Valley celebrates Welcome Week with its students

Valley College gets the school year started with vibrant energy.

By Gabriel Arizon, Co-Editor-in-Chief

Offering free food, live music and a chance to join one of the many campus clubs, Valley College used the first week of school to welcome new and returning students.

From Aug. 28 to 30, Valley kicked off the 2018-2019 school year with Welcome Week: three days where the Valley community connected students with clubs and campus resources. The first day was “Party with the President,” where college president Erika Endrijonas welcomed the students to the new school year.

The day featured a live band, La Verdad, that played salsa music at the event. Over 15 different clubs and groups showed up at the Student Union Plaza, each encouraging students to become potential new members.

“In the past, Welcome Week was more about workshops and how to prepare for college, but we had other programs during the summer that do that for students,” Student Engagement Coordinator and event planner Raquel Sanchez said. “So, let’s have an event that’s fun. Let’s do something that’s celebratory and that you can come in and participate.”

With plenty of students interested in the vibrant music and free food, it also meant a greater chance for the clubs in attendance to meet potential recruits.

Cole Castine, a member of the Valley Collegiate Players, said, “we had a lot of people interested in theater, so I’m pretty excited. I’ve never had turnout like this go on.”

The Tau Alpha Epsilon Honor Society, which lost its charter due to a lack of members, is hopeful that new blood can help them regain their status.

“If an organization lost their charter for two years … we would lose our money,” vice president Charmaine Cram said.

The next day had a rally at Monarch Square to show school spirit. The event was smaller in scale with less participation. The last day was the Student Resource Fair. Ten different resource centers around the campus gathered in Monarch Square to provide students with information about financial aid, heath and psychological issues.

The ASU was present throughout Welcome Week, looking for students who are interested in student government. Some of the vacant positons with ASU include vice president, social media commissioner, parliamentarian officer and others.

“I think we tried to publicize [Welcome Week] as much as we can this year. I think it made a big difference compared to years’ past,” Commissioner of Health and Safety Concerns, Brandon Villarreal said.

President Endrijonas appeared happy with the three-day event, and thinks the new school year is off to a great start.

“I’m really pleased with what I see and I love the energy,” she said. “I love to see students out here because at the end of day, when I hear about a student’s success and its [due to] activities like this, it helps our students to be successful.”