 Thank you so much for joining us today. My name is Molly Witt. I'm the Associate Director in our Office of Admissions that oversees our international admissions process. And I'm so excited for you to be joining us here today. We will be getting to our student panel shortly, but I just wanted to start by having our team introduce themselves. So with that, I'm going to have everyone on our team join us and just say a quick hello. Hi, everyone. My name is Caitlin Healy and I work as the Assistant Director of International Admissions here at the University of Vermont. And I work with students coming primarily from East Asia, Central Asia, Oceania, Middle East and North Africa. So great to have you all with us this morning. Hi, everyone. My name is Titi Nguyen. I'm also an Assistant Director here at the Admissions Office. I oversee recruitment in Southeast Asia, Bronx, New York, Kentucky and West Virginia. Glad to have you all here. Hi, everyone. I'm Helen Wang. I'm a sophomore student at UVM and I'm studying mechanical engineering. I'm from Zhongzhou, China. Very nice to meet you here. Hi, everyone. I'm Mia. I'm a senior at the University of Vermont. I'm from the Republic of Georgia. I'm studying international development and I'm really excited to see someone here who have joined us this morning. And hi, everybody. This is Sophia. I'm a senior student on double majoring in Spanish and global studies and one of the student ambassadors. It's nice to virtually meet everybody and I'm excited for the panel. I appreciate everyone jumping in to say hi and you get a chance to see all the faces that you've been hearing from throughout this year. I know this year has been pretty challenging with everything that's happening lately. It's really challenged us to think differently, to live, to learn and work in a new way, all with the intent to keep us healthy and safe. And I just want to start off by saying that I truly hope that that that is the case for you all, that you're healthy and safe. This virtual platform is becoming much more comfortable, but this is still a work in progress. And we hope things run smoothly today, but please bear with us. We hope to eventually have you here on campus when it's safe to do so. But in the meantime, we appreciate you taking time out of your day to connect with UVM in this way. To start off with, I just want to give you a sense of what our time together will look like. We're going to start with a video from our president, President Garamella, who originally came to the United States as an international student himself. After that, we'll discuss our response to COVID-19 pandemic and how it's impacting the work we're doing in admissions. And then obviously we'll get over to the more important part of the day, which is our student panel with our current students, Helen, Nia and Sophia, who you heard just earlier. So just to get started and make sure you're using that chat function effectively, I'd love to hear and read where everyone is joining us from. So could you just take a second to list where you're calling in from? This is great. It's great to see so many places represented. So as we continue, you feel free to list any questions you have in that chat box and we'll get to as many questions as possible with our time together. Without a further ado, let's kick things off with a quick four minute word from our president, President Garamella. Hello, everyone. Suresh Garamella here. The reason I've always loved my job as a professor is the energy I get from the hustle and bustle of campus, the rhythm of campus, of young, inquiring minds of my faculty colleagues committed to discovery and scholarship, and our dedicated staff who make the university what it is. Over the last 30 years of my academic life, summer breaks have always been a welcome time to recharge, to catch up with research and other projects I've put off. But when the fall comes and all the students have crowded back on campus, that's when I'm reminded of what was missing in those summers and what the core of a university is. When I look out on our beloved campus today, I know that's what we all are missing right now. It's a shame that the coronavirus has deprived us of just what the university means. Community, contact, camaraderie. I woke up this morning to a reading on NPR from Minnesota poet Laura Kelly Fenucci that went, When this is over, may we never again take for granted a handshake with a stranger and on it went. As a parent with two kids back from college, I have some sense of what this forced isolation is doing. I know some of you have more challenging circumstances and that learning under all this stress is not easy. At your university, we're managing the pandemic with the best information available at the time. We're consulting our doctors, our public health specialists, we're working closely with the Vermont Department of Health as we make decisions. As you know, we have limited on-campus living to only those students who have a demonstrated need to be here. We've been offering different kinds of technology support in terms of laptops and broadband access, emergency funds to students who need it due to unexpected travel and such. Our faculty are working in overdrive to provide the best education possible under these trying circumstances that came without warning or any preparation time. Our staff are doing what they do best, supporting the university in the myriad ways in which they underpin all aspects of our operation and they're doing so with dedication and a positive approach. And proving the strength and connection of the Catamount family, our friends and alumni are pitching in to support our dedicated pandemic fund. We're partnering with the state in providing medical resources and public health guidance. You wouldn't recognize Patrick Jim today as it's been transformed into a surge space for our hospital should the medical situation call for it. Amid the gloom, we're contributing important solutions that only we as a university can. Our doctors are working with the state to increase capacity for coronavirus testing. Faculty from several disciplines are mapping the spread of the virus so that we can stem it better. Our engineers are making simple 3D printed face masks and designing an inexpensive ventilator. We can do spirit of our community and the selfless sacrifice of our frontline medical professionals and volunteers is what we all know defines our core. And looking forward to happier times and there will be happier times coming. Our admissions folks are providing the best virtual experiences possible for our admitted students who cannot currently visit campus. As we all work diligently under and under less than ideal conditions, let us look forward to when we can experience again the joy of a hug or a handshake. When we can crowd our classrooms, our cafeterias, our libraries again and for the new students who will join us for the first time this fall, I promise you you're in for a treat. You all have my sincere best wishes and gratitude. Please say safe, strong and healthy and support each other the best you can. Thank you. We hope you enjoyed that message from President Ghiramala. He's been a really strong and empathetic leader during these challenging times. Next, I wanted to share some of our offices responses to COVID-19 pandemic and how we've been working through some of the challenges and changes within our own office. And we recognize that so much has changed in the last few months and we know you've been working through a lot of challenging transitions. Everything from transitioning to remote learning, having sports events canceled, proms and other school activities, including even your socialization, you're not able to go out with friends and really enjoy your senior year. We recognize that this Rift can cause major challenges in your life because our team focuses on admissions. We know that a lot of this time of transition and change impacts next steps for coming to college. Here's a few things that we're doing at UVM. As you can see this list, we're being as flexible as possible when reviewing final transcripts. We realize that a change in your learning style means a change in your final grade, something you're probably not anticipating. When we receive final transcripts and we can see those final grades, we will remain as flexible as possible. If you were offered a merit scholarship from UVM, your final marks have no impact on your scholarship award. Second, accepting school grades in place of final exams. So let me explain this one a little bit because it might not apply to all of you. In order to be eligible to start at UVM, all students need to prove that they've completed their secondary schooling. Now, each country does this differently, but it often comes with a transcript from the school saying that the student has graduated and that is more than sufficient to meet this requirement. In other cases, though, and again, depending on the country, this might mean taking an external exam to prove high school completion. Now, we've heard from a number of those external examination boards that are canceling in-person exams to ensure the safety of all their students. Two exams that come to my mind initially are the IB and the A-level exams. We also understand that there's plans in place for awarding final grades and we're more than happy to accept those final grades issued by the school instead of by the external examination board. For those of our non-U.S. citizens with us today, we're going to continue to issue I-20s for the fall semester. There's been some guidance from the U.S. government that U.S. universities can send I-20s through the mail. At this time, UVM will continue to send I-20s through the mail, though. We recognize that many embassies are closed at this time. What we do know is that when they reopen, there will be a priority on processing visa applications. But if for some reason we're not able to get you here in time for August orientation, we are more than happy to work with you to see if we can defer to a future term. The next on our list is preparing for on-campus classes. Just so you know at this point, UVM is planning to run in-person classes for the fall semester. If that were to change, we will let you know immediately. And then finally, we recognize that every day has been a new challenge and we know that things will continue to change and that requires transition and flexibility and adaptability and will continue to be as flexible and as adaptable as possible. So I hope that gives you a sense of what we're doing on our end and hopefully it's helpful to hear that. But I know you're hoping to hear from our students. Let's transition to our student panel. As a reminder, you can list your questions in the chat box and we hope to get to as many as possible. Hi everyone, this is Helen Wang and I'm a sophomore student at UVM and I'm from Hunan, Zhouzhou, China. Hi everyone, I'm Mia. I'm from the Republic of Georgia in Eastern Europe and I'm a senior here at UVM. Hi, I'm Sophia and I forgot to mention where I was from the first time because I was just too nervous but I'm from Xi'an, China. It's where the terracotta is. And I'm a senior student at UVM. I'm a double major in Spanish and Global Studies. Great, thank you all. Just to get us started, I wondered if you could share what it is that led you to UVM. So for me, I'm glad to start this conversation. So before I come to UVM and heard about the professors and instructors in UVM are really nice and kind, easy to talk to. So as a student, I think that's a really important point when you have problems and when you have somebody to ask for help. And on the other hand, I also heard about the UVM, like Burlington in Vermont, this city is a really pretty safe place. So overall, I think UVM in Burlington must be a great place to study. Yeah, for me, it was really important to have a college experience kind of centered on a university campus. But I also didn't want the campus to be like the end of my experience. So it was really important to find a place that had a balance between like campus and then town or like a city that also had opportunities beyond just like, you know, the classroom. So I think I really found that with Burlington and UVM. And I also wanted someplace that I was interested in many different paths. So when I came here, I wouldn't be locked into just like the major I had chosen when I applied and I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do. Yeah, and for me, the reason was pretty simple. It was just geography. So I'm from a really big city. So when I started to pick for college, the location was really important for me as I didn't really know what I was going to study. So I really wanted to find a place that's small and quiet. I didn't even know if I existed. And then so it was just for me, the location was the biggest part. And I came and it turned out to be the perfect place, the perfect size, it's small, quiet, but not small enough where you feel like you're stuck. So yeah, so that was my reason. Great. Thank you all. Sophia, I heard you say that you have a double major. I wondered if you can talk about it, like how possible that is at UVM and what led you to wanting to double major. Right, so it's definitely possible for everybody as far as I know. So I think there's seven colleges at UVM, correct me if I'm wrong. So I study at the College of Arts and Sciences and both of my majors are from Arts and Sciences. So for me, the double major made sense because I'm a global studies major and my major required us to speak at least another foreign language. So you either minor in foreign language or you just take certain amount of classes and I started taking Spanish my first day in college. So it just makes sense for me to double major, which is like a lot of people do with a global studies major. And as far as I know, you can double major in anything. You can make any combination you want. The two majors don't have to be related. I think you can also do it across college. And I think you can even triple major. So UVM is really flexible with that. For me, I didn't even decide or I didn't declare my double major until the end of my sophomore year. But for that, I did like a million switches until eventually I decided I would sit on the double major. You just simply go online and choose the major minor you want. And yeah, it's just pretty simple and really flexible. Great. Thank you, Sophia. Yeah, I wondered if you could talk about what it's like to actually physically get to Burlington. How do you travel here? Yeah, for sure. So most of you probably know that Vermont's kind of, well, it's a small state. So we have an international airport, but it's international because we have flights that connect Montreal. So there's that. Most people that come from overseas will fly either into New York or Boston. I primarily always fly into New York because I'm able to then catch a connect and fly up to Burlington. A lot of people will fly into Boston and then take a bus up to Burlington. So Burlington is really accessible for if you're coming from anywhere in the Northeast, especially from like New York or Boston. People also come from Montreal, though. There is a question about English courses. And I didn't hear any of you say that you are an English major, but Sophia, I do know that you're a tutor. And I wonder if you can speak a little bit about that experience or and also to get to the question that Finn has about English classes. If you don't mind commenting on any courses you've had. Yeah, definitely. So in terms of English classes, there's a GTP program for international students with a global gateway program. I didn't come to UVM through the program. But I know for that it's intensive focus on English English classes for second language or non native speakers. And and then there's also the English classes just for everybody from I think arts and sciences from the basic level like English when I took, I think it was just basic the basic and then go to the highest level if you major English. So I'm a writing tutor at UVM since sophomore year. And in order to become a tutor, I had to take a year long English class. And those classes that I took were focused on tutoring because that's what we're doing. And then and then for international students as a tutor, I was also a facilitator for a couple of our English classes for international students. So I helped out with conversation skills and also just on writing. So yes, I had experiences of both the GTP English classes for international students specifically and also the regular English classes to become a tutor. So I don't know if that answered the question, but those are the experiences I've had. Yeah. Great. Thanks, Sophia. Helen, I'm wondering if you can talk about what it's like to live on campus. I know none of us are on campus right now, but at least, you know, being a sophomore, you, you were up until the point that we were off campus working remotely. I wonder if you can speak about what it's like to be a student on campus and living on campus. Yeah. I personally love living on campus. And I also, in my first year, I was living in MIT, which is like a lot of, it's like, like a lot of international students live there. And the sophomore year, I live in another place, living and learning. So it's a different, I think it's like UVM, like suppressed students in different learning communities rather than you pick the dorms. So I do get some messages like some students interested in like what is learning community. It's like different major, a student in different major and the interest in different things. And you can be putting the, like the same dorm. And so sometimes we have the activity holding this specific place. So I feel like when, when I was in living and learning in the sophomore year and where I live, there's so many different type of houses, like Germany house, Japanese house and hip hop house, coffee house, movie house, so many places like, like you can choose. So there's so many options. And also live on campus. You'll feel like you can reach out your friends and on the weekend or study together. Also, so many dorms are really close to dining halls and the dining hall food is, I really like the dining hall food in UVM. And so I have a really great like living experience on campus, even though like at this special special time, I'm like, no, I'm kind of, but I do really miss there. Yeah. Thanks, Helen. Yeah, I wondered there was a question about how easy it is to find people from your home country. And while the question was specifically asking about other Polish students, I think of you coming from the Republic of Georgia, maybe in a similar situation. And I wondered if you could talk about finding community on campus. Yeah, for sure. So to my knowledge, there aren't any other Georgian students at UVM right now. There was one girl who came the same year I did. I think she may have transferred. There's a few athletes and a few other students that are from Russia, which is I'm half Russian. So I've definitely met those people and we have a little kind of like Russian group. But the Office of International Education puts on a whole bunch of like they start with international student orientation. So from the get go when you first get to UVM, the Office of International Education is going to facilitate a lot of events that help build the international community here at UVM because it is pretty small. But if you're active in everything that the OIE puts on, it's a really easy way to meet other people from international students in general. But it's also an easy way to meet somebody if there are people from your home country. So there's things like a waffle breakfast that they'll put on every month, which is just free waffles. You come in and there's so many international students there that includes like transfer and exchange students. And so it's just a really easy way to meet people outside of who you might be living with or going to class with. So I can't speak specifically to finding people from my country because I haven't found anyone from my country, but there's definitely ways to get really involved with the international community here. Great, thank you. There was a question coming from Carrie that I just wanted to follow up with quickly on a question around if classes were to go virtual for fall semester. What the recommendation would be for students who may be considering coming to UVM for the first time. And I just wanted to say I think that's really up to the individual student. I do think that you lose something in the community and trying to join a new community when you join virtually. But if you're also ready to start your education, there's that balance there. So I certainly don't want to say one way is better than the other because I think it really depends on the family. But I think we'd be happy to talk one-on-one with each of you after this if you'd like to have a chance to really talk through some of the pros and cons of the scenario. But like I said, at this point we're still functioning as if fall courses are going to happen and we're really hopeful that we see that happen. I wonder if we could talk a little bit about research. And Nia, I know you've done some research already. And I wonder if you could talk a little bit about that. Yeah, for sure. UVM has a ton of research opportunities that they advertise. Like when I was choosing colleges, UVM was one that stood out to me because it was like most undergraduates are involved in research is what I heard. So I was like, okay, that sounds awesome. So I'm glad you're here. It like totally turned out to be true. I've been involved in research for two years now. I started my junior year and I'm actually wrapping up like my research presentation for my senior research project is next week. But yeah, for me, it was really easy to get involved in research and most people I've spoken to it's been the same. And a lot of the time we'll start with a professor who's in your department. When you first come to UVM, you'll be in a lot of introductory classes, which are pretty huge. They can be like over a hundred people. And as you get more advanced in whatever major you choose, those classes will almost always shrink. So most of my classes now are like 15 to 25 people, which is pretty small for a college this size. And so it becomes really accessible to talk to your professor and go to their office hours and get to know them and know what research they're doing because a lot of UVM professors are doing some really interesting research, whether that's like, you know, in the medical college where they're doing like medical things, or for me it has to do with agriculture. And so it was through one of those more advanced classes. I just got to know my professor. And then it was coming time for me to choose what to do for my senior thesis and research. And I just sat in his office hours. I was like, I don't know what to do. I'm so lost and he was like, great. I have a project that just got funded. And I know you can write and you can research. Do you want to work with me? Yeah, it's really easy in. And a lot of students have found that just knowing professors is a really easy way to get into research. And then there's additional opportunities if you're in the Honors College. It's something that you're more like prepared for from the get go when you come freshman year. They're always telling you, you know, you're going to do a senior thesis. And so being in the Honors College can definitely help because it opens up more advising and things like that. I was actually in the Honors College and I dropped it because it didn't really fit with my major too well. So, but even having dropped the Honors College, I can have a problem finding a research project or getting funding for my research, which I got through the university. Great. Thank you. Helen, being a sophomore, I wonder if you could talk about how accessible your professors have been and what your experience in your courses have been like. So, I mean, so far I feel like I'm, so I'm a mechanical engineer major. So I take a lot of like some subjects like math, physics. So I feel like, so in this field, I have to feel like if you have a question, it's really important to figure out in time. And also just also really important to have somebody to reach out to ask help for. So with my professor, like I used to go to office hour or ask a help for a tutor, like TA that class, and solve my problem in time. And so that's like my experience with my professor in class. And also the courses is like really optional. And so if you choose classes, like you have, you'd better like reach out to your advisor, like most of you guys, I think like you decide your major and so you probably know which college you are in. And you have the specific advisor for you. And if you have any question, you can reach them out. And normally, like I feel like all the advisors at UVM, they respond pretty quick and in time. And so you can get the respond back in a short time. And so mostly they won't give you really useful like help or advice, like what course you should take and what's the plan for you for the four years college. Like so very clear and specific. So I feel like there's some support like back to me. And I like, I feel like I'm not alone. Like when I study. So yeah. Great. And along those lines, I wonder, Sophia, I know it's been a while. What was it like to choose your first year courses? So I came to UVM on declared. I didn't know what I wanted to study. So when I first met with my advisor, I just had absolutely no idea what classes I would take. But even if you were on declared, for example, the College of Arts and Sciences, there are a set of classes that you are like required to take. I think at least 30% of those classes are required for all first year students like such as, so I think my words, I think you have to take at least one English class, one in math, and then one in music or diversity, D1, D2 might have changed. But yeah, so even though I didn't have a major, I met with my advisor. She gave me a list of the classes that I needed to take that I could choose from. So for example, if you need a class in math, then there's like algebra and all the other classes. So it was pretty flexible. So yeah, so anyway, so I had a list and I picked whatever I liked. And also I chose a lot of classes that were just something I was interested in to explore, since I didn't know what I wanted to study. So I took like those random classes like custom designing I think took that and the guitar, just a lot of flexibility. And then once you know what you want to major in, there are also the requirements for those classes that you need to take. But I think at least 30% of classes are also elective, which means you can take whatever you want. So there's a good portion of the classes where you have to take and you're free to take and you need to take for your major. But yeah, but my advisor was like really helpful in that process. She kind of guided me through how it works. And I think, yeah, and you can look up classes online all the time with the other with the options. Great, thank you. Nia, I wonder if you can reflect all the way back to orientation and can you discuss what that looked like for you if you can remember. So I came to international student orientation, which happens like two days before all other freshmen move on to campus. And so orientation for me was really helpful because it was a way to get to Burlington and campus without having that rush of like 2000 students and their families moving in all at once. So that was, for me, that's like what stands out most about orientation because you'll come and it'll be pretty quiet. It'll just be mostly international students or like summer students. And then two days later, it'll actually just be like, I've never seen that much traffic in my life. So it's a way to move on to campus a bit earlier. And then also it's just a really easy way to, you know, learn everything you need to know about immigration rules and what can you and can you not do when you have a student visa, you know, learn all the resources that are available for you and meet the people who are behind those resources. So a lot of the Office of International Education will introduce themselves and like run a lot of workshops that most are mandatory. Some are like, you don't have to go but you can if you want to, but they were all really helpful for me because it was just a really easy crash course on what can I do in this country as an international student. What can I not do and who is there to help me? Like what sort of support services do I have here? I wonder if each of you could talk about how you landed on your current majors and did you start off wanting to major in that? So for me, like, I was like, so before I come to UVM, I was like choosing, I was about to choose my major as my major. But as I study here, I like gradually realize like I'm not like really like, like interesting in this major and it's like I'm more interesting in some other than like STEM subject like mechanical engineering major. So I talk to my advisor and so I mean, I think like in this question, like talk to your advisor is really important because we know a lot about like the dynamic different major the details and they will offer you information. So I went to talk to my advisor. I say I really interesting engineering major and like which like I like math physics and so which which like get into and he gave me a lot of like information like papers or details or like see how the different major is like. So finally I just all I think I like the mechanic engine I'm really interesting mechanical engineering. So here I am. So like that's how I manage my major and I think my advisor gave me a lot of like great suggestions of advice. So that's really important for me. For me, I actually changed my major. I can't remember maybe four times. I think the major I have now is what I declared for fourth time when I change my major. The office that like changes majors like you again. So that was yeah freshman year was kind of crazy. I didn't really know what I wanted to study. So I kept changing majors just because a lot of time to register for a certain class will get priority if you're in that major. So I I changed colleges. I changed majors. And really how I landed what I'm studying now is in that freshman year I came in with a lot of credits already just from AP exams and whatnot. So I didn't have to take a lot of those introductory required classes. Like I didn't have to take an initial English class because I had credit from AP literature or something like that. And so that really opened up room in my schedule for me to take a lot of classes that weren't necessarily in my major. So I kind of explored. I took classes in different colleges and just saw what was out there. And so I didn't even know the major that I am now existed when I first came to UVM spring of college. So I took a class in my major that I am now and I really enjoyed it. And then I was like, okay, let me look more into this major. And it was just exactly what I had been looking for. I just didn't know that I was supposed to look for it like in that college or under that name. So I really encourage you if you're not sure what you want to do to really take classes outside of what you think you might want to do. So pretty similar to me. I think I changed my major also at least four or five maybe six tons. I took a lot of classes. And then the requirements that I mentioned before, so language, foreign language, also one of the requirements for us arts and sciences, you need to take a foreign language. So I took Spanish because I just knew that I always wanted to learn Spanish. It's just been what I wanted to do since I was little. So I started, I really loved it. But then I still didn't know that if I wanted to major in it just because it started from zero. So I really just didn't know what I want to do. And the one thing that really helped me was the Korea Center, which is the place they can help you with with your major. And later on with internships. So they, so the advisors and concerts, they're really helped. And then freshman year I actually took a class called major choice. It's a one credit class and that class teaches you about that the majors and minors and then what like what you can do with them. Then I discovered the major global studies, which sounds really broad. But because I, one of the reasons I didn't know what I wanted to do was also because there were so many things I wanted to do. And so I found global studies and then the interdisciplinary and you'll learn everything about the globe. And then another thing with a major is that you need to study abroad for at least one semester. So my junior year I studied abroad in Spain, which made sense because I was taking Spanish. I came back from Spain and I just really, really, really loved it. And then I switched my Spanish minor to major. And that's how I got to the double major. And I also have a minor in psychology, which at one point was my major. You take more classes, talk with more people. And it kind of becomes, it starts to become clear that what you want to do. And there's definitely tons of options that, you know, eventually you will just feel like what's right for you. Great. Thank you so much. There was a question about studying abroad. And Sophia, I know you've done some study abroad. And while the question is specific to Germany and I can answer the question, yes, there's study abroad programs to Germany. If you could talk about, Sophia, what was the process like to apply for study abroad? And can you just briefly talk about your experiences studying abroad? Yeah, so I definitely know a lot about study abroad. A study abroad five times, two semester long, one summer program, one winter break and one spring break. So the process, it's in general really easy and simple, the international or the OIE, the Office of International Education. It's the, it's the office that oversees study abroad and helping students. There are different types of study abroad from UVM Bellator Exchange and the external program and then travel study. So each process looks a little bit different depending on how you are doing it through whom. But, but they, but in general, it's, it's very simple, very easy. You go on the, you go to the OIE, you talk with them, you pick the country and then you pick the place. And then the UVM will provide you with a list, like a checklist of the things you need to do and you check up the list by a certain deadline. After everything, there's also the pre-departure orientation where you can learn about what it's like studying abroad. And then until you get there, and then once you get there, you also keep in contact with the UVM. And I'll be through the process with transfer credits. So in the entire process from choosing a country until coming back from the country and everything, UVM makes it really easy and really helpful with the entire process, which is why, you know, I got to do it so many times because it's just simple and easy. Great. Thanks, Sophia. Lynn, I wonder if you could talk about the housing selection process, particularly as you were looking at coming into your second year. What did that process look like and how did you determine which learning community to apply into? So I, there's many different like learning community and also different campus at UVM. So like the main campus, Trinity campus. So also a lot of different like learning community like art and creativity community or cross country, like culture crossroads community or outdoor experience community. So after you decide where you want to leave, so you need to apply first if the, they get you like get the appropriate, get in then you are in. So that, that will be a really great experience for your college year. Also the structure of the housing are really different. Normally most of the dorm is like double, double that you will have a roommate. And so where I was living, I myself more year I was in a suite. And so you will have food made a common, like living room. So that's kind of a little bit different. And so that's pretty much all my like housing, choosing housing or health experience of mine. Great. Thank you. Nia, I wonder if you could talk about Burlington and what there is to do there. There was a question about the music scene, et cetera. And I wonder if you could comment more on that. Yeah, for sure. Burlington is after four years at UVM like Burlington, that aspect of the university, just the fact that Burlington is here is 100% my favorite part. What I like to do in Burlington is super seasonal. So in the summer it'll be, you know, one of our beaches or swimming holes or hikes and the winter it'll be skiing as much as I can. But in town, those are all like kind of in the outlying areas of Burlington, which are still pretty easy to get to because we're not so small. But Burlington itself is, it's a small town. It's definitely a lot smaller than where I'm from, but it's there's so much going on in terms of the music scene. Yeah, that's one of the things Burlington is definitely really well known for. We have a ton of like live music venues and they can be small or they can be really big. I have friends who I met freshman year and they met freshman year and they started bands and now I'm seeing them play in like some of the downtown venues. So that's really cool. We have a huge like food scene here, restaurant serve, very good, very popular. Yeah, there's just always something going on. Burlington is definitely a very creative oriented town. So there's always, you know, music or art or something to go look at or some nature related thing to do. So I've never been born in Burlington except now where we have to stay indoors, but it's for the best. Great. Thank you. I'm going to take this question and then ask everyone a closing question, but I wonder if Helen, you can talk about how do you get around town? So I think like the downtown is a really great place to go. Help you explore more about Burlington and it's pretty close. I think take you like 15 to 20 minutes to walk there. Like walk, it's like walk down the house like now that hard. And also normally I also take the bus with my friend and the Burlington bus is like you can get out of the bus for free. Like you use your student card so you can also take the bus to different places like downtown, which is very close or you can go to the mall to go shopping. It's also like another direction, but it's pretty close. You can walk there or take a bus. And if you want to explore more, like go further and you can like go ski if you're interested in that. Like take it a school bus on the weekend or join the steep club and then take the bus. And so I don't have a car personally. So my first two year on campus, I normally like take the bus or work if it's not too far or school bus or if you have a car, you can also like have a car ride together. So yeah, that's pretty much how I travel around the town. Great. Thank you. I want to ask you all one last question as you know, all of everyone who's joined us today is thinking about joining us as a first year student in the fall. I wonder what advice you could give to somebody who's considering joining UVM as a new student. Okay, I can go first. Like, so I feel like as a you are becoming a college student, I feel like the time management is really important. So during college life, you you need to work hard on school and you need to socialize with a friend or join different clubs. For me, I think it's really important to have a good time management and to do what you want to do in the future and also like for your future career or so it's always good to have a plan and to manage your time well. Yeah. I think if there was one thing that I heard when I was a freshman that is actually something that really, really helped me. It's not something I really actively thought about, but it's just some advice that I really took to heart and kind of acted on is don't limit yourself to one thing. If you come in knowing that, you know, you love to ski and you really like chemistry, that's great. But don't limit yourself to that because UVM has so many opportunities, whether that's, you know, for research or for majors or for things you can do around campus, you know. So definitely don't limit yourself to something you think you like or don't limit yourself because you think you won't like something. There's so, so, so many opportunities here for all kinds of different things. So take the time to find those opportunities and also take the time to try them out. You don't have to try everything that's not practical and it probably won't be fun. But try some things. Yeah, I would say my advice is pretty kind of similar to Nia's. I would definitely say be open and do things. Get out of your comfort zone. Basically looking back, I think a set of academics, which is really important, of course, one of the most valuable things about college for me is really the experiences and then the people you met, the things you learn, all set of classrooms and just the life experience is that you have, which is not something you can, you know, just get anywhere. And I think UVM is a really, really, for me, it's the perfect place for, you know, for how accessible everything is and for the opportunities that it offers and, you know, just for the community and for everything, which, you know, I definitely transformed myself, you know, as a person, I think I would have not been able to do so had I not really really opened up myself and, you know, and just reach out to people, get out of the comfort zone and, you know, this is like a, this is a time to, you know, really explore. Yeah, so if I just gave one advice, I would say be open and stay out of your comfort zone and, you know, explore. Yeah. Great. I want to thank Helen, Nia, and Sophia for helping answer a lot of your questions. And because we are at time, I would like to just briefly talk about what your next steps are. We do have another virtual opportunity for you all if you haven't participated in it yet. There's an admitted student visit day. It lasts approximately three hours, but it's something you can jump into and out of at your leisure. Please feel free to sign up for one of those. You will need to register for the event in order to attend. I would highly encourage you to also go on a virtual tour of our campus, and you can see the go link there, go.uvm.edu slash tour. It's let out by two of our current students and just gives you a great sense of our campus. I encourage you all to stay connected with us. We'd love to hear more from you, and you can find me and Caitlin and T.T. through our go.uvm.edu contact us site. And of course, if you believe that UVM is the place that you would like to spend your next four years, log into your portal, and you can confirm your enrollment through your online portal. I want to thank you all so much for joining us today. It's been an absolute pleasure, and we hope you stay healthy and safe, and we look forward to seeing you here in the fall. Thank you all so much.