Loving all that BC has to offer

This is an exciting time of the year for BC students: Marathon Monday, Showdown, Arts Fest, Holi, BC Carnival, and Modstock. This year has been fantastic and its awesome how there are a bunch of events that carry BC students into the start of summer. With the beautiful weather, you see BC students hanging out on the quad, doing homework at the Stokes amphitheater, or playing can jam outside. After a brutal winter, BC students are thoroughly soaking up the sun and the various events make this time of year even more enjoyable. As a freshman, my first Marathon Monday was spectacular. Watching elite runners essentially sprint the marathon and cheering on others was a truly gratifying experience and I am so excited to partake in this endeavor next year. Showdown was such a fun experience and such a great showcase of our dance talent at BC. As a member of the audience, I was truly flabbergast by the engaging dance performances. All of these events highlight how BC is such a diverse and well-rounded community focused on broadening the students' scope of experience. 

- Priya Atiyeh A&S '18

Making time to help relieve stress

With finals shortly approaching, it is important to find good stress-relieving tactics so you don't feel too overwhelmed during this arduous time. After a stressful test, I tend to do go outside (especially now because the weather is so beautiful) and participate in some kind of physical activity. I go to crossfit three to four times a week so that always is a great way to unwind after a stressful test. My friends and I also have frequent dance parties in my room and those are always a great way to de-stress. Our dance parties tend to involve props i.e.: a variety of hats involving snapbacks, construction hats, a giant whale hat coupled with various shades. One time an RA from Gonzaga 2 came up and knocked on our door, I answered and she goes "Can you please turn your music down? The room below you is shaking." Our dance parties are no joking matter. We also choreographed a dance for our friend's birthday and frequent Zumba class every Wednesday from 6:45-7:45. It is important to just keep laughing because this rough patch will be over soon. I agree that laughter is the best medicine, laughter is essentially the be all end all in my book. I'm all about the laughs because I never really take myself too seriously, or seriously at all in some matters. 

-Priya Atiyeh A&S '18

Opportunities at Boston College.

            Coming into Boston College, I had heard about how many amazing opportunities there are here. After the excitement of hearing the phrase “so many opportunities” faded, I began to wonder if it was just all hear say. As a freshman in CSOM I was taking Portico, an intro to business and ethics course with my advisor. While Portico is an amazing course, I am biased in believing it was my professor who made it my favorite class. Having an advisor as a professor made us get to know each other on a deeper level, which proved to be very beneficial. Fast-forward a year and she emails me saying that she had mentioned my name to the one of the Big Four Accounting firms campus recruiter who later got in contact with me. This all lead to me getting the wonderful opportunity to go into their Boston office for a day that coming summer to learn more about the company and industry as a whole. As a sophomore, I now realize that the talk of “amazing opportunities” is not just a rumor at BC, its reality. In this one example of mine, I see multiple. I am lucky enough to have gotten the chance to have a professor believe in me, as well as wonderful career networking as an underclassman. Boston College is a place where not only relationships are fostered, but where careers are jumpstarted early; I know this first hand because my story is not the exception. BC professors believe in the capability of their students and teach because they want to share their knowledge and make those connections. This makes it a welcoming place right from the first day of class freshman year. It doesn’t stop there, recruiters and employers also believe in Boston College students, making it a supportive environment from the throes of freshman year to building a career well after college. 

-Kimberly Pace CSOM '17

Broadening my Academic Scope and Interests

Though I am not a student in the Carroll School of Management (CSOM), I decided to take Professor Thomas Wesner's Business Law class. This class has not only exposed me to the intricacies of business law and analyzing cases, but it also has allowed me to develop certain characteristics to become a more astute individual overall by looking more closely at matters to gain more insight. I am a political science major and international studies minor and this class cultivated a greater interest in pursuing Pre-Law through the dynamic classroom environment and more personal learning experience not impeded by technological distractions. Professor Wesner's tips on how to efficiently take notes by splitting the page in half, the left side devoted to the student's notes on reading and the right side devoted to the professor's comments, has been an applicable method for my other classes as well. The IRAC method for analyzing cases has shaped me into a more methodical student, honing in on the important facts and abandoning inconsequential details. Business Law has broadened my scope of knowledge and understanding and for that I am eternally grateful.

-Priya Atiyeh '18

A sampling of weekend activities at Boston College

-Jillian Bjorn-Caron '18

Study Spot: The Chocolate Bar

At Boston College there are many places to go to study, catch up with a friend, or simply people watch. My favorite happens to be The Chocolate Bar in Stokes Hall. I absolutely love the calm, coffee house vibe coupled with such close proximity to classes. Being in the Carroll School of Management, I do not get the chance to go over to Stokes very often so the Chocolate Bar is a nice escape from Fulton Hall (which houses most of my CSOM classes). I particularly enjoy hanging out there when I have an essay to write; nothing keeps me going like the smell of coffee and the readily available famous giant cookies. Unlike a library where the stress level can get a bit too high for my tastes, the Chocolate Bar has an equal amount of people grabbing a chai latte with friends as it does people studying for exams, averaging the stress out to a nice, neutral level. The Chocolate Bar, to me, resembles a mini-Boston College; it has social students that know when to get work done in a calm and relaxed manner.

-Kimberly Pace '17

A Day in the Life of a Student-Athlete:

I have my morning routine down to a tee. Rowing has made the mornings I can “sleep in” a luxury I am not willing to shorten. My alarm goes off at 8:15, I’m walking to breakfast at 8:30, and then I walk from Mac to class at 8:50.

At 9 am my first class, a requirement for the Arts and Sciences Honors Program, begins. Already in my practice clothing, I learn about the classics, and find myself wondering if Odysseus’ crew was as sore as I am that day after rowing him across the Mediterranean. Between the end of class at 10:15 and my 11 am, I try and get some reading done so I don’t have quite as much to do that night (an early bedtime is a must). Sometimes I even fit in a bagel for a second breakfast to hold me through practice. At 11, I head to Devlin 008 to learn about America’s evolution and place in the world.

From there, I walk to Alumni Stadium, where the vans pick us up to head to the boathouse. Practice starts at 12:20 and for the next two hours I find that all the stresses of classes or friends or family dissolve into the glistening water of the Charles that I am fortunate enough to row on. The focus and intensity of the sport is incredible; in the boat I’m truly part of something larger than just myself and 7 other athletes.

After practice ends and we’re driven back to campus, I grab a quick lunch at 2:30 before heading to my genetics class at 3. Because I come right from practice, this hour and a quarter goes more slowly than my morning classes. Sweaty and often still recovering from whatever difficult workout we did that day, I am so thankful I find the subject matter interesting.

At 4:15 I head back up to upper campus where I live and at last shower and change. Often I have to take a 30-minute nap to restore my energy before I embark on the uphill battle of homework. From then until about 6:30 I try and finish my reading and get some studying in for pop map quizzes in my political science class.  For dinner I meet up with my friends and use that as my study break.

 After dinner, I get as much work done as possible until about 10:30 when I get ready for bed. My bedtime always comes up faster than I’d like, and sometimes it even feels early, but I always make myself fall asleep. My alarm goes off at 6 the next morning, I walk to practice at 6:10, and (since the river is still frozen) I’m running by 6:35.

While my schedule is packed, I wouldn’t trade it for all the sleep-ins in the world. I have cherished being part of a team at BC. It has given me a community I am so grateful for and has helped me see all the incredible opportunities BC has to offer. 

-Cecilia Milano '18

My Life as a Baby Eagle

Something you probably know about BC, whether you’ve experienced it first hand or not, is how much of a family school it is. So many times you hear, “Oh my mom came here,” or “My cousins all came here,” or even, more often than one would expect, the nonchalant, “Yeah, my entire family went to BC.” Now, you could definitely argue that the same is true at a lot of different schools, but the BC family connection definitely holds its own when stacked up against other competitive schools.

Growing up the eldest child of two very proud Eagles, Boston College was essentially all I knew in terms of what “college” was. I’d been to more than my fair share of tailgates on Shea and hockey games in Conte Forum, and I could have counted on one hand the number of colleges I had seen besides BC when my formal college search began towards the end of my sophomore year of high school. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely loved BC, but there was an unyielding curiosity burning within me that made me want to see as many other schools as possible. People would always say to me, “Well BC’s your top choice right?” just because they knew what it meant to my parents. I hungrily sought out other, more ideal, options for me, tirelessly looking for that “perfect” school, but never quite reaching that moment of blissful realization people always talked about when setting foot on their dream school’s campus.

It was towards the end of my college search process that I considered that perhaps the reason I had not had the “Aha!” moment I was anticipating was because I had already had mine, a while back, without even realizing. I spent so much of my energy trying to convince myself that Boston College wasn’t my number one school just because I wanted to be my own person and be 100% sure of any decision I made, no family biases considered. However, BC had become a standard that I held all other colleges I visited to. Between its location, its Jesuit tradition, its size, its school spirit, its athletics, its campus, and its staff, Boston College was the benchmark that I always fell back on when looking at another school. Plus, the fact that my experience at Boston College would be something I could share with my own glory-days-loving BC Alum parents was just icing on the cake. As soon as I realized this, I quickly understood that BC was the place for me if I was lucky enough to be admitted.

Fast-forward three years and here I am now… A second-semester sophomore at Boston College, daughter of two BC Alumni, and I can confidently say that I am blessed to be a baby eagle. While my parents’ memories of their own BC experiences do impose some kind of pressure to constantly be having fun and soaking up everything awesome BC has to offer, I have learned to make it my own in ways that are both challenging and satisfying. Everything may not be the same, but MA’s is still open, the Mods are still standing, the Hockey team is still good, and we still don’t like BU all that much… More importantly, the people of BC, are the same enthusiastic and passionate individuals today that they were in 1985 when my parents were here. Yes, my parents still reminisce every single time they visit. And yes, my dad can’t make a trip to Chestnut Hill without grabbing a slice of cheese from Pino’s. And of course, my mom has told me countless stories of my dad’s college antics. But all in all, I couldn’t be more blessed and excited to share in such a huge part of my world with the two people that brought me here.

Whether or not you are a baby eagle yourself, there is no denying that BC is a special place, a place any one would want their own children to experience in a perfect world. The senses of community, love, service, pride, and tradition that permeate throughout campus are infectious sentiments. They are the kind of sentiments that spur nostalgic reminiscing among alumni, camaraderie and friendship among classmates, and eminent joy on the lucky seniors’ faces when they open their acceptance letters.

- Mary Kate O'Neill '17