Hi! My name is Sophia and I am an upcoming sophomore at UW- Madison. I am a classic STEM major who loves to introduce prospective students to all of Madison's amazing research and STEM related programs. I am also going to be a House Fellow which is our version of a RA and will allow me to interact with a lot of new students similar to prospective students. Hope to use this as an opportunity to meet new people and bring them to my favorite city.

Hometown

Madison, Wisconsin

Major(s)

Microbiology, Plant pathology

Minor(s)

Honors in Research

Clubs, organizations & involvement

Environmental science club, Microbiology club, Harbor student church, board member of plant pathology club, volunteer at SFTS

Describe your college experience

Classes were way harder than I expected. High school came easy to me and I did not learn good study habits which made first semester very difficult academically. With trial and error I learned better ways to study and what worked for me and had a better academic time second semester. I made a lot of amazing friends this year that I have stayed in touch with and cannot wait to see next semester. I worked both semesters and found it hard to balance but that experience gives me the best advice for anyone who plans to do something similar.

Tip for future students

Schedule time for yourself. College can feel very fast moving and allowing an hour for yourself to do something you enjoy everyday will make a big difference. Making friends is important but don't force friendships in the name of having friends, things will happen naturally. Don't let high school define you. You can be whoever you want in college and no one cares what happened before you got here.

Favorite class

General Chem 103 and 104. Dr. Paul Hooker is one of the best professors I have had. The content was hard for me but I enjoyed learning with Dr. Hooker. Ling 213 "The Things we can't say" was another class that I really enjoyed. I love science classes but Dr. Kelly Wright made this discussion based class really engaging and fascinating. Even though I don't need more humanities credits I want to audit her classes because I loved her teaching so much.

Career goals

I want to work in a research lab, preferably industry, but I currently work in academia and enjoy researching here at UW. I also plan on pursuing a Masters degree in Biotechnology here at UW- Madison and have been given extensive help to figure that out.

Ideal way to spend a free night

My friends and I did movie nights every Friday and it was perfect. We played board games and watched different movies we recommended for each other. We also liked to go out some weekends depending on test schedules. Tuesday nights we went line dancing at Red Rock Salon. I enjoyed all the activities that were around campus.

High school or secondary school

Middleton High School- Middleton, WI

Previous college

N​/​A