Winning Weekend

Hello there – This Sunday has been full of lovely spring sunshine and is getting me excited for warmer weather!

This past week at Mercyhurst has been a fun one. There was an awesome Student Activities Council (SAC) event on Friday, Hurst Idol. Kind of like American Idol, students were able to audition to earn a spot in the line up. SAC welcomed six performers to the stage, all of which were fantastic. In the picture to the side, you see the judging table. From left to right the judges were: everyone's favorite art teacher, Ms. Patty, the Area Director for Freshmen Housing, Michael Grasso, A-list 'Hurst celebrity from our cafeteria, Rhonda and finally, Mercyhurst Student Government (MSG) President, and my personal friend, Richard Molloy. First place winner won free books for next term, second place won two tickets to see Of Mosters and Men in concert. There were also a few gift cards raffled off to audience members. 

Photo credit @alagruth3

On Saturday, our No. 1 men's lacrosse team took on No. 9 Dowling and won 12-11. This was the team last year who took away our chances of playing beyond regular season games. Then on Sunday, our Lakers beat Alderson-Broaddus, 19-5. The Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) victory is the 30^th straight regular season win for men's LAX. It was a great weekend for the Lakers! 

In the photo to the left you see the men's team and their coach ringing the Sister Damien Bell in the middle of Garvey Park. It's a tradition on our campus when you win a game, graduate or achieve any other major accomplishment, you ring the bell.


Also on Saturday, I spent the afternoon with my fellow MSG executive board and advisors. As a senior gift to us, our wonderful advisors took us on a wine tasting trail. When you come to school here, if you drive to North East you'll see tons and tons of grape vines. Along with the home of Welch's grape juice and jams, there are a lot of quaint wineries. I highly recommend, for those 21+, to explore "Lake Erie Wine Country." We visited 21 Brix, Johnson Estate Winery, Sparkling Ponds Winery, Quincy Cellars and Mazza Vineyards. They were all wonderful and I think I'm going to take my family for a tasting during graduation weekend. See some of the pictures below:

Thanks for reading!
 

 

Spring Fest

It's almost here... One of the biggest student events you'll see at the 'Hurst. In just under 40 days, students will get to enjoy a FREE concert put on by the Mercyhurst Student Government and Student Activities Council.

This is my second year planning the event. However, even with one concert under my belt, I am still extremely nervous. This year I have contracted, with co-planner Adam Borgam (SAC Chair), The White Panda and Super Mash Bros.

It's going to be a full-out dance party for students complete with tons of fun food, photo booths, airbrush and glitter tattoos, trucker hats and more.

I can't wait to tell you how it goes, but for now there's a lot more planning to do.

The event will take place on Friday, May 3. Check out the logo below by student designer, Isaac Smith.

Thanks for reading!

Erin Go Bragh!

Happy St. Patrick's Day from Mercyhurst University!

As an Italian girl studying at an Irish Catholic institution with a rich Irish heritage, I feel like for the first time in my life, I have a purpose to fully celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

The Sisters of Mercy traveled from Dublin, Ireland and founded our school in September of 1926. Mercyhurst and its students show pride in their history and show it well during this green holiday.

Erie is the twin city to Dublin, Ireland so the Irish spirit was ever-present beyond our gates this weekend throughout the town. There was the annual St. Paddy's Day parade, music and tons of great food and green beer all along State Street, in downtown Erie.

Another wonderful aspect of this holiday, is that it makes me appreciate my international Irish friends who made the trek over the Atlantic, much like our Mercyhurst founders. At Mercyhurst, more than 40 different countries are represented by students studying here. During your time at Mercyhurst, you can't help but to get to know someone from a very different culture from your own.

There are many students who attend Mercyhurst from Ireland. And since last year MU opened their "Mercyhurst in Ireland" program, several students have the opportunity each term to study in Ireland. If I had to go through my undergraduate degree again, I would definitely take a term to study in
Ireland.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you've enjoyed a fun and safe St. Paddy's Day!

Wine Sampling

Hello everybody,

It's been a busy ending two weeks at the 'Hurst. We are closing in on the term and entering into finals tomorrow. I'm sorry I wasn't able to blog last week, a few of my end of term projects with my classmates took over and we wanted to make sure that all of our i's were dotted and t's were crossed.

Since I last posted, the Mercyhurst Student Government had its annual wine tasting. It was a blast, we had Kevin, from the Quincy Cellars in New York at the tasting. He brought 12 wines from both of his wineries for the Mercyhurst Students to sample. Along with the wine, we had different cheeses, crackers and fruit to go with our sampling. It was a great night and I think the students really learned a lot about the process of wine and how to responsibly drink in social settings. 

Also, this past week, MSG held a "Finances 101" seminar to help seniors, and other interested students in how to approach organizing their banking once they leave the 'Hurst. MSG paired with PNC Bank and taught students the basics of credit, how to build it, keep track and about the "dos and don'ts" of student loans.

This week we are going into finals, and not many more events are happening for this term. But as always, I'll keep you posted as interesting things re happening at the 'Hurst!

Thanks for reading :)

The Best Time of the Year – for Marketing Majors!

Hello there and happy Super Bowl Sunday!

I'm a Pittsburgh girl, born and raised, and will always be cheering on the Steelers, Penguins and the Pirates no matter who they're playing against. Which makes me a little bummed out that I won't be rooting on my boys in the big game this evening... However, the Penguins did win today so that makes up for it a bit, I guess. 

 Even though my Steelers won't be in the game today, I'll still be watching. The marketing major in me loves, and I mean L-O-V-E-S Super Bowl commercials. At any point in the school year, advertising and branding strategy, consumer behavior and marketing management classes all have students tuning in to the medias around them, and analyzing a variety of advertising materials. 

 However, during the Super Bowl is a special time to be a marketing and communication student because all my classes the following Monday and Tuesday, we get to dissect and grade all the commercials. The Super Bowl is a hot time for marketers to score a commercial spot. Not only does it go for big bucks, it's one of the most watched shows of the year... It's almost as popular as the Victoria Secret's Fashion Show. 

During the Super Bowl, there is a highly specific demographic that marketers are able to segment. Having that information is golden in advertising. We also get to see how marketers appeal to us, whether it be through "slice-of-life" scenarios, serious settings, or America's favorite – humor with a pinch of sex appeal.

Some of my favorite commercials from Super Bowl 2012 are as follows:

 

I truly love my major, I love that the industry follows pop-culture, my major is something that is fresh and always changing. It makes time in the classroom a lot more fun and more hands on. I hope that if you find yourself at the 'Hurst someday, or anywhere else for that matter, that you'll find the area that you're just as passionate about too.

I'll be sure to post my favorites from Super Bowl 2013 next week.

Thanks for reading and watching!

Jenna

Mercyhurst History

So, as I said last week, we were going through a pretty chilly period. And with cold weather sometimes comes water main breaks.

Unfortunately, our campus as well as some neighborhoods around us suffered some water loss. Which for many of our residential buildings, loss of heat as well. So for the first time in a long stretch of Mercyhurst history, campus was closed down Thursday afternoon through Sunday evening.

I took this little surprise as an opportunity to take an extended weekend home. Since the majority of weekend events were postponed to a later date, I thought I would use this post to share some of my favorite Mercyhurst winter pictures that were streamed through Instagram. On the Mercyhurst University Facebook page, as the social media intern, I typically pick one photo each week as the "Insta-fave" to post but there are always too many to choose from... So here are some more! To see more, simply search #Merchurst on Instagram.

Enjoy!

Old Main and Egan – @jgolfer15

Our famous gates – @jgibson0513

Baldwin Hall and the Football Offices – @jbrahim9

Old Main – @fapo92

Audrey Hirt Academic Center – @jaslyne_renee

O'Neill Tower – @milosveres

Endless Events!

A chilly hello from Mercyhurst U. today!

Currently we are under a Lake Effect Winter Weather Advisory and have about 30 inches of snow. So shortly after this, since two of my classes were cancelled for the day, I'll be throwing on some warm gear to play in the snow. Okay, maybe not really, but if you're into sledding, snowboarding and tubing, Erie is the place for you!

Last week MSG had David Coleman, the Dating Doctor in the Performing Arts Center. We had an awesome turn out and David gave a ton of great advice to students mixed with a good amount of comedy. We love having him on campus, and may bring some of his other presenters from his production company in for orientation week next year. So if you decide to become a MU Laker, I'm sure you'll have the opportunity to meet him and listen to him again.

This week is full of fun and exciting things!

This week MSG is hosting a forum on Wednesday to help inform students about all the little details about our change from trimesters to the new 4-1-4 semesters. Since I am a senior, this does not affect my scheduling, however I want the students to be as well informed as possible. So I am encouraging all to come out and ask as many questions as possible.

Also on Wednesday, MSG is holding a self defense workshop. This is something that SAC provided a few years ago, and we thought it was a good thing to bring back. It is always a good idea to be prepared for a variety of scenarios, I really liked the workshop the last time we offered it because it taught me how to help myself stay calm in such a high stress situation. And hopefully, I will never have to put these tips to use, it's nice to know I have some frame of reference to go back on.

On Thursday, I am taking the Ambassador Club snow tubing at a ski resort that is not too far from campus, Peek'n Peak. It's a social event that we are using as a fundraiser and as a way to get off campus and to have some fun.

On Friday, SAC is hosting it's third annual "Are You Smarter than a Professor" event. It's exactly what it sounds like, three Mercyhurst University professors will go head to head against MU students to compete in a battle of wits. Every topic can show up; from math to English, and even some pop-culture questions will appear.

And finally on Saturday, SAC and another club I am involved in PRSSA (Public Relations Student Society of America) will be hosting a Frozen Putt-A-Thon. We are inviting the Mercyhurst and Erie community to the Harbor View Miniature Golf Course to be bold in the cold. Basically, people can come out for a few rounds of mini-golf in the snow to help a good cause. This year, we are fundraising for the Erie City Mission.

I can't wait to post pictures and tell you all about how these events went.

Until then, stay warm! And thanks for reading :)