Origin Story

Hello all,

When giving tours and talking to prospective students, you get asked a lot "Why did you chose UAT?" There are many ways to answer this especially after you start to attend the University. Choosing a college or university is not an easy thing to do. With all of the effort that you put into high school and the work that you've done to apply and research the school it becomes quite a difficult task. At least from what I hear it is.

When I was a Freshman in high school my sister was a senior graduating. My parents were pretty strict with her on how many schools she needed to find and apply for. She spent months and months looking for schools and trying to apply and narrow down her options. Her enthusiasm brushed off onto me and, despite only being a freshman, I started to look at colleges.  At this point in my life I had a general idea of what I wanted to do. I was stuck between being a video game music major or being an artist for video games. I knew for sure at this point that I loved playing video games and I would love being a part of their creation. When looking for schools that offered anything along the lines of creating video games, my choices were pretty limited. Not many colleges or universities are offering these specific kinds of degrees or really even know what they are. Along my search I came up with about 3 or 4 schools that looked pretty promising, UAT being among these.  When looking into the schools I found that the culture at UAT really fit in with my personality and views.

UAT sign

Around my senior year of high school I started to deeply look into the schools I had an interest in. My grandpa had gotten a winter home out in Mesa Arizona and invited me to come visit. While my mom and I were here in Arizona we decided to go check out UAT. At this time UAT was my first choice in schools. There was something about UAT that still to this day I can't put a finger on that drew me in. I had a gut feeling that this school would be perfect for me. After taking a tour of the University, my mom had agreed that this was a great choice. What I had seen during the tour convinced me that the community here at UAT is very welcoming and a very team building focused community. I choose this school because I knew I could learn a lot about not only my skills but the skills of the people I was soon going to work with. Unlike the other colleges and universities I  visited and looked at I knew that attending this school meant that I wasn't going to be a number and I wouldn't be just competition to the other students. I knew that I would be able to get to know my professors and be honest with them about my struggles and successes.

I always enjoy sharing not only this story but another that comforts and puts a lot of parents and future students at ease. All throughout my life, I have never had friends who were interested in the same material that I was. They never had the same interest in video games that I did, and they never saw what I saw in games. Coming to UAT was like a breathe of fresh air. On my first day here at UAT I was really nervous going to the cafe for lunch. I was nervous because I was a freshman girl at a mainly male college who had no friends coming in. My worries were put to ease when I sat down alone. A guy at another table saw me sit alone and asked me to join him. I was a little skeptical but when I sat down with him, we had the most amazing conversation I had ever had. For the first time in my life I had met someone who enjoyed a game as thoroughly as I did. We end up having a deep conversation about the game The Last of Us.  What surprised me even more was that at the end of the orientation I met some of my great friends to this day. Now having only 2 more semesters left we have formed a giant family of nerds. Below are some of my favorite moments with my UAT family and my time here at UAT.

Phoenix Zoo 2013

                                                                                                           Phoenix Comic-con 2014

 

Anime Expo 2014

Thanksgiving 2014

Saying goodbye to a great professor 2014

Celebrating Birthdays with the Family 2015

The Great Family Bowling event 2015

Over the years of being here at UAT I have had some of the best moments of my life. I have meet the most amazing people who I consider family. I feel honored to have been able to work with the amazing professors that we have here.

That's all for today,

Karina

Posted on Jan 21, 2016 4:07:39 PM by Admin in Blogs, in student story, in UAT

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