Hello! My name is Alanna Sellinger & I’m a sophomore here at the University of Oklahoma! These past few weeks of school have been absolutely crazy—for me, it’s always hard to get back into a school routine after the carefree months of summer! But I guess for starters, I’ll tell you a little bit about myself, so here it goes…

Like I said before, my name is Alanna (rhymes with Hannah if you’re curious…) and I’m from Spring, TX, which is actually 30 minutes north of Houston. Yes, it’s a very far drive to OU—7 ½ hours to be precise. And you’re probably wondering what brought me to OU. To be honest, when I was first looking at different schools during my junior/senior years, I was convinced on staying in-state. Texas is big enough as it is so there was no need to be farther in a different state! After looking at a few schools, though, they just weren’t clicking. The campuses were nice, the tour was great, but I just didn’t see myself being with the people we passed while we were on the tour, and I didn’t see myself learning in those lecture halls we visited. Until one day, one of my friends (who was going to OU) convinced me to visit. Seriously, the only reason I went to visit was because every other school on my list was crossed out. So I visited and literally, fell.in.love. And looking back on my college decision process, I feel like it was almost like finding a soul mate for myself…finding “the ONE!” But yes, OU was it for me—the campus is breath-taking, the academics are outstanding, and the campus activities and involvement opportunities are beyond belief. I saw myself everywhere. One thing I was hesitant to believe, though, was how everyone always said OU felt so small once you got here. How in the world could a school with this many undergrads feel SMALL!? But now that I’m here, I’ve found it to be so true. I quickly found that I wasn’t another ID number or another student paying thousands of dollars for an education. To the faculty and to my professors, I was a student who had a vision and everyone was willing to help. And that’s why I chose OU—I was willing to sacrifice the distance from home to be a part of the Sooner Family. And not even for a second have I regretted it!

Next item about me: ACTIVITIES!

What am I involved in, you ask??! Well for starters, I was involved in the President’s Community Scholars program last year when I was a freshman. During freshman year, you’re an active PCS member because you have weekly meetings that are seriously THEBOMB.com. We would have deans and other important faculty and staff from around campus come and talk with us about various topics or even give bios (that were so cool!) about how they got to where they are today. Plus, we got to visit President Boren’s house in the spring! And that was amazing! If you want to see more of what PCS does, check out their website—it’s through the leadership development and volunteerism office. Another fun thing I got involved in last year was Campus Activities Council. If you love Student Council, you will be deathly obsessed with CAC because it’s basically StuCo on steroids because there’s literally always an executive committee to apply for, or some event that needs volunteers. I was on the executive committee for Sooner Scandals last spring which is a song and dance show that the sororities and fraternities on campus compete in. Each sorority and fraternity gets paired up and has to “produce” a 15 minute song/dance performance based on that year’s announced theme. So needless to say, it was the coolest executive committee to be on!  Additionally, I’m obsessed with the OU Baptist Student Union! This was the very first thing I got plugged in with when I was at OU and I’m so happy that I got involved! I met virtually all of my very best friends through the BSU and their weekly Thursday night service, Paradigm, is so challenging! And finally this year I went through rush in August and pledged Gamma Phi Beta! So snaps for that. I didn’t really know much about Greek life coming in as a freshman, so I didn’t want to plunge myself into something that I had no clue about. But, after freshman year, I had met a lot of great friends who were all in sorority houses so I decided to go through rush as a sophomore! And I’m so happy I did because I’m loving everything about it so far. One thing I feel people tend to think about OU is that it’s all about going Greek. Although a lot of OU is revolved around Greek life, there are seriously endless amounts of organizations that aren’t in the Greek system. So if you feel going Greek isn’t your style, not to worry one bit!

Well, that’s all I can think of for now, but I’ll be back! There’s so much more to talk about—hope you have a great weekend! BOOMER SOONER!