Stevens Admissions: Katelyn

A week in the life...

I think that the hardest part of choosing what college to go to is visualizing what it will be like living day-day with the decision you’ve made. What is the average day like at a particular college, and what is an average week like? These are the questions you need to ask yourself when picking a University. Campus tours show you the nicest parts of a college’s campus (and Stevens does have a really beautiful, dynamic campus). You can learn about what majors a college offers (and Stevens has over 30 amazingly rigorous technology and science related degrees). But what is harder to learn is how you will fit into all of that.

There are some great options to help prospective students figure out where is the best place for them. There are overnight visiting options when you can shadow a current student for a day. You can reach out to students, professors, and administrators to ask the detailed questions that can make all the difference.

I thought that I would share what my past week has been like at Stevens to give you a snapshot example of what life is like here. This past week has been a pretty average one for me:

Friday: I don’t have classes on Fridays (the bonus of being a senior). So, I decided that I wanted to visit the Prospect Park Zoo in Brooklyn. It was pretty cold out on Friday, so the zoo was almost empty. I got to see the sea lions, otters, porcupine, and farm animals in almost complete solitude. Then, before catching the bus back to Hoboken, I decided to walk around Times Square. In a spontaneous moment, my boyfriend and I decided to see if there were any student rush tickets left for the Broadway Play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe. Luckily, there were tickets available, and we got orchestra seat tickets for about 70% off. The play was amazing! I read the play in a literature class I took at Stevens my freshman year, so it was really interesting to see a Broadway stage adaptation.

Saturday: I went home on Saturday via the Long Island Railroad. I got to eat dinner with my family and catch up with everyone, which was nice. I spent a lot of time writing a Philosophy paper for class. Fortunately the Stevens Library gives me access to a wide range of databases, so finding sources is not a problem.

Sunday: Last Sunday was the Super Bowl. I went home to watch it with my family and friends. It was nice to relax and enjoy time with people from home.

Monday: I had my first Chemical Engineering Systems Lab. My group and I ran an experiment on the Air Stripping of Acetone. There is a small (7ft) packed column in the lab to run the experiment. Then I had a Fluid Mechanics class. I’m taking the course as an elective. There is A LOT of math in it. I’m learning quite a bit though. I had a meeting with my sorority, Theta Phi Alpha. I was a recruitment counselor this semester for formal recruitment on campus, so we discussed the results as a sisterhood.

Tuesday: Tuesday I had Mythology. We discussed the Roman poet Ovid’s Metamorphosis. I am really enjoying learning all about the ancient classical myths such as Apollo, Neptune, Jupiter, Diana, etc. I had my Writing Class next. We discussed the Middle Ages, and I handed in the philosophy paper I wrote. I went to the music room an practiced my violin. At night I had an Air Pollution Control class. I love the class a lot because I am learning really important and relevant things about Environmental Engineering. A lot of what we are learning in the class I can see using at my future job at ExxonMobil. Later that night I watched a few episodes of the TV show Doctor Who. It’s a show about a time traveling alien.

Wednesday: I don’t have classes on Wednesday (the bonus of being a senior). I went to the gym on campus. I worked on my Fluid Mechanics homework. It was hard! I used math from so many different classes. Talk about a brain work out! The gym was so much easier, comparatively. I did some reading for my classes and also watched more Doctor Who.

Thursday: Yesterday I had my Mythology and Writing classes again. I also had yoga, which I absolutely love. I love the Stevens Wellness Programs. Later in the night was “105 Days ‘Til Graduation.” It is only 105 days until I graduate, so the senior committee planned an event for all Stevens seniors to celebrate. It was fun to spend time with all of my classmates outside of class. I also spent time with my fellow Theta Phi Alpha seniors.

This was my past week. I had no tests,so I didn’t have to study too much, which was nice. This was my week, and I guarantee that every other Stevens student had a different one. There is no such thing as the “average Stevens student,” because everyone here has the ability to tailor their college experiences in a way that suits them best. I think that is what makes Stevens great. 

Adventure Time

Last weekend I got to do one of my favorite things to do in the whole world. I went hiking. Just a 45 minute drive due north of Stevens lands you at Harriman State Park. It is a nice, 46,000 acre park right on the New York, New Jersey border. I do love the New York City skyline, but once in a while a complete change is scenery welcome. And, this couldn’t be a more drastic change. I love the views, the constant changes in elevation, the trees, and the wildlife. I did a wonderful 7 mile hike in the park’s northwest corner.  Something even cooler is that, if you wanted to, you could take New Jersey transit from Hoboken directly to a trail head at the Tuxedo train station. No one can ever say Stevens doesn’t have it all! 

This is called the Lemon Squeeze.

A pretty moth.

Top of one of the mountains we climbed.

It was a perfect day.

Technically Speaking

In my last entry I wrote that if I could do the past five years all over again, I would still choose Stevens. A Stevens education has taught me so much. I have learned the things Chemical Engineers and Environmental Engineers need to know to be strong competitors in those fields. I’ve learned my Thermodynamics and my Heat Transfer Analysis and my Wastewater Treatment Plant Design. What I think is even most important, though, is that I’ve learned how to learn.

Engineering means the ability to collect information and process that information and apply it as a situation demands. This essential skill is necessary for both school and careers. But, it also comes in handy in real life.

How has this technical, analytical way of thinking helped me in real life? It has made me less reluctant to learn new skills and try new things. Just this past weekend, I learned to drive a stick shift! I was nervous about getting behind the wheel of a car that wasn’t mine to try something totally new. So, before that happened, my friend sat me down and explained how manual transmissions work and exactly what I would need to do to operate one. I am not a Mechanical Engineering, but I was able to make enough sense of what I had just learned to get behind the wheel. Several stalling outs later, and I was able to get the car driving!

The sweet set of wheels I learned to drive this weekend.

Also this past weekend, I learned to shoot skeet.  Again, this is something that seems very intimidating to someone who doesn’t know anything about target shooting. But before I even stepped outside, I was shown how the safety mechanisms work, I was explained the difference between a 12 gauge and a 20 gauge, and I was taught how to aim. The aiming part was most interesting to me because it is all based on the laws of physics! Projectile motion is the governing force behind accurate shooting. I was even able to hit some of the moving clay targets by the end of the day.

This is me shooting skeet. The orange things in my ears are ear plugs, the orange things on the ground are clay 'pigeons.'

Although putting theory to practice is a skill unto itself, I think that having a solid technical foundation is the most important part. Thankfully, Stevens has done a wonderful job of laying that foundation down.

Open Water Diver!

Guess what I did this weekend. Any guesses?
Okay, well, since I know the suspense is killing you, I'll tell you.

I got my PADI Scuba Dive certification! It was the most scary and exciting thing that I have done in a while...maybe ever.

If you follow this blog, you may remember the entry I wrote about me taking scuba diving as one of my gym class requirements here at Stevens. It was the coolest gym class ever, and I completed the first half of my official PADI training as a result. I had a deadline of 1 year to complete the other half before the training expired. I didn’t want to wait, so I found the closet dive shop to my house, Long Island Scuba and organized my open water dive!

On Saturday I showed up at 8:15 AM on a dock in Far Rockaway, Queens. I had with me rental gear as well as my newly purchased snorkel, fins, mask, gloves, boots, hood, and dive knife (I won’t tell you how much that all cost me. Good thing I am working at my co-op job!). I had no idea what to expect. I immediately recognized other anxious looking individuals with the same gear as me, and I knew I was in the right place.

The beach where we entered the water. Not what I expected, which made it even more interesting!

All of my gear!

Amid locals fishing and sunbathing, the dive instructor (Di Deter) briefed all the students and explained what we would be doing once underwater. Fortunately, there was one teacher for two students. Unfortunately, the visibility was terrible. I could barely see two feet in front of my face. At first I was scared, I felt like if I blink in my mask, I’d lose my teacher and be left at the murky bottom.

But then, I started to see past the murkiness as we swam along the bottom, about 20 feet deep. I saw starfish, horseshoe crabs, spider crabs, sea urchin, little fish, and even a tiny, tiny tropical fish! It was amazing. I completed my skills, including removing my mask and purging the regulator, with relative ease. Over the course of the weekend, I completed 4 half-hour dives. Each went by so quickly, I didn’t want to go to the surface.

I was exhausted by the end of the weekend. Dive gear weighs about 50 + pounds, and you are covered almost head to toe in insulating material so you don’t lose heat in the water. I was exhausted, but so happy. I am so proud that I am now certified. I can now dive anywhere in the world. I wonder where I will go first?

Stevens offers the best gym classes! I’m so glad that I was inspired to follow through with this!

Here's me rockin' a wet suit. Getting a wet suit on is a very difficult thing to do.

 

Dancing

I danced for 15 years before I came to Stevens, both competitively and for fun. I loved dancing and felt sad about leaving it behind when  started college. Fortunately, I didn't have to leave it behind at all. As soon I arrived, I joined Steven's then-dance organization, Pulse. I was ecstatic to be doing something I loved, learning routines and occasionally performing at different events on campus.

Unfortunately, Pulse...well...lost it's pulse. Seniors graduated and membership dropped. But thanks to great extra-curricular opportunities and the ability to start your own organizations at Stevens, the remaining passionate dancers on campus immediately started TECHnique. I then immediately joined, and have been a member and/or officer ever since.

I previously wrote a blog about TECHnique. Check out TECHnique's Facebook Page here. 

What I love most about TECHnique is that it keeps me in the dance mindset. The other dancers motivate me to continue dancing. Just last week after work I took a walk up to Times Square and took a Contemporary Jazz class at Broadway Dancer Center. It was an incredible and humbling expreience to dance next to aspiring professionals, and to learn from the best choreographers. I stood in the very back, and the next morning I couldn't move most of the muscles in my body. It was toally worth it. What could be more inspiring than dancing in New York CIty? Brodway Dance Center offers classes to all levels of expreience. I strongly encourage everyone to check it out!  Sometimes TECHnique takes trips there, so be on the look-out for that.

Another wonderful thing about dancing is being able to watch So You Think You Can Dance. It is my absolute favorite reality show (and the only reality show I watch). Summer time is even better because this show is on. 

And, even another wonderful thing is that sometimes, dancers and choreographers from So You Think You Can Dance teach at Broadway Dancer Center!

Life is good!

There's nothing like being in the dance studio!

Summer Science Sundays

I have a habit of subscribing to e-newsletters for everything under the sun. I get updates from The Nature Conservancy, Green Hoboken, Popular Science, AIChE, Water-Tech Daily News, Theta Phi Alpha, Linked-In, just to name a few. And more than just receiving these newsletters, I always feel the need to actually read them. I am more informed of water-related news than I should be.

Anyway, I recently got an email from Brookhaven National Lab advertising their “Summer Sunday Series.” It is a really cool program in which the lab opens itself up to the public for tours of the different facilities. Last summer I took a tour of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). It was amazing. It’s rivaled only by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland. Only, the RHIC is in my own backyard, about 30 minutes from my house, so it’s much more convenient. Plus,I don’t believe the LHC is even opened to the public (because of course I’ve looked into it a few years ago).

My e-newsletter inspired me to write this blog today and to encourage anyone who is within a realistic distance from the Lab to check it out. It’s a once in a lifetime experience to see such a large-scale science project in the United States. I’m not a physics major, but I could still appreciate the 1+ mile of tunnels, subatomic particles, huge amounts of energy, and sci-fi looking detectors dedicated to understanding the constitution of our universe. 

If you are like me and genuinely interested in scince (and since you are looking at Stevens, I feel confident in saying that you are), Brookhaven is a great opportunity

This is one of the major particle detectors.

 

This detector was so big, I had a hard time taking a picture of it.

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!