It’s been a while! Second semester has just begun, which is hard to believe since winter break pretty much flew by. I worked in the Wheaton Admissions Office interviewing prospective students, spent a couple days a week with my summer internship organization Be The Change, Inc., performed in a full-length Wheaton-community musical called “My Favorite Year,” and did some research for my honors thesis. Needless to say I didn’t have a ton of free time.

A backstage shot of the Wheaton-community musical I was in a couple weeks ago, My Favorite Year!

I did, however, get to go to D.C. for part of inauguration – Be The Change, Inc. is a huge component of the ServiceNation coalition which hosted an event on MLK Day to promote a “New Era of Service,” so I flew down to the capital to help out! It was incredible. Not only was it pretty cool to rub shoulders with celebrities (we got to go to the Huffington Post Ball!), but the energy level in the city was out of control. It was so inspiring! There were people everywhere, bearing the freezing cold, trudging through crowds and crowds of people from all over the U.S. and the rest of the world to see this historic event. I will certainly never forget the experience.

Me, far right, helping lead the parade to a service project at a local D.C. elementary school after the MLK morning event I volunteered at the day before Inauguration. Check out Brandon Routh (3rd from left), the star of Superman Returns!

This semester I’m taking some really interesting classes in departments I’ve never studied with before. I’m taking The Physics of Music and Sound for my science requirement (which is nice since a LOT of the students in the class are more musicians than they are physicists, so the course material is very comprehensive). I’m also taking World Music: Africa and the Americas as the last course to my African Worlds Connection (along with African Politics and Africans on Africa: A History Seminar). It’s really fascinating to see how students in other departments learn. I haven’t had a science class since high school and I’ve never studied music (or ethnomusicology for that matter) in this context before, so it’s a really refreshing experience. I also have my International Relations Senior Seminar (very intense, but I love it!) and, of course, my thesis.

My all-female a cappella group here, the Wheaton Whims, is hosting auditions tonight for potential new members, so I’m really excited for that. Then tomorrow night is “Slype” – a Wheaton a cappella tradition. At midnight after a group hosts callbacks, new members are decided, kidnapped from their dorms, and brought to a well-known brick archway in the middle of Upper Campus to be introduced to a mass of screaming, rowdy fans. We then perform a few songs amid the chaos – it’s a good time.

Slype, when NOT being used for a cappella tradition...

Last night we also had the Senior Wine and Cheese Party – an exclusive event for 21+ seniors with free wine and cheese and words from President Crutcher. It was great! Toward the end my friend Will asked if I was auditioning for the New Plays Festival, which I didn’t really know much about. I’m generally a more musical theatre kind of person, but I figured – I’m a senior and it’s my last semester – why not? So I showed up at auditions and it turns out these short plays were all written by the Advanced Playwriting Class last semester, and are being directed by Advanced Directing students this semester. It was a lot of fun just auditioning and we find out if we got cast in anything on Friday.

I have a class council meeting soon so I gotta run!

Peace,

S

Last week I was accepted to Teach for America! If you haven’t heard about the program, it recruits recent graduates from top colleges to teach in underserved, low-income public schools across the U.S. for two years following their graduation. I’m so excited – especially after having worked so hard for programs like Teach for America through my internship with ServiceNation (see earlier post…). I’m also taking the GRE (like the SAT for grad school) next week so the “Real World” is starting to seem scarily close.

Also, the Wheaton Whims (the all-female a cappella group in which I sing) went on a little mini-tour this weekend, singing with the Dartmouth Aires and the Trinity Accidentals in New Hampshire and Connecticut. It was so fun, especially the amount of road-tripping it entailed. I love my Whims!

Road trip 2008 - New Hampshire

As of Tuesday afternoon I’ll officially be on Thanksgiving break. Yay, turkey!

Anyway, as the semester comes to a close I’m increasingly bombarded with exams and papers (including one that’s due in a couple hours), so that’s all for now.

Happy (almost) Thanksgiving!

Wow! I feel like months have passed since my last post but that’s only because of the whirlwind of events that have gone on recently… For the sake of brevity and readability, I’ll do this one in bullet points! Here’s what I’ve been up to in the past couple weeks:

• ELECTION DAY! – Wheaton was ablaze with excitement! It was inspiring, humbling, and somewhat unbelievable, but all I can say is that most of us are pretty happy around here. Check out the YouTube video reaction to the win here!
• INDIANA! – Since I studied Development Studies abroad in Uganda last spring, I was invited to a conference at the University of Notre Dame on Innovation in the Service of Human Dignity – which is also very relevant to the honors thesis I’m currently writing. Until a few days before the conference, though, I didn’t think I could attend since I couldn’t afford it. But after mentioning it to Professor Murphy (a veteran member of Wheaton’s political science department) he absolutely insisted I go – offering to pay for part of it personally and connecting me with the Provost’s Office, which paid for the rest.
  

  Innovation in the Service of Human Dignity - A Human Development Conference at Notre Dame University

  So I booked a flight then and there, went out to Indiana the next day, and had an incredible time! It was one of the productive and intellectually stimulating weekends I’ve ever had, I was able to network with a bunch of people who listened to and commented on my ideas, and it was great to get so much work done for my thesis. Plus, it goes to show the generosity and concern of Wheaton professors. I am so thankful for Professor Murphy’s enthusiasm and help!

• COURSE SELECTION – I’m taking the Physics of Music and Sound, World Music: Africa and the Americas, International Relations Senior Seminar, and my honors thesis (continued). Yay!
  

  A photo from the GC Jam!

• GC/VUJ JAMS!!! – Thursday night was the campus’ all-male a cappella group’s big semester performance in the Chapel, which was a blast. I made it just in time – I had to take one of the hardest exams of my life (International Finance – not my forte) right beforehand, but I got to see the whole show! And the next night was the big fall performance for my gospel and R&B choir, Voices United to Jam (VUJ) – it was amazing! One of the best performances I think we’ve ever done. Our theme was Mardi Gras, which was, of course, really fun.
  

  Me and my friends Elsy and Lucia at the Bash

• THE BASH!!! – The Bash (held at the Providence Renaissance Hotel) was Saturday night. It was a blast, and my favorite part was definitely the fondue fountain! But it was also just nice to see everyone out and all dressed up in the city.

Well that’s what’s up for now. I have an exam on Thursday, and then my all-female a cappella group (the Wheaton Whims) is going on a mini-tour to sing at two other New England colleges this weekend. I’m really looking forward to it!

Me, second from left, with other ServiceNation interns (Chris is to my right)

If you haven’t checked out the Wheaton Web site’s home page recently, they just posted Episode 2 of the Wheaton InFocus series and I recommend you check it out! Why? Because A) you’ll learn a little bit more about life at Wheaton, and B) because, well, I’m starring in it

The episode describes my and my friend Chris’ (’10) summer internship experience this past summer at a non-profit based in Cambridge, MA called Be The Change, Inc. that was spearheading a giant national movement called “ServiceNation” (check out www.servicenation.org !).

Chris and I actually met at the internship (despite our plethora of common interests we had no idea we both went to Wheaton until internship training. You can imagine that shock, considering Wheaton’s quaint size – “Wait a minute, you go to Wheaton? But I go to Wheaton!!”).

Alicia Keys spoke (and sang!) at the Summit

Chris and I were on a very small team of individuals planning a very huge event in NYC, featuring Senators Obama and McCain, as well as a bunch of leaders from all sectors of society with a compassion for and a commitment to service (including Senator Hillary Clinton, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a number of university presidents, corporate and non-profit leaders, as well as celebrities – Alicia Keys, Tobey Maguire, Usher, Leonardo DiCaprio, Bon Jovi…). It was one of the single-most inspiring and exciting couple of days of my life, especially considering the amount of work that went into it.

Anyway, here’s the video: http://www.wheatoncollege.edu/InFocus/

Check it out! It’s just one example of the things students can do here with a Wheaton stipend (I got $4,000 for this unpaid summer internship). I learned a ton about service, planning a huge event, and the functions of a non-profit start-up… plus I got to chat with Alma Powell (Colin Powell’s wife), rub shoulders with Obama, McCain, Clinton and Biden, and at one point was three inches from Tobey Maguire’s face. Not your ordinary pencil-pushing summer internship

So let me start off by quickly introducing myself…

I’m a senior at Wheaton majoring in international relations and minoring in development studies, with a focus on African and Latin American nations. Last year I studied abroad for a year, spending my first semester in Buenos Aires and my second semester in Uganda (It was incredible!). I’m from Attleboro, Mass. and some of the activities I’m involved with on campus are the Wheaton Wire (our student-run campus newspaper, for which I serve as the senior adviser for training and development), the Senior Class Council (I’m the Class Gift co-Chair, working to increase donations for our college annual fund), the Wheaton Whims (an all-female a cappella group), and Voices United to Jam (the college’s only gospel and R&B choir, which is also completely student-run).

I’m also writing a thesis, which I’m kind of ridiculously excited about. It has to do with the developing world’s perception of the West, and how that perception impacts potential for grassroots development through social entrepreneurship. It’s in the early stages, but it’s a year-long process so hopefully it will beautifully unfold throughout the following months!

I’m just about to head to my Theories of International Relations class, so I’ll post again soon. There’s a lot going on right now on campus so I have a lot to talk about!

-S