In the Jungle; Andrew Day

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 grillers of Pittsburgh State University. I'm your host, Howard Smith, and today we are joined by Andrew Day. Hi, Andrew. Hello. Hey, thanks for being with us today and being willing to share a little bit about your experience here at Pitt State. First of all, tell us where you're from. I am from Bartlesville, Oklahoma. You know, that's not Kansas, so what kind of, what helped you make a decision about coming to Pitt State from Bartlesville? I actually had it down between Oklahoma State University and Pittsburgh State University. And one thing that led me more to Pitt State was the smaller size of it. I really liked how I think it's about 20 to 30 students in each classroom, so you can still get that relationship with your professor if you need to ask him a question or because I thought it kind of OSU would be really hard to like connect to your professor when you're in a classroom of 200 students. And I heard Pitt State had a really good technology center, and I kind of wanted to do something

with that. So, mechanical engineering is your major? So why mechanical engineering? I really chose that kind of last minute before I came here, I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do. I've always been really good at math and I've always liked design and building kind of things, so that's kind of how I chose it. I plan to stick with it all four years, but I'm actually not quite sure where I want to go with that yet. Okay. You'd mention that you chose Pitt State because of its size and what I guess because maybe of the feel. You've been here two semesters. How's the feel? I really like it. Being able to ask professors, questions have been really good. Even the staff on Pitt State, like when you go to D-Haul, all the staff workers are always extremely nice. Like when I come in, they're like, how's your day going and they've memorized my name. How's your day going, Andrew, and it makes you your day a little bit better? It was D-Haul, the dining hall. Yes. Sorry. That's okay. That's great. You know, well, how's the food? The food's pretty good. So, you know, living on campus is kind of a big thing. I know you live in Nation Hall and you have you found though that being on campus has

been a good thing as a freshman. I'd say so. It's a good experience. It's really nice to just wake up and be able to walk straight from where you lived right to your classroom instead of having to drive in a parking spot. I'd say that is one very big advantage to living on campus is you don't have to waste the time of driving to school, getting a parking spot. Hey, I know that. You brought some credits with you. So how did the dual credit work out for you coming, I mean, the earning credits before you came. Is that worked out for you? Yeah. It put me a little bit ahead. I think I came in with 13 credit hours. So almost a full semester in, but it's led me to continually get a little bit ahead because I can take classes that I would have taken from the next semester in spot of those classes I've already taken. So it just helps with like getting further in, I guess, into your major classes. Kind of a head start. Yeah. So that kind of eased a little bit of the pressure, maybe. Okay.

Okay. I know that you're also involved in some activities too, and I think you're in a Christian fraternity. Yes. Chi I'm a crown rail. Tell me a little bit about that. So I actually wasn't big into joining a fraternity at all, but I somehow stumbled upon them. And I was like, still kind of iffy about it. I wasn't planning on joining a fraternity, but I really liked joining them. They're a great group of guys that like, can hold you accountable, make sure you do in well in school. We meet every Monday nights to have a Bible study. And that's really good. We like get into the Bible, also make sure our weeks are going good. And that's one of my highlights of my week is getting with them. So that's been a nice piece, then, in addition to going to school. Yes. Now, you mentioned to me, and when we were talking a little bit on area interview, about homestead. Yes. Now, would you explain what homestead is and what goes on there and that kind of thing? So the homestead is a house, about five minutes from campus, it's very close, and it's even walking distance. It's a regular house that the church pitnaz, they kind of bought it, sponsor it, and you don't have to be associated or be a student that goes to the church pitnaz.

But they offer it, they call it your home away from home. And it's just to go there, they offer free lattes, they have places where you can study, that's quiet. And they also have, they have sectioned off places where it stays quiet, and then they also have the living room, and that's more for like, you can chill, play games with other students, card games. And it's just a really great place for college students to like, if they want to get away from the dorms for a little bit, they can be like, actually get into an actual house. And the volunteers that's generally, generally someone is watching the house, and it's generally a volunteer from the church pitnaz. What's really close a lot of times though, if they want to, it's completely up to them though, while they're volunteering, they'll fix us a home cooked meal, which is nice, sometimes like, not having those home cooked meals anymore. Food's a nice addition. Yes, it is. So how often do you take advantage of that then? I usually stop by the homestead once a day, at least.

Okay, okay. So the homestead, the nation hall, what are some other activities that you've been, that you've either participated in or gone to? I know there's a lot of stuff goes on on campus, what has there been anything, other types of things you've gone out and participated in? Yeah, I've done, I've done volleyball in her murals. Okay. Those have been fun. Yeah, participated in the yellow-like hell last semester. Was that fun? It actually was. I wasn't expecting it to be as much fun as it was. Well, there's lots of games and plays and programs, and I've gone to a couple plays. I go to last semester with my freshman experience class. I went to the hitin' a test, and that was pretty cool. So there's a lot of things in addition to you're going to, you know, academics, there's some other activities in them that make it an experience for you. Hey, if you were talking to somebody that was considering Pitt State today, let's say I'm sitting at home one, listening to this and half, it kind of sounds interesting. What would you tell them as to why they should consider coming here?

So I'd say one really big thing is, I think the really big thing is the small class sizes. You can, if you are struggling, it is so much easier to get in contact with your professor. Also, I really like the community of Pitt State, and I think that, again, helps with the small size of about 9,000, I'm not sure how many students we have here, because if you go to a big D1 school with 30,000, you're not going to, like, it's so spread out. And so I really just like the community and the size of Pitt State, and being able to reach out to your professors when you need to. That proves why you belong at Pittsburgh State University. I'm your host Howard Smith and Andrew. Thank you for being with us today. Join us for in the jungle, Wednesday afternoons at 350, and Friday mornings at 850, here on K-R-B-S.