Sarah

Hey Hawkeyes,

You know how time can feel like it’s going so slowly but then you look back and you have no idea where the time went? That’s pretty much what’s been going on. In the week before Thanksgiving break I had a ton of homework due and a test each week with three right before Thanksgiving break. But I also found some time to have fun too. College can be stressful and you really need to balance school and fun. Sometimes it can be tough when you’re living in the dorm because you feel like you’re always at school. If you make the most of college though, the dorms can actually become the best thing. You always have people to study with. My engineering friends and I have Thermo Thursday where we all get together and work on the Thermodynamics assignment together since it’s due Friday. We all try to start it a little bit early so we can compare answers and rework problems if there’s a discrepancy in the answers, but let’s be honest, most of us start that night. Here’s one of our Thermo Thursday parties.

Study party!

I wish I had the picture from the Thermo Thursday a couple weeks after this one; we had so many people we ended up in the lounge with 4 tables pushed together and some people on the floor.

Sometimes you have to reward yourself when you’ve been working hard. My reward for working hard/finally taking a break from homework, class, and tests was to see the musical “Wicked” in Chicago. The Campus Activities Board(CAB) organized a trip to see the musical on a Saturday night. We got on the bus at 3pm and arrived home at 3:30am the next morning. It was a long night, but so much fun. I was so glad to have friends go with me too!

Wicked!

I tried to convince myself that I would do homework on the bus there, but then we watched “The Wizard of OZ” and “Rent”, so homework didn’t really happen. It was a great relaxing weekend and I absolutely loved seeing “Wicked”. This trip was my first time ever seeing it and it was awesome! I couldn’t have been more excited for this trip; now I want to go see it again.

The weekend after “Wicked” was the last home game for this football season. Remember my last post where I said games were getting colder?

Well, this last home game was pretty cold. Actually, it was really cold! Everyone was bundled up. I hadn’t had the chance to bring my snowboots and as it turns out, regular shoes just don’t keep your feet warm even when you’re wearing three layers of socks.

Going home after the game was definitely one of the best feelings ever. Just something about knowing you have an entire week of no class, no turning in homework, and finally getting caught up on sleep is simply exciting. I heard some first years talking about going home for the first time and I realized that as a first year, I hadn’t really thought about what it would be like going home for the first time since I live so close. However, I realized that everything they were saying was just as true for me as it was for them, even now as a sophomore. So why is going home in college so different? Well,

1. Driving a car for the first time after being gone for weeks or even months is one of the weirdest things. My friends and I were all used to driving to school and driving to all our activities. Now in college, we walk every where or take a bus. When we finally get home, climbing into a car can seem strangely strange. You wouldn’t think it would feel so weird, but it does.

2. Homework should really be done over a weekend of going home, but it normally just doesn’t happen. Even over long breaks like Thanksgiving(although this break, I actually did quite a bit of homework), it’s really hard to get motivated to do homework.

3. Sleep is an amazing thing and nothing it better than being able to sleep in your own bed again. Something about being home, or even just going home, is calming and puts you to sleep right away. One of the first-years I was talking to  said that since she lived 3 hours away she was going to do homework on the ride there and back so she could finish her homework without having to actually do it at home. This is a combination of both point 2 and point 3. She said she got in the car and she just fell asleep right away. Then she didn’t do the homework at home, slept on the way back, and stayed up way too late trying to finish the homework.

Those are probably the three top things that everyone deals with, so don’t feel like you’re the only one struggling with motivation or think you’re a bad student for not doing homework when you go home. You can definitely fix those issues, but you don’t have to feel alone either.

Until next time, Hawkeyes, stay warm!

*Gasp* I missed 4 weeks of blog posts! As in, like, all of October!! How’d that happen?!

Hey Hawkeyes!

I’m so sorry to have left you hanging for my favorite month! For those who have been reading my blog for a while, you know that fall is my favorite time of year. I love the colors and I was so excited about taking pictures of the pretty trees for you guys. But this fall has been extremely weird. The weather couldn’t decide if it wanted to be cold or warm, rainy or snowy. So it kinda did both on a day to day interval. The result of the weird weather being that some tree changed colors early, some just started changing, and some panicked and dropped all their leaves the first week. I was kinda sad about that. I still have a few photo ideas I want to try though, so hopefully I can get out there and capture some of them yet this fall.

Not much has been going on with me through October. It just kinda whizzed by, kinda like all the deadlines for my homework (no worries, it was completed and handed in on time). My roommate and I were getting ready for bed last week and I excitedly informed her that we had 4 weeks until Thanksgiving break. She was stunned and asked, “You’re counting down already?” I told her that no, in fact I wasn’t. My teacher’s are forcing me to by scheduling exams. I had one exam this past week, one this week, one the following week, and three the week after that (which is the week right before Thanksgiving). Therefore, there were 4 weeks. Now we are down to 3. I’m not sure how I’m supposed to feel: excited for a break or terrified that finals are starting to feel really close! Here are a few pictures from the last month:

I also got a bit of a cold this past week and re-discovered the fact that being sick during cold weather in college is not a ton of fun. I went to all my classes (not happily) and tried not to be that annoying person that coughs, sneezes, and sniffles through lecture. I also discovered that even though it’s a bit excessive (and not particularly helpful), it is possible to drink a gallon of orange juice in three days. By the way, as much as everyone insists it can’t help you when you’re already sick, I think the juice helped. I also believe in mind over matter, or at least try to tell myself that often enough. I will hopefully keep you guys more updated in the next several weeks before break, or at least post a few times!

Hey Hawkeyes!

So sorry I missed last week’s post! It’s been crazy busy. I’m getting used to the homework schedule though. Engineering Math 2 is due on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Thermodynamics is due Wednesdays, as is Organic Chemistry. Process Calculations and Physics are both due on Friday. Basically I do homework all the time. However, I take enough breaks to do fun stuff that the homework doesn’t seem too tedious.

The past couple of weekends I have gone to football games with a large group of friends. Here’s some pictures for you guys.

Even though I know next to nothing about football, going to a game with friends and joining the energy of the stadium filled with cheers was exhilarating. Although I do recommend wearing sunblock. Carrying a backpack with a sunburn is a bit painful. After the game two weeks ago, we had a movie night and an ice cream run. A few of my friends live in Centerstone, the honors apartments just off campus. To make the most of their shared living space they bought a giant beanbag chair. I’d just like to say that this beanbag is the most comfortable thing to take a nap on and we can fit so many people on it, it’s great for watching movies.

My friends on the giant beanbag chair 🙂

I really need to get better at posting more often. I’ll try really hard to get a few more posts in this week!

Hey Hawkeyes!

Time has been flying for the past two weeks. My last post left off on Wednesday and everything has been a whirlwind since then. I’ll try to give a summary!

Thursday
I helped with Move-in crew, which was a lot of fun again. The same group that helped Wednesday helped on Thursday so it was nice getting to know more people. I also helped with Target Takeover this year. There are shuttles that hauled all the students out to the Target in Coralville. There’s a ton of activities with chances to win free stuff. They also had a live DJ to help get the energy up. It was a lot of fun and there was so much energy.

The front crew at Target Takeover with Bullseye

Friday
We had our final On Iowa! squad meeting before we met our small groups. I was kinda nervous about meeting them but after our squad meeting and laughing with them, I realized that my small group was probably nervous about meeting me and each other. My small group was pretty cool and even participated in the ice breakers with some enthusiasm. After a lecture about how to succeed in college and then dinner, we headed to Kinnick Stadium. At Kinnick, the first years learn cheers, songs, and chants. They also get to form the big block ‘I’ on the field.

Some of my small group having fun at Kinnick

A sea of first years on Kinnick field

When we got to Kinnick, it was mass chaos as far as finding anyone. Half of my small group got lost in the sea of students walking up to Kinnick. I was a little disappointed but was trying to ignore it, but then I got to the gates where students were entering and I saw my group standing there waiting for me. When we got onto the field, I managed to find a group of Teal squad leaders and we had to take a picture. These are some of the best people I’ve ever met.

Feel the Teal!

After the Kinnick activities, students could leave to go to some other events or they could stay on Kinnick and take part in races, tug-of-war, or field goal kicking. Teal squad also had a hang out session in the middle of Kinnick field.

Teal Hangout: “I thirsted his quenches!” “Teal the feel!”

Hanging out after such a long day made for some pretty interesting moments and quotes, but that’s why I love them!

Saturday
This was the big day for On Iowa! leaders. And students I guess. As leaders, today was the day we presented the Iowa Challenge. The challenge is Excel, Stretch, Engage, Choose, Serve. These five things are what past graduates feel are necessary to have a fulfilling and successful college experience. This year, we focused on the Choose part of the Challenge. We talked about Hawks helping Hawks and keeping fellow Hawkeyes safe using bystander intervention if we see something that could put someone in danger. My small group (which ended up really small because half of my small didn’t show up to the second day of class) responded really well and were completely serious about the topic. I would have loved to have had my whole class come back, but the students who did come back were a great bunch. They provided intelligent and meaningful ideas about how to help someone who might be in a bad situation.

We also talked about getting Engaged on campus and finding activities that will help you meet people who have similar interests. This discussion ended with going to the Engage Fair that had booths with information about a lot of the organizations students can join.

Sunday

This was our last squad meeting together as Teal team 6. We did an activity where we would throw a ball of yarn around the circle and we had to say 1. our favorite moment, 2. how we grew as a leader, and 3. one thing we would never forget. We all agreed that one of the things we wouldn’t forget was the strong connection with our Teal squad. At the end of the activity we had a star of teal yarn to show how we were all connected.

The Teal Stars

Being an On Iowa! leader has been one of the best experiences and I met such awesome people, I would highly recommend being involved with it.

Now for the short rundown on the first week of class.
I have quite a few classes this semester that have a lot of homework so I’ll be pretty busy with that. On the better note, I have every class with at least one friend, so it makes it easier to work on homework together. I like my schedule so far (other than the awful power walk from one side of campus to the other) but I get all my lectures out of the way in the mornings. The first-years on my floor are getting used to lecture and will soon be going to their first chemistry lab (hence the title of this post, the TA’s always tell you not to ingest the chemicals). It’s been so great being an upperclassman on the WiSE floor. My friends and I have had so much fun getting to know the first-years. We’ve had multiple floor bonding moments in the middle of the hallway. Now whenever we walk out and see a group standing in the hallway, they’ll yell down, “Hey, hall bonding! Come down!” This is just one of the many hallway bondings.

One of our floor bonding moments 🙂 Sophomores and freshmen having fun with a cardboard box

We’ve also had a nail-painting and hair braiding party in my room which was a lot of fun. We keep adding people so we’re slowly getting to know the whole floor and each individual person.

This year is off to such an awesome start, I’m so excited. Last year seemed so awesome, I didn’t think it could get better. But this year has definitely surpassed those expectations. I can’t wait to see what the year will bring!

Hey Hawkeyes!

As I’m sure you all know, school is just around the corner and we’re all getting really excited! Leading up to move-in, I was definitely most excited to see my friends. I’m still a little hesitant about starting homework, but I really don’t get a choice with that. But anyway, the exciting stuff! I moved in Sunday the 18th so that I would be all ready for On Iowa! training on Monday. I also had the chance to meet some girls on my dorm floor. My dorm floor is about half sophomores and half freshmen, which has been a blast. My sophomore friends are getting the freshmen used to leaving doors open and just walking into open-doored rooms to chat. They’re all so great and friendly, I definitely hope I was like that when I came here, or if not, I hope I’ve grown into it. If you’ve read my older blog posts, you’ll know I’m involved in WiSE; this year I signed up for the mentoring program. I finally met my mentee when she moved in on Wednesday and absolutely love her! She lives just down the hall from me and we’ve had some great conversations already. It also made me feel amazing that right before she met me, the freshmen I had already met a couple days ago started telling my mentee how awesome and friendly I am. Totally made my day!

Now I’ll try to give you an overview of my week so far:

Monday: On Iowa! Training
I can’t even begin to tell you how much fun I’ve had with On Iowa!. The people I’ve met have been some of the kindest, most outgoing, and unique people ever. This year, the leaders were put into color squads. Each leader in the color squad is assigned a small group of freshmen that they will be teaching and leading. It makes organizing freshmen and leaders a TON easier. I’m part of Teal Squad/Teal Team. Teal Squad refers to the squad of leaders, whereas Teal Team refers to the leaders in addition to their small groups of first-years. Teal is definitely the best squad (Keep it real, Keep it Teal!). All the On Iowa! leaders are definitely awesome, but we’re all pretty loyal to our color. We’ve created a slogan (see previously mentioned  parentheses), squad cheer, and a squad handshake. But don’t get me wrong, I have some outstanding friends in other squads too. On Monday alone, we spent 6 hours in training. These training sessions included All-Team meetings (all colors together) and squad meetings (just your assigned color). We discussed ice breakers, nervous kids, introductions, and the Iowa Challenge. We also have a lot of fun testing out different ice breakers! After On Iowa! training I came back to the dorm and hung out with the girls on my dorm floor. We’re getting used to having talk sessions with everyone in a circle in someone’s room. Monday’s was in my room.

Tuesday: More On Iowa! Training
On Tuesday, we spent another 6 hours in training. We spent time in workshops learning about group facilitation and learning about how generation differences affect how people respond to teaching methods. And those were just the two workshops I went to. They also had sessions on foreign name pronunciation(for those of us that struggle with difficult names) and ice breaker sessions. We also learned how to answer tough questions that might come up. We’re pretty much prepared for anything after a practice session with our squads where we each had the opportunity to practice having an obnoxious group (played oh, so well by the rest of our squad). The training and practice was a lot of fun and definitely left me feeling way better about my small group. We closed our final All-Team meeting on Tuesday with a very special activity. We tied paper signs around our necks and were then instructed to swing them around to our backs. We were given a pen and told to write words of encouragement to our teammates. I had such special and sweet things written on mine. It really gave me the confidence that I was ready to face my small group. After training on Tuesday, I went back to my dorm for another great talk session in my friend’s room, which is just down the hall from my room.

Wednesday: Move-In!
On Iowa! leaders were asked to choose activity shifts to volunteer with. I chose to help with move-in. It was a little chaotic, but eventually I caught on and was a pro at packing those carts. The elevators were the best part! I mean, who doesn’t like a giant game of Tetris with carts and people?! After I helped with move-in, I helped with On Iowa! check-in. That seemed really easy after move-in. All I had to do was hand people their name tag, color wristband, and itinerary and explain what each one was. After that ended, I had a small break. During this break is when I met my mentee. I knew she had moved in and I had tried to visit her, but she wasn’t in her room. But I finally met her and we talked for over an hour until it was time for Late Night activities. I had been talking up Spirit Night to a bunch of the girls on my floor because I knew they’d love the tie-dying (who doesn’t love free Hawkeye shirts that you get to decorate?!). However, according to my On Iowa! attendance sheet, most of the people in my small group live on West side. Soooo the girls on my floor (including a couple sophomores) headed over to Hillcrest for the Spirit Night. We took a bus so we could show the freshman what it was like. We explained the Red and Blue routes once again, now with better visuals. They all gave a resounding “Oooooh, that’s what they meant by Blue to Burge and Red to Rienow.” I was very grateful to them for accompanying me over to Hillcrest since I don’t know many people living on West side. After tie-dying a shirt, talking, and meeting some more On Iowa! leaders(along with us leaders trying out some ice breakers), we headed back over to East side to attend their Spirit Night (same activities, but with more people from the East neighborhood).  The On Iowa! leaders received buttons saying “Ask me about” and then something that we had said we wanted to talk about with incoming families. Mine said “Ask me about my summer”. Mainly, I wanted to talk about my summer research because I felt like that was very cool for freshmen to hear about and get involved with. After explaining the entire project I help research to the girls from my floor, one of the freshmen looked at me and said “That is so cool; I want to do what you do.” Another day-maker! I’m so excited that I get to share so much of my college experience with them. After having a dance party and meeting even more leaders we headed for the dorm. Finally to bed. Well, shower first(move-in and walking every where except our one bus ride, equals slightly sweaty). And we can’t go without another talk session!In my room again with some girls more girls from the floor who hadn’t been around earlier. I’ll try to get a picture of a talk session so everyone can see how much fun we have.

So far this school year is off to such a great start, I wouldn’t change anything about it. If anything, I’d be fine with helping with more move-in and more On Iowa! events just to make these fun times last longer. But with how great the girls on my floor are, I know there will be plenty of amazing memories to be made. And as far as On Iowa! goes, I want to be a squad captain next year so I can be even more involved, so I’ll be applying for that later in the fall. Wish me luck!  For any of you out there, whatever grade here at University of Iowa, apply to be an On Iowa! leader, it’s such a memorable and amazing experience. I have had a blast with my squad and the entire leader team. They’re so full of energy and excitement that I can’t wait to share it all with my small group. If you’re thinking about coming to University of Iowa, we have one of the strongest, most supportive student body and staff. And for any freshmen who just got to campus: can’t wait to see you at On Iowa!

Hey Hawkeyes,

My last post was about my class and my trip to Chicago, but you may be wondering what do I do in my free time? Well, to answer that I am proud and excited to say that I am working in a lab on campus. I’m so excited to be involved in research and I am learning so much! During the chemical engineering seminar (the one we made ice cream in), different professors came to talk about their research projects. After a few weeks of having no interest in the projects being presented, a project sounded immensely interesting. After class I approached the professor about a research position over the summer. He said he would have to check the budget, but that his grad students were getting tired of making the media for the experiments. He asked me to email him so we could set up a meeting. During the meeting he showed me the labs and talked about what I would be doing. I would mainly be washing glassware and making media, but if one of the grad students was gone, I would fill in. When he asked if I would like to work in his lab, I was definitely ready with a YES!

Basically the project I’m helping with is half of a larger project. The lab I’m helping with is working with bacteria. I make the broth to feed the bacteria and wash dishes (broth bottles and test

tubes) along with making sure everything is clean. So basically my day goes like this: Get to the lab and begin making broth. Each broth takes 10 minutes in the microwave, so while it’s cooking I wash empty bottles and let them dry. When the broth is done, I pour it into a bottle that now has to be autoclaved (high temperature and high pressure) for an hour to sterilize it. The empty bottles, once dry, must also be autoclaved for an hour. While the bottles are in the autoclave, I wash the test tubes. When test tubes come in, they have some of the bacteria in them so they must be autoclaved before being washed. After they have been washed and have dried for two days, I put the caps back on them and autoclave them again. Then some of them are filled with broth and autoclaved again. After the grad students conduct the experiment, they bring the 5 liter bottle of waste over. The waste must be autoclaved, dumped, and then the bottle must be washed and autoclaved. Unfortunately, the waste tends to smell and if we dump it during normal hours, people don’t like it. So we try to dump it at the end of the day so there aren’t very many people around. Every couple of days I have to go to a different building and get de-ionized water. I usually have to make about 10 liters of broth everyday, autoclave everything for an hour before I use it, and then again for another hour after I’ve used it. To keep things running smoothly, it takes a bit of strategy. Oh, and did I mention the agar? The agar goes on the bottom of the petri dishes that we grow the bacteria on. It has to be cooked for 15 minutes and then autoclaved for an hour.

Immediately after it comes out of the autoclave it has to be poured into the plates because it becomes solid at room temperature. Which means that all the dishes used to make the agar (which are the same ones we use to make broth) have to dry before we can clean them because it’s so sticky.

Now factor that into the time strategy. Oh, and add in the fact that the broth has to be made the day before they need it because they can’t use it when it’s hot (and after being autoclaved, it’s boiling) and if it’s made too far in advance it will go bad and have to be dumped (which means I have to make more to replace it). I love where I’m working though. I’m learning so much and it’s great experience with the lab equipment. I also really like the people I’m working with so work is usually a lot of fun.

I even took some pictures of the lab for you guys.

The empty ones in the back have been washed and autoclaved. The large yellow, cloudy one is waste that has to autoclaved and dumped. The two little ones are what the broth is supposed to look like, except there need to be 8 more in order to be ready for the next day.The tape on the lids is autoclave tape and the stripes turn from white to black after being autoclaved, but only if the autoclave reaches the correct temperature to sterilize the equipment.

I hope at least some of that made some sense to you. It’s sort of confusing when I try to explain it to people so if you have any questions, just comment! Thanks for reading!

Hey Hawkeyes!

I hope everyone is having a great summer! My summer has been extremely busy so far, but it’s been fantastic. I realized that I never did a follow-up post after finals. All of my finals went pretty well. My finals schedule wasn’t bad. My first final was on the Wednesday of finals week so I had plenty of time to study. After my Wednesday final I had a final on Thursday and a final project review for my photography class. My last final was at 3 pm on Friday. I wasn’t thrilled with the time since that meant that it would be after 5 before I could head for home. My parents came down before my final to help move my brother out, and after my final was over we packed up all my stuff and went home. In all that time I had for studying, I read a lot of chapters out of various books, got ice cream with friends, and helped move friends out of the dorms.

For the first time in most of our lives we were saying goodbye to friends we knew we’d see again, it would just be a while. Most of us are used to hanging out with friends over the summer, but now our new friends were going different directions. Some were going home, some were going to new research opportunities, a few had internships, and a few even stayed in Iowa to work and take classes.

Three of my awesome college friends! I don’t know if I could have survived this year without them!

It was sad saying goodbye and knowing we would no longer be just down the hall or just down the street, but rather in a different state. However, with careful planning and motivated people, we planned a trip to visit each other! A friend and I(both from fairly close to Iowa City) bought bus tickets to Chicago to see two of our friends. It was an awesome adventure, especially since we got to see how many kids travel home for weekends or breaks, something we hadn’t experienced with living so close to school.

Shopping in Chicago! Recognize her shirt? She’s a Society of Women Engineers member wearing the high school conference shirt 🙂

One of our friends offered to let us stay with her family over the weekend. Since they know the area so well, they were able to show us some of Chicago’s treasures.

The Bean!

Tall buildings!

We had a great time hanging out with her family and enjoying Chicago deep-dish pizza. It was so great to visit friends and see Chicago.

However, this trip could only be planned after my friend and I had finished our summer class. As a summer class, it was much shorter than normal classes. It was a six week long class, which basically translates to homework due twice a week, a test every week, and a comprehensive final at the end. I couldn’t have been more excited when it was done.

But now it is finished and I get to enjoy my summer. I’m getting excited for the fall though. I can’t wait for On Iowa! when I get to meet the new first years and help out with registration! I’ll try to be better about posting from now on! 🙂

Hey Hawkeyes!

How’s life treating everyone? Life here is going smoothly. I’m a little worried for finals, but I really just want to get them done and move home.

I’ve been doing some studying as well as having fun. I’m not sure if I talked about it earlier in my blog, but I did Friends and Neighbors Day at the beginning of the year. Every first year who signed up was matched with an international first year student. Even though it was just one day of events, the girl I was matched with and I have stayed in contact. She’s from China and decided I needed to try some real Chinese food, so she took me out to eat. The food was awesome and I loved getting to talk to her before we both get busy with finals. She’s actually staying here to do research over the summer so I may get to see her at some point.

My friend from Friends and Neighbors Day.

Since it’s the week before finals, everyone is making plans to move home. I, along with several of my other friends, are moving some stuff home the weekend before so there’s not as much stuff after finals. The fun part? When everyone’s families come. It’s been great to get to know my friends’ families more. One of my friends has had her younger sisters come and stay with her and we’ve all loved getting to hang out with them. In return for helping move out and in celebration of (almost) surviving our entire first year of college, one of my friends parents took a few of us out to eat.

Enjoying awesome food and friendship

Very artistic food and the oreo cheesecake was AMAZING!

Thanks so much to her parents! The food was amazing! It was also nice to get away from campus and enjoy being around a family (her parents are so nice and her sisters are so fun to talk to!). I’ve made some really great friends here.

She’s amazing too!

Another one of my friends moved out most of her stuff the next day, so I helped again. Again, I was thanked with food (thank you to her parents too!). So as the new tradition, we needed a picture of it.

Her family didn’t appreciate the picture as much 🙂

I’m so excited to go home, but so sad to leave my friends. Right now I’m focused on studying for finals and doing well on those and just enjoying the friendships I’ve made.

Hey Hawkeyes!

I hope life is going well for everyone. This is the first week in about a month that I haven’t had a test. This is also the first week all semester that I haven’t had a Wednesday afternoon class. Since we had our final lab last week, we don’t have case study either. So instead of being in class, I’ve caught up on homework, started working ahead, and even caught up on sleep.

I’ve also been enjoying the gorgeous weather we’ve been having. In fact, I just so happen to have the most awesome Calculus TA ever. Why you ask? Because she let us have class outside.

Outdoor class on the Pentacrest 🙂

It was such a nice day and was such an awesome change from being in the same old room. The wind made things a little difficult but it was nothing we couldn’t deal with. It was also awesome to see the jealousy as other students passed us on the way to their boring old classrooms.

OnIowa! Update: Teal’s the real deal, just so you all know. All the leaders are divided into squads that are given a color. I’m in teal squad and very loyal to the Teal. Each squad is given the mission of winning their squad points by doing different activities. One such activity is a scavenger hunt where we’re given clues and we have to find the object/place and take a picture with it. The catch? We have to have at least 6 squad members in the picture. Do you know how hard it is to coordinate 6 people’s schedules when it’s two weeks before finals? Well, we finally got it figured out and a group went out to take pictures. Here’s just a few of them 🙂

Pyramid at the Pentacrest

In a lecture hall

In front of the climbing wall

It was definitely a great squad-bonding opportunity and it was a lot of fun.

Have a great rest of the week and weekend!

Hey Hawkeyes!

Now that I’m finally done with “midterms” (are they still midterms when they’re after midterm?), I can finally start preparing for finals. Just so you all know, my finals start in 12 school days. Which for those who don’t count by school days, two weeks of class plus the first two days of finals week that I don’t have finals.

On Wednesday, I had my last chemistry lab for the year. It was a long lab. Some things just went slower and needed more precision than we thought. However, the experiments were really cool. Electrochemistry and energy just isn’t one of my interest areas.

Attaching electrolyzer wires to electrodes

The electrodes in their corresponding solutions.

Using electrochemistry to make hydrogen gas to be used by a voltaic cell to run a fan (similar to an electric car, if none of that made sense).

Aside from class and homework and meetings with my professors and advisors, I’ve been having a blast as an On Iowa! leader. We had our second (and last until August) All-Team meeting. As part of the team, I had the opportunity to be on one of the committees. The committees were separated into sub-committees that focused on goals. The committee that I chose to join was the Excel Committee because I feel that between last semester (which was a little rough) and this semester (which is going much better) I have a lot of advice to give first-years to help them excel.

On Iowa! Excel Committee decked out in our squad shirts Photo-credit: Bill Adams, University Communication and Marketing

I’m so excited for On Iowa! and to meet my small group of first-years. All the people I have met through On Iowa! are so much fun and so willing to help out whenever.

Let the countdown begin! Talk to you soon!