Miami Hamilton's Favorite Books

Last summer, one of our students (Jeff Chandler) sent an e-mail to the whole Miami Hamilton campus - students, faculty and staff - asking one simple question: "What is your favorite book?"

Jeff wanted to start building his own library this year and wanted some recommendations from his campus. He recently sent me the compiled list, so we thought we'd share it on the blog. In alphabetical order by title, here it goes:

1984 by George Orwell

6 Days of the Condor by James Grady

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Tool

A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irwin

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley

A Trip to the Beach by Melinda & Robert Blanchard

Acheron Dark-Hunter by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Alex Cross Series by James Patterson

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Best Storybook Ever by Morm Richard Scarry

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Change of Heart by Jodi Picolt

Chronicles of Narnia (all of them) by C. S. Lewis

Columbine by Dave Cullen

Creating a Life Worth Living by Carol Lloyd

Dao De Jing by Lao Tsu

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

Desperation by Stephen King

Dracula by Bram Stocker

Dragons of Pern Series by Anne McCaffrey

Extremely Loud by Jonathon Safran Foer

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

Ford Country by John Grisham

Full Dark No Stars by Stephen King

Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss

Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams

House of Night Series by J.C. Cast

How to Tell a True War Story by Tim O’Brian

I am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe

I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb

If on Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino
Illustrated man by Ray Bradbury

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

Incredibly Close by Jonathon Safran Foer

Incredibly Close by Nicholas Sparks

Inkheart (The trilogy) by Cornelia Funke


It Gets Better: Coming Out by Dan Savage, and Terry Miller

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan

King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry

Kingdom Come by Alex Ross

LES MISERABLES by Victor Hugo 

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Moby Dick by Herman Melville

My Life by Bill Clinton

Notes from a Midnight Driver by Jordan Sonnenblick

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

Pet Cemetery by Stephen King

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Proust Was a Neuroscientist by Jonah Lehrer

Prozac by Elizabeth Wurtzel

Rascal, a Memoir of a Better Era by Sterling North

Sabriel by Garth Nix

Siddhartha by Herman Hesse

Slaughter House Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Somebody, Somewhere by Donna Williams

Song of the Dodo by David Quammen

Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein

Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Telling Lies by Paul Ekman

The Ancient Webster's Dictionary

The Bible authorized by King James 1611

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Call of the Wild by Jack London

The Chamber by John Grisham

The Christmas Shoes by Donna VanLiere

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller

The End of the Affair by Graham Greene

The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman

The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

The Ghost in the Big Brass Bed by Bruce Coville

The Giver by Lois Lowry

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Grimm's Fairy Tales by Jacob, and Wilhelm Grimm

The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

The Husband and the Good Guy by Dean Koontz

The Jack Reacher thriller series by Lee Child (all fifteen)

The Killing Joke by Alan Moore

The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks

The Liars club, a memoir by Mary Karr

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

The Lost World by Michael Crichton

The Mitch Rapp thriller series by Vince Flynn (all twelve)

The Passage by Justin Cronin

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

The Rock Says by Joe Layden

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Shining by Stephen King

The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wrobelski

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

The Unfortunates by B.S. Johnson

The Vanished Man by Jeffery Deaver

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Tuesday's with Morrie by Mitch Albom

Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer

Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose

Under the Dome by Stephen King

Walden by Henry David Thoreau

Watchmen by Alan Moore

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee

Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Youngblood Hawke by Herman Wouk

I hope this list inspires you to pick up a book this summer! Happy reading!

Spring Fling (and Scratch Off Winners!)

I can't believe it's time for SPRING FLING again! It's one of our favorite days of the year and we're excited about the 77 degrees and sunny weather (much improved over last years wind, rain, and 50's temps!) this time around. Spring Fling is an opportunity for student organizations, departments, and various other groups to get their names out there and celebrate the end of the school year. 

We're trying something new this year. Instead of raffle tickets like usual, we've created Scratch Off Tickets! 

So we used a random number generator at www.random.org to select winners for our many prizes. You can come to the Office of Student Activities in 122 Schwarm starting at 3 pm on the day of Spring Fling. If you are a winner, come by as soon as possible, as we are allowing winners to pick out which prize they want, instead of assigning them ahead of time. So it's first-come, first-choice!

And the winning numbers are: 

7

13

59

97

107

154

171

173

177

236

259

263

285

299

315

325

340

I hope you're a winner!  

What else is on the docket for the rest of spring semester, 2012? We're headed to the Great American Ballpark next Saturday, April 28, 2012 for a 4:10 pm Reds Game! Tickets are $5 for students and $10 for faculty/staff/non-Miami students. The tickets are view level and can be purchased in the Office of Student Activities (122 Schwarm) until Friday, April 20. Until earlier this week, this price also included a t-shirt. Unfortunately, we've already run out of t-shirts (who'd have thought we've sold more than 325 tickets?!?). But here's what it looks like, for those of you who have purchased before we ran out: 

Make sure you get your ticket before Friday! 

March Madness

While students were on Spring Break the first week of March, the rest of the month is chock-full of fun stuff going on around campus. As students settle back in, we're kicking off March activities with a St. Patrick's Day Celebration this Thursday, March 15. The party includes a contest for the most festive green gear, lots of green snacks, and our 4^th Annual No-Hands Green Jello Eating Contest (always a ridiculous, messy and hilarious experience). You can also plant some herb seeds and take home your own chalkboard pot! 

On Monday, March 19, we start the week off with Superhero Day, when you create your own Superhero Persona, complete with cape, mask, and various other accessories. Who will be the most creative and well executed Superhero? Super powers not provided.

We already have a little bit of history incorporating superheroes into Orientation (check it out)

Following Superhero Day, we will have our second annual Root Beer Pong tournament on March 22. So grab a friend for some fun and competition! We have plenty of prizes to be awarded (not to mention, bragging rights). Don’t forget to sign up on the door of 122 Schwarm.

We like to have this event because we think it shows students that alcohol is not required for this game! 

Rounding out the month of March, we will have one of our favorite events - FREE Tie Dye T-shirts. This is always a popular one. We will have limited supplies of free white t-shirts for students to make their own colorful creation so make sure to get yours while they last. As a fun new addition to this event, you can get your face painted while your t-shirt is soaking! 

We'll definitely be back to tell you how these events went, and to share plenty of pictures as well. 

Student Highlight: Chas Mallicoat

It's time for another student highlight post!  Student highlights are a new feature in which a couple of times a month, you'll get to meet a fabulous student at Miami Hamilton.  I'm starting with my Office of Student Activities student employees.  You met Emily already, and now I'm pleased to introduce you to Chas Mallicoat!  Meet Chas, in his own words:

Hello fellow MUH students! My name is Charles Mallicoat, but most people know me as Chas. I am a freshman at Miami Hamilton and I'm working hard to obtain my Bachelor of Integrative Studies degree with an emphasis on Organizational Leadership. 

After graduating from a small private school, The Calvary Academy, I began preparing for my first year at Miami Hamilton. During my first semester I wasn't involved in anything. I literally went to class and went back home. I would see that really cool events would be going on, but I always thought, "they have events going on all the time, I can get involved later", not realizing that I was missing out on so much!  

At the beginning of my second semester (Spring '12), I decided that I wanted to be more involved on campus. After praying about it, the opportunity for me to apply for a job in the Student Activities Office popped up! Jumping at the opportunity, I applied and was hired to work Tuesdays and Thursdays. On these days you can find me doing a wide range of things. I change table tents, assist and help clean up CAC events, tidy up the office, and I’m also a part of Miami Hamilton’s Condom Campaign. Overall I do whatever Jen needs me to do, and I look forward to what the job may bring. Since I started working as a Student Activities Assistant I have met so many people. Looking back at my first semester I see that I was missing out on so many opportunities to have fun, learn something new, and meet new people. If you are interested in and looking for any of these things I highly recommend that you get involved! 

Spring Fling

We're planning Spring Fling!

What is Spring Fling?  
Spring Fling is an end-of-the-year celebration / picnic / carnival.  It's hosted in April every year, and various student organizations, departments, and offices set up booths with activities and prizes.

What kind of booths and activities?
They vary from typical carnival-type activities like the lollipop pull and ring toss, to crazy inventive stuff like Plinko, a Petting Zoo, Coffee Bean Smelling, and all sorts of crazy stuff.

Where is it? 
It's typically hosted outside on the campus lawn, but we have Wilks Conference Center reserved as a backup in case of inclement weather.

Can I see a picture?  
Why yes, you can!  Here are some from the past few years:

This one is "my" table, or the table for the Office of Student Activities from last year when we had to move the festival indoors.  We always have a prize wheel for students to win stuff just for participating.

A group of Athletics folks posing:

Tammy Lane and I kissing a llama.  Just another day in the life of a Student Activities Director.

We even had Mary Kay attend last year!

This one is from 2010, when it was nice enough to host outside:

The theme and time will be announced soon, so stay tuned!

Student Highlight: Emily Stephenson

Welcome to a new(ish) series highlighting Miami Hamilton students!  A couple times a month, I'll invite an MUH student to tell you a little bit about themselves and how they got involved in Student Activities and/or Orientation, and sometimes about their unique experiences (e.g. Jeff Gambrell's post about his trip to Haiti).  I highlighted my Student Coordinators for Orientation last summer in this post.  

It only seemed fitting to ask my longtime Student Worker, Emily Stephenson, to write the first student highlight post!  You've already seen her name quite a bit, but here is her story on how she got involved in Student Activities and Orientation:

Hi, my name is Emily Stephenson. I've appeared in several past posts, including Hello World!, Paint-a-Pot, Fall Fest, Toilet Paper Art, Airbrush Tees & New OLs and Spring Orientation 2012.  I am a sophomore at Miami Hamilton and I am pursuing a degree in Liberal Arts with a concentration in Business. I started at Miami Hamilton as a freshman, right out of high school. After my orientation, I immediately knew I wanted to join Campus Activities Committee. I’m a planning-type person so I knew planning events for students on campus would be right up my alley; I was right! 

Joining Campus Activities opened up multiple opportunities for me. I applied for my first campus job in none other than the Office of Student Activities. I became a student aide and I love it. I assist Jen with a variety of things such as setting up/working for events that CAC plans. I assist students who pop in with questions about the campus or activities, organize the office (only for people to make it messy again), design/update some table tent flyers and I’m also certified to present Miami Hamilton’s Condom Campaign, which is a sexual health program on campus, and any other random thing one could think of that happens in here. It’s never quiet or dull!

The office of Student Activities is also in charge of Miami Hamilton’s Orientation program. I was fortunate to start in this program as an Orientation leader for two spring semester sessions and one summer session. As an orientation leader, we are hired and trained to present in sessions as well as a tour; Miami Hamilton to new and incoming freshman or transfer students. I took a deeper dive into the Orientation program by applying to be a Student Coordinator this year. Student Coordinators are interns for orientation. We are involved from the ground up, but mainly behind the scenes when orientation actually happens. Student Coordinators aid in the hiring process for Orientation Leaders (OLs), plan OL trainings, present those trainings, schedule office hours for OL’s, design new student handouts, revamp new student session. I specifically am designing our new OL team t shirts and coordinate the recruitment and application process for hiring Orientation Leaders, as well as keep track of their schedules this summer.

As one could see, I’m very busy when it comes to my work. It all started with a simple meeting for a student organization. I encourage every student to get involved because the possibilities really are endless!

Spring Orientation 2012!

This post is long overdue, but I think I owe you some pictures and evaluation of Spring Orientation, which was waaaaay back at the beginning of January on the 6th day of 2012.  Spring Orientation is always crazy, because our time frame for planning is much smaller than over the summer.  Here's how it goes down:

• Mid October:  I set the date for Orientation (this is easy, as it's always the same day for Spring Orientation every year - the Friday before Spring semester classes begin).  
• November:   I hire three student coordinators to work as interns for the whole year (and summer) on Orientation.  
• December12:  The student coordinators and I hire 18-20 Orientation Leaders (OLs) for Spring Orientation
• December 13-16: Frantically prepare for our first training for OLs.  There's no time!
• December 19:  We hold our first training for OLs
• December 23 - January 1:  Holiday Break!  
• January 2:  Come back to work, frantically prepare for second OL Training
• January 3:  Five hour OL training
• January 4 - 5:  Do everything else for Orientation (i.e. stuff folders, create nametags, create and update all session sheets & binders, etc. etc. etc.)
• January 6: Orientation!

It all moves very quickly and there is little to no room for breathing.  But this year we pulled it off without a hitch - Orientation was definitely a success, with about 140 students attending out of 150 students registered (which is a really good ratio, and better than normal!).

Here are some highlights from the day, which was structured very much like our Summer 2011 Orientation:

Smiling faces of Ashley, Candice & Emily at the check-in kiosk

Some new students going through the Student Involvement Fair to pick up info on how to join various student organizations

Jacqueline & Ashley's group on campus tour - looks like it must have been a sunny day with all of that squinting!

Chuck & Logan's Group (The "Legendary Avengers") posing in Jack Rhodes Study

The Spring 2012 Orientation Leaders - Aww... aren't they cute?!?

 Check out the story behind those awesome "Super OL" t-shirts here.

Airbrush Tees & New OLs

It has been waaaaaay too long since my last post.  I have no valid defense, aside from it's been VERY busy around these parts.   The past month has been filled with some new events, including Airbrush T-Shirts and Harrier Winter Gear.  Both of these events were hugely popular and we hope to bring them back next year!

Take a look at a few pictures from Airbrush T-shirts. This year we went with a different company called Anything Airbrushed and they were fantastic!  They gave us a pretty good price and provided some very cool Miami-specific designs.

Look at that line!

I also want to introduce you briefly to our new Orientation Leaders (OLs) for Spring 2012.  We had our first Orientation Leader Training for new leaders this week and we are already loving our new crew!  A couple of returning OLs also attended to brush up on information (and, let's be honest, enjoy the Chipotle lunch provided at the training) as well.  Here is the new crew (some returners are sprinkled in there as well):

Izabella, Thomas, Lance, Suzanne & Stefan.  Suzanne is one of our new Student Coordinators!  You'll meet her in a later post.

 Brian, Emily, Ali, Logan & Danny.  Emily is another Student Coordinator.

Lea, Ashley, Chuck, Alex & Rashad.   Lea is also a new Student Coordinator.  Student Coordinator post will be coming soon!

Our next Orientation Leader Training is in January, and I'll be sure to post pictures when that goes down.  Enjoy the holidays everyone, and see you in 2012!

NACA, Casino Night, & Buttons

Yikes, I owe you an update!  It's been almost two weeks since I last posted, but in my defense it has been a CRAZY two weeks.  Which brings me to my first point:  NACA!

NACA stands for the National Association of Campus Activities and is a professional association for professional staff and students who are involved in campus activities (i.e. what this blog is about).  I took five students to the regional "Mid-America" conference this past weekend and I have to tell you:  this ain't your momma's conference.  This conference is 9 am to midnight, constant action, constant entertainment and constant freebies!  Here is the group shot of the students and I: 

That's Jacqueline, Desiree, Nich, Shayna, Chuck and myself.  

We also met up with a couple of gals from Middletown: 

Gillian and Ashley joined us for this picture. 

The conference is basically set up into three different parts.  

1)  Breakout Sessions:  This is the learning part.  We attended presentations on recruiting members, campus activities on a budget, stress management, working with new constituents, social media, etc.  And we learned a LOT.  We make it a policy for everyone to create a summary of what we learned to take back to the group, so we can hopefully implement some of these ideas. 

2)  Showcases:  These are like humongous concerts / comedian shows / speakers / etc.  Various performers have 15 minutes each to dazzle the audience, and then hopefully the audience (all of whom works in campus activities at various colleges) will want to bring the performer back to campus for the whole student body.  We saw some amazing bands, hilarious comedians, and really touching speakers!  Here is one of the shows: 

3) Campus Marketplace:  Here is the opportunity for various vendors and agencies to wow us with their cool program ideas from airbrush winter hats to dancing head videos to Hawaiian smoothies and more.  It's usually a student favorite, and this year was no exception.  We walked away with teddy bears with our face on it, key chains with our pictures, and SO MUCH MORE!  Again, the idea is for us to learn as much as we can about these programs so that we can bring them back to our own campus.   One of the programs was all about bringing unique animals to campus.  Here's Chuck, with Mindy the monkey: 

So NACA was great, but exhausting.  Speaking of exhausting:  tomorrow is CASINO NIGHT!  

Casino Night is our very biggest program of the year.  We bring in an outside company that has all kinds of poker and other game tables AND the dealers AND a DJ.  We have amazing prizes ranging from a color printer to a webcam to a digital camcorder to DVD player and more.  This event is SERIOUS.  Tomorrow night (Thursday, November 17, 2011), 7 pm to 9:30 pm, Schwarm Commons.  Here are a few pics from last year, so you know what to expect: 

Best part?  It's FREE.  Every participant gets $50,000 in chips (ahem.  It's not real.  Come on, people.) and can gamble however they want.  Then you can turn in your chips for raffle tickets (1 ticket for every $10,000 in chips).  So actually, you could just come, get five raffle tickets, and enjoy the free food and DJ for the rest of the night without having to gamble at all.  But the idea is, the better you do gambling, the more opportunities you have to win a prize.  

And the prizes are set up so that you get to choose which prizes you'd like to try to win.   Genius!  

Last but not least, I want to tell you about an upcoming "Make & Take" event (see previous examples Toilet Paper Art and Dry Erase Boards).  This month, we are making "Button Monograms."  A monogram is basically your initial - first name or last name.  It's great for newly married people, babies, and college students!  

Here are a few of our inspiration pictures: 

Once again, I turned to my student worker Emily, to create an example Make & Take version using what we had in the office.  Here are the supplies she used:

That's a pad of scrapbook paper in the back, a hot glue gun, buttons, and scissors. She freehand drew a large "E" on an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of black cardstock, and then started going to town with hot gluing buttons. She chose fun shades of pink and some shiny jewels to accent.  

 Here is the finished product:

Slap a frame on that sucker and you're good to go!  Isn't it cute?!?   We'll be doing this event on Monday, November 21, 2011 from 12:30 pm to 2 pm in Schwarm Commons.  Stop by and make yourself one for free!