Wednesday, Day 4

Surprise, another FABULOUS day out here. Yet again another early rise with the addition of having to pack up all of our belongings to bring to our next hotel, The Grand California, but I'll get to that later.

We had some difficulties figuring out the suitcase situation, but eventually left for Underwriters Laboratories. We met the VP of education - Barb Guthrie. She was full of energy and incredibly excited for us to be there. Not going to lie, my first impression was “What the heck, this is an office.” I soon learned that the building was much more than that and also has an entire lab behind it. It felt very similar to my wood shop class as a freshman.

We were each given our own adorable, personalized, construction hats. Although we didn't really need them, it was fun. After a little tour around the building we were directed outside to the parking lot.

Waiting for us in the parking lot were 3 different fire trucks from several California counties.  They had separate stations set up for us to experience different things that a fireman might encounter. At one, we learned about hazardous chemicals and got to climb up into a fire truck to see how it's really done.

In another, we were told how the technical stuff worked behind the trucks, especially concerning the ladder trucks.  In the last station we got to experience what it was like to put out a simulated fire. UL had gone to the trouble of purchasing fire resistant suits so that we could experience what its like to put out a real fire. All the firefighters were incredibly nice and funny.

We then proceeded into the lab where we were show some of the actual tests that the lab techs do on a day-to-day basis. Some of these tests included Hail Damage Test, Hair Suction, Rain water, Impact, and Microwave test to name a few.

It was so weird to see that the things they do to test safety are normal things that would be done to the product anyway. I could totally picture myself working there and having a ton of fun.

Lunch was fabulous. Though not as good as Tender Greens, we did get a feast of mass proportions followed by 4 different cake options for dessert. The coolest part of lunch though wasn't the food, it was the people we talked to.

The whole time we were eating we had a panel of lovely individuals in front of us, one of them was my mentor, Sarah Escosa! I had already talked to her a little bit earlier in the day and we took some cute little pictures together, but I got the chance to listen to her and a bunch of other amazing women talk about what they do and how they ended up where they are today.

After UL we still had the Discovery Science center to visit. This place was basically a California version of the Science museum, but on a smaller scale. It really was cool though, especially this grocery game where you went and had to scan the most “green” items, and the whole thing was really incredible.

We then had another panel of fabulous women to talk to and learn from. I feel like I’m getting a life cheat by getting the chance to learn about the life experience of these women in addition to excellent advice that will help guide me. I really hope that there are girls back home that would be interested in hearing about this because the world is so much bigger than you think and until you get out and experience it you don’t really realize it.

There's more I could write about, but I'm not attempting to make a novel here and I'm sure there are things you have that need doing so this is where I'll end it for now, thanks for reading!

Andrea Polis