Traveling has become a regular part of my life at Embry-Riddle. The school’s students travel from all over the world to learn about every facet of aviation. While my travels to home are not as far as others, it’s still a plane ride to get home to the Philadelphia area. This past week, Embry-Riddle went on spring break, and I was able to catch up with friends, travel, and go to a conference on emerging technologies.
Flying in and out of Daytona, I was fortunate enough to have a few friends travel with me. Even in Philadelphia, I met with a good friend in the terminal who was heading back to Embry-Riddle on another airline. At Embry-Riddle, students meet people from all over the country and all over the world. The school is a melting pot of aviation enthusiasts, which provides unique perspectives. I have been fortunate enough to make friends with a few students from the Northeast, and they frequently fly through Philadelphia to get back to Daytona – it works out great!
Fellow students have been pushing me to finally get my pilot’s license. While I am not an aeronautical science major, I did decide to pursue a private pilot’s license at a young age. With about 50 hours logged in a Diamond Eclipse, I am more than ready to take the written exam, but… I just need to study more – I spent a good chunk of my spring break studying.
On Friday, I attended The Wharton School’s “Emerging Technologies Update Day.” During the past three summers, I have worked as a summer research assistant for the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School’s Mack Center for Technological Innovation, one of Wharton’s 25 research centers. Fortunately, one of this years conferences fell on a date I was home, and I was able to go and listen to presentations from senior executives from Intel, IBM, NBC / GE, Nokia, and Teradata – just to name a few. It was great to see familiar faces and people I have worked with the past three years. I plan on working there this summer.
Overall, spring break as productive and relaxing. It was great to catch up on sleep after a long week of midterms and a few tests the week preceding spring break. I have about a month and a half before I go home again, and by then I will have completed my first year of college!
Be sure to check back in two weeks for another post.
Until then,
Jonathan
