August is Pretty Much Kentucky's Best Month (tied closely with 11 other ones)

It’s August.  That means two things in Kentucky that are near and dear to me: the Kentucky State Fair and the start of UK’s fall semester.

The KY State Fair Bears

I’ve been going to the Kentucky State Fair since I was a child.  I remember the smell of the food stands, the obligatory picture with Fair and Faira Bear (which I loved), riding a few rides, walking through the livestock barns to visit people we knew, and going to 4-H Cloverville to check out how my 4-H projects did.  The Kentucky State Fair has been in business since 1902 and is one of the best (well….best in my opinion) fairs in the country.  Being a 4-H member, it was a pilgrimage making the trip from Monroe County to Louisville to see how my entomology project had done, how was our tobacco entry compared to others across the state, or if my brother’s woodworking project  got a blue ribbon.  We loved our time in Cloverville, but the fair was always about celebrating this great state: our food, our culture and heritage, our talents, and for a young 4-H or FFA member, our dreams.  The fair is a great melting pot for our diverse state.  No matter if you are from Paintsville or Princeton, Tompkinsville or Covington (this was a really hard decision to pick four city names), we are all proud citizens of the Commonwealth of Kentucky for the next few weeks- and beyond.  The fair runs August 16-26 and I hope you have plans to attend.  Check out their website to plan your visit and see the wonders that are the State Fair.  I’ll be there with my Kentucky bells on.

August also means that it’s time for classes to begin at the University of Kentucky, and other colleges, too.  One of my favorite sounds is the Wildcat marching band practicing the UK Fight Song across campus on Stoll Field.  On a good day, like yesterday, I could hear it when I went home from work.  Classes begin here August 22^nd and campus is abuzz with students here for sorority recruitment, RA training, and now K-Week.  If you don’t know what K-Week is, do yourself a favor and check out their website.  The basic gist of this week is that it is the OFFICIAL orientation to being a Wildcat wrapped into over 200 events and sets the stage for a truly great year.  There’s free food for days.  One student told me that if you paid for food during K-Week, you weren’t doing something right- and I totally agree.  We are having New Student Orientation on Tuesday, August 21 at 1:30 PM in Seay Auditorium of the Ag North Building.  If you are one of our incoming students into the College and reading this, you will want to be there.  You can meet faculty and staff, students and even the Dean.  With the start of classes also means football season and the excitement of the fall semester.   

We’ll leave all of that excitement for another post.  Keep on rocking in the free world.....

- Jason Headrick

Jason Headrick is the director of student relations in the UK College of Agriculture.  He works with prospective students & families with admissions and the college selection process.  His email address is jason.headrick@uky.edu.