Well, welcome everyone, welcome.
Everyone should start popping in on here, so will give everyone a couple minutes just to get on. I know probably people were from different sessions, so we'll give everyone about 2 minutes.
I see someone from Hawaii.
I know, I know that I was like that's cool.
California we two people from California let's go.
That goes through taxes, can meals from California Kailis from Hawaii. Wow, all the representation. We have it.
Seriously, where are the people from Colorado?
Where are you from in Texas?
Just keep giving everyone a couple more minutes.
Well, I miss seeing all your faces even though like I've seen everyone throughout the day and throughout the week. I'm just like, oh.
The gang is back together.
Jacqueline Goldring
02:01:29 PM
Yay!! What a great group of students!
Student like we like the student life panel hey thanks Jackie, what great boss we have guys.
So well for this event, like it's going so smoothly.
Hopefully slate is cooperative for the session, 'cause actually for all you participants out there. Thank you for bearing with us as we deal with so many different people all having their own separate Wi-Fi issues, so I hope the session goes smoothly and we're not like talking over each other.
Jacqueline Goldring
02:02:07 PM
yes, thank you so much for patience throughout the day! :)
Yeah, I don't think it's sounding like it. I think everyone's pretty crisp and clear.
Should we? Should we do a poll and see what all the people want to?
You know, don't I already know?
Yeah, I understand because you don't know how to do pull.
It'll be a surprise what I put in it.
I know I did I wish we could participate in the poll.
I know I was like, Oh, it's not popping up. I wish I was like trying to click on the answer. It is like no.
Hello well just like go through our answer like everyones gonna stay there answer.
Where you gonna see this poll is going to be on the chat feature where Co. Incidentally, you can ask questions. So if you have any questions throughout the student panel I have a couple filler questions, but please feel free to put any of those questions in the chat or goose had a question for the person from Texas. Where are you from Texas so you can put that in the group chat and I'm sure he'd love to know where you're from.
So without further ado, we will go ahead and get started an once Sammy gets that pool going. Feel free to answer your little question on there. What did what are we asking again Sammy, what is? What do you want to ask us about?
Yeah, what they want to hear about I think.
I just got stressed out and put the first thing that came to mind. So yes, please respond to the pole in the chat and if none of those things I literally had like 10 seconds to think of options, and they're probably a million more. So if you have other suggestions or things you want to talk about or questions ask, throw in the chat 'cause That's what's really going to hold. This whole session is your questions.
Yeah for sure, making friends activities in Fort Collins. I am sports food culture in Fort Collins. I can go on and on and other and we're seeing I'm seeing a tie between activities in Fort Collins and food culture, which is great. 'cause we can talk about that all day.
All day already. So let's get started here. My name is Camille Milo. I am a fifth year studying chemical and biological and biomedical engineering. I'm originally from Southern California, but like I said made my way to the mountains and have loved it ever since. So I will be kind of the facilitator for today and these lovely people on here are my coworkers, my best friends, whatever you wanna column, but they're here to also help me answer any of your questions. And so let's just go through the list here and introduce yourself.
Oh, also, my pronouns, are she her and hers cool. So let's go through that list and not even go for it.
Alright, hi everyone, my name is Ananya. My pronouns are she her and hers. I'm in my third year studying chemical and biological engineering and I'm really excited to see what questions you got for us today.
Great, my name is Connor. He him his. I'm also a third year and CB and you can ask me about all the different trails in the mountain biking and a bunch of other stuff around here in Fort Collins. So yeah happy to have you.
Hi everybody, my name is Ethan Baron, but most people call me goose. My parents are he him his I'm a fourth year setting, biomedical and mechanical engineering and I'm from Austin Texas. So shout out Texas.
Hi everyone, my name is Kaylee and my pronunciation Hern hers. I'm a fourth year and studying computer engineering from Honolulu, HI and you can ask me about getting involved on campus. What residence Hall I lived in because I didn't live in the engineering residence Hall.
Or a lot of other things too.
Alright, and my name is Sammy. I'm in my 4th and senior year studying civil engineering. My pronouns are she her and oh boy I'm from Colorado originally so I can answer any questions about outdoorsy things to do in Colorado and Fort Collins, as well as just convince all of you that engineers do have time to have a life outside of school and that's why it's called student life. And there's lots of fun things, so I hope that y'all can ask lots of good questions 'cause we have lots of lots of good answers.
Thank you all, perfect, well, let's start off with the famous question why did you come to CSU and why have you stayed? Let's go Sammy up to Ananya. So Sammy Go Forward.
Oh boy, I chose the issue you heard if you came to the welcome session you hold heard a little bit about why I came to CSU. As far as attending this event and being blown away. But I also just fell in love with kind of the vibe and it's sort of like trying on a wedding dress where you show up on campus and you meet people and you're like wow, this is it. I can see myself here. So the main reason I picked CSU was just because I could see myself living in Fort Collins and attending CSU for four years. And being so content in this place which I have been and I think the reason that I've stayed is because of.
The people that I've met, and that's probably going to be everybody's answers. So sorry for stealing it right off the bat, but obviously all of us like love each other so much. We're such good friends and everybody in your major is so supportive every time you go to a study space, you see somebody that you know. And it's just really great to have a supportive, noncompetitive atmosphere an to just have people that you can share life with and that kind of get you because engineering is difficult and all of us go through struggles sometimes. And sometimes somebody is like going through a week where they have like 5 midterms and they're really stressed and their body is going through a pretty easy week. So you get to.
Each others strengths at different seasons throughout your college career, which is really awesome.
So my college search process was pretty interesting. I had actually started my college search process when my brother was looking at colleges. So I started pretty early and by the time I was ready to make a decision, I probably went to a couple dozen schools by them and so I had a really good knowledge of typically what larger schools had to offer, what smaller schools had to offer, and I was really torn between the idea, the appeals of a small school, an the appeals of a large school Ann.
One of the things that I really wanted from a small school was that I wanted that sense of community and that close knit feeling that you get an. I found that typically at larger schools I didn't really feel that well. I was on campus, but when I had come to CSU, I thought that was completely different. I was really blown away by the culture at CSU and the community at CSU and how it differed so much from a lot of other universities. So that's one of the reasons why I chose to go to CSU Ann. I actually stayed because I felt like.
That same kind of culture helped to increase my success in engineering. I've had, like professors who give me their home phone numbers and tas who come on the weekends and stay for 8 hours to help me finish a lab. And it's that kind of like close knit community that I think helps me succeed in my studies. Ann, I felt like I would be the most prepared to answer the professional world because just because of the way that she is, you specifically in that College of engineering kind of runs.
Thank you Carla. So I guess why I came to CSU was like everyone else was just a community. I think I applied to over 20 colleges when I was, I know I know. So don't do that. 'cause it's a lot of work.
But, and I visited a lot of them and socially and engineering it can get to the point where it feels very competitive. Specially coming into new programs an I don't thrive in that kind of competitive environment like I want to help others and I want others to help me. And that's something that I really felt held true to CSU.
Number of resources that we have for academic, mental and physical success. So we have lots of tutoring that are completely free to engineering students. So in the first floor of the engineering residence halls you can have different tutors that like Monday through. I think it's like Sunday through Thursday. Is that correct? Sammy? OK, sorry, I know you're on the else. I'm pretty sure you are so that free tutoring was something I was kind of. Blown away by an. Then we have our tilt, which is the.
The Institute of learning and teaching and so then they have tutoring again Thursday through Sunday from like 9 to 5 or until like 10:00 PM. Almost every single day. And so I guess the number of resources I was kind of blown away by because you had access to it almost every single day of the week.
Along with that, when I was visiting, I talked to Jackie. I talked to Rachel Johnson who also works in the engineering success center and just the kind of welcoming nature that they had. I really felt like everyone was devoted to my success and I feel like that's something that has held true at CSU, where a lot of the TAS or professors are super willing to help you get the help that you need in classes. As long as you're willing to reach out, they're going to meet you 100% of the way. An help you have very much you need it so.
Last semester I had a Biomedical Engineering TA and he great he would come in at like 10 PM to review our paper. The night before was do 'cause we would, you know, procrastinate doing it. Don't do that though. He would meet us at like coffee places by his house. Again, like on the weekend just during his free time and that kind of sense of community. Something that I felt has helped ruin almost all my classes here at CSU and has been a reoccurring theme. So yeah.
Yeah, well thank you goose. I had a very different sort of college search process. I applied to three schools.
And they were all here in Colorado, was born and raised here and right now my sister did like 10 and then I did three. Or just making fun of her but.
Yeah, I wanted to stay in Colorado. I was born and raised here. I love the mountains. I love just kind of atmosphere like people have already said like five Times Now. Just everyone super nice and super supportive. And so when I came from Colorado Springs which is about 2 hours South of here here to Fort Collins, I was like wow this feels like home but I don't have my mother in my ear all the time. This is great so.
After doing it to her campus and they had they had the major that I was looking for.
I was like wow, this is. I think this is it this is this is great. It's a home away from home. I've stayed because everyone here is kind of like all part of the same ship all the same. All part of the same crew. You know we're all trying to help each other out and I've had met some of my best friends here and a lot of different opportunities like this engineering ambassador position or my research work has allowed me to grow professionally and academically so.
Yeah, that's why that's why I've said.
8 so officer talked a lot about community, which I definitely find at CSU, but I had no idea how the community at CSU would be simply because I hadn't had the chance to visit CSU before I even applied. And so I was just hoping that it would all be OK. But the part that I was more concerned about because that was what I could research without having come to campus. Was the program and more so I knew in terms of extracurricular activities, I knew I really wanted to get involved in research and so first I still started looking at different institutions where research is a priority and a lot of Cool Reese.
Search happens and CSU does happen to be a top like Tier 1 research institution, and so that was really appealing to me and then pass that definitely the program part of it was very important as well. I was applying for chemical engineering at the other universities I was applying for, but even though I was interested in the biological engineering component and a lot of other schools, I found that it was either a minor I'd have to do, or a double major. And at CSU I really like that even though it's technically a double major is just one major at CSU and so.
Knowing that, I'd still be able to graduate with information from both chemical and biological engineering in four years was a really great idea, and so that was something that really got me into it. And then the reason I've stayed is because I truly love our CD program that we have over here and apart from that, so the academic goals I'd set for myself in terms of getting involved in research and things like that have all come true as well. And as everyone mentioned, the community here is honestly great, we could go on about it for hours, but.
There's just a lot of support resources, and that really helps you form a strong sense of community throughout your academic career. At CSC. When I think that's definitely helped motivate me to go through engineering as well, because it definitely gets hard sometimes, but knowing that there's people who have your back definitely inspires you to keep going through your engineering career.
Yeah, I agree 1000% an goose if it makes you feel better. I applied to I think I applied to 25 schools I like went to every single state and was like that's cool. That's cool. That's cool but here I am at Colorado State University and honestly couldn't make a better decision. Gorams Yeah you're right Sammy.
So yeah, so like we were saying, please feel free to drop any questions in the chat, whether it's to specific student ambassador I've left kind of that panelist so you can see like CBE who's studying what major? And yeah feel free to just say like this is for our CBS or this is for our computer engineers or whatever it may be. We will love to answer your questions but this is the student life panel so I do kind of want to ask a sort of general question. What do you do in your free time like what like?
I see that a bunch of people wanted to learn about like activities in Fort Collins. Like what does a typical day look like for you pre kovid?
Like what what have y'all been doing? So let's do, let's do and Anya to Sammy. Let's go back down the list here.
Alright, so before I actually moved to Fort Collins, I lived in Chile and Chile has a lot of you know, like Latin dancing and things like that, which is I know like super random and definitely nowhere as close to engineering as you would like to get. But what I found that once I came to Fort Collins is that there's a lot of cool ways to get involved in. So whether that's doing hiking, snowboarding, skiing, anything like that, or honestly exploring Fort Collins, and since I'd never visited for Collins before, that was the part that appealed to me more.
And just exploring for Collins I found out that dancing is actually a huge part of the community here, and whether that be like swing dancing or Latin dancing, and so, a lot of my time was definitely spent exploring those places as well. And that's been a really great way to again find community within the city itself with people who don't necessarily go to CSU. And just like building more friendships in those interpersonal relationships. But that's definitely a lot of what I've done and then just exploring different places like Horsetooth Reservoir, which if you've ever been to Fort Collins, it's.
Gorgeous, but just different places like that around Fort Collins have really interested me.
Yeah, so I'm not much of a dancer so you won't see me out on the dance floor, but one of the best things about Fort Collins to me is just all the mountain bike trails I grew up riding dirt bikes and mountain bikes, and so I've always wanted to, you know, be able to do what I love and for me that was that was mountain biking and so a typical day for me. Besides schoolwork and homework or research.
Would be, you know, after lunch or sometime in the evening if it's really hot out I'll hop on my bike from the house that I'm living in right now and bike to Horsetooth go up to the top of the A and get like a giant view of all of Fort Collins. See everything and go down to the beach and see people hanging out in boating on Horsetooth Reservoir. All that sort of stuff.
And then I'd bite back. Then I'd probably go to Old Town with my friends. It's at some point we have a lot of restaurants. I'm sure. I'm not sure if you guys have heard this fact or not, but it's 4. Collins is the second highest restaurants per capita in the US, only behind San Francisco, so we have so many different types of food and I've been to avoid my horrible cooking by going out to all these nice restaurants out here.
Other than that, there is the Aggie Theater. I've seen some concerts there and then. There's also a lot of tongue.
Visual arts sort of places here in Fort Collins too. And then one last thing for me too, is photography, so there's a lot of wilderness and a lot of cool scenes here, so log out and take some photographs or do things like that, so yeah.
Asked so while it may not be snowing now, the biggest thing that I'm looking forward to is snowboarding I.
Honestly, if I weren't working right now, I'd probably wearing my snowboard boots just at my desk. I put them on almost every single day because I'm just so excited to get out there, so once that starts up I will be going. I mean, as much as I can, basically so trying to be like every single Saturday.
Jenna Piro
02:20:28 PM
how long of a drive is it to the slopes?
During the summer I do a lot of mountain biking. I'm probably not as avid as Connor is, 'cause I've done one and then I got really tired, so I was like, wow, I'm think I'm going to call it today, but there's a ton of trails this summer. Actually got really into biking us around Fort Collins, and I didn't realize how many trails there were. I think I biked like 10 miles everyday for like 2 months, and I never crossover like the same path of them, leaving my front door.
So there's a lot of areas to go, but sorry to go biking around Fort Collins and then mountain biking as well. Also, there is horseshoes reservoir, so if you like getting, you know getting out on the water, you can do that, and so some of my friends actually bought a boat for like $800 and they went on it. They went out on it every single day over the summer, and so that was able to go on that.
A few times it was fun. How long does a drive to the slopes so fun? Fact actually through these CS snowboarding team, you can buy the icon pass for I think 450 which is I think $200 off the normal price. So it's really cool. Discounts will give your student ID. You can get access to that and buy it through them to get a very nice college discount. I think the closest on the icon is probably an hour or two away. Do you know Connor?
It's Eldora is the closest, and that's only like an hour 15, but elder is pretty small, so to copper, and, like Arapahoe Basin, things like that depending on traffic. So Lekas I-70 is horrendous. Sometimes I'd say on average, probably like 2 hours. 215 roughly depends on where you're going, but.
So definitely not not awful. It's I mean I'm going to do it every single weekend, so it's not that bad and I I'm not a good driver. I get so tired for some reason. After like 20 minutes into the drive like someone take over, I'm ready to take a nap in the back seat so it's not too bad.
Outside of that, I do a lot of cooking just again. Colorado has great produce, the farmers market over the summer is really awesome. There's like 3 and 4 Collins alone. I think on Saturdays and Sundays so.
Cool. I unlike Goosen Connor. I try not to go outside 'cause, the outside doesn't like me very much. I tend to find so.
For me, I also really like cooking, but me and my roommates for the most part are all kind of like Musici Theatery. So when before covid started me, I would always go to like my roommates, shows and musical performances and theater shows and things like that. And I'm also part of President of Pacific Club, so I am really involved in like the extracurricular activities, like in clubs in Organisations, so I'm still centered around campus, I would say.
But I really like for me. I really miss home alone and I'm very homesick. Often so being a part of like Pacific club really helps to supplement that feeling of home. So that's really what I enjoy. And besides that, I do really like going to like farmers markets. Or I also like going shopping and spending money that I don't have. So there's like the outlet mall that's like close to Denver that I like to go to. Or just like kind of get out of Fort Collins, which is really nice.
And I've only been able to do that recently. 'cause I got a car. So before that I was more campus based.
Connor Witt
02:24:06 PM
Jenna, here is the link to the CSU snowriders page, where you can get a discounted ikon pass: https://csusnowriders.wixsite.com/shred
Ethan Barron
02:24:18 PM
Tubing on the Poudre is also very fun!
Alright, I don't know there's like there's so many things you can do and it's hard to lay out a typical day 'cause it really changes, but I think if I had to like Crash My Dream Day, I would wake up really early and I would go do a sunrise hike and there are a lot of great thoughts for that. So I like to go to. I've mostly been to Horsetooth Rock. I've done that like probably a dozen times since. I've come to CSU Grey Rock Trail is also really great. That's up the Pooter, and that's about 8 miles and you get a little bit above tree line. So that's a little bit of a challenge. An really, really pretty.
Ali Niaz
02:24:42 PM
Are trails really close to campus?
There's also Lory State Park which is right across over by Horsetooth as well and that has some amazing hikes that you can do sunrise or sunset or middle the day whenever you want. After I get like work good sweat and get my steps in for the day. I will probably go to shower so not gross and then go to like brunch and there are so many restaurants like Connor said. So many great restaurants in Fort Collins and I'm a Big Breakfast brunch kind of gal. So one of my favourites is Ginger and Baker. I'd probably go there with some friends. Get brunch.
Ethan Barron
02:25:33 PM
Yeah they are! I live across the street from campus and a ton of the trails run near campus and a lot of them connect.
Shop around like highly also side note, trails are trails really close to campus. Yes, so there are lots of trails immediately surrounding campus. If you want to go on walking trails or biking trails. If you want to like get some elevation gain and get some hiking in Horsetooth Rock is probably the closest and that is maybe a 1520 minute drive from campus. So not bad at all. And then if you want to go a little bit further, lory State Park is probably about 25 minutes and then Arthur's rock which is up the Pooter Canyon.
Is probably about 30 ish minutes, so not far at all. You can also go a little further and go to Rocky Mount National Park or Estes Park which is about an hour ish, so there's a lot of really close trails after I get my fill of brunch shop around. I don't know my evenings I like to just watch movies with my roommates or if I like, feel active. Installed energy in me, there's this really great swing dancing place called Sundance and I went there a lot before kovik has right now. I don't like the idea of.
Being like touchy and Dancing with a bunch of people. So that's a really fun spot and.
It's really great and it's just like you feel like you're having so much fun, so there's a lot of great options and it changes every week and it changes depending on how much free time you have. But typically weekends have at least a little bit of a metronome so.
Yeah, I love that. I just like I don't know I like miss when we can all get together and like do all these things go to brunch? Go dancing ish? I don't dance.
Ethan Barron
02:26:58 PM
Heres a few of the trails we have: http://www.thegroupinc.com/blog/2016/05/the-best-biking-trails-in-fort-collins/
But yeah, there are a bunch of trails. There's one trail that I love to bike. It's like from prospect all the way to LaPorte, so it kind of is just a biking trail. And it's nice that a lot of the biking trails in Fort Collins are like paved, so you don't necessarily like don't have a mountain bike. I just have like my road bike and it isn't nice. It's like a nine mile bike ride. I have yet to work up to it because I'm like goose when I get on my bike. I'm like I'm good. That was fun and I don't even I go down the stairs and back up.
But yeah, no. There's a lot of fun things to do in Fort Collins. A lot of great places to eat to kind of add to.
Ethan Barron
02:27:35 PM
I got stuft last night!
Ginger and Baker. I also love like if you're looking for like a breakfast place. I recently just went to snooze. Honestly, the best cornbread corn beef hash I think I've ever had. Just a little tip for you all. If you're looking for kind of like some burgers, stuffed burger is a good one. Up here you can like make your own burger. I know I'm like I'm like an ad now for all these people.
Sami Fischer
02:27:41 PM
They should sponsor us
Teen cheese is a big thing in Fort Collins. You can put cream cheese on your burger. You can put cream cheese on your pizza.
It sounds weird and gross. It's actually so good. I recommend it, but I do want to ask a couple more questions to y'all. Kind of going back to the student side of things.
What are some like places that you all study at and like? What are some things like? Yeah. What are your favorite places to study and kind of like study tips for students and anyone can take this question if we want to go through the list. We totally can but feel free to just pop on in here.
I have a couple places like we said there's a lot of restaurants here for Collins, but there's also a butt ton of coffee shops as well.
Sami Fischer
02:28:41 PM
Check out this blog for great study spots on and off-campus! https://www.engr.colostate.edu/ask-an-ambassador-blog/elementor-10924/
I really have three that are within like a 5 minute walking distance from my house right now, so there's plenty of coffee shops. One of my favorite before kovid was Alley Cat Cafe. It's a It's open 24 hours a day and there's a lot of art and it's like this. It's kind of like the stereotypical like college town sort of Coffeehouse. There's are there's people playing guitar quietly. They serve coffee with a lot of caffeine in it.
You know, just and it's on like the second story of this. Like old building. It's really cool, so that's one of.
That's one of my favorite places to study. Another place is actually one of the buildings on campus. It's the excuse me, it's the Scott Bio Engineering Building. I'm sure you've probably seen it somewhere or seen it sometime this week, but there's this one little.
Oh, like cranny that I always go to, it's got a table and one of the walls, a whiteboard, and I've spent a lot of hours there having fun and I remember one time I showed up and I had little Nerf guns so it was during final week finals week at a couple of these guys were here and we shot them up in there and trying to catch up with the trash cans. So definitely good memories there. But yeah, coffee shop if you like that if you like a really quiet one.
Definitely then the Scott Bio Engineering Building.
Yeah, to kind of reiterate what Connor said, I love the Scott by engineering building so much. I actually live across from it because I just spent so much time there. It made sense to live. I the longest part of my commute to getting to campus or the Scotby Engineer Building is waiting for the little white walk sign to turn on so I can get across the street safely.
I absolutely love that I access that we have this because as engineering students you have 24 hour access to the computer lab, so this is going to be in Scott bio engineering and in our main engineering building and so that resources something that I really value just because it's nice to be able to have a really nice or a large table to lay out all my notes and a white board to write down all my ideas and thoughts that I have for exams.
Connor Witt
02:31:02 PM
This is the building we are talking about: https://building.colostate.edu/project/scott-bioengineering-building/
And you know, I've I slept a lot in that in that building, not by choice. It's like aces. By choice. I procrastinate a lot, so please don't do that. I assure you that if you are on top of your stuff, you can go to sleep like every single night by like 10. If you really want to, or 8. Some of my friends goes to sleep at 8:00 every single night. And I don't know how they do that. But I mean, I do know how they do that. They don't procrastinate, but.
So yeah, I really love the Scott by engineering building. Just because it is open 24/7 and it's nice to have that space where it is very quiet. Everyone there specially once it gets later at night. Everyone there is there to study and you know get in, Get out as fast as possible.
And Alley Cat, I did frequent alley cat alot sophomore year just because it was really cool. That is the coffee shop is open 24/7 so yeah.
I have a lot of study spots. I threw my old blog posts are not old like week old so go read it. You'll probably think I'm like a coffee addict. If I list off all the places that I ever possibly study, there's a lot of them. One of my favourites is mugs is right across from the Oval who just super central location on campus and you just get a punch card and then you get sucked in 'cause you're like. Oh, I have two more punches left and then you use it and you're like, oh I know I need to fill it up again so I really love coffee shops and then another thing that I've recently started liking this year is the library which I didn't spend a whole lot of time at.
My first few years, but the reason I like it is because it does have coffee. There's coffee shop on the 1st floor, so if you're like me, you can grab one of those to fuel your studying and then the other nice thing is I oftentimes and forgetful and I forgot my laptop charger and you can check out Chargers. You can check out like if you totally forgot your laptop entirely, you could check out computer and things like that, so that's really nice. The resources are there, there's a lot of space is the library is kind of like a big mazes so you can just go and like take a bunch of random turns and then all of a sudden you're going to space where nobody else is. You have a whole table yourself. You get power.
Strip an you can just like set up camp for several hours at a time. So I really liked that recently, but there's definitely not a lack of places to study.
Well, definitely say there are a lot of I'm sorry, give me.
Jenna Piro
02:33:51 PM
For those from California, any good boba spots in FC?
Alright, so there definitely are a lot of coffee places around Fort Collins. As we've mentioned, the closest one to me is Mobilo Lowe's, and it's like less than a 5 minute walk and so it's definitely very convenient to find species to study and a lot of times you'll find tables at all. The locations alley cat does tend to get full, so I don't go there quite as often, but I will say on campus. One of my favorite places to study is the Lory Student Center, and that might sound sort of counter intuitive because it is one of the main buildings on campus, so you often see a lot of people going through.
Sami Fischer
02:34:19 PM
Ding Tea!!!
Ethan Barron
02:34:22 PM
DING TEA
But the reason it also allows me to focus is just because there's so much open space and the building just has glass everywhere, and so you're just able to look outside at all the greenery and have that focus, and then for the question in the chat about any good bogo spots in Fort Collins, there actually is a spot right across from Moby Arena, and it's a really good place, and it's very convenient to just walk there, especially if you end up living in the engineering residence Hall on campus.
Kailee Mitsuyasu
02:34:25 PM
YESSS
It's like a 5 minute walk and so a lot of my friends and I definitely spent a lot of time going to that place as well.
Yeah, I'm gonna second that. Yeah so Bing, California right? We are spoiled with good Bo and I must admit Ding Tea which is really close to campus is honestly kind of the best Boba I've had in Fort Collins. But another place that I also like to study? Yes, boa. We're here for that is actually the the place that Kylie is drinking her coffee from Dutch Bros. Best place to study for honestly and honestly. Some of the best coffees so.
You could think of us as coffee connoisseurs, even though I am unfortunately allergic to coffee, but it's fine.
Ali Niaz
02:35:15 PM
This is a little off topic, but how was y'alls housing experience during y'alls freshman year?
Jenna Piro
02:35:16 PM
love to see the boba culture <3
Yeah, recent development, but anyway, we're loving these questions. Please continue these questions. Let's see I see another one here.
How is your housing experience during freshman year so?
Why don't many of us lived? I think Eileen I did not live in the engineer residence halls and everyone else lived in the residence halls is that am I making?
Honors OK cool, so let's do goose and Ananya and Sammy. Do you guys want to talk about like how it is living on campus and then Connor go ahead and do honors an then Kylie and I will talk about our experiences not living on campus so.
Yeah, I love living on campus. Like I said, I am up into late hours of the night because I procrastinate and also I like working with people and so that's not necessarily the most efficient. Because when you're working with friends, you're kind of doing half homework. I'm talking my phone workout docking.
Camille Milo
02:36:23 PM
Boba is so good! Milk teas or just regular teas are the way to go!
And so I love living in the engineering residents, all just because I was able to see all the people that I saw in my classes. You know, later that night or something. Or, you know, throughout the week and so if there was ever a question, I was stuck on the homework. It was really easy just to walk over to the communal study rooms or just knock on someone's door and be like, hey, have you gotten this question? Like can you help me an?
It was crazy because the number of times that people would be up at like 2:00 AM just trying to finish something was just right, right? Right when I was insane because I could just text someone at like wee hours of the night San. They would respond very rapidly, just being like Oh yeah if you wanna meet me I can walk you through the practice problem or like just help you through it an.
You know they have whiteboards in the study room, so this that kind of collaborative nature, specially around homework and studying with something I really valued. Again, living in the engineering residence halls, there are some classrooms on the 1st floor, so it was really nice to be able to wake up at like 859 for 9:00 AM class and then just Sprint downstairs and whatever you happen to wake up in. I really enjoyed that experience and there's also.
Residential learning assistance is at.
That correct term, or less and so those are students whose main job is to help you get through your homework, and so we had one that lived on my floor and said he was a third year. I believe in mechanical engineering, and so he taken all the courses I was in already, and so it was really nice. He would just knock on his door where again his sole purpose was to just be there to help us get through some, you know, typical math or some confusing concepts.
Yeah, actually village is the best. I would absolutely stuck in everything that you said and then I think another huge part of the housing experience in general. Regardless of where you live. Is having a roommate, which I had a really great experience with that and I definitely like took it very seriously when I was going on room sink and like looking at all the potential matches I had and I ended up getting a really awesome roommate that is still one of my best friends to this day. You definitely hear stories on either end of that spectrum, but I think a majority of people would say that they really enjoyed having a roommate their freshman year.
And again, like living in the engineering resident, all your roommate is going to be an engineer except for one girl on my floor. Switched her major to like English, so she was kind of the like the black sheep on the floor. But we all still love her. And, you know, support support network and stuff, but yeah, it's really good to have like that one person that you have kind of a deeper connection with that you can carry on throughout all your years and have that like experience together. So I really enjoyed that and I think that's another really great part of college.
I definitely agree with everything goose in Sammy's especially Sammy's point about roommates is what I was going to mention as well. So my roommate actually was doing the same major as I was and so it was really convenient for us to help each other out with classes and also just do different activities together since we saw each other so often both in our classes at home anyway. And apart from that, the resident advisors themselves often used to have a lot of activities for the residents to participate in, and so those who would have been things like bowling or doing laser tag anything like that.
Connor Witt
02:39:58 PM
Here is more about AV: https://housing.colostate.edu/halls/academic-village/
That really allowed you to interact with everyone else who living in your hole as well, and so that was a really great way to find more friends and build that sense of community as well. So I definitely say living in the Engineering Hall was very convenient for both the academic resources, but also just building really great friendships because some of my closest friends to this day are people that I met during my freshman year.
Yeah, so I lived in a V as well, but I was not in the engineering Hall. I was like 20 feet to the left in the honors Hall so the owners Hall and engineering are pretty closely knit and we can talk about that later on because I believe we have some more honor students among us.
But yeah, it's just a cross the way and I chose Honors 'cause I kind of wanted to have like a little bit.
Lisa, I wanted acquire quieter work environment. Not saying that engineer is so crazy wild people, but I just wanted to be able to interact with people outside of my major and so to me honors was the good balance between being with engineers all the time and not having any friends. So basically I'd be able to text, you know, if I had a question on homework and say Hey can you meet me at Rams horn, which is the dining Hall in the Navy?
I have some questions. We have dinner, all that sort of stuff and so we just meet there. So it was a nice balance. All the excuse me all the holes in a VR suite style so it's You and your roommate share a single bathroom, so that's obviously really nice, specially for us engineers. We love being able to have our little spaces, so Evie is a great place to live if you're an engineer.
Very opposite experience of Sammy with getting a roommate I had messaged like five or six people. Sorry it was a good roommate. But just how we met was very different sorry. I just messaged people known responding back and then at like 11:00 o'clock on the night before all the assignments were do. I gotta DM from someone on Instagram. It's like. Hey, you need someone for honor storm a Nazi was like, Yeah, it's like sick and then that was it.
So like you have never talked in person, it was literally 5 or 6 messages for like good sounds good. So yeah. And like Sammy said, you're going to hear stories from both good or bad, but you know if it's good. Obviously hang out with the roommate. If it's bad, there's plenty of other resources at CSU to be involved with, so don't worry. You're not trapped in your room forever with your roommate, so.
Yeah, so unlike all of these people. Beautiful, beautiful people that I'm on the panel with except for Camille.
No, no, no, you're not. You're still beautiful, just that we did. Both didn't live in Navy, sorry.
It's been a long day. OK, I didn't live in a VI. Lived in Allison, which is definitely a cross. The ways for maybe it's on the opposite side of campus.
And I kind of went into it. Kind of thinking like.
I need a break. I know I'm going to need a break from my peers just because.
You'll have the same classes as them. You'll be in the same study groups. You'll see a lot of your engineering peers, and so I was. I knew that I wanted to break and I also.
Connor Witt
02:43:29 PM
Aaaand here's the main page for residence halls: https://housing.colostate.edu/halls/explore/
One of the appeals to me of a larger school was the diversity. In like major between majors are so many different options and also where people are coming from and I wanted to kind of get that college experience, especially in my first year. So I specifically.
Chose not to live in the engineering residence Hall. An similar to Sammy. I was on room sink and I was actually pretty. I was talking to a couple of people but I was pretty specific. Unlike the roommate that I wanted and it was actually kind of funny because outside of the Facebook like room sync app, there was like a GroupMe page of like hundreds of incoming first years and I was on it an I had remembered this one girl saying that she was living in Allison. So I messaged her and group name.
And I was like, Are you living and Allison still like? Are you going to be on one northwest and she's like, yeah, I was like you wanna room together she's like yeah so actually had met her through that group chat rather than on room sink which is kind of funny.
But to this day, like my roommate from first year was like is still one of my best friends. I see her a lot and it was a really positive experience. That being said, I did find myself spending a lot of time at Evie specifically on that first floor of the engineering building. So no matter where you live like, you can still access all of those resources on the 1st floor, which is really nice.
I was lucky enough to have really good friends who had walked me home all the way from maybe they would live in. They would live in engineering, walk me to Allison and then walk back by themselves because I didn't want to walk by myself. So I had a lot of friends who are willing to do that, which is really nice. Kind of talking about that community again, but I had really an awesome experience living and Allison Hall. If you have kind of sort of the same mindset as me, I would definitely recommend it.
Yeah, and I just completely agree with everything Kylie said. Also Kylie I was giving you a hard time. It was really funny.
But yeah, same with him with her. I kind of wanted that space away from engineers and to kind of Mental Ispec. OK, like you're leaving your engineering friends, definitely just like go enjoy other things that for Collins has to offer just like what we were talking about. So I can definitely just echo everything that Kylie said. But Connor you were kind of talking about different student organizations to be part of an other fun things to be part of so.
Would any of you like to talk about any student organizations that you're part of? Or I know Connor and Ananya you talked about research so you do that, for instance, to Ananya and Connor. Would you like to talk about the research that you all are doing on campus? Kind of how you got that research opportunity, an how translated into kind of what you're doing, as both the RCP for what do you? So what are you all doing with CD?
Should I go first or the nonia?
I can go first, I'll go first. OK, yeah, so.
Let's see your freshman year. What did I do first one year I decided to join the Engineering College Council because ever since 7th Grade I had been on student council and I was like, hey, let's do that again. And so I I came in actually just I didn't represent a different sort of club or anything that just kind of showed up at the meetings and took the pizza.
So, but yeah, that was great. I I met a lot of great people like Marie Richards. I met her there. She was a old soon master. So yeah, met a lot of great people and kind of understood. Just kind of like the finances of how different clubs were. Basically, instead of like individual people representing the whole college, it's like the clubs come together, then they vote on watch the engineering college spend their money on things like that.
Uh, then I briefly wanted to start my own little jazz club. If you wanna start. If you have like a very nice like specific thing that you want to start up, you can totally do it are.
The student center is super helpful for getting club started off. If you have enough people and you have a faculty mentor, they will send you money for pizza and cards and stuff and then you just start your club and it's pretty much as simple as that. So I tried to do that but then just kind of got busy and put it inside. But that's when I get involved in research.
You can actually. I would link my blog down below here, but I don't want to be trying to talk and search things on going at the same time, so if someone else can do that would be great.
Just wrote a blog about it. For me it was really funny. I was after my freshman year. It was during this summer. I was like man I want to do some research. I want to.
You can't push push myself and so I just sent out like 20 emails to different labs and it's like hey please take me like I all work for free and I'm a good student I promise.
Ananya Vajapayajula
02:48:37 PM
Here's a link to Connor's blog: https://www.engr.colostate.edu/ask-an-ambassador-blog/research-as-an-undergraduate-student/
And basically I got I got a few back saying no, we're not looking for people.
And then a couple of like, yeah, well, have you friend. Interview was like Bud, not easy. So I went in and interviewed with them and the lab that I started my sophomore year is the lab, but I'm still in right now. It's the biomaterials, research, engineering lab or Braille lab for short. Essentially, I've been able to. I've been working with the team in like 9 other people were trying to find a way to 3D print this really fancy polymer that's that acts just like bones.
And basically you know when if you break an hour and we get like a titanium screw or you get a plate something and this would help replace that. Or just make that healing process a lot quicker. So eventually our material you put in the bone six months later, boom the materials bomb gone 'cause the body was like hey, that looks like bone will take it in and then it's gone so you wouldn't have to have like a second surgery to remove it with that I've got. I've learned how to 3D print. I learn how to do a bunch of mechanical engineering stuff like CAD.
And Simulation fea stuff like that. So that's been really cool and I gotta use a $3,000,000 scanning electron microscope too. So that was really cool.
But yeah, it's research is really easy. And check out that blog if you want to look on how to do it because there's.
A plethora of opportunities for you.
South Connor mentioned their stuff. Lee a lot of ways to get involved. My first year in particular, I took that as sort of my opportunity to try out different things and see what I liked and what I did and just what I honestly had time for. And so one of the main clubs that I actually went to, which I'm sure so we can talk about later, was the Society of women engineers and it was an incredible organization. But I did have time conflicts with it in terms of my schedule and so unfortunately I couldn't be apart of that anymore, but the other two clubs that I joined and I have been apart of ever since then.
RAICT, which is the American Institute of chemical engineers and that just serves as a really great way to interact with professionals in the industry, get died inside or any sort of project or just have opportunities to network with people and potentially find internships and things like that. And then the other clip that I've been a part of is Engineers Without Borders with CSU chapter for it. And so my project in specific is based in El Salvador and we're finding a way to ensure that two of the communities that have access to.
Clean sanitary water distribution system and so those are good projects that I'm involved in for my first year itself, but as I mentioned earlier, coming in from high school, one of the main things I knew I wanted to do was get involved in research and so I did get involved in research my first year and it was actually in the lab that focuses a lot more on that biomedical engineering side. And so even though I don't have that dual degree and still able to learn how to synthesize different biomaterials and justice, look at different studies that analyze if you were to put those in the human body.
How quickly those would disintegrate in just making sure that they're actually durable to use, and then I recently got involved in another research lab that's doing more things along the side of protein engineering, and so there's definitely a lot of different ways to not just get involved in research, but on campus as well.
Cool, thank you so much for sharing. Yeah like we were saying you can get involved in a lot of things and you don't you don't you? Well that was work. You aren't just an engineer right? You are learning about yourself in college. You're joining all these great soon organizations and joining in the last two panel. There was someone who join in Knitting Club and they like donate all the blankets that they make and I thought that was super cool. So really look into those unto those student organizations. There are over 400 of them.
Here on campus, and so I'm sure there will be one that piques your interest, but as we are winding down for time here, I do want to ask everyone one last thing and it's our favorite question and pretty much our favorite thing to do is really give you as perspective students. Any advice so we will go down the list here and what is your advice for a perspective student or a first year student kind of mix it up here, yeah, and if you'd like to go first.
Definitely, I would say we've talked a lot about different ways you can get involved in both Fort Collins and also like on campus itself and so just do research on what different aspects of the community you are passionate about and you would like to join and reach out to the people. Like if it's a clever organization, we chat whoever organizes it and just find out more information about it. Because as I mentioned, engineering can definitely get tough, but having extra things that you're passionate about that you can look forward to definitely helps drive you and inspire you to keep going on as well.
Camille Milo
02:53:37 PM
If you have any more questions, please feel free to email us at explore@engr.colostate.edu :)
Great yeah I definitely agree with that. I'm going to to cheat the question here.
Connor Witt
02:53:56 PM
Ask us: https://www.engr.colostate.edu/future-students/
Two pieces of advice. First, I remember. Of course I only applied to three schools, and like you know everyone else here. But I like, we know it's stressful. We know it can be really hard to decide, so we want you guys really to ask us questions. I'm dropping a link right now in the chat.
Go to that please. You can book a 101 appointment with anyone you see here. We can take you on a tour we can give you everything you need to know about CSU, so please do that.
It would definitely help, like I was not very good about asking the right question, so do that.
Definitely, when you're when you know if and when you decide to come here, just take some chances in like an academic way. Take some chances. Definitely email professors if you're interested in research. Join a club, start your own club, be that person on the first day of class that hands out a sheet of paper where everyone writes their name and phone number so you can get a group chat going. So yeah, don't be afraid to take that first step forward. It will end up helping out in one run.
Yeah, thanks Connor, I would definitely say don't be afraid to ask questions and so kind of like car saying whether or not that's to us. As you know you're looking at perspective colleges. I applied to a lot. I visited a lot and I was always nervous like oh, this is a dumb question. There were really no dumb questions.
Testing, you're asking us just whatever pops into your head. We're more than happy to help. Try to find an answer for you, the our job as engineering students Masters is to work and be a resource for you guys, so make sure that you guys are just utilizing all the resources you have when looking at perspective colleges and then kind of transitioning when you get into those classes at college again. Yeah, don't be afraid to ask questions. Professor was in like chemistry.
And I think I had 170 students that it can be kind of intimidating to ask questions, and that big of a lecture size. But I guarantee that if you have a question about something, someone else also the question and so just don't be afraid to take out, take that opportunity to speak up. Because again, like I was saying, the professors here at CSU are super willing to work with you, but you kind of have to initiate that engagement where if you think you need help if you reach out, they'll make sure that you're getting the help that you need.
Yeah, I really like that piece of advice I mine would probably be that and it can actually apply to both perspective students. An first year students is to give yourself a break. Honestly, as a senior in high school, kind of going through still doing school, but filling out all these applications can be really stressful and it's a really big decision in the at the time. And it's definitely something we're like. It's OK to like, take a little mental break and like, take care of yourself as well.
But then once you get to college, like.
And I think I can speak for a lot of us here on the panel. Engineering is really hard and there's definitely at least one class, or at least one test that you're going to fail and you're going to be like, Oh my goodness, what just happened? An typically that's normally in your first year and for me, what I found is just because like transitioning from high school to college, it's a completely different type of learning and completely different atmosphere, and so you're going to have to figure out how to like.
Teach how to absorb knowledge again in a different way, right? Because college is just so different. So my piece of advice is to like, give yourself a break. If you take your first Test and you don't get a grade that you thought you were going to get like.
It's not the end of the world, and it doesn't mean that you're not fit for engineering. It just means maybe you need to like figure out another way to study or figure out what other resources are available to you. Kind of a thing, so that's my piece of advice for incoming students.
Crates, I retweet everything. Everybody just said landing my piece of advice really goes off of what Kelly said and I sound like a broken record every time I say it. But it's a one word piece of advice that my professor gave me freshman year and it stuck with me and is to relaxed and that has a lot of sub parts to it. But kind of like highly said like I feel like we tend to put all these expectations in ourselves. Like oh, I need to know what I want to do. I need to know where I want to go. I want to need to have my five year plan figured out right now and you don't and I know that it's really easy to look at each and everyone of us or other people and compare yourself to them and say, Oh there. Minoring in something I should mind.
In something or othere involved in X amount of organizations like I need to get involved in more stuff and that's not the case an you don't need to over exert yourself. And obviously I'm not saying Don't get involved or like pick a school on a whim, or just don't think about academics. But I think that realizing that.
You don't need to do like everything in order to make the most out of your time here, and you just need to be like picky about what means a lot to you and what you want to get involved in. And also giving yourself Grace in that as well. Like highly said, if you fail a test like it's not the end of the world, one of our old student in Bass Odars had to take Calc 2 two or three times and now she works for NASA and she's like a successful awesome lady. So it's not the end of the world like the decision that you make in a moment is not going to dictate the rest of your life.
Man, I just encourage all of you to relax and go with the flow. Keep your mind open to possibilities and enjoy your time as much as you can.
Yeah all great advice, retweet, repost, post the story. All the cool things well on that note, we're super thankful that you could join us for this student panel. Like everyone said, please stay safe out there. Give yourself a break an honestly. Thanks for hanging out with us. We hope to see you at the tours in the next session, so go ramps.
Jacqueline Goldring
02:59:44 PM
Go RAMS!!