It all started here, at Swarthmore College, where I am a rising senior... --->
	... Eric Roberts, a visiting prof from Stanford, told me about the 2000 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing... --->
		...at the conference I learned about the CRAW's Distributed Mentor Program for undergraduate research... <----
	...the program sounded great so, at I decided to apply. However, when I was accepted to the program, I had several other summer job offers as well. Luckily, the folks at the Swarthmore CS Program urged me to go. So... <----
...off I went to Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, to do research in their Computer Science Department... --->
	...there I met my fabulous mentors Nancy Amato, Jennify Welch, and Jennifer Walter. I also met my fellow Distributed Mentor Program grant recipient Susan Lin, from UC Berkeley... --->
		...even though I had never done robotics work before, I started research on distributed algorithms for reconfiguration of metamorphic robotic systems... <---
	...meanwhile, I kept busy exploring College Station. I discovered Free Birds World Burritos, a local burrito joint, and quickly decided to patronize the place as much as possible to make up for the lack of Mexican food on the East Coast... <---
...I also took at trip to LA for a weekend for the Amnesty International USA Patrick Stewart Scholars debriefing session. There, I spent a glorious 2.5 days interacting with some of the most inspiring student human rights activists I've ever met... --->
	...soon, I decided to explore the world outside of College Station and go to Houston. I visited the Houston Zoo and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and had a great time... --->
		...Since I didn't have much creative outlet in College Station, save for programming, I decided to take up painting fantasy miniatures. Susan soon joined me at we painted a small army of Warhammer and DnD miniatures... <---
	...Susan and I also fanatically watched Iron Chef and played Icewind Dale and Baldur's Gate II to keep ourselves entertained... <---
...I also started playing Rifts , a futuristic RPG, with Susan, Erin (another fellow female CS-er), and Daniel (Erin's boyfried)... --->
	...of course, I was working on my research the whole time. In fact, my mentors hoped that we could submit our work to ICRA 2002. How exciting!
		...one Saturday, I went to Austin to have lunch with an old high school friend. While I was there, I spent quite a bit of time wandering around the city Botanical Gardens and hiking the nature trails at the Zilker Nature Preserve. Unfortunately, hiking in Texas in July is probably a bad idea... <---
	...especially because, it can get up to about 100 degrees Farenheit in the College Station area in the summer. What awful weather... <---
...luckily, I kept cool by spending time indoors DM-ing a Dungeons and Dragon game with my mentor and my Rifts gaming group. I saw the sun rise during several of our gaming sessions... --->
	...Not wanting to spend my summer idle on the human rights side of things, I began treking down to Houston to attend meetings of Amnesty Houston. The Houston Amnesty group is incredibly dynamic and full of a diverse and amazing individuals... --->
		...one day, I tabled with Houston Amnesty at the Depeche Mode concert at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion at The Woodlands, just outside of Houston... <---
	...towards the end of the summer, I gave a presentation on my summer research for the other undergraduate researchers at TAMU. It was a big event, and all the other people in my research group presented as well... <---
	...one week, I had the pleasure to pet-sit for my friend, graduate student Lydia Tapia. Lydia has an adorable dog and two cats. We had a great time together and I was sorry to leave them... --->
	All too quickly, my summer of research with Nancy, Jenny and Jennifer was at an end and I was forced to say goodbye. So, I began the long drive back to Pennsylvania from College Station... --->
		...I soon saw my mentors again, however, when I spent my October Break continuing my research with them at TAMU and attending the Richard Tapia Symposium for Diversity in Computing in Houston. It was a fantastic conference, and I highly recommend attending... <---
	...fastforward to mid-January, when I learned that our paper was accepted at ICRA! See you at the conference!