Moving through Milestones

Posted on May 23, 2013 by Marissa

“Walk with the dreamers, the believers, the courageous, the cheerful, the planners, the doers, the successful people with their heads in the clouds and their feet on the ground.”

It has been quite a while since my last blog post. So much has happened in such a short time frame, which has left me little to no time to write! Since my last post, I completed my junior year of college with another semester of all A’s, turned 21 during finals week, moved into a house with two of my girlfriends, drove 16 hours to Marco Island, FL for a week, and ended an incredibly enriching experience to begin another new and exciting chapter of my life.

These milestone happenings deserve their own separate posts, but for the sake of time and interest, I’ll condense them for you in some short anecdotes and pictures.

Moved into a house with two great friends!

21st Birthday!

My last day at Community Foundation of Louisville: It was tough not to shed some tears upon leaving one of the most enriching and rewarding experiences I’ve ever had. I am so thankful to have gained invaluable experience, unforgettable memories, and to simply have been a part of the Community Foundation of Louisville family. I had been there since last February and loved every minute being their first intern. I’m very happy that one of my Bellarmine friends, Alex, is the next intern and I have the utmost faith in her, knowing she will have a great time! The CFL crew even threw me a farewell party, where I was given a gorgeous and stylish green briefcase as a parting gift, and I gave my supervisor, Anne, and the CEO, Susan, gifts that I hand-painted for them. The quote that I used struck a chord with me in that I was truly surrounded by dreamers, believers, and all of the other categories listed in the quote, and I was truly going to miss working with such a talented and supportive team. They have helped me grow so much in the past almost year and a half and I can’t thank them enough. Thank you again, Anne and the rest of the crew at CFL, for such an amazing first internship.

Marco Island: drove 16 hours one way to spend a couple days in Paradise with Michael and some of our friends, before starting my next internship!

Beginning at Brown-Forman: I was honored to accept an internship position with Brown-Forman after going through a very competitive application process for the past couple of months. 165+ candidates applied for around 25 positions within the corporation and I am so happy that I was chosen. I just started this past Monday (May 20) and have thoroughly enjoyed my first week. I have been assigned to work with the Digital Marketing team for the brands Southern Comfort and TUACA and it’s still all so surreal to me that I’m even working there. I have never been a part of anything at such a large scale as Brown-Forman or the Modern Liqueurs brands and I’m in awe to be surrounded by and to learn from so many talented professionals. After taking a Marketing class this past semester, it’s amazing to see what I’ve learned be put into action. I’m eager to learn from the Digital Marketing team and have a great time making new experiences and meeting new people. They have been so welcoming from the start and I know we are going to have a great time!

I hope that was semi-condensed. I’ll be sure to post more frequently this summer, now that things have relaxed a bit!

Song of the day: Get Lucky by Daft Punk and Pharrell. It brings me back to Earth Wind and Fire, with a touch of Daft Punk’s hit Harder Better Faster Stronger from a couple years ago. Enjoy the jam!

From One Chapter to Another

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Tatiana

“Every moment and every event of every man’s life on earth plants something in his soul.”

-Thomas Merton

Letting go at the end of a moment has always been a struggle for me. For 17 years of my life all I’ve known is the life of a student and the offshore gaze into the ocean of adulthood has been a comfortable breeze of the saying, “I’ll worry about it when I’m there.” As quickly as my name was called during Bellarmine’s graudation ceremony last Saturday, I am now here. I am now a cum laude graduate of Bellarmine’s School of Communication, jumping head first into those once dreamy waters of adult life.

Funny enough, even without a pool, Bellarmine properly taught me how to swim and I can’t thank them enough for it. I’ve throughly enjoyed my time as a blogger for Bellarmine University and thank those who have given me the opportunity to showcase my own student life but also actively reflect on my own role in our fluid and ever changing American culture. My future plans include more exciting adventures abroad and finding a professional career path where I can leverage all these wonderful and creative skills that this university has helped me harness within myself.

I DID IT!

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Tori

I am happy to say that, as of this past Saturday, I am officially an alumna of Bellarmine University!

Thanks to all the faulty, staff, and students who made my time at BU so memorable!!!

Reflecting on my senior capstone

Posted on April 18, 2013 by Ailise

With four days left in the semester I probably should be freaking out over everything I still have left to do, however, I am surprisingingly calm. I’m pretty sure that that has something to do with the fact that I completed one of my biggest projects of the semester– my senior capstone.

Since I am part of the Brown Scholars Program, I had to complete a senior capstone. The capstone is supposed to integrate different things we learned while in the Brown Scholars program and specifically highlight civic engagement, communication and leadership.Since I knew I was going to be participating in an alternative spring break in Washington DC working with the homeless, I decided to make my capstone about homelessness.

When I started the project my original plan was to interviews of students where I just asked them questions about homelessness to gauge their understanding of the issue. My theory was that as a society, we are often times very ignorant in regards to homeless– I thought that if people were more educated about the issue they would be more willing to help.

When I interviewed students I found that I was correct– we didn’t know that much about homelessness. But I found when I put all the interviews together, it didn’t leave an impact. I decided to scratch that idea and go a different direction. Instead of having students discuss what they don’t know about homelessness, I decided to talk to people who were actually homeless and hear their stories. The end result was this:

a documentary that focuses on the four main parts that people seemed to the most misconceptions about. If you have a chance to watch it, you should… I mean, I would — though I may be kind of biased. I started my capstone with the hopes of enlightening others and in the end I found that I was enlightened myself.

Enjoy!

Until next time!

Ailise

“Sleep, to the homeless thou art home; the friendless find in thee a friend” - Ebenezer Elliott

Making Lemonade out of Life’s Lemons

Posted on April 14, 2013 by Ailise

I know we have all heard the mega cliche “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade”. For those of you who haven’t (or maybe sayings just aren’t your strong point), it basically means taking a bad situation and turning it into a good situation.I’d be lying if I said that that phrase is my mantra– typically I prefer to complain and whine about the lemons I am given and just drive to the store for lemonade (I hope we are all still following the metaphor here…)

Whining and complaining was pretty much my go to, though the past year I have been making more of an effort to come to terms with life’s little setbacks, and see them just as that: little setbacks. I tried to view “bad” things as little setbacks– things that temporarily interrupted the flow of everyday life but things that would be resolved.

This approach to senior year had worked pretty well for me –but don’t get me wrong, I still complained from time to time. I used the past tense (had worked) because around the end of February, life dealt me a colossal lemon.

In February my mom was diagnosed with Lupus. Actually, when I first found out I was dealing with one of life’s setbacks– I had ran over a screw with my car and subsequently need to have my tire replaced. While dealing with the tire center at Costco I got a call from my dad saying that my mom found out she had Lupus. Immediately I hung up with my dad and called my mom, she said that she didn’t tell me herself because she didn’t want me to worry while I was away at school (that’s my mom for you– always putting others before herself).

Now, I’m not sure if you all know anything about Lupus but I definitely didn’t. All the knowledge I had in regards to Lupus was derived from the television show House, and even that wasn’t all that informative.

SO, I took this colossal lemon that life threw at my family and made a colossal amount of lemonade. I started researching Lupus. I found out as much as I could. Lupus is a chronic (meaning there is no cure) autoimmune disease where your body attacks and destroys its healthy tissues. They don’t know what causes Lupus and anyone can develop Lupus. I started sending links to my mom regarding Lupus — what a Lupus diagnosis means, what to expect, how to talk to your family about Lupus. I found that by comforting my mom I ended up comforting myself.

During all my research I found out that there are Lupus Walks (not all that surprising because there are walks for practically everything these days). I found a walk that wasn’t too far away from my house and invited all my friends and family to join my team.

The walk is May 19th– just one more thing to look forward too besides graduation!

That’s all for now, until next time!

Ailise

http://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=1051445&supId=378120529&extSiteType=1

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Tori

The past couple years of have my life have been dedicated to the MCAT, filling out applications, writing essays, and traveling to interviews. But I am happy to say that all the hard work has played off…

I am officially a member of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine Class of 2017!!!

The University of Cincinnati College of Medicine…my new home this fall!

Throughout the entire process, I have had great support from friends, family, and the Bellarmine community. I would like to thank everyone who has given me advice, kept me in their thoughts, or listened to me vent!

A special thanks to all of the Bellarmine faculty and the BU Pre-Medical Advising Committee for providing direction and guidance throughout my journey, and for preparing me for the next step in my life!

We Are Powerful Beyond Measure

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Marissa

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.

-Marianne Williamson

Hi everyone,
After months and months of careful planning, I’m very happy to say that my hard work has paid off. I’ve known for a while now how busy this weekend was going to be, so luckily I’ve been able to mentally prepare, but I never expected I would learn as much as I did. I’ve never felt so empowered, so motivated, so inspired. This weekend showed me that I’m capable of so much more than I ever thought of. Now that I can let out a sigh of relief and enjoy some downtime, let me tell you a little about my weekend:

Impact Summit at Bellarmine University IMPACT SUMMIT:

Bellarmine held its first annual Impact Summit leadership program on Friday evening. I was able to attend the first committee meeting and assist with foundation planning of the event, but was unable to attend the remainder of the meetings as I had two other big events I was responsible for in the two days after the Summit. I was truly impressed with how the Impact Summit program turned out and thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to be surrounded by so many talented emerging leaders within our University. We all came from different backgrounds and different student organizations, but we all had similar experiences.

What stuck with me the most was learning the importance of making a difference. Even if you impact just one person, that’s positive change and your act, whether you’re aware of it or not, may trickle forward to other acts of kindness. I’m a huge fan of random acts of kindness, as well as letting my friends and family know how much I care about them, so this program really meant a lot to me.

Phi Mu National President, Kris Bridges, and I at KY Phi Mu Day

Ky Phi Mu Day After months of planning, countless meetings, late nights and crafting, it was finally the big day! I was so happy to finally welcome almost 200 Phi Mu women from across Kentucky and southern Indiana to Bellarmine’s campus. It was a wonderful opportunity getting to meet new sisters and swap ideas with them, as well as listen to our oh-so-elegant National President speak. All of the hard work for this event, especially this past week, became so worth it getting to sit in awe knowing I was surrounded by girls who have gone through the same things I have and share the same special bond.

After Impact Summit and KY Phi Mu Day I was ready to close my weekend with the Phillip Phillips concert. One of the countless reason why I love Bellarmine so much is that they provide us with so many opportunities. Whether it is to help us develop professionally at the Impact Summit, allow us to celebrate our sisterhood at Phi Mu Day, or to enjoy a relaxing evening in the Quad accompanied by Phillip Phillips’ wonderful performance, they give us opportunities. And for that, I’m incredibly thankful.

Song of the day: Home by Phillip Phillips. This weekend proved to me that Louisville is my home, reaffirmed to me how Bellarmine couldn’t have been a more perfect choice, and that this is where I truly belong.

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