Masquerade!
Posted: April 22, 2013 Filed under: Student Life | Tags: admissions, cedar city, Cirque du Sunfest, college, dance, friends, Fun, Fun Times, mask ball, masquerade, southern utah, southern utah university, sunfest, suu, suu admissions, SUUSA, tbirdnation, UT, utah, utah college, Utah High School Tour Leave a comment »Last week SUU had their annual SUNFest. The theme this year was “Cirque du SUNFest,” a play on “cirque du Soleil,” which means “circus of the sun.”
Events during the week included a comedian; the Mr. SUU pageant; bingo with great prizes; a showing of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey; a carnival with fun bouncy inflatables, free food, carnival games, prizes, and live music; the Thunderbird Awards Ceremony; and a masquerade ball.
I love dancing. Any time I have an excuse to go dancing is a good time. Sometimes I’ll go to rather sketchy places if I know there’s going to be dancing. When I found out about the masquerade, you can imagine how excited I was to go.
I went with my dancing friend Ali (whenever there’s a dance beat, chances are you’ll see us together) and our outfits matched. Unintentionally.
Black and leopard. I’m not wearing any leopard, but I’m wearing gold which matched her accents.
At the dance (which was free!) I ate lots of cookies and fruits and vegetables, danced, sweated, and got some photos done in a photo booth.
You can see our love we have for dance depicted in this photo with vogue-ing and jazz hands. The other two are just… great.
I love the great activities and events SUUSA does.
Au revoir!
Viva! Las Vegas
Posted: April 1, 2013 Filed under: Student Life | Tags: tbirdnation, suu, southern utah university, admissions, utah, college, utah college, cedar city, suu admissions, southern utah, UT, Utah High School Tour, Fun, friends, Fun Times, Las Vegas, Excalibur, Bellagio, Circus Circus, Dick's Last Resort, Dick's Restaurant Leave a comment »Of all the places on earth, I have a deep connection to Cedar City.
It’s my home and I love it here.
However, it is nice to get away for a bit, especially when it’s your friend’s birthday!
Las Vegas, Nevada is only 175 miles away, or 2.5 hours driving time, according to GoogleMaps.
Ten of us friends went to Las Vegas to spend time together and celebrate Nick’s 21st birthday!
We stayed in Circus Circus. Friday night we were going to party like 1999 and decided to walk from Circus Circus along the Strip to Excalibur for dinner. I wanted to drive because I was pretty sure the distance was a lot further than anticipated, but, in the end, I was glad we walked because we became closer friends and had some pretty awesome things happen.
Awesome thing #1: While enjoying the wonderful 80° F weather on our walk, a gentleman had the top down in his convertible and was blasting music. And it was good music. So I said, “Thanks for the tunes!” and he pointed to me and sang to us as we walked by. That made my day 
Awesome thing #2: This black gentleman came up to us while we were taking photos and said we needed some color in the picture. It was great!
And then he took one of the whole group!
I love nice people
Back row LtoR: Martin, Abby, Nick, Jenni, Braden, Scott. Front row LtoR: Chris, me, Cadence, Adam!
Nick, the birthday boy, and Martin
Jenni snapped this gem of me watching the Bellagio water show. Apparently, I was quite amused.
We were walking to Excalibur to eat at Dick’s. It’s a restaurant where the servers are intentionally mean and swear at you and throw things at you and it’s quite the experience. They also make really inappropriate hats for you to wear. I, however, have a filter when it comes to posting things on the Internet so I will only be posting a photo of my hat, which was the only appropriate one made….
This is the only hat that I want photos of on the Internet. It says “Maybe if I cut my hair people would stop mistaking me for a 12 year old girl.” This is my “12 year old girl” pose.
After dinner and drinking lots of water (I don’t drink alcohol. Notice how the pitcher I’m drinking right out of is water? I was super thirsty), six of us went to a dance club and danced the night away! It was the most fun!
After a long night of walking, eating, laughing, dancing, and have the best time ever, Nick was tired so Martin carried him to our hotel room on his shoulders.
Lovely photo by Jenni of the moon over New York New York and the front of the Monte Carlo
Of all these people on the trip, there was only one that I didn’t know because of SUU. Every day it is hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that I have the best friends in the world.
Thank you, SUU, for giving me friendships that I will value forever.
[Abby], Pretty Ballerina
Posted: March 25, 2013 Filed under: Cedar City, Student Life | Tags: admissions, Ballet, cedar city, cedar city junior ballet, college, dancing, friends, Fun, sleeping beauty, southern utah, southern utah university, suu, suu admissions, tbirdnation, tchaikovsky, UT, utah, utah college, Utah High School Tour Leave a comment »One thing that I love about SUU (that I’m sure I’ve said before) is the ample opportunities SUU students have to get involved with the community.
One of my best friends, Abby, had that opportunity, too. She was in The Sleeping Beauty ballet presented by Cedar City Junior Ballet. She was one of the fairies and I was so proud of the work she did.
My other friend, Alex (from this post) was also in it as Aurora. It really was a splendid production. The costuming, makeup, adaptation, and set were all exquisite.
Photography was not permitted in the theatre, so here’s the link to Parker Grimes Photography and you can see some great shots of the ballet.
Cadence, Scott, Abby, and me after her remarkable performance. I was one proud friend.
Put on your Sunday Clothes
Posted: March 18, 2013 Filed under: Cedar City, Student Life | Tags: admissions, cedar city, college, friends, Fun, Hello Dolly, Musicals, southern utah, southern utah university, suu, suu admissions, tbirdnation, UT, utah, utah college, Utah High School Tour Leave a comment »When I was in high school, I was very involved with, well, a lot of different things.
Especially the performing arts. I love singing, violin, and acting.
My favorite thing was when I could combine all three of those things into one: musicals!
Well, maybe not the violin, but singing and acting for sure (although, we did do Fiddler on the Roof. But I wasn’t the fiddler).
SUU does many fantabulous productions in the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance, but due to my other interests and ridiculously busy life, and the fact that I am not a theatre arts major, I have chosen not to audition for SUU shows (in retrospect, I wish I had).
But guess what?
I’m going to be in a musical and I’m freakin’ excited!
I haven’t been in a play since 2008, so it’s been a while, for sure.
The production is being put on by Cedar Valley Community Theatre and it is Hello, Dolly! I was cast as Barnaby.
Events that happen in Cedar like this one are evidence that SUU is a major integral part of the community.
For example, CVCT’s board of directors: four out of the seven have direct ties to SUU.
Hello, Dolly!‘s cast?
Dolly: adjunct professor of voice at SUU
Ernestina: SUU student
Ambrose: SUU student
Ermangarde: SUU alumna
Cornelius: SUU student
Barnaby: Me!
Rudolph: SUU student
Ensemble: half!
And some of my best friends are in it!
I think it’s fantastic that so many SUU students go out and find a place in the Cedar City community.
Sooooooo if you want to see the show, performances are May 30 & 31 and June 1 & 3. I’m not advertising. Don’t worry 
Now I have a sudden desire to watch Wall-E.
L.E.S Artistes
Posted: February 25, 2013 Filed under: Student Life | Tags: admissions, art, cedar city, college, create, Fashion, friends, Mondo Guerra, Passion, Project Runway, southern utah, southern utah university, STAB, suu, suu admissions, SUUSA, tbirdnation, UT, utah, utah college, Utah High School Tour Leave a comment »I love art.
SUU is a great institution if you’re interested in art.
And what is art? Well, everything is art. Athletics, singing, writing, chemistry, cooking, business, visual arts, acting, architecture, biology.
All those things are art.
Why? What makes them art?
Art, to me, needs to be created with passion. So if you are passionate about something you do and you create anything, tangible or not, you are an artist.
Mondo Guerra, Project Runway season 8 runner- up and Project Runway All-Stars winner, came to SUU last week as part of Identity Week. He is passionate about what he does.
“If you apply truth and honesty to what ever you do, you are an artist.” he said.
Me, my designer friend Ellen, Mondo, and my friend Scott.
So there you go.
Passion. Truth and honesty. Create. You’re an artist.
SUU Career Fair
Posted: February 22, 2013 Filed under: Experiential Education, Student Life | Tags: admissions, Career Fair, Careers, cedar city, college, collegebound, friends, Future, graduate school, southern utah, southern utah university, suu, suu admissions, SUU Ballroom, tbirdnation, UT, utah, utah college Leave a comment »A college education will likely lead to a better career.
And so sometimes, being at college leads to career fairs.
Like last week. Lots of future employers and future employees shaking hands and swapping informational materials. It’s a pretty awesome use of the SUU ballroom.
Wanna see?
See? I wasn’t kidding.
College education + career & internship fair = a much happier world for everyone
Snowshoeing, Cedar Breaks
Posted: February 12, 2013 Filed under: Experiential Education | Tags: admissions, Adventure, Brian Head Ski Resort, Cedar Breaks, Cedar Breaks Ranger outpost, cedar city, college, Free activities, Hiking, Nature, outdoors, ranger outpost, Snowshoeing, southern utah, southern utah universtiy, suu, suu admissions, tbirdnation, Travel, UT, utah, utah college, Utah High School Tour Leave a comment »
There are a few advantages of going to school here in Cedar City. One, it is awesome and has some great programs. Two, the people are great and the girl to guy ratio is something like 2:1, so guys you have choices. Three, you are in the heartland of outdoor activities. SUU has two national parks withing an hour and half of campus. There are two or three state parks in about the same distance and we have one of the coolest national monuments within 20 minutes, and that is what I am going to talk about today.
About a week ago my fiance and I had the opportunity to go to Cedar Breaks on a snowshoeing excursion. Every winter during the months of January and February they have free (yes I said free) snowshoeing up at Cedar Breaks that is guided by their park rangers. There is a local meet up spot, usually in the Cedar City Visitor Center where everyone gathers in the morning and then carpools up the mountain.
After a bit of a drive and a stop at Brian Head Ski Resort, we headed up the road until we could go no farther. Here we hopped out of the vehicles and strapped the snowshoes onto our feet and began our adventure.
I feel like pictures right now would do this story more justice then me just telling you. So here we go.
This is the beginning of the hike. Walking down hill is much easier then anything else. Also remember, you cannot really walk backwards so to make any type of technical turn is a guaranteed way to end up falling.
After going and exploring a little on our own, we took a rest on a snow bank. All that walking and shuffling over heats you. It was 24 degrees up there but we were walking around in just our long sleeve shirts.
We headed into the woods after our stop and saw some cool things. Also take note, don’t walk to close to trees, especially little ones like this. The snow builds up around them and creates big open pockets that you can sink down into and is difficult to get out of.
After stopping at the ranger outpost and enjoying lunch we headed back and took some pictures along the ridge. We had a lot of fun that day and the great part of it all was that it was free for both of us to go! Check it out when you guys come down.
The Name of the Game
Posted: February 11, 2013 Filed under: Student Life | Tags: admissions, cedar city, college, College of Science and Engineering, Fun, Halo, Halo 4, Just Dance, Just Dance 4, southern utah, southern utah university, sugar cookies, suu, suu admissions, tbirdnation, UT, utah, utah college, Utah High School Tour, video games 1 Comment »There were so many great things that happened last week at SUU that I could blog about. But I’ll only pick one.
The College of Science and Engineering hosted a night of fun with Just Dance and a Halo tournament. . . and there were cookies!
Students also did some arts and crafty things by making lovely Valentine’s Day cards. I failed to take a picture of mine.
Happy SUU students frost sugar cookies.
My friend Alex decorates cookies!
Me and Alex with our cookies!
These T-birds have mad Just Dance 4 skills.
I did participate in JD4, but I’m terrible at it, which I find ironic because I love dancing.
I did not participate in Halo because I don’t do video games. But the people that did participate had a blast!
SANS
Posted: February 8, 2013 Filed under: Student Life | Tags: admissions, college, collegebound, communication, friends, professors, SANS, southern utah university, Student Support, suu, suu admissions, tbirdnation, Tutoring, UT, utah, utah college Leave a comment »Looking for help with your classes?
Want to learn some better study habits?
SANS mentors offer several kinds of free tutoring at SUU’s Mentoring Center.
Is your professor concerned?
Need help figuring out how to talk to your professor about the issue?
Would you like some free tutoring?
Ask your professor if he/she uses SANS!
Look no further than your local SANS team on campus!
The Student Assessment Notification System is a program on campus designed to help professors connect their students with resources that will help them succeed. I get the awesome job on campus to be the “SANS Coordinator.” As a grad student, I work hard to coordinate efforts of the SANS team, all of the mentors, and instructors or departments on campus. I love my job. A lot! I work with some of the most amazing people at SUU!
If you get a call from a SANS mentor, answer it! You’re more likely to succeed in your class if you do!
Last semester SANS reached almost 1,600 students and worked with 179 professors or instructors on campus. There’s a good chance current Tbirdnation-ers received an alert (Satisfactory, Concerned, or Unsatisfactory) and later received a call from a SANS mentor. This is a very good thing. The 12 SANS mentors all work very hard to help students however they can. So if you’re looking into coming to SUU, be excited that YOU can have your very own SANS mentor here to help you out. And for those of you on campus, if you get a call, text, or email from a SANS mentor, answer them and let them help you!
Talent Shows
Posted: February 5, 2013 Filed under: Experiential Education, Student Life | Tags: admissions, cedar city, college, photography, REAL Peer Mentors, southern utah, southern utah universtiy, suu, suu admissions, talent show, tbirdnation, utah, utah college, Utah High School Tour Leave a comment »
Last Friday I participated in the first talent show of my life and it was awesome!
I work on campus as a SANS mentor… Which means I tutor students, but we share an office with another organization here on campus called REAL Peer Mentors. They are the organization here at SUU that is responsible for educating students about healthy life styles. They cover a whole range of stuff like drug and alcohol awareness, tobacco use, sex education and healthy bodies. Well this past week was healthy bodies and so they were throwing a talent show so people could show off what they could do with their bodies. (I know that sounds strange but they had it worded better then me so stop by their place for more details)
Anyways, so here I was walking out of the office and I was stopped by one of the ladies handing out hot coco and she said I should sign up for the talent show. I thought about it, then decided to go for it. Like I said, this is the first time I have ever done one of these in my life, so I was a little nervous, but luckily for me I do have a talent, photography.
I picked up photography my first year in college and have enjoyed taking nature photo’s the most, so I had a decent collection of images. That evening I went home and edited them and added some touch ups to make them look as natural as they could and then headed off to campus to do my first ever photography presentation.
Soon after I arrived I found out that I was going to go first, which is OK for me, but was still unexpected. I have given plenty of presentations in my life so I am confident with doing this type of stuff. A few minutes later the show began and I kicked off the event. I feel like I did a great job a had a lot of fun presenting. Here are some pictures from the event and some of my photography that I showed everyone.
Eric
jillowhitaker
Kirk
Laurel
Jess
Nathan
Thor
Becky
