Date: 10/19/07
I often volunteer at the Washington Kali Temple. On this particular date, I was assisting with procedural aspects of maintaining the temple during large ceremonies. Duties include assisting with parking, helping with food distribution,and filling in where needed. I feel it is important to keep faith in something, regardless of what religion or ethnic beliefs one is found of. I feel it is my duty to volunteer my time at the temple and I look forward to doing it again in the future.
Date: 11/04/07
There are plenty of recreational activites on campus. I chose to join a co-ed flag football team. The experience builds character and a sense of leadership. Besides the exercise, playing football is fun. It is helpful to have a way to relax after a stressful week of studying. Football is my favorite sport and although I am not able to professionally play the sport, I am glad I am able to show my knowledge on the field every Sunday.
The essence of diversity in the college community bring together many people. As I went to enter lecture hall 0126 in the Armory, I peered into the room. I saw a great example of the cultural diversity on our campus. I expected people of American Indian decent discussing various topics. On the contrary, I saw a diverse group of individuals from many backgrounds together. I quickly understood that many of these kinds of clubs accept people regardless of their respective backgrounds. I was very happy to see such an accepting culture on our campus.
Date: 11/06/07
Natasha Mehdiabadi, from the National Museum of Natural History gave a seminar on the cooperation in social amoebae in multicellular development. The research involved exposing colonies of amoeba with mutant "cheaters", which are known to ruin cooperative systems. It was shown that when the genome of the amoeba cells were highly similar, the mutants had no effect on the multicellular development of the amoeba. The complexity of the information given required me to do some research on my own to fully understand the concepts that were discussed during the seminar.