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!

Hypnotists and Holidays!

Wow, what a weekend! It's been a crazy one here at Mercyhurst University.
 
This weekend in addition to our typical SAC events, it was also St. Patrick's Day. As you can imagine, it was a pretty big deal here at an Irish Catholic Institution. Different departments of Mercyhurst joined forces to create a St. Paddy's Day Extravaganza.
 

Keith in our Mary D'Angelo Performing Arts Center

To prep for this Saturday, SAC hosted a classic Mercyhurst event, Hypnotic Intoxication. It's a two-part program which lectured on the powers that alcohol and addictive drugs can play in our lives first, and then has volunteers on stage to really have some fun in the second portion. Keith Karkut hypnotizes participants and invites them to a sick party, in which any alcohol they ever wanted is there in unlimited amounts. For the alcohol is served through the powers of the mind, by serving MU students plain water, which they think is the most potent alcohol they have ever had. This allowed their friends in the audience to see what really happens when they involve themselves in a severe alcohol situation... It's a great educational session that lets students learn while being thoroughly entertained! Keith has been coming to Mercyhurst for years now, and normally puts on this show twice a year. Literally everyone laughs their pants off and makes memories that will last their entire college career (and beyond)!
 
On St. Paddy's Day there was a schedule of events to attend:
 
Noon - 2 p.m. the Laker Spirit Club sponsored the Women's Lacrosse Game
2 - 5 p.m. Residence Life put on an open skate in our Ice Center
5 - 7 p.m. a FREE traditional Irish Dinner was served in our Student Union
7 - 8 p.m. there was a Alcohol Awareness Jeopardy in the Student Union as well
8 - 10 p.m. SAC wrapped up the festivities with Deal Is Right Game Show which students participated to win cool prizes, like a brand new car! (Okay, it was a brand new remote control car... but $250 in cash and other prizes were given away!)
 
As students went to these events they were given a ticket, each ticket they had entered them into a raffle for a Nook Color eReader. It was a great day to celebrate our Irish heritage with friends and faculty!
 
Next weekend SAC has Dave Coleman (the movie Hitch was inspired off of him) and our Spring Charity Ball. This year our Spring Charity Ball is making a donation to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in memory of a classmate of ours, Evann Parker who passed away earlier this year.
 
I'll post back next week and give you all of the fun details!