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Posts Tagged ‘Will Smith’

Written by Alex Pedersen
Thursday, 27 January 2011 16:04
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Freshmen biology majors Caroline Murray and Meghan Murray stand in the dorm room they have shared for the past five months. Kellen Jenkins/ The Bulletin

The spring semester is well under way and the fresh beginnings of fall are nothing but a distant memory now. Some students are preparing to graduate, but for freshmen, it is a time of settling into what is now the more familiar experience of going to college.

There are many things running through the minds of freshmen at this time. They wonder if this is the school for them, what they are going to do after graduation and some are praying that they will make it through the semester. Whatever the case may be, it is a certainty that much has changed since they first came to ESU.

Yet again, we take a look at the lives of four freshmen, Meghan Murray, Caroline Murray, Will Smith and Lei Zhang, as they trudge forward toward the end of their freshman year.

…

Caroline and Meghan Murray, twin sisters from Olpe, are still working hard to pursue biology degrees. Caroline seems confident in this semester, but Meghan is nervous because she is taking difficult classes.

“It will be harder than last semester,” Meghan said. “I’ve got (chemistry), biology and zoology. It’s awesome, but I just have to study, study, study.”

For winter break, they spent time with family and friends they hadn’t seen in a while and visited Grandby Ranch at Sol Vista Basin, Colo., where they went snowboarding. It was Caroline’s first time.

“It was fun,” Caroline said. “By the second day, I was fine. The first day, I was trying to figure it out, but then it was fun. It was a blast… we actually drove back on the 24th, Christmas Eve. I didn’t want to do that, but we celebrated Christmas the next day.”

The sisters are still a part of Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority and plan to move into the house next year. This semester, they have also taken up the responsibility of being ESU Ambassadors.

“I think the more involved you are, the more fun you have,” Meghan said. “It can be stressful sometimes, but overall it’s fun because you can meet a lot of new people.”

The sisters also said that they are excited for spring break, when they may go to Florida, and for summer, when they will travel to Arizona with their best friend and Meghan will get her Certified Nurse’s Assistant license.

…

Although Will Smith, criminology major from Wylie, Texas, had a good time last semester, it was more difficult than he expected.

“It was a lot tougher school-wise and with time management,” Smith said. “I’ve enjoyed living in the dorms. I can’t wait to have my own apartment though, more privacy. But I get along with pretty much everyone in the dorms.”

Smith has continued to practice middle-distance with the cross country team, even throughout the cold of winter. He practices every day, except for the weekends, and has been going to morning practices on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 6 a.m. For winter break, he went back home to Texas.

“My break was really good,” Smith said. “I hung out with family a lot, hung out with some friends I haven’t seen in a while, of course hung out with my girlfriend and I worked a little bit, trying to get a little money before I came back,” Smith said.

Smith’s classes are divided fairly equally between general education courses and major courses. Some classes he is taking are Psychology, Intimate relationships, Community Corrections and Anthropology.

“I feel great about this semester,” Smith said. “I’ve got good classes and I feel like I can do a lot better this semester, grade-wise and practicing, you know… I enjoy all of my classes, it’s a lot better than last semester. They seem pretty interesting. I would say Community Corrections is probably my favorite one overall,” Smith said.

…

Although Smith may be from Texas, Lei Zhang, accounting major, has him beat when it comes to distance away from home. Zhang is a Chinese student who is planning to go to school here for four years before graduation.

“At summer, I will go back to China for three months, then come back to ESU,” Zhang said. “Just like the American students, I will stay until we graduate, then I will go back to China.”

Zhang explained that she wishes to live in China because there is more job availability there. For winter break, Zhang stayed at a friend’s apartment and she visited Chicago for Thanksgiving.

“Someone told me that Chicago was the second biggest city in America, so I wanted to go there,” Zhang said. “When I went there, it rained and was very cold, so the first and second day weren’t that good, but the last day was good. It was very big and the buildings were tall, it’s just like Shanghai in China – it’s very lovely.”

Last semester, she only took three Intensive English Program courses and Composition I, and she is feeling anxious about this semester because she is taking a larger variety of classes – 17 hours total. On top of that, Zhang still feels the difficulties of living so far from home.

“I think it’s very hard because it’s a different life,” Zhang said. “The biggest difficulty is language and customs…I think the biggest difficulty is that I’m homesick. I miss my pare

Welcome, Freshmen (Part 2 in a series)

Written by Bulletin Staff
Thursday, 21 October 2010 16:27
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Fall break has come and gone, midterms have been taken and students are back at the books again. For sophomores, juniors and seniors, it means that they are one step closer to their goal of graduation.

But for freshmen, it is the half-way point for their first semester of college.

Some may be stressed with the strain of too much schoolwork and others may be empowered by finding out that they are on top of things. Whatever situation students find themselves in, many lives are different from when they first came to Emporia State. We continue to follow three freshmen, Meghan Murray, Caroline Murray and Will Smith, as they forge onward to finish their first semester.

***

Meghan and Caroline Murray, twin sisters from Olpe, are finding that they are enjoying their college experience so far. They are happy with the independence of living in Emporia and the campus itself.

“I like how it’s big enough to where you don’t see everyone every day, but it’s small enough to where you don’t know where everything is,” Meghan said.

“And you can get to class in, like, three minutes,” Caroline said.

“Not really, like, four depending – ”

“Depending on the classes.”

“Yeah,” Meghan said. “The library is really far away from the dorms, that’s the only bad thing.”

Meghan is still pursuing a biology major and Caroline is also working for a biology degree before she pursues a career in speech pathology and, so far, they are well on their ways.

The sisters were very happy with their midterms, as they didn’t have very many and those that they did, they received high grades in. For fall break, the sisters went back to their home in Olpe.

“We went home for a night then we went shopping in Lawrence with our mom,” Caroline said. “Some of our friends came back from community college or whatever schools they were out, so we went back to Olpe for a while.”

Both of the girls want to become ambassadors for next semester’s incoming students and they also recently joined the Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority.

“A lot of the girls in our sorority live on our dorm floor,” Meghan said. “And we met some girls through the LEAD institute that we’re still friends with.” Caroline said.

“They actually joined the same sorority we did, so that was kind of cool,” Meghan said.

***

Will Smith, criminal sciences major, is also having a good freshman year so far. He has been taking plenty of general education courses, training with the cross country team and competing in a few track meets as a walk-on member.

“(I will run) at places like K-State and some of the Emporia ones we have here,” Smith said. “I’ve ran at two cross country meets so far…I think I was satisfied, it was the best I’ve ever done long-distance wise.”

For fall break, Smith went back to his home state of Texas to visit family, friends and his girlfriend, who goes to school at Tarleton State University in Texas.

“It’s been kind of hard,” Smith said. “We argue here and there, but it’s not that bad. We’ll make it through.”

Smith has met “a ton” of friends during his time here at ESU and seems to enjoy living in the dorms, where he has a co-ed floor.

“My floor is pretty fun to be around,” Smith said. “We’re all in active living so everyone is awake until two in the morning just talking. It’s a good floor, the dorms are a pretty good way to make friends.”

Alex Pederson

Welcome, Freshmen (Part 1 in a series)

Written by Alex Pedersen
Thursday, 19 August 2010 15:46
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Freshmen Meghan and Caroline Murray hang decorations on their dorm room door with the help of their friend Brooke Schmidt (far left) during Move-In Day Saturday afternoon at the Towers Complex. Kellen Jenkins/ The Bulletin.

Part I: A Freshmentality

The dawn of a new year is upon us once again. For the returning students, seeing the old sights of places like Silent Joe, the Memorial Union and William Allen White Library can bring a rush of nostalgia, sometimes followed by high levels of stress.

But freshmen have a different kind of stress. Their stress does not stem from realizing that the toils of another school year are here, but from the fact that most of them are in a very unfamiliar place. They are separated from their parents, tossed into the sea of college and are forced to either sink or swim.

Four such freshmen are Lei Zhang, Will Smith, Meghan Murray and Caroline Murray.

Meghan and Caroline Murray are two twin sisters who hail from down the road in Olpe. They decided to come to Emporia State because it is close to home, and like Olpe, is small enough to have a down-home atmosphere.

“I liked that it was one of the smaller universities because that’s what we’re used to,” Meghan said. “It would be an easier adjustment.”

Between the two of them, they participated in just about every activity their high school had to offer: Student Council, forensics, theater, volleyball, track and cheerleading, just to name a few.

“I’m excited to meet a lot more people,” Caroline said. “In Olpe, we never really met anyone, we just got really close to them. I think it will be fun to meet people and have a large group of friends so that you don’t always have to be with the same people every single weekend.”

Meghan and Caroline are no strangers to ESU. Their mother is Jacquelyn Murray, an instructor for Newman Division of Nursing. They also plan to go into different fields. Meghan is studying biology, while Caroline is working toward a degree in secondary education.

“I wanted to do speech language pathology, it’s like speech therapy,” Caroline said. “I’ll have to transfer to K-State, but I can get a degree here in education. You have to have four years and then you go apply to the school.”

The twins are also already used to their roommates, because they are rooming together. Even their room at home is approximately the same size, so they are very comfortable with their new surroundings.

“I would rather be together,” Meghan said. “I think it will make school easier. We can still meet people, we can meet everyone on the floor, but it’s nice to go somewhere that you know is private to you and comfortable.”

The girls are jumping straight into school, with Meghan taking some of her biology and chemistry courses and Caroline trying to get some general education classes out of the way. One thing that they are nervous for, however, is the trouble they will have in finding their independence from each other.

“It’s kind of the same because we’re still the twins,” Meghan said. “We’re not really separate, which kind of stinks sometimes. You want to be your own person, have someone actually know your name… We’ve already had some people say, ‘alright, we’re just going to call you the twins.’”

Another new name to ESU is Will Smith. No, not the famous Hollywood actor, but the freshman from Wylie, Texas.

“It’s a big change, coming from Texas to here, with a lot of flat land,” Smith said. “To be honest with you, I thought it would have been boring, because it’s out in the middle of nowhere. That’s not the reason why I came here though – I just want to get an education.”

Smith is studying criminology and his ultimate goal is to be a U.S. Marshall. He is cousins with Kameron Gee, a football player here at ESU, and lives in the co-ed dorms of South Towers, which he finds to be a very friendly experience.

“It’s real tight, everyone comes up to our floor, even North Tower comes up to our floor,” Smith said. “I think we have the best floor out of all of the floors there, so I’m lucky out on that part… there was a room with probably 10 people, girls and guys, just chilling.”

Smith lives about six or seven hours away and, like many freshmen who live a long distance away, he said he feels homesick. Although he gets along excellently with his new roommate, he still misses his old room and his parents.

“They’re actually really happy for me,” Smith said. “It’s saddening, but they’re really happy that I’m out and going to school, so it doesn’t matter… They actually called me today and yesterday. My mom and my dad (were crying.) I was crying, too. I’m not going to lie. I’m from Texas, it’s so far away. Maybe if I lived in Topeka or something, it wouldn’t be bad.”

For all four years of high school, Smith ran track and currently trains with the ESU Cross Country Team. He is considering doing track here, but has much higher expectations for himself after his college experience.

“I expect for me to become a man, I guess,” Smith said. “I’m not going to be babied by my parents anymore, so after college I’ll be a man, really… I’m excited. I’m ready to grow up and become a young man, living on my own, you know?”

ESU is known for its large international student population, of which Lei Zhang is a new member. Zhang is a Chinese student who attended Polytechnic University, but now must complete the Intensive English Program before she can start taking classes for her business studies.

“I hope I can start my start my major classes and get my diploma,” Zhang said. “I also hope I can enrich my life and make some new friends.”

Zhang came here with her roommate, Ziwei Li, on Aug. 9. Since then, they have moved from their temporary dorm room in the Towers to their more permanent residence in Trusler. She plans to be in Emporia for three or four years and has already met new friends.

“I met a lot of new friends, and not just Americans,” Zhang said. “I’ve met Japanese, Korean, and some from Indonesia… I think it is real interesting and I think we can get some things that are new that I would never get otherwise,” Zhang said.

As is common with many freshmen, Zhang has found that it is not very easy to be so far from home.

“It is very hard without my friends and parents because if I had some problems, I could tell them,” Zhang said. “But instead, I must solve this problem myself and not with them. So I think it will be better for me than there, but I think I can adapt to this and do my best.”