Jeff Sonola

Jeff Sonola is a junior electrical and computer engineering major from Spring, Texas. He spent his freshman and sophomore year in Teal Residential College and reflects on those years as some of his fondest Baylor memories.

Q. What influenced your decision to live in Teal Residential College?

A. I thought it would be easier to get my homework done! And living in an area where I am in a community of like-minded majors would be beneficial to my schooling experience.

Q. Did you know anyone at Baylor before you moved into Teal? Did you make any friends living there?

A. I did not know anyone before I moved into Teal, but I did make a lot of friends living there. I am actually currently living with three friends who I met in Teal.

Q. Did you feel that in Teal you had a sense of community? What made you feel this way? Did that Teal community go outside the dorm walls?

A. I felt a sense of community there as most of my classes were with students living in Teal. If I saw anyone from Teal, regardless of where we were on campus, we would talk, so I would say there is community in the way that we were always looking out for each other.

Q. What advice would you give an incoming freshman deciding where to live?

A. At the end of the day, you are here for you and your education and if you want to get the best of it, being surrounded by like-minded students really does help. Teal allowed me to stay focused because I was always surrounded by classmates, so it was easy to get help and keep myself accountable for my work. If you are a freshman, you are surrounded by sophomores who have already learned the material and surrounded by your freshman peers currently taking the classes. I think that access to the community easily makes your schooling a lot better. It also allows you to have a more diverse network on campus because you are making friends in your classes and in your major, but you also have opportunities to rush and join clubs outside of the engineering or computer science majors that further expand your network on Baylor’s campus.