So if you watched the video blog post, you would have learned that I am going abroad for this next semester to Costa Rica. I will be going to the Elon Centre in Costa Rica, one of its three centers in the world. The other two are in London and Florence, Italy. I will be there from January to May , and I will be taking classes that count towards my Elon GPA.  There are 22 people on the trip and they are awesome.  I am sure by the end of this Study Abroad experience we will all be very close, or extremely sick of each other (hopefully we’ll become good friends).  The majority of the people going on the trip are teaching fellows, because the Elon Center offers a teaching practicum. What that means is that education majors at Elon can teach in the Costa Rican education system. I am not an education major, but I am Latin American concentration for international studies so this trip is to help me concentrate on Latin American affairs.

One of the things we are supposed to do in Costa Rica is maintain some sort of a journal and that can be written or even a blog. Luckily for me however ,Cheryl Borden director of International Admissions has given me permission to use the blog as a journal of my experiences. This being said every week I will do a post on the awesome opportunity at Elon that is a Study Abroad. I will also include important updates with regard to admissions as they occur.

I leave Saturday, so tune in next week for the first chronicle of my Costa Rica adventures. Don’t forget if you have questions, you can contact Cheryl Borden in the office of admissions at cborden2@elon.edu. Be sure to follow Eloninteradm on the twitter to see daily updates about admissions and special campus events.

Thanks, and Hasta Luego

Don’t forget to contact us if you have any questions that we can answer!

Anthony:  interadm@elon.edu or on Twitter:  interadm

Cheryl:  cborden2@elon.edu or on Twitter:  CherylAtElonU

So its Winter Term here at Elon and boy are things busy. Classes are winding down and Elon’s construction projects are kicking up. Also, keeping up with the traditions of the end of Winter Term, the Performing arts department is producing many different shows, some of which were classes.

Last weekend for starters was the Elon Cares benefit concert. This concert features singers from Elon’s vocal performance and musical theater programs. The purpose of this concert each year is to raise awareness and funds for a wide variety of issues in society today. This year, the concert featured drug addiction groups, breast cancer awareness and gay rights movements, but the main issue that was focused on, was AIDS. Unfortunately I did not make it in to see the show but based on what I heard it was very successful. Here is a video from this year’s Elon Cares, as found on youtube

On Thursday the 19th, Elon’s production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth opened in the black box theater. This play is one

A scene form the play

of Shakespeare’s most popular tragedies of love and murder. This is play is generally done by members of the Elon BFA acting and music theater programs. The show opened on Thursday the 19th and shows runs every Friday, Saturday and Sunday until the 2nd of February.

Two other shows going at Elon:

Tapped Out:  Every Winter term  Gene Medler one of Elon dance instructors teaches a tap dancing class and their final project is a big production showcasing the skills that the students learned during the Winter Term.  There is generally a wide range of skills on display during the show and it features elements from different types of dance of dance including African, jazz, pop, ballet and more.

French Comedy:  This did not happen last year, but this year a French acting class was offered and the end result is two days of French comedy plays. The plays will be performed completely in French, but there will be English subtitles on projected so people can understand the dialogue. Check out this Phoenix 14 News feature story on the French comedies.

Well, thats it. Sorry it took so long but things have been hectic. Look forward to more posts in the next week. Congrats to all students who have been accepted to Elon so far, I hope you really consider attending school here. It will be worth your time. Other wises admissions results will come out on a rolling basis.

Have a good weekend,
Anthony
Elon’13

If you applied but don’t know where to go to find your results, head to Elon ontrack : ontrack.elon.edu , and click on the link that says Ontrack for Applicants.

Now that you have been admitted to Elon, here are some useful events for you to come too:

1. Spring Orientation March 9-10 and April 20-21:

So newly admitted students have opportunity to attend Spring Orientation sessions. Spring Orientation is a two day event that celebrates the new freshman class and helps prepare the students for classes and enrollment in the Fall. It’s a good opportunity for freshmen to get to learn about life on campus and any thing else that interests them or is on their mind about college. So I highly encourage you to attend one of the two sessions in March or in April.
Here is the link the Spring Orientation  website : http://www.elon.edu/e-net/Note.aspx?id=941786

2. Phoenix Fridays – February 10 and 17; March 30; April 13 and 27:

Phoenix Fridays are days when admitted students can come to campus and get paired with a current student who will take them to their classes. This is a great way for an admitted student to get a feel for Elon’s academics, as well as to better see college campus life. I did something similar to this and it was the deciding factor for me to come to Elon so highly recommend this event.
Here is the link to the Phoenix Fridays event:  http://www.elon.edu/e-net/Note.aspx?id=934593

Anyways that’s all. In case you applied Early Action remember that the  notifications of acceptance come out then. Also if you haven’t already applied you can still apply, the regular application deadline is January 10th so you have some time, but get them in quick.  And if you are interested, you can still apply for Fellows Programs until January 10th. This link will explain the fellows programs, their requirements and their benefits : http://www.elon.edu/e-web/admissions/Fellows/

And I will leave you this video to get you excited and pumped about coming to Elon:

All the best, and Congrats again Class of 2016,
Anthony
Elon 2013

So I know the majority of the world does not celebrate it,  but its Thanksgiving Break at Elon so school is closed until next Monday.

So I imagine you’re wondering what international students do during thanksgiving. Well I know some of the international students are staying on campus. Elon allows international students to stay on campus during Thanksgiving break so there is no pressure for them to find places to go stay. That being said, the majority of international students go and stay with their American friends for thanksgiving.  Or they go to their family if they have family in the US.

That’s exactly what I am doing this Thanksgiving. I’m with my friend Ryan and his family in Pennsylvania and I am having a blast. Its a wonderful time. Eating lots of food and getting some work done (still going to school haha).

Anyways after Thanksgiving we have 2 weeks of school then final Exams. Junior yeah fall semester is going by way too fast.

Anthony

Joshua Jones at the Furman football game

So I’ll start things off with Football (American).  This weekend Elon’s football team traveled to South Carolina to play against #17 Furman University, and we won in a huge upset. The final game score was 41-34 and this was a huge victory for the football team who are now at .500 for the season. It gives us momentum into our rival game this upcoming weekend against App state. EU!!!YOU KNOW!!!

Next up, the Volleyball team pulled out big wins this weekend and clinched a spot in the Southern Conference Volleyball Tournament. The games this weekend ended regular season play for the volleyball team, but the wins this earned the team some more post season play. It was also senior night this weekend for volleyball so it was a good win in honor of the seniors. Elon beat University of North Carolina Greensboro and The Citadel in remarkable fashion to make the tournament.

Next up we have soccer. This weekend, the Men’s soccer team competed in the Southern Conference Soccer Tournament, and WON IT!!! Elon is now the men’s tournament Champions.  As a result of winning the tournament, Elon qualified for the huge nationwide NCAA Soccer tournament. They played on Thursday night but lost their first round game to #17  Coastal Carolina in a shootout that ended with a 4-3 result. Despite this loss the soccer team had an incredible season and capped it off with the ever competitive NCAA tournament appearance.

To top of a very successful week for Elon sports and Athletics, our Basketball team this week pulled of a huge upset and beat the University of South Carolina (USC). Elon University’s basketball program is growing, but not so fast that would could beat bigger schools with stronger sports teams like USC. This Elon upset was a huge moment for Elon athletics and was big in promoting school spirit and pride.  A SoCon team beating an SEC team was such a big deal that it made its way onto ESPN sportscenter, the hub of all American sports. The team played exceptionally and capitalized on the many USC errors to give themselves the advantage, and as a result, the upset: 58-53 ELon Phoenix. Check out the video below for some high lights from the game.

This was a huge week in Athletics, and it is building up to the Elon App State game on Saturday.  App state are our rivals and so this game will be huge in terms of the number of people who will be there.

GO ELON!!!BEAT APP!!!!

Enjoy this latest edition of the Top 5 Countdown and let us know if there is a topic you would like to see featured in the future!

So the last few weeks were filled of international student activities and the upcoming weeks will be too. Here is a run down of the events, past and upcoming:

On Thursday the 27th of October, the Elon international society had one of its first events, an Arabian Night. It was an

EIS With the Belly Dancers

event featuring Arabian food and music, with an added performance surprise. There were Belly Dancers and it was fun. Each month the Elon International Society focuses on a specific region of the world and last month was the Middle East.  We partnered with ALO (Arabic Language Organization) to host the event and it was fun. I learned to belly dance but sadly there were no videos so you can’t laugh at me.

This upcoming weekend, Elon is hosting an International Student Leadership Conference, sponsored by the North Carolina Association for International Educators. This will be fun because we have about 85-90 international students from across North Carolina coming to Elon on Saturday and Sunday and the EIS and other students are helping as student volunteers this weekend. The conference will feature presentations from several Elon students and faculty, as well as a special presentation by the Invisible Children  International organization.

Also in two weeks is the Elon International Education week. It will feature tons of events by different organizations such as Periclean Scholars and Latin American Student Organisation (LASO), and the Isabella Cannon International Center (ICIC).  The Elon International Society is hosting an event called Taste of the World on the 18th of November and it is a potluck lunch featuring foods from all over the world and music from all over the world.

Other than that ICIC has arranged several trips for international students to the North Carolina State Fair and has many more trips planned. The Phoenix Pal program, and international student support group just got officially started. This means that if you are accepted to Elon and you would like to, you can talk to a current student at the school before you come. This first ‘pal’ will serve as a mentor and friends while you are here to help you get settled and make your transition to University much easier.

A message a just got from Cindy Barr, Assistant Dean of Admissions:

This just in from Dean Zaiser, “Due to the extreme weather and resulting power outage in the mid Atlantic and parts of New England, we are extending the ED and GAP deadlines until Monday, November 7. Students will be able to submit applications under these programs until midnight EST on November 7th/8th.”

ED is the Early Decision program. You have 5 more days to turn in your applications for Early decision if you would like.

Cheers,

Anthony

This weekend is homecoming weekend!!!A weekend almost completely dedicated to Elon’s alumni. In case you were wondering, alumni are students who graduated from Elon. Anyways this weekend has started amazingly, my RA or resident assistant from my first year at Elon is visiting this weekend and he is crashing at my house (shameless plug for a good friends and mentor at school).  Anyways here are some of the events that are planned for this weekend:

1. There is dedication to start the construction of the Numen Lumen Pavilion, which is the school’s new multi-faith center. It will serve as a location where people of all religious backgrounds can go and practice their faith that is safe and protected from negative scrutiny. It is part of the Elon global Citizen initiative and is going be a part of the Academic Pavilion.

2. There is a rally planned for Elon as well to celebrate the success of the Ever Elon Campaign. This was a fundraising event to raise $100 million dollars to put towards the future development of the school. The celebration will feature music, free food, cheers and an awesome fireworks display to cap it all off.

3. On Saturday there is a home football game and the alumni can go to the game, and there are several specialty tailgates planned by various organizations, for their alumni. Many organizations like El Centro de Espanol, Greek organizations and even some club sports may choose to have tailgates or special events for their returning alumni.

Well, these are a few of the many events going this weekend. There are lots of more Division one Sports games going on, awesome volunteer  and service opportunities, and academic department open houses.  Next week I will post any pictures or videos  of the events that I take. Until enjoy your weekend.

Anthony

Elon’13