Major Biology
Why did you apply to be on homecoming court?
I got an email from the race director, I work with her on Rider’s Council, and she was like “Hey, I think this would be a great opportunity.” And I thought why not? It’d be a great chance to represent IU and stand on the football field.
What’s your favorite homecoming activity?
I’ve enjoyed the parade in year’s past. I think it’s always fun seeing the different bikers, like Sig Ep or Rider’s Council people roll through. So seeing the bikers and seeing them follow everybody in, just the whole procession of it all.
What’s your favorite IU memory?
Last year during the Little 500, just standing, watching them sing “Back Home Again in Indiana” and right at the end they release, like, thousands of balloons up in the sky. So stands are packed, “Back Home Again in Indiana”, the balloon release, it’s just that specific, but Little 500 overall is just great.
What was your most rewarding moment at IU?
There’s been a lot of good experiences and moments and to say one is more than another is tough. I have to go back to Little 500. Just getting to ride in it and we didn’t do as well as we wanted to but, of course 32 teams will say they didn’t do as well because they want to be the one that won, but even just getting to ride and do it. And last year my brother was on the steering committee and so he’s standing on the stage in the middle and every time I’d come around I’d hear his voice just cheering and going and that kind of helped me keep going. Even though we didn’t win, just getting to participate in that and just stepping away and realizing that race has been happening since 1951, 1952. Just a small blip in it’s history.
Major Marketing and Professional Sales, minor in Spanish
Why did you apply to be on homecoming court?
I applied for homecoming court to hopefully bring awareness to my peer group and those around me that the IU Alumni Association is a very powerful resource to take advantage of both as a student and a soon-to-be alum. So I know that, as a senior, I’m about to graduate and go out into the real world and I know how powerful the word alumni can be. So I felt that I could get a glimpse of that exposure through being a part of homecoming court.
What’s your favorite homecoming activity?
My favorite activity is definitely the parade. It just brings a lot of energy to the city of Bloomington, to the campus. I think everybody kind of gets together and brings a lot of energy to the floats and to the different community groups and campus groups that are part of the parade so it’s a great time.
What’s your favorite IU memory?
I think my role as an R.A. I have had the privilege of getting to meet several hundred students that have gone through living on campus and have been able to get to know them and they’ve gotten to know me. And from that I have just been able to be a much better individual and wore that with a lot of pride.
What was your most rewarding moment at IU?
I would say being able to just be a part of a variety of different organizations in the Kelley School of Business, the Office of Scholarships, through residential Programs and Services. I can’t really narrow it down to one, but just the wide range of experience that I’ve been able to get from my range of involvement.
Major Management and Sustainable Business
Why did you apply to be on homecoming court?
It’s my senior year and I said, “You know what, try something new.” It’s something that I’d never really considered and, up until last year, I didn’t really know much about homecoming to be honest. I just thought it’s senior year and it’s time for me to make the most of the year. And homecoming is a time where Hoosiers from all around the country, all around the world come home. It’s a chance to really kind of culminate your whole college experience into one event.
What’s your favorite homecoming activity?
The game because I think the game is what everybody associates with IU, with the sports. It just brings back all of those memories of tailgating or hanging out with friends and interacting with people. So the football game is more than just a game, it brings back all of those memories.
What’s your favorite IU memory?
The day I figured out I was going to be an R.A. I got the email and that day kind of confirmed for me that this is the beginning, the true beginning, of being able to expand the impact tenfold of making it more so than I ever thought possible.
What was your most rewarding moment at IU?
My first year as an R.A. I had a resident that struggled with mental health issues and she had always issued with that since high school and hated college. She didn’t want to be here. She hadn’t told this to a single person all year, so one night she went to my room and she was sobbing and she wanted to go home. That night I got her talking about something she was passionate about, which was Disney, which is a shared interest. So this girl who had connected with anybody all year, she dominated this conversation and was talking all about Disney and her connections and the rewarding part happened afterwards. We were walking back to her room and I had two male residents sitting in our lounge area and an empty aquarium. She pointed at the tank and looked at the two boys and said, “We should get some fish.” And it was one sentence, just one interaction, but that was my most rewarding experience ever because in that moment I was reminded why I wanted to be an R.A. in the first place. Because you get to impact people in a way that’s very unique to that position. You never know how far reaching your impact can be. Your words, your actions. In that moment, I think I had shown her something that she had forgotten about herself which is that ability to find something she’s passionate about. To talk to people, to interact, and it was inspiring to watch.
Major Finance
Why did you apply to be on homecoming court?
First, I found out about it sophomore year in one of my professor’s classes, he’s actually one of the judges, Professor Craft talked about it. But I felt like being on the homecoming court would be a really cool platform especially just within the community of Bloomington. Getting to be in the parade and getting to be on the field, just kind of having a platform for younger kids to look up to and to be able to spread love and just to be a smiling face and a representative of IU. I thought it was a really unique opportunity.
What’s your favorite homecoming activity?
I love the tailgate. It’s such a tradition of IU in general how everyone’s families come into town and you can all just cook out together and have a community before the game.
What’s your favorite IU memory?
Me and my friends all went caving together, went spelunking, in the Bloomington area and just got off campus, put on our head lamps and swim trunks and went and explored the caves together. We just explored the nature side of Bloomington. That’s one of my favorite memories.
What was your most rewarding moment at IU?
It’s hard to say just a moment, but just getting to invest in our underclassmen and see in people who are younger than me who I have been able to mentor grow and become better people and understand life better and have a better perspective on their life and their future. It’s been a rewarding thing for me, just watching people grow and watching people become better people as they get older. IU has been really rewarding just watching people improve and get older.
Major Law and Public Policy
Why did you apply to be on homecoming court?
This is my third year on IU’s Homecoming Court and I really love representing the University because IU has given me a lot and I like to think that, in my time at the University, I’ve given as much as I can. I love serving on homecoming court because I get to meet all of these great students who have done the same and truly express to the community how much I really love this university.
What’s your favorite homecoming activity?
The parade. I work with the city, and county as well as IU so I really like seeing the Bloomington community and the IU community come together to cheer on the team. Too often I think there’s a divide there and I like how the parade brings us together.
What’s your favorite IU memory?
It would definitely be working with student governments to get reforms passed to help the LGBT community here, specifically in regards to allowing transgender students to put their preferred name on their ID rather than their legal name. That was a great initiative that a lot of people worked on and the fact that it was implemented and made IU better for those students means the world.
What was your most rewarding moment at IU?
It would be when I met students who were affected by that action and they were so much happier and they felt more secure and safe at the University because of it. Just that fact that we made someone’s life better by passing those reforms, it really meant a lot.
Major Business Management and Marketing, International Business
Why did you apply to be on homecoming court?
I applied because one of my friends sent me the link and I was an orientation leader over the summer and so our Twitter account, the First Year Experiences, kept retweeting it and my friend was like “Yeah, you should apply. You could potentially make it on there.” So I just thought okay and applied just to see what would happen and I’m excited that I got on.
What’s your favorite homecoming activity?
Probably the parade.
What’s your favorite IU memory?
During Traditions and Spirits this past year, I got to shoot the T-shirt cannon into the incoming class and that was really fun. It was so much fun.
What was your most rewarding moment at IU?
I would say, as an orientation leader, at the beginning of the day, one of the students came up to me and she said, “Yeah, so I’m basing my opinion of IU off of today so I’ll let you know how it goes.” So inside I was freaking out because it’s all on me, but at the end of the day she found me at Late Night and she told me that she was going to stay at IU and give it a shot. I was excited because my orientation leader did that for me and so that was my goal to do it for someone else as well.
