Study Breaks the TU Way

Posted on May 1, 2013 by The Office of Admission

TU students are spending today and tomorrow preparing for their impending finals. In order to help students de-stress, two of our campus organizations hosted fun events today where students could get away from their textbooks to see some friendly, furry faces.

TU’s chapter of AIChE partnered with the Tulsa SPCA and 20 Park, a local coffee shop, to bring our students some fuzzy friends. Between 10 AM and 2 PM, students could join AIChE in the Allen Chapman Activity Center to play with some cute (and adoptable) dogs.

Later, the Fisher South Hall Government partnered with Sooner Golden Retriever Rescue for a Golden Hurricanes and Golden Retrievers event on the Chapman Commons. Students were also invited to bring their own Golden Retrievers from home. Students and dogs had a great time cooling down in the King Rogers Fountain. Golden 2 Golden 1

Spring at TU

Posted on April 17, 2013 by David

With the sun out and a high of Awesome, there is no better place to spend the weekend than outside!

Check out more pictures on my page! DK photography

Hello spring

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Sarah

Other than football, spring is my favorite season at TU. Here’s a quick update on some of the fun I’ve been having this semester with my friends!

Frozen yogurt from Yolotti is always a good idea. Peanut butter yogurt with cocoa pebbles comes highly recommended from…well, me. After treating ourselves to dessert, my friends and I headed to Woodward Park, one of Tulsa’s most popular outdoor hang-outs. We even saw a group of dolled up high schoolers posing for Prom pictures. Pretty fun!

Now I’m not sure why the Weinermobile was on campus this week, but clearly it was. Between classes we stopped for a quick photo-opp.

This photo was taken after a big intramural basketball win this semester! Good news, folks. The season isn’t over quite yet. My team plays in the championship game tonight! I’m hoping we win big tonight so I can sport my Tulsa Intramural Champion shirt to class tomorrow.

Imagine Dragons and the Beginning of Springfest

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Mercedes

Spring is on its way! These past couple of weeks have been very busy, as I’m sure most of you can understand. One of the events the Student Association (SA) puts on is Springfest, which is a week of fun activities that give us things to look forward to when finals are quickly approaching. This week is Springfest, but last week is when the SA got the Imagine Dragons to come and play for us which was pretty amazing! TU students got in for free which is an extra bonus! They also sold over 4000 tickets to the public which meant there was a huge crowd! My friends and I were the first people at the barricade and Dan Reynolds gave us all high-fives. We also shared a moment during Underdog, when he pointed to me and sang the verse while I sang along and our eyes locked. I know realistically this doesn’t make us best friends but I like to imagine it does! It was an awesome night with an amazing band of really genuine guys! Springfest is this week and the theme is “The Wonderful World of TU,” so an example of some of the fun events that will be taking place are, Lilo and Stitch Luau, Mulan Training Camp, Princess and the Frog Mardi Gras Carnival, Toy Story Pizza Planet Arcade, and Cinderella Carriage Rides with the Cinderella Ball later that night! Lots of activities and lots of fun is on the agenda for this week here at TU!!

My roommate Jessica (right) and I (left) at the concert:

Also for the encore they all came out wearing TU t-shirts and they said they wanted a piece of TU and Oklahoma to take back with them, which was incredibly cool!:

At the end of the concert they gave the set list to Jennifer, who lives in my suite, which as crazy! Just in case you’re wondering what they played here it is!:

Imagine Dragons

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Elaine

This year there was a special start to Spring fest with the Imagine Dragons concert. It was quite exciting because it was a gym full of TU students and many other people from around town. The whole gym was packed. I tried to get as close to the front as I could. It was really cool because I got nearly all the way up to the gate at the front. The show was fantastic because the band played all of their great songs and some that I hadn’t heard before. The concert was really amazing, especially since it was free for TU students. I was thoroughly impressed! The people in the band seemed very humble and not used to such large crowds. One of my favorite things was that for the encore, they all came out wearing TU t-shirts. It was really cool!

Tuesdays with Tulsa: Top 5 Things To Do Over the Summer

Posted on April 2, 2013 by TU Community

Hi, I’m Marcia from Longmont, CO and I am studying Mathematics and Spanish.

I know when I was in high school, the idea of choosing to do extra schoolwork over the summer sounded absolutely crazy to me! However, in the spring semester of my freshman year, I knew that I didn’t want to leave my amazing friends or the TU campus, even for just 3 months, so I chose to stay through a program called the Tulsa Undergraduate Research Challenge (TURC). With TURC, you work with a faculty member and usually a team of students to do some sort of research. You also are required to do some community service with any organization of your choice. If you’re accepted to the TURC program, TU provides housing, a food stipend, and a small cash stipend. Doing TURC is really good hands on experience, and it also looks great on resumes. While I did enjoy my TURC research, I also wanted to tell you about how much fun I had on the TU campus over the sun. Here is my list of the TOP 5 THINGS TO DO OVER THE SUMMER:

1) Start a (FRIENDLY!) Prank War

My roommate, Anne, and I were at a garage sale one day, and we found a box of streamers. It was $0.25 for a roll of streamers, or else $2.00 for the entire box. Naturally, we decided to buy the entire box. We had two other friends, Kevin and David, who we knew would enjoy the fun, and so the prank war began.

Here are pictures of some of the pranks we did.

2) Go to a Drive-In Movie

In 2010 the Admiral Twin Drive-In Theater in Tulsa burned down after being struck by lightning. Last summer, the Drive-In reopened and is better than ever! Every weekend, you can enjoy a double feature for only $7!

3) Explore Downtown

Downtown Tulsa has underground tunnels that were built in the 1920’s and 1930’s. One day, my friends Grace, Anne and I decided to go explore them, and spend the day in downtown.

There are many other things downtown has to offer. There is great food like burgers from McNellie’s, or gelato and crepes from Mod’s.

There are many churches worth taking a peak in to look at the beautiful architecture and fixtures. There is also the center of the universe and ONEOK Field, home of the Tulsa Drillers.

4) Enjoy the Lakes and Rivers

The Arkansas River flows (at least when it has water) through Tulsa. Along the river there are many different trails and parks, which provide great places to have a picnic, go for a run, or just hang out. Also, on the 4th of July, the fireworks are launched over the river. There also are many lakes in OK! The closest lake to hang out at is Keystone Lake, which is about a 30 minute drive from TU. At Keystone Lake you can go for a swim, have a bonfire, or simply enjoy a day in the sun.

Just make sure to bring lots of water…

and wear lots of sunscreen.

5) Enjoy the TU campus

Since you typically have more time during the summer than during the school year, summer is a great time to enjoy all that the campus has to offer. You can play a game of sand volleyball, or anything from football to croquet on the “new U” (Chapman Commons). On a hot day you can cool off in the fountains across from Collins Hall or in the pool at the Student Activity Center (SAC). In the evening and at night, it’s nice to walk around the “old U” (Dietler Commons), sit on the steps of McFarlin Library and watch the firework shows that happen over downtown multiple times a week, or just talk and enjoy the beautiful weather.

Who doesn’t want…

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Rachel

…free concert tickets to one of the top-chart artists in the U.S.?

Every spring semester, TU’s student association puts on a week full of fun and free things (awesome, right?) called Springfest. For one of the events this year, SA went above and beyond by hosting Imagine Dragons in concert on our campus…and then gave each student a free ticket!

The following pictures only give a glimpse of how fantastic the concert was…

waiting for Imagine Dragons!

so many people

such great energy

such great music!

Tuesday with Tulsa: Golden Moments

Posted on March 26, 2013 by TU Community

Bryce C., a sophomore Energy Management and Finance double major from Dallas, shares some of his favorite Golden Moments from this school year.

After an incredible Liberty Bowl win against a Big 12 school, all the TU students went to Beale Street for New Years Eve. The TU Alumni Association gave all students a travel package for the bowl game that was hard to resist…for $40, each student got: 2 nights in a hotel in Memphis, free tickets to the Bowl Game, free tickets to the bowl bash the night before in downtown Memphis with free food, and free bus transportation from the hotel to EVERYTHING – we never had to drive. The entire trip is probably my favorite memory this far while going to TU. Our hotel was basically sold out to just TU students who went to the bowl game, and it was such a fun trip with all my friends. This picture is from downtown Memphis on New Years Eve after we beat Iowa State 31-17.

Student Association, our student government, hosts different events each day of Homecoming week. This past fall, one of the events was a campus-wide color run. I had never participated in a color run so I didn’t really know what to expect, but it was so much fun. We were given a route through campus to run, and there were 4 or 5 stations spaced out with people who threw dry, colored paint as you passed by. At the end, everyone is covered in bright colors. There was a huge turnout of students, and it was really fun.

The very first football game last season (2012) was an away game at Iowa State. Myself and 3 friends decided that we wanted to road trip up to watch the game, so after the 8 hour drive (and seeing lots of corn fields), we arrived in Ames, Iowa. We basically started wandering through the tailgate lots to see if there were any other TU fans there. We couldn’t find many TU students, but we seemed to make friends with Iowa State fans everywhere we went. One older couple even invited us back to their tailgate spot after the game for dinner, which we accepted and brought some other TU fans with us.

I have a good friend on the football team, and he got us free tickets to the game. When we went to will call to pick them up, the Tulsa representative gave us front row seats because he wanted current students in the front. It was an awesome game, and because we were the loudest TU fans there and in the front row, the Fox Sports camera guy would come film us every time our team scored or held a third down. The picture you see is actually a Tulsa World (Tulsa’s Newspaper) reporter taking pictures of us being filmed. We ended up losing that game to Iowa State, but the 4 of us had an awesome trip…we also got revenge at the Liberty Bowl where we destroyed Iowa State.

Spring Break!

Posted on March 24, 2013 by Elaine

I couldn’t go home for Spring Break this year because I had rowing practice. It was great to be rowing because in the beginning of the week the weather was really nice, and I just enjoyed being out on the water! However, the best part of the break for me was being able to see my parents! I am very close to my parents and not being able to see them in nearly two months has been hard because last semester I somehow managed to see them every month. Anyway, they came to visit me at the end of spring break! We had so much fun because we got to explore Tulsa.

We went to the Gilcrease Museum, and to some of the restaurants that I had heard had amazing food, and went shopping! In case you were wondering some of the best places to eat are: McNellie’s, Mod’s, The Coffee House on Cherry Street (as I have said before), Tally’s, Elote Cafe, The Brook, and The Phoenix. Although we only went to McNellie’s and Elote Cafe while my parents were here, I would recommend all of them! There is a lot of great food in Tulsa.

The Gilcrease was really cool too because students get in free, and it is always fun to look at new exhibits. It is slightly different from the Art Museum in St. Louis (where I’m from) because the Gilcrease has more art and artifacts from the American West. I also had fun shopping at the mall, but my mom said that her favorite place to shop is still Utica Square (which is really convenient because it is so close to campus). I really enjoyed having my parents here, and I look forward to seeing them again.

Tuesday with Tulsa

Posted on March 12, 2013 by TU Community

Today’s Tuesday With Tulsa blog post comes from Gracie W., a junior German and Education major from Rogers, AR.

Before I came to TU, I never realized what a new and diverse world there was to discover just two hours from my home. International students make up a significant part of TU’s student population, and their numbers are growing each year. Yet, we often allow cultural differences to prevent us from getting to know students from other countries. But I’ve found that international students are some of the friendliest people you’ll ever meet, and they’re usually eager to make American friends. If you reach out to the international population at TU, you’ll find it’s easy to start some incredible, enriching friendships.

My first semester at Tulsa, I took a beginning Russian course. On the first day of class, I was surprised to find that I was the only girl in a class of 17 Arab men. The course focused on conversation, so I spent most of the time talking with my classmates in Russian. Through all of our fumbling with new words and a new alphabet, we got to know each other pretty well. Though I knew almost nothing about Middle Eastern culture, I never felt out of place in class. Later on, I also met several Kazakh students through the Russian Club. Who would have guessed that the Russian language would bring so many Middle Eastern students and American students together? That’s the beauty of internationalization at TU. If you just take the effort to reach out to the international community, they’ll welcome you with open arms. You’ll also find students from all over the world. As a German major, I’m always thrilled talk with exchange student from the University of Siegen. And last summer, I had a fantastic time getting to know a group of Chinese exchange students as part of my job at the Center for Global Education.

Now, I am studying abroad myself. My experiences in Germany have shown me just how much it means to find a friendly face in a new place. So my advice to any incoming students would be, don’t be afraid to reach out to the international community. As TU students, we are very lucky to have so many enriching international opportunities on campus. Make the most of them!