My Alma Mater- University of Arkansas

Today I'm linking up with Kelly to talk about my Alma Mater.  I can not believe that I am the first one to talk about the University of Arkansas.

I guess really you could say I have two Alma Maters, the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville (where I did my bachelor's degree) and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (where I did my master's degree).  Honestly though, I really only consider U of A (in Fayetteville) to be my Alma Mater.  So let's take a walk down memory lane and talk about the University of Arkansas.  I had the time of my life there.  It was a wonderful place to be and I love the town of Fayetteville with all of my heart.  I was super involved on campus.  I was in Alpha Delta Pi sorority, the Razorback band, Society of Women Engineers, Biological Engineering Student Club, Women in Engineering, and I am sure some other stuff but I can't think of it right now.  I worked part time at the library on campus for the first 3 years of college, and then my senior year I was a recruiter for the College of Engineering.  That job was awesome.  I got to meet lots of people and I think it helped me get used to talking to strangers.  :)  So on to the pictures ( I just raided my facebook for these, so there really aren't any from before my sophomore year when facebook came to our campus).
Of course we love our Hogs!  Sports are kind of a big deal.  :)

Obviously I was in the band.  I played at football, basketball, and volleyball games.  I also liked to go to the baseball games and gymnastics meets.
Bud Walton Arena- Basketball


Reynolds Razorback Stadium- Football



Baum Stadium- Baseball



The University of Arkansas gave me some pretty awesome experiences.  I got to go to some pretty neat places and do some neat things:

Winter Park, CO for Spring Break with University Baptist Church


Disney World with the band during the bowl game in Orlando



Dominican Republic:

Now this was a really neat one.  I was in the college of engineering, and our department developed a relationship with Physicians for Peace in the Dominican Republic.  We got to go there for a week and present our senior design projects (ours was an adjustable lower limb prosthesis for children in developing countries) to people in the clinic there.  P.S.  I look happy drinking out of this coconut.  Let me just tell you that was the most disgusting thing I have ever consumed.  :)

College Station, TX for a Society of Women Engineers Conference


Atlanta with the band for the SEC Championship


South Carolina for a football game



Did some crazy things:

I was in a sorority.  Obviously if you know me IRL, you might think that was pretty crazy for me.  I never thought that I would be a sorority girl.  However, I had some of my best times with my Alpha Delta Pi sisters.  Here are a couple of us buying drinks for a rush party.  Coke, Sparkling Grape Juice, and Water.  Tons of it.  I think we also went to 2 other stores after this.  :)


The UofA might be a huge school, but my department was very small.  I graduated with about 12-15 people in the Biological Engineering department.  Of course, I did have some huge 200 people classes, but mostly I had small classes with these same 10-15 people.  We got to know each other pretty well over the four years, and our senior year we started doing birthday cakes in class for everyone's birthday.  It was fun.


Of course we always dressed up for Halloween.  I'm pretty sure that all three of these costumes were pretty much last minute.  Who knew that a free blue foam Statue of Liberty Hat from a Tax company could come in handy?  And Yocum Hall, I am sorry for the silver spray paint that I may or may not have gotten all over the sidewalk behind the dorm.


This is me before a football game in Little Rock.  Apparently all those years in soccer paid off.  I can actually kick a field goal.  I mean, sure it might have been a fake one that was considerably lower.  Whatever, I was proud of myself.  haha.  And that band practice uniform was sexy! haha.


I was on an intramural sorority bowling league team.  We were the champions.  It was fun.  Let's just say that sometimes La Huerta was visited before the game.



Traditions:

This picture is also in my last post.  I love this tradition at the Uof A.  (P.S. When I was writing this, I thought of the commercials that are about the YOU of A.  I think that is the dumbest thing ever.  Please don't judge the University on behalf of those commercials.)  Anyway- back on track.  The university engraves the name of each of its graduates on a sidewalk somewhere on the campus.  It is always fun to go back and visit my name.  The ones from waaaay back in the day are actually hand engraved in the stone.  Obviously now, they are done by a machine.  The really old ones done by hand are much cooler, though.  I am so glad that they spelled my name right!


The GO HOGS spell-out.  Every football game, the band does this after the competion of its halftime show.  I think it is super fun.  Basically the announcer says give me a "G" and then they make the G. and then give me an "O" and so forth.  I'm sure you get it.  :)


The "Big A".  I absolutely love this one too.  This is part of the Pre-game show that the band does every game.  It is much harder to do than most people realize, but it was always my favorite part of being in the band.  And look at how many people are in the stands.  I never did get used to being down there in front of all those people.  Every time we did a new show, I would get nervous and forget the show right before we started.  Of course it always came back to me before we went on the field, but man it sure would be scary.


Calling the hogs!  Here is a link to the proper way to call those hogs!  This is something that you really can't explain. 


Old Main.  This is the symbol of the university.  I think it is a pretty old building.


So that's a brief introduction to the University of Arkansas.  The official website is here.  I hope to see some more blogs about UofA and reading about your school!  Thanks for stopping by!