I am a junior (2001-2002) at Carnegie Mellon University studying biology. Happiness entered my life last semester as I changed majors from chemical engineering to wonderful, most marvelous biology.
I have three sisters, of which I am the third. The oldest, Slavka, is married to Jeff, my wonderful brother (in law of course, but I do just like to call him my brother seeing as he is my only one) and he has a son, Ryan, who is absolutely adorable and most intelligent. Slavka and Jeff are both linguists for the government. My second oldest sister, Rachel, is a senior at SUNY New Paltz studying biology. We lived together in Pittsburgh this last summer as we both had research positions at CMU and UPMC. My younger sister, Calista, just graduated from high school and will be attending SUNY Delhi. So that just leaves my parents.
My parents are wonderful people (of course this took me a while to figure
out while I was being a crazy teenager). My dad is an apple farmer
and a school bus driver. My mom is an english teacher who took off
time to raise us, and is now going back to be a full time teacher again.
CREW... need I say more? Once a rower, always a rower. People ask me how I can manage waking up at 5am every morning, and all I can say is that they need to try rowing, and they will see what I'm talking about. Last season, my boat, which included Vanessa, Shawn, Jenn, Laura (cox) and I, came in fourth at the Dad Vail Regatta which is the national championship for division II and III schools. So that was an amazing feat. I have been the women's team captain for a semester, and have really enjoyed working with the team. I am looking forward to the upcoming season and being back with my crew peeps.
SARC... stands for the Student Alumni Relations Council. I joined this group the second semester of my freshman year at CMU. We plan various events such as homecoming, slice of life (a day of seminars given by alumni for students about to graduate), dinner with twelve strangers (combining students from each college within CMU with faculty and alumni) and other mentoring and networking activities. I became the president of the group in January of 2001, and will continue my reign (not really a reign, but the words aren't flowing just right) until January of 2002. By the time this so called reign is over, I hope to (with the help of Katie Keil) provide a successful mentoring program for the members of sarc and to incorporate the Pittsburgh Clan (alums in the Pittsburgh Area) into activities held on campus. Basically the goal is to get students and alumni together to make Carnegie Mellon feel like home!
RA... I am a resident assistant. This will be my second year as an RA. I look forward to this year much more as I feel one thousand times more confident, and see where I made my mistakes last year. I really love helping freshmen move in during orientation, and helping them become acquainted with Carnegie Mellon. I've also enjoyed meeting so many good friends during RA training and other student life events!
Research... This last summer I was allowed the pleasure of working in Dr.William Brown's lab with his doctoral student, Grace Choy. I learned so much (so so so much). I would write about it here, but I fear as though I've already made you read too much. I will be giving a presentation on what I did this coming semester, so I may put a link to the presentation for any of those interested in studying occupational asthma, isocyanate chemistry, or ScFv development.
Flying... well... I haven't flown for almost a year, so you could say it isn't a recent activity. I have about 45hrs logged, and have soloed several times. I was quite near the completion of my pilot's license, but I needed to stop for a while. When I save up some funds (tuition will continue to plague me) after school, I hope to finish my pilot's license and take up flying again. Flying is so incredible. My father got me interested in flying when I was young as he is a pilot and a certified flight instructor. He has an air strip where the EAA (experimental aircraft association) has an annual fly-in.