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Enjoying the Outdoors When temperatures start to fall and the snow starts to fly, students don’t have to travel far from campus for action and entertainment. Just a 30-minute drive will take the student to Holiday Valley Ski Resort in Ellicottville. Holiday Valley offers the opportunity to hit the slopes on skis, snowboards or snow tubes. Students wanting company when they brave the slopes should consider joining St. Bonaventure’s ski club. The club leaves for Ellicottville Sundays at 2 p.m. Students interested in becoming members can stop by the Student Activities room (Reilly Center 208) on Wednesday or Friday afternoons or e-mail the club’s student leader, Matthew Keenan, at keenanma@sbu.edu. “I would recommend the club to anyone who wants to make the winter season better by getting outside and making good use of all the snow and cold we get at St. Bonaventure,” Keenan said. “The best thing about ski club is our proximity to one of the Top 10 best resorts in the East (Holiday Valley).” Students wanting to ski will need some extra money, though. “Passes range from $125 to $365, the most expensive being a season pass,” Keenan explained. “However, all these rates are discounted by Holiday Valley for St. Bonaventure students.” Looking for something a little less pricey? Students can always hike at Pfeiffer Nature Preserve, near Portville, or rent skis or snowshoes at Allegany Outdoors. “This is a great location for pursuing winter activities,” said Paul Brawdy, associate professor of education. “You can’t really beat Allegany State Park, which is only about 20 miles west of campus. If you’re the active type, you can rent cross country skis or snowshoes and then head off to explore either the trail system or the surrounding back country. Although the winter we have now started kind of slow, the conditions right now are excellent for getting out into the woods.” Students should also watch www.oleanny.com, which lists upcoming events in local communities. In early March, for example, Holiday Valley hosts an annual Winter Carnival featuring music, parades, and plenty of food. The William O. Smith Recreation Center offers students another choice for recreation. The Center houses an indoor ice skating rink offering a variety of programs including open skate and “skate and shoot” sessions for hockey players. Once the weather warms up, the Center opens its swimming pool, outdoor in-line skating rink and ramps and pavilion. Higher temperatures also mean students can enjoy softball fields, a basketball court and pavilions with picnic tables at Allegany River Park. The park, located on West Union Street, adjoins the Allegheny River, which is ideal for kayaking and canoeing. The Allegheny River Valley Trail, a 5.6-mile loop, is perfect for walking or running once the snow starts to melt. One group of students waiting for slightly warmer weather is the Bonavoyagers, a club for students with a love for the great outdoors. “We are planning a camping trip for later in March in Allegany State Park,” explained Philip Weise, student president of The Bonavoyagers. “The trip will be from a Friday afternoon until Sunday morning, and will consist of hiking through the park and other activities, depending on the weather and how much snow there still is.” Other planned club activities include giving students an opportunity to learn how to shoot a gun during a visit to the Olean Rod and Gun Club, Weise said. The Bonavoyagers are also considering a spring horseback riding trip in Ellicottville. Until then, students have plenty of opportunities for fun in and around Olean and Allegany. Despite the wintertime slush and sleet, students have no reason to hibernate. -Molly Hirschbeck |
Internships “An internship is as valuable as any course. They often are life-changing experiences, where a student realizes, ‘This is what I want to do’ or ‘I would never want to do this again.’ In addition, there are countless aspects of internships that can't be taught in the classroom: getting along with co-workers, the pace of the workday, the importance of self-initiative, professional standards of behavior, etc.” -Patrick Vecchio, Internship Coordinator, St. Bonaventure professors realize a well-rounded education cannot end with what is offered to your student in the classroom. For many students, their college experience includes learning through internships – a way to get some experience in their chosen field before they leave college. Some Bonaventure departments and schools require internships, and some that don't require them strongly recommend them. Marketing majors are required to do 150 hours of internship. Students receive three credits for that experience. They also have to write a 15-page report, and must be evaluated by their employer. Finance, business information systems and management science majors have no internship requirements, but students in all three fields are encouraged to consider doing an internship. Professor Patrick Premo is the internship coordinator for the School of Business. He produces a newsletter called the “Career Bin,” which gives advice to students who may be looking for an internship. The “Career Bin” has internship postings and internship facts. Premo encourages students to think about internships from the start of their college careers. “Start early; it is never too early to start an internship. Just because you may be a freshman doesn’t mean you can’t get an internship,” Premo said Journalism and mass communication majors are also required to do an internship. All journalism majors must complete 400 internship hours. Of those, 100 hours can be completed on the campus media, including the radio station, 88.3 The Buzz; the student newspaper, The Bona Venture; and the literary magazine, the Laurel. Professor Patrick Vecchio is the internship coordinator for journalism and mass communication. The Career Center, located in the Reilly Center, also offers help finding internships. “The Career Center helps students of all ages to clarify goals, link academic study to career possibilities, and help uncover internship opportunities that may fit,” explained Connie Whitcomb, director of the Career Center. “The Career Center can also help find the area of interest that would best fit a student.” Internship information is also available through the Journey Project, located in the University Ministries office in the Merton Center. Resources are found all around campus helping those who want to gain internship experience. For more information, students should contact: Professor Patrick Vecchio Professor Patrick M. Premo The Career Center The Journey Project - Deandra Danch |
Summer School? Is your student willing to spend some summer time studying? Heather Jackson, university registrar, said students have varied reasons for taking classes in the summer. “We do have current students who want to get ahead, but we also have some students who want to retake some things they didn’t do well in,” Jackson explained. She said approximately 185 students took classes at SBU last summer. Jackson said many students choose to take summer courses at SBU so their grade will be factored into their cumulative GPA. “The most popular reasons (for taking summer classes) … that I’ve heard from students is number one, they get the grade,” Jackson explained. “So, if they take a course here and they get an A through F, that will show up on their transcript and it will be factored into their GPA.” In contrast, Jackson said, only the credits will transfer back for students who take summer classes at a different school. “If (students) go to a different school … if they get a C or better, (the credit) will transfer back here, but we don’t accept the grade,” she said. Jackson said students now have the opportunity to take classes online. That feature, new last year, proved “very successful,” she added. Online courses “allow students to go home to Connecticut, New York, California — wherever they live — and still take a course through St. Bonaventure and get that grade,” Jackson said. Senior Sara Pancio, an education major, took Literature and Art (Clare 109) online. She said it was a good opportunity for her to get a class out of the way before her last year. “I took the class because I had to in order to graduate,” she explained. “Senior year is very hectic for (education majors) so taking it online was my only option. “ Pancio said she has taken online classes before. This one, she added, ran very smoothly. “The directions were clear and easy to follow,” she said. “It didn't take much time a day so it was convenient to take.” Junior Nicole Saleh took World Views (Clare 108) online last summer. While it was helpful, she said the class was not as easy as she thought it would be. “Taking a class online is not what you think,” she said. “It’s really structured and it’s just like being at a class except you’re on your computer.” The summer program is broken up into two sessions — summer one and summer two. The summer one session runs from May 14 until June 14. The summer two session runs from June 25 until July 26. Jackson said last summer, St. Bonaventure offered a total of 34 undergraduate classes during the summer one and summer two sessions. Of those, eight were online – six during the first session and two during the second. “We had a mix last year,” Jackson said. The online classes included some Clare College offerings, plus business, history, journalism and political science classes. Junior Curtis Middlebrooks said he took three courses — Inquiry into the Natural World, The Good Life and Literature and Art — to get some of his credits out of the way. Middlebrooks said he took two of the classes online because he worked over the summer as well. “I thought that the summer program was good,” he said. “I enjoyed getting some classes out of the way and it not taking a full semester.” This summer, Jackson said, 10 of the university's 41 undergraduate summer courses will be online offerings. Nine of those are offered during the first session and one during the second. “We have a nice mix again,” Jackson said. “We have some Clares, some business, a journalism, a math and a history.” Students also have the opportunity to register online for their desired online summer classes. Jackson said interested students can go on my.sbu.edu and register themselves. She said students simply have to select summer one or summer two, and then select the course, exactly as they would for regular semester courses. Summer classes generally meet every Monday through Thursday for two hours each day, with no classes on Friday. The classes are also less expensive than they are during the school year. Jackson said tuition for summer 2007 undergraduate courses is $350 per credit hour. For more information about the summer course program, visit www.sbu.edu or contact the Registrar’s Office at (716) 375-2020. Of course, if a student wishes to take a class at a college or university back home, that is an option. It does, however, require some advance planning. If a student wishes to take summer classes away from SBU, she must obtain a Transfer of Credit Permission form from the Registrar’s Office. The student must present the form and the course descriptions to the SBU appropriate department chair for her approval (i.e. if you wish to take a History course, you must receive permission from the SBU History department chair). If there is no exact equivalent, the course may be accepted as an elective. The form must then be returned to the Registrar’s Office. In order to receive transfer credit, students must earn a grade of “C” or better. Students must have an official transcript sent to the SBU Registrar upon completion of the course. To obtain a Transfer of Credit Permission form, students should visit the Registrar’s Office in Doyle Hall or call (716) 375-2020. -Natalie Ruckel |
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