Senioritis?

In an opinion piece on www.NewYorkTimes.com written by Amber Wilson in 2007 defines senioritis "as a decreased motivation toward studies displayed by students who are nearing the end of their school careers. Some of the symptoms are slowness, procrastination, lethargy regarding schoolwork and a tendency to participate in truancy." Perhaps some days I fit into these symptoms, especially on a day when it's raining, but in most part I have an entirely different set of symptoms for what I'm calling senioritus as well.

I believe that my education from Quinnipiac University has been the best I could have possibly gotten. I've worked very hard and I'm even graduating a full year earlier than expected. I've work for three solid years through breaks and vacations to cram four years of undergraduate studies into just three years and now with only 80 days left my enthusiasm for coursework has dropped WAY off!

I find myself only interested in the classes that are filled with exciting exercises and anecdotes of their past professional experiences from professors. I find that I have to really push myself to attend most of my classes, even though I really hate skipping class, because I am over the courses that expect me to listen, read and then regurgitate that information into a paper. I'm bored with being assigned the same kind of assignments in every class.

In one class we have been assigned to read multiple books all at once and yet I haven't opened a single one because I know that when it comes time to write a paper all I have to do is read a small part of the book and write what I know the professor is looking to hear. What happened to assignments that required me to do my own thinking and create my own ideas?

So do I have senioritis? I think yes, but my symptoms are different than Wilson's list because I am READY to graduate and move onto more exciting and important things in life! My internship, one I'm not even getting credit for, is the most exciting part of my semester because I'm just ready for the real world!!

Article referenced can be found at http://thegraduates.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/senioritis/

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The Count Down is On

After today there are only 80 days left of my undergraduate career. In 80 days college will be over and I'll officially be a graduate. This concept seems a bit unreal but also really exciting!

Although time is flying by faster than I could have ever expected I don't think there could have been a better time for me to graduate. I'm graduating right in the middle of an exciting political time. With midterm elections only 9 months way I couldn't be more excited. I can't wait to get right into the wonderful world of political campaigning.

Over the semester break this year I spent some time in Washington DC and what I learned from my time there this year was that campaigning is my favorite part of politics, so needless to say I can't wait to get started this year! I'm looking forward to and started contacting the campaign to elect CT's Attorney General, Richard Blumenthal, to the United States Senate. I have grown up watching the Attorney General fight for the people of CT so when he announced his candidacy for Senator Christopher Dodd's seat in the Senate I couldn't have been more excited.

The next year holds a lot of uncertainty but it also holds promise of an exciting time and I can't wait to see what opportunities present themselves. Look out world Chelsey Hood is about to graduate!!!

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New way to save money!

This semester a good friend and ADPi sister, Victoria Reitano (www.VictoriaReitano.com) turned me onto a great new way to save lots of money!! www.Chegg.com is my new best friend! This semester not only did I save tons of money by renting my textbooks but the entire textbook process was WAY less stressful!

I didn't have to go through the process of searching for days for the cheapest pricing and order my books from a ton of different places and wonder when I'll ever get them. My books will be arriving very soon, just a few days after ordering them. In the event that a professor decides we don't need this book the return process is even easier and doesn't cost me a thing! Come the end of the semester I just pack my books back up and print out the return label and send them back. This couldn't be any easier! I even checked out the prices in case I decide I want to keep a book and they are still REALLY low!

I hope you take a moment and consider returning all those crazy expensive books you just picked up from the bookstore and check out www.Chegg.com. Another plus is that with every book you rent/buy/sell from Chegg a tree will be planted in the location of your choice! If only I'd found Chegg before my last semester!! When you check out use this promotion code: CC116126 and spread the word to your friends!

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New Semester, New Insipration, Last Chance

Today is the first day of my final semester here at QU. This is my last chance to suck up all the knowledge my professors have to share and to take advantage of all the opportunities available to an undergrad. In approximately 120 days, as one professor repeatedly reminded his classes today, I will be a graduate of Quinnipiac University and be tossed out into the "real" world.

The upcoming graduation, that I'm sure will be here before I know it, is not something I'm afraid of. I've just returned from a two week academic seminar in Washington DC with The Washington Center and have the inspiration I gained from this experience to push me through my final semester. I'm taking some amazing courses that I'm sure will give me the final academic experience I need before leaping into life as a graduate.

I look forward to jumping into the crazy exciting world of American politics this summer making connections and gaining more experience that I'm sure will add to my resume and make me an extremely valuable asset to any political campaign or office.

It's only day one of the new semester and already I'm up to my ears in reading but I'm super excited for this semester that I'm sure will be filled with fun times with my ADPi sisters and challenging course work.

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