Allison's Notes:

Another day at RIT/NTID.  We woke up an hour earlier for the first time this week.  Today is going to be our first Career Awareness class.  I'm excited about going to explore all the different options that they offer at NTID for careers.  We had the business class in the morning.

We got to make some really cool signs for our dorm rooms/rooms at home.  And we left our mark at school as well!  He kept the signs that we made and put them on his wall for other students to see.  I was really happy we got to do this class, because I was finally able to access my e-mail.  Internet deprivation.  I think I'm addicted to the internet.  Must get email.  Must get email...  I could have probably survived without it, but I'm glad I checked my email, because I got a note from someone regarding possible work, except she didn't know I was out of town.  Oops. 

In the business class, we learned how to use Excel and Word.  All I have to say is thank goodness I had already taken those classes when I was at XCP.  I really didn't want to, but it was upon my mom's insistence and my course/graduation requirements to take it.  Now, all that hard work has paid off.  You were right mom!  I need to refresh my memory on a few things associated with these programs.

That afternoon we got to explore the field of engineering.  This gave me the opportunity to ask questions about engineering, specifically the fields of biomedical and biochemical engineering.  I have known about the field of engineering, but I really didn't know the specifics of what they really did, and what Civil engineers were and everything related to that specific field.

We got to see the machines make plastic NTID keychains, carve a piece of metal into a "thimble" (according to our teachers), look at big objects and magnify a very small area to see all the details.  Know which state is written on the 5 dollar bill?  Maryland.  That was so kewl!  I didn't know that.  Finding that out by using that machine was totally awesome.

The next thing we did in there was the tensile test.  This is a machine that will test the strength of various metals and figure out what the maximum weight that it can withstand before breaking.  Jake went first to test the machine, and we tested the steel rod first.  It went up to 4000 pounds before it broke.  Then we had a discussion about the test, where we had to figure out why it broke, what the different reasons for why it broke.  I'm really happy I was able to answer the questions because I took Chemistry this year at school, and I was able to take what I learned and apply it to the questions that they were asking us.  One thing I was surprised was that I actually remembered the stuff from Chemistry, and I thought I was going to forget it all during summer vacation!

I got all but one question right.  The last question was a trick question.  It was a lot of fun answering the questions, because I liked to try and remember what I learned in chemistry and apply it to today's workshop.  I'm really happy we got to see what engineering was about, because I'm interested in engineering.  I learned a lot of things I didn't know about engineering before, like exactly what it is that they do, what types of engineers there are, and what kinds of equipment and training they have.  It was a fun afternoon.

That evening we stayed at school and basically had a  "Your Choice Night".  We could watch a movie or we could do stuff in the lobby of LBJ.  I was feeling a little restless, so I stayed in the lobby and played board games and talked to people.  I was teaching Joe how to play chess, and Matt was teaching the two of us how to play chess.  Matt played one game with me, and I lost, really BAD!  The game was over in like 5 minutes!  We had lots of fun and I learned some new chess strategies.  BEWARE the next person to play me...  I'm just kidding, I'm not that good yet.
 
That night was a lot of fun, with all the activities our floor did, both on schedule and off the schedule.  Anyways, it was a great end to another fun filled day here.

Signing off here.....

Allison "Alley-OOP"!

What We Did Today:
Monday, July 19, 1999

7:00 - 8:00 Breakfast
8:30 - 9:30 Personal Awareness
10:00 - 12:00 Career Awareness
12:00 - 1:15 Lunch
1:30 - 2:30 Personal Awareness
2:45 - 4:45 Career Awareness
5:00 - 6:00 Dinner
6:30 - 8:30 Movie Of The Week
8:30 - 9:00 Ice Cream Social
9:00 - 10:00 Community Hour
10:00 - 11:00 Floor Meeting
11:00 - Lights Out

And now what you've been waiting for. . .