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