Kristina VanDyke's Blog
Kristina's First Blog Entry
Hi everyone. My name is Kristina VanDyke, and I am a senior here at Hanover. I am a Spanish major and I will also have my elementary education certification after I graduate. These things are not only my majors, but also two of my passions. I absolutely love the Spanish language and learning about the cultures that go along with them. I hope to share this type of diversity with the kids in my future classrooms.
My family is a very important part of my life. I love to joke around with my extended family at our gatherings and go to basketball games with my Dad. My friends are also a huge part of my life as well, and I'm lucky to have many good friends here at Hanover and from my life at home. In my free time, I like to listen to music and go to as many rock concerts with my friends as I can. I love to play tennis, and I actually played for the Hanover Tennis Team for two years.
I grew up with Hanover College in my life because my mom also went here. My family would frequently visit Hanover, and I grew to love the beautiful campus and how friendly all of the students and professors were as I walked around. Many years later, not much has changed about my view of Hanover. As a student, I still love its scenery and the fact that I know almost all of the faces that pass me as I walk to class. I am happy to say that my sister, Kelsie, has also joined me at Hanover, and is now a part of our freshman class.
Kristina's Blog - May 12, 2008 Updated
Hello there! Well, I just had a typical week of spring term, and I couldn't be happier about it. For those of you that haven't heard of Hanover's spring term, it is a term that takes place during the month of May. During this one month, all students have only one class that usually meets for a few hours every day. Because of the lightened course load, students have more time to be with friends and outside for the great weather.
A lot of people choose to study abroad for the month of May. During my sophomore year, I traveled to Spain for a conversational Spanish class. I lived with a Spanish family and did a ton of traveling. Everyone looks forward to spring term for these reasons!
Anyway, this week was quite busy. I went to a concert in Cincinnati, Ohio Wednesday with a group of friends from Hanover. The concert was great, and the only drawback was that we had some rainy weather and construction on our way back to campus.
I continued my concert-themed week by attending a concert by the band Flatfoot56. The campus organization CRU brought the band to campus. It was really different music; my favorite part was the fact that one band member played the bagpipes. After the concert, I was able to talk with the band for a while, which always happens after concerts at Hanover.
I had a fairly relaxed weekend. I didn't have much work, so I spent my time watching movies and playing Super Nintendo with friends. My specialty is MarioKart. My friends and I have found that playing old school video games can be quite entertaining and fun.
I also went home Sunday to spend Mother's Day with my mom, aunts, and grandmas. It was a great end to my extremely busy week!
Kristina's Blog - May 5, 2008
Hi there everyone! Well, a lot has happened in my life since my last post. I've skipped a few weeks of posts because of spring break. I went to Chicago with a group of friends from Hanover. We went to a Cubs game, visited the art museum and did quite a bit of shopping. I also went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with my boyfriend and sister later on in the week. I highly recommend going to Cleveland, Ohio to see this!
The most exciting part of my break happened later on in the week. Being a senior, I have been on the hunt for a job. I went on an interview the Wednesday of spring break for a Spanish teacher position at a Catholic elementary school. They called me back the next day with the great news that they wanted to offer me the job! It's such a relief that I actually found a job, but even better that it is exactly the type of thing I would want.
In Hanover news, we had an extremely busy weekend. I was part of Relay for Life, which raises money for cancer research. I was on a team with my friends and we walked for twelve hours straight to raise the funds. After a long (but fun!) night, Hanover's organization, People for Peace, hosted an event called Wake Up and Live. It was a whole weekend of workshops, art projects and music. I went to a workshop on the music of Bob Dylan taught by one of Hanover's professors. I also saw bands on both Saturday and Sunday night. Lots of Hanover students camped out all weekend for the event.
Well, that's all of the news that has been going on here! If you ever have any questions about the happenings at Hanover or my job search, feel free to e-mail me at vandykek@hanover.edu.
Kristina's Blog - April 21, 2008
Hi everyone. I'm actually lucky I even have time to write this blog right now! It's the weekend before finals, so everyone here on campus is extremely busy writing papers or studying.
On top of the big Spanish final paper I have to write, I am searching for teaching jobs right now. This is one of the challenges of being a senior in college; on top of our Hanover responsibilities, we have to start thinking of what we are going to do after graduation. My education professor and other teachers I know are currently helping me to find jobs that would involve using my Spanish degree. I have turned in a few applications, so I hope to hear back from them soon.
In other news, the seniors had our Awards Ceremony and Senior Dinner on Thursday. Our entire senior class dressed in our cap and gowns. After the ceremony, we all went to President DeWine's house for appetizers. It was great to take a tour of her house and mingle with professors and parents. Finally, we went to our Campus Center for dinner where there were more awards handed out. Overall, it was a wonderful day, and it gave me a chance to see all of my classmates before the craziness of graduation starts.
I did take a break from my paper writing Saturday. I went out to one of our practice fields to see Hanover's Ultimate Frisbee team compete against another team from Indiana State University. It just so happened to be one of the coldest days in a while, so my friends and I made sure to bring blankets and sweatshirts so we could watch the team longer. Despite the cold and wind, our team won their games!
There is one tradition about finals that I absolutely love: our Campus Activity Board always puts on a Midnight Breakfast the night before finals start. We have breakfast served to us by faculty and staff members until around 11:00 p.m. It's always a great break to go and talk with friends and avoid studying for an hour or so.
Wish me luck on finals! I hope everyone has a great week.
Kristina's Blog - April 08, 2008 
Well, yet another week has flown by for me. I can't believe that this semester is coming to an end!
This week, I really buckled down and did some work on all of my upcoming assignments. We have our finals week coming up, so most of our classes have papers and exams to prepare for. I have been researching a huge Spanish paper that is due in the next week. I have a lot due at once, so I'm trying to stay ahead on anything I can.
But, I have had some fun this week, don't worry. This past Friday kept me especially busy. The Spanish department invited all of the senior Spanish majors to a "Goodbye Dinner" in Louisville, Ky. We went to a Cuban restaurant where all of the waiters spoke Spanish. I had a great time eating and talking with my professors, their families and all of my fellow Spanish majors. It was nice to be able to see the professors in an atmosphere outside of the classroom. I don't know too many other colleges where the professors take time out of their busy schedules to celebrate with their students like ours do. I think that says a lot for the faculty at Hanover!
Also on Friday, Hanover hosted the Christian singer Mark Schultz. The concert was through the Community Arts and Culture Series that brings all kinds of cultural events to campus. I am on the committee that picks these events, so it was really nice to see so many people enjoying the concert. It was an incredibly popular concert; we had more than seven hundred people in our auditorium for the concert! My favorite part of the concert was meeting Mark Schultz during an autograph session.
Well, that was all of my happenings at Hanover this week. I hope everyone has a fun, stress-free week!
Kristina's Blog - April 01, 2008
Hi everyone! Well, this past week at Hanover has kept my extremely busy, as usual. If you have read my previous blogs, you can see that this is a weekly trend for me and for that matter, for most of the students here at Hanover. Things are never boring around here, that's for sure.
I went through a CPR certification program Tuesday that took about four hours to complete. I will have my elementary education certification after I graduate this May and all future teachers now need to have CPR certification before they can get their teaching license. It took a long time to go through the training, but certification is a good thing to have, even if you're not going to be a teacher.
This Wednesday was my 22nd birthday. I celebrated it with a few friends and my family by going to a Mexican restaurant. Unfortunately, we picked "family night" to go to the restaurant. After finding out that it was my birthday, the restaurant's clown had made me a birthday hat and I had all of the waiters singing "Happy Birthday" to me. Needless to say, I think the whole restaurant knew that it was my birthday.
My birthday celebration continued on Friday when all of my friends and I went to the local bowling alley in Hanover, followed by dinner at Jendy's, the local pizza place near campus. My bowling score wasn't the best, but I was more interested in catching up with my friends that I don't see all of the time.
I finished out my Friday by going to Cincinnati to see one of my favorite bands, The Weakerthans. The show lasted all night, but Hanover is only about an hour and a half away from Cincinnati, so it was easy to get back to campus at a decent hour. The location of Hanover is so nice because it is possible to go to Louisville, Indianapolis or Cincinnati for things like concerts or sports games. My friends and I have gone to art museums or different restaurants in these cities just to have something different to do on weekends.
Well, I told you my week was busy! I hope your upcoming week goes well, and I will update you again soon!
Kristina's Blog - March 24, 2008 
Happy Easter, everyone! I hope all of you had a nice holiday weekend. Currently, it is actually SNOWING at Hanover! I can't believe that I need to keep my winter boots out at this time of year, but at least the campus is pretty with all of the snow. It almost makes up for the crazy weather.
My week was very eventful, and luckily, most of those events did not involve a lot of homework. The weeks to come will be full of finals and papers, but I filled this week with intramural sports and fun with friends.
Wednesday, I played my first intramural floor hockey game of the season. At Hanover, you can get a group of friends together on an intramural team and play against fellow classmates in a variety of sports, such as basketball, soccer, ultimate frisbee and even racquetball. My team won our floor hockey game 7-4, but I could definitely tell I haven't played in a while, haha.
Friday, I went home to catch up with a group of my friends from high school. We try to get together around the holidays when all of us will be home because we are all at different colleges. It is always fun to share stories from our respective college adventures. As seniors, we now talk about grad schools and job opportunities instead of class choices! It's really strange think about huge decisions such as these.
Saturday, my sorority had our annual formal dance. We went to "Glassworks" reception hall in Louisville, Kentucky for dinner and dancing. The food was amazing and it was so much fun to bust out my crazy dance moves with my friends. Don't worry; my friends had some crazy moves of their own!
I finished out my weekend with another trip home to celebrate Easter with my family. I ate way too much great food, and even hunted some Easter eggs in the process. I love my time at Hanover, but sometimes it's just nice to spend some time with family. Well, I hope everyone has a great week, even if it started with a little bit of winter weather!
Kristina's Blog - March 19 , 2008
Hello there! Welcome back to my blog. Well, I had yet another busy week at Hanover. I started out the week on Monday by going to my sorority's weekly meeting. Greek life is very active on our campus, both for men and women. You don't have to go very far to see someone wearing Greek letters or see a poster for a Greek event.
After our meeting on Monday, I attended an event for our new members on Wednesday. Most new members join Greek houses their first year, but it is possible to join them any year that you are at Hanover. It's always exciting this time of year to meet all of the new additions to our house and see them enjoy all of the things related to being in a sorority.
On Friday, I went out to eat with my sorority "family." Greek families have an older member of the sorority that forms a close bond with a younger member of the sorority. I have a close relationship with my "little sister," Amanda, and I have also really enjoyed getting to know her "little sister," Kelly, as well. We had a lot of fun going to Frisch's Restaurant, especially when we took pictures with the huge Big Boy statue outside. I'm not sure which I enjoyed more: taking our pictures, or the huge hot fudge sundae I ate!
I have really enjoyed my involvement in my Greek house. I can honestly say that I have made friends through it that I would have never met if I weren't a member. If you have any questions about Greek life, or Hanover life in general, feel free to contact me at vandykek@hanover.edu. Have a wonderful week, everyone!
Kristina's Blog - March 10, 2008 
Hi everyone! It has taken me a while to get back in the swing of things after winter break, and remember how to balance my social life and homework after such a great week off. I went to Guatemala with Hanover Presbyterian Church. My group (including one of my friends from Hanover) traveled there to work with the Mayan people and the Presbyterian Church down there. I served as the translator for the trip, so I got a lot of practice speaking Spanish all week! My Spanish professors would have been proud.
On one of our first days, we visited a church and clinic that helps expectant mothers and children. We also visited four different villages where the residents lived in very poor conditions. It was amazing how open the Mayan people were to share their culture and their stories with our group. This experience was life-changing, and I am so grateful to have the chance to do something like this while I'm at Hanover.
In other news, our weather has been crazy this weekend! Everyone talked on Friday about a huge snowstorm that was about to come through, and it sure delivered. We had around six inches of snow on the ground, which basically ended any plans anyone had that involved traveling. However, this ended up being one of the best weekends I've had in a long time! On Friday night at midnight, the campus had our annual snowball fight. We have one each year after the first big snowfall. The entire campus charged the "Quad" for an all-out war against friends or maybe even people you don't know. Of course, people made snow angels in between packing snowballs.
The rest of the weekend was fairly lazy. I spent all of Saturday watching movies with my friends and trying to stay warm. It was nice just to slow down and enjoy the weekend instead of rushing as usual.
About Kristina
Year in school: Senior
Hometown: Guilford, Ind.
Major: Spanish and Elementary Education
Wants to be: A Teacher
Hobbies: Learning to play the guitar, going to concerts, knitting, being with friends, traveling, speaking spanish.
Where I hope to travel: I'd like to go back to Spain again, any Latin American countries, Italy, England, the western part of the United States
Where I've traveled: The southern part of the United States, Canada, the Virgin Islands, Spain, Guatemala
Favorite Movie: Across the Universe
Scariest Movie Ever: Signs (I live around a lot of corn fields...very scary)
Pet: A beagle dog, Angel
Who would play me in the movies: Alexis Bledel
Favorite Hanover memory so far: I helped bring the band Blessid Union of Souls to campus last year. It was so much fun meeting the band and seeing over half of our campus come together and enjoy themselves for the concert.
Facebook or MySpace: Definitely Facebook
Biggest hope or dream: To become an English as a Second Language teacher and travel to spanish-speaking countries.