It's 12am. Not too shabby for a blog post.
Tired, again, so I'll try to keep straight to the point, with a little flare here and there.
This morning, I woke up with the correct time zone on my alarm clock, which meant I had some nice sleep in. I went to breakfast where we had French toast, sausages, bacon and eggs. We started our day off by going to a lecture hall at the Foreward Building (how relevant) where we had various speakers come in and talk to us. One of them being our program director at Shad UBC. He discussed economics and entrepreneurship with us, and how he despises certain capitalists but loves the Grameen Bank. I really enjoyed him. The networking opportunities here are endless. We also enjoyed our tech advisor's presentation on the engineer design process. Another speaker was from Telus advising us to develop our core skills and follow our passions. And last was a Harvard Med School graduate who now researches and studies sleep at UBC. Us 52 Shads here asked an hour and a half worth of sleep questions. Everywhere and anywhere from sleepwalking to homeostasis. Let's just say, today I learned a heck of a lot. I can only imagine what's to come. At the lecture hall we were also given a few details on our Project House. All Shads across Canada will find out the "theme" tomorrow...it's a surprise!
Later on in the day we did Recreation (Rec for short). We played this game called assassin, but I "died" in the opening minute, so we played an hour of ultimate frisbee instead. Some staff here have quite the "ultimate" skills.
Dinner was served at 5:15pm today. I left early because I had to prepare and practice my "Shad speaks" presentation. We were given free range of choice on any topic to discuss for up to 15min. I did a presentation that I had prepared for an American History course I did this past semester. I led a deep discussion on my topic which was really exciting. When I did the presentation back at school, the responses to the questions I posed involved one word answers. But here at Shad, people could not stop raising their hands and questioning my topic. The issues did not seem alien or foreign to anyone, and appreciation by all Shads was evident. I witnessed first hand the type of personalities Shad Valley brings together-youth who have a keen interest in learning and solving problems. What I liked most was that people cared. It was awesome.
We fit in 8 speeches today because there was so much interest in everyone's topics. I'm really excited to see what my other fellow Shads are passionate about.
After presentations were over at 10pm, I hung out in the common room with the Shads who still had energy stored away for this fun time of the day. Everyone was on their laptop updating family and friends of the several new happenings here today. We rented a drum set and keyboard so people were also jamming away to various songs and beats. It's quite the atmosphere at Shad UBC in the late hours. I had an intriguing conversation at 10:45 with a PA (program assistant). We talked for almost an hour on common interests we shared including law and debating. This was an eye opener. It made me realize that Shad students are not only science-based entrepreneurs, but science-based entrepreneurs who are well-rounded with several interests.
Oh golly gee, it's 12:30am Pacific time...I think. I'll have to double check that one! Anyways, I should probably head out now. I keep hearing of the busyness of our days now. Tomorrow, the big secret will be revealed and we begin getting down and dirty into the energy sucker tasks. Should I say yay?
I'm not too sure, though I know I will say bye and goodnight.
Carolyn Chong, Shad Valley University of British Columbia 2010
Hometown: Dundas, Ontario
