Smaksh Mahajan
Student Story details
About me
About me
CEL (Community Engaged Learning):
In my second semester, I was able to take a Rhetoric course. Even though I study natural sciences, I think I learned quite a lot from the course itself. During that time, we also had elections for the water board authorities, so we attended a debate that included all the parties standing for the water board elections. We were then supposed to reflect on it and write about our findings—how the debate went, which candidate we thought was the best, and which one had the most valid points. I think it was a great experience and a strong example of community-based learning at UCR.
Academics and Extracurriculars:
Academically, I was able to do an internship in Hong Kong last summer, researching crabs in the mangroves there. It was an amazing experience—both academically and culturally. I also stayed for four more months for my exchange semester, and I would say that I had an awesome time exploring one of the most international cities in Asia.
For my extracurricular activities, I was the Secretary of the RASA Board, which is the main student organization at UCR. Looking back, my board year was full of challenges, but it was also incredibly rewarding. I learned a great deal about leadership, teamwork, management, and, in general, how to organize great events!
Student Housing:
I live in shared student housing called Bagijnhof, and I love my house. We constantly have house dinners, movie nights, and usually spend a lot of time together. One memory that comes to mind is when we joked about having cereal and milk as a proper breakfast—and it actually ended up happening! More than 10 people showed up for this quirky breakfast. We also have a yearly Efteling trip with the house, which I always look forward to!
UCR Memory:
Last year in May, my friend and I read online that the Aurora Borealis might be visible from the Netherlands. So, we sent a message in the UCR group chats and decided to go to a beach up north for a better chance to see the lights. Little did we know that we would end up leading around 60 people at 2 AM to a beach with only a slight chance of spotting the lights!”
We didn’t end up seeing the northern lights(Unfortunately), but we still had an awesome experience. In return, we were lucky enough to witness bioluminescence in the sea!