Monthly Archives: May 2012

The Quad

Author: Lynn Carroll, C’93

A number of alumni have great memories of living in the Quad.

The rooms are small but cozy, and you really get to know your roommates.  If you’re lucky, a roommates parent comes by, bringing yummy treats.


Perhaps more than any other campus housing, you never feel completely alone in the Quad.  There are always hall mates, neighbors, and friends close by!


Useless trivia:  Did you know that a gargoyle that does not spit water is actually called a “boss,” and that the Quad has more than 160 of them adorning the entire structure?

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Filed under Alumni Perspective, Lynn Carroll, Memories of Penn

Wanderlust

Author: Lisa Ellen Niver, CAS ’89

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about the Penn motto of “We will find a way or we will make one.” My husband George and I have worked hard to create our own path as a couple and as travelers. We love to find others who also have a serious case of wanderlust (defined by Dictionary.com as a “strong, innate desire to rove or travel about”).  Recently, I met Christine Maxfield another Penn grad (2004) who is, like me, inspired about travel, wanderlust, and all thing Frankly Penn!

Here is just a sampling of her adventures from from her recent post on our blog:

Starting on January 1, 2011, I took my first step off a plane and into a solo round-the-world adventure that included 19 countries on six continents. My work exchange led me to instruct HIV/AIDS orphans in Kenya, become a desert guide with the Bedouin tribe in Jordan, teach English to Tibetan Buddhist nuns in Nepal, mend fences on an aboriginal cattle station in Australia, shuck oysters on a black-pearl farm in French Polynesia, save baby sea turtles in Guatemala, play music with children in Romania, and herd a thousand sheep as a nomadic shepherd in Austria. Oh, and I can now finally say that I’ve been on an African safari and have also stood in the shadow of pyramids…

Christine with children in Africa.

You can read more of this post at We Said Go Travel.

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Filed under Alumni Perspective, Lisa Ellen Niver

Penn Stitch Therapy

Author, Stephanie Yee, C’08

Once per week, I attend a knitting club after work.

I know what you’re thinking…No, knitting isn’t just for old ladies! In fact, the group, Stitch Therapy, includes Penn undergraduate and graduate students, staff, and alumni. As advertised on the Penn Women’s Center website, Stitch Therapy is for “knitting, crocheting, sewing & conversation.” We meet one evening per week in the Penn Women’s Center to work on our projects.

I learned how to knit during fall semester of my junior year at Penn. I registered for the “Knitting 101” proprietorial, and I was lucky enough to get in.

Many of my classmates and friends have told me they also tried getting into the knitting precptorial, but that it was always full. Who knew a knitting class would be so competitive! I learned how to knit a hat in “Knitting 101,” and a buttonhole bag the following semester in the intermediate level knitting preceptorial.

Since then, I have knit more scarves than I know what to do with (including multiple red and blue scarves – Go Penn!), and I learned how to crochet last year.

This week, we held our last Stitch Therapy meeting of the spring semester. One of our members suggested we do a yarn swap. Many of us have Tupperware bins full of yarn we have collected over the years. Sometimes, we forget when or why we bought that color or weight of yarn, and we do not ever plan to use it. That is when the yarn swap comes in. Everyone brought their unwanted skeins to this week’s meeting, and we had a take-what-you-want session. Look at how much yarn we had to swap at the meeting!

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Filed under Alumni Perspective, Stephanie Y.