Summer So Far...

Hey Everyone!

So I just thought I would let you know what I’ve been up to the last few weeks. First of all, I’ve been working in the Admissions Office doing data entry, answering phones, and of course, giving tours! I got a great question the other day on a tour that I didn’t know the answer to, so I thought I would share it with you. The question was “Where did the name Stonehill come from?” My fellow tourguides helped me out though- it turns out that “Stone House Hill House” was the name of the original Ames family estate where Stonehill was founded, so when the Holy Cross Fathers created our college, they named the school “Stonehill”. I guess you learn something new everyday!

I also got to go home for Fourth of July weekend and see my family and friends. I drove back to PA on Friday, then came back to Stonehill on Sunday, so it was a whirlwind of a weekend! I got to have dinner with my friend Erin and catch up with all of the latest news from my old job at the movie theater, and the next day my family and I headed up to Nicholson (about 30 minutes away) for a family party. It was a combined July 4^th party/birthday party for my younger cousin. It was great to see him so excited while he was opening presents-he wanted to play with everything right away-he didn’t even want his cake! Check out a picture of me, my siblings, and my cousins, including Brian the birthday boy holding his brand new kite.

In the evenings after work I’ve been practicing my Hindi for India. I have to learn all of the characters before I go, so I have a solid start when I arrive! The language is set up by syllable, not letters, and the “alphabet” is organized by how your mouth moves when you pronounce the character-its tricky stuff! I also booked my flight-its 14 hours from JFK airport to Delhi. Preparing all of this stuff makes it seem so much more real, and I feel like the rest of my summer is going to fly by!

This past Monday, myself, my friends Matt and Tim (who are also working in Admissions) and Tim’s friend Lauren all went into Boston for a night out. We took the T (Boston’s subway) to the Arlington stop and headed to Fire and Ice Restaurant for college night. Its ten dollars for all you can eat, so it is definitely a great deal, and its really fun because you choose your raw food, the chefs cook it in front of you and they have great music playing the whole time. After dinner, we walked around Newbury Street where we enjoyed some Ben and Jerry’s Ice cream and played some video games in the Mac Store. It was great to get off of campus, have an excellent meal, and wander around the city for a little while! Take a look at some of the pictures from our night out: Matt and I on the T, everyone fooling around at Fire and Ice, plus a great picture of Newbury Street.

Hope you're enjoying the summer as much as I am!

Welcome to My Blog!!!

Hi Everyone!

Since this is my first post, I thought I would share some fun facts about my hometown and give you a little bit of background info.

My name is Katrina Organ, and I am from Scranton Pa (which is about a five hour drive from Stonehill). When I’m not at Stonehill, I live with my mom, brother, step-dad, and step-sister (my biological dad died when I was really young). In addition to my family members, my house also includes two dogs, two cats, a rabbit, and a bird-we are definitely animal people! I have been in Catholic School since third grade, and I graduated High School with only 75 classmates, so Stonehill was actually a pretty big school for me.

Above is a picture of me and my family a few months ago, and of course, a picture of my dogs, Snickers and Pugsley

At Stonehill, I am an International Studies Major, and I am minoring in Middle Eastern and Asian Studies. This area of study is the reason I'm spending the fall semester in India. It is so weird to think that I won't be at Stonehill for Welcome Back Weekend, Halloween, or even to see the leaves change, but I know India will be an amazing experience that I will never forget. So far in my two years at Stonehill I have been involved in Student Government Association (SGA) on the Programming committe, Housing Lottery Committe, ALANA Brothers and Sisters Program, Diversity on Campus, Publicity Committee, and the Freshmen Orientation Program (as an assisstant coordinator and a peer mentor). I also have two work study jobs on campus: Student Ambassador and Information Desk Worker. As you can probably tell from that list, I love being involved on campus, and I love that so many other Stonehill students feel the same way. Pictured above is Sarah Bareilles. She was one of the artists who performed at our Spring Weekend Concert, so the whole Programming Committee (including me!) got to meet her!


So now that you have some basic background info, how about some fun facts about Scranton? Scranton is the 7th largest city in Pennsylvania-its population is about 73, 000. It is referred to as “The Electric City” because we established the first successful electric trolley system in 1886. Scranton is also home to the minor league Yankees-the stadium is only about 10 minutes from my house. The city is also very Irish-it hosts the 4th largest St. Patrick’s Day Parade in the country! (Take a look to your left for a very small sample of the chaos the ensues on parade day) Some famous people have also hailed from Scranton, including Joe Biden and Bill O’Reilly. And finally, in recent years, Scranton has become well known thanks to NBC’s show “The Office” which is actually set in Scranton. It’s strange but also pretty cool to hear the characters mention your high school or a restaurant you’ve been to a hundred times, and the city has hosted conventions and appearances by some of the actors. Below is a street banner of the fictional paper company on the show-it was sponsored by an anonymous business as a practical joke.

That’s all for now! I hope you learned a few things about me, and maybe even picked up some fun facts to impress your friends. I’ll check back soon with some updates about freshmen orientation- including lots of pictures!