Dirt and Robots

 Tales from College: How I Obtained a Scholarship of $6,000 By Inaya Ali Syed Hi everybody! Last week, I am sorry that there was no post. Today, I want to give unsolicited advice on how to win a scholarship, and how I won $6,000.00.  The day was July 26th, 2023. I was doing my job when I received a notification from my email. "Huh?" I exclaimed. I opened the email, and this is what it stated: I clicked on the link which allowed me to open up a scholarship form. "Alright, well, I can't do it right now. Maybe I will complete it all when I come home." I thought to myself. I notice this at the bottom of the form: So, I gathered all the materials they requested for this. I got my parents' tax return, a scanned copy of my acceptance letter to NYIT, and my transcript. All I had to do was write a statement. "What do I write about?" I thought to myself, with my laptop open on a blank page. I was never the best at writing, but I was decent at it. I decided t...

 Tales from College: The First Week of Classes By Inaya Ali Syed Hey everyone! Today, I will be talking about my first week of my sophomore year at New York Tech.  My first day: I went into calculus with anticipation and anxiety filling my stomach. Sure, I passed Precalc last semester, but Calculus was just going to be harder. I prepared for this class a few days before, by doing an assignment. However, I still felt a little anxious as I think "I did not work that hard for this" and "Maybe I'm just dumb." We prefaced the class a bit, and reviewed key topics of Precalc.  Then, I had a break for nearly two hours. Went to my programming class, where you learn about the wonders of MATLAB. It was just basic stuff. Matrices, statements, etc. I was the only woman in the class. It gave me great pride to be the only woman, yet, I still felt isolated. Then, physics rolled around. In high school, I was not that great at physics. In college though? Still not exactly great. ...

 Tales From Work: How I Got My On-Campus Job By Inaya Ali Syed Hi everyone! Today, I'd like to talk about on-campus jobs! Many people often have the idea that On-campus jobs pay next to nothing in their paychecks. Sure, there are not many hours that students can put into on-campus jobs, however, I tend to disagree due to it being a main source of income for me. After I got fired from Staples, I put most of my trust into on-campus jobs. The first one I got was at NYIT's Art and Architecture library. I came into the interview with sweaty armpits because I was unaware of a shuttle bus service being available and needed. After I got the job, I had to fill out paperwork regarding the job.  After my first month, I got an interview for a Machine Shop Assistant position. That day, I was prepared. I had my resume in hand, dressed appropriately, and tried my best not to appear snarky. I got the job right away! After my first semester, I stopped working at the library due to a major chan...