First-year students held an albino Burmese python named Buttercup on their shoulders during a critical thinking course that focuses on the fear factor. John O'Hara, professor of Critical Thinking and First Year Studies, teaches "Fear Factor" for students in a living learning community (LLC). "In class, we examine the nature of fear, and its role in impacting our personal and collective decision-making and judgments. While we cover many types of fear – social, political, psychological – this exercise helped students understand how fear tends to make us misjudge risk. For example, the things we fear, we often overestimate risk; for things we do not fear, we often underestimate," he explained. Special thanks to NJ Snake Man for the live reptile experience. More photos: https://brnw.ch/21wX1Ug (fb)

Joining student groups allows you to share your passions, culture and creativity with others. Md Rahaman, a Computer Information Systems major who goes by Mushfik, said, "The Bengali Student Associations is just the right place for anyone who wants to explore Bengali culture and also for the Bengali students who want to have a touch of their home culture. We welcome students from all around the college to our events planned for the future and many more fun games." They recently enjoyed traditional street food known as Jhalmuri and the country's famous mango juice while playing games. Mushfik brought his camera to document the fun. 📸s: @call_me_mushfik (fb)