LauraLee

I just returned from an amazing 3 day blitz trip to Nashville for the Society of Women Engineers National Conference. You can check out Ann's blog for a totally thorough description of our trip, I'll just give some of the highlights.

First, as Ann mentioned- Tennessee is in the South. Who knew??? Apparently not me. I know, I apologize, I'm an ignorant Californian and all we care about is California. If you lived here, you would understand ;-) But seriously, I looked on a map and got so excited to be in the South because I've never been before. Unfortunately, I looked at a map after I'd called my friend in Illinois and told him that I was close, oops. So with the South comes tons of churches, awesome BBQ, accents (I wish I had one), and of course- White Castle. So when we arrived in Nashville after waking up painfully early, 2:30am to be exact, we obviously had to go to a White Castle. Conveniently there was one only 6-7 blocks away. This trek turned into a Harold and Kumar like adventure where the sidewalk randomly ended on us twice and we had to J-walk (planning to feign ignorance if we got a ticket that J-walking is legal in California). Once we arrived at the infamous White Castle, my expectations were shot down. First, the menu was very strange- there was a "cheese cup" and "fish nibblers" eww. And then the burgers weren't even that amazing, the onion rings were decent though. So I must say that In-N-Out puts White Castle to shame.

Now to the more important parts, the actual SWE Conference. Thursday night was the "pre Career Fair." I'm still not really sure how it is different than the career fair on Friday, but oh well. This was my first time at the national conference so walking into the convention center with all the companies was totally overwhelming. Literally there were company booths as far as the eye could see. And I'm not talking about little booths, it looked like they had been setting up for days. There were plasma TV's, a caterpillar tractor, cars on display, interactive games and so much more. So we wandered around and talked to companies and passed out resumes. Just from Thursday night I got 2 interview offers for Friday! Then the rest of the night we spent visiting Hospitality Suites.

Friday was the actual Career Fair. So on this day I had a better idea of what to expect. I talked to a few more companies and managed to get another interview. So in total I had 3 interviews on Friday for full time jobs and I think they went pretty well, I'll keep my fingers crossed. There was also a SWE Boutique where schools sold their shirts, and ours were a huge hit!! (On Saturday when we flew home we saw someone on the plane wearing our shirt)  Friday night we went out on the town. We went to this amazing BBQ place called Jack's BBQ, it was sooo good. And I tried sweet tea for the first time, like White Castle it was kind of a let down. Then we wandered around Nashville taking in the sites, it is a really fun city, I would definitely go back there. And I also LOVE country music, so going to Nashville was even more exciting for me.

 Saturday was a more casual day, we went to a networking luncheon and then a workshop hosted by Medtronic. Then we left Nashville to return to our land of beaches and In-N-Outs. 

WYSE is a mentoring program for local 8th grade girls.  This is my first year in the program and I am loving it, I'm really dissapointed that I did not discover this organization earlier in my collegiate experience.  In the past 2 months this program has changed my views on life, on others, and the neighborhood in which we live.  I know that might sound corny but it's true, the girls in this program are simply amazing.

Each week we go to John Adams Middle School and mentor about 25, thirteen year old girls in an after school program. We are also paired up with 2 mentees whom we develop even closer relationships with.  The first few weeks that we went to visit we spent playing games, icebreakers, and covering more superficial topics. And then this past week we covered discrimination. I was scared that the girls might not get involved, or that the might not understand how we went from playing games one week to talking about discrimination the next. But they loved it and they all were participating!! It was so exciting. To introduce them to the topic of discrimination, as they walked through the door we only gave girls with ponytails a piece of candy. We didnt tell them why only certain girls got candy.  Then we had a disussion with them about how in a minor way, that is a form of discrimination.  The rest of the session was devoted to talking about discrimination, how they have been discriminated against, how people might inaccurately judge them, and things like that. It went so well. All the girls are amazing and I cant wait to get to know them better.

 I'm also getting to know my mentees better. Their names are Kim and Edith and they're both 13 years old.  They are so energetic and loving.  We have these journals, that are basically  "diaries that write back."  So they can write anything they want in there and then I respond, it works really well for Kim because she is a little bit shyer.  But they both love it and I am learning so much about them.  When I asked one of them if she could go anywhere in the world, where would it be, she simply responded "Six Flags."  It might not seem like that big of a deal to many of us, but for some people thats all they need to be happy. This Sunday I am going to take them out wherever they want to go in LA, so it should be a blast. I'm so excited to learn more from them. 

Wow what a frightening thought. I still cant grasp the fact that I'm a senior and will be graduating in May. It seems like yesterday when I was a nervous little freshman moving into the dorms. I thought that this year would never come, the seniors always seemed so much bigger and wiser than I would ever be. I do not feel old enough to be entering the "real world," I like my college bubble.  Its also scary not knowing where I will be in a year.  And I still get caught off guard when lowerclassmen ask me for advice.  Like a few weeks ago when I was asked to sit on a student panel for ASBME, I wondered what I could possibly share with all these wide eyed freshmen. 

But here I am, and I just had my final advising appointment, which got me thinking about the end, or the beginning whichever way you look at it. Normally advising and registration is a stressful time, trying to pick out the right classes, but now I only have 3 classes left to graduate so registration will be a breeze.  Either I take those classes and graduate on time, or I dont. I've never had to drop a class before, but I'm tempted to drop one in my final semester so I can stick around for another year. I dont think my Dad would like that very much though...

It sounds so cliche, but that is what I did this weekend.  After my classes on Thursday I packed up and drove to San Luis Obispo, about 1.5 hours north of Santa Barbara to visit my boyfriend. It was great to get away for a weekend and to get my mind off of classes, midterms, and the never ending hunt to find a job.  My drive up was perfect, attempting not to crash while staring at the beautiful beach was the hardest part. And of course I stopped in Camarillo to shop at the outlets. I've decided that I'm never buying anything at full price ever again.  It was a wonderful drive, giving me time to be alone and think and also to blast my new Wicked soundtrack and sing at the top of my lungs. 

Once I arrived at Cal Poly, the weekend continued to get better (except for the football game, but we won't talk about that).  Thursday night we went to the Farmer's Market in downtown SLO, walked around and sampled way too much food.  Friday he had class so I slept in for the first time in forever which was amazing. On a sidenote, I find it funny how when you're a little kid you fight bedtime so much and now all I ever want to do is sleep... ironic.  But anyways, then Saturday was awesome because we went to a pumpkin patch, picked out the perfect pumpkins, and then carved them. Yes I realize its a little early to be carving pumpkins but I wont be visiting again until after Halloween.  We also went to the beach and walked around, it was a little cold but the beach is beautiful even in winter.  Sunday came way too fast and that meant driving back down the 101 to LA, but at least it was a beautiful drive. 

Here I am, a senior and I feel like I have more work than ever. So many of my friends are in their final classes for their major and can relax and enjoy the symptoms of senioritis. I however, am stuck studying the structure of DNA, the diffusion capabilities of the lungs, and the lattice structure of NaCl.  I just have to keep telling myself that it will all be worth it in the end when I get a sweet job after graduation.  However, that seems hard to take in when you're running on 3 hours of sleep and the only thing keeping you alive is the triple shot non-fat sugar free vanilla latte I had for breakfast this morning. 

 One of the benefits of being a senior though is that my upper division classes are really interesting. Though the work load is intense and the concepts are enough to fry a PhD students brain, the material is fascinating. I love my BME 404- Orthaepedic Biomechanics class. Its all about how joints work and artificial joints.  Six months ago my little brother tore his ACL and NCL in a lacrosse accident and now I can calculate the exact force that caused his injury.  Whats so cool about being a biomedical engineer is knowing that the material that I am learning in my classes can eventually be used to save someone's life or to save them from living a life of pain.  So you can say that my late night study sessions and the millions of flashcards piled on my desk are well worth it.