Curtis Westbay
Edwin Day
Jennifer GunterMr. Edwin Day
What is your undergraduate alma mater and where is it?
My undergraduate alma mater is UC Berkeley, and it's located in Berkeley, California, which is part of the overall San Francisco Bay Area.
Why did you choose to go there?
Three reasons:
- As a lifelong California resident, I always knew I was going to go to a UC to take advantage of the highly reduced tuition expense. The only question was which UC, not if UC. When I applied to colleges, I only ever applied to the UCs.
- I was also pretty sure in high school that I was going to study business or economics, and Berkeley had a well-known business program.
- Of all the UC's, Berkeley was the closest UC to my hometown of San Jose, California. At just under an hour's drive to Berkeley from the house I grew up in, it was "far away enough" without it being "too far away." What this really means is that I was far enough away from my parents to not have to listen to them, but could still bring my loads of dirty laundry home on weekends where, somehow, they magically got washed and folded.
What was your favorite thing about that school?
The football games.
What would you change if you could do it again? Would you go to a different school? Study a different major?
I love my alma mater and wouldn't want to go to a different school. However, upon reflection of my academic experience there, I do believe that a business major in many ways is just glorified vocational schooling. If I could do it all over again, I would probably have pursued a second major in addition to business, or at least added a minor, to add to and round out that once in a lifetime academic experience known as college.
What makes you proud to be an alumnus or alumna of this school?
Well, while I was at Berkeley, our football team was consistently ranked in the top 5, with now NFL talents like Aaron Rodgers, Marshawn Lynch, Desean Jackson suiting up every Saturday for the California Golden Bears. So, if I was asked this question during college and for a few years after, I would have said our football team.
Like many things in life, however, college football is cyclical (unless you're Alabama I suppose). So while I still support and cheer for Berkeley's sports teams, win or lose, and I always will, the recent success (or lack thereof) of our football team isn't something to be directly proud of....for now...unless we're talking about moral victories like our athletes having higher GPAs, they almost/should've beaten Ohio State that one time they played in Columbus were it not for an out-of-bounds toe, even though our win/loss record wasn't great our quarterback was still the #1 pick in the NFL draft,...etc. etc.
But at least we beat the University of Texas in recent years. TWICE.
So I guess pride runs deeper than that. Football is an extension or physical representation of why I am really proud to have attended there. Having been born and raised in California, and spending time in its two major cities SF & LA, I consider myself a true "son of California." With UC Berkeley being California's flagship public university, I guess there's a sense of belonging/identity and appreciation (we are original Californians! Yay!) that wouldn't be there had I attended a private school or an out-of-state public university.
Whenever the Olympics are on, we all watch and feel pride when our countrymen win medals. It is that same kind of pride I feel when I watch UC Berkeley compete, whether academically or athletically (but mostly athletically, even though I did become that annoying trash talker when it came down to Berkeley vs. Stanford on college Jeopardy some years ago....which Berkeley won btw), and college football is probably just the highest profile event for when you have your tribe fight for us against them.
Ms. Jennifer Gunter
What is your undergraduate alma mater and where is it?
I went to the University of Guelph. It's in Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
Why did you choose to go there?
There were many reasons. I wanted to go to a school near Toronto but not one in Toronto. I am from a small town, so I wanted a city but not a huge city. Also, I had stayed in the residences at the University of Guelph when I was 16 and really like the school - it had the old time charm that I was looking for - a beautiful campus with lots of nature, but it also had top notch athletic facilities. At that time, I was being recruited by schools for ice hockey, so a good hockey program was a big part of my choice. Lastly, Guelph was highly rated for liberal arts courses, so I felt proud to be accepted there.
What was your favorite thing about that school?
So many things! I loved residence life. It was a lot of fun. I loved the campus. It's a beautiful place. The school was full of new ideas and independence. I was eager to immerse myself in trying new things, meeting new people, and playing sports. I guess, overall, that the thing I love most about the school was the atmosphere - it was an exciting place to be.
What would you change if you could do it again? Would you go to a different school? Study a different major?
I would go to the same school. Perhaps I would do a double major - maybe Business Studies and English. I think that would have given me more multi-faceted skills.
What makes you proud to be an alumnus or alumna of this school?
I am proud to say I went to this school. The school has a good reputation and does a great job of creating lasting memories for their students. Whenever I meet a Guelph alumni, we always talk about what a great time we had at Guelph.
Mr. Curtis Westbay
What is your undergraduate alma mater and where is it?
Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri, USA
Why did you choose to go there?
Honestly, my high school classmate was applying, so I did too. I wasn't very interested in college when I was in high school. It was reasonably close to home, my friend was a smart guy, and he seemed to know what he was doing.
What was your favorite thing about that school?
It turned out to be a very happen accident that I ended up at Truman, because I loved so much about it. The classes were small and the teachers cared about their students. In the Classics department, our professors planned yearly events that we would always look forward to, like holiday parties, Greek and Latin recitation events, and research presentations. Some of the social events would take place in faculty homes, and I felt like I was part of their families in many ways. My undergraduate advisor (and my favorite professor) and I still keep in touch, and I look forward to the email she sends me every year with the subject line "Felix Dies Natalis!"ā "Happy Birthday!" She retired years ago, and she still cares enough to stay in contact with me.
What would you change if you could do it again? Would you go to a different school? Study a different major?
I would probably go to the same school, but that's not to say that there aren't many other schools that would give me the same feeling. I love my majorā Classicsā but were I to do it all over again, I would want to major in Chemistry or Computer Science. I had a friend from another BASIS school who taught Chemistry, and he opened my eyes to how fascinating it can be. I started digging into it, and he recommended a book called "The Disappearing Spoon" by Sam Keane. It became one of my favorite books, one of the few books I have read over and over again. Chemistry is just really interesting to me. Computer Science also has an appeal because I can't seem to go more than a month without finding some coding problem that I wish I could overcome. I am lucky to live in a time when so many people are willing to share their open source materials to create a community of learners, but it would have been nice to learn Computer Science in college, too.
What makes you proud to be an alumnus or alumna of this school?
Truman is a school that prides itself on a commitment to undergraduatesā with around 6,000 undergraduates, there are hardly a few hundred graduates students who attend classes in Kirksville. It's not the kind of place that goes through the motions (it's not a diploma mill) and it's not the kind of place where students can be anonymous in a cavernous lecture hall.
I was proud to go to Truman because it was challenging, and by earning my degree from thereā a school where I had to engage in discussions, take difficult exams, read and analyze challenging texts and scholarly articles, and produce original researchā I learned what I was capable of.