Holiday Dinner

From the organza and lights wrapping up the railings to the upper level of the Campus Center, to the 10 foot tree covered in purple and gold ornaments and decorations, the Holiday Banquet is a tradition that most students anticipate and look forward to. One of the oldest traditions at Elmira College, the Holiday Banquet has been held for students every year for over 130 years. All students are invited to choose a table in the Dining Hall with a host professor or administrator and eat a holiday dinner feast prepared by Elmira College Dining Services. The students from Hillel (our Jewish club on campus) opened the dinner by reading a prayer in Hebrew and lighting the first candle on a Menorah to celebrate their holiday, followed by a prayer from the Christian Fellowship Club.
For the past two years, I have been lucky enough to sit with my advisor and my roommate for the feast. This year, they served each table a whole turkey for the faculty host to carve and serve, green means, mashed potatoes, corn, cranberry sauce, and stuffing. My roommate, advisor and I were joined by three freshmen girls, who were experiencing this Elmira College tradition for the first time. Following the dinner, the senior class leads the rest of the attendees in singing a series of classic Christmas and Holiday music, followed by our Alma Mater to close the night.
This was my last Holiday Banquet at Elmira College, and it was one I will never forget.

NYC!

Yet another awesome opportunity that Elmira College offers is a trip to New York City for the students who are enrolled in Professor Wolfe's Strategic Retail Management classes. For a small additional course fee, students can catch a bus to New York City and view many student-exclusive places, have special tours, and network with Elmira College Alumni who currently live in the city. This year since we were only able to stay in the city for the day, Professor Wolfe packed as much activity and opportunity into one day as possible. Wednesday morning, met the bus behind McGraw at 3:50 am. and left for NYC at 4:00 am. There was heavier traffic than anticipated since President Obama was visiting the city and Justin Beiber was in the area to perform for the annual tree lighting ceremony at Rockafeller Center, so we arrived for our first appointment at the New York Stock Exchange a little after 9:00 am. After going through security and getting our photo I.D. badges, we met Mr. Smith, a stock broker, who gave us a tour through the building. Then, we met the bus and traveled to our second appointment at Tommy Hilfiger Corporation where we met with a graduate of Cornell College who recently started her employment at Tommy Hilfiger. She showed us two videos of the history of Tommy Hilfiger and we heard a Public Relations representative speak before beginning our walking tour of the building. Our favorite part of the tour was "The Closet" which held over 30,000 articles of clothing which was every single piece of clothing made by the company. They were organized first by type of clothing, then by color. There was even a section of clothes from the most recent collection that had been viewed at fashion shows and runways. We were told that when celebrities contact Tommy Hilfiger for clothes to wear, a selection is always made from the rack of clothes from the latest collection. There was also a display of Tommy products that had been worn or embellished by well-known celebrities that Tommy had purchased back at auctions to showcase for the company. There was a black sequined Tommy dress worn by Tina Turner, Tommy jeans worn by Marilyn Monroe, butterfly embellished jean shorts by Tommy worn by Mariah Carey, and various pictures of other celebrities wearing Tommy clothing.
After our tour of Tommy Corp, we met the bus and traveled to nearby Tommy Hilfiger store in Soho. From there, we went to IAC where we met an Elmira College Alumni from the graduating class of 2004 who was recently promoted to Director of Event Planning. She gave us a brief tour of the building and brought us to a meeting room on the eighth floor where she showed us a powerpoint presentation of her experiences working for IAC. Every floor of the building had floor to ceiling windows displaying the Manhattan skyline, which was breathtaking to view during the tour. Then, we had some free time to explore the Apple Store, FAO Schwartz and Barney's before heading to the Union League Club on 37th Street to meet with Elmira College Alumni and network. We headed back for Elmira around 9:00 pm. and returned around 2:00 am.

Crunch time

December is here already, and the buildings and grounds crew are slowly winterizing the campus. The water in the Iris Fountain has been turned off, the last of the leaves are being removed, and truckloads or purple rock salt are arriving. Coming back to campus from Thanksgiving break is always hard, with Christmas just around the corner everyone wants to stay home with family, go Christmas shopping, buy Christmas trees, and decorate for the holidays, but instead we have to force ourselves to stay focused for these last 3 weeks on campus before Christmas break. Luckily, these last couple of days have made coming back to school for finals easier than in past years. On Monday right after break, I hosted a prospective freshman for an overnight program. After my classes, I headed to the Hamilton Admissions Office and met Melissa and her father who were visiting Elmira College from Long Island. Once they were done with their tour of the campus and an interview, I took them both to Mackenzie's for dinner. After dinner, her father left for his hotel for the night and I took Melissa to my room in Meier to show her around and drop off her things. Then, I contacted a bunch of my friends that live in different dorms throughout campus so Melissa could see almost every dorm on campus and the different room layouts and dorm personalities. Afterwards, we went to Mackenzie's and went bowling at the four lane bowling alley on campus that is free for students. We grabbed some vanilla ice cream and met one of my friends at the information desk on our way out who said he was attending a Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) meeting in a few minutes and invited us to join him. Since Melissa is interested in pursuing Business Administration as a major, I thought sitting in on a business club might be a good experience for her, so we headed downstairs for the SIFE meeting. Following the meeting, we headed back to the room for the night and talked to my friends and roommate about school and student life and high school drama for a while before we turned on the movie Friends with Benefits to fall asleep to. Tuesday morning at 8:15 am. I brought Melissa to my Market Research class so she could see what a typical upper level college business class was like. We grabbed some breakfast at the campus center during our brief, five minute break from class and grabbed some coffee at 9:45 am. on our way to her Strategic Management class she was scheduled for at 9:55 am. I picked her up at 11:30 am. and we went back to Mackenzie's for some lunch before heading back to Hamilton Hall to meet up with her dad and prepare for the long ride home. This was my first time as an overnight host, but it was a lot of fun and I hope I will get a chance to do it again soon. It feels good knowing that I was able to help someone else make one of the most important decisions of their life. I know when I was a senior in high school, I could use all the help I could get, and I'm glad that I was able to help Melissa decide if Elmira College was right for her. If nothing else, I was able to hang out with someone I otherwise would have never met and made a new friend. I wish Melissa, and all the other high school seniors good luck with their final year of high school, and my advice to them is to relax and let things fall into place. I visited 4 colleges, all of which I hated before I found Elmira, and I let myself get very stressed out about it, thinking that there was no right college for me. Once you find the right college, you'll know right away.