Angela's Year: the blog post

I am graduating in four days. This is a crazy thought. After four fantastic years at Lewis & Clark College, I am done with my formal education. Here's an update for those of you keeping track.

THE PAST YEAR:
I completed my BA in International Affairs. My thesis was on civil society, economic development, and democracy in Czechoslovakia. Of course.

I served all year as editor-in-chief of the Pioneer Log, Lewis & Clark's completely student-run weekly newspaper. I wrote a lot of interesting stories that raised quite a buzz around campus and beyond... my favorites are in my online portfolio. The Pioneer Log also went to Arizona this year; I applied for a grant to take some staff to a college journalism conference.
Our other big event was the student government debate, which I moderated, with our business manager, for the second year. It was actually greatly well-attended this year, which is exciting for LC's apathy.

I also guest blogged this year at my friend Cary's unofficial Lewis & Clark blog, about having my own office in our student center.

I was a news intern in the fall for OregonLive.com, the website for the Oregonian, the largest newspaper in the Pacific Northwest. I blogged for OLive, which was a lot of fun and a great learning experience.

I was a resident assistant all year, for my third year; I live in the dorms and help students by giving them advice, planning events, and keeping people safe. It's a job I love and I love my coworkers. My best program this year was a national parks awareness program, that involved make-your-own trail mix, Ken Burns' new PBS National Parks documentary, and letters to the government asking them to care for our national parks.

I was published in our school's literary magazine for a poem I wrote in Prague, and in our school's theatrical expression journal for a short play I wrote called "Acing the Interview."

I also worked, for my fourth year, in the Information Technology department at LC. I was promoted last summer to an assistant field technician. This job involves installing and fixing hardware and software on institutional computers--and hanging out with a bunch of cool nerds (see right).

THE NEXT YEAR:
Living: School is over now, though, and so are all of those above things. I am now moving on. I have a house with my friends. We are living in Southwest Portland in a very 1970s home with 5 bedrooms and 3 living rooms; an entire floor of the house is wood-paneled. And we have some pretty awesome wallpaper.



Work: I will be working my life's fourth and fifth internships this summer.

The first is at Oregon Business, a monthly magazine serving Oregon's business leaders. I will be their online editor, composing a daily e-newsletter (sign up!) and weekly blog posts.

The second is at the Portland Mercury, an alternative newsweekly with which I am in love. They put out a print product, but also have the most popular blog in Portland; "Blogtown, PDX," which is a lot of fun to read... and now write for!

Play: My band will be putting out our first CD in the next couple days. Aubrey & I recorded the record, called "Beta Testing 1-2-3," over winter break, and her boyfriend Jake Kelly mixed it for us. Our buddy Jon Ransom put together the cover art, which I think is fantastic.

Aubrey & I are a nerd rock band, and write songs about video games and computers and love. It's great fun. We've been contacted by a few venues to start doing shows, so that will happen once moving and car buying all calms down. Keep an eye on our MySpace for updates - there are also songs and videos there.



Lastly, my boyfriend Nate and I have been together for eight months now. He is a computer science major and a really swell dude.