Holiday Fun in Florida...

While Florida may not be the coldest place this winter, there are still plenty of winter activities to do.  One of the "coolest", pardon my pun, is ICE at the Gaylord Palms near Disney World.  I had never gotten a chance to experience this while I have lived here so this year I decided to be a little touristy and check it out.  It is an indoor winter wonderland set at 9* Fahrenheit.  There are ice sculptures done by artisans from China in all kinds of different designs including a room of ornaments and a huge igloo.  Although very cold, it was a great dose of winter fun in a place where it is far from cold naturally.  Today the high was about 80*, so it goes to show that Winter Park is really only just a name!  I have 2 more days of work in 2008 until I head back up to Atlanta for Christmas and eventually DC for new years!  I hope everyone is gearing up for a great holiday season!

Rinker for the Holidays!

So to bring the holiday spirit to Rollins, it required a trip to find a christmas tree.  Lucky for us, we were able to find a great tree that had just come in from Boone, NC to be the Rinker Room tree for this Holiday season.  We all took the afternoon to decorate the Rinker room so that our visitors get a taste of the Holiday spirit when they come to visit Rollins this winter.  We look forward to you visiting the campus to come see how nice the Rinker room looks! 

Turkey Day 2008

I went up to Atlanta to visit the family this past weekend for Thanksgiving. It was crazy having most of my family together in one place! Lots of food was eaten, football was on constantly, and a good time was had by all! The only annoying part about the whole thing was the travel which was delayed and screwy with all of the millions of people trying to get home for the holidays! And what trip to Atlanta is complete without a Thrashers game?? We saw them lose in overtime to the Predators, but at least Thrash was dressed as a pilgrim for the game!

International Education Week!!

This week at Rollins we celebrate all of the different cultures we have on our campus.  One of the best things about this is the raising of the flags in the Cornell Campus Center.  For each international student, faculty, and staff member we have on campus, we have a flag representing their home country!  We have over 80 flags in our campus center and we will be adding even more this week!  Today we also had a whole bunch of performances including Capoeira, Belly Dancing and Japanese Taiko Drums!  More events happen throughout the week to celebrate all of our international students.  Although ever day we are happy to learn more about the culture of our international students, it is great to have a week that is dedicated solely to that!

Puerto Rico... Isla del encanto...

My last trip of the year was special not only because I got away from the cold weather, but also because it is one of the places I identify with culturally.  My grandmother grew up in San Juan and even got married at the hotel I stayed at on the island.  So this was a very good visit for me culturally.  Professionally, this was the first recruitment Rollins has done in Puerto Rico as far as I can tell.  This is a pretty big thing for Rollins being that there is such a tie to the Puerto Rican community here in Orlando that it would make sense for us to have more students from the island.  As with all things, this just means that we have to do our due diligence and make connections like all of the other areas we travel to get some more students to campus!  As this was my last trip of the year, it was great to know that after my last school visit of this trip, it would be my last of 2008!

Oh, Canada...

Although there was no snow on this visit to Canada, it was quite a rough time just trying to recover from being sick in such a cold climate.  One great thing about visiting Toronto is that I get to go to a lot of places that I used to when I lived there.  This includes my alma mater, Appleby College.  There have been so many changes to it in the past 7ish years that I almost don't recognize it.  It is also going to be the first independant school in Canada to be carbon neutral by 2009.  This really shows their commitment to a sustainble model as a green school!

Another wonderful treat during my trip to Toronto was that I got to see the Maple Leafs play the Habs in the annual Hall of Fame game.  In addition to watching the Leafs win, it was a great Veteran's Day weekend tribute as well as a chance to see many retired and famous Leaf players together on the ice to celebrate.  As always, it was a great trip... except for the whole me being sick thing!

Tokyo - Lost in Translation...

Having watched this movie a few times, I definitely felt the pain Bill Murray had in a land where nothing really is written in a recognizable alphabet. That being said, Tokyo is truly a very modern and exciting city. Getting around is easy once you figure out exactly where you want to go because there are more train options than you would originally think possible! I played arcade Mario Kart, ate sushi, and went to the Yebisu Brew Museum (home of Saporro beer)! For being there for a day and a half I really feel like I did a lot, although outside of Tokyo there is so much more that I could have found. I'll save that for next time. After Tokyo, finally back to some sort of reality in MA...

Crazy intersection with TONS of people...

Mario Kart Arcade

I'm catching up on all my posting so that I have all of my fall adventures up here!

The Lion City!!!

Singapore is awesome!!! So this is one of the coolest places I have been and must say that it is a place that I will have to go back to. One of the things that I liked best about it is the fact that there is hardly any culture shock because of how multicultural it really is. English is widely spoken, it is clean and it has one of the best transportation systems in the world! It was a really cool place and it was tons of fun to spend the week there. I am looking forward to heading back home and getting back into some sort of routine when heading back to work. I finally found a symbol that I think describes me best, the Merlion. This happens to be the national symbol of Singapore so clearly I felt at home here!!

It was a great week here and I cannot wait until I get a chance to come back again to visit! After Singapore I am going to spend 2 days in Tokyo, Japan before I head back to the USA! Can't wait!!

Pura Vida!!!

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ALDS Winners and Upcoming Admission News!

So I think a "High 5" to Jason Bay is a good way to start out this post.  As hid slid in to home off of a Jed Lowrie hit to score the game winning run in the ALDS, the Red Sox move along to play the Rays(now affiliated with the sun and not a fish).  They will start here in Florida at the "Trop" which is the only field in baseball that has shag carpetting.  As I head out Friday for over a month of travelling, I am diasspointed to not be able to attend any ALCS games here in Florida. 

This weekend I hosted my reception in Naples at the Hilton Naples.  It was a good event and we had a great turn out of students who were interested in learning more about Rollins!  The weather was not as good, but you unfortunately, that was beyond my control.  Also if you are looking for delicious Mexican food in the vicinity of 41 and Pine Ridge in Naples, check out Flaco's!

I start my journey around the world this Friday with a quick stop in Atlanta to visit my parents.  This will probably be the calmest part of the upcoming month for me.  I leave on Sunday for Costa Rica and the Tri-Association conference there.  It will be a great chance to meet student from Costa Rica as well as get a chance to find out how we can continue to make Rollins a great place for students from Central and South America. 

When I get back from Costa Rica I will have school visits in the Boston Area as follows:

10/16/08
9am Thayer
11:30am The Governor's Academy
3:30pm CIGA College Fair Barnstable HS

10/17/08

9am Lincoln-Sudbury Regional HS
11:30am Cambridge School of Weston

After that quick stop in MA, I will be off to Singapore, Malaysia and Japan until 10/27.  I will be doing 1 school visit while I am over there since mostly I am there for a MBA class. 

10/24/08
11am Singapore American School

One Last important announcement of events and also some upcoming deadlines and things to keep in mind.  I am hosting my Prospective Reception in Boston on 11/2.  It is a great way to get a little bit of Rollins locally in the northeast with both a current student and professor coming to share their experiences.

Sunday, November 2, 2008
10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Renaissance Boston
Waterfront Hotel
606 Congress Street
Boston, Massachusetts 
02210
 
RSVP here:
http://www.rollins.edu/admission/ReceptionRSVP.shtml

(This website is case sensitive)

Discover Rollins is also coming up on 11/8 .  Please click here to learn more about it! Seniors have you applied yet?  Early Decision round 1 deadline is just around the corner on 11/15/08.   Click here to APPLY NOW!

That is a lot of information, but I wanted to make sure everyone knows what is coming up!  As always, if I am visiting your school, please come visit me and say hello!

 

Rays Game In Tampa

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End of Septemeber in New England...

My first trip to New England this fall was pretty very productive even though it was very short. I was there from 9/23 until this morning. The weather was awesome... until Friday morning, then it seemed like I was in a tropical storm. For the most part, the trip was uneventful, a fire alarm at 1:30am on Thursday night reminded me if living in the dorms and when there was a fire drill or alarm. I have no idea what caused the alarm, but I do know that I was very tired Friday because of it.

This past weekend was full of watching games get rained out, speculating on what will happen in the MLB playoffs and trying to stay dry with some garbage weather. I got back from Boston this morning right in time for a few hours of work and then on to class. It should be a relatively peaceful this week back in the office and getting ready for heading to Costa Rica next weekend. This weekend is the Naples Prospective Student Reception. Below is the invitation, check it out~!

We invite you to come and learn more about Rollins College by joining members of the Admission staff, a Rollins professor and a current student for an informational reception. Come see why US News & World Report ranks Rollins #1 in the South!

Sunday, October 5, 2008
9:30 – 11:30 a.m.
Hilton Naples
5111 Tamiami Trial North
Naples, FL 34103

Hosted by Rollins Admission Counselors:
Matt Moore ’06, ’09 MBA

Please R.S.V.P. online at
http://www.rollins.edu/admission/ReceptionRSVP.shtml
(This website is case sensitive)

Contact Matt Moore with any questions at
407-646-2161 or mlmoore@rollins.edu

I hope to see you all there on Sunday!

9/24 - 9/26 Schedule

Just wanted to put up my final schedule for the week.  I had one school to confirm and I'm all set for the week.  Be sure to come see me if I am visiting your school!

9/24/08
9am KUA
11am Proctor

9/25/08
11:40am Deerfield
2pm NMH

9/26/08
9am Wilbraham and Monson
11am St. Mark's
1:20pm Tabor

2008-2009 R-Journalists

Our new R-Journalists have started their blogging for the year, check out their summer blogs as well as keep checking back to see what they have been up to! This is a great way to learn more about different students and what they do on campus. Hope you enjoy!

R-Journalists

I leave for Boston tomorrow morning. If I am going to be at your school, come see me!

I am so excited for the office to start!!

anyone for a game of slapface??

Recruiting Green in SW Florida!!!

While I'm down here in Naples and Ft. Myers, I am lucky to drive my first hybrid car! Although I feel like people are looking at me weird as I drive along in my red Prius, I do think its quite cool and is full of cool technology. What I like most is something that I think will be coming soon to all cars and probably migrating along with our wallets to our cell phones. The key for the car does not need to be in the ignition or anywhere outside of my pocket to open the doors, turn the car on, or drive! It plays directly into one of my classes this semester: Managing Technology Globally. Studying what goes on in Japan, Korea, and Finland already, it will be really cool to see how things develop in the future. For learning more about this, check out my professors blog about the future of wireless, cashless, and paperless technology: www.futureofless.com.

My experience down here recruiting has been good! I have met a lot of kids at the college fairs and high school visits this week. I end my trip with the Collier County college fair tomorrow evening and head back to Orlando on Friday, come visit me at the fair! Also the first Discover Rollins for the year is Saturday, sign up here. On Tuesday I am heading up to NH and MA for some highschool visits.

9/24/08
9am KUA
11am Proctor

9/25/08
11:40am Deerfield
2pm NMH

9/26/08
11am St. Mark's
1:20pm Tabor

Check back as next week begins, because there could be some additions or changes to this list!

That's all for now!

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7 years later...

Well it has been about 7 years since I woke up to a message on my computer in my high school dorm room that called an emergency meeting of my school's peer counselors.  That day I spent in the Appleby College dining hall watching CNN almost non-stop.  What seemed like a mere work of fiction rather than a world changing event made my first last day of high school seem like one of the longest in my 17 years on Earth.  7 years on things seem to be almost back to normal.  Flying seems like a completely different experience, security level colors change like leaves and there is still a war in Iraq.  Here at Rollins, we inaugurated our 9/11 memorial which has something very unique to it: touchstones that are pieces of the World Trade Center, Pentagon and crash site of United Flight 93.  These were all obtained by Rollins graduates who generously donated these pieces so we can have this one of a kind monument.  I hope everyone today takes a moment to remember where they were 7 years ago.  I know although so many great things have happened in my life since 2001, it is still a day that I will never forget...

 

My First Week Of Travel: Latin America

This week has been very good! I have gotten a chance to meet a lot of students at every school that I visited! Many of which I hope will apply and eventually become students at Rollins. I have enjoyed visiting Buenos Aires, Panama, and now Quito very much. Now that the week is over, I have some time this weekend to relax. My next week of travel will not be in quite as exciting of a place as here, but I am still looking forward to my week of recruiting in Naples (Florida) starting 9/16. The one sad thing about going back home tomorrow is that I start classes on Monday. I have only 5 classes left to take for my MBA so I am excited that 2 of those begin now, leaving just 3 this spring! Finally I hope that hurricane Ike does not bother us too much in Florida.

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Arrival In Quito

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The Hub of the Americas!

My second stop was the so called "Hub of the Americas", Panama City, Panama. It was my second visit and a cool place to visit. One benefit of flying into Tocumen Airport is that I got to fly Copa Airlines. One of my Rollins professors, Dr. Pequeño or "profe" as we often called him, always told us in class that Copa was the greatest airline to fly to South America. The service was very good just as he always said!!

The nice thing about my phone is that I can take a picture of my plane right before I board!

The view from outside my hotel room. My hotel was right next to the Multiplaza Pacific which is a crazy big nice mall.

View from the International School of Panama as I was waiting for the students to arrive at my table!

Next stop and final stop: Quito, Ecuador

Argentina!!

For my first visit in Latin America I went to Buenos Aires. It is my first time there and it is definitely a place I have will get a chance to come back to!

It is a place that reminds me a lot more of Europe than of the rest of Latin America. I loved the food, the wine and the hospitality!

Next stop Panama!

TS Fay checks in Class of 2012!!

It seems every year that the new class comes to check in on campus brings new adventures. This year it was a nice little tropical storm that made everything way more wet and soggy than is normal for this time of year. Even though us who are normally used to this kind of weather were a little stir crazy, it seemed that all of the new students were having a blast being stuck on campus! As for the international student representation, this was the largest class in Rollins history! It is a big thing for me and I hope the class of 2013 will be even bigger. It seems it is my pet project to increase Rollins' footprint globally and things are looking good!

In other news, since it has been forever since I have posted, there have been some pretty good things have happened of late!

Spain won Euro 2008 over Germany, which caused one of my friends not to speak to me for quite some time. I was quite happy because I have had to watch them make early exits from every international competition in the past 14 years.

The Olympics were also pretty crazy being that they have taken up the past 3ish weeks of my life. The USA had a great showing and I watched more Volleyball and Water Polo than I have in my entire life combined. It was a lot of fun to watch and cheer on USA and most specifically Michael Phelps' 8 gold medals.

Red Sox seem to be stuck in Second Place in the AL East but doing well in the Wild Card race. It will be a stressful of a September than I had hoped in April. A couple of injuries and losing Manny has made for a different look to the team, but at this point we just need to get ourselves into October!

Finally it seems like only yesterday I stopped traveling for the year, but on Saturday I begin again. I am off to Latin America with visits to Argentina, Panama and then Ecuador. It is gonna be an even busier travel season than last year and I am almost ready to get started!! I guess that means summer is over...

OACAC 2008 Michigan State!

Yet another year at OACAC! This year the conference was held in Lansing, Michigan at Michigan State University. It was a great chance to meet more counselors from schools all around the world as well as network with other admission professionals and learn new and great ideas. I think this year was a great time to learn even more after having a full year of my own experiences to share with others and find ways to improve what I am doing. I think I am most looking forward to going to new places this year and hopefully getting students from the places that I have already visited as well. Hopefully I can get everything in order so that Rollins will recruit in Asia this year. It is one of the areas the conference was most focused on and a place that will be very key in the future success of colleges! With one half of the summer gone, it is already time for me to finalize some of my fall travel plans. It seems like it never ends!!!

On another note the Red Sox go into the all star break at the top of the AL East. I hope it stays that way!

Prost!

My last stop on my journey was Munchen. Having flown through the Frankfurt airport a half dozen times, I decided that it was about time that I disembarked and spent some actual time in Germany. The trip started out on the wrong foot, when I arrived in Munich without my bags meeting me at the airport. It seems that I couldn't make it a whole week traveling through Heathrow T5 without my bags getting misplaced. Luckily they arrived about 8 hours later, and I was able to have a change of clothes for the summer like weather that I was experiencing. I had a great time going to BMW Welt which is certainly a place of my dreams and I am hoping to make enough money so that one day I can go pick up a M3 of my own at the factory. I also visited the city center, checked out some biergartens and bierhauses as well as hung out at the Schloss Nymphenberg. I am definitely willing to go back again, next time I'll have to bring along someone who speaks German so that I can actually know what things say when I walk around!

Turkish Delight...

A new stop for me as well as for Rollins this year is Turkey. After having a few counselors on our campus this spring, it seemed like a good idea for a new market that loves to send students to study in the US. So I made my way over to Istanbul for a quick day and a half trip which allowed me to see both sights in Istanbul as well as students at the schools I visited. I had a quick trip to the old part of Istanbul and got a chance to see the Blue Mosque as well as the Hagia Sofia. It was really cool to see a city that used to be center of the Roman empire now have very little to do with it. I did get a chance to span both continents which of course is a reason why the city is so famous. Now having officially been on the Asian Continent, I only have Australia, Africa and Antarctica to go!!!

La Vie en Paris...

One day in Paris meant that I had a whole day of visiting schools and was only left with 2.5 hours to see one of the greatest cities in the world! I did manage to walk from the Parc Trocadero all the way to Notre Dame and back. It was a blistering pace to do that, see all the sights I wanted and get back to my hotel in time to get my suitcase and then take a taxi to the airport for a 7pm flight. Mid walk I got a wonderful downpour which made the journey a little bit more difficult. In the end I made it back with 5 minutes to spare, although I did have to skip le Arc de Triomphe to make it in that amount of time. I got to see the Eifel Tower, Louvre, Notre Dame and all the other usual sights. It was quick trip to the city of lights and I definitely felt my marathon walk through the city for a day or two after!