Alex Buder Shapiro is approaching graduation - but her days of playtime, recess and cafeteria food are far from over. The College senior is taking a job in human resources at Google. There, her playtime will be a game of pool with colleagues, recess will be climbing up an indoor rock wall and cafeteria food will be tapas at Cafe Pintxo.

Sometimes, it pays to try something different. Since 2002, Arabic, Chinese and American Sign Language have become more popular than ever before as students have come to recognize their value in the job market. Meanwhile, student enrollment in traditional language programs such as French and Spanish has remained steady.

A new Web site is giving students an educational and charitable way to procrastinate. By playing vocabulary games on a new, non-profit Web site called Freerice.com, students can do community service from their computer. For every correct word in the game, twenty grains of rice are donated to help end world hunger through the site's partnership with the United Nations World Food Program.

It took some practice, but 2006 Penn alumnus Pierre Gooding has the essentials of being a teacher down pat. He's learned how to take attendance, field requests to go to the bathroom, write on the chalkboard like a pro, check-up on nightly homework assignments and, most importantly, teach his students the English skills they will need for life.

German professor Liliane Weissberg's class on Sigmund Freud is listed under the German department. It's also listed under the History and Sociology of Science department. It's in the English, Women's Studies and Comparative Literature departments, too.

College students are attempting to return to the past by morphing their campuses into hotbeds of political activity. At yesterday's Students for Human Rights and Democratic Education Conference, students from 8 different colleges and universities gathered in Logan Hall to hear Former U.

It was a miracle comeback that not even a Big 5 game could produce. Villanova's defensive intensity and fullcourt pressure in the opening minutes rattled the Quakers. By the time Penn finally settled down to outscore Villanova in the second half, the Wildcats had already removed their full-court press.

VILLANOVA, Pa. There are many different things that can explain the Quakers' early-season struggles - perimeter defense, rebounding and turnovers to name a few. But it's what happens before tipoff that's the real killer. "We came out, and we had some jitters in the first half," freshman starting point guard Harrison Gaines said.

Would you like some caviar on your latkes? How about chipotle mayonnaise? Those are just a few examples of the twists local restaurants put on the popular Hanukkah dish at the fifth-annual Latkepalooza, held yesterday afternoon at the Gershman branch of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Philadelphia.

Wharton junior Jason Myers was arrested Thursday for 10 burglaries committed inside Harnwell College House over Thanksgiving break. Between Nov. 21 and Nov. 26, Myers, then a Harnwell resident, allegedly stole items from 10 different dorm rooms on various floors of the college house.

VILLANOVA, Pa., Dec. 1 - The Big 5 season opener is always a highly anticipated event and is almost always a hard-fought battle. This year's edition was pretty much over from the minute the opening tip was tossed. In front of a packed Pavilion crowd, Villanova was in control from the start en route to an 87-61 dismantling of Penn.

The men's swim team is supposed to peak twice in the season, according to coach Mike Schnur. The first of those two peaks came this weekend at the Nike Invitational, where the Quakers took second place behind host Kenyon, the favorite. The 400 free relay team of Devon Carr, Pat Gallagher, Chris Buckand Kyle Loughran took first and set both a Penn and Kenyon pool record.

First place in the triple jump just wasn't enough at the Bucknell Invite on Saturday. Penn athletes swept the event, taking 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places. Junior Camille Richard won the event with a jump of 11.71 meters. Although the effort was not a personal best, Richard was pleased with the result.

Squash is thought of as a gentleman's game, associated with while polo shirts and Northeastern prep schools. But there was very little gentlemanly behavior on display when Penn split a weekend doubleheader at Ringe Courts yesterday. Ed Cerullo, playing as Brown's No.

The women's squash team was nothing short of dominant this weekend against two of its Ivy League foes. But according to Penn, there is still room for improvement and much more work is needed. On Saturday, the Quakers took on Yale, winning 7-2. And in the encore, they came back yesterday to face the Bears and were a perfect 9-0 for the day.

Three students have been arrested or indicted in the past week. The north side of campus has seen two shootings in a month. A female student was sexually assaulted in her off-campus apartment, and suspects have flashed students in two separate incidents.

Daniel Schwartz is a College sophomore from Decatur, Ga. His e-mail address is schwartz@dailypennsylvanian.com.