Nursing

Hello students and prospect nursing inquires,
     
The medical field is an ever growing occupation making it an excellent degree field to invest in. UAF has joined with UAA to bring Fairbanks students the option to obtain their associates of nursing. Students can stay here in Fairbanks while pursuing their degree through UAA. However, being accepted into the nursing program is not the same as being accepted into the pre-nursing program.

Once all your prerequisites are achieved, a separate application must be submitted to the nursing program along with taking the nursing entrance exam.The nursing program is based on a point system. All of the prerequisite classes are worth a certain amount of points as well as the nursing entrance exam. The points earned from the test, prerequisites and GPA are added up to decide who the top candidates are for the program.

Extra points can be earned by working as an EMT or a nurses aid. The program is growing fairly quickly and many students go on to obtain their bachelors of nursing by taking an extra year of school online while working as a nurse with their associates degrees.

There are many opportunities to take advantage of here at UAF and more to come.
    

Research Perspective: Arctic Ground Squirrels

Hola~!

It is now midday in the Drew lab and experiments have been underway since 8:00am. Tissue samples and their respective proteins are analyzed by a procedure called the Western blot. {I've since heard of methods called the Southern and Northern blots...but no Eastern blot...hmm!} I, personally, have been in what I like to term the "Operating Room". And, yes, with an arctic ground squirrel, another intern, and a graduate student.

courtesy of Jeanette Moore

You might be wondering why such a friendly student like myself would participate in animal research. First, a research lab is kept under strict supervision and all experiments must be approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). Plus, I treat the squirrels with respect and am grateful for what their amazing biochemistry teaches us.

Through the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program (ANSEP) I saw a presentation about the Drew lab. This was back in 2006, when I was a junior in high school. {Start sprouting connections early!} All these years later I'm finally an intern in the lab. This essentially means that I get paid to learn. My grant money comes from the National Science Foundation, but the opportunity was presented to me by ANSEP. By coincidence, I discovered that this lab collaborates with the Dow Neurobiology Lab in Portland, Oregon. I passed through that city this summer, on my way to a friend's wedding. I arranged to meet a neuroscientist there. We spoke of her research and graduate programs in the area.

My advice: keep asking questions and check-out all the different opportunities. You never know when one may bloom :)

Changing your mind: Choosing your future

Many people have the misconception that once you choose a field of study you are stuck with it. At UAF this is not the case. UAF is an institution that promotes finding a field of study that students are passionate about, as well as setting up career choices in the future. In order to accomplish this goal students are encouraged to do what is best for them and their future.

It is perfectly okay to also decide that your original field of study is not what you actually want to pursue once you get started or even before you start to take classes. A student must ask themselves these questions: Is this what I am really interested in? Can I see myself doing this for the rest of my life? While making this decision it is important to also evaluate what you want to do in the future.

When I started off my college career I believed that my major was locked in stone. I ended up switching to a different department at the end of my sophomore year even though I was hesitant about not finishing my undergraduate degree in the time frame that I planned. Before I came to college I wanted to major in Journalism. Throughout both of my freshman and sophomore years I took the majority of my general classes while also taking a couple journalism classes. Although I have a passion for journalistic writing and delivering news I discovered it was not my passion so I decided to switch my major to something I knew I would enjoy.

When I decided to switch my major I was really interested in the Justice department and did some research to learn more about the field. There were steps that I did before making this decision which included 1) evaluating possible careers that I can gain from having a Justice degree; 2) talking to other students about their overall experiences with the Justice program; 3) setting up an appointment with a professor in the department to get an understanding of the degree requirements; 4) making sure that the justice program was one where I felt I could be challenged as well as excel; and 5) getting advised about classes I should take before completely finalizing my decision. I am now a Justice major and starting my last year in my program. It worked out that the journalism courses that I did take have also fulfilled my core requirements in the humanities section, so it actually helped with the progress of my degree by helping me become a well-rounded student.

If you don’t know what field of study you actually would like to pursue, many students start their college experience as a General Studies major. You will work with an academic adviser to complete your general requirements. The advisers will also help identify your interest and declare a major. If you don’t get anything else out of this article understand that it is okay to change your mind when it comes to choosing a major know that there are people at UAF that to help you pick a major that will lead to success.

UAF's Friday Flashbacks Year in Review

Every Friday during the past year, Todd Paris uploads one of his favorite images from his years working as a photographer here to UAF's Facebook page. Here's his Year on Flashbacks in review.

A picture says a thousand words. UAF in photos...

Todd Paris, UAF's amazing photographer, recently put together a montage of photos that had been used on the front page of our university website.
Check it out!

Frisbee Golf

Ah summer, how we long for it through the 50 below winters and the seemingly endless classes. This summer I decided to spice up my life a little bit and take advantage of the long summer days by learning something called "frisbee golf" or "frolf". Luckily for me, my best friend happens to be an avid frolfer and a very patient person. I am now on my fourth or fifth week of training and I must say that I thoroughly enjoy it (though my friend tells me I don't swear nearly enough to be considered a serious frolfer yet).

The object of the game is to throw your frisbee into the basket in as few tosses as possible. The baskets have open sides and are metal with chains to help catch the frisbee, the UAF baskets have a big yellow band at the top so they are easier to spot. All of the 18 baskets are a par 3, meaning that you should theoretically be able to get your frisbee into the basket in 3 tosses. So far my record is 26 over par.


Discs can be purchased at most sporting good stores for around $10 each or rented from Outdoor Adventures for $3-$10 (http://www.uaf.edu/woodcenter/outdoor/rates/). There are several different kinds of discs (just as there are several different kinds of clubs in golf), putters, mid-range, distance drivers, and fairway drivers are the main ones you will find. I started out with a mid-range disc because it was more capable of putting than a driver and more capable of driving than a putter. I now have a putter, a mid-range, a distance driver, and a fairway driver. When looking to get your own discs there are several things to look at. I am not under any false belief that I can accurately explain this to you, but a really good resource that I've found is http://www.innovadiscs.com/discs/disc-comparison.html. Every disc has its own unique name and I find them all very entertaining (possibly even my favorite part of frisbee golf).

Overall, I am pretty terrible at this sport but I still have a lot of fun playing so don't be afraid to give it a shot! Even if you're awful, you will most likely have a good time! The UAF course map can be found at http://www.uaf.edu/files/src/18course.pdf and it includes the rules of the game also. Another useful link is http://www.pdga.com/ where you can look and see just how serious frisbee golf can be. I strongly recommend trying it at least once before the end of summer!