COM Ambassador Blog

Kate: Boston Summer Bucket List

It’s summertime, and while most of my friends from BU and high school have returned home, I am still in Boston enjoying this amazing city in warm weather (when you actually want to get out and see it)! I am still working at COM (stop in and say hello when you get here for orientation!) and am also a New Media intern for TalentCulture, a company that focuses on the world of work through blogging and social media. It has been a fantastic experience so far and I am learning a ton! But I live by the motto “Work hard, play hard” so I made myself a Bucket List of Boston activities to do this summer! Here we go:

1. Go to the beach. If you’re from a landlocked state, you will understand how excited I was to finally live closer than 10 hours from the ocean. Castle Island, the Harbor Islands, and the North Shore have all been recommended to me and I am determined to hit the beach as many times as possible this summer.

2. Buy fresh fruit and vegetables from a Farmer’s Market. There are a TON of markets all around Boston with fresh fruit, veggies, fish, cheese, bread, and all the noms you could want. There is a HUGE one down near the North End that I could shop at all day and the SoWa market in the South End every Sunday. Yumm….

3. Watch a free show in the Common. Free Movie Fridays and Shakespeare in the Park are all highlights of summer. I’ll see you all at Toy Story 3 at the end of July! J

4. Pet sharks at the New England Aquarium. Boston has a fantastic aquarium, home to penguins, sting rays, seals, and thousands of fish. It’s a little expensive but this is a must-see for me this summer.

5. See the Chihuly Exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts. In case you didn’t know, we go to the best school in Boston- BU pays for its students to go to the MFA for free (that’s a $22 savings)! Chihuly glass is gorgeous so it should be a fabulous exhibit in addition to all the other awesome art in the MFA.

6. Hang out on the Greenway. Boston is definitely a busy and crowded city, but there is a great green space downtown called the Rose Kennedy Greenway. It’s a mile long set of parks with fountains, a carousel, and tons of events every weekend to enjoy! Oh and did I mention free Wi-Fi? At some point, I will be grabbing a big blanket and heading down there to enjoy the gorgeous weather!

7. Attend a festival. Boston is home to tons of different ethnic festivals and parades. While St. Patrick’s Day may have fallen during spring break keeping me from experiencing the Irish heritage, I refuse to miss the Italian celebration in the North End on August 6. Your fellow COM Ambassador Tom Schrank will be joining me for this one!

8. See a movie at the Coolidge Corner movie theater. Open since 1933, the Coolidge Corner Theater is a Boston landmark that shows everything from great old black and whites to intriguing indies, even that newly released romantic comedy you’re embarrassed to admit looks good. Coolidge Corner is only a 15 minute walk from campus so this may be happening more than once this summer.

9. Walk the Esplanade. The Esplanade is a great area along the Charles River. It goes right by campus and into downtown. There are boat houses, river landings to hang out on, and the Hatch Shell where they put on summer concerts. It should be much nicer now that it is not negative ten degrees outside.

10. Enjoy a Fenway Frank at a Red Sox game. A Boston classic, I couldn’t go the summer without entering Red Sox nation at least once. I’ll be decked in my Cardinals gear but hey, at least the colors are the same.

Let me know if there is anything I left off this list, I am looking for tons of fun things to do this summer! Can’t wait to see you guys this fall- BU is a blast!!

Richie: Internships through the Emma Bowen Foundation

Hey guys! I hope everyone is super excited to come to Boston this fall! You should all be proud and psyched to have gotten into the the best school at BU: COM.

I remember a huge reason I decided on COM last year was because of the security I felt I would have in finding a job after school. I’m sure many of you can relate to the fear of not finding a good job after college and as an aspiring film maker I can say that fear was ten times greater for me. I used to not be sure if I should chase my passion or just settle for a field with more jobs and better income. Yet, as I’m sure a lot of you will agree with, both COM’s film program and BU in LA program finally had me feeling comfortable with my choice in film.

Now, for all you interested in film, television, broadcast journalism, or any other media related job (which is basically anyone in COM), I highly, highly recommend applying to the Emma Bowen Foundation. If you’re looking ahead and thinking about getting a job in whatever communication related industry, then this program is definitely for you. EBF is a program dedicated to helping minorities break into the media business by setting them up with a four year internship. Students have an 8 week commitment to work for their corporate sponsor every summer that they’re in college. Some corporate sponsors even allow their interns to work throughout the year as well.

Each summer your department is changed so you can get a taste of different jobs in the industry. The benefit of having a secure internship every summer for the next few years is incredible, anyone will tell you. Also, you’ll be building a strong relationship with your company where many students earn a job afterward or, through their connections, find a job at a different company.

Oh yeah, and if you guys are curious about what companies participate in the program you can check them out here http://www.emmabowenfoundation.com/main.html. To give you and idea though, I work for Fox Television Stations, and have friends that work for HBO, NBC Universal, the YES Network, ABC, and many many more.

Some of you might be hesitant to give up eight weeks of your summer. Maybe you want to enjoy your summer, but just to remind you all, summer vacations in college are around three months so you’ll still have plenty of time to hang with friends. Plus, we all know the wisdom of working hard early in life to enjoy a comfortable, fun job, later in life. And if that doesn’t win you over, did I mention the internship is not only paid but also a scholarship program?! Now most people will tell you how insanely difficult it is to find a paid internship (even if it is only minimum wage), yet EBF has all its partnership companies give out matching funds at the end of every summer. So that basically means, if you dedicate yourself to working those 40 hour weeks for two months, not only will you have all the money you were getting paid, but the company will match your hard work! You do the math, 40 hours a week for eight weeks (getting paid $7.25) is over two grand!

Tiffany: Updates from the London Study Abroad Program

Happy summer everyone! Hope everyone is soaking up the sun and getting a nice tan.

Unfortunately, London isn’t too warm right now and the sun loves to play hide-and-seek with the clouds, while surprising everyone with a little rain here and there. But other than that, if studying abroad is of interest to you, I would definitely recommend it!

You will be surprised how much you will learn about other cultures, while also learning a lot about yourself. On one of the first days of class, my International Brand Management professor stated, “It is only after you’ve spent time abroad and are forced to not be American, will you truly understand what it means to be American because you will, again, be forced to realize and reflect on your values, customs, speech, media, and everything that used to seem so ordinary.”

I’ve only been here for 6 weeks and have already seen, learned, and experienced so much! For the past 6 weeks I took two courses, International Brand Management and European Marketing Strategies, and am just about to start the second half of the program where I will be interning at a fashion PR agency called Bryan Morel PR.

Other than coursework, I’ve been exploring London quite a bit and even traveled to Paris for a weekend (travelling within Europe is so cheap in comparison to what you would ever pay to travel from the States).

BU London is located in a really convenient area with lots to do right in our own borough of Kensington. It is in the most posh part of town, right down the street (literally a 2 minute walk) from Kensington Palace, past residence to Princess Diana, and where Prince William and Kate Duchess of Cambridge have chosen as their London home. Right next to Kensington Palace is the gorgeous Hyde Park where you can paddle boat, ride bikes, go for a run, or just sit by the pond and watch the swans. We are also located right next to all the big museums like the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Natural History Museum, and the Science Museum that are all free admission!

There is seriously and endless amount of activities to do and places to visit throughout London. Some of my favorite places so far are Hyde Park, Trafalgar Square, and Regent Street (really good shopping). Also for my fellow foodies out there, there are Portobello, Camden, Borough, and Greenwich Markets that are a foodies dream come true.

I really recommend looking into study abroad and if anybody has any questions about London in particular, I’d be happy to answer them or, pardon my shameless self-promotion, you can select me as your COM Ambassador!

Cheers from across the Atlantic!

Joe: Meeting Stephen Colbert…for Class

Joe Kain

Hey Everyone!

I hope you’re all having an awesome end to your school year, I know I did. And congratulations to those of you that have already graduated.

A few weeks ago, I had the amazing opportunity to see a live taping of The Colbert Report in New York City. As some of you may know, when you’re here at BU you will probably be taking a WR 150 class. These writing classes all test the same skills, but just have different topics. Some topics include The Devil, Environmentalism, Documentary Films, and even Stephen Colbert!

I was lucky enough to get into the class entitled “The Colbert Report: American Satire.” The class, with Professor Michael Rodriguez, studies Colbert’s unique brand of satire and how he is not only revolutionizing previously utilized styles of satire, but also creating his own unique style. It is a super fun class and I urge anyone interested in this type of thing to try and take this class, because it is NOT going to be easy to get in.

Anyways, we all got to skip out on class to take a trip to NYC. The Colbert Report interestingly films in a really random part of New York, so we didn’t have a lot of time to wander around the city before the filming. But, it didn’t really matter because we were all so amazed that we were about to see Stephen Colbert in person! For school!

The taping was everything I thought it was going to be. It was absolutely hysterical to see him in person. But, as a film and TV student, it was even more impressive to see how much goes into just one episode of the show. His team of writers comes up to him to give him a pep-talk between every commercial break, and the show’s runner is all over the place, queuing Colbert as to which camera he should be looking at.

After the taping, as a special treat for our class, Colbert stayed back and answered questions out of character. Not many people get to see Colbert out of his character, so to hear him speak so eloquently and with such intelligence as a satirist was amazing. I also felt like I had a greater understanding of the show after taking the WR 150 class.

So the lesson is take classes that you’re interested in! Never settle for any “boring” classes or classes that your friends are taking. Branch out and explore all your options here at BU. You won’t regret it.

Jason: Best Campus Dining Halls

After experiencing BU for one entire year I figured I’d sit down and write about something practical, something you guys might find useful. So here is my list of the top five residence dining halls at BU.

• West Campus- West gets my vote as the number one because of sheer variety. West campus has the most options by far and although I have never been able to say with certain that it tastes better than the food in warren, having more options allows for a better chance that you’ll find something that’s healthy and tastes good. I’m also pretty sure they always have a make-your-own quesadilla bar, which is awesome. The only downside is that for me the dining hall usually seemed more crowded than others

• Warren Towers- My home base would have gotten the number one vote except for this last month. I think whoever runs the dining in Warren Towers may have checked out a little early because the selection (and quality) of the food over the last month has not been on par with its usual high standard. Regardless, the food here is usually exceptional with plenty of choices. The desserts are so good they’ll probably kill you and the dining hall is much more spacious than West campus.

• Myles Standish Hall- Although the building itself might need some work, the dining hall is in pristine condition. There are two sides to this dining hall (separated by a hallway) One is a more lively, social setting with several flat screen TV’s and the other reserved for more intimate, quiet dining. While smaller than both West and Warren, there are usually enough options and the food is pretty good. There’s nothing really bad about the dining in Myles but I guess there’s nothing that great either. But hey, average isn’t that bad.

• Shelton- It has just about as many options as Myles, the dining hall is pretty nice, and the food was good. I’ve only eaten there once though so I don’t have much to talk about.

• The Towers- Ok, honestly, who decided to build a dining hall in a basement? As much as I love eating next two ceiling high industrial sized fans or radiators, or I don’t even know what they are, some windows would be nice, no? The choices here are fairly limited and I don’t know, I mean its not gonna kill you but there are better options than Towers.

I hope you guys find this useful. I am not endorsed by any of the five residence dining halls so my opinion of each is honest and unbiased. Stay tuned for my next piece on the top five places to eat Late Night.

Tiffany: Visiting Chef Series

This is a shout out to all my fellow foodies out there!

After many conversations with my fellow Terriers and friends that attend other universities, I have come to the conclusion that BU dining halls are arguable on the better half of college dorm food because it actually tastes good and offers a wide selection that include awesome burritos, mac and cheese, and custom sandwiches on a daily basis.

A few times a year the dining hall goes all out and has specialty nights such as soul food night, Chinese New Year night, and lobster night. However, my favorite time in the dining hall is during the guest chef series where dining services brings in chefs from well-known restaurants around Boston to cater all the dining halls on campus. With a simple swipe of a BU ID card, students can experience an array of flavorful foods that would normally put a hole in the broke college student’s pocket. But with the help of dining services, students can experience the delicious foods of Boston with the same ease and for the same price of any ordinary meal in the dining hall, which is already pre-paid for anyway.

In recent years, visiting chefs from Jerry Remy’s Grill in Fenway, Eastern Standard in Kenmore Square, and Maggiano’s Little Italy have provided the dining halls with quality deliciousness and filled the bellies of BU undergrads. They even try and replicate the ambiance of the respective restaurant with white linen table clothes for a nice upscale restaurant like Eastern Standard or with a man throwing out bags of cotton candy and popcorn to replicate the game day feel of Jerry Remy’s Grill. With everything from the décor to the tasty food, dining services really transforms each dining hall into a real restaurant.

Nothing is more awesome than being able to go downstairs to the dining hall in sweatpants and flip-flops and having restaurants food at the tip of your tongue, right?

Richie: A Picnic in Boston

Hey guys!

Everyone on campus has been super excited since Spring finally decided to come to Boston. I walk around campus and see people playing frisbee, tossing a football around, or just laying out on the grass trying to catch a tan (yes there are some areas with grass on the BU Campus). Well, since my girlfriend was visiting for the week I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and plan a little picnic in the Boston Common.

We went to a Whole Foods Market and bought some “picnic” food on Saturday. I’m not to sure of the usual “picnic” food, but we did get cheese and crackers, some all-natural sodas, sandwich materials, vegetables for salad, and some raspberry licorice for dessert. Then on Sunday we prepared everything, put it in a backpack, grabbed a blanket from my dorm, and were off. I have to admit the floor was a little wet from some rain earlier in the morning, but the day was beautiful. The sun was out and we had an awesome meal. I even brought my laptop and put a chill Spring-time playlist on my iTunes to accompany the beautiful day.

The Swan Boats were open in the Boston Commons and my girlfriend and I went on a ride around the little lake. Afterwards, we packed everything back up again and walked down Newbury Street. A lot of the shops had prices that scared my wallet away, but my girlfriend managed to find a bunch of awesome sales at the new Forever 21 store.

It was also the day before the Boston Marathon so we got to walk on Boylston Street and see where the finish line would be. People from all over the world were walking around. We were in a sea of different languages.

The day was basically awesome. It took a while for Winter to end but Spring time in Boston is great. I definitely recommend the picnic idea to anyone who hasn’t tried it yet. The only thing I regret was we were missing the big red and white checkered blanket!

Sarah: Fy-What?

First off, I have to thank everyone who came to open house. Kudos to Admissions for picking you guys! You were well worth getting out of bed at 7am for. Hopefully we’ve helped guide you toward a decision. If you are already sold on BU, take a breath of relief, but also start looking ahead to all BU will offer you.

I recently received some exciting news – I was accepted to be a staff leader for FYSOP22! FYSOP (one of BU’s countless acronyms) is BU’s First Year Student Outreach Project run by the Community Service Center. I think I speak for all involved when I say nothing welcomes you to BU quite like FYSOP.

In a nutshell, FYSOP is a week of community service throughout the Boston area. The week before classes begin, students will volunteer in one of ten issue areas, ranging from environment, to hunger to elders (Choose elders! Maybe I’ll be your staff leader). You’ll work hard, make friends, avoid the move-in rush, get awesome T-shirts, learn more cheers than you will ever remember and create memories that will last for the rest of your time at BU.

But don’t just take my word for it – ask around. FYSOP has become such a popular program that nearly 1 out of every 4 freshman in the class of 2014 participated. While the very name FYSOP might look strange to you, everyone on campus knows about it.

If you are at all interested in serving the community, becoming acquainted with Boston, settling in early and meeting some truly incredible people, consider applying for FYSOP. Yes, this does mean a week less of summer at home, but trust me, by the end of August you’ll be itching to leave the nest.

Check out the website for more FY-info.

http://www.bu.edu/csc/opportunities/community-service-center-programs/fysop/

Joe: BosTones Retreat

Hey everyone! For all of you who went to this past weekend’s Open House, I hope it was a great experience for you and I hope we sold you on coming to COM. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to meet all of you, because I wasn’t in Boston this past weekend.

As I mentioned in my bio, I am part of The Boston University BosTones, one of twelve a cappella groups on campus. We’re a premier co-ed group at BU, and we perform a huge repertoire of different music. We do “Man in the Mirror” by Michael Jackson, “Little Lion Man” by Mumford and Sons, and an amazing Kanye West Medley based off of his new album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. They have become my family at BU, and rehearsing with them is one of the highlights of my week. They’re also the reason I missed Open House.

It’s a Bostones tradition to go on retreat every spring. This past weekend, The BosTones went on retreat to Vermont. All 17 of us rented out an AMAZING house in Wilmington, VT. We left Friday morning, and spent almost the entire weekend learning new music and hanging out with each other. It was an awesome experience. Hanging out with all of them for an entire weekend was great because all of them are my best friends. But we also made great progress on our repertoire, especially on our Kanye West medley. All in all, it was an amazing weekend with my best friends, and I can’t wait to do it again next year.

For anyone who is even remotely interested in singing here at BU, I strongly encourage you to audition for The BosTones. Check our Facebook page and our website (www.thebostones.com) for more information on auditions in the fall! We’re always looking for new talent, and we’d love to have you be part of the group!

Tom: One Week Away

My spring semester run in BU On Broadway's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is almost coming to an end. We open in one week and I've never seen a process go so fast before. I remember way back in January when I was auditioning for the show and now we're just a week away from our opening night at Tsai Performance Center.

Sweeney Todd is such a hard show to put on, but it's such a fun show to be in the Ensemble of. I have three different wives throughout the show, I get my tooth pulled (you can get a sneakpeak of that scene in my COM Ambassador video!), and I get to play a lunatic (CITY ON FIRE!!!!).
At this point, my life is getting super stressful, but I wouldn't trade it for anything else. Right now, we are meeting everyday in our rehearsal space right after dinner until 11. Next week, we move into tech week, where I'll pretty much spend every waking moment of my life at Tsai Performance Center until we do our first opening night on Thursday!
Being involved with BU On Broadway's Sweeney Todd was one of the highlights of my semester here at BU. It kept me busy for a three-month rehearsal period and I met so many people in the past three months that I never would have met previously. Plus, what's better than a show about human meat pies? I mean, come on.