In the Jungle; Marisa Page

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're joined by Marissa Page. Hi Marissa. Hi. Hey, it's great to have you in the studio here. You know, we got a met you on the oval, in which at Pitt State, I bet a lot of people meet each other on the oval, probably. And we were working to just ask booths, and you know, for helping new students, and how did you get involved with just ask? Well, I'm part of the Honors College, and as a requirement, we have to do a couple hours of community service every semester, and I figured that was a quick, easy way and a fun way to get at least an hour out of the way, and meet new students and help them get around campus, and because I know my first day, I was too scared to ask anybody, and I didn't have any clue where I was going, so I figured sitting out there would be a good

way to help. Say, where are you from? I'm from which talk, Kansas. Okay, so how'd you hear about Pitt State then? Well, my family goes to the State Fair a lot, and we don't really go for the rides or anything. We go see the giant pumpkin, but we would really just go to talk to colleges, because that's been the topic of conversation since I was in first grade, was where you go to college. So we would go and talk with the Pitt State and other campus recruiters, but mainly we'd go and talk to the Pitt State Recruiter, and so I'd always kind of had Pitt State in the back of my mind, and when I finally decided that I was going to go into graphics, we visited the tech center, and that just sold it for me. So your graphics arts made her? Yeah, graphics communications. Communications, okay, so what's your goal then, I mean, what do you want to do with that? Well, my emphasis is in web and interactive media, and so with that, I would like to work managing a website, creating websites for people, work for a company in their communications department, or their creative services, just creating the graphics and any visual communications that they need to communicate with their employees, or their clients, or their customers.

Sometimes we talk about students when the graduate is being placed bound. Do you have to be in Wichita, do you have to be around Pittsburgh, or? No, I'm not really tied to any location, because my parents don't think they're going to be staying in Wichita much longer, so I really, it doesn't matter wherever they're going to give me a job I'll go, and as long as my fiance can get a job too, we're golden. Employers, if you're listening to that, she's willing to go in here. What courses have challenged you to date? My photography courses have really challenged me, because that was an area that kind of scared me, I didn't really know anything about photography when I took my first class, and I decided that that wasn't a good enough excuse, so I took it, and now I have a photography minor, so the photography courses really challenged me, the coding classes, and especially the JavaScript class, that one really, really challenged me, but it was a fun challenge, and it was one that I was able to overcome, and I was very excited about it. What's cool?

Has there been anybody that's influenced you today, whether you have anybody that's, you know, kind of had a major impact on maybe why you're doing what you're doing, or help you in some way? Yeah, Mr. Huffman, one of the photography teachers out at the tech center, he is a phenomenal teacher, and make sure that you understand what you're doing, and at the same time acknowledging happy accidents, but make sure that you know what you're doing, so that you can recreate that the next time around, and other activities, advisors, like James Backes, who is the advisor for campus Christians, he's such a great influence in my life also, so. I know you've got your campus Christian shirt on today, nobody can see that, but what activities are you involved in? I know Campus Christians one. Yeah, I live in the Campus Christians house, and so I'm heavily involved in Campus Christians. I'm also the president of crew, which is another Christian ministry here on campus. What's crew stand for? It doesn't stand for anything. People might know it as Campus Crusade for Christ, they kind of rebranded, I don't know how long ago, but it's called crew now, and it's basically just a Christian community where we can connect people to other people who love Jesus, and then we can still go out

and connect people to Christ. So, and I'm also on leadership for IJM International Justice Mission, and we are passionate about advocacy and raising awareness of slavery and human trafficking around the world, and a lot of people don't know that it still exists, so we raise awareness for that, and we raise funds for the big international group of international justice mission, who actually go out and rescue slaves around the world. Wow, now you're not on our college? Yes. Does that mean a lot of work? Yes, because in addition to the community service, there's GPA requirements, and there's you have to kind of be involved in what the activities that the honors college does as well, and all sorts of things, but it's fun work, because you get to work with people that you've been working with since your freshman year, and before you even came for pickcares, we were there meeting our class of honors college students, so you get to know them even more throughout the year. I know you did a study abroad.

Yes. Tell me a little bit about that, and why you picked it, and what you got out of it. I wanted to do a study abroad while I was in college, because everyone tells me, you know, that's the easiest, best way to, you know, travel when you're in college, do a study abroad, and so I knew I wasn't going to be able to commit to an entire semester abroad or an entire year or even a summer, so when Dr. Fuchs said that there was going to be a spring break study abroad, I was like, perfect, that's, I need somewhere to go for spring break anyways, so we spent four days in London and four days in Paris, and the semester before we left, we studied kind of the British monarchy, and Britain's role in World War 2, especially during the Blitz, and then we studied the French Revolution and kind of Napoleon and his influence on the world as well, as well as getting, you know, here's the nitty-gritty about what you need to travel abroad, because at the last time I was on a plane, I was a year and a half old, so I didn't even know how to check into a flight, so it was another thing that scared me, and I was like, that's a pathetic excuse, Marissa, you need to stop

exciting, so we went, and it was exciting, and it was so empowering, and just, you know, navigating a foreign country, a public transport system that I have never been exposed to ever before, and then going to France where nobody is speaking English and having to relearn everything again, so it was a lot of fun, and I, it definitely awakened a hunger to keep traveling and keep experiencing other cultures and stuff. Hey, what advice would you give a prospective student considering Pitt State, you know, what would you tell them? Why should they consider Pitt? I would say don't let the smallness turn you away, that's really what kind of drew me here, I wasn't wanting something big, as much of an introvert, and it's very painfully shy as I was when I came here, I didn't want to be anonymous, I wanted people to see me, and I wanted people to notice me and care about me and care about my life and my grades, and that's what I got when I came here, I've grown so much since being here, I'm able to carry on an intelligent conversation with somebody that I don't know, whereas before

I wouldn't have been able to do that, so I would just say give Pitt State a chance, come here, see the campus, see how much people care for each other, they're not just putting on a show, the professors aren't being nice for the day, they actually genuinely care about you and about your grades and your life in your future, so just come and visit and take it at face value because that's what it is. And that proves why you belong at Pittsburgh State University, thank you for joining us in the jungle, I'm your host, Howard Smith. Join us for in the jungle, Wednesday Afternoons at 350 and Friday mornings at 850 here on the RPS.