Morale has improved near exponentially here at Tech with the arrival of the orientation students. Said boost in morale has little to do with their presence and far more to do with the subsequent increase in the quality of food at the main dining hall (D2). In addition, our classes have begun to diversify as well. Our new batch of classes, including plant propagation and animal science, has proven to be highly informative and often highly interesting. In plant propagation, we began a riveting discussion on the uses and merits of plant cuttings as a way of multiplying pre-existing populations. Shortly thereafter, Dr. Pratt taught the class how to “grade” meat and provided hands-on consumer tips on the purchase and consumption of beef. These morning classes were quickly followed an by interesting rumination on problem solving led by GSA Director Dr. Curt Friedel. He provided the results of our KAI evaluations, which helped us determine our personal methods of problem solving. At the conclusion of this lecture we broke off into our research groups to continue work on our global seminar projects. We then returned to our dorms and ultimately D2 for a gourmet dinner complete with key lime pie and crème brulee. We then concluded the night with our choice of a smattering of activities including running, cards, and movie watching.

William Ferrer, Connor Votroubek, Justina Whearty, Sydney Shepherd, Maura Finn

Ever wonder how to grow a tree? Of course! It’s something we’ve all known since we were little tikes — just put a seed in the ground, water it, make sure good ol’ Mr. Sun gets his shine on, and voilà! A tree will grow right before your eyes. However, our research group was amazed by what Ms. Grossman had to say today, that we could grow plants just by placing part of a leaf in the ground. That’s right, just part of a leaf. Or it could be a stem, bud, or root, because all of these are various options that one could use to propagate a plant (that is, to pretty much clone it from one of its previous parts). We even got to see a three-year-old plant that VT’s plant scientists propagated- and all from a tiny leaf! Now you know that whenever you mow the lawn, pick leaves of shrubs, or trim a tree, all those parts could eventually become a new plant under the right conditions!

Sophia Ryuh, Do Yeon Kim, Heather Connelly, Samantha Raines, Carissa Pescanik

Mondays. We often think of Mondays as the epitome of the week, the end all be all of the weekend; however, this Monday was not the case. As we ventured into Smyth Hall this Monday morning, there was the opportunity for July 8th to go down in history as either a horrible Monday or one worth talking about for weeks afterwards. This Monday was certainly a day to remember. Many of us are avid biology lovers, so we easily absorbed both the plant science and animal science courses we took this morning. We enjoyed them not only because of the enthusiastic teachers, but also for the thrilling subjects we learned about as well. We learned in-depth background knowledge about plant propagation and were introduced to animal husbandry and genetics within the agricultural community. Later this week, we will dive deeper into these subjects and have some hands-on experience in the lab and out in the field.

    In addition to the academic improvement, the food today was fabulous! Since freshman orientation is starting up, D2, our beloved dining hall, has undergone some drastic changes. For instance, the pasta was served today with a twist of shrimp and mushrooms, instead of the standard marinara and alfredo sauces we’ve been issued previously . There was also a plethora of desserts like cheesecake and banana pudding to enjoy. The most exciting part about the improvement in food, though, is that it will keep on improving because orientation continues through the rest of our stay at the beautiful Virginia Tech campus!

Sarah Busch, George Armstrong, Peter Lee, Ellen Jordan, Jamie Hodnett