Going to School in Alaska!!!

Whether you grew up in Fairbanks, or you had never heard of it until you
started your college search, UAF has something for you. While I grew up in
Fairbanks, it almost seemed like a new town once I started going to school at the
university. With 168 different degree programs, it is almost impossible to not find
something you are interested in studying. Personally, I am a big proponent of the
study break. While it is a great place to study and learn, Fairbanks is also great for
study breaks, getting out and enjoying everything Alaska has to offer. Whether it is
a weekend trip to the back country for hiking, climbing, skiing, camping or even just
sightseeing, or simply getting down to lower campus for a volleyball or basketball
game, there is always something to do. Growing up in Fairbanks, it always seemed
like there was nothing happening, but when I got to UAF, I realized that there is
always something going on. We have a great community of people here, and we even
have a Vice Chancellor dedicated completely to serving the students' interests. He has
done a fantastic job improving campus life for all students.

Of course it does get cold in Fairbanks too, but it doesn't take long to get used
to the temperatures, and each winter, students of all backgrounds embrace the cold,
shedding their layers and proving their status as true Alaskans, joining the forty below
club. The temperature sign on campus becomes the place to be on cold winter nights
as groups from two to twenty huddle up next to the sign as it shows a temperature of
both -40̊ F and -40̊ C. Once you have accomplished this, you can call yourself a true
Nanook, and you’ll always remember the first time you felt forty below!

Series: Internship Experiences

This past summer, I accepted my first internship offer with the village corporation in Barrow,  the Ukpeagvik Inupiat Corporation (UIC). I was a Human Resources (HR) intern working in the Barrow office for a good two months before it was time to return to UAF for another year J. UIC offers various services for their shareholders, shareholder spouses, and shareholder descendants. That’s what I am, a shareholder descendant. It has always been an interest of mine to be involved in Shareholder Relations within the regional and/or village corporations I am a part of. With this internship, I have been able to explore and gain experience, I was employed in my hometown, and it was one of my first office-type positions.

I really enjoyed my time in the office and the tasks they had me do were pretty manageable. My supervisor and I had good communication, which is one thing I think is very important in not only internships, but for employment in general. A lot of the tasks I had involved people and jobs, that’s Human Resources, helping people and employees find jobs or assist them with occurrences in their current jobs.

During the two months I was working, I was able to fly down to Anchorage from Barrow and work in the Anchorage office. It was definitely a shift from small town office work to big city office work. I got to sit in on HR meetings, create PowerPoint presentations and files for the Shareholder Development Program, and work with a few employees that are HR Administrators.

This past week, I attended the Alaska Federation of Natives conference and convention in Anchorage, Alaska, and while I was there, I was able to work with UIC again. We were set up at a booth and gave prizes away with our spin-wheel and shared information about the corporation.

                My advice for you, as a perspective student interested in an internship, would be to see what internship opportunities are available. Browse around & research the type of work you could be doing, and go from there. Explore your opportunities and remember… do what you enjoy! J

Every Question Answered at UAF's InsideOut

Thinking about going to college? There are well over 4,000 universities to choose from- and that’s just in this country. So do you know exactly where you want to go? No? Of course not! This is a big decision, and with so many options, a little guidance can go a long way. As one of your options for education, UAF presents an event that can shed some light on the unknown: Discover UAF: Inside Out for Fall, 2012. Whether you have chosen UAF as your school of choice or not, Inside Out is an opportunity for high school students to get a taste of college life, and for parents to see what their kids are getting into. It is a day on campus, packed with any and all information you might need to know.

8:00am – COFFEE!, Check-In and Registration                                 Come in to the Great Hall for an opportunity to meet with some of the schools and colleges of UAF, as well as some delicious morning snacks.

8:30am – Welcome                                 Join everyone in the Davis Concert Hall to get a taste of what you will experience throughout the day.

9:15am – Take a Class                                 Students will be whisked away to experience what a real college class is like, while parents enjoy an information session on helping their student transition into college life.

10:15am – A Trip Around Campus                                 Head to the Wood Center for the start of a wonderfully informative tour around campus that will show you all the good spots for whatever a student could need.

11:30am – Choose your Own Adventure!                                 Until 1:00pm, YOU get to decide what you want to see on campus. You can head over to the Honors House for a tour; check out the cool clothing in the bookstore; explore the police & fire departments; and/or have a delicious lunch! There is also an admission’s assistance session, and an informational study abroad session! You decide!

1:15pm – Current Students Answer your Questions  Next, there will be a UAF Student Panel, where some of us current students will tell you all about what to expect, where to expect it, and how to handle it. In the meantime, parents will be off learning some of the logistics behind going to college (admissions, financial aid, residence life, and business).

2:30pm – Fun & Games                                 Everyone will regroup in the Wood Center Ballroom to play games and find out how much we learned about college.

3:30pm – One Grand Finale Finally, the Grand Finale will conclude the day’s events in the Wood Center Ballroom.

Come see what this university has to offer and how wonderful college can be. The event is free, and you even get lunch out of it! Register here: http://www.uaf.edu/admissions/insideout/ . Come to campus Friday, October 26th, 8:30am to 5pm, and get every question answered, and possibly every answer you’ve had questioned!

From High School to UAF: The biggest differences

Now, as a well-adjusted college student, looking back on the months leading up to the move from high school to college, I remember the anticipation and excitement. I was leaving my well-established group of friends and my family behind and heading off into uncharted territory.  I was super excited!

Upon arriving at UAF I checked in and started moving into my room. I got all set up and soon realized that living in a dorm was going to be a bit of an adjustment. I was used to a relatively quiet household; I soon realized that some people never sleep. There was always someone awake hanging out in the lobby or watching a movie in one of the lounges. I thought it would be hard to get used to, but I was pleasantly surprised. The noise that I thought would keep me up all night soon lulled me to sleep.

Then the real work began. Classes started. But it wasn’t all bad, in fact most of it was good! I got to pick which classes I wanted to take for that semester within my major, which was a big change from high school, where I was handed a schedule of the classes I had to take that year. And, in picking my classes I got to decide when I wanted to start and finish class for the day. If I didn’t want to start class until 11:30am, I would just plan my classes accordingly. It’s great! Of course, now that I’ve settled into the college schedule, I take earlier classes, like 8am Biochemistry classes… It’s not as bad as it sounds trust me.

In high school I got used to seeing the same faces every day, every year, for four years. But at UAF, almost every class had at least one person I hadn’t met, usually more. Through the course of group projects and class discussions I got to know some of the people and still see them around campus.

Probably my favorite thing about college is the friends I’ve gained in the few years I’ve been here. There are several people I met my freshman year, that I am still good friends with today. The cool thing about the friends you make in college, they more or less become your family.  They’re the friends you’ll have for the rest of your life! 

Navigating UAOnline

Whether a current or potential student at UAF (or any of the other University of Alaska campuses), UAOnlinewill be your main administrative tool for admissions, financial aid, academics, and the like. Fortunately, UAOnline is built with a plethora of helpful features. However, it can be daunting to figure out at first glance, so I will give you a few hints as to how to use this academic beast of a website. UAOnline goes through major changes about once or twice every year, but this mini-tutorial will go through release 8.3 (you can find out the version at the bottom left of the page).

I’m going to start by assuming that you are not a student at UAF and have not yet applied for admissions (for students who have been admitted, please see the paragraph below). Once on the UAOnline website, you will want to click “Apply for Admission or Check on Status of Application.” Fortunately, there is already a helpful video about applying for admission for new students, located here. The video link can also be found on the “Apply for Admission” page. Rather than reinvent the wheel, I will let you watch the video to learn about applying for admission.

Congrats! You are now a UAF student and can access UAOnline fully! Going back to the UAOnline homepage, you should now click on “Login to Secured Area (Students, Staff, & Faculty).” You will be brought to a page asking for your UA ID and PIN. Your UA ID will be a series of 9 digits that represent you in the University of Alaska system. While your UA ID may not be as important as your social security number, only give it University of Alaska staff when they need it. If you do not know your UA ID or PIN, you can visit <a href=” http://elmo.alaska.edu/?elmo_option=3”>this website</a> (which is also on the UAOnline login page). It has several helpful options to choose from. As a side note:

UA Username: The name of your ‘@alaska.edu’ email with the first letter of your first name, first letter of your middle name, and last name. Example:jasmith

UA ID: The nine-digit number that represents you. Example: 3########

Password: A password that YOU set for use with your UA Username. Example:cats03 (choose a STRONG password!)

PIN: A five-digit number that YOU set for use with your UA Username OR UA ID. Example: 12345 (BAD idea for a PIN!)

UAF has many uses for your UA Username, UA ID, password, and PIN. UAOnline only uses your UA Username and your PIN to log on. In other instances you will be asked for a combination of your UA Username OR UA ID and your password OR PIN.

Hopefully now you’ve actually logged on to UAOnline. There will be a large page with five big blue links. The first place you should head to is “Personal Information.” Make sure that your PIN, security question, addresses, phone numbers, emails, emergency contacts, name, social security number, UA ID, UA Username, preferred first name, ethnicity, and race are all properly set up. After that, click “RETURN TO MENU” near the top of the page.

If you want to set up a direct deposit services (which means that if UAF ever needs to send you a refund or whatnot, it will be sent directly to your bank account rather than by check in the mail), click on “Financial Information” and fill out your direct deposit information (which will require some information about your bank account, but UAF has safety policies regarding this information so there is no need to worry).

There are only two steps left! You can sign up for classes and check your academic records or apply for financial aid. Because you need money to go to college, I’ll assume that you’ll want to check out the “Financial Aid” tab first. After getting there, you should first click on the “Eligibility” tab and then click on “Holds.” As the name suggest, holds are holds on your account that prevent you from doing a lot of things like getting financial aid. Usually these holds involve a late payment or other similar academic issues. Assuming there are no holds on your account (if there are, you can contact the Financial Aid office at 907-474-7256 about them), you can return to the main “Financial Aid” menu and click on “Scholarships.”

Here you will find a questionnaire including several checkboxes as well as a large text box for a personal statement. Your answers to the questions here and your personal statement will be a major part of your scholarship application. There will also be links at the bottom of the page for various other University of Alaska scholarships. You can apply for specific UAF scholarships as well as broader University of Alaska scholarships; these scholarships vary in eligibility requirements as well as application materials, so spend some time preparing for them. The deadline for ALL UAF/UAA/UAS/UA scholarship applications is February 15^th(unless otherwise stated) before your first semester at UAF, so it is highly recommended that you fill out this page as soon as possible.

Now that you’ve applied for financial aid, let’s sign up for classes! Go back to the main UAOnline menu and click on the “Student Services & Account Information” link. This is one of the larger pages of UAOnline, so I’ll give you the gist of what each link is for.

“Important Dates and Deadlines” shows you where to find your respective school’s academic calendar. The academic calendar has all of the important dates and deadlines you need to know about, like when the last day for registering for classes is. “Admission” essentially does the same thing that we talked about earlier and helps you apply to be a student at UAF, but we’ve already taken care of that so its only real use is to review the status of your application. “Registration” is one of the more important tabs on this page, as this is where you go to look for classes and apply for them. For the sake of time I’m going to let you search through this on your own (but if you ever need more help, you can always call the Office of Admissions and the Registrar at 1-800-478-1823). The next link is “Student Records”, where you go to view things like your GPA, grades, transcripts, and holds on your account. Always make sure that you have no holds on your account before doing anything else. “Degree Works\Electronic Degree Audit” is an extremely helpful website that lets you see the progress you’ve made toward your degree, as well as answer some important ‘what if?’ questions you might have regarding certain classes or degrees. “Enrollment Verifications” is for students who need to provide proof of enrollment at UAF to some outside company like a scholarship committee or the like. “Official Transcript Request Service” allows you to send out official transcripts to other schools or scholarship committees for a small fee. “Scholarships” is essentially the same as the previously discussed page on the “Financial Aid” page. “Direct Deposit Services” were discussed earlier and can also be done here. “Student Account” is where you go to see what your monetary balance with the university is; if you owe money, this is where you go to pay it. “Contact List” is a huge list of phone numbers and emails for various important departments on campus. “Student Feedback” is a cool way to win free stuff by giving UAF helpful feedback. “Change Confidentiality/Directory Hold Option” will help you change your student records privacy settings; usually this is not recommended because your existence as a UA student will not be acknowledged even to you. If you are an active or reserve military member, “Additional Resources for Military Students” will give you all of the extra information you may need regarding tuition or the like.

Even if you understand everything in this guide, I highly recommend that you take the time to explore UAOnline for yourself. Everything I’ve learned was simply from exploring and seeing what certain areas did. Again, if you have any other questions that weren’t discussed or poorly discussed in this guide, feel free to contact the Office of Admissions and the Registrar at 1-800-478-1823. Hopefully now you have a better understanding of UAOnline and what it is used for. Keep calm and carry on!

Steel Bridge

 If you walk down the corridors of Duckering building, home of the UAF Engineering Program, you will see numerous pictures, plaques, and trophies belonging to the Steel Bridge Team.  As a high school student taking my first tour, this fired my interest.  “You mean we can build things as an undergraduate?”  I thought.  It was actually one of the reasons I decided to come to UAF.

We are not the only school to compete in competitions, but I’d like to think we do things a little differently.  Our teams are small- generally perhaps a dozen people who put a lot of time into the program, and a half dozen who provide peripheral assistance.  Professors Halsey and Wilhelm offer awesome faculty support, but it is undoubtedly a student project.  We compete against teams that could have forty members, or more.  Unlike many schools, we don’t just design, we do our own work in a small machine shop in the basement of Duckering.  This means that, if you sign up, the team will teach you to weld, or use a milling machine, and any other of half a dozen skills that are essential to the project.  This offers valuable hands on experience that many schools lack. 

The experience of being a part of the team is a real rush.  You can find us in Duckering in the spring semester, starting with once a week, and eventually gearing up to the point we are there almost daily, including over Spring Break.  The basement really becomes our space.  Team members meet there for studying as well as bridge tasks, and Spring Break often finds us pulling open our door to do some barbequing and team bonding.  The team members learn skills, and utilize lessons in design from class.  The project demands a lot of time- you should expect it to take more than thirty hours just to learn to do one of the tasks well enough to be allowed to start working on the steel bridge.  By the time of the competition, we may be exhausted, but there’s definitely the element of satisfaction as well.  We tend to do well in competitions as well, so if you stick with it the entire way, you’ll probably have a pretty awesome line item on a resume, or story to tell in an interview. 

Not an engineer, but still interested?  Business or advertising majors, or other interested parties, can join the team and help with the (substantial) fundraising efforts (steel is expensive).  You can even learn to weld, if you’re interested and stick with it.  Freshmen are welcome on the team.  Upperclassmen tend to be more involved in the design efforts, but you will still get an introduction to the software used, and learn the skills needed to be a leader on the team by the time you are an upperclassman.

For more information, check out the steel bridge website.

Study Abroad: England

Sometimes, you hear an idea and just seize on it. Yes, you think, exactly! That's what I've been looking for, the cure for my apathy. For me, one such idea was to go on Study Abroad.

I happened to wander through the Study Abroad Fair February 2011, and I knew that was something I wanted to do. I didn't know where I wanted to go, or what I could take, or how this would work—but suddenly I knew I needed to find out. Three months, and many adventures before I even left, I was bound for a semester abroad at Kingston University, in the suburbs of London, in the United Kingdom.

I've met many incoming students who will tell me they plan on going on study abroad, or at least that they like the idea. There are some hurdles to vault before a student can get to that point. However, I found the UAF Study Abroad Office, and my Study Abroad coordinator (provided by the firm I went through to set up my Study Abroad, Eurolearn) to be extremely supportive throughout the process. There were several meetings discussing the process to apply, how to get a visa, what to pack, and how to set up financial aid. It is more expensive to do a semester abroad- but the expense is worth it, at least for me. It is also worthy of note that you are still counted as a UAF student for the purposes of financial aid while on study abroad- so you will probably not lose scholarships or loans. Before you can even get to this point, though, you need determination and motivation- that drive to see the process through. It's on this early step that I've seen a lot of other students stumble.

Another early step is to choose a location. It's helpful to know which classes you would like to be able to substitute for in the UAF curriculum. Your Academic Advisor (the person who helps you choose classes) can be a good resource for setting up some options. Focusing on this early will ensure you get credit for all the classes you take once you get back. Once you know what you need to take classes in, you can narrow down your choices. The Study Abroad Office has literature from a variety of programs. I can't tell you which one is right for you. I can, however, tell you there are plenty of options, even if you don't take a second language.

If you are gifted enough to speak another language, be aware that you may not be ready to take upper division classes in a foreign language, even if you're conversationally fluent. If you've ever switched schools growing up, you'll be aware that there are always places where you have to catch up to equal or exceed the other students in the class. I also found myself very surprised how very different the educational system can be between countries, too. On my semester abroad, I was graded in all but one class on a *single* paper, project, or test- quite a transition from classes in the States, where we are used to feedback throughout the course on whatever project we’re working on. There are bound to be differences, and adding a foreign language to the mix can be an added stressor. It's something to keep in mind. Many students who do go to a foreign language university choose to take classes about that language, rather than another subject. I've had friends who did that in Tunisia and Jordan, and it's definitely an option for an interesting study abroad experience. I decided to choose Kingston University in England, for its academic excellence, reasonable price, and location as a gateway to the rest of Europe.

One of the things I most enjoyed at Kingston was the opportunity to widen my academic horizons. I've always been interested in Recycled Concrete Aggregate, and studying at Kingston, I took two classes and two lab sections under a premier expert in the field, who literally wrote books on the topic. Some guest lecturers included a notable architect from Spain, and a Greek engineer who headed the committee that wrote the modern Eurocode standard for Earthquakes. I also liked stepping outside of my comfort zone, and took two classes in subjects not offered at UAF: British History and Architecture.

Studying wasn't the be-all end-all of my trip though! One of the best parts of Study Abroad is the people, places, and events you get to experience. I went to Stonehenge, Bath, Oxford, York, Cardiff, Paris, Lyon, Lourdes, München (for Oktoberfest no less!), and spent my Christmas break riding the rails around Europe. I also explored nearby monuments, historic sites, clubs, parks, and activities near my campus. Every weekend was a cornucopia of possibilities. I experienced holidays, like Guy Fawkes Day, or Burns Day, that aren't celebrated in the States. I even threw a Thanksgiving potluck (more than fifty people showed up- I guess the allure of food is universal) to share a bit of my culture as well.

I did, to my surprise, experience some degree of culture shock there. Living and studying conditions were different, and I was far away from my normal support network. Little things I was used to- donuts, candy canes, whipped cream, and Shake-n-bake, to name a few foods- were hard to find. Nonetheless, I made a lot of friends, and I think the experience has strengthened me. I definitely got more flexible about the things I'd do to relax, though I never stopped missing my comfort food. Some things put me out of my depth, like when my initial train to Lourdes was cancelled, and I found myself stranded in Paris for an additional evening without a place to stay, and no internet to set things up in a way I'm comfortable with.

I hope I didn't scare you away with my article. I have such a wide variety of awesome memories of my experiences- I'd like to see more students take the same opportunity. We're lucky here at UAF to have such a great support system for Study Abroad, and it should be taken advantage of.

Campus Living

Not only is UAF a great academic environment and an amazing choice to further your education, but it houses a great campus environment for residents. The campus is set up in a tight-knit fashion to where everything is accessible within minutes: from the Student Rec Center and Patty Ice Arena, to the Lola Tilly Commons Cafeteria, to the Rasmuson Library and classrooms.

The fondly named MBS complex is the group of dorms Moore, Barlett, and Skarland, with Moore and Skarland being all-freshman dorms, and Barlett being a mixed age dorm. Cutler is the group of student apartment complexes just above and to the side of MBS with the majority of them housing four bedroom apartments.  Lower level campus is the other main area of residence halls including Lathrop, Stevens, Nerland (the only “dry” dorm on lower campus, meaning alcohol is not permitted), and McIntosh.

As a freshman, I think it makes a huge difference if you choose to live on campus. It opens you up to so many more opportunities available to you like the office of Outdoor Activities that creates constant opportunities to get involved outside, with dances and movies at the Hess Rec center in MBS, and offer sign-up sheets for trips off campus-- from a movie at the theater to a Nanook hockey game at the Carlson Center.  Even putting these amazing opportunities aside, you are in a highly social environment as soon as you enter the college world allowing you to make some of the friends you will have for the rest of your life.

This is my fourth year living on campus and I love it. I love not having to worry about making a lengthy commute in the morning from somewhere off campus, I can just wake up and head straight to class. I’ve experienced three different dorms and they really are all unique in their own way, so there are plenty of different options of residence halls so you can find the one that fits your needs.

Nearly Naked Run!

A few weekends ago UAF had one of it’s Nanook Traditions: Starvation Gulch! This tradition is one of the coolest we have here at UAF, and there are so many different activities! Every year there’s a Block Party and free barbecue  a Blue and Gold Hockey Game, as well as HUGE bonfires that are the main event of the weekend! Different groups design and build massive bonfires and at 10:00pm, they all get set on fire! The past couple of years we have introduced a new event for the weekend called the Nearly Naked Run. This run involves stripping down to be “nearly naked” for charity. Last Saturday afternoon the students of UAF battled the chilly beginnings of winter by bundling up in layers upon layers of old clothes they wanted to donate, stripping it all off at the start, and running the quick less-then-a-mile race towards the finish line as fast as possible! Not only is this a great way to clear out your closet for all your winter clothes, but it is also an awesome way to help others! This year, we had a water bottle for each person who finished the race, t-shirts for the top ten finishers, and sweatshirt blankets for the boy and girl that donated the most clothes. Teal, another student ambassador, and I had the great pleasure of handing out all of the prizes at the end of the race. We also got the opportunity to cheer on the runners sprinting to the finish in hopes of finding their friends waiting with warm clothes before heading to the barbecue to fuel up for the night’s festivities and fires.

Teal and I waiting for the runners at the finish!

            

It's the Res' Life.

              As someone who once patrolled the dingy hallways of the stereotypical public high school environment, I, like innumerable other youth of my day, had the “I-Know-Everything-About-Anything” disorder. As a young’in, I was already biologically fated to feel this way, but as an Honors student taking AP Classes, I probably could have written you a research paper documenting scientific proof that I, indeed, was a wise, thoughtful young woman who knew exactly what to expect down the road, and how to face it.

           HA. AHA. HA.

          Then, college. The big shebang. That inescapable, ominous, career-necessary entity that had permeated the purpose of my education since elementary school. Got an “S” for satisfactory instead of an “O” for outstanding in fourth grade? Well, how is that gonna look on your transcript when applying to universities of higher learning, young lady? 

          Well, okay, maybe not that extreme, but certainly in high school, everything becomes about preparing you to go to college, which I think is funny. Okay, maybe there are some similarities...you still dread homework like it’s going to suck you into the page. You still may have those awkward moments when you think “Exactly where do I fit in here?” And the cafeteria is marginally better, specifically because college cafeteria supplies coffee. But the similarities stop there.

        The people in charge here at the University of Alaska saw that. And that’s where Residence Life comes in.

         Everyone in their first year at the University goes through the EDGE program, specifically designed for freshman and incoming students. A common misconception about Residence Life is usually that they either hold your hand through your first year, or they smack it repeatedly until it’s red and raw. Neither are true. Residence Life, through their Resident Assistants (RA’s), Resident Directors (RD’s) and other staff, are there namely to help, but mostly to ease the adjustment into the off-key Narnias called the dorms. A few key things they like to help you learn as painlessly as possible:

      1) Remember that movie American Pie? That is not your visual college study guide. Yes, you will find drama and romance and slapstick and overall humiliation all around during your college years. But more importantly, you’ll be finding friendships, knowledge (not always about classes), mentors, and growing as a person from those “humiliating” moments that you shall find hilarious. Just give it time.

     2) I get it. I remember the days when I could glance at a chapter for five minutes and be set for a test. I remember the days when if the option “all of the above” came up a multiple choice test, you ALWAYS chose it (and consequently were ALWAYS right). Those were some good times. Those times aren’t gonna happen anymore. Studying is a good habit to develop now, during easier classes, than to have to learn how to study a day before finals. Residence Life knows this too, and that’s why they have the Peer Mentor program--remember those really smart people in your classes that wreck the curve? They’re sitting in the office, yearning to show you their secrets. Go, young Padawon. Do, or--actually, just do. Not even gonna give you the “do not” option.

     3)  Most importantly, Residence Life knows that moving to the middle of the biggest state in the country can be a little...what’s the word...lonely. Sure, it’s beautiful, but you can only stare out your window at the snow for so long in between study breaks before you start to wonder, there are still people around at 40 below, right? As a Resident Assistant, I’m one of Res Life’s main soldiers in the field, and we help build that authentic community in the dorms. Whether we’re just sitting around playing pool, complaining about the cold (while simultaneously slipping into swimsuits to pose in front of the sign outside for a picture), or planning dances and shows, we’re here to foster those relationships between students that not even negative temperatures can shatter. 

          Plus, there’s always food. Lots of food. Because college kids like food. Food is good.

In short, Res Life can get a bad rap. Enforcing policies never really rubs everyone the right way. But when they succeed--whether it’s helping that one kid pass that test he needed to pass the class, or introducing two roommates that will be friends until they’re fifty, or making some memories about that one night that frostbite was worth that awesome picture--then that’s the amazing kind of triumph. And that’s when we can truly say, “Welcome to college”.

Broomball!!! (Excessive Enthusiasm Necessary)

Tonight is a school night. I have class tomorrow, as do all three of my roommates. 

Where will we be at midnight? Not in bed, or studying, or even at home. Instead, all four of us will be sliding over ice, because tonight is broomball night.

Broomball is one of the many (and in my opinion, the best) intramural sports offered at UAF. Intramurals in general are a fantastic way to get exercise and have fun with friends. UAF students, staff, and faculty are all able to make their own co-ed team and then compete in basketball, soccer, ultimate Frisbee, or volleyball (for a complete list of what’s offered this semester, go here) 

A lot of schools have intramurals, but broomball is one of the less common intramurals offered, and it is undoubtedly my favorite. A combination between hockey and ridiculous, broomball consists of running around the ice in tennis shoes with sticks chasing a miniature soccer ball. Most people are rendered equally clumsy by the ice, which makes the sport fun to watch and even more fun to play. 

UAF students dive for the ball!

 

Because of competition with other groups that use the ice, broomball games are held late at night. Some of my favorite memories of freshman year are of walking down the hill to the Patty Center at 11:30pm, sliding on a pair of knee pads, and becoming a clumsy but enthusiastic player. The games are 20 minutes--long enough to get a fair workout and to warm you up for the walk back up the hill at 40 below, but short enough to fit around schoolwork and the other multitudes of things that make us busy. Intramural seasons last half a semester, and teams have 1-2 games per week.

Tonight is my last broomball game before playoffs. Wish me luck tonight, but win or lose, I know it will be a slippery blast!

For more photos and to read more about broomball at UAF, go here and here!