My name is Aaron Holliday, and I am a graduating senior here at UW-Whitewater. To be quite honest, as I think back on my experience in college from the beginning, I’ve really got to say that it has been a real whirlwind of a time to put it simply. Attending the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater has definitely been a great and valuable experience for me.

My first year as a freshman I was very much excited to begin my college career. I initially chose UW-W as my intended college for a variety of reasons: one I was looking for a place to be more independent from many things away from my home in Homewood, Illinois, which was successful with Whitewater being about two and a half hours away from home. Second was due to my background in playing adaptive sports for a total of 16 years. I had previously already become familiar with UW-Whitewater some years ago when I was much younger while on my wheelchair basketball team. The team I was on at the time had recurrently played at a tournament held by UW-W for several years.

And so even long before I was getting ready for college, through my commitment to adaptive sports I already had some prior knowledge of the university, and I therefore became well aware of the school being a great selection for some students who had disabilities. And even more, when it did come time to make a decision on college I also felt even better in knowing that I would in fact have connections should I need something in figuring things out during my freshman year. A few of my former wheelchair basketball teammates had also chosen to go to UW-Whitewater and were juniors or seniors during my freshman year. With that, I felt even better knowing I had some old friends already at the school to consult for advice should I need to. And so for the most part, both semesters of my freshman year were relatively good with minimal issues. Although the last two years of my sophomore & junior year were honestly a bit more of a challenge to handle at first, I did thankfully soon get the hang of it all in the end. Now here I am about to finally graduate college next month in May. Looking back I feel that amongst many others, some of the best experiences I can reflect on about my time at UW-Whitewater are the following:

1. All the great new friendships and connections I’ve managed to make with many of my fellow students throughout my time at the university
2. I’ve enjoyed being a part of the Chess Club while at UW-Whitewater these past years
3. During this final year, I’m been proud to have been a part of the Whitewater Advertising Association (WAA)
4. And finally, one of the best experiences I’m been proud to have had is being able to have the position of Graphic Designer for the Royal Purple newspaper for the past two years

It most certainly has been a pleasure being a student at UW-Whitewater as I look forward to my fast-approaching future in a career of graphic design.