“I tell people that I am living the ‘Tiger life’ because I have been working on degrees at the University of West Alabama since 2008. I was a novice teacher working full-time, and I desperately wanted to increase my experience, my knowledge in my field, and my pay. In 2009, I completed my master of arts in teaching. I decided to start the education specialist program at UWA in 2013. I received my degree in teacher leadership in 2015. In 2019, I began the doctor of education program. I received my degree in 2021 with a 4.0 GPA. I received my Instructional Leadership certification, and I was named the very first Outstanding Instructional Leadership Award recipient by the graduate school. Along the way, I have used what I have learned to become an asset to my school and my district. I work with my school each year as the chairperson of our School Improvement Plan and Leadership Team. I also work with our district to maintain our accreditation and to create and implement new curriculum programs and support that are vital to our teachers. I was named teacher of the year at Fayette Middle School in 2009, 2013, 2020, and 2021. I was the Fayette County secondary teacher of the year in 2021. I belong to numerous professional organizations and honor societies, and I still love to hear from my UWA instructors as well! In 2021, I served as part of the Rural Schools Collaborative caucus. In 2022, I was a member of the Instructional Leadership Advisory Committee at UWA. I am currently teaching 8th grade English, serving as an administrative substitute in my county, and working with the after-school program at Fayette Elementary School. I would love to be an administrator, but it would have to be a great job to get me away from my Fayette Middle School teachers and students. Not bad for a first-generation college student from a broken home who was told she didn’t stand a chance! Thank you UWA!”

“I went to UWA for my undergraduate degree, and I came back to get my master’s. It was a small community, and it felt like home to me. I got my bachelor’s in exercise science. I got my master’s degree in physical education and sports management. I was an orientation leader. I was a school ambassador. I was a part of the Campus Activity Board of Directors, and I was a cheerleader. I had a great time participating in all of those organizations. I learned how to work with a lot of different people. I became more independent. I had to rely on myself to get things done. The University of West Alabama gave me some of my best friends, and I don’t know what I would do without them. I even met my future husband there, so it gave me a lot.”

“I chose to go to UWA because I fell in love with the campus, teachers, and overall environment of the school. I majored in integrated marketing communications. I was able to use my overactive imagination. The teachers really pushed me to become better. I did a lot of fun projects. We would have to make commercials and funny videos, and I had a good time doing that. I was an RA for two years. I was a band manager for a year and a half. I was in the choir. I was in UWA Theater. I was an actor in the productions, but I helped wherever I could. I really enjoyed doing ‘The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon.’ It was an amalgamation of different fairytale stories, and it was very comedic. I got to go as crazy as I wanted for most of my roles, and I really enjoyed it. I produced a student short film during the pandemic. We recorded and edited it and put it out there for people to watch because we couldn’t perform in front of people due to COVID-19. I made a lot of friends in theater. One of my closest friends from theater sang at our graduation, and seeing her up there brought me to tears.”

“I wanted to become an athletic trainer, and I knew that UWA had the best athletic training program in Alabama. I was nervous because I was in a new place, but it was fun after the first few days. The teachers helped me one-on-one. Homecoming week, the Golden Key, and the intramural sports stood out to me. I got into athletic training when I played basketball in high school. I didn’t have too much free time, but I worked out or ran when I could. I gained maturity and accountability while I was there. I’m currently an athletic trainer at Shorter University.”

“I was in the middle of teaching my first year, so I needed a university that would offer all online courses for a master’s degree. If I could earn a master’s degree, it would make it more convenient for me to hold a full-time job. West Alabama offered connections to scholarships, which would make college more accessible. That’s what made me choose UWA. I got my master’s degree in biology education. The content helped me understand biological processes better, so it became easier for me to educate my students. I didn’t sell myself short. I did a lot more than I thought I was capable of.”

“What inspired me to attend UWA was the family-oriented atmosphere. I wasn’t just a number at UWA. The president, instructors, and university officials knew my name. I felt like I was cared about. I never met a stranger at UWA. I always came in contact with a friend and built my family there. I met lifelong friends there. I wouldn’t change anything I did as a student; it helped me grow to be the individual I am today. I was involved in a lot of clubs and organizations, and I found out who I really was because of UWA. I became a better leader and a better person. I was involved with the Student Government Association and was an orientation leader. I was an ambassador and was also in the Scarlet Band. I was in the choir and a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. I was able to land a job through one of the departments and served as a graduate assistant. I gained some experience as a higher education professional, which served as a precursor to where I am now. I received both my bachelor’s degree and my master’s degree from UWA. After getting my master’s degree, I started working at UWA with the Upward Bound Program as a coordinator. I’ll always pay homage to UWA. No matter where I go, I’ll always find someone who went to the University of West Alabama.”

“I came from Demopolis, Alabama. Both of my parents attended UWA, so they were both alums, and that was mainly the motivating force to attend myself. They helped move me in and came to the football games, especially homecoming, so we made memories there. When I first got on campus, it felt like home; everybody was so nice and welcoming. I knew it was the right place. The events that were held on campus were fun. Being a freshman on campus, it was nice being in the same body with other freshmen and people going to UWA to make new friends and get to know people. We played bingo and that kind of stuff. I wanted to be in the Nursing Program. The whole Nursing Department was awesome; they had a good staff. UWA helped me become more confident by being in social groups and being exposed to different people. Being a part of different honor clubs and everything helped me with my leadership skills. I never thought I would be in a leadership position until I surrounded myself with so many brilliant minds at UWA. I started working at a hospital but ended up in a nursing home, and I developed leadership skills there. It helped me come out of my shell and shaped where I am today. I owe it all to UWA.”

“It was a low-key location where I was able to really focus on my education. I knew that I was in sports, so it was really good to have a place without a lot of distractions. My professors were always really good at communicating, talking, being there, and really understanding who we were as student athletes. It was a great place for me to mature, grow up, and finally get stuff done that needed to be done in my life. I really enjoyed going there, playing football, and getting my degree in education. I liked the fact that it was an all-encompassing program. In California, we had to do our student teaching after we graduated. At UWA, I was able to do my student teaching as an undergraduate. When I graduated, I was prepared. I could go right into teaching. There weren’t a lot of educational programs that did that. We even had a school on campus for Education Program teachers and students to practice and get hands-on experience. I was an athlete and got two GSC championships back to back. I played under Coach Will Hall, set records, had fun, and made new friends I keep up with to this day. It helped open my eyes to what I wanted to do, which was coaching. It helped set the path to spark my love of football. It was the South; everybody loved football. It was a great place for me to be myself and find other people who were passionate about the game of football, athletics, and intramurals. I loved the fact that the campus was so large that we could walk on trails, get close to everybody, and go play tennis on the tennis courts, and ride our bikes down to the pond. It was a really cool environment, being one of the largest campuses in the country. I took full advantage of it and matured. I became a person who showed up on time, got his job done, paid attention to detail, did things right, and was polite to his community members. It’s a goal of mine to save money so that I could go back to a homecoming week or a ten-year reunion.”

“I went to UWA on a golf scholarship. I found happiness in the Interdisciplinary Arts Program. I really enjoyed the art classes I had taken to fill credit hours, and I had always liked art and theatre. I really enjoyed the classes, and I was able to push myself to improve. I was very excited because it was my first time away from home by myself. Everyone at UWA was welcoming, and there was always something to do on campus. I really enjoyed the poetry readings that the Liberal Arts College offered. I always enjoyed going to those and hearing what people wrote. I loved the creative writing process, and the professors in that department were always so nice. I published a piece called ‘Best Friends Forever’ in The Sucarnochee Review. My professor in the Honors Program was an amazing person. She was always there to talk to me if I needed her, and she treated me like a colleague instead of a student. It was thanks to her that I met my best friend. I went on an honors trip to New Orleans in the first semester of my freshman year, and I was assigned a room with the person who is now my best friend. We live far from each other now, but we still keep in contact and text all of the time. I haven’t been able to get back to the university yet, but I am making plans to go to Homecoming soon. I played golf for all four years at UWA from the fall of 2013 to the spring of 2017. I remember the amount of work that the team put into building the driving range. We went out every day and cleared weeds, pulled rocks, and collected everything that we needed for practice. We were able to do that as a team, and it was really enjoyable”

“I liked that UWA was a smaller school, and I loved the Biology Department. The University of West Alabama felt very welcoming and there were a lot of classes offered within the biology major. I had field-based classes, I went on a week-long camping trip in the mountains with one of my classes, I went to Florida with my Subtropical Ecology class and we went from North Florida all the way down to the Keys. That was one of my favorite memories at UWA. I was very active in Beta Beta Beta, where I had a lot of friends. Livingston was a really good area for people who enjoy the outdoors. There was a lot of public land and a river nearby, so we would have impromptu fishing trips,which was fun. Toward the end of my biology degree, I realized that I really enjoyed research. I stayed at UWA to get my master’s degree. I got the chance to go to Russia twice for research. That was one of the coolest experiences of my entire life. I want to stay in academia. I really like the freedom of being able to generate my own research ideas and pursue them.”

“As a smaller college, UWA gave me the chance to be involved. I felt a connection to campus. I was able to cheer there, and I became president of my sorority. I was able to do a lot at UWA thanks to the one-on-one attention I was given by my professors. I majored in sociology with a social work track, and I had a minor in psychology. I’ve always wanted to help people and make a difference, and it was one of the best fields I could do that with. My professors were great, especially Dr. Fred Myers. They really cared about their students. I stayed at UWA to get my master’s degree, and I feel very lucky with how many opportunities my education has given me.”

“I was a working professional, and I liked the flexibility of UWA. I was able to take classes in person and online, and that was a convenient fit for my lifestyle at that time. UWA was very welcoming, and the professors were very close-knit and family-oriented. They built relationships with their students, and their work was important. I came away from UWA with more knowledge than I had before I started, and I was able to make connections in class. My time at UWA made me a stronger person both professionally and personally.”

“I chose UWA because I heard wonderful things about their Nursing Program. It had a great reputation, and it was something that I was really looking for. In my opinion, it still offers one of the best programs. When I graduated, I was more prepared. I had true bedside readiness. I felt really confident in my training and education. I was one of those people who was born to be a nurse. It came naturally to me, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t difficult. My professors had such a passion for nursing, and they inspired me so much. We did our clinical, and we had the opportunity to go into hospitals and care for people. It was a really unique experience. I matured a lot through my years at UWA. I learned a lot and gained the tools and skills needed to be successful.”

“I wanted to go to a small college where I could focus on my academics and graduate. I had three siblings right behind me who were going to be going off to college soon, so I didn’t have time to waste. Livingston University fit the mold for what I needed, and it was close to home. I liked the entire environment, and it was small enough that I could know my classmates. There were enough campus activities to make college campus life interesting and fun, and the school did a great job of making sure students’ needs were met. I had a good, solid foundation there in my undergraduate studies. I dabbled in the sociology field while I was there as well, and that sociology background helped me to get a better understanding of people. UWA gave me a more clear outlook on the world and life. My biology professor helped me make some impactful decisions about my future. At the point of almost graduating, they didn’t offer a class for the last semester, and I wanted to graduate along with my class. The professor looked it up and found I could take the class in the summer and stay on track. I was able to graduate with my class that year.”

“UWA was a small, family-oriented institution of higher learning. I wouldn’t have gone anywhere else. I loved the people and activities. The education I received was great. I was a homecoming queen, a majorette, a twirler, and a resident assistant in the dormitories. I was also in the band and a sorority. All of those experiences at UWA made my time there memorable. I was the president of the National Alumni Association and made lifelong friends with the administrators.”

“I grew up in Linden, Alabama, which was about 30 minutes from Livingston. My brother was a couple of years older than me and went to UWA. My original plan was to go to UWA for two years and then transfer, but once I got there, I liked it so much that I never left. I graduated in three years because I started in the fall of 1981 and didn’t take any summers off. When the first quarter began, the only people I knew there were my brother and my roommate, who was a classmate in high school. I was so shy in high school that if I didn’t know you, I didn’t speak to you. I remember walking to class one day and thinking, ‘I’m going to be completely miserable here if I don’t learn to open up and talk to people.’ I made the decision that day to be more outgoing, and I made lifelong friends. I was in the band and on the flag corps. I was a little sister to a fraternity. I was in a hostess group for basketball and football. I played intramurals. It had a small hometown feel, and I loved it. I could go to a teacher’s office if I had a question about something. The biggest thing I could take away from UWA was that I met my husband there, and we’ve been married for 38 years. We met during my last quarter there in the summer of 1984. We had our first date on June 4th, 1984. We got engaged on July 4th, 1984, and got married on August 4th, 1984. My daughter went to school at UWA and played basketball for four years there. I started going back to homecoming at UWA for a girl’s weekend every year. I love everything about homecoming. I met a woman named Shirley, who was six years older than me and also went to UWA, at homecoming, and we hit it off.”

“The overall size made me want to go. I lived on campus for all four years. The overall class sizes and a lot of the faculty being good left an impression on me. I had the opportunity to serve as SGA president, and I was elected Mr. University. It was a good experience overall. My favorite memories are the friendships I made. I was in business, and it laid a good business foundation that I utilized throughout my career as a business owner. I’m most grateful for the opportunity to attend at the time I did and for participating in the extracurricular activities that were available.”