It was very nice to have a week off earlier this month, and it could not have been at a better time. Now with just four weeks left in the Spring 2016 semester, it is crunch time!

During Spring Break, one of my friends from high school came to visit since we both had the same week off. It was a lot of fun showing her around Daytona and spending many hours relaxing on the beach.

Even though Daytona Beach may not be the Spring Break Capital of the World anymore, it still is a popular destination for many college students!

Since my friend was only staying for part of the week, we both went back to Houston (where we are both from) together, but we opted to stay in New Orleans for a few days to hang out with another friend from high school. It was very cool to see his campus and catch up since it had been quite some time since we last talked.

After a few quick days at home, it was time to head back to Florida!

Let the Spring 2016 semester begin! We just finished our first week of Spring 2016 classes (a whole three days!), and it is quite nice to start getting back into the swing of things.

This semester, I am taking five classes which is a typical load for most students. I am taking Airline/Airport Operations, Managerial Accounting, Technical Report Writing, Business Information Systems, and Business Quantitate Methods. Sounds a bit scary right?! In the end, everything seems fairly manageable.

Most of my classes are considered upper-level classes which means that we will start learning more and developing specific skills for our major. For example, Business Quantitative Methods is similar to a statistics class, but there is a twist to it; in the class, we will look at building models, examining relationships/correlations, and using statistics while using Microsoft Excel. These will be very important skills to learn since Microsoft Excel is used by many, many, many companies, especially on the business side.

Also, this semester seems to be filled with many more projects, papers, and presentations than ever before which is cool as we will get to apply what we learn rather than just taking a multiple choice test.

So far, it seems that my favorite class will be Airline/Airport Operations; in this class, we will examine how airlines and airports both operate as well as how they work together to get people from point A to point B.

Stay tuned!

Jack

It’s hard to believe that the Fall 2015 semester is officially over; it feels like it was just yesterday that I was moving into my apartment and starting classes, and I have been told that it only goes by faster from here.

Now when one usually thinks about the end of the semester, finals are usually one of the first things that come to mind; I remember being quite nervous when exam time approached, but in the end, college final exams did not seem as daunting as television shows or movies make them seen. In my economics class, the questions seemed a bit easier than our regular tests as well as most of my statistics test, and the regular tests I took were fairly easy as I knew what to expect as both professors provided great reviews on what we should focus on when we study.

It is worthwhile to note that the way final exams work depends on the professor. This semester, I had five finals; my statistics and economics were cumulative while my speech final was an impromptu speech, and the other two were just regular tests. If all of my exams were cumulative, studying would have been a bit more challenging. Although, there are some cases where professors will not give any sort of exams, but this does not seem to occur regularly.

Since the semester is over, I sort of don’t know what to do as I have lots of free time. Although, I will be working in the Career Services office until the end of the week, and it’ll be nice to return home for a few weeks.

Happy Holidays,

Jack

It’s almost crunch time, and as Thanksgiving approaches, I can feel it more than ever. Even though it is a quick two day week since we get Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off, I still have two tests, several homework assignments, work, a speech next week, and other miscellaneous stuff to accomplish before classes are over the next two weeks.

It’s crazy to think that there are only five class days left before finals; luckily, it has been a strong semester so far so I am not quite concerned, but there is definitely a lot going on that has my head spinning as I try to wrap everything up before the end of the year.

Meanwhile, it is cold in Florida! This morning, it was 46 degrees; while to some in the north it might seem that I am exaggerating, both of my roommates who are from the Midwest and Northeast will tell you its cold. Since returning to Florida in August, there have been practically zero days that it has been below 65 so you get use to it almost always t-shirt and shorts weather.

Luckily, I get to head home Tuesday night for Thanksgiving; it’ll be nice to be home for a few days to see my family and see several of my high school friends that I have not seen since we left for the fall semester! Besides being thankful for a hot chocolate from Starbucks this morning that helped me warm up, I am very thankful for the opportunity to attend Embry-Riddle and for all of the people on campus and others in my life that played a role in helping my dream turn into a reality; plus, I am thankful for having the opportunity to blog about my experience as well as the opportunity to work with all of the wonderful people in Career Services.

I hope you have a very Happy Thanksgiving,

Jack