Homecoming recap

So my final Homecoming has come and gone, and while I'm a little sad thinking that I won't be able to do it again, I had a great time last week. We won the volleyball tournament and the girls won the powderpuff football game... of course the seniors always do!

The end of the week consisted of the football game and the dance. The football game was exciting to watch (I used to play on the football team so I think I have an even greater interest ) but we ended up losing when Loras ran a controversial last play with no time left on the clock. Even though the game ending kind of sucked, I had a good time tailgating with my friends and playing some bags. A couple of my friends who graduated last year came to visit and a few of my friends' parents brought grills and food, which always makes me happy!

And what is a homecoming without a dance? I didn't have a date to the dance this year (I never really have I guess). Every year I've just hung out with my friends before the dance and we all just go together. This year we were being cheap and decided not to go out to eat or do anything big and hung out at a friend's house and ordered some Papa John's. After we devoured the Papa Johns in our ties and dresses, (classy, I know) we decided it'd be fun to live in the past and take some "prom-esque" pictures. This is my friend Danielle and I just before we left for the dance. Everybody at Coe then jumps on a shuttle bus that takes us to the Crowne Plaza hotel, where the dance takes place. I had a great time and at the end of the night my shirt turned from light peach to a dark orange.

(Thanks to Alec Herr of Coe's newspaper, The Cosmos, for the pic of volleyball and Danielle and Lauren for the other two.)

Homecoming

One thing that i think is pretty cool at Coe is our traditional Homecoming week. Sure, it may sound corny and juvenile to get excited about Homecoming when I'm a senior in college, but I don't care, I'm guilty.
Yes, we have a dance and a football game, but my favorite traditions at Coe are neither of these. I absolutely love the men's volleyball and women's powder puff football games. After watching sand volleyball in the Olympics all summer, I was pumped for our first game this fall. I showed up rocking my beach wear (tank top and visor) and some of my friends busted out some old spandex. Our preliminary game was against the freshman class. Needless to say, we may have taken them a little lightly and lost the first game, but got it together and won the next two to move on to the championship (to be played tonight).
While I do love playing volleyball, its not nearly as fun as watching girls play football. My class played last night (against the freshmen, of course). They had been practicing all week and handled them very easily. Even though it is flag football, every year the senior class is notorious for making a few tackles and pulling some hair, which brings me back to the game every year.
Tonight brings the championship games in both volleyball and football, tomorrow is "follies," where different groups will perform various skits and Friday is our bonfire, where we find out who is king.
I'm going to try to take some pictures this week (I hate taking pictures) and post them for you later.

Welcome back!

Welcome back to me! I'm back into the swing of things at Coe, and welcome back to you if you are a blog-reader. My summer wasn't really a classic relaxing summer, so I'm pretty excited to be back at school.

My summer, although not the most fun, kept me really busy. I managed to land an internship with a law firm here in Cedar Rapids (Hallberg, Jacobsen, Johnson and Viner for you locals). I worked every morning doing the bidding of the four criminal defense lawyers. I got to watch court cases, research case law, write letters, observe client interviews and make a lot of coffee. Working at a law firm and seeing the workings of the day-to-day business of the courthouse gave me a lot of insight into the legal field... and perhaps someday maybe a career.

After my mornings at the law firm, I got a couple hour break to eat lunch and work out before it was off to my real job - canvassing for the Iowa Democratic Party. Canvassing basically consists of walking around for four hours every night knocking on potential voter's doors and talking with them about the upcoming election. It wasn't glamorous, and sometimes very humid or rainy, but I believed in the work I was doing, and am glad I got the opportunity.

I had some fun too. I managed to play a little golf, got hired to umpire a few baseball games, rode my bicycle, cheered the Cubs on to victory at Wrigley Field and spent the Fourth of July in Guttenburg, IA on the Mississippi River.

I have decided not to work this semester. I figured I worked enough this summer (and hopefully saved enough money) to just relax and enjoy my senior year. I fully intend to live it up and love every minute of my last year at Coe. I don't think I'll have any problems in this department, and I'll keep you updated.

A bittersweet farewell

So its been a while since the Flunk Day post, and even though its summer, I find myself incredibly busy.

Since Flunk Day we finished our last couple weeks of classes, took our finals, said goodbye to our seniors and transitioned into summer life at Coe. For the first time at Coe I got to go to the commencement ceremony this Spring, which was awesome. Our United States Senator, Tom Harkin (a favorite of mine if you look at old posts), was the speaker and we had a beautiful day for the ceremony. Every year commencement is held outside on the quad in front of the library, and it always ends up being a beautiful day (knock on wood... I graduate next year!) and this was no exception. Sen. Harkin gave the graduates a top ten list to live by, they got their diplomas and we all said goodbye.

I still have a year left, but it was a strange feeling saying goodbye to these people who I've grown so close to in the past three years. I know I've written about the community of Coe before, but this just reminded me one more instance of how close we are with each other. As Robin, my friend who sat next to me in History class and played racquetball with me left for North Carolina, I realized how good of a friend I had gained at Coe. When Katie, my Admissions co-worker and student government mentor left for D.C., I realized how exceptional students at Coe are, and how many world-changing people Coe just graduated.

To beat the dead horse just a little bit more, we are close, and we have worldly aspirations. I can't wait to hear from my friends who are going to law school, who have taken teaching jobs, who are going to pursue graduate degrees in economics, student affairs and biology. And I know that as we spread across the globe, the bond that we had here will always remain.

Flunk Day 2008. FD Lifeguards

Last week we celebrated the end of the year with Flunk Day, my favorite tradition at Coe. One day a year every spring we, the students, cancel class and hang out on the quad all day. I was on the committee that got to help plan all the activities this year, which made it so much more fun. For the whole semester we would meet once or twice a week to work on planing this day, I was so happy the day it finally came. My day started with Katie waking my up at 5:00 AM to get get our outfits. Our theme was lifeguards, as you can see. We then went and ate breakfast and came back and ran through all the dorms at 7:00 to tell campus the great news: "Its Flunk Day!"
We then set up for all the day's activities. I went to baseball practice and came back and everything was in full swing. The grill was smoking, the inflatables we up and running, the band was playing and everyone was having a great time. Later that night we had a foam dance party on the quad with a DJ. You can kind of see it in the picture, but I was so intense in enjoying every minute of Flunk Day that I didn't even think about putting on sunscreen (I'm almost done peeling).
I can't wait for next year, when everyone starts the guessing game of when Flunk Day is going to be and I hear the most uttered words on Coe's campus during the spring, "I hope Flunk Day is tomorrow."

NACAttack

This weekend I got to attend the National Association of Campus Activities (NACA) conference in St. Paul, Minnesota. Coe's programing board, the Student Activities Committee (SAC) goes to this conference every year to find entertainment for the next school year. We had a very productive weekend of work and fun. Every morning we went to an educational sessions desisgned to cater to our interests as people involved in campus programming. One of my educational sessions was on how Family Guy and Southpark teach lessons of diversity (yes, it was as funny as you would think). I also attended a session about how to plan events for the upcoming election. I got some great ideas for speakers and events so when October and November of next year roll around, Coe will be crawling with political activity. I also got to two sessions on leadership, which were very informative as well. As you can see from the pictures, we also had a little bit of fun. Every day on top of the educational sessions, we got to see a bunch of showcases -- where various entertainers would show us their act and try to get us to book them. We had musicians, magicians, jugglers, sword swallowers, comedians, slam poets and lecturers. Every day when the entertainers had finished showing off their acts, we went to CAMP, where they all had booths set up for students to meet them (and hopefully book them). CAMP was also where some companies used to show off such attractions as bull riding and a giant trampoline.
While we did have a ton of fun, we also booked some really cool acts for next year.

I'm probably most excited abou Ari Herstand, a musician who loops his music and plays a one man show with three instruments. Although, we also booked two comedians who made me laugh for fifteen straight minutes. But the mentalist who told me my birthday from my ID card without ever seeing it before freaked me out too. I guess its hard to pick one, but we have some great entertainment lined up for next year and I'm excited.

Coe has one of the largest programming budgets in the area and we use it to its fullest extent. Students chose where most of that money goes, so the entertainment represents what the students want. NACA was fun, SAC is cool, and Coe has sweet entertainment.

Admitted Student Weekend April 4th and 5th

This weekend is an exciting weekend on Coe’s campus. The admissions office is hosting all students who have applied and been admitted for a weekend visit. If you aren’t signed up for this event yet, I strongly encourage you to do so. When people ask me why I chose Coe, I always tell them that when I visited campus and spent the night I felt so welcome and at home, I knew I was in the right place. This is a great opportunity for you do find out if Coe is a place you can call home.

Visit our website to learn more and sign up on the admissions home page: http://www.coe.edu/admission/

Some highlights of the weekend include the traditional campus tours and informational sessions with representatives ranging from student life to professors. The highlight, however, will be the fun activities planned for the weekend. There is a baseball game, a tennis match, a student art exhibition and student music performances. And to top the day off, we have an improv comedy show in Charlie’s, our coffee shop.

Admitted Students weekend is a ton of fun. I have hosted students in the past and really enjoy meeting people who may be at Coe next year. You will get to experience the life of a Coe student for the weekend, staying in a dorm, eating in the cafeteria and attending campus activities. I hope to see you there!