Last week was a grueling schedule: writing my first article
for the school newspaper (The Pioneer Log), going to class and taking midterms,
and throwing the BuildOn benefit dinner. We had gotten a grant to pay for the
catered Caribbean food, so every penny we made will be going towards the
elementary school in Haiti. I am really happy to be a part of this club on
campus. It’s a great cause and I’ve gotten to meet a bunch of friends through
it. For financial reasons, I’m probably not going to be able to actually go to
Haiti to build the school like some of the other club members are, but despite
that, I still am passionate about the power of education and want to stay
involved. Some other globally-minded organizations on campus that are similar
in focus to BuildOn, whose official goal is to break the cycle of poverty and
low expectations through education, are Amnesty International, which advocates
human rights across the world, and L&C Effect, which raises money for providing
business education to women in Guatemala. A full list of Lewis and Clark clubs
can be found here. It’s incredibly easy to get involved, and if you don’t see
something that you really want to have on campus, you can always get it
started. I know someone who started a Rice Club where people just get together
and eat rice!
On Friday night, there was a double feature of Frozen and
Catching Fire on the big screen in the Council Chambers on campus. I had
already seen Frozen, so I just showed up to watch Catching Fire. It was
incredible! I had forgotten how much I liked The Hunger Games series. After an
adrenaline-packed couple of hours doing that, I just walked right upstairs from
the Council Chambers to check out a dance that the Black Student Union put on.
They played a lot of hip hop and 90’s music, which was a nice change from other
dances. It felt good to get moving after sitting still during such an exciting
movie. On Saturday night, my roommate and I went to see As You Like It, which
was a performance thrown by the theatre department. It was so energetic and engaging,
and mid-way through the whole audience had to get up and move to another, more
specialized stage hidden behind the curtain… I loved it. It was set in the 70’s
and there was plenty of cross-dressing and loud singing and wild dancing and,
of course, a healthy dose of Shakespearean comedy.
As you can see, Lewis and Clark has plenty of on-campus activities
going on during the weekends, so there’s no shortage of things to do! And of
course, there’s always the stuff that happens on a smaller scale. Sully and I
had a Doctor Who/potluck food party in our room. That was fun. We just pooled everything that was in our fridges - leftover beans, rice, and tres leches cake from the BuildOn dinner, juice, soda, bread, apple butter, cranberry sauce, coffee brownies from Grace down the hall...
Right now, I can hear from the loud laughter that Sully is taking a homework break to watch The Mindy Project with Sarah from down
the hall. I’m finishing this blog up, and then I’ll probably start reading
Nabokov’s Pale Fire for my English class. Might take a break to paint something or watch Doctor Who after that.
Just a few more days here and I’ll be on the plane back
to Sacramento where I get to see my family! Can’t wait to spend some time at
home for spring break! Some other people I know are driving to the coast and
renting an apartment for a few nights, then there are service trips to places like South Dakota or El Salvador, College Outdoors
trips to the Redwoods or to Santa Cruz for surfing, and, of course, plenty of
people staying on-campus.
For any questions, you can contact jessicakostka@lclark.edu!
Jess