Favorite Mountaineer Memories | Presidential Distinguished Ambassadors

Traveling with Gordon Gee on his all county West Virginia tour.

-Marco Greenberg

My favorite memories revolve around the friends I made at the College of Law, the long hours we spent studying and having fun together, and going to WVU football games on Saturdays in the fall.

-William Ihlenfeld

(1)Beating Pitt my senior year at the Natatorium and (2)Getting inducted into the WVU Sports Hall of Fame and Mountaineer Legends Society.

-John Havlik

The people and fans of WVU. Home away from home.

-Mike Gansey

My favorite memory as a mountaineer was all of the chances to escape to Coopers Rock and the wildlife that surrounds it.

-James Leonard

Being chosen as a Liberal Arts Dean Scholar and attending a dinner where I was seated with Irene Keeley, who was in the running for a federal judgeship. I remember talking with her and her husband and thinking, "Someday, I want to be as successful as she." Today, we are friends.

-Nikki Bowman Mills

Singing "Country Roads" with thousands of my West Virginia family at Mylan Puskar Stadium and the WVU Coliseum after a Mountaineer win.

-Susan Riddle

As a 19-year-old WVU student who took off a semester to serve on a crew working for an opera company, I was advised to fill out my contract as S.F. Lee instead of Sharon. It wasn’t until I arrived in NYC that I discovered a “Pink Tour Contract” had never before been issued to a female crew member. So, by sheer naivety, I stood my ground to get my agreement co-signed, becoming the first female and youngest crew member issued a tour contract. Today, I believe it was in that moment I knew there were no limitations I couldn't navigate moving forward.

-Sharon Lee

I have been blessed to so many memories of being a Mountaineer - my favorite memory is walking across the stage getting my Master’s Degree in Integrated Marketing and Communications. My second favorite memory is beating the #1 team in the nation (Uconn) at home and hearing Country Roads cued up postgame! Great memories for the West Virginia Men's Soccer Program!

-Raymon Gaddis

In a list of many fond Mountaineer memories, the one I select as my favorite would be sharing the Mountaineer Week experience with my parents when being honored as the 2006 Ms. Mountaineer. Having the opportunity to celebrate Appalachian heritage with my parents that columnated in receiving such a historic and meaningful award allowed me to celebrate work I had the chance to engage in as a WVU student leader with the people who helped me achieve so much through their individual sacrifice.

- Lisa Costello

My classes: Sociology - the subject matter (Stanford Prison Experiment), the classmates (first time in class with college seniors while in high school), the professor (super interested in the subject and was a big supporter of mine). Microeconomics - the subject matter (supply vs demand; self-interest generally makes a better group (Adam Smith) vs cooperation makes the group even better (John Nash) and the professor (first time an educator jumped off a table to teach me something) Calculus 3 - the subject matter (in Calc 3, I finally learned something my Dad was impressed with) and the professor (first educator with super long hair and that flip-flop vibe).

~ Ashok Aggarwal