It is with great sadness that I share the news with the Schreyer Honors College community that two of our students died today from injuries suffered in a vehicle accident. Sophomores Jonathan Quigley and Emily Trump were in an accident early on the morning of June 6. I do not have many details, this story from The Sentinel was written before Emily passed away this afternoon in the hospital. (UPDATE: A few more details are available in this follow up story.)
Our deepest sympathies go out to their families and friends. They were well loved and appreciated by those in the college and will be deeply missed.
“May light perpetual shine upon them.”
It was interesting to read Dean Brady’s last few blogs on the “new” initative to start student blogs for the SHC. First, it was interesting to consider reading about a bunch of freshman students navigating through their college years; highly reminscient of MTV’s new show, College Life, http://www.mtv.com/ontv/dyn/college_life/series.jhtml
With graduation behind me, it also got me thinking about what, exactly, my role as a student blogger has been. I’m brave enough to admit it– I signed up for this gig because it was initially supposed to be a paid position. (They later revoked that idea though, because they didn’t want it to look like we were being sponsored/bribed to say the right thing.) Admittedly, blogs are a bit archaic, since most college-aged students communicate through Facebook (and twitter, myspace, etc, etc….) And while I like to think otherwise, I’m also brave enough to admit there are only a handful of people out of the 6 billion on this planet that have ever read my blog, let alone visit regularly– and I think I am related to at least 2 of them.
So why have I been blogging for the last three years?
Continue reading ‘A very long winded goodbye’
Well, it took 1344 days, but I have completed all of my requirements for a bachelor’s degree in geography at Penn State. Now I get to wait the 11 days until graduation to actually receive the permanent reminders – the Scholar Medal and the diploma.
Yes, the thesis was finished on time. It was a harrowing process at times, but I’m grateful to have two advisors that really put in the time and effort to make sure what I was writing was honors-caliber. I’m proud of how it turned out, but I would definitely say to classes coming after me that the best advice I can give is “start yesterday”. The thesis is not a beast to be rushed.
I’m moving out of the dorms for the final time on Thursday to spend a week at home before returning for a final 24 hours in Happy Valley as an undergraduate. It’s been an amazing four years, and I’ll miss many things about dorm life – the foremost of which is probably the many, many friendships I’ve developed with my neighbors. I will likely never again be in a living situation quite like this, and I will miss it.
For those of you that didn’t know, I will be attending Temple University’s Ambler Campus in the fall to pursue a master’s degree in community and regional planning under a full fellowship. It’s a two-year program with night classes, so it will be different than here, but I am excited about returning to Philadelphia with my family and favorite places. Four years in the middle of central Pennsylvania was nice, but I am far more suited for megalopolis living.
It’s been an amazing ride, and I’d like to thank the SHC for giving me the opportunity to share some of it with you. Good night and good luck!
I’ve been meaning to publish this information for awhile now. Since I am graduating soon, I decided I better post it! Perhaps it will benefit posterity, and save someone else the time it took me to work this out.
It’s a big mystery how people actually find places to live off campus. Also, whenever you start tossing around the idea of moving off campus, you generally get the response, “It’s a lot cheaper.” But everyone is very vague on the details. So before moving off campus last year, I exercised my mad Excel skills and figured out the finances.
NOTE!! If you plan to move off campus, start your search EARLY. As in, September. Leases open on October 1, and trust me, a lot of places are totally full by Thanksgiving break.
Continue reading ‘PSS 101, Lesson 7: How do I find an apartment? Is it cheaper to live off campus?’
Sorry it’s been so long. Everyone who warns you that senior year is the most unbelieveably hectic time of your college years is telling the truth! Last semester I was absorbed in a research project, and then spent every waking minute working on graduate school applications/my personal statement. I applied to 10 neuroscience PhD programs. That was a LOT of work, as well as a LOT of money in application fees. As far as applying to grad schools, or even undergrad, don’t venture above 10!
Continue reading ‘Grad School: General Info and My Experiences’
Good morning, Internets. You may have forgotten that there are other authors for this SHC blog besides Meg (who I should add has done a fantastic job holding down the fort through the entire semester). It was an extremely busy semester for all of us here at Penn State, but we’ve made it to Winter Break.
Continue reading ‘December already?’
“I HATEEE MYYY LIFEEE”
That’s the motto of my apartment these days. In some ways, it couldn’t be farther from the truth– my roommate and I were just discussing how much we hate to see this semester end because we liked our classes so much. We’re getting ready to “pursue our dreams” of studying English (my roommate) and neuroscience (me) at the graduate level to earn our doctorate degrees. We eat home-cooked dinners together almost every night. We even have a full sized, live Christmas tree.
But it’s finals week. Papers, exams, GRAD SCHOOL APPs… those, we hate. Who doesn’t? Earlier this week, I felt more overwhelmed than I ever have during an exam period. Just thinking of the volume of exams and papers I needed to accomplish for classes, and perfecting my personal statements, and what if I don’t get into grad school, what if I’m not good enough, what will I ever do if I can’t go for my PhD? (And when am I going to go Christmas shopping?) I’ve felt just completely miserable about the immediate prospects of my life.
Then, today I picked up the paper for the first time since we returned from Christmas break. After half an hour, I felt like the most unbelieveably selfish person on the planet.
Which is worse, a country ravaged by a cholera epidemic or its own rebel war troops? Would you rather face a crisis dictated by disease or savage murder by your countrymen? Or what about riots in your country’s capital and major cities? And that was just the front page.
It’s amazing to think we can get caught up in the minutiae of our own small lives to the point where we forget all of the incredible things that surround us. Millions of people would die for the opportunity to live somewhere where you can sleep soundly at night, assured you have food to eat and clean running water.
Finals week or no finals week– remember how fortunate you are.
This week, I made my professional debut into the world of research science! The Society for Neuroscience (SFN) is the largest professional neuroscience organization. Every year, thousands of research scientists from around the world come together at the SFN conference to share their latest research findings and learn about advancements in the field. Continue reading ‘My debut as a “real” neuroscientist’
he past three weekends have been so awesome! Unfortunately, midterms and lab work have really be picking up lately, and I haven’t had a chance to write– so this entry will recap the month.
I wasted an outstanding amount of time and effort yesterday trying to figure out why my computer had suddenly turned to the Dark Side. Hopefully, this post might help other people who ran into the same problem.
If your [Dell] laptop has suddenly started crashing, or more specifically, is no longer connecting to wireless networks: it may be due to Microsoft Service Pack 3. From what I can gather through online forums, it seems like the service pack update was optional for awhile, but it was recently “pushed out” and automatically updated itself on some computers.
Continue reading ‘Tech Talk: Service Pack 3 Problems? Wireless not working?’
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