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Snowriders Ski Club: Fun for International Students

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You’ve probably heard before that Colorado is the best place to go skiing, correct? Well, not only is it true, but it is also easy to head to the mountains at any time during the ski season if you attend Colorado State University

The university’s biggest club is called Snowriders, and it has more than 200 members that go skiing every other week. It is a wonderful way to meet new people, get rides to the mountains, have a barbecue with other members, and so on!

The most common mountains the club goes include:

  • Arapahoe Basin (2:00 hours from CSU)
  • Winter Park (2:30 hours from CSU)
  • Eldora (1:45 hours from CSU)

In order to join the club, you pay a fee for the semester (price varies between $25-$30 USD) that will give you access to a private group on Facebook, where every day there’s a new post inviting members to either a meeting in Fort Collins – so you can get to know other members and make new connections – or letting people know which mountain Snowriders will be at for the weekend. Besides that, members that are planning on going skiing and have spots left on the car, make a post there inviting anyone who wants to join for the day.

I can list many advantages of this club, but if I were to list two, I would say that creating new connections is the first and being able to ski every week if you don’t have a car and/or don’t feel comfortable driving on the snow.

Lastly, CSU students have access to a WONDERFUL discount for the season pass.

Purchasing it through a link posted at Snowriders’ bio in Instagram, you can get more than $200 off your season pass! In my personal opinion this is one of the biggest advantages of joining the club if you like to ski or snowboard, or even if you are just willing to try new experiences.

Depending on the mountain you can pay $200 for a day-pass, so even if you ended up going skiing only twice in the entire season, it was already cheaper than buying the day-pass.

This is just one of more than 500 clubs and organizations at CSU — we hope you’ll join us to learn more and find your own club when you get here!

Victoria Farhat is a dual major in Business Administration and Economics with a minor in Design Thinking. Victoria is a third-year student from Brazil and currently works as the Marketing and Communications Assistant in the International Enrollment Center.

How international students can study dual majors at CSU

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My name is Victoria Farhat, and I study Business Administration and Economics at Colorado State University. I am also an international student from Brazil, and I will explain some of the steps that made me decide to be a dual major. Yes, it is possible to be a dual major at Colorado State University without overwhelming yourself.   

Once you arrive at CSU, you will receive your four-year plan. That is a plan – that you can (and will) change during your college life – and contains all classes required for you to graduate within that major.   

When I received my Business Administration four-year plan, I decided to print it out and study all the possibilities there (also because there are elective classes you need to choose). And while reading through it, I saw many Economics classes on that plan, which confused me: how can a Business Administration graduation plan contain so many classes from another major? And that was when I decided to investigate adding Economics as a second (dual) major.  

All four-year plans can be found at in the CSU General catalog, which allows you to read about any existing college, major, minor, or certificate at Colorado State. And when I started reading the Economics four-year plan, I confirmed my biggest question at that time: yes, there were the same economic classes in both four-year plans that I was looking at. So, I decided to meet with my advisor and ask her about it because, in my head, it makes sense to take one class and have it count for more than one purpose – in this case, towards two different majors.  

And that was true. If I decided to be a dual major, every Economic class present in my Business Administration four-year plan would also count towards my Economics major. And that was when I decided to be a dual major.   

Every major has its graduation plan, and there will be classes that work towards other majors, but there will also be specific classes that will count only for one major. After deciding that I wanted to be a dual major, I printed the Economics four-year plan and, with both on hand, counted how many “specific” classes I would have to take for each major. By doing so, I would see if the number was reasonable, meaning could be added to my four-year plan without overwhelming myself or not. And the answer was yes.  

This was just one of the multiple majors that could work together at CSU — which is one of the many benefits of studying here as an international students. Before you apply, we encourage you to take a look at the different majors available and find which ones you may wish to combine. To get an idea of which major (or majors) might be right to you, you can also take the My Majors Quiz. 

Once you arrive to campus, you’ll be able to connect with your advisor and see if it is worth it to add a second major to your studies to enhance your education. 

International Student Resources: The Career Center

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My name is Victoria Farhat, I am an international student from Brazil with a dual major in Business Administration and Economics and a minor in Design Thinking. In this blog, I will talk about how the Career Center has helped me build my professional career.

The Career Center is a massive department at Colorado State that can be helpful for students in multiple ways, such as career exploration, resume and cover letter assistance, campus employment, and many other things that will be helpful once you are close to graduation. But it is good to remember that they will be helpful and maybe one of your best resources during your college experience as well.

As a second-year student, I have different necessities compared to a senior student. Now, it is time for me to use the Career Center to organize my professional life. One of the things that benefited me was when I had to write my resume. As an international student, I know that a resume format changes from country to country, so they helped me learn what is necessary and unnecessary in an American resume.

Also, when creating my account on LinkedIn and organizing my Handshake profile (a platform used to search for jobs on campus), they helped me select which information would be necessary for people to know about me and which ones are dispensable for that platform. They also provide many videos that you can watch as many times as you want and take notes as necessary to help you with basic things on those platforms so you can save some unnecessary questions such as how to add a profile picture.

The Career Center is your best resource while looking for a job on-campus. With them, you can look for the available opportunities and discuss which is the most appropriate for your goal. My goal was not to make money, but to gain experience in my area of study, so a job at the library or the gym doesn’t sound as attractive as a marketing assistant position. So, I was selective when choosing where to send my applications. During this process, they also helped me learn what needs to be written on your resume and what only needs to be included in your cover letter, which was indispensable.

Once you are admitted, all you want to do is learn about different programs offered by the university that can be helpful for you to get involved and, at the same time, gain knowledge in your area of study. And that is another thing that the Career Center can help you with. Today I am a member of an organization called Women In Business Administration (WIBA) all because once of the times that I had a meeting with the Career Center, I asked them about organizations or clubs that would help me get involved, and they recommended me to talk to the coordinator of this organization on campus.

Those are just a few examples showing how the Career Center benefited me and can be for you as well. You can learn more about them at their website: (career.colostate.edu). And once you have the chance, schedule a meeting with them and ask about anything! They are available to help and, in my opinion, are your best resource to organize yourself at this stage of your life.

International Student Resources: The CSU Writing Center

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Hi everyone! My name is Victoria Farhat, and I am a dual major in Business Administration and Economics with a minor in Design Thinking. Today I will discuss one of my favorite resources for students at Colorado State University: The Writing Center.  

Whether your area of study requires a lot of writing or not, it is something you will have to deal with for the rest of your life. You will likely have to take a composition class during your college career, and besides that, many professors require case studies or essays as part of their assignments. It’s also important because at some point, you will have to write a cover letter or resumé in order to apply for jobs. So, knowing about the writing center can be helpful.  

The writing center is a free service open to all CSU students and can help you improve your writing skills in any academic, personal, and professional writing projects. The most amazing part for me is that they offer all types of services; you can do a face-to-face consultation where you schedule an appointment and go to one of the two locations on campus to work in person with an instructor. Or, if you want to schedule an appointment but you’re not going to CSU on that day, you have the option to take what they call “real-time online consultation,” which is a virtual call with the instructor where you both discuss your essay. And your last option is to do the whole process online, where you can attach and send an instructor your paper and they will review, write some comments, and send it back to you.   

I believe contact with the instructor is fundamental when writing a critical essay. By doing so, you can express your point of view and, if necessary, find a better way to write a sentence or describe an idea. But, if you are running out of time and want quick feedback before submitting an assignment, then doing everything online might be your best choice.  

All appointments are scheduled online, and they can be found at writingcenter.colostate.edu/. The website is straightforward, and as I said, it can be helpful for different purposes during your college career. So, save that website and use it as many times as you want. Keep checking our blog for more international student tips and resources, and reach out to the International Enrollment Center if you’re ready to begin your journey to CSU. 

Victoria Farhat is a dual major in Business Administration and Economics with a minor in Design Thinking. Victoria is a third-year student from Brazil and currently works as the Marketing and Communications Assistant in the International Enrollment Center.

Benefits of Adding A Minor

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Adding a minor can enhance your academic experience

My name is Victoria Farhat, and I am a Marketing student with a minor in Design Thinking at Colorado State University. I am also an international student from Brazil, and in this blog I will talk about how I decided to have a minor in Design Thinking.  

Once you are admitted and start thinking about your four-year plan, you will see that a minimum of 30 credits must be filled up with electives. An elective class is a class that doesn’t necessarily need to be related to your course, but by choosing the right ones, you can end up adding a minor or certificate.  

CSU has a website (https://admissions.colostate.edu/academic-programs/) that contains all minors at the University. Once you start reading all of them, you can choose what you like, and it doesn’t necessarily need to be related to your major; you can pick one to learn more about a hobby of yours, for example, or, as I did, one that will complement your major.   

As a marketing student, I am interested in learning about digital design and other areas of design that can complement my career.

However, as an international student, I believe that the opportunity of filling up my curriculum with different experiences will provide me with more knowledge and maybe give me the chance to get better jobs once I graduate.

So, I automatically think about the importance of adding to my curriculum experiences beyond regular classes, such as being a Teacher Assistant (TA) and/or having a volunteer internship. That was when I found Design Thinking. It is a brand-new minor at Colorado State that provides you with knowledge in different areas. It can be helpful for marketing – for example, and it can help with developing skills for digital marketing – but also architecture, engineering, and more.  

With this minor, I will not only finish my electives but also learn a lot about design and things that will be helpful in my future career. And most important: I will have the chance to experience being a TA and doing an internship with people I am already familiar with, and most importantly, without having to leave campus. 

Ready to learn more? Browse our academic programs and contact the International Enrollment Center if you have any questions.

Victoria Farhat is a dual major in Business Administration and Economics with a minor in Design Thinking. Victoria is a third-year student from Brazil and currently works as the Marketing and Communications Assistant in the International Enrollment Center.