Tyler Rauch's Blog

Student Ambassadors anyone?

     What a weekend! I can't begin to tell you how happy I am to be sitting down! It was a wonderfully successful last two days to say the least so I really can't complain, however, I am EXHAUSTED! This weekend was a combination of Admissions events and a lacrosse game which are two of my favorite things to do at Queens!

     I have to start by telling you a little about Connection Queens that started early Saturday morning. This was one of the many amazing programs that the Admissions Dept. helps put on in order to make the transition from HS to college that much easier. Connection Queens,however, is different because it is a two day event that is designed for students who have made their deposit and are planning to attend Queens in the Fall. This is a chance for them to see the school again, meet a good bit of their class, take placement tests that everyone is required to do during orientation AND do their advising for classes. Its a wonderful chance to get a lot of questions answered, meet other parents and get two steps ahead of the rest of your class. For those of you who are considering Queens and have the chance to do Connection Queens, I highly recommend it!

     This was a unique Connection Queens because this was the first year that we introduced doing the placement tests and advising this early! Now, I can't finish this post without giving Michele Kelly a much needed thanks because that whole part of this weekend was all her! She did SO much behind the scenes to make this possible and none of this would be possible without her!

     OK, now that I have all that out of the way I can tell a little about the weekend. I need to start by saying that I met a mother who said she read my web blog and I can't say HOW GOOD IT FEELS! I always wonder if these things ever get read and it was so nice to hear in person that she did! It was especially special because she is the mother of a young lady who will be attending Queens in the fall and currently attends my rival High School back home in Florida. I know it doesn't seem like much, but its always nice to see a little piece of home come to Queens! Outside of that experience I had a BLAST getting to sit down and talk with so many new students and see how excited they were to get to Queens. It's a huge step going to college so seeing these students talk to each other and meet new friends all in a day or two just speaks volumes to the kind of class we have recruited! It was a great success! The Ambassadors and Admissions Dept. did a fantastic job of making sure everything went smoothly and everyone knew where to go. I know we were all over the place and I hope I didn't make anyone "Tyler-ed out"! We do our best to meet as many students as possible and sometimes it can be information overload which I want to apologize for. So if at any time I was bothering you with how much I love Queens, I'M SORRY! I just can't help how much this place means to me! In the end we all had a great time and although it was a LONG day for EVERYBODY it was by all means worth it!

     After an exhausting day of Ambassadors which started at 7am I had to change my polo into our travel Polo's for lacrosse and grab my pads then hop on bus to Catawba College for a night game. Needless to say I was running on empty at this point and took a short nap on the bus trip there. We played and unfortunately came home with a loss but it was a great game. The final was 12-10 and I certainly feel like we outplayed them so it is hard to see why we lost. I was pleased, however, to see one of the Admissions Dept. staff members and her husband come to the game along with one of the students for next year who spent the whole day at Connection Queens. Always feels good to see that kind of support :) The bus trip home and eating out took a few more hours and we didn't pull up to school until midnight! Now, all day of Ambassadors and then a lacrosse game will wipe you out! I SLEPT LIKE A BABY!

     Finally this morning I woke up and was back in the Ambassador outfit and headed to the biggest college fair in Charlotte! It is a national college fair and was a wonderful experience, but lasted from about 10:45 when we left till about 4:15 when we got back. About 90% of that time was spent on my feet introducing Queens to the lives of local high school students. I had a BLAST doing it and it was so awesome because there were hundreds of other universities represented there! Another Ambassador along with our Director of Admissions and one of the other Admissions counselors were present at the table and it was so fun getting to spend the day with them. I actually learned a lot about Queens in the process!

     Upon returning home, I had a meeting about the Mortar Board National Senior Honor Society that I was recently accepted to. It is a respected honor society so I am so pleased to have been chosen for and can't wait to start. Our initiation is Sunday so I can't wait! After that I came home and had lasagna with the house which was DELICIOUS :) Now its time for some homework and getting ready for another long week. Tomorrow is promising with lifting at 8, tutoring at 10, meeting with a professor at 11, class 12-4 and practice 4-6:30. I don't expect to have much energy for the rest of the semester but it is all worth it!

     Before I go, I know these web blogs might talk a lot about what is going in my life and some of the stuff I talk about might interest you or make you kind of curious. If you ever need anything answered please feel free to contact me and I will do my absolute best to help! My e-mail is tyler.rauch@qmail.queens.edu ! I hope you all have a great next week and GREAT rest of the semester! P.S. I am going to upload some photos from this weekend as soon as I get a hold of them!    

One week closer to my senior year!

     Ok so again this post is a few days late...But who is counting :) This past weekend was Easter as well as one more lacrosse game in the books. Unfortunately we lost the game against another top team from Massachusetts, but it was a good game nonetheless. On the plus side, however, my family was in town to spend some time with their youngest (and favorite) son! They flew in on Saturday afternoon and were picked up by one of my roommates parents (who are like family) who then drove to the hotel and checked in before heading to our game which was at 7pm. After the game we decided to head back to the hotel where my roommates parents were upgraded for free to the presidential suite. No idea how or why but they didn't pay a dime extra for a SWEET room! It was like the size of my house here at school accept it overlooked the city which was so amazing at night! We just ordered in and spent some time there. On Sunday we woke up and went to brunch at the Cheesecake Factory which was soo good! Unfortunately, shortly after brunch it was time to drop mom and dad off and get back to reality with homework and lifting.

     After a wonderful Easter break I came to the harsh reality this week that I only have roughly a month until I am a senior. Now, in high school that is so exciting because you move onto the next stage of your life with college after you graduate. However, now that I'm in college and can't wait to see what my future holds, I also can't handle the fact that I am going to eventually have to leave QU. I love this place and everything it has to offer. At this point I just don't want to think about not playing Division II lacrosse again or having 9 hour days that include practice, meetings, class and so much more. It is only the end of my Junior year but I can't tell you how fast it has all flown by. I guess its true what they say about time flying when your having fun!

     This week has started off pretty productive. I have picked up my transcript to send to Ford, met with some professors, taken care of some end of the year/beginning of next year club stuff and cashed some much needed pay checks. This was only scratching the ice berg! I also got some good news recently that I have been accepted to the Mortar Board National Senior Honor Society. It feels good to see my hard work in the classroom paying off. Mortar Board builds off of academics, service and leadership so being apart of something so special means the world to me. I was also recently named to the academic all conference team for the Conference Carolinas. I don't know if I already posted about this, but I still can't tell you how exciting it is! You have to have a minimum GPA and be a Junior or Senior to receive academic all conference. It is always a good feeling when your parents can look on the school web site and find their sons name for all the right reasons.

     I am currently in the process of applying for the Dana Scholarship that I have received since my sophomore year but need to reapply every year. With a University like Queens the competition gets harder and more intense with each semester of outstanding students.  I guess the point I'm trying to make is although I have had the scholarship for some time now, its certainly not guaranteed; ESPECIALLY at a school like Queens! I also want to point out a piece of exciting news that I will be looking tomorrow morning for where I will be living in Dearborn, MI this summer. I am sitting down with Katie Carman who has also accepted the Ford offer and we are going to check out some places. I know it sounds fun now, but I'm sure after about 30 minutes I'm going to be sick of it! Ill certainly let you know how it goes.

     We have a game tomorrow at 4pm against cross town rival Wingate University. They are pretty good this year so it won't be any easy game. I hope we can pull it out and I can't wait to post next week and let you know the outcome! Until then I have some Corporate Finance homework to take care of and a few things around the house that need to be done! Have a great rest of the week and I'll talk to you all Sunday!

Spring (MUCH NEEDED) Break!!!!

     Ah, finally back at the computer to continue these posts after a MUCH NEEDED break! I know I missed a blog, however, I was busy with our spring break lacrosse trip to Charlottesville, Virginia and the rest of my break spent in Hilton Head with my "crew" or "the house" as we like to say. To be honest this break had a little bit of everything; some highs and lows, but nonetheless a wonderful break.

     The break started on a low point as four cars were broken into during practice shortly before we left for Virginia. Our campus police officer caught the suspect after a pretty intense car chase (from what I've heard). The suspect broke into my roommates car who happened to have driven that day and I conveniently left my wallet, keys and cell phone on the back seat in plain view. Needless to say the keys were left, the wallet and cell phone were gone. Fortunately, however, the wallet and cell phone were thrown out the window and later retrieved (minus my bank cards, insurance cards, and money). The cell phone  worked and I can now say it has been thrown from a window in a high speed car chase which always sounds pretty cool. I canceled all of the cards and I will have them very soon so no real damage was done (accept to my roommates back left window)! The only big downside to having bank cards stolen is the fact that you have to physically walk into the bank to withdraw money which is a real pain in the butt when you're in different states for the entire week on spring break. In the end, it all worked out and everything is OK so I can't really complain!

     Next, we left for Virginia after a good early morning practice on the turf. We arrived in VA at UVA after enjoying subs on the bus which were AMAZING! We watched the UVA men's lacrosse team practice which was awesome because it not only pumped me up but gave us a great idea of what a championship program looks like. We then met for dinner at Red Robbin (I think thats the name) and based on what it looked like outside I wasn't expecting much but I do have to say I FELL IN LOVE! Besides how can you not enjoy eating out with 42 of your best friends. Its like a HUGE family and always makes for good stories:) Later that night we had our team meetings at the hotel and I spent a little time in the spa/jacuzzi that the hotel provided. This was certainly a HIGH point (Jacuzzis always put me in a good mood). The beds in the hotel were sooo cumfy and I got such a great sleep!

     The next morning we woke up and practiced at UVA which was also a high point because I had a great practice which felt good and helped warm me up for that days game. After lunch and some rest we suited up to play Bryant College a top ranked DII team that is coached by former Duke Lacrosse coach Mike Pressler (an outstanding man). The game didn't go as well as planned and we got killed unfortunately:( I did get some good playing time and thought I did pretty well so I can't complain. It's been a rough season thus far and how we bounce back will be a testament to how close and mature we are as a program. That was definitely a low point. The bus trip back we had a good meal and I had my own seat so I just listened to the I-Pod and relaxed till we got into Charlotte. As soon as I stepped foot in my house I threw my things in the laundry, packed for Hilton Head and hit the hay.

     Early Wednesday morning we left for Hilton Head to officially start spring break '08 when we didn't have to be college athletes or students, but just college kids looking to have some fun. Fun is exactly what we did. We spent so much time relaxing on the beach, playing beach volleyball, meeting tons of other spring breakers and enjoying all that Hilton Head has to offer. I haven't laughed so hard in such a long time and it felt good to act like a kid again. As I mentioned earlier I went with my house that consists of Brian, me, Murray and Jonny. We were joined by three other students from Queens that met up with us after spending the first few days in Myrtle Beach. They were Emily, Jackie and Allison. All of us are such good friends and we only became closer on this trip! At the end of the day I will certainly say that spring break '08 was a success! 

     You'll see a few photos here FINALLY because as you might have guessed my computer is FIXED! I had my parents send it to my roommates house in Hilton Head so I wouldn't have to leave it outside waiting for a week while we were out of town. The photos are just a few group pictures of everyone from break (everyone in the photos were mentioned above).

     I am sending my final info to Ford at this point. They have received my acceptance paperwork and just need my official start dates, etc... I will be busy with that for the next few weeks and finalizing where exactly I am going to live along with how I am going to work that schedule into my John Belk International Program trip to Spain for all of May and the start of my senior year in August! Busy summer :) Just the way I like it! Until the next blog I hope you enjoyed any time off you may have had and I look forward to letting you know how rough it is going to be getting back into the swing of things! Be safe!   

Its official!

     Its official! I will be a 2008 summer intern for Ford Motor Company and I can't be more excited! To me this is about as big as it gets and the offer is unbelievable. I can't say enough about the folks at Ford thus far and how excited I am to be working with them this summer! I have weighed out the pro's and con's and so far can't find any con's! Its wonderful to feel so sure about something that about 3 weeks ago seemed crazy! Tonight I spoke to a student at Queens who just completed her summer internship with Ford and she had nothing but the world to say about the entire experience. Needless to say I am so excited!

     In other news, I had the Campus Union Board interviews today. Since I have been recently voted as the secretary for next semester I was required to sit in on the interviews. It took us about 5 and a half hours but we found our group. Everyone seems like great candidates and were really excited to have the group we've selected for next year. In the next Ambassadors meeting I will get my chance to run for President and make the jump from VP (I am VERY excited about that opportunity)!

     We lost this weekend to Limestone college who is a powerhouse in the south. It's a shame that we lost to them as bad as we did and I hope we get to see them in the conference finals for a little pay back. Its been a rough start to the season seeing as were 1-3, but thats the price to pay when you play #2, #7 and  #4 in the first two weeks of the season. Now we really start playing conference and region games so I'm very excited for those.

     It seems like it's that time again for exams and I had one last week and have two tomorrow. It is a little stressful for me but I'm excited to get them out of the way! I look forward to tomorrow being over so I can get some sleep! And my last news for this post is that I officially turn 21 in 38 days, 2 hours and 31 minutes (from the time I'm writing this)! but hey whose counting! Its time for a little more studying but I hope this finds everyone doing well and enjoying themselves! Till next time, have a great week!