Univ100 web-memoir by Juliane
Academic:
I visited a lecture on global warming hosted by the College Park Scholars
Alumni Association, Inc. (CPSAA) and the College Park Scholars program in the Stamp Student Union center on November 6.
The seminar was given Lise Van Susteren, M.D. who is a forensic psychiatrist and was trained by Al Gore to give her
version of his global warming slide show which was the starting point for his movie, “An Inconvenient Truth.”
Dr. Van Susteren’s goal was to educate students about the facts of global warming and motivate us to slow it down.
In her presentation she used many statistics and quotes to back up her argument about how dangerous global warming is.
For example if we don’t take action today almost all choral reefs will extinct in the future and because many glaciers
are melting the sea level will drastically rise and cause areas like Florida and New York to go under water. At the
end of the lecture Dr. Van Susteren asked us, college students to start a revolution and reduce the emission of
greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. I thought the seminar was interesting and informative, but it seemed a little
biased and too dramatic.
Recreational-Cultural:
Since I came to Maryland I visited several football games and one men’s soccer game. Attending sport events is a great
way to show your school spirit, to support your team and of course it is a lot of fun. My favorite game was the
football game on Saturday November 10 in Byrd Stasidium. It was also the last home football game for this season.
Maryland football had done poorly in this season and was ranked at the bottom of the ACC rankings. The football team
of Boston College on the other hand was in the top ten. Because of this difference in rankings, it was a great
surprise and joy to every terp when Maryland beat Boston with a final score of 42-35. When the game ended everybody,
including me ran on the football field to congratulate the players and to celebrate. It was really exciting for me
because I have never been on a college football field before. I will definitely go to football games next season, too.
Diversity Horizons:
I attended the Indian Garba on October 5 in the Reckord Armory. The Garba festival which originated in Gujarat,
India is a religious festival devoted to honor Hindu Goddesses. Today it is more secular although there was still an
altar and towards the end of the celebration everybody gathered around it and a prayer was sung. During most of the
celebration though, everybody danced around the altar to the songs of a live band who. Everybody was wearing more or
less traditional Indian clothes which created a stunning, colorful and sparkling scenery. I like to learn about and
experience the diversity cultures all around the world have to offer, so Garba was an interesting and very fun
experience for me.
Citizenship:
I volunteered at the DC Dancesport Inferno which was held in the Stamp Student Union Center from November 2-3.
It was hosted by the Ballroom at Maryland Club. It was a ballroom dance competition open to everybody who enjoys
dancing, ranging from beginners to champions. On the first day I helped collecting the papers with the scores from
the judges to hand them over to the person who entered all evaluations from the judges into a computer to calculate
the results. On the second day I collected tickets at the door from the people who came to see the competition.
I am happy that I could help run this great competition for which students from all over the east coast came. I
also had a lot of fun watching my friends compete and in general seeing some really fantastic ballroom dancing.