Why Frostburg: Featuring Rita Peacock

Why Frostburg: Featuring Rita Peacock
By Shana Knight Eng 336.003

Frostburg State University holds a strongly diverse campus that is full of students with diverse reasons for choosing this college. Many people claim that Frostburg was not their first choice, and they could have gone other places. What is interesting is the deciding factor that brought them here today. For some people it was the free laundry, the omelets, the cost of tuition, or the pretty view of the mountains. For Rita Peacock, that deciding factor was a boyfriend.

Rita Peacock, a senior at Frostburg and an English major with a minor in Business Administration, was always academically successful. She graduated from Suitland High School, in Prince Georges County, with a 4.3 GPA. She was always getting involved. She was a part of the Big Brothers & Big Sisters program of Cumberland Maryland, and was a big sister to a girl whose mother was on drugs at the time. She also wrote monthly newsletters for a church. Rita had the potential to get into pretty much any school she wanted, which surprised me when she told me she only applied to two schools. Rita applied to the University of Maryland and of course, Frostburg State University and got accepted into both. But why did she choose Frostburg? Rita said she would have liked to go to school somewhere far from home, like in the South. However didn’t bother to apply because of the cost of out of state schools. She explained that the University of Maryland was too close to home, and that Frostburg was farther away. But her real deciding factor was her boyfriend at the time who was a year older than her and was attending Frostburg during her senior year. She explained that “going to Frostburg was my idea; it just so happened that he was a year older and went before me.” Rita’s boyfriend at that time is now her ex-boyfriend, but they are good friends and he still goes to Frostburg.

At Frostburg State University Rita continues to be academically successful. She says she has been on the dean’s list all 3 years so far. She continues to stay involved as a writing tutor and is part of the dance company. When Rita first came to Frostburg she wanted to teach, but she said she realized teaching wasn’t for her. After asking Rita what she thought about Frostburg State University overall, she said “it is a nice get away from the city, and the people here are nicer.”