Hey guys! I hope everyone had an awesome break and are ready for classes again. I spent most of my break working at the biotech company I was at last summer, so it was nice to reconnect with my past employers. One of the benefits of working at a smaller company is that I don’t have to go through a huge system or anything if I just want to work during breaks. But now that I’m back in school, I’m ready to finally get back into the swing of things and have a balanced spring semester! Here’s some things I’m looking forward to.

Hanging out right before winter break with my awesome BME girls!

Hanging out right before winter break with my awesome BME girls!

BME Research. After a semester filled with learning the ropes and more individual projects, I can finally start some bigger projects. I’ve begun working directly under a senior PhD student in the lab, so I’ll definitely be doing some more difficult and complicated stuff. Unfortunately, two of the senior undergraduate students are graduating, so I’ve got some big shoes to fill! But it will be nice to really immerse myself in the projects that I hear about at the weekly lab meetings.

 

Trojan Alliance. I’m so excited to be serving as Vice President of Communications this semester! Trojan Alliance is a new organization at USC (in fact, Will founded it last semester, along with some of my friends who went to OUBC). Our plan is to bring LGBT supporting companies to USC, for recruiting and resume workshops for LGBT students at USC! We’ve got some great events planned this semester, starting with a Q&A panel of LGBT members in various professions, speaking about coming out in the workplace. It’s going to be such a great event, and I’m excited to learn more about the benefits of being out in the work environment.

Trojan Alliance! Yes, we have an awesome Twitter picture.

Trojan Alliance! Yes, we have an awesome Twitter picture.

VARC Study Nights. So I’ve worked as a peer tutor at the Viterbi Academic Resource Center for the past two semesters, and I’ve loved it. I typically do one-on-one tutoring, but I’m going to try a slightly different environment for my third semester. We have weekly study nights through the Center for Engineering Diversity, and I’m going to be tutoring at those! It’s a more relaxed atmosphere, where I can answer questions for groups of students, and I can help more people at once. It may be a little more challenging, but we’ll see how it goes.

One-on-one tutoring at the VARC. We'll see how it goes with larger groups this semester.

One-on-one tutoring at the VARC. We’ll see how it goes with larger groups this semester.

Of course, I’m still going to be playing spring Ultimate Frisbee (I’m serving as social chair for this semester, again), and focusing on my new classes. I’m especially excited for CHE 350 (Separations), because it is such a useful class for the pharmaceutical industry! I also have Physics, a Writing class, and Organic Chemistry. Should be a fun semester 🙂

 

My Spring schedule! Yeah, the red looks really scary, but it just means that the quiz period for OChem clashes with Physics lecture (but that only happens a few times a semester).

My Spring schedule! Yeah, the red looks really scary, but it just means that the quiz period for OChem clashes with Physics lecture (but that only happens a few times a semester).

 

Makana Krulce-2015

Makana Krulce-2015

Chemical Engineering (Nanotechnology), Class of 2015, Learn more on her profile here!