The semester is officially over, and I’m no longer in Daytona Beach. Almost everyone is home, and it’s onto Winter Break. There is so much to do, and not do, during break. I plan on getting my private pilot’s written exam done, and catching up on my reading. Yet, I want to write about my experiences during the last two weeks.

Like any Flock member or Embry-Riddle sports enthusiast, I attended ERAU’s men’s basketball game versus Flagler. I had a blast! The team played great, and we beat Flagler 105-81. It’s a big game, as both Embry-Riddle and Flagler are long-time rivals, due to their close proximity in distance. At high school, there wasn’t much spirit, but here it’s very different – which is just what I like.

Finals finals finals! They sound hard, but if you study hard and work hard, they’re not as hard as they seem. During the past two weeks, a majority of my time was spent reviewing notes, handouts, and problem-sets, and it paid off. It was difficult to find motivation during finals week, but I constantly reminded myself of my future plans – it’s one way to encourage yourself to pickup a textbook.

Once finals ended, it was time to move out. I cleaned, threw away five hefty boxes of trash, and mopped the floors. Along with my roommate, we completed our dorm-room “checkout.”

While I’m glad to be back home with family and friends, I’m going to miss all the new friends I’ve made this past semester. One of them, Alan Larsen, another blogger here, is determined to get his private pilot’s license, and spent some extra time at Embry-Riddle getting it.

The next time I post, I’ll cover some of my winter-break activities. Additionally, I hope everyone has a happy holiday.

Season’s best,

Jonathan

St. Augustine—the oldest city in America—is a place that everyone should visit! My sister and I decided to take a mini road trip up there and see some of the sites. We purchased a ticket that allowed us to ride on a trolley and visit many of the historical places. Some of the places we visited included: the Old City Jail, the Oldest School House, and the Fountain of Youth. We’re definitely going to go back because there is so much more to see and do!

Walt Disney World was another one of our adventure sites and we went to Magic Kingdom on Thanksgiving. The park was a lot of fun and I’m glad that I was finally able to go. Space Mountain is by far the best ride because it’s an indoor roller coaster and it’s completely dark, so you have no idea what is coming up next. We didn’t get to see Mickey Mouse but maybe next time!

This break from school has been wonderful because it’s given me just enough time to relax and get in the mindset for finals. On Monday, I have my first final in my Professional Selling class. For the final, I have to perform one last sales call and then the professor will watch the videotape and evaluate my performance on a set of criteria. I think with all the practice sales calls we have done in class that I’m pretty well prepared. My Strategic Management class is going to keep me busy this week; I have a test on Thursday and the final on Saturday. In order to prepare for the test, one of my classmates and I have reserved a classroom for several hours and we are just going to review each chapter in-depth. I hope it works and I do well on the test! My other finals aren’t until next Monday night, so I’ll have some time to study for them later on.

Silver Wings had our end of the semester banquet and fall initiation ceremony the week before Thanksgiving. This picture is a group of me and some of my friends. I met them my freshman year and we have all been friends since then. Next semester is going to be a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to heading to Seattle for our National Conference in April.

Hard to believe that I’m going to be headed home in nine days! Over Christmas break, I have to finish my application for graduate school and in January I have registered to take the GMAT. I’ve started studying for the GMAT and I’m going to have to study over break because I think it’s going to be hard. The test gives you a lot of questions and a short amount of time to do it, so you have to have a strategy when you go into take the test. I’ll be glad when it’s over with! Other than studying for the GMAT, I plan on relaxing, visiting with family and friends, and baking cookies! But until then, I better go start studying…

Until next time,

Kaleigh

This is the last week of classes for the Fall Semester and I’m hoping to get through it without getting too stressed out.

My parents came to visit me for my birthday and so did my cousins who live an hour south of here. I really had a great time with them and was really excited to show them our campus.

Prior to the break, I applied to become an Orientation Ambassador here at Embry-Riddle. I enjoy sharing experiences with people as you can already tell, in addition I love it here, so why not show it?

The application process was pretty straightforward, but following was a group interview which allowed many of us applicants to express our ability to work with one another. After-which was a individual interview with all of the board members of O-Team, as it’s called. Later that week, I received a phone call telling me that I had been accepted to be a part of the O-Team. It was really great to hear that, especially the day before thanksgiving break.

For thanksgiving break I visited family in Boca Raton and really had a nice time. We had a big dinner as usual, and I got to see friends and family that I haven’t seen in a while. I also got a chance to visit a few friends in the nearby Fort Lauderdale area.

I’m anticipating taking my private pilot check-ride at the end of this week. I feel very prepared for it, just that I need to practice all my maneuvers and study up on special topics such as hypoxia and aviation legislation.

With this busy week ahead of me and all my upcoming exams, I need to make this journal shorter than normal, but will recap more next week in-depth.

Over and Out.

Greetings from Detroit, Michigan! I was in Detroit this past weekend for a Silver Wings conference and luckily I got a chance to see the city. We were walking around the city one night and stumbled across the set of a movie that was being filmed. If I remember correctly, they were filming a remake of Red Dawn. The picture is one of me on the set next to one of the tanks that was getting ready to be filmed driving down the street. I thought that was pretty cool to see! One thing I can say about Detroit is that the city has taken a hit since the automobile industry has been struggling; hopefully, the economy will pick back up soon. Silver Wings is a pretty unique organization in the fact that it is run completely by college students and there are some big changes that are coming in order to distinguish ourselves more. In 1998, we changed the culture of our organization and that has allowed us to become sort of lost in who we are. Now, we are trying to find our identity and in order to accomplish that some new things are going to be happening. I’m excited to be part of the staff that is going to implement these changes.

Homecoming was a fun week! I went to the parade with two of my girlfriends and got my picture taken with the Cheerio Bee and the Daytona Beach Cubs mascot. After the parade, I went to the men’s soccer game and it was the most exciting soccer game I’ve ever watched. They ended the game tied one to one and had to go into double overtime. Still no one scored, so they had to do a shootout and in the end Embry-Riddle won. The College of Business Industry Advisory Board always comes to town during Homecoming Week and what this means is about twenty professionals in the aviation industry come and talk to us students along with some of their other duties. Some of the people include the co-founder of Ryanair, the risk manager at Jet Blue, people who work for Boeing, Lockheed Martin, the FAA, and so many other companies. I was one of the lucky students who were invited to attend a dinner with all of them and I learned so much about being a leader. A tip one man gave a few of us students was make sure you always give your full attention to your boss when he is in your office—don’t answer the phone, be typing on your computer, or surfing the web. They are the only thing that matters for the few moments they are in your office. I was impressed by how much these people wanted to talk to us students and how willing they were to share their knowledge with us. I’m looking forward to when they come back next year!

The Career Expo was pretty neat and some of my friends had interviews for summer internships with Boeing and Continental Airlines. I learned some new things about the U.S. Space and Rocket Center and am hoping to apply to work there for the summer as a camp counselor. Also, through Career Services I found out about some internship possibilities at Southwest Airlines and I applied for those. Hopefully, I will have a new and exciting adventure awaiting me this summer!

Last Wednesday we didn’t have any classes because it was Veteran’s Day, so some friends and I decided to go to the Volusia County Fair. I had a good time riding the Ferris Wheel, eating some fair food, and looking at all of the farm animals. Soon it will be Thanksgiving break and I’m looking forward to not having classes for three days! Speaking of classes, they are going pretty well and we are starting to get ready for finals. Hard to believe that it’s almost that time—I better get studying!

Until next time,

Kaleigh

Hello Everyone! With the Fall Semester nearing its end, I can say that I’ve had a very successful time here at Embry-Riddle so far.

I now have a new instructor for the remainder of the semester, as I mentioned in my last entry. He also came to this school with no licenses in hand and he finished his private pilot’s license after 110 hours of flight training. What I find so interesting is he has been in my shoes before and knows exactly how to help me.

I’ve so far only flown three times with him due to weather, however he has assured me that I’m doing very well and will only need one more flight (landings) to prove that I know this stuff. Having flown with multiple instructors, allows me an opportunity to learn new skills as all pilots fly/operate differently. If you don’t understand what I mean by that, once you begin flight training, you’ll understand it completely.

 Homecoming week was last week here at Embry-Riddle and consisted of many games, shows, and contests among the various student groups on campus. Finalizing homecoming week was a static display of aircraft on the flight line. I didn’t attend that display because I had some plans of my own for that weekend: The AOPA Summit.

AOPA, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, meets once a year to discuss issues pertaining to general aviation as a whole and to spark the interest of prospective pilots. Along with the summit they host a static display of aircraft. This event took place at the Tampa Bay Convention Center, with the aircraft display being at Peter O. Knight airport. A shuttle service was provided between the two locations. All sorts of planes were on display from WACOs to Mooneys to Extras. I really had a blast, and walked away with lots of free stuff, as usual with these kind of events. After we were finished at the summit, we got back in the car on our way back to Daytona (2.5 hours). Halfway of course is Orlando, which we made a stop in to go plane-spotting at Orlando Int’l (MCO). It really is a great place to see everything from big to small and from domestic to international flights.

In addition to planes here in Daytona, we have of course the Daytona International Speedway, which hosts many races and practices on behalf of NASCAR. A friend of mine gave me the inside scoop about the practices that were happening these last two weeks. I got to see all types of cars like Porsches, Corvettes, Mustangs, Lamborghinis, Ferraris…(etc.). It’s really an amazing sight getting up close to these cars. My friend even got a chance to ride in one of them on the track!

My final event for this journal was our trip to Walt Disney World. We went to Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park for the day and really had a great time. We rode the rides, took the back lot tour of Disney, and got a chance to buy Disney merchandise. All of which was fun until we realized how much money we had spent. Well that’s all for now.

Over and Out!

The last few weeks have been filled with numerous space events. One of the most exciting thus far that I was able to witness was the test flight of the Ares I-X launch vehicle. If you are unaware, the Constellation Program will continue to launch humans into low earth orbit and furthermore, journey back to the Moon and ultimately onto Mars. The Ares I-X test flight marked the beginning of a new era in space pioneering. There were a few clouds near the horizon that were blocking the first portion of the ascent stage but after a minute into the flight, I was able to see the rocket trail. It is a remarkable feeling being able to view this new vehicle, practically the same height as the Saturn V rocket, and it will eventually carry humans back to the Moon and someday onto Mars. Just spectacular!

There will also be an Atlas V launch as well as an upcoming shuttle mission, STS-129, that will be occurring at the end of this week and the beginning of next week. I am most likely going to head down to Titusville this weekend with a few friends to view the Atlas launch but as for the space shuttle, I’ll be in class Monday afternoon. I’ll see if my professor can excuse me for a few minutes so that I can go out and take a peek at the launch.

Embry-Riddle also held an amateur radio contact with fellow astronaut and ERAU alumna, Nicole Stott. She is on board the International Space Station serving as flight engineer for expeditions 20 and 21. Students were able to submit questions but because of time restraints not everyone got their questions selected for the opportunity to speak with Nicole. Nichole stated that she really wanted to elaborate on some of her answers but again, there wasn’t enough time to do so. Supposedly, she will be visiting the campus after she returns to Earth, and will be sharing her experiences of her 3 month stay aboard the station. That I cannot wait for!