Caltech

CALTECH WINS COLLEGE TOURNAMENT AT THE ROSE BOWL!

Yep---you read right! The Caltech Team totally DOMINATED at the Rose Bowl in the Pasadena College Field Tournament. It was probably one of the most exciting things I have been a part of during my entire 4 years at Caltech. :D

The 20 person team met Saturday morning at the Rose Bowl to compete against 5 other colleges in multiple events: including the Uniform Challenge, Cheeseburger Challenge, Monster Croquet, Blind Faith, Frisbee Golf, Meteor Catch, Pasadena Puzzle. We either placed in first or second place in all the events :). We had the most fans show up for us in the stands (students, faculty, professors, etc), wearing matching orange t-shirts to support the team.

The event I was responsible for was the Uniform Challenge, though I participated in the Blind Faith and Pasadena Puzzle....and cheered my team on on the sidelines during the other events.

I have a ton of pictures that I took...I think it'll give you a better understanding of what went down.

Enter: the ROSE BOWL

Team Photo:

DK and I (Einstein wig part of our uniform challenge) showing off our war paint (equations on our arms)

Dannah as an Einstein..(complete with wig, mustache and lab coat)

Cheering on fr the sidelines

President Chameau watching over the field

Another event won...
The 3 girls on the team:)


Huddle up!

And the winner is...

It was awesome! We all had such a great time..and i was so proud to have been a part of the team that brought home the win! Sorry for lack of action shots....I was too busy to snap pictures. HOWEVER...check out http://gallery.me.com/bobpaz#101166 for a TON more team and event pictures taken by photographer Bob Paz.

GO BEAVERS!

Practice Makes Perfect

Hey Everyone,

Just wanted to touch base before my crazy weekend started...It's going to be soo exciting with lots of events (see below!) and rehearsals.

Since the dance show is fast approaching--next weekend!...one of the dances I'm in (I guess I'll call it...the Korean Pop Genie Dance) will also be performing at the Annual Team Tech Talent Show tomorrow night (this Saturday) so we can get used to staging the dance. It's been pretty hard to coordinate with 9 girls---we all have busy schedules! But every night this past week we've been practicing together and solidifying our formations.

We also got our high heeled pumps that are part of our costumes this past week---and we have been struggling doing our choreography in them. But we won't be able to get it down unless we wear them from now until the show(s)---OUCH!

Here are a few pictures from one of our late night rehearsals:

This weekend involves this talent show performance, more dance rehearsals, cognitive psychology homework...and the PASADENA COLLEGE FIELD TOURNAMENT! I'm actually off to a team practice right now for this exciting tournament which will take place tomorrow at the Rose Bowl. The 5 colleges in Pasadena will be competing tomorrow in various events---such as Monster Croquet, Cheeseburger Challenge, Pasadena Puzzle, etc.

I was just named to this 20 person team a few days ago, and have been busy getting ready for the event! Here is the press release made earlier last week in the Pasadena Star News. I will be competing in a few different events---but specializing in what will be known as the "Uniform Challenge." All I can disclose at the moment is that it involves our Beaver mascot, and crazy Einstein hair :) I'll be sure to fill you guys in!

Back--- but BUSY

Back from my very relaxing break....

...and have been running around since then. I literally got off the train from San Diego this Monday and gave the morning tour. There are SO many visitors on our campus this week ....we need about 5-6 tour guides just to accommodate the morning tour!

In addition to that, I have been bouncing around from meeting to meeting to dance rehearsal to dance rehearsal. With the dance show coming up next weekend and other work I have on different committees...I know term just started---but I have been busier than ever!

I am also studying for my Engineer-in-Training Exam every chance I get...the exam is coming up later in April (more on that later) drafting up my thesis, and starting to get into the swing of my two only courses: Cognitive Psychology & Science Technical Writing.

ANYWAY...I have to go, as I am blogging from the gym, where I have just taken yoga and waiting for my ballet rehearsal to start....will update you guys soon!

Spring Break in the East

Hey Everyone!

Finals week ended---and since then, I have been enjoying the first part of my Spring Break in New Jersey (spending time with Andrew's family).

It's been a whirlwind few days....I've been to Atlantic City, saw the Broadway Musical MAMMA MIA! in New York, and had an authentic Italian Dinner with an authentic Italian Family. It's so beautiful here in Central New Jersey---in a small quiet town, with lots of countryside.

I'm having so much fun!----but am excited to go back to San Diego for the rest of break.

Here are a few pictures of my trip so far....

It's All In the Presentation(s)

We are nearing the end of finals week for winter term. Only a few more days until SPRING BREAK!

In terms of finals, I have three presentations, two written reports and a one-hour final. Pretty chill, if you ask me...

I have pretty much finished up...and have already passed the biggest hurdle of finals week this Monday, when I had two presentations back to back (the first at 1:30pm and the next at 2:20pm). All I have now is the progress report on my thesis left....am thinking I might head to Starbucks tomorrow morning to finish it up in one sitting.

Here are a few pictures of my E102 group working through the night preparing our presentation we gave today...and a few of us presenting. We presented our work we have done this term coming up with a business model and proposal for our entrepreneurship class.

Sorry for such a short post...but I'll be back later this week :)

Ending Classes with a BANG

The Fleming Cannon is fired a few key times during the year: end of rotation, end of classes every term, end of ditch day and when the Fleming House President walks the stage during commencement.

The Fleming Cannon is cherished by the members of Fleming House (including myself) as it has been in our possession since 1972 when we took it from Southwestern Academy in San Marino. The cannon itself was originally cast in the 1870s for the Franco-Prussian War prior to its time at Southwestern Academy. It has been the object of many pranks....stolen by Harvey Mudd 1986, and MIT in 2006 (but promptly retrieved by Fleming House! see this site). It makes sense that everyone wants to steal the cannon, cause its AWESOME!!

So today, being the end of winter term classes, the cannon fired at 5pm. At the same time as it signals the end of classes, it also signals the beginning of finals week here at Tech. So for the next week, the campus will be pretty quiet...people concentrating on getting through finals week and preparing for spring break.

Here are pictures of Aric, our current cannon master, carrying out the tradition.

Campus News!

Hi Everyone!

March 9 was a big day for our campus; we had two very important and exciting events that occurred: The 25th annual ME 72 Design Competition and the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony of the new Schlinger Laboratory.

This year's ME 72 Design Competition was entitled: "Revenge of the Hindenburg." Back in October, students enrolled in the ME 72 class were given a "bag of junk" and the task: to design and build airships and robots to maneuver a specific obstacle course (shooting and gathering ping pong balls, and moving through a hoop 15 ft above the ground). They were given 20 weeks for the task to build robots to compete in a "Robot Wars"-like event. People from the Caltech community came to the Brown Gym to cheer on the different teams. Team Up, consisting of senior Robbie Paolini and juniors Long Nguyen and Paul Suffoletta took home the win :) Congrats guys!

Picture from Pasadena Star News:

Pictures from Caltech Today:

In other news, the new Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Building had its ribbon cutting ceremony. The new building is finally complete and is getting ready for labs to move in--Hooray!

Here are a few pictures I took of the new Schlinger Lab:

RD Admissions Committee: Day 2

DONE! We are done with regular decision committee!!

Phew! After all the reading over the past 5 months, we have successfully processed all the undergraduate applications through committee. (The admissions officers still need to process transfers, international, etc.)

It was a relatively easy morning, and we finished by lunchtime.

Listening to Ray presenting a file...

Owen and Geoff Blake (also the Master of Student Houses) looking over an app

As happy as I am that we have finished putting together the class of 2014---I am pretty sad to not be reading for committee anymore. Admissions committee has been a big part of my upperclassmen years here at Caltech...and especially this year. It makes me feel good to know that I have personally helped shape the classes of students that have come to Caltech in the past years, and in the year to come when I have graduated. I am so lucky to have been involved in this process, thanks for having me admissions committee :)

Anyway, I think I'm pretty much having a chill rest of the week after all this...I kinda need to recover. Not much homework....but finals are coming up soon!

Some members of the committee taking our lunch break

RD Admissions Committee: Day 1

Hey guys...this is going to be a short post as I am in dire need of a nap right now.

Just got out of Regular Decision Admissions Committee Day 1...basically I've been holed up at the admissions office since breakfast this morning making final decisions on the regular decision applicant pool. You may remember my post on the Early Action Committee we had last term. Since I have been reading so many apps this reading cycle...this committee is really the culmination of it all...this will be the end of the road for putting together the incoming Caltech class of 2014.

Today was difficult and mentally taxing on all of us...since it gets very difficult in making decisions for extending admission/waitlist/deny to all the talented high school students. Especially this year, we got a record number of applicants! INCREDIBLE....but makes my job as a dedicated student reader even harder.

Nonetheless, we were very productive today and we'll probably wrap up a bit early tomorrow during Day 2 if we continue at the rate we're going.

It was a loooong day.......

Some Good Eats

Hey Everyone!

Hope you all have been doing well. This week for me is filled with looooong and busy days. It's only Tuesday, but I feel like this past weekend was forever ago. I am busy wrapping up my student reads for undergraduate admissions---we will be meeting all day Wednesday and Thursday for the regular decision admissions committee (I can't believe it's almost over!). I have also been busy with meetings all over campus --I had 5 meetings all in one day this past Monday! O_O

Weeks like this make me all too thankful for the weekends. This past weekend, I went on a food review to a newly opened place called "The Slawdogs." It was a place recommended to us by Jon from Caltech Dining Services...and it was AWESOME!

This place was so yummy, which probably was reason for why it was so crowded when we went! We were able to choose from an extensive menu of gourmet hot dogs, and even had the option of building our own. I went with the TNT Dog (aka "the good timer") which was a gi-normous chili hot dog with french fries and fried eggs inside wrapped in a tortilla (looked like a burrito). I only got through half of it before feeling incredibly full....

Gotta go walk it off now and head back to campus....phew--eating can be exhausting!

As usual, we wrote up our review on the restaurant (we gave it an A-) and submitted it to the Tech editors. On Monday, the article was published in the campus newspaper :)

All right, that's all for now..gotta get back to reading applications!