Being a student in hnfe

Dear new HNFE Hokies,

Congrats on being accepted into Virginia Tech and the HNFE program! Be proud of yourself for this accomplishment. My name is Bryce Shanahan. I’m a senior in the HNFE program and wanted to share a few things about VT, HNFE, and then some advice I wish I had when I was making my college decision.

VT is a wonderful school for many reasons. The school has strong academics, updated buildings, a gorgeous campus, and most importantly, kind students and professors. The people at VT are what set the school apart. Everyone wants to see everyone else succeed, so students study together and professors go out of their way to give extra help. The whole community is very supportive and will help you make your time at VT great.

The HFNE program is the perfect place for any student that is looking to study human health, exercise, or nutrition. If you want to go into a health profession, HNFE will teach you everything you need to be ready for graduate school or to start working. In your first two years, you take all the intro science courses and then in your next two years you choose the classes that are most applicable to you. This is what I found most appealing about the program. Being able to study what I’m passionate about was what made me choose VT and HNFE.

This last part is just a handful of things I learned that are important when choosing what college to go to. For background, I transferred to VT after my freshman year at another university. I got a second chance to pick what school I went to, and these are the things that guided my decision.

1.  Don’t worry too much about making the perfect choice for where to go to school or what major to study. There is so much time to change your mind and make changes. As I said, I changed schools entirely, I know plenty of people that changed majors.

2.  Look for schools that have ways to get involved in things outside of class! The clubs or organizations that schools have are great places to meet people with similar interests and make friends. Finding activities to do other than classwork is important for keeping a good balance in your life. Doesn’t really matter what it is that you do, just make sure you enjoy it.

3.  If you take nothing else away from reading this letter, please take this. Whatever choice you make with what university to go to, what major you study, or what career you go into, please choose one that will make you happy. Choose what you’re passionate about. No one has ever done their best work in a class they aren’t interested in or at a job they don’t like. Doing things that make us happy encourages us to work harder and generally, we do better at them. It may be scary and difficult to make these choices but please trust yourself, everything will work out for you.

I hope that this letter has told you a bit more about what a current student thinks of VT and that it makes your college decision easier. If you have questions about anything feel free to email me at bryceshanahan@vt.edu I’d be happy to help.

HNFE Ambassador, Transfer Student Peer Mentor, Sports Medicine Club Secretary, Student Athletic Trainer, Alpha Sigma Phi