Hello Everyone, my name is Nathan O’Brien and I am from Allentown, Pennsylvania. I am a freshman living in East Halls so this is one of the first college classes I am taking! I actually started off as an Agri-Business management major, but quickly transferred to the Division of Undergraduate studies once I was accepted to the university. My goal is to graduate with a Finance degree from the Smeal College of Business, although there is room for change if I decide finance is not for me. What is interesting is that my entire family LOVES science. Both of my parents are chemists, my brother is a chemical engineer, and my sister is majoring in Biology. Maybe it was the extremely long and boring conversations about polyatomic ions at the dinner table that caused my loathing for science. Every time I would try to bring up a new topic, somehow my family members would tie it back to science and then ramble on about stuff I really don’t care about.

When I arrived for NSO I explained my hatred for science to my advisor and she told me I had to take this class! I have to admit that I am actually looking forward to learning a lot in this class. I have a passion for learning, and I have to say that all of the topics on the class schedule seem very interesting! Another thing that compelled me to take this course was the controversy part of the course. Maybe it’s because I love politics, but I truly love arguing against others, even if I know they are probably right. I question everything just to make people really think about what they are actually saying. One of the topics I am most interested in is the future of our energy supply and our dependence on oil.

It’s not that I’m bad at science, I just find it to be much less interesting than other topics such as business, politics, and history. I am not planning on being a science major primarily because it does not interest me. I believe I can accomplish more if I major in a degree that I am passionate about such as business. A career in the field of science would most likely make me miserable and nobody wants to be miserable! I am extremely glad to be a part of this class as I will get to learn science in a different manner instead of simply memorizing definitions and formulas.

-Nathan O’Brien