ADVENTURES AT FRANKLIN

Last weekend was quite a big one for Franklin University Switzerland ! It felt like a marathon of incredibly cool and fun events, I'm admittedly pretty exhausted now after spending so much time with Franklin friends and new students! We had the annual Spring Play, Holi - an Indian festival of colors that welcomes spring for the Franklin community. On top of that, we also had one of our Earth Month events - a cleanup of the walking trail in our area, called Laghetto, where Franklin students spent their morning cutting back invasive species and picking up any litter in the area. Additionally, it was Open House for Prospective Students , which was so exciting to meet some of the faces who will be joining us come August - from all around the world! It feels like spring on campus in every sense, people are out enjoying the gorgeous weather, it was 24 °  C (80 °  Fahrenheit) yesterday! I truly cannot believe how fast this semester has flown, and luckily there is still so much t...

Why hello there! Happy December! I can hardly believe that November is already over, where did the time go?? I have final projects due this week, final exams next week and then in 13 days I will be back state side for the holiday break! I can hardly believe it! November was filled with some awesome activities around campus too, here is just a brief recap: At the beginning of the month Franklin hosted its 5th annual Be The Change Social Justice Conference. In addition to a weekend retreat, the conference included a week of thought provoking activities open to all students. I was asked to speak on religious tolerance as part of an evening activity for one of the nights. We had some awesome discussions and I was so happy to participate! The theme of this years conference was "finding your roots" and all of the weekly events focused on this in addition to raising awareness and empathy in the community for a variety of social justice issues.  Shoutout to these lovely ladi...

Reason #28 why I love Franklin: An orientation week that puts any other university's orientation to shame. Seriously! How many incoming college freshmen can say that as part of their orientation they went hiking in the Swiss mountainside, jumped into a glacial river, explored castles and ate copious amounts of delicious fondue/gelato/pizza? It just doesn't get much better than this. And I was lucky enough to attend orientation for the second time in 2 years! No, I didn't flunk my Freshmen year. I applied and was selected to be an Orientation Mentor aka OM . Basically the job of an OM is to help design and facilitate all things orientation! We are assigned small groups of about ten incoming students whom we get to know on a personal level and spend a lot of time with during orientation. Within these orientation groups we lead campus tours, have group discussions on safety, time management, academics, Swiss culture, travel etc. After orientation week we primarily are ...

Last Saturday night I attended one of Franklin Colleges biggest spring semester events: The Travies! Simply stated, Travies is the award ceremony for a photo/video competition which all Franklin students are encouraged to enter. But in reality, travies are a bit like a cross between...  You may laugh, but it is true! For those of you who don't know; The Oscars is an American film awards ceremony held in Hollywood and The Dundies is a workplace awards ceremony in the popular comedy television show The Office. And we at Franklin have taken the best of these two events and combined them into one incredible night! Our Travies ceremony necessitates the classiness of The Oscars coupled with the hilarity of The Dundies. Students showed up in their most elegant attire for a cocktail hour prior to the awards ceremony, but once everyone was seated we spent most of the night laughing and having a good time.  A communal love of travel + beautiful photos + a healthy does of joking =...

  One of my favorite second semester Franklin traditions is Holi (   होली)  . Originally a Hindu holiday, this festival of colors is widely celebrated throughout India, Nepal and Pakistan. Holi not only welcomes in the Spring season, but is also a celebration of love!   All of the packets of colored powder lined up before the celebration began... and then aftermath! I am pretty sure there is no better way to welcome in the spring season! (note: a huge thank you to  Damian Medina  for taking these three pictures of Holi!) Because I am a freshmen all of my meals are covered under a meal plan. But occasionally I like to go downtown on a Saturday afternoon and get some food for when I am too busy to go to the cafeteria for a meal. I couldn't resist this kilo of strawberries (handpicked in Spain!) that were on sale for 3 francs! And then a loaf of fresh baked ticianese bread for 2 francs and then I splurged on some Swiss dark chocolate for an...