More About Me
College...
Following high school, I was fortunate enough to earn a Steinbright Scholarship (a four-year full academic scholarship) to Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania (a small private liberal arts college in the suburban Philadelphia area that is a 45-minute drive from where I grew up). At Ursinus, like most first year college students, I had no idea what to major in. I considered majoring in mathematics briefly, but despite having the ability to excel in math, it became clear to me that I wouldn't truly enjoy that. I had a natural predilection and aptitude for reading, writing and languages, and I was encouraged by some great professors to follow my interest and ability in those subjects. As such, I decided to be an English major with a minor in German. After fulfilling the rest of the college prerequisites, I filled up the rest of my schedule with Communication courses because they were interesting to me. Without even really trying, I ended up having enough courses in Communication to do a double major in English and Communication.
During my time in college, I spent the summers following my freshman and sophomore years working as a day camp counselor for kids ages 5-12 at a camp in Warwick, Pennsylvania. The summer after my junior year, I gave up the camp job after being invited by one of my German professors to participate in a pilot program for Ursinus students to study abroad in Tübingen, Germany (a university town that's an hour south of Stuttgart) for seven weeks. Despite my initial homesickness, I soon settled in and really loved it. It was my first trip to Europe that would be the first of many. My senior year in college I lived in the international dorm on campus and it was a great experience that has led me to have life-long friends from around the world.
In addition to the activities of the international dorm, I was also involved in such things as the German Club, the theater, the college literary magazine, the college newspaper and the college radio station. I was fortunate in that my parents covered all of the non-scholarship costs associated with me going to college, so I could concentrate solely on my studies and didn't have to work to pay for school. I did, however, make some extra money here and there during my college years tutoring local middle school and high school students in subjects such as math, English and German. During my senior year in college I worked a few hours a week in the Ursinus College Alumni Office and I actually stayed on to work more hours there the summer after I graduated (before I left for graduate school in the fall).
Some college-era photos...
December 1994 - with Danielle Denz and Sumi Jeong taking a photo with Santa on campus |
December 1994 - at home during winter break |
December 1996 - with Gudrun Ewertz at a holiday party at German professor Dr. Thelen's house |
February 1997 - with Ryan Hemphill in the international dorm we lived in |
March 1997 - with Mari Aoki on campus |
May 1997 - with Mari Aoki and Gudrun Ewertz on campus |
May 1997 - bowling with Semy Forman, Jeff Henning, Gudrun Ewertz and Richard Sappe in Limerick, PA |
May 1997 - with Semy Forman before a formal dance for the international dorm we lived in |
May 1997 - with Gudrun Ewertz and Mari Aoki at a formal dance for the international dorm we lived in |
May 1997 - with Isabelle Pijnakker in Isabelle's dorm room in the international dorm we lived in |
