The Panhellenic crest
I’m still shocked to already find myself a senior here at Lawrence. And it’s even harder to believe that in just a month’s time, my final fall term here will already be finished! As clichéd as it sounds, it really does seem like just yesterday that I first came to campus for Welcome Week freshman year. And I’m just as excited for everything this year holds as I was to experience college life for the first time.
So far, what this year holds has turned out to be a pretty full schedule, but I enjoy being active nearly constantly – I get bored too quickly without things to keep me busy. So far this term I’m making the final edits and working on my paper for my senior capstone in psychology, working out the kinks of a position on the Panhellenic council (the governing board for all sororities on campus), the swim season has started up again, and I’m working three jobs. Talk about good practice for time management!
Senior capstone, to put it simply, is meant to be our chance to take all the skills we’ve learned within our major(s) and apply them within a research presentation, usually either a paper or presentation, or for those of us majoring in psychology, both. I never could’ve predicted it, but I’m really really excited about the topic of my research and really proud of my work so far. I’m studying how human nature and the structure and nature of interrogation interact with unconscious and automatic cognitive psychological processes leading to false confessions. It may sound pretty confusing, but I promise it’s really fascinating! Just this past week, I gave my full 15-minute presentation for the first time and my professor said he could’ve seen that as my final presentation and had very few suggestions for edits. It was really reassuring and made me less nervous about the fact that I’ll be giving the presentation formally in front of the whole psychology faculty, other psychology majors and friends in less than a month! Now I just have to motivate myself to get work on that paper…I think maybe senioritis has set in a bit early.
As for jobs, I’m working for admissions for the third year as a student caller where I get to call high school students applying to college and share with them why it is I love Lawrence so much. I was also recently hired as a Reading Partner at an elementary school close to campus. So, six times I week I walk over there and get to spend some time encouraging little kids to be excited about reading. My third job, as a teaching assistant for a Developmental Psychology lab class this fall is by far the most time consuming, but also a great opportunity and learning experience. I work one-on-one with the professor to make sure the lab runs smoothly. I also work with students in the class practicing tasks and helping them with write-ups. It’s been interesting to learn how to balance being both a peer and a mentor of sorts, especially after going through the class myself my sophomore year.
Finally, there’s swimming. It’s my third year on the team, and as far as speed and times go, my best yet and we’re only five weeks in! Needless to say, I’m pretty excited about. These past two weekends we had our first meets of the season against Beloit and then Ripon and UW River Falls. The women’s team took home the win against Beloit and UW River Falls. I also had a time I was really proud of in my 100 yard freestyle and dropped more than a second on my 50 free. So far, so good and now I’m really looking forward to our the rest of the meets this season!!
Lawrence University Swimming Team 2013-14 Affectionately known as LUST