Studying Abroad

As part of my endless “I love Geneseo let me tell every single person who will listen” campaign, I tend to hang around on the Facebook pages to answer questions for incoming students. One of the major things I’ve noticed is that many, many students are really interested in studying abroad. There’s plenty of great resources out there if you’re interested in Study Abroad at Geneseo. Of course, there’s our official page:
http://www.geneseo.edu/study_abroad

In addition, there have been a few previous blogs about studying abroad. Here’s some links:
Bridget – London
Kala – Montpellier
Suraj (Myself) – Budapest

But that only scratches the surface! I’ve also added here just a few experiences from some of my friends.

Christine O’Neill
Major: English (Comp Lit) and French
Study Abroad Location: Paris, France
Program: SUNY Oswego

Living in Paris has been one of the most dynamic, exciting, and challenging experiences of my life. I recommend this program for anyone who’s not afraid to live a bit outside their comfort zone and who wants to experience art, history, and culture in spades.

Even though I’m not a city person, I find that I’m delighted by the variety of things to do here. I can stroll through city’s public gardens; visit any of the tens of fascinating museums stationed around the city (FOR FREE!); I can hop on the metro and see the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, the Pantheon, Notre Dame, and the Seine all within a matter of hours; and most importantly, shopping for anything is extremely convenient in such a compact, urban environment. The experience has appealed to me on a number of levels, especially the constant exposure to the language (don’t believe the stereotype that French people are rude — everyone I’ve met has been very understanding when I try to speak), the delicious cuisine, and all the different cathedrals I’ve had fun exploring. Living here is a blast!

A word of caution, though: study abroad is not a nonstop party. In my case, I am taking the equivalent of 20 credits, and my classes begin at 10am Monday and last until 5:30pm Friday, which means there’s not a ton of time for travel. It can also get discouraging when you’re struggling to learn a foreign language, and you’re surrounded by people who have been speaking better than you since they were 5 years old. But it’s all about perspective; you’ve just got to enjoy the ride, and stay focused without putting unrealistic pressure on yourself. If you go in with the right attitude, I promise that you’ll have the time of your life!

Bethany Hyland
Major: Spanish
Study Abroad Location: China
Program: SUNY Albany

I’m Bethany Hyland, I’m a junior Spanish major/German minor, in the Edgar Fellows Program and I studied abroad in China for about 8 months, from May 2012 to January 2013. I did a summer program, which was in the southern city of Chengdu, and a semester program in Beijing, both through SUNY Albany.

China is amazing. China is amazing! In the West we hear a lot about Chinese economy and policies and government hoopla but no one ever talks about how genuinely friendly, helpful, and open the Chinese people are or how amazing REAL Chinese food tastes or how at first climbing the Great Wall feels like you’re doing the first three days of P90X all at the same time but when you get to a lookout point you feel like a real 好汉haohan : a brave man (or woman in my case), a true hero!

That kind of valuable information doesn’t get passed around in the spotlight very often which is sad because there is this whole wonderful, hospitable, (inexpensive), tea-loving, culturally intricate and diverse country on the other side of the world. Most things not having to do with pollution or political scandals are simply left out of most discussions about a country with the world’s largest population.

I loved my time in China. I can’t wait to go back. I want to bring all the people I know with me and gesticulate wildly and yell “LOOK HOW BEAUTIFUL IT IS” in everyone’s face and feed them 担担面dandanmian and 奶茶naicha until everyone agrees it’s better to never leave ever. It is unlikely that this event will ever take place, just as it is unlikely that everyone who wants to study abroad should actually go to China, although I like the idea of that very much.

China is very different from the United States, or anywhere.Your experience in China will be very different from an experience you would have studying abroad in Europe or New Zealand or Australia, the most popular study abroad destinations. Not better or worse, just different. The country is still developing which means it does not fit in the “first world” classification. Accordingly, there many situations and happenings you might encounter in China that are absolutely nothing like anything you have encountered before or would ever find in the West. Sometimes, like anything that is unfamiliar or foreign, that can be very uncomfortable.

But if you’re up for it, if ‘uncomfortable’ doesn’t intimidate you, and the prospect of “very different” excites you, maybe you should come to China. 不见不散！

Katie Becker
Major: International Relations
Study Abroad Location: Belgium
Program: SUNY New Paltz

I went abroad this past fall (Fall 2012) to Brussels, Belgium through a SUNY New Paltz program. I had always known that I wanted to study abroad, and a diverse availability of programs was an important factor when I was applying for colleges. Fortunately, as part of the SUNY network, students from Geneseo can apply to all SUNY campus programs, giving you options on all seven continents (seriously, Albany has an Antarctica program). Study abroad was the greatest thing I have ever done. I was able to travel to ten different countries and visit 15 cities in the course of 16 weeks – not many people can say that. While abroad, I travelled, studied, and secured an internship with the European Youth Forum, an advocacy and lobbying group representing over a million European youth’s interests in European institutions. I will never forget my experiences abroad, and they had reaffirmed my desire to work and travel abroad. My advice if you want to study abroad? Start saving now for your dream trips. They’re even better than you imagine.

Gregory Palermo
Majors: English and Physics
Study Abroad Locations: Ireland and Concord, MA
Programs: SUNY Geneseo

The summer of 2011 following my freshman year at Geneseo, I studied the poetry of W.B. Yeats in his home town of Sligo, Ireland. For three weeks, seventeen other students and I traveled with Drs. Rob Doggett and Caroline Woidat of the English department to different parts of Ireland. While we also traveled to Dublin, Galway, Doolin, and the Aran Islands, our home base was Sligo and the Yeats Society’s 52nd annual International Summer School. Besides sightseeing and beer drinking, attending daily lectures, and hearing poetry readings and live music in Sligo’s pubs, each of us participated in two one-week graduate level seminars focusing on volumes, periods, or topics of Yeats’s work. While it was somewhat intimidating to a college freshman in such a small seminar (mine was five people) of graduate students and college faculty, I soon found that I was able to hold my own in the interpretation of Yeats’s poetry because of my coursework at Geneseo. Geneseo provided me with both the opportunity and the confidence to be a part of conversation in the academic community beyond it.

I again had the chance to engage with a greater academic community when I took Western Humanities II in Concord, Massachusetts with Wes Kennison and seven other students in the summer of 2012. As an intellectual and political center both at the time of the Enlightenment and for later thinkers like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, Concord (and Walden Pond) provided a perfect backdrop for studying the beginnings of our country, Thoreau’s Walden, and the rest of the second part of our Humanities curriculum. Actually being in Concord, where the “shot heard ‘round the world” was fired, we were better able to compare the representations of Concord, and its past, to the “real” thing (and in turn see that the real thing is somewhat of a representation itself).

But back to the conversation of intellectual communities in the present day. Wes Kennison, the seven other students, and I were in Concord during the Thoreau Society conference, and two of the students on the trip were able to intern at the Thoreau Society archives. Meanwhile, there was the farm that was Thoreau’s birthplace and all the people associated with that organization. We quickly noticed that both societies had different ideas of what it meant to study, and to take after, Thoreau’s tradition. Geneseo, too, has a connection to Concord with its own significance; all of this was in the shade of the tradition of Walter Harding, a now deceased Geneseo professor who was one of the most notable Thoreau scholars of the twentieth century. One of our essay assignments for the course was to respond to a paper presented at the conference, and from that assignment stemmed a paper connecting scientific and literary theory to talk about the “evolution” of these different interpretive communities; I’ve since been able to present this paper both at another conference and back at Geneseo.

Which reminds me, this connecting of the science and the humanities I something that I do pretty often–I’m a double major in English Literature and Physics here at Geneseo. With the requirements of two degrees, I never expected to be able to study abroad. But the study abroad and away programs in the summer were able to provide me with this experience without spending an entire semester away from Geneseo. Plus, studying in Ireland counted towards my English degree and the Concord course was a major part of our Gen-Ed curriculum. You’ll be able to do things as a Geneseo student that may not have initially fit into the plans you had for your course of study, and they will affect it in ways that you did not ever anticipate.

So there you have it. If Geneseo’s programs don’t fit your needs, you can check out the ones at ANY OTHER SUNY SCHOOL! How awesome is that? And if none of those are quite what you need, there are plenty of other options – I’m abroad as part of the Budapest Semesters in Mathematics programs. The Study Abroad office is a great resource to help you find your way abroad. If you have questions, for me or any of the people featured, just send me an email, slu1@geneseo.edu

Suraj

(Special Thanks to Greg, Katie, Bethany, and Christine)

Career Services

You know what’s scary? The future.

You know what makes it less scary? Talking to Career Services.

So anyone who knows me knows I have no idea what I’m doing with my life.  Not that I don’t put in effort in everything I do, I just don’t know what it’s all leading up to.  With my senior year approaching this is a scary feeling.  Not knowing what I want to do once I enter “the real world” has been a constant source of stress as of late.

Talking to the lovely ladies in Career Services really helped alleviate some of that stress.  The first thing I did was visit their website (
http://www.geneseo.edu/career_development
).  From there I took some self assessments that evaluated what my goals, strengths and interests are and how they could fit together into a potential career.  After that I made an appointment to take the Strong Interest Inventory, “an in-depth assessment of your interests among a broad range of occupations, work, and leisure activities, and educational subjects.” Once the inventory was complete I went to the Career Services office and they helped me decipher what my results meant.  Apparently, I’m artistic, enterprising and social and they helped me evaluate how these interests would apply to different careers.

Career Services has been super helpful to me and I haven’t even made use of half of the resources they offer.  Before the end of the semester I plan on contacting one of their career partners (Geneseo Alumni who will allow students to shadow them and get an idea of what they do).  Next year I will make use of help for resume and cover letter construction, grad school applications and interview preparation.

Okay, so I’m still not sure exactly what the future holds but it does seem a lot less scary after talking with career services and coming up with potential ideas.

Now, if any of you have siblings you may be thinking something along the lines of “ew, WHY would I want my sibling to spend a weekend of college with me?” Others of you may be jumping at the opportunity to have your siblings be with you. Me? I fall in the middle, but definitely closer to the first one. However, once a year in late March Geneseo hosts Siblings Weekend. My now 16 year old sister has come to Geneseo the past 3 years. There’s such a flood of siblings that arrive to campus ranging from elementary school aged to college aged themselves.

Each year has a specific theme. This year, it was Scottish stuff because the movie they were showing was Brave. (Side note: I’ve never seen Brave before that day, it’s an AWESOME movie). We did Scottish dancing, saw some really cool exotic animals (see below), roller skated, saw Sideswipe Live – an AMAZING martial arts group, featured on America’s Got Talent as well, and went to a Geneseo carnival.

Look a snake!

At the carnival there were different games, a blow up obstacle course, a blow up chair to get your picture taken in (below), popcorn, cotton candy, FRIED DOUGH, and PRIZES. Personally, I took home a pink whistle, a bouncy ball, and a little zebra stuffed animal who has yet to be named (Suggestions welcomed)

A picture of my sister and I on the big inflatable chair

I guess the moral of the story is that Siblings Weekend is really fun. And keep in mind, you didn’t have to have a sibling to attend those things (with the exception of Brave), all the activities were open to the entire campus. So, whether you have a sibling or not, the whole weekend is filled with fun filled activities that can be taken part in

Sarah

A Beautiful Disaster

A Beautiful Disaster?

One of the most important aspects of academia at Geneseo is mastering the art of a presentation. In any given semester at least one of your classes will require you to give a presentation. If you are like me, you probably don’t mind so much that you have to do this. I personally get a rush of adrenaline from getting up in front a group of people and showing them everything that I have been working on. But if you are like many of my peers then you are not too keen on giving presentations, in fact you may dread them.

Although you may not enjoy them too much they hold a very practical purpose for preparing you for the future. No matter where you end up in life you will probably need to public speak and give a presentation sometime in your career. The presentations you give in your time at Geneseo will give you tools you need for your professional life.

That being said, the many presentations I give each semester provide me with a great deal of practice with my diction, projection, organization, and most importantly how to handle the unexpected.

The last presentation I gave was probably the biggest disaster I ever witnessed, however I learned a lot from it, and even got a good laugh.

This semester I am in a Public Relations class here at Geneseo. Part of this class is a real life competent where we prepare PR campaigns for real clients. A few weeks ago we gave our fist presentation of the semester to the clients. It was showcasing everything we had worked on the entire semester. I was particularly proud of my group work. When it was time to go up and present the projector was reading my friends laptop incorrectly and was showing only half of the screen. We tried hard to work through it by continuing to talk and not acknowledge the screen. However it was beginning to effect parts of the presentation because we needed to show some images to correlate what we were talking about.

My friend began to attempt and fix the problem by shutting the projector on and off and switching her laptop settings. However in the course of this happening there was a good thirty seconds where only her desktop background image was showing.

Mid-presentation the class erupted into laughter, event the clients. It wasn’t till my group turned around till we realized my friends background image was of her and her friend duck facing. It was extremely embarrassing. I have never more wanted the ground to open up and swallow me whole.

The rest of the presentation went well, we worked through it hooking up a different laptop and everything else went as planned. But unfortunately for us the only thing the client was going to remember was the picture and not any of the things we had prepared for them.

By the end of the presentation we were all shooken up and thought we had preformed awfully. But in a weird twist of events the client approached us after and complimented us on some of the materials in our presentation, and was interested in possibly hiring one of us pleasantly surprised us; He even said he enjoyed the break from all the material he was seeing. Even the professor complimented us on our professionalism.

Even though the situation seemed awful it was what set us apart from the other groups, and at the end of the day made us more memorable.

The moral of the story is even though presentations seem awful and can at times be a DISASTER, with all group projects that require a presentation there is a valuable learning experience, which is entirely applicable to the professional world.

Experiencing GREAT Day

My involvement in this year’s Great Day has allowed me to better define the type of University that SUNY Geneseo is. GREAT day is an acronym standing for Geneseo Recognizing Excellence, Achievement, & Talent. It is essentially a day completely dedicated to student’s extra-curricular efforts. To the excitement of scholars, class is cancelled and individuals prepare to present their research, artwork, dance performances, instrumental talents, and writings to professors and peers alike. This year I had the great (no pun intended) pleasure of being a part of SUNY Geneseo’s 7th Annual GREAT Day.

Among nearly 200 poster presentations and a busy sea of interested students and professors, I found my name tag at the front table of the Union ballroom and continued on into the crowd to find my research team. Concurrently around campus various art shows were on display, seniors were presenting their final theses, musicians and dancers were warming up to perform, and various speakers were preparing to address the masses. The Geneseo GREAT day faculty council made up of professors from various departments, the GREAT day committee and additional student and staff volunteer assistants helped to plan and organize for the exciting day.  With their help, detailed manuals mapping out the day’s schedule along with a description of each presentation taking place helped attendees to maximize their experience. Upon noticing that the picture on the packet cover was created by a Geneseo student, I felt confident in believing that GREAT day truly is a day entirely about celebrating students.

Arriving at my poster and meeting with my research team I felt excited to present my findings to the many professors who I recognized as well as my friends. My partners and I shared a mutual feeling of accomplishment as we gazed at the large 42 X 72 inch poster that summarized our year-long research. Being able to introduce and explain complicated yet significant psychological findings to students and professors was an extremely rewarding experience. President Dahl gave the final remarks to conclude the ballrooms events and in doing so pointed out an incredible fact. Of the posters created by Geneseo students and faculty, 22% or slightly over 1 in every 5 was accepted to be presented in a professional conference related to its respective field. Our research was included in that pool and upon the termination of the ceremony, my fellow researchers were heading home to pack and catch a flight for Seattle, Washington. Sponsored by the university, these individuals were provided grants and the opportunity to show off their work in a professional setting to top experts in the field.

Though, I could not attend the Washington conference this year I am very exciting to play a vital part in designing, implementing, and presenting future findings in a similar setting next spring in California. Learning about my friends’ research in their prospective departments and congratulating them for their acceptance into professional conferences was a wonderful way to end a GREAT day.

Leaving the conference a sense of peace and gratitude washed over me. I once again remembered just how special SUNY Geneseo is. I realize that several universities have prestigious research programs, but I am unsure about whether these programs match the intimacy, opportunity, and drive that Geneseo embodies. This vigor comes from a population of students with more than an appreciation for knowledge but a love for it. To me GREAT day is a representation of this. It inspires student creativity and encourages hands-on learning and in this way echoes a philosophy of perpetual growth.

-Dan V.

G.R.E.A.T. Day

As all of us at Geneseo know, GREAT Day is great for many other reasons besides the day off from classes. Of course that is a perk, too (especially with the awesome weather lately)! GREAT Day stands for Geneseo Recognizes Excellence, Achievement and Talent, and it does just that. We dedicate a whole day to celebrate the hard work that students and faculty do all semester, or year, or what-feels-like-a-century, long.

This is my third GREAT Day at Geneseo. I presented last year, my sophomore year, but I took this year off with hopes to watch and learn about the Honors Capstone Presentations, as I will be doing one next GREAT Day.

This was my schedule for the day, which was made very easily on our GREAT Day scheduler through http://www.geneseo.edu/great_day/great-day-program-and-schedule.

As an education major, I was really excited to see education-related topics, although I also went to a few bio-chem and math presentations to support friends. That’s one of the best parts of GREAT Day; we finally get to see what our non-major friends are working on when they’re slaving away in lab or in the library with books that seem to be written in another language (and sometimes are!)

Another awesome part of GREAT Day is that the union is filled with posters created by students of each and every major. These poster viewings are great because, like a science fair, you walk around the Union stopping at whatever posters you want. It isn’t a formal presentation, so there is more opportunity to talk to the presenter about why the students chose the topic or how they got involved with research.

GREAT Day truly is a great part of our Geneseo community and the Spring semester. Again, I enjoyed another celebration of everyone’s achievements!

Geneseo Cuisine

It’s time for everyone’s favorite topic – FOOD. And, yes, there are many lovely places to eat outside of the dining halls. Since moving off campus, I eat off campus at least once a week, and I love it! Here’s a few reviews of my favorite places to eat:
Geneseo Family Restaurant, or GFR, is probably the best place on Earth to get brunch. Ok, that may be an exaggeration. But on a Sunday morning (or late afternoon), very little can beat their omelette, homefries and toast combo! With cheap deals and excellent service, I’d definitely recommend GFR to any weekend visitor.
Muddy Waters – for a more laid back atmosphere, try Geneseo’s own local coffee shop. There’s a variety of soups and sandwiches to try as well as some delicious coffee and drinks. It’s always a treat to sip some hot tea while catching up with a friend on a delightfully comfortable but charmigly eclectic furniture.
University Hots/UHots – late night? Need some comfort food? Try a garbage plate from UHots! I am partial to the curly fries, but there’s a variety of yummy fried foods to try. And on a late weekend night, being there is practically a social event.
Omega Grill – if you or a friend has a car on campus, definitely check out Omega Grill, located right next to the movie theater in Geneso square. It’s a moderately priced sit-down restaurant. Whatever you get there is bound to be good, but definitely get the grilled pita and gyro sauce appetizer. Your life will change.
The Nines at Livingston – if you have a little extra cash to spend and you’re looking for a slightly more refined dining experience, try The Nines at Livingston, located a minute or so past the Wegmans plaza. Although the meals are pricier, the food and atmosphere are worth it! My favorite dish is the feta and craisin salad. Fresh, sweet and delicious!!
So whether you have family in town, or just don’t feel like cooking, check out any of these options! What are your favorite off-campus dish or restaurant?? Leave a comment!

Planning, Planning, Planning…

Hello everyone out there on the worldwide web and welcome to my blog,

Spring is now upon us, which in Geneseo means more sunshine, lighter jackets, and reading outside on the Green.  However, it’s not all fun in the sun because with the warm weather comes Media Prom.  As Public Relations Manager for The Lamron, our student ran newspaper, it’s my job to plan and ensure that Media Prom goes off without a hitch.  Now, what’s Media Prom you ask?  Well, it is an annual event that the three big media organizations on campus collaborate in hosting for the whole campus community.  WGSU, GSTV, and The Lamron first met with Geneseo Late Knight (GLK) to secure a date for our event.  This year we will be dancing the night away on April 20^th in the Knightspot. 

The next step was to pick a theme.  As a team we decided on a masquerade ball, a dress to impress party if you will.  Of course prizes will be reward for the best dressed amongst us.  After the theme was all nailed down, it was my responsibility to contact C.A.S. (Campus Auxiliary Services) to apply for a grant to provide food for our event.  It truly is great to attend a college, which gives its students and their organizations every opportunity and resources to arrange a successful event.  After securing the grant, The Lamron E-board selected the food we wanted.  We included all the eclectic essentials: cookies, brownies, muffins, bagels, nachos, chicken wings, lemonade, etc.  After all the background arrangements were pretty much completed, advertising had to be addressed.  Facebook events, Whats-Up email posts, flyers, the list goes on and on.  All this needed to be created. 

Through this experience I learned first hand how to work more efficiently on a team.  I also saw every little detail that goes into organizing a large-scale event beyond high school.

Happy Spring to all and good luck overcoming that Spring Fever,

Alyssa

P.S. Before you know it summer will arrive! 

Job Searching in D.C.

If you were to ask me six months ago how I would spend my spring break, I would not have imagined gallivanting around our nation’s capital, indulging in its glorious sights & mingling with some of Geneseo’s finest. I also would not have expected it to turn into such a gratifying adventure.

Last week, I embarked on a trip to Washington D.C. with thirteen classmates as part of an externship program – courtesy of the Geneseo Alumni Association – in which we explored opportunities in the local job market & prepared for life after college through networking. With only two months left before becoming a Geneseo alum myself, I greatly valued taking part in this riveting opportunity as a way to gain ground in the professional world & ease that crash-landing into responsible adulthood.

An inspiring glimpse of the White House from one of our first nights in Washington D.C.

Over the course of those six days, I dashed around the city with other externs to meet with alumni at their respective workplaces & learn about their vocations. We earned the great pleasure of bonding with longtime Knights – including USDA chemist & Peace Corps representative Kristina Owens (’98), US Department of Commerce Budget Analyst Ryan Smith (’02), US Department of Labor Policy Director CC Christakos (’83) & Executive Director of the Points of Light Corporate Institute Jackie Norris (’92) – as they shared their post-undergraduate trajectories with us. It was so encouraging to speak with such successful professionals who once started out in our shoes as Geneseo students & gain premium insight into the trials & rewards that we will encounter in our job search.

In our free time, the externs would scatter across the city & revel in as many illustrious sights as we could in a week. We would embark on escapades day & night to explore local landmarks, from the White House & the Capitol Building to the Lincoln Memorial & the Pentagon. I also visited countless exhibitions at museums like the Smithsonian Institute, the National Archives & the National Holocaust Memorial & Museum to ogle over priceless artifacts & profound tales from our nation’s history.

Externs (top left to bottom right) Jess Shatzel (’13), Ray Rizzo (’15), Eric Maldonado (’14), Emily Webb (’13), Becca Kohlman (’15), Brooke Barron (’14) & Katie Cardinal (’14) pose in front of the illustrious Capitol Building.

After a busy day of navigating around D.C. on the metro & scoping out major landmarks, the externs would often join a cluster of alumni for dinner at local restaurants & pleasantly chitchat over the most sumptuous ethnic cuisine. One night, I remember almost choking on an empanada from laughter as I watched Sara Eigenberg (’97) playfully bicker with former classmate Cary Silver (’97) about their different social circles in college & their budding friendship years later in D.C.

While we would discuss longstanding traditions on campus & forthcoming advances at our college, I delighted in this staunch sense of community that spanned across several generations of students & mused about how my alma mater will evolve in the next ten to twenty years. If I have learned anything from these alumni in the last week, I am confident that every new class of Knights will continue to instill my pride & allegiance in Geneseo.

Relay for Life Season is Upon Us!

With less than one month until Relay for Life, that magical time has finally come. Before we know it, April 13th will be here and the largest student event of the year will come. With over 1,000 students in attendance, this event will take place from 6pm-6am inside the ice arena (with all the ice melted, of course). Students will bring blankets and pillows. Performances, contests, ceremonies and bake sales will take place. Tears will be shed as the lights are drawn and students take a moment to “remember”. So what are all the students working toward?

Raising over $81,000 for the American Cancer Society. SUNY Geneseo has traditionally raised the most funds out of any college in the Rochester area and we continue to grow in our goals and expectations. We work hard in hopes that our children will never have to know what cancer is.

So how do we reach this big goal? We work hard. We “paint the campus purple” to raise awareness. Students, both boys and girls, shave their heads in honor of loved ones lost. Students join together to form teams and host fundraising events throughout the years. Fraternity brothers camp outside in the freezing weather collecting donations. Sorority sisters create bake sales. Sports teams host events. Residence Halls organize pasta dinners. Together, the campus community unites in a 12-hour celebration of life.

To learn more about the event please visit: http://www.relayforlife.org/sunygeneseony