Olivia Goodyear always knew she’d get to do some amazing things as a University of Iowa student. But a few experiences still surprised her.

“I got to travel with the Hawkeye Marching Band and women’s basketball team to two Big Ten tournaments, and I got to cut down a piece of the championship net, which was never something a 5-foot-4 clarinet player thought she was ever going to do,” Goodyear says. “It was a really cool experience and something I will remember forever.”

Goodyear, who grew up in Monticello, Iowa, and will graduate with a BA in speech and hearing science, also never expected to get involved with research.

“I knew that the University of Iowa is a Tier One research institution and that 1 in 3 undergraduates gets involved in research, but I didn’t think that was going to be me,” Goodyear says.

But her sophomore year, she emailed Associate Professor Elizabeth Walker in the Pediatric Audiology Lab asking to learn more. By her junior year, she was a research assistant in the lab.

“It’s been hands down one of the best academic experiences I’ve had,” Goodyear says. “The projects I’ve been working on are being put in textbooks and being presented across the world. It’s really cool to have even the tiniest thumbprint on some of these really major projects that are changing the course of the field I’m going into.”

What is your earliest memory on campus?

I’m in the Hawkeye Marching Band, and I remember my very first day here I walked into the Hawkeye Tennis and Recreation Center, which is where we rehearse. I had grown up watching the Hawkeye Marching Band, so just walking into that space for the first time and realizing that I was going be a part of a group that I had grown up watching was very surreal.

Why did you choose to study speech and hearing science?

It’s a sort of funny story. I was watching this show called Switched at Birth and there is an audiologist in the show. I thought it sounded cool, and ever since I’ve been hooked on audiology and American Sign Language. So, I kind of picked what I was going to do for the rest of my life out of a TV show, but it worked out.

As a campus tour guide, what are some of your favorite tips to share with prospective students?

A lot of people ask me, “Do you really walk up this hill every single day?” I tell them about all the tricks and ways that you can walk up the hill (behind the Old Capitol) without actually walking up the hill, like using the elevator in the IMU Ramp. You just take that up to the fourth floor and you’re right out on the T. Anne Cleary Walkway. There’s also an elevator just behind Catlett Residence Hall that if you go up to the fifth floor, that’ll shoot you right up to Burge Residence Hall. Or if you go in the Chemistry Building, there’s an elevator that’ll take you up there. Or the engineering building. I’ve got backups on backups on backups. Or I tell them to just walk up the hill diagonally.

What does resilience mean to you and how does your class demonstrate resilience?

There are going to be lots of ebbs and flows in college and just in life in general. I think resilience means pushing forward through those, even when it gets a little hard or a little frustrating. Making sure that you keep pushing through it, building a support system, taking that break when you need it, and asking for help when you need it, because a resilient person isn’t going to give up on what their goals are in life.

Who was your most important mentor at the University of Iowa?

Her name is Kathy Ford and she’s the operations manager for the Hawkeye Marching Band. Ever since the day I stepped on campus, she’s been someone I could go to when I’m having a really good day, when I’m having a not-so-hot kind of a day. She makes sure that myself and everyone in the band has everything they need. She has made me just feel very welcome on campus.

She is the band mom, and she’s been my mom on multiple occasions. I really appreciate her for that.

Where is your favorite place to eat?

One of my favorite places is Iowa City Encounter Café, right across the street from Voxman Music Building. My freshman year, several upperclassmen who were in the clarinet section with me took me under their wing. Every Thursday morning, we’d go and have coffee, and I could ask them questions about classes and all that stuff. So, Encounter holds a really special place in my heart in Iowa City.

My favorite food on campus is definitely the Street Hawk Food Truck. I love their barbecue bacon cheeseburger. It is just so good. I never thought there would be a food truck on campus, so that’s been really nice.