It’s a Monday morning in beautiful Southern California, one of my busiest days of the week, but an exciting one nonetheless.
I start my day at 9:00 am with a visit to the McCarthy Dining Hall just two floors below me. Breakfast is my favorite meal there, and I’m sure always to grab an omelet (I promise you they’re SO good). I walk outside, and the village is already busy with people starting their day in the perfect sunny weather.
I head across the street to campus for my 10:00 am MATH 226: Multivariable Calculus. I love going through the front entrance of campus, where our student-run coffee stand, fundraising clubs, and local bakers greet me. Monday multi lectures typically include long-form examples covering anything from partial differentiation to Fubini’s Theorem to finding the volume of a three-dimensional object in polar coordinates. It is definitely a challenging class but extremely rewarding.
After my math class, I head to the Viterbi side of campus for my 11:00 am MASC 110L: Material Science lecture. As someone who has never taken a college-level chemistry class, this was a new experience for me! I chose to take material science over general chemistry, which was a great decision; I’ve loved learning the fundamental properties of the substances I’ll use throughout my engineering career. More on material science later.
Following material science, I head up just one set of stairs to my noon PHYS 151L: Physics – Mechanics and Thermodynamics lecture. This is my most engaging lecture despite taking two years of physics in high school. My professor can entertain a room of 150 students with his hilarious stories and awesome physics demos.
Returning to material science, I make my way to the labs where I have my 1:00 pm MASC 110L lab session. By far my favorite lab I’ve been in, material science is always a great time. I’ve done experiments focused on everything from determining a material’s hardness to using Artificial Intelligence in material science.
After my lab, I always return to the village, where I grab a Dulce iced blueberry matcha latte or a Sunlife Organics smoothie. On this little break, I like to sit outside and soak in the SoCal sun while working on my multivariable homework due later that night 🙂
Finished with all my standard lectures for the day, I head over to the Thornton Music side of campus for my 4:00 private lesson with my clarinet instructor! I’m currently a Musical Studies minor in clarinet performance over at the Thornton School of Music. After eight years of clarinet study back home, I’m so fortunate to work with Professor Howard, a veteran LA Phil clarinetist and one of the best instructors I’ve had the pleasure of working with.
After my music lesson, I’m done with all my scheduled plans for the day. The rest of the evening is spent in McCarthy lounges studying, club meetings with my friends, or dinners in K-town with my found family.
