Hello from NCUR!

Where apparently it is going to take me three tries to post this to the correct blog.

Well, we made it to Lexington safe and sound. Drew ended up reserving a party bus to take us from airport to hotel, which was a big hit, and we had a great Macaulay team dinner tonight, at Cortland’s Southern Kitchen–just a short walk over from the hotel.

We haven’t yet been over to UK to experience the conference proper, but it is already apparent how big and well-organized this event will be. There are NCUR info stations set up at the airport and in our hotel’s lobby, and even the key cards for our rooms come in an envelope with the NCUR logo pasted on it… I’m a big fan of quality informational signage!

Because we left NYC early, I’ve had a lot of time today to start to get to know all of the other Macaulay students on this trip. This is a wonderful group of students, researching diverse and cool topics–and as much as I like getting to know them better, I’m enjoying watching them get to know each other as well.

One of the ongoing topics of discussion at Macaulay is common events–how many should we have, what should they look like, how to get students to invest in the cross-campus experience. If we could find a way to send our students out into the world like this, though, I think we’d see some of the bonding we hope for when we organize common events. Down the table from me, a neuroscience student from Hunter and English and engineering students from CCNY are getting to know each other over a game of cards. Everyone took selfies in the party bus earlier–Laura brought a Polaroid camera of some sort (genius idea!).

I know that in a lot of ways an event like NCUR is a reward for our hard-working seniors. But it would definitely be nice to see more cross-campus mixing in a field trip/expeditionary direction, in smaller groups. Cost would be an issue (the students down the table are keenly aware of how much Macaulay has invested in bringing us to Kentucky, and we are all hugely appreciative), but it’s worth thinking about further.

All smiles over a card game