It's begining to look a lot like Christmas... All around the 'Hurst

The travel packs, I figured you needed a visual!

As always, this week FLEW by!

This week was full of fun and festive activities. Let me start off with MSG's 12 Days of Christmas. I know in my previous post I told you that we were starting the gift giving last Sunday. But here's a little more detail – every year MSG gives 12 gifts leading up to their annual Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony, we started last Sunday and are still going strong. So far we've given:

1. playing cards
2. Laker shirts
3. winter hats
4. blankets
5. school supply packs
6. gloves
7. t-shirts
8. travel packs (mouth wash, chapstick, hand sanitizer)

And there's more to come! The final gift is given during the Tree Lighting Ceremony, and it will be extra special for one Laker, because it's a raffle for an iPad.

Lindsay, a freshmen senator & leader of the 100 days celebration

Another fun thing to happen this week was the celebration of the freshmen's first 100 days of school. At Mercyhurst, our senior year we celebrate the 100 days to graduation. So, a new tradition as been added to mix. Freshmen were asked to sign a banner in the cafeteria with their favorite memory from their first 100 days, and during their senior year once they hit the 100 days until graduation, they are opening the banner sort of like a time capsule. Traditions are all around the 'Hurst. 

Today was also an annual event for the Ambassador's Club on campus, Christgiving. No, that's not a typo, it's our own holiday after Thanksgiving, but before Christmas where we come together as a club to celebrate the seasons. I; and my co-chair for the social committee, Lisa, planned a wonderful holiday dinner for the year. We fed over 100 hungry Ambassadors and admissions team members, and even had an ugly sweater contest. Though, I'm happy the stress of pulling this event together is off of my shoulders, it's kind of sad at the same time. This was my fourth and last Christgiving, maybe this will be a Mercyhurst tradition that I implement into my family after graduation!

Ambassadors filling the Student Union for Christgiving dinner

Another traditional event that I'm overseeing this year is the RSCO Tree Decorating Contest. RSCO stands for registered student clubs and organizations, we have tons of them on campus... literally, more than 60! New ones are starting every year, that's the cool thing about Mercyhurst, if you have an interest and can find two other people and a club advisor, you can start the club! The Tree Decorating Contest is a good way to get RSCOs recognized and increase club participation, but it's also an easy fundraiser. Students vote on the "best tree" and that club wins $100 for their budget.

Judging for the Tree Decorating Contest takes place at the Tree Lighting Ceremony this Thursday.  I'll keep you posted on the gifts, winners, and all of those other holiday events happening around campus!

Thanks for reading :)

Welcome Winter Term

Hungry Lakers at the Grand Opening!

Hello everyone! This past week was the first back, and the start of Mercyhurst's Winter Term.

This is my last Winter Term, as I'll be graduating in May. I cannot believe that in six short months I will be done with my undergraduate degree at Mercyhurst. This term started off crazy as ever with classes, MSG, residence life, and Ambassadors.

I'm enrolled in four classes this term: Marketing Management, Managerial Economics, Strategic Communication I, and Professional Development. It's a plate-full, but I'm excited to attack them. After these four, there are only three more classes I need for Spring Term. My degree never seemed more in reach!

Last term I completed my internship, and this term on top of my classes, I have accepted a part-time position within Mercyhurst's Marketing and PR Department. It's flattering and an awesome experience that I am blessed to have.

One of the 12 gifts

This past week was also full for MSG. As the event coordinator, I planned a Grand Opening event for our Student Union Great Room. We held it during tonight's Steelers vs. Ravens game and supplied pizza, wings, and more. More than 100 students showed up to cheer on their favorite teams and break in the new student space.

Today was also the start of MSG's 12 Days of Christmas. Each year leading up to the Annual Christmas Tree Lighting, MSG gives out little gifts each day to students. This year gifts include blankets, travel coffee mugs, school supplies, eco-friendly bags, and more. Our final gift is a big one this year, one lucky Laker will walk away with an iPad! I'll have to give you some more details and write a little more in my next post.

Twitter door decs

For residence life, a new term means fresh bulletin boards and door decorations for my residents. I created a Twitter theme this time around. I cut out blue birds and hand-stamped my residents names after an @ sign. I think they turned out pretty good! I was going to make one per resident, but I decided to do the whole room to make it look more like a Twitter feed. And I'm guilty of going the easy way out for my bulletin board for the short time before Christmas break, I did a Christmas-y "let it snow" theme. I promise I'll freshen it up for the new year!!

Finally, for Ambassadors, I have been working on our annual Christgiving dinner. It's happening next Sunday and I'll have to fill you in on it more when I post next week. It's a big dinner that the club hosts between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we all get together with four turkeys, 30lbs of potatoes, and tons of desserts to celebrate the holidays with good friends.

Well, that's all for now! Come back next week for some more Mercyhurst fun :)

Spring Fest 2012

I'm about to blog about one of the greatest Mercyhurst experiences I've ever had. 

It was more than 6 months in the making, but Spring Fest 2012 has come and gone. MSG Events Coordinator, Shannon Kissel and I have been working very hard all year planning this classic weekend-long event, and I must say, it was a total success!

One happy Laker from her Walking Taco!

This year Spring Fest was a Cinco de Mayo theme, let me give you a run down of all that went on:

It all began at 8 a.m. on Thursday morning when Shannon, Adam (next year's SAC Chair) and I took a huge van to Sam's Club to buy tons of water, Gatorade, snacks, and dressing room hospitality. After 30 cases of drinks, and the other random things, our 15 passenger van was full!

The fun really began Thursday afternoon when two huge trucks pulled into Mercyhurst University. These two trucks contained all the "magic" for our annual Spring Fest concert. We had tons of volunteers, two MSG executive boards, and two SAC executive boards, plus the production company building the stage, setting the lights, and hooking up sound. It took about four for five hours to set, and everyone was tired and sweaty when we were finished.

Friday afternoon Shannon and I planned a Walking Taco station to give out 300 free "tacos in a bag" to students who walked by in Garvey Park. They were served from a huge yellow Culinary Cab that our dining services, Parkhurst, debuted for the first time that afternoon. If you don't know what a walking taco is, it's a bag of Doritos crushed up topped with taco meat, lettuce, cheese, sour cream, and salsa. They were absolutely delicious and they students loved them!

Friday night was also the concert. Before the concert while students were loading in and between sets we had one of MU's own, DJ b-Lang, spin records for us. He was awesome and got the party going. Then we had a STOMP-like percussion group called Industrial Rhythm perform the opening slot to really pump students up for this year's headliner – Sean Kingston. When Sean Kingston took the stage, it was ridiculous. I don't think I've ever seen a Spring Fest more packed. We gave out 1500 free tickets, and we got over 95% of them back in the doors, and after letting in a few stragglers, we were at maximum capacity. I can't believe we sold out and packed in a full house! During the concert I even got to go on stage and throw out glow-sticks, sombreros, and tshirts.

Sean Kingston performing in our Mercyhurst Athletic Center

When Sean Kingston took the stage, he sang all of the songs that everyone know. These included: Fire Buring, Eenie Meenie, Like a Melody, Beautiful Girls, and Letting Go, just to name a few. He even sang a new track off of the album he is releasing shortly. It's called Back 2 Life, it features TI and Nicki Minaj and it was a hot beat! Also, another special touch was when he got a few girls to come on stage when he sang Beautiful Girls. Not going to lie, I was a little jealous that Mr. Kingston didn't ask me on stage! But that's okay, I did snag a picture with him later – just Shannon, Sean Kingston and me!

Now immediately following the concert, we have to tear down the stage we just built, load it all in the trucks, and send them on their way. This was my third year helping with the stage for Spring Fest and every year, it breaks my heart to build a stage and then rip it down only a few hours later. When everything was said and done Friday night, and the trucks were pulling away, it was about 2:30 in the morning. And we were only half way done with the weekend at the point!

Saturday afternoon was the last portion of the Spring Fest activities. We emptied out a parking lot on campus and held a Cinco de Mayo of our own. It was complete with Erie's own, The Romantic Era, DJ b-Lang for a second day (because he's that great!!!), an inflatable obstacle course, a giant dual lane slip-n-slide, photo booths, air brush tattoos, a sandy candy bar, a caricaturist, Rita's Italian Ice and a full Mexican fiesta buffet. The day activities ran from 1 to 5 p.m. and it was a great flow of students. It was wonderful to see all of these students appreciating and enjoying something that Shannon and I have worked on so hard all year. Though this was my last event (and blog) as the SAC Chair, I am honored to do it all over again next year as MSG Events Coordinator (and blog about that too!). Both the MSG and SAC boards and volunteers surprised Shannon and I with flowers at the end of the weekend, it was too sweet and I really appreciate all of the hard work everyone put into this event for me. From building the stage with our bare hands on Thursday, during the concert and stage break down on Friday, and throughout the day on Saturday, I was truly blessed to have worked with such wonderful people.

Shannon on the left and me on the right after a loooong Spring Fest weekend!

I am so honored that the Mercyhurst community keeps giving me opportunities to do things like this. I get to meet awesome people and work with a fantastic group of students on a day to day basis. I know that so many students across campus, whether they vocalize it or not, enjoy what students like me do. I promise to continue to seize each opportunity that comes my way, to give students the best time on campus as possible. Because to me, this is what it means to be a MU Laker. Carpe Diem!

Kids 'N Sibs

Whew! I feel like it was just yesterday when I last posted! This week sure flew by.

This weekend at the 'Hurst, SAC held its annual Kids 'N Sibs weekend. Kids 'N Sibs is a weekend long event where SAC holds a variety of activities on both Friday and Saturday for Mercyhurst Students to do with their siblings. Most "kids" bring "sibs" or cousins, or just friends from other schools. Older, younger, or the same age, it doesn't matter! Though you do not need a sibling to attend, in fact I, personally, am an only child and have attended this event in the past with no one to claim as my "sib."
 
It was an "Under the Sea" theme this year, on Friday night we had a treasure scavenger hunt that lead groups around campus to find clues to where the hidden treasure was. We also had under the sea creatures at a build-a-bear station and the movie "Dolphin Tale" for all to enjoy. Also, notice the Kids 'N Sibs t-shirts in the pictures below, I designed them and they were a huge hit!

My favorite though, of the whole weekend, was Saturday! Saturday was set up with more under sea fun complete with an inflatable obstacle course, a shark slide (see below), more sea creature build-a-bears, face painting, balloon animals, Chick-fil-A, cotton candy, popcorn, and to top it off... Rita's Italian Ice – Swedish FISH flavored of course! Throughout the day on Saturday, there was also chances to win 2 iPads! This was a great event and more and more students come out every year. Maybe once you're a Laker too you'll be bringing up some brothers or sisters to our Kids 'N Sibs weekend, it's always a fun time filled with tons of free stuff!

Check out some of my SAC Board, a BIG shout out to Rosemary (blonde in the front, covering her mouth) and Megan (far right/twin with the headband and jeans) for co-planning this awesome event!

This is Louie the Laker, MU's mascot sneaking some cotton candy...

Next weekend we have the final Laker Spirit Club (LSC) event of the year, it's on Friday and it's a baseball game. Then on Friday night we have a Caribbean Night that we are sponsoring with the Multicultural Center and a Jamnesty concert on Saturday night. After next weekend we have one of the biggest events of the year – Spring Fest! I know I've been mentioning it a little here and there, but I'll be sure to give you the total run down on it next week, all I can say about it for now is that it's on Cinco de Mayo and I'll be meeting Sean Kingston!

Well I'm off to finish a little Sunday night homework, talk to you next time!
- Jenna

P.S. I just wanted to take a quick moment and thank you for taking the time to read my blog, if you ever have any questions or want to know more about SAC, LSC, or MSG or anything else here at the 'Hurst, feel free to comment or shoot me an email :)

3V3 and Party Rock!

Hello Everyone! How have you been since we last checked in? I've been up to planning some really fun events for the Mercyhurst community. 

This past weekend SAC held two really great events! On Friday we had a 3 versus 3 basketball tournament. We had teams of three sign up to compete for Visa gift cards, and bragging rights of course. Over ten teams came out to show their skills and shoot hoops. All the teams that came had an awesome time and so did SAC.

On Saturday, Mercyhurst had it's annual Major Day and Laker Live In. SAC wanted to really show potential Lakers what MU weekends are all about. So, we had a little event we called "Party Rock!" It was a little concert with the light and poppy artist JD Eicher, hilarious comedian Erin Jackson, and Erie's own rock band, The Romantic Era. If you click on the performers names, it will take you to their respective websites and you hear them play or find out a little more about them. Along with the wonderful music and funny jokes provided, we also served 500 Chick-fil-A sandwiches! It was a fun night and I think all of the students and Laker Live Ins really enjoyed the event. Look at the pictures below!

Next weekend Mercyhurst will be on Easter break, but I'll be sure to check in to tell you what I'm doing/what we are preparing for the following weekend. Enjoy the Easter holiday!

Artist JD Eicher

 

 

The Romantic Era

Foodie Frenzie!

Hello everyone! I'm back again to blog about this past weekend's happenings at Mercyhurst with the Student Activities Council. This weekend, the 'Hurst was full of food, food, and more food!

On Friday, SAC and MSG (Mercyhurst Student Government) joined efforts and had a night with guest Chef Mary Sue Milliken. MSG brought her in as a part of their Distinguished Speaker's Series to talk about the journey she went through when becoming a chef. Chef Mary Sue was such an interesting person, and was a delight to listen to. She even gave out some super simply recipes for college students! After she spoke, she had a question and answer section where she let students ask everything and anything. She was a wonderful lady, and very inspiring.

After the speaker portion, Chef Mary Sue came over to our SAC event for the night, Chopped: MU Style. It was hosted in Egan Dining Hall, and I have a bunch of pictures that I'll post to show you how many students were there and participating. There were two rounds, an "anything goes" round where teams could create anything they wanted. Secret ingredients were chicken, iceberg lettuce, and a blood orange. After a round of judging, Chef Mary Sue and two other judges pulled the top four teams to the final round. A team of MSG senators (Amanda Kocent, Brian Lomardo, and Richard Molloy), the President (Meg Hess), and Events Coordinator (Shannon Kissel) signed up to compete and made it to this round! The final round was a dessert round and they were given strawberries, a Twinkie, and a Hershey's chocolate bar as secret ingredients that they must use. All the teams did really well, but a team of three girls one overall supreme with their crepes. Here are some pictures from the night!

The crazy first few minutes!

MSG's Amanda & Brian!

Madame President Meg Hess

MSG's 1st Round Dish

Chef Mary Sue Killiken

On Saturday, SAC continued the food theme and had a campus favorite, Grocery Bingo. It's as simple as it sounds, students play rounds of bingo to win groceries. We had popcorn, chips, candy, cereal, peanut butter, fruit snacks, cases of water, Red Bull, Starbuck's Frappuccinos, graham crackers, and much more! We were told by participants that this event came just in time because not only is today the Superbowl, but finals are creeping around the corner and their cabinets were looking a little bare.
  

Prize Table of Groceries

Overall, this weekend was awesome (and delicious)! We had over 100 students at each of the events. It was a blast, and I can't wait for next weekend when we'll have a Hip Hop Dance Party on Friday and Comedian: Erin Jackson on Saturday.

Until next week – Happy February :)

Finals, Food, and Fun!

Finals, food, and fun? Crazy right? You're probably thinking that those are three words college students would never associate together... unless you're on Mercyhurst's campus!


Mercyhurst's Student Activities Council puts this event on once a term, which is three times a year. Food for Finals was a huge hit this past term, like always! We had a long line of students waiting for snacks, chicken wings, pizza, and donuts. Check out the back of my car once it was all packed up with food for the event – and that wasn't even with the pizza, wings, or donuts!

We also had a Spa and Relaxation Day the Friday before finals. From 12 to 4 p.m. students were invited to come out for a day of spinal relaxers, massage chairs, and an oxygen bar. A bunch of students showed up ready to take a break from their studies and relax with SAC. Though every station was full from start to end of the event, the massage chairs were definitely the most popular attraction, and my personal favorite too!

It was truly a great start to finals week, followed by a wonderful Thanksgiving Break at home... But I'm happy to be back on campus to help provide fun weekend activities for Mercyhurst Lakers to enjoy before our Holiday Break!

Ciao for now – I'll be back really soon to post about some other events that have happened on campus!