Post by: Laura Greenfield
As undergraduates, we look for opportunities that will ground us in a university that we applied to go to, but had no idea how vast, deep, and wide it was until we moved in. As scholars, we look for ideas that we can apply to our own studies. Everyone else who works on UK's campus is looking for something different as it applies to their own work. But, when we peel away the labels of undergraduates, graduates, faculty, scholars, etc., we are humans. And, as humans, we look for connections to others. We look for the support and inspiration of others. We look for a community. The way I see it, A&S Wired, part of the powerhouse Living Learning Programs on campus, provides such a community by bringing together majors from many colleges and bringing in community speakers.
Similar majors is one thing that all A&S Wired participants don't share. All throughout my freshman year in Wired, it was an excuse for a quick excited dance whenever I met another International Studies major in the dorm. My roommate was Psychology, my friends' majors ranged from ISC to Computer Science to Finance to some sort of Engineering to Classics. It was all over the board. The cool part of all this is that when ever two Wired students would meet and talk, chances are they each came from a different perspective and from different university experiences. They'd be able to suggest professors in departments you had never stepped foot in and inspire you to take a class outside your comfort zone. And you'd never know when their shared experience would come back and be useful to yours.
An example of this is my interest in geography that began because of the Wired class I took my first semester freshman year. It was an Intro. to Map Making. In it, I met some of my closest friends in the dorm. One certain person I met was already a declared geography major. I always enjoyed hearing what he liked about geography and what classes he was taking. Now, I am a declared double major with Geography and this same person is in my geography class! He still continues to help me out learning the ropes of the Geography Department. It's great.
Students accepted into the Wired program don't even have to be in the College of A&S! Wired is here to try and "wire" students into campus. This is achieved by bringing in weekly speakers from the community at Coffee Chats. Currently, I work for UK's Center for Community Outreach (CCO) and I credit one Coffee Chat speaker to having "wired" me into this great student organization. A woman came to speak who works for a non-profit in Lexington. I was talking with her after her talk and she said that it sounded like I'd really be into the Center for Community Outreach here on campus. I'd never heard of that student organization before, but I was willing to give it a try if she suggested it! She used to work for it and the woman who has her position now would be the person to contact. So I contacted her, she bought me a smoothie and told me about the CCO and I was sold. Now, I couldn't be more excited to be involved with the CCO.
In short, when I think of A&S Wired, I think of a collaborative community. We aren't all the same or have the same perspectives but we share in the experiences provided by Wired. And, hopefully, we can all get something out of it. I know I did!
