Day 1!!!

Today was the first day of our ASB (Alternative Spring Break) trip! After I woke up, packed, and ate at Starbucks because all the dining halls on campus are closed over spring break :(. We met at the Tressider parking lot at noon and then got some lunch at Trader Joe’s. Jacky and I got some sushi to eat in the car, but then we found out that Trader Joe’s sushi is pretty bad.

On the way to the San Jose Library to volunteer at IgniteCS, we listened to some Ed Sheeran ;). At Ignite CS, we had a mini college fair and answered some high school kids’ questions about college life and Stanford. Later, we went to Kim’s house, and on the way there, we talked about viruses and life. We ate dinner at Kim’s house, which consisted of beef spring rolls and Vietnamese noodles and dessert. During dinner, we talked about the definition of underrepresented minorities in STEM and whether Asian Americans can be considered an underrepresented minority.

After dinner, we chilled and talked about what defines art and whether only art critics have the ability to enjoy all the deep meanings and intricacies of art. Then we talked about how Wikipedia editors are overwhelmingly white men, which is marginalizing achievements of other demographics and makes for a systematically biased wiki. I learned that this is super important because many people use Wikipedia as a source of research and investigation on many topics, and it’s usually the first link that shows up on a Google Search. Therefore, many people assume that Wikipedia information is credible and accurate. However, because of these systematic biases, this is not usually the case. For example, many women scientists are not listed in the famous US scientists Wikipedia list, but rather are in a separate famous US women scientists list. This demonstrates an implicit bias that famous women scientists are somehow less important and different than famous scientists (majority men), and which pervade the myth that women’s achievements are less important then men’s.

We then got ready for bed. We have to wake up early tomorrow to volunteer at the Tech Museum and explore San Francisco, so I’m super hyped!