The end of another year at Barrett Downtown...

What a fantastic year it has been! Congratulations to all of our spring graduates and good luck with your future plans. Barrett is on the move and it just keeps getting better. Special thanks to all of our student bloggers this semester for sharing their experiences and stories with us! Stay tuned for some guest bloggers this summer and more student stories to be posted as the fall semester approaches. Have a great summer everyone!

As The Summer Approaches

As spring semester comes to a close, the summer semester quickly follows. As an accelerated nursing student, I attend classes year round and with that being said, this summer will be my final semester as both a nursing student and a Barrett upper division student.

This summer brings many exciting things for me. I am currently working on my thesis pertaining to the effects of stress in nursing students and I will defend my thesis in July. I am finishing up my HON 394 course, which I have absolutely loved and I will be graduating in August.

As this semester comes to an end, I look back at my education and am amazed at all the opportunities I have been given. Barrett has been such a wonderful addition to my education. I cannot imagine life without it. Each required course has broadened my scope of knowledge and allowed me to reach outside my current mind set and add new skills, techniques, and information to my list. The creative thesis project has really been a blessing in disguise. The countless hours of research has opened my eyes not only to my topic but to all the information available to us as students. I have found so many useful resources that ASU offers. Barrett is an amazing tool for staying connected and utilizing everything ASU has to offer.

From volunteer opportunities, to workshops, to just plain fun activities, Barrett offers it all. I would encourage anyone interested to apply for Barrett. It has truly made all the difference in my education and I wouldn't trade a moment of it.

Both Barrett and the College of Nursing have been amazing components in my education. I cannot express my thanks enough to these two programs.

My future opportunities with the help of ASU

A big part of being a journalism student is finding and doing internships. Cronkite requires students to do at least one, but it is smart to do as many as you can. In this career field, it's all about your experience, clips, and what editors say about you.

My first internship was first semester of sophomore year at the Phoenix Business Journal. I didn't do as much as I wanted here, but it was still an interesting and valuable experience. This semester I intern with the Arizona Republic, working out of their Scottsdale office.

At the republic I do a lot of writing. I keep track of breaking news and crime stories but I also do featurey pieces. A couple weeks ago I had three cover stories and center pieces that ran in the Republic. I wrote one about endangered crocodiles that came to Scottsdale, one was about the growing need for fosters at local animal shelters due to the economy, and the last was about a little boy you suffers from a rare, harmful disease.

My time and work at the Republic has been one of the most valuable experiences. I'm excited to announce that I will be spending my summer in New Orleans working for the main paper there. I can't wait to get paid for my work in an exciting city. I am going to have so much fun and get great clips!

This Friday, I have internship interviews set up through the Cronkite school. One of the best things about going to school here is that Cronkite tries to help you find an internship and the professors here have so many connections. I will be interviewing with seven different people for an internship next semester. I hope all goes well.

When I first came here I was so worried I wouldn't make it or find an internship.But all I needed was some time and some luck and here I am. Anyone can do this and find success here especially if you're a part of Cronkite and Barrett. People are always impressed to see a student getting their BA/MMC at the same time, so take advantage of that opportunity!

Barrett Events

I had NO idea when I joined Barrett how many extra opportunities that I would have simply by being one of their students.

About a week ago I got an email about a program that Barrett in collaboration with Career Services was putting on downtown. The program was about the applying to medical school.

Now, I am a senior nursing major and haven't seriously considered medical school but the idea of going to 1.5 hour program delivered by an expert on the med-school application process subject sounded appealing because I figured that I could learn a lot in this small amount of time and start thinking about if med school was an option for me sometime in the future.

This program was convenient for me because it was after my Friday class at the downtown campus. There were about 10-15 students there, which meant that I could have quite an opportunity to talk with the guest speaker and pick his brain about what it would look like for me to possible go on to medical school.

I kept thinking to myself of what a blessing it is that I am a Barrett student and have opportunities such as this one to help me on my path to decide what I REALLY want to do in the future.

Long story short, I have my work cut out for me! It's a good thing that I have so many resources and programs to go to if I need help figuring things out.

Getting in the College Spirit

Barrett is an amazing way to get involved with not only ASU but the community as well. Being a student in Barrett allows you many opportunities not afforded to other ASU students. The Barrett Downtown Digest is one of the ways Barrett student's are kept in the loop with everything Barrett. The Downtown Digest is a newsletter announcing all the opportunities available that month. It is a great way for Barrett students to take advantage of new and exciting opportunities.

Being fairly new to Barrett, I have not had the opportunity to take part in many of the activities, but I have had the opportunity to take part in many of the College of Nursing activities. Many of these opportunities are open to all students, so it's a great way to get involved in other programs as well.

I recently had the opportunity to attend the Mindfulness Meditation workshop. It was hosted by Bhante Sujatha, an ordained Buddhist monk from Sri Lanka. During this two hour retreat, I learned: "the inner process of breathing and meditation to create a safe, quiet, and calm state of mind, centering to align mind, body, and spirit to attain inner peace, and accessing inner guidance for health relationships and careers." All of these aspects are skills I can carry forward with me on my journey through Barrett, especially through this thesis process! By taking part in this workshop, I was able to better myself and get involved in the College of Nursing community.

Take advantage of everything ASU and Barrett's Honor College has to offer. These experiences will create lifelong memories of your time here with Barrett.