Elon University Visit

[momofgals]

This past Saturday dd and I attended an Open House for Juniors at Elon University, which is located in Burlington, NC (between Greensboro and Chapel Hill). It was a well-organized event, with hundreds of students and their parents participating. The first part of the day the parents heard from a senior at the school and the president of the university, then we had the chance to attend information sessions about various majors. (I went to the Undecided Majors’ session, which was actually very helpful for understanding how they advise students in choosing majors.) During this time, the students were being given campus tours. Then, we flip-flopped, and the students attended the major sessions, while the parents toured the campus. After lunch the parents and students together attended sessions on student life and on the five different types of learning (see the following paragraph for more about this). These times included student panels and allowed for question and answer times after the students had given an overview of their various university experiences.

 

It was a perfect day, weather-wise, and the campus is beautiful. The facilities are great, with state-of-the-art classrooms and labs. For students considering broadcast journalism, it would be a dream-come-true kind of learning situation. The emphases are on 1) service learning (volunteerism), 2) study abroad (to build globally minded adults), 3) internships, 4) undergraduate research (students have the opportunity to publish original research), and 5) learning through leadership. Listening to the students with varying major and minors recount their individual experiences in these areas of emphasis was helpful in seeing how the vision is carried out at the school. For instance, one male recounted how his spring break was spent as part of a school group building a home for a family in the Dominican Republic. An art history major recounted her experiences abroad in Paris and Italy as well as her internship with the Atlanta High Museum of Art for a summer.

 

Elon makes it a point to develop a strong sense of community within the college (via strong advising, college-wide events, and close student-professor relationships), and we came away with the impression (from hearing some professors talk) that the goal is to develop each student to his/her full potential, not just so that they will go on to graduate school or land a great job, but so that they will be able to have an impact in whatever field they pursue. I think that, even though Elon doesn’t have as much of a reputation as some of the other schools which dd is considering, it is going to be a top pick for her IF she can earn the scholarships necessary to attend.