ADVENTURES AT FRANKLIN

"It doesn't matter if you never accomplish your goals or accomplish any one of your dreams, if you are enjoying the journey " -Ryan Higa, American YouTuber. Welcome back or welcome to  Adventures at Franklin! This is my final post. It has been a wonderful experience, and for my last post, I want to provide some of my thoughts on graduating.  I am so happy for the experience of being a Franklin student for 3 and a half years. I have had many great adventures, and met so many wonderful people.  I will look back at the memories and people that I have met with great fondness over the coming years.  I am relieved to be done. I managed my time extremely well over my last semester, so I was never too stressed but at the same time, the closer and closer it got to the end of the semester, the more I wanted to be finished.  I am anxious for the future. I took some time to decide my next steps, and now it is time to actually put what I planned into action. It is frighten...

"May your choices reflect your hopes , not your fears " -Nelson Mandela,  South African Anti-Apartheid Revolutionary, Political Leader and Philanthropist. Orientation 2017 (you can see me near the front!) Welcome back or welcome to Adventures at Franklin! This is my final week at Franklin University Switzerland :O and I wanted to share why I chose FUS, so that any prospective students who are thinking about attending FUS can get an idea about on whether or not to consider FUS. This post was inspired by a post of the same title , written by Jessica ( Adventures at Franklin creator).  Quite simply, I chose Franklin University Switzerland because it fit me and what I wanted from my university experience.  Firstly, I did not want to be a face in the crowd. Franklin's small student population makes it so every student can stand out if they want to and not just be a number. Professors will know who you are, staff will know who you are, and students will know who you are. I alw...

Welcome to or welcome back to Adventures at Franklin ! Another Academic Travel period has come and gone, which means an  Adventures at Franklin tradition returns: Academic Travel Stories (Fall 2020 edition). Due to the second wave, many travels had to stay in Switzerland. Nonetheless, students were able to travel in some capacity! In this post, I interviewed several people from several Academic Travels to share their stories and adventures from their travels.  Interviewee #1: Lily Pifferini-Carter from Bend, Oregon. I'm an Environmental Science Major with an SJS minor graduating in Spring 2021.  What is your Academic Travel Course, and where did you go? My academic travel this semester was Alpine Ecosystems with Professor Hale and we went to Chamonix, France   Describe your course in 1 sentence. In this course we learn about, and often see with our own eyes, the ecosystem changes that are occurring in the European Alps and seek to understand what this magnificent la...

"I read, I travel, I become" -Derek Walcott,  Saint Lucian Poet and Playwright. Welcome back or welcome to Adventures at Franklin! This post is part 2 of a 3 part series where I reflect on some of my favorite memories of FUS. Part 1 was about orientation week, check it out here ! I am coming to the end of my time at FUS, and so I wanted to use this platform to reflect on my adventures at Franklin (pun most definitely intended). When I think about my favorite memories, my mind will always drift towards my Academic Travels (AT). I am about to embark on my last AT (shout out to VCA 120T heading to Munich!), and will definitely write about my last travel experience. However for now, here are some of my fondest memories from my 6 previous Academic Travels!  Fall 2017. CLCS 248T: European Food Systems (Bern, Strasbourg, Lausanne) Highlights include:  First Academic Travel. The first one always holds a special place in my heart. It was the first time that I was on a school trip ...

“A good first impression can work wonders ” -Joanne Rowling, British Writer and Philanthropist.  Welcome back or welcome to Adventures at Franklin!  Last week I brought back an old series from 2016, and today we do the same! The first Franklin First Impressions post was an opportunity for new students to share their first impressions on FUS through writing. Today, I'm so happy to have some new students share their first impressions of FUS during this extraordinary time through video! I sat down with 4 freshmen and 1 junior study abroad to hear about their stories. Check it out below! It is great to see that despite only being at the university for little over a month, these students have already recognized and experienced some of the best things that the university has to offer. FUS offers so many opportunities. As students, we can get to know our professors, travel to amazing places, study in a beautiful setting, and meet people from all over the world. For these new stu...

  Welcome back or welcome to Adventures at Franklin !  Today we have the last episode of the Summer at Franklin podcast series! It's been a great series, and I want to say a huge thank you to the creators, Carisa and Joe, and everyone else involved in the podcast for their hard work. If you aren't caught up, then here are the previous episodes!  Episode 1: Introduction to the podcast Episode 2: Health and mental well-being Episode 3: French/Academic Projects Episode 4: Art Projects Episode 5 Description: Do you ever wonder about the secret, elusive lives of your residence hall’s RA? Tune in to the final episode of the Summer at Franklin Podcast! This hour, we will get some insights into what the RA (Resident Assistant) life looks like at Franklin University. This summer, both Saeeda Bano and Pearl Kasirye became RAs for the first time. Tune in to find out more about what they really do, how (and when) they can help you, as well as what some of the misconceptions of being...

"It's not about your resources , it's about your resourcefulness " -Tony Robbins,  American Author, Coach, Motivational Speaker, and Philanthropist. Welcome back or welcome to Adventures at Franklin!  In this post, we tackle one of the most important resources available to FUS students, office hours.  Some of the most common cases why I have attended a professor's office hours are to ask for advice/review (on papers, assignments, future course selections etc.), to check/clarify course material/grades, or ask about external resources/opportunities.  The semester has just started, which means most people who traveled to campus are still in quarantine, but thankfully students can still set up appointments with professors virtually! Here are some reasons why office hours are so important, and how to use them :)  Why are Office Hours Important? It is an opportunity to clarify information and/or ask questions.  As a student, maybe something did not make sense in ...

  Welcome back or welcome to Adventures at Franklin! Another week means another episode of The Franklin Podcast! Here are Episodes 1 and 2 in case you need to get caught up :) Episode Description: "During the regular academic year, students have a wealth of resources available to help them succeed. One of these is the language tutors at the Writing and Learning Center (WLC). These tutors hold regular, weekly tutoring sessions with groups of students from the various language classes, tutoring students up to the 300 level. During the summer, however, these sorts of resources are cut down, as there are also not too many students taking language classes. Yet, this summer, a couple students decided to change that, with Vasco Aguglia offering tutoring to interested students taking Italian classes and Rim Maslouh supporting students taking French classes. Anushka Bagde, on the other hand, held group tutoring and study sessions to help motivate students of any subject. Listen to today...

  Welcome back or welcome to Adventures at Franklin ! Today's post: Episode 2 of The Franklin Podcast. Check out Episode 1 if you haven't already :) Episode description:   " Throughout the regular academic year, the Tone Athletic Center (Franklin’s gym) hosts a wide variety of activities and sporting events, ranging from Yoga, Pilates, and dance classes and the basketball and volleyball games our newly formed teams play, and even organize weekend skiing trips. During the recent lockdowns, however, this space and the activities they normally organize were among the first things to go away. To help ease us out of this situation and help cope with the effects, Maddie Espinoza and Natascha Braase came up with a solution: yoga; and Grace Kotnik: hiking. In this episode, we will learn more about how their projects came together and what they are doing to help heal and reconstruct a sense of community at our school through exercise and mindfulness." -Carisa, Franklin Podcas...

"S o do all who live to see such times. B ut that is not for them to decide.  All  we have to decide is what to  do  with the  time  that is given us" -J.R.R. Tolkien,  English Writer, Poet, Philologist, and Academic. This picture is taken from my first orientation trip to Valle Verzasca in 2017! I actually cannot see myself anywhere 😂 I remember being on the left side of the bridge (right side of the photo), but it's very possible that I'm not in the photo. We were the largest new group of students in recent years, and so we all could not actually fit on the bridge, so some of us were more on the side and I guess I was part of that group 😂 I also remembered we got yelled at for clogging up all the space on the bridge and people were trying to cross, fun times :D Welcome back or welcome to Adventures at Franklin ! People often say that you can only appreciate the magnitude of an experience until it's over. I think a big reason why this is often the ...