A Moment of Memory | by: Matthew Jolles

Where were you when...?

We've all been asked the question time and time before. Where were you when a major event in history happened. Our parents will recollect about perhaps the John F. Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War, the Stock Market Crash of the 1980's or the Pan Am 103 Bombing in Lockerbie, Scotland.

For our generation we hold a few moments of our own to memory as well. Many will recall the World Trade Center attacks in 2001 or Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy that devastated so many lives in New Orleans and the Jersey Shore respectively.

But today, we stand one year to the day from a tragic that still has fresh feeling wounds for some. Today is one year from the Boston Marathon bombings.

Three attendees lost their lives, countless numbers were injured and a city that had not seen devastation and terror of a magnitude such as this since the War of 1812 was rocked to its core. The fragility of the days following though birthed something incredible. A new devotion, not just to the city but to each other. A desire to tear down the last remaining walls that were erected and become unified as one, unified under the now famous rallying cry BOSTON STRONG!

In the weeks and months following amazing moments of memory for the city occurred as well. The Boston Bruins made an unthinkable run all the way to the Stanley Cup Final before losing in a hard fought series to the Chicago Blackhawks. The Boston Red Sox, who had been mired in controversy over the past year, turned a corner and became the Band of Bearded Brothers that drove the emotions of the city all the way to a World Series Championship, creating another now famous moment of Sox slugger David Ortiz standing on the mound at Fenway just a day following the tragedy proudly screaming to the crowd assembled "This is our F'king City!"

Our days go by sometimes quicker that we wish them to, and at many a time we don't stop to savor or show respect to moments that not only define us but define our generations. This day, is one that will define our generation forever and many years from now as we transfer from no longer being students to perhaps being the professors, we must take the time to bring that moment of memory with us so that those stories our parents told us of their history will continue as we tell ours to our children so they know to hold on to their memories.

BOSTON STRONG, FOREVER!

Drexel 6th Annual Off-campus Housing Fair - April 10, 2014 and other Amazing Events!

Looking for that amazing apartment for next year? Then check out Drexel’s Annual Off Campus Housing Fair for this week!

Date: Thursday, April 10th from 3-6 PM 
Location: Drexel Armory (N. 33rd and Market St.).

Property Managers, Businesses and Community Organizations throughout Philadelphia will be present to give you a glimpse of what living off campus is all about.

Another exciting feature of the Housing Fair is our raffle program. The more tables you visit, the more tickets your earn, and the more prizes you can try to win. Prizes include a flat screen TV, Wawa Gift Cards, Ikea Gift Cards, Phillies Tickets and much more!
In addition, the week long celebration of Drexel World Fusion Festival is happening between April 07 to April 11. Definitely check out the following link for more details regarding the events and learn more about the world-wide cuisine. 
http://drexel.edu/studentaffairs/get_involved/international_students_scholars/events/

Plus, for the first time, we will be hosting bus tours of West Philadelphia and Center City sponsored by the International Graduate Student Association (IGSA) and Urban Igloo. To sign-up for these half hour tours, please go to: http://goo.gl/ODj6cZ.

For more information or accommodations, please contact Commuter and Transfer Student Engagement at commuters@drexel.edu.

Go Dragons!

And so we begin again .... By: Matthew Jolles

Welcome back fellow Dragons!

So we survived the fall quarter and effectively Winter Break itself (weather issues included).

Now that everyone is settling back into classes, let's get you updated on the "on-goings" here at Drexel.

Coming up this week are some HUGE basketball games as both the Men's and Women's teams open the CAA Conference season. On Thursday night at 7:00pm the Women's team takes to the DAC floor to face the College of Charleston who will be competing in their first ever CAA game as they just joined the conference in the spring from the Southern Conference.

On Saturday at 2:00pm the Men's team takes to the DAC floor as they face off against CO-Op program rival Northeastern. The men are currently 8-5 on the season and have picked up some quality wins against Alabama, Rutgers and Cleveland State.

Also coming up in January,

Don't forget about Spirit Week / Homecoming! Some events have already been announced such as the Homecoming Bonfire (Jan. 22nd), Crystal Ball (Jan 24th) and the Homecoming Concert on January 25th! Also, keep your eyes glued to the CTSE Listserv for a ton of awesome events and programs coming from our office.

Keep in touch friends and see you all out there at the awesome Drexel Dragon events!

Train of Thought is pulling out of the station and headed to Week 2. We'll have a new work for you next Monday!

Midterm Musings... and A Lot of Exciting Events to Come!

What's up my fellow Dragons! Hope you are all surviving midterms with great success.

So we've made it through half of the fall quarter and as our thoughts turn to holidays, family and those much anticipated trips home (don't book your plane tickets just yet...), we also turn to the exciting season at Drexel.

Coming up on November 1st, we have the annual Midnight Madness concert at the DAC featuring Childish Gambino. This is the official tip-off of the 2013-14 Drexel Dragons Basketball season and will featuring introductions of our Men's Basketball team (which looks to get back to CAA glory this year with the return of Redshirt Sr. Chris Fouch, Damion Lee, Tayvon Allen and Franz Massenet) and our 2013 WNIT CHAMPIONS Women's Basketball team featuring Fiona Flanagan, Meghan Creighton, Tory Theirolf, Rachel Pearson and Abby Redick (yes, J.J. is her brother). Visit TicketLeap to purchase your spot for the show. A LIMITED AMOUNT OF TICKETS ARE STILL AVAILABLE!

November 1st through 3rd will also be the dates for Drexel Family Weekend featuring a number of awesome events such as a Wine & Cheese Reception with President Fry. Check out the Family Weekend Schedule of Events at Family Weekend 2013 Schedule of Events for more details.

If you're not to tired from all the partying at Midnight Madness, you can pop up early on November 2nd and join us for the 13th annual City 6 5K race as we look to stamp out another point that Drexel is the best college campus in Philadelphia! For more information visit Philly City 6 5K.

And if you're just ready to get home, don't worry, we'll have plenty of more exciting events for you when you come back in January. Especially the much anticipated Homecoming weekend featuring the Homecoming Concert and the legendary Drexel Crystal Ball (Location and theme announcement coming soon, but last year's Crystal Ball: A Night at the Masquerade at the Academy of Natural Sciences was AMAZING!).

Well that's all I've got on my Train of Thought for now. See you around campus and best of luck on the 2nd half of the Fall Quarter.

GO DRAGONS!

Kicking Back Into Gear - by: Matthew Jolles

And we're back! 

First off, welcome to all our newest members of the Drexel commuting community and since our office hosts Transfer student engagement as well, welcome to all our new transfer students from a fellow transfer as well. You are ironically part of one of the largest populations of students on the campus. With that being said, we have a cool blog just for you which you are reading right now. 

Train of Thought is written weekly by fellow Drexel commuters and is a musing of different thoughts, feelings on topics, information about on-goings at Drexel and engaging discussions on subject areas of interest and concern to you. Many times we'll talk about topics or matters pertaining to the Drexel campus. Your feedback to these topics becomes pertinent to our Commuter and Transfer Student Engagement office and Drexel administration in being able to enhance the experience of all students on campus, including you. This blog is POWERED BY YOU, so please hit us back with comments, questions, topics you would like to see covered.

We also have the Commuter Mario account on Campus Soapbox (which you can sign up to join at www.campussoapbox.com or download the app from Google Play or iStore) where we will be posting engaging polls and building conversations on relevant topics related to our commuting community.

In the coming months, you will see many events from CTSE and many discussions taking place through this blog. Some of the topics we will discuss will set the format for our 2nd annual Commuter & Transfer Administration Town Hall where you the students will get to ask, in open forum, all the issues you wish to put in front of university administration. Last year the event was attended by Provost Greenberg and Dean Ruth, and we look forward to hopefully having them back on the panel again this year. 

Well that's all we have for now as this week's blog is simply a welcome back to our returning readers and a welcome to our newest readers. We'll dive into the "cooler stuff" next week. Train of Thought will run every Monday during the term. Welcome aboard and enjoy the ride! GO DRAGONS!

- MJ

Spring Smiles

I am what is affectionately called a resimuter here at Drexel, as I live close enough to actually walk to school, but not in a school building. I live a mile or so away, at the edge of where Drexel Safety goes. I know there are several other students living in my building, and more up and down my block, mixed in with other residents of the neighborhood. I notice, though, that we hardly ever talk to each other, let alone to the other neighborhood residents. We are all in such a busy hurry scurry to get to class that we rarely stop for a second to give a smile and a friendly hello. With spring now here and the weather  a bit nicer, we are all spending more time outside and come in contact with everyone more frequently.  The other day I walked past a gentleman who was out taking care of a garden that I always admire on my walk. I made it a point to take out my headphones for a second to say how much I loved walking past his beautiful flowers. He smiled in response and said "Thanks, that's what it's there for!" Then I continued to hurry to class, but found I was now smiling too. So these last couple weeks of spring quarter, I am going tomake it a point to say hi to more people, as I walk to class, instead of putting in my headphones and tuning out the world. I encourage you to do the same, as maybe you'll meet someone who will brighten your day as well.

~Cory

Tip-time: Mid-Term Success

This is something I'm sure many of you are already aware of, but just to help you out, here once again are my mid-term test tips.

Most of you are waking up to a Monday morning that is Week 5 of Winter Quarter here at Drexel. Yet that lovely time again for mid-terms! So here for your information are a few mid-term taking tips:

1) GET SOME SLEEP! That partying you might normally do during the week can wait for a moment til the weekend comes.

2) EAT WELL! There is nothing worse than trying to take a test while your stomach is playing kettle drum rhythms.

3) You might think that cramming the night before is good but actually you're going against your best interests. For strong test taking you want to begin a few days in advance of the test, work through your units/chapters in sections (about one week per day) similar to how they were taught during class. Cramming everything from four weeks into one night will cause so much stress to your body and brain that you will actually not retain or refresh information as well as you think you are.

4) Look over the whole test before you start taking it. I can tell you from personal experience there will be parts of tests you can realize will take you longer than other parts. It may be in your best interests then to maximize time by completing those sections first before continuing through completing the rest of the exam. After you've finished the test, look back over it again to make sure that all your answers correspond correctly to the related question.

5) And last but not least, RELAX! Yes, mid-terms are important but don't stress over it like it's the end of the world if you do a bit less that you expected. Positive outlook always allows the ability to rebound before the final. Keep your head up and you shall prevail.

BEST WISHES MY FRIENDS ... This "Train of Thought" is pulling out of the station, we'll arrive again next Monday with a new thought!

-MJ