Looking back-Fall 2012 Semester

I declared my majors (Political Science and Journalism), moved into my sorority's house, and learned a lot about who I am.  Fall semester sophomore year was a whirlwind, but I wouldn't have changed one moment of it.  

Some highlights of this semester: 

Move in
I was anxious to move back to Lehigh last August, as I missed South Mountain and all of my friends so much over the summer.  Moving in is a blur of excited reunions with friends.  The first few days also involved eating lots of cheese sticks and kale chips, which were some of the only things in the kitchen in the beginning.  There was no rain and I remembered my pillows, so this year's move in went a lot smoother than last year's.  

Hanging out in the quad (common area between 4 of the rooms on our side of the house) during move in

Greek week

The purple team in the stands during the lip synch dance

As I mentioned in a previous post, Alpha Gam was on the purple team for Greek week with DU and Sig Ep.  Attending and participating in the week's events was a lot of fun, and my biggest contribution was helping win the trivia competition with my friend Caroline (giving her the recognition she does not get, but deserves!) by knowing 9 of Lehigh's 14 presidents.  Besides the dance (also previously mentioned) my other favorite memory of Greek week is blasting "We are the Champions" and driving around the hill after winning.  

PC '12 watching chariot races during Greek week

Date parties and formals

Some pictures from date parties and formals of the semester

Senate
Senate was the first organization I joined at Lehigh and I have made so many great friends and gotten so much from being a member.  I was elected Club Affairs chair for this school year, and I loved leading my committee and working with clubs and administrators.  

Sisterhood event at Dorney Park
About 30 girls in my sorority went to Dorney Park in October for a sisterhood trip.  I've been there before during Senior Week in high school, but did not go on as many roller coasters as we did this time.  It was a great afternoon out of the "Lehigh bubble" and laughing at the weird faces we made when the roller coaster cameras took the picture.  Plus, amusement parks always have Dippin' Dots, and who doesn't love Dippin Dots? (especially the banana split flavor)

Hurricane Sandy
Hurricane Sandy was not only a defining time of the semester but of 2012 and probably the decade.  I am still stunned and lose the feeling in my stomach whenever I see photos of the shore or towns elsewhere devastated by Sandy.  

Lehigh Lafayette week
I wrote about Lehigh Lafayette week in a previous post, but it is such a huge part of every fall that it requires repeating.  Between the Timeflies concert, winning (again) or wandering into a Lafayette party before the game (they were surprisingly welcoming), it was definitely a great week.  

Taking advantage of different opportunities at Lehigh
It is a commonly heard complaint that there "is nothing to do at Lehigh."  While I have never found this to be true, I took advantage of different opportunities and attended events this semester that I may not have if I stayed within my typical daily schedule.  

The first of these opportunities was GEM, or the Greek Emerging Leaders Program.  I learned a lot about confronting the variety of problems that can emerge within your chapter or between chapters at our meetings, as well as what it means to be a leader.  I also learned about my personality type and met some great friends.  

One assignment I had in my journalism class was to attend a speech and write an article about it.  I chose a talk titled "Are Citizens Silenced In Bethlehem’s New Town Square?: Labor’s Struggle For Free Speech -- From Company Towns To Casinos."  I chose to attend this talk because the subject was something we were studying in my other journalism class, Media Ethics and Law.  Also, I have always been interested in Bethlehem Steel and the redevelopment of the Sands Casino and ArtsQuest center.  This talk focused on an issue that I had no idea existed-the Sands tries to restrict how people can use the park near the casino, which they technically gave to the town.  It was an interesting talk and I learned a great deal about the history of free speech in public forums and the progression of labor and free speech revolving around Bethlehem Steel and now the Sands and ArtsQuest.  

I've been to Zoellner's art gallery to see the Andy Warhol exhibit in fall 2011, and I went again this fall to see the "African Visions of Barack Obama" exhibit.  It was bold, inspirational and surprisingly did not have an underlying political statement.  Many of the artists were Kenyan or lived elsewhere in Africa, and created their works after President Obama's inauguration in 2009. 






One of the philanthropy events that Alpha Gam does regularly is visit Donegan Elementary School every Thursday and play with the kids in the after school program along with Sig Ep.  I have gone many times and playing hockey or board games with the 3rd-5th graders is a refreshing break from the "Lehigh bubble."  Also, I babysat, tutored, taught CCD, and worked at a rec camp during high school, so it is nice to be able to volunteer with kids again.  They are so excited when we come, and it has been great to know that I am contributing to the community in a small way.  

A few of my good friends were in Lehigh's production of "The Crucible", so my friends Laura and Toby and I went to see it one Saturday evening.  "The Crucible" was one of my favorite plays that we read in high school, and Lehigh's production of it was absolutely amazing.  

Discovering what I love to do
I have changed what I want to do when I "grow-up" a dozen times over.  It started with first woman president at the age of 4 (that hasn't changed) and gone from writer to history teacher to curator to lawyer...and now journalist.  I always struggled with what to major in or potentially have a career in because my interests are so varied--while I am generally not good in math or science, I still like learning about specific topics within the fields.  Writing also always came easily to me, but I had never really considered a career in journalism until I joined the Brown and White freshman year and took Writing for the Media this semester.  While it was always difficult getting interviews for my articles, writing for the sports section came easily to me and I loved seeing my name in print.  This continued with Writing for the Media, where writing the articles for class were fun and came easily.  Plus, I got to go to art exhibits, speeches, and other events that I would have attended anyway because they were interesting, but now I got to write about them too.  When we received the blog assignment (yes, this blog was created as a class assignment--don't know if I ever mentioned that) blogging came easily and I was rarely at a shortage of ideas for posts.  With all of these realizations, I was able to declare my majors of Journalism and Political Science, and am so happy to not only be on a more specific academic path now, but to have discovered my niche.  


This was a hugely long post, but this semester was full of big changes and lots of memories (plus I am known for not really being succinct).  It is crazy to think of how much has changed this semester and I am excited for the new challenges and experiences that spring semester 2013 will bring.