Farewell 2011!

2011 was a year for the record books - I finished my first year as an Admission Counselor at Saint Michael's College and was promoted to Assistant Director of Admission, took over the tour guide program at SMC, had a successful application season and welcome my first class (Class of 2015!) to SMC.

I also continued my favorite part of this job - traveling! I visited 5 new states - Maryland (twice!), Washington DC (also twice!), Virginia, Colorado and Utah, took one trip to Montreal and spent a lot of time in the familiar states of Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachussetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. 

I reunited with my former roommate Rachel in Washington DC, my friend from college Rita in Aspen, CO, camp friends Kalyn, Jamie and Lauren in Boulder, CO and my closest friend from camp, Amy, in Salt Lake City, UT. I also had to say sad goodbyes to my two wonderful friends and roommates, Mallory and Dustin, as they moved on to different jobs and homes. They still often make our futon their home away from home, so it wasn't too sad :-).

I saw my third show on Broadway (Sister Act!) and my third and fourth Broadway tours (Wizard of Oz and The Lion King) as well as live shows of Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, The Avett Brothers, Sara Bareilles and Sugarland. I continued to work my second job at Jazzercise and found peace through my yoga practice. I also started practicing Bikram Yoga with some regularity and even joined a choir (which was short lived because of my crazy travel schedule - but I still love to belt out the hits!).

2011 was a wonderful year where many lessons were learned and much growing was done. However, I'm ready to see what 2012 has in store! I'll be starting off the year by taking a wheel throwing pottery class in January and am looking forward to traveling back to Colorado in June for a conference with Dustin and hopefully traveling over to Arizona to visit Amy and see the Grand Canyon! I'm looking forward to making new friends, creating new traditions and living this life - I feel so blessed!

A few last shots from 2011...



The service trip group that I led to Baltimore, MD spending the day in Washington, DC before starting our service - here we are in front of the Vermont monument in the WWII Memorial!

(back row: Melissa, Caitlin, Olivia, Kate and Brian, front row: me, Alex, Jenna and Abbey)

 Amy and I on Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake in Layton, UT with buffalo over my shoulder!

My family at our close family friend Patrick's wedding over Labor Day weekend in Narragansset, RI.

My best friend from high school, Kristin, and I on the top of Mt. Philo in Charlotte, VT



My sister Emily, our cousins and I on Thanksgiving!

Best wishes to you and your family for a peaceful start to 2012.

Christmas Greetings from Saint Michael's!

Wishing you and your family a happy and healthy holiday season and a peaceful New Year. To our newly accepted students into the Class of 2016, congratulations! I hope that each and every one of you knows how lucky we would be to welcome you to our community in the fall.

Merry Christmas!

Love, SMC

Campus Visits!

Visiting our campus is one of the single greatest ways to get a feel for what life is like at Saint Michael's College. Hands down.

That being said, here are a few tips for navigating your campus visit at St. Mike's.

1) Make an appointment - sometimes people just show up because they are "passing through" and want to talk to a counselor or take a tour. This is OK, but we really encourage you to call and make an appointment to create an itinerary for your day on campus - that way you will know that the right person will be available to answer your questions, a tour guide will be on hand to show you campus and everything will fall into place for a successful visit. There is nothing more frustrating than making the journey from your home only to find out that the counselor who has the answers to your specific questions is out of the office.

2) Ask questions - I know it can be intimidating to ask a question in front of your tour group filled with strangers, but that's the only way you will get the answers to the questions that you and probably everyone else are wondering about. Also, if you are planning to do an interview while you are on campus, your interviewer will expect that you come prepared with a lot of questions. Writing them down is the best!

3) Don't stress - visiting campus shouldn't be stressful. Instead, it should be a time for you to try us on for size and see how being on campus feels - and there's no way that you will be able to get a true feeling if you are nervous. I see so many prospective students come on campus absolutely beside themselves with nerves because they are away from home, they're afraid that their parents are going to embarrass them or that they'll make a fool of themselves in from of their future classmates. It is highly unlikely that any of those things will happen, and if they do, it's certain that no one will remember them the next day. We're all nice people, so relax and take it all in.

Hopefully you are planning some college visits for this spring, and that we will see you on our campus soon!