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Blogging Locally
Nathan La Porte blogs about his daily life. "It started after 11th grade when I was at a summer program at Massachusetts Institute of technology," says the 18-year-old. "Now, I'm still blogging -- mostly about the happenings of my daily life. But I don't put a lot of deep inner thoughts up because I have no particular desire to share those with the entire world."

His blog caught the eye of Swarthmore College (Swarthmore, PA) administration by campus word of mouth. Now, when Web surfers go to www.swarthmore.edu/admissions, there's a link to Nathan's blog on the main page. "We were so impressed by his blog that we began featuring it on the front page of our admissions Web site," affirms Tom Krattenmaker, director of news and information at Swarthmore. "He now gets tons of traffic and comments around campus, many from students who say, 'Put me in your blog!'"

But it's not just friends and family leaving comments. "Most of the comments are from prospective students who ask about Swarthmore and have questions about [college] life," Nathan explains.

Nathan has even received inquiries regarding admission and Financial aid, "a process I completely forgot about as soon as I came here -- hence my note on the blog indicating my lack of knowledge," he jokes. "I tell them to call or e-mail the appropriate people who know far more about it than I do."

Most of Nathan's friends have Web journals, too. And each blog takes you to many others, as they're all linked. "Some people write about the events of their daily lives, some about their thoughts and feelings, and others about their troubles and angst," Nathan says. "There's nothing new going on here. It's just that when you create something like a blog to allow young people from all over to [connect] to each other, they will. It's the revolution of the digital age."

Blogging Abroad
For Bethany Schneck, a senior at Augsburg College (Minneapolis, MN), blogging kept her in touch with friends and family during a Study abroad program. "I wanted to keep others posted on my adventures in Europe without individually e-mailing or sending out [generic] mass e-mails," she explains. "[Blogging] cut back the time I spent on the Web, enabling me to experience the culture more."

Even better, Bethany's blog opened up a forum for her readers -- family and friends -- to leave comments about what she wrote and pictures she uploaded on the site.

She later discovered that her blog would also serve as a way for her to reflect and remember her experience. "It depicts my struggles with international issues, and reveals my political and religious beliefs," she attests."[Blogging] provides a creative outlet for people to express themselves," Bethany says. "I'm really thankful I did it because it has truly become an account of my life experiences that no biography could ever capture."


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Ysolt Usigan is a frequent contributor to The CollegeBound Network. Learn more about finding a school that's right for you.

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