Hello everybody!
This week was very busy. Clark was pretty busy with some big annual events. First, the International Gala was on Friday night in the Kneller Athletic Center. Saturday was Just Do It Day. During the week I went to some meetings and did some homework, but more on that later.
The Clark Historical Society held its first meeting on Monday night. It was a small group, but we discussed the goals of the club and how we’ll increase the membership. We will be holding debates and discussions on controversial and interesting topics once more people start coming. I’m happy to be part of it from the beginning.
Tuesday was a Food for Thought dinner sponsored by the MAD Scholars and the President’s Office. The topic was Clark’s motto “Challenge Convention and Change the World” and how we could do a better job following it. President Bassett and two people from the Worcester YWCA and Stone Soup (an all purpose community activity space) spoke about their observations of great things Clark volunteers have done around Worcester. There was great food from Nancy Chang’s Chinese restaurant too, which was delicious. I could tell how important student volunteers are to these organizations thanks to this event. We had an intramural soccer game at night and won! 3-1 record so far, which is unbelievable for our team.
Wednesday was the Spring Open House for the Philosophy Department. I always enjoy going and hearing about the course offerings for the next semester. The professors tell attendees about their classes, the major and induct students into the philosophy honors society. Their huge buffet of Middle Eastern food from Fantastic’s does not hurt their large attendance either. 
On Thursday, I had a Study Abroad meeting with the people in charge of the France program. We learned the specifics of our program, which classes we will take, and extracurricular activities and heard advice about how to meet real French people and avoid clinging to Americans.
Friday was International Gala. My pictures aren’t representative of how colossal this event really is, so I recommend searching for it on the Clark homepage. I woke up in the morning and saw flags for various countries all over campus, which reminded me of how widespread this event is. My friends who participated had been going to rehearsals for the days leading up to Gala. It is basically a show with dancing and singing meant to appreciate Clark’s diverse student body. There were dances for countries and regions including: Argentina, Italy, West Africa, the Caribbean, China, Pakistan, Japan, Israel, India, the USA, Germany, Sri Lanka, France, Latin America, Romania, Indonesia, Albania and many others. The show went from 7 to after 11pm. I could only be there for the first half because I was on RA duty, but there was a webcast, so I caught the rest of it on my computer. Any campus event with a webcast is a big deal, if that’s a clue about Gala’s magnitude. The following night there was an after-Gala party in the Dining Hall featuring international club music.
Saturday was my big day: Just Do It Day. After months of planning and coordinating, JDID had arrived. About 150 volunteers showed up, received t-shirts, worked at sites around Worcester, and enjoyed food at our after party. Our sites varied from homeless shelters, youth centers, domestic violence shelters, museums, community gardens and more. Because I was one of the co-chairs, I didn’t work at one specific site, but worked behind the scenes delivering supplies to the different locations. Everybody needed more garbage bags and work gloves, so we were busy doing re-supply missions all afternoon. After everyone walked back to campus, we enjoyed pizza, falafel, salads and cookies and exchanged stories about the day. JDID is a good way to get people involved with organizations without making them take the initiative to set things up themselves. I hope that some of yesterday’s participants establish meaningful relationships with community organizations.
Today I went to Clark Hillel’s installation ceremony where a couple friends were being honored. I had an intramural soccer game too. To all of you admitted students, please do not hesitate to e-mail me with any Clark related questions as you get closer to making a decision.
Have a good week,
Jeremy
posts by Jeremy
- Goodbye for now! - April 21st, 2009
- Glow Dance, Sex Fest and Milan Vodopivec - April 14th, 2009
- Spree Day - April 7th, 2009
- Televised sports, poetry and housing - March 29th, 2009
- Sportful weekend - March 22nd, 2009
- Springtime approaches... - March 15th, 2009
- Spring Break report - March 8th, 2009
- Spring Break - March 1st, 2009
- Stair Run, Hockey, and more - February 22nd, 2009
- Masquerade Ball and more - February 15th, 2009
- Ice skating, Flora in Winter and more - February 8th, 2009
- Super Bowl and AHL All Star Game - February 1st, 2009
- Inauguration Day and Happy Year of the Ox! - January 25th, 2009
- Round 2 - January 18th, 2009
- Pre-Finals week - December 14th, 2008
- First week of December - December 7th, 2008
- Jazz Band and more - November 24th, 2008
- Dining Hall Thanksgiving, International Journey and more - November 22nd, 2008
- Mid November activities - November 17th, 2008
- Election, Soccer, A Capella, Murder Mystery & more - November 10th, 2008
- End of the week wrap-up - November 2nd, 2008
- Busy Week - October 23rd, 2008
- Pineapple Express, Walking around, Phish tickets and a lot of pictures - October 19th, 2008
- Long Weekend - October 11th, 2008
- Having one class on Tuesdays is awesome - October 7th, 2008
- My First Post! - October 4th, 2008
