Did you think you’d seen the last of me? No, dear reader, this is part two of all the places on campus that I will miss so dearly. My graduation is in three days, I get inducted into Phi Beta Kappa in two days, and tomorrow is Senior Ball. How the time has flown! I can still remember my first month on campus oh so vividly, but at the same time I’m so aware of how my brain has matured and my approach to life has changed over these four years. With that in mind, I bring you ten more of my favorite places on campus, along with the lessons I’ve learned there and the skills that I have developed along the way.
1. Jackson Court and Riverview
These are the places I lived after freshman year, in my capacity as a Resident Advisor. I was first in Jackson Court for two years, living in Wilder Tower, which is mostly a space for sophomores and juniors, and home to several Greek life floors as well as Special Interest Housing–I was even fortunate enough to be the RA for the Music Interest Floor (MIF) my junior year! Jackson Court is a lovely place to be, with four 6-person suites per floor which each boast a private bathroom and common room for the friends who live there. My sophomore year, I was good friends with the suite of guys who lived next door, and we watched movies in their common room together. I really enjoyed being the RA for MIF: they have a strong sense of community, and the floor as a whole was usually on the same page. For my senior year, I was very lucky to be transferred to Riverview Apartments, where I lived in a two person apartment with my best friend. Riverview is home to juniors and seniors, and students there tend to be looking to develop their independence: we all have our own kitchen, and don’t have cleaning services in our spaces anymore. It was truly the best place to spend my senior year, and I’m so grateful to have lived here!
2. Lattimore 531
This is so specific, and yet I have soooo many memories in this one classroom. It’s the place where I took three of my favorite classes: Epistemology; Philosophy of Death; Love and Friendship in Ancient Philosophy; and I took two of my most impactful classes in linguistics (Formal Semantics and Pragmatics) just down the hall! I also taught three sections of my workshop for Introductory Logic here: no matter what anyone says about the chalkboard, I like it, and I got to learn so much about myself as a leader and peer educator here. This was also the room where my TA meetings were held, and we discussed workshop leading strategies and theories for CASC 352 (leadership in the college community, the workshop leader companion class). I’ll never forget getting to bond with the philosophy grad students whom I still keep in contact with, and getting close to so many really cool people through my peer leading experiences!
These next three are somewhat similar, so I’ll rapid-fire through:
3. The May Room
This is one of the main performance spaces on campus: it is SYNONYMOUS with tech week for me. Let’s see: my freshman fall, I acted as Colonel Melkett in Black Comedy here, masked and dressed akin to a mall cop. I was Mr. Darcy in fall 2022 here in Pride & Prejudice, for which I also contributed the set design; I did the set design for You Can’t Take It With You in fall 2023 and acted out a few bit parts, and won the student theatre award for Outstanding Scenic Design; I did the props for House of Blue Leaves in spring 2024, the costume design for The Curious Savage in fall 20204 and acted as a spoiled heiress, and finally did costumes for the murder mystery showcase in spring 2025. I don’t even want to think about how many hours I’ve spent in this room, without even accounting for seeing shows I didn’t work on.
4. Drama House
Going to Drama House (DH) always feels like a blast from the past, and yet I’m there every semester. I’ve diligently gone to every Halloween party, Friendsgiving, and Bacchanalia (toga party): I was even an associate member for a little bit, and would have lived there if I hadn’t gotten the RA gig. In addition, I directed Murder on The Orient Express, which performed in DH, was the production manager for The Aliens, which met the same fate, and contributed to the house production of Almost, Maine my freshman year.
5. SPAC & Rettner
In the Sloan Performing Arts Center, I had the privilege to act in the Theatre Department’s productions of Orlando and Othello, as well as work as an Event Support technician on some really cool events: one time, I did the lights for Tony Kushner’s visit to campus!! In Rettner, I saw my designs become reality as we built the flats (theatre walls), stairs and platforms that became the set of plays we performed with my theatre group. Along with Drama House and the May Room, these spaces helped me develop my artistry as an actor, designer and director.
6. The Medical Center
To put it simply, my time at URMC (University of Rochester Medical Center) has made me into the person who will continue living the rest of my life. I first set foot onto this campus to do research in the fall of my sophomore year. Now three years behind me, I can appreciate just how transformative the opportunities I had through URMC were for my growth as a scholar and a scientist. I took classes here for three semesters, including many electives beyond the scope of my major which guided my intellectual development and led me to my field of choice for graduate study. I also spent time here exploring the excellent libraries and study spaces, contemplating my professional options, and enjoying the different food offered by the cafeteria. Finally, meeting people outside on my graduate school interview travels with ties to this place helped me appreciate how significant URMC is in the academic world, and exactly how valuable it was for me to go to UR.
7. Meliora 203
So, this one is a bit of a deep cut. I had PHIL 101 here my freshman fall, and therefore it holds a special place in my heart. I registered for my spring classes in this room, I participated in front of 80 people here for the first time, I witnessed part of the ceiling fall on our professor (NOT a common occurrence, it was crazy), and when I started working for Classroom Management and would open rooms in the morning, this one always gave me trouble because it needs an Allen key to be locked open. If you want to know what that means, work for ECM!
8. The Genesee River
Over time, I have realized just how grateful I am to have had the Genesee River bordering our campus. I grew up in a city with a river at its center, and walking along moving water is very relaxing to me. I’ve had picnics by the river, long conversations by the river, walks, fights, and everything in between. I don’t know what I’m going to do without the river in my post-grad location; maybe I’ll pull up pictures of the Genesee and reminisce.
9. Off-campus places
It’s so hard to pick just a few places amid the entire Rochester area. Particular favorites (off the top of my head, at this particular moment in time) include the Strong Museum of Play, where we recently had a closed senior event and got to frolic about the space; Boulder Coffee, where I’ve had a number of great conversations; Cheshire, the cutest little speakeasy/bar that I discovered earlier this year; Highland Park and its many treasures, including the Sunken Garden and the Poet’s Garden; and the whole Erie canal path, which I’ve walked in many different sections over the years.
10. Rush Rhees library (all of it!)
No Rochester post would be complete without RR. I remember illicitly climbing onto the roof during finals week my freshman year, during 24/7 library hours, and then going inside Sue B for the first time; climbing up the fire escape sophomore fall to get onto the roof yet again before they cut the top part off (not our fault, some frat guys got caught causing trouble); hanging out in Q&i with my best friends almost every day of senior spring; endlessly procrastinating writing papers in the library, or locking in and knocking them out in the basement of the stacks. Prime examples include my ling 266 paper, which was written from 10 to 6 AM in PRR and my room and was good enough to be published in JUR, my chem in context article freshman year, and alternating studying physics and writing my independent research paper in 4 hour stints in the Great Hall during junior year fall finals. I will forever romanticize the Art and Music Library, which is hands down the best place to chill between classes, and where I could frequently be found reading plays. Lastly, I want to give thanks for the Interlibrary Loan system, which allowed me to borrow every fiction book I could ever want, and to get fun emails when they were ready for me to pick up and devour.
And thus, after bearing my soul in the form of my memories, I am signing off as an Admissions Blogger. It’s been a great three years, and I hope that you prospective students gained valuable insight from my experiences! Next up, I will be pursuing a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Physiology at Stanford University. If you do come to the University of Rochester, I hope that you will cherish your time here as much as I have!