I used to be a member of Ruddock House at Caltech. To explain our housing system I have a simple analogy. If you have read the Harry Pottor books we are just like Ravenclaw or Griffindor with out the magic sorting hat. Imagine a mix of coed dorms and fraternities mixed with a bunch of people who are very busy and very dorky. Caltech is a small (950 undergrads) technical university. We were ranked #1 in US News and World Report last year, but then they changed the rankings again and now we are #4. If you have ever seen Real Genius, the movie is based on my school, the steam tunnels and everything. They often shoot movies and commercials on campus. Recently it has appeared in The Wedding Planner and Legally Blond. They often shoot these right outside the dorms, which can be very annoying when we are trying to build a party.
I was a Health Advocate. At one point I was a member of the ASCIT Board of Directors, part of Caltech's student government. Third term (the length of office is third term to second the next year) I was elected onto excomm as a Member of Ruddock's Social Team. I am responsible for making sure there is some kind of social event every weekend ranging from viewing a live taping of Jay Leno, seeing the Lion King, or planning a huge weekend ski trip at Mammoth. One of the new things we did was to have an Anti-Formal. This was held on the night of the ASCIT Formal and we got about 8 different game systems and large TVs set up in the dining room, then ordered pizza. We have $2,000 a term budget and it is hard to try and spend all, but not more than our allotted share.
Summer 2000 I worked for Tim Colonius designing an apparatus which will test cavitating flow in a steady flow system. Unfortunately we ran out of time before we could do any actual testing, but I feel that I learned a lot about designing a system, paying attention to every detail before you actual purchase anything. It was a SURF (Summer Undergaduate Research Fellowship) which means that at the end I wrote a paper about my work and then presented it to a small group of interested people.
The summer before that (1999) I worked for the United States Navy at their weather station in Monterey. It is called Fleet Numerical Meteorological and Oceangraphy Center. While there I learned to use FrontPage as well as work in a basic UNIX environment. It also gave me a look into military life, which was quite interesting.
Summer 2001 I spent at home in Monterey. I worked for a company called Global Weather Dynamics Inc. (GWDI). I helped them with their webpage and also learned a lot about perl and some other relevant languages. I also did volunteer work, which includes taking my dog around as a therapy dog at the hospital and helping out at the SPCA.
I lived at home for a year. I took the summer after graduation off. I went backpacking for a week in yosemite with some friends. I went on a cross-country roadtrip with my sister to take her to school. I did a lot of hiking, fishing, reading, thinking, and teaching myself to do various crafts. After this time of relaxation I decided that I should look for a job. I decided to apply to the Peace Corps. This is actually a very long process, but I have been nominated (which means that I just have to find the right place for me). I got a job during November and December at the Craft store to get money for Christmas presents. That done I quit because I really didn't like working there. I had a decent christmas (I got a guitar which I am learning to play) as well as some other cool gifts. The gifts that I made/gave were well recieved which is good too. The only problem with the Peace Corps job is that the earliest that I would have left, would be June. I didn't end up leaving for the Dominican Republic until September 2003
This was a fish that I caught