Meet the person who will be featuring the students of the Manning School of Business. She is the go-to individual to share your backstories and accomplishments with. Students, business faculty members, and alumni will look to this blog to read up on the faces of the university. Read her story below!
If you would like to be featured on the blog, please email “Kellsie_Howard@student.uml.edu” for further information.
Hi!
My name is Kellsie Howard and I am currently a sophomore here at Umass Lowell. In only a year, I have accomplished many of the goals that freshman say they will complete when they come to college. I obtained a job on campus, maintained honor roll grades both semesters, made new and great friends, and so much more. With that being said, my parents now proudly wear the “University of Massachusetts Lowell” bumper sticker on our Honda Pilot back home in Georgetown, MA.
As sophomore year slowly comes to a start, I am no longer the solo freshman girl, lost on her journey to find Pasteur Hall- which is within Southwick Hall to all the new students reading this! I am very thankful for the new sidewalks connecting Pasteur, Kitson, and Southwick Hall as many freshman will never know the struggle of finding your way from one hall to the next throughout the buildings. Word of advice: Pay attention to the “SO’s, KI’s, and PA’s” in front of the room numbers or you could find yourself in “SO 305” rather than “KI 305,” which is much further down.
Just two years ago, I attended Georgetown High School. I was still unsure of where I wanted to go to college in February, only a month before the deadline to approve. I quickly chose Umass Lowell just a week before the deadline because it was the most affordable option for my family. Even though the university wasn’t my first option at that time, I chose to make the best of it until I began the school year. Because we were saving money by choosing this school, I was able to buy the coolest dorm accessories, afford all my textbooks, and even chose to live in the more expensive dorm room option- the renovated 6th floor of Fox Hall.
My decked out freshman dorm room
Once I got to Umass Lowell, I made a lot of friends that lived on my floor because I chose to live in the “Business LLC.” An LLC is short for a Learning and Living Center, which has all students of the same major living on one floor. All 40 boys and girls living on the 6th floor were outgoing, business-minded, young professionals. We bonded over the weekly tough homework problems we got from Professor Tim Cook for Exploring the Universe, and worked together on homework until Adam Boudreau would send us the messy solutions for Management Calculus. This was my favorite memory because many of these individuals became some of my best friends in only a few months.
After just a few weeks of being at the university, I realized that Umass Lowell was not only the most affordable option for me, but my best option. There is so much room to thrive and become successful. All of the faculty and staff members truly care about the person you are and treasure the education they are providing for you. They must be doing a good job for everyone, though, because The Eagle Tribune and Business Insider listed Umass Lowell as the most underrated college in America.
I believe the smartest decision that I made my freshman year was getting an on-campus job. Being broke in college is a real thing! I thought I had saved up enough money from my summer job to last me the entire freshman year- it only lasted me the first semester. I got a job working in the Office of the Dean in Pasteur Hall 305 (where you come to get your class advising for each semester). I have grown to love the people I work with and it’s a pleasure to learn from them as successful individuals. Whomever you decide to work for on campus will know a great deal that you can learn from.
Clubs. You can never join enough clubs at Umass Lowell. We have hundreds of categorized clubs including Finance Society, Accounting Society, Marketing Club, and more, to name a few business-oriented clubs. It is super easy to attend a meeting for any of these clubs which are usually just one hour of your time a week, and take place at night when all of your classes have ended. I’m always open to adding more clubs to my schedule because not only are they fun and easy-going, but they look great on a resume to employers- from one business student to the other.
Whatever you have chosen to do with your time here at the university, I would love to get the chance to share your stories with people who want to read them. I hope that my kick-off story has influenced you to either get involved with the university or send me your own story!