2017-2018 AMS Freshman Scholarship Winners Reflect on Their First Year
In academic year 2017-2018, the School of Meteorology was privileged to have four of the AMS (American Meteorological Society) Freshman Scholarship winners commit to OU for their Bachelor’s degrees. Over the next few weeks, we will be featuring each of these students; learning about them and their experience during their first year as OU Meteorology students.
Our third student is Ariel Jacobs. Ariel is from Lucas, Texas. Outside of academics, she is a member of the honors college, an active sister in Alpha Sigma Kappa – Women in Technical Studies, and participated in Hacklahoma. (https://www.hacklahoma.org/)
Attending the University of Oklahoma was a dream come true for Ariel.
“OU has been my dream since I was six. Ever since I heard about the wonderful meteorology program and the National Weather Center, I was hooked.”
Even though it was a childhood dream, Ariel still had a few reservations.
“I was apprehensive crossing state lines to go to school, but through my friends in meteorology and my sisters in ASK (Alpha Sigma Kappa), I have found my home.”
Sometimes the transition from high school can be challenging for students, and for Ariel, it wasn’t any different.
“The transition did not go as smoothly as I would have hoped, but I remain optimistic as it was a great learning experience.”
Ariel says the best things about attending the University of Oklahoma is the opportunities.
“(The best things are) definitely the ample opportunities with going to school in the same building as scientists and researchers work. My job at Weather Decision Technologies has got to be one of the best parts so far. I started back in July of 2017 in the customer support role, and in March of 2018 I transitioned to the DevOps team working on code deployment and documentation.”
Research is already becoming a big part of Ariel’s student career, and she hopes to continue that this fall.
“In the spring semester, I was given the opportunity to do FYRE, which is a research program for freshman in the honors college. I worked with Dr. Chilson researching bat signals on radar. Aeroecology (Aeroecology is the study of how airborne life forms utilize and interact with other biotic and abiotic components of the lower atmosphere) is a new and intriguing field of research. I am continuing my research with Dr. Chilson this summer an Undergraduate Research Assistant. Dr. Chilson and Tyler Bell have been and continue to be encouraging and supportive of my research endeavors.”
We are glad Ariel chose the School of Meteorology at OU and we wish her the best over the next few years in the program!