Notre Dame College holds ‘Welcome Week’

Multi-day event features photo ops, opening convocation, family picnics

Notre Dame College once again is welcoming more than 300 new students with a series of academic and social experiences to aid in their transition to higher education.

This year, for the first time, the college also is greeting first-year students and transfers with personalized notes from 60 faculty and staff during Notre Dame’s official “Welcome Week 2019” which runs through Aug. 25.

According to the school, the handwritten messages serve to connect students by their individual interests and provide an immediate mentoring contact.

The formal reception for first-year, traditional-aged, on-campus undergraduate and transfer students is an elementary process that bears a lot of fruit, said Brian Johnston, chief communications officer for the college.

“Happy students tend to stay where they are,” he added. “Incoming freshmen and transfer students are all welcome to bring their families, too.”

The first day of fall semester on-campus and online term I classes for the 2019-20 academic year begins Aug. 26.

In addition to various activities, the traditional multi-day ceremony will showcase a Notre Dame Falcon Activities Board event featuring color powder battles Aug. 24 at 7 p.m. on the College Commons and a Falcon Fest picnic from 2 to 5 p.m. on the residence hall quad.

Johnston noted that about 750 students live on the 48-acre campus in South Euclid.

The new student experience for the Class of 2023 concludes with evening mass at 8 p.m., Aug. 25, in Regina Chapel.

Based in higher education best practices, Notre Dame’s Welcome Week experience immediately engages undergraduates upon their arrival to campus, according to Amanda Means, director of new student experience.

“Research indicates the first three weeks of a firstyear student’s experience are the most critical in their transition and success,” she said “Over the years, we’ve made Welcome Week more intentional, really diving in on the needs and wants of our students, because they are leaving their lives as they knew them and we want to make everything as inviting as possible, whether it’s academic or social integration. We speak to our diverse population.

“We feel it’s critical for schools to support their students, and that’s why we’ve revamped this week in the last four years. And we also see being so close to a large metropolis as a highlight, because we do get international and out-of-state students, and we want to expose them to everything a big city has to offer.

“Welcome Week really does breathe new life into the campus and the community.”