why i left

There's been a lot of speculation as to why I transferred from NYU to BYU. When most people hear that I transferred they usually ask, "Why would you ever transfer from a school in NYC to a school in Utah?" It's a valid question and I have two valid responses:

1.) First, I wanted to change my major from Journalism to Business (at the time I had no idea what emphasis, all I knew is that I wanted to change to a business major). At NYU this would require me to transfer from the College of Arts and Sciences to the Stern School for Business...no easy task. Stern only accepted transfers and new students during the Fall semester, which meant I would have to tough it out in CAS during Spring and then pray to get accepted for the Fall. This would have been fine except for reason #2.

2.) I was planning on going on a mission for my church and would be leaving in June of 2006, before I could even start in Stern. Being at NYU hadn't really been the best environment for me to prepare to go on a mission, so after hearing that BYU's Marriott School of Management actually ranked higher than NYU in some rankings I decided to pack my bags and head to Utah. Besides the better environment to go on a mission, I also would be paying $2000 a year for school instead of $40,000. That's right, I could get 20 years of education from BYU for the price of one year at NYU.

So, it just made sense.

my best work from nyu

click here to see an example of a project I did for my freshman honors seminar. It's entitled, "The Last Five Years" (no correlation to this blog) and it chronicles the AIDS crisis in the US from 2000-2005.

Shows I Saw While Living In Manhattan (and some since leaving as well)

Thanksgiving Visitors!

For Thanksgiving Spenser and I hosted some of our best friends from high school: Mikenzie Ames and Chris Cannon! We saw shows, made a Thanksgiving feast, and explored the city together. We even visited Santa at Macy's the day after Thanksgiving! It was great!

lauren visits/first celebrity spotting

One of the best parts about living in New York City was running into famous and influential people. well, it took me nearly a month to meet one, but while one of my close friends Lauren Kooistra was visiting we met Jimmy Fallon as he was shooting a commercial for Pepsi. It was awesome.

classes- fall semester 2005

Intensive Elementary Italian- One of my favorite classes I took at NYU was an intensive italian class. We had class everyday and got through two semesters of italian in just one semester. My professor was a student-teacher working on her masters. I don't remember her name but I do remember she was from Torino, Italy.

Quantitative Reasoning- Least favorite class. Boring material. Crazy professor.

Making Decisions in Contemporary America- This class still ranks as one of my top five classes I've taken in college. It was a freshman seminar at NYU, which means there were 15 freshman together with a professor discussing a topic for a semester. The class addressed ethics and decision making in contemporary America. We talked about cheating in college, the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments, Erin Brockovich, the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, and so much more. I learned to take a stand and defend my position, which I did well. But I think the most important lesson I learned was that there sometimes isn't only one correct answer to a problem, especially when considering sensitive issues. My professor, Fredrick More, became a mentor for me and continues to be someone that I turn to for advice. This class really became the standard that I compared all of the rest of my classes to throughout college.

departing for NYC

As most people know I started my college experience at New York University in the College of Arts and Sciences as a journalism major.

Leaving for school was probably a tougher thing for my family to go through than for me, but they did it with smiles on their faces and with their pockets a little bit lighter. ;) My parent wholeheartedly supported me as I transitioned to living in one of the biggest cities in the world and attending one of the best universities in the country.