In the Jungle; Megan Thurston

Welcome to In The Jungle, where we meet the gorillas of Pittsburgh State University. I am your host, Howard Smith, and today we're joined by Megan Thurston. Megan, thanks for being here today. Oh, thank you so very much for having me. Well, we're really happy when we sit down and talk to students about why they're at Pitt State and some of your experiences. If you would, just tell us where you're from and what you're majoring in. I'm from Hutchinson, Kansas, so that's just a little ways away from Wichita. Still the salt mines there. Oh, yes, of course, all the salt hawks, salt mines, all that good stuff. But I'm studying international business as well as finance here at Pittsburgh State. Now, why'd you choose finance and international business? Oh, that's a good question. I happened to take some accounting classes when I was in high school, so I started thinking myself. I got to start figuring out what I want to do and what I want to study when I go to college. So I realized that I really liked business and numbers and I kind of had a knack for that. I also had the opportunity to travel to Ireland whenever I was in high school. So I thought I was like, all right, what can I kind of choose to study that incorporates both the business

aspect as well as traveling a little bit? So that's when I found out the international business was offered as a major to a lot of different places. So I chose that. And then later on, I think it was my sophomore year. I decided to add finance as a second major because I still had that kind of want for more of the numbers focused side of things of business. Wow. Well, it sounds like you knew what you wanted to major. And so how did you hear about pit state in relation to this? Oh, that's another good question. At first, pit state wasn't even on my radar, but I had an older sister who went here. So once a gorilla, always a gorilla, right? So they happen to pull in other students as well. So I only heard good things from her about the program that she did here. She was like, you should really check it out. And they have an international business program, which was the selling point for me. So that's how I got involved. That's fantastic. Yeah. I know that you work in addition to going to school. Now a lot of our students do that. How do you

manage that balance between being able to work, study, and especially when you're a dual major? Well, if you work on campus, they are really awesome about working with your school schedule. So that's really awesome. If you have something that's really pressing, my supervisors understand if I need to take a day off or something, not necessarily work the schedule time. But it's really nice to have that on campus job. So I'm kind of on campus and at my job all the time, whether that's the student portion of my job of being a student or being a student employee. Wow. You take any time for yourself? I try to. What do you do? I like to work out. So I go run a little bit sometimes outside, outside runner, but I also do yoga a lot. So that's the part that's for me helps me kind of take a breath, take a break from the week, all of that kind of stuff. So I do that at the rec sometimes too. But I've done it on campus before with some of my co-workers. We do it in the oval sometimes. So that's a good time as well. Well, you're taking advantage of the full campus facility.

Oh, yeah. What about the rec center? Do you like that? Yeah. I think it's a valuable piece of pitch day. Oh, definitely. I think having that facility available to students is so essential. A lot of times when people think about people taking care of themselves, you know, you think about eating right or whatever. But I think having kind of an outlet, a physical outlet for students is really important to their overall mental wellness. So that helps them, I think, in classes, staying mentally focused as well. So the rec center is important. So let's go back to academics for a minute. Is there a course that has challenged you while you've been here? Or maybe two? What are some things that have challenged you academically? I would say one of the most challenging courses I've taken was my investments class. So that was focused more on the finance side of things. Just because that was, I had an overall all idea of what business looked like, but really focusing in on what the investments

and numbers side and stock markets, all of that sort of stuff. That was really challenging just because it wasn't anything that I'd really focused too intensely on before. But it was a very doable course, but very challenging as well. And I think the second course that I would say was across cultural communication class. So that focused more on how different people communicate to one another across cultural boundaries. So that was another thing I hadn't really thought of how people communicate based on what their cultural perspective is. So I got to work with some international students on some different group projects in that class. And definitely challenging to kind of break down some of those cultural barriers, but very rewarding once you do break down those barriers. That's great. You've had some challenging classes, but has there been somebody on campus that's influenced you that you feel connected with? It's made a difference.

I think Pitt State does a really good job of having a lot of faculty and staff who do that for a lot of different students. So Dr. Brocker and Dr. Van Wick are both of my advisors and they've been awesome. I think, like I said, I got a brag on Pitt State again, but they do an awesome job of having their faculty really available to students for any and all questions that they have, whether that be career choices or even course choices or is this the area of study that I really want to be in? So Dr. Brocker and Dr. Van Wick have been very helpful in that area, but also the people that I work with and for shout out to career services. Okay, leave out career services. David Hogard, Mindy Clawner, Kim Hole, Heather Bush, all of them, very influential, I think, in getting me prepared for the workforce, knowing how to work with people and being very motivational and encouraging, not only for me at work, but also in where I'm going after I graduate.

Fantastic. Is there anything that surprised you about going to college? Surprise me. I feel like I was a pretty confident person going into college, but you don't realize how much there's ups and downs and how much you change and develop as a person and how much more confident you can become. So I think that was pretty surprising to me because I thought I had it figured out before. Hey, if you could give some advice to a prospective college student that's considering Pitt State, what would you tell them about why they ought to come here? You should definitely come here for the community. A lot of colleges don't have that aspect, I don't think, but there's definitely a sort of family sort of feel I think that you get whenever you get onto the Pittsburgh State campus. You're automatically part of this kind of group and you have the support of the community as well. It's not just the college campus, but if you're wearing

your shirt around town, even around Kansas, you meet other gorillas and it's on automatic connection and I think that's something that's pretty unique. And that proves why you belong at Pittsburgh State University. Thank you for joining us for this segment of In the Jungle and I'm your host, Howard Smith.