Stevens Admissions: Ellyn's Blog

Unrelated to Stevens but cool nonetheless!

I've mentioned in some of my earlier posts that I sometimes find myself stuck in a "Stevens Bubble", meaning that I get too caught up with schoolwork and don't pay as much attention as I should to the "real world" and the news... well, that has caught up to me today!

I just found out that in my town, Hillsborough, NJ, there is a family of bald eagles!... AND they have a live feed called EagleCam which lets viewers see the eagles!  The eagle is in Duke Farms, a large estate in Hillsborough owned by the Duke estate (Duke family as in US Tobacco and electric power tycoon AND name of Duke University).  The Duke estate is in the heart of Hillsborough, encompassing 2700 acres and equivalent to about 13% of the town's area.

 

Check out all the information here!
(Below is a live feed to see the eagle family -- as a true engineer and technology person, I find this pretty cool!)

 

Live Broadcast by Ustream.TV

I'm Famous (and go Stevens!)

Community Outreach with the US Attorney of New Jersey

Yup, I actually did what the title says!  Today me and a small group of other Stevens students had the privilege to meet with the US Attorney of New Jersey, Paul Fishman.  How awesome is that?!
(to put it in perspective, his boss is the US Attorney General and his boss is President Barack Obama)

Mr Fishman came to Stevens for a campaign to reach out to college students in the state and get our thoughts on a community outreach intiative he has been working on.  The forum opened up by hearing about what he does in his role, asking him questions, and then having an open discussion about how the government (and in particular, the Department of Justice) can make changes to better serve the community.  His initiative deals with trying to make sure that all different groups of people (cultural, religious, socioeconomic, gender, etc) feel like they are being treated equally and represented fairly by the government.  His reason for meeting with a small group of college students was to get the opinions of the younger generation, since we are the next group of rising leaders in the country.

It was a wonderful opportunity to meet with Mr Fishman, and I am extremely thankful I was able to participate in it.

Happy Valentine's Day

On behalf of the Stevens students (as shown from this addition to the statue in the middle of campus), Happy Valentine's Day!

 

P.S. No one knows who is responsible for this artwork!

Lunar Eclipse

Last night / early this morning, there was a total lunar eclipse!  A lunar eclipse happens when the full moon passes through the shadow made by the Earth blocking the sun's light.

For the first time in 372 years, an eclipse coincided with the winter solstice.  I was up between 1-3 am to watch it from my room in Lore-El.  It was really cool!

Here are some pictures taken by my sister!

Interesting Sites on Campus

The first interesting site I am going to show you is a picture I took last week.

The air conditioning unit was being replaced on the Howe Building.  Sounds easy right? Well it wasn't!  The Howe Building is HUGE and getting an extremely heavy AC unit up there turns out to be an engineering feat!

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...

What you are seeing is a crane that was built on campus because it was so big.  The picture at the top is showing a part of the old unit that was being taken down by the huge crane.

Let me just say that it was SUPER COOL to watch!

The next neat thing was a picture I took today.  The weather has been really bad recently with all the storms and rain.  Furthermore, as anyone who has visited campus knows, it gets incredibly windy.  When it gets windy, a rope is put out extending from Palmer Hall to the Howe Center that allows people to have additional support.

I know what you're thinking... That windy that a rope is needed to get from one building to another?...
My answer to you is YES!  As I was walking today I was being pushed by the wind.  At one point, I went to step forward but couldn't because a wave of air stopped me!

Below is a picture of the rope!

Engineers at their finest

More glorious pictures of engineering marvels during the snow day this past weekend...

A snowman

An igloo

Weather that is Worthy of Closing School...

A picture is worth a thousand words...

You should be able to see New York City, but the snow was coming down so hard you couldn't...

Snowy condition from the Gates

I wish I could take credit for making this snowman but I can't.
Pretty awesome though, right?
(By the way, I am not crazy for wearing shorts in the winter because I don't do it regularly.  I had just come from working out.)

What a crazy day

WOW. Words cannot even describe how this day was.

1) A plane landed in the Hudson River right outside campus. People I know saw the plane hit the water. THANKFULLY AND LUCKILY, all of the passengers are safe and the crew did a great job to make that possible and coped with the unlucky situation they were handed.

2) I woke up and saw it SNOWING outside and bitterly cold (and it's supposed to be even colder tomorrow UGH).

(look how peaceful the turf looks with the snow untouched!)

3) The Women's Programs at Stevens hosted a Dove Chocolate Extravaganza. At the Lore-El Center this evening a representative from Dove chocolate came with TONS of chocolate goodies for the ladies of Stevens to enjoy. Truthbetold, I made sure I got a good workout in at the gym before going so I could eat some of the chocolate without feeling guilty (well... as guilty) afterwords. Let's just say the chocolate was wonderful.

4) I just found out that Stevens has a shuttle for off campus housing! I call a number and a Stevens van will drive me to and from school and my apartment. I just took it home and I am in a great mood because of it!