Something about the Author

Hi everyone,

I hope my blog finds you all in high spirits. So aside from my first blog and my introduction, what do you really know about me?

I figure if your going to be reading my blog, you should all get to know me. As you probably already know I am Patrick Creegan and I am a sophomore finance major here at school. I applied to Siena by using their fast forward application and found out about my acceptance in early November of my senior year. I was accepted to numerous schools but I just knew Siena was for me. I love it all, from the picturesque landscape of the campus to how every student holds the door for one another. I just felt that sense of community that I was looking for.

My favorite movie is the Godfather. And in the Godfather, Don Corleone says, "Do you spend time with your family? Good, because a man who doesn't spend time with his family can never be a real man." I have always considered myself as a family man and as you may have guessed, freshman year I became very homesick. I made three awesome friends freshman year who I consider brothers. I'll never forget this one night we had together. We were all homesick and just wanted to be home. We all sat on the floor of my room and ate ice cream out of the carton and just talked about home. Those three friends are now brothers and my current roommates.

I was so nervous about moving into college and about making friends. But why do we go to college? Aside from advancing education, we go for a new beginning, a fresh start. We begin again. My new beginning has gone even better than I could possibly fathom.

And I know wherever your road leads you, you will find the same.

Until next week and to all of your success,

Patrick

Debating in the Rain

Well things are finally starting to settle into a routine thank goodness. Tonight I'm heading over to watch the presidential debate at our dining hall, affectionately known as "Saga." The political science faculty will be there to discuss the outcome of the debate and the issues relevant to the campaign. Speaking of elections, a new effort is underway at Siena to get everyone registered to vote. Whether or not that happens I don't know but its definitely a worthy goal. Our professors, particularly the political science professors, stress the importance of participation. So, if your 18, register and vote...or else...8O)

Looks like there's some rain in the forecast for this weekend. Sometimes that's a good thing, especially when work starts to pile up. Rainy weather is perfect for heading to the library on campus and getting caught up.

One opportunity I had this past week was to sit in on a law school class at Albany Law School. The class was constitutional law, one of my favorite topics. It was nice to get a look at what law school is from the inside. Its amazing how much information you cover in just one class period. In terms of workload the jump from undergraduate school to law school is said to be even greater than the jump between high school and undergraduate school. Another opportunity kids looking into law school have is a trip to New York City to talk to admissions counselors for various law schools in the Northeast. Being a junior its definitely time to start considering, even if you don't want to, life after Siena.

Until next time...

Mike DiSiena

"Angels can fly because they can take themselves lightly." ~G.K. Chesterton

Ciao, Italia!!

So my big accomplishment of the week is that I finally finalized and submitted my study-abroad application for the Spring. I will be spending the semester in Siena, Italy. It's only appropriate that students of Siena College (in the US) would return to the motherland--Siena, Italy. This is the city where the visions of St. Bernadine and St. Clare of Siena laid the foundation for the founding of our College here in the US hundreds of years later.
Siena, Italy, is a small medieval city in the Tuscany region, about 3 hours north of Italy's capital, Rome. It is known for the signature style of architecture and traditional sienese food and wine. Siena is also known for the famous horserace, il Palio, held twice each year in the city center.
I will be living there for the semester with a Family (definitely kind of nervous about that) and attending classes taught in Italian (hmm...also kind of nervous about that, as well) but I am so excited and know its going to be an amazing experience.
Tons of Siena students study abroad during their college career. The Siena Office of International Programs is affiliated with universities all over from the world and students can choose from a variety or programs like London, Ireland, Spain, Russia, France, South Africa.....all over.

How is everyone doing with their college search process? Remember I am always here to answer not only questions you might have about Siena, but about the college search process as well (we all went through it!). I definitely recommend meeting with your guidance counselor (if you haven’t already) and work out a plan: identify your reach, match, and safety schools and start visiting and filling out applications!
Always feel free to leave me comments if you have any questions =)

“Ci Parliamo!”
(talk to you soon)

Greg

Foundations Trip

Hey everyone,

This last weekend was a blast. For all incoming freshmen, ya'll will have to take a required "Foundation Sequence" course for both semesters of your freshman year. Each Foundations class goes on a field trip, and depending on which teacher you get, you could be going to places like Montreal, Boston, NYC, etc... When i first caught wind of this I was so excited for our trip. I was pumped to take part in our little excursion; however, when i heard that our class was only going 40 minutes up the road to a farm and attending a harvest festival, all of my positive energy turned into a lame outlook. Why would i want to go to a farm when I live in Vermont? I practically live on one. Going into the trip my attitude was, not going to lie, terrible! I felt like I was wasting my perfectly good Saturday on a useless school function. However, little did I know the pointless afternoon I expected to be a part of turned into a wonderful experience. Yah, some of the things we talked about I already knew, mainly involving the animals around the farm, but the crops were very interesting. We were able to sample some of the veggies being grown. I tried veggies from cabbage to hot peppers, from sweet corn to broccoli. On top of learning about the plants and animals that are harvested each year upon the farm, we got to attend the Van Burren harvest festival. I know it sounds really lame, but there was a lot of neat stands and demos set up for us to learn about. Most kids decided to sit around and pout the day away, but I decided to look around. It was interesting to witness some of the displays. I learned about the process of making indigo, how to make alcohol, as well as butter, and I even got to see a cool duck herding demo done by dogs. (I know it sounds corny, but I love dogs so it was right up my alley =]) My experiences this past weekend taught me, in a way, not to be close minded toward new experiences. Just because you may think something will be lame or stupid, sometimes you simply have to give it a chance, and hey, you might even enjoy yourself!

Alright everyone, it looks like its time for me to head out. Talk to ya'll later. Keep it real!....

Josh Baillargeon

whew!

Wowzers did this week fly! Sorry I'm late with the post guys, I've been super busy. This week was ridiculous with work, and this weekend has been even busier! The big event for the weekend is tomorrow though, which is Open House! Ambassadors, (the club run by Admissions which gives tours and things :o) ), is going to be in full swing tomorrow. Rumor has it over 500 families are coming to visit Siena! That's AMAZING! I can't wait to meet and greet all these new people, and try to show them that Siena is the school for them. (Hey, maybe one of those families is yours!) Anyway, so tomorrow is going to be a big day.

The work is starting to pile up, which is always a GREAT thing...NOT. Boo on work! Oh well, there is time to play, but the work must get done!

Both of my friends left to go abroad, and they both are LOVING IT! I really really REALLY want to go to the study abroad office soon and start getting information/applying. I really want to go to London, so hopefully all my hard work will pay off. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Okay bed time. Got to be up bright and early to do laundry...considering I'm running out of clothes. :-P Tootles!

PS- do you like the color/font? I wanna start changing it up a bit! Let me know!

PSS- if your by chance one of those families that come to open house (and your reading this), drop me a comment! I'd love to hear about your experience!

Who doesn't love to dance?

Here at Siena, we have a Bhangra Team, which is a North Indian based dance team which competes. As of right now, I believe we're ranked #1 in the Albany region. I love to dance and have always wanted to join the team. However, I've always been worried about balancing dance practices with everything else that I do. But this year, I decided its now or never.

Last Friday I tried out for the Bhangra Team and guess what... I MADE IT! I was so happy when I found out. We have our first meeting this upcoming Monday. I've got a lot of friends who are already on the team, so I'm really excited. I think its going to be a great semester.

Here's a picture of the Bhangra team from last year.


- Until next time, Indira

This week I got to see some folks that I spent a large part of last semester with. This last Thursday were Mock Trial tryouts. Judge King, who carries the title of Siena Jurist in Residence, and Sonia Smelyanski, a local lawyer, both of whom are our coaches, came to campus to help the team out in recruiting new members so as to assemble this years team. After the tryouts some members of the team went to the local Olive Garden with our coaches to reminisce about last year. Earlier on Wednsday I went to 10:00 Mass in Hennepin Hall and caught up with one of my favorite friars here at Siena, Father Dennis Tamburello.

Along with catching up with some old friends I am, even in my junior year, meeting new ones. One club I have been asked to be a part of is Saintly Speakers. The Saintly Speakers is designed, in part, to help build up various student's oratory skills. This is especially important to me given that I am considering law school.

Speaking of law school I attended the semester's first pre-law society meeting. There, Peter Gormanly, a former District Attorney, spoke with the club about preparation for taking the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT). Anyone who plans on going to law school has to do very well on the LSAT. I think I'll go and study now.

Adventures at Siena

Whats going on ladys and gentes?,

Another week gone bye. Where does the time go? The beautiful aspect of college is that your always kept busy. Between classes, sports, clubs, chillen with the friends, eating and sleeping there isn't really much time to think. Don't get me wrong, there is certainly down time; however, there is always something to get done. Much of my days throughout the week are preoccupied by three courses, sometimes four in a day, followed by hockey at 8 30 at night. Most of the time i have only a few minutes in between classes for a bite to eat, then onto the next class. I don't mind it though. I'd rather be on the go than be bored and lying in my room all day. I need to be motivated because I'm easily distracted, on top of being the worlds greatest procrastinator! As a science major my time is designated to homework, homework, homework. Once I'm out of practice, it's straight to the books, which in most cases means late nights/early mornings. Even though you would think hockey would impede my performance in school, being on the team has actually improved my ability to do better in the classroom. Our coach is awesome. He keeps on top of us. If we add, drop or are struggling in certain classes, he is willing to help out and get us tutoring. He knows that grades are more important in the end than hockey. He values that we succeed both on and off the ice. The hockey team so far has taught me teamwork, time management, and allowed me the opportunity to meet thirty other great guys that go to school at Siena. It should be a fun hockey season and a great school year. It's already looking like a blast two weeks into school! Alright everyone, its about time for me to head out. Keep it real ya'll. Talk to you later.

Josh

busy busyyyy =O

Whats goin everyone. Hope you had a good week. My week was extremely busy. Between Delta Sigma Pi events, meetings for the College Audit Committee that I serve on, and the Career Fair on Wednesday, I’ve had to wear my suit like 4/5 days this week…intense. The career fair by the way was excellent; It was sponsored by the Accounting Students Association. About 15 accounting firms were here recruiting students for internships and jobs. I submitted my resume to a bunch of firms, and I have a few interviews pending-- so I’m very excited about that. My friend just accepted an offer for a full-time position after interning for the summer at PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of the “Big 4” accounting firms. I’m really excited for him, I’m hoping my combination of technical/educational training and relevant work experience will lead me to the same. The Career Center is a great resource on campus and they have been so helpful with critiquing my resume and providing some great interview and strategy techniques. One of my friends who graduated last year from another college was telling me he paid a service $200 to have his resume evaluated and critiqued. I was shocked…Siena kids get this service (and more) for free from the career center. They also have this awesome website called CareerSaint which is like Siena’s job and internship database. I can view open positions, submit my resume, and schedule an interview without going in for an appointment, right from my computer…pretty cool.
Anyways, I am definitely looking forward to relaxing a little bit this weekend despite the massive amount of homework I have lined up……good times (??)
Hopefully you will all get some time to chill out as well.
Have a good one-

Greg

The Stars at Night are Big and Bright in the Heart of Texas

Hey everybody,

How are you? I hope this message finds you in all in high spirits. I am so sorry that I wasn't able to blog last week. I know you were all thinking of me haha. I was not able to post because I was away on vacation. HaHa, I know school just started and I took a vacation. My cousin got married and some of our family lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She is a news anchor for NBC in Tulsa. Her wedding was incredible however I am afraid I cannot get into to much detail on a Siena site haha. After the wedding, My older brother John and I went to Dallas, Texas to see some sights. It was an amazing weekend and just for the record, the stars are night were very big and bright in the heart of Texas. 

Anyway, classes are fully back into session. I am so happy to be back at school. My schedule is great this semester. I only have one class on wednesdays and none on fridays. I am very excited about one class in-particular. Recently. Pope Benedict declared this as the year of St. Paul. I am going on a Biblical Studies Tour to Greece over Christmas break. We are going for 19 days and we are going to see Greece the way St. Paul saw and wrote it. I am so pumped to go. 

I actually have to run, I have class in 10 minutes and I have to get ready. The perfect thing about Siena is that my class starts at 2:30 and I can leave my room and 2:25. I can't wait to talk to you guys again next week. 

Please pray that I get out of class early haha.

Love,

Patrick