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Dear Traveler, Shorefest was awesome! We got to play on bounce houses. It was like we were on "Wipeout" and it was awesome! There was an obstacle course, a soccer game, and a caricature artist...and it was free! The raffle tickets, the shirts, and petting kittens were all free! Usually this takes place down by the water in Chestertown but this year it was rainy so the SEB decided to move it to the JFC. Hope you can enjoy Shorefest next year!

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Time to Study!

Dear Traveler, 1 week until finals! Now is the best time to start studying for exams rather than cramming last minute. For me, a lot of my professors decided to either make the test early or give a project assignment instead of coming in and making us take a test next week! So, I only have to study for 2 more big exams (and luckily they are spaced out throughout the week). From now until the end of next week will be busy and stressfull Good luck to everyone!

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Dear Traveler, Jesse McCartney is coming to WAC tonight! Every year the SEB gets a famous singer to come at the end of the year and this year it is Jeese! Everyone here is super excited!!!

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Tips for Applying

Dear Traveler, Here are some tips on how to apply to WAC from a student who went through the same process… 1. Visiting: When I first started looking at colleges I found it hard to tell what they were really like without seeing them in person. Nevertheless, I was sure I wanted to attend one of the colleges on my list. However, once I visited and had an overnight I wasn’t too sure anymore. Visiting schools gives you a sense of the atmosphere on campus. Also, go to the town and make sure you can see yourself living here for the next 4 years! 2. Writing good essays: Make sure you have written your application essay to the best of your ability. The essays are proof of your writing capabilities and to show the school the type of person you are. So, before you submit it, have your counselor look at it or an English professor. 3. Teacher recommendations: When looking for a teacher to write you a recommendation, be sure they will write a positive one. Go to a teacher who knows you well, a teacher that knows that you tried hard in their class, and one who will write it in a timely fashion. You don’t want your college to think poorly of you because of a bad recommendation. 4. Get in contact: Get involved with the school. Show them you are interested in attending and that you will do everything in your power in order to get in. Contact someone to ask about scholarships or ask if the school has a program where you can see what students do on an everyday basis. 5. Take your time: This is likely one of the most stressful events to happen to you. Start early and take your time. Work on this for an hour everyday if you must. Just stay calm and know that this will be over soon (as long as you put the effort into it now!)

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Summer Plans

Dear Traveler, This summer is my last year living in Spain. Since I don’t know when I will be back, I want to walk around the city, travel around Europe, and get to hang out with my friends from high school. Of course there is no break for a collegiate athlete so I will be working out every day. Madrid is so large I haven’t even seen half of it! I want to walk around and enjoy the architecture that Europe has to offer. I am really excited to eat the local food! Churros and chocolate, tapas, and tortilla are all dishes I miss living here. My family and I are also going to take advantage of this last summer in Europe and travel. We are going to spend 2 weeks in Ireland driving around and seeing the historic sites throughout the country. We will probably see a lot of castles and at the end (what I am super excited for) we will drive up to Carrick-a-Rede. Though the island should only take about 6 hours to drive from the north to the south, it would probably end up being a lot longer because the roads there aren’t like the roads in America. These roads are narrow and surrounding them are cattle farms. After our trip we will pack up our house and move back to America and house hunt! In late August my parents will move me back to college to start soccer season!

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Do you know what a foreign accent is? It's a sign of bravery.

Amy Chua Dear Traveler, I think learning can take place anywhere! However, when you get out into the world and have a hands on learning experience, I believe you can take more out of it. Rather than sitting in class and learning how to teach, go be a teacher’s assistant for a semester. Instead of learning how to be a doctor through a lecture, intern at a hospital for a summer. In lieu of taking a spanish class, visit Spain and get involved in the community. And that’s exactly what I did! I had the opportunity to live in Spain for five years and although I took spanish classes, I also immersed myself in the culture. I joined a club soccer team. At first I was shy and barely spoke to anyone but throughout the first year I realized that if I spoke spanish to the other girls I would learn a lot more! Even if I made a mistake they could still understand what I was saying and they never laughed at me. Over the years I got a lot better speaking spanish and understanding people when they spoke quickly. Without that experience I never would have learned all the different words and phrases I know. I know how to seem like I am from the area just from having interacted with that group. Overall, that experience was the most impactful on my life and who I am today. The quote above by Amy Chua is a good reason why trying new things and putting yourself out there should never be embarrassing. Unlike many others, you are working hard to learn a new language (for example) and no one should make fun of you for taking that risk.

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Choosing Classes

Dear Traveler, When choosing classes you must keep 4 things in mind: 1. Choose classes that interest you 2. Take classes that fill general requirements (especially if you go in undecided) 3. Don’t overload yourself with work 4. Talk to your advisor about taking these classes. The registration list is long and it seems like there are a lot of options. Just keep calm and everything will work out. One strategy that I like to use is writing down all the classes I want to take with the time and days of the week. Next I narrow it down to the classes I REALLY want to take (to fill requirements, figure out if I want to major in it, or to get closer to majoring). Since I like to get class out of the way so I have time to do homework and relax in the afternoon, I try to take classes that don’t go past 2. Sometimes this is not possible so you have to go with the flow. I also enjoyed taking 3 classes on MWF and 1 class on TTh because that leaves you with a lot of time to yourself on TTh to do homework. I like to think about what the stress will be like. I would not suggest taking 3 classes that all have labs because that would be a lot of time (especially if they are science classes). My preference is 1-2 hard classes that will require a lot of time, 1-2 medium classes that require work but not too much, and 1 class that would be fun and enjoyable! Be sure to talk to your advisor about taking your classes though! Also, this will be your life for the next semester so choose wisely… you don’t want to have to drop a class!

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Dining at WAC

Dear Traveler, When you visit campus and schedule a tour, at the end you will receive a free lunch pass for the dining hall. You will walk through Hodson Hall and up the stairs to be greeted by welcoming staff. If you meet Ms. Veronica she will happily tell you what they are serving at My Pantry. AJ will clean your table and talk to you about wrestling. Whoever you talk to will be friendly and happy to help! The students here always find something to eat! The pizza station is open every lunch and dinner except on weekends and the toppings change every week or so. Sometimes the cooks will choose a cuisine style to make and have everything match that style. On the rare chance that there is not any hot food that appeals to you, the sandwich line is almost always open, salad is a great option, and the bread and bagels never run out. Every first Tuesday of the month the school hosts a “breakfast with the president” where a lot of the professors eat breakfast in one area and listen to President Bair and other speakers. The dining hall also has live music playing sometimes which is really cool and fun to listen to. Other times there will be a speaker playing old music, country music, or even disney music!

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Dear Traveler, Día de Fútbol was last Sunday and it was so much fun! I signed up to participate at this event because we got to interact with the Hispanic community around Chestertown. The day is about interacting with children from these families and getting them to know others in the areas like them.

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Scholarship Advice pt 2

Dear Traveler, Are you worried that you won’t be able to afford college? Washington college offers academic tuition scholarships, Washington College scholarships, the Saver’s Scholarship, private scholarships, a lot of annual and endowed scholarships, and need based aid. With hundreds of scholarships just from WAC to choose from, Washington College can offer you an affordable education. Here is the link to the scholarship page on the website http://www.washcoll.edu/offices/student-financial-aid/scholarships/ Washington College also offers a net price calculator on the website where you can see an estimate of what you would be expected to pay Even if you choose not to apply for any WAC scholarship there are still other options. Independent donors offer scholarships for college students. If you are interested in applying for one this is a good website to take a look at: https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/types/grants-scholarships/finding-scholarships

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Roommate Selection

Dear Traveler, Roommate selection is just around the corner! I was pretty luck when I was choosing mine because she actually contacted me and asked if I would like to room with her. Since we were on the soccer team I decided that I would room with her without getting to know her first. I got lucky and we get along really well but that could have been a huge mistake. Here are some tips to help you make a good choice of roommates: 1. Fill out the roommate selection questions as accurately as possible! Make sure that whatever you answer with reflects who you are and not who you want to be. This will make it easy for you and your roommate to get a long. If you keep things clean and they said they did on the questionnaire but really don’t, you two will most likely end up parting ways very quickly. 2. Try to get in contact with them before you make a commitment. It is always nice to get to know someone by talking to them rather than committing without being able to ask them questions you want to know. 3. Set rules. Make that you are able to be in the room whenever you need to be. You do not want a roommate who will ask you to leave whenever they have a friend over. My friend’s roommate always asks her to leave the room when she has a friend over and at first she was okay with it. However, recently my friend has had a lot more work to do and gets annoyed when her roommate asks her to leave. 4. Don’t rush into anything. Take your time to get to know who they really are and if you can spend 7+ hours every day, 7 days a week with them. 5. Some good questions to ask: Study habits? Visitors? Sleeping habits? Allergies? How often do they plan to go home? Sports? Jobs? What they are going to bring (fridge, TV, fan, etc).

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A Degree from WAC

Dear Traveler, Some people go to college just to get an edge over others when they enter the workforce. However, the students at Washington College go to college to learn. With such a rigorous program it would be hard to attend WAC without the urge for enlightenment. The students here care about what they are doing and give it their all. Over the past year I have learned so much at WAC. I have taken 2 Spanish classes, 2 Psychology classes, 2 Sociology classes, a guitar class, a math class, and a writing class. Because I worked hard, I was able to discover my prefered major. As of now, I know Spanish will be one of my majors. Perhaps I will major in a second (archaeology but I have to take that class to know for sure) and minor in a branch of sociology. A degree from Washington College would mean that I successfully completed all my courses, a study abroad program, and my Senior Capstone Experience at a college ranked in the top 100 liberal arts schools in the United states while being involved in many activities. A degree from WAC is super valuable to me because this tough school prepares its students to be successful when they graduate and ready to face the challenges of the job market. “We want our students to be both academically and financially prepared when they graduate from college.” – Sheila Bair, President. A Washington College degree is really special . For a child of three (with a brother going to college at the same time as I do), WAC makes getting a degree possible. The saver’s scholarship and the FixedFor4 program made Washington College affordable for me. So when I do graduate with my degree, I won’t be pressured to find a job that will pay off my enormous debt because I won’t have it! You can check out http://www.washcoll.edu/value/ for more information. My parents did not force me to attend college nor did they push me to go. I came to college for both the experience and the education. My experience at Washington College has been extraordinary!

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Advising Day

Dear Traveler, Today is advising day! That means no classes and for freshmen it means figuring out next semester's courses. Today all I plan on doing is catching up on some work and going to three meetings. Pretty exciting right? It is supposed to get up to 67 degrees today so during the time I don’t have work to do I might be outside enjoying this weather before it rains tomorrow. If I didn’t have some of these obligations I would probably rent a bike from public safety and take a ride down to the water. Or maybe I would go to the water and get a kayak and go boating out on the bay. I would also love to go to the beach in Betterton and just relax there.

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Spent the afternoon wandering around Chestertown. 🌞 #ctownismyplace #washcoll #wacluv (at Washington College)

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Visiting WAC

Dear Traveler, When you visit Washington College campus you should expect to see beautiful buildings, nice people, and a lot of trees. You will get to see the classes in which you will be studying and the dorms in which you will live. This can be a process that is stressful but goes by quickly so: take a deep breath and relax. When I first visited I had no idea what to expect. I drove up to the Casy Academic Centre and fell in love right away. The huge building was nicely decorated and I could picture myself at this school. After signing in you go on a tour and get a feel for the school. When I set foot outside of the CAC I could imagine all the people who used to attend WAC. I will admit that the first time you take a tour it is hard to picture where exactly on campus you are but it doesn’t really matter. All I could think of was: I am going to be living here! And I could not wait to move in! If you visit around April you will see the cherry blossoms blooming and smell the freshly cut grass. But it is getting warm here on the eastern shore so don’t forget to pack sunscreen!

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Majors and Minors

Dear Traveler, Finding the course you want to major in can be tough and really stressful. Washington College offers over 40 different academic programs to major or minor in. From Asian Studies to Pre-Law you have options to make a career from any of these departments. The link below leads to the Washington College list of academic programs. http://www.washcoll.edu/academics/

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Dear Traveler, An activity that I am actively involved in is playing soccer at WAC. Spring season is finally here and we are all really excited to start practicing as a team again! Although we practiced indoors for a while and have been keeping our fitness up in the weight room, we were happy to get back on the field!