Recent Entries by Cassidy  

"You've never truly lived until you have done something for someone who can never repay you." This is a quote that describes my spring break perfectly. Instead of going to lie on a beach or sit at home, I choose to do something with my break; I choose to go on the Students Today Leaders Forever trip. STLF is an organization that was thought up by some UMTC students a few years ago. It is a bus trip that travels through cities volunteering and meets other STLF tours in the destination city. This year the UMR bus traveled through Chicago, IL, Detroit, MI, Canton, OH, Beckley, WV, Knoxville, TN, making our way to Atlanta, GA. We left Friday afternoon making our way to Chicago. There were 38 of us on the bus, not knowing each other very well, but ready to go on the adventure together.

In Chicago we slept in a YMCA gym that had lights that didn't shut off. That morning we got up and went to a nature reserve and cleared invasive species. After a few hours of cutting and chopping we got back on the bus to make our way to Detroit. As we traveled through the city you could see that it was a ghost town. Detroit was the most eye opening city we traveled to. We stayed in a church that served us Corn Beef for dinner and breakfast the next morning. We volunteered at a veteran's homeless shelter. That was an amazing experience. Some of us served breakfast and lunch while the rest of us made bags of toiletries and organized some storage areas. One of the men there came up to us and thanked us for going to school and going into the medical field. He told us to keep the nation healthy and keep up our good work. They sent us on our way to Canton, OH with snack bags that had hand written thank you notes.

In Canton we got to explore down town which had a really cool art district and an adorable coffee shop that we went to. That night we stayed at another YMCA that had lights that turn off! There, we prepared for our service activity, which was teaching 2nd and 5th graders Junior Achievement. Junior Achievement is about businesses and how they work so being health sciences majors this was a little challenging. When we got there all of the kids were happy to see us and learn about the things we were teaching. I taught a 2nd grade class and it was so fun. I'm glad it was only two hours though! Gained a lot of respect for elementary school teachers! After that we got back on the bus to travel to Beckley, WV! Beckley was the first city we went through that had weather above 40 degrees. It was like summer! We stayed in another church that night. The next morning we did service at a hospice care center doing various tasks. Some worked around the grounds and I worked on a mapping project, mapping the placement of memorial stones. They fed us lunch of Chick-fil-A, macaroni and cheese, and salad. I had never had Chick-fil-A before and it was so good! Then we set off for Knoxville!

In Knoxville we got to explore the city and eat dinner. A big group of us ate at Jig and Reel which was a Scottish Pub. It was pretty good! Then went to our housing cite which was a huge church. There was a band practicing there when we got there and they played for us. Then we played Sardines, like reverse hide and seek, in the giant, 4 story church. That morning we were volunteering with Keep America Beautiful cleaning up garbage around the city. In one little area we cleared out 15 bags of garbage! Then we filled on the bus to make our way to Atlanta, GA! In Atlanta we got to stay in hotel which was really nice after sleeping on the ground for a week. The first night we all went to a Waffle House; one of my favorite places ever. The next morning, all 160 of us from the 4 buses went to a park to help there. We all did different jobs, planting trees, building a fence, clearing a pathway, or cutting out invasive species. My friend Erica and I worked on clearing a path to an area that would be used by the local boy scouts. When we were finished we all ate lunch together. That night we had our celebration with the other 3 buses we met in Atlanta. We took the next two days to travel back to Rochester, staying in St. Louis on the way back.

Overall, STLF was the greatest experience I have ever had. I have done a lot of volunteering in my day but this has been the best opportunity, by far! This trip helped to open my eyes to many new things and I made 37 new friends out of it! I would totally recommend this trip to anyone that loves to volunteer and wants a little bit of adventure in their spring break! Yeahhhhh buddy!!!

One of the hardest things about leaving for college is leaving your great high school friends behind. There are many ways to keep in touch with your good friends during the time you are at college.

1.Social Networks- Facebook and Twitter are easy ways to keep up with all the happenings in your friend's lives. Skype dates are also a great way to catch up and take a break from studying, or even help each other study. Skypeing also gives you a chance to introduce your college friends to your friends back home. One thing that I do with my friends is a group text message where we can talk to each other. That group message has helped us stay so close and help each other through the good and bad times.

2.Snail Mail- Getting mail in college is one of the best times ever. It's always exciting to get a letter from my best friend. It's just as fun as writing notes in high school; it just takes a longer time. My friend and I write each other religiously, with 2-3 page letters and the occasional drawing or picture. It helps us to stay connected in a different way.

3.Make plans to meet when you are all home- Making plans with your friends for when you go home gives you something to look forward to. My friends always try to arrange going out to dinner or meeting together at someone's house. Knowing that you will be seeing your friends soon makes missing them a little bit easier.

4.Long distance Relationships- I have a boyfriend back home and leaving him to come to college is hard. We stay in constant contact and always know what the other is doing, but not seeing him is difficult at times. It takes a lot of trust and a good solid relationship to last the distance. Skypeing is an easy way to see him in between visits. Before I leave we always plan the next time we are going to see each other. Sometimes it's me going home again, or him coming to visit me. The most important thing is having a good relationship that can take the hard times.

This is a picture from when my best freind and boyfriend came to visit me here in Rochester.

I am the kind of person that has to stay busy to stay happy. Coming to UMR I wanted to stay as busy as I could so I joined a few clubs. My first semester, I joined tennis club and the ballroom dance team to keep me busy. I liked to have the few hours a week of exercise to get my mind off school. Ballroom is a big deal at UMR. I went in having no experience with dance at all and I learned 6 different dances by the end of the semester. Ballroom was always the highlight of my week. Tennis club met outside for the first few months of school until it got to cold out. It was a good way to meet different students who shared a love for tennis. I have always done a lot of volunteering in high school so I looked for a club that would let me do that.

During my first semester at UMR I didn't do much volunteering so I could get used to being in college and having different responsibilities; but I wanted to start volunteering again my second semester. I joined Circle K, which is a brand new volunteer group here. It is a college branch of Kawanis International. At the first meeting I was quick to sign up for various opportunities to volunteer, including being a committee chair for Pet Peace of Mind and helping with a Relay for Life. Trying different clubs and doing different activities helped me to meet many new people and stay busy!