Jessie Runnoe

Whitman College

I grew up in Oakland, California near San Francisco. Before coming to Whitman College I attended the East Bay Waldorf School (K-12). During my sophomore year of high school I participated in an exchange and spent three months attending a Waldorf school near Freiburg, Germany. While I was there I took a physics class, so technically, I learned Newton's Laws in German before I learned them in English. .

I've been interested in astronomy and physics since I was little. My father has a degree in physics and he used to let me try to read his books. When I reached high school I took as many science classes as I could, but our curriculum was fairly limited as my class was the first class to go through so I ended up doing a lot more studio art than anything else. I chose Whitman for its astronomy department (it's small, but it's amazing) and have been taking astronomy classes since coming here. Outside of my classes, I enjoy horseback riding, rock climbing, and sound equipment. I spent the last two summers teaching horseback riding at a summer camp in Carmel Valley, and during high school I spent ~10 hours a week rock climbing. Obviously while I'm in classes I don't have as much time to ride and climb, but I do direct Whitman's sound crew. I started on the crew in the fall of 2005 and really got into it over the last couple years.
 

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