Aaron Pereira

apereir2@bryant.edu

Major: Accounting

Student Arts and Speakers Series

May 1st, 2013

Hey Everyone,

I cannot believe that classes are already coming to an end. We have had such a fast semester here at Bryant. It is hard to believe that I will be a senior in less than two weeks. Although things are winding down, there are still many banquets and meetings still going occurring. One organization which I had applied for this year was to be on the Student Arts and Speakers Series (SASS for short) I just received confirmation that I was selected to be on the committee on Monday along with 6 other individuals. I am extremely excited to be a art of this group next year.

SASS's mission is to educate the campus with speakers and arts events. Some examples of things they have brought to campus are ICE-T as a speaker this fall, along with off campus trips to see Blue Man group and Green Day's American Idiot Play. I have a picture of when ICE-T came with his co start from Law and Order SVU below.

 

These events are extremely important because they educate the campus on many different aspects of life and society. A lot of people may say that Bryant is a business school, but with our strong liberal arts program and organizations similar to SASS the campus is very aware of a variety of aspects. I am going to be very excited to blog about all the events we plan next year!

I wish you all the best of luck with your senior year! And don't forget to make your deposit to Bryant today! You won't regret it.

Until next week!

Aaron

Omicron Delta Kappa

April 25th, 2013

Hey Everyone,

I hope you are all enjoying the nice weather we have been having! The weather at Bryant has been awesome the past few days and if you check out my older blog you can see what the campus looked like a few weeks back!

Today I want to talk to you about Omicron Delta Kappa. You may think fraternity, which it is, but in actuality it is an honors society. I would compare it to the National Honors Society(NHS) that many high schools have if you are a little confused by it. In order to be eligible you must be in the top 15% of your class and then apply. Once you receive the application saying you are eligible, you can apply. Then the wait begins. So this fall I was told that I was invited to join, and was inducted this past Sunday! You can check out a photo of me and my parents below.

Omicron Delta Kappa or ODK for short is an organization which many student leaders are a part of. In order to maintain membership you must take part in a community service event each semester. I love community service so this is definitely something which made me apply. ODK also runs programs throughout the year. They host a debate each semester and usually bring students from Cambridge onto campus to talk about particular areas which interest the student body.  What is really cool is that students in ODK can actually debate with or against the students from Cambridge. Pretty cool right?

All in all this is a great opportunity that students can take part in. As I said previously, I was inducted this past weekend during a formal ceremony which my parents were invited to attend. It was great being able to see them and be recognized for the hard work I do at Bryant.

Enjoy the weather and good luck making a college decision!!

If you ever have questions please send me an email at Apereir2@bryant.edu

Aaron

Linked Through Leadership

April 17th, 2013

Hey Everyone,

I want to talk to you all about the Leadership Program I took part in this weekend. Bryant has a Leadership Development program called Linked through Leadership.  This program consists of a LEARN, LEAD, and CHANGE model. There is one weekend experience and also one weekly institute. As a Bryant student I have gained so much help from this program. I have completed all three weekend experiences and the LEARN institute.  These have taught me a great deal of information of myself and my leadership style. I strongly encourage all students to get involved in leadership development programs.

This past weekend I actually got a chance to serve as one of the 8 coordinators for the LEARN weekend. I was able to make connections and help 20 Bryant students discover more about themselves and their leadership methods. Below you can see pictures of all of us, and below that is one of all the coordinators. Although I cannot get into the specifics about the weekend, it contains many helpful sessions and programs that allow for students to really gain knowledge. The weekend is held off campus and is paid for by Bryant. The off campus part is definitely one of my favorite parts. It truly allows for the students to immerse themselves in the weekend experience.

 

(All of the participants and Coordinators)

I am so sad the weekend is over, but I really hope to be a part of it again next year and help more students LEARN about themselves.

With Warm Weather come Bryant Students

April 10th, 2013

Hey Everyone,

I hope you had a great time at Open House if you were able to attend! It was great to share my experiences with all of you throughout the entire day. Anyways I wanted to take this blog to just talk about Spring at Bryant. I took some pictures yesterday of the campus and hope you find them just as amazing as I do. One of the factors that made me really like Bryant was the campus. Regardless of the time of year, I would say that Bryant has one of the nicest campuses in the world.

When the weather gets nice at Bryant you would think that the campus is a resort and not a campus. Students are always around campus sunbathing, playing Frisbee, Kanjam, and many other activities. It is really nice that so much of the campus goes outside when the weather is nice. The sense of community is huge! It is so easy to join a pickup basketball or volleyball game. Many Resident Assistant also program with the nice weather. They have barbecues and games for students to partake in,

Below is a picture of campus from yesterday! A little before classes were over, but later the amount of students around were huge!

 

Looks great right?? Hopefully the weather will stay nice and we can do this for the rest of the semester. Especially for spring weekend! I mentioned it in my earlier blog, but it's a huge weekend of programming for the students. The main attraction is always the concert. This year we have TImeflies Tuesday, Kap Slap, and New Boyz. It will be a great show. I already picked up my free ticket!

I hope you all are getting to enjoy the weather!!!

Aaron

The April Hustle

April 3rd, 2013

Hey Everyone,

I hope you all are doing well! Everything at Bryant is in full swing. It seems when April comes around that things just get crazy. Group projects, exams, and extra-curricular activities are taking up all of my time; however, I would have it no other way. As I've mentioned before, I always enjoy being busy and boy have I been busy. With Open House coming up my job as the Coordinator for our Student Ambassador Program is very time consuming. I am in charge of making sure we have Ambassadors available at the events on campus throughout the year, but more especially on Open House. An Ambassador is a Bryant student who gives tours and volunteers for events catered to prospective students. With Scholarship Dinner and Open House coming up, the office has been very busy. Although it is very busy, I love this time of year. Open House is one of my favorite events because it brings me back to when I was visiting Bryant. I love talking to the admitted students and trying to answer any questions they have. Bryant is such an amazing community and I want everyone to have the opportunity to experience it. That is the work side of things right now.

Along with Work I have had two exams to study for and course registration tomorrow. If you want to learn about registering for classes and that process, my fellow blogger, Emily Spencer, wrote about it a few weeks ago. Although I have registered so many times before, this is the last time I will register for fall classes. Yeah, that's right. I am going to be a senior. I cannot believe it. The good news is that I only need to take 8 more classes to graduate. Therefore, I will only have 4 classes to take each semester.  I am beyond excited. This worked out because I came into Bryant with some AP credit and it allowed me to stay ahead. Hopefully you will be allowed to have something similar happen to you.

Want to hear even better news? I will be talking to you guys a little bit at Open House! If you come late and miss the opening, don't worry you can still find me. I will be in charge of tours that day. So if you have any questions ask a Student Ambassador to take you to Papitto and I will be there all day! OR you can ask the ambassador to answer your questions too!

I hope to see you this weekend!

Aaron

Exploring your Options!

March 27th, 2013

Hey Everyone,

I wanted to write about one of my courses I am currently enrolled in this semester. Before I get into it I want to tell you a little bit about the Bryant curriculum. At Bryant you do not have to decide what your major is until the end of the sophomore year. Why is this a good thing when you may know exactly what you want to do? I will tell you why! I was in that same boat. I came to Bryant thinking I was going to be an actuary, and had my mind set. Well, after changing my major 3 times so far I can tell you I was wrong.

At Bryant you will take an introduction in a wide variety of courses before the end of sophomore year. For example, I have taken an introduction into accounting, finance, management, computer information systems, and marketing. Not only do you take business courses, but you take courses in math, economics, sociology, psychology, modern languages and so much more! All of these options really allow for you to see what you really like. Having the two years allows you to make a well-rounded decision on what you may be doing for the rest of your life.

I am currently in a course called Operations Management. This course take an in-depth look at how companies are managed efficiently and effectively. Not only are we taught in class, but the assignments we have to do are very well thought out. One assignment that I have enjoyed is a quality report. In teams of 4 we had to find a local company that produces a product and interview them. After interviewing them we have the task of writing a quality report of their company. The report includes recommendations on what they can improve upon and an evaluation of what they are doing well. My team chose a company in Providence, Rhode Island that produces chains for jewelry companies. My team went to the location and received a tour followed by an interview with the president of the company. It was a great experience to get to meet with the president of a company and we learned a lot about the functions of the company. This real world example allowed for us to gain hands on experience to talk about to employers on interviews.

I can't say this was the first course where I had an experience similar to this. Many couses at Bryant will take you outside of the classroom and your comfort zone. I have gained so much in my 3 years here so far and would not trade it for anything else!

Hopefully you all can take something away from this,

Until next time!

Aaron

Montreal

March 20th, 2013

I can't believe Spring break is already over! It was definitely one of the fastest weeks of my life so far. As I mentioned in my last post, my friends and I went to Montreal for Spring break. My friends and I headed to my house in Chicopee on Friday and stayed there until Sunday morning. Sunday morning began our adventure to Montreal. The car ride lasted around 4.5 hours and was pretty easy. I never realized how close I was to Montreal. The world really is at our fingertips and we need to do our best to take advantage of it.

Montreal reminded me a lot of Europe. French and English are the primary languages so it was very easy to get by. Below I have some pictures of the city….one even has me in it!!

The food was pretty interesting as well. There is this food called Poutine which is very popular. Poutine is French fries covered in cheese curds and gravy. Sounds weird at first, but it is actually very good! I still made sure to get some nachos though! You can check them out below as well.

Overall it was a great trip with friends. I have mentioned being a part of Greek Life at Bryant, and through my fraternity I was actually able to meet up with some of my brothers at the University of McGill in Canada. The doors that Greek life, and college for that matter, are immense and should be taken advantage of!

Until next time!

Spring Weekend Concert Reveal

March 6th, 2013

Hey Everyone,

 

I know I talked about Spring Break last week, but this week I want to tell you about something at Bryant called Spring Weekend. This weekend of events take place the last weekend of April and includes events such as Bryant's Best, a huge event that has pizza from locations from all around Rhode Island. Each student who attends then ranks the pizza they liked the best. Other events include the Radio Station's Daytime events. They usually have huge inflatables, a mechanical bull, along with some pretty cool artists. Those artist don't compare to the headliners of the Spring Weekend Concert. Every year there is a huge hype of who the artist(s) who are coming. You would not believe some of the rumors. Anyways this was just revealed on Friday. Here is a picture of the revealing!

 

They revealed the artists in the Rotunda…you would not believe the crowd of students waiting to see. Everyone gathered in the Rotunda at 11:50am and watched the unveiling at 11:55am. THen one by one they ripped off the covers of the artists. So suspenseful! I for one am pretty excited for all of the artists. You should definitely check out some of their music. For Timeflies, you should check out all of their different covers. They publish a song every Tuesday on Youtube. Now I just have to hope I will not be on duty as an Resident Assistant that Night. I just have to keep my fingers crossed!

 

Anyways, the best part about the weekend is getting to spend time with your friends. There is so much to do on campus and everyone is always outside! I cannot wait for this Spring weather.

 

Hope you all enjoyed your breaks!

 

Aaron

Almost There!

February 27th, 2013

Hey Everyone,

 

I cannot believe we are less than two weeks way from Spring Break.  In college, Spring break usually falls in March and is an awesome one week break from school. Students do everything from staying home or traveling with their friends around the world. I have some friends who are going to Cancun for the week, and although I am very jealous of their plans, I will actually be doing some traveling of my own. This break I am going to Montreal! Yeah, that is right, Montreal, Canada(see below)!

 

I am so excited to get to go to Canada. I will be traveling with 3 friends from Bryant. One of my friends is from California, so he will actually be able to travel instead of staying on campus for the break. We are planning to stay at my house for two nights and then make our road trip up to Canada. I am really looking forward to it. The reason I am sharing this with all of you is to let you guys know about how strong of friendships you can build at college. Along with all the opportunities you have. This trip actually started off as a joke with all of us, but one day we actually decided to do it. College is the time to try new things and expose you to new cultures and people. I could never have imagined going on a spontaneous trip to another country before I went to college.

 

All we have left to do is book the hotel and survive the next week and a half of class. It may not seem too hard to survive this week, but unfortunately mid-terms are upon us. Although they are not necessarily mid-terms, it is the first waves of tests we have at school. I guess the more pain the more you gain? At least that is what I tell myself.

 

Not to mention my birthday will also be while we are in Canada. I could think of no way better to celebrate my 21st birthday than with my closest friends! Anyways, I hope to see you on campus soon, and make sure to keep reading to find out all about my trip!

 

Aaron

Landing the Internship!

February 20th, 2013

Hey Everyone,

 

I hope all of you in the Northeast have been safe because of the recent winter weather…and for those of you not experiencing this weather consider yourself lucky!

Anyways, I wanted to update you on my internship search. A while back I talked about interviewing for a Financial Management program internship at Liberty Mutual. Well, I was lucky enough to get this. I am so excited for it, even though it is a financial program, it has rotations of Accounting. Let me explain: This summer I will have an accounting internship in their corporate real-estate department. If I were to decide to pursue a full time opportunity with Liberty, the program would consist of three rotations. These rotations would include one in finance, accounting, and then a personal choice. Before I get ahead of myself with the full-time job search, I get to start looking at apartments. I will be living with at least one of my friends in Boston. Although we are currently in the midst of the apartment hunt now, we have had a lot of fun looking at places where we will be spending the summer. My friend, who is also interning in Boston, goes to Bryant as well. I actually think the majority of my friends have internships, which just goes to show how helpful the Amica Career Center is.

 

 I cannot wait to finally have a place secured for the summer. It will be awesome getting to live with my friends in Boston and being so close to many students around my age. Once I find a place I will definitely be posting some pictures for you guys to look at. Anyways, I am so excited to get to interning. It's all I can think about!