Spring to Summer and all the Stuff in Between

It has been a really crazy semester for me, between being an officer in ASME and Texas Bluebonnets, having to rerun for new officer positions, Spring Break with Marissa in Utah, Finals for college, starting summer classes and being a camp counselor there is no rest for the weary! I will try and summarize some of these things in the next few paragraphs, wish me luck!

First off! SPRING BREAK IN UTAH!!!! Oh my gosh, it was amazing. I planned that trip to visit Marissa since August 2013 and it finally happened in March 2014! I met her awesome roommates, Jessie, Becca and Maren and got to see her cool apartment styled dorm! We went skiing up in the mountains, hiked up a frozen waterfall, saw a boy band a cappella show, visited Salt Lake City, walked up to a point and overlooked the city of Provo, ate JDawg Hotdogs, toured a history museum, and had some delicious waffles. As you can probably tell, we did a lot of stuff thanks to Marissa's awesome planning of our time! I will never forget that spring break and I am so so so glad I had the opportunity to spend it with Marissa and the mountains!

Next up, end of the year shenanigans! I applied, interviewed, and was chosen as the new Events Coordinator for ASME! Basically, I coordinate and plan all events that our organization does throughout the year. We have approximately 500 members total, but normally a little less than 50 show up to the actual events, but it is still a lot of work. During the transition from the old officer team to the new officer team, I planned Senior Project Happy Hour (money donated from professors for a Happy hour for the seniors at a local bar, Posse East), Fiesta Friday (end of the year grill out), and two Study Break sessions (free food and a place to study during finals week). It was a ton of work, and I am loving reorganizing and documenting how these events are run! We also had a delicious end of the year banquet, and I was awarded Officer of the Semester!!!! It was such a great feeling to be awarded this honor, it really means a lot to me to be chosen by my fellow peers to receive this award. I look forward to all of the events that we have planned for the next school year!

Another organization I am in, Texas Bluebonnets, also had officer elections. I was nominated for Vice President and sustaining my role as Secretary, so that is what I will be doing next year! We also had our official initiation ceremony for the "Baby Blues" who are now active Bluebonnets! So exciting! We also had our semi formal end of the year event where we rented a party bus and headed down to Peter Pan mini golf all dressed up! I even got a hole in one at one of the holes, of course this is right after James golfed before me and also got a hole in one on the same hole.... oh well. Still pretty cool in my opinion!

While all of these end of the school year events were wrapping up, it meant I had to start studying for finals. I had four finals this semester out of the five classes I took. Economics and Thermodynamics were the first day of finals, Statics the day after, and Differential Equations two days after that. I finished up early and in time to make it home for Mother's Day, only to return a week later to Austin to attend Patrick's graduation from the MPA program! It was interesting meeting James' family, and it is really cool to see the end of the journey of which I have just begun!


Once I got back from all of this, I started taking Online Government via community college and also volunteering a little at Habitat for Humanity! I went to a music festival called Free Press in downtown Houston and saw a bunch of different alternative singers and rappers with James. I have also been watching The Bachelorette with my friends and trying to enjoy my summer!

The past two weeks I have been at MITE (My Intro to Engineering Camp) where I had the opportunity to mentor high school seniors. This camp is really special to me because I also attended this camp when I was in high school. To give you an idea of what we do, professors from each engineering department give a talk about that engineering area, they work on a Rube Goldberg styled project, tour campus, participate in engineering activities, and have fun (hopefully)! This camp really wears me out! Here is a picture of my kiddos from Session 1 (there are two sessions with 50 different kids at each session). I was very proud of them because they earned 2nd place overall! We are almost finished with the second session, and I am eager to see how my new group fares!

(Session 1 Group)

Whooo, that is 4 months summed up as best as I can!


-KD

Visits upon Visits!

It's just what the title sounds like! I had a visit from my little sister, Jennifer last weekend! It was awesome!!! I picked her up from the bus and off we went! We did so much so here is just a quick list!

Jen's Visit

1. Boba Tea (tapioca asian drink)
2. Big Bites Sandwiches
3. Ultimate Frisbee
4. Hang out with the guys until 2am
5. SLEEP
6. ASME tailgating fun!
7. Football game against Kansas State (we won!)
8. Quick tour around UT
9. Jen slept from 7:30PM-8:00AM
10. Mass at the Univ. Catholic Center
11. Meet up with mom in Giddings!

Future longhorn? ;)

The following week I had a calculus test, a chemistry test, and RIVALS WEEK. Let me explain. Rivals week is when the Engineers team up against the Business school and compete in a variety of events. Sunday was field day/kick-off(Engr. won), Monday was a Whose Line is it Anyway (Comedy) competition (Bus. won), Tuesday was Capture the Flag at the Capitol (Engr. won), Wed/Thurs I studied/took my chem test, and Friday was dodgeball and closing ceremony. The Engineers totally destroyed the business students when it came to participation, we generally had 50-100 students show up, and they had 20-40. At Capture the Flag, we weren't even able to split Eng/Bus. because they didn't have enough people to compete! During dodgeball, there was one gym of 20 engr. vs 20 business, and one gym filled with 60 engineers playing against each other! It was awesome! Ultimately, the Engineers stole back the title from the business school and were crowned CHAMPS this year! I loved being active and meeting new people, it makes going to school so much more fun! 

In the midst of all this, my BIFFLE SAR-BEAR (Sarah) came in town! She was only here for 2 days, but we also crammed as much in possible so here is the list!

Sarah's Visit

1. Dodgeball (Sarah was the last one on the Mech E vs everyone else game, pretty funny)
2. Sneak into Calloway House (Private dorm) and play pool!
3. Eat some delicious Pluckers (2nd time that week)
4. Play frisbee until 1 am! (Side Note: 8 random people joined us throughout the evening and it was really strange)
5. Sleepppppp
6. Eat legit thai food from thai spice (Sarah got something that wasn't the Chinese version of a chicken nugget, I was so proud)
7. Go to Mt. Bonnell!

For only coming up Friday afternoon and leaving Saturday afternoon, I consider it quite the success how much we were able to pull off!

I am so glad that Sarah and Jen were able to experience my college life and meet some of my new friends! Oh last thing, Sunday evening, since I had my car parked nearby, we drove to Chuy's and I was able to show Sephra, Eric, and Jimmy the wonders that is Chuy's! Such an austin-y place! Anyways, this week is pretty chill, I hope to get my work done before my parents come in town this weekend for the game, whoo! That's all for now!

-Katie

PS my Halloween was pretty crazy, ASME competed in a Chariot Race, and I rode in the cart! Long story short, some army ROTC guys were jerks and I ended up taking one of the guys pulling our chariot to the ER to get stitches on his foot.

It's been awhile...

Wow, it has been awhile since I have posted anything! I have just been busy as usual, class, homework, tests, friends, TV, going home, Texas Football, and food!

First thing is first, Texas BEAT OU, thus proving that OU sucks. During OU weekend, I played 4 hours of frisbee, woke up early enough to watch the game, then did homework. I went to Wendy's with Jimmy and Alex after the ridiculous amount of frisbee, here is a pic of them!

After that long long weekend, I had awesome school. Well not that awesome, I don't really remember doing anything special... OH WELL.

The following weekend I went home for my Dad's birthday and homecoming! I was so happy to wish my dad a happy birthday on his actual birthday, and give him his awesome new UT burnt orange fishing fancy shirt! I also was able to help Jennifer get all dolled up for homecoming. It only took over an hour to get her hair all curled, but it was worth getting to see her off and be hands on a part of her life!

I also got to see my beautiful best friends! The biffles: Marissa, Sarah, and Abbi reunited in Magnolia at the football game and had a great sleepover and then waffles at Marissa's with even more friends! I missed everyone so much and it was great finally getting to see them all in person! Only a few more weeks until Thanksgiving, when I will see them all again!

I had to get back to campus pretty early on Sunday, because ASME is building a chariot to race in the Red Bull Chariot Race Competition, and I will be the one in the chariot! We are building a killer bunny, pictures to come :)

This past week of school has been pretty chill, it feels like every other day I have to do a lot of homework, but Thursday and today (Friday) I don't have much! Next week will be more hectic, I have an Mech E sketch quiz on Tuesday and Math test on Friday! Woohoo!

 This weekend has already started off on a great note! I watched Slumdog Millionaire on Thursday evening, and today after classes, Eric Andrew and I decided to go on an adventure! We began with Geocaching on campus! We found this super relaxed nice place near the alumni center, but unfortunately we could not find the geocache. Our adventure continued by catching a bus down to Sixth Street! We were looking for a cool mural, but once again could not find it! So we walked from W 6th St. (Dirty 6th) past South Congress to E 6th St. for some delicious Amy's Ice Cream! I was lucky enough to witness an awesome event. The worker at Amy's took a young boy outside, gave him a bowl, the guy walked to the other side of the street, and flung the ice cream to perfectly land in the bowl! It was AMAZING!

Side note, I just got a new camera lens and SD card for my mom's old camera, so I have a tonnn of photos. But the adventure was not over. Andrew was thirsty for a geocache and decided to search for another. We found this little park next to a small creek and began the hunt. Eric and I gave up pretty quick and decided to climb a tree instead. No worries Mom or Dad, I was only 4 feet off the ground haha! After about an hour at this small park, Andrew finally figured out where the geocache was! 48/51 people had logged online that they found the geocache, so we were glad to add to the success rate. After finding that one, of course Andrew had to go and find another! 

BUT, the adventure isn't over yet! We were no where near a bus, so we just had to start walking, and we decided to not use out phone GPS to get back to campus. Eventually we ended up seeing the Capitol and heading towards that! But we couldn't just walk by the capitol, so OF COURSE we went inside! Andrew has never even been inside the capitol, so it was quite an event! We found some janky ice scoopers in the basement, cartwheeled (unsuccessfully) everywhere, and generally goofed off!

 Formatting is super janky on here, sorry for the weird picture layout! Anyways, I am going to head out for some non cafeteria food dinner, then frisbee! Fun!

-Katie

EXPO and ASME!

This has been an intense week! Tuesday and Wednesday was the huge career fair called EXPO! I visited quite a few companies: Baker Hughes, Bechtel, GE, Jacobs Engineering, Caterpillar, Public Works for Houston, Evonik, Union Pacific Railroad. Almost everyone said, "oh you are a freshman, well cool that you are here, but we don't accept freshman". It was the response I expected, vbut it was nice getting the FaceTime and experience with the companies. Evonik was the only one that seemed genuinely interested in me, and I just applied online to their summer intern position. I also saw a company at EXPO, but didn't know anything about them so I didn't talk to them the first day and they were not there the second day. They are called Steger-Bizell, and they are a construction/infrastructure company located in Austin, and quite small. I called their office yesterday asking about an internship, and the receptionist got me to leave a voicemail for the President/founder! So nervewracking! The last company I really really really liked who wasn't at EXPO but spoke at the ASME meeting was Accenture! They are a consulting company, and their job is to go to other companies and improve their systems: whether it be through different machinery, a new computer program, how the company is structered etc. They do not accept freshman (of course) but I met with them and told them of my interest and they said try next year! As for now, I will be applying to companies online and seeing where that gets me!

Now time for the exciting part! All week I prepared to run for the position of Freshman Representative of American Society of Mechanical Engineers. There were six kids running and two positions available. We each had to give a 1-2 minute speech, followed by 2 minutes of questions, then we left and the group talked about us for 2 minutes. I was last to go on, so my nerves had definitely built up by that point! My hands shook the entire time, but luckily I knew a few familiar faces in the crowd and seeing them helped a lot. My friend Eric was actually blocked from my view by an Afro(hair), so Eric leaned way over in order to see me. When I saw him doing that, I almost started laughing, but it was nice knowing that my friends really support me! Anyways, all of the members of ASME had vote sheets and could choose two candidates. They turned in the vote sheets, and then we had weird meat pies for dinner. Near the end of eating the president announced the winners, "Katie Dennington and Jeremy Kien"!!! Ahhhhh! I got it! I am so excited! I get a fancy ASME polo shirt and a name badge! I was added to the officer email list, and our first officer meeting is next Wednesday! I will attend the Student Engineering Council meeting representing the freshman of ASME next monday! I can't wait. The officers in ASME seem really cool, which is why I decided to put more energy into ASME then SEC(as for right now). That's all for now!

Katie

OHHH chem test in t-minus 2.5 hours

Student Orgs!!!

So UT is amazing in the sense that there are over 1,000 student organizations you can join. But then it also kinda sucks, because you have to pick and choose which are the best to join and what fits your schedule! To help me keep semi-track I am making a list:

Student Org Palooza:

American Society of Mech. Engineers- paid dues, got shirt, applied to be freshman representative to the SEC (haven't heard back results). You get free food at all the meetings and various corporate sponsors come and give presentations. Already attended the freshman meet n great and the Chevron/Chikfila meeting!

Student Engineering Council- overarching engineering group. I joined the "freshman eng. council" portion of the group, because you have to do all sorts of crazy stuff to be a "member-at-large". They put on the engineering wide events, volunteer at local science places, free food. The usual. They haven't had meetings yet, but I really hope that I can get involved in this group!

GirlAdvocates!- Organization that advocates for younger girls. They have events that are aimed to teach girls more about the sciences, tutor at a local middle school, or mentor a younger girl in middle school during her lunch. This is the only non-engineering group I am looking at. I want to be a mentor and I know starting early on enough and putting the "fixed" lunch into my schedule, I can continue with it over the years. Need to pay the $15 membership fee and there is another meeting next Wednesday.

Engineers Without Borders- Org made up of students and professionals! They have an irrigation project in Peru (near the Andes) and a water sanitation project in Panama. This type of organization is honestly the reason why I am in engineering, so I am going to attend the next meeting that focuses on Panama and try to find out more about the projects/how it works. Once I decide, I have to pay dues!

That is my running list, at the moment! Then there are the things that I have to keep up with:

• Register with Engineering Career Assistance Center
• Hopefully attend EXPO 101
• Attend EXPO (huge career fair)
• Volunteer at EXPO as a Corporate Liaison (if they choose me)
• Look into Study Abroad options (fair on monday)
• Girls Volleyball vs Penn State @ Gregory Gym
• Complete stuff off my Bucket List!
• MAKE ALL A's, or maybe one B. As long as I have a 3.5...

Ok that's all, honestly this list is more for me than anyone else. But I figured I might as well post it!

-Katie