#uwnewstudent

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SOAR whiteboards and Wisconsin pride!

[uwnewstudent]

Friendly advice to new and #futurebadgers

Why listen to Ann Marie Steib?  She is a UW-Madison senior studying journalism and political science. This Milwaukee native is an avid giggler, writer, and drinker of chai. Ann Marie currently works for the Center for the First-Year Experience (CFYE) as a communications and social media intern.

“You’ll often hear me say that I did NOT utilize campus my freshman year. I stayed in my dorm and mostly hung out with my high school friends. I think I passed by a lot of missed opportunities, so I’m especially passionate about my work at CFYE and make sure students that come after me don’t make the same mistakes.”

            So what would I tell my 18-year-old self to put on my #BuckyList? Let’s start here:

Study somewhere besides the library. A lot of coffee shops are open until 11 p.m., and bubble tea will be your Nirvana.

Get out of bed to actually go to the Farmer’s Market before 1 p.m., so you can get the best stuff.

Run to Picnic Point - weekly. Then you won’t have to cross the freshman 15 off your #BuckyList, too.

Explore Madison’s music venues. The Orpheum Theater and Majestic Theatre are awesome, and High Noon Saloon and the Barrymore Theater are only a bus ride away. Which brings me to my next one:

USE YOUR BUS PASS. It’s free. Our public transportation system is one of the best in America. Don’t be afraid of the bus.

Not everyone’s #BuckyList is the same as yours: you can sign up for as many Ultimate Frisbee leagues as you want, but if you didn’t like it in high school, you won’t like it now, either.

Eat cheese curds. Now. You can thank me later by buying me some.

The Division of Student Life is here to help you. That’s why it’s called Student Life. You are a student. Find out what it can do for you. If you got into UW-Madison, you are smart enough to Google it. No whining about how you don’t know where things are or what they offer. Otherwise you’ll just have to cross off “Being Lazy” from your #BuckyList

Don’t go home too much when you’re a freshman. I did.

BUT--senior year is a good time to cross “visiting your parents” off your list every once in awhile, too. The serenity of being home can put you back on track to study.

The best is when you can cross “Have your parents visit Madison” off your #BuckyList - and not just because they’ll be nice and buy you groceries. Participate in Parent’s Weekend at least once.

Some of the best food in this city is NOT just on State Street. The Capitol is not that far. Neither is Monroe Street. Start walking and then make up all those calories you burned eating new and delicious food.

Food carts, food carts, food carts. I can’t stress it enough.

Land an internship. I’m on my third right now, but if I hadn’t been such a bum when I was a freshman, I might have crossed five of them off the list.

“Eat 3 a.m. Qdoba” has no place on your #BuckyList - but you’re going to do it anyway.

Find a major that fits your needs - not just academically and professionally, but mentally as well. For me, the Journalism School  feels like an ultra-competitive and stress inducing, yet super-motivational family… so it feels like family. You’ll be so glad you put in the time and effort.

Apply to be a Visitor and Information (VIP) Tour Guide. It looks like so much fun! How come I never did that?

Study abroad. I never went and I regretted it, plus I studied Italian for basically no reason. (Correcting Olive Garden’s menu does not count.)

But on that note, take a language off the beaten path! Even if you don’t use it in your professional career, I can guarantee you it will open you up to a diverse world you didn’t know existed. After learning Italian, my thirst for travel cannot be quenched. I plan to backpack around Italy after I graduate.

Spend a lot of time with your friends and fellow Badgers. Make sure you can cross “laughed often” off your #BuckyList.

And finally, the obligatory and cheesy (but true) final thoughts:

Get involved! As a member of Alpha Phi Omega, I’ve done service projects all over Madison, traveled to Los Angeles, Kansas City and New Orleans, and have made friends from all over the country. A group I joined on a whim my freshman year has become a major networking opportunity and a support system of lifelong friends.

Get to know your professors and advisors. They get paid to teach you, so make sure you’re going to office hours. If you end up with a C and think you deserved a B, a professor who saw you every week is a lot more likely to take your extra effort into account. Make yourself noticed. It’ll be worth it.

Don’t stress out too much. College is supposed to be hard, but it’s really fun. Use common sense, do your homework, get a decent amount of sleep and don’t eat too much pizza. You’re gonna be fine.

[uwnewstudent]

Professor Bill Cronon's Convocation remarks to the Class of 2017

It is both a pleasure and an honor to join Chancellor Blank, Aaron Bird Bear, and Jessica Franco-Morales in welcoming you here to the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

You’ve come to a very special place.

UW-Madison is one of the greatest universities in the world. That in itself is something of a miracle. Wisconsin is a relatively small and not especially wealthy state, and there was really no reason to expect back at its founding in 1848 that Madison would eventually rank with places like Berkeley and Michigan and Yale and Harvard.

That it does so is testament to the belief widely shared among citizens of this state throughout our history that we all gain from what Robert La Follette called “The Wisconsin Idea”: the belief that a university’s greatness is measured by what it gives back to the state, the nation, and the world—and to all the people of this planet who might gain from the knowledge we pursue here.

What is a university? The English word derives from the Latin universus, meaning “entire” or “whole.” You probably won’t be surprised that the word “universe” shares this same etymological root, and not by accident: it is the mission of this place to study the entire universe, on every conceivable scale, from every conceivable angle.

Put more simply, we are here to try as best we can to understand ourselves and the world we inhabit.

That’s a very large endeavor. No one of us can ever hope to master more than a small fraction of the nearly infinite human ways of understanding ourselves and the world...but there are few places better than a university to learn about them, and few universities better than this one for doing so.

There’s almost nothing you can’t learn about at UW-Madison if you’re so inclined, from physics to chemistry to biology, from medicine to agriculture to engineering to business, from literature to philosophy to history, from art to music, from law to economics to politics, and so on and on and on.

The menu spread out before you here is truly vast—so vast, in fact, that it can feel pretty daunting at times. Like the universe it studies, this is a very large place, and it’s easy to feel lost or overwhelmed by the sheer scale of it all.

So let me offer a few suggestions about how to make the most of your time here.

The first is that to a greater degree than you’ve ever before experienced in school, you are in charge of your own education here. Although you must fulfill a broad menu of requirements before you graduate, there are innumerable ways to meet those requirements. You’ll get lots of advice about your options, but you’ll rarely be told what to do. You have to figure that out for yourself.

To do so successfully, it helps to have at least a tentative plan. It’s not that you already need to know your major or what you want to do with the rest of your life. If you think you do know these things right now, there’s a pretty good chance you’ll be changing your mind about them before you’re done.

That’s fine. You won’t make the most of this place if you’re not open to the possibility of changing your mind. But it still helps to have a plan, a sense that you’re moving toward a goal—even if next semester you decide to head off in a different direction.

That last point is crucial: being willing to change direction is just as important as having a plan, since refining our goals is how we learn and change and grow. You need a plan, but not too rigid a plan, because you don’t yet know enough to know what you really want or how best to get there.

To expand your range of possibilities, it helps to take courses and seek out experiences that will enable you to imagine more fully the life you’re seeking for yourself.

One of the best ways to do that is to pay close attention to what other people love, no matter how eccentric their passions may initially seem.

The two courses I took as an undergraduate here that had by far the biggest impact on my own life—that are almost certainly the reason I’m standing at this podium today—weren’t remotely in my original plan. I never could have anticipated that the teachers in those courses would help me fall in love with the work I now do.

Steve Jobs, the former CEO of Apple Computer who died just two years ago, told a story about the courses in calligraphy that he audited at Reed College after dropping out of school – and how his fascination for those seemingly useless courses was the reason that the Macintosh computer was the first ever to offer a menu of beautiful fonts as part of its standard operating system.

So: try to make at least a little space in your studies for courses like these that don’t fit your plan but that expand your curiosity and teach you to see the world with new eyes.

While I’m at it, let me share with you one of the best-kept secrets of all, which is that some of the most profound educational experiences you’ll have during your time at UW-Madison won’t come from teachers like me standing in front of students like you to share what we know. They’ll happen in your dorm room, in your cafeteria, in clubs and organizations, in churches and synagogues and mosques, in walks along the Lakeshore Path, at Camp Randall, on the Union Terrace, on Bascom Hill, anywhere. They’ll happen not with your teachers, but with your classmates and friends.

Look at all the people sitting around you in this great arena. The two biggest questions you’re all asking right now are probably “Will I be OK here?” and “Will I have any friends?”

The answers to these questions are almost certainly yes and yes, but it helps to remember that you’re not alone in worrying about them. We too often hide such feelings, but the person sitting next to you is just as excited—and just as scared—as you are.

Your parents already know this, but you may not: what you’re doing right now is one of the biggest and bravest things you’ve ever done in your entire life. Each one of you has made an amazing journey to reach this room on this campus at this great university. You each have so much to offer the people around you if only you find in yourself the courage and the openness and the generosity to share what you know, what you care about, and what you feel.

The people around you are strangers today, but before long they will be your classmates, your neighbors, your friends. People who are going to be among your dearest companions for the rest of your life are sitting right here in this room and you haven’t even met them yet.

One of the most valuable things you’ll do at this university is to get to know these strangers around you. By learning their stories about the journeys they’ve made to get here, and offering your own in return, you’ll discover how different they are from you—and how much you share in common.

Among the greatest treasures of a great university is not just the extraordinary array of subjects and disciplines you can study here, but the equally extraordinary human beings you can meet and know and come to cherish as your friends.

You can’t plan such things. You can only try to recognize and open yourself to them when they cross your path. That’s as true of your fellow classmates as it is of your courses and your teachers.

It’s the moments of serendipity that are not in your plan that are most likely to change your life forever.

They’re among the best reasons I know for spending time in a place that has the universe in its name.

[uwnewstudent]

Chancellor Becky Blank's Convocation remarks to the Class of 2017

We're here to share your excitement — our excitement — about being Badgers, but before we continue, I want to express why our enthusiasm this morning is a bit dampened by sadness.

As some of you may know, a member of your incoming class passed away on August 21 after he drowned in Lake Mendota. Richard de la Cruz, 20, of Wauwatosa [wa-wa-TOE-sa], was a new transfer student from Marquette University. We're deeply saddened by this loss.   

Please join me in a moment of silence in memory of this student.

Thank you.

Now that we’ve taken a moment to reflect, let’s look ahead. This is a formal occasion, but it’s also one filled with anticipation.

I am delighted to be here.  Like you, I’m new on campus and we’re going to be starting here at UW-Madison together. You’ve all been enjoying this moment and taking pictures.  Now it’s my turn.  Everybody smile!

We all come here with our own personal stories – our own history of who we are and the experiences we’ve had.  Your destiny – your future – will be shaped at least in part by what you do here in Madison. We shape this place, and this place shapes us.

The Scottish author Alexander McCall Smith – famous for his books about the Number One Ladies Detective Agency in Botswana – writes that “Regular maps have few surprises. . . . More precious . . . are the unpublished maps we make ourselves . . . here I was happy, in that place I left my coat behind after a party, that is where I met my love; I cried there once, but felt better round the corner once I saw the hills. . . . things of that sort . . . make the private tapestry of our lives.”

You too will build memories around the locations of this campus in the years ahead.

Some of your best experiences here are going to come from getting to know your fellow students.  Look around you: these are your friends and colleagues for the next four years.  And they come here with their own stories from many worlds: rural and urban, domestic and international.

One incoming student, Shireen Mathews, shared her story with our convocation committee. She described herself as a writer, an immigrant (from India), a dreamer, a lover of peanut butter… and now she’s a proud Badger. 

Like Shireen, we all bring our own complex identities here to create a new community. 

We have students from every county in Wisconsin: more Wisconsin freshmen than any class in the past 11 years – more than 3700 of you.

But 18 percent of you are from outside the Midwest. You come from 45 states and Washington DC, and 34 countries – including places like Mongolia, Chile and Ethiopia.

Just about one-fifth of you are first-generation college students – that’s something to be very proud of. 

Those of you who are transferring come from almost 300 different schools.

66 percent of you have performed in music, theater or dance.

62 percent of you played a sport.

58 percent of you took part in community service, and we’re hoping that all of you will take part in all of these activities here whether you’ve done them before or not. No time like the present.

Finally, we’re very proud that this year’s class is one of the most ethnically diverse classes we’ve ever had.

Despite all of these different backgrounds, you now share a common identity as Badgers, one that will hopefully connect you for the rest of your lives. You are students – and in a few years, you will be alumni – of one of the greatest universities in the world.

My first piece of advice to you – and I do get to give you advice today – is to take advantage of this diverse community. It’s a little scary to find yourself just one person in the midst of over 7,000 new students. But if you want to really use this experience to its fullest, spend these first few months getting to know the people around you – no matter how different they seem when you first meet them.

The author John Green (have you read Looking for Alaska, or The Fault in Our Stars?)  has a video podcast where someone asks “What’s the meaning of life?” He says, very simply, “Other people.” And “There is no ‘them.’ There are only facets of us.”

As you leave the Kohl Center today, you will receive a copy of “A Tale for the Time Being,” by Ruth Ozeki. This is our campus Go Big Read selection, which will be read by thousands of people on and off campus this fall.   I read this book a few weeks ago. 

The novel is about a relationship between two characters who live on opposite sides of the world.  Through complete happenstance, they create a bridge between themselves and across time – though, as the book wonders, perhaps this connection didn’t occur by chance after all. I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did.

The book is partially about reaching out across boundaries.  When you reach out, you risk something of yourself; I know that.  But you also create an opportunity to learn something new, to make a new friend, and to figure out how someone else sees the world around them.

My second piece of advice is to not just meet some new people, but also do some new and different things.  Universities are designed to introduce you to new experiences.

You have made the right choice in coming here. Large public research universities such as UW-Madison are especially good at offering a wealth and breadth of classes. You are all equipped to succeed academically here and this entire university is yours for the taking.

Take a class on a topic that you don’t know anything about.  Go talk with your professors during office hours.  Check into the opportunities to work as a research assistant in your field of interest, in a lab, an office or out in the community.  You may have come here with a specific idea of what you want to do in the future, but keep an open mind for this first year.  You may find something you are even more passionate about.

And, out of the classroom, join one of the hundreds of student groups here at UW-Madison – play sports, work in the community, or engage in political action.

Daniel Li made this point beautifully when he wrote to the committee.  He talked about how he “lives through a grid of icons” on the screen of his computer and phone. Now, he says, “as we shift away from slabs of glass glowing in our faces, the Wisconsin Experience will truly unleash.”

So get out of your dorm room – occasionally put down your phone and computer – and figure out what your Wisconsin experience is going to be.

Here’s my final piece of advice for today.   Make sure you have a community of friends and family to support you as you go through these next four years. 

Like many of you, I am from right here in the upper Midwest – I grew up in Minnesota.  I learned from my family that I should take care of my own problems and not bother other people with them.  Does that sound familiar to the way any of you grew up?  That really wasn’t the best thing to learn.  Just because you CAN do things on your own doesn’t mean you SHOULD.

The friends you make on this campus are not here to replace your family, but to add to them. 

Some are your peers, but some of them will be faculty members, dorm staff, or advisors. They’re here to work with you and to help you.  Yes, it’s their job, but it’s also their passion.

So please, if things aren’t going quite the way you want them to, don’t be embarrassed to ask for help, either from your classmates if they can help, or from others. You will be surprised how many resources are available on this campus to assist you, if you just let someone know what you need.

Our new homes aren’t the same as the ones we’ve left behind. They can’t be. But as they say in the tech world, that’s a feature, not a bug.

Because every day that you’re here on campus, you’re creating a new chapter in your own story.

In our Go Big Read book, Ruth Ozeki writes that “… because we are always changing, the words you read today mean something very different from those same words if read a month or a year from now.”

I promise: at the end of this first semester, you will have changed…you will read the words differently. That is the nature of the adventure on which you are embarking by coming to UW-Madison.

I hope you will thrive in this community and learn to love it as much as the many other people who have been here over the past 165 years. 

As a fellow newbie here at UW-Madison, I’ll be exploring this university with you. I look forward to being part of the next chapter of your story here in Madison, and I am delighted that you are going to be part of mine.

So I’ll see all of you around campus in the next several months.  If I look lost, I hope you’ll help me out.  And if you look lost, I promise to help you.

Congratulations on being here at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and my very best wishes for your time here as a student. 

Thank you, and On, Wisconsin!