Evy JagGuide's Blog

  Howdy future Jags!   Welcome to the USA Class of 2023 page, and welcome specifically to my blog! My name is Evy, and I'm a third-year junior here at South. I'm majoring in English with a Literature concentration, and I'm minoring in Geology. I'm also a member of the USA Honors College and currently am in the process of arranging my research for a senior thesis.     I'm from the Mississippi Gulf Coast, near Ocean Springs or Vancleave, and I still live there today. I commute to the university every day for class! So I spend a rough 10 hours in the car every week. Sometimes it's exhausting, but at the end of the day, it's really not so bad!   Something really special about South is our wonderful faculty. In my experience, most of the professors here care about your education and want to see you succeed... even the ones who might seem intimidating at first! Combined with our small class sizes, it feels like you can genuinely build a connection with your ...

  Hi everybody!   I hope your summer has treated you well. If you're new to the page or to my blog, my name is Evy and I am an English major here at the University of South Alabama. Don't be afraid to drop me a line if you have any questions I can help you with... but for now, let's get cracking:   You may be at a point in your high school career asking yourself if college is worth the hassle. What's in it for me? Why bother?   If you're asking yourself these questions, I suggest taking the time to sit down and really consider what your plans are for the future. College isn't for everyone, this much is true! But if you're looking to have a solid career, you're going to need to do your research. Does your potential career necessitate a degree?   I know that the process of deciding on college can be very daunting, but there are more benefits to a college education than just a degree. At a university, you're given an opportunity to bond and inte...

 Hey everybody!   As your spring semesters draw to a close and you look forward to summer, you might be wondering how to know for sure that the school you've chosen is the right one for you. Truthfully, the only way to really know is to go there... but there are some hints you can watch out for that will ultimately inform your decision.   I've said before that one of the main things that sold me on South was the fact that I took a campus tour. In the moment, taking campus tours seemed more like a nuisance than anything else, but in retrospect I can see how much the campus tours I took at various colleges influenced my decision. South was the first school I toured, and I was blown away by the beauty of the campus and the gentle, down-to-earth nature of the staff I met. It was a quiet, tranquil campus to me, especially in comparison to some of the bigger colleges I visited, and I found myself thinking, "You know, I think I could live here."   I just didn't ha...

    What does it mean to be a Jaguar?   As a part of South's Honors College, we've developed a sort of credo when it comes to education: to bring up bright, inquisitive, and critical thinkers. I think that this idea extends outside of the confines of the Honors College; it is something that can be applied to every student who steps foot on our campus.   As a South student, I am provided the opportunity to facilitate strong, interdisciplinary thinking in my own life. My classes and curriculum are thought-provoking and challenging and offer new ways of walking through life. I am provided important tools for continuing on in my career, for building a life for myself, for observing my own internal biases.   At South, we are critical thinkers. We are innovators. We are here to learn and better ourselves. We are here to build the future.   We are South. Until next time... ☆ Evy Savoie ☆ 

  Hey everyone!!   I hope that y'all have had an excellent Spring Break- or, if you're on it now, that you're enjoying your time off. Today I'm going to talk about one of my characteristics that has been the most beneficial to my college career: my sense of work ethic.   I've always valued the work that I'm tasked with and have a desire to make sure I do the best I possibly can. This most often manifests at jobs I'm employed at, but it also extends to academia as well. Though I struggle with procrastination, when I sit down and do an assignment, I tend put in my all. This sense of duty has been extremely beneficial to my time in college; it helps me keep my head afloat when I feel like I'm sinking.   But I also believe that passion plays a role in how I operate. Sometimes, I think you can really feel the love I have for the subjects I'm studying in my work or writing, even if I bemoaned the assignment or put it off.   So my advice to you is t...

  Hey everyone! South provides a lot of information for incoming students, but there are some things you learn just through the experience of being a student! Here's a sneak peek at some of the fun facts you might not know about South: During finals week, we often have special events going on to help students either relax or power through their studying (or cramming). They can range from free food to therapy dogs. During my freshman year finals week, the Chik-fil-a on campus opened back up at midnight and did a buy-one, get-one-free deal on chicken biscuits. I was up frantically writing a term paper, and you bet I took a break to get two chicken biscuits to last me through the night. Many departments offer free or reduced printing prices to students in that respective field! If you're an Honors College student, you can get free printing at the Bethel every day; you'll learn quickly that printing costs add up, so take advantage of these special printing places! If yo...

Credit: A. Fujii     My time here at South isn't just to get a degree and move on. I plan to go on to graduate school once I've completed my Bachelor's, and the opportunities that South is providing me are integral to ensuring I continue on with that plan.    Because I'm in the Honors College, I am given the opportunity and the resources to do significant undergraduate research. Not only will that give me real, proper experience, it will also put me in a grade above the competition I have when applying for grad school. Research also provides wonderful networking opportunities, all of which I find especially important.    I am not quite sure what I'd like to do career-wise yet, so I appreciate the opportunities to try new things and discover what I love. I've tossed around the idea of perhaps going into scientific journalism, so I sought a job at The Vanguard, where I've been learning the ins-and-outs of a newspaper operation.   ...