Student Voices is a blog where current students write about various experiences including academics, sports, student groups, study abroad, and other extracurricular activities. Hear what our students have to say!
Well folks, it’s second semester here at Oxy! I survived my first semester of college, including all the craziness that has come with it. The highs, the lows, and the in-betweens have been well worth the laughs and late nights. Furthermore, I survived my first semester of the Cultural Studies Program, or CSP as we first years affectionately call it.
Happy New Year, everyone! I’m looking forward to all the adventures this year has in store, but it’s going to be hard to beat the way 2015 ended for me. That’s because this December, after classes ended, I was lucky enough to get to take a week-long trip to Japan as a member of Oxy’s delegation for the Kakehashi Project.
Last year around Thanksgiving I wrote a post titled ‘8 Reasons I’m Thankful For Oxy.’ I decided to write a sequel to this post, as it is a full year later and I find new reasons to love this school every day.
Choosing a major can seem extremely daunting in the beginning. I still vividly remember my college application process, and not knowing which major I wanted to select as my choice of study. It was a frightening experience, just because I felt as if I were committing to something that I wouldn’t want to commit to later.
As an avid Christmas lover, I am constantly counting down the days until Christmas. I am obsessed with white Christmases, but unfortunately I’ve never been able to experience one because California – it’s on the bucket list though. Anyways, here are a few things to do before the best day of the year arrives.
#ImpeachVeitch. Movement Not A Moment. 67 Grand Meet Our Demands. Signs bearing these slogans and more are plastered against the glass walls of the Arthur G. Coons Administrative building. Tents have been pitched outside and sleeping bags and air mattresses dominate the interior.
This past week I attended an open dance class held by one of Oxy’s dance groups called Hyper Expressions. I have previous experience in ballet, however I had never tried much contemporary or improvisational dance, which was the focus of this week’s session.
My first day of volunteering with Peer Health Exchange did not go as I had planned. Then again, no one can quite predict how ninth grade health classes will go. I remember how hard of a time my ninth grade friends and I gave our sex-ed teacher Mindy. I’m pretty sure she didn’t appreciate the jelly beans flying across the room.
One of the reasons I fell in love with Oxy was because of its emphasis on "community-based learning." My tour guide constantly repeated this phrase, crediting it for her amazing academic experience at Oxy. I, too, frequently talk about it when giving my own tours as a tour guide.
My alarm blasts on at 4:30 am and immediately I know this is going to be a great day. Eyes half-shut, I cram some overnight essentials into my backpack, sling my heavy mesh sack of dive gear onto my back, and trudge out into the pre-dawn with a few of my hallmates.