Welcome to Stonehill!

Orientation is here! Stonehill College welcomed about 1/2 of the Class of 2013 this morning and below are some pictures of the Opening Ceremony. The rest of the class will attend the second session starting this Thursday. Be sure to check out our student blogs are well. Kayla will write about her experiences as an Assistant Orientation Coordinator and Kathleen who is starting to blog for us next week will tackle Orientation from the First Year perspective. Here's the link to our student blogs! http://www.stonehill.edu/x13106.xml



Stonehill President Father Mark Cregan welcomes parents and students


2009 Peer Mentors in all their glory





Here is a video of the Peer Mentors in action doing the "Stonehill Cheer!"

Why not?

Photo of Ace and myself....just for kicks.

Loyola School Visits Stonehill

Quick shout out to the wonderful students at the Loyola School in NY. About 40 of their students came to visit Stonehill last week as part of a whirlwind 5 day tour of colleges in the New England Area. Here is a picture that was taken of the group before they left campus:


I'm glad they enjoyed their visit...I know we did!

Yeahhh summer!

Sigh. This sound can be heard around the country in every single Admissions Office. Summer is here! Finally! We're done with recruitment/travel, reviewing applications, event planning! While we still offer tours and group information sessions, the summer is definitely a more quiet time in our office. We keep ourselves busy with summer projects, planning fall recruitment and of course welcoming visitors. We also get to take the bulk of our vacation time during the summer. While Eric and I will keep you updated on all that is new at Stonehill, we hope you'll stick with us as we share a few personal photos from our summer fun!

Big news! Liz Stender from our office is now Liz Cheron! I had the opportunity to attend her wedding on the Cape over Memorial Day weekend. Here's some pictures-some stolen from her wedding photographer's website, some are my own. I think it's pretty obvious which are which!

Mr. and Mrs. Cheron!

I love oysters!!!

Stonehill representatives at the wedding

I spent this weekend spending some time in Columbia, South Carolina visiting friends from my semester abroad in France. This picture is from Teddie's going away party at a restaurant in The Vista called "Liberty." Teddie's moving to Philly to follow the love of her life (and our mutual friend from France) so her office threw her a going away party that Melanie and I attended. We spent Friday by the pool, Saturday at Lake Murray and Sunday going to the movies. Great people, good times....I miss them already!

Besides South Carolina, it's a pretty tame summer for me. I think I exhausted all my resources last year in California, Las Vegas, Newport and Myrtle Beach. I'll mostly be relaxing at my aunt's lake house in Connecticut, spending some quality time with my family in Central Mass, and visiting friends from college. My family is OBSESSED with the 4th of July so perhaps some of those pictures will make it up here. My uncles and cousins always put on a DIY fireworks display that gets more out of hand every year. I'm sure Eric will have much more exciting updates to come!

NEACAC: Good Times...Great People!

Hello!

Since we last spoke myself and several members of the staff went to NEACAC. What is NEACAC you say? Well, about 400 Admission and School/College Counseling Professionals descended on the campus of WNEC (Western New England College) last week for the annual New England Association for College Admission Counseling’s (NEACAC) Annual Meeting and Conference

The conference is designed for one to reconnect with fellow admissions colleagues, network, learn some relevant information about our wonderful profession by attending sessions that are run by our peers, and fit in some time for fun too!

This year the conference offered over 75 sessions for people to choose from. I co-chaired the programming committee for the conference this year so I was lucky enough to get a sneak peak at what was offered at the conference. It is always fun to see what the feedback is like after the sessions are complete. I have to say we have heard some great things!

To give you a sense of what types of sessions are offered at NEACAC, here is a sampling that were offered this year:

Admissions and Financial Aid In An Adverse Economy

Counseling the College Essay

You Can Do It: Attending Graduate School While Working Full Time

Exploring The Implications of Changing Demographics

Generation X—The Game Show

Training and Retaining your Student Ambassadors

The Use of Standardized Test in Undergraduate Admissions: A Conversation

Engaging Faculty in the Recruitment Process

Your Mom Reads My Blog: The Power of Social Media in Higher Education

Now, This is just a partial list but as you can see there is quite a variety to what is offered. After attending sessions and meetings for a majority of the day we transition into reconnecting with friends and having some fun!

One of the most anticipated events is the legendary game of BINGO...Now this isn't your Grandmother's BINGO...This is BINGO, Admissions Style! There are exciting prizes and some heated competitions. Some prizes this year included an IPOD, Wii, Blue Ray Player, and more!Best part about BINGO? All of the proceeds went to the a charity called the Imagine Fund. It is a great program.

Here are a few Pics from Bingo:

Your faithful Bloggers eagerly anticipating the beginning of Bingo.

Evan got a severe case of Bingo Elbow...He'll be ok

Katie showing us the tools of the BINGO trade.

Unfortunately no one at our table won BINGO... )c:

Another well run piece of entrainment was a Luau-themed party!

Here's Liz from our office getting into the spirit of the event!

As you can see a few of us at least attempted to find a Hawaiian shirt to wear.

All in all it was a great conference. I learned a great deal, met new friends and reconnected with old ones, and left with the motivation to move on towards next year and the search for the class of 2014!

Graduation

This past Sunday 568 members of the class of 2009 celebrated their commencement. I am very proud of our graduates.

While every graduating class is special I have to say, personally, this class is one of the most special.

5 years ago, my first year in Admissions with Stonehill, I had the chance to meet many future members of this class during my first year of travel. I read many of their applications and even accepted a few! I remember seeing their potential back then, and I was very excited about the impact they could have on our campus.

Now they are graduating...

While this makes me feel a bit old, I still couldn't be more proud. So many realized that potential and I have to say one of the best parts of my job has been getting the chance to watch these students grow. From shy seniors in high school met during a college fair, to graduates with unlimited promise and potential...This is why we do what we do...to find students that will make a difference, who will leave Stonehill a better place than when they found it...They did not disappoint.

I think it's safe to say that most people in Admissions remember their "first class"...I know I will. thanks Class of 09 and best of luck to you in the future!

To see some pictures from graduation click here

Wrapping up spring travel and the academic year

As many of you know, we do the bulk of our recruitment efforts in the fall, but there are some select fairs we attend in the spring to talk to students that are current sophomores and juniors. I was in Pennsylvania recently recruiting in Wilkes Barre and the Main Line area. My buddy Neil from Wentworth Institute of Technology had been raving about this Bed and Breakfast in Wilkes-Barre so I decided to try it out for myself! Below are some pictures from the Hillard House which I would highly recommend :)

The music room. I'm not so gifted in this area so I just admired.

My cute bathroom!

Who doesn't love a canopy bed?

Neil and I owned breakfast-the aftermath. Fresh fruit, banana bread, coffee, orange juice, apple bread pudding drizzled in homemade caramel sauce and ham. Y-U-M!

In all, a great trip to PA! We're really drumming up some great interest for Stonehill in this area so it's an exciting place to travel. I'll be there again next fall so look out for Stonehill at your high school or local college fair!

As for on campus news...the academic year has come to a close! We're very sad to see the Class of 2009 leave us, especially the students who work in our office, some of whom we've know for 4 years! Here's some pictures from the student worker ice cream social we hold every year in the spring.

We love our students!

Eamon digs right in



Student Ambassador Coordinators Liz and Andrew chow down

Best of luck Stonehill Class of 2009! We love you and will miss you! As for 2013, you have a really fun 4 years ahead of you...we'll see you in June for Orientation!