Katherine Daniel, Editor in Chief~
After the first full week of college classes for the Class of 2022, freshmen are finally settling into their new environment and their new “home” for the next four years. The freshmen are making new friends and exploring new opportunities on campus. Angelo Colon, the Director of First-Year Programs said, “We currently have 514 students in the Class of 2022.”
From the University of Lynchburg website, “The First-Year Engagement Program begins with your SOAR experience and continues throughout your entire first year. The program activities are designed to help you engage with University of Lynchburg and prepare you for success academically, professionally, and socially.” The First-Year Engagement committee has not had a meeting yet this year yet, but Colon said, “There is always stuff I would love to do more of each year. The biggest thing I want to do this year is bring first year students into the conversation. I want them to become a part of the first-year engagement committee. That is always the fun part about finding a student whose schedule allows them to participate in some of the meetings. We have not had that in several years, so that will be nice to try and have a student involved, so we can hear from the first-year students about what they want.”
The return rate of the Class of 2021 is not available at this moment in time. Colon said, “We will not have that number until September 14 or 17. That is when the institution will freeze its numbers and take its official census to know who is here and who is not.”
There are no current events for the Class of 2022 to get together but Colon said, “Now that we have the Friday morning plenary sessions as a part of the GS100 course every other week, that serves as an opportunity for the Class of 2022 to gather about half the class in each time slot being offered twice. We have some great speakers lined up to talk about the American Evolution project. We also have people talking about diversity, opportunities, and entrepreneurship that is fabricated in to who we are as a country.”
There is exciting news for our campus and as well as the Class of 2022. Colon said, “This year for FYE, we are bringing the author of the common reading to campus. David A. Price, the author of Love and Hate in Jamestown, was the selection for the 2018-2019 common reading. He will be here to talk to our students in GS100 on September 21, 2018. This is exciting because this is the first time since I have been here and the first time ever that we actually have had the author come to campus for or common reading experience. We are really excited for our students to get to interact with the author.”
Each year, the University of Lynchburg wants to the college students to get involved. Colon said, “I would love to see the first-year students to get involved, period. I think as it is quite understandable for many first-year students during their first semester, they want to see how they do academically before adding anything else to their schedules. It would be great to see them step outside of their comfort zone and try something new this semester. I want them to try something they have not done before and challenge themselves to do that.”
For more information about being involved with the FYE committee, contact Angelo Colon at 434-544-8144 or colon.a@lynchburg.edu.
