A sample of life in the past week by Melis A. '08

So much has happened since my last entry, it seems impossible to catch up. First off, our hearts go out to everyone at Virginia Tech. While I can’t imagine what it must be like to face such a tragedy, I think I can speak for all of MIT in saying that our thoughts and hearts are with the Hokies.

Looking back, Campus Preview Weekend was awesome and I was so happy to meet so many of you. I hope you all make the right decision and come to MIT =)

If any of you saw the Wall Street Journal today, the front page has an article about Susan Athey, a 36-year old Harvard University professor who just won the John Bates Clark medal, which is “awarded every two years to the nation’s most promising economist under the age of 40. No woman had won the medal in its 60-year history.” Two years ago, MIT Professor Daron Acemoglu won the award.

“Professor Athey has been a rising star in economics since her doctoral dissertation- on a new way to analyze how people respond to rising uncertainty- creating a stir on the academic job market in 1995, leading the nation’s top economics departments to court her. She ultimately chose the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., but later moved to Stanford and then last year returned to Cambridge to join Harvard. She is one of a number of female economists who have risen to prominence in recent years. They include MIT’s Esther Duflo, who focuses on field experiments and development economics; Amy Finkelstein, also of MIT, who does health economics; and University of Chicago financial economist Monica Piazzesi.”

Anyway, I just thought that was exciting, though I’m sure Mitra could speak at greater lengths about the strength of our economics department.

Back to CPW… at the Meet the Bloggers event, I got to speak to a pre-frosh, Leah, who said she loves looking at pictures and wanted me to put up more. So, Leah, these are for you =)

The night of Friday the 13th (oooh):

Dinner with recent Intel Science Talent Search Finalists (pre-frosh and current students):

Somehow I forgot to take pictures at the Meet the Bloggers event. Those of you who came will surely remember my stupid speech… and the ice cream.

Saturday the 14th:
Montgomery Blair High School reunion:

Activities Fair: Dawn ’08 and I staffed the MIT Undergraduate Research Journal’s table (we’re co-Editors-in-Chief). Also pictured is one of my best friends, Maria ’08 (who I’ve been going to school with since 6th grade) and KyNam ’07, preparing for a Bhangra performance.

Battle of the Bands!: The highlights of the night were definitely the killer performances of Ben Jones’s band and the dynamic duo of Ben and Marilee Jones, and also the crowd surfing beaver!

Sunday the 15th – Tuesday the 17th:
The forecast called for 10-18 inches of snow, so I was a little hesitant to go through with our plans to take a trip to the White Mountains in New Hampshire. But, Ben and Matt convinced me that I wouldn’t die, and promised that if we got snowed in then they would send a helicopter =) Off we went in the rental car that we got thanks to Budget’s affiliation with MIT. An hour into the trip, we realized that we had forgotten to take the keys to our rental house. A couple calls later, the owner of the house said that she had a spare key in a lock box but she couldn’t quite remember the combination. We took the risk and drove up anyway, and after a few tense minutes of guessing numbers, we were granted entry =) It only ended up snowing about 2 inches, and unfortunately it rained the rest of the time. But, we still had an awesome time chilling in the resort’s heated outdoor pool, playing X-Men in arcade room, watching Japanese version of The Ring, and making sandwiches in our little cottage.

This one was taken right before Boris hit me with a snowball…

Wednesday-Friday: Work, sleep a little, work, work, MURJ, work, lab, work.

Last night:
The Relay for Life “is a fun-filled overnight event designed to celebrate survivorship and raise money for research and programs of your American Cancer Society. During the event, teams of people gather at schools, fairgrounds, or parks and take turns walking or running laps. Each team tries to keep at least one team member on the track at all times.” I walked for a couple of hours with my teammates from Tau Beta Pi, an Engineering Honors Society. My favorite line of the event was when the M.C. tried to encourage us to yell “American Cancer Society” by saying: “The louder you yell, the more you hate cancer.” We definitely really hated cancer.

Sorry that this was all sort of random, but I’m trying to compensate for a recent lack of entries by cramming them all into one! By the way, today is 70 degrees and absolutely gorgeous.