Friday, November 16, 2012

Glee Club Concert

This Tuesday was the Men's Glee Club and Women's Glee Club concert at the Wharton Center. I sang in a lot of choirs when I was in high school, so I decided to sign up for Women's Glee Club this semester and spring semester.

Women's Glee Club is a 1 credit hour class open to all girls, and no audition or experience is required. Class meets from 4:10-5:30 on Mondays and Wednesdays. The grade in the class is based on participation and showing up on time to class, the concert, and an additional choral music concert. We spend each class period learning and practicing each of the songs that we sing at the concert.

The Men's Glee Club is also a 1 credit hour class that is open to all guys. No audition or experience is required, and class meets from 4:10-5:30 on Tuesdays and Thurdays. There are optional activities that the members can do, such as singing at tailgates and going on tour to Europe. I am SO jealous! I have a few friends that are in Men's Glee Club, and they really like it.

We sang a total of 8 songs in 3 different languages: English, Latin, and Italian. All of the songs we sang from memory except for one. The amount of music we were able to learn and memorize in such a short amount of time really impressed me. All of the pieces we sang were so varied, all from different time periods and genres and telling different stories. The Austrian composer Mozart, who died in 1791, composed "Ricevete" which was from the opera "Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro)." On the other hand, Andrea Ramsey, who composed "Let All the World in Every Corner Sing," is a contemporary American composer who is still alive today. She actually came to our concert, and she really liked what we did with the piece! "Gaudete" was a combined number that the men and women sang together. I actually had a duet at the beginning of the song.  Singing at the front of the stage and looking into the audience was so cool!

Taking part in one of the glee clubs still allows me to be involved with music even though I am not majoring or minoring in music.

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Halloween with SWE

I hope that all of you had a great Halloween! Since I didn't have any plans, I went to a Halloween party hosted by SWE, the Society of Women Engineers.

SWE is one of the organizations on campus geared toward female engineering students. Even though the club focuses on women students, men are welcome to join. There actually were a few guys at the meeting! Generally SWE supplies food and invites representatives from different companies to speak at their meetings. I have not been able to go to a lot of them because AIChE (American Institute of Chemical Engineers) almost always meets at the same time.

Since it was Halloween, they had pizza, candy, and a costume contest (with prizes!) instead of the usual presentation. After everyone settled in, the board members gave a presentation on becoming a nationl member of SWE. The Society of Women Engineers is a national organization with members all across the country. National members have access to scholarships and career resources that are not available to other students. It costs money to become a national member ($20 a year for students or $50 for all of college + 1 year as a professional), but it can be worth it if you take advantage of all the opportunities that being a national member offers.

MSU's chapter of SWE also organizes different social and volunteer events. This year, they already visited a cider mill, held a movie night, and hosted a tailgate. At the meeting, they also discussed bringing a group of volunteers to the humane society and the Ronald McDonald House.

Joining a group like SWE could help you get involved with the community of Spartan engineers, greater East Lansing community, and a community of professional engineers across the country.