Commencement 101

Well, there's no turning back now.

The Office of Student Activities has made the commencement website live! If you check it out, you'll find all the details you'll need to make graduation day on May 13 a breeze.

Seniors have a list of tasks to complete in order to walk at graduation that includes filling out the intent to graduate form, picking up their five free commencement announcements (available April 3), pre-ordering caps and gowns, and last but not least, finishing everything for your courses.

The commencement speaker will be Congressman Barney Frank. More information about him is also available on the commencement website. You'll also find information about hotel arrangements in the area, which should be a top priority, as hotels fill up quickly in the Boston area this time of year.

If you have any questions, give OSA a call at (617)-243-2475. You can also e-mail questions to studentactivities@lasell.edu

Spring Break: The Final Tour

Greetings from St. Petersburg, Florida!

As (my last) spring break draws to a close, my shoulders, forearms and cheeks are red, and the pages of my scorebook are filling up rapidly. That's because, for likely the last time for a while, I'm touring the Grapefruit League in Florida. I've been taking in spring training games featuring the likes of the Red Sox, Baltimore Orioles, Toronto Blue Jays and Atlanta Braves (to name a few).

I'll be returning to Boston late tomorrow night with my sights set firmly on commencement and (sigh), the real world that awaits myself and my fellow seniors following that ceremony.

But, I'm not worrying about that right now. Instead, I'm focusing on taking in my last Grapefruit League game. I just settled in at my hotel in St. Pete, a place which is special to me for an entirely different reason.

The trip included a visit to Boston's new spring training complex in Ft. Myers. After a game at jetBlue Park and a few hours watching major league drills on the practice fields, it has my stamp of approval.

I've been fortunate enough to have my Dad with me in the Florida sun each of the last five springs. This year is different in a lot of ways, though. This week has been his first as a retired man, with little to worry about other than helping me keep up with a flurry of defensive replacements and pitching changes.

At the same time, I've got a mountain of projects and tasks that await me when I return to Boston, not the least of which is preparing to go to work after graduation. With the job the I hope to get after graduation, I likely won't have a free week in the middle of spring to trek down to Florida for exhibition baseball.

Last May in St. Pete, I made nearly a dozen lifelong friends who all share a passion for journalism and are at similar junctures in life. Even though I've been coming to this area for a half-decade now, it's somewhat strange being in St. Pete without any of them. But, it serves as a reminder just the same of how lucky I am to have friends that I can relate to at this point in life, and talk to about ways to best set myself up for success.

Seniors, do you have any spring break traditions that you'll be bidding farewell to this May? Do you have any peers in your field that you can turn to for advice as you prepare to graduate?

Underclassmen, what did you do for break?

I'll be back next week with a commencement primer. For now, I'm focused on the Tampa Bay Rays and the Blue Jays.

Relay for Life at Lasell: Teams and individuals exceeding their goals

Relay for Life at Lasell will be taking place on the night of March 30th in de Witt Hall. In anticipation of the event, 99 members of the Lasell community have split into 20 teams, all with the goal of raising money for the American Cancer Society.

Several Lasell sports teams have formed relay teams, including the cross country, rugby, lacrosse and women's volleyball teams. In addition to student-athletes, multiple campus organizations, like CAB, Hope for Humanity, and SGA have joined the effort that has raised over $7,000 so far!

The top teams are Dennis' Menaces ($3,880), Brady's Bunch ($1,345), and Lasell Women's Soccer ($700).

The event is an overnight relay race, running from 7 P.M. on the 30th until 7 A.M. on the 31st. During that time, teams are asked to have at least one representative on the course at all times, showing support for cancer awareness and research.

The individual and team leader boards have some tremendous figures that still have room to grow with more than three weeks remaining until the event. Students Erin Norton ($2,355), Ryan Brady ($655) and James Hooper-Hamersley ($620) are at the top of the individual leader board. They've each exceeded their personal goals, with Norton surpassing hers by over $1,000.

Participants raise money through individual pages, and many of them compete in honor of loved ones who have been affected by cancer. If you'd like to donate, visit the Lasell's Relay for Life page, and choose a person you'd like to donate to. It's also not too late to start a team of your own or join an existing one.