University of Mississippi - Ole Miss Yearbook (Oxford, MS)

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CONGRATULATIONS. YOU CAME BACK TO SCHOOL Thousands upon thousands of students arrive on campus each fall, meaning a new year is underway once again. But with each new experience comes new faces, new goals and new expectadons of learning, in and outside the classroom. For freshman biology major Rachel Simpson, leaving home for the first dme was exciting, but it was harder for her parents than it was for her. My mom and dad cried, but I was ready to go, she said. While attending summer school, Simpson became very familiar with the campus and beUeves it really helped her adjust to the first week as a college student. There is definitely a lot more people, she said. It ' s better than high school because you get out earUer every day and have a lot more dme to do homework. She also likes the freedom of being more than five hours away from home. I like to be able to do whatever I want to do, she said. While Simpson adjusts to college, Kari GriUis is a seasoned senior preparing for the next phase of her life. I cannot wait to be finished with undergrad and have my oppormnity to go to graduate school, Grillis said. This year I want to enjoy my classes and enjoy what I ' m learning. Taking 18 hours of class, working three days a week and volunteering in the community, she expects this year to be a tough one. It ' s definitely going to be hard with the amount of work I ' m taking on, she said. But, I ' ll have dme to play when I ' m done. Right now, I ' m just focused with school and getdng into graduate school. Although GriUis has learned a lot from her classes, she also learned that college is all about the experience. It ' s a life experience, she said. I realized that there are a few things that really don ' t matter that you believe are so important your freshman year. She remembers being the nervousness she felt when spending her first night on the Square and dressing up for football games her freshman year. I sometimes would dress up, but there would be times that I would wear blue jeans, an Ole Miss sweatshirt and cowboy boots, she said. It doesn ' t matter and no one is going to think of you any differentiy. I learned to just let it go. As she looks at all the freshmen on campus this year, she said she feels a bit nostalgic. I cannot believe that I ' m finished with undergrad, she said. I ' m also amazed at how many freshmen are on campus this year. I look back and say, ' wow, ' I used to be one of them. It really brings back memories. While Grillis prepares for graduate school, Robert Reece still feels at home on campus. I ' m comfortable here, he said. I ' ve reached that point where it ' s like high school. When Reece began as a freshman, he didn ' t know anyone or have any friends. It took me a really long time to find my place here, he said. Reece spent the past four years working toward his bachelor ' s degree in sociology and has seen the campus change during what he caUs the university ' s perpetual state of construction. I know where all the buildings are, he said. It ' s a big thing when you can say you know where buildings used to be. Starting out in journalism, Reece quickly discovered a future in media was not for him after he took a sociology course. It kind of turned my world around, he said. He is now working on his master ' s degree in sociology, and says he prefers his seminar-style classes as opposed to undergraduate courses. Toward the end of my senior year at undergrad, I wasn ' t really getting anything out of the lecture anyway, he said. Everything they were teaching I knew from previous courses. There was no point. He also Ukes being surrounded by like-minded people. It ' s nice to be in a room where people actually think like me, he said. They recognize the things that I recognize and see the world the same way. However, he said there is an unexpected amount of work. I have friends who were in graduate school prior to my starting and they often talked about how much work it is, he said. I always thought they were exaggerating, but they ■(«i weren ' t exaggerating. I loiitl Reece hopes to refine his research and get published. I think that ' s my main goal, he said. Hopefully by this time next year I ' ll have two publications. And learn something along iBltsyl the way. Mpm For German professor Corina Petrescu, a new school year means a new opportunity to educate eager young minds. tth( She begins the first day of class with Gute Morgen. Wie geht es dir? and hands out the new syllabus for the semester. Although she greets the smdents with the same Good morning. How are you? in German each day of the school year and knows a few of the students from previous classes, she carefully explains each element of -26-

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TOP and TOP RIGHT Nancy Dupont holds one of the few items she was able to recover from her home ' s wreckage following Hurncane K.atrina: her father ' s graduation announcement from Ole Miss. ABOVE affle House Restaurant torn apart by Hurncane Katrina on the Biloxi, Miss. coastline. FAR LEFT Christina Thompson looks through photographs of her home in Pascagoula, Miss after Hurricane KCatrina. CENTER Onlv steps left after 2005 Hurricane Katrina on the Mississippi Gulf Coast

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the syllabus as students listen intently and ask questions in German. She repeats each answer slowly and uses objects to explain the point she is trying to convey. At the beginning of the school vear, there is a certain enthusiasm for students that are already interested in German, but in many cases there is some nervousness with the students who don ' t know their instructor, she said. As a professor of German film and 200-level German classes, Petrescu prepared early for this year ' s classes because she spent the summer in her home country of Romania. I start very early for each class because I want them to be as close to perfecdy planned, she said. It always works better during the summertime because there is more time during the break to prepare for classes. You always have a scenario in your head when you prepare for a class. As the semester continues, Petrescu said that a comfort level develops betv -een her and her smdents. I like their answers and they seem comfortable enough to address the issues, she said. They say what is on their mind even though it may not coincide uith what I think. 1 think it ' s good and I like the discussions. Her favorite part of teaching is watching students go out of their comfort zone and chaUenge themselves, even if it means saying something that will throw them off course. I just want to see their reactions and have them act it out, she said. I enjoy it when I see students do it themselves and they start thinking and pursue that farther than class time. story ELIZABETH PEARSON STAGEY WILLIAMS photos NICK TOCE ADDISON DENT -29-