Monica Sendor

If there are any readers who still check this blog and want to know what I've been up to this year, please check out http://monicainmoscow.blogspot.com and then http://monicainsofia.blogspot.com. I have had the amazing opportunity to intern abroad in Moscow, Russia and Sofia, Bulgaria, and I have made blogs for both internships. In choosing to go abroad, however, I had to postpone graduation - but I think my experiences as an intern more than compensate! Please visit my new blogs and let me know what you think or just say hello by emailing me at monicasendor@gmail.com.

Thanks!
~Monica

Ah yes, one of the most celebrated college holidays ever. School administrators must have had a collective sigh of relief that this year's festivities took place on a Saturday and not a Wednesday or, heaven forbid, a Monday. I spent my St. Patty's day with some close friends, watched a few movies, went to see the Friar's concert at Rackham, and then went to the afterparty. I avoided doing homework all weekend, and now I face an exam and two approaching paper deadlines in the next couple of days.

Speaking of which.... have I mentioned my new found passion for Human Physiology? I love it! I've learned how the eyes, ears, heart, and now, how the lungs and kidneys work. When Prof. Rust gives out a problem set of conditions to diagnose, I can't help feeling a little like the doctors on "Grey's Anatomy" and ordering up some epinephrine - STAT! - or recommending a patient go on dialysis. Last night I spent a few hours in the Grad Library reviewing for my exam on Wednesday, and on one of my breaks, visited a fellow classmate and friend who was studying in the SE stacks. As I walked to where she was amidst the rows of journals and books, I walked alongside tiny room after tiny room, occupied with students writing papers, reading thick textbooks, or just napping on top of a stack of notebooks and coursepacks, their highlighter uncapped and still in their hand. And its not even finals yet!

So now that I have caught everyone up on how I got here... let me snap you to the present time and the second semester of my Junior year here at U of M. I am currently taking 14 credits (I started out the semester with 17 but quickly determined that was too much and dropped a class), including a Senior Honors Seminar, 3rd Year Polish language, Political Science of Eastern Europe, and Human Physiology. I work around 20 hours a week at two jobs (down from the three I had last semester) . I am currently rehearsing for a musical my church youth group is doing, sing in the Newman Choir at St. Mary's Student Parish, coordinate readers at the aforementioned church, and am also a Sunday School teacher. So in between reading articles for my seminar, studying political parties of inter-war period Eastern Europe, and learning about parts of the human body, I find time to sleep, watch one or two of my favorite TV shows, exercise, eat (usually on the go) and update this blog. ;)

It's hard finding a balance between all these things. For example - last night I went to bed early (around 11p) and woke up feeling refreshed and more awake than I have in the past month, but I forgot to do my Polish homework. I always have a to-do list of assignments and meetings that is never cleared, because for each item I check off, another springs up to take its place.

... and I am already sick. Everyone is coming down with something - I think flu season at the UofM has begun. Above my bed I have an article on "12 ways to fight off colds, flu" and I think I have followed maybe two of the twelve rules (which may explain my failing health). I have included them for your viewing pleasure:
1. Drink water
2. Reduce stress
3. Develop a more positive mental outlook
4. Do something soothing
5. Choose a good source of protien
6. Get some exercise
7. Don't smoke
8. Get your daily vitamin C
9. Wash your hands
10. Get the flu vaccine
11. Get some sleep
12. Laugh more

I wish I could say that I have been a Michigan fan from birth, that my first words were "Hail to the Victors", and that I only applied to U of M my senior year of high school. However, I can say that I made one of the hardest, but the best decisions of my life in choosing to come to Ann Arbor.

So what drew me to Michigan?

First of all, it was the biggest and the best state school in Michigan. In-state tuition was definitely a plus to my parents when they compared U of M to the other private colleges I applied to that had $40,000 + price tags a year. Ann Arbor is 2.5 hours from my hometown, so it was both far enough for me to feel independent and yet close enough to home that I could come home if I needed to without too much of a hassle. My biggest reason for going to Michigan was their Biology program. I initially was a biology major when I applied to college, and Michigan had the best programs in Biology and the sciences. I looked for programs similar to UROP (Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program) on other campuses without much success. And I knew that U of M's Medical School was top-notch, so I would have many great opportunities to volunteer and maybe do research under leaders in the field.

I also knew that I could make a big school smaller but I couldn't make a small school bigger. I needed snow and four distinguishable seasons. When I visited campus, I really liked how it was nestled in Ann Arbor and how close campus buildings were to each other (as opposed to the campuses I visited that felt very spread-out like MSU and Duke and even Notre Dame). U of M touted Diversity with a capital D, so I knew that most of my peers would come from very different walks of life - adding to the "out of classroom" learning experience.

What made me hesitant about going to the University of Michigan?

The University of Michigan was the only in-state school I applied to, and I hate to admit it, but it was my "safety school." I heard back from Michigan first, in November, and was excited at my first acceptance but also relieved that I had gotten in. I set my admissions from Michigan aside and focused on getting into my reach school, Harvard. In the course of the next couple of months I frantically checked my mailbox each day for thick envelopes from the other schools I had applied to - Notre Dame, Duke, Northwestern, MIT, and University of Washington, St. Louis.

Around February I filled out the FAFSA and in March started receiving financial aid offers from the schools I had been accepted to. To mine and my parents' surprise, the University of Michigan, an instate public school, had the worst percentage of grants, loans, and work-study making up its offer. Private institutions, such as Notre Dame (which had the best offer, by the way) have more money through endowments and less financial dependency on the government, which allow them to offer larger grants and need-based scholarships than a public institutions.

As the oldest of five kids in my family, I knew that my parents would help as much as they could in paying for college, but in the end, I would carry most of the load on my shoulders. In addition to applying for college I searched scholarship sites like fastweb.com and frequently visited my guidance counselor's office for local scholarship applications. When I remember the hours I put in writing essays and filling out my contact information for the 5oth time, I am amazed that I had the fun senior year that I did. I also am very grateful and oh so thankful to all the teachers that wrote recommendation letters and filled out those pesky recommendation forms. And of course, I wouldn't have received any scholarships if it wasn't for the guidance department's faithful sending out of my transcripts and recommendation letters. I have no idea how many times they had to send out my test scores and transcript, but it was A LOT. Thank you.

Anyways, Michigan dropped to the bottom of my list as the May 1st notification deadline approached. Then, during the last week of April, my parents and I sat down with the admit packets, the financial aid offers, and lots of notes scribbled during our campus visits. We spent hours crunching numbers, debating about a schools reputation, looking at programs offered, and listing pros/cons of attending each school. It was very frustrating and exhausting. At one point I broke down and started crying while my dad complained that I had applied to too many schools.

"In Poland," he told me, "You only got accepted to one school and into only one program. There was no "undecided" students in college. You went to a technical school and then went on to find a job in that field. You went to pre-med school and then medical school. You went to teacher school and became a teacher." To my parents, who had not been educated in America, but rather in communist Poland, the freedom to choose was very foreign to them. I had to explain and re-explain every decision I made throughout the college application process because of their unfamiliarity with the system in America. And sometimes I misunderstood things, but I was always looking ahead, learning as much as I could about the process so I could then teach it to my parents, be a guide for my siblings, and get myself into a good program at a good school.

I still remember that night that I made my decision. It was the last Monday in April, and the debate was approaching its seventh hour. I had ruled out Duke because of the distance, all but ruled out Northwestern's engineering program, and was holding Notre Dame's letter in one hand and Michigan's letter in the other. I had been waitlisted at my three other schools, which I had ruled out early in the evening. My mother was looking over both school's financial aid offers, my father was on my computer looking up programs, and I was sitting on the floor, holding the letters. I said a little prayer, closed my eyes, and imagined myself on each campus. I imagined what kind of students I would be interacting with and the opportunities I would have. I thought about all I knew about each school and how each school could prepare me for my future.

"Mom, Dad, I am going to Michigan."

Both parents asked if I was sure. I hesitated a little, my thoughts returning to the beautiful Notre Dame campus, the catholic education, the best financial aid package, Touchdown Jesus and South Bend, Indiana. But then I thought about the highly rated biology department at UofM, my acceptance into the Honors program, the Big House, the UROP program, and Ann Arbor, and I knew. My mother, who was a little biased towards Notre Dame, told me to sleep on my decision and then mail it out the following morning. My dad got the checkbook and wrote out the $200 nonrefundable deposit. I crawled into bed that night still thinking about my decision.

And that, my friends, is the story of why I chose to come to the University of Michigan. In the end, it was the promise of the Honors college to make the big university smaller (and the inability to make a small university bigger), it was the promise of diversity at the University of Michigan, it was the promise of scientific discovery in the newly built Life Sciences buildings, the rich traditions of the "M" and Football Saturdays and campus life I had heard about on my campus tour, it was the nearly 400,000 living alumni working throughout the world and in outer space, and it was the promise of a "Michigan Education" that helped me decide. I knew that I would work and study hard to become successful no matter where I went, but in the end, I felt that the University of Michigan was the school I wanted to call my alma mater.

Hi everyone! My name is Monica and I am currently a third year student in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. I am working on a double major in Russian and Eastern European Studies (REES) and Psychology. I ultimately want to study cross-cultural psychology and help create public policy that focuses on bringing health services to immigrant and refugee populations. My future plans include getting a Masters Degree from the School of Public Health and then going to the University of Michigan Medical School because I love Ann Arbor so much.

So what do I do when I am not in lecture?

My first year, fall semester I participated in Michigan Pops Orchestra and performed in the Pops Goes West Concert at the Michigan Theater. Winter semester freshman year I auditioned for the Rude Mechanicals student-run theater group and performed in “Murder in the Cathedral” at the Mendelsohn Theater in the Michigan League. This year I have three jobs on campus: I work in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions as a student services assistant in the General Calls area answering phones and as a campus tour guide for visiting prospective students and their families. I am a Building Manager at the Michigan League. I am also a student services assistant at the Center for Russian and Eastern European Studies. This year I am one of the Reader Coordinators at St. Mary’s Student Parish in addition to sharing my talents as a musician, Newman choir member, and Sunday School teacher. I play intramural sports with my friends – soccer, broomball, wallyball, and tennis. I am a BIG Michigan Football fan and I attended my first away game this year at Notre Dame - it was AMAZING!!! This year my friends and I have great seats at the Big House - you can find us behind the Tuba section of the Michigan Marching Band.

What did I do this summer?

This summer I spent nine weeks studying abroad in Poland to improve my language skills and do preliminary research for an Honors thesis in REES - Russian and Eastern European Studies. Supported by a CRIF grant from the Center for Russian and Eastern European Studies, I was able to survey current hot topics in Poland, Eastern Europe, and the European Union, while polishing my language skills at the Jagiellonian University's Summer Program. I also had a chance to visit my family - all my relatives live in Poland - and even traveled outside the country to Budapest, Hungary and to the Czech Republic.

I hope to keep blogging regularly throughout the school year, so feel free to leave comments or questions. My next post will answer the question: Why did I chose the University of Michigan?

Thanks for stopping by! GO BLUE!