The Global Housing at Saint Michael’s College

There are many different types of living options at Saint Michael’s College. We have regular dormitories, suites, apartments and townhouses. Students elect their preferred room based on their lottery in April. In addition, there are also some factors influencing students getting a lottery with a good or bad number.

(Yellow=Dormitory, Orange=Suite, Black=Apartment, Blue=Townhouse)

The first one is what year a student is. If you are a rising senior, you will definitely have the preferential right to choose your lottery, then juniors and sophomores. The next factor is your GPA, because the higher GPA you have, the better lottery number lottery you can get. I think this is a very fair way to determine what kind of housing you will receive. Because every student has the same right in the school, the only way to determine who has more privilege is dependent on their academic performance.

(My suite's lounge-GEAR housing)

However, for international students, there is a different choice. Because our college really cares and wants to improve national students’ competency, our college has created a program called GEAR (Global Experience Academic Residential Program) in a suites hall. This is a housing especially for international students, as well as American students who want to hang out with international students.

(Indian Food)

(Japanese Night)

(Saudi Arabian Kebab)

The biggest difference between GEAR housing and other housing is that each suite in GEAR has to create an event for its floor, and invite anyone and everyone to come. The event can be any activity, but the school mainly wants residents to bring more cultural events from different countries. Why? Because it is very important to let the students know how important understanding different countries’ cultures, languages and even economics are in modern times.

(Bowling Night)

For example, my suite created a bowling night because most of our events were held in the building. But this time, I want to bring my residents off campus to go outside the school. I booked two 12 seat school vans for my event, but more than 24 residents came to join us. This proved a very successful event because everyone was bowling until around midnight! We had a blast!

(Bowling Night)

In general, I have seen many fun activities in our international suite - such as Saudi Arabian students cooking kebab, Indian dance, Japanese night, Chinese dumplings, and carving pumpkins. In addition, every international student is not an English native speaker, so studying in the U.S can sometimes be stressful. In order to help international students to relax mentally, our school also prepares a meditation trainer for international students every Tuesday night!  It is not usual to see A university creating such a cool international housing experience, and preparing so many valuable events for international students on a small campus, but Saint Michael’s College does it. As an RA and a resident in GEAR housing, I can feel our school pays a lot of attention and energy to international students and our daily needs. This is what makes Saint Michael’s College special.

(Bowling Night-GEAR Residents)

Hiking the ‘Beast of the East”– Chinese Students Take to the Vermont Mountains to Experience The “Red Sea”

(Mountain Day During High School in 2010)

I had hiked a few times since I came to the U.S. The first time was during high school. In my high school, we always had one random day off during the week in October for hiking. My school always did not tell us which day is our Mountain Day because they wanted to give students a surprise and encourage everybody to go hiking. The interesting thing was that if anyone of us was trying to skip the Mountain Day for a day off, we had to prove certain reasons; otherwise, we might get an absence if we did not go hiking.

 

(Snow Mountain Hiking in Seattle in 2010)

(Snow Mountain Hiking in Seattle in 2010)

(Snow Mountain Hiking in Seattle in 2010)

(Snow Mountain Hiking in Seattle in 2010)

Unfortunately, I did not make it to the top for the first time because I ran out of times and I did not have any experience hiking in the U.S. Hiking in the U.S is a little different from China since there are no stairs in mountains here. What we had are just some directions and a not very obvious trail. I regretted that I could not make it to the top, but I promised myself that I must make it to the top next year.

After my second time hiking with my school, my perspective of hiking was completely changed. The moment that I could see the landscape on the top just made me feel wonderful. I was telling myself that the hike was really worth it even though the trail was long and hard. 

(Hiking Mansfield Mountain in 2013)

(Hiking Mansfield Mountain in 2013)

(Hiking Mansfield Mountain in 2013)

(Hiking Mansfield Mountain in 2013)

(Hiking Mansfield Mountain in 2013)

(Hiking Mansfield Mountain in 2013)

After I moved to Vermont, I got much more excited for hiking, because here are numerous mountains we can hike. The first mountain that I hiked is the most challenging one in Vermont, and that is Mansfield Mountain, the highest mountain in the state. There were two trails I could choose; one is more steep, dangerous but short, and another one is easier but much longer. I chose the dangerous one because I wanted to challenge and remind myself why I could not make it to the top for the first time! 

(Hiking Killington Peak in 2015)

As I had mentioned in my previous blog, most Vermonter and visitors go hiking in the fall season in Vermont because of the “red sea.” The fall season in Vermont is just like the Garden of Eden, a realm of paradise that is almost gone in human minds. So I still go hiking this year, I want to go back and look for the paradise again.

(Hiking Killington Peak in 2015)

(Hiking Killington Peak in 2015)

This time we chose another mountain in Vermont. It is call Killington Peak, which is about 90 miles away from the campus. This place is more like a tourism area because Killington Peak is the highest ski area in Vermont and has the most vertical drop of any ski mountain in the New England area. It's nickname is also “the Beast of the East.” So the mountain that we hiked is also prime for skiing in the winter.

(Hiking Killington Peak in 2015)

(Hiking Killington Peak in 2015)

There are many trails that we could choose to hike the mountain, and the destinations are the same spot on the peak. Since we had some hikers in our group who do not have enough experience for hiking, we choose the second most difficult trail. Same as Mansfield Mountain –- the easier the trail, the longer the distance. However, the second most difficult trail in Killington Peak is so much easier than any mountain I hiked in the country. It is probably why this is a tourism area and a professional ski area which is not designed for hiking. 

(Hiking Killington Peak in 2015)

(Hiking Killington Peak in 2015)

However, the Vermont landscape has not changed. It is still as gorgeous as usual, with breathtaking views. After we got the destination, there is a huge restaurant on the top. Around the restaurant, it is surrounded by glass, so people can eat while they watch the landscape. The difference from hiking Mansfield is that we can see the landscape anywhere before we reach the top and there is no restaurant on the top of Mansfield; everyone had picnics on the rocks on Mansfield. For me, hiking Killington Peak is more like walking in the Garden of Eden, but Mansfield is more adventurous. No matter where you hike in Vermont, it is always awesome hiking the "red sea" during Vermont' fall!

(Hiking Killington Peak in 2015)

(Hiking Killington Peak in 2015)

Going to Saint Michael's College Is More than Just Studying!

Living on campus is always fun. Even though you may have a lot of work to do for classes at school, there are also a lot of interesting activities created by your residents assistants on weekends. Of course, these activities are all free. All of the weekend’s activities are part of school’s programs and Saint Michael's College pays for students every time.

When I was in middle school in China, we also had some school activities, but most activities that school created were same and not not creative. For example, what we had were all about “class talents show” or “sport games” once a year, and the school did not provide budget to students’ leader to create more programs for students.

At Saint Michael’s College, whenever the weekend is closer, the RAs who will be on duty for weekend will have a meeting about what kind of programs they want create for school’s residents. I was one of the RAs in that meeting, and I think we had a really creative and fantastic idea for students this weekend. What we did is to cut male students’ hair, braid female students’ hair, diy hair and make different conditioners.

In our meeting, one of our RAs mentioned that he knows how to cut hair and he wants to teach other students because getting a haircut from barber shop can be expensive for some college students. It usually costs 25 dollars, and plus tips, it would be close to 30 dollars. However, buying an electric clipper from Amazon is only 20 dollars. Once students learn the skills, they do not have to spend couple hours to go to downtown to get a haircut instead of cut it by themselves.

As usual, we did our program in school’s student center on Saturday night. It was super successful because we cut and braid a lot of residents’ hair and more than 100 people came to our program. For this program, school paid all three new electric clippers, conditioner’s materials, hair chalk and foods. In addition, we did not hire any professional people from outside the school to cut and braid hair, but they were all RA volunteers.

When this program was almost finished, there were also some Chinese students came. They did not get a haircut because they thought it was a little funny to get a haircut from another student. But there was a Chinese girl to make conditioner for herself. I saw them and talked to them later, they said they had never seen students cutting hair at school and making conditioner by themselves. They stayed around and watched other students getting haircut for 30 minutes and then left. Obviously, they were absorbed by this program even though they did not get a haircut.

At Saint Michael’s College, we have programs on Friday and Saturday nights every week, and our goal is to get more and more residents engaged in school’s programs. Going to Saint Michael's College is about more than studying because we host many great activities every week. In addition, we would love to see more and more international students come and join us because this is also a good opportunity to hang out with American students and learn some local cultures. To be honest, I am one of RAs on our campus, and I have also learned a lot of new things about American cultures from our programs that I did not know before.

What Can You Do If You Come to Vermont?

I have traveled to many states in the U.S. when I was in high school, but most places that I have been to are in southern parts of Massachusetts. Because Massachusetts is very cold during winter, I usually planned to go somewhere warm for my breaks. Before I decided to come to Vermont for college, the only thing I know about Vermont is this: Vermont is a very safe, quiet and cold place where many teenagers do not like live in.

I am originally from Tianjin (Tientsin), the fifth largest city with a population of 15 million people in China. For me, especially a kid growing up in an urban area, Vermont could be a boring place. During the summer before college started, I inadvertently looked at a book - 100 of the Most Beautiful Places around the World - that I bought when I was in middle school. When I was turning the pages, I was surprised that I saw a very familiar name on the catalog, and that name is Vermont. I did not realize that Vermont was considered as one of most beautiful places around the world until I saw its name in this book by accident. I did not pay attention to this name when I was young, because I did not even know where Vermont is.

Because Vermont is called “the Green Mountain” state, there are a lot of mountains which people can hike any time. The book used positive language and friendly evaluation to describe Vermont during the fall season. The book says that you do not know how gorgeous the fall season is if you do not come to Vermont. Vermont has the most beautiful autumn around the world - it is going to be a scene of “red sea” in late October. I have hiked a few times in Vermont, and this is the picture that I photographed during this summer. I am also going to hike again in October, so I will show you some pictures of late fall in Vermont in next blog.

After I studied in Vermont for two years, Vermont somehow changed my personal perspectives of living in a suburban area. I realized that I was wrong to describe Vermont is a boring for many teenagers. Actually, Vermont truly has a lot of exciting places for younger adults to explore after they come. For example, hiking different mountains, kayaking, skiing, swimming in rivers, cliff jumping and more! These are the outdoor activities that many American teenagers were doing when they were younger. I grew up in a city, where I did not even have a chance to do this. When I saw my American friends doing these activities, I was a little afraid to do because I did not have any experience.

As I mentioned in my last blog, I started to love Vermont because here are a lot of things that I could not often do in China. This is also a great opportunity for most urban kids to exercise themselves and have a different experience of living in the U.S. Most Chinese students who come to the U.S for studying mainly grew up in an urban place. If they still choose a big city for studying like New York, Chicago, Atlanta and etc, they might experience the same things that they experienced in China before, and they will not have as many as opportunities of outdoor activities that students have in Vermont. Having a unique experience is very important for students. As soon as they learned the skills, the students are going to benefit a lot in future.

Last but not least, if the Five Great Lakes are considered as the largest freshwater lake in the U.S, a giant lake located in Vermont, Lake Champlain, is the sixth largest freshwater lake in the country. Its catchment area is more than 8000 sq mi. Tons of people come to Vermont to visit because of this lake. People come to Vermont in summer for camping, fishing and many water activities. In fall, 99% of Vermonters would hike a mountain in Vermont for the “red sea.” During winter time, Vermont is probably the best area for American people to ski in Northeast in the U.S.; not even American people, Vermont also has a lot of international visitors coming here to ski from Europe. Vermont is a great place for Chinese student to study because the beauty of Vermont gives students a natural power. Most people who had been here usually said Vermont is the place where they mostly want to come back and visit again. In the movie, which won Academy Awards, Forrest Gump, Forrest ran from Atlantic to Pacific Ocean after he lost Jenny, and he ran through a small town with bright red leaves. Probably a lot of people did not know that scene was shot in Vermont. There is no place to catch a better sight of autumn than Vermont.