The Riddle Rewind: Highlights of Freshman Year

Posted on May 18, 2021 by Carly

Alternative post title: Embry-Riddle, I love you.

So, you know how YouTube has YouTube Rewind filled with a recap of all of the year’s notable events? I decided that I’d do a Riddle one. So here’s my Riddle Rewind for the 2020-2021 academic year, starting in August and moving forward.

Move-In Day!

Of course move-in day makes the list. I was so excited to move in and get started at Embry-Riddle. I finally got to meet some of the people who I’d known online for months, and it was an amazing feeling.

The Rocket Launches

1-2 days into the semester, I went with my suitemates to the August SpaceX launch. We stumbled upon a bridge with a little concrete path under it, and that’s where we watched from. It was my first ever launch, and I didn’t know it yet, but there were many more to come. (I also watched the SpaceX Crew 1 launch and wrote about it here.)

The Online Class Meet-Up Lunch

In the fall semester, my HON150 class was completely online. We the students wanted to organize a get-together so we could finally meet each other. The first one was spontaneously organized, and then they just kept showing up after class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. A big group of us would walk over to the student union and get lunch together following social distancing guidelines.

The Caramel Waters and the Hangout Group

Although still around but not as prevalent, there was a group of freshmen in the fall semester called the Hangout group. They were usually found in the student union hanging out, doing work, and playing ping pong. We’d frequently go to iHOP/Waffle House on early Friday mornings (like, between 1-3 AM) and on random trips in the Daytona area. Sometimes we’d explore places at night like people in the horror movies, but thankfully, all of us lived. One time, we were in the union and some of the guys wanted waters. They made a joke to the barista that they’d like caramel waters, so the barista put some caramel in the water. I never had one, but I heard it was disgusting. 100/10 customer service.

The Hair Dye Experiments

I dyed my hair. Or, at least, tried to. Twice. And neither time did it really show up. My tiny YouTube channel also ended up flopping, but it was fun while it lasted. I’ve also learned that my hair will not dye without help. Oops.

Fire Fridays

Fire Friday took form on Halloween night after I won the costume contest. After the costume contest, everyone was running around in costume while a student burned wood pallets. It soon turned into a reoccurring event, but it ended up dying down in late March. They were fun while they lasted; a lot of people would come and hang out at the fire. It was also a great place for people to get to know each other.

The Only Correct Usage for Electric Longboards

Going along with Fire Fridays, people would bring their longboards and board on the sidewalk by the dorms. It was pretty fun to watch, and people would race each other. One of the most notable races was between two guys on electric longboards in the picture above. In my opinion, electric longboards are dangerous and could result in a major injury like a broken jaw. However, if you go slow(ish) on them while sitting down, they’re perfectly acceptable to use. I actually got to ride one like that, and I’ll admit, it was like riding a mini roller coaster.

Omigod You Guys: Joining a Sorority

I already kind of wrote about this one when I got a bid, and here, when I found out who my big was, so I’ll leave the links there. I will say that it was a really good decision; I love my sorority sisters. If you’re even remotely interested, investigate it!

Drives and Karaoke

While usually late at night, one of my friends and I started going out and driving while singing random songs in the car. These could range anywhere from World Burn from Mean Girls to Radioactive by Imagine Dragons. We’d also usually stop at Wawa or Buc-ee’s and get a slushie. The picture above was after my second COVID shot when the friend took me and my suitemate singing since I shouldn’t stay in bed all day. It was fun, though.

My Chaotic Good Honors Class

I don’t have a picture for this one, but I took Dr. Lear’s HON250 class and it was so much fun!! The class was about video games and naturally, she set up a class Discord where students could talk amongst themselves. It has several channels: general, memes, pet pictures, in-class instructions, in-class responses, and most notably, the quotes channel. The class Discord was a very popular means of communication and a good source of student bonding.

At the end of the year, we planned to have an in-class awards show. However, the last day of class was cancelled, so we did it over Google Forms and Discord. I was the Awards Chair, so I got role-assigning permissions from Dr. Lear, and I ended up winning Emailholic (most emails sent to professor) and And You Can Quote This! (most notable contributions to the quotes channel). They make absolutely no sense without context.

Going Splat “fOr My jOb”

EaglePalooza was… interesting. Embry-Riddle has no shortage of interesting things for students to do. I was covering the event on social media for one of my on-campus jobs, and it was pretty fun. I wrote about it here.

The Campus Pets

On the Daytona campus, there are plenty of stray cats. One is quite friendly, approaching the tables where people sit and watching us. The PAWS (Protecting Animal Wellness Society) club has named her Beep, and I always liked seeing her around. She reminded me of my cats who are here at home.

Finishing the Year

It was nice to end the schoolwork of the year, but I missed my friends as they moved out. Some people moved out before finals week, others moved out during and after. It was bittersweet, but at the same time, most of them are coming back for the fall 2021 semester, so I’ll see them again. The year ended with a lot of good memories, too many to put into just one blog post. I’m glad I got to have a semi-normal first year at Embry-Riddle, and I’m even more glad that I can say I go here.

See you in the next post, and hopefully at Riddle! (Maybe you’ll even be in my orientation group…)

End of Semester & Future Prep

Posted on December 11, 2020 by Merrick

Happy December everyone! I’m currently blogging from my Norfolk, VA, post online finals and although final grade reports haven’t been submitted yet, the semester should be completely at a close within a few days!

Let’s talk about how to balance relaxing over break and staying productive by prepping for the future! If you haven’t signed up for Spring classes make sure to do so as soon as possible to ensure you get slots in all the classes you need. If you are unable to get a slot in a full class, or are unsure what classes to sign up for, reach out to your academic advisor for help!

Unwinding over the break with my sister’s festive puppy in a winter sweater!

You can find your academic advisor’s contact information by going to the Ernie homepage, logging in with your ERAU credentials and Two Factor Duo Identification via the mobile app, clicking on Campus Solutions Student Homepage (CSSH), then on the Academic Advising tab on the far left once you get to Campus Solutions. The first page that loads should be the Advisors tab, where it lists the name, email, and phone number for your Academic Advisor that can help you with schedule planning and getting into the classes and class sections that you need.

While breaks are a great time to relax and unwind, they’re also a great opportunity to think ahead, prep for the future, and apply for scholarships and summer programs such as internships, study abroad opportunities, co-ops, or summer jobs! Start thinking ahead and prepping for the future as soon as possible to stay one step ahead for your future plans.

My sister’s festive pup enjoying a Puppuccino from Starbucks before a trip to the dog park!

I recently heard back that I received a Gilman Scholarship to help fund a study abroad opportunity this summer to continue studying Arabic in Amman, Jordan. While everything is still currently up in the air due to COVID-19 having global impacts, I am using the Winter break to create some plans and backup plans for the summer. I am applying to study abroad opportunities from Project GO for the domestic and abroad language learning programs, and through language learning opportunities with CIEE, the Council On International Educational Exchange. I have found that while I am working towards a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering, my minor of Arabic Studies is my true passion, one which I look forward to fostering throughout my summer studies and in my future career post AFROTC!

Will report back soon folks! Enjoy break, stay grinding, and keep on keeping on!

Goodbye, Freshman Year

Posted on April 22, 2015 by Lindsey

Classes are winding down, boxes are being packed, the temperature is heating up, and thunderstorms are becoming an everyday occurrence. You know what that means, spring semester is coming to a close! Between studying for finals and packing up all of my belongings, I’m taking time to reflect on my first year of college.

During my first week here in Daytona Beach, I had no idea what to expect once classes started at ERAU. Would I have homework everyday, will the professors know my name, where can I eat after class, and more, were all questions I asked myself. I am the oldest child in my family, so I did not have any stories about college from older siblings to rely on. I was going into my first day of classes with a completely blank slate.

Now, after a full year of classes at ERAU, I can say that college is not what I expected it to be during that first week. However, that is a good thing. I learned that in college…

1. You have the freedom to do what you want to do, however the choices you make about how you spend your time will catch up with you. Whether the choices be good or bad, you decide.

2. Everyone is here to succeed. Back in high school, there were people who just went to class because they had to. In college, you go to class because you genuinely want to learn and succeed in your field. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be here.

3. There are so many resources to help you. Going in to my first day of class, I thought I was alone. I did not think anyone cared if I succeeded or not. Now I know I was completely wrong. ERAU provides amazing resources to help you with internships, tutoring, medical needs, and anything else you could possibly think of. I never feel like I am alone because now I know I have a huge web of resources who will be there for me if I ever need anything.

After looking back on my freshman year, I’ve realized that I made some mistakes, but I also grew tremendously. I’ve grown academically because of classes which have pushed me to think outside of the box. I’ve grown socially because of clubs and organizations that challenge me to get out of my comfort zone, volunteer, and be a part of something bigger. I’ve grown emotionally because I’ve lived 3,000+ miles away from everything I ever knew before. Lastly, I’ve grown mentally because I am continuously surrounded by people who think different than I do, who may live on the other side of the world from me, and who are pursuing amazing careers in a different field than I am. All of the experiences I have had in my first year of college have been an integral part in my learning process. It’s not just the classes you attend which prepare you for life after college, but also the experiences you have along the way.

As a freshman in my last week of classes, I have some advice for incoming freshmen in the Fall 2015 semester…

College will be the most rewarding time of your life, if you let it challenge you. Go into your freshman year with an open mind about everything, because I promise you, college is not what you expect it to be. Meet new people, travel around the area, study hard, join clubs, get a job, and have fun! Don’t constrain yourself by letting your preconceptions conceal the endless opportunities available right outside of your comfort zone.

“By letting go of your fears and opening your wings, you can soar to new heights”

Although this is my last blog entry of the semester, keep checking back during the summer! I will be writing about my experiences, wherever life takes me.

Until next time,

Lindsey

Fall Semester Comes to a Close

Posted on December 16, 2013 by Lynsey

Greetings, everyone!

It’s official: Fall 2013 has ended and winter break is upon us. Although here in Daytona Beach it certainly doesn’t feel like it, with temperatures continuing to hover around the low-80s. Everybody back home loathes me this time of year, when they’re starting to get the big snow falls and I’m just wishing I could wear a sweatshirt. I suppose nobody is really ever happy with the weather they have. I got this photo from my aunt, taken outside her window:

and responded with this one, taken outside mine:

Usually my Facebook posts about the weather aren’t well-recieved. But it’s just so much fun. 😉

My last post was right before Thanksgiving break, so I suppose I can start there. I had a good time spending a few days back home, even though I spent a lot of the time working on homework and final projects. The end of the semester was poorly timed this year, because the week after the break was the last one, so everything is due. I don’t know what the general opinion is, but I think that the last week of classes is way more stressful than finals week. Finals week is actually pretty chill – you only have to go to school for finals, and have a lot of free time. Which is, of course, deceiving, because you really *should* be studying, and not staying up until 5 am playing Pokemon Y or anything along those lines. But I digress. Nonetheless, it was nice to see my family and friends back home, even though I’ve adapted to Florida and spent the whole three and a half days perpetually cold. It’s only funny to make fun of them for the weather when I’m not there, I suppose.

This is what was happening in my simulations for my Spaceflight project – the blue is the orbit of the Earth and the green is the orbit of the moon. Which isn’t so much an orbit, but a beeline straight out of the solar system.

I got back to Daytona early on Saturday, and had a massive homework assignment due at 11:59 PM that night. So much for having a break. I think I turned it in at like 11:58:43 or something like that – oops. Then it was final projects, papers, and exams for the next week and a half. My biggest project was probably the one for my Spaceflight Dynamics class, which involved simulating a three-body orbital problem in MATLAB. It was going well until I made some calculation error and was flinging the moon straight out of the solar system. But I ended up fixing that, woo! Aside from that and the ten page paper on black holes that I had to crank out in one night, everything else wasn’t too bad. I had finals in thermodynamics and astronomy that I thought were pieces of cake (not that I didn’t study, mind you.) The only thing that gave me real trouble was my EP 501 final exam – I only needed a 62 on the final to get an A in the class, thanks to my midterm exam and homework successes, and I was legitimately worried I didn’t even get that. But I managed to pull off a 78 (don’t even know how I scored that high, to be honest) and thus managed to secure my 4.0 Master’s GPA for another semester. Still waiting on grades for my undergrad classes, but from my calculations I am looking at straight A’s! Not to brag 🙂

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch as seen from campus!

Another cool feature of last week was SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch, which scrubbed on the first two launch dates but went off the third time. And I got to see it from campus! It was super cool; we went up to the top of the AMS building where there is an observation deck for watching planes go in and out of the airport, and got a really great view. Even saw the stage separations of the rocket!

Stage separations of the rocket as it went up into space!

This week I’ll spend some time helping pack up the labs to move over to the new College of Arts and Sciences building, and then I’m homebound on Wednesday for about a week and a half. It’s crazy how quickly this semester went; I feel like it just started yesterday. But that’s life I guess!

That’s all I have to talk about in this entry. Haven’t gotten word if I will be writing again next semester, but I hope to be able to continue to share my stories with you! Feel free to always email me questions, or just to say hey, and I wish you all a happy holiday season and a successful rest of the school year!

Also before I close out, I’d like to dedicate this entry to my dog, Skip, who passed away last Friday. We got Skip as a rescue in April of 2001, when he was thought to be 2-4 years old, so he had a long life, and was always very happy and full of energy. He was a really great dog, and we all miss him very much.

My brother and I with Skip, 2004

Year one complete!

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Matthew

Hi everyone,

My freshman year at Embry-Riddle has officially come to a close with me passing my checkride and becoming a private pilot! I am currently in the midst of packing up and waiting on the phone call to get my temporary pilot certificate.

I left off my last blog entry with two airshows to highlight; the New Smyrna Balloon and Skyfest, and Sun n’ Fun. The New Smyrna airshow was definitely a treat as it was the debut of Kyle Franklin’s new airplane called Dracula. One of my friends described it as a what a plane would be if a Pitts, Geebee, and Waco had a kid. The performance of that airplane was incredible! Some quick stats on the airplane: It is powered by a 500hp supercharged fuel-injected radial engine, the G rating on it is +/-12g’s, and Vne (Never Exceed speed) does not exist because the airplane won’t be able to go that fast. The airplane also sported one of the most beautifully done fabric finishes I have ever seen on an airplane

Dracula taken out of his coffin

At that airshow, I was able to see Kyle Franklin, Matt Younkin, and Manfred Radius. One of my friends and I helped Manfred solder sparklers onto his wingtips for his night airshow. What does he hold them onto the airplane with? Duct tape!

A couple of us were planning to go to the Barrett-Jackson collector car auction in West Palm Beach the day after the New Smyrna airshow, but decided against it because we were all still battling the lingering effects of colds.

The next airshow was Sun n’ Fun, one of the biggest airshows in the United States. A group of us went out Friday afternoon ignoring the forecast for thunderstorms. We arrived just in time for the night airshow. This was the first night airshow I have seen and it was one of the cooler things I’ve seen at airshows.

Since one of my friends works for an airshow performer, we were able to camp out underneath his Piaggio twin gull seaplane.

What isn’t there to love? First thing you see outside your tent is airplanes

Before the airshow, we spent the day in the performer hangar looking at all the pretty airplanes and talking with some of the airshow performers. One real treat I got to see was one of the original batmobiles and original batcopter from the 1960s TV show.

The original Batmobile and Batcopter!

During the week, they were forecasting thunderstorms for the weekend. The airshow never saw a drop of rain the entire time we were there. Instead, it was hot! I overheard a guy saying it was 134 degrees on the tarmac.

The airshow went on, and we enjoyed another treat. Matt Chapman and world renowned RC pilot, Quique Somenzini flew formation aerobatics. This was the first time this had been done at an airshow, and I’m sure it won’t be the last.

We decided to leave the airshow early and head home because we only got four hours of sleep and after spending a day in the Florida heat, we were tired. On the way back, a friend recommended a BBQ restaurant called Four Rivers to stop and eat dinner. When we got there the line went out the building, and wrapped around the corner. After a wait of only 30 minutes, I ate the best ribs I’ve ever had in my life! It turns out this restaurant was voted the best BBQ in Florida and one of the top 50 best BBQ’s in the United States.

The next two weeks consisted of continuing to prep for checkride, and for finals as well. The amount of model airplane flying dropped to only about six flights for about two weeks because of the semester coming to a close and needing to study for finals. However, on the study day, the RC club hosted the electric indoor fly-in.

Just hovering, don’t mind me.

This was a lot of fun and I got to fly my foamie for a little while. I ended up crashing it when I got out of sync in the rolling harrier. I never bothered to fix it because the plane didn’t fly that well, so my friend Jim let me fly his foamies for the rest of the day.

The next week was a stressful one, having to study for finals, pack up my room, and study for my checkride. I got through it all, and passed the oral portion of my checkride. The next week was just a waiting game on when to be scheduled for my flight. I was one of about 130 others waiting to get scheduled as well. I finally got scheduled but had to incomplete the flight, so I continued to wait to get scheduled. Three attempts later (scheduling conflicts and weather), I finally got to go up and finish up the checkride, and I passed! That brings me to today where I am waiting on the call to go pick up my temporary pilot certificate, and in the meantime packing up my belongings in preparation to fly home for the summer.

This school year was one for the books. I made some great friends, attended many airshows, built model airplanes in my dorm room, along with many other “shenanigans.” I’ll end this entry with a little slide show of some of the pictures I took throughout the year.

Hope everyone found the blog interesting, informative, and helped make your decision on what college to attend. I’ll be writing the blogs again in the fall semester, so I’ll be back!

The Piper Cub I got to take a ride in one of the first weekends I was at Riddle

It went down as .5 in the logbook, but it was the most fun I ever had in an airplane!

My desk turned into a workshop

Cocoa Beach airshow

Wings and Waves Airshow

What I call the Dorm Room Special prior to it’s maiden flight

Took 3rd place in expert at the King Orange International

Deland Giant Scale fly-in

Daytona 500

Fantasy of Flight

My Life @ Riddle

Daytona Beach Edition

Tag Archives: end of semester