Oh what a Day!

Today was a pretty typical day, class in the morning, meetings in the evening, and pint night to close. Class today was especially great. I've been taking an Industrial Engineering class called Operation Research, which is an area I've enjoyed since I began learning it during Fall quarter. But this quarter's class was being taught by a retired professor who the department brought back because they needed someone to fill the position. Needless to say, he's a bit rusty and the class has suffered as a result. But today, our professor from the last two quarters (who was away on medical leave) came back! It was a complete 180, from completely incompetent to overly qualified. Tali (the professor who replaced the retired one) is exactly what I love about Cal Poly. She goes out of her way to provide for her students. She's always down to talk during her office hours, and not just about class but about anything. Today she offered me a job during the summer working for her at PolyGAIT, which is Cal Poly's RFID lab. What a relief, I'd already planned to stay in SLO for the summer, so it's extra great that I'll have an internship as well. But back to why Tali is a great professor. I've found there are two types here at Poly, professors who care and those who don't. For the most part I've had those that do care, and it's wonderful. It's amazing how much more enjoyable class is when the professor is passionate about what they're teaching. But on the other hand, it makes it that much more difficult to attend the classes where you can't tell if the professor is even awake or not. The former, set the bar high, and they expect a lot from students- but as a student in that situation, I'm all the more willing to participate. The club meeting I went to was for EmPower, the environmental club coalition. I was elected as the financial officer, which suits me just fine as I had experience doing the same thing for the Democrat club this past year (in addition to being president). It's nice to feel like I'm working towards a solution, a sustainable solution for our local community; because that's where it has to start, locally. We've made enormous strides this last year, with Focus the Nation in January and the Rec Center vote for LEED certification, everyone seems to be on board. At least all the students anyway. And of course, pint night at Frog n Peach to top off the night. Definitely a favorite, but for more reasons that just what they have on tap. SLO is a college town, and so going downtown offers a chance to see tons of people from school outside of the classroom routine. Now, as a fourth year, it's nice to go downtown and always run into people I know. It's like a family, and we treat each other that way. Unlike other schools I've visited, Poly students are there for each other, there's not that sense of competition you find elsewhere. Speaking of teamwork, I've got a IME sustainability advisory committee meeting tomorrow that I still need to prepare for. Better sign off now before I get too carried away.