A Few Serious and Not-So-Serious Things I Did as an Oliner

In four years at Olin, I did the following:

A Few Summer Pictures

I've been away from Olin for almost a month and a half, so I thought I'd post about what I've been up to! Pictures below the fold.

I'm going to be a senior?

My life is still mostly class projects (even more so now that MechSolids projects are about to start), though the weather is finally warming up, so I've also been spending time at Babson's baseball games. There are only three weeks of classes left, and registration was at the end of last week. It's a little weird to think that I'm already registering for senior year. Here's what I'll be up to this summer and next fall:

Reflections on Second Semester, Part 4

This is the last of four posts looking back at the semester that just ended. The posts are split up by class or activity. This post focuses on non-academic or non-Olin activities.

Weekends are Wonderful Things

Last weekend was one of my busiest and most exciting since spring break, but in a lot of ways it was a pretty typical Olin weekend.

Saturday was Dewey's Read-A-Thon, the beginning of the NEWMAC baseball tournament, the last performance of Much Ado About Nothing at Olin, a Doctor Who episode with TARDIS, and my advisor Aaron's Midnight Math talk. On Sunday at church, we celebrated Earth Day, and I played handbells. Back at Olin, I had my second-to-last research meeting of the school year. More about each below the fold!

Outside the Bubble

Oliners often refer to the Olin Bubble. That can mean the campus or the community, but either way, it's something that separates us from the rest of the world. This isn't unique to Olin; I've heard students from other colleges/universities refer to bubbles at their schools in the same way. There are cultural and community advantages to the bubble, but it's also important to get outside of the bubble occasionally. A place as small as Olin can't provide everything, and simply by virtue of being an engineering college, Olin can feel homogeneous.

There are lots of ways I get out of the bubble. Here are six:

1. Church. I've gone to a Methodist church about a mile and a half from Olin almost every Sunday since Labor Day, and I joined this past week. It's a really small, friendly community, which has been awesome. I've gotten to know a lot of the adults at church, which I appreciate because during the rest of the week, the only adults I interact with much are professors. There are also a couple of freshmen from Wellesley who come, so I get to be with other students in a non-academic context.

2. Babson baseball. Okay, so this isn't really off campus. The baseball field is technically on Babson's land, not Olin's, but it's closer to Olin than it is to the rest of Babson. Nevertheless, very few Oliners even think about going to Babson games. Most days I'm in the stands with the players' parents and a few Babson students. I love watching the games, and it's a way to be in a very non-Olin environment without having to leave campus.

3. Reading the News. This sounds silly, since it's not actually going anywhere at all. But the Olin Bubble can, if you're not careful, extend to awareness of the outside world. There are a lot of Oliners who do read the news online, but there are also a lot who don't. I like knowing what's going on, and I don't think it makes sense to be at Olin -- a school that puts so much emphasis on engineering in context -- and not be aware of what's happening outside.

(three more below the fold)

Beavers Baseball

I'm from a baseball family. My father umpires high school and college ball, and I've been watching baseball on tv and in person for as long as I can remember (I definitely remember games in the Houston Astrodome). So when I found out that Babson has a baseball team and that the field is closer to Olin's campus than it is to the rest of Babson, I was very excited. And yesterday was opening day!

The game was at Babson's field, but Worcester Polytechnic (WPI) was the home team, which made the scoreboard a little confusing. The scoreboard lists "Visitor" and "Babson," but yesterday the "Visitor" score was Babson's and the "Babson" score was WPI. And Babson won, 19-6!

The Visitor score is actually Babson's. Hooray Beavers!