Blogs
Tufts Hillel in Morocco
Posted by Kimberly Moniz in Active Citizenship, Blogs, International, Photos, Student Experience, Students on June 13, 2012
Early in June, a group of students from Tufts Hillel packed their bags and headed to Morocco. As part of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), the group planned to volunteer and serve while learning about the challenges facing Jewish communities abroad.
Through the JDC: In Service blog, the group has been blogging about their adventures. They’ve recounted days working with students at a local school, dancing with seniors at a home for the elderly, and helping to restore a Jewish cemetery.
While visiting the school, one of the Tufts bloggers writes:
It was especially meaningful to spend time in the computer class because before the trip we fundraised to buy computer operating systems for the school. We sold popcorn to Tufts students and their parents and raised a total of $650. We presented the check to the director of the school, who was very appreciative to both our group and the JDC for the support.
The group has also managed to fit in some site-seeing, complete with a trip to the Jardin Majorelles garden and touring the only Jewish Museum in the Arab world. See some pictures from their travels below and keep up with the Tufts Hillel team in Morocco here.
Visiting a local school
Restoring a Jewish cemetery
Group shot in Marrakech
While packing up, recycle and reuse
Posted by Kimberly Moniz in Blogs, Environment, Photos, Staff, Student Experience, Students on June 7, 2012
This year Tufts Recycles! encouraged students to think about recycling and reusing while they were packing up their dorm rooms for the summer. The R²ePACK move-out initiative asks students to Reuse & Recycle everything, pack and clean. This year they collected:
- 8500 pounds of clothes and linens, to be donated and recycled
- 1 truckload of freecyclable items, to be donated to incoming freshmen in the fall
- 20 pairs of crutches, to be reused by the Tufts Athletics Department
- 15 boxes of nonperishable food, donated to Project Soup in Somerville
- 6 boxes of Dining Hall dishes, returned to Dewick-MacPhie and Carmichael Dining Halls
- 5 boxes of school supplies, to be donated to the Medford Public Schools
- 3 boxes of books, to be donated to the Boston Prison Book Drive
- 2 cubic yards of broken and working electronics, to be recycled
- 1 mountain of mattress foam, to be recycled
To document R²ePACK 2012, the team took photos during the collection. Click on the photos to see more on the Tufts Recycles! blog:
Graduate Student Research Abroad
Posted by Ashley Wood in Blogs, Faculty, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, International, Research, Social Media, Student Experience, Students, Web on May 29, 2012
Tufts’ Graduate School of Arts & Sciences (GSAS) blog is a wealth of information and advice for students currently enrolled in graduate school. Their most recent pearls of wisdom discuss the topic of going abroad for research. The blog post goes into detail about staying focused on your project, absorbing culture, and reaching out to colleagues and friends who have visited the area before. The post highlights short quotes from other students and professors who have experience with abroad research, such as student Philip Mallon’s, E17, who stressed the importance of time:
For about a week after I arrived, I traveled around the area, settled my housing, and got to know the transit system. Taking the time to become comfortable with the area made a big difference.
You can check out their recent post here.
The Job Hunt
Posted by Ashley Wood in Blogs, School of Arts and Sciences, Student Experience, Students on May 17, 2012
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.
Finding Parkour in Cairo
Posted by Katherine McManus in Alumni, Blogs, International, School of Arts and Sciences, Video on May 9, 2012
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.
Balance Finals
Posted by Ashley Wood in Blogs, Faculty, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, School of Arts and Sciences, School of Engineering, Student Experience, Students on May 1, 2012
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.
Thoughts From Places: Tufts & Davis Square
Posted by Katherine McManus in Blogs, Community, Student Experience, Students, Video on April 23, 2012
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.
Frosting Cupcakes with the Tufts Robotics Club
Posted by Katherine McManus in Blogs, School of Engineering, Student Experience, Students, Video on April 20, 2012
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.
Tufts Dining on Tumblr
Posted by Ashley Wood in Blogs, Staff, Students on April 18, 2012
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.
Jumbos Abroad: Madrid Edition
Posted by Ashley Wood in Blogs, International, School of Arts and Sciences, Student Experience, Students on April 3, 2012
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.