LauraLee

Here I am, a senior, about to graduate and yet today was my first time to the California Science Center. And yes, the Science Center is the museum right acruss the street from USC. And yes, I do love science, so you would think that I would have visited long ago.

But despite all these things in my favor, today was my first visit. I took my 14 year old mentee whom I mentor at a local junior high school to the museum. (I think I enjoyed the trip a lot more than she did) We had a blast though. I loved all the interactive exhibits, and I even felt like I learned a lot and I know that she definitely did. The "World of Life" exhibit was my favorite, I guess this comes as no surprise considering I'm a biomedical engineer. I found it very interesting and I loved explaining all the stuff to my mentee, though she already knew quite a bit. And I'd never been fully able to explain to her before what my major truly does and what I did at my internship last summer so it gave me a great opportunity to explain what I do to her.

We concluded our trip with a stop at Coldstone across the street. I would definitely go back to the Science Center, and like so many other things I'm realizing lately- I wish I had been there earlier. 

This past week was National Engineering Week or E-week as we more commonly call it. We basically show the rest of the school/ world how awesome we are. There are tons of events ranging from a Professor pie toss, to a Wii tournament, to the Engineering Career Fair. As a part of SWE I was involved with planning the Evening with Industry (a networking dinner with corporate representatives and students) and the Date Auction (where we auction off dates for the Viterbi Ball the enxt night). Both were a HUGE success. This was the most I've ever been involved with E-week and I had an absoulte blast and it made me wonder what I'd been missing this whole time.

The Date Auction was sooo much fun. I was auctioned off last year, so I decided to be a bystander this year and watch others get auctioned off. Due to unusual rainy weather we had to move the event inside but the show went on without any problems and there was a great turnout. We raised over $1500 for the Los Angeles teen shelter and I believe everyone left the event with some awesome memories.

Then Friday morning was "Discover-E," a huge event where we taught 300 local junior high students about engineering and college life. There were booths where they could build their own bottle rockets, extract DNA from strawberries, see an awesome presentation by a USC professor, and learn about USC. I was part of the student panel where they could ask us questions about USC, engineering, college life, the admission process, whatever they wanted. I was really surprised by the quality of their questions, they all seemed very intersted in engineering and USC. I hope that they had as much fun as I did and that they learned a lot.

To cap off E-week, was the Viterbi Ball. The ball is open to all undergraduate students and is at a "secret" venue every year. This was my first time attending (I know I'm a slacker). The venue this year was really cool, it was at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Hollywood. You might be thinking, that sounds like a really random location, but it turned out really well. We had the whole second floor to ourselves and we could wander around and check out the cool cars like Herbie, the Batmobile, and so much more. I definitely want to take my brothers back there, they would love it. At the venue we had dinner and there was a dance floor where I spent most of the evening ;-) I had an awesome time and I'm just bummed that I didnt come to this before my senior year.

All in all, it was an awesome E-week, and all other majors should be jealous :-)

Well there are many reasons, but the subject of this blog and one of the many reasons why I love California is that I can go to the beach... in February.

Last weekend I went to the beach and worked on my tan (or sunburn in my case) enjoying the 79 degree weather.  While I was lying there my friend who attends the University of Michigan called me and our conversation went something like this:

Me: "Hey! Guess what I'm doing right now?"

Friend: "Ummm at the beach?"

Me:"Haha yup, I bet you're jealous. What are you doing?"

Friend: "Omg I hate you, I was joking. I cant believe you're at the beach. Its 2 degrees here, I had to climb in through the passenger door of my car because the other door froze shut."

Me: "Haha I didnt even know that could happen. Well good luck with that, I gotta run. They need me for beach volleyball so the teams are even."

I think that pretty much sums up why California is amazing :-) 

I have made it my mission this semester to attend more basketball games. Before Thursday night, I had only attend 1/2 of a basketball game. That was 3 years ago when USC still played in the LA Sports Arena. My friends and I left around halftime after taking a picture with Matt Leinart, we figured that the 2nd half could not beat getting a pic with the hot quarterback ;-) Now I have rediscovered basketball games 3 years later. Thursday night's game against UofA was my first time watching a baskteball game in the Galen Center. I've only been in the Galen Center once before and that was for a VIP tour that required a hard hat. The Galen Center is so much nicer than the Sports Arena and the game Thursday night helped re-spark my love for basketball.

The setting at basketball games is so much more intimate than a football game; the cheers and chants actually have an impact on the players and you feel so close to the court.  I loved every moment of the game Thursday night (well except for the fact that we lost, I partially blamed it on my return). So now I vow to attend every home game for the rest of the season. Obviously, that included the game tonight which was much better than Thursdays game since we won.  The cheers at basketball games are also really fun and the energy in the student section is unbelievable. I love being surrounded by so much school spirit and pride. Walking into that arena makes me so proud to be a Trojan. So I guess I'll be seeing you at all the games then! FIGHT ON!