Articles by Chris

Well we’ve nearly entered that void in time and space, otherwise known as the days between the last day of class and our first exam.  The library, blue loop, and white loop will undoubtedly have extended hours to take care of students studying into the wee hours of the morning.  Many of us will be postponing all other activities until we’ve read and reread every last shred of information for our exams.  And in one week, it’ll all be over.

I wish everyone the best of luck in their finals, and hope you all have a great summer!

Well it has finally happened.  Warm weather and sunshine have returned to Happy Valley.  Our days of being reclusive, hibernating in our dorms and apartments, and dreading that cold, windy walk to class are over.  The lawns of the HUB and Old Main are once again dotted with sunbathers, Frisbee throwers, and new this year–”zombies and humans” participants.  This is perfect weather for Blue & White weekend festivities, which is a welcome relief to the rain of the the past two years.  Take advantage of the weather and be sure to take a look at what’s going on for Blue & White weekend!

Penn State would not be Penn State if in your daily walk from class to class you didn’t come across at least one construction project on campus. One of the main reasons I chose to come to this school is because of Penn State’s great respect for modern, clean classroom buildings. I can’t tell you how many schools I’ve visited that have had rundown, decrepit buildings. Furthermore, why would you be showing me this on a tour?? Don’t you have any better maintained buildings than this? At that point, you don’t even want to see the dorms. I can tell you that many people do appreciate the quality of structures here on campus. I gave tours for Undergraduate Admissions for a summer, as well as tours of the Business Building, and I received many compliments from people regarding the classroom buildings (we showed Thomas Building for Undergraduate Admissions). I write this after passing the renovation projects of Ferguson and Borland on my way to the two-year-young business building, next to the new forestry and food science buildings, only to see the Law School being built in the distance.

For those students who attended the taping of CNBC’s ‘Mad Money’, it was nothing short of a total blast. Mad Money is particularly attractive to college students because Jim Cramer is smart, fast-talking, outspoken, and doesn’t tolerate B.S. I think a lot of students can relate to him because he wasn’t born into his fame. He hit a rough point in his life, but eventually found his way to where he is now. Jim’s high-voltage energy made for a lot of audience participation in the packed Eisenhower Auditorium.

A few members of our own Nittany Lion Fund put their reputations on the line and asked Jim his opinion on selected stocks. Much to their relief, Mr. Cramer generally agreed with their picks, and provided additional stocks for them to take a look at. To close up the show, Jim took a few questions from the audience and gave some final thoughts.

Mad Money is really geared towards young people interested in investing in their future, as it is fast-paced and chock-full-of useful tidbits of information. Prior to the Penn State taping of the show, I had never seen a single episode of Mad Money. I now find myself fascinated with Jim’s honest opinion, genuine interest in hearing what we at Penn State had to ask, and eagerness to help us pick the right investment options for ourselves.

For those of you who live under a rock, get yourselves to Smeal and pick up tickets for CNBC’s taping of ‘Mad Money’ at Penn State, which is happening on March 26 in Eisenhower Auditorium. Jim Cramer (the host of ‘Mad Money’) is stopping by as part of his ‘Back to Campus’ Tour. Don’t have any money? Perfect!! The event is free for Penn State students with a valid ID. Come on, when’s the last time you ever had the opportunity to attend a taping of a nationally televised show?

Ahhhh It’s finally here!  I don’t know about you all, but spring break is about the only thing that keeps me sane midway through the semester.  It seems like all of my midterm exams and projects I’ve put off are due in the same week.  When I started a “list of things to do before spring break” two weeks ago, it just kept getting longer and longer.  I was adding as many things as I was getting done.  I know many of you can sympathize with my pre-break crunch.

But now it’s time to recharge, refresh and get ready for the second half of my junior year.  Take it easy, and have an awesome, class-free week!

I recently attended a seminar on Affirmative Action, where Associate Dean and Smeal Professor Gus Colangelo tried to set straight any assumptions many of us have regarding Affirmative Action Policy. For those of you who live under a rock and have never heard of Affirmative Action, it is a policy established to ensure that underrepresented minorities (including women, African Americans, Latinos, Asians, etc.) are given their fair chance in the workplace and at college. This doesn’t mean that less qualified minorities are given jobs that should go to more qualified white men. In fact, just the opposite occurs. A study was done comparing the entrance MCAT scores of accepted Med School Students at Yale University. Originally, there was an unwritten rule that women could not be admitted into Yale. After some time, policy was established to ensure that women were considered for admission. The lowest MCAT score of a med student admitted into Yale after the establishment of this policy was considerably higher than when it was a “white men only club”. This indicates that ensuring minorities are represented actually increases competition and means we’ll have better doctors, lawyers, etc.

Gus wanted to firmly establish that Affirmative Action doesn’t lead to preferential treatment of minorities. He mentioned numerous occasions when someone had made a comment to him that “she only got that job because she was a women/black/Asian/etc.), and that those people are just sore losers, trying to justify being declined anyway they can. I encourage you all to take a closer look at Affirmative Action policy, and get the big picture of what it’s trying to accomplish.

• Penn State Altoona- Closed

• Penn State DuBois- Closed

• State College Area School District- Closed

• Penn State Univ. Park- Open, as usual

So I’m looking outside my window at a sheet of white blowing horizontally. Hailing from south of Buffalo, NY, going to school in an arctic blizzard isn’t new to me. But many kids here at PSU come from the Philly area, where if one inch of snow falls, the world stops spinning. Schools are shut down for weeks on end, and people board up their houses and stock up on bottled water.

Of course I’m exaggerating, but how many of you refresh your browser 2389498 times to see if, perchance, Penn State decided to cancel classes for the rest of the day? I love the days when every other school in the area is closed, because everybody is talking about how they can’t believe we still have to go to class. I find myself calling my mother to complain about it. Then she reminds me that there are three feet of snow on the ground at home, and she still has to work at school.

For now, I’m going to put on my sexy snow boots, hope that at least half the walkways are shoveled, and plow my way to Willard.

So today I was walking through the business building, and couldn’t help noticing several people decked out in suits carrying that trademark leather portfolio. And of course I knew exactly where they were going– to an interview.

Smeal really pushes us as students to aggressively seek internships and full time employment. The dean, faculty, and staff, all try to imprint in us the importance of killer resumes, and awesome interviewing skills. I always thought it was a little much.

Then in talking with my dad about interviews and the like. I said that Smeal really harps about practice, practice, practice when it comes to interviewing, and that I didn’t think it was necessary. He told me that I may be surprised as to how bad a lot of people are at interviewing.

I guess it’s something we take for granted; the fact that we have significantly better resumes and interviewing skills than a lot of other people, even older adults who are already in the workforce! Although, most of us end up interviewing on campus, against other students from Smeal. So you end up running against kids of the same caliber anyways. All the more reason to refine your resume and interviewing skills!