In my first few weeks as a student ambassador I have learned so much about the school and its foundation that otherwise I would have never learned. For example I learned about how UAT started as a Computer-aided design or CAD institute in 1983.
For those of you who don’t know what CAD is allow me to explain a little, CAD is a computer technology that designs a product and documents the design's process CAD may facilitate the manufacturing process by transferring detailed diagrams of a product's materials, processes, tolerances and dimensions with specific conventions for the product in question. In other words it is a tool used by drafters, designers, architects and engineers. My point being UAT has been shaping great minds since day one, and it really shows when you look back at where the university started versus where it is now.
In my first few weeks as student ambassador I have also met so many nice people who work behind the scenes of UAT, from my awesome coworkers to all the friendly faces in the portal. I have truly felt welcomed into the UAT family and I really appreciate that. Even during tour training with Robert Walker, a heavily critiqued series of training sessions that's supposed to prepare student ambassadors for the worst case scenario tour. On paper this sounds really intense and scary but in actuality it was a light hearted and fun experience that involved me getting out of my shell a little bit.
Speaking of tours, I gave my first tour during our UATx this past weekend. UATx is even hosted here at UAT at least once every semester where prospective students or just interested people can come and really see what we are about here at UAT. Each major has activities set up for these people to try their hands in, as well as the opportunity for them to experience true campus life by staying overnight and participating in our clubs. As I had mentioned before this was my first UATx as a Student Ambassador, and I had the opportunity to give my first tours during UATx.
Giving tours was actually a lot of fun, in all honesty I was a little nervous leading into the tour. The nerves however subsided rather quickly after starting the tour, and I started to really just have a lot of fun with it. My favorite part of giving tours is seeing the excited looks on these students' faces. You can really tell what somebody is interested in during these tours when you enter specific rooms or bring up certain topics. For some students this is the New Technologies lab, Engineering lab, our 3D printers, and our CyberWarfare Range! All in all I gave 2 group tours over the course of UATx, and I had a blast doing so. If you haven't had the chance to check out UATx visit our events page to sign up for the next one or schedule a virtual tour via Discord.