I am now officially done applying to the summer research internships. I ended up applying to four of my originally planned seven. So now,we wait...
Yesterday, the Western Flames played Central Washington University at Western. We had already played Central at Central earlier in the year and won, but they hadn't gotten a ref so we thought the game didn't count and agreed to a rematch at Western. At the match yesterday CWU was bringing the heat, it was one of their main goals to beat us this year. But, we won! I sadly wasn't playing this game but I had so much fun on the sidelines watching and explaining what was going on to those standing nearby. Some of my friends from the Judo Club came to show their support for the team and for me, saying that they had to make sure to support the only girl Judo player. I believe the final score was somewhere around 19-3.
I got to play in the unofficial third half. It was a lot of fun, but most of us on the field for that half were rookies so the game was a lot less pretty. We won in the final seconds with a girl breaking through the Central defense and sprinting down the field to score a try.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
So much rugby...
So, last weekend the Flames went down to Stanford for the Stanford Invitational. I sadly wasn't able to go but I'm so proud of our team! We tied two games and lost four, but we never lost by more than three tries (translation: touchdowns). That may not sound particularly good but we were playing Division I teams (we're Division II), with coaches, who regularly go to nationals and members of some of the teams are on the US team. We did pretty sweet.
I got the new and improved schedule for this quarter, and it's a busy one! There is something rugby related going on every Saturday from now until mid-March.
The Schedule:
1/23- forwards clinic at Magnuson Park.
1/30- CWU @ WWU
2/6- EWU @ WWU
2/13- Western Oregon U @ WWU
2/20- UW and OSU round robin @ WWU
2/27- (possible) clinic with the Mudhens (Seattle's womens team)
3/6- Seattle U @ SU
3/13- WSU @ WWU
Hopefully:
4/17-18 - Nationals!
That's a lot of rugby! But it will be SO much fun! I'm excited about the forwards clinic on Saturday. 9-12 is working on scrumming and 1-4 is working on line outs. The clinic is open to anyone from high school age to young at heart, men and women. I'm expecting to learn A LOT. It'll be interesting to meet other rugby players from all these other demographics.
I got the new and improved schedule for this quarter, and it's a busy one! There is something rugby related going on every Saturday from now until mid-March.
The Schedule:
1/23- forwards clinic at Magnuson Park.
1/30- CWU @ WWU
2/6- EWU @ WWU
2/13- Western Oregon U @ WWU
2/20- UW and OSU round robin @ WWU
2/27- (possible) clinic with the Mudhens (Seattle's womens team)
3/6- Seattle U @ SU
3/13- WSU @ WWU
Hopefully:
4/17-18 - Nationals!
That's a lot of rugby! But it will be SO much fun! I'm excited about the forwards clinic on Saturday. 9-12 is working on scrumming and 1-4 is working on line outs. The clinic is open to anyone from high school age to young at heart, men and women. I'm expecting to learn A LOT. It'll be interesting to meet other rugby players from all these other demographics.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Summer Internships
On Friday, the chemistry department had a seminar about research opportunities for undergraduates. While I'm not a chem major and lab research holds very little interest for me I thought I would go just to see what they had to say and if there was anything more applicable to myself. Some was about how to get involved with professors at WWU which as I said: while interesting, I don't want to do lab research; I'm more interested in field research. A second speaker there though talked about internships through the National Science Foundation, and participating universities that were available all across the country. These internships (called REU Research Experiences for Undergraduates) are 10-12 week paid internships of $3000- $5000 with food and board paid for. Some even compensate part of your travel costs. After that I was beginning to wonder if I could find an interesting chemistry program if I looked hard enough. And then the best news yet: she mentioned there were programs other than chemistry. My reaction: !!!! what kind of programs?!? Biology, Environmental Science? Further research after the seminar proved YES!!
After looking through the National Science Foundation's lists of REU programs I found seven that I'm going to try to apply to. The first application is due in three weeks. One of the programs is even Western's, at the Shannon Point Marine Center. With that one I wouldn't even have to pay for travel :). The one I most want to get into is at the Smithsonian, but because of that it's probably crazy cutthroat with applicants much better suited than myself; why not try though?
Some other interesting options I'm considering are volunteer positions in either Northern Canada (studying polar bears) or the Virgin Islands (studying local environments). There I would pay for my stay by working for the non-profit. Most of my work would be cleaning, and helping in their stores, but after a volunteer is more familiar with the local area they get to help with school groups and visitors who come through. the Virgin Islands program sounds the more interesting of the two because it does more of what I would be interested in which is teaching about the environment, AND the place I would be working is in the Virgin Islands National Park! As you may or may not know, I have wanted to be a National Park Ranger since doing the career project freshman year of high school.
Finally, I am applying for a job at Western, the Residents' Resource Awareness Program Coordinator. A 19 hr/wk job at about $15 per hour. I would work closely with the Eco - Reps of each residence hall as well as several other program coordinators in different areas in order to make Western a greener campus. If I get it I will start working at the beginning of next school year.
After looking through the National Science Foundation's lists of REU programs I found seven that I'm going to try to apply to. The first application is due in three weeks. One of the programs is even Western's, at the Shannon Point Marine Center. With that one I wouldn't even have to pay for travel :). The one I most want to get into is at the Smithsonian, but because of that it's probably crazy cutthroat with applicants much better suited than myself; why not try though?
Some other interesting options I'm considering are volunteer positions in either Northern Canada (studying polar bears) or the Virgin Islands (studying local environments). There I would pay for my stay by working for the non-profit. Most of my work would be cleaning, and helping in their stores, but after a volunteer is more familiar with the local area they get to help with school groups and visitors who come through. the Virgin Islands program sounds the more interesting of the two because it does more of what I would be interested in which is teaching about the environment, AND the place I would be working is in the Virgin Islands National Park! As you may or may not know, I have wanted to be a National Park Ranger since doing the career project freshman year of high school.
Finally, I am applying for a job at Western, the Residents' Resource Awareness Program Coordinator. A 19 hr/wk job at about $15 per hour. I would work closely with the Eco - Reps of each residence hall as well as several other program coordinators in different areas in order to make Western a greener campus. If I get it I will start working at the beginning of next school year.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Winter Quarter
Today was the first school day of winter quarter up here in Bellingham, and so far so good. This quarter I have three classes adding up to 14 credits. Even with the credit count being less than optimal I'm still happy with the schedule I have because every class counts as a prerequisite for my major, General University Requirement, or both. I'm rather proud of myself for sitting down and figuring out what classes I could take that would count for multiple programs. The timing of the classes just worked out to get less credits than I particularly wanted. O well! I'll be fine. I think I have planned well enough that i can get most of my major requirements done by the end of the year!
So, my classes:
Chemistry 122 (5)
This is simply the next part of the chemistry series. I may actually learn something new this quarter though! Chem 121 was mostly a review of what I learned from high school. I signed up for the same professor as I had last quarter because I understand his teaching style and he's a really good teacher. I also like that he knows my name :).
Math 124 (5)
Calculus. Blah. The teacher, while easily distracted, is thorough and uses lots of examples. If I learned my lesson that it's actually helpful to study from Math 118* (pre-calc) and couple that with the fact I took calculus in high school last year, I think I can do well in this class.
*just a note, I did fine in pre-calc, I got a C+. I would just prefer to do better.
Economics 206 (4)
Microeconomics. I was not looking forward to this class. It's twice a week for two hours, and economics does not sound particularly fun. However in class today when the professor was talking about what we were going to be studying it seemed really interesting! While this class has some of the most pressure with it, three tests making up 75% of the grade, the teacher seems to understand students (maybe due to the fact he was a student not long ago) and has plenty of office hours in case anyone needs help.
Yay classes!
In other news...
Rugby this quarter is focusing on endurance. Fall quarter was teaching and learning the game so all of us rookies would actually know where to go. Now we need to work on being able to run for the whole game. A full rugby match is 80 minutes, and a good forward should run 3-5 miles in a game. We've only done well this past quarter because we are good technically and haven't played teams with endurance. That is changing this quarter, and now that we know what we're doing we have to improve. We went on a team run last night for about four miles. Team runs are going to start happening at least once a week on top of our normal three practices per week.
So, my classes:
Chemistry 122 (5)
This is simply the next part of the chemistry series. I may actually learn something new this quarter though! Chem 121 was mostly a review of what I learned from high school. I signed up for the same professor as I had last quarter because I understand his teaching style and he's a really good teacher. I also like that he knows my name :).
Math 124 (5)
Calculus. Blah. The teacher, while easily distracted, is thorough and uses lots of examples. If I learned my lesson that it's actually helpful to study from Math 118* (pre-calc) and couple that with the fact I took calculus in high school last year, I think I can do well in this class.
*just a note, I did fine in pre-calc, I got a C+. I would just prefer to do better.
Economics 206 (4)
Microeconomics. I was not looking forward to this class. It's twice a week for two hours, and economics does not sound particularly fun. However in class today when the professor was talking about what we were going to be studying it seemed really interesting! While this class has some of the most pressure with it, three tests making up 75% of the grade, the teacher seems to understand students (maybe due to the fact he was a student not long ago) and has plenty of office hours in case anyone needs help.
Yay classes!
In other news...
Rugby this quarter is focusing on endurance. Fall quarter was teaching and learning the game so all of us rookies would actually know where to go. Now we need to work on being able to run for the whole game. A full rugby match is 80 minutes, and a good forward should run 3-5 miles in a game. We've only done well this past quarter because we are good technically and haven't played teams with endurance. That is changing this quarter, and now that we know what we're doing we have to improve. We went on a team run last night for about four miles. Team runs are going to start happening at least once a week on top of our normal three practices per week.
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