Art of Problem Solving Assisting
This semester I was a teaching assistant for two AoPS classes. The Geometry class that started in the fall lasted until early April, and then after Prealgebra 1 ended, I was an assistant for Prealgebra 2 with the same instructor and other assistant. I also subbed in a variety of classes, and I did more grading this semester than I did in the fall.
TA-ing for AoPS was very different than NINJAing Linearity, even though in both cases my role was mainly to answer questions. Part of that is the level of math and the age group, but I think the format made more of a difference. In Linearity, I was mostly answering questions that came up as the students worked on a problem set on their own, so I did a lot more walking through problems and trying to prompt the next step. In AoPS classes, I was responding to questions that came up during class, either from definitions or example problems. I tried to keep most of my comments short so that the student could keep up with what was going on in the class at the time. I only took a long time with a student if they were lost. Usually I just clarified definitions, explained single steps in a problem, or pointed out a student's mistake.
Por Supuesto
Por Supuesto is really hard for me to describe. It's a Spanish conversation group run by Oscar, an electrical engineering prof, and we meet at mealtimes. The topics are very dependent on who is present, and the percentage of the conversation that occurs in Spanish varies. This year we met for three meals a week, and I missed four times all year. Por Supuesto meals were my favorites because I loved the people. It's hard not to love Oscar, but I felt like I knew him better than people who just had him in class. There was a large group of Class of 2013 students in Por Supuesto, and most of the seniors I'll miss were in Por Supuesto.
Even though we're not always very good about speaking in Spanish, Por Supuesto has definitely helped me keep my Spanish at a good level. I'm taking a Spanish proficiency exam (the DELE) this fall, and one of the reasons why I'm more confident in the listening comprehension section than in other sections is that I've been hearing Spanish in a variety of accents (Madrileno, Catalan, Puerto Rican, Nicaraguan, and Cuban) at Por Supuesto.
Salsa
Oscar also helped to teach the Olin Dance Project's salsa class, which was every Wednesday night. It wasn't so much a class as just an hour of dancing. If we wanted to learn a new step, Oscar would teach us, but otherwise we would just put on salsa music and dance. Oscar's a wonderful salsa lead, and several of us learned to both lead and follow.
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| Salsa with Oscar! |
TARDIS
Olin's Doctor Who club is called TARDIS. Almost all TARDIS activities are episode watch parties. We all squeeze into a dorm room on Saturday nights and project the episode onto a wall. There are snacks, and we generally spend a lot of time before and after the episode talking, so TARDIS events are often almost twice as long as the episode itself. I'm one of the more casual fans in the club, but being around the very serious Whovians is a lot of fun.
Olin Christian Fellowship
There are only two Olin Christian groups: Olin Christian Fellowship and Babson-Olin Catholic Association (BOCA). I'm in OCF. This semester I went to Praise and Worship (PWs, one hour on Monday nights) and Girls Bible Study (an hour-ish on Tuesday nights), and I had a prayer partner with whom I had supper on Mondays. Other than Por Supuesto, OCF led to most of my interaction with juniors and seniors.
PWs is my favorite regular OCF event. It's really relaxed, just a group of people singing together. I learned a lot of contemporary worship songs this year through PWs, and we also sang others that I've known for years.
In GBS this semester we read part of Luke. GBS was a little odd for me at times just because my background is different from those of most of the other people in OCF. Most OCFers are evangelical or non-denominational, whereas I'm liturgical and more traditional. Lots of times I didn't feel comfortable saying what I was thinking because I felt like there was too much I would have to explain; I couldn't just reference a creed or hymn or even liturgical season and expect the reference to be recognized. As the year went on, I opened up more, though, which was good for me.
Church
I attend Christ Church United Methodist in Wellesley. It's a small, friendly congregation, and I was able to get involved really quickly. I've been liturgist a handful of times, and I've played handbells in service twice. What was really cool was that the church ended up with a group of four or five freshmen girls from Wellesley College and Olin this year, so we had a few college girls events this spring, and three of us joined the church in April.
Babson Baseball
I went to about 15 Babson games this year, including a conference tournament games. Most days, my classes ended at 3:10, and games started at 3:30, so going to watch baseball was a fun way to relax after class and before doing homework on AoPS TA-ing in the evenings. I also really enjoyed getting to know the players' parents.
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