Senior Cara Paley, A12, recently shared the details of her job search on the Tufts Career Services blog. The three-installment piece follows her experiences receiving an  interview after applying for a job through Tufts Career Connect, going to the interview, and waiting to hear back from the company. The posts are great for any student who is looking for insight in the somewhat-confusing world of job hunting.

An excerpt from her first post is just one example of her discoveries during the job search:

I found that the “two-week-turnaround” reputation of media hiring isn’t so rigid. True, media employers are notoriously last minute, unable to afford the same early recruiting efforts as say finance, engineering, and accounting. But if you highlight the fact that you’re a graduating senior and willing to start work in just a few short months, employers might just give your application a careful glance.

Does Cara get the job? Check out the last post in the series, here.

Tufts alumnus Ben Gittleson, A11,  has found something neat in Cairo. In the Egyptian capital, where political change has made life unpredictable, Parkour has gained popularity.

Ben, former Editor in Chief of the Tufts Daily, documented this discovery in a video and article that was recently featured on ESPN’s Page 2 website.

Cairo might seem like an unlikely place for parkour to take root. The free-spirited sport with French roots — in which athletes navigate urban environments with acrobatic techniques — does not necessarily mesh with Egyptian society’s conservative norms.

But it does provide an outlet for young Cairenes to get out their energy amid the pressures of life in the Egyptian capital. Endless traffic jams, suffocating pollution, and a dearth of public parks makes exercising difficult, and parkour is these youths’ answer to the constant stress.

Check out Ben’s video and the daring young Egyptians’ moves:

For more of Ben Gittleson’s journalistic work from Cairo, check out his website or blog.

With finals upon us, things like healthy food, sleep, and trips to the gym tend to get put on the back burner. It’s much easier to grab some late night take-out than to prepare a well balanced meal in your kitchen. But, the worst thing that could happen to you during finals is getting sick, so Tufts Department of Health Education has provided a list of easy steps to follow to ensure you stay sniffles-free during this hectic time. The most unexpected tip? Staying hydrated:

During periods of intensive brain activity, water serves as the primary media and reactant in the massive metabolic reactions going on in your body and brain. To maintain health and a high level of functionality, you need to watch out for dehydration.

Head to their blog, Balance Your Life, for steps 1-4, as well as for more tips on creating a healthier lifestyle that expands outside of finals period.

The Thoughts from Places video project was created by New York Times bestselling author John Green in an effort to bring more writing to a generation of YouTube users. On his blog, he writes:

So the idea is this: Thoughts From Places will be a series of 100 visual essays, each exploring an encounter with a place and the people we meet there. Sometimes these places will be very small (my old high school, a bison range in Montana) and sometimes they’ll be very big (Munich, London). We hope you enjoy the series (and that you’ve been enjoying it, even if you didn’t previously know it was A Thing).

Sarah Ruckhaus, A14, ran with this idea and put together this video of Tufts and Davis Square.

Will Langford, E12, and the Tufts Robotics Club were featured in this video, describing the work the club does, and how they are using their grant from the TCU Surplus funding. Will loves giving his mechanical engineering studies practical uses and sharing these experiences with the rest of Tufts.

Take a look here:

For more info about Maker Bot, check out their blog.

Want to know how to make that infamous dining hall butternut squash bisque? Have questions about the freshness of Dewick’s veggies? Just a foodie looking for a new cuisine based site? Look no further than Tufts Dining’s new blog. The tumblr site consists of posts by Tufts chefs, dining administrators, and even a fellow Tufts student and self proclaimed food lover, Veronica Richter, A13. Visit the site to snag recipes, read bios and interviews with the chefs that create your food, and get local restaurant suggestions.

Like many Tufts students who have chosen to go abroad for a semester, former Web Communications social media intern Veronica Richter, A11, used her blog to document her experiences in Spain. After two months of testing the local culture, Richter has compiled a list of helpful suggestions and advice for students who are considering spending a semester in a foreign country, especially the program in Madrid. From romantic expectations to culinary ones, Richter’s impressions are sure to be useful for those who are already imagining what their experience will be like.

Her first piece of advice?

HAVE NO EXPECTATIONS. At all. I expected to not have to deal with culture shock–I was wrong. I expected I would be hanging out with Spanish people 24/7–was wrong about that too.

To read more, visit her blog.

March 11th marked the one year anniversary of the 9.0 earthquake in Northern Japan. To demonstrate their remembrance of the devastating event, as well as their continued support of its survivors, the Tufts Japanese Culture Club put together a video that compiles existing video footage of the earthquake aftermath coupled with information on both the effects and JCC’s efforts. You can visit their website to learn about what they’re doing to show their support, as well as watch the video below.

Dan Halpert, E12, has big post-graduation plans, and we’re not talking about immediately starting a 9 to 5 job. Halpert is looking to bike across the country as a member of Bike and Build, an organization for people who want to spend their summer alternating between biking, building affordable homes and shelters, and spreading the word on the affordable housing crisis. To raise funds for his trip, Halpert has set up a website and a biker profile where people can learn about his cause, as well as donate. He currently has reached about a third of his $4500 goal. In his profile, Dan explains his motivation for the trip:

Neighboring my hometown, and just a few hundred feet from my house, is Bridgeport, CT, where one can witness the affordable housing crisis and high levels of homelessness first hand.  Growing up so close to that made me realize how much we take for granted the simple pleasure of a roof over our heads and that affordable housing should be granted to every person, regardless of their socioeconomic standing.

You can donate to Halpert’s cause here.

What says active citizenship better than actually teaching civics? Erica Rigby, A15, is doing just that through Generation Citizen, an organization that empowers underrepresented youth to be active participants in the democratic process.

Prior to heading into Boston area schools, Rigby attended a training workshop with other Boston area volunteers, and shared her reflections on the Generation Citizen Blog.

Departing the room that day shortly before 5 o’clock with the Mentor handbooks and curriculums under our arms, the collective sentiment was more something along the lines of solidarity, satisfaction, and great expectation. This season we’ll be riding in tandem, as Mentors, to encourage these students to engage in their democratic classroom and walk up to the open mic.

The entire blog post can be found at Cue the Open Mic on the Generation Citizen Blog.