I come back to Maine in three weeks, and then it looks like it will be a Colby filled summer! I’ve been in the process of applying and interviewing for an internship designing software for healthcare providers that will be on Main Street in Waterville. I still need to (officially) get accepted, but right now it looks like I’ll be there until September. Colby usually has a pretty accepting human resources department, so I shot them an email and hopefully they’ll be able to work something out and let me crash at Colby for the summer. If not, I’d have to commute from Portland each day. Brutal.

Either way, I have a bunch of friends researching on campus this summer, and if I did need to stay at home I’d be at Colby all the time visiting and sleeping over. Campus during the summer is probably one of the coolest things ever, with the perfectly manicured grass, gardens, trees, and of course Johnson Pond. I’ve been thinking back to last summer on campus, and it makes me really excited to go back. Some pickup soccer games need to happen for sure.

I was talking to a friend here in New Zealand who is abroad from Penn State, and saying how when he applies for internships and needs a reference, he goes up to a professor who has no idea who he is and asks for a recommendation or to be able to list him as a contact. They are always great about it, but it struck me so much that it kinda turns out this way. I needed a reference for my summer internship, and had no problem shooting two of my professors an email asking to talk to my employer about past work and classes I’ve done with them. So not only did I hear about the job in the first place through a Colby professor, but I had other Colby professors help me out. Going to a small school is really turning out to be awesome job-wise!

Nick

The ambient noise here at the office is the laughter of children and submarine noises. It’s a wonderful soundscape to work through. So far I’ve been prepping materials for our summer outreach program on bioluminescence (when sea creatures glow).

I made a water bottle fishmobile (well actually, I made three of them!), a glowstick-in-a-bottle experiment, and a scroll. We’ve had lots of fun brainstorming and creating things so that kids can learn and experience these crazy fish.

Yay!

Here I am, a government major getting excited about bioluminescent fish. I’ve been researching them and have learned all kinds of fun facts to know and tell. These alien creatures of the deep use a process called counter-illumination to glow in just the right way to mimic the small amount of light filtering in from above. They turn invisible. So cool. Takes me straight back to sophomore biology class.

Check out this TED talk for more, Edith Widder is the leading scientist on bioluminescence.

Maybe I will take a marine biology class next semester…

So I’m almost there, three weeks left! These next couple of weeks are going to fly by: I have a mix of finals and a ton of traveling. Somehow, I’ll have to combine both at the same time – study on a plane or something. I just came back from doing the Tongariro Crossing, climbing through snow and ice to the top. It was pretty hardcore, we all had ice picks and I was absolutely freezing at the summit. The crater was worth it though, and I think it was the best weekend I’ve had so far in New Zealand. I went with the tramping club (VUWTC) too which was really sweet! There were very few Americans on the trip, so I met a bunch of people from other countries.

I got back today, had to finish work from last week, and pack for flying down to Queenstown at the same time. The day I fly back to Wellington I have a final! I’m a little scared and somehow I feel like it’ll be hard to get studying done in a hostel, but it’ll have to happen. After that I’ve devoted an entire week and a half to studying for my computer science final – it’s going to be terrible. Usually at Colby the standard is to get A’s, but here at Uni most students are focused on just passing the course. I’ve been trying to get A’s in all my other courses, but I think I’m fitting in pretty well to that kiwi mentality when it comes to my CS class!

Well, it’s 2 AM and I’m off tomorrow! Goodnight from New Zealand,

Nick

I can’t believe it’s been a month since I’ve written a blog post. The past 30 days have been a whirlwind of traveling, saying goodbye to people I’ve grown to love over the semester, and settling back into my job in Maine. It’s hard to believe that 2.5 weeks ago I was still in London; now my time across the sea almost seems like a dream, a magical, wonderful dream.

After I returned to London after my week-long trip to Austria, Hungary, and Germany, I had five days before my parents and sister arrived in the UK.  I met them at London Heathrow Airport and we flew together up to Scotland, where we spent a few days exploring before returning to London for my last five nights in England.

During those last five nights, I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that I was leaving. On my last night in London, I was sitting in my kitchen with my flatmates who had now become some of my closest friends, and I was surprised to realize that I wasn’t sad that I was leaving the next day, but I was just happy to have met these people.

Now that I’m settled back in to my house in Maine, I’ve had time to really reflect on my Study Abroad experience. Ever since I was in eighth grade, I knew I wanted to study for a semester in London.  As the time grew closer for me to embark on that adventure, I was so nervous; I had never been separated for my family for that long, nor had I been out of Maine for more than two weeks in a row. London was a huge change for me; city living, public transportation (that was totally new to me!), being completely on my own for the first time. As scary as heading across the Atlantic Ocean may have seemed in December,  I can’t imagine having spent the last five months anywhere else.

Colby College is the reason I was able to make my eight grade dream come true. The Off-Campus Study office was there for me during each step of the application process.  My professors were easy to work with as I was finding classes at King’s College London that would count towards my Colby major. I can’t thank Colby enough for the opportunity to study in another country.

Saying goodbye to the city that had been my home for five months wasn’t easy, but then I realized that I am officially a Colby SENIOR! I have no idea where these past three years have gone, but I’m looking forward to a fantastic final year at Colby.

Until next time, Morgan

One year from now, it’s all over. No more classes, no more late nights of studying, no dining halls, no more being surrounded by hundreds of other college kids.. the thought of it scares all of us. Like many other Colby students, I don’t even have the faintest idea of what I want to do after Colby, both professionally and outside of work. I thought I’d give you guys a list of what I’m looking at, to give you a feel of what a Colby graduate might be doing after school’s over.

1. Grad school

I’ve been toying with the idea of law school for a few years now. Having a law degree would be great for many political science related positions, but I don’t think I would ever want to just be a straight up lawyer. I feel like this is sort of a cop-out for me, putting off real life for yet another three years. But, I guess it’s safe to say being a postgraduate student is pretty close to living real life compared to being an undergrad, especially an undergrad up here in the Colby bubble. More and more I keep thinking I don’t have another three years of studying left in me! So, I’ve started thinking about grad school less and less. Plus, I’d much rather spend my 20s doing something exciting instead of studying.

2. Get a job programming

I never want to spend much time in a solely computer science related field, but figure I might have to for a year or two after Colby – there is a huge demand for students with degrees in computer science, and especially for Colby computer science seniors, you get snatched up immediately. Usually getting a job after college is pretty difficult, but not if you’re a Colby CS major. I’ve thought about maybe heading off to a city for a year or two, make some money doing CS, travel the world for a bit, then go off and do something I really want to – something government related

3. Government Internship

I can’t get more specific than this, since I’m not exactly sure what I’d like to do! I think it’ll be more of a touch and go thing. Ideally, I could get a job combining my two majors – Government and Computer Science – and that would be really cool. Working in D.C. would be great too.

4. Do something else

I think it would really cool to spend my 20s with a job that’s really exciting, but maybe not that high paying. I’ve started to think how much fun international journalism might be, traveling the world, getting a huge amount of adventure, excitment, and a world-view in. Doing something a little dangerous is exciting for me, and I kind of like the whole not having a home, staying in hostels or even tent sort of life. I would meet so many great people it’s not even funny. This would be the compete opposite of a desk job or sitting in front of a computer life. I also like being the idea of being a political science observer more than being a politician, too. Most of all, I really, really hate current news media – I think the biggest problem in government, both domestic and foreign, is legitimacy more than actual policies. This legitimacy arises from a drastically propagandized and misinformed population, and it really irks me when someone has a passionate hatred of either the government as a whole or a political party. I don’t think I’m passionate about any political issue, ever – be that gay marriage, social policies, fiscal policies, or foreign policies – and I think that’s the way that Americans should be. ~150,000,000 in our country are conservative and ~130,000,000 are liberal. 150 million people aren’t stupid or wrong, a lesson Colby students desperately need to learn. So, being able to be a journalist and present issues in an objective way would be my dream – I feel like I would be helping people and making the world a better place more than being an active participant in government.

Shire and zorbing in Rotorua this weekend!

Nick

I only have a bit more than a month left! Ah, so crazy. It really dawned on me over the last couple days, and I started to go crazy trying to plan stuff and pack stuff in before I go. Over the last 48 hours, I’ve booked like 8 plane flights, some busses, and hostels. A ton of planning especially since I have a ton of work this week. Anyways, here is what I have going on before I leave: it’s supposed to be “study” abroad (and I’ve done that, I swear) but I feel like this next month without classes might be a lot less of the study part. Except for my programming languages final, which I’m devoting a full 2 weeks to.

This weekend: Mount Doom

So pumped. Bought a replica of the ring and the chain and may or may not be bringing it up with me.

Coronet Peak Skiing

Got really cheap flights here, which is sick. Queenstown was a blast last time.. the adrenaline capital of the world pretty much has to be that way. So keen to do some pacific skiing. In June. (Definitely won’t be as much snow as in the picture)

Weta-caves

This is right in Wellington, and I can’t believe I haven’t made it here yet. This is the official Lord of the Rings headquarters, production place, and everything else. They have so much cool stuff there, it’s not even funny. The original orcs from the movies and everything. I would love to see Peter Jackson there too! His house is only a bit away from my city, and apparently he still regularly has the entire original LOTR cast come stay at his house. If I ran into Ian McKellan before I left.. my life would be complete. Especially if I saw him on Mount Doom. Some of my friend here either were standins in the movies, or are trying to be in the Hobbit.

Last of all.. Sydney

I booked flights here on a whim during my Europols tutorial. Australia will be a great way to end the semester, and since that’s originally where I wanted to go I figured I should see it. Also, being over here is a once in a lifetime opportunity and hopping over to see some Aussies is no biggie. Right now, I think I’m just going by myself, which is pretty scary but so far I’ve done literally everything with a bunch of friends so I think it’ll be good to do something independently. It’ll be a growing experience. Plus, I’ll have koalas and kangaroos around me so I won’t really be alone. And pythons.

Park outside of Sydney I’m planning on doing some camping around:

I know it sounds like going abroad is like being on vacation, but if you plan it right, it can cost pretty much nothing to do a lot of cool stuff! I’ve been doing a lot of getting coupons, deals, or taking 3 AM busses to save money, and I’ve done a ton of wicked cool stuff without spending much at all. Maybe that’s just how great Middle Earth is.

Nick

Before I came to Colby, around last May, I had to fill out this questionnaire titled “Colby I will be” that would supposedly help my future advisor to get to know me.  At the time, I was still on my gap year and hadn’t thought at all about the fact that I was going to college in a few months.  I always was aware of it – it hung over me every day.  While my friends studied hard for their exams that would determine whether or not they’d get a spot at university, I didn’t really study for mine (or at least not as hard), knowing I already had my spot at Colby.

I didn’t really know what anything I was writing meant, if anything at all.  In hindsight, I don’t think I knew what I was looking for when I was looking for colleges as a junior and senior in high school, so how was I meant to know exactly what I wanted to get out of Colby?  I knew that on my gap year, I had experienced great personal growth, and that I would miss the feeling of being at that school with those friends; I correctly predicted in the questionnaire that I would have a hard time getting back in the groove of being in school and starting anew.  When I had to write about what would make me feel as though my first year at college was a successful one, I wrote, “I don’t know what goals I have” (and then pretended I did and managed to get out a few more sentences).  I’ve struggled a lot with that this year – trying to figure out what goals I have for myself at Colby and beyond Colby.  I kind of put a lot of pressure on myself to know what I’m doing even though a lot of people are in a place where they don’t really know what they’re doing (and the point of college is to have time to figure that out, right?)  I hardly know if I’m making the right choice with deciding what I’m going to do with my afternoons, let alone in trying to consider what I want to do with the rest of my life.

One thing I wrote was that, “I’m hoping Colby will be a place where I can do exactly what I want to do and make my time there as successful as I want it to be; I know I’ll have the tools, I’ll just have to make the best of them.”  I think that’s what being here boils down to.  You can’t know what you’re getting into and it’s an experience every day trying to interpret the people here and where you fit in with them.  But the bottom line is, Colby is a place where there are a ton of opportunities for you to take advantage of.  You can’t take advantage of them all and you won’t take advantage of them all, but it’s important to feel like you did what you could.

I don’t know if I did all that I could this year, and I don’t think I’ll know that until I’m older and wiser and am able to look back on my freshman year with much more clarity than I am now, bleary-eyed from finals.  I’ve written this, though, and I’ll have it saved in my folder of all my insideColby blogs from this year to look back on…

Happy summer!

Hey guys

Sorry for most of my posts being about stuff I do abroad! The next couple weeks, I have a lot of Colby stuff going on so I’ll make sure to write about Colby. This week, I thought I’d share one aspect of the IFSA-Butler program that Colby mainly uses as their study abroad program: their competitions! Besides doing a bunch of awesome stuff that facilitates (most) Colby students studying abroad, this program also makes a huge effort to encourage social interaction between students and runs a bunch of friendly competitions. Most have to do with showing how you’ve really became part of the culture, done cool academic stuff, or shown leadership, but their most participated in one is the “iconic images” competition! This isn’t just ran by the New Zealand Butler office, but by their programs in each country or part of the world that they’re based out of. I know a bunch of other Colby students doing this for their respective countries too!

As it turns out, I never actually submitted my pictures for the competition (I missed the deadline.. slacking off as usual) but I did spend a ton of time going through stuff I had so far and organizing them into the competition categories. I still have a month and a half here, so I’ll be doing far more than this: I’ll be doing a multi day hike up Tongariro (Mt. Doom.. it’s active right now. No biggie), a bunch of other great hikes and some skiing in Queenstown! No trees, which is pretty awesome. This weekend I’m rafting, too. So, I’ll definitely have some way better pictures by the end of my trip.

Here is what I submitted (or would have) for the “Off the beaten track” section.

I should have submitted this one, too (current prof pic on Facebook)

Annnnd some runners up

I’d like to think these pictures represent my time in New Zealand, but they don’t.. at all. The whole place looks exactly like Lord of the Rings and most of the cool stuff I’ve seen I don’t have pictures of! Also, I tried to choose more artsy pictures so a lot of cool things (like Fjords) aren’t here.

Here are some pictures that I submitted for the city section:

Those last two got part of the picture cut out. Shoot. Hurricanes vs. Chiefs game tonight, heading out to get some drinks tonight and tomorrow night, and then whitewater rafting with Butler on Sunday! Planning some trips, too.

Nick

Does Colby’s investment policy reflect student values?

This year, a student group has been working to convince the administration that the endowment should match student opinion that there is the need to switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Leaders of Colby Alliance for Renewable Energy (CARE) met recently with the Board of Trustees to request that divestment of the endowment from the fossil fuel industry be considered.

Our argument for divestment is simple: as it stands, the college is investing in the fossil fuel industry; supporting it as it permanently and destructively alters our climate.

Climate change is arguably the most daunting challenge ever faced by humans, and to tackle the problem we must end our reliance on fossil fuels. Divestment from the fossil fuel industry is a growing national movement whose hope is to shape public opinion around the idea of moving away from fossil fuels and towards sustainable energy.

After meeting the CARE members, Colby’s Board of Trustees declared climate change is not a big enough issue to warrant the college’s divestment from fossil fuels.  Unfortunately, the values of the students are not reflected by the Board’s actions.

getting geared up for the rally

However, this does not mean that our efforts will stop. This past Friday members of the Colby community came together to state that we disagree with the Board’s decision to not divest. The rally started in the student center, and from there we marched across Miller lawn to the steps of Olin. Colby’s taiko drummers met us there, and we all made some noise and celebrated our efforts of the past year and hope for future success. Several people spoke about their reasons for being there and got the crowd pumped up to continue our work towards divestment.

Besides showing our support for divestment, the rally demonstrated that we will claim the power to change our school and our futures. Convincing the Board of Trustees that climate change does matter, especially to younger generations who will experience its worst effects, is a fight that we refuse to give up. We want Colby’s investment policy to reflect our opinion that it is time for the switch towards energy for a sustainable future.

I grew up in a small college town, where many people are financially secure.  There is a beautiful, quaint downtown, lovely neighborhoods, and plenty of parks – I think it would be a great place to go to college.  It’s not that no one worries about money, but in general there isn’t a lot of impoverishment, especially when compared to other parts of the country.

When I was applying to Colby, I remember being skeptical about Waterville. During my visit, I only saw big-box stores like Wal-Mart while driving from I-95 to campus.  The town seemed a bit decrepit, and separated from campus.  It just didn’t seem like the college towns I knew.

This perception led me to believe I would be spending my time either on campus or exploring Maine outside of Waterville.

Boy was I wrong.  This year, I’ve been really lucky to connect with Waterville, and the surrounding area.  Despite it’s shabby facade, it’s a really wonderful place to live.

Beyond the fast food strips, there are so many exciting things happening in this area.  In particular, I’ve loved getting to know the local farming community, which is one of the largest, and healthiest, in the country.  The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA), is based out of Unity, ME, which is about thirty minutes away.

MOFGA has created an incredible resource base for small farmers in the area, and hosts the Common Ground Country Fair once a year in the fall.  It is an unbelievable old-style country fair, complete with classes on timber framing, sheep dog demonstrations, and delicious food.

Beyond this slightly hidden community of farmers, I think there is real value in living a community that isn’t financially secure.  There is a lot of privilege at Colby and living in a place that isn’t as comfortable as many of the cities students are from is a really great learning opportunity.

There is incredible value in being able to step outside of the liberal arts college world, and into a town that is not as healthy.  This isn’t to say that everyone and everything is perfect at Colby and Waterville is a rotting dump.  Of course that is false, but there is a ton of room for growth in the contrast between the two places.

I spent time this year in local schools through education classes and a mentoring program, and I learned so much interacting with students who come from such a different background than me.

It’s important to live in places that, at first, appear to be out of your comfort zone.  I’m genuinely glad I don’t go to school in a seemingly “perfect” college town.  I think there are so many more opportunities to learn and grow individually in Waterville than in places with picturesque main streets.