Issue #16– April 20, 2010
Resident Spotlight – Emily Schreiner, Colony Manor
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Interviewer: Tell me a little about yourself. Where are you from? What’s your major?
Emily: I'm currently a fourth year majoring in Biomedical Science. I'm from Saint Louis, Missouri and I have two younger sisters who currently attend RIT as well.
Interviewer: I know you are a member of Sigma Sigma Sigma – how did you get involved in the Greek community and what has your experience been like thus far?
Emily: I became involved in the Greek community with the help and several convincing points from my roommate, Shannon Kennedy, who joined Tri Sigma in Fall 2008. After living with her for a year and seeing her getting involved with the Greek community, I became interested. I decided to attend to one of their events in Spring 2009 and fell in love with the environment and ever since, I knew that Tri Sigma would be exactly what I wanted outside of the academic environment.
Interviewer: How does your leadership position (President of Sigma Sigma Sigma) contribute to your academic goals?
Emily: My leadership position as a President has contributed significantly to my academic goals. It allows for me to strive for my goals even more. Since we have scholarship goals for each of us individually, I use that as my personal incentive to improve myself for the best. Also, with the fact that I'm always kept busy with both schedules, it gives me more opportunity to focus on academics since I don't have much free time to divert my attention to distractions.
Interviewer: What is the biggest misperception about Greek organizations at RIT or in general?
Emily: Time management and commitment to Greek organizations that often leads to low scholarship standings, partying, hazing, and cliques. These four are definitely the most common misperceptions about Greek organizations with hazing being the biggest misperception.
Interviewer: You live in Colony Manor – what is your most favorite thing about living there and what is one thing you wish you could change about the on-campus apartment experience?
Emily: I love the fact that it feels separate from campus so I always feel like I'm coming to home instead of school (dorms). One thing that I wish I could change is that each apartment/townhouse would have washer/dryer included!
Interviewer: Besides your academics and your sorority, what other things are you involved in at RIT?
Emily: Whenever I get a chance to have a free time, I like to get involved with Habitat for Humanity and play intramural sports as well.
Interviewer: How do you balance everything you have on your plate?
Emily: Time management and prioritizing things definitely is the key to successfully balancing time.
Interviewer: What has been the most challenging aspect of being a RIT student?
Emily: The school is based on quarter system and since our schedules are already full from simply being students, it makes Greek life a bit more challenging since we have to sacrifice more of our free time to commit to our organization.
Interviewer: How do you feel about RIT’s decision to convert from the quarter system to the semester system?
Emily: I believe that it goes both ways. For me personally, I like the quarter system since it gives me an opportunity to take as many different classes as I'd like to, an opportunity that a semester system wouldn't be able to offer. The semester system would definitely allow students to have much more time to study/catch up on academic studies for their classes since schoolwork would be spread out evenly instead of being crammed together. This is definitely a bonus for students involved in other organizations. Like I said, it goes both ways.
Interviewer: What do you like to do for fun with your free time?
Emily: Since I like to keep myself busy--I like going out with friends, play sports, grab time with my two sisters, or sometimes, just simply relax and read.
Interviewer: What did you think of the surge of school spirit on campus these past two weeks because of the appearance of the RIT Men’s Hockey team in the Frozen Four?
Emily: I thought that the spirit was fantastic and inspiring! It was definitely a great experience to witness and I'm glad that I got an opportunity to be part of it while still being a student here at RIT.
Interviewer: What is your favorite thing to do in Rochester?
Emily: Sadly, I haven't explored much to have a favorite thing to do yet. However, I do like eating at Dinosaur's BBQ and seeing open-captioned movies.
Interviewer: Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?
Emily: Hopefully somewhere in a fast-paced environment! I'm aiming to work at a medical workplace with a strong science reputation, hopefully CDC or NIH.
For more articles from this issue, click here