Energy, Excitement, Engagement, Enrollment and Education

 

I have just been reading a bit about my first few weeks at college, and there definitely was a lot of energy and excitement there those days.  There were six of us in our dorm apartment, all away from home for the first time.  Back in those days we didn't have cells phones, text messaging, internet, or social media, so most of us first met each other on the day we moved in.  Two of our roommates were cousins who grew up living next to each other, and my roommate and I had been best friends for years, but our other two roommates were moving into an apartment with strangers to them.  Such is college dorm/apartment life!  Thankfully we all hit it off fairly well, and enjoyed spending much of our free time together.  It was exciting to attend all of the orientation activities for new freshmen that were held of the week before school officially started, dances, movies, socials, and the traditional hike up the nearby mountain to the cement block "Y" that prominently sits above the campus.  And of course meeting boys was a big part of the excitement!  And yes, we did meet the boys!

After orientation was the Labor Day weekend, and since I didn't live too far away and my older brother was also attending the same college, we went home to spend Labor Day with our family.  When I arrived back to campus on Monday evening, I was met with more excitement . . . one of my roommates had become engaged over the phone to her boyfriend  who was back home several states away!   It was a challenging engagement for them being separated in those times with only letters and the old fashioned phone on our shared kitchen wall for communication, but they lasted the year and were married the following summer.  

But yes, classes did start, and all of that energy and excitement was directed towards the real purpose of our being there at college; enrollment in our various college courses.  Those first few weeks of class were quite a culture shock for a small town girl from a small high school who had almost always been at the head of the class.  Chemistry with a class full of pre-med majors was my biggest challenge, and I had many long days of class and work at my part time job with long evenings of study trying to keep up.  It was a stressful time, but a good time.  I'm grateful that I had the experience and excitement and energy of attending college.  I'm also grateful that I don't  need to repeat that challenging first year!

Enrollment is a constant topic in my work at the local community college too. It is after all, the goal of the college to increase enrollment.  Enrolled students are our customers, our income, and our purpose . . . . to help our students successfully gain an education to prepare them to continue to be successfully employed citizens who can make a contribution to our world.

Have you enjoyed the energy and excitement of furthering your education by enrolling in college or university?