Every week, Berkley Schmidt takes photos, creates videos or writes journal entries about her freshman year at the University of Mary Washington. She talks about how to navigate college life and offers tips and advice along the way. As one of Seventeen Magazine’s Freshman 15, Schmidt is not just a blogger – she is sharing her UMW experience with a national audience.
Schmidt, a Richmond native, was chosen from more than 2,000 applicants to be one of the 15 bloggers on the Seventeen.com website and in the pages of the November 2011 issue of Seventeen Magazine, on newsstands October 18.
In one blog entry, she describes the Class of 2015’s first week on-campus:
The second day here, as we were walking to convocation dressed in our formal attire, a storm fired away on the little town of Fredericksburg. Luckily we had just reached the covered walk when the skies opened up, but the real fun began as we reached the library. Sirens blasted as faculty and Orientation Leaders rushed us inside. We were in a tornado warning! We just had another aftershock from the earthquake that same morning and we were already in our next natural disaster.
In another entry, a video lists “the five things you’ll forget to bring to college,” including a bathing suit for an impromptu dip in the Palmieri Plaza Fountain, ear plugs for much-needed afternoon naps and rain boots for walking across campus during bad weather.
“I am absolutely loving it here!” said Schmidt. “I get along with everyone so well and the classes are fun and interesting.”
Schmidt’s blog is available at http://www.seventeen.com/college/freshman-15/.