Many of this year’s ag ambassador blogs have been very helpful to incoming and current students. Ambassadors have discussed topics such as self-love and finding ways to make yourself happy, along with advice on becoming a better student, by building relationships with your professors and branching out to take advantage of various opportunities. As a PhD candidate in Animal and Veterinary Sciences, I’m going to discuss going back to the foundations of why we choose University of Wyoming.
Our phenomenal Institutional Marketing and recruitment teams do a great job at describing our university: “A town in the heart of the Rocky Mountain West,” “state-of-the-art facilities in many areas,” “outstanding recreational opportunities,” “beautiful mountain landscape,” “outdoor enjoyment in all seasons,” and “faculty will offer you a top-notch academic experience.” Clearly, these folks are great at touting all of what University of Wyoming and Laradise have to offer.
Are any of these reasons why we choose to attend our university though? Of course, the Snowies call us to hike and ski. Of course, facilities such as new academic buildings and residential halls help attract students. Of course, our small class sizes provide comfort to incoming students. And of course, our outstanding faculty and staff strive to be the best. These are all great reasons to choose the University of Wyoming.
We’re still missing the bottom line as to why we are university students. Maybe our parents pushed us to go to college? Maybe we thought it was simply the expectation of us to attend college? Maybe it was a way of putting off “adulting” for a few more years? But I suspect there’s still an underlying cause. We are all hungry for knowledge. I chose to earn my Bachelor of Science degree, my Master of Science degree, and pursue my doctorate degree. I want to keep on learning about animal science and asking more questions and, hopefully, uncovering answers to those questions.
We get to choose our majors, minors, concentrations. We get to choose many of our elective courses to meet graduation requirements. We choose to be here. We choose to pursue knowledge. Somewhere during the years, many lose the curiosity they had as children, but hopefully somewhere inside you there is still a spark of curiosity that drives your academic ambitions. Let that spark grow and follow your curiosities to fuel your hunger of knowledge.