Incoming students get Red Carpet welcome
SJVC’s Visalia campus always does something to make incoming students feel welcome, but on June 12th they really rolled out the red carpet…literally. The college’s traditional College Bound Bash went with a Walk the Red Carpet theme and treated incoming students and their friends and family to a spectacular welcome.
A red carpet led to the event entrance and a photo booth had a celebrity backdrop with ‘Golden Globe’ statues. “The whole point of this event was to make incoming students comfortable and help them connect with other students,” says Rebecca Cryer, SJVC High School Admissions Representative.
The evening event had lots of games, such as Pictionary and a very competitive water balloon toss to get things going. The winning team was the Medical Turtles, but The Stars and The Dream Team gave them a good run. The Criminal Justice Corrections program even conducted an old fashioned “Who Done It”, complete with crime scene, in a contest for observers to find the murder weapon.
Over 70 attendees got to get a good look at the campus, have some fun, enjoy winning some prizes and sample great food fare from a taco truck. New students also got to visit different booths set up by campus clubs and organizations for future membership consideration.
Event organizers got a lot of help from the campus’s Connect Crew, a mentor and leadership group that works with incoming students who just graduated from high school.
“The Connect Crew were important to interact here because they are close to the ages of the high school students coming in, and they are a big part of what makes this such a fun event,” says Rebecca.
The thirteen Crew members are from all programs offered on campus and traditionally speak at Orientations where they explain to incoming students the importance of getting involved in school clubs and activities, striving for good grades and developing good leadership skills.
Walk the Red Carpet was hugely successful. “It was exactly what we wanted,” says Rebecca. “The biggest thing was to make sure that we had interaction between our students and new students coming in. New students told me later that they enjoyed getting to know a few students before their start date and felt a lot more comfortable about starting their programs.”
When it comes to a red carpet welcome, the Visalia campus really knows how to roll it out.