Founded in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools, the
university became the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1912 and began
granting four-year degrees. In 1967, the Carnegie Institute of Technology merged
with the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research to form Carnegie Mellon
University (CMU). The university's 140-acre main campus is 3 miles
from Downtown Pittsburgh. Carnegie Mellon has seven colleges and independent
schools: the College of Engineering, College of Fine Arts, Dietrich College of
Humanities and Social Sciences, Mellon College of Science, Tepper School of
Business, H. John Heinz III College of Information Systems and Public Policy,
and the School of Computer Science. Iris is fortunate enough to study at CMU as
a member of class 2021.
Getting there ...
We drove from Cuyahoga Valley
National Park (where we spent 2 nights) to Pittsburgh in the morning and met
Iris at her apartment at ~ 10AM as we planned to take some photos with her
sorority friends on campus.
- Iris' preparation at her apartment
- Carnegie Mellon University
5/23 ...
- Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum
We passed by this
landmark building on the way to a Starbucks for our breakfast.
- Carnegie Mellon University
More photo time for Iris and her friends
before they went to the Commencement.
- Virtual Commencement and Diploma Ceremony
Due to COVID-19, the
Commencement was only open in person to students and faculty, and the
Diploma Ceremony from the department was still virtual to all participants.
Woanyu and I had our flat bread from Subway, and enjoyed our snacks and beer
in our hotel room while watching the events online.
5/24 ...
- Baltimore Apartment tour
Another objective for this trip was to check
out some apartments in Baltimore area as Iris will move to Baltimore to
start her first job in mid August. After dropping off some boxes and
luggages (and Iris' boyfriend) for Iris, we started the 4-hour drive to
Baltimore. It was raining hard most of the time on the way, and we
felt we were so lucky to get such a nice weather in the past few days for
our trip and CMU Commencement. We toured a few apartment complexes and
got some good ideas about different ranges of prices and conditions.
5/25 ...
We visited 2 more apartments in the morning, and started to drive back to
Pittsburgh at ~ 10:30AM.
- Antietam National Battlefield
We made a slight detour to visit the Antietam National Battlefield.
The Battle of Antietam ended the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia's
first invasion into the North and led Abraham Lincoln to issue the
preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. 23,000 soldiers were
killed, wounded or missing after twelve hours of savage combat on September
17, 1862, making it the bloodiest day in American history. Walking
along the Sunken
Road (Bloody Lane), it was hard to imagine the bloody battle in such a
peaceful countryside.
We found many cicadas in the woods (almost everywhere on
every leaf). We later learned they are
17-year cicadas belong to Brood X. The adults are active
for only about 4 to 6 weeks in the spring after their long 17 years of
developmental phase. It was really lucky for us to witness this magic (and
mystery) of nature.
- Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park, Williamsport
- Mellon Institute, Pittsburgh
We were back to Pittsburgh at about
5:30PM. After check in to the hotel, we had our last photo session at
the Mellon Institute.
5/26 (Going Home) ...
| We had an early flight at 7AM so we
had to get up before 5AM. It is one of the big steps for
kids to leave home for college, especially for those who go across
country to live independently. It was really difficult to image how the
time could fly by so fast that it seemed just yesterday when we took
Iris to college 4 years ago. I know she will grow up and
find her own path, but I also know she will always be my little girl. |
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