7 things I'm glad I did at Stonehill

I was giving a tour last weekend, and in the middle of it, just thinking to myself, I realized how much I've done in my time at Stonehill. With plenty of time left, there may still be more work to do, but at this point, I feel as though I've done a ton of stuff. Stuff I can be really proud of, and can get all excited about when talking to others about it. Here are seven of those things.

1. Peer Mentor Team. Sure, every college has an Orientation Program, but no one does it like we do. Being a Peer Mentor is fantastic on so many different levels and across so many different aspects of college life. But more on this eventually. This just needed to be first, because of how incredible the program is, has been to me, and hopes to be in my third and final year as a PM.

2. Broadcast sports for 91.3fm WSHL. I've been broadcasting since freshman year, which is one of the few things I will have done for all four years here. Being a radio broadcaster for our men's and women's basketball teams, as well as our baseball team in the spring, is one of the most fun things I do. Nothing beats college basketball, so being able to talk about it to anyone who wants to listen is awesome. I think that it's made me a bigger fan of Stonehill athletics, which is super awesome, because the one thing I knew I wouldn't get at Stonehill was something like this.

3. Student Ambassador. I mean, it's pretty awesome to be able to actually get people to want to come to Stonehill. Sure, as Peer Mentors, we get first-years super excited for their freshman year, but to actually start that interest as someone who gives a tour to prospective students is also very cool. I'm hoping to work in Admissions over the summer, giving tours and doing other work in the offices, and I think it'll be really cool to see what kinds of things are going on to make Stonehill even more appealing than it is.

4. SPES and Baseball Statistics. I probably should have blogged about this before we got four weeks into the program, but if you're far behind on the times, students are teaching classes at Stonehill to other students, and I'm one of them. I'm teaching Baseball Statistics to seven students (including two suitemates and three people in our fantasy baseball league) who are just as interested in what's going on in the game of baseball as I am. The program itself is about changing how we learn, and how we think about our learning, and to challenge the conventions that are in our fields of expertise. It's awesome to be able to actually facilitate discussions about baseball, to see other people who are just as passionate about it as I am, and to actually have some concrete results that may change how the game is played, coached, managed, and thought of.

5. Double majored with Psychology. Granted, I submitted my form to double major with Math and Psych about three days ago, but I plan on getting two degrees when I get out of here. Which is one more than I thought I would get as a freshman, so that's pretty cool. Psychology has just kind of happened for me, and the opportunities I've gotten through the major have been pretty cool - sitting in at KinderCare for 15 hours over the course of a semester for Developmental Psych, conducting an experiment as part of my Learning Community, doing further research directly stemming from said LC...psychology has always been really fascinating, and I'm glad I'm going farther with it than I thought I would.

6. NOT studied abroad. No knock on studying abroad here; I'm pretty sure that if I went, I would have the time of my life, have incredible experiences, blah blah. I just never felt like it, I still don't feel like it, and even if I did, at this point, I'd be leaving too much behind here. Not just with academics...Stonehill has become a second home for me (sorry, Mom), and I'm not the kind of person to start parsing out something like that to other continents. Just not yet.

7. SURE Program. I always forget that I did the SURE Program...spending the summer at Stonehill was awesome, especially with such a flexible (and possibly non-existent) schedule to do my research. Turns out that pure math research isn't my thing, but that was the whole point of this. And then there was the whole San Diego thing...can't really complain about that.

Alright, so I originally planned to have ten things here, as I do with these sorts of things, but only came up with seven. Which is still a lot, I think, and I definitely left some stuff out - intramural sports, Math Lab...hell, I even considered that living in New Hall could warrant a spot. But these seven things are in a tier above most of the other stuff I do on campus, so here they are. With about a year and a half left, maybe I'll make it to ten (graduating?), but for now, I think this is a pretty damn good list.