When I got to college, I had no idea what I wanted to study. I liked to write, but I did not want to study English or become a journalist. I liked art and being creative, but an art major wasn't right for me. After taking a class called Major and Career Exploration through the College of Liberal Arts my freshman year, I discovered that I wanted to work in public relations when I graduate. The University of Minnesota offers many courses like Major and Career Exploration to help students decide which major is right for them and their career goals. When Brittany Lynch came to the University of Minnesota she had her mind set on becoming a neurosurgeon. Read about how she reconsidered what she wanted to study after taking the College of Education and Human Development's First Year Inquiry course: http://www.cehd.umn.edu/people/profiles/lynch/
Land of 10,000 Lakes
Friends at Lake Calhoun
It’s hard to believe that in less than a month I’ll be back in school! I’m excited for my senior year to start, but I’m not ready for summer to end. I plan to spend the last weekends of summer at the beach swimming and enjoying the sun…because before we know it, the leaves will be changing and then snow will be on the ground.
There are plenty of beaches from which to choose in the Twin Cities. My personal favorites are the beaches on the Chain of Lakes, which consists of
The Chain of Lakes is surrounded by beautiful homes and natural scenery. In the distance you can see the skyscrapers of downtown
There is so much more to do at the lakes than bask in the sun. You can play beach volleyball, rollerblade, bike, or jog on the Grand Round paths. There are several spots that rent kayaks, catamarans, and sail boats. People even enjoy the lakes during the winter! When the city puts hockey rinks and warming shacks on
The U of M is in Twins Territory
I am a huge fan of the Minnesota Twins (our major league baseball team) so naturally one of my favorite things to do in the Twin Cities during summer and fall is go to Twins games. A couple weeks ago I went and saw the Twins beat Cleveland six to nothing! It was awesome seeing the team playing under the stars at the brand-new stadium. Target Field just opened in May and has been buzzing with excited fans ever since. It is located in downtown Minneapolis and is only a 10-minute bus ride or a 20-minute walk from campus.
On Wednesday nights, it is common to see University of Minnesota students catching a bus from campus in their Twins gear for Student Night at Target Field. With a college ID, students can enjoy a ballpark hotdog and watch Joe Mauer hit a home run for just $10! Other specials that I enjoy are Dollar-A-Dog day and Dairy Queen's Sensational Saturday (a free blizzard with ticket purchase).
Go Twins!
A trip to the U of M Farmers Market
Hello readers!
Yesterday I was walking around campus on my lunch break and stumbled upon the U of M Farmers Market. Every Wednesday, rain or shine, vendors line
One of the vendors is Cornercopia, the U of M’s student-run organic farm. I talked to a student who was working at the Cornercopia stand, and she said they grow 100+ fruits and vegetables throughout the year. The farm is located on the University’s
In addition to the wonderful food and flowers, the Farmers Market is a great place to get health and wellness advice. Representatives from Boynton Health Service (the campus health clinic) were available to give nutrition advice and free stone massages. University Dining Service and Campus Club prepared lunch with foods found at the market. I had a ton of fun and can’t wait to go back next week!
Calling All Cyclists
With all the nice weather we've been having lately, I have been able to bike back and forth from work. There is a bike trail that stretches all the way from my house in St.Paul to the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis. Six miles is a long ride to campus, but I enjoy the beautiful trail on East River Parkway, spending less money on gas, and getting my exercise for the day! During the school year I bike a lot too. It's nice to hop on my bike when I'm running late for class and get there right in the nick of time.
I am not the only person that is taking advantage of the trails in the Twin Cities. Bicycling Magazine recently named Minneapolis the "Best Bike City in America"! While reading the article, I was surprised to find out that 8,200 people bike to work in Minneapolis during the summer. Here are some more fun facts about biking in the Twin Cities from Bicycling Magazine and Nice Ride Minnesota:
- Minneapolis and St.Paul have 84 miles of bike trails and 44 miles of bike lanes. Forty additional miles will be built this summer.
- There are 50 bike shops in the Twin Cities (one of those is Erik's Bike Shop, located on the U of M campus).
- Minneapolis is ranked second in the nation for the number of people who commute to work by bicycle. Census data shows that approximately 4,500 Minneapolis regularly commute to work by bicycle.
The Twin Cities just got even more bike accessible with its launch of the Nice Ride bike sharing program. Bike kiosks are scattered around the city, where you can pay to rent a bike for a couple of hours or up to a year. Eleven of the sixty kiosks are located on the University of Minnesota campus.
Williamson Hall Kiosk
Kolthoff Hall Kiosk
Being able to bike just about anywhere in the Twin Cities is one of my favorite benefits of going to the University of Minnesota!
My Good Friends, the Admissions Ambassadors
One Busy Gopher
I thought I was busy until I read about Casey on UMNews. He runs his own business and is a double major!
Business in his blood
U student rides entrepreneurial spirit to commercial success
By Rick Moore
Every day is like the middle of finals week for Casey Profita.
When school’s in session, he devotes the time necessary to stay afloat as a double major in Asian languages and literature and economics. Most of the rest of the day he’s dedicated to making his burgeoning business Gophermods a success. So he goes to bed at about midnight and gets up at 5 a.m. to start all over again.
“Lots of coffee, lots of 5-hour Energy,” Profita says, smiling. “My brain’s always on, it feels like, so there’s no down time where I’m procrastinating. I know I have to be doing something. Otherwise, I’ll be behind.
As real as it gets
“I’ve never had a real job; I’ve always run my own businesses,” says Profita. “Not being the boss was never in my plan. I don’t want to work for anyone.”
The 21-year-old Profita employs five people at Gophermods, a business that fixes video game consoles and iPhones out of a 500-square-foot space in the UTEC building just off campus. Profita has always tinkered with things, and he picked up the technical know-how from an acquaintance back home in Salem, Wisconsin. He launched a website for Gophermods in March 2009 and worked at home in the early days, converting his bedroom into a workshop.
Profita distinguishes Gophermods by offering a 24-hour turnaround for repairs, competitive pricing, and impeccable customer service. To date, there’s been only one negative review, and most of his business comes via mail order from states like California, Texas, Florida, and New York.
He projects $500,000 in revenues for 2010.
Connecting course work with commerce
Profita began buying products from China and reselling them on eBay at an early age, and that spawned the desire to major in Asian languages and literature.
“I realize if I pay attention in class it’s going to translate well in business, because I’m working with my suppliers (for Gophermods) and getting great deals that my competitors can’t get because they probably don’t know how to communicate with [Chinese business contacts],” Profita says. “They really need to get to know you before they want to work with you. It’s called guanxi. And you need to have good guanxi with them. Otherwise, they’re going to give you some lousy service and not the greatest prices.”
Although Profita admits that it’s tough for him to give up the reins on anything, he did take a week of vacation in May. But that’s just a dusty tail on his entrepreneurial comet.
He’s pondering a new home for Gophermods in the UTEC building that would be triple the size of his current space. He wants to work more with smart phones and computers, and he’s also eager to get cracking on a new, separate business venture. Plus, summer classes start in a couple of weeks (he claimed a 3.5 GPA this spring), and he’d still like to pack in a trip to China for networking sometime this summer. So the next figurative midnight is just around the corner.
“I know I don’t want to just be focusing on Gophermods,” Profita says. “I just don’t want to sink down into one area. I want to get multiple things going.”
He may need to find a better fix than 5-hour Energy.
Golf with Goldy
Golfing is one of my favorite pastimes and with the weather being as nice as it has been lately, I couldn’t wait to go play a round of golf. Fortunately, the University of Minnesota has its very own course! The Les Bolstad Golf Course is an 18-hole course less then five minutes away from the University’s St. Paul campus. This is where the U of M men’s and women’s Big Ten teams practice and host their home tournaments.
I went and played yesterday for the first time this year. Even though my game was a little rusty, I had fun making my way through the beautiful course. Golf is usually an expensive game but with the discounted rates for U of M students, I don’t have to worry about it hurting my pocketbook. I went during twilight hours and it only cost me $13, which is an absolute steal!
If you love to golf like I do, the Les Bolstad Golf Course is the perfect place to spend a Saturday afternoon. For more information about the course go to http://www.uofmgolf.com/index.htm.
Graduation!
After four years at the University of Minnesota, I can say I’ve reached my goal—I am an official graduate!
Here's a picture of me and my family!
Here's a picture of me and my roommate Christi. She's been my roommate for the past year.
On May 22, 2008, I posted my first entry. Over the past two years, I’ve had the opportunity to give you the inside scoop on my life here as a student at the U of M. And while not every post may have tickled your fancy, I do hope that some did—and I hope that you have a better understanding of the great opportunities that the U of M can offer to students like you.
- You traveled with me on my study abroad trip to Cape Town, South Africa where I learned about leadership with fellow U of M students.
- You experienced countless Gopher football games—including the return of football on campus at the TCF Bank stadium.
- You got a taste of Big Ten tradition through blog posts about Homecoming and on-campus sports like volleyball.
- You got a first-hand look at the Twin Cities as I blogged about the Minneapolis Chain of Lakes, Uptown, the world-renown Guthrie Theater, the Minnesota State Fair, and Minnesota History Center.
- I’ve shared what a typical day is like for me. And of course, I wrote about all about my classes. You know about my experience living on campus in Centennial Hall and in my sorority house in the Dinkytown area.
- You know a little bit about what the is like on campus as I’ve shared about my life in sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta. From formals, football, and philanthropies, my involvement in Kappa Alpha Theta and other student organizations on campus has created the small, close-knit community that has made the U of M my second home.
- And this spring, you’ve followed me on the home stretch to graduation as I attended the job and internship fair, wrapped up my final classes, participated in Relay for Life, and announced my exciting after-graduation plans at Fairview Health Services.
As in many aspects of life, all good things must come to an end. Tomorrow, I start my full-time internship with Fairview Health Services and the next chapter in my life as a University alumna. I’m leaving the U of M having achieved my goals with a quality education and the out-of-classroom experiences to enhance it. Who wouldn’t be proud of that? When it comes to college, I couldn’t imagine having been anywhere but the U of M.
It’s been an honor.
For the last time,
~ Trisha
Dean's List Dinner
Last Thursday, I was invited to a Dean’s List dinner hosted by the Panhellenic Council and Interfraternity Council, the governing bodies of the sororities and fraternities on campus. The dinner was held to honor all the Greek students who made the Dean’s List last semester. (To make the Dean’s List, you have to earn at least a 3.67 grade point average). This year, the dinner was held at Annie's Parlor in Dinkytown and Greeks on the list could stop by during the day for a free meal and malt. I went with a couple of my fellow Thetas, and we had a blast!
Here's a picture of the famous Annie's malt; my personal favorite is Oreo cookie.
In other news, I’ve been hard at work getting things together for graduation and working on a big project due next week. It’s a creative project for my New Media Culture class in the Journalism department. I decided to create a social media logo collage that reflects themes from a book I read for class called The Cult of the Amateur by Andrew Keen. The nice thing is, each student in the class had free reign on what he or she wanted to do for the project to allow us to delve deeper into the course material that interested us the most. It’s a lot of work, but I think it will make an awesome statement when it’s complete.
Hope you all are enjoying April! Have a great weekend!
~ Trisha
Sunny Skies
We’ve been having some glorious weather lately! Today it was a whopping 70 degrees, so I decided to check out one of my favorite places on campus—the Northrop Mall—to see how my fellow Gophers were enjoying the weather. Students are definitely taking advantage of the nice day… check out the photos below!
Studying outside makes homework infinitely more bearable
On warm days, it’s common to see members of the U of M Juggling Club practicing their awesome skills:
Here’s a photo of students playing a game of Frisbee—a great study break!
All in all, it’s a great day to be a Gopher!
~ Trisha
Studying outside makes homework infinitely more bearable
On warm days, it’s common to see members of the U of M Juggling Club practicing their awesome skills:
Here’s a photo of students playing a game of Frisbee—a great study break!
All in all, it’s a great day to be a Gopher!
~ Trisha
Making a Splash
Good afternoon Gopher Blog fans!
There have been some great articles featured on the University of Minnesota home page in the past week! Check out this article about Kelci Brant, a member of the U of M Swimming and Diving Team. (She's also in my Interviewing and Communication class!)
Diver Kelci Brant finds a new home—and makes her mark—at the U
By Rick Moore
Before coming to the University of Minnesota, Kelci Bryant competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing in the springboard synchronized 3-meter with then-partner Ariel Rittenhouse under U diving coach Wenbo Chen. The duo finished fourth at the event. In Bryant's first season at the U, she has been named Big Ten Diver of the Year.
Photo: courtesy University Athletics
A year ago at this time, the University of Minnesota was hardly on Kelci Bryant’s radar.
Sure, the Illinois native had competed at the U’s Aquatic Center a couple of times, but she was fresh off a semester at the University of Miami, and before that she had dived in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, placing fourth in the synchronized 3-meter springboard event. “Ski-U-Mah” was not in her vocabulary.
But when her U.S. diving coach, Wenbo Chen, became the diving coach at the University of Minnesota last spring, Bryant decided to bring her considerable talents to Minneapolis to remain under his tutelage.
It wasn’t exactly a 3-meter leap of faith, but it was certainly a journey into the unknown.
“I definitely didn’t know how to get around when I first got here, but I knew the pool and I knew where the Radisson was, because that’s where I always stayed,” Bryant laughs. “And I love Jamba Juice, so when I found out they had it [on campus], I was excited.”
She has brought another level of excitement to an already strong Minnesota swimming and diving team. The 10th-ranked Gophers recently finished second in the Big Ten Championships. Bryant set a Big Ten Championship meet record with a score of 348.20 in the finals of the 1-meter event, and she was named the Big Ten Diver of the Year and of the Championship.
Her next step is the NCAA Zone Diving competition March 12-14, the competition that qualifies divers for the NCAA Championships the following week.
International waters
While Bryant has both feet planted firmly on the springboard at the Aquatic Center, she also has her eyes on the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
“Right now, I think the main thing is balancing training for both the college meets and the international-level and national-level meets for diving,” she says.
Does she feel less pressure diving in a Big Ten meet, far removed from the Olympic spotlight?
“There’s actually more pressure, I feel,” she says. “Maybe it’s just because it’s something new, but at Big Tens I wasn’t just competing for me, I was competing for my team.”
Despite her international diving resume and Olympic experience, Bryant says she was especially concerned with finding her place among her new Gopher teammates, a task made more daunting with her self-proclaimed initial shyness.
“It was weird because all these girls were my age but they already had their group of friends, and I just felt really intimidated by it. I felt like I missed out on the first two years I should have bonded with them.” But, she adds, “They’ve definitely welcomed me with open arms.”
Nowhere was that more apparent than at the recent Big Ten Championships at West Lafayette, Indiana, when Bryant’s teammates stuck around well after their swimming events to watch her perform. One particular moment—as she was introduced before the diving finals—stands out.
“I have my [teammates watching] across the pool, and Paige Bradley, one of the swimmers, starts this cheer they call the Hawaii Cheer,” Bryant says. “I had the whole swim team and a lot of their parents in the stands and they were doing that cheer. And I’ve just never felt like I’ve had that many people behind me, supporting me."
A Smashing Time
Hey, Gopher Blog readers! Check out this article about four U of M undegraduates working on one of the world's biggest experiments, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, Switzerland.
Four U students help design the world's biggest particle collider
By Deane Morrison
When they walked in the door a few years ago, they didn't know the first thing about how to put together a real-life physics experiment.
But today, from the University of Minnesota's Tate Laboratory, they're working on one of the biggest: the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, Switzerland, designed to recreate the conditions that existed just after the Big Bang.
Quite a transformation for four undergrads, who now find themselves in company with some of the world's top physicists, seeking to learn how our universe came to be and what it consists of.
And their interest in hands-on work delights their adviser, assistant professor Jeremiah Mans.
"One thing I've enjoyed since coming to Minnesota [in 2005] is the quality of undergraduates, especially their level of interest in experimental work," he says. "I was a graduate student and postdoc at Princeton, but most of the students wanted to be string theorists, not experimentalists."
Needle in haystack
The students are helping prepare an experiment at the LHC, which smashes beams of subatomic particles called protons together at nearly the speed of light. The collisions produce sprays of particles; a few might be eagerly sought items like dark matter, believed to account for 80 percent of the universe's mass; or the Higgs boson, thought to endow other particles with mass.
But of the billions of particles born in the collisions, almost all will be junk, not jewels.
"Particle physics is like looking for a needle in a haystack, but the hay straws outnumber the needles by ten trillion [10,000,000,000,000] to one," says senior Nathan Mirman.
He programs and tests a device called the trigger; its job is to decide which few particle "births" are significant and should be recorded for analysis. And it has only 25 nanoseconds between collisions to do it.
One way the trigger tells junk from jewel is to look at the energies of particles produced by a collision, says junior Martin Schroeder.
"If the energy spectrum matches what we're looking for, we keep the data," explains Schroeder, whose forte is laying out and assembling circuit boards to handle the job.
Super opportunity
In a future upgraded LHC experiment, the beams will contain several times the number of protons as today. That prospect generated a project junior Brian Walstrom has just completed.
"I was looking at how good the signal will look under the greatly increased amount of debris," he says.
Also simulating the upgraded experiment is senior Tanner Prestegard, who searches for the best way to tell when collisions have produced electrons. Finding those particles could mean a collision has also produced something interesting, such as a dark matter particle.
Through their work, the students have tasted the thrill of scientific inquiry, and it shows no sign of wearing off. Mirman, Walstrom, and Prestegard have their eye on graduate study in particle or high-energy physics, while Schroeder leans more toward medical school or medical physics. And they all hope someday to visit the LHC and see the behemoth that has occupied them so long.
But most of all, they're unanimous in praising their mentor Mans.
"He's definitely one of the smartest people I've ever met," says Prestegard.
Four U students help design the world's biggest particle collider
By Deane Morrison
When they walked in the door a few years ago, they didn't know the first thing about how to put together a real-life physics experiment.
But today, from the University of Minnesota's Tate Laboratory, they're working on one of the biggest: the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, Switzerland, designed to recreate the conditions that existed just after the Big Bang.
Quite a transformation for four undergrads, who now find themselves in company with some of the world's top physicists, seeking to learn how our universe came to be and what it consists of.
And their interest in hands-on work delights their adviser, assistant professor Jeremiah Mans.
"One thing I've enjoyed since coming to Minnesota [in 2005] is the quality of undergraduates, especially their level of interest in experimental work," he says. "I was a graduate student and postdoc at Princeton, but most of the students wanted to be string theorists, not experimentalists."
Needle in haystack
The students are helping prepare an experiment at the LHC, which smashes beams of subatomic particles called protons together at nearly the speed of light. The collisions produce sprays of particles; a few might be eagerly sought items like dark matter, believed to account for 80 percent of the universe's mass; or the Higgs boson, thought to endow other particles with mass.
But of the billions of particles born in the collisions, almost all will be junk, not jewels.
"Particle physics is like looking for a needle in a haystack, but the hay straws outnumber the needles by ten trillion [10,000,000,000,000] to one," says senior Nathan Mirman.
He programs and tests a device called the trigger; its job is to decide which few particle "births" are significant and should be recorded for analysis. And it has only 25 nanoseconds between collisions to do it.
One way the trigger tells junk from jewel is to look at the energies of particles produced by a collision, says junior Martin Schroeder.
"If the energy spectrum matches what we're looking for, we keep the data," explains Schroeder, whose forte is laying out and assembling circuit boards to handle the job.
Super opportunity
In a future upgraded LHC experiment, the beams will contain several times the number of protons as today. That prospect generated a project junior Brian Walstrom has just completed.
"I was looking at how good the signal will look under the greatly increased amount of debris," he says.
Also simulating the upgraded experiment is senior Tanner Prestegard, who searches for the best way to tell when collisions have produced electrons. Finding those particles could mean a collision has also produced something interesting, such as a dark matter particle.
Through their work, the students have tasted the thrill of scientific inquiry, and it shows no sign of wearing off. Mirman, Walstrom, and Prestegard have their eye on graduate study in particle or high-energy physics, while Schroeder leans more toward medical school or medical physics. And they all hope someday to visit the LHC and see the behemoth that has occupied them so long.
But most of all, they're unanimous in praising their mentor Mans.
"He's definitely one of the smartest people I've ever met," says Prestegard.
Giving Back to the Global Community
Recently, I took some time out of my busy schedule to volunteer with an organization that my sorority works with each semester. Feed My Starving Children (FMSC) is a non-profit organization that strives to provide nutritious food packages to starving children all over the world.
In my sorority, each member completes at least five hours of service every semester. Members look forward to volunteering with Feed My Starving Children because it’s a great way to give back to our global community—making a big difference in an easy way. Plus, the shift times easily accommodate the schedule of the typical college student.
I had never volunteered with FMSC before and was looking forward to this experience. A group of us went on a Thursday evening and had a great time!
Here’s a picture of me and my sorority sister, Becky.
Including the group from my sorority, there were between 30 and 40 people packaging meals. With everyone’s combined effort, we made over 12,900 meals. Plus, the meals we packaged were specifically donated to Haiti earthquake relief. Having a great time for a great cause…I’d call that a night well spent. :)
~ Trisha
In my sorority, each member completes at least five hours of service every semester. Members look forward to volunteering with Feed My Starving Children because it’s a great way to give back to our global community—making a big difference in an easy way. Plus, the shift times easily accommodate the schedule of the typical college student.
I had never volunteered with FMSC before and was looking forward to this experience. A group of us went on a Thursday evening and had a great time!
Here’s a picture of me and my sorority sister, Becky.
Including the group from my sorority, there were between 30 and 40 people packaging meals. With everyone’s combined effort, we made over 12,900 meals. Plus, the meals we packaged were specifically donated to Haiti earthquake relief. Having a great time for a great cause…I’d call that a night well spent. :)
~ Trisha
