After a long semester, it was nice to finally get a few days off with Thanksgiving break! I had been looking forward to Thanksgiving for a while since my mom would be coming out from Colorado. We decided to take a road trip down the coast of California and drive along the famous Pacific Coast Highway! It was really nice to take a break from school and take in some beautiful sights.
With it now being the last week of school, it is crazy to think about just how fast this semester has gone! It seems like just yesterday I was finding my classes during the first week of school. Looking back, this semester was a lot of fun and I got to do some pretty cool things. Check out my top 10 list below!
10. Dodger Game
Although I have been to plenty of baseball games back home, I’ve never been to Dodger Stadium before. I heard that it was necessary to go see a game here! Finally this semester I made it out, of course to see the Dodgers take on the Colorado Rockies. Unfortunately the Rockies ended up losing, but what I heard was true. The stadium was really cool, and I’m glad I got to experience a game there live!
The view for the Dodgers Game!
9. Hiking with ASCE
As one of the social chairs of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), it is my responsibility to plan fun events for our members to attend. One of my favorite events was going hiking up the Hollywood Sign. However, instead of hiking up the typical way, we took the Tree of Life Trail which is a little longer, a lot steeper, and passes by the Wisdom Tree. It was a great workout, and we all enjoyed the views at the top! Afterwards, we stopped at Roscoe’s for chicken and waffles, which is always a great option for lunch.
Hiking up to the Wisdom Tree!
Roscoe’s makes the perfect post hiking meal!
8. The Broad
I was extremely lucky to get free tickets for the Broad, which is a brand new museum in downtown which just opened in September! My friend and I ended up going to check out the architecture since we are building nerds, but we also really enjoyed all the art inside! This is definitely worth checking out!
Some of the art at The Broad!
7. Mini PSWC
One of the highlights of spring semester is PSWC, which is the student competition for ASCE that our school participated in. Therefore, this semester we decided to have a mini version of the competition with a few local schools. The highlight of Mini PSWC was the concrete canoe races, which was great practice. Paddling a concrete canoe is much different than a regular canoe, and since we are unable to practice in a concrete canoe these races were vital practice for our chapter. It was also fun socializing on the beach and hanging out with kids from other local schools.
USC ASCE at Mini PSWC
Paddling at Mini PSWC!
6. Podcasting
A new project that I have been working on is Viterbi Voices: The Podcast. As a huge Serial fan, I was excited to start recording and editing our own podcast! It has been so much fun sitting down with different guests and learning more about all the exciting things going on at Viterbi, let alone just being able to say I’m a co-host of a podcast. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out all of our episodes here!
Check out our podcast episodes!
5. Hockey Games
This semester, we were able to fit in a few ice hockey games where we play local women’s teams from the Los Angeles area! Games are always super fun since we get to compete and apply everything we have been working on in practice. I’m so proud of how far our team has come just this semester, which culminated in us winning our last game. We were all so pumped up and can’t wait to keep practicing next semester.
After we won!
4. Concerts
Los Angeles is a great city to live in because there is always something going on! One great thing to take advantage of is concerts, so this semester I went to two great concerts. The first one was Misterwives down at the Observatory in Santa Ana, and the second one was BORNS at the El Rey in LA. Hearing artists live is always a treat, and checking out all the cool performance venues around Los Angeles is super fun too!
BORNS Concert!
Misterwives concert!
3. Weekender
An annual tradition is the Weekender, which is where USC students flock up to Northern California to watch either the Stanford or Berkeley game. This year was the Berkeley game! A few of my roommates went up early on Friday to explore San Francisco, and then we made sure to watch the football game on Saturday where we beat the bears. Saturday was also Halloween, which meant the Weekender was actually the Halloweekender!
The view of San Francisco out of Coit Tower!
We beat the bears!
2. NAUT 001
Probably one of the most well know classes at USC, this semester I got to take NAUT 001 aka the sailing class! Only at a school like USC is a sailing class offered. The class is super cool because not only do you learn about all the different parts of sailing like the parts of the boat, different knots, navigations, lighting, etc, but you get to apply the skills you learn on a overnight voyage to Catalina! My voyage was an incredible experience, I got to help with navigation, setting up the sails, and even steering the boat. I would definitely recommend this class to everyone.
When I got to steer the boat!
Helping with navigation!
1. New York
The highlight of my semester was definitely my trip to New York City. The reason I went was to attend the National Convention for ASCE. However, our group decided to go a few days early and take in some sightseeing! I had only been to New York one other time a while ago, so getting to visit and explore was super cool. The convention itself was also really great, and I’m glad I got to attend. There were plenty of amazing guest speakers, from a whole variety of sessions about large civil engineering projects, innovation talks, and sustainability sessions. My favorite was a session that highlighted how the Brooklyn Bridge was built – it is a truly fascinating story!
Wish me luck with the last week of school, and finals week which is coming up soon. After that I get to go home to Colorado and spend time with my family and friends for winter break. I am definitely looking forward to it!
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