Goodbye Ulster – Hello Potsdam!

I attended SUNY Ulster Fall 2011-Fall 2013 before transferring to SUNY Potsdam. At Ulster I figured out what I wanted to do and I truly grew as a person. The opportunities I was given at Ulster and the environment there helped me pursue my education further.

As someone who did not know exactly what I wanted to do I tried out different classes at Ulster before transferring to SUNY Potsdam and am studying sociology and political science. I’m about to start my third semester at Potsdam.

Since entering Potsdam I have taken on many leadership roles. I’m on electoral board for Four College Hillel, have attended student leadership conferences, accepted to go to the American Association of University Women leadership conference, participate in SUNY Potsdam’s student government association’s Senate and am on constitution committee.

To be honest, my first semester was tough. I knew two people who also went to Ulster but were not close friends. My now fiancé transferred a semester before me from Ulster to Clarkson University which is in the same town as SUNY Potsdam so I clung to the friend group he already made but they weren’t people on my campus which still made it to be a difficult transition. My roommate was never in our dorm because she had a loaded class schedule, extracurricular activities and a group of friends. She was nice but we never became friends. I spent most of my first semester alone in my dorm drawing and watching Netflix, in the library doing homework, at Clarkson with my fiancé and his friends or in the common room on my dorm floor doing yoga. I ate almost all of my meals alone in the dining hall or student union. I hated the transition and isolation.

To my surprise, I made a solid group of friends at Ulster and we all went to different colleges and a lot of them told me they felt the same way their first semester after transferring but it would get better. After about a month of feeling completely isolated and alone on my campus I started to make one or two friends from my classes but we never did anything but study together or grab coffee. It was a start though. I walked into a Hillel meeting and automatically felt welcomed and continued to go and now hold an E-board spot as treasurer. One of the friends who transferred before me to Potsdam invited me to campus activities and to dinners with his girlfriend who also attended Ulster and now attends Potsdam. She and I hit it off really well and is now my housemate during the academic year and we hang out when we’re home on break. By the end of my first semester I started to feel more comfortable with the people and atmosphere on campus.

I fell head over heels in love with the sociology department and political science department. I applied for conferences and leadership opportunities and got almost every single one. My second semester was Fall 2014 and I went up a week early for the student leadership conference and welcome weekend, I got a job at the daycare center and took 18 credits. I started the semester strong and ended it stronger. This semester I’m looking forward to new leadership roles, all my classes being sociology and political science, finishing up my application to study abroad in Croatia, landing an internship at Child Protective Services over the summer in Kingston, getting to go to Canada with friends since Potsdam is twenty minutes from the boarder and finishing my junior year strong.