Although high school was an okay experience for me, I loved my high school. It wasn’t just the beautiful campus or the tremendous extracurricular activities; it was the relationships that I was able to have with my teachers that extended beyond academics. Not only were my high school teachers passionate about what they taught, but they were also interested in knowing us as people rather than students. To this day, I still go back to my high school campus to say high to teachers that I considered friends.

In contrast, all of my classes at my previous university (I’m a sophomore transfer) were large lectures ranging from 300 to 800, and that didn’t even include all of the students in the other lecture sections. Furthermore, because there were so many students taking the same class, it was also almost impossible to get to know a professor on a more personal level during office hours. During my first year of college, I was disappointed that I would no longer have a more personal relationship with the teacher as I did in high school.

This is how I felt until I went to the Rose House Scholars Meet and Greet last Tuesday. This was an excellent opportunity to get one-on-one face time with professors who are not only passionate about what they research and teach but also care about getting to know students that they gladly participated in such a program. For example, I met Mike (didn’t catch his last name), who is a professor on campus. We started talking about my interests in sustainability, and he pointed me towards resources that I might be interested in. It was this kind of mentor/advisor relationship that I felt I lacked last year that I am glad to be able to have now as a result of the House Fellows Meet and Greet.