1. What are a few of your favorite things to do outside once the weather warms up in the spring? 

I just like being outside, generally speaking.  I am a wiffleball champ, and I am overly entertained by playing catch.  I also enjoy sitting in the grass.

2. Who is your favorite philosopher? Any favorite quotes? 

I like Kant a lot.  Not that I’m Kantian, but I appreciate the elegance of attempting to put all of philosophy under a small handful of principles.  My favorite quote of his is, “Man is certainly unholy enough but humanity in his own person must be holy to him.” Although I have some beef with Kant over what he considers “people,” I do appreciate him identifying people as ends rather than means – revolutionary stuff. 

Oh, and I like this quote from John Lennon, “If everyone wanted peace instead of a new TV set, there would be peace.”  There’s a lot of truth in that.

3. What did you enjoy about being Dr. Rick Eckstein’s TA for an Introduction to Sociology class in fall 2007?

 It was really nice to come full circle, hang out with Rick and Liz McElwee [the other TA] and to share what I love with some new faces.  I took that class as a freshman, and at that time I was pre-med and wanted to be a doctor.  I learned that I was much more interested in how people work socially than how they work internally.  So I’ll still be a doctor, but it’s going to take six years, and I’ll make way less money.  But you can’t put a price on happiness, right? 

4. What are your plans after Villanova? 

This summer I’m heading back to Spain for a couple weeks and then I’m looking for a summer job in Philly, maybe at a coffeehouse or something.  Next year I’m moving to Austin and starting work on a PhD in sociology at the University of Texas. It’s a good life.

5. Which of the seven deadly sins are you guilty of? 

Let’s go for sloth. I enjoy a good nap – especially when preceded by a big meal.  Can you tell that I miss Spain?

6. If you could wipe one animal out of existence permanently, what would it be and why? 

Pandas!  It may sound harsh, but I watched a lot of “Planet Earth” over winter break this year, and pandas in my book should stop soaking up conservationist resources.  They only eat one particular kind of bamboo, aren’t particularly avid about reproducing and a lot of efforts to help them out tend to fail. 

So really, my point is that we need to get over our unnecessary fondness for cute mammals that don’t want to save themselves and put our resources elsewhere.  What about saving the bees? Bees are fundamentally important to pollinating struggling crops and they’re dying out.  What Would Darwin Do?

7. What household appliance last broke at your place? What happened? 

Our TV has broken twice.  My roommate’s boyfriend fixed it with some duct tape and wire, but it’s still fuzzy, and we get maybe five channels?  Our remotes never have batteries, and we used to have three TVs on our TV table, none of which worked.  We’re kind of a disaster in the TV department.

8. Do you plan your outfits the night before? 

Maybe if it’s something important but otherwise no.  That’s more of a morning decision after debating the weather.  But here’s a secret – all of my jeans are exactly the same, but I have multiple pairs, so that’s one decision I never have to make.  A good pair of jeans is hard to find.

9. Have you ever participated in a psychology project as a study subject? 

Actually, yeah!  My sister is getting a doctorate in psychology and had to practice an IQ test on me.  So that was a few hours of fun with pictures and blocks and numbers.  I passed!

10. What’s the best compliment you’ve ever received?

I still get a kick out of it when my mom tells me she’s proud of me.