Sarah

Hey Hawkeyes,

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving break. It always seems like it takes forever to get to break. I know I had a lot of issues staying focused on homework and lecture during the week leading up to break. However I was one of the lucky ones that didn’t have a midterm right before break so I could slack off a little bit. A lot of my professors were also extremely ready for break so they went easy on us as well.

You may have noticed my blog has been a bit quiet. It’s been a busy couple of weeks. The weekend before break I flew to San Francisco for a conference for one of my organizations. I’m part of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and they have a regional student conference in the spring with a national student conference in the fall. Regional conferences are held at a host university in that region. University of Iowa hosted the regional conference when I was a sophomore which is when I really got interested in this organization. I became the historian, tasked with recording all the things our chapter does, and awards we get. As part of the historian role, I also attend the national conference to take pictures of our students presenting and receiving awards. The national conference is held in a large city; I’ve been to Atlanta, Salt Lake City, and now San Francisco. Eighteen students from our chapter navigated airports and train stations to attend the conference. This was my first time in California so I was very excited. We had time to explore the city and got to meet a lot of people.

The Golden Gate Bridge! So excited to see this California symbol and learn about the engineering behind it!

I also had the honor of being involved in a presentation about our chapter’s outreach activities (I’ll have to do a blog post about that), so we had the opportunity to talk to students from universities across the country as they try to implement similar outreach programs.

University of Iowa also hosted an alumni reception while we were there so we spent an evening dressed up, eating fancy appetizers, and talking with alumni on the 40th floor of a hotel. It was really fun to talk to the alumni that are either currently working in California or retired in California about student life at the university. They were asking about some of their favorite restaurants, whether the library is still intimidating, and if the engineering building is still cold. We informed them that while the library is newly remodeled, the engineering building is still cold in certain rooms. We were also able to ask career advice and talk to them about engineering in the field. It was a really great experience and a cool way to spend an evening in a cool city.

This trip was very educational and very fun. It was cool to explore a new place and learn so much. I’m so glad that I got involved and really invested my time in this organization.

Hey Hawkeyes!

This is the week of the engineering career fair! My first year, I was terrified of the career fair since I didn’t know how to answer questions or how to talk to the recruiters about the company. Over the last four years I have done several practice interviews, several real interviews, added some great experiences to my resumé, and have learned to enjoy the career fair. Good thing I like it because this is the most important one! This is the career fair that will (hopefully) help me find a job! As a graduating senior, this is my best chance to get my resumé to real people from these companies rather than just applying online.

I spent the first several days of this week re-modeling my resumé to make it look a bit more professional as well as making sure I had all the right things on it. It’s always difficult to try to predict what a recruiter will want to see. I have a document that I just list all of my project, jobs, activities, and experiences (research, internship) so that I can easily build a resumé for specific jobs just from pulling things off the document. After combing through my resumé to catch any errors, I took it to a professional development peer advisor in the Student Development Center to have it critiqued. I was told that I have a very strong resumé (yay!) and I had a few minor things to fix. I was also curious about the wording for a certain part and they were able to help me with that as well.

I’ve been practicing my 20 second elevator speech (introduction, year in school, major, looking for ____ position, really interested in ____ because ___.) so I feel ready on that front. Now I just need to make sure my dress pants are wrinkle free, my high heels are ready to go, and my resumé is tucked carefully in my portfolio. Wish me luck!

Hey Hawkeyes!

One of the things I will miss most when I graduate will be football season with the Hawks. When I was in high school, I played in the marching band so there was a lot of preparation for football games and then we’d hang out with friends after the halftime show. As a college freshman, I decided not to get season tickets because I wasn’t all that interested in football. After discovering that a lot of the new friends I was making had season tickets and one of them was even in the marching band, I decided I would try going to a game and see what it was like. As it turns out, it was a lot of fun! Over the past 4 years I have learned a lot about football, developed a very strong sense of school spirit, lost my voice cheering, and had a blast with my friends at the games.

Hanging out with friends before the game starts!

Nothing quite matches the energy in Kinnick stadium on game day. The sea of black and gold, Back in Black playing on the loud speakers as the team comes out, the loud cheers. I recommend going early to get your choice of seats though; the student section fills up fast!

One of my favorite memories was last year (2015 season) during the night game and we had just gotten a touchdown, bringing the score within only a couple points difference. The cheerleaders started the normal I-O-W-A cheer that we do after each touchdown where each section of the stadium yells a letter. The energy was so high that the cheer kept going for over 10 minutes until we scored the next touchdown, putting us in the lead and eventually leading to a victory!

Picture with Herky for Homecoming!

There are so many great traditions with so many of the games, especially homecoming. I love going to the events during homecoming week. The parade is one of my favorites with getting to see floats from the student orgs, local marching bands, and the Hawkeye marching band. The College of Engineering puts on a little after-parade carnival for kids with games and prizes that are run by student organization members. It’s a fun way to get involved with the community and get to spend some time making kids happy.

This week (homecoming week!), I was just hanging out at work when I heard footsteps coming down the hall. One of my responsibilities at work is to greet people when they walk into the office so I look up to greet the visitor and it just so happens to be Herky! I guess he was visiting the engineering building for an event and decided to visit some of the students. I was so excited to be able to get a picture with him! Here’s to a win this Saturday!

Hey Hawkeyes!

I hope everyone is having a great start to their school year! It’s been a busy first few weeks. The week before classes started I had the amazing opportunity to be an OnLeader for the lean, mean Green Squad (not really mean). We fit in better with the VeggieTales rather than the green beans (long story involving a roll call we could never remember).

Tractor Tippers!

I absolutely love the On Iowa! program. When I came as a first-year, the program was only two years old. I have really enjoyed watching the program evolve and improve over the four years of being a leader. I have grown so much as a leader and made amazing friends through this program. I have gained skills in speaking in front of a group, planning a group discussion, time management, thinking on my feet, leading a group of people, handling unexpected situations, and working as part of a team (a very large team, as shown below). Along with all the fun and awesome friendships from On Iowa!, all of these experiences also look fantastic on a resumé. I have actually talked with many people at the career fair about On Iowa! and they are always impressed by what I’ve learned.

On Iowa! Leaders ready for the first day of the program

The leaders put so much effort and time into making sure we’re ready to welcome the first year students into the Hawkeye family. We want them to realize the importance of academic success and the weight of their choices as well as experience all the amazing opportunities and fun here. That’s a lot to accomplish in two days; luckily we have a whole team of captains and directors to support us. I highly encourage anyone who is looking for a great community and resumé builder to apply to be a leader.

Highlights from my past several years as a leader:

I already posted a picture of my cast from this year but here is my last small group picture. I hope I’ve had some impact on their lives, or at least made their first week a little bit better by explaining the bus system.

My last group of first years on Kinnick. They were a great group and I hope I was able to answer all of their questions.

Hey Hawkeyes!

I hope everyone is enjoying the warmer temperatures! It’s been a crazy spring semester. I haven’t felt much like writing when I’ve been turning in at least one lab report every week. I have learned that taking three lab classes at once was not a good idea, especially when two of them require 40 page lab reports. I’m so glad we’re almost done with the semester. I have 9 lab reports until I’m done so the countdown has started!

So a few quick things about my semester so far:

1. 1. At the beginning of the semester, I began working in a research lab in the pharmacy department where they study droplet spreading behavior. I really like what I’m doing and the cool shapes make it fun. The one below is a yellow solution that fluoresces green under a blue light. The solution we’ve moved onto is purple (which I absolutely love), and fluoresces red under green light. I’ve really enjoyed getting to learn some new techniques and be involved with the project.

   

   Droplet Spreading

2. I got an internship! I had actually interviewed for the position last year, but they were looking for someone a little more long term than just the summer. This year, the company decided to start a project-based internship program and offered me a position over the summer based on my interview last year. I’m really excited to get some industry experiences and learn more about the polymer process. I will also be in Minnesota for the summer and get to explore a new area. This will be my first time living away from home and not at college as well as having to make an entirely new group of friends.
3. I am on Orange Squad this year! I interviewed for On Iowa! Leader again and was placed on Orange Squad. The spring leader training days are basically just a time for the squads to get to know each other. My cast is the Flaming Not Cheetos and the other Orange cast is the Goldfish. One of the first-year students on my dorm floor is in my cast and I’m super excited to watch her experience all the awesome parts of On Iowa! from a leader’s perspective. Being an On Iowa! leader has really improved my leadership skills. I’ve started noticing how much more conscious I am about what I say and how I respond to questions.

I think those are the main updates of the semester; hopefully I can blog some more over the next few weeks as the lab reports wind down. I really miss writing for fun; it’s been a while since I’ve had the time for that. Talk to you again soon!

Hey Hawkeyes,

I made it through the first week, sometimes known as syllabus week since most professors go over the syllabus and maybe on the second day of class they will begin covering lecture material. The main highlight of this first week is that there isn’t typically homework yet, well, at least no homework due. In my experience the professors usually assign homework on the second, if not the first, day of class. If you have a lab class you have a 50/50 chance of having lab cancelled the first day. Some professors want to have lecture before students begin in the lab, but some decide to just throw you into the lab. I really like having the first day of lab cancelled, mainly because it gives me a little more time to adjust (or sleep, if it’s an early lab) during the first week. Sadly, one of my three lab classes this semester decided to have lab on the first day, but then I met my TA’s (teaching assistants) and decided that it was ok. My TA’s seem really cool and fun. When you have to be in a room with someone, ask questions, and get help from the TA’s for six hours every week of the semester, it can make a huge difference. I’m a little nervous about my course load, but I’m going to try to be on top of everything and be super organized and efficient. I’m also going to try to have fun this semester, which was well-demonstrated this past weekend.

I have always loved watching the figure skating during the Olympics and I thought this semester would be a great chance to start learning. I signed up for lessons out at the mall in Coralville. These lessons are keeping me active as well as gives me at least one thing to look forward to each week. After my lesson I went shopping in the mall with a friend (might as well since I was already there, you know). Then my friends and I decided we should go to the Swing Dance Club’s kick-off dance. It was a Great Gatsby themed dance and they had a lesson before the dance. They even had a live band as well as a set-list with all the songs and what dance styles you could practice for each song. It was a lot of fun to get dressed up and go dance. Between that and my skating lesson my legs got a great work out. After the dance I asked a friend if she would go see a movie with me. An organization on campus called Campus Activity Board (CAB) gets movies that are just leaving theaters and plays them at the Iowa Memorial Union for $3 admission. They usually have two movies that play Thursday through Sunday. It’s a nice chance to go see a recent movie on a big screen for a cheaper price than other theaters. Even though it was kind of late at night, it was still fun and was a great end to my Saturday.

I decided to take Saturday off and just have fun, which means that Sunday needs to be spent doing lots of homework. I want to get a head start on this week so I can hopefully stay ahead of the stress this semester.

I’ll try to post halfway through the week to talk more about the lab schedules and how some of the advanced labs work. Talk to later!

Hey Hawkeyes!

I hope you guys are having a fantastic week! I certainly am having a blast!

Thursday was my last move-in shift for moving people into the dorms and I got to meet a bunch of people in my building, so it was really cool. I also worked a shift at the On Iowa! check-in table which was a lot of fun. I worked with a girl from Green Squad and we had a lot of fun teasing each other when we checked-in a student  from the others squad. We both got super excited when we meet someone from our color.

Yesterday was the big day. The day where we have a single short squad meeting and then get our small groups. We would scream and cheer when we saw Red Team people walking towards us. We also chanted Green Squads roll call back to them, but with Red Squad in it. Both Green and Red were trying to out cheer each other. Red totally dominated.

This year the leaders lined up on the sidewalk and two on the end would move to the grass. The first group of 20 students would be paired with one of the leaders. Once they had their 20, they could head to their classroom. I was so excited to get moved to the grass and get a small group. I ended up with 18 in my group. They were a fantastic group and participated in my whacky icebreakers (that I absolutely love!). We had a little bit of classroom time before heading to the Excel Lecture, which happened to be across the river. It was a great opportunity to get to know my small group better through very diverse conversations. In the Excel Lecture we learned about things to do and not do to be successful at University of Iowa. The professor was really great and asked for student leaders for contributions which, I think, helped the new students hear a current students perspective. After the lecture my group (minus two students who, I think, followed different group when everyone left the lecture hall) played a game to help us learn everyone’s name which brought a lot of laughs and some misunderstandings (“Tiller whales” for one). We have a lot of double names in my group and that made it a bit trickier.

After a slight… umm… detour… with my group, we arrived at dinner and mostly sat together. We had a great conversation about classes and some great resources. My small group had a lot of great questions and I know they’re going to have a fantastic year!  Following dinner, we went to Kinnick and had fun. They had a DJ playing music and we took a class picture (On Iowa! Leaders, RAs, and Band members are the outline) with the class of 2018 in gold shirts. Here’s a picture of my Small Group outside Kinnick in their gold shirts. Aren’t they great?!

My Small Group!

Red Squad hung out together on the field and had a ton of fun. We even had a tug-of war with multiple color squads. I love my squad so much and the other squads are so awesome.

Red Squad on Kinnick Field(minus a couple leaders)

Making the “I” for the class of 2018!

The whole class of 2018 at Kinnick!

Some of Red Squad just chillin’ on the turf.

Fireworks at Kinnick-so cool!

I’m not sure whose idea it was, but we had a gold vs. black tug-of war. The OnIowa! leaders were wearing black shirts from the outline of the “I’ and as I mentioned previously, new students were the gold. Although the black team put up a good fight, the gold did win the tug-of war.

Tug-of-war on Kinnick field.

I’m so excited for today! I can’t wait to see my Small Group again! I’m bringing candy for them. They just don’t know that I’m going to make them do an icebreaker for it!

So until later… OnIowa! Go Hawks!

Hey Hawkeyes!

This week has been so busy! It has also been a lot of fun. I get more and more excited every day as we get closer to the On Iowa! program to actually start!

Tuesday was our final day of training for the program. It was also my favorite day. We played icebreakers and practiced answering hard questions as we cheered on our fellow Code Red members. We learned that the word “princess” should probably not slip out when talking to parents (very funny moment from one of the more serious guys on the squad). We also discussed more of the schedule and logistics for Saturday and Sunday. It was a long day of training, but by the end you feel so close to your squad leaving them is really sad.

The theme was Wacky Day.
Think we accomplished that? 🙂

I absolutely love the energy, positivity, and ideas each of these people bring to the group.

Giants, Wizards, and Pixies

One of my favorite games to play was one I actually learned in my honors primetime workshop my first year. Pixies (tickly fingers and giggling) beat giants (arms raised over head with growling), giants beat wizards (waving your finger like a wand), and wizards beat pixies. It’s a team game where each team decides what magical creature they will be and then they come to the line. When the leader says “Go!” or “Who are you?”, each side does their respective motion. The winning side must try to tag the losing side before the losing side makes it to their “home base” (tree, wall, backpack). If the losing side is tagged, they must join the winning side. So it’s like Team Rock Paper Scissors with a tag element and some fun actions.

Dance Party at All-Team!

Who doesn’t like dancing?! It really helps get the energy back up and get everyone moving around. Everyone gets really into it!

Red Squad: Code Red’s flag
The back has all of our names on it. We’re pretty loyal to Red Squad.

Yesterday was the first day of the major move-in days. I love helping people move in. It’s so fun to talk to new students about their majors, activities on campus, and what they’re most excited about. I talked to a pre-med student, an art major, a psychology major, and a math major among many others. It also feels so great to be appreciated. I had a lot of parents tell me how easy move-in was for them. Some of them had moved multiple kids to college and they said that moving into Iowa was by far the best. We try really hard to make it easy and fast.

Herky even helped me and my friend move a student in. He helped drive my cart and get in line at the elevator.

I would also like to point out that that is my first picture with Herky and I would really like another one! I’m so excited to help with move-in again today! I also get to help with OnIowa! check-in so I’m looking forward to that as well.

Last night was also the East Side Spirit Night. It was a great time for students to get to know each other while doing school spirit activities like spray painting a hat, painting a picture frame, and tie-dying shirts. They also played some games which turn out to be a lot more fun when you have a lot of people playing.

The icebreaker “Hey, Me Too” at Spirit Night

This is a great icebreaker and turns into fun chaos when you have a group this big. A lot of Code Red came and spent time doing activities and talking with new students.

Spirit Night Code Red attendees

It was great getting to interact with some of the students we’ll be meeting with tomorrow in our small groups before going to Kick-Off at Kinnick.

Hey Hawkeyes!

I can’t believe it’s only the third week of class! I’m so used to my schedule already. Most my classes are falling into a routine(weekly homework and quizzes), which just means that I can now plan out my schedule a little more. I have a class that is only on Wednesday nights and I’m still worried about forgetting to take the quiz before class so I’m hoping that I’ll fall into a routine for that class soon so I don’t have that mini heart attack before I remember what day of the week it is.

My first round of tests is quickly approaching though. One test in the upcoming week, two the next week, and one the week after. I think I’ll have a little bit of break until after spring break (note: I think, it’s not definite yet). I’m really enjoying a few of my classes but haven’t started really disliking any of them yet. My friends and I are still constantly doing homework, the only difference now is that we’ve been trying to finish the homework a couple days before it’s due. With this goal, we’ve had more time to go do fun things, like going to an improv show. This show was a a combination of three different groups. It was a great way to laugh at the end of the week. All three groups did a great job of making the audience laugh and knowing what material to focus on based on how the audience responded. If you’re looking for something to do, definitely check out these groups, they usually post upcoming shows on Facebook.

Great White Narcs

Janice

Paperback Rhino

All the groups doing some improv together

I also had the opportunity to volunteer at a Girl Scout Badge Day hosted by WiSE. The activity I helped with was making drinking straw boats, where we talked about buoyant forces and larger surfaces to support more weight.

Talking about the physics behind buoyancy and boats

If there was an odd number of girls, I would be paired with the lone girl. The first girl I was paired with, I felt really sorry for. She wasn’t feeling well and I had no clue how to build a decent boat. The next girl already had a plan when I walked up to her and I did a fantastic job taping the straws together. Our boat held 141 pennies! I’m not sure who was more excited: me or the girl scout.

The amazing boat that held 141 pennies

Even though the record ended up being 189 pennies, I was still pretty proud of our boat(even though I just put the tape on). It was a lot of fun getting to know the girls and watching them get really excited about the number of pennies their boats held.

As some of you may know, last weekend was also Superbowl Sunday. We had a Superbowl party in our lounge.

Superbowl!

We ordered pizza and had chips, carrots, grapes, and meatballs. It was also my friend Abby’s birthday so she shared the birthday cake her family had brought her. It was nice to just spend time with friends and relax(although I did more homework than game watching). Hopefully the rest of the semester continues to be as stress-free as the first few weeks have been!

Hey Hawkeyes!

Ok, I know it’s been a while since I posted. I need to get used to doing short posts. I always have so much I want to say that I never think I have enough time to sit down and write. Now that we’re going into the fifth week of classes (really? just 5?) I think everyone has had at least one test in at least one of their classes. I think the first test is always the worst one, even though it’s supposed to be the easiest. With starting new classes with new professors, it can be really hard to guess what will be on the test. You never know exactly what the structure of the test will be like. Last week I took a test that had to be taken in pen with my answer “clearly marked, or it will not be graded.” I was a little nervous about that, I kinda like erasing mistakes. I guess it’s a good life lesson though. Sometimes you can fix the mistakes and erase the reminders. Other times you need to demonstrate that you messed up and “clearly mark” the change for the better in your life. Sorry if that was a little cheesy. I’m just a little bit tired. Anyway, the test didn’t go too badly and I didn’t even need the four pieces of scratch paper I grabbed. In fact, I think I used half of one. But now I know what to expect for the next test. And the next test always comes up really fast. I have two tests this upcoming week and then two tests next week. That combined with all the homework basically means that my “free time” is between 1 am and 7 am, typically known as sleeping time. Luckily, a lot of my friends like studying as a group so we can hang out and talk a little bit while we all work on a variety of homework. I really need to get a picture sometime. I think the last time we studied in my room we had eight people working on 5 different subjects. Everyone finds a little bit of floor space and spreads out. There’s also small group/individual study time which is typically a bit more productive if the subject is a bit more difficult.

Multi-tasking: Watching a football game while doing Organic Chemistry homework

Reading the 10 chapters of Biology for the upcoming test

As much fun as it is to study with friends, you really need to know what you struggle with and when you need alone time to interpret the information. A major part of college is recognizing what’s best for you and making an action plan that makes it happen. And sometimes what’s best for you is just taking a break from school. If you do homework all the time and never have relaxation time, you will get stressed and burn out. Trust me. It happens. Luckily, there’s always something to do. A couple weeks ago (I can’t believe I didn’t do a post about this), the chemical engineering department scheduled a trip the the local apple orchard. It was a lot of fun and gave the underclassmen a chance to talk to upperclassmen about research and classes. Oh, and the apples were amazing. The apple turnovers were even better. They were fantastic. I bought a jug of apple cider to keep in my fridge and was very sad at how fast it disappeared.

Enjoying turnovers while hanging out with friends

Apple picking

I will honestly try to post again this week, but I really can’t promise anything. With homework due Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and two things due Friday with exams on Tuesday and Friday, it might be Friday before I have time to post anything. So in the mean time, have a great week and try to relax a little bit!