By Kelly Orazi from KANDALS TEAM

Drinking a fruit smoothie is one of the easiest ways to stay healthy during a busy college semester. But who says it has to be all about the fruit? Adding vegetables and leafy greens to your fruit smoothies adds valuable nutrients, kickstarts your energy and tastes great. Veggies like spinach and kale are high in iron, essential vitamins, and are powerful antioxidants. If you already have a favorite fruit smoothie recipe, try adding a handful of spinach or kale to it. If you're a smoothie newbie, here are some simple recipes to get you started:

The Green Smoothie 

Green smoothies can be simple and sweet. Greens like spinach and kale are a great starter base because they not only blend well, but taste great. Keep in mind the more greens you add, the more 'green' your smoothie will look, but it will still hardly taste any different than a whole fruit smoothie. 

Green Starter 

1 cup Kale or Spinach (or a mix of both)

1 banana

1 frozen mango 

1/2 cup of frozen or fresh pineapple

fill with desired amount of water or orange juice.

Peachy Green

1-2 peaches

1 cup spinach 

1 banana

1 cup orange juice 

As long as you add some sort of vegetable or leaf to your smoothie, it is still considered "green", even if the color is not! Ever tried a blend of fruits and berries in a smoothie? Add some carrot juice and make it green!

Berry and Beet 

1/2 cup Berry mix (or your favorite small berry)

1/2 cup strawberries

1 banana

1 small beet

Fill with desired amount of water or orange juice

You can either use milk and yogurt or you can keep it all vegan by adding instead a nut based milk like soy, almond, or coconut. Water and orange juice also work wonderfully as a base. Plus, the right mixture of greens and fruits won't need any honey or added sugar. 

Delicious Desert Smoothies 

Banana Mango

1 Banana

1 cup mango

1/2 cup water

Peanut Butter Chocolate 

1 banana

1 cup chocolate almond milk

2 tablespoons Natural Peanut butter

ice cubes as desired

While there are some fancy blenders out there, really any blender will be able to blend these veggies well. If you can, buy organic fruits and veggies at your local farmers market. If that's not an option you can stock up on fruits and veggies at somewhere like Trader Joe's, which carries frozen fruit in small (dorm-sized fridge friendly) bags. And you can take your smoothie to go in a simple mason jar or a bpa free reusable plastic container. Enjoy!

Not only is the job marketplace getting competitive, the system of getting one has changed. And if you are not in line with the current system of getting yourself out there, having a stellar resume and good grades just won’t cut it. Even having a great experience will become fruitless if you’re not taking the right routes for a new job or internship.

Following are two of the best ways to land a dream job or internship that you’ve always wanted.

Linked-In

By now, you should know about LinkedIn. If you are not aware of it, you’re in danger. If you are aware of it and haven’t used it yet to your advantage, you’re missing out big time.

Why is LinkedIn so important? Well, it’s the new Resume. Who would want to go through a pile of papers and read about your experience when employers can just google you and see your LinkedIn profile.

To use LinkedIn to your advantage, apply the following steps:

Step 1: TRANSFER your paper Resume to LinkedIn.

Create an account (if you haven’t already) and put in your current title, past experiences, education, awards and achievements and any other information you’d like the public to see. As you would on a resume, read it three times, have your friends and family read it as well to make sure everything looks not good, but great!

Step 2: Upload your BEST personal photo.

By best, we don’t mean it must be professional. Your photo depends on your industry. If you want a career in finance and accounting for example, a professional photo would be necessary. If you are into the fashion industry, a more casual look might do it. Either way, have a high resolution picture that you think is best. Go and have a photo taken if necessary; be very serious on this step as this is what every person FIRST sees before they read about you.

Step 3: CONNECT

Connecting on LinkedIn is different from Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest. You need to know the person either through going to same school, work, or have their email in order to be in their network. However, the great thing about LinkedIn is that if you have a friend that is connected with you, everyone in their network is your “second degree” connection and you’ll be able to connect with them. Cool huh?

So to start with, sync all your emails on LinkedIn and invite everyone in your email list to connect with you. This is not Facebook so DO NOT be afraid or feel awkward to add your classmates or old work buddies. That’s how LinkedIn rolls.

Step 4: DOMINATE (The most important step)

You might have already done the above steps already, but this is the stage most fail. Having done the above and not being proactive is like having a great Facebook profile and not posting status updates on your timeline. CREATE ATTENTION.

Join groups in your industry by searching for them. Get involved in discussions in those groups. This is not our recommendation; it’s  a MUST. You will not get noticed otherwise. LinkedIn even allows you to create forum discussions, ask questions to the groups you’re in to make the discussions engaging.

You should also start contacting the HR personnel in the companies you want to work in even if you’re not looking to get the internship / job right now. LinkedIn has an option to get you introduced if the recruiters are a second degree connection. If that’s not the case, you can simply get their name and call the corporate office and ask for them by name. You can then proceed with asking questions about job opportunities and internships at the company. Most recruiters are very receptive when you mention “I found you on LinkedIn”. They’ll respect that you took the time to learn who does what in their company.

So what are your thoughts on LinkedIn? Share your experiences and additional helpful tips on the comments section below.

Part II will be on Twitter --- Tune in Next Week

By Haley S. Deiser from Butler University

I bet if you were to look inside your closet right now there’d be a pair of canvas shoes. A pair of canvas shoes with tons of stains, dirt smears, and maybe even frayed laces. To you, that pair of shoes isn’t just a pair of shoes, but a memory maker. Those canvas shoes hold memories with each stain, dirt smear, and frayed shoelace. Every mark tells a story.

Did you know canvas shoes have been around for centuries? The original canvas shoe was founded in 1917 when the first world war broke out. At the time, all other resources like leather and wool were already being used to make boots and uniforms for soldiers. The only resources left were rubber and canvas. Manufacturers jumped on these resources but no one could figure out how to craft the two seamless, until an angry manufacturer got so frustrated with the process he threw canvas and rubber into a fire. And eventually figured out how the materials worked together...when heated! And Eureka! Canvas shoes! A happy accident or fate? You decide.

No matter how many different shoe styles are produced canvas shoes won’t go away! They have this casual yet sophisticated appeal to them. A carefree kind of attitude that provides a sense of freedom. That’s what makes a good pair of shoes, well, great! A pair of shoes you can slip on for all of life’s adventures. A pair of shoes you aren’t afraid to get dirty, to stain, or to make marks in. Canvas shoes are always there and will always be. They are the pair of shoes you make memories in---the pair of shoes you make memories with. So grab a pair and take them everywhere.  

This past year almost everyone has caught the DIY bug. Sites like Pinterest and Etsy have promoted creativity in a new and stylish way. This coupled with the growing awareness of sustainability has made upcycling the hot new trend. It seems that the most popular of these reusable materials is the mason jar. They are everywhere, in our cupboards, in the garden, and some have even hung them from the ceiling! These little guys aren’t just for preserving anymore. If you are struggling to hop on this bandwagon look no further, because we have found 3 creative ways to get you going. Oh and p.s. if you are still using your jars for canning there is a little surprise at the end for you too!           

To start we will go with an easier project. All you need are:

•         Mason jars of various sizes

•         At least three colors of glow in the dark paint

•         Small and Medium paintbrushes

Clean out your mason jars with water, or rubbing alcohol to make it shine. Take the paintbrushes covered in glow in the dark paint, and make dots all around the inside of the jars. The more dots you make the cooler it will turn out! Allow to dry for a few hours in sunlight. Then place them in the garden or a bedroom and watch the “stars” come out.

The mason jar soap pump is easy and you get to feel like a handy man for a few seconds! The materials needed for this project are:

·         1 Mason jar w/ lid

·         Old soap pump

·         Drill

·         Hot glue gun

·         Twine or lace (for decoration)

·         Liquid Hand Soap

First you are going drill a hole in the lid of your mason jar, the size of your hole will depend on the size of the soap pump tube. You will then put a ring of hot glue around the edges of the hole and place your pump through the hole. Hold the pump in place for 30 seconds, allowing the hot glue to dry. Put hand soap in to the mason jar and screw the lid on. If you would like to decorate your new soap container, you can wrap some lace or twine around the top and hot glue it in place.