Real Life Disease Detectives

One of the latest modifications to the Saint Anselm College campus is the addition of a COVID-19 testing lab in the Sullivan Ice Arena. Each week the college conducts nearly 700 tests on a random selection of students, faculty, and staff to monitor and mitigate the spread of COVID-19 on campus. The testing is done using the Quiden Sofia SARS Antigen Fluorescent Immunoassay (FIA), a cutting edge little machine that can provide rapid test results in 15 minutes. Health Services and Sports Medicine run the show with the help of a few student workers. One of these students is the voice behind many of these blogs and a Science Olympiad alumnus, who competed in Disease Detectives many years ago. The on-campus COVID-19 testing lab is just one example of the many things that Saint Anselm College has done to keep everyone safe and on the Hilltop until Turkey Day!

Saint A's Class of 2024 Science Olympiad Scholars

Classes are in full swing again on the Saint Anselm College campus! Many things are different now to accommodate the safety of students, faculty, and staff amid the COVID-19 pandemic. However, most of our favorite parts of the Hilltop remain and we're all so happy to be back!

This year, Saint Anselm College welcomed five Science Olympiad alumni into the incoming Class of 2024. We reached out to get to know them a little better and to let future Science Olympiad scholars know why they should choose Saint A's as their future home too. 

Stephanie Firth, a forensic science and criminal justice double major, says that she chose Saint A's because of the strong sense of community that comes with going to a small school. Stephanie competed in events like Forensics and Anatomy & Physiology, which helped push her towards studying forensic science and criminal justice in college. While it's still early in the semester, her favorite part of Saint A's so far has been the great resources she's found, such as her professors and student orientation leaders. 

Caroline Berolini is a nursing major, who competed in the Massachusetts Science Olympiad competition during high school. Caroline says that she knew she wanted to be a nursing major before participating in Science Olympiad and found the competition helped introduce her to topics that she's now studying in college. Caroline said she chose Saint A's because it has a fantastic nursing program and just like Stephanie, she was drawn to the welcoming campus community. So far, her favorite Saint A's experience has been Friday nights with her roommate, using their new projector to watch movies. 

Amelia Zheng is also a nursing major, who says that Science Olympiad guided her to choosing a science major in college because of how much she loved all of the Science Olympiad topics and experiments. Amelia participated in events like Invasive Species and Bridge Building. She chose Saint A's for many reasons including the distance from home, our great nursing program, and because she had so much fun at Science Olympiad here that she knew she had to come back!

We're so excited to have everyone back on campus and to welcome all of our new Science Olympiad alumni this fall! Make sure to keep checking back in for NH Science Olympiad updates!

Less Than One Month Away!!

The 2020 New Hampshire State Science Olympiad competition is just 25 days away! Everyone at Saint Anselm College is gearing up for the big day with last-minute preparations like finalizing event locations, writing tests, and most importantly, sorting through the 2020 Science Olympiad swag. While this time is very exciting for everyone who's been preparing all year, it can also start to be stressful as final adjustments are made to builds and note sheets are put together for tests. In an effort to help out with this stress, here's some helpful advice to remember as the competition approaches:

• Read through all of your event descriptions once more and use them as a checklist to make sure you have everything you're going to need well in advance -- this includes making sure you have a lab-safe outfit ready to go if that's what your event requires
• Try to remain calm -- you're more prepared than you think!
• Get a good night's sleep the night before the competition so you're fully rested and ready for the day's events
• Don't worry about finding event locations during the competition or any little thing like that -- there are very eager and helpful Saint Anselm College volunteers to help with those things! 
• Be sure to keep an eye on the website and follow the New Hampshire Science Olympiad Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages for any updates and for social media contests the day of the competition 

Bats, and Tarantulas, and Beetles...Oh My!

In honor of Halloween, this post is dedicated to all things spooky around the Goulet Science Center here at Saint Anselm College. The college has a large collection of preserved critters ranging from tiny tarantulas and scorpions to giant moose skulls and whale ribs. Check it out!

Bat Specimens

Embryonic Chick Stained Blue

Tarantula in a Cup 

Some Beetles in a Drawer

Some Rodents (and a Monkey) in a Drawer

Whale Teeth and a Whale Rib 

Human Skeleton (yes, it's real)

Moose Skull

Student Spotlight on Rachael Nelson

This week in our Student Spotlight blog, we are featuring Rachael Nelson. Rachael was a New Hampshire Science Olympiad competitor who has gone on to do many great things since graduating high school. Check it out!

"Hello! My name is Rachael Nelson and I am a junior at Saint Anselm College. I am double majoring in Classical Archaeology and Art History and minoring in Latin. I attended Milford High School and participated in Science Olympiad my sophomore and junior years. My events were Fossils, Geological Mapping, and Astronomy. Now that I am in college I help to prepare for the NH State Science Olympiad competition. I am also involved with the Classics Society here on campus, as well as the Student Alumni Ambassadors, and the campus literary magazine Quatrain. I am preparing for my senior year and starting to look for graduate schools. I hope to study the conservation of archaeological artifacts in the future.

Last semester I had the incredible opportunity to study abroad in Italy for six months. I took classes in Latin, ancient warfare, theology, philosophy, and Italian culture. I traveled all over Italy and got to visit famous places such as Pompeii, Rome, Florence, and Paestum. As a person who has studied the archaeology of Rome for years, it was particularly special to see in person all of the artifacts and locations I had only ever seen in pictures in textbooks before. When the semester was over, instead of going home I stayed in Italy for an additional two months to work on an archaeological dig outside of Orvieto, Italy. I am of the opinion that hands-on learning is the best kind of learning. I was able to help excavate archaeological features that date back to the sixth century BCE! If I can give any advice to students going into college, I would advise them to get as involved as possible on campus their freshman year, and to seriously consider studying abroad."

Kicking off the 2019-2020 Season

It’s that time of year again! Time to start preparing for your events and thinking about registering your teams to compete in the 2020 New Hampshire Science Olympiad competition on March 21, 2020. If you haven’t already, be sure to read through the 2020 Division B and Division C Rules Manual for changes in past events as well as rules and regulations for all of the new events. Keep an eye out on our blog, website, and social media accounts for updates like what new and exciting events we will be including in this year’s competition and blog posts highlighting past and present student competitors!

Student Spotlight on Samantha Blais

Samantha started the Timberlane Regional High School Science Olympiad program last year and since then has competed in events like Dynamic Planet, Water Quality, Code Busters, and Astronomy. Her favorite thing about Science Olympiad is "learning about interesting topics much more in-depth than [she] ever has before." For Samantha, this especially applies towards the topic of astronomy which is something she's been interested in for a long time but hadn't gotten to explore quite so thoroughly before. Samantha recognizes that the Science Olympiad program is a valuable experience and she hopes to further expand the team at her high school and hopefully start a team at her district's middle school next year as well. When asked how the program has influenced her goals for the future, Samantha explained, "Science Olympiad has definitely confirmed that I want to do something in STEM when I am older, however, I am constantly flip-flopping between going into an astronomy-related field or engineering." Keep up the great work, Samantha!

Interview Lightning Round:
If you could travel anywhere, where would you go?
"If I could travel anywhere it would be France during the late spring (I really want to watch the French Open in real life"

What is your favorite animal?
"Seals"

What is your dream job?
"At the moment it's an electrical engineer"

What is your favorite snack?
"Reese's Pieces"

If you could meet anyone who has ever lived, who would it be?

"Neil DeGrasse Tyson"