Day in a life:Evelyn
Join Evelyn at EXPLO Pre-College!
Take a trip through her day to see the college experience she created for herself. What will yours look like?
What Lights Me Up
“In a word: Computers. I love building them and programming them. I work in Python and Java. Lately, my friends and I have been making hilarious videos in HeyGen constantly changing them into different languages. It’s awesome what you can do with generative AI. When I’m not in front of a computer I’m playing sports—basketball’s my favorite, but I love anything active.”
Evelyn
Age: 17, rising 12th grader
Program: Pre-college AI + Machine Learning Concentration
My Day at EXPLO
Breakfast
8:00 AM
I got the last blueberry muffin this morning—sweet! I went to breakfast with Alejandra, a girl on my floor who is from Brazil. She wanted to know why so many Americans seem to want blueberry muffins for breakfast. I explained but then realized, it’s probably because it’s just what we’ve come to expect. She dared me not to have one for the rest of the week. I winced, but I’ve taken the challenge!
Concentration Period 1
9:00 AM
Artificial Intelligence + Machine Learning
This morning we had a Python challenge. We had to restructure an airline’s data set to predict flight delays given an airport closure. We were told to work carefully, but time was of the essence since passengers needed this information. It all felt so real. I wish this was the kind of thing we did in school.
Concentration Period 2
11:00 AM
Artificial Intelligence + Machine Learning
Charis Loveland came in from Amazon and explained to us how important it is to humanize the world of tech. That the human part is so important to building good tech projects, she brought up so many cool examples from things she’s worked on at Amazon. Love it that gave out her contact information and said she’s happy to stay in touch with us.
Lunch
12:30 PM
Went to lunch in Bates.
I have to say, I love that there is so much choice. But I didn’t exercise much imagination today. I had a cheeseburger and housemade kettle chips, and a big chocolate chip cookie. I know, I should eat a vegetable.
Concentration Period 3
2:00 PM
Artificial Intelligence + Machine Learning
This afternoon we presented and then debugged each other’s code. I liked collaborating – really collaborating – and Ani and Edgar help me find some great solutions I hadn’t thought of before.
Community Meeting
3:45 PM
Open Time
4:00 PM
Found a group to play 3-on-3 b-ball with in the gym! Met some people – Arun, Phillip, and Will. They seem nice. Then I went to my room, showered and changed before dinner. Oh, and put in a load of wash. I’m running out of socks and underwear.
Dinner
6:00 PM
Had dinner with Edgar and Ani and introduced them to Arun. We tried every variety of pizza in the dining hall and made pizza review TikToks. But my mom would be proud! I also had a salad with spinach and carrots.
Living Group Check-In
7:15 PM
Well, we’re in second to last place for the house challenges. Cici, our RA tried to do a pep talk, but we all couldn’t stop rolling our eyes. It will be a miracle if we win. Talked with Tasha, Viv, and Emma about what to do tonight. We decided we needed to move – our bodies!
Evening Programs
7:30 PM
Decided on the Scavenger Hunt and then the bonfire. We went all over campus from Green Beach, to the boathouse, up to the playing fields, to Munger Meadow, the botanical gardens, up to the academic quad. And we won!! This campus is huge! But gorgeous. I had no idea about most of these places. Then we went back to the student lounge in Freeman and ended up singing show tunes with a bunch of girls from Mac 2.
Residence Hall Check-In
10:15 PM
Sydney and Skylar went into the Ville and picked up everything we needed to make smoothies. So great. Lizzy brought her Polaroid camera from home so we decided to take a picture of everyone in the living group and hang them up on the bulletin board. We couldn’t stop taking silly ones– costumes galore – and we accidentally ran through two packs of film. Oops! We’ll have to get her more.