I’ve found my summer home in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

During these months, I have two jobs. One is my internship in Thailand with a grassroots organization for Burmese migrants, and the other is my remote job for the Mapping Expatriate Paris project with the Center for Digital Humanities at Princeton. I’ve quite enjoyed life as a digital nomad. On the weekends, I bunker down at various bubble tea internet cafes to work on my Digital Humanities Project and to do research for my senior thesis.

Both of these activities require access to the Princeton online network to download articles from virtual Princeton libraries or to look at the Digital Humanities archives.

The way that this happens? The Princeton VPN. I can do my research and work anywhere in the world and still have access to all of Princeton’s resources. Virtual access to Princeton libraries overseas is a huge deal. If you’re not convinced, try to find high quality articles on Old Norse sagas and archaeological records on Google! I need specific research articles for my senior thesis to get started while I’m traveling.

Because of the VPN, I’m able to participate in two incredible projects and prepare for my senior year. My summer is thus filled with hours at my grassroots organization, temples, Thai and Burmese language lessons, hiking, bubble tea addictions and brief periods where I step into the virtual Princeton library and lose myself in my research.

Choosing where to go to college is a huge step, one that will affect you for the rest of your life. Although looking ahead towards your future is important, it is also crucial to understand and think about your past. I’ve taken some time to reflect on my own pre-university experience. I remember my alumni interviewer asked me why I applied to Princeton, but the real question is: why did I ultimately choose to enroll?

Since each student has a different motive for enrolling, I decided to put together a small collection of reasons why my fellow bloggers and I chose Princeton. Hopefully this will help shed some light on why we all love Princeton!

Personally, I chose to enroll at Princeton University because of the Woodrow Wilson School, the prestigious academics and the generous financial aid. Even in high school, I knew I wanted to focus on international relations in college before going to law school. Although many other schools could have helped me reach those goals, I had visited Princeton and the world renowned Woodrow Wilson School many times, and I felt at home with the students and professors. I love challenging myself, so the academics here really drew me in as well. Finally, the financial aid program at Princeton was truly a blessing; my family has two children in college at the moment, so Princeton’s willingness to help with the process was welcomed with open arms.

Michelle Greenfield '18: “I chose to come to Princeton because of the incredible opportunities students have (both research and extracurricular), the wonderful mentorship available by professors, the conversations I had with currents, and lastly the great atmosphere I felt when I visited.”

Abigail Denton '20: “Obviously, there are tons of incredible things about Princeton, but there were a few other equally good schools available to me. In the end, it came down to price. Princeton was the cheapest option for me because of its generous financial aid. Plus, it didn’t hurt that my brother - at the moment I opened the acceptance letter from Princeton - started jumping up and down, screaming that I had made it into the #1 school in the U.S. He loves lists and records, so being able to give him the joy of being connected to some sort of #1 ranking was simply the sweet icing on the delicious cake that is being accepted into a school with great academics, a welcoming student body and a generous financial aid system.”

Jordan Brown '19: “The main reason I chose Princeton was because I knew since around junior of high school that I'd want to major in economics; since Princeton is world-renowned for its economics department, I thought it would be a natural fit. I also thought that being immersed in such an intellectual group of people would certainly help me and push me to grow as well.” 

Ellie Maag '19: “Besides the incredible resources and professors, the thing that made Princeton the best fit for me was the student body. Students here are the kind of people that want to stay up all night discussing politics and philosophy. The kind of people who can move seamlessly from working on organic chemistry in a lab to starring in a dance show. Instead of ruthless, mechanical drive, I see warmth and passion in my peers. The people here are the best not because they want to beat everyone else but because their studies light up their lives.”

Teresa Irigoyen-Lopez '19: “For me, it was the Bridge Year Program that convinced me I had a lot to gain from what Princeton offers. In my high school dorm in a cold Norwegian fjord I stopped dreaming about the actual start of my University career and realized that taking a gap or 'bridge' year would be an incredible opportunity and that if Princeton was encouraging its incoming students to do such a thing it might really be a good fit for me!”

Right now, I’m sitting in a café in Copenhagen, waiting for the next film in the festival to start. 

How did I get here? Last semester, I took a class called “Vernacular Filmmaking” with Professor Erika Kiss. I wrote a final paper for the course on Thomas Vinterberg, a Danish filmmaker. 

This paper inspired me to look further into Danish cinema. I spoke to my professor about it, and she encouraged me to apply for funding to explore this research further. I applied, explaining my interest, and was granted funding to study in Copenhagen for a week. During this time, I’ll be researching Danish cinema and learning about documentary filmmaking at CPH:DOX, the Copenhagen International Film Festival. 

Before I came to Princeton, the only films I watched were comedies and blockbuster hits with my family. All I knew was that I liked French and Norwegian and reading lots of books. 

Since then, I’ve discovered so many fields. I’ve truly embraced the idea of interdisciplinary studies and taken classes about philosophy, politics, literature, languages, anthropology and film. 

As a high school student, the only path I could picture was studying English and becoming a lawyer. 

Now, it’s not so easy to plan my future. I can imagine being an anthropologist, a politician, a professor, a filmmaker, a businesswoman and even an archaeologist (inspired by my latest class on the Vikings). 

I’m enjoying my week so far in Copenhagen. I can’t wait until I find my next spark and study something completely new and exciting. 

Over spring break, I traveled to Berlin, Germany, to attend my first conference, ever: The Princeton-Fung Global Forum!

The Fung Forum is a conference hosted by Princeton University, which is held in a different city with a new theme each year. This year, the conference was held in Berlin and the theme was "Can Liberty Survive the Digital Age?"

Over the course of the two-day conference, the speakers discussed many topics relating to liberty and technology.  Some of the topics included regulating the internet, personal data and microtargeting, the Internet of Things, communication silos and filter bubbles, fake news and information access, privacy, security and policy.

I found the conference suprisingly exciting and engaging. I loved hearing the talks by the keynote speakers, and the panels on mass surveillance and the Internet of Things were particularly thought provoking for me. I've been thinking about these topics all year for my thesis research. It was interesting to hear the opinions of academics, policymakers and industry professionals.

Given its past history with privacy and liberty and its current presence as a tech hub of Europe, Berlin was a fantastic place to hold this conference on cybersecurity and to meditate the issues discussed in the forum. Berlin is also such a cool, young city; I had a great time exploring after the conference was over.

After attending the conference, do I think that liberty can survive the digital age? I believe so! As many speakers mentioned throughout the conference, issues like encryption, surveillance and privacy have been problems throughout history; technology simply presents them in new forms. There are plenty of smart people fighting the good fight for privacy, security and liberty, as evidenced by the conference speakers and attendees.

I had a great time attending the Fung Forum and exploring Berlin afterwards. Many thanks to Princeton CITP for taking me!

 

To answer the most frequently asked question I get from prospective students: It's super cool!

Basically, being a Computer Science (COS) major means that I have to take eight departmental classes, which are COS classes that are 300-level or higher. COS courses are typically lecture-style classes, and the coursework involves programming assignments, problem sets and final projects. There's no one course that all COS majors are required to take, and it's nice having so many options for classes. (See listing of COS classes here.)

Because I'm pursing an A.B. degree (as opposed to B.S.E. - read about the differences here), I have to do four semesters of independent work, which means I get to work on projects of my choosing, learn about whatever I want to learn about, and then write a report about it. For my junior fall, I wanted to learn how to make a mobile app, so I built an Android app that uses geofencing to deliver push notifications about public events happening in nearby parks. In my junior spring, I wanted to brush up on my web development skills, so I made a website that made URLs human-readable and then conducted a user study. For my senior year, I wanted to engage more with people, so I'm interviewing people and writing my thesis about it! If you're curious, my thesis is about smart homes, privacy and the Internet of Things. :)

Since declaring COS as my major sophomore spring, I've taken two COS classes each semester, plus independent work. About half of my studies are dedicated to COS, and the other half is filled with whatever else I want to study--English, French, Chinese, dance, music and anything that strikes my fancy to round out my liberal arts education.

Additionally, I'm super grateful for the fact that being a COS major has, quite literally, taken me places: I've gotten to work in San Francisco and Seattle the past two summers, and I spent my junior spring studying abroad at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. This spring break, I also got to travel to Berlin for the Fung Global Forum: "Can Liberty Survive a Digital Age?"

I'm so happy to be a Computer Science major and have certainly enjoyed my Princeton academic experience. Hopefully you've gotten a good taste of what it's like to be a Computer Science major here at Princeton, as well!

 

 

 

This month marks the start of my last semester at Princeton! Here are some things that happened in February:

At the start of the month, there was a huge snowstorm, blanketing the campus in snow. Fun snow activities included sledding down Whitman Residential College hill and cute snowmen sightings around campus.

Then the snow melted away, and spring semester began. I shopped for a ton of classes and finally decided to take STC (Science and Technology) 209: Transformations in Engineering and the Arts, WWS/MAE (Woodrow Wilson School/ Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering) 353: Science and Global Security, and AST (Astrophysics) 203: The Universe. 

Typically, students take four to five classes per semester, but most seniors will take two to three classes their spring semester to have extra time to work on their senior thesis. Like most seniors, I've been spending most of time outside of class working on my thesis, which is about smart homes and the Internet of Things (IoT). My research includes interviewing people who own smart homes, and it's always fun seeing their smart home set-ups and learning about their perceptions of IoT technology.

Aside from classes and working on my thesis, I've been hanging out with friends, attending every Lunar New Year celebration on campus for yummy Chinese food, and spending lots of time outdoors thanks to the weirdly warm weather lately. 

The last week of the month felt more like May than February, and the bout of warm weather made me realize that this, indeed, is the beginning of the end. My time here at Princeton is almost over! It made me excited for the future but nostalgic for the past four years. However, there are still many months and things to do before I graduate, and until then, I'm looking forward to enjoying the rest of the semester, learning, growing and spending time with all the people on this beautiful campus before I leave :) 

To honor the Office of Sustainability’s 10th birthday this month, I thought I’d talk a little about sustainability at Princeton …

First, rewind to three years ago: When I was a pre-frosh visiting campus during Princeton Preview, one of the major things that struck me about campus–aside from the beautiful buildings, abundance of the color orange, and free food everywhere–was Princeton’s conscious effort to be “green.” And I wasn’t the only one to notice! Last year, a fellow student told me that she decided to go to Princeton in part because of how environmentally-friendly the campus seemed.

After coming to Princeton, I got involved in sustainability efforts as an Eco-Rep, whose mission is to promote sustainability in the residential community, and I was pleasantly surprised at how receptive and supportive the group was. With the relatively small campus, Princeton’s Campus Dining and Building Services are quite receptive to student input, and the Office of Sustainability is always willing to support students promoting sustainability.

Aside from student efforts, though, a huge collaboration between faculty, staff, and administration resulted in Princeton's official Sustainability Plan, which includes goals for reducing the University's greenhouse gas emissions, conserving resources, and engaging the University through research and education.

On the academic side, the University offers many courses every semester for students interested in learning about energy and the environment in a variety of disciplines–civil and environmental engineering, economics, geosciences, history, and even my home department, computer science! Last semester, I was enrolled in a seminar called “Apps for the Environment,” in which we developed our own Android applications that could help out the environment. Pretty neat, huh?

In more exciting news, though, the brand new Andlinger Center for Energy + The Environment opened earlier this year as a space for teaching and research. They’re doing all kinds of cool things relating to sustainable energy, but personally, I’m just excited to explore this beautiful space during the scavenger hunt for the Office of Sustainability’s birthday celebration in a few weeks!

To learn more about sustainability and related research at Princeton, visit the Office of Sustainability and Andlinger Center's websites.

Happy Birthday, Office of Sustainability, and Happy (belated) inauguration, Andlinger Center :)

Hello from the other side of the FitzRandolph gates!

I did indeed graduate Princeton a couple months ago (don't worry, that all worked out). Although, the last months of school were so crazy, I had no chance for closure on this blog! Since I'd really love to share how my time at Princeton wrapped up, I'm going to make a few final posts.

First up, an update on the great and terrifying:

The senior thesis is the culmination of a year's research, thought, and writing. You might remember I was sketching out a senior thesis on Jane Austen's juvenilia back in October? I am very happy to tell you that by its April 2016 deadline, it was finished. And I loved it! 

Also, it had pictures.

What was it about again?

For only writing six complete novels, Jane Austen has done pretty well at drawing a crowd and marking her place as oh, I don't know, an unparalleled cultural and literary phenomenon. 

And yet despite her oeuvre's fame, nestled into the collection well before bright and sparkling "Pride and Prejudice," is a body of work that has little public voice. My thesis explored the stories and writing of Jane Austen commonly known as the juvenilia, work written while she was eleven to seventeen years old.  

The first 30 pages of my thesis presented a brief look at Jane Austen, then examined the criticism and nature of these earliest texts (which are amazing, as I hope you'll see). The next 70 or so pages of my thesis explored four specific texts critically, plus a creative component. What does that mean? That the English department is the best department.

I. Bringing "The Mystery" to Life

In theater, characters typically act in the paradigm where no audience exists; Jane Austen's short play "The Mystery" takes that trope and runs. Most of the play consists of characters whispering to each other, blithely unbothered by the fact that the plot is a total mystery to the audience.

You can find the play online in the middle of this article!

Since the Austen family performed with each other as an early version of home theater, for the creative portion of this section, I brought the play home to my own family. I performed "The Mystery" with them over Christmas, and then edited and analyzed what it meant to give bodies to the elusive, yet rollicking script. 

Some snapshots of the play:

Scene the First, as I introduced from the window. 

A great way to start off a play.

Those are indeed napkin cravats. Also our cat, Yupi! 

And what did Daphne whisper, in a voice inaudible to the camera? Who knows.

II. Defenestration with "Frederic and Elfrida"

We tend to have a very prim view of our famous authoress. But the visual language in the late 18th century caricatures that were around young Jane Austen were far from proper. Check out Mark Bill's comparison of a comic satirizing the royal class in the late 18th century, and then the late 19th century. 

One is definitely more exciting!

Flavors of the caricature style show up in the juvenilia's "A History of England,"  illustrated by Jane Austen's older sister Cassandra.  

I analyzed "Frederica and Elfrida" through the lens of 18th century prints, hoping to capture and enjoy the wild energy and exaggeration that lies laughing under her careful language.

For example: "From this period, the intimacy between the Families of Fitzroy, Drummond, and Falknor daily increased, till at length it grew to such a pitch, that they did not scruple to kick one another out of the window on the slightest provocation."

Or how any classic, dramatic beauty in Charlotte's suicide - a very Ophelia, river death -- is interrupted by the name of that elegant body of water. 

This was a fun chapter indeed! 

III. The Sweet Deceit of "Love and Freindship"

You've definitely seen the art of C.E. Brock and Hugh Thompson, Jane Austen's early champions of illustrations. They feature beautifully proportioned ladies and gentlemen, neatly dappled in watercolors and often framed by decal of curling ribbons. 

I don't claim to have their artistic prowess, but I did have a ton of fun parodying the style in contrast to young Austen's story, "Love and Freindship" (yes, spelled "e" before "i") in particular.  

When Augustus takes money from his father, he didn't steal from his desk, he "gracefully purloined from his father's escritore."

Things don't end well for the stories' beaux:

​

Laura and company come across a terrible scene of "two gentlemen, most elegantly attired, but weltering in their own blood." Note how she first notices their dapper fashion, though!

IV. A Day Well Spent with "The Beautifull Cassandra"

In the very last section, I dove into the delicious "The Beautifull Cassandra" (yes, two "L"s. She was an idiosyncratic young speller!).

It is a novel of twelve tiny chapters, each about two sentences long and filled with laughter. On her adventure, Cassandra steals a bonnet, passes up a beautiful man,

knocks over a chef as she devours ice cream,

​

and goes on a whole host of other adventures! Since my critical portion explored how this brings new meaning to "children's literature," I printed the creative portion in a small, spiral-bound book.

Turning it in

After many long discussions with my amazing adviser, Professor Claudia Johnson, months of research, writing, drawing, filming, my first ever all-nighter as I put on the finishing touches, going over notes made by the amazing Katherine Hawkins who proofread my 100+ pages twice...

...I turned in my thesis and creative books to the English department!  

You know that feeling of when you turn something in thinking, "my body and mind feel like death, but I am so happy right now?" That's what this moment was for me.

Looking back, I'm not entirely sure how it all came together, but I think of the thesis with real love for the literature, gratitude to the English department for letting me pursue a creative-critical thesis, and a smile when I think of the happy desperation my fellow English major buddy and I shared, scooting around the library on those rolling office chairs, chasing and poking each other as midnight approached. Truly, a thesis is a sign of my academic maturation! 

Also, I sliced my finger on a page just before I wrote my name, so the last page the Princeton honor pledge literally signed in a little blood.

I really didn't need to write a blog post about my recent trip to Greece, because this movie clip pretty much sums it up.

In For Your Eyes Only, a 1981 James Bond film starring Roger Moore, the villainous Kristatos sets up his secret headquarters in an abandoned monastery called St. Cyril's at the top of a steep, dangerous rock formation. Bond scales the side of the cliff, defeats Kristatos, and wins back the Ministry of Defense's ATAC Machine (a high tech transmitter that really just looks like a plastic cash register). As it turns out, St. Cyril's is a real monastery right outside Kalabaka, Greece. Its real name is Agios Stefanos, and it and five other mountaintop monasteries make up the second-biggest monastic complex in Greece, known as Meteora. A week ago, I visited the Meteora monasteries to do research for my senior thesis. My trip was essentially the same as James Bond's, only with a little less stained glass-smashing and a little more note-taking.

The six surviving Meteora monasteries were built between the 14th and 16th centuries, although monks had been living in caves in the rock formations for much longer. The churches in the monasteries are decorated with beautiful wall paintings, and several of the monasteries own impressive collections of sacred icons, relics, codices and documents. In the past, if someone wanted to see these collections, he or she would have to hike to the foot of one of the rocks and wait for the monks to pull him or her up in a net. Now, the monasteries are accessible by roads and staircases, and thousands of tourists visit year-round. My thesis for the Department of Art and Archaeology is about the experience of tourists who visit the Meteora monasteries. I am comparing the experience of viewing Byzantine art in a monastery to viewing art in the more traditional environment of an American museum. Along the way, I am investigating issues of context, Christian pilgrimage and modern monasticism.

Of course, I couldn't write about the visitor experience without visiting the monasteries myself. Thankfully, I received full funding for my trip from the art and archaeology department and the Center for the Study of Religion. Additionally, the Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies helped me connect with the nuns currently living at one of the monasteries, so I was able to interview them while I was there. Even though senior theses are pieces of undergraduate research, Princeton is committed to giving you all the support it can so that your thesis becomes a piece of legitimate scholarship.

That said, Princeton didn't have Sheena Easton serenade me with "For Your Eyes Only" as I stepped off the plane. I'll have to talk to someone about that.

During my trip, I stayed in the small town of Kalabaka. Every morning, I donned my full-length black skirt and turtleneck (that outfit got really old really fast) and took a taxi to the one of the monasteries. My daily quad workout consisted of climbing the hundreds of steps up to the top of the rock formation. Then, I walked around the monastery and took notes on every part of the monasteries that were open to the public, paying special attention to the display of icons and other Byzantine artifacts. While a lot of my time was spent with my face buried in a notebook, there were a few moments that took my breath away. One morning, I hiked down from Meteora instead of taking a taxi. It was an incredibly foggy day, so I could not see more than my immediate surroundings. Suddenly, in the midst of a cluster of trees, I heard the monks from one of the monasteries chanting. Because the town and road were completely hidden by fog, I felt as though I had been transported back to the Middle Ages. For one moment, I experienced Meteora just as the original visitors would have, long, long ago.

But, transcendent experiences aside, what were my scholarly takeaways from this trip to Greece? Those are for my thesis adviser's eyes only.

One of the highlights of this year has been my roommates. After living in a single last year, I am rooming with three of the loveliest, smartest and most inspiring people I have had the opportunity to know at Princeton. Our room has become one of my favorite places to be, home to the best of friends and the most delightful of conversations. While I have a lot of fun with my roommates at "home," I was curious to know what my roommates are up to when they were not in our dorm. Thus, I visited each of them on campus in a space where they love to spend time--outside of our room.

Kenny Hubbell

Kenny is a senior from Alaska, studying chemical and biological engineering. Kenny is a pre-med student, but is also interested in drug development, having worked in pharmaceutical companies during the summers. Kenny has been a leader for Outdoor Action for three years, and he has led many camping trips all over the country!

Kenny is also a master potter. In our room, we exclusively use mugs that Kenny made, among other ceramics that Kenny fabricated. When anybody asks us where we got such wonderful mugs, we proudly declare that they are “Kenny Hubbell originals.” Kenny is also the manager of the ceramics studio on campus, which is free and open to all members of the community. If you head there on a Sunday, you can get a lesson on the art of ceramics — from molding to glazing — from the one and only Kenny.

Neeta Patel

Neeta is a senior from New Jersey, studying Visual Arts. Neeta is interested in graphic design and has created many master pieces, which are on display all over the campus. She also designs books and album covers Neeta wakes up at 6 a.m. She has gone on a run, cleaned the room and got dressed, before any of the rest of us wake up. Neeta ran a marathon with Claire, my third roommate, last year in Philly, and she loves to go on long bike rides and runs around Princeton. Neeta is also interested in economics and computer science, often combining her art work with her abilities with computers.

Neeta's art studio is filled with her own wonderful masterpieces. She once copied an entire novel by hand, and she has built some of her works around photocopies of this novel. She has a portable manual typewriter, which she uses for some of her works. 

Claire Zarakas

Claire is a senior from Massachusetts, studying Geosciences. Claire is interested in understanding climate change: how it affects us and how we can prepare for many of the drastic changes we are going to witness. She also loves to run marathons (casually), having run one in Chicago, in addition to the race she ran with Neeta last year. She also ran the Sustainable Energy and Development Scholars (SEADS) program for Engineers without Borders, where she hosted many small group sessions to discuss sustainability with important and influential people in the industry.

Over the summer, she studied nitrogen cycles in South America, and she recently even got the chance to present at the American Geophysical Union on her research. She often works in Guyot Hall, the home of the Geosciences Department, where she can devour plates of cookies in no time. It's a weakness she shares with me.