the 2014's! I love dance, so I am really pleased that I will be dancing a lot in the next week with tech week and practice every day and night! It should be busy, but I know the show will be great so I am really looking forward to it!

On top of dance, dance and more dance, I have some big tests coming up in Nursing, Anatomy & Physiology, and Stats...ahhhh, so much to study. But I am starting to study now that way I am super prepared for all the exams. It is going to be a busy two weeks before break but I am sure I will pull through and then enjoy some well deserved rest and relaxation at home. This week I also ordered my stethoscope, required for all nursing majors. I am excited because I am pretty sure I am the only person who ordered an orange one...I figured I'd never lose in when at clinical! Also, it has finally come the time to start registering for Term II classes. For nursing majors like myself, the schedule is essentially already set in stone. Next week, all of the students will head to the registrars office to register because after Thanksgiving break, there is only a short time left before the end of Term I, and it is packed with events, activities, studying, and of course finals. Oh, well. It is better to take the stress of college day by day. In the meantime, I am off to dance and to study! But maybe if I get enough done and need a little break, I can check out the Man Auction (Yes, this is real!) in MacKenzie's at the Campus Center to support Model UN.

A Week of Change at EC!

After just a short midterm break involving some much needed rest and relaxation, all of the EC students are back and ready to continue on with Term I. I know I enjoyed the extra sleep, but as a nursing major, I did in fact do some homework over break to stay caught up. Once I returned on Wednesday, I got back to business and studied as much as someone possibly could study in anticipation and preparation for my huge anatomy and physiology midterm I took that Friday. Then I spent my weekend prepping and studying for my upcoming nursing midterm which happens to be tomorrow and also for my anatomy and physiology lab test regarding my cat dissection and muscle identification the following day (Wednesday). Now, it may seem like a lot of work and stress, but with good time management skills, I am able to excel on all of these exams and get great grades! Nursing is challenging, but in the end I know all of my hard work will pay off and I will excel as a nurse in a busy hospital!

So, besides studying my life away, what have I been doing my sophomore year at school to have fun? Well, since Halloween is quickly approaching, my friend and I went to a local haunted house and Halloween exhibit called Tagsylvania! After screaming in fright for hours, we decided we would definitely go back again next year for a good scare before Halloween, and drag all of our other friends with us for a good laugh! Also, Elmira's Big Event Committee just announced that OAR, a popular alternative band, will be the big event at EC this year! As you can imagine, I am beyond excited as is the rest of campus! Tickets have gone on sale to the general public at this point, but I am sure every interested EC student went and got their ticket the day it was announced! Needless to say, next Wednesday will definitely be an exciting day on campus! But before everyone's focus is put onto the OAR performance, Orchesis tryouts take place the day before so I need to stay focused, as do all of the other students performing and hoping to make it into the show. I am excited to perform all of the dances that I have been working so hard on, as well as see all of the other dances that students have been perfecting. Dance is something I love, and is definitely worth the large time commitment. As you can see, the next few weeks prove to be extremely busy like always, but there is a light at the end of these exams called OAR!

OAR live performance at EC in just a little over a week!

Here is the entrance of Tagsylvania!
Definitely looks inviting...

Now, for the BIGGEST news spreading quickly around EC: This past weekend, Doctor Thomas Meier, Elmira College's 12th President for the past 25 years, announced his retirement at the end of this academic school year! Dr. Meier is the figurehead of EC that all students love! For many, this is a sad event but one that we all knew would come. Dr. Meier has made great changes and strides for the school and has proved to be a man that every EC student truly cherishes and respects. The 2012's are a lucky class, fortunate enough to be the last class to receive their diplomas from Dr. Meier, while the rest of us will have to wait and find out who will be the next President. Needless to say, we are all going to miss Dr. Meier and his enthusiasm, but we are all looking forward to finding out who will be chosen to carry on his legacy here at EC. But, I think the biggest concern for EC students regarding Dr. Meier's retirement...What about all the Mountain Day songs?! They are all about Dr. Meier! I guess whoever the next President is will just have to change his last name to Meier...?

Dr. Thomas Meier, thank you for all of your hard work and commitment to the betterment of Elmira College! You will be missed by every EC student!

So, as you can see, this upcoming week at Elmira is going to be a busy one, and has brought about a lot of change for the campus, faculty, and students. The leaves are still falling, and the weather is starting to finally get cold. Time to get back to studying, and next blog post, I will definitely be recapping the OAR concert!