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B-R-I-D-G-E

April 30, 2012 in Ruben, Student Blogs by ryamada | Permalink

So, it has definitely been a while since my last post….. my bad! I’ve been really busy this semester mostly with the Hawai`i-Pacific Islanders Club and BRIDGE.

For this post, I wanted to focus on a preorientation program known as BRIDGE. For those of you who don’t know about BRIDGE, it stands for Building Relationships In Diverse Gonzaga Environments. What this program does is it helps students get adjusted to the campus and helps them with finding classrooms, buying books, getting their ID cards, and moving in early. (Keep in mind this could be you! GREAT Benefits!) Normally, this happens the week before orientation and, let me just say, magic happens during this week.

Every year, students come from all over the place and form this bond with each other that is comparable to the bond of a family. When I participated in BRIDGE, I remember meeting so many people in such a short amount of time and thinking that I would soon forget about them as I transitioned into the Gonzaga Community. However, this year, all three of my roommates did BRIDGE with me and my best friend was a BRIDGE participant. In the past year, he has been a big support for me especially since we are both so far away from home.

A typical BRIDGE week would include tons of ice breakers, an ice cream social, a dance, some community service, tours of Gonzaga and Spokane, buying books and finding your id, skit making, having fun! and sooo much more. I am lucky enough to be a coordinator for the program this year, so if you have any questions about BRIDGE, feel free to send them my way!

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Here is a video from my BRIDGE year!!

Ruben ’14
Accounting and Human Resource Management

 

Roomies!

March 12, 2012 in Ruben, Student Blogs by ryamada | Permalink

Alright, I suppose that this is a pressing issue. For me, I lived with my family for 18 years so I was really nervous about finding out who I was going to be living with. I remember sending in my deposit for Gonzaga and receiving all the surveys that came along with registering for classes and finding a roommate. I filled it out very carefully and tried to ensure that I would get a roommate who was just like me. When I got the confirmation e-mail with the name of my roommate in late July/early August, I took his name and did what most people would. . . . I did some research on Facebook!

Nate, the great roommate; that is who I was matched up with. We were both Business majors but lived very different lifestyles. I was definitely in the dorm room more often than he was but when he was there we seemed to get along. Living with your family for a long time allows you to get adjusted to the way that they live. Getting a new roommate was a little intimidating at first – you definitely keep your side neat at least for the first week. Nate and I got along and tried to help each other with homework and such. Before coming to Gonzaga, we talked on the phone and decided who was bringing what and, luckily for me, Nate brought a refrigerator, microwave, and a tv.

Living with Nate was interesting to say the least. He was one of those people who simply “visited” the room and when we saw each other around campus, we would yell each other’s name out loud. I wouldn’t say that we were the best of friends, but that was okay! Look, the truth is most of the time your roommate will not become your best friend. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, that’s the way it happens. But the whole reason for living in a dorm and a residence hall is getting the opportunity to meet new people! Roommates teach you a lot about yourself. They teach you about respect for other people and their belongings, about meeting new people and adjusting your lifestyle to accomodate for their’s, and they help you become comfortable with confrontation and communication.

Your first roommate is definitely a special one, and whenever I see Nate, I definitely get flashbacks of moving in and meeting new people – and I am grateful. Don’t be afraid to try something new, to leave the comfort of your home, and take those first steps into the real world.

 

Ruben ’14
Accounting and Human Resource Management

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Homesick

February 28, 2012 in Ruben, Student Blogs by ryamada | Permalink

Being far away from hom during the school year is pretty challenging. I am from Maui, Hawai`i and it’s a challenge dealing with weather and climate, the time difference, and the seasons. All of this just reminds me how far away from home I really am.

Today, in particular, is fat tuesday or mardi gras! In Hawai`i, we celebrate by eating delicious malasadas. It’s a pastry covered with sugar and it’s delicious! I’ll have to post a picture. Anyway, I thought about it so much today, that I posted something about it on facebook. Every once in a while, you just have to think about your family and how everyone is doing at home. And the thought of my family eating malasadas while I was in Spokane, not only made me miss them, made me jealous.

You meet so many people here at Gonzaga, though. I feel like being here at Gonzaga has allowed me to create a new family. Whenever I feel like I want to go home, I simply turn to them for comfort and I know that I can always get it when I need it. The best advice that I ever received from this “family” here at Gonzaga is this: “If you were at home, how much more would you really be helping your family?” And I thought about that for a while, and realized that me being here meant so much more than being home. Gonzaga is preparing me for success and is allowing me to experience new things that I could never dream of at home.

So if you’re still trying to decide on which school to go to, I encourage you to broaden your horizons and consider those schools that may be a little farther away from home; it will surely give you a chance to spread your wings and soar!

Here is a photo of a Malasada!
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Ruben ’14
Accounting and Human Resource Management

Charity Ball

February 13, 2012 in Ruben, Student Blogs by ryamada | Permalink

This weekend, I went to a dance, if you will, put on by an organization withing the Gonzaga University Community. The Knights and Setons of Gonzaga hosted their annual Charity Ball in Cataldo Hall. There was lots of music, pictures, “normal” dancing, and even swing dancing that occured at this event. I thought that it was really cool to kind of improvise on swing dancing because I had never done it before in my life. (BTW, the Knights and Setons of Gonzaga are two organizations on campus created with the foundations of service and leadership, you apply during your freshmen year and are active your sophomore year!) Anyway, back to dancing. Gonzaga has a lot of events that occur on the weekends. A lot of students have asked how I’ve spent my weekends and this is a perfect example. So here it is, a typical weekend (& a dance).

Normally, my friends and I make plans to get off campus. This particular weekend, we decided to take a 15 minute walk downtown to a sushi restaurant called Sushi.Com. We had dinner there for about an hour and chatted up a storm! We then headed back to campus to get ready for the night to come. At this time it was about 9 pm. Gonzaga is a safe community so it is usually alright for us to be walking around. However, if something out of the ordinary happens and someone is threatened, Gonzaga’s Campus Police (CAMPO) immediately notifies all students of faculty of what happened and advises students to be cautious. So, we got back to campus, safely, and changed into our nice clothes. Me and my friend walked over to Coughlin to pick up our dates to the dance and took pictures with them there. We headed to the dance and stayed there for about three hours. After that, we headed over to our on campus restaurant called “Spike’s” (named after our wonderful mascot) and ate some frozen yogurt. The night ended with us walking the girls back to their dorm and heading back to our room for a well deserved rest.

Now, I am not saying that this will happen every weekend, but this would be an ideal break from studying – For myself at least. Of course there will be some nights where you hang out in the dorms with friends watching movies, playing video games, or hanging out on Mulligan field tossing a ball around. This may sound typical, but your college experience is what you make of it. You need to realize that, yes college is about studying, but it is also about making life-long friends. BE SOCIAL! and get ready for some fun memories, Future Zags!

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Me and my date Hikaru.

Ruben ’14
Accounting and Human Resource Management

Four Tests, Two Performances, and One Happy Guy!

November 15, 2011 in Ruben, Student Blogs by ryamada | Permalink

By the title of this post, I hope you all know that this post is going to be about STRESS – my favorite topic. I’m going to give you a little sneak peek into the week in the life of RUBEN! This past week, I was jam packed with activities (an inevitable occurrence in a college student’s life).  How did I do it??? I guess I learned how to manage my stress without killing myself over it. FIRST, my four exams were TOUGH. I started studying for the tests two weeks in advance. One thing that really helped me was studying for each test for only an hour at a time. For some reason, this worked really well for me. My physics teacher told me that the brain can only focus on a subject for fifty minutes or so (please don’t quote me, lol).

Anyway, aside from the tests, I had two performances; one for Gospel Choir and another for the International Student Dinner. The time I spent practicing for these I counted as free time; which was fine for me because I love singing. Make sure that when you do have free time, spend it doing something that you love like writing, drawing, singing, watching movies; that way you can do something productive while giving yourself a break from all that studying.

Another thing that relieved some stress, for me, was writing things in my planner and crossing them off. Just the idea of crossing them off makes me feel like I have conquered something, that I’m victorious, and that I am awesome! By the end of the week, I find it a joy to look back at my planner with everything scratched up and done, forever!

There are many things that can be done to relieve stress and to manage time, these are just three of the things that I do to take care of this busy college life. Just remember to breathe when you have stress. Take time to sit alone, or with friends, and relax. But remember not too relax for too long because you need to prepare! So face every stressful week with an organized planner with a pen in hand to cross out, scratch up, and eliminate those tests, assignments, and meetings! Go get em!

Ruben ’14
Accounting and Business Administration

Dorm Life

November 8, 2011 in Elizabeth, Ruben, Student Blogs by Elizabeth | Permalink

I remember that when I was applying to colleges one of the things that I really wanted to know about was the dorm life. I wanted to see what the dorms looked like, how I got to select a roommate, if I really had to share a bathroom or walk down the hall to take a shower, the size of the rooms, what the best dorms were, the number of roommates I would have, parking lot, etc. I had two college tours and the one thing I was really looking forward to during the tour was the student dorms. Maybe I am just weird, but honestly I think that getting to see what the rooms look like and getting an idea of what to expect really helps you determine whether or not you can picture yourself in that campus for the next four years.

So here are a few things I learned about the GU dorm life:

  • You are required to live on campus for the first two years (unless there are special circumstances like having relatives here in Spokane, being from the area, etc.)
  • Room sizes vary from dorm to dorm, but the majority of them have the same furniture: two twin beds, two desks, chairs, two closets, drawers, two trashcans (trash/recycle) & a phone.
  • Roommates: During the summer you will get a survey about your living styles (what time you go to sleep, wake up, whether you are clean or not, do homework in your room, etc.).  This helps the Housing office pair you up with someone that might share the same living styles as you. Trust me it is nerve racking! But GU does a great job at trying to find your match! Also, there are some students who already know who they want to live with you can always request each other (but sometimes that’s not the best option)
  • Bathrooms: YES you do have to share bathrooms and sometimes even walk down the hall to take a shower. When I first learned about this I was NOT looking forward to it. I lived in Coughlin hall where the bathrooms are in the middle of each wing. There was one side of showers and the other side of stalls; it was something that I definitely had to get used to. But after a while I realized it was not as bad as it looked; having more than one shower allows you to take long showers without having someone complaining about how long you are taking and custodians clean the bathrooms! So that is one thing you can take off your chore list.
  • Room size: Again, it depends in which dorm you are staying. Some are very spacious, other ones are just big enough for you to live in, but there is one thing you can always do: LOFT YOUR BED. The lofting kits are the ones that allow you to raise your bed and make more space in your room. A lot of students place their desk under, put a couch there, etc. Also you can always get creative with the room setup to help make more space.
  • Best dorms: I lived in Coughlin for two years, so I will probably be biased in this response because I loved Coughlin. There are themed floors, libraries in the building, common areas, coffee shop downstairs, flat screen TVs, indoor parking lot and overall the Coughlin community is great! But there are also dorms like Madonna, CM, Marion, Desmet, Alliance and much more! Just know that wherever you get placed you will end up loving it!
  • Number of roommates: Almost everyone gets paired with one more person, but sometimes there are students that have two other roommates. (both of my years I had ONE roommate, but I had some friends that had two)
  • If you are thinking to live on campus you can always buy a parking permit. Coughlin has indoor parking space, which is nice for the winter season, but throughout the campus there are designated parking spaces for students!

Like I said earlier, the one thing I looked forward to in tours were the student dorms. So here are several pictures that Ruben took this past year of some dorms!

Alliance

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CM

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Coughlin

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DeSmet

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Madonna #1

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Madonna #2

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Elizabeth Class of ’13
International Studies of Latin America, Art & Spanish

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Hosts at Gonzaga Welcome You!

November 8, 2011 in Ruben, Student Blogs by ryamada | Permalink

This year, my roommate, Junior, and I are hosts. What does that mean? WELL, I am glad you asked! We are here for YOU! Basically our responsibilities include hosting prospective students overnight to allow them to experience Gonzaga at its finest! If you visit Gonzaga, I definitely think that you should take advantage of the hosting program that we have here. Typically, you would meet with your hosts at 5 pm and live the life that they live at Gonzaga. So, a night with me, for example, would include dinner, some studying, a club meeting, SLEEP!, gym in the morning and at 9 am you’re off to your busy, scheduled day. I really enjoy meeting new people and I want to be there to help you all with that difficult choice of choosing a college because I know that so much thought goes into it. I think I speak for all the hosts when I say you are totally welcome to come and visit with us!!! And you never know, staying a night on campus might help make that decision just a tiny bit easier!

Ruben 14
Accounting and Business Administration

Seasons Changing

October 31, 2011 in Ruben, Student Blogs by ryamada | Permalink

Want to hear about something that completely blows my mind??? SEASONS! It’s crazy how everything changes. I come from a place where there is no snow, and two seasons. Believe me when I say that these two seasons are exactly the same and that the only difference is that one season is wet, and one season is dry; although lately, it hasn’t been raining too much at home. However, in Spokane, you definitely get a taste of all four seasons of the year. Recently, the leaves on the trees have started changing colors and fall has announced its arrival! Spokane is such a beautiful place to live in and being here has taught me so much about change. After living in a place where the weather is consistent year-round, the changing seasons of Spokane remind me of how important it is to change. To become stagnant in life would bring about no creativity and no inspiration; however, change allows for something to become a blank canvas to be painted over to become more diverse and unique. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that the place that I come from doesn’t change and is terrible because it certainly does change (in its own way) but the changes of Spokane are much more evident. So, as you high school students begin to search for a college, don’t be afraid to venture out and search for a change. It’s totally natural and, in my opinion, healthy to long for something new and exciting in order to learn about another culture and be submersed in different kinds of values. If you ask me, I believe coming to Gonzaga to find that uniqueness was the absolute best decision I could have made. Like the seasons, change is beautiful; it allows for us to become that blank canvas to be painted on with values and morals that will shape us into the people we will become in the future.

Ruben ’14
Accounting and Business Administration

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A Whole New Year!

October 19, 2011 in Ruben, Student Blogs by ryamada | Permalink

This year I’m a sophomore. I’m returning to a place that’s familiar and I’m out of the dorms. But I have to say, looking at the new freshmen here at Gonzaga is reminding me of how great it was to come here for the first time. I came to Gonzaga from a town called Kahului on an island called Maui in the state of Hawaii. Coming here was only the second time I had ever left the islands so it’s safe to say that I was afraid. I didn’t know anyone and I was introduced to an entirely different culture from the culture I grew up with. I was also introduced to different faces that weren’t identical to the beautiful faces at home – not to say that the faces here aren’t beautiful, lol. But, I’m glad I stuck through all the loneliness and found my fit here at Gonzaga. I know it’s only been a couple of weeks, but looking at the freshmen makes me so happy. They are going to find their fit like I did with the Hawaii Club. They are going to find their lifetime friends like I have found with my roommate, “brother,” and “sister” here at Gonzaga. They are going to figure out how to manage their time and how important it is to fit coffee into their daily college schedules. They are going to meet new people and fall in love; just like I did as a freshman! And I can’t wait to be a part of it (well, at least for some of them!) Good luck and Go ZAGS!!!!

Ruben ’14

 

 

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