Hi, I'm Jon

The Last Day of Classes and Looking Ahead to Winter Break:

Yesterday brought the end of classes for the Fall Semester and the ushering in of another finals week. Unfortunately I’ve had a ton of work with projects and things being due so I haven’t even had much time to study for my finals yet. My exam schedule is looking pretty reasonable as of now though, I have one test each on Friday, Tuesday, Thursday and next Friday. The end of the semester and winter session is going to be here soon!

The arrival of winter break brings me closer to an amazing experience that it looks like I’ll be able to have. I am going to have the opportunity to go on a mission trip to Trinidad with the UD chapter of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship! Trinidad is an island in the southern Caribbean approximately 7 miles off the northern coast of Venezuela. We’ll be traveling there for a few weeks to work with a ministry on the island that works in several different institutions as well as many rural villages. As the trip approaches and after I return, I’ll be sure to talk about my experience!

I really can’t overstate how many ways there are to get involved in things on this campus. UD has such an abundance of amazing organizations and activities that basically offer you any opportunity you can think of.  So many of my friends and I are getting the chance to experience so many amazing things, from traveling to other countries to researching in the labs on campus. There are chances to get involved for everyone and I hope that you can see how UD really fosters an environment for it all!

A Great Break at Home

I’m back on campus now after an amazing 5 days at home for Thanksgiving! I hadn’t been home since the beginning of the semester so it was really nice to be together with my family and friends. Something that helps me a lot with being away during the semester is talking to my family once a week. We usually try to find an hour to talk about what’s going on in our lives and fill each other in on everything we’re doing. 

Over the course of the break I got to see my brothers play in their hockey games, hang out with some of my friends from high school, and eat plenty of Thanksgiving food! I also got to have some quite needed relaxation and sleeping in to get ready for the last three weeks of the semester. I definitely think the break will be helpful since I’ve got quite a lot to do over these next few weeks with classes finishing up and four finals on the way. 

I feel ready though and I’m starting to look ahead to a great opportunity that I’ll have to travel abroad over Winter Session! Stay tuned and I’ll be sure to give updates as the trip gets a little closer.

A Fun Weekend

The semester’s been flying by so far, it’s hard to believe there are only 20 days of class left! It seems like just a few weeks ago I was moving in and beginning classes.

Well, this weekend was a little more interesting than the past few that have been filled with homework and practical tasks. This weekend I got to go on a short retreat with InterVarsity and play hockey for the second time.

The retreat for IV was meant to be mainly practical, but I found it to be very refreshing. The objective of the trip was to plan the topics and choose speakers for our Large Group event that happens every Friday. We were able to finish all of the logistics on schedule as well as have some time to play dodgeball and just hang out. It was a lot of fun and I was really glad to get the chance to join in the planning and to get some time to regenerate.

Later on this weekend I got to play hockey for the second time this year! The first game that I played in we lost 5-3 because we failed to score on some chances that we really should have. We also gave up some bad goals so the combination of mistakes made it a pretty tough loss. But, this weekend we were able to win 4-2 and it was a close game, which was pretty intense and always a lot of fun. I really can’t understate the benefit of being able to play hockey every so often.

I definitely think having a sport or activity that doesn’t have much to do with schoolwork is really helpful for clearing the mind and somewhat escaping the regular student schedule. 

Parents & Family Weekend at UD (2011)

Hi everyone! Jon and Arleigh here. We have come together this week to form a comparison blog of our Parents and Family Weekends here at UD. By discussing our weekends, we both figured out that we did different activities, and decided we could give everyone a great variety of what goes on here at UD during this very busy, yet fun, weekend.

Arleigh: On Friday, October 14, my family and I attended the Comedy Show at the Bob Carpenter Center featuring Bill Cosby. UD describes our guest as such, “One of America’s most prolific comedians of all time, Bill Cosby has dazzled generations of fans with his comedy routines, also captured on his iconic albums and best-selling books such as Fatherhood and the groundbreaking The Cosby Show. His comedy transcends age, gender, and cultural barriers.” Bill Cosby was more than I could have hoped for! Parents and Students alike loved his style of delivery and his ranging sound effects. I was thrilled to be able to see such an icon right on campus.

Meanwhile… Jon was taking a Thermodynamics exam…

Jon: Saturday afternoon in DuPont Hall, I attended the Engineering Department Open House…

So, one of the activities I went to this weekend as well as last year was the College of Engineering Open House. It’s a really cool event where all of the majors within the College of Engineering send a professor or other representative to meet with parents and students to talk about what that major has to offer. Also, several of the Registered Student Organizations within the College of Engineering attend to display their projects and talk about their missions. This year all of the clubs brought some of their projects to display for the parents and it was really cool to see the variety of things that students work on here at UD. It’s definitely a great opportunity for students and their parents to interact with faculty and the engineering RSOs so that everyone knows a little bit more about all of the amazing things that happen here!

Arleigh: While Jon was at his Engineering Reception, I was at the UD Football game with my parents and my boyfriend watching UD play UMass Amherst. Although UD put up a good fight, we lost to UMASS with a final score of 10 to 21. It’s okay, we’ll get them next time. UD Football is so exciting because of all our proud and animated fans! GO BLUE HENS.

Although our weekends were very different, we both ended our weekends right with a delicious dinner on Newark’s Main Street…

Jon: On Saturday night, my parents and I got to eat at a Newark favorite: Klondike Kate’s. The beautiful weather combined with the awesome food was quite a treat. It was also nice to catch up with my parents and spend some time with them talking about all the things going on back home with my siblings and all. After dinner we topped it all off with some delicious frozen yogurt; it’s hard to ask for a better meal!

Arleigh: My family and I went to Caffé Gelato, another legendary restaurant here on the UD Campus. It was so great to have an evening out with them, and the amazing Italian cuisine was a pleasant change! We were so busy all day on Saturday, it was great to finally be able to sit down with them and see what has been going on at home.

Overall, there was a TON going on at the UD Campus this weekend. Although Arleigh and I shared different enjoyable experiences with our families, we took advantage of many of the opportunities that UD has to offer!

InterVarsity Retreat

This weekend I was fortunate enough to go on the InterVarsity Fall Retreat! We went to an ex-boy-scout camp up in Pennsylvania about an hour away from campus. It was such an amazing time! I got to reconnect with a bunch of friends that I know in IV and I got to meet a lot of new ones over the course of the weekend. The speaker we had for the weekend was also phenomenal and I really learned a lot.

The weather was perfect the entire time and the location was great. On Saturday I got to spend around an hour wandering and thinking in the woods while walking by a creek. It was really relaxing since the leaves were just barely starting to change and the sun was bright without a cloud in the sky. I even got to sleep outside one of the nights and with the sky clear with a full moon, the stars were awesome.

Fall Looks Like It’s Here:

It’s October now and today seems to have been the first real dose of that typical Fall weather. It was partly cloudy, mid 60’s and there was a little breeze. The leaves are just starting to change on campus too, which is sort of a surprise seeing that we’ve only been on campus for about 4 weeks now.

One thing that Fall brings besides a change in the weather is a lot of good seasonal foods and activities. I know that lots of clubs and groups on campus usually try to go apple picking at some local orchards. I didn’t get the chance to go last year but maybe this year I’ll be able to; I’ve heard that it’s a lot of fun and you can get tons of apples for a great price.

The Dining Hall Dilemma:

For this post I wanted to focus a little bit on my residence hall and how it’s affecting this year. So this year I’m living on North Green, which is basically right at the heart of campus. It’s really close to my classes since most of them are in buildings on the Green and it’s within walking distance of basically anything on campus. That’s really convenient because I don’t have to worry about allowing for a lot of extra time to walk to class or meetings.

However, it’s closest to Kent Dining Hall and farther from, but about equidistant to, Russell and Pencader. This is what creates the dilemma; Kent is closed on the weekends so we’ve only got the two farthest options available. I’ve noticed that we prefer heading down to Russell more often then up to Pencader even though Russell can be a little busier sometimes.  Although, there’s usually awesome ice cream at Russell, which you can’t get anywhere else: that definitely makes the walk worth it. 

The Beginning

With a 2-day week and a 4-day week done this semester I am finally getting back into my college routine. It was definitely a little tough at first though. Because of our delayed start I had a bunch of meetings that were all rescheduled for the same day or two. But everything managed to get done and now everything is settling into its normal time during the week. Although being involved in Engineers Without Borders and InterVarsity requires a lot of time outside of normal school work, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It’s really a great thing to be a part of those two communities and I get the opportunity to do things that I never would be able to otherwise.

I am so glad that I was able to get involved in these organizations so early on last year. It’s really been awesome to make friends with people from the clubs I’m in and being involved really helped me adjust to college. I can definitely see this next year being another great one with these clubs. I’m excited to see what is going to happen and I’m sure my blog will have a focus on these clubs as the year goes on! 

First Day of Classes

I had my first day of classes for this semester and I’m somewhat back in a routine now (it’ll probably be a week still before that). I think I’m going to like all of my classes this semester so I am definitely looking forward to them. I also happened to get a pretty nice schedule so that will help things out as well.

It’s been really nice to see all of my friends again too. Hearing about everything that they have been doing this summer has been really interesting. Overall I’m really excited for this semester to get going and for all that it will bring. This three day weekend coming up will be nice too; I could definitely use the time to focus and get myself ready for the months ahead!

Back to UD

I can’t believe summer is almost over! In two weeks I’ll have finished my first days of class and no doubt the homework will have begun. Although I’m sad to have the summer gone, I’m definitely glad to be heading back to UD. I miss the friends I made my freshman year and a part of me wants to continue my classes. I’ll be getting farther into my ChemE classes so that will be exciting. I’m also looking forward to getting back to the clubs that I’m in on campus. We should be getting to do some really fun things this year and it should make for an interesting year.

Unfortunately I have neglected to start packing… I’ll probably start soon so I can be ready in time to move back in. I’m going to have to focus because I am definitely less organized than I was two weeks before starting college last year. It’s alright though, I’ve done this once so I’m sure it will be easier this time!