To everyone reading my blog, hello and welcome! This blog serves to document my journey through Penn State’s campus and the many nooks and crannies that the university has to offer. Throughout these posts I aim to talk about each place in terms of the number of people there, the surrounding noise, the different spaces within the area, and its overall conduciveness to studying (in my own personal opinion). I hope that by sharing this information I allow students to find areas where they can truly focus on their task at hand and GET WORK DONE.
I aim to explore not only the typical venues that students use to study at Penn State but also lesser known areas tucked away in buildings, restaurants, and even the outdoors in order to provide a coherent overview of the multitude of places a student can go.
For my first stop, I decided to test out the Huck Life Sciences Building, specifically the glass Verne M. William Gateway to the Sciences bridge that connects the Huck Life Sciences Building with the Chemistry Building. Located right above Pollock and South Halls, this building makes its home in a place that effectively slices Shortlidge Road into two pieces, a central location close to well-known buildings such as the HUB, Thomas Building, and Eisenhower Auditorium.
It is a bit of a hike to the study area because it is on the third and fourth floors of the building, however the views provided from the height of this bridge are ones other buildings can only dream of having. From the glass bridge one can look out and see the mountain ridges that come cascading down to form the place all students call home, Happy Valley.
Within the glass bridge, cushioned pleather chairs are provided lined up near the windows with small side tables and more pleather benches next to them. There are two real tables with hard plastic chairs on the upper level of the bridge, however they are tucked off into the corner and typically occupied.
No real tables are provided near the pleather chairs so one has to either hunch over to use the short side tables or accept that they are going to have to balance all their work on their lap if they prefer a more comfortable working position.
At the time of day I went to study there, there was only a handful of people there, maybe seven. However, it is known to fill up towards the end of the day with most seats becoming occupied. Overall, it is known as a quieter study place with only the faint mumblings between a group of students and some patterings on keyboards that may disrupt studying.
I don’t think this would be my top choice of place to study when I have a lot of work to accomplish. Don’t get me wrong, it does create a nice atmosphere, however the table situation is not ideal. When I study I tend to like to spread out and get comfortable, yet using the small, short side tables creates a less-than-ideal scenario for my comfort.