Episode 5

In this podcast episode, the hosts discuss their top three favorite female musical artists. They also talk about upcoming events at the university, such as a sustainability week, a tree planting event, and an LGBTQ+ discussion series. They also mention various campus activities and share updates on sports events. Towards the end, they interview a senior student named Avia Dow, who talks about her academic journey and future plans. She mentions her major in communication and her interest in pursuing a nursing degree in the future. Avia also gives advice to freshmen and credits her boss and professors as her biggest supporters. Howdy, Cougs! It's your host again, Snacks Rodgers. I'm here with Hayden Turner. What up? Tanner Gibson. What's going on, party people? And... Avia Dow. Hello, hello. A senior, old, just like Hayden, works in the MCC. We're here to have another great episode of the podcast. To start off, we forgot a question last week, but we do have one this week. Top three women musical artists. Mine is probably the easiest. Number one, Kehlani. I think Kehlani's the greatest artist to ever do music. Huh? You thought Michael Jackson was good. Listen to Can I by Kehlani. It's a great song. Number two, SZA. New album, fire, not a miss, on the album. And she's extremely attractive. Number three, Rihanna. She's from the Caribbean, she can dance, and she's friends with Drake. So that's my top three. That's what does it. That's what does it. That's what does it for me every time. For me, I'm going to have to put it, no particular order. I'm just going to lay them out. Shakira. Jesus. She never lies. Her hips never lie. Never. Oh, J-Lo. Love J-Lo. I feel like you have a thing for Hispanic women. And Rihanna. Yeah. Oh. Oh, well. My list is similar to SZA's because we have the same music. Number one is Jhene Aiko. Oh, number uno. I love her in my life. Love her in your life. Two, I'd have to go with SZA. And three, Kehlani. Kehlani. And Avia, who is your top three? Yes, mine are kind of a different genre altogether, but in no particular order again. Lorde. Lorde, okay. A little dark, a little fun. Lorde is cool. Miley Cyrus. Miley. She has some good hype. Hannah Montana. No, post-Hannah Montana. I just really like... Post-Hannah Montana, not the Hannah Montana stuff? Nah. I love me some Hannah Montana, Aerie Miley Cyrus. Do you like the hard... In your face, like... Oh, wrecking ball type? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then Bishop Briggs. Honestly, I have no idea who that is, but I'll have to give you a look. She's pretty good. She's pretty good. Okay. And, and, since we're doing our question, we were going through some of the comments. Mallory Price, I saw that you did not like my opinion on episode two. Just know, if you're listening, if you're listening, me and you can have a civil conversation. I can show you the best spaghetti you've ever had, and I'll prove to you that it's underrated. Anyways, we're on to upcoming events. Yes, we are. Yes, we are. Yes, we are. Yes, we are. Yes, we are. Yes, we are. Yes, we are. Yes, we are. We're on to upcoming events. We're starting with, on Monday, we have Sustainability Week Wildcat Guardian speaker. There will be a speaker at about 11.30 a.m. Come see for Sustainability Week. Mind you, Sustainability Week is all next week. There's a herb giveaway. Come get your free herbs. God knows what they have, but it'll probably be fun. The Factory Farming with Kim Ferraro. I honestly have no idea who it is, but I'm excited to find out. It's Kim. Oh, it's Kim. I think so. Kim, if it's you, I'm sorry. It says Kim Ferraro. No. No, it's not the Kim we're thinking of? Kim Foster. Ah. Sorry, Kim. It's Taco Tuesday at Chipotle, actually. Women in business are holding something at Chipotle, so go get your tacos. Chipotle is fire. I don't think it's better than Moe's. I think Moe's is way better, and I think Qdoba is also way better. You're going to get more comments. Come after me. On Tuesday, we have We're Here screening. The MCT is holding that. This is a big event at the IUK Observatory on Wednesday at around 10 a.m. There will be a tree planting event on campus. Save our planet. It's already dying. Let's go plant some trees. On Thursday at 2, 3 p.m., the LGBTQ plus discussion series, they'll be talking about LGBTQ plus bullying and other stuff like that. It will be very informative. I would like everybody to pop out. Also that Thursday at 4 p.m. in the IUK library, there will be a human library. Oh, Ava, do you know? Yeah, so the human library, essentially there's going to be some people who come out, and you're going to be able to pair up with one person, hear their story from a non-biased perspective. Oh, okay. Yeah, their life story, what they know educational-wise, and just kind of hear and listen through them. Wow. That sounds lovely. That sounds way better than what I described it. But hey, Thursday, go to the human library. But we'll go over to Hayden for what happened last week. Big week. We're actually doing this completely out of order. That's why I'm there first. So one thing that Snacks was extremely excited about, Music Monday happened. God, Music Monday. How was it? I couldn't go. You told everybody to go. I was sick. People, I've been dying, okay? But I'm getting better. Okay. I also have class. We also have the STEM Focus Career Fair. I went to that. I got a big stack of Post-it Notes, and I've been using them to write cute little affirmations on my wall. Oh, good. I have rearranged my room. This is probably not important for the podcast. All right. And then we also had the Cougar Closet cleanup that happened on Tuesday. Personally, I was not there for it, but I heard it was a good event. I was not there for it. I heard it was a good turnout. A lot of people got what they needed. We also had the rock wall on Wednesday. Rock wall. Storm came down. I was terrified. It was a horrible storm. We also had our SGA biweekly meeting. Another good meeting. I went to this one. It was great. We talked about a lot of stuff. It was fast. We went over actually bills. We went over who was getting paid. And then on Thursday, we had the all-inclusive self-advocacy. Actually, question for our viewers. Next week, comment if you would like to see some of our future presidential candidates for the upcoming SGA elections. Yes. If you would like to see them, elections are coming up. Let us know. We'll get them on there. And then we also had on Thursday the Sun King game night hosted by Women in Business. Yes. Remember, guys, I told you to drink responsibly. Always. And then we're going to hand it over to Tanner for a quick update on sports. Well, there wasn't a lot to report on with sports in the past week, but I do have both men's and women's golf to report on. So for the spring invitational for the women's, Hope Migrant, Sarah Williams, Brandi Jones, and Gracie Tucker actually got to decide the menu and the food that was served. And then what was the – who won athlete of the week? Hayden Williamson. Hayden Williamson. For leading our men's golf. Wasn't he? Yes. He's not athletically inclined, but Hayden – We call it the Rockwall time. It's just not – Yeah, it's just not enough. Look, man, I've been retired for quite some time now. But he was a nasty soccer player. You know, that's not important. We don't need to talk about that. Let's talk about soccer. Upcoming, we have one baseball game tonight and two tomorrow. And then we should have another home game next Friday, I believe. Yep. And I think that wraps up everything. You're a liar. You broke three records. I did break three records. Tanner is trying to be humble. He broke three records. Okay. He's at the 100, 200, and the 4x1 time. So, shout out to the – 4x1. There was other people. Clay Brubaker. Yeah. Ed Wallace. Everybody on the 4x1 team. All right. But Tanner was a part of breaking three records. He's just refusing to talk about it. So. So that, as Snack said, is it for sports. And then now let's talk about our wonderful guest today, Avia Dow. Woo! I actually have a few questions for you when it comes to your academic life. So let's start from – Because you're a senior. Let's start from high school. Okay. Because anything before high school doesn't matter. Irrelevant. Completely. Exactly. I agree. So when you started school, freshman year of high school, what's your come up story to college? Yeah. So I started at Northwestern High School. I was there living in Kokomo up until my sophomore year when my mom got married to someone in Carmel. So we moved to Carmel. Kind of did my junior and senior year there. I know. I'm not proud of it. Listen. I don't talk about it. No. No hate to our Carmel viewers. No. No. No. I want all of our – You got two millions. I want all of our Carmel viewers to know, me and Tanner went to Noblesville. He may have been better at sports. But just know – Everything else works. I happen just to not like you at all. I do want to say, though, coming from Northwestern to Carmel, the educational platform difference, like, I mean, they offered, like, over ten languages. Like, I took two years of Latin, which was really interesting. And just the opportunities that were there were so much broader than a country town high school, which I loved. But – so each kind of had their pros and cons. But – Okay. Okay. And so Carmel is a little bigger than IUK, as it is. So what made you want to come to IUK compared to going off to, like, Bloomington? I know a lot of Carmel kids will – Get a little Bloom. IUPUI. Pass out the Bloom. That way they can still have that big feeling. And that's why I don't like calling myself a Carmel person, just because financially, IU Kokomo really stood out to me. I also grew up in Kokomo. So just the familiarity of, like, having family here, friends here, it seemed more well-adapted to my lifestyle than Bloomington, which I would have loved to go to if I had the financial status. But I did not. So we're doing small-town Kokomo, but life here is great. What's your major? Communication. Ah, another communications major. The best major. The best major. We chit-chat. What's your major, Taylor? I'm a health science major. I want people to guess my major in the comments. No one is allowed to say it? Nobody's allowed to snitch nor say anything. If you guess it, Snacks will take a selfie with you. If you guess it, I'll give you $115. I'm going to cut out you for joking. Okay. I'm going to owe somebody $115. It better not be Mallory. Oh, no. So coming to IUK, being a comm major, did you know you wanted to be a comm major when you came here? Like, how did you figure out everything you wanted to do when you came here? That's a good question. So I actually started off as a nursing student. And I took anatomy, and I really struggled with it. I took it three or four different times. Couldn't get above a C. I needed a C-plus. Yeah, I'm about to take it this summer again because I did not do well. Yeah, and it sucks because I got A's in all of my clinical courses. I had my certified nursing assistant license. The CNA license. Yeah, I was great with all the clinical aspect of things. But once it got down to the nitty-gritty, the chemistry, the physical aspect, I just couldn't pass it. So we switched to communication. I talked with my advisor, and we thought that would be best. So I really have enjoyed the switch, though. I'm also minoring in social justice and community engagement, which has been absolutely amazing. So hopefully one day I can go back and get my nursing license. But right now we're just going to sit still with the communication degree. Okay. Speaking of nursing, they just got done taking their T's here. Oh, did they? When I went to the library, I saw a couple of friends of mine. Shout out to Emma, Cohen, and Alexis. They just got done taking their T's exam. Good luck to everyone. Yeah, it's hard. You got to study crazy. So while you've been here, you're a senior just as me. We've both been through the COVID era. Oh, yeah. And we were able to see IUK before COVID, which is amazing. What would be your favorite memory throughout all four years? Wow. Okay, so that's a very loaded question. I think if you're asking the Avia before COVID, it was definitely the events on campus, specifically the Oxygen Bar. Coming into college, that was the coolest thing that I have ever experienced just on campus. I've never heard of it. I didn't know about the thing. And then, I don't know, it was really neat. But yeah, as being present Avia, I would probably say the key trip experiences. I mean, I've been to so many new places for free, too, or at like a minimal cost. And no, they've actually all been free now, I think about it. Yeah, they've all been free. But they have opened my eyes to around Indiana, Indiana's activities and events. And just I've really seen a lot that I never would have expected. Use those key trips. There's so much fun, and they're free. Yeah. So graduation is coming around the corner. Jesus, you guys are going to be gone. Don't talk about it. And have an adult job and have to pay adult taxes. Just so you know, we've been paying adult taxes. Who is we? All of us. Are you not paying adult taxes? Yeah. Do we need to talk to the government? Are you not paying adult taxes? No. Guys, I've paid my taxes. Okay, good. How are you feeling about graduation when it comes to your next steps? What's to come if you're going to further your education, if you're done with your education? What do you want to do with your degree? What are the plans for the Avia Dow? Yeah, it's a happy, sad feeling. I'm definitely going to miss, like, the feeling of if I do wake up super tired, I just don't go to class. Like, if I get a big girl job and I feel tired, I just can't not go to work. So I'm going to miss that aspect a lot. Right now, my boyfriend and I are planning to move to the Monticello-Delphi area. At this time, I don't have a set job lined up. I've been applying to a bunch of different communication specialist jobs and social media specialist jobs and stuff like that. So just waiting to hear back from them. But yeah, at this time, I don't plan on getting my undergrad. But eventually, I think it would be really interesting to try and pursue my nursing degree again. Oh, really? Maybe an accelerator program or something, not as long as, like, a four-year term. But I think that would be cool. You could do a two-year, I think. Yeah, an accelerator, fast. I think there's even, like, 18-month options, potentially. There's also PAs, so physician assistants. PAs. Which is eight-year programs. Yeah. And you can pick what type of PA you want to be. Yeah, so lots of different opportunities out there that I will scour when I save up a bit. And if you were able to give any advice to freshmen currently, freshmen to come, or even just young ABA, what would be your advice? I feel like to say to get involved more is very cliche. I'm going to try to beat around the bush on that one. But staying up-to-date on IUK Life, that is something that I really have only utilized my sophomore year in on, and I definitely wish that coming into college I knew about that more and looked at it more. Because that's where a lot of the events and activities come from. That's where all of them come from, almost. So I think just looking at that consistently and, like, seeing if there's a key trip coming up or seeing if there's an oxygen bar on campus or free pizza or free donuts from COPS, you know. Don't free donuts be absolutely fire. They're pretty good. Shout out to Jack's Donuts. They never miss. Never miss. Yeah. So I think just staying up-to-date on IUK Life is definitely a big advantage to have if you want a bigger social life, just something to do by yourself potentially, but getting involved in that aspect. Then I have one last question to finish us all off. Okay. As a comm student, we talk to a lot of people. Our biggest thing for us is networking. With your life through here in college, you could be someone here, you could be someone outside of here. Who would be your biggest supporter, your backbone through all of it? The one person that you know was there with you. And it can be multiple people if you don't want to put one person over the other. Yeah. My boss, Dr. Tess Barker, she has been very influential. Shout out to Tess. Yeah. She has been very helpful because I started as an equity ambassador in 2021, and I received an opportunity for a position that seemed more career aligned for past when I graduate. So I unfortunately resigned from the MCC, went to work there for a bit. It didn't work out. So I came back, and she had open arms for me. It was a very smooth move coming back into working on campus. So she has definitely been a very big part of that. And I think just the professors in the communication department, they're also very understanding and very open-armed and, you know, if you need anything, I'm here for you. Very communicative about that. So I think just no one in particular, but the communication department and then, like I said, Dr. Tess Barker, they've definitely been my backbone throughout all this. Do you have a favorite professor? Yes. I'm going to whisper it. Dr. Dot. Dr. Dot. Only because we have so many nerdy things that align with each other, like stuff that I haven't met other people who like, and I think that's so fun. But, yeah, she's pretty cool. Dot's great. We love them all. We love them all, yeah. Comm majors. Do you both have any questions for Avia? I think you covered everything. Really? Well, thank you so much, Avia, for answering our questions and being here on the podcast. Thanks for having me, yeah. Of course. Of course. All of our Cougars, it was another great time. Bye from all of us. I hope to see all your beautiful comments and to just see you all next week. Peace out. I gotta find the song. She's old. She's old. 30. He's 32. 32 won.