Monday, August 26, 2019

Summer Sign-Off

Welcome to the last blog from this year’s summer guides! I hope you all
have enjoyed hearing what we have to say, and we’ve really appreciated
you reading. For this last blog, each of us will write about what we’re looking
forward to this upcoming year at UVa. Please feel free to reach out to any of
us with questions about school, Charlottesville, or anything UVa! 

Abby
I’ll be working with Athletics Marketing for the Football, Field Hockey,
and Men’s and Women’s Lacrosse teams this year. UVa offers lots of
internships for students, and great opportunities for learning about careers. 

Alex 
This year, Alex is living in a house with all friends from her first year at
UVa. After your first year, you are free to live off-Grounds, so they’ve
chosen a great house close to UVa. 

Isaiah 
At the end of your second year at UVa, it’s time to declare your major. Isaiah
is entering his second year, and will be declaring majors in Sociology and
African & African American Studies soon. 
Lily
Lily is in our interdisciplinary American Studies major, and she is looking
at graduate programs in American Studies and History. Many students from
UVa choose to apply to grad school, and Lily is one of them!
Maddie 
Maddie will be studying abroad at Regent’s University in London as an
Upperclassmen mentor with UVa’s London First program. The program
allows first year students to study abroad before they get to UVa, and
Maddie will be there helping them all learn about college life!
Sabrina
Sabrina is starting a new job at Urban Outfitters in the Downtown Mall.
The Mall is a great place to work since there’s always so much going on and
it’s really close to UVa. Plus, employee discount!
Sam
Sam is majoring in Political Philosophy, Policy, and Law in the Batten School
of Leadership and Public Policy. This major requires an application at the end
of your second year, so Sam will be starting coursework this fall after having
been accepted in the spring. 
Stefan 
Stefan will be an RA this year! RA’s help first-year students adjust to life at UVa,
create community within dorms, and just make all of the students feel more at home. 
Will 
Will is studying abroad in Valencia, Spain for an entire year! He will be working
on classes for his Spanish and Media Studies majors, and traveling around Europe.
Will is one of only a few students who will study abroad for two semesters, and it
is a great opportunity to travel and learn more about
You-Jin 
You-Jin works at our Career Center at UVa, and she is excited to keep working there
up and into this year. 

Thanks again for keeping up with all of us this summer! I’ve loved writing the blogs
every week, and feel free to email me at ars4qj@virginia.edu with any UVa questions.
Have a great year and Wahoowa!
Signing off, 
Abby S. 

Friday, August 16, 2019

The Ultimate UVa Packing List

Hi all! Since summer is coming to an end soon, we wanted to help you all get
ready for school starting in just a week!! When you come to college you’ll
probably remember all the standard stuff: sheets, clothes, school supplies, and all
that. Today, we’ve gathered a list of what we loved having in our first year at UVa,
or things we wish we’d had! 

Alex - String Lights
You’ve all seen it - the dorm on Pinterest with the pretty twinkly lights surrounding
the room. They’re cute decorations, but they’re functional too! Dorm rooms have
bright fluorescent lights, and those aren’t always great if you’re just trying to relax.
The string lights are really pretty decorations, but they can also make your dorm
feel a lot more like home. 

Mint plant - via Goodhousekeeping.com.
Lily - Mint or Basil Plant
Plants can brighten up the space, and they’re a lot of fun to take care of. When
you have an herb plant, you can eat the leaves! Grab some lemonade from the
dining hall and drop in a few mint leaves for a delicious and fun dorm room
snack. 

Will - Husband pillow
These comfy pillows - via Target.com.
AMAZING for lounging about. Your dorm is probably smaller than your room
at home, so you can really only use your bed or desk to sit. This pillow can
make that a lot more comfortable. Whether you put it behind your bed or in your
desk chair, this pillow is your friend. 

Associate Dean Jeanine Lalonde - Shower Shoes and Caddy 
Sharing a shower with strangers is a fun new adventure you get to experience in
college, so make sure you bring these items! They can make sharing a shower
easier, and cleaner. 

Maddie - Good pillow and mattress cover
On top of extra pillows, you need a solid pillow to sleep on. It’ll help you sleep
better, and feel better. A mattress topper of cover can be great as well, those are
like giant pillows that cover your entire mattress. You can find foam covers, down
covers, and even memory foam toppers, all of which make your mattress feel a
lot more comfy every night. 
I would DIVE into that bed - via Dormco.com.

Abby - Laundry Supplies
Doing your own laundry requires bringing in your own detergent, but laundry
is so much more than that. A lot of times, your clothes can get wrinkled and messy
on the trip to college, and stuffed away in drawers all the time. To help, bring some
Downy Wrinkle Releaser and a stain remover stick! It can be great to help if you
need to get a shirt unwrinkled fast, or you spill dining hall ice cream on your pants.
Make sure you’re always prepared, and you’ll feel great with clean clothes. 

Admissions Counselor Tim Kimble - Bed risers 
Having a lofted bed can give you a huge amount of space. Most of the beds at UVa
will be built so that you can loft them however you want, but having bed risers can
be really helpful if you don’t have one of those beds, or just because they’re easier
to use. 

The UVa Bookstore (above) is the place to find your UVa gear -
via arts.virginia.edu. 
The Whole Gang - All your UVa Gear
You’re finally here! Now is the time to wear all your shirts, put up your posters, don
your foam fingers and celebrate being a Hoo!

Thanks for reading, everyone! Hopefully this was a helpful list in what you’ll need
coming to school. Feel free to email us or shoot a message to @uva_summer on
Instagram with any questions. Check back next week for the (gasp) FINAL blog
from your summer guides!
Signing off,

Abby S.

Monday, August 5, 2019

Cheering on the Hoos: Virginia Sports

Happy Monday, Hoos! Today, we’re covering one of my favorite topics,
sports. UVa is an NCAA Division 1 Varsity School, and we have 27 Varsity
programs, including two who are national champions. Since most of us are
not varsity athletes, this blog will tell you everything you need to know to be
a Virginia fan.

The Virginia Cavaliers
Our school colors here are blue and orange, and on game day, you’ll see them
everywhere. People will wear shirts, pants, dresses, shoes, hats, bags, jackets,
and EVERYTHING navy and orange to our games. Our mascot is a Cavalier,
a soldier (complete with a sword and a tri-tipped hat) riding into battle on a horse.
We call our mascot “CavMan,” and he is played by students across the University,
and attends most of our sports games. At our football games, we even have a real-
life Cavalier come out of the athlete entrance and ride around the stadium. 
Cavaliers are our mascot, but we also call ourselves the “Hoos,” or the “Wahoos.”
Though we don’t quite know the origin of the name, we think it comes from when
Virginia rivals called our fans “just a bunch of Wahoos,” and we took that name
and ran with it. When you come to one of our games, you’ll hear people cheering
out for both the Cavaliers and the Hoos, but they’re all cheering for Virginia!
CavMan in action - via news.virginia.edu. 
The real CavMan - via Twitter (#cavman).

Student Tickets
At UVa, every single varsity home game has free admission for students. YES.
This means all games, all sports, are all free. You get to sit in what we call the
student section, which are groups of seats especially for students of the University.
This means you’ll get to be surrounded by other UVa fans, and by your friends!
At most games, all you have to do is show up with your student ID, swipe it, and
you’re in. The only exception to this rule is our Men’s Basketball team, and those
tickets are still free, but due to limited seating at John Paul Jones Arena, there’s a
lottery system for tickets.
Student Section - via virginiasports.com.
To get to Men’s Basketball games, you enter online that you would like a ticket,
and then wait and see what happens. BUT, there is an easy way to increase your
odds of getting a ticket: earning what we call Sabre Points. When you go to any
sports game outside of Men’s Bball, you accumulate these Sabre Points on your
Virginia Sports online account. Every football game earns you five points, while
other sports can earn you even more. The more points you have, the more likely
you are to get a ticket. On top of that, if you have more points, you get to enter
JPJ earlier. Basically the more games you go to, the more likely you are to get a
really got seat to see our basketball team.

Not at School?
There are plenty of ways to keep up with the Hoos if you’re not at school, or if
you’re a prospective student and not at UVa yet. Our student news outlet WUVA
will have footage and recaps online, including footage of all games and of the
student sections. The Cavalier Daily, our daily student newspaper, will also report
scores and recaps the next day. Outside of UVa’s student publications, there are
plenty of national news sources to watch on! UVa’s Athletic Conference, the ACC
(Atlantic Coastal Conference), is about to get its own network in September 2019.
The ACC Network (ACCN) is an ESPN affiliate and will cover all sports games
across the conference. This includes Virginia’s games! Be sure to check out if your
cable provider is offering the ACCN when it launches later this year. 
ACCN affiliates - via Clemsonsports.com. 

Why sports?
I said earlier that this was one of my favorite things about being a student at UVa.
Sports have always been important to me, whether I was playing sports as a kid or
watching football with my family (go Ravens CAW). Coming to UVa, sports can be
a great way to bond with your friends and to meet new people who are interested in
the same things as you. You can cheer with the whole school at our bigger games like
Men’s Basketball and Football, or you can explore allthe cool sports we have here and
view a swim meet, a lacrosse game (with our ACC and NCAA National Championship
winning Men’s Team), or explore from one of our many 27 NCAA programs. Sports
can be a great way to come together, rock your orange and navy, and cheer on your team
and your friends.
Student Section for UVa Football. 

UVa the night of the Men’s Basketball NCAA Championship win, 2019. 

Sports are a fantastic part of UVa, and they really bring us all together. When you
come to UVa, make sure to catch some of our sports games, and have fun cheering
on the Hoos!
Signing of, 

Abby S.

Friday, August 2, 2019

UVa Traditions and Lingo

Happy last day of Back to School Week, readers! In this blog, we’re covering
one of the most important things you’ll encounter coming to UVa: why is
everyone saying these weird words? At UVa, we have almost our own language
of words and terms that we say to each other. We want to share that lingo with you
so that you’re prepared to walk and talk like a Wahoo from day one!

The Big Ones
Wahoo: A Wahoo or Hoo is sort of our unofficial mascot, originating from when
opponents of UVa called Virginia fans “a bunch of Wahoos.” We took ownership
of the term, and still use it all over “Hooville” (UVa) today!
Grounds: Grounds is our fancy word for campus! 
Academical Village: The original design of UVa! Made up of the Rotunda, ten
Pavilions, and 54 Lawn Rooms, the Academical Village is the part of UVa that
was designed by Thomas Jefferson.
 
Academical Village and Lawn at UVa - via C-ville.com. 
The Lawn: The Lawn is the central part of UVa, which is made up of the original
design of the University. This is the green space between the buildings of the
Academical Village, and is essentially UVa’s “quad.”
Lawnie: Refers to the fourth-year students who live in the original Lawn Rooms
on Grounds. 
First, Second. Third, and Fourth-Year: We say this instead of freshman,
sophomore, junior, and senior. This is to refer to the idea that learning never ends
even after you leave the University, and that you are merely in your fourth-year. 
The College: UVa’s College of Arts and Sciences, containing most of our majors,
and students!
Map of Central Grounds at UVa - via virginia.edu.
Comm School: The McIntire School of Commerce, which is UVa’s undergraduate
business program. It is referred to as the Comm School instead of business because
the Darden Graduate School of Business was here first, and claimed the title of
business school at UVa.
A-School: UVa’s School of Art and Architecture.
E-School: UVa’s School of Applied Sciences and Engineering.
Curry: The Curry School of Education at UVa. 

Places Around Grounds
The Corner: The strip of restaurants and shops on University Ave., right behind
the Rotunda. This is where students spend a lot of their time outside of class to hang
out with friends, get food, or watch our sports teams during away games.
The Corner at night - via Charlottesville Guide. 
AFC: The Aquatics and Fitness Center, one of the main gyms at UVa, with a full
50 meter pool and the largest hot tub East of the Mississippi.
Mem Gym: Memorial Gymnasium, the oldest gym on Grounds!
JPJ: John Paul Jones Arena, where UVa’s basketball teams, including our NCAA
and ACC National Championship winning Men’s Basketball Team, play.
Our Championship winning team - via Roanoke.com. 
Old Dorms: The first-year dorms on McCormick Road.
New Dorms: The first-year dorms on Alderman Road. Read more about our dorms
in the last two blog entries: On-Grounds Housing - First Year and Beyond parts one
and two!

Other Fun Ones
The Good Old Song: Our school song! After we score at football games, after big
wins, or whenever Wahoos come together, we all link arms and sing out the Good
Old Song together. The words are easy to remember, and it won’t be long before you
know them all!
Fans cheering and singing at a football game - via virginiasports.com.
SIS: The Student Information System, the website where UVa students can enroll
for courses, check their financial aid, and handle other student tasks.
Collab: Another website for UVa students, but this one with course resources Here
you can upload papers, find your class syllabi, and look at anything else you may
need for class, including your grade!
CIOs: Our term for clubs. It stands for Contracted Independent Organizations, which
is to signify that all of our clubs here are started by students, run by students, and
funded by student council. 
Beta Bridge’s many layers of paint - via UVa Today.
Beta Bridge: A bridge on Rugby Road where students are allowed to paint
messages! You’ll see messages informing people of upcoming events on Grounds,
elections, or of big milestones for UVa and our CIOs. 

We hope this guide will help you feel a little more at home here at UVa! As always,
let us know if you have any questions at all. We’ll see you back at Hoostories next
week, but until then!
Signing off, 
Abby S.