Meet Brad Christensen: Health and Wellness Fanatic!

Hey everybody! My name is Brad Christensen and I am one of your fantastic Peer Mentors this fall! I am a 2011 Hixson from Polk County majoring in Animal Science/Pre-Vet. Aside from studying to be a vet, you will all soon know me as the Peer Mentor that loves fitness and working out. The good thing about Iowa State is there are plenty of awesome resources on campus to help you get your physical activity amped up!

Living on campus, the two main places for working out are Lied Recreation Athletic Center and State Gymnasium.

My personal place of choice for exercise is Lied Recreation Athletic Center, or Lied Rec for short. Lied Rec is located on the east side of campus, so everyone living in Maple-Willow-Larch and Oak-Elm and Birch-Welch-Roberts will most likely choose Lied. The weight room was recently upgraded last year (to my enjoyment) and I highly recommend checking it out. Oh, and just because you might not want to lift weights does not mean Lied doesn’t have something to offer you….in addition to two indoor tracks it has basketball, volleyball, and badminton courts as well as racquetball, table tennis, and a rock climbing wall.

Don’t want to work out on your own? No sweat (pun intended), grab a friend and sign up for one of the 40 different group fitness classes, (I recommend Buns & Guns).

Now if you happen to live on the west side of campus, your fitness place of choice will likely be State Gymnasium. A short summary of State Gym would be to take Lied Rec and add a pool, hot tub, smoothie café and skywalk. And don’t worry about thinking you can’t fit exercise into your busy schedules. Lied Rec and State Gym are open until midnight on most weeknights. Plus, it is less crowded then. Interested? I thought so.

On a side note, for anyone looking for an on-campus job or anyone that has work-study, the two fitness centers are great places to work.

Besides the fitness centers, there are plenty of other places to get your physical activity in. Get some friends together and throw the Frisbee on central campus or play soccer on the Maple-Willow-Larch fields.

Health and wellness is more than just working out at the gym though. Healthy eating is hugely important. I am a major fan of eating at Season’s and I know there are plenty of healthy options. I also know that there are plenty of options that are not as healthy. Pizza and French fries are great in moderation kids...

The other thing to remember is get enough sleep. Seriously. For everyone with an 8 a.m. class, you will thank me.

In short, exercising, eating right, getting plenty of sleep are essential to being a successful Iowa State freshman, which I know all 100 of you will be.

If anyone has any questions or would like more specifics on anything related with health & wellness, or the facilities on campus, definitely email me at bradc24@iastate.edu. I would be more than happy to help.

I’ll see you all in August. Go Cyclones!!

Meet Cole Schlitzer and learn about sports packages!

Hello all first-year Hixsons!

My name is Cole Schlitzer, I am a 2011 Hixson Peer Mentor from Dubuque County, majoring in Supply Chain Management.  I grew up on a 425 acre dairy farm, were we milk about 100 Holstein dairy cows twice a day. In High School I played football, basketball, baseball, and tennis! During the Iowa State school year I work for the Iowa State Football program as a student assistant, where I help with the recruiting process. I am a big sports fanatic and love to go to as many Iowa State Athletic events as possible, so I can cheer on my Cyclones! Speaking of all of the Athletic events at Iowa State we pride ourselves in having great sports teams. Iowa State fields 18 varsity squads in the Big 12 Conference, the nation's premier athletics league. We have not only a strong student fan base, but also a strong alumni fan base. Every year the Cyclones continuously break attendance records and earn top honors in national online polls ranking the best "student spirit" (Hilton Coliseum) and "most dominant mascot on Earth" (Cy). Just in 2011-12, Iowa State finished 46th nationally among 278 NCAA Division I teams in the Learfield Sports Directors' Cup. Go State! The Cyclones’ four-year federal government graduation rate of 65 percent (for all sports) was best in the conference! I could go on and on with statistics, but the real way to experience these great events is to go! This is a big part of the Iowa State experience while being an Iowa State student. An involved student makes a better student. To be eligible to order student season tickets, you must be a full-time registered student at Iowa State University for the fall semester. (I hope all of you are!)

Here are the three options you have when purchasing your student passes.

$249 All Sports Package

Includes football season tickets, men's basketball season tickets, Cy's Pass, Cyclone Alley/Student Alumni Association membership and a t-shirt. (men's basketball excludes holiday break games). (Also access to men's basketball will be on a first-come, first-serve basis the day of the game.)

$125 Football Season Ticket

Includes six home games at Jack Trice Stadium.

$30 Cy's Pass

Includes wrestling, gymnastics, volleyball and women's basketball (women's basketball excludes holiday break games).

These student ticket packages are simple to buy. Simply log onto cyclones.com and click on tickets. From there you will want to navigate to student tickets. When you purchase online, you will be using your student ID number. You have the option to buy now, pay later. Make sure you select ADD to UBill, which will allow for you to wait until August to pay.

I hope this information is helpful and useful! The sooner the better, because they will eventually sell out! You don’t want to miss out! If you have any questions about anything, just shoot me an e-mail at cschlitz@iastate.edu. I will be looking forward to meeting you all in the fall! Go Cyclones!

Cole Schlitzer

cschlitz@iastate.edu

2011 Dubuque County

Meet Megan O'Neil, a 2013 Hixson Peer Mentor!

Hello! My name is Megan O’Neil and I’m a Peer Mentor this year! I’m a 2010 Hixson from Cedar County majoring in Marketing and can’t wait to kick off my senior year at Iowa State with 100 new Hixson students! I’m very excited to be a part of the program and meet you in the fall!

I thought I’d take a moment and give you some suggestions for places to eat that are uniquely “Ames”.  The dinning centers have a lot of great food but sometimes it’s important to switch it up a little! These would be great places to check out when you are here for orientation! 

Jeff’s Pizza (2402 Lincoln Way)

If you are looking for some of the best pizza in Ames, go to Jeff’s! They have daily deals that you can look up on their website and they are also on their phone message when you are calling in an order. Its okay to order something different than these deals but usually it’s the most cost effective way to eat there. I would definitely suggest getting some of their smotherella sticks; they are the best cheese sticks you can find in Ames!

Hickory Park (1404 S Duff Ave)

An Ames classic! Really great BBQ place and an experience within itself! They have a huge selection, even if you aren’t the biggest BBQ fan. The building is impressive and they can hold 500 people at a time which is pretty cool! If you are going during orientation or on the weekends, expect a short wait but I promise you it’s worth it!

The Café (2616 Northridge Parkway)

This place is one of my favorites! Its north of campus and they have the most amazing food. My favorite part is that their kitchen is open to see into when you are waiting to be seated. It’s a little bit different than what you see at any chain restaurants and the atmosphere is great to go and have a sit down brunch with a few friends!

Wise Guys Burgers (120 Welch)

This is a new place in Ames but its definitely worth going to see. The whole place is Mobster themed and the food is really good. It’s a classic burger joint but they have other options too. It’s located right near campus in Campustown so just a quick walk from anywhere you’re living! It’s a little soon to tell what the best item on the menu is but if you go there, we’ll definitely have to swap suggestions!

Oddfellow’s (823 Wheeler Street)

I know, two burger places on one list? But this one has its own flare. The only thing is that if you have any heart conditions, I wouldn’t go here; its greasy and meat heavy but so delicious! They have a ton of specialty burgers and although they are a little more expensive, the burgers are normally enough food to last three or four meals!

Lorrey’s Coffee (2320 Lincoln Way)

My last suggestion to get you off on the right foot on food in Ames is a coffee shop. Why? Because if coffee isn’t your best friend already, it will soon be once you are in college and I’d hate to leave you without a suggestion on where you can start your love affair with this drink. This is a cute little shop right across from campus and they have excellent coffee and espresso drinks, delicious sandwiches and great tables to sit at and study on afternoons off!

Hopefully this list will help you get started getting to know all of the excellent things Ames has to offer! If you need any more suggestions or want to let me know about any places you’ve found in Ames, feel free to email me at mgoneil@iastate.edu or tweet at me @mgoneil!

Have a great summer and I can’t wait to meet all the 2013 Hixsons in the fall!