Wow, what an exciting and busy week we had here in the Haven. First thing that happened is that Bill Clinton came to campus. Ya, that Bill Clintion, the former president of the country, you might have heard of him. He came to do what he does best, campaign, but this time for his wife, Hilary. Campus was crazy that day with the excitement for this huge event. And boy, you should’ve seen the line for that sucker. I couldn’t even see the end of it when I looked at it from across the street, it was pretty nuts.
As if that little piece of awesomeness wasn’t enough for the week, that Friday the Honors Program held its end of the year awards banquet. This was held at the Elks’ in downtown Lock Haven, pretty excellent stuff if you ask me. Everyone from the program got all dressed up in their schnazziest clothes and prepared for a great night. There was a lot of excellent food and there was even a dance after dinner. This thing had loads of awesome-ness in it and it was definitely a great time.
Then there was the school week, classes are starting to get a little stressful just because the semester is winding down. It seems as if each class has decided now it a perfect time to load on the work. But it’s not that bad, I’ll survive it. Alright, like I said, I got tons of work to do… so, I’ll catch you awesome folks when I ride this blog wave again…

Posted by Joe Stender at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hello, allow me to welcome you back to my blog, just like Mr. Kotter (If you don’t understand this, ask your parents). A lot has happened since the last time that we met.

The biggest event that I participated in was “Relay for Life”. “Relay for Life” is a great cause that helps bring awareness to cancer. It also raises money for cancer research to help those who are diagnosed with it. It was a great showing; the university’s original goal was to raise $10,000 for cancer research. We ended up doubling the goal and raised over $20,000.

I was part of the LHU Honors team for the event. “Relay for Life” is runs from 7pm to 7am the next morning. Your team has to keep atleast two members walking around the track at all times. Luckily we had a lot of people on our team, so we had that covered easily. It was quite the excellent time, but sadly I could not stay awake the whole time. I could only stay until 5am, two hours short… dang it. I have to admit I was disappointed in myself, it was definitely a non-spectacular moment in my life. But the most important part was the great chunk of change that we raised for the foundation.

Another cool thing that I got to do was learn the editing process. I have recently become the co-editor of the Opinions Section for next semester for the Eagle Eye, the student newspaper at LHU. With this position I must learn the process of being an editor. On Tuesday I went down to the newsroom to learn this process. I learned how to edit and do the overall layout of the newspaper. It was a pretty interesting process and a great learning experience.

Well, that’s about it for this week. I’ll be sure to report back to you most-excellent people next week on the crazy happenings here at the Haven. Until then, keep it excellent…

Posted by Joe Stender at 9:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Greetings Friends and/or Readers that I have not met but know are cool,
The weeks are winding down on my first year at the Haven and it made me think of how far I’ve come. I came in to the university a scared little freshman, and I’m leaving a slightly less fearful kid who still has a bit of a nervous twitch, just kidding, it’s all good. The experience has been one to remember and it’s still happening.
When I came to the Haven I was still acting like I was in high school and still had my high school habits, but now I can see that I’ve made a pretty excellent transition to a college student. In high school I was able to get good grades and be on the Honor Roll without doing a lot of hard-studying and doing things off the top of my head. I attempted to do this on my first exam of my college career and let’s just say, it didn’t go to well. But now I’ve learned to proper ways to study and prepare for college-level exams. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still a pretty good procrastinator, but I’ve learned to cut back on the amount of time and work that I procrastinate on (I’m sure that by the time I graduate I will have cut that habit out completely, but I’m not promising any miracles).
I’ve found that I have come out of my shell a bit as well. In high school, I knew everyone and had my set friends because we had gone to school together for atleast four years, if not longer. When I got to Lock Haven, I knew maybe four people and was a bit hesitant and shy. Now, I’m not as shy and can talk to people that I’ve never met before.
A big help in this process was my involvment in different organizations. I am currently in the ‘First Year Excellence’ Program, which is part of the Honors Program here on campus. This helped with meeting people because they require you to do atleast two hours of meetings and activites each week. This allows you to get involved with the other students in the program.
Another big help with getting to know the campus better, was writing for the Eagle Eye Newspaper. This not only helped me with my skill in my major but also allowed me to meet other people in my major. It also got me more accustomed to the campus by having to go out and cover different events and talk to different people around the campus.
Alright, I guess I’ve babbled on long enough, I’ll let you cool people go. I guess I’ll catch you on the flipside…

Posted by Joe Stender at 5:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)