Snow, Birthdays, and Student Appreciation!!

I've lived in both Pennsylvania and Colorado and I've been through blizzards in both places. I sometimes miss the big snow that completely transforms the landscape in a matter of hours, or getting stuck in Silverthorne afer going over Vail Pass, heading from Denver to my home town of Grand Junction, or being stuck at home after a central Pennsylvania has buried a car under 6 feet of snow. That kind of snow doesn't happen in Fairbanks. For those of you outside of Fairbanks - we don't tend to get a lot of snow in the interior of Alaska. Don't get me wrong - there's snow on the ground all winter long - but it's not especially deep. It just accumulates incrementally, almost like it's growing out of the ground, rather than falling from the sky. Yesterday, though, we had our biggest "snow storm" since at least 1970. I hesitate to call it a snow storm, because we only got about a foot of snow, and when I picture a snow storm, I picture harsh wind, ugly skies, and extreme cold - we had none of that. It's been relatively warm, it was beautiful outside (especially this afternoon - the sun was shining really brightly), and though we had a lot of snow in a small amount of time, it fell rather lackadaisically. Skiing is going to be incredible this weekend (I hope I make it out!) and I imagine that if the big hill by the SRC isn't already being swarmed by sledders, it will be by tomorrow. I know Joe and our Student Ambassadors have already arranged to go sledding together next Friday (it's Spring Break for students, and staff has that Friday off, as well).

















Some other cool things going on in the Office of Admissions: All four of the Admissions Counselors (Jessica, Carrie, Joe, and I) had our birthdays this week!! Well, almost all of us - Joe's half-birthday is this week, and we figured that was close enough to allow him to celebrate with us.



Also, next week is Spring Break, so we decided to have a potluck to celebrate our awesome student employees ( I know it's a bit of non sequitor, but but we love potlucks and we love our students!). A lot of what we do in the Office of Admissions couldn't be done without the dedication of students who are working part-time while also taking classes. They do everything from answering questions at our front desk, to writing letters to prospective students, making phone calls to students who have applied and students who have been admitted. They arrange campus visits, process incoming mail, help prepare the packets you may receive in the mail, scan documents, like transcripts, into digital files, etc. Becca, Ben, Crystal, Danielle, Kendall, Leah, Nathan, Sarah, Zachary, and Natasha, we all appreciate everything you do!

If you're interested in learning about some of the student jobs available on campus, I recommend going to www.uakjobs.com.