College of Education and Professional Studies

Transcript

For Sam from South St. Paul, Minnesota, UW River Falls is a family tradition, but that wasn’t necessarily the plan. Sam was diligent and intentional when searching for a college that would fit his style. He found just what he was looking for in UWRF to prepare him for his future career as a teacher. Tell us how you got here, Sam.

– Thanks for the introduction, Alex. Hello everyone. When I started searching for colleges in high school, I tried to be as thorough as possible and visited 11 different college campuses. I decided to attend UW River Falls, making me a third-generation UWRF student. However, I didn’t choose River Falls because I had family that came here. More than any other college I visited, UWRF felt the most community-oriented. Adjusting to college life and getting involved was an easy process for me. The size of the university allowed me to try a little bit of everything. My first semester, I joined the Cross Country team as a walk-on and was elected into the Student Senate. Since then, I’ve gotten jobs as an orientation leader, a tour guide, and a chancellor student ambassador. I am also an avid intramural player, and I’ve taken first place in ultimate Frisbee, as well as last place in volleyball. Academics come first, however, and is the main reason why I originally chose UWRF. The university was originally founded as a teacher school back in 1874, and even though the school isn’t a teacher-only college anymore, it still has an amazing education program. What I enjoy most about my program is that I was able to observe in real classrooms early on. This hands-on experience helped me confirm that education is the career that I wanna go into. It’s also helping me obtain teaching strategies that can’t be learned by listening to a lecture. Between my classes, athletics, experience opportunities, and social life, I’m keeping busy. I wouldn’t want it any other way though. Take it away, Alex.

– Thank you, Sam. The teaching and learning opportunities at UW River Falls have provided many rich experiences that will serve you and your fellow teacher education students as well. UW River Falls has been preparing K-12 educators for nearly 150 years. Here’s hoping there’ll be lots of future Falcons following in these footsteps. Take care.