{"id":23463,"date":"2025-10-08T00:00:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T08:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/?p=23463"},"modified":"2025-10-22T13:48:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T21:48:13","slug":"western-101","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/western-101\/","title":{"rendered":"Western 101"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
The wall of RWEC with a doodle of wolf and the caption \u201cGO WOLVES.\u201d | Photo by Hannah Field<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Oct 8 2025 | \u00a0Hannah Field | Editor-in-Chief<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

First-year students took to their dorm halls for the 2025-26 academic school year Sept. 22, with most students experiencing their first classes Sept. 29. Historically, PACK Welcome Week introduces new and returning students to campus and celebrates them with games, treats and events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, most students are still finding their footing well after their first class. Western has its secrets: vacant study spots, useful but secretive resources, need-to-take classes and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ASWOU president Morgan Pemberton is in her fourth and final year of classes, majoring in American Sign Language and psychology with a minor in social sciences. Her biggest tip for first-year students? \u201cDon\u2019t wait \u2018til Sunday to do your homework.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wish I knew about clubs my freshman year,\u201d said junior Makayla Wright, and then for students living in dorms, \u201cTake advantage of your meal card when you live on campus.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Western offers a variety of organizations and clubs to join on campus, notably ASWOU, Multicultural Student Union, Abby\u2019s House, the Tri-Alpha Honor Society, Black Student Union and many others. Western also offers activity-related clubs, such as a swim club, board game club and rock climbing club. Plenty of other opportunities are listed on Presence, otherwise known as Involve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond that, Western has an incredibly safe campus \u2014 Monmouth has previously made lists of the top ten safest cities in Oregon \u2014 and is very walkable. Only a few blocks from downtown Monmouth, students can safely walk and indulge in hotspot locations, such as Yeasty Beasty, one of Western\u2019s most favored restaurants and pizzerias.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy favorite place is to go to Yeasty Beasty for pizza,\u201d said senior Faithe Howle. \u201cAnd my favorite coffee place is Bugles.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pemberton recommended the Werner University Center\u2019s own eatery, The Summit, and commended their burgers as an easy on-campus dining option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Third-year student Lua Pierce mentioned La Uvita Feliz, Mexican food located downtown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Favorite study spots vary from Hamersly Library to the WUC, with Howle adding, \u201cI like the education center, the second floor with the swing chairs. I like it in (Abby\u2019s House), people can study.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Howle is the office manager at Abby\u2019s House, majoring in criminal justice and minoring in forensic anthropology. \u201cI\u2019m really passionate about gender justice and working in a nonprofit field,\u201d said Howle. \u201cEspecially when traditional criminal justice paths don\u2019t really align with my goals and what I value with myself, so I find that (here is) a really good way to use my studies in criminal justice to actually impact direct communities, which is really fulfilling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students have many opportunities to find work on campus with groups like Abby\u2019s House. Other departments offering student employment include Facilities Services, Valsetz dining and Student Engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would say my biggest tip is to reach out for help and support,\u201d Howle said. \u201cThere\u2019s resources everywhere and for every kind of issue you could possibly imagine. So if you\u2019re struggling with something, just reach out (and) they can, at the very least, point you in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Howle also encouraged students to take classes from Taryn VanderPyl, her favorite professor, teaching as an associate professor of criminal justice studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have a lot of professors that I recommend people take classes with. First of all, linguistics with Rob Troyer, 110 percent,\u201d said Pemberton. \u201cHe is my favorite. One thing I value about educators is (being) someone who has a passion for what they\u2019re teaching you \u2014 Rob Troyer is super good about all that, he\u2019s really involved in his classes \u2026 I would say CM Hall, she teaches a sociology class called LGBTQ Studies. She\u2019s a great professor, very thoughtful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pierce named David Szpakowski in the earth and environmental science department as their teacher of recommendation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI really like (Western). I think the campus is beautiful,\u201d said first-year Lily Slish. \u201cA lot of the people who go here are very nice, and the teachers and staff are really, really helpful and resourceful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carley Vevers, friend of Slish and a first-year student, expressed similar notions: \u201cI actually like it a lot. I chose it because the campus is so small and it\u2019s so homey. It makes it a lot easier to bond with people \u2026 I mean, finding classes the first week was kind of iffy, but like I said, it\u2019s a small campus, so it\u2019s really easy to pick up on things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For first-year Silvia Honaker, the biggest roadblock was navigation. \u201cMy sense of direction is like the opposite of good. Google Maps has been my savior.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Honaker picked Western for its affordability, community and location, being closer to Honaker\u2019s home town. \u201cAnd some people I knew from high school were coming here, which was a slight benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Honaker has singled out pre-physical therapy as her area of study, picking Western as her stepping stool into the field and graduate school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Information worth noting about Western would be its most popular programs: ASL, education and criminal justice. After all, Western is the only place on the West Coast where an ASL major is offered, on top of formerly being named the College of Education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contact the author at howleditorinchief@wou.edu<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First-year students took to their dorm halls for the 2025-26 academic school year Sept. 22, with most students experiencing their first classes Sept. 29. Historically, PACK Welcome Week introduces new and returning students to campus and celebrates them with games, treats and events. However, most students are still finding their footing well after their first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1094,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"Western 101","_seopress_titles_desc":"New to WOU? Here\u2019s all you need to know","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"modified_by":"saragerrick","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1094"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23463"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23468,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23463\/revisions\/23468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}