Hello
everyone! My name is Jess and I’m in my third year at Lewis & Clark
College. I’m from Auburn, which is a very small town in California about
halfway between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe. I am an English major and I’m
considering declaring a minor in Theatre. I’ve also taken classes across the board
in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. I lived on-campus for my
first two years, as is required by the college, and I liked it so much that I’m
still here for one final term, even though many of my fellow juniors have moved
into houses or apartments off-campus. My residence hall, Akin, is the
Multicultural Engagement Living Learning Community, home to a great deal of both international and American students. I am a member of
the Akin Community Council, which plans events like storytelling-and-s’mores
night, student-led group discussions on education and politics around the world,
and potluck dinners where students cook food from their home cultures. There are other Living Learning Communities (LLCs) in other residence halls that focus on arts, wellness, the outdoors, or environmental activism.
My half of the room before it got messy. Not pictured: the walk-in closet.
Other
things I do on-campus include working as a tutor for the Writing Center, fire-spinning with the Fire Arts club (okay, I’m new, so
I haven’t actually spun fire yet –
but I will!), playing Ninja (a variation on capture the flag with foam swords) every Saturday night, and doing acting exercises and improv work with the Suzuki club.
Next
term, however, I will be leaving campus to study abroad in Australia! Lewis
& Clark is known for its unique study abroad programs and the chance to go
abroad is one of the reasons I decided to go here in the first place. My
program focuses mostly on the history and anthropology of Australia, though we
will also be doing field biology for a lab science general education credit.
How cool is it that you can satisfy a graduation requirement while snorkeling
on a reef?! There is also an independent research component and I really want
to focus on either poetry, theatre, or the education system. I have done
coursework on campus in all of those fields and I’m very passionate about them.
And when I finally return from my travels, I will be (hopefully) moving into a
house with friends off-campus for the summer and remaining there for my final
year at LC.
So
now that you know a general overview of who I am and what I’m up to, I’m going
to be posting about what life is like at LC every week until the end of the
semester. So, stay tuned if you want to know more about classes, clubs, activities,
things to do in Portland, and more!
Fun fact: my fiction writing class sometimes meets outside on sunny days.