Commonwealth Scholar – The iSchool at Pitt – Page 22 – Check out the life of a graduate Pitt iSchool Commonwealth Scholar!

Halfway Point

On March 6, 2014

Spring Break (next week, woo hoo!) marks the official halfway point of my time here at the iSchool. Its flown by! It seems like just yesterday I was sitting on the patio at the New Student Orientation Picnic, taking in all of the orientation material and new school excitement.

After 7 months, it is clear that I have learned a great deal through my classes and work experiences, as well as made some pretty interesting and amazing friends. I am now planning my summer courses, and searching for job openings! Though its not the same new school excitement, its a more subtle, new life experience excitement. Looking forward to taking my degree into the working world!

Random Quick Thought About iFest…

By Angela

On February 18, 2014

In Jourdan

The amount of fun and excitement that I had last week had me thinking…

is this what college homecoming feels like?

In high school, it was a little more exciting because I was a dancer and I got to perform on the football field for pep rally, be in the homecoming parade, participate in spirit week, and go to the dance. I was the center of attention for a few days. I loved being a Raider. But, it drastically changed in college.

In undergrad, I really wasn’t too excited about homecoming weekend. I went to the games, but I didn’t feel anymore proud to be a Terp (don’t get me wrong, I’m SO proud to be a Terp). I didn’t do the homecoming activities. I wasn’t really thrilled. It was just a normal weekend to me.

At iFest, I attended every activity, with the exception of the ones that took place during class/work. By the end of the week, I felt so much pride in my accomplishments and who I was within the iSchool. I felt proud and excited to be a Panther, but more importantly, a Panther in the School of Information Sciences. It probably helped that I ended the week with TONS of fun with my friends and my family (thanks mom and dad for coming to visit me!!!). But, iFest definitely made me feel like I was a part of something special. I think one of the best parts was the togetherness that I felt with the MLIS students. There wasn’t an event where I didn’t spend time with them or collaborate with them to make something awesome (our Jumanji board was pretty awesome). I even found myself spending a little time arguing about archives before I knew I was way over my head, ha!! Boy, do I have a lot to learn about archives.

Last week was a great experience and a true homecoming feeling for me 🙂 iPanther Pride!! <—You see what I did there? iPanther? 😉 Genius, right?

iFest Wrap-up

By Angela

On February 17, 2014

In Uncategorized

Even with classes, work and my internship, I was able to make it to a couple more iFest activites:

The Executive Roundtable was a great way to get to know local employers and their workplace culture. Though there were the general questions of the type of internships and positions available, what skills they are looking for, there was also constructive discussion of the type of environment and team dynamics. Anyone can learn and practice skills, however each professional drove home the idea of soft skills; knowing how to work in a team, standing up for your opinion, but still knowing when and how to negotiate, and asking the right questions.
The “Big Data in History: Creating a World-Historical Archive” presentation by Dr. Patrick Manning (Andrew W. Mellon Professor of World History and Director of the World History Center, University of Pittsburgh), sponsored by NDSA, illustrated the three missions of the Collaborative for Historical Information and Analysis, CHIA. It is an interesting research project for analyzing global statistics through data sets contributed by organizations around the world. Though there are still some issues concerning acquisition, assessment, and preservation, it seems to be moving towards a monumental goal.
The Career & Internship Expo brought together multiple employers to meet and greet with our students. Though it was not as person al as the Executive Roundtable, it was a great opportunity to share resumes with recuiters.
And, of course, the Books and Bots Design Challenge! Jourdan, Emily Mross, and I, as Team Notorious Cardigans, chose to create a “bot” that would embody the classic children’s book, Jumanji. We created the board game, in which a person would throw the dice, and the game piece would move magically move (spoiler: we used magnets), the center would light up with a quote from the book, and a corresponding audio clip would play. The dice can be thrown three times to move from start to the finish point at the center of the board. Though we did not place, we are pretty proud of what we created, and we did have a lot of fun working together.