This semester I developed more skills outside of the classroom than I did in my freshman year, and noticed a lot of growth in terms of how much I can handle at once. My days were jam packed with student organization activities and events, and my classes took a step up in difficulty. The new challenges are what has made this semester the most rewarding as well. It was hard to pick out my ten favorite moments from the semester, but I’ve done my best to assemble them here:
Moving In
This year I went back to having my own room! After a year of dorm living, 8 of my friends and I moved into a house about a block off campus. The first few days after we all moved in set a precedent for how awesome the rest of the semester was going to be, and moving in with my best friends has been one of my favorite parts of “the college experience”.
Spark SC @ The Interest Fair
Over the summer, a group of friends and I put a lot of work into preparing for the unveiling of Spark SC, USC’s student driven hub for entrepreneurship and innovation. The involvement fair was definitely a highlight of the semester, as it was the first time the Spark SC team saw students getting as excited about our organization as we do.
Spark SC Meet – N – Mix
Spark SC is an umbrella organization that works with the most innovative and EXECUTING students organizations on campus to provide the best experiences for students at USC. While we advertised this “Meet N Mix” at the Involvement Fair and garnered interest from students, we had never would have expected to have 300+ students show up!
Trojan Family Weekend
Trojan Family Weekend is an opportunity for students’ families to come out and experience what it is like to be a trojan at USC for the weekend. There are always lots of events, and a USC home football game, and it is always a ton of fun. In addition to the USC activities taking place on campus, I also took a trip to Disneyland with my sister, mother, grandmother, and girlfriend.
1000 Pitches Kickoff
1000 Pitches was a pitch competition that Spark SC hosted this semester, where we aimed to get 1000 student to pitch an idea to the competition. This is where it all began and was Spark SC’s next big event after the Meet – N – Mix.
Project Code Truck
Spark SC got the opportunity to partner with General Assembly and 20 Million Minds to expose students in LA to computer programming and its applications. I’m extremely glad to have had the opportunity to participate in this initiative and am excited at the opportunity to continue partnering with programs like Project Code Truck. You can check out an article I wrote about the program here and some pictures here.
Step Father’s Surprise Birthday
This year my Step Father (Tom) turned 50, and my mother decided to throw him a surprise birthday party of epic proportions. She assembled the most important people from throughout his life, his favorite independent musician, and put on the World Series on a huge projector in the background (his favorite team, the Giants, were playing). I came up for the party as part of the surprise and had a blast.
HackSC
This was the greatest success of the semester. The HackSC team was able to bring 730+ students from across California together to build tech projects for 36 hours on the USC campus, and being on this team and running this event was my favorite part of the year. Check out the website!
Physics
The professor for the Honors Physics Series is a very special person, Professor Bickers, and this was the last semester I will have him as a teacher. I enjoyed every single lecture from the Electricity and Magnetism class I took this semester, and am already nostalgic of all the great times my friends and I had in Bickers’ class.
1000 Pitches Closing
Getting 1000 USC students to pitch an idea was no small feat. At the end of the competition we gave away $1,000 to each of the 9 winners of the competition, and the excitement from all of the students at The Closing was palpable. Making 1000 Pitches successful was by far the most difficult thing I have been a part of this semester, but I also think this event has had a real impact on the USC campus and am very proud to have been a part of the organizing team.
[author title=”Author” author_id=””] Button Text
