Fall semester is underway- and there's lots to do!

It’s that wonderful time of year again!  Cars packed full of things, mom and dad eager to drop their child off, and students ready to start their journey full of independence and individuality.  The official new student move-in day for UK was Saturday, August 18.  Campus was buzzing with new students, parents, and returning students eager to help move-in the incoming freshman.   On Sunday, returning students moved into their dorms as well.  All in all, everyone is now settled into their apartments and dorms ready to start or continue their UK journey. 

Wednesday arrived and it was the first day of classes.  Campus was lively with students hustling to find their classes and relieved once they found their room and a seat.  It was great seeing friends and professors again, as well as meeting new students.

                One of the things I love about being back at school is football games.  It’s not a complete UK experience until you’ve attended a football game.  The aroma of grilled hot dogs and hamburgers, playin’ corn hole, friends and families gathered, is an atmosphere you can’t resist! One of my favorite things about attending football games is standing in the student section.  I love being beside the band and shouting cheers at the top of your lungs.  The next morning, your ears will ring a little and you probably won’t have a voice, but it’s so worth it!

                Another great event in the College of Ag is the Student/Faculty/Staff Picnic being held next week as part of UK Ag Roundup.  It is for new and returning students and is free to attend.  It’s a great way to meet College of Ag students and you can meet your professors on a more personal level too.  There’s free food and there’s also a raffle with cool prizes you can win.  Last year I won a College of Ag sweatshirt and I wear it all the time!  Tickets for the picnic can be picked up in Ag North or Erikson Hall. 

                Once again, welcome back everyone!  I hope everyone has a fantastic semester. Go Big Blue!

 Erin is a sophomore majoring in Equine Science & Management.  She is from Cary, North Carolina.  Erin is an avid photographer and has future career plans of being an equine surgeon and horse racing photographer.  She is in her first year as a College of Agriculture Ambassador.   

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.  

Behind the Scenes of the UK Ag Advising Resource Center

Last week, I was in my office when a student comes in needing assistance completing some paperwork.  While I was completing the paperwork, we were making small talk about her summer plans.  During the conversation, she asks if those of us in the Advising Resource Center are here all summer to which I responded “yes.”  Then she questions, “So what do you do all summer?” ,or as I heard it, “What could you possibly have to do during the summer?  After all, no students are around.”   

This is a common question I get from students and it makes me chuckle every time.  My initial reaction is to say “we just sit around with our feet on the desk, eating bonbons and reading magazines.”  Thankfully, I catch myself (most of the time) and respond with a vague description of what we do.  In reality, we stay pretty busy over the summer.  Granted, we don’t have as much student traffic as when classes are in session but we have many other tasks to keep us busy.  So, for those who have always wondered, here is a little insight into what we do during the summer in the Advising Resource Center.

After the spring semester finishes, we spend the next few weeks wrapping up the semester by reviewing and processing A LOT of student records.   Our office is responsible for verifying that students have completed their degree requirements as well as reviewing students’ academic standing.  So, at the end of each semester, the record of every student who has applied for a degree is evaluated and verified to make sure degree requirements have been completed and the records of students whose academic standing has changed are reviewed and processed.  Additionally, we have new student registration for both summer sessions, which occurs on the Monday after graduation in May and during the first week of June.    

By the second week of June, we are in full planning mode for the summer advising conferences which run from the third week of June through the second week of July.  The summer advising conferences consist of twelve freshmen, three transfer, and two readmission conferences.  The summer advising conferences provide students the opportunity to meet faculty and staff, register for classes, get any questions answered about UK and college life, and start to learn their way around campus.  Freshmen attend two-day conferences while transfer and readmission students attend one day conferences.   On day one for freshmen, students are on main campus participating in various presentations and interest sessions.  Students receive information on residence life, housing, dining, parking, financial aid, student employment, Greek life, and much more.  On day two, students meet with representatives from their academic college for advising and registration.  During this time, advisors work closely with students to help them prepare a schedule of classes and ensure that they are taking the appropriate courses.  While the students are with the academic colleges, parents are participating in a parent program which highlights topics of interest for them.  After students complete the registration process, they meet back up with their parents for the conclusion of the conference.  Over the course of four weeks, we will work with approximately 400 new students!

Once the summer advising conferences are completed, we spend the next few weeks wrapping up the summer sessions, which includes processing more student records, and preparing for the fall semester.  We also begin work on creating the schedule of classes for the upcoming spring semester.  Our student traffic increases during this time as our new students have questions and concerns in addition to our returning students.   

So, as I mentioned previously, we have plenty to keep us busy over the summer which leaves very little time for eating bonbons…or at least eating them at work.

 Jamie Dunn is the Director of First-Year Success at the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture Advising Resource Center.  She is a UK graduate and coordinates the Agriculture Residential College in Baldwin Hall. 

Sweet Summertime

Once again the school year has come to an end for UK students. Finally, it’s summertime. Bags have been packed, dorm rooms cleaned out and the journey home completed. The next twelve weeks until the fall semester begins are to be relished upon, soaking up every last drop of freedom and sunshine for most students.

Then there are the recent graduates of our prestigious university. A portion is headed back to school in the fall to pursue masters and doctoral degrees, others are starting “big kid” jobs and some are still determining just what their future might hold. 

I fall into this last group, 2012 alumnus of the University of Kentucky, College of Agriculture, Bachelors of Science degree in Agricultural Economics. In the days since I made the walk across the stage and received my diploma and a handshake from President Capilouto.  

COA ambassadors at Disney

I have been asked countless times “How does it feel to be a graduate?” And to that I answer this, it’s bittersweet. I have grown to love this place, but more importantly the people here. For the past week, I have been in denial that it would all end so soon, that my time here at UK was over. But then I remembered one very important thing- while the places and people surrounding me may change, the memories in my heart will always remain. I will always BLEED BLUE no matter where life may take me. 

Jennifer and her graduation gift- a metal chicken.

As I look back on my four years here, I can’t help but smile. They have been the best years of my life, filled with countless lessons, amazing friends, epic adventures and the best of times. The big blue nation has given so much to each and every one of us, students and alumni alike.   While each of us will be spending our summers’ differently, one thing will always remain the same: we will all BLEED BLUE!  

 

Jennifer is a 2012 graduate of the University of Kentucky, majoring in Agricultural Economics.  She is from Coatesville, Indiana.  Jennifer was a member of  UK Block and Bridle, Students Today, Alumni Tomorrow (STAT), Agriculture Student Council, and was COA Agricultural Ambassador for three years. Jennifer has accepted a full-time position with Dow AgroSciences.

How Ag Aware Are You?

The public perception of agriculture seems to hold a negative connotation.  Often, it is viewed as cows and plows and not for its true meaning.  Each aspect of our lives, from the food we eat, to the clothes on our body, and even the fuel in our vehicles relates back to agriculture.  Those of us that are directly related and passionate about agriculture need others to see it as we do.  We see a rapidly growing population without the technology to produce enough food to go around and extremely high gas prices that we could possibly bring down with the help of biofuels.  Most importantly, we need to educate the public on all aspects of agriculture and how it truly impacts and plays a role in our lifestyles. 

On April 18^th the UK College of Agriculture Ambassadors and Ag Student Council held a campus wide activity-- Ag Awareness Day.  Students were able to stroll through main campus and enjoy free food, visit booths educating them about the many sides of agriculture.  These ranged from the Kentucky Soybean Association to facts about our land grant college, to how clothing is made and developed and budget planning is important to a family, to being able to buy plants grown in our greenhouses on campus.  Over four hundred UK students stopped to check out the buzz about ag and all that our college has to offer.  Through explaining our eighteen diverse majors, many new seeds were planted in young and adventurous minds that were previously unaware.  This was a great way to start off a new tradition for the College of Agriculture and a way to become more connected with main campus here at the University of Kentucky.  

In the future I look forward to being a part of and seeing events such as these blossom into crucial educational activities.  UK has such an opportunity to reach wide and diverse audiences through its Cooperative Extension Service, our top-ten agricultural research, and the production of quality alumni who work through the ranks of the college and University to succeed in their fields.  I can’t wait to witness the future of agriculture and all that the University of Kentucky does to continually improve and innovate agriculture, not only for the students at this university, but for the world.  

Our student newspaper, the Kentucky Kernel, did a feature story on the day.  You can read that here:  

  Sara Kate will be a senior in the fall at the University of Kentucky, majoring in Food Science.  She is from Hickman, Kentucky.  Sara Kate is a member of  Alpha Delta Pi sorority, Agriculture Student Council, the Institute for Food Technologies, and is a COA Agricultural Ambassador, where she will serve as senior coordinator of the program next year.