Series: Why I chose my major

Deciding what you want to study in college seems like a pretty daunting task. What I mean to say is, you're choosing what you're going to be doing for the rest of your life. But no pressure.
In terms of ease, making this choice is different for everyone; for some it takes two seconds to answer and for others it takes two years. Peoples motivation factors are different due to our interests or aspirations; is monetary gain more important or is vacation leave more important?
Personally, I started off wanting to do mechanical engineering with an emphasis on aerospace engineering. This was in eighth grade though, and throwing a cool-sounding word like "aerospace" to a bunch of 13-year-olds is a sure-fire way to get them interested. So I had set my eyes on UAF since the get-go, as it is one of the top engineering schools in the Western United States and has low tuition costs to boot.
But the summer before my senior year, my interests changed dramatically. I took second place in a state-wide Russian-speaking competition in Anchorage and went to Russia for a month to study Russian. I went back to school for my final year before college and had a revelation: I don't enjoy math nor science. That was like the mid-life crisis of high school. It took a whole of two minutes of freaking out to realize that I liked Russian. After a quick check to verify the existence of a Russian program here at UAF, I was back to "normality" and psyched to get up here for school.
As I was applying for classes for my first semester here, I had the crazy idea to go a bit language-crazy; and that I did. My freshman year consisted of 14 credits in language: Russian 201, French 101 and Spanish 101, along with the continuation courses in the spring semester. The soupe du jour  was alphabet soup, and the letters were over-running the bowl. It was chaos up there (in my head), but strangely, a nice, organized chaos. My second year consisted of the continuation classes (though, slightly modified, as you may notice) with Russian 301, French 301, Spanish 201 and German 101 (just for kicks and giggles). It was during this semester that I changed my major from originally being a Russian Studies major to being a Foreign Languages major with a concentration in French.


There was something different about French. Perhaps the allure that was present for Russian left and was replaced by one for French (though, I had been to Russia twice before attending UAF). To keep with the idea of traveling like I had done before university, I decided to take some time on exchange to work on my French. Thus, the impending fate of a year abroad was looming over my head; I was on track to go to Switzerland.

UAF Dining Services

The University of Alaska offers a wide range of meal plans that meet any particular type of student. From the $90 Ten Block plan to the $2000 Nanook plan. There are plans that just include Munch Money – the fondly named term for money put into your Polar Express Card that you can use at any dining restaurant, shop, or vending machine on campus. Most plans, however, include a mixture of both Munch Money and a specific number (or unlimited number) of meals (to be used at both the Lola Tilly Commons for lunch & dinner and the Wood Center for breakfast).

The Lola Tilly Commons is the central cafeteria at UAF. It is located on lower campus, right next to the McIntosh and Nerland dormitories. It is open Monday – Friday 11am-8pm, and Saturday/Sunday 10am-2pm, and 5pm-8pm. The Wood Center breakfast is served 7am-10am weekday morning and offers a range of different dining options for lunch and dinner that may be purchased with Munch Money.

Bear Bucks are another medium of currency placed on the Polar Express Card. They can be used to purchase food and non-food items on and off campus at participating locations, including: Denny’s, The Cookie Jar, and Prospector Outfitters.

No matter what type of student you are, from a first year freshman living on campus full-time to a part time or graduate student, there is a meal plan here to meet your needs.

Here is a helpful link for more information about the dining services here at UAF:

http://www.uafdining.com/index.html

Series: Why I Picked My Major: Fisheries and Biology!

I guess I’ve kind of always known what I wanted to do with my life, at least to some extent.  Life sciences are what I’ve been interested since grade school.  So that’s what I went with when I started preparing to head to college.  A Bachelor of Sciences in Biological Sciences was the box I checked on my computer at home my senior year of high school.  Sounded like a great idea to me, because it would allow me to test the waters of other life science fields while still getting classes that counted towards my requirements.  When I got here, I started that testing in my first semester.  I took an Intro to Wildlife Biology class to see if I wanted to head that way with my studies, and as interesting as that class was, it just wasn’t quite my thing.  Then I went to the Natural Resources, Fisheries, and Sciences Career Day hosted by the university.  There I stopped to talk at the School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences table and I was hooked (pardon the pun!).  

Katie Murra-Straub told me there that with a Fisheries major, I would automatically have the classes to get a Biological Sciences minor.  Awesome, two for one!  It gave me something to think about.  And I did.  I thought about how I’d been fishing since I was a tot, how I love the water, and how I might actually get a job in the town I want to live in the rest of my life.  I talked to my parents about the idea over Christmas break and they agreed it was a good plan.  Sounds perfect.  So I went to Katie’s office during my second semester of college and told her I was interested in Fisheries.  That’s when I discovered it was not only easy to get the Biological Sciences minor with that Fisheries major, it was actually very manageable to get a double major! A couple extra classes and there’s a double major!  That’s how I picked my major.  And just this summer, I was able to confirm I was truly heading in the right direction.  I worked with salmon in the field as an intern for the AK Department of Fish and Game and I came to the conclusion that baby fish are cute.  Yup, I said it.  Slimy, scaly, big-eyed baby fish are cute.

Aren't they adorable?!  These are Sockeye Salmon juveniles.

Another fun thing with fisheries: boats!

The adults are beautiful too :)

I had it fairly easy.  I had a good idea of my direction from the get-go.  But even if you think you know where you’re going, be open to new ideas.  One of my good friends came to UAF for Electrical Engineering.  She’s now a History major.  College is your time to figure out what you want to do with the rest of your life, and it’s entirely possible to be different from what you expected.