One thing that is always pointed out about the spring semester is how many Monday Holidays there are, and last week was the first. Not only is it the first of the year, but for me it is one of the ones that I have understood for the longest. Even before I started school, my grandmother made sure that I understood why Martin Luther King day was a holiday and the important role his work had in my life. It was his work that made it acceptable for my mother and father to be married, that allowed me to even be born. This has always been a day for me to reflect and truly appreciate how different my life has been from that of my grandparents born in the 20s.

Since I've been at Northeastern I've spent MLK day at the MLK day of Service. Each year the day is focused on his ideals and this year the free t-shirts had a quote on the back to center the day: "Everyone can be great because anyone can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. ... You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love." Additionally his most famous I have a dream speech is always recognized. This year before they sent the 400 volunteers out around the city to serve a professor of law who gave a keynote also of course recognized what would come the following day, the inauguration of the 44th president of the United States. With the inauguration the day after MLK day it was inevitable that Obama's election was a measure of our progress towards Kings dream.

I watched the inauguration in the African American Institute. The Cabral Center there was packed, not only with Black Students, as most events there are. We all rose as obama came out and cheered along with his speech. With everything about Dr. King still resonating through me after the previous day Obama's speech resonated so deeply with me. "Know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more." That point is exactly how I feel of our nation, and what this nation is supposed stand for and when Obama said this, I felt a sense of patriotism that I haven't felt in a long time.

I didn't though realize how deep this series of events impacted me until I was leaving the Institute to go to lab after the speech. I was stopped by a lady doing an article for the facutly & staff newspaper, The Voice, and asked for a quote. I had to pause for a long time before I could answer with anything.

I thought back to the weekend after the election, on the way down to New Jersey for a conference we heard so many songs remixed in Obama's honor, and then I couldn't help but have Young Jeezy playing in my head. "My president is Black..." Although the rest of that song, and his word choice don't sit well with me that phrase does. Obama is mypresident. He is the first president I was old enough to vote for, and he is like me. He knows balance of identity when your parents are of two races known primarily for their violent relations throughout history. These emotions were what I tried to get out to the lady from The Voice, but I'm pretty sure it didn't work, because I was caught completely off guard.

This entry was a little more reflective, but in more relevant news for all of you, now that your applications are all in, it's to that great time of just waiting. Be patient though, the responses will come soon enough, and then it's time for decisions and that's always an exciting time. As always, feel free to comment, whether it's on the content of the post or just any questions you may have.

Posted by Sarah Brown at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Winter in Boston is cold. This is something I knew before I came here though, in fact winter in Boston is actually slightly warmer than the first 18 winters my life. It's still cold though.

In contrast, winter in Puerto Rico is warm, like summer in Boston. This past weekend, by agreeing to do some work, I was able to experience these facts in person.

CenSSIS is a four-institutional research center. The partner institutions are Boston University, Rensselear Polytechnic Institute and University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez. Every January the leadership team of faculty and industry leaders meet in Puerto Rico for their Leadership Retreat. This year, as the Student Leadership Council is in a rebuilding year, three of us were able to convince them to take us, and one student from RPI with us. We were unable to find a volunteer from BU, and the UPRM students met us there.

Thursday we spent most of the day traveling, a 4 hour flight delayed because of ice, and then driving across the whole island at rush hour. I used to think Boston driving was crazy, their driving is a bit worse. Both lanes are used completely interchangeably for passing and travel, and there are roadside pina colada stands, on major roads. Once we got to the hotel we had dinner with the faculty and many other UPRM students. The three of us from Northeastern were the only three undergraduates there, but it was still an enjoyable time.

Friday we had to work most of the day. We wrote up Bylaws for the Gordon-CenSSIS Student Leadership Council and began our planning as to what we would be doing for the rest of the year. We chose to have one president and one vice president at each partner school and chose among ourselves who would take these positions on until April when the Center meets with the National Science Foundation (initial funding source) at which we'll elect new officer. I ended up as president. We met with the researchers for lunch and during free time from 4-6 we went to la Playa Escalera (Step Beach) to go snorkeling. One of the UPRM students & her brother and a UPRM professor brought their equipment to share with us and show us where we could find the most interesting things.

This is one view of the beach where we went snorkeling.

It was really beautiful to see all of the coral and sea fans and different types of fish. We also got to see one type of coral that is actually endangered and that beach is one of few places where it is still healthy. I didn't have an underwater camera so I couldn't get pictures there but afterwards walking on the beach as the tide was coming in we were able to find a sea urchin.

Saturday morning we revised the Survey for the Strengths Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) Analysis of the center that we must present to the NSF in April. Once we finished that we had the whole afternoon free and we went snorkeling again. Firday the water was really calm, but normally in the winter that beach is a surfing beach. Even Saturday there weren't quite surf quality waves, but there were definitely some bigger waves.

Homework/ make up work has to get done no matter where you are. Saturday more people came snorkeling with us and we had rented some equipment but decided to just rent 4 sets and share. I took the second turn snorkeling and got my Electromagnetics homework that was due Monday done first. Being out of class and spending it with professors in my department made it easier to be ok with missing class, I got a quick review of it after lunch, and a quiz in the car on the way to the beach.

After we got back to the hotel we watched the sunset on the beach and ran into one of the professors and his wife.

At dinner the whole SLC took a picture with the Dean of Northeastern Engineering, David Luzzi. After dinner we went to the hotel next door for some dancing and live music with the UPRM students.

Overall it was a great trip. We got to miss a snowstorm, and spend the time in a warm, beautiful place, just because we agreed to take on reviving the student leadership council.

Posted by Sarah Brown at 9:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So yesterday was my first day of classes in 8 months. It was a little weird, but it was also nice to not have to get up so early, and to be around my friends, many of whom I haven't seen for most if not all of the time we were on coop. I'm also a bit of nerd and actually like classes, at least until the homework starts piling up, anyway.

I had three classes yesterday spread out throughout the day with two hour breaks. The breaks aren't incredibly useful for much but I was able to use them to run errands involved with getting back into classes. I went and got rehired to my on campus job, checked in with advisers, had lunch with a friend to catch up and completed the paperwork associated with returning to campus from coop. Today, since it's the first week and my lab doesn't meet this week I only have one class & I'm done for the day now.

All of my classes this semester are pretty interesting, two of them are required for my major and two for my minor. Electromagnetic fields and waves will explain a lot of the background to the research that I've been doing so that will make the class more interesting and probably make my work make a lot of sense. Linear systems will explain the signal processing concepts and associated mathematical techniques that I've occasionally encountered in my research and heard a lot of on my coop, which will also probably be pretty useful. After these two classes, I'll finally have enough prerequisites completed to start taking some of the more interesting technical electives in my major. For my minor I'm taking biological physics and anatomy and physiology. Anatomy and physiolgy is going to be pretty different than most of the classes I've taken since I got to NU because it's not a physical science or math class. Also, when I first walked in I was in a bit of shock because this class has the exact opposite male/ female ratio from my major classes, instead of being about 90 % males, this class is about 90% female, and they're mostly freshmen nursing majors. Biological Physics is also related to the research I've been doing and only has 3 people in it.

Also, so far I seem to have all great professors, which doesn't always happen. Overall I'm pretty excited to be back on campus, though I'm sure in a few months I'll be ready to go back to coop.

Now it's off to do homework, because I have assignments due next week and reading expected to be done, and this weekend I'm going to a conference so I wont have any more time to work on this for a while.

PS. If you applied early action and have any questions feel free to ask away, as always, and if you're applying regular admission, good luck finishing up your application!

Posted by Sarah Brown at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)