Monthly Archives: November 2020

Finals & Fall/Winter Break

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Happy November folks! I’m currently blogging from Daytona Beach, Florida and Thanksgiving is so close I can almost taste it (the cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie of course).

The fall semester has rapidly been coming to a close and with about a week left until Winter Break starts its hard to see past all the assignments and even fathom a break that is, despite what my stressors persuade me, going to be upon us very shortly. I don’t typically doubt myself, but I do surprise myself because sometimes my schedule is so busy it’s hard to picture being able to accomplish so many tasks in one day, much less a week! 

A plot from my Aerospace Structures Homework that I’m currently working on via Femap/Nastran

In the spirit of being thankful (Thanksgiving vibes) I am grateful that I have the amazing opportunities to continually challenge myself in academics, professional relations, physical fitness, and leadership skills. Cue the teleprompter voice, this is all made possible in part by… time management skills I didn’t realize I had, setting daily reminders via Siri on my phone and laptop throughout the day, many To-Do lists, calendar notifications, alarms, and most importantly – my tried and true Go-To… coffee! Kidding, I am very thankful to have a support system of friends and family and I am so excited to go back to Virginia in about a week to see them!

Final exams are just around the corner, right after Thanksgiving, and the semester is truly so close to coming to an end. My motivations are good food, sleep, and quality time watching Christmas movies at home.

Over the winter break, post finals, I plan to work on Scholarship and Study Abroad opportunity applications, practice my Arabic by exploring further into the world of Arabic music, TV, and movies, and of course, rest!

Upon reflecting on the past few months, the hardest part of this Fall Semester, that I foresee will be a challenge in the Spring as well, is not having breaks or time to rest and recover between classes and assignments. Having long weekends and breaks canceled means that professors continuously assign homework, tests, quizzes, and projects until finals. This is especially disheartening considering my current Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings are filled with due dates, in addition to every weekday. I go directly from one subject and assignment to the other and it’s sometimes hard to see the light that the end of the semester brings when you’re in the thick of it.

College extensively exceeds the typical 40 hours a week “full time” work schedule, which is something I couldn’t have prepared for beforehand and is not something I am 100% sure I am prepared for now, despite taking part in it weekly. On the bright side, time never stops, and we get through it. My advice is to keep a positive attitude and keep pushing, one week, day, or task at a time. Progress is progress. Finals are quickly approaching and so is the rest and relaxation that follows! Will report back soon folks. Keep on keeping on!

Research Opportunities

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This past summer, I had the privilege to work on an undergraduate research project with my faculty mentor. I was accepted to the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows (SURF) program offered by the undergraduate research department. I spent the spring 2020 semester (pre-covid) designing my research and a plan for data collection. I conducted my research on Women in Aviation and factors that impact minority female students enrolled in aviation higher degree.

2020 SURF Receipients

During the summer and into the spring semester, I was conducting interviews on zoom from a remote site (due to the pandemic). These participants identified themselves as a minority female and I was able to have meaningful conversations with them in order to explore their needs and wants in order to achieve success in a very homogenous industry. The entire process almost took up a year but this past month, I was able to present my research at the Global Virtual Conference on Diversity in Aviation, Aerospace and STEM, hosted by Ohio State University. The paper was later published on UAA (University Aviation Association) for the CARI (Collegiate Aviation Review International) journal. In addition to the publication, I will be presenting at the virtual Student Research Symposium (ERAU) this fall.

It was such a meaningful opportunity to be able to conduct my own research, present it in front of people and be able to publish a research paper. I have learned so much from the experience and all the time I spent working on this project was well worth it at the end.

I always knew that our university had great research programs, but as a pilot, all those opportunities felt distant from me as I assumed they were more for the engineering students. However, from my own research experience, I found out these research programs extended to aeronautics, business, homeland security and many more majors offered at our school. It was a refreshing experience to see the work of student researchers from a diverse pool of studies.

For anyone who is interested in conducting their own research (you can also do it in a group), I would highly recommend contacting our undergraduate research department to find out more about all the opportunities they have to offer. They will help you find anything from a good research topic, a mentor, a scholarship, to conference opportunities. The experience you will gain from conducting a research at a higher degree institution is something you will not obtain from your average classroom setting.

I Watched the Product of Literal Rocket Science

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Spoiler alert: It was freaking awesome, and hopefully, one day, I will be in a mission control room…

So, as space lovers like myself are well aware, the Crew-1 mission launched on Sunday from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Since I live in Daytona now, I was lucky enough to be able to see it from ~10-11 miles away. And let me just say- that was awesome.

Since the Crew-1 was a crewed mission, a lot of people wanted to go. Thankfully, Embry-Riddle is only an hour or so away from Cape Canaveral, and everyone knows it. Because of the proximity, there’s a group chat on Snapchat full of people that like attending rocket launches. A lot of people- and I mean a lot– of people decided to go to this launch, whether they are in the group chat or not. Here’s what my snap map looked like nearly two hours before the launch:

Yeah, a lot of people went down. Some people made it a full day endeavor, hanging out at Cape Canaveral/Titusville/the Kennedy Space Center. If I had the time, money, and a car of my own, I definitely would have. Embry-Riddle has ZipCars, so people with ZipCar accounts can drive the ZipCars. That’s how my friends and I got a ride down there.

My friends and I settled on a bridge nearby to watch the launch. The bridge was pulled up, and the lights were pretty bright, so we decided to go exploring. We found a path that led to a birdwatching spot and realized that the launch pad was right in front of us. (We were facing south, north of the Cape.) Once we realized that, we instantly took a seat on the birdwatching benches.

There was no service for most of us, but luckily, one of our friends had 5G service. He streamed the launch and played it through one of our other friend’s Bluetooth speaker, but since he had limited cellular data, turned it off 30 seconds before launch. (We only had it on to ensure that the launch didn’t scrub.) While the stream was playing, we talked about the launch, including the rocket’s trajectory. Most of us were aerospace engineering majors on the astronautics track. Then, the launch pad lit up right in front of us, and we all started cheering.

We all screamed when we saw this. Photo credit: me.

It was crazy. It was as if the night had turned into day for a split second, and then we saw a tiny burst of light streaking up into the sky:

The little dot is the rocket. Photo credit: me.

We all had our cameras and filmed the little rocket shooting up into the sky. A few moments after the rocket launched, we heard the loud rocket rumble, and we were so close that we could feel it in the ground. I totally understand why some people cry during rocket launches- it was amazing to watch. This is how far people have come- we’re sending each other into space. This is the product of literal rocket science, something that I’m lucky enough to learn at Riddle. I couldn’t stop thinking about it- one day I could do something like that with my degree.

Since the rocket trajectory was going northeast, it curved to the left in the sky. We were able to see everything: we saw the first stage booster separate from the rocket, and then we watched the second stage booster ignite. After that, we watched the rocket get smaller and smaller until it disappeared into the sky.

We waited around in case we could see the first stage booster coming back down to land on the drone ship, but unfortunately, we didn’t see it. After that, we headed right back to Embry-Riddle. The roads back were quite busy, since people had a lot of different spots to watch from. One of my friends took this from a beach:

Crew-1 from the beach. Photographer wished to remain anonymous.

This is the second rocket launch I’ve seen; the first one was the Starlink launch in August. I’ve noticed that Crew-1, however, had a lot more attendees to it. It was absolutely amazing to watch, and I’m really glad I got to go. Even those who didn’t make the drive down to Cape Canaveral were able to see the launch from Riddle’s campus, which is another thing that I love about going to Riddle. On Friday, I had a test, so I couldn’t drive down with the rocket-watching group chat to watch the Atlas V launch close up. However, I could easily see it from Riddle’s campus!

Sleep & Busy Schedules

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Happy November folks! I’m currently blogging from Daytona Beach, Thanksgiving is about two and a half weeks away and I feel like I’m on the last uphill sprint before finals. I am so excited to go back to Virginia and eat good food and catch up on sleep! 

Florida has been getting colder lately, and when I recently took my Fitness Assessment for AFROTC it was probably one of the chilliest mornings yet. In-person PTs have been canceled for ROTC on ERAU’s DB campus for the rest of the semester but we still do “virtual workouts”. Essentially we are given workouts to complete individually to maintain our fitness on personal accountability, rather than gather in person with socially distant procedures for group PT sessions.

This past week has been extremely busy! I have had lots of tests, quizzes, and presentations, and I am very tired. My plans for Thanksgiving and Winter break include lots of sleep!

 My daily plan for Friday is to wake up at approximately 0500, do my morning yoga routine, go as a spotter (essentially a repetition counter or time keeper) for the AFROTC Fitness Assessment, return to my room, take an Aerospace Engineering Materials Exam, take an Experimental Aerodynamics quiz, go workout and get smoothies for lunch (Friday is $5.00 smoothie day at Smoothie King in Daytona Beach and after a midday run on a Friday, a smoothie is the best way to start the weekend off on the right foot!), finish the day by working on Aerospace Structures I homework, and my AFROTC Flight is holding a socially distanced Flight Goal of an Improv Night in the evening that I plan on attending. Very busy!

My Student Court Associate Justice headshot in my SGA Court polo!
My (personal favorite) Student Court Associate Justice headshot in my court robe that makes me feel like I’m a Wizard in Harry Potter!

I have a fully packed schedule every day and there is never a moment where I don’t have something that I could be doing. For example, there seems to be an exponential amount of need for me to be working on a homework assignment for various classes, studying or preparing for an upcoming test/quiz, trying to get a head start (or most of the time realistically trying to keep up) on deadlines for my Experimental Aerodynamics labs, sending or replying to emails, working on scholarship applications, and sleeping! 

In my free time you will usually find me working out, doing yoga, studying, or sleeping… so maybe it isn’t really free time? I am looking forward to actual free time over winter break, I can’t remember the last time I actively planned on doing nothing, and successfully followed through with it. Only a few more weeks left! Will report back soon. Keep on keeping on folks!

Somehow, I Won Two Halloween Costume Contests

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Well, now Halloween is over, and so are the Halloween events. Embry-Riddle hosted several events this year despite the pandemic:

The student government association (SGA) also had free treat bags for students in the Student Leadership Suite all week, which was very nice of them. Each treat bag had a drink (some had Starbucks Frappuccinos and Gatorades!), a full-size candy bar, a bag of chips, and a small bag of fruit snacks.

The Honors Student Association hosted a door decorating contest, room decorating contest, and costume contest that all of their members were invited to participate in. I noticed a few doors being decorated, and some other people left free candy outside of their dorm room for the entire week preceding Halloween. Some of the candy buckets are still there.

This year, I didn’t have too much time to come up with an amazing costume, and I didn’t have too much money to spend. However, I was able to come up with two low-effort costumes: Regina George (from Mean Girls!) and Miss ERAU the CFI.

On Friday, I decided to dress up since I saw several others doing it. I had a crown, so I threw on a white shirt and black pants and decided to cross over the beauty queen idea with the flight instructor idea that I’d had earlier in the year. The Embry-Riddle certified flight instructor (CFI) uniform consists of a white polo, black pants, and black closed-toed shoes, which was pretty easy to replicate. This year, Miss America is a pharmacy student, and she often wears her lab coat on her Instagram, so I decided that “Miss Riddle” could be a CFI.

With a little help from the SGA, I was able to borrow a blue graduation stole to make my sash. I used two paperclips, one at the top and one on the bottom, to help make the cross, and I was good to go! I walked around campus as Miss ERAU on Friday, and then had plans to be Regina George on Saturday. I even stuffed some papers in a pink folder to make the Burn Book:

However, the heat and I did not get along. Since I’m in Florida, I overheated very quickly and changed back into my Miss ERAU costume, which I wore for the rest of Friday.

On Saturday, the Halloween events started at 6 PM. I met a few friends outside of the student union, and we explored the festivities. There was plenty of treats at different tables: candy apples, bags of candy, hot apple cider, and even full-size donuts. Inside the student union, the school had set up a haunted house. I tried to go in with my friend, but we chickened out three times. Our friends eventually got her to go through it, but I decided to be a chicken and not give myself nightmares.

At 7:30 there was a costume contest in front of the student union, and I decided to enter it. There were seven categories: Best Group, Blue & Gold, Scariest, People’s Choice, Most Creative, Best Homemade, and Air & Space. My costume fit best under Blue & Gold, so I chose that category. The judging committee consisted of a few students, one of which was the SGA president.

The contest was really well organized. Once the category was announced, the entrants lined up on the side. Once the judges were ready, they then walked in front of the spectators and the judges’ table. Contestants would then state what they were to the judges and student body before walking off to the side. The process repeated until every costume in the category was judged, and then it started all over again. There was also a photographer from the Student Engagement & Student Union department, and he took photos of all of the contestants.

The costume contest was very entertaining for both spectators and entrants. One of the funniest group costumes (in my opinion) was this group of guys:

Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister of the UK, has made an appearance. He is accompanied by two flag carriers and a member of the Embry-Riddle Flat Earth Society.

After all of the judges had judged the costumes, they announced that voting for the People’s Choice costume was open. To vote, students scanned a QR code and voted on a CampusGroups poll of the entrants. While that happened, the judges determined the winners.

I ended up winning the Blue & Gold category and the People’s Choice category. I got a $10 Starbucks gift card for the win in each category, and the People’s Choice win also came with a Cards Against Humanity set. I also got two certificates.

After the costume contest, Touch-n-Go, the entertainment division of the SGA, screened The Nightmare Before Christmas. Riddle-sponsored Halloween events were after that, but one student hosted a bonfire in the fire pit by New Residence Hall Phase II, which several other students attended.

I thought Halloween was great this year despite the pandemic. I’ve never experienced a pandemic-free Halloween at ERAU, but this year there was a surplus of events. I heard that the haunted house was really well done, but I was not willing to test it out. In my opinion, the SGA and Student Engagement teams did really well, especially with the amount of free candy.

And let’s be honest, one is never too old for free candy.