Students involved in African studies were given the opportunity to spend a day in the city viewing art at the Whitney and at the Metropolitan Museum of art in New York City for free! This trip was made possible by the Arts in the City fund that pays for the coach bus, museum fees, and food for our day trip.

My African Literature class allowed me to participate in this day trip. I woke up very early in the morning to board the bus, and basically slept the entire way to New York! We were dropped off right in front of the Met where we wandered around until our guided tour of the African Reliquary exhibit with pieces from central Africa. Students were given the choice to attend lectures at the Met. or view the Kara Walker exhibit at the Whitney. I decided to stay at the Met for the lecture about how contemporary art has been influenced by African reliquaries which was actually super interesting. It was a great chance to experience New York City without having to worry about the logistics of public transport and money!

I was fortunate to be able to participate in a faculty-led program to Trinidad & Tobago over winter break. We spent about 2 weeks in Trinidad & Tobago studying music, and generally doing what Trinbagonians do! The trip is actually a course worth 1 credit called “Innovative Music Traditions of Trinidad & Tobago.” This course is one of a few faculty-led programs that can take place either over the winter break, or during the summer.

Basically, for 2 weeks, 15 of us students met with internationally known Calypsonians for lecture-demos, talked to Trinidadian author Earl Lovelace, visited pan yards at night, attended a concert, as well as snorkeled, hiked, and bird watched. We did a variety of other activities such as learning how to play steel pan, browsing costumes for Carnival, or being immersed in the Indo-Trinidadian culture. Academic discussions were held almost every single day, and we had to complete a number of assignments before and during our trip. In addition to learning so much about music and culture, I had a really fantastic time and I feel very lucky to participate in such a wonderful program!

The Asian American Coalition sponsored the popular spoken word group called Yellow Rage this year in the Cole Memorial Chapel. This event was 7 months in the making, and we were glad too see the huge turnout! They came with great enthusiasm, and we were all inspired by their knowledge and powerful performance.
Never heard of Yellow Rage? Michelle and Catzie make up this duo of Philly-based Asian American female spoken word poets. Yellow Rage hopes to provide an awareness that is not often heard, exploring topics from fetishes to cultural appropriation to ethnic pride, they challenge mainstream misconceptions of Asianness. Yellow Rage has appeared on Def Poetry Jam and have performed all over the country.
AAC was inspired to put on this event after hearing about them from the AAC’s ever popular Professor Kim. Their words were powerful and put words to the commonalities of our collective experiences. I think that for the AAC, seeing the hard work come to fruition made all the effort worthwhile!
In addition to Yellow Rage, the campus’s spoken word group, ispeak, performed their pieces with conviction, enthusiasm, and bravery which made for a powerful and emotional night for both the performers and the audience.

For the past several years, it has taken place in Boston, but for a change and a cheaper ticket price, the senior class council decided on the Providence Renaissance Hotel in Rhode Island. The Bash is hosted by the senior class and is semi-formal event that takes place usually in every November. All members of the student body are invited for a night of dancing and food/drinks with their fellow classmates!
This Bash was particularly important for me and my friends because it was our last one! We decided to go all out, and stayed in a hotel room for the night so that we could enjoy Providence and spend more time together. Buses are provided for everyone who is planning on going back to campus, and this year students were lucky enough to even be entered in a raffle for a digital camera just by taking the bus! The senior class council put a lot of hard work and effort into this event, and sure enough it was worth it! All in all, it has to be one of the highlights of the year thus far!

The Asian American Coalition (AAC) challenged the typical college student’s notion of Ramen, the ever popular late night food of college students across the nation.
We presented 8 different types of Ramen from China, Japan, and Korea in a variety of flavors from vegetarian tofu to Kimchi. In addition, we provided tea, and gave away prizes of ramen, bowls, tea cups, and chopsticks.The event was held in the Balfour atrium and to our delight was widely attended! People took the chance to sit down and have some tea and chat on a Friday afternoon.
In the midst of the hustle and bustle of preparation and serving, the club members managed to find some time of our own to have some fun and eat some ramen.

We had a pretty busy weekend here at Wheaton!
Friday night was the Halloween dance party in Balfour. Most everybody dressed in some sort of costume, many vying for the prize of best costume! I dressed up as a lumberjack (the best idea I’ve had in years) and some of my friends dressed up as the cat in the hat, a queen, a proctologist, Enrique Iglesias, a nun, a nudist on strike, and Pippy Longstockings. It was an eventful night that finally culminated in Balfour.
The next day, my friends and I drove to Wellesley to watch my friend and suitemate Maya play her last official tennis match of her college career! Some of my friends who graduated last year and who also played for the tennis team came up for a reunion. It was the first time I had seen them since going abroad, and they spent the night in our suite.
Sunday was, of course, the world series! Unfortunately I had a 10 page paper due the next day, so I spent all but the last 2 innings writing my paper. When the Red Sox finally won, I think my friends and I had another “full circle moment” remembering our freshman year when the Sox won for the first time. A bunch of students gathered around Peacock Pond shouting, making noise and trying to get our friends to jump in! Having already been in the pond, I was able to get at least 3 of my friends to jump in! It is one of many traditions for every student at Wheaton to go in the pond at least once in their 4 years, and I can’t think of a better time to make the jump!

Homecoming was an appropriate reward for an intense 2 weeks of midterms!
Friday was a rainy New England day, but that did not seem to impede upon the spirits and enthusiasm of alumni!
I started off Homecoming weekend with a chemistry midterm, then I was on a panel moderated by Dean Sue for the Alumni Leadership Conference (ALC) where I shared my experiences abroad, both in the Philippines and South Africa. I was happy to have a place where I could actually share my experiences and know that they are appreciated by all because I wouldn’t have been able to have such a great time abroad were it not for Wheaton’s programs. After being on the panel, I went to the ALC luncheon in Emerson dining hall. I enjoyed delicious food and conversed with more alums as well as hear the keynote speakers- a group of young alumni who had started their own non-profit organization.
I was finally able to rest after a stressful week, and then joined my friends and their parents for a Thai dinner nearby. I called it an early night knowing that Saturday night would be jam-packed!
My friends Vanessa and Jamie, who I met abroad and go to BC, came and visited me and Victoria, another Wheatie who I met in South Africa. We had a joyous reunion and talked non-stop, sharing memories and creating new ones.
We all were excited for the Talib Kweli concert taking place in the Haas fieldhouse. This has been a highly anticipated event at Wheaton as Talib is one of the bigger acts to come our way in the past few years. Talib gave a wonderful and very memorable performance- there were even rumors that they used footage from the concert in a new episode of MTV’s show “Made” when a young man awkwardly was brought onstage and instructed to rap about the Red Sox!
I had a wonderful time with all my friends from different parts of my life mingling and talking. All in all, I have to say that my last homecoming was everything I could want it to be, fun, memorable, and productive!

This week presented a unique opportunity to attend a film screening and discussion with film director Werner Herzog.
I had been anticipating this event for a while having seen two of his movies, “Aguirre, the Wrath of God” and “Grizzly Man” so with a midterm the next day, I decided to study all afternoon. Eager for dinner, I stumbled out of the library and started walking towards the dining hall about an hour before the event started when I noticed that a cue of people had formed that stretched across the Dimple. I immediately forgot I was hungry and hopped on line, calling my friends to come over.
Sure enough, the chapel was packed to the brim with Wheaton students and professors, as well as people from the community, and students from all over the area. People came from all over to be able to be the 3rd audience to view Herzog’s new film for free.
Herzog gave a modest yet frank appraisal of his documentary, stating the difference between “Encounters at the End of the World” and what he called “another movie about penguins”(March of the Penguins?). Herzog became fascinated with the beautiful vistas and landscapes of Antarctica while doing post production on “Grizzly Man.” His film painted complex and compelling portraits of the men and women who are compelled to make strides in science and thus occupy the McMurdo research station. With a sense of humor he presents the many characters who have seemingly lost and found themselves on the vast continent. For example, a trained linguist who came to Antarctica (a place with no languages) and scoffs at treehuggers who idly stand by as languages become extinct-the reason for which he had to throw out his entire dissertation. Though the linguist is a bit of a ludicrous character, you’d never know it because Herzog’s wit litters the dialogue but never belittles their stories. Indeed, the people who occupy Antarctica are an interesting sort, and the focus is really on them rather than the penguins.
The audience was solemn throughout, and people still poured in and sat on the floors of our cramped chapel.
After the film, Herzog opened up the floor to questions and entertained a wide range of inquiries. To my delight, he talked extensively of how he came across the idea behind “Aguirre, the Wrath of God,” the challenges he faced while shooting the film, and discussed parallels of his new film to “Grizzly Man.”
In the past, Wheaton has hosted film directors of the like (such as Richard Linklater) and I anticipate more interesting people coming through Wheaton. Seeing these types of events come to fruition shatters any notion of Wheaton’s supposed insulation and expands the reaches of middle-of-nowhere Norton.

Although October break sneaks up, it always comes around at the perfect time.
I spent my October break at home to spend time with my family and friends. The fact that I had 2 exams waiting for me when I got back to school seemed to have no effect on how I spent my break! It was a nice change of pace to visit my parents and catch up with people that I missed over the summer. I was even able to hang out with my Wheaton friends in New York City, a place that I have missed dearly!
I am proud to say that for the first time in my four years at Wheaton, I was actually able to get some work done at home! So with my batteries recharged, I drove back up to school and faced my exams head on.
That weekend, I went with other members of the Asian American Coalition to attend BASIC- Boston Asian Students Intercollegiate Conference, something that is hopefully becoming a tradition in our group. I care deeply for its causes, and it makes me extremely happy to meet new members and hear their ideas. This conference really served as a way to let us all connect with each other as well as with students from other schools. I was especially happy to learn more about the issues that I feel passionately about, and learn from the wonderful speakers and seminars.

Make no mistake, it does not take any time at all for professors to delve right into the material. I am taking many of interesting classes this semester:
Chem 303: Current Problems in Environmental Chemistry
Psy 312: Perception
Psy 334: Practicum in Human Services
Anthro 225: Peoples and Cultures of Africa
and Psy 225: Brain, Mind, & Behavior
I am taking on more than the regular course load, but since my Practicum course is actually volunteering at a local hospital twice a week, Sturdy Memorial, it really doesn’t feel like much work! I am particularly enjoying this course because it allows me to volunteer and have a platform on which I can discuss my experiences. I spend about 6 hours a week (3 hours per day) volunteering in the Emergency Care Center(ECC) as an intern to the Patient Care Liaison (PCL). Wheaton is unique in having a program that actually allows undergraduate students to experience the emergency room. My role at Sturdy Memorial is to basically tend to patient needs both physically and mentally. Sometimes they might need a glass of water or a blanket, and sometimes they just want company. I am certainly being exposed to a variety of new experiences, but the ECC staff as well at the PCLs that I work with are very
supportive and are always willing to answer any of my questions.
But of course, it is not always about the books! Being 21 allows you many privileges, but perhaps the most important at Wheaton is permission to participate in all that is Sportsway Cafe, or Sporty’s (a local bar). A senior tradition here at Wheaton, is to mingle with your fellow classmates within the hallowed halls of Sporty’s on Thursday nights.
Although it is usually not the craziest scene, I think that most seniors are always willing to cough up a couple of dollars for a pitcher of beer and be surrounded by the good company of your fellow classmates.