Monthly Archives: September 2011

September 6, 2011 · 7:01 pm

I Remember…Freshman Orientation

Author: Elizabeth Kimmelman Schwartz, C’04

The summer before I left for college, I was a really mean person.  I wouldn’t admit it, but I was completely stressed out about starting school.  Also, being from the suburbs of Philadelphia, most of my friends were going to Penn State.  So, not only was I scared to go to college, but also I had to listen to all of my friends talking about how much fun school would be when they all got there together.  A part of me was so jealous that they would get to experience all of this with a built in friend group and that I had to do the college thing alone.  At the same time, I was so excited to go to Penn and was just itching to start my college life and gain more independence.  It was a very complicated time, which led to me snapping at everyone in close proximity, especially my mother.  I’m really sorry, Mom. Thanks for being patient.

Even with the combination of stress, nerves and excitement, official move-in day went pretty well, besides my Dad almost breaking his back carrying my computer monitor in and out of the car. My family and I were completely enthralled by the concept of the giant rolling carts and were amazed at how efficient the move in staff was. I got to my room before my roommate, so I got to pick my side first and decorate my dorm room to make it the happiest, most colorful place EVER.  I had a collage of pictures on the wall next to my bed, giant corkboard already full of things above my computer, really bright fun bedspread that I had picked out at Bed Bath and Beyond, etc.

My Side of the Room

My roommate, however, was from South Korea and she came with two suitcases.  Her side of the room had a pale violet bedspread, the free Penn calendar on the wall and that was about it.  Grace was nice but very different from me – we quite literally spoke two different languages.  She had never met a Jewish person before and I had never met someone who actually lived in Korea.  A few hours in and already we were part of the Penn melting pot!

Roommate's Side

I don’t really remember a lot about official orientation besides those boring lectures on the Penn Reading Project (our book was Metamorphosis, which I hated, a guy turning into a bug seemed really implausible and I don’t enjoy books that are just one big metaphor), taking a walking tour of West Philadelphia, and attending a big fair for new students in Houston Hall that had a fake casino.  I remember telling myself constantly to not call my parents so I didn’t look pathetic, trying not to sit on AIM all of the time talking to my old friends, even though I wanted to, and every time I left the Quad, hoping that I would come back to my dorm room and see a message on the whiteboard on my door.

The beginning of college wasn’t as easy for me as it seemed to be for other people, and this was frustrating.  Everyone seemed to become insta-best friends with their hallmates.  My “hall” was 8 people – two doubles and four singles.  Grace, my roommate , immediately bonded with the Korean Christian Association so she had her clique.  The two girls who were next door were on the swim team, so they immediately were friends with other swimmers, and the people in the singles across the hall seemed to have no interest in leaving their rooms and making friends.  I didn’t have a built in group to eat meals with or go stand in the awful lines at fraternity parties with.  It was just me.  Luckily I’m an outgoing person, so I just forced myself to talk to people, but it really took awhile to find my footing.

As time went on, things got better.  I became really good friends with the one other person at Penn who I went to high school with. There was a guy in one of my classes who I thought was cute – nothing happened with him, but I did become best friends with the girl who lived next door to him after hanging out at their dorm all of the time (we are still best friends – she was in my wedding in October 2010 and I will be in her wedding in March).  I met the girls from a hall two floors above me and became really close with them, and, subsequently, an adopted member of the third floor of Baird.  A month or so after orientation, and I finally had a hall to hang out with!  Woo hoo!  Slowly but surely,  I was really starting to feel like I belonged at Penn.

So, Penn orientation for me didn’t mean insta-friendships, and now, when I work orientation events (yes, I get to staff that student fair with the fake casino!), I want to go up to the students who seem kind of lost and tell them, “Don’t worry.  It works out!.”  But really, everyone seems kind of lost, nervous and unsure of themselves, even the ones who travel around in the giant packs of insta-friends.  I wish I had realized back then that I wasn’t so alone and that the people who seemed to have a lot of friends were just as nervous as I was.  Also, be honest, how many of you are still really good friends with those insta-BFFs from orientation week?

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September 5, 2011 · 9:00 am

Locust Walk Talk: Penn Traditions Family Picnic on College Green

Author: Casey Ryan, C’95

I can’t believe that it’s been over two months since I wrote about things to do when the students aren’t at Penn. Over the last week, campus’s energy has increased as student volunteers, like the Phins come back for training before move-in. The buzz culminated for us this past Thursday as Alumni Relations welcomed the class of 2015 and their parents.

Welcome

Penn Traditions Family Picnic serves as brief respite for parents and incoming first years from the move in process.  Alumni Relations and Penn Traditions welcome all to grab a bite to eat and relax on College Green.  Everything now seems so unfamiliar and imposing.  Yet, the view from the grass on a red or blue blanket is of new beginning and opportunities.

Families and the incoming Class of 2015, getting a bite to eat

There’s College Hall, Wednesday’s site of an introductory class.  There’s Van Pelt library, the future site of an all-nighter to write a research paper.  There’s Split Button, a midnight study break where students play Whac-A-Mole with friends. (Seriously, I did this a few times to blow off some finals steam.)

The Penn Band entertaining the crowd

Now, it’s fodder for memories – the grown-up versions of the first day of School.  A young student takes her first steps to independence.  Parents acknowledge the son has grown-up well.  A brother is inspired by his sister and looks forward to his college search.  Grandmothers and grandfathers are in awe of their granddaughter’s achievements. These are all moments for everyone to be proud.

Signing the Class of 2015 banner – this banner follows the class throughout their four years at Penn and beyond

This all subtext, though.  For now, parents, freshman and transfer students are on the green, sharing a soda, eating some fun and enjoying the break.  It doesn’t seem too important right now, but this picnic will be the first of all lifelong Penn traditions that each student will experience.

Taking a very deserved break on hillside of College Green

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September 2, 2011 · 3:34 pm

T-shirts and track shoes and canes. Oh, my!

Author: Nicole Maloy, W’95

I’ve always said that one of the best things about working at Penn as an alumna is having one place to put all of my Penn stuff. In any other work environment, it might appear a bit odd, if not obsessive or psychotic. Yet here, it’s perfectly appropriate to have a shelf that looks like this:

At a university, this kind of thing is totally normal. This might not go over so well in, say, a doctor’s office. Especially the track shoes.

To be fair, this is not all of my Penn stuff. There is that whole matter of the shirts and other wearable items I’ve collected between the fall of 1991, when I arrived as a freshman, and the fall of 2011, as I greet the incoming class of 2015. (2015?!) The collection started well before my first semester, though. Its origins go back to the previous December, when I discovered I’d been admitted via Early Decision.

I got home from school and picked up the mail on my way in. My grandmother was staying with us at the time, so she was home. She sat on the couch, pretending to be calm as I opened the letter from Penn, took a deep breath, and began to read it aloud. I got as far as, “We are pleased…” and then started jumping up and down, doing the happy dance. Upon reflection, I am so glad she was there for that. I know how proud she was.

She was, perhaps, slightly less proud when I picked up the phone to call my Mom at work.

“Hi, Mom.”

“Hi.”

“I got the letter from Penn.”

“Yeah?” More pretending to be calm. It’s clearly genetic.

“Yeah, I got deferred.”

“WHAT?!” Momentary loss of composure from Mom. Grandma, who probably heard that, sat shaking her head saying, “Oh, Nicole,” while trying not to laugh.

Mom immediately caught herself and began to reassure me despite the fact that I knew she was cursing out the Admissions Office in her head. “Well, OK, so we’ll get the applications together for the other schools, and (other things I don’t remember because I was giggling into my hand and couldn’t hear her).”

“Mm-hmm. Thanks. By the way, I’m just kidding. I got in.”

I won’t write what she said next, but I assure you, it was said with great love in her heart. Then three generations of the women in my family shared a good laugh full of joy, relief, and pride.

With Mom and Grandma at my high school’s Senior Awards Ceremony. Mom is rockin her favorite Sally Jesse Raphael glasses. Work it, Mom!

That night, while I was watching TV, my Mom called me. I went upstairs. She asked if I’d get the clothes out of the dryer for her. I went back downstairs, a little annoyed that she made me go all the way upstairs only to go back down – she’s got volume, and could have asked for the laundry from where she was, saving me a couple of trips. But, hey, I deserved it, no? So I went down, grabbed a basket, opened the dryer, and pulled out two brand new sweatshirts, tags still attached. One was emblazoned with “PENN,” the other with “WHARTON.” Turns out, she’d bought them from The Bookstore during our visit that October, and had kept them hidden until tonight. Pretty sneaky, sis.

From then through years of jumping with Track & Field, singing with The Inspiration, living in Du Bois College House, joining Friars, and generally just being at Penn, followed by years working at the University, and encountering a clearance sale at Steve & Barry’s University Sportswear before they closed (remember them, oldheads?), it’s no wonder I sometimes didn’t even realize I was covered with Penn.

Here is a sampling. This doesn’t include the hats, the jackets, the sweatpants, my varsity sweater, or assorted other bits and pieces. Maybe one day my Mom will make these into a quilt. You reading this, Mom? You’re not still mad about that admission thing, are you? 😉

One day, I was in downtown Philadelphia and decided to observe a martial arts class. The guy next to me said, “So, do you go to Penn?”

I’m thinking, STALKER! I said to him, a bit defensively, “How did you know that?”

He said, “Um, your Penn hat, your Penn shirt, and your Penn shorts.”

“Oh. Heh. Heh.” It’s a good thing we were sitting, or he might have noticed the Penn windbreaker tied around my waist.

Ah, well, back to the office. Lots of memories on this shelf. Here are some close-ups of the shrine.

That’s my Hey Day cane! (The skimmer is a replacement.) DP article from the day after Hey Day with arrow pointing to me in the crowd. Friars wine bottle cover, baseball cap, and honor cord. Photo board has Hey Day shots with buds, along with shots of us at our 10th reunion. Bottom right is us trying to recreate our poses from when we visited as high schoolers. Mine’s pretty close – see center photo.

Photos with The Inspiration. My International Student Card from study abroad in France in 1993 along with a group shot with my fellow Lyon adventurers. The High Jump Shoes, Captain’s plaque, photo with Olympic and World Champion Decathlete Dan O’Brien, Penn Relays baton and program, and Franklin Field watercolor print (thoughtful goodbye gift from another Penn department). On the right – my graduation day kente cloth and tassel.

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September 1, 2011 · 8:00 am

Of Storms and Books

Author: Lisa Ellen Niver, CAS’89

With Hurricane Irene this weekend, I have been reminiscing about my freshman year in the Quad and my first hurricane, Hurricane Gloria. Raised on the West Coast, I only knew earthquakes with no warning; the 48 hours of waiting to end up playing in the rain in our flip-flops was a new experience. While at Penn, I learned so much in and out of the classroom, but never imagined learning how to handle a hurricane would be one of my adventures!

Now back on the West Coast, it has been my honor to participate with other alumni in the Penn Club of Los Angeles.  I am so excited that fellow alumnae, Rachel Friedman, will be joining our club for a reading of her book about travel and personal transformation. It’s called The Good Girl’s Guide to Getting Lost: A Memoir of Three Continents, Two Friends, and One Unexpected Adventure and I highly recommend it.

So, if you happen to be in the LA area on September 6, please join us at Traveler’s Bookcase at 7 PM to hear from Rachel, to meet other travelers, and to hear more about past trips and future travel dreams. This will be our third event since March and at each event, the group continues to grow. Read the details at www.wesaidgotravel.com or you can email me directly at for more information. I would love to hear your travel stories too if you would like to share them with me.

Want more?  You can read my most recent article here and also view the Penn Club LA event listing here.

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