In the Jungle; Emily Vue

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 Emily Boo. Hi, Emily. Hello. Hey, thanks for being with us, I always find to talk to students on campus, find out what's going on, and how you got here. Tell me where you're from. I am from Gravit, Arkansas. A little bit about Gravit. So Gravit probably has a population of maybe 10,000 or so. Small little town in my high school, well, my graduating class had 127 people, so it was pretty small compared to Pittsburgh. Has it been an adjustment? I mean, yeah, because you would have to drive like 30 minutes to go to Walmart, but here you just drive like five minutes and you're a Walmart. So you're finding Pittsburgh more convenient? Yes, definitely. Well, that's cool. How'd you learn about Pittsburgh? What brought you here? So first my friend introduced me to Pittsburgh. She's like, I went to this school and it was really cool.

So I was like, okay, I'll check it out. So called and got an appointment, came here for a campus tour, and I fell in love with the campus. And everyone I talked to, even if they weren't part of the tour, they were just random students. If you asked them something, they'd be super helpful and nice. So it felt like home, and it felt like I really did belong here, so I loved it. What time of year did you come for your tour? I came in September of 2015. Great tour. Like the oval. Yes, all the green and the flat campus. It was really nice. Got a piece of the history there. So what are you majoring in? So I have two majors, international business and international studies. Okay, so what do you want to do with those? Something I am passionate about, something I love. I'm not really sure yet 100 percent, but gumming a pit. I have learned a lot about what I don't like and what I do like in terms of what I want to do with my future. Okay, well both international. Yes. So have you traveled internationally? I have traveled internationally before I came here and a lot with the school actually. Tell me a little bit about your travels and how it reinforced this major.

So my first time going abroad was in December of 2015. I went to Thailand and Laos for about four weeks. It was my senior trip. And I fell in love with the culture and like learning about different people. And like just how similar we are and like how different we are at the same time. So that really opened my eye. And I just wanted to learn more about other cultures. Okay, so you kept that interest. Yes. Now I understand you work in the KELSE Advisory Center? Yes. Okay, now what do you, I know you're working with students helping them with their programs. And I don't know what else they ask you, but tell me what you do over there. So basically anyone that goes through KELSE, they go through us first before they go to their major department. So we get to meet all the students and we get to help them like make sure they're on the right track and make sure they're getting all their classes and to get admitted into the College of Business. Does that a lot of students are there? Yeah, we have like over a hundred students we advise. Oh, okay. And that office. So it's quite a lot. Wow. But it's fun getting to know everyone. Well, being a major over there, that's got to be a little bit helpful. Yeah, definitely.

Tell me, what activities are you involved in? So I am involved with inactis and circle K on campus. Okay, on campus. And what do you do? Circle K is one of the world's largest collegiate service organizations. And it's partly sponsored by the Kiwanis Club here in Pittsburgh. And a lot of what we do is just community service and meeting other students your age. An event that's coming up is fallen to service where all of the circle K clubs in Kansas actually comes down to one school and one day we do a huge service activity together. So what school are you going to this year? This year we'll be going to Fort Hayes. Oh, you got a little travel time there. Yeah. And it's a great leadership opportunity. Actually, my sophomore year I was president and luckily, thankfully, I was voted as governor for Kansas this past year. So as governor, what did you have to do? So as governor currently, I'm in charge of all of the circle K clubs here in Kansas and building and making sure the club is growing.

So hopefully charting at Washburn here pretty soon. Wow. Now, you mentioned you're also an in-actus? Yes. And what is an actus and what kind of role do you have in that particular organization? So an actus is basically just a club that does a lot of projects, do certain projects. And you get to choose which projects you're interested in. In my freshman year, I worked on a project called Cambodia. And with that, we helped this lady named Krista and with her business called Hebs. And basically, what she did was employ seven Cambodia women who were sex trafficked back in Cambodia. And she basically, they made the pants for her and she sold them here in the States. And luckily, my spring break, my freshman year through an actus, I was able to go to Cambodia and meet the seven women. And it was very eye-opening and changed my life. Now, you mentioned that your senior high school trip was an international. Yes. And now, since you've been on campus and a student, you've also traveled? Yes.

So I've gone once with, well, twice with an actus. Actually, my freshman year to Cambodia for the project. And then recently this past April, I went to Haiti with an actus to do a research project for a potential project. We're going to be working on this year. Wow. So that's great exposure. Yeah. Hey, what's been your most challenging class? My most challenging class would probably have to be my biology classes just because I'm not a biology major. They're super interesting, but the labs are really long. And I'm not too crazy about learning about different shapes of clouds and stuff. So you were probably somewhat happy to get through your general lab? Yes, I was. That's not an unusual feeling. Yeah. So everybody wants to get to that major right away. If I'm a biology major, I want to stay in it. Yeah. It is a great class, too, but that's interesting. Has there been anybody on campus or anybody in your life that's influenced you towards this, what's your head or towards? I would say a lot of the classes I've had here, like a lot of my international classes have shown me that I really am passionate for the international world. And like going outside of the country and like through the trips I've gone on, I'm not afraid to be in a third world country there for a little bit.

And like work on things. Like I'm okay with not being comfortable with not having the best, like I don't know bathroom to go use or like the best shower. Like I'm okay with that. Like it's fine with me if I feel like I'm doing it for a good cause. Hey, you know, it's the fall. And you've been on campus now for a couple of years. What's your favorite part of fall on campus at PSU? My favorite part of fall on campus would have to, I mean football, of course. Everyone loves to ball. It's always a good thing. And secretly inside, I am a pumpkin spice latte lover. So then when the library starts having it, I go there just about every morning. So that's fun too. Well, it's good to admit your addictions. Yeah. That's good. That's funny. That is good. Hey, if you were to give advice to a prospective student, somebody that was considering Pitt State, why would you tell them that they ought to consider coming to school here? The quality of education and the quality of like how much your professor is going to invest in you. A lot of my professors, they care about me and a lot of my friends going to bigger schools, they don't get that.

And just the community that you're in, like everyone supports the gorillas and just the friends you make, you become family with them. So I've enjoyed it so much. I don't know why you wouldn't want to come here. But yeah, it's great. Hey, and that proves why you belong at Pittsburgh State University. Thank you for joining us in the jungle. I'm your host, Howard Smith, and thank you and I'm only for being with us. Thank you for having me. Join us for in the jungle Wednesday afternoons at 350 and Friday mornings at 850 here on KRPS.