Sarah sharing her experiences about the Honors College at University of Nevada, Reno

[Music] so my name is Sarah and I'm going into my junior  year here at University of Nevada, Reno. I've   been a part of the Honors College since my  first semester and I'm currently studying   chemistry with a minor in painting and on  top of that I have worked on off-campus   jobs but now I mainly work off campus as  a medical assistant and as a youth soccer   coach and on top of that I have lived both on  and off campus and I'm originally from Sacramento  So, at first I decided to go to UNR just because  they gave amazing financial aid and they also had   really good research opportunities starting off  right off the bat of when you're a freshman they   love seeing students being involved on campus  with a bunch of different activities including   research and everyone I've met here has just been  so supportive and so welcoming that it just felt   at home right away and at first I didn't apply  to the Honors College since I was unsure if I   wanted to do it but once being on campus and  meeting some friends who want in the Honors   College that really kind of pushed me to want to  go ahead and apply so I did I applied to months   into my first semester here and it was a pretty  simple process and I ended up applying because   I really wanted to join my friends and get all  the opportunities honors college offers um and   ever since then it's been such a great fit. So  the Honors College has enhanced everything just   because it's been such a strong academic support  um so there's something we do here called life   checks which is once a semester you come and  talk about about how everything's going and   those really helped me focus on my goals  for the semester so I set plans of what I   want to do for Honors College um and also just  making sure I'm staying on track and enjoying   what I'm doing and on top of that they have an  amazing lounger which offers good resources for   students good places to hang out and study and  you also just get to meet a lot of really cool   friends and mentors here and with the mentors  as well gives you experience into what they   do in their career and allows you to go ahead and  test out and see what you want to do in the future so there are two one of them is Nevada  student ambassadors I've been doing that   since my freshman year and we are essentially  the tour guides on campus it's been super fun   I've been able to travel with some friends  out of state to represent the university   as well as give tours to respective students  and has also opened up a lot of doors for me   in terms of meeting graduated ambassadors who  go ahead and tell us more about what they do   for their extension jobs and I'm also a part  of STEM which is called out and stem it's a   queer stem Club on campus and that was just  really fun since we do craft nights we just   get to hang out it happens once a week and  it's always just something new there and I   just really enjoy the people I hang out with well I've grown quite a bit so when I first   joined the Honors College I was very much  more shy I would say I wasn't comfortable   speaking out loud in public but after joining  the Honors college and really starting to meet   new people it kind of forced me to go ahead and  be more social because I really wanted to b ranch   out and meet more um different students um  advisers professors and everything like that   so it did take a little bit of time but ever  since then I've been able to become a lot more   open and be comfortable talking to new people and  trying to find experiences for myself that align   with what I want to do in the future and Honors  colleges have been a great help for me to do that I have to think about this one for a moment here  um I would say my biggest challenge was actually   figuring out what I wanted to do when I came into  college since I had a rough start of like I'm not   want to do something with science maybe with art  but the Honors college itself has also helped me   guide me figure out what it is I wanted to do so  with that my biggest challenge was honestly just   figuring out what I want to do with my life  so at this point I want to either get my MD   or my PhD and worked in Academia and also in  the medical field and I wouldn't been able to   really figure it out without Honors College just  because with those life checks I always like I   really like this one part of this one class  but I'm not a fan of the other so now figure   out what I want to do has been um definitely  a big challenge took me a few different Majors   to figure out where I wanted to go but um ever  since then it's been smooth sailing from there  so the owners colle has helped me realize that  I do have the potential to go ahead and go off   to a high-end CFT program by that I mean pursuing  my MD or PhD um so they gave me the confidence to   be like hey your occupation already does look  pretty great here are some other things you   could add on here's what you need to do and if  you need support here's some contacts who have   gone through MD your PhD route or currently going  through it so they've just been able to give me   a lot of support and help me figure out what it  is I want to do and make sure I reach the goals. My biggest advice is it's okay to change it's  scary I know but it's part of growing and part   of growing up as well so with that if if you're  not not liking a class and you're major that's   okay go ahead and change it do something that  you want to do something you're passionate   about it may take you a few different times to  go ahead and get there it took me about three   majors and two minors to figure out what I wanted  to do but it's just all part of the journey and   you have time in college and college is a once  in A- lifetime experience so really just make   it everything you want it to be by going  out there finding groups finding friends   Finding what you want to do with your life [Music] The honors college so I think one of   my favorite things was um my first ever dead Day  event which is when Honors College will'll just   go ahead and open up parts at the library or  their honors Lounge here and provide us food   and that's the first time I really felt at home  in the Honors College because that's when I got   to see so many other honors students and I  remember just sitting down just going to eat   study right before my finals and um someone  came down sit next to me and we just talked   for the next two hours did I get sidetracked  absolutely was it worth it also absolutely   and from there he kept on growing with friends  another thing was taking the honors I believe   honors 112 class or 110 which is global thousand  experiences that was such an amazing class as I   found a lot of friends in there and I got to  work on really cool projects and really mix   the scientific and art mind that I have by making  really amazing presentations paintings everything   like that so it really just allowed me to go  ahead and see how I could express creativity   through a scientific lens which is what  I continue to do throughout art at this oh gosh oh I could go so many  different ways with this let's see   I have to think about this one oh when I was  younger um without any kind of stretching I   used to be incredibly flexible so I could make  myself into a pretzel by putting my knees over   my head and just walking around on my hands that  was my talent show activity but other than that   I guess something else that's kind of fun fact is  that I have tattooed myself twice um just because   I love art and like putting it wherever I can  so if that means on myself I'll do it on myself [Music]