Posts

Labor Day Weekend!

Image
This weekend was a special one because we had Monday off for Labor Day and I got to spend some extra time with my friends! I had experienced a pretty exhausting week prior, so it felt very nice knowing that we were going to have a long weekend to relax. Although I was a little sad that I could not go home like many of my friends were able to do. I love being an ONU student and know it was the perfect choice for me, however it has never gotten easier being eight hours from home. On weekends like this it is hard watching people get to go home and see their families when I am not able to do so.  Because of that, those of us that were staying on campus tried to make some fun plans to stay busy! After classes on Friday, my roommates and I took the time to clean up our house so that we would not have to do so over the weekend. We went to our friends' house that evening to spend time with others in the theater department and it was a blast! It is fun that we have two senior houses owned b...

Holiday Auditions!

Image
All ready for auditions and callbacks! Last week we had auditions for the annual Holiday Spectacular at ONU! As Musical Theater majors, we are required to audition for every show so this was my fourth and final audition for Holiday! It is extremely bittersweet and I find myself getting sentimental about every 'last' I come across, even though it is the beginning of my senior year. My freshman year I did not get cast, which is pretty normal for freshman. Instead, I chose to be a Youth Performance Supervisor, which we call YPS for short. I was able to take care of the kids cast and help them learn the show. Doing this allowed me to still get to be a part of Holiday my first year and get to know the show and the other students outside of my class more. My sophomore year I did not get cast again which was definitely a letdown. I chose to sit that year out and not help backstage and instead get more involved in other ways on campus. My junior year I finally got cast as a singer/danc...

The Beginning of the End!

Image
The Roommates of the MELK House (Molly, Ella, Lenore and Kayleigh) We are officially halfway through the first week of senior year! It is crazy saying that, because the last time I blogged was the end of my freshman year, and I thought I had nothing but time. I did not expect four years to fly by so fast, yet here we are. I moved back at the beginning of last week, and it finally started to hit me that this is my last year at ONU with the people that have become my family. I had a really hard time finding my place here as a freshman in my first semester because it was really hard going eight hours away from home with no one I knew on campus. I thought I would never have the friendships here that I had back home, and now, looking back, I see that I have even better friendships than back home. I have a family here.  This year I am living off campus with my three other roommates, Lenore, Ella and Molly. I met Lenore and Ella very early in my first year since we are all in the same maj...

Essentials of Social Media Marketing

Image
As I wrap up the final assignment for my social media class, I wanted to take some time and reflect on our textbook for this course. We used "Essentials of Social Media Marketing" by Michelle Charello as our guidance throughout this class. I personally really enjoyed this textbook! I know some people had mixed feelings about it, but overall I think it was very helpful. It was incredibly easy to access since it was an online textbook. I hate carrying around heavy books in my bag, so I love it when things are online. With the purchase of this book we also got access to the simternship that was one of our major assignments for this class. Stukent provided us with great resources to aid our learning.  All the chapters followed a similar setup. I liked the routine of this. It helped me understand exactly what I needed to know by laying it out clearly. At the end of each chapter it also provided a practice quiz which I utilized for the two main exams we took in this class. The text...

Finals, Auditions, Juries, Oh My!

Image
The MT Freshman class! We officially have one week left of freshman year! Saying that out loud feels insane. I just got here, right? Well now that we are in our final few days of the semester, it is officially the craziest time of the year for the theater majors. On top of finals in our regular classes we also have auditions, juries, dance exhibitions and freshman showcase. Luckily I was able to take my final exam for two of my classes this past week so it didn't fall at the same time as everything else. I still have plenty of finals to take in the next week because I thought it would be smart to schedule myself for 20 credit hours.  Auditions for the next semester's shows always fall at this time and it is probably the worst possible timing. We have so much going on and it is awful to add the stress of auditions on top of that. These auditions are specifically for the fall musical and play intensive. When we return to campus in August we will audition for the dance show and Ho...

Closing Weekend!

Image
Dressing Room Pals! The time has come! After nearly nine weeks of rehearsals, tech and shows, "9 to 5" is officially over. It feels absolutely crazy to say that out loud. This has been such a huge part of my life for the past few weeks and I don't know what to do with myself now that I have free time because that was non-existent throughout this whole process. However, we are getting into the hardest two weeks of the semester so I won't have much free time after all.  The puppet girls ;) I want to talk you through how this weekend went so I can remember every moment of it! We had a brush-up rehearsal Thursday to make sure that we still remembered the show and didn't have any issues. It was a really chill rehearsal with no costumes, makeup or lights. We had one show Friday and two shows Saturday, so we made sure to soak up every minute of it. I was extra excited for this weekend because my mom, little brother and grandma were coming to visit and see the show! I had...

Social Media Simternship

Image
One of our main assignments for the Principles of Social Media class I have been taking this semester was completing a simulation of what it is like to be a digital marketer for a company. There were 12 rounds in total and we had the majority of the semester to complete them. I remember feeling overwhelmed when we first got the assignment because I had never done anything like this before, but once I got going I noticed that each round got easier.  The Stukent Social Media Simternship is a simulation that helps the student work on creating organic social media posts, paid social posts, work with influencers and know how to do all of this while balancing a strict budget. While doing these main tasks we also have to decide the proper way to respond to customer messages, examine prior company data, analyze strategies and more. The Simternship is based on working for a bag company called Buhi Supply Co. They offer a variety of bags for every occasion which helps marketing strategies....