School Notebook

Patty Sponaugle's decision to attend Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio (with less than 2,500 students) came after she realized she wanted to study in a faraway (but not exactly exotic) land that splits the distance between Columbus and Akron.

Since my freshman year of high school, when I began my crazy college search, I knew I wanted to go to a small, liberal arts college.

I just knew.

And although rural life, with all its quaint and all its quiet, did appeal to me, one of the things I was most afraid of, even while I was applying to a plethora of 2,500-students-or-less schools in the middle of essentially nowhere, was boredom.

Read The Freshman column to learn why boredom isn't creeping in.

Posted by Paul Clinton at 2:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Lana Buu of The Freshman column writes about her "sense of doom" about that battery of papers and mid-term exams that usually hammer college students just ahead of the holiday break.

Here's an exerpt:

Midterms, for me, lasted four weeks. The continuous onslaught of papers and examinations brought me to my physical and mental limits. I slept only when I felt that I no longer had the capacity to process thought. I could not even enjoy a simple meal because my thoughts were inundated by what was on my to-do list.

I was a hermit. My friends thought I fell off the face of the Earth - until they caught a glimpse of me studying in the library and realized that midterms had taken hold of my life.

Posted by Paul Clinton at 1:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Freshman columnist Patty Sponaugle is weaving herself into the cultural quilt at Kenyon College:

Within every environment, there is a certain culture that one learns to embrace and become enmeshed in. The culture becomes a part of them; they become a part of the culture; together, they evolve.

Most definitely, this is true at Kenyon College.

Posted by Paul Clinton at 12:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Lana Buu, this year's The Freshman columnist, was mightily impressed, when she met Andreas Kakouris, the ambassador of Cyprus.

At the Cypriot embassy, we asked about the Turkish invasion in 1974 and the current United Nations peacekeeping forces in Cyprus. We impressed the information minister and got the chance to talk to Ambassador Andreas Kakouris.

Ambassador Kakouris spoke with us for half an hour on the history of Cyprus, its role in the European Union and his personal feelings on Turkey vying for a place in the EU. After our fascinating discussion, we took a picture with the ambassador that I now proudly have framed next to my desk.

Here's the full account.

Posted by Paul Clinton at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Patti Sponaugle is a Torrance High School graduate writing about her freshman year at Kenyon College in Ohio. This week, she learns that college is a little tougher than high school.

I had always gotten by in high school with fairly minimal efforts - good grades just came naturally. Why would I assume college would be any different? What knowledge had I to contradict this thinking?

And then my first exam was returned to me.

Let's just say that I was more than a little surprised by the result of the Roman Art History test. It was mind-set-changing. Kind of like learning that the friendly and lovable Mickey Mouse that used to hug me ever-so-sweetly at Disneyland was really just a teenager in a mouse suit who was probably wishing he was home in bed instead of coddling hyperactive tykes and their overzealous parents in the heat.

Posted by Toni Sciacqua at 6:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Our columnist Lana Buu is a Torrance High School graduate who writes about her first year at Georgetown University. This week, she writes about the odd assortment of characters living with her in student housing.

I live on the third floor where the guys outnumber the girls, 2-1. It is no surprise that the guys requested "urinals" and "more girls" (more than half of the girls in the girls-only cluster are in long-distance relationships) from the money in the floor fund collected by the Resident Advisor (RA).

Here's the link.

Posted by Toni Sciacqua at 5:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Patti Sponaugle is a Torrance High grad who is attending Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. Here's a snippet of this week's column:

I rushed out into the hall, only to find it completely empty, and immediately (and absurdly) concluded the worst-case scenario: I was the only surviving victim of the Drone of Terror!

But a few seconds into my bout of paranoia, out strolled one of my hall mates from his room, cool and leisurely like, looking about as perturbed as a ball of yarn.

Hadn’t he heard that awful noise? I asked, to which he nonchalantly replied that it was “only a tornado warning,” and that we “probably” weren’t in danger.

Probably.

Needless to say, I spent the remainder of that day suspiciously glancing toward the sky, wary should a huge vortex swoop down and swallow me away.

And here's the link to the rest of it.

And previously in Freshmanland:
» Lana Buu 09/03/07: A new Hoya
» Patti Sponaugle 09/10/07: It's Ohio, not Africa
» Lana Buu 09/17/07: Learning outside the classroom