Today was one of a series of "Welcome Days" scheduled at the school. New students find a parking spot nearest the door, receive a printout of their schedule, get the latest information about financial aid and student services, and are given quick tour of the maze we call the college.
I volunteered to be one of two Welcomers in the General Studies section of the school. Students came up the hallway alone, in groups, with a tour guide dressed in a nifty blue NWTC shirt, or with their mom and rest of the family. My job was to welcome them (thus the name), locate the General Studies courses on their schedule, and show them the classrooms they will populate beginning next Thursday, Aug. 16, the first day of our fall term.
Most of our General Studies classrooms are straightforward: largely square in shape, functional beige, tables and chairs facing a SmartClassroom consul in the front of the room framed by whiteboards on either side. When the subject is writing, math, psychology, sociology, or ethics and diversity, we don't need a lot of extra equipment. Some of the classrooms are computer labs primed with software ready for the writing, math, and other courses. Our science classrooms are more impressive because they have more toys. Chemistry, physics, and microbiology labs look like a well-endowed high school science lab without the hand-painted homecoming posters hanging from poster tape.
The students say they are coming to see a classroom, but I doubt that is real reason. Most of them have seen plenty of classrooms and ours, while bright and shiny, are really no different than tens of others. The real reason they come is to quell their doubts about enrolling in a college in general and at NWTC in particular. One week before school starts, they are understandably nervous by this bold step. So my job today was not only to show them classrooms, but to assure them they made the right choice by in investing in their future. My job was to welcome them to the rest of their life.
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