UW Whistle-Stop Tour makes its pitch in south Big Horn County

The University of Wyoming (UW) brought its whistle-stop tour to the Big Horn Basin’s high schools on Monday, March 4th. After kicking off the day in Lovell, University President Ed Seidel, Drs. Tom Minckley and Beth McMillan, Vice Provost Kyle Moore, and several former Big Horn County students visited Greybull High School, where they spoke to local seniors about UW’s myriad connections to the Big Horn Basin and the opportunities waiting for them at Wyoming’s only four-year university.
Among the topics discussed, Moore highlighted the robust financial aid package the university has offered to Wyoming high school students since 2020. With the cost of education at the forefront of prospective students’ minds, Moore pushed UW’s Cowboy Commitment forward during his portion of the presentation. The scholarship awards between $500 and $6,500 to any eligible student and its funds may freely be used for tuition, books, room and board, or other university-related expenses; a student’s individual award is determined by their unweighted high school GPA and standardized test scores. To be eligible for the Cowboy scholarship, prospective students need only have graduated from a Wyoming high school after 2020 and apply to the university as first-year students.
It wasn’t just the brass tax and practicalities of university life that were discussed, however. The annual tour and presentation also aims to get students excited about the social scene on campus, recreational activities, research opportunities, and even what their professional careers might look like after college has ended.
Dr. Minckley, a geologist whose interests lie in the environmental stress placed on water-poor western ecosystems in North America and their conservation, touched upon his work at the Natural Trap Cave in Lovell and other projects throughout the region researching megafauna of the Pleistocene era. Dr. McMillan, who works at the School of Computing, where she directs UW’s interdisciplinary undergraduate and graduate programs in Geospatial Information Science and Technology (GIST), spoke after Minckley. She highlighted the presence of computer technology in modern life, adding students at the school would have abundant research opportunities and access to a supercomputer, a rarity.
“The professors are really interested in getting to know you and helping you be the best you can be,” said McMillan, who received her PhD from the university, while talking about the university’s overall atmosphere. “I’m a product of that: I still have some committee members who are on the faculty. As a student, I felt very supported and that still exists today.”
Greybull High School alumni Colton Farrow, a current junior in architecture with a focus on structural systems and UW rodeo team member, was among the current UW students who spoke on Monday. Following speeches by Taylor Despain, who graduated Rocky Mountain High School, and Lovell High School alum Jacob Grant, Farrow took the mic to cheers and applause from his hometown.
“I found professors who really cared about me and my education, and the wider university,” he said, adding that the discounted price tag courtesy of his Cowboy scholarship did not cheapen his overall experiences at the university. “I found great friends through the rodeo team, who really support me, and have had great coaches. If you’re looking to invest in yourself and further your education, UW is the way to go.”
All three students echoed McMillan’s remarks about community and university’s overall culture, with each referring to its small-town feel.
The final speaker of the day was President Seidel, who pitched students on his university’s study-abroad programs, classes on the Beatles and astrophysics, and field research opportunities.
“We have experts in just about every field,” he told students. “And our students get to go […] experience, visit, and learn.”
Seidel, who holds degrees in physics and astrophysics from the University of Pennsylvania and Yale, gives an annual lecture on Albert Einstein and the theory of general relativity. His professional body of work concerns black hole collisions and numerical relativity, which utilizes computers to solve Einstein’s equations. Previously, he served as the Vice President for Economic Development and Innovation at the University of Illinois system and as the Founder in the Department of Physics and a professor in the Department of Astrophysics at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Since his arrival at the University of Wyoming, he has overseen the creation of the School of Computing, the Wyoming Outdoors Recreation, Tourism, and Hospitality (WORTH) Initiative, and the university’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, which helps UW grads open businesses in their local communities.
The key topics that all speakers circled back to were the accessibility and quality of higher education at UW as well as the opportunities a four-year degree could provide and doors it could subsequently open. During his time on stage, Minckley noted that, despite being a university professor today, he originally didn’t think it was for him. “I didn’t think I was going to go,” he said. “I was really well-trained to go into construction and then a good friend of mine said, ‘Do you think that’ll be there in four years?’ Decades later, here I am.”
Historically, students from rural communities have faced class barriers in pursuit of college-level degrees with the financial cost and a sense of belonging/alienation among the many obstacles students face. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in 2019, 34% of adults aged 25 or older living in rural areas held high school diplomas as their highest level of education completed. By contrast, 37% of their suburban and urban peers had achieved a bachelor’s degree or higher.
When asked about whether he believes the school tours have helped students in rural communities see themselves as prospective university students, Seidel agreed. “I don’t have statistics, so I can’t tell you if there’s been a demonstrable uptick in applications,” he said with a smile, “but I do think it helps. I’ve had students come up to me and say, ‘You know, I never thought [college] was for me,’ but then they see it is.”
He noted that the benefits of these school tours flow both ways, explaining it’s important for him to meet prospective students and learn what’s important to them as well. “It’s good for me, especially, to know what matters to people, and that’s why I keep doing this every year. We have so much to offer and want to let people know it’s a good, supportive environment.”