Albion College Admission

Continued from March 23rd, 2009…

So now it was time for classes to start and the concept of going to class abroad is not so much of a concept but a thought… aka it is really hard to do.  Especially when then sun I is always shinning and you can hear the beach calling your name.  I only had class two days a week, due to my internship, but it was quite difficult to go.  However, I did put a lot of time and effort into my internship; sometimes I even skipped class to go to my internship, because I needed to get something done or there was an important meeting that day that I wanted to go to.  For my internship I worked for the YWCA underneath the fundraising and marketing director.  It was an office full of mostly women but they were all very helpful and fun.  My first few weeks were pretty boring; I analyzed some stat, proof read the quarterly newsletter and updated spread sheets.  Eventually, I was able to do more things.  I was put in charge of the silent auction for the Mother of All Balls, a charity event held by the YWCA yearly to raise money to fund the Big Brothers Big Sisters program for the year, which required me to do many different tasks.  I had to gather information about the companies who donated prizes; organize the prizes in an easy to distribute way, package prizes together to create a better silent auction item and then create display boards to show the prize and all of the conditions of the prize.  The ball ended up raising $400,000 for the Big Brothers Big Sisters program which was a great feeling.   After the ball I was put in charge of the mail out of thank you cards to all of the guests and donators.  Besides the ball I also helped layout the staff monthly newsletter and took a day to go help with the in-school mentoring program.

Although class in important … learning about the business world and how to be a professional was much more valuable, to me, than classes.  When I remember Australia I will probably not remember that I went to class and learned about Australia’s perspective of the World from 1944 to present but I will remember the ball and how amazing it was to raise $400,000 and that I learned how to plan a party and write business letters and talk to CEO’s on the phone.

To be continued…

Looking back, I cannot believe the school year is almost over. I can still remember the first day I arrived on campus, scared to death that I wasn’t going to fit in. And for the first couple weeks, that was true. I did not make friends on my cross country team, my roommate and I were nothing alike, and I felt like I was the dumbest kid in every single one of my classes. Thank goodness that has all changed now. My girls from cross country are amazing to me; they put up with all my quirks and laugh at most of my stupid jokes. My roommate and I ended up being best friends, it turns out opposites do attract. And as for the feeling stupid, it turns out that is how every other freshman in my class felt. I was hiding behind my own fear of rejection. I did not take the time to leave my safe little box of my friends from my hometown. Now that I have, I realized how much more there is to life. That everyone has a different life story, and different circumstances that have shaped who they are. Even among our relatively small campus here at Albion, even among a small team are drastically different life stories. If you take the time to listen, really listen not like in class when you are just trying to stay awake, you will find stories that make you look at your own life in a different perspective. And isn’t that what college is supposed to be all about?
Bio

Katie Broekema is a freshman at Albion. She is from Schoolcraft and went to Schoolcraft High School. She is involved in cross country, track, Athletes In Action, and Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. Currently in her refrigerator she has many many water bottles, a casserole from her mommy and strawberries.