Gopher Blog

The U of M is in Twins Territory

I am a huge fan of the Minnesota Twins (our major league baseball team) so naturally one of my favorite things to do in the Twin Cities during summer and fall is go to Twins games. A couple weeks ago I went and saw the Twins beat Cleveland six to nothing! It was awesome seeing the team playing under the stars at the brand-new stadium. Target Field just opened in May and has been buzzing with excited fans ever since. It is located in downtown Minneapolis and is only a 10-minute bus ride or a 20-minute walk from campus.

On Wednesday nights, it is common to see University of Minnesota students catching a bus from campus in their Twins gear for Student Night at Target Field. With a college ID, students can enjoy a ballpark hotdog and watch Joe Mauer hit a home run for just $10! Other specials that I enjoy are Dollar-A-Dog day and Dairy Queen's Sensational Saturday (a free blizzard with ticket purchase).

Go Twins!

A New Building on Campus

I love the variety of architecture on the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities campus. One of the newest additions to our beautiful campus is the Science Teaching and Student Service Building (STSS). I can't wait to have class there! Check out this article from the Minnesota Daily about STSS: http://www.mndaily.com/2010/08/04/new-stss-building-opens-its-doors.

A trip to the U of M Farmers Market

Hello readers!  

Yesterday I was walking around campus on my lunch break and stumbled upon the U of M Farmers Market. Every Wednesday, rain or shine, vendors line Church Street to sell their produce. The market is full of locally grown vegetables, fruits, and even beautiful flowers from the University’s Landscape Arboretum. The food is so delicious and very inexpensive! Yesterday I came home with a huge head of lettuce, onions, peppers, and cucumbers, which cost me a total of $5!

 
One of the vendors is Cornercopia, the U of M’s student-run organic farm. I talked to a student who was working at the Cornercopia stand, and she said they grow 100+ fruits and vegetables throughout the year. The farm is located on the University’s St. Paul campus and is tied to an organic farming class offered through the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences  that teaches students how to plant and grow their own gardens.

 
In addition to the wonderful food and flowers, the Farmers Market is a great place to get health and wellness advice. Representatives from Boynton Health Service (the campus health clinic) were available to give nutrition advice and free stone massages.  University Dining Service and Campus Club prepared lunch with foods found at the market. I had a ton of fun and can’t wait to go back next week! 

Calling All Cyclists

 
Washington Avenue Bridge  

With all the nice weather we've been having lately, I have been able to bike back and forth from work. There is a bike trail that stretches all the way from my house in St.Paul to the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis. Six miles is a long ride to campus, but I enjoy the beautiful trail on East River Parkway, spending less money on gas, and getting my exercise for the day! During the school year I bike a lot too. It's nice to hop on my bike when I'm running late for class and get there right in the nick of time.

I am not the only person that is taking advantage of the trails in the Twin Cities. Bicycling Magazine recently named Minneapolis the "Best Bike City in America"! While reading the article, I was surprised to find out that 8,200 people bike to work in Minneapolis during the summer. Here are some more fun facts about biking in the Twin Cities from Bicycling Magazine and Nice Ride Minnesota:

• Minneapolis and St.Paul have 84 miles of bike trails and 44 miles of bike lanes. Forty additional miles will be built this summer.
• There are 50 bike shops in the Twin Cities (one of those is Erik's Bike Shop, located on the U of M campus).
• Minneapolis is ranked second in the nation for the number of people who commute to work by bicycle. Census data shows that approximately 4,500 Minneapolis regularly commute to work by bicycle.

The Twin Cities just got even more bike accessible with its launch of the Nice Ride bike sharing program. Bike kiosks are scattered around the city, where you can pay to rent a bike for a couple of hours or up to a year. Eleven of the sixty kiosks are located on the University of Minnesota campus.

 
Williamson Hall Kiosk

 
Kolthoff Hall Kiosk 

Being able to bike just about anywhere in the Twin Cities is one of my favorite benefits of going to the University of Minnesota!

 

Golf with Goldy

 

Golfing is one of my favorite pastimes and with the weather being as nice as it has been lately, I couldn’t wait to go play a round of golf. Fortunately, the University of Minnesota has its very own course! The Les Bolstad Golf Course is an 18-hole course less then five minutes away from the University’s St. Paul campus. This is where the U of M men’s and women’s Big Ten teams practice and host their home tournaments.

I went and played yesterday for the first time this year. Even though my game was a little rusty, I had fun making my way through the beautiful course. Golf is usually an expensive game but with the discounted rates for U of M students, I don’t have to worry about it hurting my pocketbook. I went during twilight hours and it only cost me $13, which is an absolute steal!

If you love to golf like I do, the Les Bolstad Golf Course is the perfect place to spend a Saturday afternoon. For more information about the course go to http://www.uofmgolf.com/index.htm.

 

  

Graduation!

After four years at the University of Minnesota, I can say I’ve reached my goal—I am an official graduate!

Here's a picture of me and my family!

Here's a picture of me and my roommate Christi. She's been my roommate for the past year.  

 

On May 22, 2008, I posted my first entry. Over the past two years, I’ve had the opportunity to give you the inside scoop on my life here as a student at the U of M. And while not every post may have tickled your fancy, I do hope that some did—and I hope that you have a better understanding of the great opportunities that the U of M can offer to students like you.

• You traveled with me on my study abroad trip to Cape Town, South Africa where I learned about leadership with fellow U of M students. 
• You experienced countless Gopher football games—including the return of football on campus at the TCF Bank stadium.
• You got a taste of Big Ten tradition through blog posts about Homecoming and on-campus sports like volleyball.
• You got a first-hand look at the Twin Cities as I blogged about the Minneapolis Chain of Lakes, Uptown, the world-renown Guthrie Theater, the Minnesota State Fair, and Minnesota History Center.
• I’ve shared what a typical day is like for me. And of course, I wrote about all about my classes. You know about my experience living on campus in Centennial Hall and in my sorority house in the Dinkytown area.
• You know a little bit about what the is like on campus as I’ve shared about my life in sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta. From formals, football, and philanthropies, my involvement in Kappa Alpha Theta and other student organizations on campus has created the small, close-knit community that has made the U of M my second home.
• And this spring, you’ve followed me on the home stretch to graduation as I attended the job and internship fair, wrapped up my final classes, participated in Relay for Life, and announced my exciting after-graduation plans at Fairview Health Services.

As in many aspects of life, all good things must come to an end. Tomorrow, I start my full-time internship with Fairview Health Services and the next chapter in my life as a University alumna. I’m leaving the U of M having achieved my goals with a quality education and the out-of-classroom experiences to enhance it. Who wouldn’t be proud of that? When it comes to college, I couldn’t imagine having been anywhere but the U of M.

It’s been an honor.

For the last time,

~ Trisha

Relay For Life

Over the weekend my fellow Thetas and I participated in the University of Minnesota’s Relay For Life event. Relay For Life is an event held to raise money for the American Cancer Society. At the relay, teams of people camp out and take turns walking or running around a track or path and one member of each team must be on the track at all times. The event went from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.!

Organized by the U of M chapter of Colleges Against Cancer, this year’s theme was “Fight for Your Right to Birthday Party.” I really liked the event’s theme because it helped everyone that participated focus on a main goal—a world without cancer would be a world with more birthdays. People would be living longer, healthier lives!

I participated in Relay For Life as a junior and senior at Champlin Park High School and it was a big event. But when I walked into the U of M Field House, I was amazed at the amount of people who came out to Relay. The Field House was packed!

Check out the campsites in the background!

Many student groups get involved with Relay For Life. My sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta, usually has a team (this year we had two!). Other Greek organizations like Gamma Phi Beta, Beta Theta Pi, and Beta Chi Theta had big teams as well. Plus, non-Greek groups like Admissions Ambassadors, Asian-American Student Union, and the Public Relations Student Society of America were there as well. There were singing competitions, eating competitions, dance parties, and more throughout the night.

Team Kappa Alpha Theta!

Here’s a picture of the Admissions Ambassadors campsite. It won best campsite at the Relay. I think their dedication to the “Super Sweet 16” concept made them well-deserving of the award.


Here’s a picture of my sister and me. She was a Relay participant for the Freshmen Nursing College Board’s team.

I was definitely tired when 6 a.m. came around. But I’m glad I stayed until the end because I found out the exciting news. Relay For Life on campus is not only a big event, but a successful one as well. In total, over 200,000 dollars was raised for the American Cancer Society this year. And the bigger news is that the U of M campus is less than 100,000 dollars away from raising 1 million dollars since the student group began seven years ago! That’s quite an accomplishment, and one that we are proud of.


~ Trisha

P.S. Stay tuned for my next entry—I’ve got some great news to share!

Dean's List Dinner

Last Thursday, I was invited to a Dean’s List dinner hosted by the Panhellenic Council and Interfraternity Council, the governing bodies of the sororities and fraternities on campus. The dinner was held to honor all the Greek students who made the Dean’s List last semester. (To make the Dean’s List, you have to earn at least a 3.67 grade point average). This year, the dinner was held at Annie's Parlor in Dinkytown and Greeks on the list could stop by during the day for a free meal and malt. I went with a couple of my fellow Thetas, and we had a blast! 

Here's a picture of the famous Annie's malt; my personal favorite is Oreo cookie. 
 
In other news, I’ve been hard at work getting things together for graduation and working on a big project due next week. It’s a creative project for my New Media Culture class in the Journalism department. I decided to create a social media logo collage that reflects themes from a book I read for class called The Cult of the Amateur by Andrew Keen. The nice thing is, each student in the class had free reign on what he or she wanted to do for the project to allow us to delve deeper into the course material that interested us the most. It’s a lot of work, but I think it will make an awesome statement when it’s complete.

Hope you all are enjoying April! Have a great weekend!

~ Trisha

Sunny Skies

We’ve been having some glorious weather lately! Today it was a whopping 70 degrees, so I decided to check out one of my favorite places on campus—the Northrop Mall—to see how my fellow Gophers were enjoying the weather. Students are definitely taking advantage of the nice day… check out the photos below!

Studying outside makes homework infinitely more bearable


On warm days, it’s common to see members of the U of M Juggling Club practicing their awesome skills:


Here’s a photo of students playing a game of Frisbee—a great study break!


All in all, it’s a great day to be a Gopher!



~ Trisha