With only five weeks of classes left, I've had to start solidifying my plans for this summer. Towards the beginning of this semester, I was lucky enough to secure a research position in one of the Chemistry labs here. I plan to continue in the lab through the summer and upcoming school year. The thought of summer research makes me nostalgic for last summer. I really don't know how this summer will be able to compare, but I guess I should explain how last summer went.
Being in the Scholars Program at Stevens has opened so many doors for me. The program allows a student to choose either to enroll in summer classes, or to choose a research position in one of the many labs on campus. I chose the research option, and worked in the Biomedical Engineering Lab on a couple of different projects. What attracted me to this lab particularly, was the wide range of projects that were offered such as: Better Defining the Center of Rotation in the Lumbar Spine, Designing Pumps to Reduce the Overgrowth of Blue-Green Algae in a Lake... and one of the more fun ones: Designing a Better Doggie Swim Ladder. The professors in the department gave us a lot of freedom in running the projects.
One highlight of being involved with this lab, was the chance to teach in ECOES, the pre-college summer program for high school students. Basically, high school sophomores and juniors stay at Stevens for two weeks and get introduced to all of the different majors that Stevens offers, while experiencing the "college life" and the Hoboken scene. When the students came to the BME lab, we gave presentations and showed them how to use several of the devices in the lab.
But my FAVORITE part of the summer was going to Norway.
I never would have imagined going to Norway... in my life.
As part of a new exchange program in Systems Engineering, the Scholars Program sent 9 students to Buskerud University College in Kongsberg, Norway. I cannot fully explain what a phenomenal experience this was. During the summer, there are only 4 hours of darkness, which is why Norway is called "the land of the midnight sun". It was weird still being able to see the sun around 10:30pm, but we got used to it. Norway is absolutely beautiful, and we were fortunate enough to have the weekends off from school which allowed us to hike and travel throughout the country. We made a bunch of friends there that we still keep in contact with, and even made it onto National Television! Apparently a news station near Kongsberg caught wind of American Students in Norway, and did a feature on us. Basically, we became international celebrities (slight exaggeration)
I'll end with a picture from the trip, though I wish I had TV clip.
This was the view I had from my window for three weeks :)
