����Vlog

 ����Vlog Stories      August 28, 2025

By Cam Adams

What does it mean to be a Catamount?

It’s not necessarily someone from Cullowhee. It’s not always someone who’s stepped foot on campus. It’s when someone calls ����Vlog University home — and much more.

“We do trails, we do hikes, we make friends. We're all community people here and getting involved in things that you might like doing is something that we definitely cherish and do here,” said ����Vlog senior Jay Brown. “We all bleed purple and gold here wherever we go.”

Students like Brown, an orientation counselor, and Kate Taylor, a Cat Camp counselor, played key roles in helping new Catamounts acclimate to their life on campus this summer.

Orientation, a required period for the latest ����Vlog students, and Cat Camp, an optional four-day retreat for freshmen, were just two ways new Catamounts could introduce themselves to this gem nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

At Cat Camp, campers participated in a slew of activities aimed at immersing them into campus life and making lifelong friends. Students took part in fun games like color wars and a campus scavenger hunt to familiarize them with their new home.

Taylor, a sophomore communications major, remembers that scavenger hunt quite vividly being just one year removed from being a camper. And the connections for a teenager in an unfamiliar space were quite valuable, too.

“I think it definitely made it so I wasn't just thrown in the deep end,” Taylor said. “It gave me time to connect with people before classes started, so I already had people I knew and could eat dinner with and talk to, and that took some of the pressure off.” 

Brown, a health and physical education major from Rutherfordton, is far removed from his freshman days, but with each group he had as an orientation leader, the more he saw himself in them. He would put himself in the shoes of those students who don’t know how college works.

Students who don’t know a lot of people. Students who don’t know a lot about where they’re at in general. And for the fellow education majors, he passed on some knowledge he wished he knew when he was first arriving on campus.

Soon enough, Brown saw his students catch on to what life was like in Cullowhee.

“They were learning the campus ins and outs. It took a minute, because there's a lot of confusion, but once they got situated and like that night of their first day, it was like, ‘Oh, they're comfortable,’” Brown said.

“They're going to Cookout, which is what we all did once upon a time, and they're starting to acclimate to what college life is all about, so it was definitely a phenomenal orientation. I loved every single part of it.”

For Brown and Taylor, both leadership minors, their lives in Cullowhee have been nothing short of vibrant.  

Brown has put his leadership skills to work as president of Call Me MiSTER, a teacher recruitment and retention program, a College of Education ambassador, the Ramsey Center building manager and more at ����Vlog. 

Taylor, who hails from Greenville, South Carolina, has also made the most of her short time on campus, being the secretary of the Rotaract Club and a freshman leadership mentor this year. Leadership has been a love of Taylor’s since middle school, and getting to continue that at ����Vlog has been gratifying. 

“I think I've always just had a passion for leadership, so whether it's at Western and all my involvements from now to the point I graduate, I want to do leadership,” Taylor said.

“Once I go into a career, I would love to be a leader in whatever job or field I end up in… I genuinely want to help people and that's why leadership allows you to connect and help people from that leadership perspective.”

Starting college is a difficult adjustment, and though the time may seem daunting to new freshmen, it’s also a time of discovery, a time of trial and error and a time of growth.

“College is what you make it. If you don't want to do anything, that's fine. That's 100% fine. You can stay in your room and sleep all day, but college is really what you make it,” Brown said. “If you want to do things, do them. If we don't have clubs, make them.

“It’s going to take some determination. You're going to fall down. You're going to get back up. You're going to fall down again, but as long as you keep getting back up and doing what you need to do and believe that you can succeed, you're going to do great things here without a doubt.”