student life

The End is Near!

Katy Wallace, Biology student and soccer player, talks about the last few events wrapping up the spring 2013 semester. Student life is buzzing with excitement on the fields and in the classrooms as students get ready for graduation and summer break!

There’s less than a month left in the semester and the weather is warming up. Everyone is talking about summer plans and what they’ll be doing or where they’ll be going after graduation. Finals are slowly creeping up, but before we know it, they’ll be tomorrow!

There’s a lot of studying to be done between now and then and it’s all a matter of time management. After all, there are still intramural softball games to participate in, and tennis, softball, and baseball games to watch. Last week was Division III week so all of the athletic events offered free food and special activities in support of that.

At the end of the last week, Hootenanny, our annual talent show, happened in the Belcher Center. As one of the most anticipated events of the year, you’d just have to come experience it for yourself to truly understand the meaning of “Hootenanny”. It’s just another sign that the end of the semester is soon approaching and summer is right around the corner!

 

 

 

Watch Katy talk about Division III week here.

 

One of the many acts seen at Hootenanny this past weekend. You know you wish you were up there.

 

Another awesome event took place last week, Pray the Loop. This is where all students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community are invited to cirlce the drive that "loops" around campus to pray for God's will for LETU.

 

Spring Break Missions

During Spring Break 2013, LeTourneau University sent out a few hundred students all over the country to be the hands and feet of Jesus--from South Padre Island, TX, to Dillingham, AK. Grace Peterson talks about her week in Alaska volunteering at a Christian Youth Center and her week of "no regrets".

 

SPRING BREAK ’13 NO REGRETS! I remember in high school that being a popular phrase in the weeks leading up to spring break. Even though the phrase may be slightly dated (my high school days aren’t so long gone) it is an accurate summation of my break. Last week I went on one of LeTourneau Student Missions (LSM) spring break trips. I went with 4 fellow students, a spouse and a faculty sponsor to Dillingham, Alaska.

While we were there we volunteered at a Christian Youth Center. We did everything from taking snow mobiles out on the Tundra to get firewood to fuel the wood stove (a cheap form of heating) to skits and testimonies when the center was open. Honestly, it was very spiritually and physically exhausting. However, our last morning there we saw the Northern Lights, and I took it as a rainbow from God, a silent reminder in the sky that I don’t see all that is going on but He remains faithful. So it really was a spring break with no regrets.

Now I am trying to get back into the swing of school. My sister compared college to an uphill marathon sprint, yet the second half of a semester is a downhill 100 meter dash on a course slicked with oil. All that to say, it goes fast, very fast. Term papers, lab reports and the last few sectional tests are looking me in the eye, but one day at a time, one task at a time and it will all be over. It won’t be all school for me until May though.

Next week is Easter, which means camping! I love camping trips with friends; it always seems like that’s when the best stories are born and the sweetest moments are shared. And then a few weeks after that is Hootenanny. This is a LeTourneau student run talent show on steroids. Quartets to monologs are performed during the laughter filled event. As you can see, the rest of this semester is coming to a speedy end, but every moment has been completely worthwhile!

Until next time!

 

 Grace (pictured in the middle) enjoys her time in Alaska with friends and snowmobiles.

 

Spring Is Around The Corner

Avery Cheeley, a sophomore Mechanical Engineering major, talks about several awesome student events he's enjoyed during this semester and his spring break plans for next week.

Springtime is full of excitement and anticipation here at LeTourneau, not only because of the change in season, but also because it marks the halfway point in the semester. As spring break approaches, I like to think about different activities with which I’ve filled my free-time, such as acousticafe, intramurals, or just hanging with friends.

Yellow Jacket Activities Council (YAC) hosts events nearly every week, including everything from game night, where board games and videogames are organized at different locations on campus so that students can hang out and play games together, to a mid-January late-night Easter egg hunt (I have no idea what the thinking behind this was, but it was a blast). Other activities include an evening at Air-U, a trampoline gymnasium; man hunt, a city-wide scavenger hunt; and humans vs. zombies, a week
where humans avoid being infected by the zombies.

Different floor events can keep you busy as well: Valentine’s day dinner with the sister/brother floor, an all-hall olympic-style competition, and field hockey games are just a few examples of how a floor might grow together through activities.

This spring break I’m going on one of the eight Spring Break Missions Trips that LeTourneau Student Ministries (LSM) organizes. It’s a trip to South Padre Island, where we will give free van rides and pancakes to college students who are there to party as a way of showing them Christ’s love and the Gospel. I can’t wait. :)

 

Get Involved--Part II

Hi, my name is Melanie Dittmer, and I am a freshman Biology major at LeTourneau University. I’m here to tell you about a central aspect of student life here at LETU. If you were to come onto campus on a Monday,Wednesday, and Friday a little before 10:50, you would see an interestingsight: flocks of LeTourneau students migrating towards a big building in thecorner of our property: the S.E. Belcher Jr. Chapel and Performing Arts Center.While the citizens of Longview know of this place only as a performance hall,to students it is something else: chapel. Every student at LeTourneau must have a certain number of chapel credits each semester in order to graduate, so it is no surprise that everyone drops what they are doing three mornings a week and heads to one of the biggest buildings on campus.

Despite the fact that chapel is a required “class,” I still thoroughly enjoy it. Every semester there are a large variety of chapels, and all of them are very well put together. Chapel usually consists of one of three types of services. The first is a worship service. Several times a semester, one of the student-led worship teams will mount the stage and lead the student body in a chorus of praise songs. It is an incredible experience to worship like this with your friends surrounding you. The second type of chapel service LETU presents involves a speaker. In this type of service, a worship band will normally play a few songs and then someone will speak on a topic. Our speakers include professors and faculty from the school and also guests who LeTourneau invites. The third type of chapel service is the most diverse, and probably the most popular. It is the “special events” service. On these days, LETU will bring in a special group to perform for us. Examples of some chapel guests we have had this semester are: the Annie Moses Band, Shaun Groves, Black Violin, and a student choir and jazz band. There are many more exciting chapel events lined up for the rest of the semester as well.

               
As a student, I have the opportunity to be involved in chapel myself. I do this through the Jazz Band. Last week, we were able to play some beautiful worship songs for the student body during chapel. We were accompanied by the choir. Both these groups, jazz band and choir, are almost entirely made up of student musicians and vocalists. It was an incredible experience to sit onstage at the Belcher Center and lead my fellow students in worship.

               
Although it may seem like a tedious commitment to make throughout college life, chapel is, in fact, interesting and enjoyable. I consider it a welcome change of pace, a break from a busy day. There are a variety of different services, and each is unique and fun in its own way. Student participation is highly encouraged, which is a great characteristic. More than anything, it is simply a time where the LeTourneau student body can come together and worship, and this is one of the greatest attributes that I believe a Christian college can have.

 

Get Involved

My name is Alexia Thomas, and I am a freshman Biomedical engineering student.  As a freshman, I have blessed to be able to play on the volleyball team, live on a great floor with amazing girls and participate in many of the activities that LeTourneau has to offer.         

Playing a sport at LeTourneau is an experience that I wish every student could enjoy.  Last semester, I played on the Lady Jackets Volleyball team.  We traveled nearly every weekend to play games and participate in various tournaments.  It was such a fun experience to bond with the girls on the team as well as compete against other volleyball teams, which brought our team closer together.  Playing a varsity sport is not the only way to get involved with sports on campus. 

Students also have the opportunity to participate in intramural sports.  The most popular intramural sports on campus are ultimate Frisbee and Flag Football.  What’s fun about intramural sports is that students play on teams with people on their floor! Playing an intramural sport is a great way to bond with people on floor and compete against other floors.

If students do not see themselves as a very experienced athlete, it is okay because there are different levels of competition within intramurals.  There is a place for everyone in intramurals!  If students aren’t interested in athletics at all, there is always the option of getting involved in music or other opportunities on campus.  About twice a semester, we have acoustic cafés.  The acoustic café is put on so that students can perform amongst their peers—whether it be singing or playing an instrument.  Students can play with a band or play alone—it is totally up to what they are comfortable with!  These acoustic cafés provide a nice and relaxing atmosphere for students to socialize and enjoy the talents of fellow students.

What is unique about LeTourneau is how close professors are with their students.  I have been blessed to be able to go to a couple of professors’ houses while I have been here.  Professors are welcoming and are here for the students.  They are here to give students an experience that kids cannot find anywhere else.  I am particularly thankful for teachers inviting students over where there are not meals being served on Sundays.  That is an opportunity that students will not find at very many schools.  Going over to their houses is not only a time for free food, but it is also a time to fellowship with other students and with the professor.  It is quite humbling for students to see that professors live normal lives just as everyone else does.  I could not be more thankful for all of the opportunities that LeTourneau has to offer and feel blessed to be at this school!

 

 

 

Home for the Holidays

Hi, my name is Ally and I’m a freshman civil engineering student here at LeTourneau University.  I just got back on campus after spending a fun-filled Christmas with my family back in Arizona!  I am the oldest of three children so it was a first for my family when I went off to college this fall. 

One of the things that excited me most about going home was seeing snow. And to answer your next question, yes, it does snow in Arizona.  What better to do at Christmas time, with the snow falling outside, than make Christmas cookies!  I basically made enough to cookies to supply my whole town (okay so my town isn’t that big, and I might be exaggerating a little, but still it was a lot!); sugar cookies, gingerbread men, and chocolate.  I love frosting them, sprinkling them, eating them… I really just like cookies that go along with Christmas.  The baking didn’t stop with cookies though.  I proceeded to make peanut brittle, caramel corn, and cake balls.  I told my mom I was going to make up for lost time in the kitchen when I finally got to be at home and I definitely came through for her.  I tend to be a little (meaning a lot) on the messy side, and this break was no exception to that rule.  My poor mother’s kitchen was completely destroyed, but I think she was so happy to have me home that I got a little grace in that regard.

When I was not busy being a baking monster, I enjoyed driving around in the snow and playing games with my family.  Being away from home has given me such an appreciation for not only my family as a whole, but each of them as individuals.  When the time came to leave, I was ready to be back to my new normal (college life), but also sad to leave the comforts of living with those I know and love.  The good thing is, I have a great spring semester to look forward to.  Not only is chemistry behind me (thank goodness for that!) but I get to finish up most of my general education courses and start getting into some real engineering ones.  The first semester of college went by in a blur for me.  I’m excited for the chance to get a fresh start in my classes, as I continue to learn how to balance college life.

Livin' the Campus Life at LETU

Jordan McRae, a Junior Business major and R.A. (Resident's Assistant) on his floor, writes about the memories, adventures, and family he's found in residence life at LeTourneau.

 

If you ask any student at LeTourneau if they live in the best place on campus, they are most likely going to tell you “yes” because all of our living options are amazing. I think one of the most important aspects of picking a college is evaluating the place where you are going to spend your college career doing the majority of your studying, hanging out, relationship building, and sleeping. Anywhere you live on campus at LeTourneau you are going to be living in an environment that will support your spiritual and academic growth. You really cannot go wrong choosing any of our housing options at LeTouneau, but in my biased opinion, I have the great privilege of living on the best residence hall
floor on all of campus, Mabee 1. Being one of the oldest residence halls, we have a storied history and culture that goes back many years. The history and brotherhood that we have here has been one of my favorite parts of LeTourneau so far.

The brotherhood that we have on Mabee 1 extends to pretty much everything we do. We play intramural sports together, support each other spiritually, eat meals together, offer rides places,
and help each other with homework; we are a family. To have a family while I am away from my real family is such a great aspect of attending school here. Every floor has a Chaplain, and every Wednesday night we have floor devotions which are an awesome time to come together as a floor and dig into God’s word and share with each other where we all are in our journeys of faith. Wednesday
night devotions have been such a great source of encouragement and growth for me.

My floor also has the great privilege of having a sister floor, ELH 2. We do a lot of joint activities
together and we go out to each other’s intramural games to support each other. We also participate in Fall Fest together. Fall fest is a week of competitions among floors all for fun. Floors pick a theme and then take that persona for the whole week. This year, our sister floor and we did the theme Grease. We had a blast dressing up and participating in the different competitions. At the beginning of each semester we get dressed up and escort our sister floor to all school communion, which the picture below is from. The brother/sister relationship is a great part of living on Mabee 1!

Living in a residence hall is one the best aspects of student life here at LeTourneau. I am beyond blessed to have had the spiritual and academic growth that I have experienced so far living in a community of brothers, and it will be a part of LeTourneau that will be with me for a long time after I graduate from here.

 

Jordan with his floor and sister floor at the beginning of the semester at the campus-wide communion service.

Married Life on Campus

Rachel Bridgman, a Counseling Psychology major, shares her story on being a married student and life in the community of Married Student Housing.  

 

It's pretty nice taking a five to ten minute walk home from a long day of class and work. It's also so nice knowing that my husband only has to drive two minutes from work every weekday.

We are a newly married couple living in our own little apartment in LeTourneau's Married Student Housing. My husband works in the Admissions Office, and I am working on my bachelor's degree in Counseling Psychology.

Being married and living on the campus where we both spend all of our time can make us feel a bit stuck sometimes, but we have found some beautiful parks in the Longview area that allow us to get away for a morning or an afternoon. Just this weekend we went to a walking park with many tall, beautiful trees, green ivy everywhere, and the colorful fall leaves underneath out feet. A friend of ours in Married Student Housing is a photographer, and she joined us on our trip to the park to take some fall photos.

It has been so much fun to get to know other married couples in Married Student Housing, and mostly just so awesome to enjoy the beautiful creation in the middle of a city. Yes, at times we feel stuck on campus, but we have learned to be a bit more adventurous and find those places that refresh us. We are also learning to praise God for the friendships we are making on campus, the gas money we are saving, and the wonderful first home we are building together.

 

Rachel Bridgman

 

 
 (Rachel and her husband, Barnabas, who also works in the Admissions Office)

 

The Balancing Act: Part III--Life as a Student Athlete

Kayla Ronda, freshman Lady YellowJacket, talks about the transition from life in Arizona to life in Texas, the juggle between missing classes and keeping up with homework, and the exciting new chapter of college life and college volleyball.

My name is Kayla Ronda and I am from Chandler, Arizona.  I am a freshman here at LeTourneau University and I am studying Business Marketing.  I also play on the Lady Yellow Jackets Women's Volleyball team.  As a student-athlete, I have been able to experience LeTourneau student life from
many different perspectives.

Coming in as a freshman, I didn't know what to expect from a college standpoint.  I was nervous at
first, and wondered how my transition would be from Arizona to Texas, how I would deal with being away from home, and how I would juggle my busy schedule.  However, after my first few days at LeTourneau, I knew this was the school for me.

The professors here at LeTourneau are very understanding of my schedule, and have played a huge role in the ease of my transition and ability to stay on track.  Because of my busy volleyball schedule, I was traveling almost every weekend which resulted in me missing many Friday classes.  When I first looked at how many classes I was going to miss, I was worried I wouldn't be able to keep up in both school and volleyball.  But, by keeping in good contact with my professors and the fact that they are so open and flexible, I have been able to stay on track.

LeTourneau is everything I could have hoped for from a college experience.  Even though I'm only a freshman, I have already had the chance to experience some of the great aspects on campus -- the bonding that goes on in each dorm, the friendly and positive atmosphere, and the many opportunities there are to get involved on campus and in the community.  I look forward to the rest of my college career and can't wait to see where God leads me here at LeTourneau!

 

Kayla Ronda (#4) gets ready for an attack at the net. Go YellowJackets!

The Balancing Act: Part II--Life as a Student Athlete

Peter Martin, a junior Mechanical Engineer and cross-country runner, writes of the challenges and joys of being a student athlete.

5:30 a.m. More than enough time to get dressed and be at practice by 6, but after finishing homework only 5 hours ago, my brain refuses to function. The routine is slow even though I’ve been doing it for 6 years. Sleep in my clothes. Fall out of bed. Pull on my socks. Tie my shoes. Stumble to the door. Think about how nice it would be to still be sleeping while I walk through the crisp morning air to join my teammates. It will all be over soon and I’ll miss it then – not the early mornings, and not necessarily the long runs, but the time spent with friends made close by the gruesome training, the
lack of sleep and the common complaints.

Our cross country team is as close as any other athletic team and probably weirder than most. People don’t understand why we “like” running and most of the time we don’t either. It’s a love/hate relationship. We love going out to eat before or after a race. We hate Louisiana’s bumpy roads
that make it impossible to stay asleep on the bus. We love laughing with each other on the warm up laps before practice. We hate getting up at 4 a.m. on a Saturday to race, returning at 1 in the afternoon and finding our roommates still asleep. We love beating our times on a great course. We hate the injuries that seem almost inevitable. But we wouldn’t quit. We know our teammates need us to endure with them. And most of us rely on it to keep us sane in a rigorous academic schedule.

Being a student-athlete is hard. How hard depends on which sport and which major you choose. For me the energy sapping cross country training paired with the 16 hours of mechanical engineering, an average for most non-athletes, can be too much. Sometimes I can’t balance it and my grades fall. I am constantly reminded that I am here to get an education not just to run. Staying awake in class is probably the hardest part. Running for two hours in the morning after insufficient sleep definitely makes it a challenge to not nod off. Our coach understands though and will occasionally grant us permission to run in the afternoon so we can study later or get more sleep for tests. We are fortunate to have a coach who emphasizes academics over athletics.

My favorite memory from this season has to be the Gator Run in Shreveport, Louisiana where both the men and women placed 1^st as a team. It was a good race to relax a little and run faster, not worrying about pace as much as other races and getting to compete in a 5,000 meter race instead of the traditional 8,000 meters. I look forward to running it again next year.

Our team is very strong this year. We only have one senior on the team this year and although we will miss him next year, it is exciting to know we will be stronger and faster as a team. We all have high hopes for the 2013 season.

 

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Peter (far right) and his teammates after the Gator Run in Shreveport, Louisiana, where both men and women's team took first place. Go YellowJackets!!