Hello, my name is Maggie Dogs, and I am from Wisconsin. I am a Health Administration major and a member of Anna Maria’s Women’s Ice Hockey team.
I chose Anna Maria College not only because of my passion for hockey but because of the trust and love the College has shown me since the very beginning.
During my senior year in high school, I was hospitalized many times and was sick for the entire year. I missed 82 days of school.
When considering colleges, I knew that college hockey was important to me. Because I was sick my senior year, I only played six hockey games that season.
I was online looking for D3 schools that had hockey teams when I came across Anna Maria College. During my high school hockey days, we traveled to Boston for a few games, and I loved the area. The East Coast felt like home to me, and I knew I wanted to study in this area.
As soon as I found Anna Maria College, I reached out to Coach Perkins to let him know I was interested in the school. I told him I was sick, and I didn’t know what was going on for my high school hockey season. I truly didn’t think he would give me an offer, but he did. He gave me his trust and knew that this was just a bump in my road, and that I was going to get healthy again and be at my full potential soon. This motivated me to get my schoolwork back up and try again in school as I was missing a lot of assignments.
I chose Anna Maria because of the small community feel since that’s what I grew up with in Wisconsin. I wanted to feel like I had a home away from home. I grew up with my mother going to UW Madison and I would go to class with her. It was packed with about 200 kids in one lecture class. I knew that was not what I wanted, I wanted to know my classmates and professors. I want to be able to connect with them, not just sit in a classroom with them for 1 hour and 15 minutes. I can build a sense of community here at Anna Maria. There is not a face I haven’t seen before. The campus was the right fit for me, where everything was close by. At the colleges in Wisconsin, your parking lot was far from all your classes. You would have to walk across town just to get to one class.
I also chose this school for Health Administration and the opportunity to minor in Addiction Studies and get my counseling license. It was very hard to find a school where I could play hockey, join a Health Administration degree program, and minor in Addiction Studies.
No one will admit it, but it is scary moving away from home. I moved 16 hours away and I didn’t realize how hard and scary this was going to be until Moving-In day. I truly haven’t missed home because of the strong sense of community here. Everyone gets along with each other and the professors are super supportive and have great communication. They will help explain assignments or lectures more in-depth for you if you need a better explanation. There are always activities going on, so you are not stuck in your dorm room. My high school was just a school filled with athletics and work. We never did anything fun throughout the school besides the homecoming weekend. So having an active community filled with things to do changed my perspective on school.
I spent my 18th birthday here during the move-in weekend. At first, it was not my ideal birthday, spending the day learning about our school and academic expectations, but the students and my teammates made it fun! I woke up that day, walked down to the Madonna Lobby and everyone in the room started singing Happy Birthday to me! I felt at home, knowing that people who don’t even know you are still here for you.
Ultimately, my dream is to open and run my own addiction rehabilitation clinic and I know that Anna Maria College will help me every step of the way.
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