Senior to Senior Panel (Fall Webinar Series)

Hello everyone, thank you for being patient with us. We're working through some tech difficulties. Um.

Hello, for those who don't know me, my name is Sarah. Sigh up. I am a senior here at Colorado State University. I'm originally from Denver, Co. I am a double major in finance and political science.

In addition to working as an admissions ambassador, which I've been doing for quite some time now, I am also part of the women in business club, which is really great student organization. That kind of connects women in the College of business with different networking opportunities around campus. I'm also part of our apiculture club, which for those who don't know, that's beekeeping, so we actually have several hives here on campus, so I help keep those. And I'm also member of our club triathlon team, so if anyone has questions about like sports or specific club sports, happy to answer some of those.

One moment.

I see that we have a quite a few participants joining and so if you could throw your name in the chat where you're broadcasting in from an if there's anyone else with you like family or friends on the other side, we love to know more about that and then any fun facts that you would like to include as well, such as why you're interested in studying, or if you do. Any fun activities are looking forward to continuing college. Would love to know about those as well, so go ahead and do that in the chat.

Oh

Perfect and are being joined by some of our other seniors today. So as we get some of these.

Introductions going in the chat, why don't we have our other panelists introduce themselves?

Sounds good, can you hear me?

Awesome hey everyone. My name is Darlene. I'm a fourth year student studying ethnic studies with a concentration in education. I'm originally from Aurora, Co and here on campus I'm involved in fortune office importunities. Already life imported a Latina sorority, so you have any questions about that for free. Asking down below and has identified as a freshman student and asset student and then I was learning communities. That was a lot of fun as well. So if you have questions.

Let me know.

Hi everyone, can you hear me alright? OK, cool. My name is Sidney. I'm originally from the Carter Springs area. I'm a senior studying chemical and biological engineering in history on campus. I've been involved in campus ministries in research in this job and then in a couple of different engineering organizations, most of which are like networking type organizations.

Everybody, my name is grant. I'm rigid from Omaha, NE. I'm broadcasting from my room in Fort Collins. I'm a fourth year student studying health and exercise science with concentration sports medicine and I'm hoping to apply to medical medical school here in the next coming months. So I've been spending a couple hours days setting for the M cat. I've been pretty busy with that. I also work second job at a really fun local pizza place around here. So if you ever come up for Collins, I recommend checking out Krazy Karls

is trying to get that plug for myself.

Awesome and then it looks like we have some people have introduced themselves in the chat so too and hopefully I don't get any of these names. But Camilla Cian Avery? Thanks for throwing your information in the chat. This is actually since we can't like here you via this platform. If you do have any questions will invite you to keep throwing those in the chat or any comments as we go. But just to kick things off for panelists, our first question is going to be what is something that you thought about college as a senior in high school that?

Has been like either a myth that you'd heard or has not been like what you've actually experienced, and as you're reflecting back now is a senior like. How is that changing? How would you describe it to seniors in high school?

Don't.

I've always heard that college I. I don't know why I heard this is something I went to high school with graduating lot that colleges could be more easy than high school. Depending on where you're sitting on that is not the truth, especially when I've been studying college is something that you're much more fast paced in the way you learn things and you should not take it for granted. I've seen a lot of people come into their first year and struggled because they think that the learning pace is going to be the same like that high school, but it's not. It's much more fast paced. Let's say you take it course, you may have been taking high school like biology.

I'm you do that. You've learned that material in about half the time and expected to know all that for the exams. So yeah, that's something that I personally had experience with something I had to adapt to really quickly. Going into my first year.

I'm so yeah, that's something that definitely keep in the back. Your mind is that colleges is more difficult than high school.

I think another thing kind of going along that is a lot of like when I started college. I was really hung up on like trying to find like a major and minor like combination that really exactly went with what I wanted to do for the rest of my whole life. And you don't really need to do that. Having a college degree opens up a lot of doors out. Of course there's things like that. You need to have studied in the area.

I'm like it would be pretty difficult to get like an engineering degree in engineering job without an engineering degree or to get like a foreign language job without some experience in a foreign language. But in general, if you do it, you're interested in you don't need to be making like choosing a major that fits exactly with the whole rest of your future life plans, because you think people in college have it all together. But there's still a lot of like question marks in a lot of different opportunities.

Yeah, I think the for me something that like changed going into college is a conduit is. I used to think like in high school 'cause they tell you like oh in college like it's finally when you get to study anything that you want. Which is true but also in a sense sometimes not true. 'cause there are certain requirements that we have to the University like are all University curriculums and those are kind of like our general studies like all students have to you know Phil and stuff and so even within those like maybe that's not. Maybe you don't want to take history.

Right, but maybe choose the best history class out of there that you like. So in a sense you do get to study whatever you want. Also, in some other sense, it's like, yeah, you still have some parameters to work with, so just keeping an eye on that.

Yeah, I'll get advice and I guess as a senior I will also add on something that I think I got really hung up on was as someone who's from Denver for the longest time I wanted to go out of state because I was convinced that like I would have like some like out of world experience by going to a different state. But then when I really sat back and thought about it, I love Colorado and I'm very outdoorsy. I love to ski and so if there are, I know that a lot of y'all are from out of state as you've been saying in the chat but I just wanna like I think that location matters a lot and I I didn't think enough about that I think.

At first I was looking at colleges and so for me. I'm so glad that I've gone somewhere that not only has great academics, but a really great culture and is in a really great location that kind of supports my interest outside of the Class. I can still ski, I can hike in mountain bike, I can go trail running because those have all been like ways that I found community and friends here. And that is just as important. I think it's finding a school that has a good academic program, so that's advice that I would really encourage you to think about is like, what do you want out of class to look like for you?

I know Hello Oma, I see that you also include your information. We have folks from all over, so that's very exciting and I guess now we're going to turn it over to you all as seniors who are joining. And if you have any questions for us please throw them in the chat. They can be about just life advice in general. They can be academics about application, housing and dining.

Where is the best place to get pizzas in town?

Whatever you wanna know.

In the meantime, if there's a bit of a technology lag, we can do a bit of like an ice breaker question, and so for our panelists. If you could learn one skill overnight, what would it be?

Is any skill that I could learn overnight would probably be the development of my art skills like I just wish that could become like this amazing artist overnight because I'm not terrible and like, but I'm not the best, and so I'm often a person that it's like if I'm not good at something on the first try, I'll quit and so I'm trying to be a little bit about that and so, but it is the one thing that I specifically really struggle with Because I feel like we're taught in society that has to be conventionally beautiful, but that's not the point of our it's art.

And so that's one skill that I wish to have overnight, so if I could just make me feel better.

I think I would really like proficiency in another language, 'cause I've done a little bit of German a little bit of Spanish. A little bit of French, a little bit of American Sign Language and have not really stuck with any of it, and I think it would be much more handy to know another language really well.

Then to be able to say like hello and where's the bathroom in like 4 languages?

For me, something more practical. I am somebody who always struggles with like finding out how to do things online and technology issues and wish I was smarter about finding, you know, resources, able to access things online. I cannot tell you how many times I have not gotten the things done. Anything for school, especially not online.

Just because of the fact that I I don't know how to work computer very well so.

Yeah, absolutely. I'm kind of a city. I think learning a language would be really cool. I have also dabbled in a couple of languages. I took Russian here at CSU and Chinese in high school, but I think just waking up tomorrow and being able to speak with another language would offer.

A lot of cool opportunities and it seems like now we go into time for some questions to come in. So Sydney is wondering if we could talk a little bit more about the health and exercise science major. What I would like to start. If not, I can kind of kicked off.

Yeah, so I'm studying health and exercise science now. 4th year student now and it honestly has been a wild Rd for me so I came to see season under Kurt student. I had absolutely no clue what I wanted to do in the complete differently. Be completely honest. Only reason I chose F next size Sciences 'cause I like more of the gym and that has led me down a very long path of the now playing in medical school. Also something that's really cool about the major is that we have two different concentrations.

Space.

And so that you can you have this health, next science major and then you can study something called health promotion or sports medicine. Health promotion is more of like an overarching view of the health field and how to promote health within different communities. It's a really, really cool program, but on the flip side, sports medicine is something more like nitty gritty getting into the biochemistry with the Physiology of how your Body Works and then applying that to exercise so that like one really big class mistake is called health. Next I signs 403 and it's pretty much.

Combination of all the all the class we've taken up at that point and then applying it forwards health and exercise science. So in this class we have a lab, and in the lab when we do a whole bunch of super fun experiments, I'm like Wingate tests in VO2 Max test, and if you do not know, those are these really cool tests that are able to actually like measure your physical fitness so some of those really fun about it? It is health and exercise science so many times leaving lab. I leave lab like sweating, it's because I didn't go to Max test and pushing my body to the maximum.

Can do so. Somebody I have a huge interest in and so I said there's a sports medicine part which is very sciency in the health promotion part, which is much more like an overview. More people focused, so if that helps at all.

I think that was an awesome description and grants. Great 'cause he's actually in the EPS program.

So the next question that we have is what is your favorite thing to do with your friends at CSU? And so for this one I think will go Darlene Sidney Grant and then I can wrap up. So don't know if you want to get off.

Yeah, my favorite thing to do here will not necessarily CSU, but in Fort Collins is go down to Old Town so all town is our little downtown area and it's super cute. It looks it's like this little like Strip and then like some shops like on the behind the ship you know and so it's a little strip and it kind of it looks like Main Street USA. If any of you have seen it and I love bringing it up because I am such a Disney Nerd and so like it makes me super proud to be a CSU ram to know that.

Walt Disney's one of Walt Disney's inspiration for Main Street USA was Old Town Fort Collins. As long as with his hometown as well and so just a cute little fact, a bunch of shops, I feel like I've been here for like 3 years now. I'm gonna be finishing up my 4th year and there's still so many shops that I've never even stepped foot in that I've never gotten into a chance into taste. Maybe the chocolate, the coffee, whatever they're selling and that's my goal by the end of the year is I wanna make sure to visit all of the shops that I want to in Old Town.

I think for me personally I really like going with friends to different restaurants and stuff. In Old Town there's definitely a variety of like restaurants and tastes an like price things. There's a couple of restaurants that are not college kid budget, but there's a lot that are and so it's really fun to try out some new food and to get some times like dress up really fancy or just wear whatever. I mean, it's fun to.

Be able to get out and about. See the town and not have to cook for a night. So super fun.

Yeah, so something I've been trying to get more involved with is getting outside and actually exploring Fort Collins in North juice horsetooth. So if you have not had the chance from 4 columns yet, we have this really cool reservoir just West of campus and it's like a Six Mile long reservoirs. Whole bunch of hiking.

In boating and swimming, so something that you know when the weather is pretty nice. I would love to do is I like to go out there and hang out something that me and my buddies trying to do over the lock down well before Collins if we make frequent trips out, just enjoy the outdoors for Collins. It's a whole bunch of really fun, really fun things to do. Really. A lot of really cool hikes that you kind of have to experience more pumps.

Yeah, so there's a. There's numerous ways to get involved on campus like. First and foremost, I wanted to read are five principles of community and that's just kind of what we try to operate under here at CSU to make sure that we're being as inclusive and as equitable as possible. And obviously, we're not perfect, and so I love that you're asking these questions because I feel like a lot of our stuff is very student driven, and I think that's what makes our campus so unique. But are five principles are purpose, inclusion, integrity, respect, surface service, and social justice?

And I did find some clubs. There's like numerous different clubs on campus that you can get involved when it. That's really what is going to be a big driving force. So I went ahead and pulled up some like the Facebook pages as well. So let me know if you want me to drop him, but we have like the CSU intersectional activism page, and they're really good if you want to be directly involved. They post a lot of.

I'll drop that in there and then we have through office opportunities already. Life we have culturally based organizations and typically since they had their culture based organizations who come from marginalized communities. Often times they are going to be.

Direct routing causes in their communities, with like protesting things like that, and I went ahead. I'm going to go ahead and put those links as well and then the last clip that I know of is the student against white supremacy and they also do a lot of movements on campus or whether that's peaceful protesting or through Artivism and stuff. I don't have a direct link for them, but they are also available and at the end of the day, too, like if none of these are what you want to be involved in like feel free to reach out to our slice office.

That's where all of our student organizations run through, and they are more than willing to help be an up and you set up a club or maybe help you find your right place in the clip that already exists.

One way that I got involved with some of that I miss through slice. That's an office on campus on the distant leadership involvement in community engagement. So as well as their the people who like coordinate a lot of the club Sterling was talking about, but they also host some like specific events throughout the year. So one that I was involved with for several years on his project homeless connect, which is like a resource fair basically for local homeless people in so you're there.

Yeah I would just add on to another really great way. Kind of both. I think Darlene it's any have touched on some really awesome resources, but another great way Soares DPS offices to actually have 7 here on campus and what's great is that there is not like we don't have one Cultural Center. We've actually like CSU. I think is really great and they've taken the time to kind of think about who's under represented on our campus and who might need community. So like personally, I'm really involved with our Asian Pacific American Cultural Center, but we have our native mobile center or black and African American Cultural Center.

Or women and gender advocacy center or some disability center El Centro.

To help them navigate the booths of, like whether they want to talk to like housing services, whether they want to just get a haircut, get a meal, things like that. They also have ones alot of the slice, like individual events or smaller scale, but they do events to help clean up houses around the community of maybe like older citizens and things like that. And also do I'm passionate about a lot of like educational, outreach and slice. Also does a lot of things like that.

Pride Resource Center. So there's a lot of really great ways to get plugged in with like communities here on campus. And they all do a lot of events focused on like education on equity and supporting students who come from marginalized backgrounds. So that's another great way that it's not like a social justice oriented, but it is a really great way that you can really get involved on with different communities are focus on equity here at CSU. So yeah, great question. Does anyone have anything to add before we move on to the next one?

No, OK, so chi asked how did you choose your roommates?

But I'd like to take this.

Sure, I can take this one off, so there's.

When you're living on campus, there's a couple things CSU actually has in place for their students, so we only campus. You really have one of two options to do. You can go like with a random roommate process, which is like you still feel like a short questionnaire will try to match it with something similar. Interests similar lifestyle. I do this my first year in my room. My roommate and I got along just fine. We had no problems. We are good roommates, but I've also some people have made like really great friends office random roommate search process and the 2nd way is through room sink in room seeking this like pretty cool.

App for Facebook and a good way to imagine is like a dating app for roommates. I tried to give us a try. It was. It was definitely something different for me, but the same time on those people who have really succeeded in convert movements for two. So it's like it's like messaging boards and stuff. You get to talk to people. Find something similar, interests all within your own, like living like any residence Hall and so through that you can actually request to live with certain people. This is really cool way. And then if you actually know somebody and you wanna live with them, you can request a little of them through that.

Room sink.

But right now, living off campus, I actually lived with for three other people who actually live on my residence Hall my first year. So it's pretty funny. I became really great friends with the people who lived on my residence Hall and I'm still living with those same guys today. So this is kind of the connecting to make you wanna live with off campus. Your friends, you have roommate random roommates off campus as well. And that's just kind of up to you.

Yeah, fun fact great Reynolds and I were hallmates. We lived like 2 doors down from each other freshman year.

She's going to have this job.

But I I went with kind of the second option. The grant was talking about where I used room sink. So basically I went on and like you create a little profile so mine like had a picture of myself and it said like I'm Sarah, I'm from Denver. I would like to outdoorsy things and like some other fun stuff and then you just like see everyone left in your hole so you can like scroll through them and message them Snapchat them from Instagram, text them and then hopefully be end you find someone that you really drive with and mine was really cool because I was able to meet this wonderful woman from California. Her name is Brooke.

And we're really good friends today, but it's kind of cool thinking back because we would have been friends and like probably would never met if we hadn't roomed together an like we didn't know each other before we came. So I always encourage students to check out room sink and the housing step. Kind of. If you're thinking about the application process, you'll get your housing application after you've applied to CSU in them. Except it's a couple steps down the road, but I would encourage people to try room sink just because you never know who's going to be on there and they could be a really close friend of yours, so.

Anything else that anyone would like to add before we move on?

OK.

I would also say too like I love that grant. Oh sorry Sir, I love that grant brought up the now that he's living off campus just because. Let's say that you are looking to move off campus. You're like after your first year and you don't really know who to room with. There are still resources available through our off campus student. Yes, or off campus student life office and they do like roommate Roundup. They have anything of that so that people who are searching for roommates and searching for people who are searching firms can hold it up. In case you don't know anyone, but we still want to move out of.

University housing

Yeah, that's a great addition darling. Thank you. Alright, Mama asks what clubs are we involved in, so we'll go with that. It will go. Sydney, Grant, Darlene.

I I'm not currently involved in any clubs. Actually I'm taking this semester off of a lot of other involvements, really focused on school studying for the M Cat and getting grades need for medical school, but I have been in many cups in the past.

So one club I was in was when I was actually undeclared student and it was the health and Wellness club put on by the ECS Department. And one of these is club. That kind of goes out promotes fitness within the Fort Collins community. It was a really cool idea 'cause I actually had an advisor recommended. I should go check out this club actually went there as an undeclared student and end up declaring the majors. Except really like what they did in that. But yeah, I do really recommend checking out slices website and just the student clubs and organizations we have at CSU kind of sealed by.

Preach it free ticket yet.

Assam so I am I'm involved in of infertility is already life, so in a Latina based sorority. Through that I was also lucky enough to be able to serve on our executive board for council and so got a lot of experience. Do that? Got to travel? That was fun.

Then I'm also my first year. I was in communities, I'm more specifically I was in key civic back in the day. They had key civic out in Corbett Hall. I don't know where they have him now 'cause from what I heard they like changed it a little bit so and they're always adding more communities and so definitely check that out. And then I'm not super involved in this club, but I do like to go every once in awhile and not Streamers United. And it's just a club and open save space for though for documented and undocumented students.

Awesome yeah, so I am currently as I said in the beginning in women in business or it's called Women Business Association an it's a club within the College of business. Basically for women to help them network to do resources. We talk about issues like the glass ceiling and the income gap. Things like that. So it's really cool club. I am also on our club traveling team which for those who don't know to distinguish a little bit, there's kind of three tiers of sports so that top tier those Division One students are here on scholarship playing Mountain West Division.

Sports Club sports are kind of the middle tier, so we have a coach. We have practice. We like train for races and we traveled for those. Yeah, so it's a really great way. Like if there's a sport that you love to do in high school and want to keep doing it. It's a really great way. We have 30 sports so we probably have the one that you're thinking of. And then the bottom one is intramural sports. So if in terms of athletics are a lot of ways to get involved and that's been a really cool way for me to find like a community here and then as I mentioned, I'm also part of the apiculture club which is beekeeping so we have both wild hives.

Campus and then some hives that we keep actually next door horticulture center. So we harvest the Honey and take care of the bees there which is really cool and I also used to be in Greek life. So yeah, there's a lot of really cool things.

The next question comes from kya kya and it says are any of you wanna keep community?

I was not.

Was anyone here in key?

I think just me right.

I think it might be.

Yeah, I can talk a little bit more about it, so keep communities is really designed for students to come in and kind of that transitional support between you know that transition from high school to college and I'll find the The Web link on and I'll send it in there as well so you can kind of get a little bit more just and you do have to apply to get into key communities, but I have spent so long far removed since I've done the application. I don't really remember too much about it, but you get a mentor. You get a little cohort.

And it's really nice because you just have people that you have alongside. You are kind of in the same position. Taking classes with people in your cohort, and that's very that's very intentional, so that you are able to create those study habits and make study groups as a first year student so that later on in your college career, you're able to feel more comfortable. Or you already know kind of how to work around other peoples like group session studies and things like that.

And then they also do have key community plus which is for second year students and that one too. You can either do the living compartment or you can do the class compartment or you can do both but you don't have to but you don't have to do it. If you were in the just the first year one.

Thanks Darlene, Alright the next question is, is there a speech and debate club and if so do we have any organization? The club on campus? I am not sure and I don't know if anyone knows if we have a speech and debate club. We do have model UN which I know slightly different but still applies the same skills and actually most of the folks that I know that did speech and debate in high school have actually opted be part of asks you which is our student government here on campus. It functions a lot like speech and debate actually guess probably a blend of like model UN and speech and debate.

And they are actually the ones who handle our student fees. So you pay like tuition plus student fees and all the student fees are aggregated and asks you gets to decide how they're spent. So like on our rec center or on different clubs and organizations, or like if the apiculture club petitions to like have money to buy a new hive that will go through ASU an it's pretty debate heavy. You have the opportunity to run for office. That's where like our student body president is through so I can go ahead and send that link.

In a minute, but I think those are kind of the two closest things that we have to a formal speech and debate club.

Don't need adjustment.

Yeah, and even if.

Yeah, sorry, even if you don't have like the time to fully commit to like being like a senator or being like fully involved in in ACS U. Their chamber meetings are open to the public and I know that this past going back to that social activism piece. I know that this past fall there were several meetings that I personally went into to speak up on the experiences of myself or other students on bills that some of us just didn't agree with or had issues with their wanted revisions on. And so even if you're not fully involved with an atheist you understood looking for some of that debate. Just know that their chambers are open.

They represent you and you're able to make your voice heard.

Yeah, that was awesome. The next question is what are some environment related initiatives being taken on campus? Lovely, you are asking like social justice and environment like.

Good job, but I don't like it this way, Nov.

Hello, yes, I just know this in this actually came from my key community civic seminar and we learned that Fort Collins actually has a waste plan and they're hoping to, you know, with everything being started and implemented to be 0 waste by the year 2050. And that does seem, you know, kind of crazy and extreme, but they seem from when I took my class for sure they were like no, we can totally do it talking about my promise is not a ghost. It's my dog. But talking about like you know.

Transportation. How do they make that easier for everyone admissions and then anything else? Though for you know those kind of our city based but I just loved that fact.

Yeah, I actually have a couple that were working on so we lost our lean. One of them is that the University has pledged to be using 1% renewable energy for electricity by 2030 and so some of the things that we've been doing to work on that where, like both looking at financial ways that that will happen. But also we have solar panels and we're starting to use more solar energy is some of our power mix. So one of the things that you can do when you come here or like you can even check it out online as we have solar panels on top of our rec center and those actually power that building.

We are also a platinum LEED Certified Campus and we're actually the first University fun fact in the world to receive this rating so you can be like bronze, silver, gold and then CSU came along and they had to make the platinum designation. So we have like our stadium is LEED silver. We have several buildings, early gold and then the University as a whole is LEED platinum so we do a ton of stuff to earn that certification which includes things like during this talk about which like waste management, recycling programs, composting programs as well as working on our.

Electricity mix and then our water management, so hopefully that helps a little bit. I'm trying find a good website that has some of the.

Like initiatives that we've taken. But yeah, I think the biggest one that is most cool to me is our 2030 energy goal, so.

Yeah, and something else that I want to mention is that as a student you can actually be really heavily involved with the universities initiatives. We have an equally doughy Co leader program which you can get involved in through housing and dining services, and even as a freshman you can be like a sustainability leader on your floor so you can educate students about recycling in about like throwing out their trash correctly. So like what can be recycled, what can be composted, what needs to go into the waste bin, and then we also have several sustainability clubs. And there's also like a panel.

That is partially made up of students, kind of at a higher level for the University that helps advise on some of their environmental initiatives. So there's a lot going on.

We have another question that is living on campus required freshman year.

Mirante this one.

Yeah, so the answer is yes. All freshmen are required to live on campus. Unless you're over a certain age, and I'm not sure what that is or unless you are from the city of Fort Collins. Otherwise you get to come live with us in the residence halls.

Uh.

In someone at about that will be on campus is super fun I? I mean I know everyone has different experiences with it, but my personal experiences all the friends I have. Not all of them, but most of them came from my living situation. My first year. People who lived on the same halls, me, you know, down the Hall, roommates and everything. This had a lot of really great connections from it. Like Sara said earlier, we were on the same Hall. Now here we are. Three years later doing these webinars in the middle of pandemic. So I think it's pretty cool.

It's just it's it's really great way to meet. People are going to be on campus. It's really unique part of your life. So I think that if you're currently on campus, is definitely a step and it's totally uncomfortable and stuff. And I remember I was super nervous to go on campus, but it just turned out to be really cool experience and I feel like a lot of people have similar.

Sloan respectively.

Alright, our next question is and you always have excellent questions. And it does CSU have study abroad programs an have any of you to the broad so I have. I don't know if anyone else has.

Now OK, so I'll take this one then. Yes, we have study abroad programs. We actually have the opportunity to study abroad on all seven continents, so that's pretty cool. One of the other cool things is that study abroad for us, we're pretty flexible 'cause we know that some people's academic calendars, academic four year plans might be less flexible to studying abroad. So you can study abroad over like winter or spring break or summer break. You can do kind of the more traditional route, which is for one semester. Or you can actually also go for a whole year. So there are quite a variety of options.

And we have a study abroad. Office is housed on campus in what we call Laurel Hall and that's really great spot because based on where you're thinking of going, you get an advisor for that continent. So like I had one last spring. Actually I studied abroad in Thailand in Bangkok and so I had my advisor for like Asia and that was really helpful because they help you kind of navigate choosing a school, choosing a program, like getting your flights, getting housing, how you're going to pay for it. They have a safety orientation before you go. If they're really great resource especially, I think like this past spring was a really good example on.

Like if things are getting kind of weird in your country, like Thailand started to close its borders because of Covid, they offer a lot of guidance there and they were really great like point of contact for that. So yes, there are tons of study abroad opportunities and if I like could offer one piece of advice it would be to study abroad. It's a really, really cool opportunity. You learn a lot, you get to see a whole new side of the world going to school in other countries are really unique experience too because you get to be like fairly immersed in an institution in a new spot, so.

Yeah, I would definitely recommend it. Thailand was awesome. Southeast Asia is really cool an I don't think I'm only speaking for myself when I boast about setting abroad. Most of my friends have centered like also say that they love it and would anyone like to talk about semester at sea?

Yeah, Semester C is definitely cool way to see the world, so there's a lot of. Like I said, there's just a lot of variety in like what your program looks like so you can do specialty. You could say one spot. You can do it for any length of time, so that's really cool.

Um, let's see if we've got any more questions.

OK, so there's a good morning on this. It says trigger warning this questions related to sexual assault since living on campus is required first year, how does the school prevent instances of sexual abuse? Currently up to 29% of women will be victims of rape or victims of attempted rape in college. This is really great question and definitely a very serious topic that CSU takes incredibly seriously. Would anyone like to start this question? If not OK, yes darling. Go board.

Yeah, I can start just drag me with like what like within your residence Hall. This safety measures put in there so our residence halls have a three tier security system. And what that means like I'm just going to pretend that like my phone is my little proxy key like you'll get a little proxy key for your room and like that's how you scanning and you have to scan in once to get into like your side of the into the building and then to get into your hallway and then not final time. If you don't have a proxy you'll use a regular key lighting Corbett but you'll that last time is going to be you actually opening your room.

Upon opening your room, our doors are weighted and so they will close automatically behind you, which is really nice so that that way if you are ever scared about like Oh, I didn't close the door all the way. Or maybe I didn't lock it. They also lock automatically and Once Upon closing, and so that's a good little safety measure too. But it's an answer that you had your hand brace as well.

Oh no, I think she might be frozen.

See you there.

Yeah, did you wanna access?

Oh no, you're gonna die.

All good.

You are darling.

I was gonna ask if you had anything else to add. I just talked about the security systems within the residence halls.

Oh, I guess until Sydney's unfrozen I can happen really quickly. Another thing to like as a woman of color on this campus, I think CSU does a really great job, not only like calling this out like they they do. Very intentional programming, especially in freshman orientation on calling out and defining what rape is and why it's harmful obviously. And then like ways that you can be safe and support others around you. But there are a large number of support systems here on campus so we have Health Center.

Which is beautiful and it's new and it's awesome on campus and it actually has a Women's Health clinic. It also has a pharmacy, so just in terms of like from a medical perspective, if you ever need anything related to those things, you can go there. But we also have our women Gender Advocacy Center, which is one of our student diversity programs and services, but they have a number of resources such as sorry I'm trying remember they have like our victims assistance team. They have an anonymous hotline they can help with any like legal things that you might need help with.

They also can connect you to mental health resources there. Just a really great spot. If this is an issue that you're passionate about and want to advocate for it, that's a really great spot. I will say, like in all of our bathrooms, there are like signs about like victims assistance team, like how to get ahold of them and so it's definitely something that I appreciate as a woman that CSU has called out and not one like this could happen to anyone so that she has like called out an address and definitely has provided a large network of resources for students.

You want to be involved in this, or in case they ever need these resources. So yeah, a really great question. Before we move on. Would anyone like to add anything?

Yeah, go for it.

These are these are just some resources that I've also used on campus I one of the ones is I know that the CSU Police Department they do safe, lock and safe work is a program at night. Once the sun goes down. If you feel like you are feeling a little unsafe or were just like like a nice little companion with you on your walk back to your residence Hall. They also do this within a mile radius of campus. You can go ahead and call their number and they will provide you with someone to walk you back and then also as well. We do have emergency poles.

Like throughout campus and so also to like if you're feeling unsafe, you can go to one of those. You can press the emergency and get contacted with like a nine. What someone I don't know. If it's like this upd or someone directly in 911, but.

That works as well.

Yeah, I also speaking like resources just like in case here anywhere else on the weekends we have another resource called Ram ride and actually the system you can volunteer with and I do this at least once a semester with my friends because it's super fun and CSU has a fleet of cars and different groups and organizations can volunteer to drive them and the service runs on Thursday night on Friday nights and on Saturday nights. And it's basically like free Uber for CSU student. So if you are in a situation where uncomfortable. If you're just trying to get home from the library.

If you're trying to hold from home from Old Town, like maybe your friends went to dinner, whatever it may be, or if you're feeling unsafe, you can definitely give them a call and they will come and they'll give you a free non judgmental right home. And it's a really not only one way for students get involved, but it's a really great service that again just provides an extra like layer of safety and Accessibility to our students so.

I also dropped the women gender advocacy center link in there because I think it's a great resource if you want to learn more about how csus addressing problems and kind of how we frame things on campus and all of the different programs we have through.

WJC.

Alright, so this is also the final cover question. Since we have 4 minutes left and I see we have a final one from Avery and she asks how easy to get around campus in the winter.

So it gets pretty cold.

I mean, I grew up in the Midwest and I know, I know it gets pretty cold in campus is pretty big, so we do have buses that service campus is called like around the horn and its buses that travel around campus and can drop you off at many different places. It's really nice. I don't use them a lot during like the warmer days, but it's really cold and feeling lazy and trying to get class and after like 5 layers that I will hop on those buses and get dropped off at the closest possible page, one like masses when a lot of times you just kind of.

From personal experience, you gotta find the right ways to sneak their buildings void as much time as possible outside. I do this all the time. During the winter there super long stretches of buildings that you can stay inside longer. You can minimize your time outside, but to be completely honest, CSU in Fort Collins is not really get back cold in the scheme of things, I think I don't know the exact statistics, but it is nicer here in the winters and where I grew up in Omaha, NE. So something I can definitely appreciate some days does get pretty cold on long snowy days.

The days I've used the busing system.

But yeah, it's just layer up is probably the take home message, but also fears.

Yeah, invest in a good winter coat. That would be my suggestion. You don't spend a lot of money on them. There's definitely can get their stores or on Craigslist or like any of those like thrifting websites, but for me my I'm from Colorado and it's just a little bit windy up here in Fort Collins, so I definitely made a good a good purchase freshman year of like a parka. Basically like goes on to my knees and as a hood and it's really warm. And also when it's nice out like it is right now in Fort Collins I usually ride my bike to campus, but something that's really great is that.

If you choose to live off campus like your second you're on, we do have a bus system that students have access to. The bus system itself is run by the city of Fort Collins, but they have major stops next to like all of the major housing kind of clusters that CC students might be living in and students have access to that bus system at no extra cost. All you need is your student ID, so I definitely utilize that in the winter when I can't ride my bike.

Any final thoughts on winter advice?

No, OK, awesome. So I guess just to wrap things up and I know we have about 2 minutes left. I would love it if everyone could go around and say why they chose CSU because I think this is always really helpful for people to hear.

We'll go city Grant, Darlene.

Yes, like I mentioned earlier, I'm out of state student originally from Omaha, NE and something I always wanted to do. Growing up there was get out of Omaha, NE. I don't know if it. If anyone has ever visited it. Defined city is a lot of great things to do but I was there my entire life and I was very set on getting out in exploring someplace new online. A lot of passions and interests. Interest leaving High School but I didn't really know what I wanted to study in what I want to do with my future. So I really want to go to a place where they had a lot of opportunities and most importantly someplace where Philip belong in some place.

Well I thought was fun. Word enjoying my next four years here. 'cause that is a very big theme and you're spending four years of your life in a certain area and where the area is speaks to a lot of experience. You're going to have. So I was looking around a lot of schools in Colorado as well as a lot of other schools around Nebraska and out of state. And for some reason I couldn't tell you why CSC really just suck out tomato, just really like the field of campus and I feel like I belong here for some reason.

And Yeah, it was just a really cool opportunity to camp. I took a tour. The campus. I came back for one of the like admitted student visit days and I thought it's a really cool place. The undeclared program has a lot of great resources and there's a lot of cool opportunities that are available here at CSU and in Fort Collins general and not to mention for Collins, is just a really cool place to be. So it was a great decision. Been along, you know three years here, but I mean I've grown a lot of person and attribute. Most of that choosing school where I felt was a good fit for me so.

Yeah, I think for me, something that I mean, I guess now looking back, I was like subconsciously looking for is just really a community, I was coming into college and I was also coming into CSU when all of my friends went to a different University. So I was kind of just like you know the loan will fall here and so right away. I knew that, like I was like I don't wanna be myself and I always felt that since the community. I never toured campus and so all of my interactions were either online or through the phone. So I'm in a very similar position. It's like kind of y'all are at the moment.

Where that's really all I could get it right. It was just the over over technology interaction and even through then like I was like. Oh my gosh, this community is great. Like they're checking up on me there, answering all my questions. And then once I got into campus and I was like meeting more people and finally found my fit and placed in campus as well. I wouldn't change it for the world that the community is great. You know, it's Super Cheesy, but we love to call ourselves a little Ramlee because I definitely think it's true.

Yeah, I will go with. I was really torn my freshman year be earth my senior year of high school because personally I really wanted to study business and there are a lot of really great business schools in the country and I think that based on the majors that you all told us you were interested in setting at the beginning, you might be running this to that like not only to see if you have really great programs, but a lot of other schools. And so I realize that I would have to like make my decision off of other factors such as academics. But for me when I visited campus and like when I met students who came to CSU.

And I actually visited twice 'cause I wasn't sure but.

People just seem to happy to be here like they were hanging out with their friends on campus. They were like studying in coffee shops. Ann are over, which is like this big green space with all these beautiful trees. They were like getting coffee with people, people like hell doors for my mom and I. We also got really lost trying to find like the tour when we were coming in and like some really sweet girl took like 10 minutes out of your day to walk us to Ammons Hall folks. Really smiling and just when I like really reflected on where I want it to be for next four years I really decided that.

Like it was a really good positive sign that people wanted to be on campus and they were intentionally spending time there and that the community had just given me such a positive impression. And I think that my instinct was very correct. Students here really do care about one another. We have this phrases like ram, take care of Rams, which is kind of corny, but I think really true and people really take that to heart. Additionally, like with that like we just have an awesome campus. It's full of support for students and so I think those two things combined make it a really great community, which is something that I really value and.

Is why I should see you.

So with that I just want to say thank you for joining us for the last hour. Again, apologies for some of the technical difficulties that we had, but thanks for hanging in there. You last really awesome questions. I'm glad to see that you're thinking super seriously about PSU and kind of what your future might look like at a University, and we hope it's you, but if it's not, we're happy to help in the process. And feel free to reach out to us like via our admissions email or in the chat at anytime. We'd love to chat with y'all. Yeah, and go Rams have a great night everyone.

Maya.

Mayor