Spring Break Relaxation

Erica Toussant,
Senior, Civil Engineering

Athens, OH 12 March 2013 – Over this year’s spring break, I took a week vacation in Florida. The break was early March so the northern part of FL was still cold. Luckily, I was down in Fort Lauderdale/Miami area. I was going to visit my boyfriend and some of his family he was staying with as he trained for the NFL draft.

I woke up super early the first Saturday of the break to drive to Columbus to catch my flight at 7:50am. I grabbed my backpack (I packed very light!) and was on my way. After a quick layover at the first stop, I landed in Florida around 1:00pm. It wasn’t as warm as I had hoped, but it certainly was much warmer than Ohio, and the temperature gradually increased throughout my stay. I got to spend the rest of Saturday and all of Sunday with my boyfriend. We spent this time by going to the movies, grabbing desserts at a fancy restaurant at the top of a building in South Beach, eating a home cooked meal with his aunt and uncle, and just relaxing by the pool at his cousin’s place.

Throughout the week, while he was training, I found ways to occupy myself. I read a really great book while I sat at the pool, looked around shops that I really had no business looking in considering the outrageous price tags, and taking walks on the beach. His aunt and uncle and a couple of her friends took me to the beach the one day. So, I got to meet these new people who are from other parts of Ohio.

Unfortunately halfway through the week, I woke up with sun poisoning and had to skip my scheduled trip to a nearby beach. I used the day to do some laundry and catch up on some shows and some sleep, but I made sure the following days were spent in the sun.

The trip was relaxing and exactly what I needed in the middle of this busy semester. It was a spring break to remember, not one about the usual college spring break trips, but one about me meeting new people, catching some rays, and learning an awesome new game called rummikub.

Spring Break with the Robe Leadership Institute

Devin Liskey, Senior, Industrial and Systems Engineering

Athens, OH 12 April 2012 – This spring break I had the opportunity to travel to San Diego, California with Russ College’s Robe Leadership Institute. We visited three businesses a day for three days. We were given a personal tour by the CEO of each business and participated in an information and question panel after the tour. Each CEO had his own style and story and it was very interesting to hear how each had worked their way to their position.
After the three days, the group had some free time to explore. Below is a picture of a few of us on the USS Midway, a floating naval aviation museum. The ship was staffed completely by veterans who had served on similar ships. When we told a few of the guides that we were engineers, they were excited and talked with us in depth about the boilers and engines.

Spring Break in San Diego

Abby Frankart, Senior, Mechanical Engineering

Athens, OH 28 March 2012 – This spring break I had the opportunity to travel with several of my fellow Robe Leadership scholars to Sunny San Diego! We spent two intense days speaking with CEOs of several startup companies, touring their facilities, and learning about leadership “in the trenches.” It was a lot of a fun and a really great learning experience.

The most memorable part of the trip however, was visiting the engineer’s playground: the USS Midway. It is a retired aircraft carrier turned museum anchored on the San Diego bay. The carrier was decommissioned in 1992, and is now staffed with volunteers who toured on the Midway.
It was a really great piece of history, but on top of that there are lots of things for an engineer to play with. It was a self-guided tour, and we took full advantage of pressing every button, turning every valve, and flipping every switch within arm’s length. On the flight deck, there were planes and helicopters everywhere. You could climb in the pilot’s seat in many of the aircraft. (I may or may not have cut a line of anxious 8-year-olds on a field trip to get in the pilot’s seat.) The USS Midway is a must see for anyone in the San Diego area.

Spring Break in Chicago

Evan Teske, Senior, Industrial and Systems Engineering

Athens, OH 27 March 2012 – Spring break this year started with St. Patty’s Day weekend, and for anyone that has seen The Fugitive, you may have noted that Chicago is a popular place to celebrate. This is mostly because of the parade, and also every year the city dyes the river green, which is a pretty cool tradition. So for this year’s holiday I road tripped up to the Windy City with a few friends from high school and stayed with my former Bromley roommate in Humboldt Park. Some connections we had with DePaul graduates made the weekend a success, and the combination of their experience and time spent in town gave us plenty of good things to do and see.

Since I was on break, I opted to stay a few extra nights in the city and take the Amtrak back on that Wednesday. This allowed time to do some site seeing that would have been difficult with more people, especially using all public transportation. My friend whom I was staying with did not have to work, so I had a travel buddy that understood the bus and train (CTA) systems. Some cool sites I had not been to before were Millennium Park, The Cultural Center (formerly the main library), China Town, The Chicago Board of Trades, and to the top of the Willis Tower (see the picture below).

I really enjoyed the trip also because I will be living and working in Chicago once I graduate, and being able to see the city from an insider’s perspective like my friend’s made me pretty excited about relocating. Chicago has a lot to offer and seems like a great place to start out my career.

Getting Ready for a New Job

Nicole Sari, Senior, Aviation

Athens, OH 4 March 2012 – As of today I have 13 days left of college. I have been counting down the days for the past 3 months. A week ago I was extremely stressed about job searching and wanted to turn the clock back a tad to buy more time. I was busy with a full schedule of classes and stayed up extremely late night after night job searching on top of that. Over winter break I had interviewed a couple times for a position. They were unable to hire me because since it was full time and they needed someone right away, they were unable to wait until I finished up with school. I was getting discouraged and heard from multiple people that chances are slim to none finding a job in my field with this economy. A week ago that same company called me back and wanted to bring me back in because a position opened up.

I am now a proud owner of a full time job at Landmark Aviation at Port Columbus International Airport. All of my worries are now gone. Within a few days time I have gone from working a day or two a week at an on campus job to working 30 hours in one weekend. For the next couple weeks I will be working on the weekends for training. Once I return from spring break in Daytona Beach I will be working full time. With 3 days of work accomplished, I can say I love my job.