Best School Ever!!

Best Year____ Ever!!

Andrew Lemoine, a rising sophomore, wrote an awesome blog series highlighting why he loves Tulane. Stay tuned to hear more from Andrew!

            So freshman year is in the books, and boy was it one I will never forget. As a local kid from Louisiana I didn’t know what to expect by staying in state for college, but it has been one of the best decisions I have ever made. New Orleans is one of the most unique places in the world. I think that this statement pretty much sums up my experience at Tulane this past year. Unique!

Best School Ever!!

         So I was one of those kids that showed up to Tulane my Junior year ready to tour. I had no idea to expect and no idea what to look for. I had heard so much about the school and how awesome it was, but of course awesome to one person isn’t the same to another. And when I got to campus, “the wave” hit me!(see what I did there?) I immediately fell in love with Tulane. From that day on, I did not want to go anywhere else. Of course I had to apply to other places to make my parents happy, but it didn’t matter. I knew I wanted to go to Tulane; it is the best school ever!

            Tulane had everything I wanted, plus more! First off, campus is gorgeous. I walk out of my dorm in the mornings and just think, “Dang...this is why I came here.” It’s just that pretty.

I took this picture during my first ever trip to campus

  

Of course there are other things too: you know, academics, your education, “important” stuff like that. I am a neuroscience major, so I was really attracted to the research opportunities available for students. Every time I turned around I met some kid who did this is one lab and their friend did that in a different one. Throughout this year, I really just felt that students wanted to be here, they wanted to be involved in their studies, and they wanted to learn.

            And of course, just like New Orleans, Tulane is unique! There are so many random quirks that make Tulane what it is! I know this is kind of obvious, but it doesn’t snow in New Orleans...Ever. So how did Tulane fix that? Snow day!! Tulane brought in trucks that sprayed snow all over the LBC Quad. During homecoming week, my friends and I walk out of our dorms one night find a carnival on the quad. And not just small little booths with some games and a bouncy house. This was a full blown-ferris wheel and tons of rides-Carnival. And of course, I can’t tell you how many times I have been asked about the Mardi Gras tree. As per tradition, on the way back parades, students throw some of there beads up in a big tree on the academic quad.

            

            I know these are just little things, but thats what makes something what it is. There are so many countless experiences that all combine to make Tulane such an amazing place. I always say the problem is not finding something to go do, it’s trying to pick from all the things available. I could sit with you and talk till may face turned blue, and still have more to say about Tulane.

From left to right: Making masks in my dorm; my friend, Jesse, and the 16oz pancake in City Diner; students cover the LBC quad for Crawfest!; everyone hanging out in our dorm lounge for the Superbowl watch party.

Best City Ever!!

Best Year____ Ever!!

Andrew Lemoine, a rising sophomore, wrote an awesome blog series highlighting why he loves Tulane. Stay tuned to hear more from Andrew!

            So freshman year is in the books, and boy was it one I will never forget. As a local kid from Louisiana I didn’t know what to expect by staying in state for college, but it has been one of the best decisions I have ever made. New Orleans is one of the most unique places in the world. I think that this statement pretty much sums up my experience at Tulane this past year. Unique!

Best City Ever!!

            New Orleans is, without a doubt, one of the best cities in the world. From the culture, music, history, food, to the people, Nola did NOT disappoint. I think the best part of the experience was getting the opportunity to be in New Orleans as a resident, not a tourist. Of course, I had been to New Orleans more times than I could ever count, but there was just something different about it now that I was living here. I was able to take in the city like I never had before. For example, my T.I.D.E.S. class last fall was “A Running Conversation.”  My class met once a week and ran through the many neighborhoods and districts of New Orleans. From Uptown and the Garden District, to the levee and the lakeshore, this was one of the coolest things about learning the city. Something as simple as running turned into amazing history and cultural lessons about NOLA.   

My T.I.D.E.S. class on a Friday morning run through Storyland near City Park

My professor grew up in New Orleans, so getting to hear his personal stories and experiences growing up just added to it. Seeing and hearing about how so much of the city has changed since then really put things into perspective. I truly just loved being immersed in so much history and culture.

            One thing that makes Louisiana different than any other state is the fact that Louisiana knows how to celebrate. And one way people from the south love to celebrate is festivals, festivals, and more festivals. Louisiana has more festivals than there are days of the year. Many say that in Louisiana, if you can eat it, see it, or smell it, there is probably a festival for it. I mean there’s Mardi Gras of course, but there are so many more! Po-boy Fest, Freret Street Festival, Strawberry Festival, there is a Tennessee Williams Festival, French Quarter Festival, and on and on. Then of course there are some student favorites: Voodoo Fest, Jazz Fest, and Tulane’s very own Crawfest. Getting to spend and entire year trying these new things and learning new cultures even added to the experience. I don’t even think it would be physically possible to type out how much of an impact the city of New Orleans has on you each and every day. The city IS part of Tulane and such an integral part of your life. It’s just something you have to experience. There really is no way to describe it.

The NOLA Experience: 5 days of your Freshman year that you DON'T want to miss!

Guest blogger: Ali Bloomston

Sometimes I wonder where I would be now if it were not for the NOLA Experience Orientation program. Would I have still met the people I consider my best friends? Would I be as involved on campus as I am now? Would I have felt as adjusted to Tulane and New Orleans? All I know is that participating in something as incredible as the NOLA Experience has completely shaped my undergraduate career at Tulane.

How can 5 days be so impactful? While NOLA is an orientation program, it is nothing like June orientation where the focus of the program is to properly acclimate students to beginning college and different services offered by Tulane. NOLA Experience is about acclimating students to the city of New Orleans, and fostering a passion for the city that is as important to the Tulane experience as what is learned in the classroom.

Through the NOLA Experience, rising freshman are assigned to "tracks" based on their interests. Each "track" presents a unique lens in which to view aspects of life in New Orleans. Tracks range from perspectives such as food, sports, music, community service, and nature--just to name a few. My freshman year I participated in a track called "Let the Good Times Rock and Roll" which focused on music in the Big Easy.

As a participant, I ate at some of the most incredible restaurants around the city, heard a plethora of locally renowned musicians, and toured famous music venues. While some of the activities during NOLA Experience are track specific, others are with all of the tracks combined. My favorite "All NOLA" activity was Cajun Dinner and Dancing at Michaul's Restaurant, where we loaded up on red beans and rice and bread pudding and danced the night away to Zydeco music. Something else that I really love about that NOLA Experience is that each track has a community service day, which I think is a wonderful reminder that as Tulane students it is important to constantly give back to the city that gives us so much.

Probably my favorite aspect of the NOLA Experience is the people you meet. I can honestly say that more than half of my closest friends at Tulane I met during NOLA. A major perk of participating in this program a few days before school starts was that NOLA participants had such an advantage over students who move in for Welcome Week--we already had a strong support base and a feel for Tulane and the city. The bond that I formed with the other participants on my tracks still continues years later. Two of the girls on my track are my sorority sisters. I am about to room with a girl on my track for the second year in a row. Three guys in my track joined the same fraternity together. Two guys on my track joined the frisbee team together. Another two guys on my track become leaders in an organization called Roots of Music, which they found out about through our track programming. Two participants on my track dated for an entire year. Outside of my track, three other NOLA participants became my best friends at Tulane. NOLA Experience participants became student government senators, campus tour guides, student newspaper journalists, campus programming representatives, community service organization leaders, and 16 of us even became NOLA Experience Coordinators.

In addition to making lasting friendships with their peers, participants in the NOLA Experience also develop a powerful relationship with their Orientation Coordinators (OCs), upperclassmen who went through the NOLA Experience that are assigned to a specific track and organize programming and act as a mentor throughout and beyond NOLA. My NOLA OCs were two of the coolest people ever and made sure we knew all the ins-and-outs of Tulane. They constantly checked up on us throughout our freshman year and organized reunions so we could all get together and catch up. As a participant I knew how much having an upperclassmen mentor benefitted me, but it wasn't until I became an OC myself that I realized I got as much out of the relationship as participants did. My sophomore year I was the OC for a track called "Changemakers," a track that focused on social entrepreneurship in New Orleans, and I was surprised that even as an OC I became such good friends with so many of my participants. There is something about the NOLA Experience, as cheesy as it sounds, that truly brings people together.

This upcoming year I am an OC for the track "Street, Stage, and Screen" which is all about performing arts in New Orleans. I am so lucky to be able to be involved in the NOLA Experience for a third time! As a campus tour guide, I always tell my tour groups how much the NOLA Experience has jumpstarted  my Tulane career and how important it is for committed Tulane students to consider participating. So if you are looking to make amazing friends before school even starts and learn about the incredible city you will spend the next 4 years of your life in, NOLA Experience is the program for you.

Social Innovation: Changing the Way We Think About Change

Guest blogger: Max Seidman

 Just a semester ago Tulane’s Center for Engaged Learning and Teaching (CELT) created the Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship minor, devoted to finding creative, innovative solutions to social problems. Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 7 years, you’d know that New Orleans plenty to go around: public education, crime rates, etc. When I heard about this minor, I instantly set up an appointment with Rebecca Otten over at CELT to discuss the minor. I loved this opportunity so much that I declared my SISE minor that day. Visit the site below to see the curriculum for this rapidly growing program:

http://tulane.edu/socialentrepreneurship/sise-classes.cfm

I’m taking the intro to Social Innovation course, SISE 2010, right now. In one word, the class is Inspiring. Now let’s use a few more words.

 First of all, my professor is Dr. Richard Aubry, 23-year Director of Rubicon Programs, an organization devoted to providing people with jobs who are mentally disabled, homeless, or economically disadvantaged. Dr. Aubry’s extensive knowledge and integrative teaching style makes the class very interesting. He focuses the class on analyzing different social enterprises. For example, we first studied a company called Fair Trade USA, which seeks to empower family farmers around the world, while enriching the lives of those struggling in poverty. Who knew there was so much to learn about trading coffee and bananas? Other organization’s we’ve studied include Common Ground Collective, Kickstart, and my favorite social venture of ALL TIME: Playworks.

Playworks is a national nonprofit organization that transforms schools by providing play and physical activity at recess and throughout the school day. For the service learning component of this class, the professor presents several social enterprises, and the students choose which of the  many companies they would like to work with. Some kids chose Propeller, some chose The Green Project, I chose Playworks. I work with the Playworks branch at Akili Elementary School where I play with kids at recess once or twice a week. Boring, right? Here’s the best part. I got to meet the founder of Playworks, Jill Vialet, when she came to our class to give one of our many guest lectures. In fact, when Jill came, I had the chance to ask her for some advice about a program I created here on campus called Play & Learn. Play & Learn organizes and hosts events at the Boys & Girls club where a diversity of Tulane organizations—The Ultimate Frisbee Team, The Fencing Club, The Hip-Hop Team, etc.—teach the kids something about their talent. As it says in the name, Play & Learn’s goal is to get the kids playing and learning at the same time!

If you couldn’t tell by this last paragraph, I have a passion for child development and working with kids; but for this class, it doesn’t matter what you are interested in. SISE allows you to engage in service related to your specific passion, regardless of what that passion may be.

The diversity of students’ majors in my class is astounding: psychology, business, English, architecture, biology, environmental studies, etc. The only required interest for this class is that you want to make a difference in the world.

If you want to know more about my experience with the Social Innovation minor, feel free to shoot me an email at mseidman@tulane.edu or contact Rebecca Otten, the Social Innovation program coordinator at rotten@tulane.edu

(!Hello from Amman, Jordan) مرحبا من عمان الأردن

Guest Blogger: Peyton Smith

After two and a half years at Tulane, I thought I had it all. A major I was passionate about, the best friends a girl could ask for, a Frisbee team that had my back, and a comfy off campus house. So when I decided to study abroad in Amman, Jordan, I was terrified. I was leaving New Orleans for a life in a conservative, Middle Eastern city to study and live with a new family. First thing you should know is that New Orleans is my favorite place on the planet, so leaving was sad enough, but leaving for a place so outside of my comfort zone was probably the scariest thing I have ever done. But after being in Amman for three months now, I can genuinely say that studying abroad was the second best decision I have ever made; only second to choosing Tulane. Here is a little about about my experience in a Middle Eastern country. 



My abroad program is amazing. While here, I took two different Arabic courses, a course on modernization and social change in Jordan, and a class on research methods and ethics. You may ask, "Why would you take a class on research while you were abroad, Peyton?" Good question, I'll tell you why: I get to conduct my own research and write my own undergraduate research paper! For an entire month, I have no classes; its just me, lots of Arabic coffee, and my research. In fact, I am procrastinating my research paper by writing this blog post for you! It isn't often that undergraduates get to conduct their own research, especially in another country, so this a once in a life time opportunity. I am graduating next year, so I am hoping I can use this research to get me into graduate school!

But here in Jordan, I am not just studying Arabic and doing research all day. I have had the chance to experience life in the Middle East and to become a temporary Jordanian. As part of my program, I get to live with a home stay family. I am currently living in a three bedroom home with seven other people: my mother, father, two brothers and three sisters. There is no such thing as privacy or personal space here. But I got used to it and grew to love my new family as if they were my own. We eat every meal together (the most delicious Middle Eastern food you've ever tasted), sing ridiculous amounts of tribal music, smoke hookah until all hours of the night and laugh at how bad my Arabic is. They are my big, fat, Arab family.

I have also had the chance to see some of the most beautiful sights in the world. During one of our excursions to the south of Jordan, I checked off one of the seven wonders of the world: Petra. The ancient city of Petra is an entire city carved into the most beautiful, red rock. It was absolutely breathtaking. But my fun didn't stop there! I went to Wadi Rum, slept under the stars and listened to the silence of the desert. The best part about that was the camel ride the next morning. Camels are awesome, by the way. Perhaps the coolest cultural thing I have had the chance to do is that I lived with a Bedouin family for a week. I left my home in Amman for a week to live in the village of Umm ar-Rasas (mother of bullets) with a Bedouin tribe. My family spoke absolutely no English, but that made it all the more interesting. My host mother taught me to make homemade bread, herd the sheep and milk the goats. I also drank the most delicious Bedouin tea, which consisted of tea, way too much sugar and fresh, warm goats milk. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Although I was terrified to be leaving NOLA, I am getting sadder and sadder every day to leave Amman. In just four months here, I have learned and experienced more than I ever thought possible. It will be hard to leave the hospitality and kindness this country has showed me. But I find comfort in knowing that I am leaving it for the best city in the world. And the fact that I can finally eat po-boys again.

Katie Cleghorn, a new Tulanian

The first thing you should know is that I am an incredibly awkward person. 

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, I shall continue with my introduction. 

My name is Katie. Okay, all right, it's technically Savannah but, as much as I love my parents, their decision to name me after Jimmy Buffett's daughter isn't one I'm particularly proud of. I am a high school senior (less than two months until graduation!) and, as of about a month ago, I will be attending Tulane next year. 

My vert best friend

So, I'm a huge nerd. I'm just going to put that out there right now. I skipped eighth grade and so I'll be barely seventeen when I start school next fall. I am planning on double-majoring in political science and neuroscience and, being as geeky as I am, I've already picked out which classes I'm going to take next semester. I'm also really into biographies and stuff of the like, so I'm thinking about minoring in history. I'm mildly obsessed with Harry Potter and England. I'm actually going to London for the first time this summer. I'm really into YouTube and will be going to VidCon in Anaheim this summer. I'm also a musician and I've opened for a bunch of really great musicians, although I'm not sure how exactly that happened.

This is me playing last February after Billy Currington!  

While in high school (okay, I'm still technically IN high school but a girl can pretend), I changed schools five times. Yeah, I know. That's a lot. For the most part it wasn't my choice. The homeschool I went to freshman year kind of fell apart and my family and I moved back to Nashville after my sophomore year. The other changes were purely me, though. (Just for future reference, don't agree to go to boarding school unless you're absolutely sure.) Because I changed schools so often, I never really got involved in school activities. When I get to Tulane, I'll probably go insane with all of the choices. I really want to join a sorority (for some reason unbeknownst to me) and the student government. I'm also up for any Harry Potter clubs or club sports. I find the Hullabaloo really interesting, too. (I realize that kind of rhymed. It was not meant to.) If you couldn't tell, I'm ridiculously excited for this fall. 

Okay, so that's me. I'm going to end it here before it gets too unbearably awkward. Thanks for listening! Or reading, I guess…

NOLA Active Life

Juese Wang

Hometown: New Orleans

Major: Marketing and Legal Studies

Email: jwang7@tulane.edu

Your freshmen year is just around the corner and I bet you can’t wait to see what the buzz is all about! 

At Tulane University, your social life will be filled to the brim with the great nightlife of New Orleans, the French Quarter, Mardi Gras, Camellia Grill, Crawfest, Jazz Fest, The Riverwalk, Dat Dog, Canal Place, and exploring this fabulous city. At the center of these activities are food…food… food… and MORE food! Strawberry lemonades, pounds of crawfish, jambalaya, beignets, po’boys, Canes, Snowballs, king cake, gumbo, and undoubtedly more than a few Bruff trips to round out your New Orleans College diet.

While it’s great to enjoy the countless activities and delicious cuisine New Orleans has to offer, it’ll be a smart idea to take a step back every now and then and see what you’re feeding your body. That strawberry lemonade is yummy…. but do you know how much sugar is in it? And who can resist a fried oyster po’boy?! But what is it doing to your heart? Just being mindful of what the food you’re putting into your body consists of is a great start to avoiding that fabled freshman 15. 

In addition to being aware of what you’re munching on every day, get active with your life! Tulane is located in the uptown area of New Orleans and is just minutes away from Audubon Park.  It has running and biking roads lined with exquisite oak trees, lagoons, and if that’s not enough incentive for you…did I mention the ducks and swans just chilling there? Yeah, this is real life. Now get moving!

If you’re more of an indoor person (read: treadmills, cross trainers, weigh room…) Tulane’s got you covered. The Reily Student Recreation Center has 5 basketball/volleyball courts, 7 racquetball/squash courts, 2 tennis courts, a 7000 square foot weight room, an Olympic sized swimming pool, an elevated indoor track, multi-purpose aerobic rooms, a cardio area, a spinning room, a social pool, a sundeck, an outdoor track…Feel free to stop me at any time! With all those options available at just a walking distance away, you have no excuse to not get moving! And if your excuse is that you’ll miss the newest episode of How I met Your Mother…. 1). Reily has T.V.s pretty much like it’s a Best Buy and 2). If you didn’t find out in the first 7 seasons, chances are…. Ted is still ranting on about that wonderfully elusive mother of his children.