Like I've been saying since Day 1, there are SO many things to do in college. In fact, I might even say there are TOO many things to do on campus. I had a pretty eventful week last week.
Last Monday our dorm had a Pot Decorating and Tree Planting activity in the basement. One of the RAs came up with the idea of planting little trees (shrubs, but shhh, don't hurt the plants' feelings or they wont grow) to brighten up our rooms! So...we whipped out those paints, brushes, and creative juices. Too bad the plant seeds are coming in in two weeks...but I must say we did a great job with the other half of the activity—decorating the flower pots. They were literally transformed from boring, reddish brown, ordinary pots to colorful, sparkling masterpieces. One girl had an intricate flower design tattooed on a black background, while another girl had swirling blues and purples like the Rainbow Fish. There was one painted with a white picket fence, one with falling cherry blossoms, another with curling vines and lilac flowers, and still another with lush green grass. I ran out of ideas, so I painted a summer scene with a pond, cattails, frogs and butterflies.
My summery flower pot...it must've been cold that night because I ran out of ideas and the first thing that came into mind was warm weather and summer.
Speaking of creative juices, my Creative Writing teacher sent the class an email early last week offering a chance to get rid of two tardies, or one absence, from the record. All we had to do was trek to College Ave at 8pm on a Wednesday night and attend a poetry reading. I almost didn't go, but I'm glad I did. Billy Collins, former U.S. Poet Laureate and apparently one of the most well-known modern poets (I guess I was left out of the loop, since I'd never heard of him before), read a handful of his poems. Like most poems, his were about love, loss, longing, the works. The main difference was that his were glazed with a good, hearty coat of humor. I thought the poetry reading would be a more serious event, but not this one. The audience chuckled throughout the entire hour and a half. I especially liked “The Lanyard,” “Forgetfulness,” and “The Revenant.” Look those up :)
Billy Collins at the poetry reading...so, so funny. He can keep a straight face, which probably helps, a lot.
The week ended with a Science and Health Fair on Friday. I volunteered to help with this event. Run by the Office for the Promotion of Women in Science, Engineering, and Mathematics, or SciWomen, the second annual Science and Health Fair included an undergraduate research poster display, an exhibition fair for seventeen different vendors and organizations around Rutgers to promote science, research, and health programs, and a brief keynote and panel discussion by Dr. Gloria Bachmann, Dr. Naa Oyo Kwate, and Dr. Juana Hutchinson-Colas, which explored current research in social influences on reproductive health. This event was created with the intention of helping women network. The other volunteers and I were there to assist with behind-the-scenes and administrative tasks. We helped with set-up and just stood on stand-by to help the people attending the event find their way around. I couldn't make it to the panel discussion, but I did realize the importance of networking and making connections, especially in the professional world.
Welcome to the 2010 Science and Health Fair! There was also a blood drive going on that day...
Here are some of the seventeen science-health related groups who brought information to “sell” to students and other visitors at the Fair.
Dr. Gloria Bachmann, the keynote speaker at the Science and Health Fair.
Undergraduate Poster Display...there's some pretty interesting research findings here, including one on sleep and BMI, caloric intake of college students, marine science, cocaine self-administration in rats, and more.
Location: SinglePost