Wilderness Welcome

Posted by Lily

Wilderness Welcome has been a highlight of the college experience for many students at UAF.  Participants enjoy the opportunity to explore remote locations, and make friends before the semester starts.  

Wilderness Welcome is a four day wilderness orientation trip put on by Outdoor Adventures, part of the Department of Recreation, Adventure, and Wellness.  New students arrive at UAF one week ahead of regular student orientation.  They get picked up from the airport, and move into their dorm rooms early.  Prior to the start of the trip students spend an orientation day on campus with their trip leaders.  Guides give brief tours, help student find places on campus, take them to get polar express cards, and ensure all participants are ready for their trip.  This day is filled with new faces, and opportunities to get to know your fellow participants.  

The following day begins the outdoor adventures.  There are a variety of trips offered, which in the past have included backpacking, Canoeing, Rafting, and Kayaking.  Each trip is special in its own way, whether it includes a little white water paddling, wildlife viewing, or breath taking vistas of Denali.  Students return to campus after four days and three nights in the wilderness of Alaska, just in time for New Student Orientation to begin the next day.  Wilderness Welcome participants have something extra to start the new school year with.  They have experiences, and a friend base that they can value for their entire college career, and more.  

For more information on Wilderness Welcome you can check out the website of Outdoor Adventures here:

http://www.uaf.edu/draw/outdoor-adventures/wilderness-welcome/

You can also find UAF Outdoor Adventures on Facebook.  

Survival Tips for Freshmen!

Survival tips for freshmen

In two years here at UAF I have learned countless things, but as far as getting through school with respectable grades and maintaining some level of fun, there are a handful of things you really need to know.

First off, don’t take too many classes right off the bat. I know way too many people who come in to college expecting to do as well as they did in high school and they think taking six classes will be easy. College is harder than high school, and you’re expected to do more out of class work and studying than in high school. You can still graduate in four years even if you only take 13 or 14 credits each semester your first year. If you load yourself up with 18 credits thinking you’re only taking easy classes, you’re going to regret it when you’re trying to study for six finals and all you want to think about is winter or summer break. Especially in a spring like this one, where I haven’t seen a cloud in the sky in over a week, all I want to do is be outside.  Nobody wants to lock themselves in their dorm or the library studying for finals for the last two weeks of the year.

Secondly, take some fun classes! UAF has an entire recreation department that has a ton of awesome classes to take. One fun class in your schedule makes the semester way better, and recreation classes rarely, if ever, have homework or any out of class work time required. Many of the classes offered through Outdoor Adventures have field trips for climbing, mountaineering, camping, and skiing.

Next, stay on top of things, and don’t procrastinate. This is something I still need to learn myself, but occasionally when I do get my things done early it takes a huge weight off my back and I can go climb or ski and not feel guilty about not doing my homework!

Corollary: It is way easier to get homework done in the library or study room than in your dorm or apartment. There are tons of distractions in dorms so if you get down to the library you’ll find yourself being much more productive.

Finally, and this one may seem obvious, but make friends, go hang out with people, have fun! If you bury yourself in class work all year you’re going to go insane, so relax! You don’t want to overstress about school otherwise it will end up hurting your grades.

Everybody has their own advice to give, but these are the things I have found most helpful, hopefully they work for you too!

Living with liberal arts (what will your major be?)…

Posted by Denali

Now, judging by the title, one might assume I am a liberal arts major so wrapped up in studies and so passionate about my degree that I have no free time.   Or by the lack of punctuation and grammar, you might think otherwise.   I am actually a petroleum engineer living in an on campus student apartment (http://www.alaska.edu/uajourney/buildings/cutler-apartments/), with 3 roommates and hardly any free time.  These roommates are all studying different areas, all in the College of Liberal Arts.  We take none of the same classes and probably never will at this point in our college careers.  The four of us represent the majors of: psychology, journalism, foreign languages and linguistics, petroleum engineering. 

Picking a major for some students is a long thought out logical process, a childhood dream, or just opening a catalog and pointing at a major.  My roommates and I all had different ways of picking what we were going to study at college.  Each method worked out pretty well though, since we would be lost if someone switched our shoes for even a day.  When comparing homework, Russian, Spanish, and even English look Greek to me… but low and behold my journalism roommate thinks I am an Excel master, when crunching numbers for a lab report.  My roommates and I are all juniors this year and we all seem to embody our majors.  Now the real question is, do our majors influence and shape who we are, or when picking a major do we pick who we want to be? 

No matter what the answer is, picking a major is important.  I would never want to be looking for typos in a newspaper and my roommates wouldn’t want to calculate the permeability of a reservoir.  So when choosing a major make sure to think to the future and what the title means you will be doing, not just how the words look in the catalog or online(http://www.uaf.edu/catalog/current/majors.html).  Ask questions about majors to the UAF Student Ambassadors (http://www.uaf.edu/ambassadors/), talk to people in your community, take a tour of the college campus and get connected with resources that can help you through your transition to college!  I lucked out when an engineering pamphlet showed up in my mailbox and I decided that was the day to choose my major.  Honestly though, I had no real idea of what petroleum engineering or what a petroleum engineer was.  I knew I liked math and science so I figured engineering should be the path for me.  The petroleum industry was an area of interest for me spurred on by growing up in Alaska, but I had no idea that petroleum engineering has four main branches that can be pursued, after and during college. 

I really enjoy what I am studying, but petroleum engineering isn’t for everyone.  There are so many choices, because we are all individuals.  I urge you to explore them and find the one that will grasp your attention and possibly define who you are.        

My roommates and I before heading to the toga dance together! :)