Spending summer vacation doing academic work was not an idea I found too appealing. After a long school year of being busy, summer is usually the time to relax and have some fun before moving on to another challenging school year. All the stress is pushed to the side, and for a couple of months the brain relaxes and resets. With this in mind, I was hesitant to submit my application to Tech Camp 2015, a summer engineering program at UCLA, at the end of my sophomore year. After serious consideration, the positive outweighed the negative. I went for it and was accepted to BattleBots, the Mechanical Engineering team of the program.
I spent a whole month living on the campus of UCLA. It was one of the greatest decisions of my life. I loved every
second of it. I was doing what I loved to do at one of the top universities in the nation. The summer program consisted of a couple of small projects that introduced basic concepts and techniques used by an engineer, such as the designing software program SolidWorks. The final project was the creation of a hockey playing robot that competed against another team’s. My team won. I could not stay away the following summer at the end of my junior year. I applied and was accepted to the 2016 High School Summer Research Program, HSSRP. Also at UCLA, HSSRP is the more challenging continuation of the Tech Camp summer program. This time, I lived on campus two months, where I worked in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, under Professor Veronica J. Santos in the Biomechatronics Lab, with the development of prosthetics and advancements in the artificial replication of haptic sensing. The experience was amazing. I was granted the opportunity to work in a research lab with a professor and graduate students working to complete their PhD. Tech Camp was fun, but HSSRP gave me an insight of the academic rigor required to research as an engineer. This was not something that could be taught or learned from a book. This was a unique experience that could only be truly understood first hand. With it, I reaffirmed and confirmed that my desire to pursue a career as a mechanical engineer is definitely what I want to do with my future.
So far, I am only in my first semester of college, but I love it. I have met a whole new set of friends and find that things are always happening on campus and in the city. I was homesick for about the first week, but after that I never thought about being homesick again. I had too many interesting things to do. For the first t...
Summer vacation. For most children and teens, the phrase conjures up images of hot, sunny days and vacations with the whole family to far-off places. We all envision lazy afternoons relaxing on the beach, playing in water parks, and going on picnics. But what happens when summer ends and the reality of another year of school sinks in?
If you attend summer school you have to attend three months of school and get nine months off. Another great thing about attending summer school is that you have more time to enjoy the holidays with your family and friends Those three things I just listed are amazing opportunities and who wouldn’t want to take advantage of these great things.
My first two weeks on campus were great. When I first walked on to the campus, it felt very foreign like I was in another country. I didn’t feel connected yet and still felt like a visitor. Most of the time I didn’t know exactly where I was going and of course, I didn’t want to look like a freshman. Eventually, I did find where I was going, after going to Cajun connection.
The CSUN campus was amazing. I was able to expand my knowledge of topics that interested me like Deaf literature, Deaf history, ASL linguistics, etc. In addition, I was offered positive Deaf spaces, I was able to meet new and diverse people (teachers, students and other faculty) and I could attend fantastic workshops with speakers that talked about unique subjects such as international sign language, the Deaf Art Movement and the Deaf community in Europe during WWII. Aside from the Deaf Studies program, I was allowed to explore other areas that have always interested me and added to my education. This was becoming a part of the Jewish Studies program. That experience resulted in a scholarship, an internship at a Jewish Community preschool and a trip to Poland. What made CSUN unique was not only the opportunities it gave me as a student but that the Deaf Studies program focused on education in culture. This meant explaining and exploring intersectionality between communities, understanding privilege and how people can identify themselves in this world. I can’t imagine receiving these experiences anywhere
The Value of Life Many people in society today have different thoughts on how the value of a human life should be measured. One of the biggest questions today are, How should the value of a human life be determined? Or should the be based on the monetary worth of that life?
Living on campus is the best way to become engaged in the Universities community. When you live in the dorms, you get the opportunity to meet people from all different backgrounds. You also make many new friendships with the
Los Angeles is my goal place to be when I graduate from high school. The weather, the amount of people in the city, the diversity of culture and types of people, the numerous amount of different opportunities, the famous landmarks, beaches, and so much more intrigue me. I chose the University of Southern California for my college research project. USC is located in Los Angeles and their campus looks really lovely which is a reason as to why I would like to possibly go to that university. Many people shoot for UCLA, it is one my list of colleges to go to, but not my first because many people strive to go there and I don’t usually like going somewhere where many people usually choose to go. There are many different programs, activities, and clubs you can join and participate in and I absolutely love communicating with new people and try new activities.
UCLA is a student friendly housing college, as 96% of enrolled Freshmen live on campus (US News College Rankings). The students enrolled have plenty of activities to do when not in class, the campus is located short drives from beaches, museums, sporting venues and to historic towns and neighborhoods. The students can also attend the year round sporting events and support the Bruins at the world famous Rose Bowl, a short 15 minute drive from the university.
Unlike during school years, “there are many skills student acquire during the summer at a faster rate” (Studebaker). With more time in their hand, they can polish their interests and become a professional. School usually does not have many activities so, summer break is the opportunity to try them out. Brittany Chu voices students’ thought:
My heart was beating and my hands were sweating. My teacher asked me a question and I wanted to cry. I didn’t know how to say my response in English and was afraid of the other kids making fun of me because I thought my accent was too strong. All the students stared. “Just answer the question” one girl murmured. Every day I’d sit in the same seat without talking. And even though I had spent a month in the same classroom I felt uncomfortable being there. I moved to the United States from the Dominican Republic when I was twelve. I knew the word for “mariposa” was “butterfly,” and I knew how to introduce myself, but that was about all. Some people would even become frustrated due to the fact they couldn’t understand me, or the other way around. Knowing how they felt about me not being able to communicate made me want to shut myself off from them.
The most fulfilling or rewarding experience I have had as a college student here at USC has simply been having the opportunity to be surrounded by motivated students, professors, and advisors that have encouraged me to expand my horizons and better myself. Without the Honors College, I would have never met and bonded with my current roommates or any of my other college friends, who push me to try new things and work harder every day. The Honors classes I have been enrolled in have provided me with the opportunity to interact with students who are passionate about what they are studying. The professors I have taken are experts in their fields and have interesting stories and histories, such as one
I was raised in rural wyoming where hunting was not only tradition, but a way of life. Since I could walk I had been accompanying my dad on all varieties of hunts. My father did all that was possible to pass on the knowledge and lessons needed for me to become a responsible hunter and man. However, there are some lessons that can only be learned through personal experience. They are often the ones of moral and ethical decisions. My sophomore year of high school I committed the hunting mistake most outstanding in my mind.
Excited. Nervous. Determined. Those three words perfectly describe how I was feeling my first day of college. The enrollment process was rigorous for me, but with the encouragement and support from my boyfriend, I was able to finish submitting the required paperwork by the school's deadline. After all of that was over with, I could finally begin a whole new chapter of my life that I had never visioned for myself. None of my family members have attended college, I was going to be the first one. This means, I was showing up for my first class completely mentally unprepared. I was unaware of what to expect for my first semester at Ocean County College.
Little did I know, they had three. So that first day, I remember sitting in Starbucks, eating my oatmeal and drinking my orange juice, a coffee and taking in this strange place at seven in the morning, with no one awake as it was a Sunday. I went on a tour, they held a talk and pretty soon after I was an official student at Brown, at least for the