How A&S Wired will change your academic career
By: Andrea Richard
It’s your freshman year at UK.
You may be thousands of miles away from home, a few hours away, or live right down the block. Your entire high school may ‘bleed blue,’ or, you may be one of two. You’ll encounter several new faces throughout your first few weeks, yet will remember only a few. A&S Wired unites first-year students of similar majors, with similar interests, all with the common goal of achieving academic success.
The people you live with are students you’ll sit next to in your biology classes, math classes and English classes too. You study together, brainstorm with each other, and learn from one another as well. Wired is the support system each freshman wishes to have when stepping foot on the college campus.
The professors who teach the required A&S (Arts and Sciences) and WRD (Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Media) classes challenge students to think critically. Though the rigor may at times be frustrating, it is in these classes that students develop the study and time management skills that shape the type of college student they will become. In the process, students may find they discover types of intelligence they never knew they had. Truly, A&S professors are dedicated to student success.
In addition to the professors, students are also assigned residential advisors and peer mentors who are at their disposal.
Wired’s residential advisors do a magnificent job uniting the community. Where the A&S professors develop students into intellectual beings, the RA’s teach students how to be tolerant of social and cultural differences amongst students by hosting educational programs that challenge inappropriate or discriminatory actions in the residence hall - a reminder that no matter what a student’s background, we are all wildcats.
Peer mentors are typically second-year students who completed the living learning program the year before. “These students encourage freshmen to get involved on campus, develop effective study habits, utilize on-campus resources and communicate with their professors. These students are also responsible for helping to organize community programs, both social and academic, in collaboration with the residential advisors (RAs).”
To learn more about the role of the peer mentor, you can read a former article, ‘Peer Mentors: The Heart of the Living Learning Program’, posted on the College of Arts and Sciences website.
Wired is more than a year-long program. Wired is a living community, a learning community, but most importantly a family.
If you ‘See Blue,’ you should ‘See A&S Wired’ too.
