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The hosts of the Terby Voices podcast, Paul and Maya, welcome guest Salma Mohamed, a junior in the Viterbi School of Engineering, to discuss how to be a balanced engineering student. They also talk about fall break at USC and their plans for Halloween. Salma is going to visit friends at another school, while Maya is planning a relaxing break in LA. They discuss costume ideas for Halloween, including going as characters from Shrek or a girl pop trio. Stay tuned to find out what they end up doing. You might have to, oh yeah, go ahead. Well, hello everybody and welcome back to another episode of the Terby Voices. I am one of your hosts. My name is Paul Ledesma, Executive Director of Undergraduate Admission here at the USC, the Terby School of Engineering. Hey everybody, I am your other co-host. My name is Maya, I'm a current senior studying Industrial Systems Engineering here at the Terby. And I think I hear a, yeah, I hear a knock at the, yeah, I hear a knock at the door. Someone's here, come on in. Who is this mystery guest? Hi, my name is Salma Mohamed. I'm a junior in the Viterbi School of Engineering in the Building Science Program. And Salma, this is your first time on our podcast, is that correct? Yes. Welcome, welcome. Why don't you give all of our listeners a little bit of background on where you're from and how you got here, just a little bit, a little bit more about you. Yeah, so I'm from Austin, Texas. Originally, I'm a transfer. I transferred here as a sophomore last fall. I transferred from Syracuse University, so East Coast to West Coast, very big jump, but I'm really happy with my decision. I really like my program and yeah. So a Texas girl goes to New York to come to LA. You've got the entire country somewhat figured out in that situation then? Um, a little bit, I guess you could say that. You just need the Midwest, you know, throw anything in Chicago. Yeah, throw Chicago in there. Gotta go throw Chicago in there. Absolutely. Well, Salma, welcome to the podcast. How are you guys doing so far today? I mean, we're coming up on, oh wait, not coming up on. We are on, we're in fall break, right? This is your fall break? Yes. Yeah. This is where I'm, again, the grumpy old man. I have no idea what's going on with your guys' lives. To me, it's just another work day. So why don't we update everybody on what fall break is, Maya? Yeah, fall break, USC does this. And actually a lot of my friends, I'm realizing now, at other universities don't. Which is funny because people kept complaining, everyone else does this, why doesn't USC do it? And so that was like the complaint like five years ago or when fall break started. It was like, we need fall break because everybody else does it. Yeah, so after the eighth week of the fall semester, we have Thursday and Friday off. So a lot of students will go home. I actually know a good amount who are going to USC football's away game in Notre Dame. Some people go on trips, but it's really just a nice break where teachers are not supposed to assign anything Tuesday, Thursday, I mean, Thursday, Friday. And if we have class Thursday, Friday, those are canceled. So it's like, it's not a full spring break or winter break, but it's very nice to take a deep breath. And it normally comes after midterms as well, which I guess was the case for me. So I'm very happy today. Great, fantastic. Now, what are you two doing for your fall break? Selma, what are you doing? I'm going to be visiting some friends who go to another school. I'm leaving today and I'll be there until like Saturday night and I come back on Sunday morning. So fun, which school? They're in Stanford right now. Oh, nice. So you're going up to Palo Alto? Yeah. Going up to the Bay Area? Have you been there before? Yeah, no, I visited a few times. And last time I was there, like we kind of explored like San Francisco a little bit more and it was fun. Cool, good stuff. Maya, what are you doing? Gosh, I am just enjoying my life here in LA. I think it's my first fall break without really having like concrete plans of traveling. And I'm really excited about it. You know, I'm going to go play tennis today. I got like 12 hours of sleep last night, turned in all my assignments. Yeah, so just hoping to get ahead and just making cookies tonight. So it's a very chill all break at home, which is what I needed. I want cookies, that sounds awesome, very cool. They're really good. It's this new recipe that I tried. It's like brown butter, chocolate chip oatmeal. And I make them gluten-free as well. So I just use like Trader Joe's gluten-free flour. The gluten-free rolled oats. Yeah, I use those, use the flour. They're almost healthy, you know? Yeah, nothing but the butter, the sugar, the chocolate, that's all healthy. It's totally there, that's great, good stuff. Yeah, dark chocolate. Well, cool. Well, I hope you both have a very relaxing fall break. And while our students are listening to this episode, and Selma, this is your episode, why don't you give us all a little introduction of what this episode's all about, what people are about to hear? Yeah, so this episode, I wanted to talk about how to be a balanced engineering student, because I know a lot of students that haven't come to USC yet know that there are a lot of ways to get involved at Viterbi, and they're always hearing like, oh, you could do this, or you do that, and it's all very, very exciting. But I think no one kind of talks about like, okay, what happens after you join? Like, what happens when you're a student here, and you're doing all of this? I feel like the reality part of it needs to be talked about more, like, okay, this is what it actually looks like. You know, parts of it are gonna be hard, and you balance in like a midterm score, and you have like three club meetings to go to, and you're like a leader in two of them. So I brought a guest who's also in building science, also a junior who is involved in one of the clubs here in Viterbi, the Engineering Without Borders. We're taking the same course load, so she's also very, very busy, and knows a lot about how to balance everything. So, you know, I just thought Kay would be a good person to kind of talk about her experiences doing all of that, to kind of give our listeners more of a feel like this is what, you know, your life could look like if you're at USC, and you know, you wanna do all these clubs, and you wanna succeed in the classroom, like kind of here is how, at least from this person's perspective, or a way you could do it. Awesome. Well, let's get out of the way, and hand it over to you to talk a little bit more about this topic, a really, really fantastic in-depth topic. And then we'll come back on the back end of this, and teaser, we're gonna talk about some Halloween things. So join us on the back end to talk all about Halloween things that are happening coming soon. All right, we'll see you in a second. Okay, awesome. And then this is where we'll cut off the intro. I'll bring it back on the outro, and yeah, I'm at the edge of my seat, Paul. All right. What I do, I bring the goods. Okay, awesome. So I will bring it back here, so. And welcome back, everybody. Thank you, Salma, for bringing us another great episode of the Terby Voices. I personally really loved hearing about your guests' experiences. I actually used to be a part of Engineers Without Borders myself, so it's nice to hear what they're doing now. I actually was a part during COVID, so it's interesting to hear when it's more in-person, actionable, what people are doing. So yeah, thank you for that discussion. And now, Paul, I'm at the edge of my seat. What is this Halloween teaser? I guess first, is there anything you wanna highlight about balance as an engineer? I think it all was handled great, and thank you, Salma. I really, really appreciate that. So I think one thing we haven't talked about is that we're in the middle of October, and this was a regular topic last year at this time, and I'm upset that we haven't brought this up, but what are you two doing for Halloween? Are you dressing up? Do you know what you're dressing up? Are you keeping it a surprise? Are there plans in the works? What's happening? What happens to Salma at Halloween? What happens to Maya at Halloween? Salma, you start, I need to think. I don't have any plans right now, but I feel like generally any Halloween stuff that's happening on campus, any parties or things like that, you usually won't find out until, I think, a week before. So I'm hoping to hear about something. What do you wanna do? Are you planning on dressing up? Do you have any thoughts about this? I think it might be fun to go in a costume. I have no idea yet, but I think it could be cool, because a lot of these Halloween stuff on campus, they are like, oh, you have to wear a costume, costume required for entry, or you have to show up as something, at least try. So I think it would be fun to try a costume. Maya? So I'm a big fan of dressing up. I went as Black Widow last year, like wig, whole outfit and everything, really loved it. This year, my roommates and I, actually one of them is also a VSA, Peyton, for those of you who are real, dedicated Viterbi Voices listeners. I'm actually looking through our group chat right now. I didn't know you and Peyton were roommates. Why did I not know that? We are as of this year, yeah, super cool. It's Peyton and I, and then Claire, who was on a couple podcasts ago. So we got a Viterbi trio. You guys are hosting the Halloween party, I'm just saying. Honestly, we probably will be hosting a Halloween party. We're also hosting my birthday party the week before Halloween. So there's a lot of costumes going on. So I'm looking through some ideas. So my vote personally was like, we go as Shrek, Puss in Boots, and Donkey, you know, a little trio. That was shot down. Nobody wanted to be Donkey. Nobody wanted to do that? No. Well, what about, why can't someone be Fiona? I don't know. Apparently it doesn't sit with the three, you know? Like, if we're all gonna be animals, gotta commit to it. Scooby-Doo is another candidate. Somebody said something from Hannah Montana. Or, and this is an interesting one, a trio where somebody goes as Taylor Swift, somebody as Sabrina Carpenter, and somebody as Olivia Rodrigo. So we got like a girl pop trio. So we'll stay tuned for what I actually end up doing. But yeah, on the Tuesday of Halloween, I don't know if we'll do anything on actual Halloween. I actually have a club meeting for Lava Lab where we're pitching. So I will be wearing a costume while pitching my startup to everyone. So I have to keep in mind, like, what sort of a costume would I be okay pitching? Well, and your birthday's coming up too? And your birthday is the week before? Yes, the Tuesday before. What age is this? 22. Fiona's 22. Oh, now you gotta be Taylor Swift. Now we're bringing it back. Gosh, yeah. It's almost a year out, me going to Taylor Swift. Yeah, see? There you go. You gotta put on that 22 outfit. And, well, that will be super fun. I realized that, like, I think I'm probably driving this conversation more than anything else. I remember when I was younger, I was like, eh, I'm not really into Halloween. And then ever since I had a kid, it changes everything. And so now it's like, okay, what are we doing for Halloween? Because this is a big deal. We gotta figure this out. And so that's been a topic on previous years. And there are now, I don't know if I wanna tell you guys what we're gonna be. I don't know if this should be a surprise. I'll take guesses. I'll take guesses as to what you think. Or should I give you clues? Yeah, drop a clue per week. We'll do a clue, two guesses, and then we can, yeah. So the current clue, the new clue, the only clue so far, is current events. Barbie. Something with one of the Barbie movies. Good guess. Are you going to confirm the guesses if they're correct or not? More like warmer or colder? Oh, like if you got it right, I'd be like, you got it? Yeah. Okay. I don't know, will I? Oh, it's totally Barbie, Paul. No, actually it's not. I'll tell you that much, it's not, it's not right. But that's one thing. Okay, Barbie, that was a good guess, Alma. Current events. That was summer. Get current. Is it still in theaters, though? I don't know. Current events. Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce. You got it. Seriously? You actually guessed it. No way, that's honestly, it's something that my roommates also, I'm going to tell Claire that you're doing this and she's going to be infinitely jealous because we shot her down because there's really only two. So I'm curious as to like what you're, like what the whole family is going to do. Because, so my daughter and my wife are two different Taylors, right? So my daughter is Evermore era Taylor and she has like a green cape and like yellow dress and is all whatever. And then my wife will be, I don't know what era it is, the red era? It's the one where she's wearing the t-shirts and we're never ever getting back together again. She wears like a hat and like boots and all that stuff. So she'll be dressed like that and then I'll be Travis Kelce. So I got a Travis Kelce shirt, pants, I'm going to wear some sunglasses. I can't decide whether I'm like going to grow the mustache out or not, or whether I'll like have a fake mustache or let it go. Kind of depends on what his, because he usually has the beard, but this year he's got the mustache. And so I don't know, but I've got, we got it all lined up. So yeah, well, I guess that's it. There's no drama anymore. It's going to be, it's going to be it. So. I'm just, we're just on the same wavelength, Paul. Yeah, yeah. We have the same news and obsession with Taylor Swift. Well, you know that 87, Kelsey's number plus 13 is a hundred. Got to keep it a hundred, keep it a hundred. That's what it is. So that's the new conspiracy. Where did we get the 13? That's her number. That's her favorite number. She always has 13 everywhere. Come on, don't you know this? Aren't you a Swift fan? Come on, get in line. I feel like I just failed the test. You totally just failed the test. Selma, are you a Taylor Swift fan? So when I was younger, I feel like when everyone, like you're really young, you have a Taylor Swift phase and then, you know, like nothing, like I kind of got less into her music. But recently I've become a Swiftie again. I think it's because I watched the show. It's very cheesy. I don't know if you've heard of it. It's called The Summer I Turned Pretty, but there's a lot of like Taylor Swift songs in it. And I think just like, you know, I was kind of vibing to it. And I, since then, like, yeah, I've been listening to Taylor Swift a lot. Great. It's awesome. It's a good time. And the movie's coming out. Did you guys see last night, the premiere was at the Grove. I heard about that. And they shut the entire Grove down. Like the owners of the Grove are compensating all the businesses for lost revenue that day. Cause they just immediately said, we can't have any business going on. And they were shutting the whole thing down. And Beyonce was there and Taylor Swift was there and all the celebrities were there. Yeah, I heard about that. And my roommate sent that to me. We have a very like, a very up-to-date Taylor Swift news channel between the two of us. And I was so jealous. It is crazy. Yeah, my wife and my daughter, and then like all the neighborhood kids here are all going to the movie this weekend. And so it's like a whole thing again. I won't be here, but it will, I'm sadly to say out on that, but. Oh, and then I have another suggestion for your fall break in LA Maya. If you've never done it before, there are outdoor movie screenings, lots of different places, but one of them is called Rooftop Cinema Club. If you've never done Rooftop Cinema Club, they have multiple locations. One's near me in El Segundo, but there's also one downtown at the downtown LA, like in the arts district. Actually there's two. There's a downtown LA version and there's an arts district one. And this weekend they're doing a bunch of Halloween stuff. And so for example, tomorrow at 4.15 is Coco is playing at the arts district. I love Coco. Down near me tomorrow in El Segundo is Hocus Pocus, the 30th anniversary of Hocus Pocus. And then they're having like other like scary movies, like over the weekends, like Friday the 13th, they're going to do on Saturday, The Nightmare Before Christmas in El Segundo. There's a screen, like there's lots of different things that are happening. And unrelated, but related, the El Segundo location is doing a football game watch, USC Notre Dame. So on the giant screen on top of the roof in El Segundo, USC Notre Dame on Saturday 14th. Oh my gosh. I see that. That actually would be so fun. I will definitely bring that up. So think about it. Yeah, I feel like there's some sort of like a, maybe we get an advertisement, you know, maybe we can get a little partnership. We got two people that went to it. Look at that. Let's get our revenue from that. There you go. And the reason I brought that up, you made me think of it, is because when you said Shrek and you said your birthday, they're doing a special event at El Segundo on Saturday, no, not Saturday, Thursday the 26th. And they're doing a Shrek silent disco party. What is that? Well, have you ever done, have you ever done a silent disco? I think I have, but- It's when you like get the headphones and you roll in, your headphones have like three buttons on them and they've got three DJs and they're playing each different songs. And so basically it's like a giant party where everyone's dancing. But when you take your headphones on, you can't hear anything. And so like, you'll just be dancing to like, there's like a red channel, a blue channel and a green channel. And like, you'll be driving, you'll be just like, and they're just like loving the red channel. And you look over to your friend and they're dancing, but you realize they're on the blue channel. And you're like, they're like, what do you want? Like, oh no, you gotta go to red right now, go to red, it's awesome. And then you switch over to red and then it's just a super fun thing. Dang, okay, well noted. That would be a very fun weekend activity. I will keep you posted, but it's on my list for LA at some point. Yeah, rooftop screenings are fun. So good times and lots of Halloween things. So anyway, well, I think that's enough related to Halloween. I hope you all make some good plans and get out there and have a great time. And I hope all of you continue to stay safe and enjoy the rest of it. If when it comes down to admission, I hope you're planning on applying. We got two weeks left until the early action deadline. So make sure you get your application in by November 1st and mark your admission plan as November 1st. If you got any other questions, you always call us at 213-600-9919. You can email us at vadmit at usc.edu or find more information on our website, viterbiadmission.use.edu. All right, y'all. Thank you so much. Have a good one. Bye.