PSY-310: Applied Statistics & Behavioral Methods, is the first and last class I’ll take with Dr. Lauren Brewer. The newest member of C of I’s Psychology faculty, I first met Dr. Brewer last spring as she was interviewing for her position at the College. In the first few lectures of the class, her passion for statistics as a tool to help scientists answer questions has come across strongly.  

It’s been a good first week back. I’ve been doing a lot of reading; I’m 262 pages into The Life of Charlotte Bronte, and 181 pages into First, Do No Harm. These books are for my lit class on the Bronte sisters and for Bioethics, respectively. Aside from those two, I’ve had passages from Plato, Aristotle, Virgil, and Ovid for my Money in Literature class, plus a chapter or two from my Economic Development text. So far, the only class I have not been assigned reading is French, which is a relief, seeing as my French vocabulary is very much that of a one semester student.

Between Christmas break, my London trip, and winter break, I haven’t been in real school for about two months. But that’s about to change—on Monday I’ll start in on 16 credits and pick up my other responsibilities again.

I’ve been elected as the vice president-standards for my sorority, which is about the equivalent of being chief justice of Judicial Board, but specifically for the C of I KKGs. Starting on Tuesday, I’ll start back up with Ambassador Council, so I’ll be marching around campus in a purple polo shirt with prospective students in tow.

I’m back on a snowy C of I campus and am happy to be home from a whirlwind three weeks. London and Paris were great—there are a million things to do and see—but it’s good to be back. There’s nothing quite like coming back to a place that’s full of your friends.