Spring Break! Or is it?

I woke up this morning only to look out my window and see SNOW! So much for "Spring" break.

I feel that this spring break has been very rewarding. I have done two events this break...the Reality Check with Danvers High seniors and the NCBI training. I enjoyed doing both of these events because I love to work with people within a group setting. I have been so busy this break with school work and the regular life stresses that I just need a day to myself or a real vacation! I wish I could of gone away like everyone else does when they are a freshman in college! I feel kind of left out. When everyone comes back from Canada or Aruba and asks what I did this vacation, I am going to tell them I sat in my kiddie pool in my backyard during the warm days and read The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks. I wonder what they will think of me?
To be completely honest, I cannot wait for school again on Monday! I miss my friends so much! Everyone is off busy doing their own thing...so I want to hear about your vacation experience! I hope it was more eventful and exciting than mine!

TALENT SHOW: APRIL 2ND ...wait --what!? where?!

Hello everyone,
I've recently been interested in the talent show--- and I know it's going to be a huge success!
I've been at 2 talent show auditions, and all I've seen were great! Unfortunately, not many people showed up... and I personally think not many people knew about it.

When going to classes and walking around the school in my Presidential Scholar shirt, people were asking me what club I was from, and of course, I told them the Presidential Scholars. Then, they asked me what I was doing in the program, and I told them that currently, ---- the talent show auditions. Most reactions were the same, "what? there's a talent show?".

I know the students and faculty advertise and work hard to try and let everyone know of these things, but something is just not working. I would think, that a college of thousands would get more of a response with this type of event. Just in my speech class alone, some students spoke about talents/activities, and hobbies they participate in or do. One student loved to breakdance, and even showed the class some of his skills, while another student's musical talents were impressive considering he has recorded a CD in a professional recording studio, and is considered somewhat of a celebrity in certain parts of South America. Neat, huh?

Honestly, sometimes I'm in a rush, and do not check the Pipeline bulletins, and do not have time to check out signs around the buildings.
What about the Presidential Scholars? Our group could maybe make announcements in classes before class? What do you all think about this? Would students like to be aware about certain major events by word of mouth rather than leaving it up to finding it out?
Sorry if I seem negative, but it's sort of sad that not a lot of people know about certain things. hmmmm...

-Kristen

Meeting Deval Patrick

As fellow Presidential Scholars Angela, Megan, Katelyn and I stood beside President Burton, Governor Deval Patrick, Secretary Ian Bowles, Commissioner Philip Giudice, DCAM Commissioner David Perini, and Representative Ted Speliotis I felt a numbing sensation through my body. It was such a wonderful experience to be introduced to the crowd as Presidential Scholars. Governor Patrick announced Commonwealth Clean Energy Investment Program and Commissioner David Perini introduced and explained the new financing plan that will help the Commonwealth save thousands of dollars in energy costs. The crowd was enthused by the politician's words of reassurance and power as cameras flashed. I was so glad that my mentor was only a few feet away watching at the scholars represented NSCC. After shaking hands and introducing ourselves to Governor Patrick, Angela, Megan, Katelyn, President Burton and I took a picture with the Governor! It was such a great experience! I felt so honored to be a part of the event. As I told Joanne, I was beyond excited and nervous. As we were standing in front of everyone, I could feel myself turning red. My friends said I was not as red as a tomato so I was okay. :) I'm so glad that we were able to meet the Governor and that he spent time with students shaking hands and playing ping pong in the Student Life Lounge. I have never seen such a thing! After all the commotion was over, the girls and I helped clean up the event by putting signs away and keeping people away from the tables that were set up with coffee!

Altogether, it was a lot of fun! I cannot wait for the next event!

The Storm

I hope my professors don’t read this. If they do, im sorry, but I had to relieve myself of school life for one day of snowboarding. That’s because this entire season has been terrible for snow conditions. However this past week the most amazing double hitting storm came our way.

Tuesday brought about predictions of snow and rain for most of the northeast, however as most storms have been going, this one turned to rain as well. Except in the peaks of the White Mountains. Namely mount Washington and its surrounding peaks. By Thursday they had received a foot and a half of snow, excellent conditions for any snow enthusiast. By Thursday I decided it was time to cancel my weekend plans and hit the slopes. I drove up to a friend’s house to spend the night not knowing about the absolute devastation on the way.

As we got psyched (excited) for Friday’s 3ft of snow powder day, the wind started to pick up. Soon enough the power went out. It’s a good thing we had a wood fireplace, otherwise we would have froze.

I woke to a very rainy 5am sky. Trees and branches were everywhere. It was pretty bad, however not nearly bad as what lay in wait for me back home in Gloucesta. We however proceeded unhindered by the rain, lack of power, and tree filled streets. By 8am we arrived to the most epic day of snowboarding at Wildcat Mountain. While everyone else (and that includes northern VT) got rain, Wildcat received 3.5 FEET of snow. To make a long story longer, we had the most amazing day of snowboarding ever. That day was ranked the number one value of the Century. We paid 9 dollars to ski 8 hours in snow above our knees. I got stuck once and couldn’t see my waist. Thirty minutes later I was panting and sweating down the mountain.

Anyways, enough about the awesome time I had while the rest of you poor souls were studying math and whatnot. When I arrived back in Gloucesta I realized how amazing the storm had really been. In my opinion, only a few storms in the past 50 years have done more damage than this one. Outside my house once stood 2 huge (2-3 story) pine trees. They now lay across a nearby parking lot. The same is true for about 100 other trees in the area. All knocked down, roots and all, because of the extreme 85mph winds and supersaturated ground. Then there was the damage my amazing 4star motel received, (which I’ve been fixing ever since) roofing and trees everywhere. At least the vista motel is still intact. That can’t be said one of the motels on the backshore, whose entire roof came off (more business for us). All in all, the storm did some serious damage and left 229,000 residents without power. To bad for them, I had an awesome time snowboarding.