Monthly Archives: October 2011

October 5, 2011 · 9:36 am

Technology: A Student’s Worst Enemy

Author: John Mosley, C’14

Each morning, as I stand in the shower or eat breakfast, I mentally schedule out my day of work and school. I know that from 9 to 5 I will either be attending class or doing my Work-Study at the Sweeten Alumni House. Usually, at 5 PM,  I eat dinner. Every day, I tell myself that after dinner, I will work more diligently than ever before on studying and getting homework done. And, once the meal is over, I pace confidently to my room, knowing that the unprecedented amount of work about to be done  will consequently make my life easier in the future. I open my door with purpose to find my laptop computer sitting innocuously on my desk. I know that this will be an important tool in typing my essays and printing out articles to study for my classes. Little do I know how many distractions await me on this machine.

…Ok,  I lied. I know how many distractions are on my computer. I know about YouTube, Facebook, Netflix, and all the innumerable other websites that will keep me busy for hours on end while my schoolbooks collect dust in my book bag. But I just can’t help it! That is the biggest problem with students of my generation. We have all been spoiled with the greatest and most entertaining technologies the world has ever known for our entire lives, and now, not even college can break our addiction. So, within 30 seconds, my resolve is gone and my homework is relegated to the late hours of the night, shearing off hours of much-needed sleep.

After an hour or so on the Internet, I often decide that my behavior is unacceptable. I decide to sit on my bed, where my laptop cannot seduce me and I can get some real, honest-to-goodness work done. Just as I open a textbook, a thought occurs to me: I should really text my mom and let her know about my day. She probably misses me. Then, taking my phone out, I realize how many great games I have on it! I could spend hours smashing things and outrunning enemies on my phone! This seems like a great way to spend some time. After all, I’ve had a long day of classes and work, so I’ve earned this. I’ll talk to mom tomorrow, anyway.

See what happened there? I’m surrounded. Technology dictates my actions in my free time. Yes, I always get my work done on time, but at what cost? Hours of sleep are lost because of my lack of focus, and I know for a fact that I am in the majority of college students. Technological advances in entertainment have destroyed our focus and work ethic. This is our eternal struggle. Seems trivial in a world full of real problems…

Leave a comment

Filed under Academics, Campus Life, John Mosley, Student Perspective

Tagged as , ,

October 5, 2011 · 9:12 am

Author: Lisa Ellen Niver, CAS’89

On November 4, 2011, Penn Club Los Angeles will once again be acknowledged with the Club Award of Merit during Homecoming Weekend featuring Arts and Culture.  This  great honor is due in large part to the herculean efforts of our Club President, Melissa Wu. Melissa leads a wonderful group of alumni and she creates incredible events that build the Penn community in Los Angeles!

Recently in Los Angeles, the Penn Club hosted author and alumna, Rachel Friedman, who read from her travel book, The Good Girl’s Guide to Getting Lost.  In it, Friedman says, “…sometimes travel and being adventurous do not fit with the model I hold of myself, …but it does not coexist with how I picture myself—a sheltered, scared, predictable kind of girl, definitely not a girl who has adventures. I come from rooted people; people who prefer chlorinated bodies of water and career paths.”

Travel allows us distance from our normal life and a separation that allows us to notice what is truly important. Without such a perspective, to know what to keep and to continue in life’s path may prove more difficult. Travels allows us all to step out of “normal” life, to see other cultures, meet people, learn languages—expecting to learn about others while really it is we who become transformed.

During the question and answer session after a book reading earlier this month, Friedman talked about travel as an important and essential part of education.  In her book she also asks: “What’s the right way to go about … our lives? Should you do what you love, what’s outrageous and unpredictable, and worry about the future later, or plug away at a steady job first and go off and have your fun when you retire?”

I commend Melissa Wu and the entire Penn Club LA alumni board for bringing together the community and for allowing me as co-author of the blog, “We Said Go Travel,” to participate in this special occasion. Congrats again to PENN CLUB LA!

Leave a comment

Filed under Alumni Perspective, Homecoming Weekend featuring arts and culture, Lisa Ellen Niver, Penn Clubs, The Arts

Tagged as ,

October 4, 2011 · 9:00 am

Locust Walk Talk: A Small World & Craic

Author: Casey Ryan, C’95

While I was on vacation, I got the following tweet:

Earlier that day, I had a difficult choice to make upon returning to Dublin from our driving tour of the Irish countryside. Do I continue with my parents to see the literary treasures at Trinity College (which I had seen before) or go to the Guinness Storehouse (which is missed seeing 12 years ago) without them? We had spent most of the vacation together and I wanted to see their reaction to the Book of Kells, the illuminated manuscript of the four Gospels in Latin and one of Ireland’s national treasures. Yet, I had made this thorny decision before and missed out on the Storehouse because of it.

So, beer won out this time for me over books.  Sounds like the stereotypical decision of a college student, no?

While I was at the Guinness Storehouse on the tour, getting my serendipitous second Guinness (a random fellow and former rugger seeing me in my Dubai rugby t-shirt handed me his ticket for his free Guinness at the end of the tour,) my parents saw my brother’s good friends and my follow Penn alumnus two kilometers away from me at Trinity.  I knew that Matt was going to be in Ireland; he told me that he and his wife had made rather last-minute plans to visit the country and I shared some tips before we all embarked.  However, there weren’t too many days that we were going to be in the same place at the same time.

It was a lark that my parents ran into Matt and his wife, Emily.  My folks had finished their tour of Trinity and the Book of Kells and Matt and Emily had missed the last tour.  Heading in opposite directions, all four of them quite literally bumped into each other.  Or so Emily explained later to me.

Looking toward Trinity College from the Gravity Bar of the Guinness Storehouse

During my trip, I had gone out of my way to make sure that I chatted with strangers at the bars.  However it was rather funny that I didn’t meet many locals. There were Germans and Australians, Irish tourists from the more rural counties and even some Philadelphians.  Only once in Killarney did I meet a local – born and raised in the town, he was traveling in a group with a Filipino and a German.

On my last night in Dublin City Centre, I meet Matt and Emily at the Porterhouse Central, one of the five restaurant and bar fronts of Ireland’s largest genuine Irish brewery.  This place was packed with locals and only a few tourists.  As we shared our stories of Ireland and our lack of meeting locals, we were swept into one table’s hens night, a.k.a. bachelorette party, who chatted us up since they heard our accents.  Another table was celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary and their first “date night” out since the birth of their son.  Yet others that we met were out for a night on the town. Throughout it all, Matt and I continually were asked how we knew each other (since Matt and Emily were obviously married) and we told everyone that we knew each other through Penn.

Matt, GEN’08, and I, C’95, having enjoyed a few pints in Dublin

Many of the Dubliners that we chatted with were impressed with Penn and they knew that it wasn’t Penn State.  They asked us if we had visited Trinity and wanted to know more about our experiences in college compared to theirs.  All in all, the craic was grand!

I’m always amazed how our tight connections as alumni and the reputation of Penn are well received all around the world.  Fortunately, it took me a night in Dublin to remind me how great being an alumnus of Penn is.

2 Comments

Filed under Alumni Perspective, Casey R., Locust Walk Talk

October 3, 2011 · 2:47 pm

Fall at Penn

Author: Sabrina Shyn, C’13

My new favorite study spot is the benches in the courtyard of the Trescher entrance of the Penn Museum. It’s a little isolated but quiet and serene, especially when the weather’s nice. With the trees, fountain, cobblestones, and brown brick building, it’s beautiful.

You should come see it for yourself.

1 Comment

Filed under Campus Life, Photos, Sabrina Shyn, Student Perspective