Stevens Admissions: Julia

Finals

Today was the last day of classes. Yay!

My last day of finals is Tuesday, which is GREAT in that I'll be done almost a full week earlier than I was last year. It also means that I will most likely lose my mind. 

I'll check in again when I'm free :)

Colbert Nation

Volleyball season has ended, which means that I have a lot more free time. Thanksgiving break was a great way to relax, but now I'm working on getting through these last two weeks of classes and then finals. It's going to be tough, but there are still ways to manage time and have fun.

 Today, I gave Stephen Colbert a high-five. Actually, I gave him two high-fives. In order to provide some insight as to the significance of this event in my life:

1.) My buddy icon has been Stephen Colbert for 6 years.

2.) One of my bookmark tabs on my browser is titled "Tickets to the Colbert Report".

There are more reasons but I'd prefer not to turn this into a "I LOVE YOU, STEPHEN COLBERT!"-post.

Anyway, I check my bookmark tab frequently, and usually the shows are booked for months and months. If you check enough, some days open up and I was lucky enough to catch one a few months ago. Reserving the tickets online does not guarantee seats, so we tried to get to the show early. We got there around 4:45 and were concerned about getting tickets. We ended up being 73rd-76th on the line, and past the 80th person meant only standing-room tickets. After making it past that checkpoint, we were in. We were let into the building around 5:45, and let into the studio around 6:45. 

We walked through security, and I guess we gave off a good impression because we were handed a white ticket. We thought that it meant we would be able to ask Stephen a question, but when they opened the doors to the studio they called, "Anyone with Red or White tickets please come forward". We cut the entire line, and then were seated in the front row. It was an amazing experience, and Stephen ran out and gave high-fives and I got him as he ran one way, and then again when he ran back. We're going to see if we got on TV when the episode airs, even if we don't, it was still incredible.

 

From #75 on line to front-row. Dreams DO come true.

Postseason

The past two weeks have been full of tests, lab reports, watching Yankee games, and volleyball. Luckily, Halloween was mixed in there to breathe silliness and candy into the chaos. 

On Halloween weekend, we had our last regular season matches at Vassar. In past seasons, we've usually been away for Halloween at this tournament, but this year it worked out that we were able to come home on Halloween and actually celebrate in Hoboken for the first time. The costumes that I saw on Washington Street were impressive.

Anyway, we started the postseason this week. At this point, the season is based on single elimination, in other words, we can keep our season alive by winning one game at a time.  We hosted the Empire 8 Championships on Saturday and played St. John Fisher in the semi-finals, then Ithaca in the finals. WE WON!!!!!

I can't help but be proud of what we accomplished. After graduating such an important senior class last year, a lot of people thought we wouldn't be able to win this title again. The preseason poll chose Nazareth over us, which fueled us to work hard this season to show the conference that we were still the best team. We are now one of 62 teams that have made the national tournament. We have our first Regional match on Thursday against Christopher Newport University at NYU. 

GO DUCKS!

And congrats to the Men's Soccer Team and the Field Hockey Team for also winning their respective Empire 8 titles. Fall Sports are certainly representing Stevens Athletics well.

The Empire 8

This past week has kept me super busy, but it's also been great.

Being the week of midterms, I had a couple of tests to study for that I think pretty well. On Wednesday, I had to attend the Scholars Summer Research Presentation. After weeks of research, my lab partner and I put together a poster summarizing what we did over the summer. It was nice to be able to walk around the room and check out what everyone else had been working on over the summer. A bunch of professors and students stopped by our poster and asked questions. I had been explaining to people what I had been working on over the summer, but it was much easier to explain having a huge poster with data and references behind me. I could only stay at the presentation for a little while, as we had a match that evening (which we won).

It was a huge weekend for my volleyball team. For our conference (The Empire 8), there are two tournaments during the season that decide which teams advance to the conference championships.The number one seed at the end of the tournament gets to host the championships on November 7th.  Having won all of our matches at the first tournament, we wanted to do the same this weekend. The tournament was held at Nazareth, in Rochester, NY (a 6 hour bus drive away). Our biggest challenge was Nazareth, the team that we've had to play our toughest against in the past two seasons. We beat them in a 5 set thriller... 

which means we don't have to drive back to Rochester in two weeks! Our team is excited to have more home games, to be able to sleep in our own beds, to have our friends and family come support us, and to not have to sit for 6 hours on a bus!

Our record is now 20-7, wooooo!

BETTA FISH

Every other Friday or so, the Entertainment Committee sets up an event called 'Duck After Dark' in the campus Lounge Hall. They host events from 9pm-12pm with free food and some kind of attraction. Luckily we had home matches this weekend and were able to attend this Friday's attraction:  Open Mic, sushi and Chinese food, and free Betta Fish! My friends and I were pretty excited about this event, it was all we talked about on Friday. I tried not to get my hopes up just in case we arrived too late to pick one up, but we luckily arrived in time. Now, myself and at least 10 of my friends own Betta Fish. We've got a competition going to see which Betta Fish lives the longest. Here's a picture of mine:

I still haven't chosen a name for him.

Free for All

I've noticed that in the past weeks, a bunch of free stuff has been given out on campus, mostly dealing with food (not complaining). I wasn't able to attend all the events, but I heard that they were a lot of fun.

Chip & Dip -Ethnic Student Council supported this delicious event at which the ethnic organizations on campus set up booths with traditional food from their respective cultures. The food was delicious, and there were performances by some of the organizations and also a round of trivia. And yes, there were chips and dip.

Supersmoker - The Greek organizations set up booths on the lawn and sponsored a BBQ. Most fraternities and sororities have their pledge periods in the spring, so this was an event for people interested in possibly joining one to meet brothers and sisters. 

Little Chinatown- The Chinese Student Association on campus sponsored what seemed to be a really neat event, full of dumplings, bubble tea, and calligraphy. I heard that there was a dumpling eating contest as well. My teammates and I hurried to the event after we were let out of practice but were too late to catch and of the action, or eat any of the dumplings :(

S'MORES- The Resident Hall Association set up outside of CPA with a grill, and a table covered in marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers. Dreams do come true!

Soccer Game Tailgate: More BBQ and free food

Free T-shirts at the Duck Country Game

...Duck Country?

As an effort to get as many supporters to Varsity Games, each team picks a game in their season at which they want the biggest crowd. We chose our Duck Country game last year to be against one of our toughest opponents, and the crowd definitely picked us up and helped us win the match. We even had a bunch of guys spell out S-T-E-V-E-N-S-! on their chests. Probably one of my favorite parts about Duck Country matches are the themes. In past seasons, there have been "Blackout", "Toga", "Luau" etc. And at most events, free stuff is given out, whether it be a basketball, t-shirt, hat, long-sleeve...

This year we won our Duck Country match again, and it was a great turnout. It's great to see support from other teams. If we see one team in particular come to support us, our team makes an effort to go support that team at their next game.

Things are so much better when they're free.

Colorado

Every other year, our volleyball team is allowed to take a "trip", which really means that we get to play in a tournament in a state out of our region. We went to Wisconsin my freshman year. Colorado was much more fun.

Things to note:

1.) The Altitude

Below the scoreboard in the Colorado College gym, it says 'ALTITUDE 6,200 FT. BREATHE DEEPLY'. We were laughing at it in the beginning, then soon realized we were all out of breath. The balls also traveled a lot further than they do at sea level, so serving was interesting as well. It was a tiring weekend, but we played some really great volleyball and had a lot of fun on the court. We took the 14th ranked team in the nation to 5 sets and almost beat them.

2.) The Scenery

This is actually my favorite picture of all the ones I took this weekend. We went to a national park, "Garden of the gods" in Colorado Springs. There were a bunch of neat rock formations, and it was beautiful. We split up and wandered around... and then got lost. Our coach had to call us twice and then come pick us up in the van. I took this picture after we decided to just wait to be found, after walking around trying to find the rest of the team for 15 minutes.

3.) The Statues

This picture was taken at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, which was an amazing facility.  We really liked this statue.

I'm glad that we had the chance to go on this trip, I really couldn't have asked for much more.

Back to Reality

You know that summer is over when you have to start buying textbooks again. But it's been good to see the campus alive again, with barbecues and other events. This past week there was a giant, inflatable, LaserTron arena set up in front of the gym.

Normally:

Laser Tag >>> Any other commitment I have

Except on the day of the season opener.

We won both of our matches that day though, so I guess that makes up for missing out on laser tag.

On the subject of volleyball, we just returned from a weekend tournament at Haverford. We played some really tough competition, leaving the weekend with two wins and two losses. This is definitely a re-building year for our team, we're still making changes to our line-up and trying to figure out the best system. But once we have more experience in our line-up, we'll certainly give any team a run for their money. This weekend we go to COLORADO.  I've never been to Colorado, and I'm always excited to see new parts of the world. I've already looked up what the state dinosaur is (stegosaurus). The competition should be tough, but I think we'll have fun out there.

Academically, this semester is said to be the hardest semester for Chemical Biology majors, and with the first week of school out of the way, I can see why. While it doesn't sound like I'm taking a lot of classes (Instrumental Analysis, Molecular Genetics, and Chemical Dynamics), I've been told by older Chem Bio majors that I'll be spending all my time writing lab reports. I'll also be taking a Seminar in Chemistry, and a humanities course called Survey of Dramatic Literature.

This week is the week of Convocation, and the start of TechFest. We leave for Colorado right after Convocation, so I won't be able to blog about TechFest, but I'll definitely take notes and pictures in Colorado.

And we're back!

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post, due to the fact that I was trying to relax and enjoy my summer as much as I could.
This week was the beginning of the preseason, the two weeks before the season begins. It's been so nice to have most of my friends and teammates back on campus. We're all still catching up with each other and trying to get back into the swing of things. I'm excited to see how the team develops; our practices have been full of enthusiasm and hustle. Though we graduated most of our starters, it's interesting to see people fill the holes in the line-up and step up. It's hard to believe that our season begins in about a week and a half.
Though our volleyball practices have been going well, they've definitely been taking a toll on our bodies. I'm bruised all over from diving for balls. My teammates look like linebackers most of the time from the ice bags they need on their shoulders. We have a day off tomorrow luckily.

Time to ice. I'll post again soon.

ALL POINTS WEST

Oh my gosh. I'm ecstatic.
I just got back from All Points West, the music festival held in Liberty State Park. Just a quick Light Rail ride away, and a few minutes walk, and we were in the midst of an incredible display of music and art.

The rain today delayed the opening of the gates, but trudging through the mud was absolutely worth it. It almost made the festival feel more legitimate, like Woodstock.

This was at the beginning of our walk. Our shoes were covered in mud entirely by the end of the night.

It was my first time seeing Coldplay live, and it was amazing. We were standing towards the back of the crowd, then noticed a small stage being set up about 10 feet in front of us. It seemed unlikely that Coldplay would walk all the way to the back and all stand on this tiny stage... then the music cut out and the band started to walk off stage. I couldn't believe my eyes.

They played "Green Eyes" (one of my favorites), and then did a cover of Michael Jackson's, Billie Jean.

They went back to the mainstage after, but no one could get over the fact that they had just been that close to us.

I can't stop smiling.