It is hard to believe that another weekend is over! Only two more weeks until Thanksgiving, and only three and a half weeks until finals *gulp*. I still have so much to do before the semester is over!

Last week was the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine came to Beloit. This included a presentation on how to apply to an osteopathic medical program and we also got to meet a bunch of admissions representatives from various osteopathic schools and chat with them about the programs. While I find osteopathic medicine to be very interesting and agree with the basic principles of it, I still think I want to get a regular MD, not a DO (the degree for osteopathic medicine). But it was really cool to have the opportunity to explore that path.

Today we had our first snowfall of the year! I know that I will soon be annoyed with the snow, but the first few are always really pretty and nice to me. I can't imagine living somewhere where it doesn't snow at least a few times a year.

This weekend was also opening night of "The Importance of being Ernest" which the theater department here is putting on. Though I did not get a chance to see it this weekend, I hope to see it Next weekend. "The Importance of Being Ernest" has a special place in my heart, as it is the first show I ever saw at APT (a theater company in Spring Green, Wisconsin) when I was seven or eight. I now go to spring green at least once a summer to see a play.

This weekend was not as eventful as last weekend. I did not go off campus or visit any old SOIs (yes Krista, that was a wonderful visit. Can't wait until you are back on campus!). But having a relaxing weekend was actually quite wonderful. I didn't fully understand how much I liked doing nothing until becoming a college student! Not that there was a lack of activities available, I just NEEDED a break.

Tonight, lots of perspective students are coming in for Beloit's Autumn Visit Days. It seems a bit weird to have something with the word "Autumn" in the title when snow is falling (SNOW!), but this IS Wisconsin. I am looking forward to meeting some of you this evening.

If you didn't come, I suggest visiting the schools you are applying to at some point. I actually only did one or two college visits before I got acceptance letters, but I manged to visit all of my schools eventually. For me, the visits were very important because they allowed me to get a feel for the campus and see if I could picture myself there. Some places I went to were really high up on my list until I visited, and some were lower until I visited.

And to end, a picture from last weekend. It is supposed to be the Chicago skyline, but I took it on the "night" setting of my camera without a tripod, so I shall call it "Chicago on Speed"

This week has been so busy!

Last weekend I presented at the Undergraduate Research Conference for Biological and Psychological Sciences along with five other Beloit students. We spent all weekend in Chicago with undergraduate scientists from around the country. It was really exciting to see the research everyone did! Some people had been doing their research for years, and others (like myself) were presenting things they had just been doing for the summer. I took a bunch of pictures, and will probably add them later when I get them off of my camera.

This week was also election week! I took Tuesday off to go back to Madison to volenteer for the election. Tuesday night was amazing!

Now that the excitement is over, I not only have to make up the work that I didn't get to do this weekend or Tuesday, but also decide classes for next semester by tomorrow! It looks like I will be taking three science classes (which makes sense, as I am a biochemistry major) and something else....but what?

I am also signed up to take an MCAT prep course in Madison next semester. This means that I will be driving up to Madison with a few other Beloiters twice a week. Thankfully, the Health Professionals Advisory Committee will chip in a few hundred dollars towards the course and, perhaps, some gas money. I have a meeting to discuss that tomorrow.

Hope you all had a good week. Have a great weekend!

Today we got scheduling materials for next semester. This is always an exciting time of year, because you can almost see winter break and usually, no matter how much you like your classes, you are ready for a change. For some people, it is time to start thinking about what they want/need to take next semester. For others, like myself, it is time to try and find something to fit into a schedule where you already know most of your classes. The sciences are really good about putting up the schedule somewhere in the science building for people to see soon after they submit class lists to the registrars office, so I knew three out of the four classes I would be taking next semester about two months ago. but it is nice to think about what next semester may bring.

I spent this morning printing out a huge poster for the Undergraduate Research Symposium in Biological Sciences this weekend. There are six of us going. Basically, we get to hang out in a hotel for a weekend with other undergraduates who did research over the summer and present our work. I am a little nervous, as with all public speaking things, but also kind of excited. though I think it will be a great experience, I can't pretend I am not sad about missing the Halloween things going on this weekend. Tomorrow evening they have a live action Rocky Horror show put on by students, and many other fun party things planned. It is also Get Out The Vote weekend.

Hope you all have a great weekend/ Halloween

This weekend was very fun, despite the massive amounts of homework I had to do.

Saturday I took the whole day off went to Madison with the Department of Student Activities to see Avenue Q. The college bought 50 tickets at a discounted price,. For the coast of the discounted ticket, we got a Ticket to Avenue Q and a ride to Madison on the bus they hired, what a deal! It was also nice because we got to Madison around 11:30 and the show did not start until 2, which meant we had a few hours to hang out. I went with one of my friends to have breakfast at Sun Print Cafe off the square, and then became a real madisonian again and sat in Michelangelo's (a cafe on State street) and read The Isthmus and did the crossword. what a great day!

Avenue Q was also great! I saw so many people that I knew there (aside from the 49 other Beloiters). The show was HILARIOUS, as expected. In the beginning, it was weird to see the people with the puppets, but as the show progressed you kind of forgot about the people and focused on the puppets.

This week and next week are going to be crazy. Between school and homework and the election, it is going to a few weeks of little sleep. Luckily, I already voted, so I don't have to worry about actually going to the polls among the slew of other activities I have going on.

Have a great week everyone!

Phew, feels like I haven't blogged in ages!

Fall break was wonderful! I got to go home and chill out, though I wasn't doing much relaxing. I worked for the Obama campaign in Madison every day; I entered so much data I thought my eyeballs were going to fall out and made so many phone calls I thought my ears were going to fall off.

In addition to that, I hung out with friends, watched a lot of movies/TV, and drunk lots of tea. One night, my friends and I watched "Edward Scissorhands" and "Sweeney Todd"...I never realized how alike those movies are. I also avoiding doing any kind of homework. In retrospect, this was probably not the best idea, but I am all caught up now.

Tuesday, the people running for congress had a debate at the college...again. They also had one when I was a freshman here. I was kind of sad to miss it, but I had to do the aforementioned homework. One of the candidates used to be a professor at Beloit! I am not going to vote for him, but it is cool.

Have a wonderful weekend!

It has been a pretty hectic week. I missed two days of school for Rosh Hashana and was working like crazy to make it up. The professors are always very understanding about religious holidays that interfere with school, but I still wanted to be on top of things when I got back.

Yesterday was one of my favorite annual events at Beloit. Many of the staff brought their pets to the wall (a meeting place on residential side of campus) and we got to have some fuzz therapy. Nothing quite like taking a break from genetics work to hang out with a group of happy dogs. Last year there was a cat, but it did not make an appearance this year.

Can't wait for fall break! Only one more week and I will be in Madison wolfing down homemade food and volunteering like crazy for the presidential election! I will hopefully have some time to veg out on the couch watching Lord of the Rings (I watch the entire series in its extended edition format almost every break) and cuddling with my cats.

Don't forget to watch the second presidential debate on Tuesday!

This weekend was really busy. Most of it was spent in the French House training to be a sexual assault recovery advocate. Basically, this means that I spend at least three 12 hour shifts a month on call for SARP (Sexual Assault Recovery Program). Whenever someone is admitted to the hospital for assault, we get called. we have to be there with in 30 minutes and help the person make decisions such as whether they want to report the assault to the police, if they want just a pelvic exam or to complete the entire rape kit, etc. There are programs all over the US like this one, but we will only be working in Rock County, which means we will only be called to go to the hospital in Beloit or the hospital in Janesville. It was a hard 16 hours of training, but I think will be a very rewarding experience.

Besides training for SARP, I had a wonderful weekend. It started with a presidential debate watching party Friday night in the Java Joint. Because it is a major election and this weekend was homecoming, we had over 150 people (current students and alumni) packed into the java joint! All of the political groups on campus were there too. The dems and republicans were signing people up to volunteer, and the non-partisan Beloit College Voter Registration project (of which I am a member) was registering voters. All and all it was a great success, and I think everyone enjoyed themselves.

If you can vote in the US, or are otherwise interested in US politics, don't forget to watch the vice presidential debate this Thursday! Be an informed voter!

We had a very interesting speaker this week for the "Moral Values Lectures" series. The series basically brings in a lot of off campus speakers on a lot of issues. This week Susan Wood, former FDA insider,who resigned over the delay of a ruling that would make "morning after" pills accessible to the public. Though I could not go to her actual lecture (I had to characterize fruit flies for genetics on that particular night), I did go to a more informal forum with only 7 or so other students. We had a great discussion on the subject of Women's health and other science related decisions that have been based on politics and not science.

In other news, what do you all think about McCain's plans to suspend his campaign until a decision about the financial crisis is reached? This has been/ is going to be a very interesting election cycle.

So it occurs to me that I have not talked about any of the classes I am taking this semester. I suppose this should be done...

Beloit's credit system is a little unusual. Basically, each class is worth one credit no mater the time requirement. There are a few exceptions; your FYI (freshman seminar class) is worth 1.5 credits and things like music lessons, some dance classes, and a few other classes are worth a little less (like 0.25 or 0.5 credits). A normal course load for a Beloiter is 4 credits (4 classes). This semester I am only taking 3.5 credits because one of my classes is really time consuming. so here is my class list:

Genetics (biology): This is supposed to be the "hardest" class in the biology department. I have found it pretty time consuming, stressful, and frustrating, but I think that its reputation is a little harsh. For me, the learning style is a lot more like my alternative high school, but a little more intense. The professor wants you to learn how to learn on your own, and therefore will not answer questions without making you think. Every time you ask him a question, he asks you five. There is a ton of group work, which is sometimes frustrating just because coordinating three people is harder than just looking after yourself.

Memory and Cognition (Psychology): I am actually really enjoying the content of this class, but find it to be a lot more reading than I expected. It is mostly a lecture style class, which is not necessarily the style I would choose to learn in. It is kind of funny, because one would assume the science classes are more lecture while social science would be more discussion based and group work, but in my experience this has not been the case. We have to do a major paper about a subject we choose and how it pertains to cognitive psychology, and I have already found some really interesting sources.

Creative Writing (English): This is my "take it easy" class. I took it the same semester as genetics because I knew it would force me to relax and sit down and write a bit each day. We are actually doing less writing than I would like, but It has started to pick up in the last week or so. It is such a relaxing class! Fran (the professor) is really laid back, and we have a lot of small group discussions where we go outside for.

Chemistry seminar (Chemistry): this class only meets on Fridays for one hour. we usually have pizza or some other snack/lunch food and discuss "Science" magazine. We have also been having a lot of Beloit Alumni who majored in chemistry or biochemistry come and talk to us about what they do now. It is really comforting to have some one come in and tell you that what they are doing has nothing to do with their major but they would never have fallen into it had it not been for Beloit, or that it has everything to do with their major and they are still loving it.

So those are my classes, they keep me really busy. But then again....that is what I am here for :)

This year I got to be an OL. Basically, an OL (Orientation Leader) is a returning Beloit student who comes to help out with New Student Days (the week that the new class of freshman/transfer students are here before everyone else gets back). It was tons of fun!

As OLs, we had to get here the Wednesday before new student days for training. When I tried to move back into my room, there was a slight glitch. There a big hole in one wall because they were fixing something, so I had to room with one of my other friends who was also an OL for a few days. Training was interesting. I learned so much about the campus I had never known before, especially about the registration process and other aspects of the administration pertaining to students.

and then the Freshman got here...and they were great.

Each freshman gets to choose a seminar class (called an FYI) before arriving. each seminar class has at least one OL for the week. I worked with Paul Stanley, a physics professor here who just happened to be my FYI professor when I was a freshman. I also got to meet a bunch of first years and hang out with them for the week. We did some ice breakers and other get-to-know-campus activities, some classy things like a poster presentation on Michael Pollens "the Omnivores Dilemma", and some fun stuff, like a canoe trip.

It was a busy week, both physically and mentally taxing. But I will definitely do it again next year!

Hello again

Hello everyone.

I kept this admissions blog last year, so for those returning readers, hello again. for those of you just starting the college search process, welcome!

so here is a little bit about me:

My name is Shanna and I am a junior biochemistry student here at Beloit. I am originally from Madison WI, so I didn't go too far despite having ambitions to go to college on the east coast. What can I say, I just really liked Beloit. My favorite color is purple and if I could be any animal I would aspire to be a pampered house cat. Hopefully I will be able to show you what it is like being a Beloit College student through this blog, but everyone has a different experience


Most of my summer was spent in Chicago. I received a Schweppe Internship this summer, which meant I got paid to hang out in a lab at Rush Medical University doing HIV research. the Schweppe foundation basically gives a certain amount of money to many schools in the Chicago area so that undergraduates can have experiences doing biomedical research in Chicago. Marrion Fass, a professor here, oversees who gets the Schweppe internships at Beloit. This summer I was one of five Beloiters who got the award.

Research was great! I was helping with a gender study on HIV, so I was basically in the lab every day running the same experiment over and over again to see if antibody activity worked differently in males with HIV as opposed to females with HIV (in short....I could go off on the long explanation, but I bet some of you may be rather bored by the topic). The best part was that I learned how to draw blood! I was only drawing uninfected people, so don't worry, it was all really safe.

I also just loved living in a real city. I know that the L is old and needs a lot of repair work done and things like that, but coming from a city with very little public transportation, I loved the public transit system in Chicago. Every day i took it to and from work, and to many other exciting places. I went to China town a few times and even got a hair cut there, and I went to a bunch of museums and other touristy spots. I also just kind of explored my surroundings and the surroundings near the place I worked.

And now I am back at school...I will have to tell you all about it in my next blog.

Good luck with everything, feel free to contact me with questions and enjoy reading the admissions blogs this year.

Oh yeah, I dont know if you watched SNL this week (it is mostly not funny anymore), but Tina Fay and Amy Poehler did the funniest sketch!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnRUKIMegn8



here is a statue I passed on my way to work every day, I love the quote and hope I can live up to it if I succeed in becoming a doctor:

It says (if you cant see it) "one doesn't ask of one who suffers: what is your country and what is your religion? One merely says, you suffer, this is enough for me, you belong to me and I will help you." - Louis Pasteur

farewell for now

well, it is my last blog for the school year. I have a final tomorrow and a final on Saturday and then I am free to spend the summer as I chose. I will be visiting a friend at the University of San Diego for two weeks after I break out of here, and then it is off to Chicago to go develop a cure for HIV/AIDS.

I hope you have been semi entertained by my odd ramblings about college, life, and other random stuff. If you are a senior this year, hope to see you next fall! If you are a junior, tune in next year to hear about my crazy summer and my junior year here at Beloit. either way, have a wonderful summer!

Ciao

This week has been pretty crazy. Everyone has been scurrying to finish papers and lab write ups (in the science department at least) while also trying to study for finals. Around this time I generally go out for coffee at the Pleasant Street Cafe a lot, but this semester my coffee buddy is in China, and I have yet to find someone who is willing to dig their heads out of their books for a few hours and take a break....but i think Krista will be joining me there tomorrow!

Along with all the work I have been doing, i also found time to donate blood. the Rock County blood bank has a blood drive on campus a few times a semester, and it is actually kind of nice to have a break and lie around on a comfy lawn chair-like recliner...while getting your most needed substance pumped from your body :)

Today the admissions office hosted a barbecue for their student employees. it was really fun, we had burgers and brats (of the meat eater and non meat eater varieties) cooked by Bryan, plus every admissions staff member brought a side or dessert. i had way to much food, but it was all so good! we also got these amazing treat bags with all sorts of stuff to help us get through finals week, like soda and candy and more candy and raisins. ahh, the perks of working for admissions.

well, tomorrow is my last night of work before the summer, so I guess I will save my farwell blog until then.

Last week the boss at my internship at Kerry took me and my coworkers out to La Casa Grande, a Mexican restaurant really close to campus. There were people there who were giving out flowers for "women who work" day, or something along those lines.

When I got back to Kerry it was "take your child to work" day. They had all these stations set up for the kids dealing with food science, and they got to sample a lot. it was kind of cute. I remember when i was younger it was "take your daughter to work" day. I used to go every year to my mothers work at the state department of public instruction and they always had a women in government there, I think one year they even had Tammy Baldwin, but i may not be remembering correctly.

Life on campus has gotten rather strained. finals start on friday, and everyone is feeling the rush of last minute papers and the like. rooms are becoming barer as people start packing up their belongings, and the bags under peoples eyes are growing. two weeks from today i will be in sunny California visiting my friend who goes to UCSD... only two more weeks, only two more weeks, only two more weeks! it will be odd to leave this place, though i know i will be back in the fall...

why I came to beloit and other things of interest

We got our schedules yesterday. I got all the classes I I wanted, which is good. I really don't like the new schedule right now. It was hard to find classes that would fit in with the few classes I really needed to take, and every class I wanted seemed to meet 11-12 on Wednesdays. also, they end at weird times, like 11:05 instead of a nice even every class from X-X:50. hopefully it will be better than I anticipate and they will take next semester to iron out the kinks.

I have been giving a lot of tours for admitted students recently. It kind of reminds me of when I was trying to choose between every school I had been accepted into. I remember listening to so many people tell me that the reason they decided to go to such and such school was because they got on campus and just knew it was the right place. I was always really skeptical of this, how can you just know? But as corny as it seems, they were right. even as a junior when I really wanted to get out of WI for college, as soon as i got onto Beloit's campus I pretty much knew I would end up here. odd.

I am so sick of matzo. I am trying to keep kosher for passover, a holiday that has pretty strict dietary guidelines for the week, but it is pretty hard. the campus has an excess of matzo, but they don't really cook meals that are kosher for passover or anything, not that I expect them too, it just makes it harder. Though I went off campus for Seders (the traditional meals served at the beginning of passover), there was one on campus. I kinda want to stay some year and go to the campus one, but with home being 50 miles away I really enjoy doing the family thing.

spring day

You know that feeling when you spend all day in the ocean playing in the waves and then you come home and sit down and still feel like you are being tossed about by waves? i have that feeling right now, but i was not playing in waves (sadly), I was in the wind. today was spring day, a day where we have no class and there is music and other activities in the quad outside of 609 and Wood. it was a beautiful day today (apparently the first nice spring day in 11 years or so). and it was sooo windy! i love the wind!

I spent the entire day tie-dying, rocking out to this really good band, and hanging out on the grass just lounging around. everywhere people were playing football and frisbee, and we even saw some people playing bocce ball, or whatever you call it. it was wicked.

it is hard to imagine that we only have three more weeks of school left. i am very glad of this, but will also miss my friends. next semester many of my friends will be abroad, which is an interesting prospect to consider.

Well, it is the end of another weekend. Though I do not have a ton of homework tonight, I do wish that the weekend were longer!

Friday night I went to "Dick Talk". this is the male equivalent of the vagina monologues, and this is the second year in its existence. it was pretty interesting, and some of them were very funny. one guy who was giving a monologue about taking a shower and reading the pamphlet for the testicular cancer self test even wore a speedo throughout his monologue....it was very amusing and he got a huge cheer.

Saturday night was the drag show, where we get professional drag queens to come and preform. they looked like real females!

and now we have a ton of high school seniors on campus for Senior Open House. I always think that it is amusing that they have big visit days on Sunday nights. I mean, Sundays are the days that most students want to do all of the homework they have been ignoring/neglecting. this does not mean we are not happy to host prospies...it is just an interesting fact.

i do not want to look for an apartment this summer! i didn't think I would need to be looking for housing until...well, a long time from now. I don't really like it much, have to admit. If anyone knows of any apartments for lease in Chicago, let me know :)

This weekend was pretty insane. two events that I helped organize happened, so I didnt really get a chance to actually just relax.

Girls and Women in Science was pretty good. We had 25 girls on campus, as well as their teachers and parents. I spent most of Friday giving tours to the girls and then setting up for dinner and their night at the sports center. I then went to dinner with them, and later hung out with their parents and teachers. I got off by 9:00 pm ( i was not staying with them in the sports center, thank god) and hung out with one of my friends here. we went to a Voodoo Barbie performance (part I of II, after this performance they stayed up for a full 24 hours and only hung out with each other, then did a show Saturday night.) we then played monopoly until 3:00 in the morning!!!

Saturday I had to get up at 7:30 am to set up things in the science building. I dont think i have ever been up that early on a sunday, or at least do it very rarely. campus is pretty dead at that time. The rest of the day was crazy, running around Chamberlin putting up signs for labs, making sure everything was running smoothly, and setting things up for later. When the last girl finally left at 4:00 i was pretty excited.

Sunday was international dinner, and since I coordinated the food it was another crazy day. people were coming in and out of commons all day preparing their dishes, and I got to watch as each mouthwatering dish was being set up. i think my favorite dish was this curry made by a girl from Malaysia...it was nice to have some SPICE!!!! there were also some amazing prefomrences. This one guy sang some Turkish songs; he had a good voice and they were so haunting! One of my really good friends (and the person I will be renting an apartment with in Chicago this summer) did a traditional Sri Lankan dance.

My Prozac synthesis is going well (i think), and the finished product should be done after lab on Tuesday....we shall see how it turns out.

now I am going to listen to the song "mad world" for a bit ( i got two versians of it this week...i LOVE this song)

This week has been crazy....and it is only going to get crazier. GWIS (Girls and Women in Science) is this weekend, and as I am a coordinator in training for it, i am in the thick of things. International dinner is also this Sunday, and I am coordinating all of the food. I am really excited for international dinner, because we have lots of people cooking and it sounds like we are goijng to have some amazing food here. Beloit has a few Mexican restaurants and such, but not any (that I know of) other ethnic foods...like Thai or Indian (my two favorite types of food). I am looking forward to some really spicy curries.

Last night I went to an accepted students reception in Milwaukee. I met some really cool perspective/admitted/definitely coming here students. Afterwards we went to Kopps, which is apparently some cultish burger joint. it was pretty good :) It reminded me a bit of eating in Italy (not the food...definitely not the food) because it didn't have sit down tables, just tall ones to stand and eat at. there was also a very big spoon and cherrie in the middle of the place...

I just got a new book today called "A Billion Lives: an Eyewitness Report from the Frountlines of Humanity". the reason for this purchase was because the author is currently on campus going to classes and giving talks., Jan Egeland (the author) is a former UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and a former UN emergency relief chief. his book is AMAZING. I had 5 minutes between walking back from the bookstore and the start of my next class to start it...and I ended up being about 10 minutes late to my next class.