AugieBlog

Turtle internship: WE HAVE TURTLES!

For those of you that do not know, I am on an internship in Swansboro, North Carolina at Hammocks Beach State Park on Bear Island studying loggerhead sea turtles. I arrived to the island on May 19th with high hopes of learning valuable skills that will help me in my future career endeavors.

The first turtle that we saw arrived on Sunday June 10th and we have since had 3 nests on the 16th, 17th, and 18th of June. We are able to name the turtles as well and their names are Betsy, Rosemary, June Ann, and Emily.

I was on patrol each of the nights that we have had a turtle nest and my reaction varied each time. When Betsy, our first and largest turtle appeared, I was dumbstruck and could not find words to explain how excited I was. Once I realized what we had to do-the tagging progress and measuring-I began to worry a little because it had been almost a month since training. We saw a false crawl right after and actual saw the turtle. This is when all hell broke lose because she was almost back to the ocean. Jeremy, one of the other interns, held onto the turtle so she wasn’t able to crawl back to the ocean as fast while Caleb and I raced around trying to get all the information that we needed.

There is a possibility that we will see a nest boil, which is the turtles hatching, but it is rare to see it happen because you have to be there on the right day and the right time.

I have learned so much already from this internship that I will take with me to my future career and I will remember the memories that I am making for the rest of my life.

Posted on June 19th, 2013 by danicagray12
Filed under: Danica Gray | No Comments »

Best “First year” Res Hall

Chris and I have different opinions on which residence hall is the best for first-years (aka freshmen). We both truly believe that the ones we each lived in are the best and hopefully, if you’re reading this, you’ll find this useful.

Andreen:

OK so as a first year I was “graciously” placed in Andreen residence hall. What I found was a sometimes frustratingly inconvenient place to live. Small and somewhat poorly designed rooms, tiny bathrooms, no A/C and a new person who I only talked to once prior. Besides the rough exterior and close quarters, I found that Andreen was a fantastic place to spend my first year of college. I met some awesome first year students (which make up most of Andreen) and eventually adjusted to college life. Andreen is also right next to classes so you can pretty much roll out of bed and into class to sleep more (or pay attention if you want). Andreen’s lack of amenities are a blessing in disguise because there’s no reason to stay in your room all day. So, my advice to anyone reading this would be to just get the heck out of your room and explore. There is nothing good about Andreen’s rooms so go and meet people and experience the rest of campus. Pick Andreen if you don’t care about the size or style of the room; make the best of the situation you’re in and enjoy your time outside of your room.

-Stock

Westerlin:

So yeahhh about this thing on where to live as a Freshmen or as Augustana calls you “first-years” do not fret it is only the most important decision that you will make in your lifetime. Just joking! But really this will make or break for college life. So Alex says it is all about the dorm called Andreen. Well I am going to tell you that he is a little off. If you wanna live in a quiet building with old cramped rooms, go ahead and live there and rep that lower campus swag. But for those freshmen that want to meet some of the sophomore class and hangout with a variety of people that are in a various amounts of sports and clubs well then Westerlin is your place. Yes I know the cafeteria is good and gone but I can totally live with that. We do have the C store which will make and break your Augie bucks but between you and me that is totally worth it. The rooms within Westerlin are great they are more spacious then the rooms over in Andreen as well as the community of the floor that you will be living on are filled with future friends down the road. You will also be able to meet the majority of the frats and sororities within the dorm as well. Westerlin is the hot spot for connecting not just to kids in your own class but also with the upperclassmen as well. Well just got yelled at by the boss so i got to peace. But remember if you wanna live in the freshmen dorm it is Westerlin for the win!

-CMADs

Posted on June 11th, 2013 by Alex and Chris
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Turtle internship update!

For those of you who do not know, I am in Swansboro, North Carolina studying the nesting patterns of Loggerhead sea turtles. I began my internship on May 20th and will be continuing until August 5th.

We had our first turtle on Monday June 3 at 1:45 AM. The only problem was it was a false crawl. A false crawl is where the turtle comes up onto the shore, crawls around a bit, but doesn’t lay any eggs. Since this siting, we have not had any turtles come up to nest. This could be due to the not so perfect weather we have been having in the area resulting in low water temperatures.

Within the next few days we should have our first turtle, especially since we had our first false crawl! It is uncomfortable for the female turtles to hold onto all of those eggs. I will keep everyone posted on the progress of my internships! If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Posted on June 5th, 2013 by danicagray12
Filed under: Danica Gray | 2 Comments »

Go Forth and Get High Paying Jobs

Another school year ended. I kept telling myself that it would last forever like I do every year and again I was wrong. When this school year ended I felt the same way when Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson broke up. I was depleted, shattered, and no longer a 98 Degrees fan.

Look into his eyes and tell me you wouldn’t trust everything he says.

I convinced myself that all of the seniors would still be here to nurture me and make sure I could make a big boy potty. When it all ended I was forced to reminisce on my sophomore year and how bananas it has been. I would love to express it in a song, a poem, or even a statue of Paula Dean made out of frozen bacon grease and butter, but I am no artist. I’m thankful for everyone who has made the soul sojourn of my soft-more year one so fantastic that it would make Mike Ditka trade mustaches with Joel Quenneville and see if their wives would notice. I’ll miss all of you Charlie Sheeniors.

Keep in touch and call sometime

Posted on June 4th, 2013 by garymiller11
Filed under: Gary Miller | No Comments »

Thanks for a great 4 years, Augustana

I still don’t think it’s hit me that I am an Augustana Alumni. These 4 years flew by in the blink of an eye.

I grew so much while at Augustana. I made friends that will last a lifetime, challenged myself in ways I never expected, and joined clubs and took classes that showed me the path I am destined to go down. When I was a freshman, had you asked me my thoughts on world hunger, I probably wouldn’t have given you much of an answer. Now, I am so extremely passionate about world hunger and am so excited to begin my year of service as an AmeriCorps VISTA member with the River Bend Foodbank in June. Through my learning community and senior inquiry, I was able to help individuals in the Quad Cities and around the world who are struggling with hunger.

My advice to incoming freshman: try something new that takes you out of your comfort zone! I joined Clogustana, and even though I didn’t stick with it, it was so much fun! I volunteered with Circle K, helped plan Augustana’s first Camp Kesem, and taught people about world hunger through the Augustana World Hunger team. I regret not joining more clubs, but I am glad that I was active in a few. Also, savor every moment with your friends. This is the only time in your life you get to live right across the hall from your best friends. I made friends my freshman year when I lived in Andreen Hall, and we’re still friends (see picture below)! The time spent with them is time I will never, ever forget. I love them all so much.

I never thought I would be so heartbroken to leave Augustana. I will miss my friends dearly, as well as the faculty and staff and the gorgeous campus.

Thank you so much, Augustana, for a wonderful 4 years. Thank you to my professors for teaching me and pushing me to become my absolute best. A huge thank you to my parents. Without them, I would not be where I am today. I will hold a piece of Augustana in my heart forever.

Thank you to those dedicated followers who read my blog. It means so much.

Jen

Posted on May 29th, 2013 by jenniferschroder09
Filed under: Jennifer Schroder | 2 Comments »

Day one of turtle internship: Dissection, Protocol, and Patrol

I performed my first turtle dissection yesterday. It was one of the coolest, yet grossest things I have done so far. The turtle we dissected was found on the beach prior to my arrival and was frozen until the start of the intern training. Using this turtle we learned how and where to tag the nesting females as well as what the varying parts of its entrails looked like. If you want to see pictures of the dissection just send me an email, danicagray12@augustana.edu, and I will send them to you!

Our patrol was not an exciting one due to the fact that the water is still to cold for the turtles. We did however spot our first one that was swimming around in the marshes, so it should not be long for them to start nesting!

Our protocol is as follows:

When a turtle comes up onto the beach, we will measure it notch to notch, notch to longest tip, and at its longest width. We will be measuring both the straight and curved lengths. After doing so, we will check for tags using a PIT scanner and looking for metal rear and front flipper tags (Most turtles that come here may not have tags on them unless previous tagged by us at early stages of the summer). After scanning, we must inject PIT tags into the front left flipper in the tricep area of the turtles flipper so the PIT tags do not migrate throughout the flipper. We must also apply a metal tag to both front flippers. Photo tags are taken so we can display the turtles to the rest of the park and show the various campers on the island what a loggerhead turtle looks like since most have never seen one before. When they are finished laying their eggs, we must make the decision to relocate the nest or not. We will not typically do this unless it is to close to the high tide line where the eggs have the potential to get washed away. If this is the case, we will dig a new hole closer to the dune line on the island and move each egg one by one so we do not tear the embryo from the shell. A metal cage is placed over the nest and buried 2 inches down to protect the eggs from hungry raccoon’s foxes, and larger ghost crabs. For a DNA test being performed on the egg shells, we must take one egg from each nest, empty its contents away from the nest, and save the shell. This project is helping researchers better track where the mother turtles are nesting. Sometime we will have turtles do a false crawl where they will come up onto varying points on the beach and not lay a nest. When this happens the protocol is the same, minus what we would have to do for a nest. Every time we see a turtle we must take its latitude and longitude coordinates for the state.

I work a minimum of 4 nights a week from 9 PM – 6 AM. We scan the beach before the sun goes down to ensure that there is nothing dangerous in the way of our patrol, to make sure nests that are already there have not been subject to predators or vandalism, and to see if the odd turtle came onto the beach while we were not patrolling. Once we start patrolling we drive the length of the beach (about 4 miles) every 30 minuets because that is how long it typically takes turtles to nest. There will be 2-3 people working each night.

If you guys have any questions, please do not be afraid to ask! As I learn more and see more turtles, I will be posting pictures of them.

If you would like any information about sea turtles as well, I can scan copies of some of our handouts and the brochures that the park offers!

Posted on May 22nd, 2013 by danicagray12
Filed under: Danica Gray | 4 Comments »

Internship in NC: Turtle time!

Today we start our training for tagging and collecting samples of loggerhead sea turtles. I have never been so excited in my life! I have been on Bear Island for 4 days now, and I already feel right at home. There are 3 other interns here with me, all boys (Jeremy, Caleb, and David). Jeremy is the only one with experience, and he is sort of the father of the group it seems. But everyone has been really helpful and we all work as a group!

The day I arrived, Saturday, they found a washed up turtle on the beach that was unfortunately dead. This is the turtle we will be doing our training with. I am excited to see how big these turtles get, but I wish my first wild turtle would be living and not dead.

I will be sure to keep everyone updated on my journey through this wonderful internship in Swansboro, North Carolina!

Washed up jelly fish

Blue fish Jeremy caught

Crab that I caught!

The interns! Jeremy, Caleb, David, and me.

Posted on May 21st, 2013 by danicagray12
Filed under: Danica Gray | 5 Comments »

I graduated!

I’m officially an alumni of Augustana College! It’s weird because I think it hasn’t completely sunk in yet. I just wanted to thank all my professors, family, friends and especially my parents for getting me to this point in my life. I couldn’t have gotten to this point in my life without all of them pushing and encouraging me to do my best. I had the best time at Augustana and I’m going to cherish these memories.

If you want to read my final farewell in the Augustana Observer, you can read that here. I also had a More Than I Imagined profile, which you can read here.

To the right is a picture of my graduation cap. I decorated it featuring my favorite building in the U.S., a rose for Sigma Alpha Iota and a picture of my grandpa, so he could be with me on graduation day. It was super fun decorating my cap!

So this is my last blog post for Augustana. If you want to continue to follow my journey, I recently started a blog about trying new things, which you can find here. I am also on Twitter. This summer I’ll be interning for Congresswoman Cheri Bustos and then in the fall I’ll be attending Georgetown University to receive my masters in journalism! Thanks to those who read my blog and left comments. I had a fabulous time blogging for the school. Hope everyone has a fantastic summer!

Posted on May 20th, 2013 by aliciaoken09
Filed under: Alicia Oken | 1 Comment »

Tommy Enke, American Icon

I taped an apple to my ceiling today and waited for hours to see if it would fall on my head and give me a brilliant idea. I stared idly at my wall hoping to learn the secrets of the universe like a Pre-kindergarten level Isaac Newton. After nothing happened I decided to pace around my room for a little saying Spanish Armada in as many voices as I could think of. I noticed on the counter that my roommate Tommy Enke, who I affectionately call “super baby genius”, won a few science awards.

Here is Tommy watching science (Pronounced SKY-ENTS)

Now I don’t know much about science. The only things I know are what the Frizz showed me on the Magic Schoolbus and anything my TV uncle Bill Nye said. That being said, I have a few things I would love for Tommy to do with his science skills or witchcraft. They’re indivisible.

I would love for Tommy to invent the following things:

Bacon that doesn’t make anyone fat but still tastes delicious. If possible make it easy to call on my phone too in case I lose a slice.

Books that are as enthusiastic about being read as I am about reading them. If I turned the page and Richard Simmons’ voice said “You can do it!” each time, my professors couldn’t give me enough books. More importantly make it so I can choose someone to read it to me while I lay down. It would be awesome if Tomcat could invent holograms like that. Picture this for instance, I’m in bed while Sylvester Stallone is reading me Moby Dick or I’m trying to lift and Ronald Reagan is reading Miami Vice:The Novel.

Invent a way for guys like me to have finesse. Bulls that live in China closets are more graceful than me. When I dance it’s a constant question of whether that kid really hates the floor he’s dancing on and believes there is an imaginary fire OR he’s a human puppet and Geppetto has the shakes. Also, I apologize to all my football coaches and coach Eric Juergens as well for running like Forrest Gump. Not the fast version at the end, but the one with magic shoes in the beginning. I don’t know how Tommy from Omaha would accomplish this but judging by how clean our room is anything is possible.

I think Chimpanzees that are hairless, only wear Jimmy Carson masks, and can only say the days of the week would be pretty cool to have around. That’s on my Santa Claus Science list too Tommy.

If there is a possibility of genetically engineering a 3 month old daughter in the future with: the brawn of Brett Mcwilliams, the poetic wit of TJ Milano, the beard of John Pape, the costume design skills of Sally Kenney, the love of happy meals that Sarah Deicke has, and also the ability to fly over countries ending with “Ussia” that Jenna Hofmann has. Well, that would be just peachy.

Use chemistry skills to make an easy bake oven that makes hot pockets that taste like the ones Great Grandma Alice never used to make. I’m sure she would’ve put rhubarb in them or something cool like trick birthday candles.

She’s my homegirl forever.

I would endorse that in the year 2026 at 3:47 P.M. on September 3rdeth we build a time machine to tell our future selves how ugly they look while we steal candy from our grandkids. Then lets go to the past and wonder how we got awesome girls to talk to us in the first place, also make sure to invest heavily in whatever gets super big in the future.

Finally keep being awesome, I think it’s fantabulous that your hardwork got recognized. I’ve seen you work on homework into the morning while I was up telling ghost stories to myself in the mirror. You go girl.

Posted on May 10th, 2013 by garymiller11
Filed under: Gary Miller | No Comments »

Officially done with undergraduate classes!

Only a final reflection paper and a portfolio separate me from graduation! It’s hard to believe that I will no longer be attending classes at Augustana College.

Here is a list of “lasts” I’ve had to endure these past few weeks:

Last Observer page layout and get-together
Last oboe lesson
Last WAUG show
Last SGA meeting
Last day of classes
Last time eating sweet and sour chicken in the CC
Last time playing tennis with those in Club Tennis
Last time going to the movies with my roommates

It’s depressing. I hate lasts and good-byes!

Posted on May 9th, 2013 by aliciaoken09
Filed under: Alicia Oken | No Comments »