"I think this must be like my 20th panel..." November Campus Visit Day

Yesterday I was up early and in the library for our November Campus Visit Day. Cedar Rapids and Mother Nature teamed up for some nice weather and the icing on the cake was the exceptionally wonderful families I got to interact with.

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As students registered, they had the opportunity to browse some tables on the second floor of the library. I was teamed up with John Chaimov to talk about study abroad. It's fun to watch students come up to my table and have a country in mind, or discover one they are passionate about as we talk about the options they would have available to them at Coe. And Coe offers so many options, from direct exchanges, to our programs with the ACM, to speciality Coe terms (like my NYC term), and finally, our May Terms.

After about an hour of small talk, it was panel time. I was lucky enough to be asked to help out again. On Thursday, the panel met to just explain some logistics. We practiced introductions and Jill (my boss) had asked me to go first. My introduction is smooth; my name, hometown, major, and activities rolling off the tongue. It's natural. I think a few of the new panel members were a little taken back. I laughed and then remembered I have done at least 20 panels during my time at Coe. When you do ten panels in one week for IPCW (and repeat that for the second year), your introduction is the signal that it's go time.

I don't know if you know this, but I love panels. It's a great way to show a slice of our student life and to share our stories. Families have the opportunity to ask us questions and what I love about Coe panels is that we bring in other perspectives, like faculty, administration, and even alums! This variety allows for an almost endless string of questions to be asked.

The group we talked to yesterday was awesome. They laughed at our jokes (haha) and asked excellent questions. I hope they learned a lot about Coe; I definitely learned some new things about my fellow Coe peers and their experiences.

Post-panel was tour time and I had a great group. Two families were from Wisconsin, which of course is exciting for me. Time passed quickly, but I think I got everything in. Our tour ended at lunch and I was able to sit with two of my families and continued to chat with them. I ended my campus visit day by showing off the Writing Center to a few families and taking one of the girls I toured (who is from Madison!) back to Dows to explore that a little more in-depth.

It's weird to think that this was my last campus visit day as a student (but hopefully not my last panel). I've had so many great campus visit days where I've been able to meet amazing students, some who I later saw and now know better because they became Kohawks too. What I love about these days is showing off Coe and seeing students that remind me of myself when I was a senior in high school: excitement for their future and the desire and drive that I think makes Coe students truly one of a kind.