Looking back at the past few months, only one word comes to mind — ‘RELIEF’. Yes, I just completed my last assignment of Spring 2012 and my sophomore year at UMBC! — Finals week now stands between me and the summer holidays. Concerning exams/tests, I came across and interesting video (below) that taught me a few studying tips!
It’s been an honor sharing my experiences with you all and I look forward to doing so again (more often) in the near future. Have an awesome summer!!
Another busy week has ended and the month of May is knocking on the door ever so strongly. Apart from classes, projects, assignments and exams, the highlight of my semester so far has got to be the event I attended this week called “United”. The question is ‘who or what was united’? My dad once told me that the definition of the word “university” is “united in diversity.” This phrase clearly depicts UMBC as we are the second most diverse school in the entire nation. As I walk to class, I see people of different races and backgrounds and this makes college life very interesting. Nonetheless, one can still notice that people of the same “race”, so to speak, tend to hang around themselves much more easily.
That being said, there are numerous Christian organizations on campus and for the first time ever, they all came together as One for an event called ‘UNITED.’ I thought that the mood would be tense and that I would see students from the same organization sort of clinging together but that was not the case! It was pleasing to see all sorts of people all under the same roof for the same purpose regardless of what organization or ethnic group they are from. This brought me great joy and made me stand firm on the fact that this is exactly how a university should be — United in Diversity.
The week has barely begun and Friday couldn’t come any quicker – yes, what a week it has been so far! I can safely say that yesterday was by far the warmest day of the year 2012 with temperatures rising to an incredible 91 degrees! Nonetheless, as I walked around campus around mid-day, it was great to see smiles all around and students were in no rush whatsoever to get to class as they gladly basked in the blazing sun. Honestly, it’s the kind of weather that puts one in a good mood! However, you know what they all say; “too much of anything isn’t good for you.” That phrase sprung to life at about 5:15pm when the 91 degree mark was reached. At that time, I had just began warm up (how ironic) for soccer practice ….and was already exhausted! The practice session was draining and grueling. All in all, it was good day!
The countdown begins...
When I woke up this morning, I looked at my calendar and it read “April 17th.” The first thing that came to mind was that we have ONE MONTH LEFT this semester! That thought left a bitter-sweet taste in my mouth because even though everyone is getting ready for the summer, the final and most challenging lap of school-work draws near. Projects, assignments, exams, presentations, papers, etc., will all be coming thick and fast. The next four weeks will truly be decisive in the lives of many students. But wait, this is UMBC; we have seen it all before. The students are all aware of what’s expected and we look to keep our impressive record, as one of the top undergraduate universities in the nation, alive.
Unlike most students, I spent my Easter weekend playing soccer! Yes, I am a member of the UMBC Mens’ club soccer team and we played against George Mason University on Saturday. When Friday came, I constantly checked my email to find out whether I was selected for the team – and I was! After having just four hours of sleep that night, the team had to be up by 10:15am to begin our journey to Virginia.
In-game action. (me on the right)
One thing I love about playing club soccer is that I (temporarily) forget about my academics, focus on the game and just have fun! We got to Virginia around 12:15pm and the sun was blazing. Nonetheless, we pulled on our UMBC gear and at that point, we are certainly ambassadors of our college! The match as intense and though we put in a brilliant performance, luck was not on our side as they nicked a goal late on in the game, handing them the victory. Buoyed by our good performance, our captain urged us to keep our heads high.
Representing the school in sports is a really amazing experience and the entire team, which is like a family, is looking forward to our next game this weekend against Mt. Saint Mary’s University.
Go Dawgs!
Greetings everyone! Hope you all had a splendid weekend! My week was very interesting. Firstly, I’ll start by mentioning that I am a member of a student organization known as Bethel Campus Fellowship (a Christian-based fellowship) which has branches in many other colleges across the United States. Every semester, different campuses hold events that are geared towards reaching out to students, mostly who have lost hope and purpose, and bringing them back to the light!
Strikingly, the theme of our event this semester was “Prisoners of Hope”. Honestly, when the theme was first mentioned to me, I had no idea what it meant. So, two weeks ago, a few friends and myself, went around campus asking people what the theme meant to them – just to get an overview of their responses. Many students had absolutely no idea whereas others gave interesting responses. Spring break came along and I had enough time to put all their responses together in a single video for advertisement purposes.
Five days after Spring break was the big day – the event had come. The UC Ballroom was beginning to fill up as students from UMBC and all over Maryland forced the UMBC events staff into bringing in extra seats after just twenty minutes. It was a night to remember – from Spoken Word (poetry) to testimonies and skits, ministrations in song and lastly a message from our guest speaker, Bruce Goodwin Jr. I consider myself blessed to be part of such a fellowship as, once again, being an international student, who’s family lives overseas, I feel as though I have found a new family right here on campus.
Hello all!
My name is Lionel Tabifor and I’m a sophomore here at UMBC, majoring in Information Systems. I’m part of the UMBC Club Soccer Team as well as a core member of a student organization known as Bethel Campus Fellowship. Other than playing soccer, I also play the guitar from time to time. I was born in Cameroon and have lived in four other African countries. Obviously, coming to the States has been an adventure and I would be pleased to share with you the steps I took the overcoming the challenges I encountered.
So, I am an international student and at the moment, I’m on campus (yes, on Spring break). I’ve never seen the campus this quiet before! Nonetheless, UMBC is a very interesting institution. One thing that got me really intrigued when I looked at the campus from Google maps is that the campus is an actual circle! I know that this may not sound astonishing but it dawned on me yesterday as I went for a jog round the loop; the longer I ran, the wearer I became but something told me to keep going even when the 1.7 mile run seemed to have no end. Frankly speaking, I was correct because circles don’t have ends. However, as I ran, I begun thinking of my time thus far at UMBC and how far I had come in such a short amount of time. Being me, I love to look at life form beyond the natural and jogging round what I call “the infinite loop” made me believe that UMBC is truly a university of endless opportunities. Even though trials and hardship may come your way, remember to keep your head up and keep going…
