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.

Guide for the Eater

Seeing as I have been doing a couple guides by experience, I figured I might as well continue. So here are some suggestions on how to save your hard earned money.

If you’re like me you’re trying to hold onto every last dime that you barely have the time to earn. So it can get kind of hard when you end up spending 10+ for various snacks and food at school. Here are a couple tricks, and how I try to do things

1) Always always always bring a drink with you, I suggest water since most of your body is made of water, but its up to you

2) Bring your own snacks, I find that a mega pack of snacks is a lot cheaper at BJ’s than at school

3) Bring a piece of fruit. Not only can you barely find fruit at school, but it’s also expensive when you do. So do your wallet and body a favor and bring some fruit

4) Eat breakfast! Everyone’s heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, it also saves a few bucks as well so you don’t feel the need to grab that caramel macchiato and coffee roll.

When I follow my own rules I find that I only need to buy a sandwich or burger each day. It costs around $5 but is a lot less expensive than buying a whole meal and lots of snacks in between. However that’s only when you eat at school. If you go to Lynn, like I do, than there is a large selection of equally expensive meals within walking distance from the campus. I find that its just easier to stay in school since the food their tastes just as good.

Guide for the Commuter

For anyone who commutes to the Lynn NSCC, I’m sure you understand my pain and frustration. You see I live in Gloucesta, and from all the possible colleges, NSCC was one of the closest. What I didn’t realize was that the train would not always work. And worse still, traffic in the city is a real pain! Therefore I will try and help anyone who is wondering what to do by telling you about my experiences

The Train: the train is nice, while your riding on it. That’s about it. I only live 5 minutes away so it’s easy to get to, and I know some back roads, so it’s free parking for me. But then I usually wait about 10 minutes for the train to come because you simply CANNOT MISS THE TRAIN. Anyways, once I’m on it is a nice relaxing trip, where those who don’t procrastinate could get some homework done or write some emails. The down side is that it takes a solid hour from Gloucesta to Lynn. Not to mention the fact that they have such weird schedules where I end up getting kicked off the train, have to wait 10 minutes, and then get on another train, just so that they don’t have to stop in Lynn (jerks).. Then theirs the ride back. My classes always end at 2:10; the train doesn’t come until 2:45. If your like me and don’t like wasting time, then that is a long time to wait. I guess I could try to do some homework, but why bother.

Procrastinating Through the Day- an Introduction to the NSCC Blog

To start off I would just like to say to anyone reading this, welcome to the first NSCC Blog. My name is Ortiz. The whole idea of this blog page was to try and get students connected, and for future /prospective students the opportunity to see what it’s really like in NSCC, not just what the pamphlets tell you. And so to start things off I thought that whoever might be reading this would probably want to know a little bit about myself and what I’m suppose to be doing at the college. I’ve always been a person who likes to do things with my hands. Whether it be legos, chairs, robots, kitchens, or houses, I liked to build it. I am also a Maintenance Worker/ Landscaper. Therefore I knew I wanted to pursue a vocation. I ended up choosing the Energy Utilities Program here at NSCC for a variety of different reasons, the major ones being cost, location, and it was one of few focused, hands on programs. So the one year E.U.T certificate fit the bill (more information about E.U.T can be found on the main website). Anyways that being said, I would like to let everyone know what a day in the life of a nscc student is like.