Essential Oil Education

One of my favorite things to do as an RC is try out new programs for my residents, both as a way to mix things up for me, and introduce new and fun educational opportunities for them. This year, I implemented a new program I called "DIY Air Fresheners" in which we made our own scent pods for our rooms, using a few simple ingredients. 

The program was somewhat twofold, as we utilized essential oils and baking soda in small mason jars to create our air fresheners. They not only helped the students create fun ways to help their rooms smell good, but it also helped them learn the benefits and uses of essential oils. Several of them (such as bergamot and chamomile) have stress relieving advantages, while others like lavender can help with sleep. Things such as orange and lemon are great for energy, while eucalyptus, peppermint and rosemary can help with pain.

Given the often stressful nature of IMSA, the girls seemed to really enjoy getting to choose oils based off of not only their preferences in scent, but also their individual needs. Some students came in already experts in essential oils, like Sophomore Bella Huynh-Pham, who has her own oil diffuser, and were eager to create their own scent pod. Others had never really had interaction with the oils, but both ends of the spectrum seemed to enjoy getting to create their own pod to fit their needs.

Take a look at some of the pictures below, and next time you sense your child's room at home starting to smell a little, "funky" consider creating your own scent pods with them at home as well! I'll add the recipe below the photos.

Bella proudly displays her air freshener

 

 

Juniors Alice & Eva try to coordinate their pods, so that the scents compliment each other in their room

All you need to do is use 4 oz mason jars, with 1/4 cup of baking soda in each. Then select the essential oil blend you'd like to use in it! Use 10-12 drops of each oil, and mix them together. Remove the flat metal lid, and trace it onto a piece of colored paper. Put the paper where the lid was, and screw the band on over the paper. Carefully poke a few holes into the paper with a pencil, and put it wherever in the room you'd like the scent to be strongest!! For best scent results, refresh the air freshener with a few drops of your oils every few months :)

Here's my own concoction; I blended lavender & bergamot, and placed it in the RC office (we tend to need as much stress relieving energy in there as possible, so hopefully it'll work its magic next time one of our girls inevitably asks a not so intelligent question....)

See you soon! (Smelling oh-so-wonderfully when we do),
-- Robyn & the lovely ladies of 02A ❤ 

Dessert for Dinner

One of the favorite residential traditions of students at IMSA are our annual dessert dates -- it's similar to our dinner dates in that the students each get to invite a date, and they eat yummy food, but generally the foods are more of the sugary, dessert variety (every RCs dream -- sugar-high kids returning to the halls at 10:30 pm to bounce around the wing...)

This year, similarly to last year, we decided to do a root beer float and DIY ice cream sandwich bar. It seemed to be a hit, and we even had snacks for our vegan students as well! I put together a photo booth also, complete with props and a photo frame background, and the students really enjoyed getting to have fun with those.

The Senior table plays an intense game of spoons!

 

 

 

Junior roommates Eden Gorevoy and Koyena De pose with their dates during a game of Scrabble

We had dates from halls all across campus, and everyone expressed enjoying  getting to create artistic masterpieces on the butcher paper tablecloths, play games with their dates, and create their own ice cream sandwich concoctions with all of the topping options we offered. Perhaps my favorite part of the evening, though, was how many students were willing to help with setup and cleanup outside of the wing guides! So many of our lovely residents came early to make everything look good, and stayed after with me to ensure everything was tidied up. I'm very grateful to the students who make that little extra effort to make evenings like this that much better!

Until next time, I'll be over here trying to unhype 23 sugared up teenagers...

-- Robyn & the (literally) super sweet ladies of 02A ❤

Rise of the Phoenix

Every year, IMSA has an event called the CLASH of the halls. It's an event that allows the students to work with their hallmates to create works of artistic, musical, acting, intelligence and a handful of other types of talent, and showcase their hall pride at the same time. 

This year, A wing really stepped up for the hall, with event heads for our Drill Dance, Talent Show, Hall Decorations, Profile Pictures and Mural. It was an event that not only brought the hall together, but our wing as well, and really showed the Sophomores was hall unity and pride was all about.

Our girls worked hard to contribute to the overall hall effort; Lizzie Tang & Vaishnavi Vanamala choreographed our drill dance, which earned 3rd place overall. Irena Gao spearheaded efforts on not only our Profile Pictures, but our Hall Decorations as well. Junior Marisa Patel-O'Connor lead the charge in the Talent Show, while Junior Alice Liu and Senior Mishelle Mironov did a majority of the artwork on our hall's Mural. It was amazing to see my girls get to utilize the talents they don't necessarily get to show in their classes here at IMSA, and really showcase their passions. We may have gotten 7th place, but the community that I saw within the hall after the festivities ended was anything but dull -- the girls were together laughing, reminiscing, and enjoying the company of those they had gotten to know so well over the course of the school year so far.

The pictures below are largely from the pep rally, and were taken by our very talented students who are a part of IMSA Student Productions (including our very own Doreen Xiao!) so I cannot take credit for many of them, and wanted to give credit where it was due.

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

  

  

Three year 02A alumni Heena Srivastava poses with Vaishnavi Vanamala after coming back to cheer on 1502 at the pep rally!




 

Marisa gets embarassed when the entire student body sings Happy Birthday to her at the pep rally!

In all my three years here, I have never seen our hall so wonderfully close throughout the entirety of the CLASH events. Last year, 1502 was in first place the entire time going into pep rally, where we had a few bumpy events and fell to 5th place. This year, despite for a majority of the time being in, and finishing in, 7th place, the community that I felt within our hall was incredible. This was by far my favorite year to be a part of CLASH in my time at IMSA. And yes, I was even a part of CLASH! While the judges tally the scores at pep rally, the RCs have a drill routine they do to fill the time -- and if I could be so biased, I personally think the RCs should have won CLASH, but that's just me being silly.

I can't fully describe how much I appreciate working with your children, especially during times like CLASH. While I get frustrated with having to chaperone everything, needing to remind them to still do their homework, getting the drill songs stuck in my head, and everything else that comes with it, it's truly a pleasure to get to see them create and participate in events that they are not only talented in, but passionate about. Especially in the name of hall unity. And that makes them all winners to me.

Until next time,

-- Robyn & the lovely ladies of 1502 A ❤

Galentine's Day!

Here in 02A, we have a tradition of celebrating what we refer to affectionately as "Galentine's Day" instead of Valentine's Day. It stems partially from my maternal desire to stop the girls from dating, because dating (especially for teenagers) can often lead to poor decisions, heartbreak, and closing oneself off from friends, and getting so invested in the relationships that ones academic, emotional and overall well being can tend to slip.

The other thing our Galentine stems from is the fact that I truly love the ladies that we have in this wing of ours. I would much rather write "love notes" to the girls in the wing, telling them how smart, worthy, hardworking and beautiful they all are than write them to anyone else. And so, Galentine's Day was born!! It became an evening not only to distract them from not having significant others, but also to celebrate themselves and each other. It essentially became a way to showcase love and appreciation for their wingmates, and themselves in particular. I always put up a station on ways to properly love yourself as well, and that usually helps them to remember that we are only capable of truly loving someone else once we've learned to love ourselves first ♡

The evening allows the wing to create Galentine's for each other, as well as having a handful of friendly competition games that allow them to compete in their roommate pairs in Galentine style games to win prizes! We had a candy conversation heart stacking game, in which roommates had to see how many candy hearts they could stack in two rows back to back in 30 seconds. We had a word scramble of all Galentine phrases that they also worked on as roommate pairs. We had my personal favorite game, in which one roommate peels & places heart shaped stickers on her roommate's face to see who can stick the most stickers to their roommate in a one minute time span. That one in particular always leads to plenty of laughs and awesome pictures!

Gowri & Abby can't help but smile after the sticker game!

Clearly, Marisa & Vaishnavi reigned victorious in this game! They did well in it last year, too -- for some reason, VV's just really darn good at covering her roommate's face in stickers.... Well overall, I have to say that the evening was a lot of fun, a lot of laughs, and most importantly, a lot of love. There were a lot of positive affirmations, good thoughts, positive vibes, and great conversations throughout the entire evening. And in true grade-school Valentine's day party fashion, each girl got a paper bag outside their door decorated with their name, so they could drop off their Galentine's to each other after they had made them.

The evening was an even bigger success than last year, and I was glad to see them want to so eagerly continue the tradition. Each of the girls worked hard to create Galentine's for their wingmates, and as their RC, it made my heart very happy to see.

I am hopeful that the love will continue throughout the year, and that in the coming years, we will have plenty more Galentine's nights to come with these beautiful souls.

Love and heart-shaped chocolates to all,

 -- Robyn & the lovely ladies of 02A ❤

Bingo Boards!

January was a month filled with New Years Resolutions, so I figured I would set a few for the wing as a whole! We all know how hard it can be to stick to a resolution, so I put a little incentive on the ones I made, as well as making it into a game for the residents to take part it!

 

I created a "Bingo Board" for the 02A-ers to complete, with requirements for each square so that I knew they had completed it! I had them mark off with post-its each square that they did, and promised them a pizza party if we could get 2/3 of the wing to each do a row or column. 

The wing got a full month to work on it, and I was excited to see that 18 of the 22 girls each completed several squares off of the board! They earned the pizza party, but more importantly, I saw a lot of them learn some healthy habits that I am hopeful they are still working to continue today. Sophomore resident Abby Light even got recognized for doing the most amount of squares on the board -- she marked off a whopping 18 of 25 squares! For doing so, she earned herself a small Rest & Relaxation kit, including a mini dry-erase board and facial mask, to help her continue to stay organized and maintain self-care. Shout out to her for working so hard to mark off so many squares, and for making new friends and healthy habits along the way! She marked off the Make a Friend in the Wing square by getting to know some of our Seniors, while other residents got to know each other as well. Junior Marisa & Sophomore Gowri swapped Pandora study playlists, while Senior Mishelle took part in the Lunar Senior dance, enabling her to go outside of her comfort zone and strengthen some relationships along the way. Other activities students did included reading books not assigned for class (and mostly just for themselves!), going to the fitness center with a friend, doing a random act of kindness for someone in the hall, and making healthy eating choices at the dining hall!

By the end of the month, the boards were filled with post its and memories that I'm hopeful will stick with them all for the remainder of the year (well rather, I hope the memories will stick with them, not so much the post-its, but you get my meaning).

The (mostly) final results of the upstairs rooms & downstairs room boards (I say mostly because I took down several of the post-its as I was about to take the boards down and put up new buletin boards, and then remembered I wanted to take pictures for the blog. But hopefully this gives you an idea of how hard they all worked to make some good habits!)

We celebrated our pizza party the night of our Galentine's Day program, which was also a lot of fun! Be on the lookout in our next blog post for pictures and information from that. 

Making good choices!

-- Robyn & the lovely little birdies of 02A ♡

Intersession Recap

Intersession is always a particularly fun week at IMSA, especially for the students. It's an opportunity to take classes that they normally wouldn't get to, as well as the possibility of doing something outside of their comfort zone. This years list of options included everything from The Secrets of the Rubik's Cube, to Introduction to Improv, to Women In America: Breaking Barriers & Making Noise, to Chess with a US Champion! There were a wide variety of options to choose from, and those were just the ones offered on the IMSA campus. There was also a Chicago Theatre class, which took students downtown to see several shows and discuss them, as well as several out of country trips that allowed students to explore different cutlures and ways of life.

The options this year for international intersessions were Austria, Poland, Mexico City, and Spain, as well as two national options in Key Largo, Florida, and Hawaii! Students always seem to take something away from any intersession they have, but the ones off campus seem to be particularly enriching experiences. Two of our own Seniors in A wing also got the chance to do off-campus intersessions relating to their SIRs (Student Inquiry & Research) and wrote a bit about them to share with us!

Here are their experiences:

"Over winter break and intersession, I was able to visit my grandparents and uncle in Sergiev Posad, Russia. We celebrated the New Year together, made a lot of Russian food, went shopping around Sergiev Posad, visited the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, and also went to Moscow! It was amazing to spend time with my relatives, especially ones I don't see very often, and I miss them all so much already!" -- Mishelle Mironov

"This year my intersession was working on my SIR project at Northwestern University: Feinberg School of Medicine. During this week, I commuted from my house to Chicago by train every day. I would leave at 8 am and get back home at 6 pm. I was able to fully focus on my SIR project which is focused in neuro-biology. Since I normally only research once a week, I was able to complete experiments that take multiple days during this week. I had a lot of fun working on my project and traveling to Chicago every day. I was able to gain a lot of valuable data from spending a total of 40 hours on my project. I would definitely recommend working on SIR as an intersession if you are passionate about your SIR!" -- Mounisha Kovour

In all, I heard lots of positive feedback from Intersession week, and I know a lot of students learned some new things. It was a fun experience for the RCs as well, because we get all of the secondhand knowledge when they visit us in the office after their class!

Until next month!
-- Robyn & the lovely ladies of 02A ♡

Breakfast for Dinner

When you think of pancakes, bacon, sausage, muffins & bagels, you're likely to think of breakfast, right? Most everyone would, but in 02A we like to do things a little differently than what everyone else considers "the norm". When it came time for us to plan our first dinner date of the year, breakfast for dinner seemed pretty darn perfect.

 

Seniors Irena Gao, Lizzie Tang, Mounisha Kovour & Mishelle Mironov show their love for 0-2-A-❤

With the help of our top-notch wing guides, Eva & Koyena, we pulled off a pretty good night for the wing & their dates. We also had some help from Lizzie & Alice, who are two of the best pancake pourers I've ever seen :) The night did start off a bit slow while we were preparing the food (what evil forces of the universe decided that pancakes would cook in two minutes, but bacon & sausuage would cook in ten?) --  but once we got into a rhythm, the evening went well!

Between bites, the students enjoyed playing games like Apples to Apples, as well as playing tic-tac-toe and drawing works of art on our tablefclothes (don't worry -- our tableclothes were just butcher paper). I saw a lot of the Juniors and Seniors laughing with old friends, and the Sophomores making new ones. For the kids, the best part of a dinner date is non-Sodexo food -- for me, it's seeing them enjoy themselves and make lasting memories (although when they all stay to help clean up, that's definitely one of my favorite parts too!)

Sophomore Michelle Wang with her date, Igor Zhuravlyov 

Junior Alice Liu and her date Tim Mou of 05A

One of my favorite moments of the evening came at the end of the night, when everyone was scrambling to take their last pictures. Because I'd been so busy cooking, I hadn't seen what Lola's date Nishant had chosen to wear; although we didn't mandate that our date had a "Christmas" or even winter theme, he went all out with his festive jacket, and it certainly had everone talking!

All things considered, it was a pretty good evening. I've had 5 dinner/dessert dates in my time here at IMSA, and the breakfast for dinner theme was one of the best received. I was worried my own date, Myra (daughter of 04C RC Josiah) might not be too excited about it, but she was ecstatic about the pancakes! Since 10pm is also a bit past a 2 year old's bedtime, I know myself and all the girls were grateful for her adorable and energetic presence in the room :) There's nothing like an over-energized 2 year old running around a room to make you grateful for your 22 teenagers!

Until next time,

-- Robyn & the lovely ladies of 02A ♡