My summer began with a wonderful three week trip to Europe. I was visiting my boyfriend who has been studying abroad in Vienna for the past semester. I spent the first week and a half getting shown around Vienna--visiting museums and walking around the city. We spent an entire day at the palace at Shoenbrunn. It was absolutely beautiful--the grounds, the palace, the mazes, the zoo. Of the museums, my favorites in Vienna were the royal jewels and carriage museums. It was really interesting to see the different carriages used for different occasions--but they all had a royal green color. After my boyfriend had finished his classes and exams, we spent a day in Budapest, walking around the hills of Buda and Pest and admiring the castles. We were in Prague for two days after that. Arriving in the city at 4am, we had the place to ourselves. Able to take pictures at the main touristy sites in the center of town before they were over crowded. We made it up to Prague castle in time to see the motor-corps, the military band and the drill team running through their exercises. It was a lot of fun. The bulk of our trip was spent in Switzerland. We went to Geneva and Zurich, spending two days in each city. We explored the museums in each city, went to the UN Buildings in Geneva and the zoo in Zurich. I love sitting out by the lakes, relaxing and eating dinner. I even got lost and almost went to France--but that's another story. We concluded our trip with a day walking around Lichtenstein and the cheesy Sound of Music tour in Salzburg. It was a wonderful, amazing experience and I am so thankful for the opportunity to go. 

As I was contemplating topics for my final PLA blog of the semester, an interesting situation arose. The television show I was watching on Sunday night was interrupted by a special report announcing the death of Osama bin Laden. While waiting to hear what President Obama would say on the topic, a series of shouts and screams and horns and chants of "USA!USA!USA!" could be heard outside my window. At first, I thought it was a continuation of the Mifflin streak, students blowing off steam before the hectic finals week. But as I went to check facebook and see what everyone was posting, I realized that what I heard was actually students celebrating the death of bin Laden. This situation brought to mind several things I have learned because of the Academy this semester. 
First the special report was a current event, something we have been taught to follow in PLA. Through the news quizzes, this semester, I have escaped the bubble that I put myself in when in college. At home, I watched TV in the morning while getting ready for school. At Penn State, I have to be respectful of my roommate and find my news sources in other places. However, I feel that getting two-three newspapers each day is wasteful. So, I signed up for news alerts from the NY Times. Every morning, I get an email telling me about the day's headlines with links to the full articles. Without the news quizzes in PLA, I probably would have stayed in my current event-less bubble, going about my day, getting informed about major news from sources like facebook--not the best way to stay informed. 

Secondly, this situation showed the hastiness to show and express opinions about a situation without analyzing the details to make an educated opinion. When I first heard the noises outside my dorm, I assumed that the rest of the student body was stuck in their "studying for finals" bubble. Boy was I wrong. They had seen the headlines and taken to the streets in celebration. And I hesitated to join--granted I had an 8am final the next day--but what were they celebrating? The patriotic feeling that the person leading the organization responsible for the terrorists attacks of September 11th was killed almost ten years later? He's been in hiding for how many years? There are so many other leaders and other people responsible for the planning of terrorist attacks since September 11th. What does his death do to this war on terror? It seems that the students in the streets saw the headlines and reacted without really thinking--without making an informed opinion. 

Third, the opinions were expressed on social media. I went to facebook to see what everyone was posting after I had seen the news report. It's how I learned of the riot happening on Beaver Avenue. This generation has used technology in a new way--and its this diffusion that has caused information to spread further and faster than ever before. Still not sure if this is good or bad--I suppose it depends on the situation--but it's something I'm going to think about when I hear of a new news event. 

Overall, this semester has been an interesting experience. The class project was not my favorite. I didn't feel a connection to the solutions we came up with. And this is probably a result of me missing the classes due to exams and Passover where we presented the solutions within the class. Not having those check points to see where everyone else was on this project made it that much more difficult for me to figure out what we were supposed to be doing--what our purpose was. It was only during the final presentation that I heard the other groups' solutions for the first time. I had a general idea from emails and blogs, but not as full of a picture until I heard the presentation. 

Some of the semester topics were not interesting for me. A few of the speakers were not very engaging. It could have been that the class was too long and too late in the day for me to have any attention to give to certain speakers. Those weeks, it was difficult to blog because I needed to find a topic outside of the class discussion to write about while at the same time following the blogging "rules" about content (fan behavior and current events). On the same note of being too long and not engaging--the field trips could be better. The long day spent in the lecture hall is not the most productive way to keep us engaged in the various speakers. Five lectures in a row is too much. Variation in the day's activities--scattering the speakers with engaging activities to get us out of the lecture hall would be beneficial. 

I have enjoyed the opportunities that the Academy has given me this semester with the co-sponsorships and extracurricular activities and I look forward to what will come in the future. Thank you to President Spanier, Mr and Mrs Hintz, the PLA Advisory board, Dean Brady, Melissa and Lisa for making this program what it is. Have a wonderful summer!