Henry Shank - University of Vermont

2025

MVYouth and adults, hello from Burlington Vermont. My first semester of college was a great, fun, and humbling experience. As cliche as it sounds it's very true, but these experiences will be with me for life and I wouldn’t trade them for the world. It’s all thanks to you all back at home on the island. Now that’s it for the sappy bit. I entered school with my major already declared and I have found it both a blessing and a curse. On the plus side I can get pre-requisite classes out of the way but those classes get dropped on top of the curse of the already necessary core classes. If I were to advise a younger student to know what you want to do but go into school as an undecided major, get those core classes over with because it’s just high school with less of a support system. Take your first year to find your place in all of the new chaos. Take classes you find interesting, find teachers you like, make friends outside of your typical interests. They will teach you the most, they will be the ones to get you out of your dorm on the weekends. Not knowing all of this is why I found myself struggling in the first semester, now that I know I'm thriving. I have carved out a corner of other medical students and others with the same niche hobbies as me even though they have completely different majors as me. They have a majority of different interests than me and they opened my eyes to new things. I'm excited to see what the rest of this semester holds and as it stands it holds a lot of snow and below zero temperatures. By no means is this a complaint. I love it all up here. I will see you all in the summer. GO CATAMOUNTS!