The winter issue of UWyo Magazine highlights the University of Wyoming’s efforts to
increase student success through experiential learning.
“At the University of Wyoming, we believe education is most powerful when it extends
beyond the classroom -- when students have opportunities to apply theory to practice,
discover new knowledge, and engage directly with the challenges and possibilities
of the world around them,” says UW President Ed Seidel. “This commitment to hands-on,
experiential learning is a distinguishing feature of UW, and we’re continually working
to become even stronger in this area.”
UW sets itself apart in multiple areas, including funded undergraduate research opportunities
such as the Wyoming Research Scholars Program, which pairs faculty mentors with students
as early as their freshman year. The students then design and carry out their own
research projects.
This issue of UWyo Magazine tells the stories of several such undergraduate researchers,
including Alexina Birkholz, of Sheridan, who is mentored by Department of Physics
and Astronomy Professor Chip Kobulnicky. Birkholz, now a senior, is double majoring
in physics, plus astronomy and astrophysics, with minors in mathematics and honors.
“I decided around sixth grade that I wanted to be an astronomer,” she says. “By the
time I started UW, I knew I wanted to either study black holes or exoplanets.”
Thanks to UW’s incredible undergraduate research opportunities, Birkholz is doing
just that as part of the Red Buttes Observatory team, which operates a 0.6-meter telescope
10 minutes southeast of Laramie.
UW also prepares students for the workforce through internships. Anatoliy Zayarko,
a senior anthropology major who grew up in Cheyenne and plans to work in cultural
resource management, completed an internship with Wyoming’s Vore Buffalo Jump Foundation.
The foundation conducts work at a site where Native Americans trapped large numbers
of bison over a period of about 250 years. There, Zayarko learned to identify, inventory,
clean and rehouse bison remains.
“The internship gave me the kind of experience all archeologists should have,” he
says.
UW courses also embrace experiential learning. For example, UW students take on real-world
problems, such as water pollution or mountain lion encounters, and work in teams to
come up with viable solutions. This issue of UWyo Magazine highlights a number of
these courses.
Readers also will enjoy articles on other aspects of hands-on learning, including
travel, service, law clinics, clubs and state-of-the-art labs.
Additional Wyoming students featured in this issue include: Torin Chavez and Lars
Quinlivan, of Cheyenne; Kaitlyn Schultz and Jonathan Crider, of Sheridan; Gustavo
Hernandez, of Rock Springs; Samuel Robertson, of Laramie; Dani Jones, of Gillette;
Skyler LaRosa, of Moose; Gabby Haigler, Kassandra Dutro, Mason Teague and Mo Amelotte,
all of Casper; Taylor Erickson, of Star Valley; Taylor Wagstaff, of Hulett; Terrin
Fauber, of Glenrock; Leigh Stockton, of Burns; Forrest Cole, of Wheatland; and Jessica
Petri, of Green River.
Read and share the winter issue of UWyo Magazine at www.uwyo.edu/uwyo-mag.
