 My name is Katherine Maitland and I am an elementary education major with a dual endorsement in special education and I'm from Shelburne, Vermont. So my first semester I was at a small private liberal arts college and then after that semester I transferred to UVM so in the middle of my first year. And I transferred because the college I was at before was really small and I also didn't have my or the major that I wanted to pursue and I looked at UVM and they had a really great education program where I got to go into the field really early on as a sophomore and many different opportunities to be part of different student organizations and clubs so I was really, really like that. I honestly I really like being the local because I really feel like I know the area but then at the same time I've also learned a lot about the area. Growing up in Vermont I'm like oh yeah this is just normal like whatever there are mountains over there and there's a lake over there okay and but then when my friends come they're like whoa it's so beautiful and wow like there's a lake and you know church street is awesome and then you know just like 30 minutes to the mountain even though I do know a lot of people from my high school I still have many friends that are from different parts of Vermont and then different parts of the country as well. One of my good friends right now that's teaching the same school as me she's from California. I have a lot of other friends who are from Massachusetts area New Hampshire Connecticut I feel like I'm just constantly meeting new people and that's another amazing part about UVM is there are always new people to meet and really great people to meet too it's I feel like oh wow like I wish I had known this person for longer like it's it's my senior year and I'm meeting this person only now I wish I had gotten to know them more. I love that there are so many different things that you can do academically and socially. So the research I've been doing is with Dr. Juliet Halliday in the elementary education department and we have been looking at how kindergartners understand informational texts so non-fiction texts we actually just ended up writing a paper together and then presenting it at a national literacy conference actually the Literacy Research Association. So we went to a conference together in California just a few months ago and presented this paper and that was another just amazing experience being around all of these great literacy researchers from around the country. Another really big thing of how to make the most of your time is to study abroad one semester. You learn so much about yourself and about what you are really interested in and passionate about. So then that helped me decide that I wanted to go to the Peace Corps after I graduated and then I've also been part of different service organizations at UVM that have also helped me make the decision to be part of the Peace Corps. I will be going to the Eastern Caribbean and I will be a primary English literacy co-teacher when I'm there. So this might be a kind of small thing when you're thinking about applying to college but it's a big thing when you actually get on campus but the food at UVM I feel like for a college campus is really great. They do a really nice job of having local food which is something that the students have definitely pushed and it's you can really tell in the food that's cooked it's high quality and I'm kind of sad now that I'm not on a meal plan because I can't just easily go and get a falafel on Thursdays or get some great wraps from the from the marketplace. When I first started going to UVM I was a little concerned because I'm from Shelburne and so my high school was actually farther away from my house than UVM was but I found when I got on campus it was just a whole different world and even though my dad works in Burlington I don't really see my family that often it's really just kind of what I want to or now that I'm living off campus when I want to do a free load of laundry or have a nice home-cooked meal that I haven't made and yeah it's been really nice to see my dog.