Let’s just say that last week (the week before Spring Break) was a rough one for me. However, thanks to the awesome support of the Fontbonne Community and my friends here, I have been feeling much better. And I’ve even started going to counseling sessions in Student Affairs with one of Fontbonne’s on-campus counselors to help me get to a better health & wellness state. I definitely recommend taking advantage of these services at Fontbonne if you ever think you might need it.

My Fontbonne Friends Isabella, Ariel, and I after my good little crying session. Can't keep those emotions bottled up! Seeking support is a good thing.

Since last week was so emotionally rough, Spring Break could not have come at a better time.  I only have a few days left of break, but I’ve been taking advantage of every second.

Here are a few things that I’ve been doing during my break:

I went to Kansas City with these lovely people and some other Fontbonne Students for a Service Trip through FISH.

FISH (Fontbonne In Service and Humility) is the service/volunteer organization on campus.

One of our service projects was at Harvesters, a food bank in Kansas City. We helped to sort some of the donations.

It snowed quite a bit while we were in Kansas City.

However, we made the most of the weather and hung out at the place we were staying at.

We even celebrated Nisha's birthday, a Student on the trip.

Isabella, an International Student from Taiwan, took advantage of the snow and built her first snowman!

We attempted to make a fort.

We later went to Dave & Busters to celebrate Nisha's birthday and get out of the house.

After getting back to St. Louis, I spent some time with my roommates and Jessica (a Fontbonne Commuter Student) to celebrate my roommate Emily's birthday at Build-A-Bear in the St. Louis Galleria.

Claire, one of my Fontbonne Friends and I hung out in Downtown Kirkwood, a suburb within St. Louis, and went through some of the shops.

The weather was much too beautiful not to enjoy walking outside.

We enjoyed some delicious Middle Eastern food from Ranoush.

I found this soap at a shop called Christopher's with a mustache design. (I love mustaches!)

Besides that, I’ve been trying to enjoy my break and relax, while also working on some Graduate School Applications. I think it’s been a pretty well-balanced break overall.

Here’s to the weekend!

Peace, Love, & Spring Break!

Wow. I’m speechless right now thinking about the fact that I’m already a SENIOR in college in my last semester of undergraduate school.

I also can’t believe how quickly time has zoomed by! For example, I remember when my fellow Fontbonne friend Lara and I had just decided that we wanted to have a Benefit Concert focused on Human Trafficking/Modern Day Slavery sometime last semester. And the concert just happened on Friday. Crazy!

Of course, Lara and I have spent a lot of work on this event and we’re so relieved that we went through with it.

Like any event that I plan, I always worry about how many people are going to show up. However, why not take a risk once in a while? I never know what might happen until I try. As much as I would have loved the whole city of St. Louis at our show, the crowd who did show up was intimate and inviting. Plus, we raised at least $279 for The Red Thread Movement and The Covering House! How could we not be happy?

Not to mention that, but the performers were all local and lovely!

I’m definitely thankful to have had this opportunity to express my passion for social justice through being on FISH (Fontbonne In Service and Humility) and to have such a supportive community around me!

Peace, Love, & Freedom For All.

Hello Fontbonne

Today is such a beautiful day! Everyone’s having an awesome time, yes? You better be.

I also believe we all know that SGA (Student Government Association) is sponsoring the Fall Festival TONIGHT in the AMC at 7:00PM. Many organizations will be participating with their very own activities. I, personally, will be with FISA (Fontbonne International Students Alliance) and FISH (Fontbonne in Service and Humility). FISA will have origami and a little scavenger hunt, as FISH will have pumpkin carving and advertising about their big service trips, coming up for next semester. Please come and have fun!

Now I would like to just recap on the interesting things that I did this week. Sunday: A few members from FISH–along with my twin sister, Mary, as a guest–went to The Bridge (a Centenary Methodist Church in downtown) to help serve food! It was pretty fun, and the chefs were awesome. There were three of them, and I think two of them are Alan and one is Steve. Anyways, our members who went were Andrea, Rayne, and Erica. Rayne started the plate with the macaroni pasta (hamburger style), I pass it to Andrea for bread, Erica served salad, and Mary finished it with a slice of cake. Sounds oh-so delicious! After we were finished with serving, Steve said we could eat, too. And yes, I loved the food.

Let’s rewind real quick. We did have a small inconvenience before going to the church. Andrea and Rayne already arrived to the place while Erica, Mary, and I had to park in a $5 spot. Unexpectedly, when Erica was paying for it, we were all out of the car and it was still on–with the keys locked inside. A little unfortunate, right? Man, we had a good laugh about that. So I told Andrea and Rayne about it and said that we will come later. Luckily, Erica’s boyfriend, Shay, was able to get her spare key from her dorm room! How awesome is that? While we waited, we just talked about all kinds of things, getting to know each other. It wasn’t such a bad experience! Everything turned out okay.

Monday: SAA (Student Alumni Association) had the Brown Bag Lunch with an alumni, Tony Effan. Basically, Tony talked to us about his experiences with Fontbonne and how he got to where he is now as a Wells Fargo Advisor. Pretty neat stuff. I highly recommend students to join SAA because you do get the chance to learn more about career development and about the things you can do to get better jobs.

Tuesday: Gaming2Gether’s Bingo Night! I was supposed to be there for volunteering, but they were pretty set so I just played. It was really fun! Bingo never gets old. I actually won one game, so I definitely benefited from that night.

Wednesday: No special event for me, but I did go to the Delmar Loop with my awesome buddies, Izzy and Ben. We went to Blick Art Materials to buy awesome origami papers for our fall festival activity. Then we decided to stop by Bubble Tea (my favorite!) to eat. Ben kindly paid for our drinks, then Izzy and I paid for our own meals. Sadly, I didn’t really get to eat most of my wonton noodle soup because I ate one piece of the “spicey” crispy chicken that Ben ordered. Why is that bad? Well, I’m pretty sensitive to spicey now, so I can’t eat any form of spiceyness anymore. That also keeps me from eating hot food because it hurts even more. I had my food to-go, so I was able to eat it later.

That’s all for now! Oh, I’m starting my own fundraiser for Dance Marathon by polishing and designing people’s nails: 2 designs for $2, 10 designs for $5. All of the funds will go towards the marathon, so don’t worry! If you would your nails done, just let me know!

Have an AWESOME day!

This semester, sooooo many great events and activities have been planned for students. A ton of volunteer opportunities, as well as student activities have been organized to encourage more student involvement, and it is totally working.

I attended World Food Day at John Burroughs High School, with Fontbonne In Service and Hunility, or FISH earlier in October and it was an awesome experience. Basically, the team you are with has a table with stations of different components to add to the food bag as it goes from person to person, an assembly line.  We made enough food packages to feed 3,000 children from a community in Tanzania in about 45 minutes. Here is more info. http://www.stlwfd2012.com/home/about/

The Hunger Banquet was quite the surprise. This event was held by the Community Nutrition course, to help raise money for the Niger Hunger Relief Effort. The ticket was $10, and 100% of that went directly to the Relief Effort, which is a great feat. As for the banquet, I had no ideal what to expect. I was given a green ticket as I entered the doors, which meant I was “middle class,” so I got to sit in chairs. People with yellow tickets represented the lower class and sat on the floor, while people with red tickets were upper class and had the privilege of sitting at a very fancy dinner table. The upper class got a ton of food, real silverware, table cloths, and different drink options with waiters. The middle class got a scoop of rice and a scoop of kidney beans to eat with plastic forks and a tiny cup of water, while the lower class only got one scoop of rice, and no silverware; they ate with their hands. We heard informative presentations, watched videos and heard a lot of scary statistics.  It was a really cool experience.

Yesterday, we went to Soulard Market! The event was organized by Marielle Counts and the Environmental Club and I had never been so it was a really cool experience. I loved it. I wish I had a real life kitchen so I could totally utilize the market more but rooms in Medaille do not come fully stocked with a kitchen. Too bad. There were tons of vendors with fresh fruits, veggies, breads, pastries, jewelry, clothing, soaps,, everything you could think of! No peanut butter though, which I was super excited to buy freshly ground PB. But it is ok because I went to Eckerts Farm for apple picking the next day and I found some there!

Tonight, in honor of October, FAB, Fontbonne Activities Board is showing The Exorcist at 6 and then providing free tickets and transportation to The Darkness, a haunted house. I am not a fan of haunted houses, so I am passing on this one, but it should be a blast for everyone attending!

Also, because of the Cardinals games, they have all been streaming somewhere on campus! So convenient and a great way to share a common interest or the St. Louis spirit with fellow students!

I am so impressed with the events to get students involved and to allow for some fun this semester! Keep up the good work!

-Kelia

Hello Everyone,
I have been lagging with consistent, on time, blogs, but this week is full of good things (besides those Monday Blues)! One cause that is great and is a focus this week is “Fat Free Talk.” This means that you and those around should eliminate “fat talk” in conversations. You know the phrases “I am so fat today” or “this shirt shows off my fat too much!” Anything that is a negative comment towards one’s body is BAD!! No one should say such put downs so casually. One thing Fontbonne did in support of “fat free talk” is that the organization, FISH, took weight scales and decorated them. Scales are bad news bears! It is hard to come off a scale and be happy with the result. Decorating the scales is just one way to say “I do NOT need something in my life that just makes me feel bad all of the time.” I recommend knocking some sense into anyone dissing his or her own body. If you do not like your body, then have a change in life style. The important part is that you want the change. Not someone else telling you that you need to change. Complaining through “fat talk” will only discourage any motivation to improve health. “Fat talk” is not good and needs to be stopped. Saying “I am fat” to “you are so fat” never comes with a positive result. So stop it and jump on board to a positive, fat free talk way of life! This cause was emphasized this week, but is something that is ongoing!!!

Good morning, people!

Today, I just want to talk about how my week went. When I thought about it, I realized how busy I am. Isn’t that awesome? (Sure, sure.)

On Monday,  I missed two of my morning classes so I could take my dear mother to the doctor for a check-up. It’s been a while since she had one, and she hasn’t been feeling well. Before that, I took my younger sister, Nikki, to school then I had to drop off my psychology take-home quiz into my professor’s mailbox (I didn’t want to lose points!) on campus. I got home and we got ready to go to the clinic, along with my baby brother, Avin.

The clinic is Family Care Health Center, and they are wonderful. Everyone was friendly, the services were great, and the doctor was truly generous. The nurse who helped us was Chauntae–who is my twin sister’s boyfriend’s mom–and she is awesome. Anyway, after the whole check-up and all, mom turned out to be okay. She just needs to rest more, but we’re going back next month so Dr. Glick can tell us if there’s anything wrong. Oh, and the kind doctor actually gave Avin a little surprise: a blue car toy. Lucky little guy

So then, we got home and I had to do a few things around the house and all. Eventually, my twin sister, Mary came home from school then she took me to school for my afternoon/evening class. That’s all for Monday. For Tuesday, I took my algebra test. I did pretty decent, I guess. But that’s nothing special. Afterwards, I just went towards Medaille and saw one of my friends, Rayne. We chatted for a bit then I saw Ben, another friend of mine. We all just talked for a bit then Rayne left for her class. Ben and I went to DSAC for lunch, and he told me he was going to take a few international students to the galleria so they could buy formal attire for the President’s annual dinner reception. Exciting! So I asked him if I could tag along since I was free. So we went around 2pm. The students we went with were Jun (Maple), Ricki, and Robert. They’re actually some of the international students we have. When we got to the mall, Maple and I separated from the guys. I helped her pick out a dress and shoes. It took a little while because it was hard to find the right stuff. Finally, we went back to school for our FISA meeting (sadly, we were a bit late, but we made it!). We played a little game call The Name Game. That was pretty fun Afterwards, another international student name Gerry did a presentation on his home country, Mongolia. Now that was educational! Unfortunately, I had class so I left before he could finish. Better than nothing though.

That same night I went to the Interfaith Group night, then I had my FISH meeting! Isn’t that something else? By the time I was done, it was already 9:30pm. Wow, oh, wow. Now, I usually park near the shuttle bus parking lot, so I had to get a ride with Angelica, FISH’s president. Thank goodness for her help! Then I picked up my mom from work. That’s all.

On Wednesday, the main thing was FISH’s tent event for water crisis. Right after I dropped Mommy and Avin off at work, I had to go to Schnucks to buy 4 boxes of capri suns for the event! I thought I was going to miss class though. Luckily, I made it The tent event went really well. The event was focused on world water crisis, which specifically points toward other countries who don’t have access to clean water. Our plan is to collect old shoes from people to send to the Shoeman Water Projects organization so they can fund those shoes for water projects that could help those countries get cleaner water. Hopefully we will get a full bin of shoes! The bin is located right outside of Student Affairs office. We would really appreciate everyone’s help!

Thursday and Friday weren’t really much, so don’t worry about them (ha ha). I just went to classes and had to work after classes on Friday. Today, (Saturday, September 15th) my cousin, Lena, had a birthday party for her daughter, Jaelynn. She is now 3 years old! The party was at Chuck E. Cheese, so it was really fun to watch them play. My younger siblings, Nikki and Avin (9 and 4 year olds), won a total of 250 tickets! Very nice, eh? I took plenty of memorable pictures. So there you have it. I had a pretty busy, but fun week. Thanks for letting me type so much! ) Hope you had an awesome week as well!

Can you believe it? It’s already the end of the spring 2012 semester! Wow, my freshman year of college has flown by so fast. And I’ll tell ya, I’ve had great experiences with the campus, organizations, and friends!

For the 2012-2013 year, I have a goal of focusing 90% of my time into my schoolwork. I get distracted easily, so I have a hard time doing some of my homework. Aside from my academic life, I’m also a part of some of Fontbonne’s organizations. I will be the marketing officer for FISA (Fontbonne International Students Alliance) and the special events chair person for FISH (Fontbonne  in Service and Humility). I will also be joining Students for Life, SAA (Student Alumni Association), Campus Ministry, and FLARE (Fontbonne LGBT Alliance for Respect and Equality). Last but not least, I will continue to work hard on my artwork to improve my skills.

Overall, I will definitely put forth great, great, great effort into the next school year and gain even more experiences!

Hello Everyone,
I just wanted to take a moment of silence for Clark Kent, the beta fish. This is supposed to be a photo journal about college life, and I believe this pertains to someone somewhere in college. When you are in college, pets with fur are usually not allowed. Fish are acceptable because they do not leave a mess and stay in one spot, swimming around. I was one of the few who had one such fish, but due to my naiveté he did not last long. I do not normally even like fish because they are boring, but this beta fish I got on an adventure with a colleague settled in my heart. Beta fish are beautiful creatures. They are tiny and have flowing fins in a variety of colors. His demise came swift. Some of you might laugh, others might feel my pain, and still others might ponder on how stupid a person can be. I got a new fish bowl for Clark Kent. Granted it was a glass flower vase, but it resembled a fish bowl and looked nicer than the pickle jar I was contemplating. I was in the bathroom getting everything ready for Clark Kent. He was floating around probably thinking about nothing. My first mistake was not having a net to get him out. My second mistake was thinking I had the reflexes to get him from one bowl to another without disaster striking. If you haven’t gathered what happened, then let us quit beating around the bush. I was pouring out the water Clark Kent was in and I tried to catch him as he fell out. I was over the sink and he slipped right through my fingers into the dark abyss that is Fontbonne’s plumbing system. I didn’t even have time to react. He was gone and I was devastated. Do not worry though! Fish come and go. And everyone knows all plumbing leads back to the ocean (at least that is what I keep telling myself!). So the moral of the story is to get a NET!! DO NOT try to be a ninja and grab the fish. That is the end of my troubling tail.
Thanks,
Jeanne!

Now, I’ve never seen the musical “Oklahoma,” but I know a couple of songs from it, like “Everything’s Up to Date in Kansas City” (and of course, the Oooo-klahoma one).

How this relates to my life? Well, on Friday, I took part in the Fontbonne In Service and Humility (or F.I.S.H., but more commonly written just as “FISH”) Service Trip to the Kansas City area. The song from “Oklahoma” gets raunchier towards the end, but it’s the only song I know about Kansas City, so it’s been in my head all week.

Anyway, the trip was an absolute landslide of fun times with new and old friends, and I’m really glad I went! We did some rigorous-but-fun manual labor on the trip that included cleaning up an urban farm (my group made about thirty five-foot-tall tomato “cages” out of chicken wire in the course of a morning), packaging huge bins of canned goods and peanut butter jars into boxes (which takes a lot of stamina when you’re doing it for hour after hour), and sorting tiles, constructing a trim rack, pricing blinds, and picking up trash at the Kansas City ReStore, part of the Habitat for Humanity organization. The group also conducted a Litter Index Survey in the area, and although driving around to evaluate areas on their cleanliness was not exactly physically difficult, the job was really rough on our sunny dispositions thanks to getting lost quite often.  As my car’s navigator, I take a lot of the blame for the fact that my group went WAY off course and ended up in Saint Joseph, MO, when we were supposed to be staying in Kansas City. Whoops.

When we weren’t working, the group was eating great food from the moms and grandmas of the group chaperones – we had spaghetti one night, and Kansas City barbeque the next! It was great! We also visited the Liberty Memorial, which is the national memorial for World War I, and the Plaza, an outdoor shopping area with a FOUR-LEVEL Barnes and Noble. How cool is that???

What really made the trip a success were the people who went on it. It was so much fun to hang out with everyone in the group – there were thirteen of us, and we played card games or Banana-grams every night we were there!  I had come into the trip knowing three or four people from various things, but by the end of the trip, I’d made great connections with new people, and “solidified the bonds,” as my friend called it, with the ones I had known at the beginning.

We stayed in a cabin on the edge of the woods, and on the first morning, there were deer outside!  On the way to the service sites and Sunday Mass, we got to see several beautiful sunrises from the Kansas City hillside.  One night, we went to a campfire that our “neighbors,” a group from Cincinnati, Ohio, also on a service trip, were having.  We met them when they dropped by bearing cookies, so we returned the favor and took them a pie!

Among the myriad of humorous moments on the trip came on Sunday morning.  A group of us had gone into town to attend the 8 a.m. Mass at a Catholic church, and after the service, a old woman came over to our leader and said “You have such a lovely set of daughters!”

In short, this service trip was an incredibly-fun way to spend part of my spring break, and I’m so very glad I went!

According to my snazzy new-fangled phone I recently received from my parents, it was 46 degrees Fahrenheit outside. I definitely sensed the change in temperature when I stepped outside this morning. Speaking of this morning, I had one of the most challenging tests I’ve taken so far this year. One phrase says it all: Anatomy and Physiology of the Speech and Hearing Mechanisms. Let’s just say that my brain can only hold so much knowledge at a time. Anyway, despite the stress of tests, this week hasn’t been too bad. Last night, some of my friends and I celebrated my friend Kelia’s birthday in the DSAC (Dunham Student Activities Center).We threw her a surprise party, so it was fun. We even had it themed! She likes Finding Nemo, so we got her a Nemo-like piñata, blue jello with Swedish fish candy inside, and lots of fish-like things. That’s one of my major highlights for the week. I’m excited right now, because I’m typing this while I’m at the Campus Ministry/FISH (Fontbonne In Service and Humility)/SGA (Student Government Association) Halloween Party. People are wrapping each other up in toilet paper and dressing up like mummies. I’m concluding this now, so I can join in on the fun!

Eat candy, but keep those teeth cavity-free!

Peace, Love, and Pumpkins.