By Yulianny De Los Santos, Health Professions Peer Ambassador
Welcome back, Huskies! I hope you all had a restful and fun-filled summer, whether it was time spent with friends/families, working an internship, getting clinical hours, serving your communities, or traveling. I hope you’re all ready for an exciting Fall 2022 semester. It’s nice to see things on campus going semi-back to normal as well.
To the Freshmen: You’re in college!!!! Things may seem overwhelming at the moment as you navigate such a large campus while feeling the urge to find a place of belonging. That place will find you, so look into clubs you’re interested in and surround yourself with people with similar beliefs and aspirations as you. You will soon find your home away from home. Don’t be afraid to try new things—you may find hobbies and interests you didn’t know you had. Trust me, I didn’t know I would be into playing Frisbee with the Frisbee Club my freshman year. You’ll truly shock yourself (in a good way) with the new things you attempt these next few years.
To the Sophomores: Your first year at UConn was not traditional with the restrictions set in place due to the pandemic. Welcome to UConn again but officially this time, and I hope you get more out of college now than you may have last year. Classes are picking up and stress may be skyrocketing; just know that you have 300+ classmates with similar sentiments. Confide in and befriend one another—no one gets around life without the support of others. Don’t be afraid to create study groups, have study buddies to prepare for exams, and go to tutoring sessions and supplemental instruction sessions—they’re super helpful.
To the Juniors: “Battling the Unknown” should be all of your mottos in life. From a regular high school experience to a completely virtual world, you have all definitely faced barriers in ways that other classes of students may not be able to relate. Due to COVID, all of your realities became virtual for the most part, and proms, graduations, and freshman orientations were completely different. Yet here you all are overcoming those barriers put in your way. You’re all tough and I truly admire the determination and perseverance it took to remain motivated during those unconventional times.
To the Seniors: This is your last fall semester of your undergraduate careers, which is super exciting. As a senior, I have mixed feelings about these next few weeks. We are all overwhelmed with emotions—excited, anxious, nervous—for what’s to come. But here’s my advice to you all since I need to hear it from myself as well: Take it one day at a time and the days will go by before we even know it. May will come and we will graduate, so enjoy those lectures, go out with friends, and attend university events and the endless fun UConn has to offer.
With that being said, I hope my message comes around to anyone reading right now. No matter what your year is at UConn this advice applies to you. Go Huskies!
Yulianny is a senior physiology and neurobiology major and human development and family studies minor. Click here to learn more about and connect with Yulianny.