During intersession in January students embark on an opportunity known as the Halftime Retreat, an Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students (ODUS) -sponsored trip just for sophomores. Last year my experience on this two-night, three-day retreat was one of the best moments I’ve had since coming to Princeton. 

The whole point of the Halftime Retreat is to give sophomores a chance to relax and reflect on their halfway point in their Princeton career. We did all sorts of activities that made us think about how our time at Princeton compared to our expectations of what it would be like. Some activities were shared group discussions, while others were more private, such as guided journaling prompts. My favorite activity was when we chose ten of the most important pictures in our lives. ODUS printed out these photos for us to use in a sort of speed-friending activity. There was an inner circle of people and an outer circle that rotated around, so every couple minutes I got to share my photos with a new person. I found new connections with people who I might not have expected to have similarities with.

Halftime led to some important realizations. Because of the discussions and journaling, I became more confident in recent decisions I had made, such as my decision to concentrate in the School of Public and International Affairs. Although making the choice was difficult, I had chosen the path that was most aligned with my values. I also realized which parts of my life I was most satisfied with, like my extracurriculars and my relationship with my family, and which parts needed some improvement, such as time spent on community service and self-care. One particularly helpful part of Halftime was the journaling. I love to write, but it had been a long time since I had written about my feelings. I hope to continue this practice in the future. 

The best part of Halftime was coming out of the retreat with an amazing new group of friends. Halftime pulled students from all parts of the campus and gave me the opportunity to meet people who I might not have met otherwise. We bonded quickly through the guided discussions and activities, but the unplanned moments made us even closer. I stayed up late having fun conversations and playing games with my new friends. Some people didn’t even go to bed at all on the last night; the memories were worth the lack of the sleep. Because of Halftime, I now have a new community I can rely on when I need friendship and support. We have an active group chat that we use to schedule frequent meetups. I’m so glad I went on this trip, and I can’t recommend it enough.

This year, I watched Triangle Club’s premier show “Once Uponzi Time,” a comedy featuring an aspiring young businesswoman haunted by the ghost of her grandfather Charles Ponzi and the shenanigans that follow. The Triangle Show deftly pulls together humor, political commentary, and wonderful acting, singing and choreography. Their cast and scripting is incredibly diverse, including many underrepresented groups. But the strengths of Triangle Club are not unique; anywhere you look on campus, there are amazing student groups full of passion and talent. My friends and I loved seeing the Triangle Show just as much as other student performances.

Part of the fun of going to shows is cheering (and heckling) your friends. Last year, I went with a group of friends to cheer on a dancer in the student group, eXpressions during their spring show, particularly during the piece she choreographed herself. One of my best friends is a writer and starring role in the theater group PSAT or Princeton South Asian Theatrics, which features a late Saturday show that explicitly welcomes heckling. Going to these student performances is an intrinsic part of Princeton life: it’s at these shows where you realize just how closely connected the student body is.

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Every one of these shows forms a part of Princeton’s performing arts culture. During my Princeton Preview, I went to the annual Tiger Arts Showcase, which highlights many of Princeton’s performing arts groups. It was there that I first saw groups such as Sympoh, Princeton’s breakdancing group; Triple 8, one of campus’ most prominent East Asian dance companies; and Triangle Club, which performed a few of their most iconic songs. I was blown away by it all.

Princeton performances are a constant reminder of the huge mix of passions and dedications that make up our student body. As much as campus is a place of study, it’s also a place where all of our talents and interests come together to make cool and inspiring things like these shows, and that’s yet another reason why I love it here.  

New Jersey can be one of the most weather-confused states. Whether it's 60 degrees in January or 35 degrees in April, New Jersey has some interesting weather patterns. Season-relevant attire is important because Princeton is a walking campus and I don’t know about you but who wants to be caught in the rain with socks and slides? Here are some tips I find helpful to have throughout the school year.

• Coat with a hood: Any hat plus coat combo is fine, but a hood keeps you warm, is easy to put on and can’t really be forgotten. No worries if your coat doesn’t have one. Water Resistant Shoes: Rain is a pretty common forecast on campus. Rain boots work perfectly. Snow boots would also fall into this category for the colder months.
• Gloves: Gloves are also necessary for a cold winter breeze or an autumn downpour! Your fingers can get cold holding up your multipurpose umbrella or sometimes your pockets are full and your hands can’t fit into your jacket pocket. Regardless of the reason, gloves are pretty handy. No pun intended.
• Warm Socks: I thought ankle socks would be fine, but turns out fuzzy socks and crew socks keep you warmer. Fuzzy or thicker socks are great for comfortable walking sneakers because your feet can get cold from walking everywhere. New Jersey often has some vicious winter winds.
• Umbrella: This works not only in the rain, but also in the snow. A raincoat is an alternative, but an umbrella can also protect your bookbag. 
• Scarf: Scarves are a nice touch to your look. They can be repurposed as a head covering to warm your ears or cover your face during windy, cold days.
• Stay Hydrated: This includes your skin and hair. Many people find the winter months to be dehydrating, so make sure you keep some moisturizer, water bottles and hair products close.
• Short & Sandals: Although New Jersey can be a pretty cold state, when it's warm, its WARM. I would highly recommend bringing some clothes for warm weather in the early fall, because it can be notoriously hot and humid.
• Sun____: Sunglasses, sunscreen and other sun-related items like hats are also nice to have in the fall for protection from the sun's harsh rays.

This is an opinion-based article and none of these items are an absolute necessity. These are just a few useful tips I find helpful to keeping warm, dry and comfortable during the school year. I hope these tips help to prepare you for your time at Princeton.

The senior thesis. What is it? Where did it come from? Why do I have to do it?

You might be asking yourself these questions. Maybe you’re waiting to hear back from the Office of Admission and you just read about the thesis online. Maybe you’ve already been admitted, and the thesis is making you question whether or not you want to matriculate. If you only remember one thing from this post, I hope it is this: don’t let the thought of a thesis scare you!

Almost every student at Princeton has to write a senior thesis in order to graduate. It’s basically just a long(er) research paper on a topic of your choice. Since most students have to write one, pretty much everyone will be familiar with the process at some point during their Princeton career. This means that you are never struggling through it alone.

When I was a prospective student, I remember being a little intimidated by the senior thesis. I had never written something so long in my life! I had no idea where to even begin. However, as the semesters started flying by, my interests began solidifying themselves, and it became apparent to me what I wanted to focus on at Princeton: a combination of policy, the criminal-legal system and race/discrimination.

Once you know what you are interested in, choosing a thesis topic becomes much easier. I knew I wanted to go to law school after Princeton and I’ve always been interested in criminal justice reform. So, I made sure to choose a topic that encompassed all of that! I applied for funding from the Woodrow Wilson School⁠—the department I’m majoring in⁠—and planned a trip to Norway. While there, I spent two days at a men’s maximum-security facility in order to learn about their prison system. I conducted interviews, took pictures and observed the individuals who have been incarcerated along with the staff (read this post to learn more about my thesis!). Honestly, it didn’t even feel like work⁠—since it’s a topic I’m genuinely interested in, I really enjoyed the research.

I think that’s the key to conquering your senior thesis: make sure you choose a topic that you are genuinely interested in, and the research won’t feel so much like work. Keeping this in mind, don’t let the senior thesis scare you. As a senior, I feel so much support from my classmates, since I know they’re going through the same process. I’m excited to see the final product of all my hard work and I’m so glad I didn’t let it scare me away from committing to Princeton!

I signed up to write for The Daily Princetonian as soon as I could my first year. Through this experience, not only have I improved as a writer, but I have also found a community to call my own.

The Daily Princetonian, or The Prince for short, is one of the longest-running college newspapers in the country. It prints daily, as the name suggests. I often see people reading The Prince at breakfast, learning about the latest news as they start their day.

I’ve written a lot of interesting articles since joining the paper. You can pitch any story you want; the opportunities are endless! The second article I wrote covered Ellie Kemper’s '02 keynote speech at the She Roars conference for female alumni in October 2018. I talked to her for several minutes and took a picture with her! I commented on her Instagram post from the event, and she followed me back on Instagram. She even likes and comments on some of my posts! When she came back for Class Day 2019, I emailed her through our alumni network about setting up an interview. I talked to her on the phone for almost a half hour to learn about how her time at Princeton prepared her for her acting career.

Ellie Kemper is not the only famous alumni I’ve talked to because of The Prince. This fall, I interviewed seven members of Congress who all graduated from Princeton, including Senator Ted Cruz '92, Congressman John Sarbanes '84 and Congresswoman Terri Sewell '86. These members of Congress came from all over the country and were members of both political parties, but they all had in common a desire to serve their country. It was an eye-opening experience and taught me about talking to people whose opinions differ from my own.

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While it’s fun to interview politicians and celebrities, I’ve also enjoyed covering student life and campus affairs. I interviewed a student who started Letters to Strangers, an international nonprofit dedicated to combating the stigma of mental health. I wrote about Tiger Treks, student-led trips to New York City and Tel Aviv that explore the burgeoning start-up industries in those cities. I talked to the founder of J-Lats, the first-ever club for students of Jewish and Latinx heritage, about the group’s first Latinx Shabbat

Over the past three semesters, I’ve learned how to develop my own pitches for stories, how to interview sources, how to structure a news article, and much, much more.  I recently became an Associate News Editor, and I'm excited to expand my role in the Prince. While the writing skills are important, so is making new friends that will stay with me long beyond my tenure on the Prince. I always look forward to my time in the newsroom. 

In the fall of my first year, I took my soccer ball to Poe Field one afternoon looking to get some practice in. A wide concourse of grass curving around one corner of campus, Poe Field is wedded between the colorful gates of Butler College’s Bloomberg Hall and the glass walls of Carl Icahn Labs.

That afternoon, I’d anticipated only some solitary practice with the all-weather-worn goal posts. But to my surprise, there were already a dozen or more people in the middle of a pickup game. I recognized none of them but took a gamble and asked if I could join. Within minutes, I was right in the thick of it.

Writing this provokes another memory: The first day of my time at Princeton, I wandered by the gentle slopes in front of Whitman College where some other first-years were playing an improvised game of soccer with their shoes marking the goals. To this day one pair of my socks are still stained faintly green.

In high school, I’d never found a soccer community. With the exception of my best friend, very few people were as invested in the game as I was, and when he moved away after sophomore year, I no longer had anyone to talk to about one of my greatest passions.

I now play games of pickup at Poe Field nearly every Saturday. With a few friends I met during these games, we also formed an intramural team called the Poe Fielders. When the weather gets too cold, I have one-on-one training sessions with one of my best friends in the squash courts of Dillon Gym, an improvised location that we’ve found highly rewarding, nonetheless.

It seems like such a small thing – people who treat soccer as more than just an after-school sport but, instead, as a lifestyle; people who I can watch games and play FIFA video games to unwind. Soccer may be big where you come from, and this may seem unremarkable to you. But I guarantee that if you have a passion that you’ve been aching to share with those around you, you’ll find that community here at Princeton. There are so many clubs here; more than that, it’s impossible not to find groups of people who share your interests.

For me, it was as simple as wandering past a soccer scrimmage, asking if I could join, and having the ball at my feet seconds later.      

Using a wheelchair on a campus that is as old as Princeton causes unique situations that both complicate and enrich my experience at Princeton. Princeton’s Office of Disability Services (ODS) has helped me by making appropriate accommodations that promote accessibility and inclusion.

Through collaborating with ODS and Housing, I ended up with my own room that’s set up for me. My room is so big that there’s plenty of space for my wheelchair, a backup electric wheelchair and a manual wheelchair. I even have my own bathroom that’s almost the same size as the other part of my room! The bathroom has grab bars next to the toilet and a fold-down shower bench. ODS also gave me a remote that automatically opens my door. Sometimes I don’t tell my friends about the remote, and they think my door opens by magic.

While my room is perfect, the rest of the campus does present some challenges. There are some parts of campus that are not wheelchair accessible, such as my friends' dorms with multiple flights of stairs and no elevator. Over time, I’ve had to learn the best routes for me around campus to avoid stairs. However, Princeton has helped me get around many of these barriers. If a class is in a building that isn't accessible, the whole class will be moved just for me. ODS has a giant map for students with physical disabilities where they can draw the paths they take to get to class, and ODS will make sure these paths are cleared first when it snows. All of the buses are equipped with wheelchair lifts, but the campus is small enough that I don’t need to take the buses that often.

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I mostly receive physical accommodations like the ones described above, but ODS provides services to students with a wide variety of disabilities. In addition to accommodations, ODS also promotes a community for students with disabilities through the AccessAbility Center or "The Center", a “student gathering space on campus designed for universal access and intended to foster conversation about ability, access and difference,” according to their website. The Center has adjustable height desks, ergonomic computer equipment, a seasonal affective disorder light box and other cool features. The Center also holds various events throughout the year, such as therapy dog study breaks, lunch conversations and massages. It’s truly a place where students of all abilities are welcome.

I encourage prospective students with disabilities to get in touch with ODS. I met with them before I committed to Princeton, and I instantly knew after the meeting that my needs could be met. Feel free to reach out to me as well!

Service has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. During high school, I participated in a myriad of nonprofit organizations and wanted to continue my volunteering work at Princeton. 

To my surprise, I was immersed in service from the get-go. I spent a week in Philadelphia tackling hunger and homelessness through Princeton’s first-year orientation program, Community Action. I felt empowered and aware of my duty to give back to my community. Moreover, I got to form meaningful bonds with 13 other first-year students. I realized that Princeton’s informal motto, “In the Nation’s Service and the Service of Humanity,” is integral to the undergraduate experience. From the Pace Center for Civic Engagement to activist organizations, students can engage in service in many different ways. 

Once classes started, I was looking for more opportunities to engage with service. I participated in the Brooklyn College Awareness Program during fall break. The purpose of the trip was to help low-income students apply to college. I was reminded of my college application process and how much I would have benefited from a program like this. Getting to help others achieve their dreams is a feeling that can’t be put into words.  

I grew so fond of Brooklyn College Awareness that I became a trip leader. From picking the Princeton volunteers to organizing excursions in the city, it was a hectic week, to say the least. However, getting to see the smiles of all the students on the last day made it all worth it. 

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When I was little, I was afraid to go down the slide at the park, So you would think that when I became a flyer (the top girl in stunts) on Princeton Cheerleading, I would be scared for my life. But that’s not what happened; sure, I was nervous, but I wanted to hit the stunts. I wanted to go up again and again so that we could perfect our skills as a stunt group and as a team. Yet in a sport in which you’re throwing people up in the air, there’s bound to be accidents, and one day on the football field, I had mine. I fell forward, which is never a good way to fall because it’s almost impossible for anyone to catch you. I landed on my ankle, and the next week I found out that it was fractured.

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On my first day back on campus after my injury, I had so many fears. How would I get from Forbes – the residential college furthest from upper campus – to my classes on crutches? How will I get my food in the dining hall when I can’t hold a plate with my crutches? How am I supposed to find the time to ice six times a day, as the doctor instructed? These questions swam through my head as I trekked to Spanish class. I’ll admit the first day was tough. I ended up finding my own means for transportation around campus, stayed in my room when I could and had to miss cheer practice. 

This was all before I realized how supportive the Princeton community truly is and how many resources were available to me. I met someone on the elevator who was also on crutches, and he taught me how to use Tiger Transit, which is Princeton’s shuttle system. McCosh Health Center was also able to provide me with an electric mobility scooter. The scooter was amazing; it had a place to hold my crutches, a basket in the front and back for my backpack and it went decently fast. I almost didn’t want to give it up once my ankle healed! Last, no matter which dining hall I went to, the dining hall staff always offered to help me get my food or carry my plate to the table.

My team was especially supportive, still including me in their team bonding activities, practices, and games. My high school didn’t have a cheer team, but I was able to try the sport at Princeton. Now in my second year on the team, I am so thankful that Princeton lets you pursue your prior interests but also try new things on campus. During my injury, I realized what being a team on and off the field means.

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I'm finally back in my sneakers. Although it was hard in the beginning, I am grateful for this experience because it made me feel so proud to be a part of such a kind, thoughtful and genuine community. I also know where all the elevators are now on campus, and I have tons of new routes to get around that do not include stairs. It’s incredible that Princeton was founded in the 18th century, and yet it’s surprisingly very accessible. I’m excited to get back on the court once I’m fully healed.