Student Club and Involvement Fair

Our true destiny...is a world built from the bottom up by competent citizens living in solid communities, engaged in and by their places.  David W. Orr

            The Fall 2015 Student Club and Involvement Fair was held on October 7th. This event is awesome as it gives student orgs a way to recruit new members in a face to face manner and allows students to see what opportunities for involvement exist on campus.

            About 30 organizations hosted booths at the fair this semester, including the Wildlife Society, SOLD (Students Offering Leadership Development), Ye Old Doctor Who Society, Circle K, League of Extraordinary Fandoms, Simple Truth, and more.

            The Latin Dance club kept it upbeat, playing music and preforming during the fair. The Gender & Sexuality Alliance (GSA) sold a wide variety of baked goods and advertised their upcoming “Ally Week” events where they educate students on how to be a better ally to the LGBTQ+ community.

            In case you didn’t know, UAF has over 130 active student organizations. You can see the full list of active student orgs at http://www.uaf.edu/woodcenter/leadership/organizations/active/

What’s even greater is that it’s super simple to create a new student org if you don’t find one that already exists that fits your interests!

           The student org fair is hosted each semester by the LIVE (Leadership, Involvement, and Volunteer Experience) Office. Students orgs just have to fill out an online form and show up.

Life as an International Student: It's all about the money...

If you talk with an American student about UAF, they will most likely tell you at some point that UAF's cheap tuition is one of the huge benefit of staying in Alaska. You might first think they are trying to make a joke, but no, they are not kidding! Attending UAF is fairly cheap compared to other U.S colleges. But for students from countries where colleges and universities are free a couple thousand dollars tuition is not cheap at all.It's a lot of money!  Its even harder for international students to pay tuition and the high cost of living due limited working opportunities because of visa restriction.
However, it is possible to fulfill your dream of studying in Alaska.Here are 5 things you should keep in mind about financing college as international student:

1. Make a list: My biggest recommendation would be to make a list including all fees and costs for one semester. If you are a J-1 exchange students: congratulation! You won't have to pay tuition at UAF. Take advantage of that and chose a bunch of recreation classes! However, even if your tuition is covered, you still have to pay fees. Make sure to check out UAonline to find out the amount of fees you are required to pay. Furthermore, if you stay on campus in one of the dorms, you will have to pay your rent for one whole semester all at once in the beginning. Additionally, basically all dorms but Cutler require you to purchase a meal plan which is usually between $1000 and $2000 per semester. Make sure you are aware of all those costs to avoid a bad surprise.

2. Teaching Assistantship/Research Assistantship for Graduate Students: If you are attending UAF as a F-1 graduate student, contact your department and ask for available  TA (teaching assistant) or RA (research assistant) jobs. Teaching/Research Assistantship jobs include a stipend covering your tuition and some money to cover some living expenses. Besides that you will teach your own classes or labs and therefore you will get valuable insides and experience in your field of study. Saying this: Scoring a job as TA or RA is the best option for F-1 students.

3. Jobs on Campus: No matter if you are J1 or F1 student, you can work up to 20 hours per week on campus. However, if you work 21 hours or work off campus you will lose your visa so make sure you and your employer know the requirements and condition for international students. Jobs on campus include working in a coffee shop, the post office, the gym, in language tutor lab, community service officer and so on or TA/RA positions as mentioned above.

5. Scholarships: Scholarships are a huge deal in the U.S and many students have at least one scholarship paying for either books, rent or even tuition. It is not easy to receive a scholarship as an international student. However, you should definitely give it a try! Maybe your home country offers research scholarship for citizen studying abroad? Maybe you find a grand or research funding which fits your special area of research/studies? Even though the chances of getting a scholarship are a little lower as non-US resident, you should definitely give it a try. You usually only need to submit an essay and in the end you might receive a scholarship of over $1000.

4. Living in a dry cabin: Rent is one of the biggest expenses when living in Alaska. If you are only here for one semester, staying on campus is the way to go since you will meet a bunch of people, it's comfortable and you do not need a car. However, if you are a degree seeking student and e up for an adventure, living in a dry cabin might be a good way for you to experience some true Alaskan lifestyle and to save some money. Dry cabins are cabins without running water. That means you will need to get water for cooking and cleaning in big barrels, your toilet is an outhouse and if you want to shower or do your laundry you will need to use a public shower at UAF. If you have a reliable car and you are up for some adventure including chopping lumber and running to your outhouse at -40 C - go for it! It will be an experience of a lifetime (and will safe some money ...).

All that Midterm Stress and Hopefully a Little Relief

So yea....If you are a student right now, this is probably around the time you may be going through the crucible.

All of the classes conveniently decide to have a test around the same day and you realize you have to master the past month of material for each class in the next few days.

It's hard. There is no sugar coating that, but you will feel amazing once it's all done, and it'll so be worth it.

My advice is to form study groups with people you work well with, make sure to get enough sleep because an all-nighter won't help as much as a good nights sleep will.

Talk to the teacher, get an old exam if you can to see how they test. Review all your quizzes and homework and you should have a good idea of whats going on.

Now.

Calm down, breathe, and remember that you are smart, and you can do this. It's not always as bad as you may make yourself believe so just calm down and try to relax. To that end here a bunch of cool textural photos that I hope can provide you with a little peace and serenity.

Just remember you aren't alone 

You have people to help get you through all of this 

The journey ahead may be taxing 

But the adventure is just beginning

And the road may be treacherous 

But just remember it isn't all black and white 

There is beauty and joy to be found even in the toughest of times  

So just remember to chill 

 

Life as an International Student in Alaska: College in the U.S is Different

No matter where you from in the world: attending a University in the United States while be quite the change. The first days of school will definitely surprise you and here is why:

1. Class size: When I did my undergrad in Germany I was used to lecture halls with 800 people listening to a monologue of one professor. Even though I made a group of friends pretty quickly who would sit next to me during those lectures, the overall class setting was rather anonymous. I remember my smallest class being abound 200 students. That was pretty exciting because after a few weeks every face looked at least a little familiar. UAF is WAYYYY different than that! Attending a class at UAF will give you everything but the feeling of anonymity. When I did an exchange semester as an undergrad student (that means Bachelor level) at UAF my biggest class had about 35 students and my smallest class about 8. (There are a few 100 level classes where you might actually have 80 students in a room. However, that's the exception, not the rule).  When I came back to UAF to pursue a Master's degree I quickly realized that once you are a graduate student your classes will become even smaller. In my biggest class this semester we are 3 students, the smallest one 2 ;) And even if that sounds crazy at first, I really started to love it! :)

2. Professors/Instructors: Not only smaller class sizes are a reason why the relationship to your professor at UAF might be closer than you are used to from your home country. I believe that the American language as its own makes it easier to communicate with your professor or instructor in a less formal way. While many languages make use of polite address in the 2 person singular (German: Sie, French: vous, Spanish: Usted and so on) in English it's always just "you". This makes it easier to talk to professors in a less formal manner. Therefore most professors also just want to be called by their first name. Instead of writing a super formal email to "Prof. Dr. Dr. Johnson", in Alaska in most cases your emails will start with "Hi Paul, Joe, Anna.... [insert first name here] "

3.Attendance, Participation and Homework: No, it is not only rumors it is actually true: American Universities track their student's attendance. Yes, you are expected to participate in class room settings (and you even get grades for it) and yes you have more homework assignments than in middle school. Studying Economics in Heidelberg, Germany, I've never had a single lecture with mandatory attendance. I've participated maybe once in three years during the lecture and I never ever had homework assignments. While most universities in Europe believe the responsibility of studying and attending classes should be completely on the student, in the U.S colleges are usually set up like high schools. Homework, participation and attendance included. Will you ever get used to it? It depends! As funny as it sounds, I like the concept of participation and homework. It ensures that there is a learning process going on all over the semester and not just the one month before finals. Furthermore my grade got way higher, simply because my final grade consists of lots of different assignments. In Germany I had exactly one grade: my final exam would count 100% of my final grade. When it comes to attendance, however, I think I will never completely get used to it. I have a great time management and I strongly believe it should be up to me to decided if or when I attend a lecture. However, the American system is really strict with attendance. Keep that in mind before planning longer trips to see your friends or family in the middle of the semester!

4. Recreational Classes: The coolest thing at UAF is the variety of recreational and "fun" classes you can take at UAF. No matter if you are into ice hockey, baking, yoga or rock climbing; if you were always curious about winter camping, ice climbing or cross country skiing; or if you simply always wanted to take a wine tasting class: UAF has the coolest "fun" classes.  If you are planning on doing an exchange semester at UAF make sure to sign up for as many crazy classes as possible. They will be covered under your tuition waiver, they count towards the necessary course load for visa requirements (12 credits for undergrads, 9 credits for grad students) and they are incredible fun and an awesome opportunity to get to know many interesting people. My personal favorites: Ski Mountaineering, Wilderness Leadership Education, Introduction to Winter Camping, Rock Climbing, Ice Climbing, Cross Country Skiing.....

5. Online Classes: Alaska is a huge state which is only scarcely populated. Since many people live in small villages online classes are a great way for them to get a university degree without having to move far away from home. Furthermore, college is extremely expensive in the U.S. Therefore many people work full time to finance their studies. Online classes are a great way for people to balance work life and their studies since most of them allow great flexibility. Some course are basically recorded or just require self study. Therefore students are not to tied to a fixed place and time. Even if you are allowed to take one online class each semester as international student, I would not recommend it. You are only in Alaska for a limited time. In-class lectures will give you the opportunity to interact with different people from all over the world, while you are basically on your own when taking online classes.Therefore online classes should only be your backup option. Don't miss out on the opportunity of getting to know people!

Life as an International Student: UAF campus life

When you move to Alaska for the first time, no matter if you are an exchange student or a degree seeking international student, move into the dorms -at least for one semester.
Yes, the downside of living in an american dorm is that you most likely have to share your bedroom. And that's scary and completely unusual for students from countries other than North America. But you should try it because living on campus is the only way to understand what campus life really means.

By far the coolest thing about UAF it the abundance of outdoors and recreation opportunities located on campus. And all those activities are free for full time students! The outdoor and recreation opportunities include:

Trails on Campus

• 41km (25miles) of trails: this includes 25km of cross country ski trails and 16km of walking trails. So no matter if you are a passionate skier (or in case you never skied and you want try something new: Outdoor Adventure rents out skis and they are also located right on campus) or you love to go for a run after a day of studying: you can do all that without leaving campus. 

Skiing on Campus

• the Hulbert Nanook Terrain Park: The snow terrain park is great to practice your ski or snowboard jumping skills! The terrain park usually opens around November and remains open until March (depending on the snow conditions). Thursday-Sunday all students can make use of one of the few terrain parks on a college campus among all campuses in the United States

Snowboarding at the Terrain Park

• Indoor Rock Climbing Wall and Outdoor Ice Climbing Tower: you love to climb during your lunch break? You always wanted to try ice climbing but never lived anywhere cold? Never tried either of it! You should ! :)

Climbing Wall on Campus

Ice Climbing

• Ice Skating Rink, indoors and outdoors: The Ice arena, located in the Patty center, is not only the training location for the Nanook hockey team, but open for students to ice skate. Skates can be used for free as long as you bring your student ID. In Winter, there will be a little ice rink just in front of the SRC. Nothing better than use the couple hours of daylights but spending your lunch break skating outside :)

Ice skating at -20C

• The Museum of the North:It's too cold to play around outside? Go and visit the Museum  of the North located on West Ridge on campus. Besides cool exhibitions about Native Alaskan art work, you will also learn how Northern Lights occur or see how big a grizzly bear is. 

Sun set over the Museum of the North

Aurora Aerial Arts

“There are a lot of clubs at *insert prospective school here*!”

Something you’ve most likely heard from any school ever. Trying to get new students interested in their school by promoting their student led programs to help people get involved.

Well the University of Alaska Fairbanks has 162 different active clubs this year. Yes one hundred and sixty two. No, you can’t find that pretty number anywhere, I counted.

Some of the 162 clubs on campus include language clubs such as the Spanish Club, the Russian Language Club, and the Japanese Club. Some clubs are more business/real-world focused clubs such as the Associated Students of Business (ASB), or Native Alaskan Business Leaders (NABL). Others can offer a new experience like learning to knit with the Frozen Fibers Club, learn to salsa at the Latin Dance Club, or say, learn what it feels like to be suspended 15 or so feet in the air doing drops and looking pretty while wrapped up in silks.

Aurora Aerial Artsis that type of club.

But don’t worry, when you start out you’ll only be a few feet or less off the ground.

Come flex, fly, and have fun with Aurora Aerial Arts at the University of Alaska Fairbanks! This is a UAF student run group that practices the art of Aerial apparatus (silk, ribbon, tissue, fabric, etc.).

Don’t get scared off by the photo though, that was our Spring Fest performance, and you do not have to be able to do that when you first try it out. Trust me, that move takes a little while to learn.

Aurora Aerial Arts, or Silks Club for short, meets two days a week on Mondays and Wednesdays at 7:30 in the SRC studio. It is open to UAF students, staff, and faculty for come try out, and no experience necessary. Also can’t forget it’s free to try.

Just to give a little sample of what Aurora Aerial Arts is and what you can do, here are some of the moves you can learn.

Butterfly 

Peter Pan

Thong

 Hip Key

Candy Cane Roll-up

Rebecca Stag

And of course the beautiful splits 

But don't worry, they don't have to be perfect J

The Possibilities are Endless

Copyright Todd Paris and Golden Heart

Midterm Mania

It's about that time of year again. The leaves are falling, the days are shorter, and every single professor has announced an upcoming exam. All I can think is:

Nobody enjoys midterms. There are good midterms (easy, short, ones I'm well prepared for) and sometimes there are bad midterms (OH MY GOD I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING). We all go through it. The important thing to know is that there are ways to avoid bad midterms. It isn't by taking all easy classes--that's no way to get a degree! It's by finding resources available that will help you kick butt. Here at UAF, there are so many different ways to find help preparing for exams. 

The first resource any student should look to is their professor/TA. They want to see you succeed, and are really happy to go over subject material. Usually the professor (and often, the TA) will have posted office hours in the syllabus. If you can't make that time, just email them and set up sometime to meet. It's a great way to figure out the subject and get to know a professor at the same time!

Another resource from the classroom is Supplemental Instruction. This is a program offered through the Academic Advising Center that offers a student-led study group. The leader is someone who has taken the class before and received a B or better, and are sitting in on the class in order to provide the best study help possible. The SI leaders make learning the material way more manageable--and fun!

There are also a ton of tutoring services on campus. Have a huge paper? The Writing Center is here to help! They'll look over a paper (be it rough draft or final edition), and give feedback on how to improve it. There's also the Math Lab to help you get the gist of anything from pre-algebra to differential equations. UAF offers a Speaking Center to practice speeches and presentations. 

Are you from a rural area? Do you qualify for a TRiO program? No need to feel

There's a program for you! UAF offers Student Support Services  if you're a first generation college student, have a documented disability, or are low income. They have tutoring services dedicated to helping you succeed. There's also Rural Student Services, for those not from largely populated areas, which also has dedicated tutoring services.

Last, but certainly not least, you can always form your own study group! Who knows? You could become

Snow Day

Snow Day

      On Tuesday September 29, I woke up to about a half inch of snow. Winter doesn’t usually come this early, but the sky was losing gallons of rain in the weeks before. With the recent drop in temperature, snow was a logical weather choice after all, I supposed. I put on my Converse without thinking twice, but the flakes kept flittering down. Once night class started, I heard rumors of class being cancelled and the snow was guaranteed to bury my feet when I left for the dorms.

     I returned to the dorms after slipping through slush and getting covered in dainty white flakes. My feet were soaked to the skin and stinging from the cold, but I didn’t care. The school already e-mailed us. Class is cancelled for tomorrow, September 30, I read. Campus will remain open and class will resume on October 1. When I went to sleep, I dreamt of how I would spend my glorious day off.

     Looking out my window September 30, I saw snow covering the parking lot, trees, and cars. The landscape reminded me of the ski hill back home, fluffy like clouds.  Yet when I stepped outside, I was reminded that Fairbanks isn’t Montana.

The view from my dorm room window was a world of white.

     Many birch trees were broken, their branches overlaying the bike racks and sidewalks. They aren’t made for the amount of snow Montana’s lodgepole pines regularly sport. Even worse, the slush from last night still lurked under the snow. It waited till a foot took one nonchalant step. Then, it grabbed that foot and drug the owner down. I watched people slip on the hills all throughout breakfast. I had never seen so much snow in Fairbanks so early in the year.

Careful on those stairs!

     If one is cautious and prepared though, the snow is a beautiful reminder that seasons change and change is welcome. Before, I had to buy ice cream for a treat. I had to contemplate what to do with my free time, seeing that I already read those magazines on the shelf and homework could wait for another time. I even missed out on action adventures. What a dull existence! But after the snow’s appearance, life became interesting. My friends and I made snow cones—real snow cones with red-bull as the syrup. We weren’t bored for a minute as we built snowmen, admired the wintry campus trials, and threw snowballs at innocent signs. The best part was sliding down the SRC hill on anything from trash bags to top quality racer sleds, constructed from the finest purple plastic. Nearly the whole campus joined in on the fun.

Snow cones with actual snow! :)

     Of course, classes resumed the next day just as the e-mail said. I was a bit disappointed, but felt lucky once I heard that many people off campus lost power and were stuck in their own driveways. I shuffled down the sidewalk to class, trying not to fall on the slush that became ice. I admired the glittering white wonderland known as UAF Covered in Snow along the way. Fun memories are with me because of the early snow day. I’m fortunate to live where snow days actually happen and I have the opportunity to get the true Alaskan experience right outside the dorms.

Student Ambassador Heni Barnes and I enjoying the snow day on the trails.

Photos and story by Jessica Herzog

Humans VS Zombies: A Campus-wide Game of Tag

One of the most fun things that UAF does for it's students is moderate a campus wide game of tag. Yes I know, tag seems so middle school but seriously this is the most fun thing ever! What makes this tag game different? Well let me tell you!

1. There are two sides; Humans and Zombies.
The game starts with 2-3 original zombies that do not have to identify themselves as a zombie for the first 24 hours of the game. Humans that are playing are very wary about walking next to anyone during the first day. If a Human gets tagged by a zombie, then they turn into one themselves and can start tagging others. If you're a zombie you have 2 days to "feed" or else you become a corpse and can no longer participate during game play. There is no winning in this game. The goal for the humans is to last as long as they can and for the zombies it's to "eat" as many humans as they can. Humans wear orange arm bands and zombies wear orange head bands.

Photo Credit: UAF Humans Vs. Zombies Community

2. This is a week long event with various missions in between.
This year game play started on September 27th and ended on October 3rd. 15 out of 200+ humans survived the week. Missions for Stem-Packs and Cures were held throughout the week. Cures could revive a human and Stem-Packs could heal yourself if you got tagged.

Photo Credit: Frederica Matumeak

3. All of this is going on while school is in session. When you enter a building you are deemed safe. and the game stops. You cannot be pursued in a building. Stairs and any mode of transportation are also safe zones.

Photo Credit: Frederica Matumeak

4. Probably the coolest part about this game is that we can use Nerf guns! To stop a zombie from tagging you, you can either throw a sock at him or her (a clean pair!) or you can shoot them with Nerf darts. If a zombie gets hit, it is stunned for 15 minutes during normal game play or 5 minutes during missions. They have to pull their head bands down around their necks as a sign that they are stunned.

Photo Credit: Bayli Mohl

Sounds fun right?

Being A Human: This game can get quite exhilarating while you're a human. Your goal is to not get tagged but you still have to get to class. So you end up planning routes to get to the buildings and escape routes for when you have to get back to the dorms. Leaving early is your best bet. Never leave during passing because thats when the most zombies are out! Travel in groups if you have to get somewhere with heavy zombie traffic. The Gruening building is the most crowded area and it is heavily advised that you do not try to enter or leave the building without a group equipped with socks and Nerf guns. This game is also a great way to meet new people. I don't know what it is but running away from a hoard of zombies builds bonds between people.

Being A Zombie: BRAINS!!! Urg blug...grrr! Just kidding, I'll speak in english! Being a Zombie is really fun as well. There's not as much paranoia walking to class and you get to see the look on a humans face when they run into you unexpectedly. Quite a funny sight to see! The cool thing about these zombies is that they also travel in groups. A group formation is the best way to take down a pack of humans.

Probably the most important thing to remember about this game of tag is that we are all here to have fun. Some can take the game way too seriously and spoil the great times but when everybody is working together, either to escape a tag or "feed" on a human, the game works really well. Like I said there is no winning in this game. Everybody's a winner!