This year’s New Student Welcome Day at San Bernardino Valley College was another resounding success.
On August 10, 370 new students came to campus for a day of activities. They started at the auditorium, where they received information on available resources and student services programs. From there, the students went to a resource fair, which was followed by lunch and breakout workshops that went into more detail on topics like financial aid and applying for EOPS. Throughout the day, students could also take a guided tour of SBVC.
“We really want our new students to feel comfortable on campus,” outreach coordinator Justine Plemons said. “We want them to know where Financial Aid is and know familiar faces and know where resources are. You can go to class and go home, but being able to connect with clubs and student support on campus makes a night and day difference on how you’re going to do academically.”
New Student Welcome Day gives people the chance to ask questions and find out about opportunities to join clubs and organizations. There was an informational session on BROTHERS, a club that was started several years ago and is being revived. BROTHERS is geared toward African American male students, and gives them a place to “connect and talk to people who are like-minded and have similar experiences,” Plemons said.
It’s important to make new students not only feel welcomed, but also aware of all the programs and services that are available to them at SBVC. Plemons likens college to The Wizard of Oz with “the man behind the curtain. For a lot of students, it can be very scary. Our job as educators is to pull back that curtain and show them you belong here, you speak the lingo, you can navigate this place, and to really demystify the scariness of college. Hopefully we do that not just with this event, but with every day interactions.”
New Student Welcome Day is a fun way to spread the word about what SBVC can do for Wolverines, and Plemons said she’s already “looking forward to doing it again next August.”
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