Today we speak with Riley Anne Ferry, a senior history major from Seaville, Cape May County, who lives in an off campus house with friends. Riley Anne will share her #PROFspective with us on what it’s like to be a Rowan University student and how she’s getting the most out of her college experience as a Rowan Prof.
Name: Riley Anne Ferry
Major: History with a Specialization in Ancient and European History within the College of Humanities & Social Sciences
Minors or concentrations: Anthropology
Year: Senior
Housing: Off Campus
Hometown and County: Seaville, NJ (Cape May County)
Off-Campus resident: I live in a house with three friends.
Academic clubs:
Member of the Student Advisory Council for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences; Phi Alpha Theta; the history honors society.
Do you work on campus?
I am the head museum intern and research assistant at the Museum of Anthropology at Rowan University.
Do you have an off-campus job?
I am a pet sitter and dog walker. I have always loved animals and grew up having a lot of pets and found it a great way to spend time with dogs and cats because I cannot afford to take care of one of my own for the time being.
Why did you choose your major?
I chose my major because I have always learned about history as if I was reading a story with complex characters and events. Looking at it from that perspective made it very interesting and something I could easily grasp and succeed at studying.
One reason why you chose Rowan?
My father attended Rowan University when it was Glassboro State College.
My Typical Day: Friday!
My Fridays are very routine. Although I do not have any classes, I still wake up bright and early at 7:00 a.m. Granted, that first alarm at 7:00 a.m. is followed by multiple snooze buttons at 7:09, 7:17, 7:24, and by then I usually get myself out of bed by 7:30 a.m. to make breakfast. On Fridays I treat myself to an egg and pork roll sandwich because I typically have a small bowl of cereal with a yogurt and Fridays are the best days so I like to call it my “treat-yo-self” day.
By 8:20 a.m., I change into my athletic wear and walk from my off campus house to the Rec Center on campus and do some cardio and core workouts. The walk only takes me 10 or 15 minutes, and I start my workout by 8:35 a.m. I usually stretch on the mats, then run on the treadmill or workout on the elliptical for about 20 or 30 minutes, then I go back to the mats for some crunches, planks, Russian twists, and more stretching. By 9:30a.m.-9:45a.m. I pack up and head home to shower and change. At 10:45 a.m., I put my bags in the car and spend about 5 minutes moving my roommates’ cars so I can get ready to leave by ten of 11 a.m. That way I can run to Wawa for a bite to eat for lunch and a tall cup of coffee, find decent parking and get to work by 11:30 a.m.
I work on campus at the Museum of Anthropology at Rowan University (MARU). The museum
began in 2006 and is located in Robinson room 205. It holds both real and reproduced specimens of mega faunal animals, human evolutionary skulls, a primate case, and more. From 12:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., I sit in the museum and monitor the area. The museum is open from 12:30-4:00 p.m. for students, faculty and community members to visit and learn about the specimens we have and more about the world around them.
Most Fridays are slow, but there is typically at least one visitor every Friday. I’m not the overly chatty person, so I usually tell our visitors to walk aro
und and look at whatever they want, but I also offer a brief tour and overview as to what collections are and what is in the different collections. When giving the tours, I like to start with the mega fauna specimens that consist or extinct and modern day animals. My favorite one is definitely the ground sloth because when they were alive, they were as big as lions!
Once the museum closes at 4:00 pm, I pack up my bags, and usually head to the library where I work on my senior seminar paper and other research papers for my Imperialism and Colonialism class, my Russia to 1914 class and a presentation for my Magic and Religion class.
I once stayed at the library for 15 hours straight during cram jam! Those research papers do not write themselves, and the library 
provides the distraction-free environment in which I have found my self to be the most productive. I typically stay until 7:30 or 8:00 p.m., and return home to eat some dinner and watch a couple of episodes of The Office on Netflix. By the end of my day, I am usually very tired and wind up falling asleep around 10:30 p.m. In comparison to my roommates, by bed time is very early so I’ve earned the nickname “grandma” around the house, but hey – I love sleeping, so I don’t mind being called “grandma” because of that!
We are #RowanPROUD and we are Rowan Profs! Not exactly sure what a Prof is? It’s our owl mascot, Whoo RU. Read about him here.
Story organized by: Jen Green