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This blog is written by our Intern Queen Campus Ambassador, Megan, from Champlain College. She rocks! If you want to write for us email us on our site or comment on this blog!

Here’s your semester prep list:

1. Fill your planner (or any other organizational tool):  Get ready for that tedious class/work/internship schedule!  Write all of your classes, work schedules, and internship schedules in one place so you can see everything that you have going on all at once.  Don’t forget to include the locations of your classrooms—at least for the first few weeks!  This makes scheduling appointments and dates much easier in the long run.
2. When can you eat?  After you know your schedule, look ahead to see if there are any days when you might not be able to get to sit down and have lunch or dinner.  Make sure to stock up on snacks and a cool water bottle to bring with you on those days you know you won’t have time for food.
3. Block out some “me” time: You don’t want to be that student with a month left in the semester breaking down in the middle of class because everything just suddenly became too overwhelming.  Schedule some regular ‘me’ time and don’t let anyone try to double-book you!  (Unless it’s to get something important done when you have NO other available time or option).  You should be somewhat flexible with your schedule, but also firm when need be.
4.  Do you have time to sleep?  I’ve tried doing the whole 5hrs/night of sleep thing.  It doesn’t last very long.  To be at your best during the day and amidst the rest of your hectic schedule, do your best to get at LEAST 6-7hrs/night.  This may require you do to do more in your half hour time blocks between class and work so you don’t have leftover homework that requires you to stay up later.  That’s okay!  Learn to multi task!  If you take a bus, subway, train, or trolley to get from one place to another, bring one of your textbooks with you and read a chapter en route! 
5. Got singles?  Keep a few one dollar bills in your bag somewhere.  In the event that you are tied up somewhere, you can at least get a drink or a snack from a vending machine or convenience store.  Be sure to replace them once spent, just in case!

By checking off these 5 items, you are ready to start off your semester right!  Time management is an important piece to doing well and succeeding in college.  Keeping yourself organized is over half the battle!  Good luck! Comment below with your tips and tricks for getting ready for the semester.  What best helps you prepare to get your head in the game?

This is a post by Caitlin, our Campus Ambassador at The Catholic University of America. She is majoring in Media Studies with a Minor in Psychology and is a Sophomore.

There is nothing more exciting and nerve wracking at the same time, then going to college. Being somewhere unfamiliar without your friends and family and the comforts of home can be overwhelming at times. I remember moving in my Freshman year and just thinking about what was going to happen. Freshman year is all about getting used to things while Sophomore year is a time to figuring them out. So far this semester I have noticed several differences between Freshman and Sophomore year.

1. Work habits. As a Freshman I fell into a bad habit of procrastinating and staying up all night to do my work at the last minute. My friends and I would all sit in the hallways with our work spread out around us and we would distract one another until we finally had no option but to do our assignments. This year I have noticed not just with myself but with many other Sophomores that we are taking advantage of the library on campus. Going to the library to do work minimizes the distractions around you because it is a silent work space.
2. The level of comfort. When you first arrive at a school it is only natural that you will not necessarily know your way around. Most Freshman have only come to the school once or twice before it is time to move in. The first couple of days of class I noticed that many of the Freshman were not sure of which buildings to go into. After a couple of weeks I noticed that the vibe on campus shifted and that everyone seemed to be leaving for class around the same time.
3. A sense of direction. At CUA you do not need to declare a major until the end of your Sophomore year. As a Freshman many people come in undecided and take a bunch of different classes to see what they are interested in. I think that this is really a great thing because you never know if you are going to like something until you try it. So my advice to both Freshman and Sophomores is to take as many classes in as many different majors as possible, so that you are confident in your decision by the end of Sophomore year.

4. Willingness to Participate. I have noticed that many Sophomores are reluctant to join clubs and campus activities because they think that it is to late. I personally have joined several more on campus activities this year, it is a great way to meet new people and just stay involved. I think Freshman do a great job of joining and attending  activity meetings and I really think that no matter what year in school you are in, it is never to late to join something that interests you.

My advice to the Freshman class is to stay active, stay on-top of their work, and to really focus on themselves and see what they are interested in for their future. Freshman year is a really exciting time full of many opportunities, so my advice is to take those opportunities to your full advantage, and to just have fun!

This blog is written by Catherine O. our campus ambassador from Barton College.

I’m not one to have many pet peeves but one that really bothers me is when people are late. I have always been taught that it is very important to be punctual. It’s not good to hold people up or cause any inconvenience for them. I will offer a few quick tips to help with you become more punctual.

At the beginning of the day (or the night before), make a list of things to do and set your priorities. This can help you become clutter-brain free throughout the day.

Take time to plan each activity and give yourself ample time to complete each task before starting on the next. This will also eliminate any mistakes or setbacks to your schedule.

If you have planned an activity, meeting, dinner, event, etc. in advance, make sure to schedule less important things around it. Don’t plan anything around the time of any big event! For example, don’t plan a nail/hair appointment at 1pm and be scheduled to attend a friend’s wedding at 2pm. Who knows what could happen within that time frame that could cause you to miss or be late to your friend’s wedding.

Last but not least, if something unexpected happens that may cause you to be late, make sure to call the person with whom you are meeting with to inform them of your possible tardiness.

I hope these tips help you all!

This blog post is written by our University of Windsor campus ambassador, Alicia Daly. She has her associates degree in Journalism and is currently majoring in Communications with a minor in Political Science and Spanish. She hopes to pursue a successful career in Broadcast Journalism.

As most of us make our way back into those hour long lecture halls. Keep in mind that we are all now faced with a fresh school year. Let us take advantage of this new semester and look at it as a opportunity in burning most of those bad habits some of us have acquired during our years of studies. I like to call it the number one killer for students, procrastination. I don’t know if I speak for all you here but I speak to those who suffer from it. As we all start our new school year let us try to make way for improvement by juggling our daily task with out an inch of procrastination, to the best we can.

My point here folks is, perhaps we should as students prepare a blueprint of our school year. A  organized lay out of what we would like too and how we would accomplish our goals in this current semester or whole school year.

I’m the type of person where writing lists, jotting down my play be play actions and random thoughts, all  help to keep me in track of what my daily goals are. I feel as students we are faced with so many tedious tasks to do that we can get easily swept away from our personal goals simply because we never make the time to plan or see it through. Our goals could simple be things such as, joining a new student association, taking on more responsibility in a current committee we may be in, preparing a portfolio, researching on grad schools, seeking out summer internships, job searching, creating enough study time to make the deans list etc. Basically making room in our hectic semester for our goals we feel is important for us to complete or that may have a positive influence on our future plans. For example, creating a portfolio of our best work pisces or researching  in potential grad schools.

Since it’s not easy to keep track of all the things we may like to complete at the moment or of things we like to carefully plan ahead. I feel as students we could all simply do this by finding a empty notebook and writing on that blank first page “My blueprint for this semester” or My blueprint for this year” . If you choose to plan for the entire school year, I feel It may be best to start by a semester as too see how successful your blue print plan works for you. That way you can learn from any mistakes made from one semester and perfect them in the next school semester.

Remember this is just you writing down what you would like to get done for the semester or year and how you would like to personally take your steps in doing each task. So here’s an idea of the content one can have in their blueprint page.

Courses to take: Start by picking your classes smart now, It isn’t to late to drop or add classes that you need. So you still have time to research in the best electives that will really help you in your future careers. For example, I’m a Communications major so I choose this year to be the year I finally learn to speak Spanish fluently. It’s not recommended of me to learn it but I have looked ahead in my future career and I feel it would best benefit me in the long run. If we think ahead of what would be required of us to learn in our future jobs or how gaining knowledge from a course would put us ahead of competition, then we should start picking our classes smart now. Start by writing out a list of your classes and what it’s purposes are for taking them, just so you remind yourself of how the course will benefit you. You do this because you want to keep track of your reasoning for taking the course.

Portfolio, Covering letter, Resume and references letters: This heading hear is for you to keep track, to create or make time to update you resume along with the others listed above. It’s important to gather all this information and keep it on file. Making it easier  for you to apply for future jobs. You can also include under this heading how and who you have to contact to get a reference letter from. You can also write out the steps your going to take in perfecting your resume or covering letter. For example, researching in the content you should include on your resume that’s best geared towards the jobs your applying for.

Work Plans: This heading will be based on keeping track of the type of jobs your applying too, how to apply to them. For example in person or by email and if it requires an application. You write down all the information down because you want to remember where you applied too. One time I applied to so many jobs and failed to keep track, so when I got a call back from one, I had no memory of the type of job I had applied too, “Oops!”. By logging your job process this will help you feel organized and in control of your efforts.

Head start on summer plans: You could write a list of places you are interested in applying for  summer internships. Anything really that requires planning ahead for your summer.

You want to cater your blueprint headings to things you like to personally focus on in your school semester or year. Here are some other suggestions for other headings.

Head start on grad school

School budget

Social/trips

School Associations/Greek life

Personal projects

I hope you all understand the idea here, with your blueprint for the school semester or year. It’s all to really see your goals in front of you. It’s your own personalize blueprint for you to achieve success. By taking action in completing your goals in hopes to getting closer to your dreams.  Use your blueprints to motivate you and help you not to get distracted from your goals and to prevent procrastination dead in it’s tracks. Let your school blueprint be your guide line for this semester/ year. Good luck to us all in this  new school semester.

This is a guest post by Kellie from Ohio University, one of the Intern Queen’s very own interns!

Grocery shopping can be hard for college students. Trust me, I know how difficult it is to surrender time that could be spent at a fun campus event or even studying for a big exam to pick up food and other items at the convenience store.

The other day, I literally spent ten minutes calculating how long the last remains of my body wash would last (it came out to about eight days) before I would have to go purchase more. Then, I began thinking of creative breakfast substitutes for my usual protein bars because those were surely going to be long gone before the body wash, and I was surely not making two trips to the grocery store the following week.

Sometimes, don’t you just wish the grocery store would come to you?

Well, I have great news — It can! Last weekend, after employing my mathematical genius and planning (and dreading) my next shopping trip for the week ahead, I was happily surprised by a care package sent to me from Dormzy. Dormzy is an online grocery store that allows students, parents, or young professionals to shop, select, purchase, and ship items right to their doors. Dormy is great for a number of reasons, which I have conveniently listed below:

1. It saves you from making the physical trip to a grocery store. This is extremely helpful for students, like me, who do not have cars on campus.

2. It saves you from the temptation to purchase unnecessary items. I always go to the grocery store with a small, thought-out list and leave two hours later with an excessively overloaded shoppingcart. On Dormzy, you can search for the items you need, place them in your cart and log off before ever being distracted by a single free sample display.

3. Variety! Dormzy has everything from beverages to health & beauty products to snacks to school supplies — and they have tons of different brands of all of these things!

Here are my personal favorites from the care package:

Clif Bar in Oatmeal Raisin Walnut

This is my breakfast of choice. It keeps me full throughout the morning and powers me through my jam-packed interning days. These come in a huge assortment of flavors, and they are all delicious. (Trust me, I’ve tried just about all of them.) These also serve as a great pre-workout boosters or post-workout refuelers. Best of all, they are totally portable and fit nicely into just about any purse or bag.

St. Ives Body Wash in Oatmeal and Shea Butter

This body wash smells great and leaves my skin soft, smooth and, most importantly, clean.

Thank you, Dormzy, for saving me from making a dreaded trip to the grocery store!

Check out their site here: http://www.dormzy.com/