SAINT MARY-OF-THE-WOODS, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV)— Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College welcomes new students with music, bubbles, and excitement for the new year during move-in day.
Faculty, staff, and students lined up on The Avenue at the welcome gate to campus to offer new students a warm welcome to the college. This is an annual tradition that the school does every year to help get the incoming students excited for classes and to help relieve some of the stress that can come with moving to campus.
SMWC President Brennan Randolph mentioned that having a tradition like this is good for the new students and everyone else involved in it.
“We’re here to express to them excitement for a new academic year and for them to have an opportunity to see a bit of our culture and understand, and a little bit of who we are, the family-like atmosphere that we absolutely talk about often in the admissions process,” Randolph said. “It’s a fun day, faculty, staff, and student athletes are on the Avenue today. To be able to express that appreciation and excitement for our students that are arriving. The Avenue is very symbolic for this institution. Students have long mentioned, talked about their first arrival to campus, entering through the gates, driving through the avenue, and the feelings and the emotions that they were bringing from that experience.”
Sutton Reed is one of the new students on campus, coming from St. Louis, MO., and he mentioned what made choosing SMWC such an easy choice for him.
“What set it apart was that I really like the small campus like everyone here knows each other and they’re all friends,” Reed said. “There’s like no drama. The lectures are really good because it’s like a 1 to 13 ratio for staff, so you’ll get really good care there, and you’ll learn a lot, so I really like that in my campus.”
Reed also talked about how he is looking forward to meeting new people on campus.
“I’m most excited to meet everyone on the volleyball team,” Reed said. “I’m still getting to know people, so that’s a little hard, but making friends, I thought it was hard, but it’s gotten a lot easier since everyone’s got a lot in common. That’s just been a fun experience so far.”
SMWC will be welcoming 217 new students to campus. There are 24 states represented in this new class of on-campus students, as well as representation from Puerto Rico and 12 other countries. This brings the total of on-campus students to 605, but the school will be serving over 1,400 students altogether between the ones on-campus, online students, and graduate students.
To learn more about SMWC and what they have to offer for students, and how to apply for the college, just visit their website. To keep up with their athletics, just click here.
