My Life at IUP

My name is Sidney Meixel. I am a freshman in my second semester attending Indiana University of Pennsylvania. I am currently studying in the College of Natural Science and Mathematics in the Biology Pre-Medical program. My original plan was to enlist in the Navy but I was in a car accident my senior year of high school so I had to very quickly pick a school.

I grew up in a small town right outside Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania. I attended a small charter school that taught kindergarten through 12th grade. I attended that school from the first grade until the day I graduated. My school was in a tiny town called Loganton. We raised sheep in high school, often had animal days where students brought in all types of animals from cows to rats. I was very active within my school in fact I played volleyball and still had time to be in cheer. When I wasn’t doing sports I was part of the FFA (Future Farmers of America) and NHS (National Honor Society).

The accident totaled my car and I tore three of the four ligaments in my right knee as well as tearing my meniscus. I now, two surgeries and almost two years later have metal screws in my knee as well as a cadaver ligament.

I have always wanted to work in the medical field. My first option was to enlist in the Navy as a medic. The military would have paid for my college had I been able to enlist. After my accident though I had to find schools that offered the Pre-Medical field and wasn’t super far from my house. IUP was quickly one of the top options as it is only two and a half hours from my house. I couldn’t move far from my house as I have to go home pretty often to meet with my surgeon.

One of the main reasons I chose IUP was because of the style of the dorms. I liked that each dorm had their own bathroom and I would only have to share it with one other person. Another reason was that the campus is in a smaller city and growing up in the country I knew I couldn’t live in a big city. Another leading factor was the color guard. I was a color guard captain in highschool and knew I had wanted to keep going with it so finding out that IUP offered it was a game changer.

I don’t know if I would have made it though my first semester had I not joined color guard. It was amazing to move into college a week early and make so many close friends just from joining one group. It definitely made me feel better about starting college having a support system that I knew I could rely on. I highly recommend joining a group when you start college.

I am currently studying in the Pre-Medical field here at IUP. So far my classes have been just your standard core classes such as History, Math, English, and of course Biology. Although my major is more or less in the biology field I have taken more math classes than bio classes.

Attending IUP in my opinion was an amazing idea and I am so glad I decided to come here. I have made so many lifelong friends and learned a lot about rooming with people I don’t know. I have had a bit of a culture shock moving from a tiny school to a much larger one but have learned a lot and have adapted to it much better than I had expected to. I highly recommend attending IUP because everyone is so friendly and it is just a very easygoing university.