For the next five weeks, we're going on a journey together. Me as the writer, figuring out how to do this to my best ability and you as the reader, along for the ride. These next five weeks I will be making a point to not only share stories with you of some students here at Pfeiffer University, but also how Pfeiffer is unique to them. So, this is the first part of a series of articles I am going to write entitled 'Why is Pfeiffer Unique?' In the simplest terms, being unique means to be different from the rest, which is something I have come to believe is something that Pfeiffer is and this idea is one that crosses to other students beliefs as well.
The first student I chose to interview was a senior Santi Moar Sanchez, who is from A Coruña, Spain and is a Health & Physical Education major. I first met Santi was last year when I was a freshman through my first-year journey class. He, along with another student, Abi Peck, was my class' peer mentors. So, he was in our class every day when we met, but where I mainly saw him was outside of the classroom, in the cafe or out on the soccer field as he has played on Pfeiffer's men's soccer team for his entire four years at Pfeiffer.
When I first came to Pfeiffer I could tell this place was unique, but couldn't quite wrap my head around what made it so unique. I have found, though, what mainly seems to make this place so unique is the people here. Whether it be the students, professors or staff, the people at this school truly make up a unique mosaic that makes this place so wonderful.
Whether Pfeiffer found you, or you were lucky enough to find Pfeiffer is equally important, as I have heard multiple times before each person alike was brought here for a reason, that God has placed you here at Pfeiffer for a purpose. So when I was interviewing Santi, one of the questions I asked him was how he ended up at Pfeiffer. This was his response: "Pfeiffer found me in a try-outs in Madrid, Spain. Coach Reasso came to watch us play, and he brought us to Pfeiffer."
Something else that I have found that is common to all incoming freshmen are fears they have coming into a new place. Also, there is a great excitement that comes with it as well. One thing that Santi told me he was most excited about was the new experience, being in a new country and the soccer program here at Pfeiffer.
This fear for him coming into Pfeiffer also was the issue of speaking English and being a great distance away from home. But here with those fears he had, he expressed to me something that begins to show how special this university is. "Since the first moment, the school provided tutoring and ESL lessons, which made me feel more comfortable with the language. And also here I felt at home, as I met some new awesome people."
He also brought up other amazing points about how this university is unique in comparison to other schools. As he like many other students can agree on is that it is so easy to fall in love with the campus, because even though it is small, everything is close together and it is like family here at Pfeiffer. This goes for not only the students but also the staff as they are always willing to take that extra step to help you succeed as a student here. His story of how Pfeiffer provided him lessons so he could become more comfortable with the language is just one example of this.
The last question I asked him was how Pfeiffer changed him for the better. What he said was this: "Obviously, getting a degree at Pfeiffer is one of the best things that might happen in my life. This is a totally different journey from anything that I could experience in Spain, and I think this helped me to grow in every aspect of my life."
This University is one that is truly unique, even though this school may be small and in a little place called Misenheimer, that most people have ether never heard of before or have just drove through, it is something amazingly unique from anywhere else. It is a campus where professors come out to athletic events and cheer like any other fan, a place where the president and her husband walk their three adorable dogs across the campus. It's a school where you know at least the face of almost everyone you pass, it's the Pfeiffer Pfamily.
