Last week, we had the opportunity to be a part of welcoming this year’s freshman class to Winthrop University. Convocation is a tradition that goes back to Winthrop’s earliest days. Clubs and organizations from all over the campus and the city of Rock Hill come together for a picnic to show these new students everything this city has to offer.
We have been preparing all summer for this event by making hand-crafted sketchbooks to give out to the students. All they had to do to get one was fill out a quick, three question survey.
One of the questions was about what the students want to get out of their college experience. Their answers blew us away so we thought we would share some of them with you. We gave out about 125 sketchbooks, which means 125 students answered these questions. Most of them were freshmen, though not all were. Many different disciplines were represented in these surveys (which just proves how universal art really is). Plenty of Visual and Fine Art majors showed up, of course, but so did a number of theater majors and English majors. There was also a significant number of science majors which is wonderful and not at all surprising.
So, what do these students want out of their college experience? Here are the Top 10 answers:
Other responses included: meaning, worth, fulfillment, happiness and love. One student even wrote that she wants to get “great books” out of her college experience. Don’t we all?
Convocation was high energy and a lot of fun. Now we get to meet these students as we begin to curate conversation and foster craft on Winthrop’s campus.
