Home for the holidays!

Happy (Belated) Thanksgiving!

Or at least, I was for a couple days! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Mine was great, and the break was definitely too short, especially in comparsion to how much work I have to finish this week. Papers, exams, big assignments, all due this week. Hopefully I make it to Friday, since it's my birthday!

Anyways, one of the things I LOVE about DC is that getting to the airport isn't a hassle (usually, as long as I'm on time :) ) FOr flying home to Milwaukee, I always use Reagan National Airport. It couldn't be easier- hop on the Metro stop right on campus for the 15-20 minute ride directly to the airport!

Regean Nat'l Airport (with DC across the river in background)

Also available for students trying to get home for the holidays are Dulles Int'l Airport (in Chantilly, VA) and BWI- Thurgoog Marshall Airport (in Baltimore, MD) which are a little more difficult to get to but definitely still doable, especially since you can find really good deals at BWI for those flying farther.

Map with 3 airports: Dulles on left, Reagan lower center, BWI top right

In addition, those living on the east coast have additional options, like a train or a bus.

Union Station, Washington DC

Not only is Union Station a great tourist attraction, shopping center, and historical building with an awesome food court (best place to go if everyone in your group can't agree), it also can get you home for the holidays by Amtrak!

Bolt Bus leaving DC

Another option I mentioned is the bus. Having taken it this summer from DC to NYC for a friend's 21st  birthday celebration, it is definitely a viable option. With WI-FI, outlets, and fares starting at $1, if you don't mind it taking a little longer to get home, Bolt Bus would be my recommendation, especially if you just want to get away to NYC for a weekend.

~Vickie

Choosing a Major

I have been recieving a few emails from readers about the Political Science major and program.  I love my program because of all of the opportunities I have been exposed to by internships, events, classes, and everything.

However, I did not apply as a Political Science major.  I applied to GW as a Communications major and decided to declare Political Science instead.  A lot of you are worried about being dedicated to one major from the start of day 1.  You d have an opportunity to change your major and even your school if you need to.

No one officially has to declare their major before their sophomore year.  Up until that point you can explore different departments in your school or transfer to another school if you are leaning in another direction.  While you have these opportunities, I would not take them lightly.  Changing schools can be a hassle and can add an extra year of college if you do it too late.  Just be smart about these types of things, but know that you have room to move.

Turkey Day, College Style

Hello out there,

Happy Thanksgiving! I had a lovely weekend and am now gearing up to go home tomorrow!!! I am very excited to see my family and to eat some home cooked meals! However, like me, my friends love Thanksgiving so we like to have a little home-cooking right here at GW. Since my Sophomore year, my friends and I have gathered to celebrate Thanksgiving together before all going home.

[This isn't really our table. We're in college! We don't have that much time on our hands. Why do you think I'm excited to go home?]






To me, it makes sense. When you are away from your home and your family, GW becomes home and your friends become your family, so why not celebrate together? We all cook or buy something to contribute to the meal, and we go all out. I'm talking turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes, green been casarole--the works.

The past two years have been a time for all of the people I worked with in summer 2008 to get together. The Visitor Information Program, or VIP for short, is a summer program through the GW Undergraduate Admissions Office where students live and work together in the Admissions Office and as tour guides. There were about 20 of us in 2008 (2k8) and we get together every so often to catch up--especially around the holidays. Last year we had Thanksgiving at our friend's apartment and almost all of us came (except those who were studying abroad) and enjoyed a huge feast! This year, my roommate and 2k8 alum, Spencer, and I hosted. Although not as many people were able to come, we still had a lot of food and fun! I made mashed potatoes and bought cranberry sauce. We had turkey, two types of stuffing, mashed sweet potatoes, candied yams, and my friend Emily's specialty, corn pudding (which sounds kind of weird but it's really actually very good). We, of course, had pumpkin pie for dessert and spiced cider. Yum! We all had a great time and it just puts me in the mood to go home and eat more Thanksgiving goodies!

It's a dreary day here in DC and I can't wait to go home tomorrow afternoon. My friend from high school goes to American University so we are driving home together, as we have the past two years. I'm lucky enough to have a group of friends who like holidays as much as I do, and we have some great traditions, even beyond the holidays. Wherever you end up, I'm sure you'll find friends with whom you'll make your own traditions!

--Abby

Prime Protocol

On Tuesday night, Morton's The Steakhouse hosted a business etiquette dinner for selected GW seniors.  I was honored to be part of the group of nine students that were chosen to participate in this program.  We spent the evening at Morton's enjoying excellent food and service and learning a great deal about dining etiquette. Our Morton's hosts were extremely generous and made us feel very welcome. Morton's etiquette program, entitled "Prime Protocol," was recently restarted, and the dinner for GW was only the second one that they have hosted.  The plan to do a similar program for USC students in California, and perhaps a dinner for Georgetown students sometime next semester.

We learned a lot of useful tips, tools and rules for business dining.  Did you know that it is acceptable to eat asparagus with your fingers unless it is being served with a sauce on it? Before Tuesday, I would have cut my asaparagus, but from now on I'll be eating my spears as a finger food! 

It was such a privilege to attend this event, and I am sure that the etiquette tools that I learned will be put to good use in the future!

GW seniors with our Morton's hosts

-Jamie

Reunion

So this weekend was great. So great in fact that I cannot seem to find the motivation to do any work this week.

Well, what was I doing? I met up with a group of my friends from my abroad program in Sevilla, Spain. It was so great to see all my friends and catch up with everyone. My friend and I borrowed my roommates car and drove 5 hours to Penn State University (She and I both go to GW and were in the same program). We met up with four of our friends who attend PSU, along with two of our friends from Indiana, and two friends from New York City. The group of us had a nice dinner and hung out for the weekend, reminiscing about our amazing experiences in Sevilla.

After the long drive home, I looked through some of my pictures and got to thinking: how can I get back to Spain?  As a senior with no real plan, I'm seriously considering teaching English abroad for a year or two. There are so many options out there though, how can I narrow it down? After a few Google searches, I realized that I would need some more help. So, I decided to email the Career Center.  They have a specific position devoted to work abroad. I emailed him and set up an appointment to discuss options for Spain and a few other countries. I have yet to meet with him but I am sure the appointment will be very helpful, and while I'm there I plan on bringing my resume by for a little help too. There are a lot of programs and jobs and things that I'm interested in applying to and it's always important to have an up to date resume.

It's so nice to have a place on campus to help out with such a big decision. I may not know exactly what I want to do next year, but it's nice to know that there's a place that can help me with whatever I decide.

--Abby

GW Today, Newspapers and Other Sources...

Last week in an interview, I was asked, "how do you get your news?" and I honestly had to stop and think about all of the places that I catch up on the news every day.  When you live in the epicenter of some of the most critical news in our nation, it is important to always know what is going on.  I live about 5 blocks from the White House which means that the news is sometimes happening right around the corner from my apartment.  

Here's a list of the best ways to get news on campus:

• The GW Hatchet is GW's student newspaper that is published twice a week.  You can pick it up in print pretty much anywhere on campus, but I have it delivered to my email and usually read it that way. 
• GW Today is a new online news source that can be found on the University's website. 
• Obviously, you have television news.  I usually turn on CNN in the mornings when I get ready to make sure I'm caught up on anything that may have happened while I was sleeping! 
• The GW Reads program provides free copies of the New York Times, Washington Post and USA Today in every residence hall.  I try to grab a copy of the Post on my way out the door to have with me throughout the day. 
• The School of Business has free copies of the Wall Street Journal available to School of Business students - another paper that you're likely to find in my tote bag on any given day. (Who says newspapers are going out of style?!)
• Lastly, when I meet my group project teams in the lobby of Duques Hall or if I'm passing through on my way to class, the television screens are almost always tuned to CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, etc...so I can get a quick glance at what is going on in the world. (You'll find TVs tuned to news channels in the Marvin Center as well.)

As great as it would be to have an hour every day to read the papers and watch the news its just not likely to happen for most college students, but as you can see there are a ton of ways that students can get news throughout their busy days! 

And for this senior, the only kind of days I have lately are busy ones! I just got back from another weekend in New York.  I spent Thursday night and Friday in Connecticut where I visited with friends and had a job interview at a small PR firm in Norwalk, CT.  On Friday afternoon, I went into New York to attend the Advertising Women of New York (AWNY) Career Conference.  College students from business and marketing programs all over the country gathered at the Fashion Institute of Technology on Friday evening and all day Saturday for the conference.  We heard from top executives at several agencies and had the opportunity to attend workshop sessions on a huge variety of topics in the advertising industry.  It was an excellent experience! 

Now another week of school and work before I head home for Thanksgiving next week! Countdown to the end of my undergraduate education: 32 days!

-Jamie

Co-ed Housing the way of the Future?

As I was looking through the latest issue of the GW Hatchet, I came across an interesting article about the Student Association getting ready to introduce a bill supporting co-ed housing opportunities.  Currently, GW housing programs only allow single sex rooms in co-ed buildings.  This means, that other for Strong Hall, the only single sex dorm, all housing buildings have co-ed floors.

Changing policy to allow students to request the opposite sex as a roommate is not unheard of these days.  I read an article about University of Chicago testing out new policies to allow non-freshmen to request roommates regardless of sex.  These policies are created for those who simply want to room with a guy or a girl as well as for the LGBT community.  It would negate any regulation restricting transgender students.

GW Senior Vice President is on record saying GW is not investigating any change in policy.  The Student Association bil will simply show support for research and change, but not force the university to take any action.

We will see if this changes in the next few years.  It is an interesting concept, and has been tried at other universities like Syracuse and Brown.

Kim

PS: there is also an article about Early Decision Applicants in the Hatchet if you want to check it out.

Something Cool

Hey there!

Wonder why I have a picture from Grey's up? Read on!

Just wanted to quickly share something we here at GW thought was pretty cool... on the newest episode of Grey's Anatomy this week, they mentioned G-Dub! I'm not quite a rabid fan of the show, but some of my friends who are were watching together and said they shrieked when they heard it. Apparently, Kim Raver's new doctor did her residency at GW Hospital. Good to know that the writes of Grey's have such good taste! Maybe I will start watching more....

George Washington University Hospital

Here's a link to the episode on Hulu, the mention comes at about 6:58....

Well, more to come later, just wanted to share :)

Vickie

Just Another Saturday Nite

Every so often, I have a moment where all I can say is "Oh G-Dub".

This past Saturday was one of those. As I was working on my thesis

last Sat. nite (which was due on Tuesday! All done- yay!) I took a five minute break.... that stretched into thirty... checking out facebook.

Bad plan, I know. As I was perusing the stalkerish news feed,

I noticed that almost all of my GW friends' statuses were some

variation of "Christie is watching CSPAN"... So of course I check it out and

discover that the Health Care Reform Bill debate was going on and that they were expecting to vote sometime that night. Needless to say, I spent the rest of the night watching CSPAN and semi-working on my thesis.. which explains why I was awake most of Monday night/Tuesday morning finishing it up... but that's another story :)

Only at GW would so many students willingly stay in on a Saturday night to watch CSPAN to watch the House of Reps debate then vote on a bill. Students here are definitely politically-aware, and with good reason. Our location in DC makes G-Dub a magnet for political speakers; for example, just today H Street right in the middle of campus was shut down by Secret Service because Michelle Obama and Jill biden were speaking in Lisner Auditorium in honor of Veteran's Day.

Like I said, all I can say is, Welcome to DC!

Vickie

Procrastination at its Finest

So, to prevent working on my take home exam for my policy analysis class, and before I watch How I Met Your Mother (you should watch it if you don't already...) I have decided to share with you the wealth of GW twitter. 

As most of you know or use, twitter is a viral service that basically takes the Facebook status and creates a social networking site for each user.  I started my twitter account less than a year ago after doing a lot of research on social media for my internship last Spring.  Since then I have found friends, celebrities, and yes GW using the new service.  Right now, I follow 12 twitter accounts associated with GW: @GWWomensRugby, @Sustain_GW, @gwhatchet, @OurGWSA (the GW Student Association [student government]), @watchgw, @GW_cig (a new student organization of campus called Colonial Impact Group), @GWtweets, @ColonialCal (a comprehensive calendar of submitted student organization events), @GWGeorge (the spirt programs), @GWToday (a university released publication), @GWPB (program board, the main programming council on campus), and finally @GWFreeFinder.  All of these help me stay informed about the happenings on campus even across the world.

I would suggest that if you have a twitter, or are thinking about starting one, search for GW and see what you find.  You might find an organization that you are interested in investigating, or an intersting facts about the cheer team.  Who knows, maybe in a few weeks you will see a GW Admissions twitter.  (I will keep you posted on that one.)

Kim

My Application

As most of you are in the process of looking over applications and polishing up those essays, I wanted to share part of my GW application.  As most of you know, every applicant has to write a "why GW" essay.  This part of the application is meant to express your interest in GW and why you want to attend.  My essay, although written about 3 years ago is still very applicable to my life at GW.  I hope you enjoy.

     My first true exposure of the GW community was when I was a part of the Sibling Colonial Inauguration   program.  This showed me the wonders of the GW campus, as well as the Washington, DC atmosphere.  I saw that the entire campus, though very spread out, maintained a sense of community and pride.  Every student walking down the street seemed to have a positive air.  They were happy to be a part of the GW family.  The program also showed me the wonders of the nation s capitol such as the monuments I had only seen in books.
    Since my CI adventure, I have been out to DC to visit my sister one on one.  While there, I sat in on a class and I was amazed at the amount of knowledge in one room.  The class was based on the problems and possible solutions in Africa, a topic I have never really been exposed to, but never the less, I was able to understand the class.  The way in which the information was presented was more than a typical lecture.  There was participation, laughter, and plenty of writing.  That classroom shows me that not every college is as generic as the others that I have visited.  GW holds diverse classes, not only in the sense of topics, but with the people that take them.  There are people on every side of every debate, and this fact will help me to open my mind to ideas and concepts I would never fathom.  Another classroom aspect that attracts me to GW is the technology resources.  The online notes, lectures, and other programs will help me learn in a way which is best for me.  I will be able to rewrite notes if they are lost, study even if I miss a class, and ask questions outside of the classroom.  The classes of my college education are the most important thing to me.  I am not going to school to have a good time; I am going to school to elevate myself to a higher level of my own life.  The classroom is the bull s eye to my college target.
    The first ring to my target is the campus and its community.  At GW I would be able to find a close-knit feel in residence halls and activities.  The dorms at GW are amazing.  They are not the typical college dorm room in my eyes.  However, my liking of the dorms does not have to do with the physical attributes.  I appreciate that dorm floors almost become a family.  Having a sense of family seven hundred miles away from home is important to me.  The activities offered at GW are also appealing to me.  I have always wanted to be a part of a radio station, an a cappella choir, and a political activism organization.  GW will allow me to be a part of all of these and more.  I cannot image where else this is possible.  GW holds an appreciation for every difference among its students.
    The city of Washington, DC has put me in a state of wonder for years.  On one corner there will be a protest, and on the next a counter-protest.  This is the city that I wish to jumpstart my future.  I want to be thrown into the rapid world of political activity.
    GW would be an amazing experience to remember for the rest of my life.  It is my dream to one day sit on the White House lawn waiting to receive my hard-earned diploma.


Kim

Halloween Weekend!

Hello everyone!

I've been totally MIA lately and I apologize. October has been verrrryyyy busy for me with midterms, soccer, and the like. Let me recap my weekend for you a bit.

It, of course, was Halloween weekend and like most college students, I had a great weekend. Our weekend began early on Thursday night with a little get together at my apartment. We finally had a housewarming party--4 months later! Better late than never I suppose. Friday night I had a soccer filled evening. My intramural co-ed soccer team, Sporting Von Wolfhausen, played in the two post-season games, and won them both! We then went on to play on Sunday night and won in a real nail bitter! We have made it to the finals a few times and have never won so it was so amazing to win for our senior year! Here's a nice little picture of us in our champions shirt!!

On Saturday, I ran some errands in the morning, including visiting Comcast to return some equipment (oh, the responsibilities of living off campus) and Martin Luther King, Jr. Branch of the DC Public Library for some research for a paper (oh, the perils of writing a 25 page paper). For Saturday night, my friend and I dressed up as Army girls and a bunch of us went to a few of our friend's places. We had a pretty early night but it is always fun on Halloween to see some of the crazy costumes. I think my favorite was my friend who dressed as his Facebook page! He had a marker and a wall you could write on and everything. My other friend dressed up as Medusa. She wore a green, flowly dress and even tied rubber snakes into her hair. She wore green tights and painted her nails bright green too.

On Sunday I relaxed in the morning, played in our championship game, and then did a lot of work in the wonderful Gelman Library. Luckily, our library is open 24 hours. I went up to the 6th floor, got into one of those wonderfully comfortable red chairs and sat down to write for a few hours. I got all my work done--for Monday anyway!

Hope everyone had a great Halloween! Stay tuned for more on being a Senior at GW!

--Abby

What does "GW" really stand for?

I know what you're thinking: "GW stands for George Washington...as in The George Washington University...DUH!"

Well, yes, you're right.  You'll notice that we're all very clever with sticking a "G" in front of all words that begin with "W" such as GWorld, GWired, GWellness, GWork, etc...life as a GW student is filled with dozens of "GW-isms."

As a GW School of Business student, GW also stands for Group Work.  As a senior, I have a group project in every class this semster and I've become an expert at working with my peers, setting up meetings, working through GoogleDocs to get projects done and presenting with my project teams in front of my classes.  While it was a difficult learning tool to get used to early in my undergraduate career, I have now mastered the art of working in a team.  In some classes, I have been allowed to choose my own group and in others groups were selected by the professor. This semester I have had a wide variety of group projects from writing an event plan for a professional sports team fan dinner to an extensive case study about Whole Foods. Sure, there are sometimes problems.  There are group members that don't participate, group members who free-ride, group members who are too bossy, but it always gets done, and each project is an opportunity to gain experience in working with different kinds of people.

In addition to academic projects that require students to work with their peers, we also have a lot of opportunities to work with teams in co-curricular events.  This year, the School of Business will be hosting the first ever Battle of the Beltway case competition sponsored by Deloitte.  GWSB juniors are forming teams of four to compete in this case competition which will be hosted at GW.  They will be competeing against teams from Georgetown, American and Howard.  I'm sure that GW will be represented by some excellent teams, and hopefully we will win the inaugural Battle of the Beltway!

GWSB Students in class in Duques Hall

Class projects and events like the Battle of the Beltway case competition provide students with an excellent opportunity to develop strong teamwork skills - a highly marketable skill for internships and jobs. Trust me, professors aren't kidding  when they say that you'll be working with teams after college!

On another note, Halloween was a blast!  I went to a costume party on Friday night and saw a lot of really creative and funny costumes!  On Saturday, I went to a farm and pumpkin patch in Maryland with some of my business fraternity brothers.  There was beautiful scenery, carmel apples, a corn maze, hay rides and lots of pumpkins!

Butlers Orchard in Germantown, MD

Hope everyone had a great Halloween!  I can hardly believe that it is already November and the end of my time as an undergrad at GW is getting closer... yikes!

-Jamie

G-Dub Volleyball Digs Pink & Basketball Preview

This past Friday night GW's women's volleyball team hosted its annual "Dig Pink" night to raise awareness for the fight against breast cancer, wearing special pink jerseys.

This season, I haven't missed a home game for the volleyball team, but it's not just because I'm a fan- I have special incentive this year, because my freshman sister is on the team :) That would be her, third from the right. Here's the link to the match summary, they beat Temple university in 3 games, so it was a great night.

My roommates and I have practically become the teams official cheerleaders... maybe we should get some pom-poms? Oh wait, we already have them haha :) We've had a lot of fun cheering on GW and showing support for our volleyball team. Only 2 more home games to go, so cross your fingers!

Three of the six freshmen on the team.        

My Sister and I after the match.

Speaking of GW Sports, this post wouldn't be complete without a mention of our basketball teams. Since we don't have a football team, our school comes together every year in support of our mens and womens basketball teams. If you want to see GW spirit at its best, stop in at one of our home games. Just the other weekend, we had our annual Colonial Invasion, our big basketball season kick-off,

whose theme was "Are You Buff Enough?",

featuring performances by Capital Funk, GW's own hip-hop dance crew,

Chi-town Bucket Boys, a Chicago based drumming group that wowed the crowd with their fast paced and trick filled routine; Flipping Out, an Olympic style trampoline group that put on a routine that was nothing short of amazing; and the Rim Lockers, a trampoline dunking squad from Milwaukee that capped off their show by jumping over George, the Colonials’ mascot. Both teams also performed dance routines, to the crowd's surprise, although the women's team was interrupted by some technical glitches still being worked out in our newly renovated Smith Center.

Definitely a great way to get GW fans pumped up for the new season!

Vickie

Halloween in Sydney and DC

Last night was a fun-filled night out on the town full of costumes and friends.  While I have never spent a Halloween outside of the country I always assumed it would be basically the same everywhere.  I was wrong.  In Australia Halloween is not as big of a holuday as it is in the States.  Chalk this up to commercialized America or the apathetic Australians, but the festivities were not as themed as I have seen in the past.

In DC almost every person is dressed in some kind of costume on te night of All Hallow's Eve.  In Sydney, we were lucky is we saw someone with devil horns.  We made the best of it.  A few clubs were having costume parties so we knew where to head.  We went to Circular Quay (the main ferry transit station in Sydney, home of the Sydney Opera House) and walked around to enjoy the cool night air.  We soon made our way to Argyle where I saw Jokers, Winnie the Pooh, cowboys, and ironically enough, Native Americans.  While I don't make it to this place very often, I must admit that it is one of the cooler places I have been in Sydney.  the entire building is wooden, 2 levels with dancefloors and a floating DJ above it all in his glass box.

If I was at GW, I would attend the annual Drag Race down P Street.  The best of the best of drag queens come out for a parade and then a race down the street in heels, costumes, and the mayor! On Halloween night I would dress up with a few friends and go to the annual Rocky Horror Picture Show put on by Forbidden Planet Productions.  It is a tradition that should not be missed.

Either place, Halloween is a great night to dress up and have a ton of fun with your friends.  I hope all of you enjoyed your night.

Email me at kwollner@gwmail.gwu.edu if you have any questions!

Kim