Finals are approaching

I am finished with today's class and about to head to work, one more day of classes before finals. I only have three finals and they're all on Wednesday, oh joy. The plus side is that I have all day Monday to study and then Tuesday before work. These are my last days at Penn State York before I go up to University Park. It's very sad and I'll definitely miss this campus and all of the wonderful people here but I'm still super excited to have an apartment and start out on my own. I'll come back to visit over the Fall semester and I'm inviting everyone to come up and visit UP. I'm rooming with Nicole Lau and we're going to have the coolest apartment ever! We plan to make our own curtains and decorative pillows! We've decided that the apartment's official band will be the Beatles and we're super excited to start moving in on August 22nd, it'll be crazy hectic since that's move in day for the whole campus. But first: summer!!!! I want more of the wonderful weather that we had on Monday and Tuesday but I suppose I shall have to be patient for that as well.
In other news: Paul comes home in about four weeks!!!!!! and then I get to see my boating friends in MD. I'll try to update with pictures over the summer but now it's time to head to work.
HB

Getting Ready for the Summer Semester

Ah, the end of the semester is here. Although that thought is comforting, I am going to tie up my Summer by taking 2 classes through the Penn State-World Campus. Both of these classes are GA courses and by finishing them, they will complete all of my GER courses. After having taken several courses through the World Campus, I believe that this will be an excellent way to earn 6 cr hrs of course work without hindering my Summer too much. The good thing about taking online courses in the Summer is that I am still able to go on vacation and not have to worry about missing any class time. The only down fall is that I will have to either work ahead or take my course work with me on vacation. Another positive of taking online courses is that I can sit at home, have a beer, and no one is the wiser. Take that Penn State! To all who read this, I wish you all a safe and memorable summer.

Best Wishes, Corey Baughman

Why am I doing this?

I am so looking forward to the end of this semester. As many adult learners, I do not have the luxury of living off mommy and daddy while going to school. I have been doing the college thing since my days in the Army (1997) to now. At the end of this semester, I will have accumulated approximately 95 credit hours of college from 6 different colleges. Seven if you count the credit hours earned from my Army training. Although I am nearing the end, I still have until the Spring of 2011 until I earn my degree. That last thought chaps my ass.

I continually ask myself why I am doing this. I already have a nice house and a great family. The job I have now pays a significant amount more that what an entry level HD FS major will start out with. I need or want for nothing. I am pretty much on my own terms in life. When I get my master's degree in rehabilitative counseling, I will probably still take a pay cut and have a significantly longer commute. Two years until graduation seems so far away. I have not had a semester off since I have started to include the summer 2008 semester. I am taking 2 classes this summer, 3 classes in the fall 2009 semester, and 3 in the spring 2010 semester. Count it out and that is 7 straight semesters without a break. I feel that I am a glutton for punishment.
What I tell myself is that I want to accomplish this goal. I want to accomplish is when it is and is not conveinent for me. I want to be a role model for my kids and for others who are multi tasking like me. When others tell me that they can not do college, I just look at them and tell them that if I can do it under these circumstances and responsibilities, so can they. The biggest key to being successful and sane is time management. I accomplish the task at hand and prepare for tasks as few others do. I am by far not one of the smartest students at Penn State-York. However, I know I am one of the best at time management and preparing class.
What am I getting out of this? A bald head and a serious case of insomnia. No seriously, I am getting the satisfaction knowing that all of this education and training will one day go towards assisting service-connected veterans with their reintegration into civilian life. They will have the opportunity to had one of them identify and assist them. Why am I doing this? I am doing this for my fellow veteran and for our community and so that my children will understand the importance of education.

Greyscale to full blown color

Heyyyyyyloooo everybody,
after a really long time my mind has finally been reignited and has a myriad of so many different things to tell you about! To be honest I havent been having the best of times ever since spring break and went through a really rough phase where loneliness, sadness, depression and all those negative things crept in. You know how it feels sometimes that you are in one of those old greyscale movies which you found so dull and boring as a kid and everything around you was dull, lifeless with no chance of escape caught in that small TV box.....thats exactly how it was. Cut off from the world, I yearned for and really missed my mother, my girlfriend and all those wonderful friends whom I talked about before. Life needed some color indeed.........and I was done here, ready to go home....
Sometimes, when its dark, or grey, or white, with no seeming possibility to add that excitement, all it takes is a drop of color to drip on the canvas and its pure joy... such a simple thing can make the difference in the world! And thats exactly what happened when I joined the Unity Day planning committee. I swear to you at that moment there was no chance I thought this small decision to attend would change my life here. But it did... UNITY WEEK 2009 was here
For the first time ever Penn State York, the only campus that celebrates this event amongst all other PSU campuses, decided to expand the event from one day to an entire week , giving the opportunity for each continent to display its cultures & diversity with its food, music, clothing etc etc etc. Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas would each have their day. The ending day would be the traditional Unity Day, where all these continents came together and end the week with a big bang!After weeks and weeks of meetings with planning, running around, organizing this and that, hundreds of emails and worrying and brainstorming, the event was finally here.
Unity week opened with Europe displaying its art and history and culture. With tables from Germany, France, Croatia and french food, there was a hustle and bustle in the Student community center such as never before. Suddenly the hallway was filled with balloons, tables , posterboards, cooking utensils and nice food! Amazing!
Then came the Americas with their unique blend of latin songs and dances, awesome food and colorful posters. Laura had an awesome booth for her country Peru and equally good was her rice and meat dish.
(contd)

PSYMUN09

Penn State York Model United Nations (PSYMUN) hosted the annual high school crisis simulation yesterday. I've been working on this simulation for the past few weeks trying to make sure the high schools have all the info they need, we have the classrooms, awards and IT support that we need as well as food for breakfast and lunch. Luckily, it all worked. We had five committees this year: France, USA, UK, Russia, China (they happen to be the five veto powers on the United Nations Security Council. Four high schools were able to attend (some of them didn't have school yesterday for Easter Break): Cedar Cliff, Susquenita, Red Land, and Penn Manor. Susquenita received the overall first place high school award and the top two students from each committee room received Outstanding Delegate and Honorable Mention. If you're interested in seeing what crises the students were confronted with as well as what actions they decided to take visit our newsfeed.
Thanks to everyone who helped me with figuring out how to put on this conference for the students.
Hunter Schenck
PSYMUN President
Lion Ambassadors Historian

Well, here I am one year later from when I started at Penn State-York. I have finally gotten into the groove of things and all my classes are going well. For the first time in my life, I kind of understand Math. I have just completed my world campus course 6 weeks early and believe that I will get an "A". All in all, my experience here has been positive. The staff and faculty at Penn State are top notch. I have had to use the Nittany Success Center and was impressed with the resources that are available to us students.
I have had several issues with my academic progress and was impressed with the amount of support that I received. A word of advice to anyone who has ever had issues with their paperwork, do not stop advocating for yourself. For any of the adult learners out there, Dr. Crist is a pleasure to work with and she is an excellent advocate for all of us adult learners.