Sarah

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!

Hey Hawkeyes!

I hope everyone is having an awesome week. Four weeks left! Three weeks of class and one week of finals! Everything is getting pretty busy now. I had a Psych test last week, Calculus test and Psych paper this week, Chemistry test next week, and photography final project the next week. Basically, I’ve been doing a lot of homework all the time. During one of our study breaks, my friends and I were called to our floor lounge for this:

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Another awesome break was Daum Prom. A few of my friends live in Daum so we got a group together, dressed up, and danced. It was a lot of fun and they had some great snacks (chocolate fountain). I’m so glad I have a group of friends that loves dressing up and dancing as much as I do! The girls all came over to my room so we could get ready together. We did each other’s nails and hair while listening to music. I had different pictures of the girls, but one of the girls on my floor volunteered to take this one of all of us together. I’m so glad she was walking down the hallway just then!

The girls all ready for Daum Prom. We met up with the boys later.

As another study break, one of my friends with an apartment and car came and picked me up. We ate out and went to Petland to hold puppies for a while. It was probably the most relaxing thing I’ve done. The socialization is great for the puppies and it gives them some time out of their pens. They were all so cute!

The husky puppy that we played with until she fell asleep.

That was about it for the nice weather activities when everyone wanted to get outside and do stuff around town. Well, I guess some people were fine with the rain too. This past Wednesday, the weather decided the ground was too dry and that we obviously needed a flood. I didn’t get any pictures of deep water on the streets or the mudslide at Mayflower, but I did get some pictures of this:

Yep, that’s a Slip n’ Slide

Some of the guys from my dorm hall were waiting for a rainy day to get out the Slip n’ Slide tarp. The decided that Wednesday would be a perfect day to put on shorts and t-shirts and slide down the hill. It was about 45˚ out and you could see their breath fog when they talked. But that didn’t stop them from laying the tarp down the hill(sliding down the wet grass in the process) and squeezing dish soap down it. The guys were very careful about it though. They wanted to make sure they weren’t going to cause any damage, so they surveyed the landing area before going down the Slip n’ Slide. They determined that the landing area was all mud from the rain anyway, so they didn’t have to worry about killing the grass.

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It was really cold and my raincoat was soaked through and I didn’t even go down the hill. The guys had a ton of fun and hopefully stay healthy after standing in the cold rain for an hour.

A few of the Sliders right before they hit the showers.

When they came in they left beautiful, muddy footprints all across the floor. But again, the guys were thoughtful and responsible. After their showers, they came back down and cleaned the floor all the way from the main entrance to their hallway. It just goes to show you can still have fun without destroying anything and making more work for other people.

All of these things are great ways to have some fun, get away from the homework, and de-stress before exams. There will probably be more in the weeks to come, stay tuned 🙂

Hey Hawkeyes!

I hope everyone had a fantastic week! I really have to get better at this posting during the week, don’t I? I’ll work on that for this week. It’s been a crazy week, which I’m guessing since we only have 4 weeks of class left, every week will be crazy. This past week was my psychology test, this coming week is my calculus test, and the next week is my chemistry test. My plan is to take each test as it comes. Devote the whole week to that subject (hopefully not at the expense of the other subjects).

Last weekend kicked off the busy week with Society of Women Engineers (SWE)’s High School Conference. Basically, SWE hosts an event where high school girls can come learn about engineering and about what University of Iowa offers to engineering students. They sign-in Friday afternoon in the engineering building, followed by ice breakers to get to know everybody.

Sign In: every girl gets a bag with a schedule, campus map, engineering information, and a small notebook

The Get-To-Know-You ball. It had questions written all over it, so when you bounced it across the circle to someone they would catch it, say their name and answer the question under their right index finger.

When the group got really big, they split it into two circles where they continued to play games like Ninja(demonstrated in the picture), Hey, Me Too!, and the typical name games.

After sign-in and ice breakers, the girls were taken to one of the classrooms to learn more about Society of Women Engineers(SWE) and Women in Science and Engineering(WiSE).

Pretty full classroom, as you can tell.

Then we had breakout sessions where the girls picked a type of engineering to learn more about. After a 20 minute info session, they switched to another one. In the info sessions, the high school girls could ask questions about anything involving the major, engineering, or college in general. The SWE girls leading the session talked about classes and focus areas.

Biomedical info session

Civil Engineering

Chemical Engineering

Industrial Engineering

I didn’t make it to all the info session but they had all of the engineering types covered.

After the info sessions was dinner. We had Jimmy John’s subs and chips. The high school girls had the opportunity to talk to some professional women over dinner.

Talking to faculty and professionals at dinner

After dinner, there was a panelist of professional women to talk about the careers in engineering. The high school girls could ask anything they wanted about education, classes, internships, and careers in engineering.

Talking about being a woman in the workplace

After the professional panel, the girls had another type of panel come in. They had to guess which guys were engineers by asking questions like “How much time do you spend studying?” The guys were good at disguising their answers.

The “engineer” panel

Then it was time for dessert! Does this look familiar? The girls got to make ice cream in a bag, just like my chemical engineering seminar did.

Chemical Engineering at its finest 🙂

They really enjoyed it, other than the cold hands 🙂

We even got to make liquid Nitrogen ice cream again! The girls thought it was pretty cool too.

Yummy ice cream 🙂

And of course dancing to Backstreet Boys was a must 🙂

Some of the SWE girls having fun 🙂

The night ended with the girls making the trek from the Seamans Center to the WiSE floor in the residence hall to spend the night with the WiSE girls. The WiSE girls played games and just hung out with the high school girls until they all went to bed(somewhere around 2 or 3am).

Off to the dorms for movies, games, and snacks.

The conference was a lot of fun (not much sleep) and it was awesome to meet some of the girls who will hopefully be on the WiSE floor next year. The really cool part was that exactly one year before, I was in the same seats as the high school girls. I attended the SWE high school conference last year after I had made my final decision on where to go to college. I decided it would be the ultimate test. I would be on my own on campus, without my parents. Several girls that attended the conference with me even ended up in some of my classes, which was really cool. It was so nice to get to college and recognize a few faces. I was also able to recognize upperclassmen SWE and WiSE girls from the conference. After attending the conference and having such a great experience, it was awesome to help out and give other girls the same great experience. Just one of the awesome giving back volunteer opportunities of college! 🙂

Hey Hawkeyes!

I hope everyone has been surviving now that we’re on the downhill side of the semester. This past week has been an easy week for me: no tests, no quizzes, and few homework assignments. My calculus assignment went really fast and I was able to finish the entire assignment in 2 hours of tutoring. My chemistry assignment also went really fast. Since this week has been so easy and laid back, I’ve been taking the time to catch up with friends and prepare for my next exam which is next week. I also have an exam the week after.

The last day to drop a class is Monday, and since I have one class that I was a little worried about, I decided to talk to my TA for that class. When I met with her, she pulled up my grades and informed me that I have over 95% on homework and quizzes. My exam score was a little low, but she said that with a little work, that would be an easy fix. So needless to say, I will not be dropping the class and according to my TA I should end the class with a grade that will help my GPA rather than hurt it. So word of advice: Before you drop anything, talk to the TA/professor!

I also had my second On Iowa! Committee meeting. I’m so excited for this opportunity. I’ve met some really awesome people. I think we’ve had the most fun laughing at our own mistakes and helping each other learn from them. This weekend is the first All-Team meeting for On Iowa!, which basically means I get to meet everyone who will be helping out with On Iowa! this year. I’m really looking forward to it.

Talk to you later, Hawkeyes!

Hey Hawkeyes!

Guess what?! It’s almost spring break! My whole goal has been just to survive this week. Luckily, it’s been an easy week. And by easy I mean only 3 chemistry assignments, one math assignment, one psychology quiz, and one photography assignment.

Spring break is perfectly timed when everyone is ready for a break. Everyone is making plans to see friends from high school and even friends from college that we won’t see over break. It seems so weird that before August, we never knew these people but now we’re so attached to them and can’t go a week without at least talking to them. I guess it goes to show how fast people can bond when you’re going through the same struggles. In the past couple of weeks I’ve been really stressed out and I have really appreciated my friends being there for me.

I’m still really excited for Spring Break though. I’ve been working hard all week to get ahead on homework so I’ll just have to study over break. I have a chemistry test the week after I get back, so I plan on reading a ton of chemistry. Hopefully, just being at home will inspire motivation. 🙂

So long for now, enjoy your break!

Hey Hawkeyes!

It’s been a busy week yet again and I’m so happy for the weekend. One of the things I’ve wanted to talk about in this post was the opportunities in college. There are so many things to get involved in both academically and otherwise. I’ve applied for a few of the great opportunities through the University of Iowa. It’s always fun to apply with a friend so you have someone to talk about the interview with and go to the information meetings with. Unfortunately though, it makes it more difficult when the accepted/rejected emails go out. It’s our first dose of the real world as we get opportunities that our friends don’t and they get opportunities that we don’t.

If you get the accepted email, you’re super excited and want to text your friend right away. But what if they didn’t make it? So you cautiously ask them if they’ve checked their email lately. If they didn’t get it, then you feel bad. You don’t want to act too happy because it’s an opportunity they don’t get. If you’re anything like me, you were really excited to do this together and hadn’t really thought about what would happen if either of you weren’t accepted. Disclaimer: I’m not sure what happens if you both get the accepted email; I haven’t had that happen yet, unfortunately.

If you get the rejected email, you definitely feel rejected. The amount of rejection is directly proportional to how much work you put into the application and interview process. After discovering that you “may not be ready for this position, but are encouraged to try again next year,” you hesitantly text your friend and ask if they’ve checked their email. If they received the accepted email, you try really hard to be happy for them but at the same time you don’t understand what you did wrong. You definitely don’t wish that they hadn’t been accepted, you just wish you could have both been accepted.

With that emotional roller coaster going on at this time of year when different university positions are being opened, there are a lot of mixed feelings. With that being said, I was not accepted to continue the interview process for Resident Assistant, however I was accepted as an On Iowa! Leader. I have a friend who applied to RA with me and will have an interview; I also have a friend who applied for On Iowa! and was not accepted.

While I’m going through all the above emotions for both positions, I think the important thing to remember is that everyone has unique talents and the people conducting the interviews only see a small side of those talents. There’s a position for everybody, you just have to keep trying and know that if you’re persistent, you will most likely get *something* and that something will be an awesome experience.

On that note, I’m am SUPER EXCITED to be an On Iowa! Leader. I’m excited to meet all the other leaders for this year and meet the new freshman next fall! It will be a great way to meet new people and get more involved with university events. It will also help me develop my leadership skills further to help prepare me for other opportunities. So, for any incoming freshman, see you next fall! 🙂

Hey Hawkeyes!

In case you haven’t noticed from my blog posts (or lack thereof) it’s starting to get busy around here. Something about midterms? As you know I had my first chem exam 2 weeks ago and I did pretty well on that. I had a psychology test this past week and just recently(today) got my grade from that, which was also pretty good (yay! :)). This coming week I’ll have my first calculus test (eek!). I never really feel ready for a test, it always seems like there’s something I should know more about. I’ve been staying caught up in homework, but I’ve determined that in order to actually be ready for upcoming tests, I need to be ahead.

Quick update on my week (+ pictures :))

Last Friday I went to an indoor track meet to watch one of my friends from another University. It was amazing to see her running against all the college athletes.

One of our athletes getting ready to run. I think he won his race.

Hurdles

I went home for the weekend, which was awesome. I learned the Ultimate College Student’s Lesson: I can go for over a month without doing laundry. Since I live so close to home it seems silly to do laundry here, but with different volunteer things going on it’s hard to go home often enough to do laundry on a regular basis. I was also able to visit one of my friends who just got this adorable puppy!

Isn’t he adorable?!

On Tuesdays I have a Chemical Engineering Seminar for an hour in the afternoon. This past Tuesday found us talking about mixtures and how the amounts of components affect the product. Like in the making of ice cream, more air means not as good. So to demonstrate this….we made ice cream!!!!

Making the shake ice cream 🙂 Hands were a little cold afterwards.

Making liquid nitrogen ice cream

And what would a week be without

A study party!

I’m taking a photography class (that I’m absolutely loving other than the fact that it’s 5:30-9pm), and had an assignment to represent University of Iowa.

My friends decided to help out and make sure I knew where the Old Capitol was 🙂

I also got this picture, which I thought was cool

On Friday night I volunteered with the Society of Women Engineers at the Children’s Museum at Coral Ridge Mall for their STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) Night. It was a ton of fun. We basically played with kids all night, which was awesome!

Playing around in the Hospital room before the kids started arriving.

Saturday was the FIRST Tech Challenge State Championships. In high school I participated in the robotics club and have fond memories of coming to the State Championships here at Iowa. So this year, I decided to volunteer.

Ring it up! The challenge for this year.

It was a great experience and it was awesome to see all the robots and meet so many new people, as well as see my high school team and coaches. I’m excited for next year so I can be more involved and maybe even volunteer at some of the qualifying competitions.

I’ll try to keep you guys updated more often, so watch for another post in the next couple of days! 🙂