National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR)

This Thursday through Saturday, UW-La Crosse is hosting the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR). This is quite an honor and the UW-L community feels privileged to have the opportunity to host such a prestigious event. The conference is bringing over 2,500 people to La Crosse with over 2,600 presentations and presenters from 298 universities and colleges from 34 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and three Canadian Provinces.

Personally, I attended four presentations today and am going to three more tomorrow. The presentations are on just about every topic from English to Mathematics to Astronomy and more. It is a great opportunity to see what other fellow undergraduate students from across North America are discovering.

CUBE WARS!!!

Cube Wars is going on right now and it is very exciting and intense!! It is a competition between the different cubes in Coate Hall. (Since the building is a made of three square towers and four floors high, Coate Hall is divided into 12 different cubes.) There are a bunch of different activities that are included in the competition. Some examples include: a cube cheer competition, trivia contest, picture scavenger hunt, iron chef for best dessert, water pong, egg hunt, a sports day, as well as penny wars throughout the entire competition with all proceeds going to the on-campus food pantry. This is something the students living in Coate Hall take very seriously. (Other halls have competitions like this as well, so don’t be worried if you aren’t going to live in Coate Hall…) We’ll just have to wait and see who wins these Cube Wars and is given the title of best cube in Coate Hall. I may be biased, but I think my cube is going to win! :)

St. Baldrick's!

This Saturday, April 4th, Coate Hall is putting on an event called St. Baldrick's with the theme "Shave to Save." The event is being held at the Recreational Eagle Center on campus from noon to 4pm and is open to the whole campus as well as the surrounding communities. St. Baldrick's is a worldwide organization where people can shave their heads or cut their hair to raise money for childhood cancer research. If someone's hair is long enough they can donate it to make wigs, but shorter hair can also be donated. Short hair is used to make mats to help clean up oil spills in the environment. In addition to the shaving and cutting, we will be having games, a raffle with really nice prizes, music, and of course fun! If you are interested in more information about this organization and/or our event, you can visit www.stbaldricks.org.

Other events going on this weekend are a Treasure Hunt sponsored by Reuter Hall and La Crosse's Largest Lightning Game. The Treasure Hunt will be all across campus and La Crosse's Largest Lightning Game is basically a series of lightning games where the winners of each game move on to the championship game for a chance to win sweet prizes. Again, there is always something fun to do at UW-L!!

Inner Beauty Pageant and 24 hour Video Games

This Saturday we are having an Inner Beauty Pageant in Coate Hall. It is starting at 1:00pm in the basement. We are having a speaker and a student who lives in Coate Hall is also performing a skit about her own inner beauty pride. All who attend will be able to make ribbons for themselves that describe what they are proud of as their inner beauty and then walk down the runway declaring their inner beauty to all. The whole program is designed to promote self expression, self awareness, and self confidence.

This weekend also includes a 24 hour Video Game Tournament. It starts at 1:00pm Friday and goes until 1:00pm on Saturday. It costs $3 to enter and all the proceeds are going to an organization that buys video games for children who are staying in hospitals. This weekend is going to be really fun and lots of people are already hyped up about the Inner Beauty Pageant and the 24 hour Video Game Tournament!

Spring Break!!!

Tomorrow is the official start of Spring Break for UW-L students!! I am excited to relax and take a break from school and all the stresses it brings. I am looking forward to catching up on some much needed sleep. This week has been pretty stressful for a lot of folks with midterms, projects, etc. all needing to be finished before break.

In the meantime, some people are scrambling to finish up their murals. A nice thing about living in the residence halls at UW-L is that you have the opportunity to paint murals on the walls in your living area. We had 6 murals that were painted in our area and they all look absolutely wonderful!! It is a really nice and unique way to leave your mark on one part of UW-L!

Vietnamese Night

Last night in Coate Hall, the Vietnamese Student Association (VSA) hosted a "Vietnamese Night" from 5-7pm. There were several displays with tons of information about Vietnam, its people, and their culture. It was a great opportunity to learn about a different culture and actually get to talk and interact with students from Vietnam that attend UW-L. I was very pleased with the large number of students that attended!

The night included traditional Vietnamese food that the VSA students prepared themselves as well as games. There was also a demonstration of the Vietnam Bamboo Dance that we all got to participate in as well! It was tons of fun! A trivia game took place and the prizes that were given out were actually items from Vietnam---this was extremely awesome! I was able to win a set of a little Vietnamese man and woman that were intricately painted magnets. Overall, the night was a great learning experience and I thoroughly enjoyed it and I think everyone else did too! :)

Fun-filled Weekend

This is sure to be a fun-filled weekend! Tonight, White Hall put on a version of "The Price is Right" for the whole campus. It was structured just like the real show and there were tons of sweet prizes. Over half of the people who attended were able to walk away with a prize!

Tomorrow night, Coate Hall is holding a "Connect 4" Tournament in the basement. There will be a normal game bracket as well as a trivia style version of the game. There are sure to be snacks and prizes to go around. Then on Saturday night, Coate Hall will be having a showing of the movie "Wall-E" followed by a discussion about the social and political underlying themes that the movie presents. There will also be organic snacks and 'regular-ganic' drinks provided.

Also on Saturday, a Dodgeball Tournament is being put on by UW-L's Habitat for Humanity chapter on Saturday in Mitchell Hall. The money raised from the event will go towards the chapter's spring break service trip to Alabama. Again, always something fun to do at UW-L! :)