Stevens Admissions: Katelyn

Finals Time!

I’m writing this from the middle of finals week, as I take a break studying for my Chemical Reactor Design exam. This is the most compact exam schedule I have ever had; 6 finals in 4 days, and that’s not including my SCUBA test and my scholar’s research report due. On the bright side, I am now two tests down and have four to go. By Friday, my summer vacation can begin! I already had my Environmental Control Lab exam last night and my Engineering Economics exam this morning.

 This is my fourth year of experiencing college finals, and all of that time has provided me with some valuable insight into test-taking. The one rule that I always follow is my no all-nighter rule. I have pulled two all-nighters in my life. Once was to see Harry Potter in theatres and once was for the Relay-for-Life American Cancer Society Fundraiser. I have never stayed up all night to study, and I don’t ever plan to. If you don’t know that material by 3 AM, it’s best to just sleep and take your chances. I like sleep, and sleep will serve you better than re-reading the chapter again.

 Of course, the only way to avoid all-nighters is to avoid procrastination, and the only way to avoid procrastination is to be honest to yourself. What do I mean? Well, I have learned to admit when I don’t know a subject all that well. That is the subject that I have to make a really good study plan for and stick with it. For example, Organic Chemistry wasn’t my favorite class. I thought it was difficult. I had to spend a lot of time studying. But, if I feel confident in a subject, I don’t have to spend quite as much time on it and can delegate that time to something else (like Orgo!). 

My last tip is, don't panic. This one is even more difficult than not procrastinating. The closer exams get, the less you think you know, the more you try to cram, and then panic starts to spiral out of control. Take a deep breath! In the end, the material is likely to be stuff you’ve already seen in class, in homework, on old tests. One exam grade is not the only reflection of how well you know a class.

 I’m writing this advice for myself as well as for current and future students. I can forget my own advice sometimes. And I actually feel better. I’ve cleared my head, so I’m ready to go back to studying. Oh! That’s another good bit of advice; take short breaks every so often to eat, drink coffee, or write blogs! 

 

SCUBA Diving!

Today I breathed underwater!

I took SCUBA Diving to fulfill my gym requirement this semester. Our Instructor was Dr. Bruno, Dean of the School of Engineering and Science, and he spent the semester teaching about the fundamentals of diving. We learned about the technical aspects, the health risks, the excitement of diving, and all about Dean Bruno’s  experiences in the water. He dives recreationally as well as for the research he does here at Stevens. It was incredibly interesting to learn from someone so experienced. I don’t know many other people who dive. After all of the classroom work, the class and I were ready for our confined-water test today.

We learned how to assemble the SCUBA equipment (rented to us by Hoboken Dive), enter the water, use the regulator to breathe, and also how to react to different situations that can arise under water. One of the things that I had trouble with was taking off my mask underwater and then putting it back on; I hate getting water in my nose. I also wasn’t a fan of the wetsuit. It was very uncomfortable. But, we all passed all of the exercises! It was a great experience, and so much fun. I’m now half way to being fully certified PADI Diver. PADI is the largest SCUBA certification organization in the world. I can now go for an open water dive class. That will be scary…diving in an ocean or lake! Maybe I will go over the summer.               

All I know, it was a great way to end classes this semester. And it was the best way possible to start off finals week! Bring it on!

 

Stevens' Backyard

Stevens has the best backyard. There is so much to see, do, and experience, and it is all just outside our campus boundaries. New York City, of course, is the most obvious example. Accessible by train, ferry and bus, New York City is not just a pretty view from a dorm room; it is also the most amazing place to explore.

The View from Stevens. Not Bad.

Sometimes a lot of really interesting places west of the Hudson River get lost in Manhattan’s shadow. Just today, I went on an adventure I never expected. It started out with me wanting to get bubble tea from this place in Jersey City called Babo Tea House. After drinking my passion fruit bubble tea, my boyfriend and I spontaneously decided to ride our scooters to Liberty State Park. In case you were wondering, yes, I still ride a scooter around sometimes. It’s a lot of fun and gets you places a lot faster! Anyway, one can get to Liberty State Park much more easily by taking the light rail, but the scooting part was half of the adventure. It was a gorgeous day, and I got to see really interesting parts of Jersey City, including Newport and the Historic Downtown. It’s such a cool contrast, because Newport is ultra-modern, while the downtown has brownstones. The park itself was really beautiful. You can see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  

 

Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty

Liberty State Park

You never know what is right in your own backyard. After four years in Hoboken, I saw something entirely new today!

 

Unity

Friday was the annual Unity Show, sponsored by Steven’s Ethnic Student Council. Unity is one of my favorite events of the semester. It is the night when each ethnic organization on campus performs a skit that reflects their culture. There is fantastic Indian dancing, Kung Fu demonstrations, Stomping and so much more. The amount of time each organization puts into their performance is incredible, and the hard work always shows. 

I’m a part of TECHnique, Stevens' dance club. For the past 3 years, TECHnique has performed as the finale act for the Unity Show. I've danced since I was 3 years old, and through high school. To be able to keep dance as a hobby in college has made me very happy. And to be able to dance on stage is even better! It’s so much fun, and I love being a part of Unity.

 Check out some pictures from our performance!

 

Libraries

I never gave them much thought until recently, but libraries are great. I have come to this seemingly mundane conclusion for several reasons that do not seem so mundane to me. 

One reason is that I discovered I can rent ebooks for my Nook though my home public library. Because I have a library card, the same one I’ve had since I was seven years old, I can search for any book title through their website, livebrary.com. If they have a digital copy available, I can download it right then and have access to it for two weeks. Or, I get put on a waiting list and receive an email when the book is ready. It’s pretty fancy, and I can do this all from my dorm room! The bookworm in me is very happy. I’m currently reading Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Maybe it’s not the Odyssey, but it’s something fun. 

Reason number two is that public libraries have movies. Why pay for redbox or blockbuster when a free library card gives you access to 100’s of DVDs? My boyfriend just got his Hoboken Public Library card, and now we rent movies all the time. It’s on my list of things to do, to sign up for one. I can probably get ebooks from there as well! 

My last reason for loving libraries is that S.C Williams Library at Stevens is a great resource. There are loads of places to study, meet groups to talk about projects, or meet with tutors provided by the Academic Support Center (I work in the Walk-In Tutoring Centre on Mondays and Thursdays!) Plus, there is America’s Cup Café, where I can buy all the chai tea lattes I could ever need. Besides being a nice place to go, the Stevens Library has access to so much information that it’s almost overwhelming. I have never had a shortage of sources for papers and reports because of all of the Databases and Journals Stevens has subscriptions to. While navigating that sea of technical papers can be confusing, there are always people working in the Library to help.   

Libraries are great! I no longer take them for granted. Check out some really amazing libraries, and maybe you too will join my pro-library team!

 

Busy Weekend

This was a really busy weekend! The annual mid-Atlantic conference for the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) was this weekend, and this year Stevens was the host school. Over 300 students, professors and professionals came to Hoboken this Friday-Sunday to participate in a whole array of events. I participated in the poster competition. I had the opportunity to present the research I’ve been working on this semester, which is using nanofiltration to treat the wastewater from Hydraulic Fracking. It was a great experience to talk to Chemical Engineering students from other schools and present what I have been working on to professors and even Stevens Alumni. After the poster competition, I watched the Chem-E Car Completion. Each participating school had a team that built a model car that moves due to a chemical reaction. It was a fun day, and I got to spend time with my fellow Chem-Es.

 

There's me "presenting" my research poster.

 

Later in the day on Saturday, I had to get ready because it was an important night for my sorority, Theta Phi Alpha. Two years ago, I joined the only local sorority at Stevens, Omicron Pi. I loved being a part of O Pi because it was small, close knit, and redefined my notion of what Greek Life was like. This past summer we, as a sisterhood, applied to affiliate with a National Sorority called Theta Phi Alpha. It took nearly two semesters of hard work and an arduous application process to arrive where we were on Saturday. It was the day we (myself and 34 other Stevens women) became sisters of Theta Phi Alpha and received our charter as the Gamma Chi chapter of this national sorority. We are now the third national sorority on campus, and I am incredibly proud of every sister and am grateful to be a part of Theta Phi Alpha. 

This is my sisterhood! A newly founded chapter of Theta Phi Alpha.

Finally, this Sunday I had an induction ceremony into Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society on campus. It encourages integrity, dedication, and honor in addition to upholding the highest standards of academics and engineering. I like what it stands for to be a member, and I’m honored to now be a part of it.  Many of the people in my classes were also inducted or were already members, so it was even better.

I had a busy and exciting weekend, definitely. But, I also enjoyed my Sunday night, where I relaxed and did homework and watched the TV show Firefly (it’s an awesome show, by the way).

 

Weekend Adirondack Trip

This weekend, I went to my favorite place in the entire world, Adirondack State Park. My dad picked me up at Stevens, and we went  up north the two days before Easter, and it was wonderful. People who have never been to the Adirondack Region may not realize that such natural beauty is a part of New York State. But in my biased opinion, it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. It is a 6.1 million acre protected park just south of the Canadian Border. It is unique because although it is the largest state-level protected area in the lower 48 states, the land is divided up by private, commercial and state ownership. There are villages, resorts, and loggers, but there is also pristine wilderness. There are 46 high peaks, most over 4,000 ft, and countless smaller ones. There are hundreds of lakes, rivers and ponds, and miles of hiking trails. The views and scenery are breath taking. For someone who loves the outdoors, it is heaven.

This weekend in the park was especially nice because it was even more desolate than normal. The skiing season is over (Whiteface Mountain is the main attraction) and the fishing season hasn’t really begun. The touristy town of Lake Placid, known as being the site of two separate winter Olympic Games, was empty. Most of the restaurants in Wilmington, the small town we stayed in, were closed for the lull in business. It was exhilarating to drive on the windy mountain roads and not see another car for miles.

 

The view from the hotel of Whiteface Mountain.

My dad and I hiked Mt. Jo, a smaller mountain with great views. There was still snow and ice all the way up the trail. It was fun dodging up rocks and avoiding patches of ice to make it to the top. It’s such a different world up there in the Adirondacks. If you have never been, I suggest you go right now.

My Dad and I at the summit of Mt. Jo. You can see several of the high peaks in the background. One of my goals in life is become a 46-er, someone who has hiked all 46 Adirondack high peaks.

A fun fact: The story is that "Adirondack" translates as "Bark Eater." There are a lot of birch trees. Is there a connection?

 

Still snow on the ground!

 

Free Cone Day!

Yesterday was a good day. Why? I got a free ice cream cone. It was Free Cone Day at Ben and Jerry’s, and luckily there is a store a block away from campus! It was beautiful weather, and I enjoyed my Chocolate Nougat Crunch happily on a bench in the Stevens Park. I then went to a four hour Environmental Control Lab and then I got my graded Process Control midterm handed back. I scored slightly above the average on my test, and I eventually collected good data in my lab. Not a terrible day, and the ice cream definitely helped.

That's me (mostly my arm) enjoying ice cream. Taking photos with my phone is hard!

Exploration

                This week I was reminded of why I decided to study engineering in the first place. While I never really forget, I sometimes get distracted with the day-to-day requirements of studying and classes and homework. It was nice to have the opportunity to take a step back and realize that I am still on the path that I’ve always wanted to be on.

                What inspired this self-reflection? Well, this year marks forty years of women at Stevens. To celebrate this milestone, the Women’s Programs at Stevens have organized a series of events. This week’s event was a talk given by Alexandra Cousteau. She is Jacques Cousteau’s granddaughter and a national geographic explorer. When I heard that I’d have the chance to listen to a national geographic explorer speak, I made every effort to attend. I love the idea of exploration. I love nature, hiking, camping, and animals. I have been passionate about environmentalism since, well, forever. It’s what I’ve always dreamed my future career would develop around. It’s why I chose Chemical and Environmental Engineering.

                Alexandra spent most of her talk focusing on the “Global Water Crisis.” Her message was that today we mostly focus on solving the effects of demising water supplies, lack of sanitation and no access to clean fresh water. To solve these problems, we irrigate, build dams, filter water, explore desalination, and dig wells. But, these solutions, she explained, don’t address why certain places have no fresh water, why we are depleting our aquifers and reservoirs. She stressed that in order to get answers to these serious problems, the world needs to start asking different questions.

                The example Alexandra used to explain her message is also one of her current campaigns. It is the tragedy of the Colorado River. The Colorado River is the one that runs through the Grand Canyon and is the reason the Hoover Dam was built. All of the water is used by the United States (99%) and Mexico (1%) before it ever reaches the sea. It no longer has the chance to run its course. The result is a vast desert where a lush marshland used to be. If even a small percentage of the river’s flow was to make it to the sea, the ecosystem could rejuvenate.

                I had never heard of this issue before. But interestingly, the next day I received my quarterly issue of the Nature Conservancy’s magazine. The Nature Conservancy is my favorite charity. I love following the work that they do, because I can see it in my own backyard (I’ve been to several different Nature Conservancy Parks) as well as read about what they do abroad. There was a featured article in the magazine about the plight of the Colorado River and what is being done to change it. I feel inspired when I realize that there are already people working full time to address the major issues the planet faces. When I graduate in a year, I hope to somehow join these people. It’s wonderful to know that I am in the perfect position to do so.

 

War Horse

This Saturday I got tickets to see the Broadway show War Horse. The Stevens Entertainment Committee provides tickets to several off-campus events each semester at a ridiculously discounted price. I was really excited when I heard that War Horse was going to be one of those events. I saw the movie version that came out this past Christmas, and I loved it. About 20 other students and I went, traveling by bus and subway to get up to the Lincoln Centre.           

                The show was amazing. The horses (and a few other animals) were puppets, and though you see the puppet masters, each one was incredibly believable. I found myself falling in love with the horses on stage. The play’s setting is Europe during World War I, and the battle scenes and the interpretation of the trenches made it breathtaking to watch. Although it was a play and not a musical, there were scenes with musicians and with the actors singing. I loved the show, and I am so happy that I had the opportunity to go.

 

Florida Trip!

My spring break ended amazingly. I went to Florida to meet up with two of my friends from High School, Krissie and Nikunja. Krissie is a year older than me and is a graduate student at the University of Florida. Nikunja is a Chemical Engineer, like me, and has an awesome job at Merck. She lives in Philadelphia. We all met up at the Orlando Airport. It was my first time flying alone, so I was pretty nervous. But we found each other relatively easily thanks to cell phones, and the trip went great from there.

 We went to Disney World the first day. Animal Kingdom, EPCOT, and Magic Kingdom. It was incredibly exhausting, and we all had blisters on our feet from walking so much. I loved every second. Animal Kingdom has a huge “tree of life,” which I learned from Modern Marvels is actually made from an old oil rig. The engineer in me loves Disney even more now that I’m older, because I am awed by the amount of detail that goes in to every single attraction. Thank you, Stevens! EPCOT is cool because it has attractions from different countries; we ate lunch in Morocco. Magic Kingdom has the Cinderella Castle, and they do this awesome light show where the whole structure is the projection screen.

 Even though we were still a little tired the next day, we could barely contain our excitement for Universal, and more importantly, Harry Potter World. All three of us are HUGE Harry Potter fans, so words cannot describe how awesome it was to see Hogwarts and Zonkos and the Hogshead and everything. Butterbeer tasted delicious, and they even had chocolate frogs. The rest of Universal was cool too, but Harry Potter World overshadowed it all.

 Our last full day of vacation we relaxed. Krissie gave us a grand tour of her campus, which is enormous! There were palm trees and Spanish moss everywhere, and we even saw an Alligator! I was excited about that, since I love animals. I wanted to see a manatee, but apparently they don’t just float around campus like gators do.

 All in all, it was a lot of fun, and I definitely didn’t mind the warm weather and getting a little tan. Check out some of my pictures from the trip!