Good Morning and Happy Halloween!!


I'm working this AM and was clicking around our website and realized I hadn't looked at our Flickr page yet...I found great pictures of our campus from current students and from photographers within the Tampa community. Plant Hall is such an important building to the City of Tampa and because of this there are hundreds of great pictures of our campus on Flickr. Here are a few of the ones I found that I really liked:

Check out our Flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/utampa/

After you look at our page, type in the search bar University of Tampa and you'll find lots of other cool pictures people have taken throughout the years.

If you come visit and take pictures, post them on Flickr to share your experience!

We are so lucky to live and learn in such an amazing area!!

Have a fun and safe Halloween!!

CHICAGO!

Hello All!

I am back from Chicago and have officially decided Chicago is my favorite city! I can't even list all of the things I love about that city!

BUT the point wasn't just to go to Chicago..the point was to go to the Collegiate Entrepreneurship Organization's national conference...

We all really enjoyed our the conference and felt we took a lot away from us. Our group was a really diverse one in many ways...culturally diverse and diverse in entrepreneurial ideas...it was truly an experience I know we all will never forget! 

I was lucky enough to listen to sessions on the following topics:

Business Plan Technique

Staying Motivated While Owning Your Own Business

Being a Young Entrepreneur

Online Marketing 

Being a collegiate entrepreneur is a stressful and nerve wrecking thing...but going to a conference with 1,600 other collegiate entrepreneurs is empowering and motivating. I left the conference thinking ..."I can do this"... I've always known I could do it, but seeing hundreds of other college students accomplishing their dreams is a whole different type of empowerment. 

On top of being able to bond with 5 other UT students we were able to bond with our advisor whom is also one of my professors. It was amazing learning about the businesses he owns, his goals and ways of doing business. He actually graduated from UT and we found out that he was a Sophomore at UT the year I was born...haha! I then found out that my economics professor was HIS professor when he was here...

So if you can picture this:

Professor Koutroumanis was a UT sophomore in 1987 and Professor Hoke was Professor Koutroumanis's professor and is now my professor too...

that is confusing but really crazy if you figure it out!  I LOVE OUR SCHOOL! 

Anyway here area few pictures...I have more to post from me speaking at the conference and a few other things but I don't have them on my computer yet :-/

Sebastien and I taking pictures in the "bean"...one of the coolest things I've ever seen! If you don't know what it is...google it and then make sure you go see it one day!

3 out of our group of 6 walking and shopping in downtown

Beautiful trees and sky reflected in the "bean"... it was finally sunny on our last day! 

I couldn't get over how many flowers and trees were in downtown... so impressive and pretty! 

Hopefully I'll get a few more pictures of us actually at the conference :)

Once again I encourage all of you to consider joining the UT Entrepreneurs Club if you decide to attend UT! We encourage all majors to join!!

Have a great week!! 

Next week I'll try to post a few fun Halloween pictures!! Have a fun and safe one!! 

Pumpkin Carving!!

HAPPY ALMOST HALLOWEEN!

My roommates and I (and our miscellaneous friends) carved pumpkins last night! They'll probably get gross before Halloween but we couldn't resist! 

My pumpkin is on the far right...it turned out a lot meaner than I intended...

We saved all of the seeds and baked them...

This looks dangerous with the huge knives but they were all we had...they got the job done and no one lost any fingers! 

Now that we are in the Halloween spirit I just need to think of a good costume??

Any suggestions would be great!

Have a spectacular week!!

Which residence hall would you want to live in?

Hello!!

I'm such a slow blogger...I KNOW...life is one crazy busy whirlwind and senior year is FLYING by~ I can't beleive its already October. BUT it is finally starting to cool off and feel like Fall, I woke up this morning and it was 65 with a high of 75 today...if your reading this from up north I bet you're jealous?? This is the reason 60% of our school is from out of state..typically from the north...you just can't beat the weather!

So I was thinking the other day while I was falling asleep what I could talk about for my next post?? And then it occured to me that everyone always asks about the different residence halls...SO I'll give it to you...

THE PROS AND CONS OF THE MAIN RESIDENCE HALL ON CAMPUS!

Mckay (A Freshman Favorite):

Pros: 2 floors of mainly freshman, in the park, river view, outdoor volleyball court, bbq pits, small building and a tight knit community, you are right next to plant hall which is where most freshman classes are (roll out of bed and walk two steps and you're in class!), close to the pool

Cons: older building, smaller rooms, the east side is the only community style bathrooms on campus

Smiley (A Fun Building):

Pros: very similar to Mckay's pros, two floors of mainly freshman, close to the cafeteria, close to Plant Hall and John Sykes College of Business, great people watching spot ;)

Cons: older building, smaller rooms, the only residence hall left with window air conditioning units

Austin (Where I lived my Freshman year):

Pros: a newer building, nice sized rooms, 7 floors of mainly freshman, the study lounges down stairs are great, the common rooms on each floor are huge, the game room down stairs is always a fun place to hangout, in the heart of campus: close to the cafeteria, close to the courtyard, close to the health center

Cons: a larger building doesn't have as tight of a community as the smaller buildings

Vaughn (Where I lived my Sophomore year):

Pros: a newer building, nice sized rooms, 5 floors of mainly freshman and sophomores, the common room on the 3rd floor has kitchen, pool table, couches..etc, you live in the building that houses the cafeteria and other dining venues, ATM and laundry card machine downstairs, the arcade, computer lab, bookstore, and club offices are downstairs, in the heart of campus: close to the courtyard, close to the health center

Cons: Crowded downstairs, always tempted to eat the food downstairs :-/, busy elevators

Stadium Center (The newbie building):

Pros: the newest residence hall, the room layout, the fun decorations in the halls, the views of the soccer field and the baseball field, you live in the building that houses other dining venues, close to the pool, close to the science wing and communications wing, close to John Skyes College of Business, close to the baseball and soccer fields, ATM downstairs

Cons: crowded downstairs, the stadium is sometimes loud, always tempted to eat Dairy Queen downstairs :-/

Straz (The Apartments):

Pros: A newer building, an apartment on campus, cooking in your room is very convenient, having your own room is amazing, the living/kitchen/dining room combo is large enough to have friends over and lounge around, 7 floors of mainly Juniors and Seniors, close to west parking garage, close to the baseball and soccer fields, close to Stadium Center's dining venues

Cons: a longer walk than most residence halls to classes, no balcony like the other apartments

ResCom (The Apartment "community")

Pros:  Very similar to Straz plus you have your own balcony, and a courtyard with picnic tables and bbq grills, 3 floors of mainly Juniors and Seniors close to Thomas parking garage, close to the cafeteria, and John Sykes College of Business

Cons: a longer walk than some residence halls to classes, an older building, only one elevator 

Urso (The "Off Campus" hall)

Pros: a newer building, the feeling of living on your own but still on campus, only one or two people per apartment instead of 4 people per apartment in the other apartments, a kitchenette, a nice outside area to hangout downstairs

Cons: A smaller room, not a full kitchen, a longer walk to some classrooms

For pictures and more details of the halls follow this link: http://www.ut.edu/detail.aspx?id=3884

On Thursday I will be flying to Chicago for the Collegiate Entrepreneur's Organization conference, I'll post while I'm on the flight back to let everyone know how it went! 

Wish me luck!!