Concord has offered the Junior class an opportunity to take a day and walk around SAU and JCC. This trip gave students the first step to picking where they want to go after high school. People in each respective school guided the tours. The tours consisted of walking around all the buildings on both campuses along with descriptions of what the building is and its purpose.
Mrs. Otto was one of the adults who chaperoned during the trip; she also helped set the dates of the visit with the counselors. Mrs. Otto believes the tours are “a great way to realize what different colleges have to offer and what questions students should be asking themselves about their future college choice.”
When being asked about the different benefits of college tours, she responds: “The biggest is to figure out if the college’s atmosphere is right for them and if they offer the right kind of courses.” Mrs. Otto continues, “Whatever college they happen to pick will be their home for the next 2 to 6 years so it’s important it’s the right one.”
Not only do the tours offer a variety of benefits, they also don’t cost anything for the schools. The colleges pay for everything, allowing a less stressful tour for the high schools.
Although Mrs. Otto has plenty of knowledge, the students are the ones being toured.
Jayden Carpenter-Sattler is one of the students who went on the college tours. Sattlers thinks the tour was “very insightful on the Spring Arbor portion; I thought it was helpful about colleges even if I didn’t plan on going to college.”
When being asked if the tours influenced him to consider either colleges he explains, “Yes, I didn’t like the dorm situations at either college, but JCC being rather inexpensive and close made it appealing.”
Sattler further explains that, “I didn’t know what college was going to be like so getting a first-hand look was really helpful.”
Another student who traveled to the colleges was Brigham Bentley. Brigham’s views on the tours are that they were “insightful and helped me get the information I wanted out of them.” When being asked if the trips were useful for figuring out his future plans, he responds with, “Yes, I got what I wanted to know out of it: Jackson has the degrees I want as well as it’scloser.”
Although everyone has their own plans, it’s always encouraged to expand your options!
