Hello everyone, my name is Joseph Peplinski but everyone calls me Joe P. I am currently going into my fifth year here at Saint Leo. Yeah I know that seems kinda long, but I am doing a double major. I am getting my BSW in social work and a degree in human resource managment. Most of my summer time is spent either working or taking an online class. I stay in contact with my fraternity brothers, I am a member of Tau Kappa Eplison, throgh AIM. The thing i am looking forward to the most is getting back and seeing all my brothers and friends back at school. I am also excited that i am going to graduate, but am scared at the same time since i will have to face the real world. I was able to spend some time with my brothers when they came through to visit Miami, so made the time go by faster.

So it's that time of the year when we go home to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday with your family. I am excited to go home because its my first time going home this this semester. The thing I am most looking forward to is seeing my family, and of course the home cooked meal is going to be amazing too. But unfortunately it's not all going to be fun, because I have to work and have plenty of HW to keep me busy. I will be working at Publix for most of the week since the Thanksgiving holiday is a busy time for us.

THANKSGIVING DAY

My sister and her friend

The actual day of Thanksgiving was great. I had dinner with my grandparents and my cousins and some extended family that I haven't seen in awhile. Thanksgiving break for college has a completely different feel then when I had off for high school. The biggest difference is because I am away for college, and am going back home. Even though they are my family, I feel a little out of place because I realized that my family was able to move on and continue with their lives even though I was gone for several months. But it was also nice to know that I was able to continue on with my life too even though I am several hundred miles away from them.

My final winter break of my undergraduate career has finally come and gone. This break was pretty similar to most of my other breaks. I started back at work for Publix a few days after I got back, so I would have money to buy all those Christmas gifts for my family. I also enjoyed being able to see my family and spend time with them without having to worry about dealing with papers, test or midterms. I did have one thing to worry about and that was my internship. I was working on setting it up before I went home but things didn’t work out as planned. Over the break I was in contact with Benet Bondi, Assistant Director of Internships, about getting my placement set up. She helped me to write my resume and to get it out to various companies. I am currently looking for an internship in a Human Resource Department. As of right now though I don’t have an internship lined up yet.

I am close to half-way through my final senior year and I have several concerns. The most prominent one is what will happen after I graduate. I have applied to three graduate schools in the area and will hopefully hear back from them soon. I have applied for the Masters in Social Work program and the University of Central Florida, The University of South Florida, and Florida Gulf Coast University. I am also looking for jobs in the social work field, in case I am not able to get into a graduate program right away. Another plus to getting a job first is that they might pay for my graduate degree. I am also looking into applying for jobs at Saint Leo University, and going here for my Masters in Business. One thing i have yet to look into would be apartments to live in and how that is going to work. First I want to make sure I am going to be staying in the area. Then I will worry about the living situation. Another concern of mine is keeping in contact with the friends and my fraternity that are here. This is part of the reason that I am trying to stay in the area.

Lunch with the crew