As classes begin, students plan out the rest of their semester and might have some courses they are very interested in. Recent buzz about the switch from UTSA to UT San Antonio brings mixed feelings to students. However, UT San Antonio is not the only thing getting attention as people debate on Belly’s choice between Jeremiah and Conrad in the latest season of “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” with the season finale around the corner.
- What are your hopes and goals for this semester?
The common theme of Roadrunners’ hopes and goals is their concern with academics, social life and a healthy balance between both.
Sophomore and cybersecurity major Diego Hernandez says he wishes to be better at time management and strive further academically than last semester.
“Hopefully get a chance to apply to an internship and hopefully get accepted,” Hernandez mentions. “For cybersecurity, maybe even physics. I enjoy quantum physics and science in my free time, or any sort of tech company.”
“I wanted to join a lot of organizations that aligned with my major, and I also wanted to make new friends,” junior accounting major Ameerah Babs-Kazeem says.
Freshman criminology major Calie Brones wants “To have insight to what the hell I’m going for in order to be a detective.”
- What class are you most excited for? Why?
UT San Antonio is a diverse campus with psychology majors taking an interest in environmental science, cybersecurity majors dabbling in physics and others taking paths more aligned with their majors.
“I’m excited for my environmental science class because I like to learn about ways to help the environment,” freshman psychology major Arely Lozano says.
“My atomic mass studies. It’s because I’ve always been a huge fan of atoms and the idea that we don’t know what’s here on Earth,” Hernandez says. “We’re standing on atoms, we are atoms, they’re everywhere.”
“My intro to health professions class because I want to go into medicine, and I want to learn about health professions,” Marilyn Llamas, a freshman pre-med biology major, says.
- What are your thoughts on the switch from UTSA to UT San Antonio?
A recent hot topic is the merger between UTSA and UT Health San Antonio, approved by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges to form UT San Antonio. This is more than just a rebrand, merging two previously separate schools under the UT system to become one school serving the San Antonio community.
Llamas notes that it “expands the university more.” Babs-Kazeem says it is something “we have to get used to.” Students certainly agree UT San Antonio is a mouthful, and UTSA rolls off the tongue better. After all, is UTSA not still the same abbreviation?
Hernandez is a piccolo player in the Spirit of San Antonio marching band, so he is used to the allure of chanting “UTSA.”
“I did like UTSA; it had a ring to it,” Hernandez says. “I’m in SOSA so we’re always like, ‘U- T- S-A’ I feel like UT San Antonio is like UT Austin: when it comes to branding and business, it’s something more formal. When you think of ‘UTSA,’ you think it’s a college. When I think of ‘UTSA,’ I think of the marching band — more hype. UT San Antonio, it reminds me of UT Austin. You’re going there and getting a good program and good education. You’re not only going and having fun.”
- Team Jeremiah or team Conrad?
As the television series “The Summer I Turned Pretty” comes to a close, the stakes are an all time high. Belly has to choose between two boys, and the viewers are divided between team Jeremiah or team Conrad.
“Conrad! He’s number one. Jeremiah, he’s kind of immature; I feel like Conrad is more mature,” Brones says.
“Team Conrad. Jeremiah is a cheater. We don’t tolerate cheaters here,” Lozano says. Although she does not watch the show, Llamas notes, “I’m team Conrad because I’ve heard the other guy is a cheater.”
“What is that? I don’t know what that is. I’ll have to say Conrad,” Hernandez says. “Conrad, just because,” Babs-Kazeem says.
Whether students are excited for their incoming classes, thinking of new goals or discussing the implications of the UT San Antonio rebrand or binging three seasons of an Amazon Prime Video series, there is space for everybody to choose what they enjoy and enter a new phase of life with a quick rebrand.
Have a question and want it answered by UT San Antonio students? Email them to the editor at [email protected]. We want to hear from you.
