Features

I'm writing this column from high above Nebraska. I'm on a plane to Champaign, Illinois - the city where I plan to work and live after graduation.

College is much more than just four years of classes, midterms and essays. I have spent the better part of my senior year reflecting on my college career and that is the only certainty I have come up with so far. Let me explain.

Just two years ago, I was just a scared, nervous first-year scouring Freeborn Hall trying to find the entrance to Lower Freeborn. I wanted to keep writing sports for a newspaper, and The California Aggie was the perfect opportunity to do so.

It's been a little while since I have done this whole column-writing thing. So bear with me while I take a couple sentences to knock the rust off.

They're ordinary UC Davis students who thought it would be fun to speak in front of a few thousand people. They're aiming to defy clichés, make you laugh and leave UC Davis with a positive memory. UC Davis undergraduate commencement speakers will be delivering short speeches at each of the undergraduate commencement ceremonies.

This summer, instead of diving straight into a daunting internship and job market, a group of UC Davis students are trying their hands at a different skill-fighting forest fires. For the past few months, UC Davis students have been training to become forest firefighters through an organization called Davis Fire Crew.

The idea of finding a job after graduation can be daunting, but, by utilizing the knowledge and the various resources found at UC Davis, it doesn't have to be.

After spending years traversing the bike paths of campus and halls of Wellman and the Sciences Lab Building, graduating seniors have learned a thing or two about the ins and outs of campus life. Read on for proof that you have, in fact, graduated from UC Davis.

"I stop at the In-N-Out hamburger, cause everybody is smiling there. Everything is peaceful there. People are basically happy and the food is cheap."

Nov. 23, 2010; Nov. 30, 2010; Jan. 11, 2011; Feb. 8, 2011; March 29, 2011.

Being Editor in Chief of The California Aggie over the last 12 months has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life, and has really helped put things in perspective. I've learned so much that I feel compelled to impart this knowledge to the seven people that will actually read this column. (Hi Mom!)

It's not every day that a teacher is awarded a $40,000 prize in recognition of their scholarly brilliance and inspiring teaching, but for history professor David Biale, winning the UC Davis Prize for Undergraduate Teaching and Scholarly Achievement meant more than just recognition for himself.

For certain cancers, less than half of its patients respond to chemotherapy. But ineffective chemotherapy treatment may soon be a problem of the past thanks to a new technology invented right here at UC Davis.

UC Davis MFA Design Showcase; UC Davis Concert Band and Campus Band Concert; Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous Meeting; Poetry Night Reading Series.

As the spring quarter winds down, students may actually find themselves with an excess of free time. For those who enjoyed watching cartoons and playing video games when they were young, the Davis Anime Club provides a Japanese twist to a childhood pastime.