 to have the scholarships and in-state tuition that made that possible. I'm Anthony Spinella. I'm from Chelsea, Vermont, so it's about an hour south from here. I'm in the College of Arts and Sciences majoring in neuroscience and minoring in economics. One thing I would tell Vermont students coming up is that though UVM is in Vermont, maybe it's too close to home, I'm just going to tell you right now it's a totally different world when you come to campus. When you come to campus, you're not just taking classes with other Vermonters, you're taking classes with people from Massachusetts, from Colorado, from California, from across the seas, from China, from India, from Europe. There's just so many new faces and new people coming from so many different places to campus. And then UVM itself offers all those opportunities that you might miss, that you enjoy doing back home, like snowshoeing, skiing, all that. You still have great access to those places while also having a social setting that is much different from home if that's what you're looking for. When I came to get involved with clubs and other activities, I think I started right off joining the gymnastics club because I'd never done that. I thought, oh, that'd be interesting. And I found out I am not fit to be a gymnast, but I was glad that I had the opportunity to try that out. I also did salsa, which was kind of fun. Part of the pre-medical and neuroscience clubs are on campus. So there's just a lot of opportunity for you to pick and choose, especially during your first semester, to try to find some things you're interested in, maybe some things you haven't tried before, which is what I did with salsa and gymnastics. But I had a lot of fun with those, and then I ended up getting involved in other ways. I'm currently a resident advisor or RA on campus and reapplying. I was an orientation leader last summer. I've helped out with the Honors College and Mittens doing student panels and things like that. So there's a lot of different ways that even beyond clubs that you can help your university, help your community, and make this campus a lot of fun to be at. I know a lot of Vermonters are worried about the academics when they come to UVM. The other thing, it's going to be too easy or they think it's going to be too hard. And I just want to tell you that it'll be whatever effort you put into it. Professors hold office hours and really love the talk with students. So if you feel like you're struggling, you can go talk with a professor. If you feel like you're not being challenged enough, you can go and talk with the professor and they can give you extra work or ask you more challenging questions. They can point you in the right direction to more challenging classes that are on campus. They can point you towards research. They can point you towards internships. There's so many different ways that the professors themselves and also the academic community make sure everyone is getting met at the level that they need to be met. I'm a neuroscience major, economics minor on the pre-med track. My first semester I got involved with the pre-medical enhancement program or PEP. Basically first years can get, they can apply to this program and it's a three-year commitment where every year they pair you up with a physician or someone in the UVM health network. I'm currently shadowing some Dr. Telleran in the University of Vermont Medical Center who works in internal medicine. So I go and shadow her for four to eight hours, once or twice a month, which is a really great opportunity. You get to see real patients. You get to see real doctors making real diagnoses. It's really, really cool.