A sense of satisfaction and a sigh of relief

Driving my classmates in a 15-person passenger van for the first time

Hello again! I hope everyone’s semester finished with a sense of satisfaction and a sigh of relief that it is over. Let’s catch up on all things College Student Affairs and in the Honors College.

Over the past few months, my personal and social relationships have skyrocketed. I have become incredibly close with many of my peers in my cohort and have found a safe and relaxing space among them. They have also introduced me to various new activities across campus that I am proud to have participated in! We have visited Rohrbachs’ Farm and enjoyed the October festivities, gone geocaching, watched the school’s amazing drag show (featuring one of our own cohort members), observed a probate for a sorority, joined the diversity and inclusion protest on campus, and spent numerous hours in the Graduate Study Lounge in the library laughing, crying, struggling, and learning together.

PLP socializing at President Hanna’s house

Through all of these experiences, I have realized how important it is to get up off the couch and socialize with the people around you. I am elated to have these moments and memories thus far and I cannot wait for another semester to continue dining in the Commons, hanging out in each other’s apartments, and being around one another.

My main priority at Bloomsburg is to learn and this includes the practical learning provided by my graduate assistantship. Next semester the Honors College (my GA site) will be moving to Lycoming Hall where the majority of our residential students are located. With this move, the Honors College will have a bigger space for programs and staff and better accessibility to its students. The College has expanded from one track to five tracks (research, internship, extra courses, presidential leadership program [PLP], and international experience). Each track has its unique requirements and specialties. In PLP, we have visited the home of University President Bashar Hanna, where he easily recalled our student’s names. He enjoys meeting with our students to see how they are doing throughout the semester. Also, in the international experience track, five faculty members and I will be taking 55 students on a month study tour to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, and Germany. They will take two courses in Poland and have the experience of a lifetime!

Class field trip to Wilkes University

Now, how is it possible to do all of that and still focus on school to maintain a 3.0 GPA to stay in the program? In our classes, with assistance from our professors and support from our cohort members, it is doable! So far, I have flawlessly (if I do say so myself) completed three courses: Foundations and Functions of Student Affairs, Student Development Theory, and Educational Research and Writing.

My peers and I have created numerous projects and presentations that, at times, were extremely nerve-wracking. Some of us presented two 30 to 45-minute group presentations (two of the biggest grades for our classes) in the same day back to back! Then, we went straight to finishing our 15-page Literature Review assignment. Even though this semester was incredibly tough at times and I wished I could just walk away, I am unbelievably proud of myself and my friends for all that we have accomplished in such a short amount of time. I hope next semester’s chaos will be just as invigorating.

Until next time,

— Jen Cole, #ProfessionalU #SAPro

Cole is pursuing her Master's in Educational Leadership through Bloomsburg University's College Student Affairs (M.Ed.) program.

Live your last like it’s your first

As I wrap up my fall semester of senior year, I’ve realized it slowly hitting me that I’m actually going to be graduating next semester. I never thought my turn to graduate would come so fast. When I came here as freshman, the orientation workshop leaders said time would fly by in the blink of an eye, but I always shrugged it off. Almost four years later flashed by before my eyes and now I definitely see what they meant.

I remember my first semester at Bloom like it was yesterday. A completely new environment, new people, and a chance to become a new me. Bloomsburg University became my home away from home. Something I thought another place could never be.

Every year I’ve come back, it’s just as exciting and nerve-wracking as the one before. The feeling of anticipation for what fun the new semester will bring. New opportunities, fresh starts, and new memories with old friends.

Reflecting on my college career, I’m glad Bloomsburg University gave me the chance to grow as a person. My first semester here, I was a shy 18-year-old that only went to class. Now, I’m so much more involved on campus in organizations such as BUNow as a social media editor, I’m member of the International English Honors Society Sigma Tau Delta, and the vice president of my sorority, Chi Sigma Rho. If I hadn’t chose to go to Bloom, I don’t think I would have learned what I have and met the people that I did to help me become the confident and involved person I am today.

The classes I’ve taken and professors I’ve had have given me important knowledge that I know will be crucial to be successful in my future. This university has definitely prepared me for the “real world” and I feel confident I’m prepared to handle whatever comes my way after I graduate.

My time here has allowed me to not only gain lifelong skills like time management, leadership, independence, and effective communication, but friends that I’ll cherish for a lifetime.

Our college years are some of the most difficult times of our lives. Most of us are off on our own for the first time, living in a new area, and having to make new relationships with all kinds of different people. Not to mention the different and overwhelming stressors that we all can experience during these years.

I’ve been able to go through the hard times of college with the friends I’ve made. Whether it be getting a bad grade, or just having a rough day, I’ve always had someone to lean on or ask for support.

As I go into my last semester of my undergraduate college career ever, I want to live it up as if it’s my first. Any chance I get, I want to make sure I’m living the moment to the fullest. Every new opportunity that comes my way I’m going to make sure I experience it. Any campus events I’m able to go to like Free Food Friday, bingo or trivia at the KUB, I’ll be there. I want to spend as much time as I can on campus just taking in the time I have here, while I still have it.

Most seniors take easy classes their last semester, but I want to take advantage of the last bit of time I have as an undergraduate student and continue to learn as much as I can in as many different areas as I can. I’m even going to make sure I utilize all of the resources Bloom offers as much as I can like attending more Professional U workshops, and even applying to present in the Husky Student Leadership Summit.

Years from now, when I look back on my college years, I want to have no regrets and no missed opportunities I wish I took. My time at Bloomsburg University will be a piece of my life that I’ll always be proud of myself for.

When I walk across that stage at the end of next semester, I will be grateful for the memories I’ve made while a student here. Bloomsburg University will always be a part of me, and I know I’ll always be a part of Bloomsburg.

Once a Husky, always a Husky!

— Samantha Bergan, senior mass communications major and English minor

#BloomOnward #HuskyLife

Coming back more confident, more outspoken, more insightful

As the end is approaching of my study abroad, all I can say is how blessed I am to have experienced and seen everything I have seen. I now can say that I’m coming back as a better version of myself. During the past couple of weeks, I traveled to Taiwan and Japan, countries I never in my life thought I was going to ever be able to see. The sights, the people — the experience — was perfect.

My experience in the classroom has been as impactful as my experience outside of it. In my North Korean human rights class, as well as my social change class, we have an hour of class per week dedicated to discussion. In my North Korean human rights class, we consider global situations and put them into perspective considering North Korea.

During my class discussions we form mixed groups. And so my group is a mixture of Korean, American and Japanese students. Hearing their opinions and perspectives is interesting. Even If I do not agree with their position, it’s interesting to hear their reasoning as to why they think the way they do. Due to members being shy about speaking English out loud, I become the spokesperson of the group and that’s powerful.

Relaying others’ opinions about serious topics has definitely improved my public speaking skills and my confidence. It also has made me become aware of my lack of knowledge of political and crucial events that have happened.

As for my social change class, we examine sociological patterns and students present on a question posed by the professor. It makes me critically think of things I take for granted. During our last class, the question “Why is inequality growing?” was posed. Inequality is something I know is present but never thought of reasons for it myself. It made combine what I’ve learned in all of my classes and think about it as being something bigger than myself.

I’ve learned from my time here how often we restrict ourselves from exploring and learning more. There are topics such as the Civil Rights Movement that I thought I knew everything about. Turns out I don’t. I’m doing an in-depth analysis with a group of Korean students comparing the American Civil Rights Movement to South Africa’s Apartheid. I was amazed at how little in-depth information I knew. And so my class challenged me to learn more of something I thought I knew everything about.

As for my travels, I did a solo trip to Taiwan. I didn’t realize how little worth I put on myself until this trip. I enjoyed being by myself and learning how to use the metro system, getting lost and finding and spotting some of the most gorgeous sights I’ve ever seen in my life. The details of the temples I visited intrigued me, as to every single one of them meant something.

The week following Taiwan, I visited Japan. The places I visited in Japan reconnected me to nature. Japan merges history, nature and city life beautifully — I need to go back and visit other cities! I’m sad to leave soon, but I feel good as I’ve done everything I wanted to do and experienced everything I wanted to. I became best friends with my Korean roommate (which I’m definitely crying for at the end) and met people from all over the world whom I can now call my friends. It would be a lie to say that I might see all of them again, and so instead I’m saying, I’m grateful to have gotten to know each person and their story.

I’m coming back to the United States more confident, more outspoken, and with an insightful and curious mind ready to question more of what surrounds me. I also gained 30 pounds here, and so that’s a personal souvenir I’m bringing back :D I know BU is finishing the fall semester, but the semester ends late here and so I will depart the beautiful land of South Korea on Dec. 22. I will definitely come back, but this time with family and friends. The places I’ve visited are stunning, but the memory is more meaningful when shared with those you love.

If I hadn’t chosen Bloomsburg as my undergraduate institution, I wouldn’t have had this life-changing experience; and so I’m eternally grateful for the donors of all the scholarships I received to make this happen.

— Liz Hernandez, a health sciences and sociology dual major, is studying abroad this fall in South Korea at Korea University in Sejong, studying such topics as North Korean socio-culture and human rights, as well immersing herself in the Korean culture such as experiencing Chuseok and learning to cook japchae.

#HuskyAbroad #ProfessionalU #BloomOnward #HuskyUnleashed #BloomUpward

What aids me through these tough times are the friendships

First-year College Student Affairs cohort at CSA orientation

Yet, what aids me through these tough times are the friendships that I have built within my graduate program. Many of my peers, including myself, lean on one another for support and guidance on how they personally handle their work and as a means to handle our own stress.

Consequently, in all of our classes we have group projects which allow us to work with our peers and gain new insights on topics that we way not have known anything about. However, finding time to meet with our groups is not always the easiest thing to do, since every person has their own GA, class, homework schedule, and some students have another job, a family, or commute to campus.

While there are some days that have been completely stressful, there are more that remind me of how much I love being at Bloomsburg and in the College Student Affairs program. For example, with my assistantship, we took 100 students to New York to visit Ellis Island, and the 9/11 Museum. We frequently take them to Hazelton to volunteer with the young students there for educational services we can provide. Working with my students and supervisors has brought me such joy in a short amount of time that I cannot wait to see what is to come.

Until next time,

— Jen Cole, #ProfessionalU #SAPro

Cole is pursuing her Master's in Educational Leadership through Bloomsburg University's College Student Affairs (M.Ed.) program.

Miscommunication and roommates … a bad mix

Communication. It’s an easy concept, but not everyone does it right.

Communicating effectively with people is a difficult thing to do, yet we do it everyday. I learned this my sophomore year through the mistakes I made. As a senior now, I'm still learning more about it; which is to be honest and open about what I want to say. To build and maintain relationships, it’s important to know how to communicate with people.

Sophomore year, my two roommates and I moved into our first apartment together. We all were so excited. The idea of having our own place with no rules to follow seemed like a dream. We couldn't wait to get out of our shared dorms and finally have a whole apartment right across from campus to ourselves with our own rooms, big kitchen and living room, and most importantly, our very own bathroom.

Over the summer, we constantly talked about what cute decorations we were bringing all the way from painted canvases to stylish throw pillows. We shared dinner ideas we were planning on making like cajun chicken Alfredo pasta, movies we wanted to watch for movie nights, mainly comedy of course, and many other fun activities we wanted to do all year.

A few weeks into the semester is when things started to get weird. One of my roommates and I noticed our food was slowly disappearing, and both of us weren’t eating each other’s food or even our own.

We soon realized it was our other roommate. My roommate and I were annoyed, because we were sharing but she had no snacks or anything in the pantry, so we just assumed she wasn't sharing, but she was still eating our food. To avoid having the awkward conversation of asking her to stop eating our food, we decided to go food shopping and just have her pay her half if she wanted to continue to eat the groceries we got. Well, she didn’t want to pay her half, so it worked out for us that she wouldn't eat our food again since she didn't pay for it.

It was a simple fix just by communicating with her that if she didn't have food herself to share with us, it wouldn't be fair to eat ours. Instead, we had to figure out a whole plan so we would avoid that awkward conversation. I wish I would've known that communicating effectively of course can be awkward, but it can be important for getting the message across.

From this experience, I’ve grown as a person and learned to just be open and honest when communicating with others more importantly, with my friends. Living with other people besides your family is difficult, especially when it’s the first time. You never wanna be “that person” who complains about the dishes, or having to clean, or your food going missing. But when it comes down to it, the only way to solve those problems is to communicate effectively.

Sophomore year was a learning experience for me. I learned instead of being afraid of awkward conversations, to just let someone know if they’re doing something that’s not fair to me, because they might not even know they’re doing it in the first place. This creates an understanding of one another. Effective communication.

If you’re moving into an apartment next year with roommates, definitely have those awkward conversations about how you want to live together and how you’re expecting the year to go. Just so there’s a full understanding of what is expected of each other.

I wish my then roommates and I could've talked about this kind of stuff before dealing with it then and there, and ending up losing friendships because of it. Miscommunication is what ruins friendships, when it's so easy to just sit down and try to understand each other’s feelings. Looking back, I wish the situation was handled better. It set the tone for how the rest of the year was going to go since we didn’t feel comfortable or know how to communicate effectively.

Since then, I’ve been able to learn from this experience of miscommunication by being honest and understanding of other’s thoughts in an effort to prevent situations like this one in the future.

— Samantha Bergan, senior mass communications major and English minor

#BloomOnward #HuskyLife

Spectacular views and a few tears

We’re getting close to midterms here. And since my last blog, I’ve had the most fun and rich learning experiences in my life. It’s been over a month since my landing, and I can truly say I’m coming back to BU a little different. Three typhoons have passed by Korea — the rainy weather reminded me of Bloomsburg, so I haven't been homesick 😂 … but the typhoons haven't stopped me from experiencing Korea.

I’m part of a travel club, and we traveled to Jeonju in late September. We stayed in a traditional Korean house, in a Hanok Village with houses dating back to 600 years ago. It was a humbling experience to sleep in such a historic house and town.

My club dressed in traditional Korean clothing called hanbok and walked around the town. I felt like a princess, and it was so fun — all of the guys dressed up as girls. After returning to the university the following week, I fully grasped how to read in Korean. I’m still a bit slow at it, but I’m proud of my progress. I think being in a setting where I don’t fully understand what people are saying has made me become a better listener.

Back in the states, I was told by my friends I spoke too much about myself and that was something I wanted to work at to become a better person. My experience here has given me just that. I have to listen more closely to other people to find a few words that I know in Korean. Also, because I want to get to know my fellow Korean classmates more, I ask them more about their life and minimize my talking about myself. This personal growth is going to allow me to be a better physician assistant for my patients.

The day before heading to Jeonju we took a trip to the Independence Hall and the Gakwonsa Temple. The Independence Hall ignited my love for history. I knew so little of the colonization of Japan and of the atrocities they committed to the Korean people, I felt ignorant, but I’m glad I became more informed. Following the museum, we headed to the Gakwonsa Temple where I vowed to the Buddha three times and felt an immense sense of peacefulness. My trip made me realize I love culture and history. I’ve always been interested in museums but did not think it was love but rather an interest. My experience is making me consider pursuing a Ph.D. in anthropology after I establish my career as a physician assistant. The world has so much to offer for me to just stop learning after graduate school. And so my conquest on expanding my knowledge continues.

Just last week, I visited the majestic and beautiful Jeju Island along with my Korean roommate. I got the opportunity to eat dinner with a 할머니, an elder Korean grandmother my roommate knew, and truly experience the seafood cuisine Jeju offered. The views were so spectacular, I shed a few tears.

Part of Jeju Island still is Udo — a smaller island only 10 minutes by boat from Jeju to reach. When there I went to a lighthouse, it took forever to get up there and the day was super windy too. Fighting through the wind and exhaustion, we made it. I saw the whole island of Udo from that standpoint. That is something I never in my life thought I would be able to see. The view from the lighthouse made me realize why I want to become a physician assistant. I wasn’t completely sure of my career path before this experience, but now I am. I want to become a physician assistant to give people health and the opportunity for them to see what I saw that day.

The natural beauty of nature and the peacefulness of the sea was soothing, made me forget I was even studying abroad. We’re always bombarded by social media and are in a rush to do things because of our busy schedules. But what I’ve realized is that it’s okay to disconnect from that world and go into another. Life is really short and it’s hard to do everything you want to do, but if you just value yourself a little more, you’ll know a little time.

PS: Update on my chopstick skills: An elderly Korean woman complimented me on my chopstick skills. Remember I was a beginner? A Korean told me I'm good — so I'm basically a pro now 😎

— Liz Hernandez, a health sciences and sociology dual major, is studying abroad this fall in South Korea at Korea University in Sejong, studying such topics as North Korean socio-culture and human rights, as well immersing herself in the Korean culture such as experiencing Chuseok and learning to cook japchae.

#HuskyAbroad #ProfessionalU #BloomOnward #HuskyUnleashed #BloomUpward