In the Jungle; Briana Ames

Thank you for joining us for In The Jungle, where you stay connected to the current students at Pittsburgh State University. Now, here's your host, Howard Smith. Welcome to In The Jungle, where we meet the gorillas of Pittsburgh State University. I'm your host, Howard Smith, and today we are joined by Brianna Ames. Thank you for having me. Hey, well, thank you for being here with us. You know, it's a beautiful outside today. It's warm and, you know, sunny. It's like that every day at Pitt State, isn't it? Yes, it is. Good answer. Hey, tell us where you're from, Brianna. I am from Humboldt, Kansas. Okay, that's not too far away, is it? No, it's about an hour drive. And prior to coming to Pitt State, I understand that you did some work at Allen County Community College. I did attend Allen Community College, and I received my associates in science in a year after graduating from high school. It was very helpful with high school being able to take concurrent classes. But the big effect was that was I was able to transfer from my high school classes into what college was going to be like, live at home, pretty much expense free, and then come down here with low expense and still continue my major.

Oh, wow, that's a great plan. There's quite a few students that do that today. You know, you're probably one of the first we've had on this particular show for that. But so how many hours did you take in high school that were applied? I graduated high school with 52 concurrent credit hours. 52? Wow. So you really did streamline your process then. I did. You know, a lot of people talk about that right now, but you're obviously a case study in this. It was successful. Yes. You took those courses in high school and then you at Allen County. Wow. Now what's your major? My major is in chemistry with an emphasis in pharmaceuticals. No, why? I wanted to major in science, but it was unclear until I attended a couple conferences on possible majors through high school. I also decided then that I was not a person that could work in labs, making molecules and organic matter. I was needing somewhere where I could be vocal and a social butterfly to be able to talk to people. And that's why I chose pharmaceuticals.

So a pharmacist that's a social butterfly? Yes. There we go. When I go into pharmacy, I like them when they come and talk to me and stuff. That's great. I mean, you recognize your own personal relationship skills and you're also then your content knowledge and you put it together. So where do you want to be then when you land from graduation? After I get my doctorate in pharmaceuticals, I really would like to be back home close to where our family is at. Somewhere around the Humboldt-Chunodiala area. I would have a part-time job right now back home where I work, spring break, summers and stuff at a pharmacy. And I really could see myself back right at the same place where I am now. Okay, I understand being around family and things. So what is it that you like about Southeast Kansas? The small town feel. I like knowing everyone, being able to have one-on-one conversations, knowing, able to ask questions about how their family members are doing or friends and being able to get together and know everyone. So tell me a little bit then about your transition here to Pitt State. I believe you were probably in a transitions class and you work with, I think, transitions students, don't you?

Yes, I took a transitions class my first semester here and I had a wonderful first semester. This is my second semester here. I have enjoyed every bit of it. It was a great transition and I'm happy to work with students that are transitioning themselves because I'm seeing how they see campus and how they get to see the same things I'm seeing with transitioning from a juco to a four-year university and how it's affecting them. They also ask lots of questions and I feel like I'm very able to help them in answering what they need. So what do you find that our transition students need the most assistance with or what kinds of areas do they ask a lot about? They ask a lot of questions about class sizes and where to live on campus, if they want to live on campus or off campus and where at, if they're on campus or off campus. Good places to eat in town, activities to do, just normal college life questions that they're asking about, hey, we want to have a social life too, where's the best places to get that done at? What's the biggest stressor that you found from it?

Leaving Mom and Dad. Okay. They struggle. They are like, well, we don't know if we really want to come or this far away from home. I promise you guys you can do it. Wow, that's cool. Hey, I know when we were talking a bit earlier, you mentioned to me you're an intramural official? Yes. That sounds tough to me. Tell me about being an intramural official here. So I'm an intramural official for the Rec Center here at Pitt State. And I do anything from volleyball to flag football, to slow pitch, to basketball. I pretty much live at the Rec Center most of the week. If you're there, you'll probably see me because I just live there. But it gets interesting. Yeah, you have to stand your ground with some people and give technicals and yellow cards and whatever else needs to be done. But all in all, everyone has fun while doing it. You know, being an official, did you have to go through training? We do. We have training after each, before each sport. Like, yeah, we did flag football on the fall, but we play a different version of flag football in the spring. So we're in flag football training now so we can officiate this week for flag football.

So tell me the sports now that you have officiated. I have officiated volleyball, basketball, flag football, slow pitch, softball. I think that's it. I didn't have to do badminton. We have badminton and pickleball, but I did not have to do either one of those. So there's a lot of opportunity to participate in activities. What about the Rec Center? What's your impression? I love the Rec Center. I could, I like living at the Rec Center, I'll tell you. There's lots of things to do in between officiating. A lot of times we'll do a pick up game. The officials will do a pick up game if we have a break of whatever sport we're officiating, just because we like to have our free time too and be able to play. Cool. That's great. Thanks for doing that. I mean, I know you mentioned that you're a people person, so you've got to see some different sides. Yes. I've got to see lots of different sides of people this year. Let's go back to the learning environment here. We've talked a little bit about the living here. You're in the Kim Club, the chemistry club? Yes. What kinds of things do you do in a chemistry club? I see people sitting in a room with test tubes. Kim Club is quite interesting. We meet about once a month and we have dinner,

like pizza and stuff, talk about activities that we need to work on on campus. We do a lot of rumble in the jungle events and those are fun to work because we, as a Kim Club, make ice cream with liquid nitrogen. Oh, okay. You're very popular. If you ever are here for rumble in a jungle, you definitely have to check out the Kim Club booth. Yes. I've seen that line. I can affirm that. Yes. You guys do a wonderful job there. If somebody were looking at pit stake today, what advice would you give them as to why they should consider coming here? Some advice I'd give them for coming here would be to look at the expense, know that you can take more, as many credit hours as you want, for the same low price, which is nice. The other thing I'd look at is how close it is to home and what your major is. Pit State works very highly with KU on their pharmacy program, which is why I chose Pit State. I was very hesitant on where I was going to go after Juco, but it made my decision easier knowing that Pit State worked with KU's pharmacy school.

So that collaborative relationship that Pit State has with other institutions, so when you're looking at a career path, Pit State's going to give you that foundation, but they're also going to help you get on that path to success to where you want to be. Yes. And that proves why you belong at Pit State University. I'm your host, Howard Smith, and Brianna, thanks for being with us today. Thank you. Join us for in the jungle, Wednesday afternoons at 350, and Friday mornings at 850, here on KRPS.