Let Me Introduce Myself

Trafton B.

September 28, 2009 - 10:45 PM

Hello everyone, my name is Trafton Bean and thanks for tuning in to my student blog for the year. I'm pretty excited to get back into the blogosphere after a few year hiatus. Last time, I was blogging while on a roadtrip around the nation after my senior year of high school. My buddies and I traveled for two months visiting baseball parks, but I'm not here to advertisement my life so I'll get back to business.

To introduce myself, I'm originally from San Mateo, California (just sound of San Francisco) and I'm entering my junior year at the University of Oregon where I'm majoring in Environmental Studies and minoring in Chinese. I know those two things really don't have too much to do with each other, but you're quickly going to notice that I like a lot of different things, which is kind of why I came to Oregon in the first place. Contrary to popular belief, I did not come here to get away from the perfect weather in the Bay Area.

There are a couple of reasons I chose the UO. First, the Environmental Studies department is outstanding here. I'm especially excited for this winter and spring term when I get to be a part of the Environmental Leadership Program (ELP), which will have me traveling around Oregon teaching environmental education classes to middle schoolers. More on that when the time comes though. Second, I really wanted to go to a big university. I'd gone to the same school from 6th grade until Senior year, and I had a graduating high school class with a whopping 58 students. All of my classmates were headed off to Stanford, USC and every Ivy League. I said no thanks, I'm going to Oregon and having fun for four years. U of O football games have yet to disappoint me. To anyone from the Berkeley area, 42-3. How does it feel to drop to #24. That hurts.

Let's see this term I'm taking ENVS 435: Environmental Justice, PPPM 325: Community Leadership & Change, LA 361: Land Analysis and CHN 305: Chinese Literature. Overall, I'm pretty excited about classes starting. The summer has been excellent in a whole lot of ways, but it's time to get back to the books. This summer I worked as a summer school teacher for a program called Aim High in the Bay Area. And just last week, I had my last tour of the summer for UO. All last year, I was a Student Ambassador for the university.(Student Ambassador is a really fancy way of saying tour guide.) So, if anyone received a tour of campus from a red headed tour guide, that's me. Sorry, you can't get away from me.

That's me in a nutshell, or at least the recent version of me. I already know that I have a lot more to share with you guys, but I don't want to give it all away at once. I've still got to introduce you to my roommates, Mount Pisgah and some miscellaneous environmental studies majors. In due time, my friend, due time.

Good night and GO DUCKS!