Posted by Nahrain from DNab4078e2.Stanford.EDU (171.64.120.226) on Thursday, June 13, 2002 at 5:43PM :
In Reply to: oh yeah, one more thing posted by Lilly from ? (160.129.27.22) on Thursday, June 13, 2002 at 4:22PM :
I smell like organic stuff =) I enjoyed Pchem as well. Pchem II was tough though. The Aktins book is crap. You're very right about gen. chem. courses. Its REALLY tough to teach it right and not confuse students. I TAed intro chem this fall..wow, it was a lot of work. Its tough getting students to understand concepts when you struggle to explain the basics. I think too much material is covered in intro classes. My prof at K said he cuts back more and more every year. Its better to teach the key concepts more in-depth than to teach tons of topics covering each one in about 10 minutes of lecture if that. Its tough and this is exactly the reason why I'm happy to have gone to a small school. The profs were ALWAYS willing to help out and answer questions during and outside of class. It was great.
In my graduation class (2001), there were 15 chem majors which is very high for school with ~1200 or so students. Most of them were female which is so cool. Most of my friends in the department are working or switched fields. We have one great organic prof that came and taught my year and is now tenured. He was probably the driving force to get bio majors to turn chem, which is a rare day considering typical bio majors struggle with chemistry..especially pchem. This is what kills me about bio/pre-med majors--"I hate chemistry"--ummm you better learn to like chemistry if you want to be my doctor =)
Like you, I think i would enjoy cell biology more than anything. I don't really like much of the ecology/nature type of stuff. To tell you the truth, I'm not much of an outdoors kinda of person. its pretty much due to the way I was brought up. No pets, no camping trips, etc. I like to be outside though, Ilike going to the beach etc. I did play soccer for about 7 years..I tore my ACL so I no longer play. I'm still bitter about that =) I might go hiking this weekend with a friend, and I'm going to start riding the bike I bought to get around campus. There are some beautiful places here that I just have to go to...so I think California is helping me out in that sense. ...
If you are t all interested in what I do, I am starting to work on titanium catalysts for styrene/ethylene copolymermization. Might get into some lanthanides too. Its tough chemistry, very air and water sensitive. I sometimes have issues with the fact that we are improving catalytic methods to make nonrecyclable polymers but I get over it when I see the benefits of plastics and new materials. What I would like to see is new industrial processes that minimize pollution and waste production.
Do you want to teach when you are done with grad school? I don't know what I want to do yet. I'm kinda just doing whatever comes. I'm considering a long-term career in business or law but who knows..
Did you consider med school?
Oh, I do go to church here..that is when I wake up in time on Sundays and actually feel like going to San Jose. The Assyrian Church of the East is there. I've met some people there but as a whole, the "youth" tends to be younger, under 20. Maybe you are right about college kids not going to church..I'm sure they don't go as often..more like the Easter/Christmas kinda thing. Ah well, I find friends as they come I suppose. I don't feel lonely. Plus, I'm not going to force myself to be friends with people simply cause they are middle eastern or Assyrian or whatever. I'm sure you know what I mean. My best friend at home is a Republican, generally conservative white girl, and I wouldn't trade her for the world. We differ on some issues..but she's truly a good friend..
I could write forever so I'll stop for now..
Nahrain
-- Nahrain
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