By Quang Nguyen
The Fall semester is the busiest semester for graduate students. Some students are busy finishing up experiments for their paper after Summer break, some just start teaching a new course, and especially the first year students who are doing lab rotations. These academic activities are important but they are bushed. Therefore, the MCB Graduate Student Association (GSA) has organized various social activities so that students can relax and explore what the Champaign-Urbana community has to offer.
In early November, the MCB GSA board planned a trip for current and first year graduate students to Curtis Orchard to participate in Fall activities like picking apples and pumpkins, petting zoo, and country store. There were about 25 students who participated in the event.
The students were enthusiastic about a wide variety of apples like sweet Evercrisp, juicy Pink Lady, and tart Arkansas Black that were available to be picked.
“I’m excited because I’m planning to make cider from these apples,” said Evan Johnson, a first year student who rotated in Molecular and Integrative Physiology, who carries a big bag of granny smith apples.
Moreover, the students were amazed by various goods from Curtis’s country store. From all things apple like apple butter, jellies, jam, preserves, cider and bakery.
“My favorite is the apple fritter and I highly recommend you getting it,” said Ruiying (Jenny) Cheng, a student from Cell and Developmental Biology and co-social chair.
Beside all the delicious apples and goods, this social event is also a great place to foster relationship building for first year students and current students from various departments. This is a great opportunity for first year students to find support and navigate the program in their busy first year while exploring the local activity Champaign-Urbana.
“I was so excited to see MCB students from all departments at the orchard! I have loved visiting Curtis Orchard every year since [I started graduate school in] 2020 to pick pumpkins and apples, and I’m so happy that GSA could introduce grad students to such a lovely place,” said Tori Boyle, a student from Microbiology and co-social chair.
The MCB GSA is planning to have another social event in December. The next social event will be at Jupiter’s, a local bar-cade at the Crossing. We will meet over there for an evening of pizza, arcade, and billiards before the semester ends.
