My College Journal.

MAES: Taco Tuesday & National Symposium

Today has been a good day.

First, it was Taco Tuesday, an event put on by MAES (Society of Mexican American Engineers and Scientists) where we sell steak tacos in the Engineering Mall. It was another great success! We sold a lot of tacos and raised a lot of money for MAES. Secondly, I was awarded a $200 grant/scholarship/gift from Purdue MAES to go to the MAES Symposium in Anaheim later this month. I’m so excited!

So that’s it for MAES-news, and in other news I found out Tiesto is coming to Chicago on November 20th….I AM SO THERE. A couple friends and I are planning on taking the train up to the Windy City that weekend and party our asses off! I am so excited for this as well!

Unfortunately, at this moment, I am stuck in the HOT laundry room, waiting for my clothes to dry. Yuck.

CARPE NOCTEM.

Second Week: In Review

I forgot to blog yesterday about the previous week, but that’s OK: it’s only Monday.

The first week of classes was rather smooth, even without any textbooks. My private loan from Wells Fargo didn’t get disbursed into my account until today and therefore last Thursday I had to get a $400 emergency loan from the Dean of Students office to buy the 2 books I really needed. Other than the money situation, classes were very interesting. Here’s the run-down:

• COM 114 (Fundamentals of Speech and Communication I) - MWF 10:30 - This is definitely one of my favorite classes. Our professor is really laid back and my class of 20-some people are all from the EPICS Learning Community (LC) (which means they live on my floor, or the adjacent floor on the girl’s wing of Harrison Hall).
• MA 162 (Calculus II) - Lecture: MWF 4:30, Recitation: TR 10:30 - Hmmmm…..this is NOT one of my favorite classes. The professor for the lecture has the most monotonous and heavily accented voices of anybody I have ever met. And it is/will be boring because I already learned Calc II material in AP Calc BC. It’s an easy A but this class is going to be hard to stay awake in. Recitation is alright; the TA is kind of boring but at least I can understand him better.
• CHEM 115 (General Chemistry) - Lecture: TR 8:30, Recitation: T 4:30, Lab: W 11:30 - I like the professor for the lecture because she is very enthusiastic about the material being covered. The lecture hall we’re in is HUGE; so huge there’s a BALCONY. This is the only class that concerns me academically: I was never a chemistry person, even though I did pretty well in Honors Chemistry in 10th grade. The TA for our recitation is a nice person, even if she’s kind of quiet. I don’t know what to expect for the lab since we didn’t have one the first week. 
• ENGR 131 (Transforming Ideas into Innovation I) - Studio: TR 11:30 - Now this is an interesting class. It’s required for all First Year Engineering (FYE) students and basically keeps everyone interested in engineering until we start taking engineering classes come sophomore year. Our professor, Bill Oakes, is a REALLY awesome guy - he invited everyone to his house last Saturday for a pool party! Anyways, I love this class because we do a lot of practical assignments that relate to general engineering. Plus, everyone in my EPICS LC is in this class as well.
• EPICS (Engineering Projects In Community Service) - Lecture: M 5:30, Lab: W 8:30 - Now this is my favorite class. But I need to explain a little bit first. EPICS is a program that anybody can participate but is more geared towards engineering majors. Everybody is split into 30-something project groups that consist of a dozen or so students (who range from freshmen to grad students). These groups then work on various community projects throughout the semester. My group’s project is to work with the Lafayette School Corporation (LSC) - or more specifically, Jefferson High School - to help them develop their recycling program. I’m really excited about this because it parallels my senior year in so many ways: as Co-President of ECO-action, we tried to revamp our recycling program at NASH. The other students in my EPICS team are also awesome people. It’s going to be a fun semester.

Well, that’s my 15 credit hours of classes! Also, here are some extra-curricular activities I am/will be a part of:

• Society of Mexican American Engineers and Scientists (MAES): MAES is a national organization but the Purdue chapter was founded just last year. I met the president earlier this year at the Engineering Preview in April and I promised him I’d join in the fall…and so I did. Last Wednesday was the first general meeting and I paid my membership dues and got my MAES polo shirt. The chicos y chicas of MAES are really friendly and remind me a lot of the Mexican friends and family I have back in California. Every week until winter is Taco Tuesday where we sell steak tacos at the Engineering Mall to raise money for the club. Last Tuesday was a huge success since we sold out! By helping I also got to know a lot of the other members too. I also have the chance to go the National MAES Symposium held in Anaheim from September 29-October 2 and represent Purdue MAES. I’ve made a big impression on the executives already so I think I have a really good chance of getting chosen to go. Also, at the meeting last week I volunteered to lead and organize a dodgeball tournament (since I helped put on one earlier this year for NA StuCo). 
• Purdue Student Union Board (PSUB): So I’m not officially a part of this yet but I’m turning in my application today to be a part of the Special Events Committee. PSUB is just like a high school student council that puts on many events like Homecoming and tailgating parties. I hope to be involved with this a lot.
• 4v4 Intramural Sand Volleyball: Yes, I will actually be playing a sport this year! Me and several friends decided to make a team (called the Beach Bums) and our first game is this Sunday at 1:30. This is all for fun and I can’t wait! Our team includes me, Jonathan, Greg, Brian, Joey, and Austin.
• Boiler Green Initiative (BGI): This is basically Purdue’s environmental club. I’m not sure how involved I will be in this considering the other activities, but I’m going to the callout tonight so we’ll see what happens…

Wow, this is a huge blog post. But a lot happened. Especially this past weekend, which I won’t be talking about…..let’s just say I love college.

CARPE NOCTEM.

First Week: Orientation

So my first week of college has been AMAZING. Boiler Gold Rush (BGR aka Orientation) started Sunday evening and, until Wednesday night, was non-stop fun. I think the earliest I have been to sleep was 1 AM (with the latest being 3 AM). I have met SO many awesome people and everyone is friendly. I seriously believe I made more friends this week than I did the first year at North Allegheny….let’s see…Ryan, Jackie, Mike, Sam, Kyle, Jon, Brian, Greg, Tahani, Leia, Denai, Chris…..I could go on?! 

I also got a lot of free stuff, especially from Meijer Mania and the Target Run. My dorm is awesome, 4th Floor Harrison is where it’s at! 

Last night was my first frat party experience, at KDR (Kappa Delta Rho); it was a pretty awesome time, and it was rave-themed. And I’m not going to lie, there was a lot of alcohol and people got WASTED. It was obviously a great time watching them though. Weekends are going to be fun; what’s college without some parties?!

Tomorrow classes start so today was a lazy day (compared to every other day). Had breakfast at Wiley, went to Wal-mart for groceries, going out to lunch now, then laundry, then the author of the Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini, is speaking at Elliot Hall since his book was this year’s common reading book. That’s at 3:30. Then from 7-9 there’s a MEP (Minority Engineering Program) event at Follett’s where there’s free food, which is why I’m going! Not entirely though, I know a lot of people from the Engineering Preview that’s going, that’s why I’m going.

Well, classes start tomorrow! Only 3! COMM 114 at 10:30 then a Calc II Lecture at 4:30 and EPICS class at 5:30.

CARPE NOCTEM.