Less than 50 days until WEPO!

Today marks 50 days until 188 freshman females will arrive on campus and begin WEPO! The leadership team is hard at work planning some great activities. What are you most excited about? Tells  us in the comments section of this post.

Things I Wish I Had Known

Hi ladies! My name is April Davis and I am going to be a mentor for WEPO ’11. I will be a senior in mechanical engineering. Currently, I am working at an internship with GE Healthcare in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Go Pack!). My project is working on the x-ray tubes that go into CT machines and helping with a new prototype. (I get to build parts for it – it’s pretty sweet!)

So I thought I’d write about things I wish I had known as a first-year student/engineer.

• How to study. In high school, I never had to study for tests or quizzes since my teachers covered the topics for days and so deeply. When I got to college, I thought it would be the same; but it wasn’t, and that was a big wake-up for me. I had to learn that just sitting and listening to the information doesn’t cut it for me. My best learning strategy is doing as many practice problems as I possibly can. Many professors offer past exams as a tool to help you, and many mentors and rovers also have saved their work for you to look at.
• You CAN join a major-related club even if you aren’t yet in the major. When I was a first-year, it took me a while to realize that I could join a bunch of different engineering groups even though I wasn’t taking any engineering classes. It’s a really great way to connect to peers in your major. These people all know what you are going through and are willing to help (many of them have an upperclassmen mentoring program as well). Also, many of these clubs compete in engineering competitions which looks great on a resume. For example, I am in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and am part of the Rube Goldberg team (check out our video from this past year).

• SLEEP! Sleeping is directly related to how you perform in classes. You aren’t around your parents anymore, so no one is going to be telling you to go to bed at a certain time or making sure you wake up and go to class. Likewise, no one will be telling you that the 3 hours of sleep you are getting because of your procrastination is bad for you. Sleep gives your body a chance to heal itself and recharge your batteries. If you are a morning person and your roommate is a night owl, you may have to agree to do your best to stay out of the room when the other is sleeping. My roommate and I worked out an agreement where if she was asleep, I would hang out in a friend’s room or study in the library and vice versa. Making sure that you get between 6-8 hours of sleep every night is the key to not falling asleep in class and thus, better grades.
• You don’t have to sit in your room bored. EVER. You are lucky enough to be going to a school with 26 campuses and there is something to do at every single one of them. If you feel alone, go out and meet one of the 80,000 other people who are proud to call themselves Penn Staters. If you are alone on a Friday night because your roommate is going out with friends/her boyfriend, remember that you aren’t the only one. A simple thing such as opening your door or going to your RA’s (sometimes cheesy) activities can help you meet people to hang out with and it can act as a nice study break too.
• So as I’m winding down my time left at PSU and crossing things off my bucket list, I encourage you to make one as well! And if you ever need help crossing things off, I’d be more than happy to lend my services.

It's Okay.

Hey future WEPO ladies!  Now is around the time you all are probably beginning to brainstorm shopping lists for your new college adventure.  Some of you are excited, a lot of you are nervous, most of you have questions, and a few of you have all of the above.  Whichever emotion you are feeling or however many “silly questions” you have, we are all here to tell you:  It’s going to be okay.  That’s actually the theme of my blog for today.  So for everyone reading this, it’s okay…

They just remodeled the inside too!

1. if you forget something at home.  I know I definitely left things at home, but it is super easy for your parents to ship whatever you forgot.  Even more convenient is Mclanahans, which is basically an everything-you-could-ever-want-or-need store.  It has literally every item possible from food to football gear to birthday cards.  And there are a lot of other stores near campus too!
2. to ask questions.  As freshman, you probably don’t want to be “that girl” asking for directions when you can’t find your class.  News flash: our campus holds over 40,000 students.  AKA our campus is huge, so go ahead and look at a map!  Also, if you are confused about something in class or didn’t hear the deadline for that assignment, don’t be afraid to ask the person next to you or even go up to the teacher at the end of class.
3. you don’t know exactly what you want to do with your life.  That’s what freshman year is for!  This year is all about exploring different options and finding out what you’re really passionate about.  Yes, some people will have a picture-perfect image of what they want to do with their life, but in reality the average college student changes their major three times.
4. if you don’t know what clubs to join.  My advice: join them all.  Once again, I really recommend keeping an open mind throughout your entire college career because you never know what you could fall in love with.  If there are several clubs or sports you are interested in, look into all of them!  With most clubs you can be as active (or inactive) as you want, so try all of them out and then you can weed out the ones you aren’t really feeling later.  (A little secret… get involved in THON! You will be so mad if you don’t).

Lauren, myself, and Marissa from my THON committee with Tucker Haas! (Google him, he’s a superstar in my book.)

5. to have embarrassing moments.  Trust me, I have had my share of awkward, embarrassing moments.  The great part about them is that they are hilarious stories later.  If you feel like you will never recover from an awkward moment, come talk to me and I will tell you one of my stories to make you feel better.
6. to be yourself.
  This is the most important one out of all of these.  Truly, I promise you that whether you use a backpack or purse, raincoat or normal coat, study 2 hours versus 10 hours for an exam, or use .5 or .7 lead (you get the picture…), nobody is going to sit there and judge you because I know for a fact someone else on campus will be doing the same exact thing.  So if you want to use a fanny pack to carry your pencils to an exam, go for it!  As long as you stay true to your wonderful personality there is no reason your experience at Penn State will not be the best time of your life.

Finding Yourself a New Home

I always knew that I wanted to go to Penn State, but when it came time to leave my friends and family, I started to get worried about going so far away. Being from Georgia, I had no friends coming to Penn State with me, and there was no one there that I already knew. While at first it seemed scary, I felt at home as soon as I walked on campus. I found myself introducing myself to random people and meeting new friends left and right. Adapting to what seems like such a big place, wasn’t that hard after all. I found clubs and other little things that I was interested in, and it became clear that Penn State was my new home. 

Of course, you are going to miss your family, and friends back home, but by the time you do you will have tons of new friends to cheer you up! My best advice would be to put yourself out there, search for clubs you are interested in and introduce yourself to new people, you have nothing to lose. Oh, and go to some AMAZING Penn State Football games! Your freshman year will fly by before you know it, make sure you enjoy it, and before you know it you will be calling Penn State home too!

Getting Involved

Hey girls!  I'm Maria and I'm entering my fourth year at PSU as a Mechanical Engineering Major.  For those of you who don't want to go to Penn State, don't worry I didn't either but I am so glad I did.  Penn State has an awesome engineering program and a large network of alumni not to mention a ton of awesome things to do while at school.

One of the things that helped me adjust to college was getting involved in activities.  I'm one of those people who are really shy and have difficulty branching outside of my comfort zone but once I am comfortable I am absolutely crazy.  I initially found it difficult to figure out where I fit in.  I went to the involvement fair which happens first week of classes and explored there a bit.  The involvement fair has all sorts of clubs represented from clubs with specific interests to religious clubs to groups for almost every major to volunteer opportunities.  In high school I was a member of our Health Club and helped coordinate the blood drives my Junior and Senior years.  At the fair I found the Student Red Cross Club (SRCC) and decided I would check it out.  I started going to the meetings and met some of the officers and I started volunteering at the Blood Drives around campus.  Initially I was always sent out as a recruiter but as the group got to know me I moved to other positions.  Now I am an On Site Coordinator (OSC) which means that I organize the volunteers and make sure that the drive has enough donors to hit hourly and daily goals.  My freshman fall I received my first leadership position of college as a captain for the PSU-MSU Blood Donor Challenge which you will hear more about during fall semester.  Another club member and I were responsible for designing and assembling scoreboards (giant posters) to be put around campus for the duration of the Challenge.  We also had to coordinate with the locations and organized a team of volunteers to update the scoreboard.  This experience has been something that I have used during interviews and since I worked closely with our club advisor she was able to write recommendation letters for me when it came to applying for other leadership positions and jobs.  I have also assumed more leadership positions within the club and made a lot of friends outside of engineering.

No matter what you are interested in, Penn State probably has a club for it.  Some examples that I know the WEPO 2011 leadership team are involved with include a Capella groups, major related professional societies (ASME, AIChE, etc.), club sports, religious groups, volunteering, and sororities.  All of us love to talk about what we are involved in and get new students involved.  You can also find clubs and their websites/contact info here.

My piece of advice for incoming freshmen is always to get involved and branch outside of your comfort zone and engineering.  You don't have to do this immediately (I really wasn't involved in much more than the SRCC for my first year), but it will allow you to become an effective time manager as well as give you leadership opportunities and things to talk about during an interview.  Perhaps the most important thing is that you will meet friends who share a common interest and who will be able to help you through anything.

Living in the Dorms

Freshman year I lived in the section Pollock and Beaver Hall was the name of my dorm.  What I really liked about living here was the location and it was a special living option.  The special living option was EASI (Engineering and Applied Science Interests) it was a great experience because I was living with mostly freshman engineering students.   The location of Pollock was perfect for freshman year because we were right in the middle of everything.  Main street (College Ave.) was 2 mins away, it was also close to East Halls where a majority of the freshman were located, the gym was right across the street, and  close to the Brice Jordan Center,  and of course BEAVE STADIUM!!! There were also more dinner options as compared to other locations, because living in Beaver Hall, South commons is right across the street which has the most food options on campus, and you are close to the Pollock commons which had Italian food and general.  With this many options you could never really get bored. 

Another positive is the number of engineers you get to meet, due to the fact that your floor is about 85% engineering major.  The floor is split half girls and half boys I thought at first would be a little strange.  But in the end we ended up have some really fun times together hanging out and studying for tests!

   Living in the dorms with someone you might not know can be a little out of your comfort zone.  However my advice would be, go in with an open mind and you might find out a lot about yourself.   

Guide to Decorating your Dorm Room

When August finally arrives, and you walk into your dorm room for the first time, there will be two beds, two desks and the walls will be blank, just waiting for you to make them your own.   Whether you are the first one to arrive or your future roommate is already there, the room will fill up fast with all the boxes and bags.  Have no fear it will all fit.  Once you have all your clothes unpacked and organized in the closet or drawers, it’s time to decorate the walls!  This is my favorite thing to do the first weekend of being at school.  I love collecting pictures and posters to hang up in my room.  You will be surprised how a couple pictures and posters can transform the standard dorm room into your own unique space.  Also, it’s a great way to break the ice with your new roommate.    

Here are some helpful tips for before and after you arrive to create your own space. 

1)      Bring lots of pictures – Pictures of Family, Friends, pets, summer vacations…lots of pictures. They are a warm reminder of days past and loved ones, especially when you are starting a new Tape vs. Sticky Tack – According to Penn State Residence Hall Policies only masking tape or sticky tack can be used on the walls and doors to hang up decorations (Penn State Housing Website). So be sure to pick some up to hang up pictures and posters. 

2)      HUB Poster sale – at the beginning of the fall semester there is a poster sale in the HUB-Robeson Center.  It’s a great time to just walk around and checkout some really cool posters.  Plus it’s hard to miss with all the flyers and poster stands outside of the HUB. 

3)      Annual Football Poster – Penn State Football is a way of life in State College and each year there is a free football poster available.  It’s a great collectable and an awesome decoration for you room.  Look for them at the HUB bookstore and also at Downtown State College stores.  Hurry they go fast!

4)      HUB Late Night Crafts – There is always something going on at the HUB on Friday and Saturday night.  They usually have some sort of free arts and crafts project.  Spend the evening creating some cool art for your room.  Could be a new pencil/pen container or a picture frame that you can put a picture of you and your Roomie in.  (LateNight)

  5)      Arts & Crafts – As the school year presses on take some time and let off some steam and let your creative side show!  Cut out some snowflakes for you window when it starts to get cold or buy some paint and posters and finger-paint or splatter paint.   I would suggest doing it outside on a nice day instead of in your dorm room where you will find splatters of paint on your stuff for the next two years… just take my word for it :)    

  6)      BE CREATIVE! – Hang up stuff on your wall that isn’t conventional posters and pictures.

I hope this helps you get excited about Penn State and all that awaits you in Happy Valley or the commonwealth campuses.  WEPO is the best and I hope you all sign up for WEPO’11, it’s going to be great! 

For the Glory!

- Erin

Engineering: THE COOLEST MAJOR!!!!!

Hello! My name is Kathleen Prilutski and I am a sophomore in mechanical and nuclear engineering at Penn State. Wow, I honestly cannot even believe that an entire year has already gone by. This time last year, I was had just graduated high school and was at the beach with my friend in the Outer Banks and was absolutely terrified and excited to go to college. My sister was already in college so my parents fixated on my every move. However, I never really realized how different college would be from high school. In high school, I was pretty active in all the running sports, including cross country, and indoor and outdoor track, which required daily practice putting me on a scheduled regime.  While you take classes and do homework in college, I no longer had a simple schedule. The class schedule remained the same but the amount of time I had to put forth in a class to do well was much greater than it was in high school. Both my parents are chemical engineers and they constantly told me that college would be much more difficult than anything I had ever done in high school. After experiencing my freshman year, I can firmly agree with this statement. While classes became more difficult, I became much better organized with my time as I realized that I wanted to have fun on the weekend with my friends, which enabled me play kickball with my friends in a racquetball court or going to football games.

Not only did I learn to better manage my time for class, but I also became actively involved with several clubs on campus. Even though I was just a freshman, I was the Society of Women Engineers’ blood drive chair, helping to coordinate blood drives on campus. I also became active with THON by canning and attending meetings for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).  Participating in THON activities were so much fun and I became good friends with the people that were also active. Overall, I highly suggest joining any club that you are interested in on campus because you can meet really great people that can turn out to be some of your closest friends.

Right now, I am working as a summer intern at American Biltrite (ABI), a tape company. One of our biggest competitors is 3M, the makers of scotch tape. Working for ABI has been a great experience for me. Even though I just finished my fifth week, with the help of many through countless emails and conversations in the production plant, I have already determined a reasoning for a problem the company has had that had been occurring for over three years. I am extremely excited about this data because this might actually help in the quality of the adhesive. It was truly amazing that my analysis and data collecting actually made a difference. Despite being the only person under the age of twenty, I became friends with people at work. I will not lie, the first day I was absolutely petrified of everyone because the majority of people were middle-age men. Instead of sitting in my office, terrified of all the new people I went around talking to different people. In the end, this was the most beneficial thing I could have ever done because the people I spoke with helped a great deal through all my testing, supplying me data and showing me around the plant. With this internship, I realized how powerful a background in engineering truly is and that I definitely want to be an engineer.

Touring your Options

Once I had decided that Penn State was going to be my home for the next four years, I got the strangest reactions from all of my friends and people that I told. None of them had ever imagined that I would want to go to such a large university. In coming to tour the campus though, I just felt that I knew I
would fit in somehow and succeed in my endeavors. I’m sure all of you are familiar with this feeling since you are going to be attending PSU really soon! Actually, I think one of the things that might have sealed the deal was my tour. I remember telling my mom on the tour that if and when I got accepted, I
was going to do just that: give tours of the campus. Since I had started school early for the summer LEAP program (which if any of you are participating in please look me up because I am going to be a mentor this year!!!!!), I felt so much at ease starting classes in the fall. It was a relief to not have scout out all of the campus in one day before classes started. I had heard of Lion Scouts in coming on tours of the school, so when there were flyers
around asking for volunteers to submit information to join, I excitedly put my application in at the
Shields building (home to the Admissions Office and Lion Scouts). After receiving an e-mail for an interview, I was pretty excited because there were hundreds of applicants. My interview went well, so I was accepted to be a Lion Scout! Giving tours of the campus is so much fun, even if it is raining or snowing out. Actually, I really like giving tours when it is snowing because I think the campus looks so pretty with a white blanket of snow on the ground. There is a route that the Admissions Office sets up for Scouts, so you and a partner just walk your group (normally about 15-20 people) along that route. Sometimes we even get to tour on the famous Penn State Blue Bus=)

Now for those of you who are like I couldn’t memorize where everything is on campus, I felt the same exact way so don’t rule out this awesome organization just yet. The admissions office prepares you really well setting up shadow and mock tours with older Scouts (who are totally amazing people). The best thing about it is that there are no two tours that are the same. If you forget something or skip over something in the tour script, nobody is going to know and you can add in your own personal stories to make the tour that much more fun! I am probably the most graceful, clumsy girl you will ever meet. On the tours Lion Scouts are
required to walk backwards. I am proud to say that I have never fallen down. When I do for the first time, I can say that I will proudly stand back up and laugh because knowing me it will be pretty funny. Partners I’ve toured with have fallen and you just pick them back up and keep on going. My favorite thing about giving tours is that I get to help prospective students see the all of the opportunities this campus has to offer. Coming into a new and very large school can be sort of intimidating, so in trying to ease their minds on the schools dimensions, they may look instead at the possibilities and doors that are open for them to succeed. It feels really good to when parents come up to you and says that you have done an amazing job compared to other schools that they’ve been to (remember PSU is #1 in any way they can be!).

If anyone wants to know more information about Lion Scouts, don’t be afraid to look for me at WEPO. It is so close girls, and you are going to have so much fun!!!!

Learn while Having Fun: Rube Goldberg

Hey girls! Anyone want to guess where I am for the summer? As a matter of fact, I’m working right here in State College! This past March, one of my professors asked if I was interested in doing a Research Experience for Undergraduates this summer with him. Basically, it’s an opportunity for undergraduate students to get a taste of graduate school before actually graduating. My professor is doing work with seismic isolation bearings, basically what you put under buildings to reduce building movement during earthquakes. After the earthquake in Japan recently, I think this was an extremely relevant research topic. So, what I’m doing for him is collecting data from all the past isolation bearings. Then next summer, he and his graduate students are going to test them at Buffalo University. In a way, I’m getting a graduate level course slowly over the summer without having exams on any of the information.

In many different ways, there are opportunities for you to learn while having fun outside of classes. One way I chose to learn this past year was to participate in the Rube Goldberg competition. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s like the game Mouse Trap. One thing triggers another thing which triggers  another and another until you have a set of over twenty steps that achieve a goal! My friend likes to say, “You make a simple thing complicated.” Check  out Penn State’s website for it!

Last year, I was part of the Society of Women Engineers’ team and our goal was to water a plant. Plus each team gets to choose a “theme” for the machine and ours last year was Toy Story. Although we only got third place at the Penn State competition, we had the time of our lives working together and trying to make a mouse trap trigger a gun which would hit a bucket of sand or find the perfect balance for Buzz Lightyear to hit an eight ball which would release a bunch of marbles. We had our setbacks but the outcome was worth it. Having all those little kids run up to you and ask how everything worked – that’s what it’s all about, inspiring the engineers of tomorrow.

Have a great summer and I’ll see you at WEPO!!


Melanie Perna is a senior majoring in Civil Engineering. She was previously a WEPOteer in
2008 and is now a mentor for WEPO 2011. This summer, she is doing research at the University
Park campus at Penn State. During the school year, she is involved with the Society of Women
Engineers and Campus Girl Scouts. If you want a tour from an engineering student this summer
or have any questions, feel free to e-mail her: map5319@psu.edu

Welcome to Happy Valley!

When I tell people I go to Penn State, one of the most common questions they have is how I like such a big campus.  My response? I love it!  I’ll be the first to tell you that campus is huge, and there’s lots of ground to cover, but I don’t think about this as a bad thing – I embrace it!  As a freshman I had classes all over campus. It was a little bit overwhelming at first, thinking about making it to all of my classes on time when there was only 15 minutes between each, but it didn’t turn out bad at all! There are a few tips that make such a big campus a positive experience rather than a hindrance.

Personally, I’m a fan of walking. Spending a few minutes extra minutes outside in the fresh air is refreshing between classes and studying.  There are always different things to see, and different short cuts to take so walking around campus never gets boring.  Walking between classes is also a good time to catch up with friends.  When I’m not with friends I don’t mind spending some time just walking alone across campus.  I know that might seem a tad bit weird, but when you spend the majority of your time around roommates, in classes, and studying with other people, fifteen or so minutes walking back home by yourself is refreshing.  I’ll usually put my headphones in my ears, turn my iPod on and zone out (so if you see me on campus and I walk by without saying hi, I swear I’m not ignoring you on purpose).

Although I enjoy walking around campus, I know that not everyone does.  Tons of people ride their bikes from class to class, so if that’s your thing definitely bring one!  There are bike racks at each of the dorms and in front of or near every building on campus.  Buses are another thing to consider.  On days when the weather’s bad nobody wants to walk a mile through the rain to get home.  There are campus bus loops that can take you almost everywhere around campus.  The blue and white loops, and the green and red links are free and people use them all of the time.  The loops go in circles around campus, and the links go to other places like the stadium parking lots and Innovation Park.   The buses are extremely easy to use and very convenient.  I’m sure your mentor will tell you all about them and you can check out the CATA website here, which has all of the bus routes and can tell you exactly where the busses are at any certain time.

In spite of the buses, there are going to be times where you find walking around in bad weather to be inevitable.  There are a few things that you’ll want to bring with you to make the walk bearable. 

1 – Rain boots!!! You’ll be miserable if your feet are wet all day long.   And I promise nobody’s going to look at you funny for wearing them, because we all do. 

2 -- A raincoat.  Even if you have an umbrella, the rain has this nasty tendency to blow sideways and get you all wet anyways, so you won’t regret bringing a waterproof jacket.  

3 – Snow boots.  Not everyone wears snow boots when it snows.  Some people are happy just to wear any old shoes or rain boots.  Personally, I think that’s uncomfortable because my feet get wet and cold.  I went my whole freshman year without snow boots and after buying a pair my sophomore year I’m not sure how I was ever comfortable without them.

Whichever way you decide you like to get around campus I’m sure you’ll find something you like, and before you know it campus won’t seem big at all.  From the start you’ll see lots of familiar WEP faces, and as you become more involved in classes and clubs you’ll see plenty of other people that you know, too.  Remember that your mentors are always there to help if you have questions or need suggestions.  I can’t wait to see everyone on campus in the fall!

Sarah Schopman is a junior majoring in Bioengineering.  Sarah was previously a WEPOteer and Rover and will serve as a mentor in WEPO 2011. Sarah is also working this summer as a research intern for the National Cancer Institute in their Integrative Cancer Biology Program. On campus she participates in research in the Biomechanics Laboratory, sits on the Engineering Orientation Network (EON) board of directors and is active in THON and Relay for Life. Email Sarah at sas5669@psu.edu!

Creating a New Home

This summer, I'm working at my first "big girl" job!.  Last fall, at Penn State's career fair, I interviewed with Dow Chemical and got a co-op position.  That means that I'll be working for them three different times before I graduate from college.  I just started my first term two weeks ago.  For the summer, I'm living just outside of Philadelphia, and working in their plant in Croydon, PA.

Being from a rural area outside of Pittsburgh, this is definitely something different for me.  I'm not used to a city or getting stuck in traffic, which can be frustrating sometimes.  Another thing that I'm not used to is having so many things to do so close by, which is a definite plus!  This summer, not only will I be getting a ton of work experience, but I'll also get the opportunity to do so many fun things that I've never done before.  The top things on my list are going to the beach, Six Flags, and many of the museums in Philadelphia like the Franklin Institute and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  I have ten weeks ahead of me that I can use to bond with my fellow co-ops and really experience life in a new way.  Then, at the end of the summer, I get to have an awesome time at WEPO with all of you!

I know coming to college can be intimidating to some.  It was for me.  I went to a really small high school, so coming to a school where I would have more people in a lecture with me than I graduated with was kind of scary.  The campus seemed large and overwhelming.  After I did WEPO though, this all changed.  During my three days at WEPO, I got to walk around the campus and become familiar with it.  I also got to meet so many people that when classes started, I already had friends and people to talk to.  It only takes about a week or two to really get to know your way around.  As for the large lectures, I find that sitting towards the front makes them seem smaller.

Once classes start and you get all settled in, some things other than classes that you can look forward to are football games, homecoming, creamery ice cream, grilled stickies at the diner, climbing Mount Nittany, THON, and so much more.  Penn State is a large community with so many supportive people and fun things to do.  I'm sure all of you will feel at home in no time!

Emily Burd is a junior majoring in Chemical Engineering.  Emily was previously a WEPOteer in 2009 and will serve as a mentor in WEPO 2011. In addition, Emily is involved in the American Institiute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and the Society of Women Engineers. Feel free to contact her at enb5032@psu.edu.

Freshman Dorm Room Frights!

This is Meghan Fisher, coming to you from my current internship working for ConocoPhillips in Houston Texas! One of the my biggest worries about moving to Texas for the summer was having a roommate who I did not know before coming to work, which is always a little bit scary! However, my experience at Penn State taught me all about how to get along with a roommate while living in a new place!

Growing up, I had my own room. So when I went to college my freshman year, I knew that having a roommate was going to be a shock! After getting my housing assignment in east halls, I discovered that my roommate was the complete opposite of me; when I was playing soccer she was cheerleading (not a
bad thing, just different). This made me extremely concerned about learning to live and get along with her. I came into the semester freaking out and extremely nervous about my roommate; I prejudged her. However, within a few hours I discovered that although we were different, we were going to get along great. We went the entire year not having a single fight, had a great year and instead are still friends today; even despite our extremely different backgrounds and interests. It taught me that although someone may be different you
should always give them a chance.

As you many know, Penn State has a lot of places for freshman to live; Pollock, East, South,
North and West. Each one has its own benefits and setbacks but each one will provide you with everything that you will need to make your first year at Penn State a great one!
I hope that if you are worried about living in the dorms with your first roommate, I may have helped you feel a little bit more at ease. You are going to have a great experience at Penn State, but just so you know, if you do have trouble with your living situation there are always people at WEPO who are willing to help you!

I am sooo excited for WEPO and to meet you all!!!

Meghan Fisher is a senior majoring in Mechanical Engineering. Meghan has interned with Georgia Pacific-Dixie and is currently interning in Houston, TX with ConocoPhillips.   Meghan has previously been a WEPOteer and Mentor and will be serving as Design Lead for WEPO 2011. Meghan is extremely active within the College of Engineering community, as she has served as President and Secretary of Engineers without Bordersand is the current Vice President of the American Society for Mechanical Engineers (ASME). Email Meghan questions at mef234@psu.edu.

Sarah's Favorite Fun Things to Do

My name is Sarah Bass and I am a mentor this year for WEPO 11’. I am going to be a junior in bioengineering. I have a fun and exciting summer ahead of me. I spent ten days in Israel with Penn State Hillel, and just recently got back. I had the most amazing time and met new people that I know I will be friends with for a long time. The picture of me is at the Dead Sea covered in mud. I also have an internship this summer doing research at the Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh. Specifically I will be working on the science and genetics behind aging. I will be working with one of the doctors that works at the hospital and working on his projects. In addition to the research I am doing this summer, I am also an undergraduate research assistant at the tissue engineering and regenerative medicine lab on campus. This love for research and the field of tissue engineering was one of the reasons that I chose bioengineering as my major. In addition I hope to attend medical school when I graduate, which was another contributing factor as to why I chose bioengineering.

I don’t want to bore you with facts about me but rather what I think made an impact on my college career and things that have been important to my transition and success in college. First by reading this blog means you have signed up for WEPO which will put you ahead of your peers in so many ways although you might not know it yet. This program made a huge difference in my transition to college by providing me with a support system and also giving me some of the best friends that I have at school. Second your mentor; use her, love her and learn from her. I can say from experience that she is one of the best people you will have in your life. So now you know about how WEPO helped me, but that was only the first three days before school. I bet you’re wondering what else?? Well to summarize: 1) Join SWE or Phi Sigma Ro ( if you don’t know what they are you will learn soon!) they will provide you with leadership experience, community service opportunities, involvement in homecoming and other social activities. 2) Go to sporting events, any sporting event. Whether you like football or hate it, whether basketball is your sport, just go to any sporting event and let you Penn State pride out. I personally recommend women’s volleyball, they are amazing!!! 3)THON – get involved!!! 4) Being active. Going to the gym, running or walking whatever you like to do staying active is really important. 5) Continuing to do what you love to do and what you are passionate about. For me skiing and snowboarding are two things I am passionate about and continuing to do them has kept me going.

There is so much more I can tell you about at Penn State, hopefully other blog posts will talk to you about things that I haven’t touched on. I look forward to meeting everyone at WEPO and getting to know you all. If you have any questions, just want to talk, think something I said was interesting feel free to comment on this blog to get in touch with me.

Sarah