High turnout for Stillwater’s college fair
March 17, 2016
Stillwater Area High School hosted one of the largest college fairs in the Midwest in the gym. The fair featured over 110 different post secondary schools, and offered a range of opportunities for every kind of student. The College Fair occurred on March 8, and it hosted both two and four year colleges, military organizations, and professional schools. All of the schools came from a variety of locations within the five state Midwest area. Stillwater was another stop on the tour of regional College Fairs that occurred throughout Minnesota. The fair was completely free for students that registered for the fair, and the students were welcome to stay for as much or as little as they desired.
With the wide range of choices and options out there for students to choose from, picking a future college can be overwhelming. The College Fair provided an opportunity for students of all kinds to become more informed about post secondary education options, as well as meet directly with school representatives. This gave students a potential leg up on other future applicants in the selection process. The leg up was that a college representative would visually see and experience the students interest in their school, as well as learn about them as a person. The experience of the College Fair provided an essential resource to enhance good planning and research about what school is going to be the best fit for the student.
The College Fair gave students the chance to have their college questions answered, both big and small. With the variety of options that the fair had to offer, there was an answer for anyone’s question. Students were encouraged to reach out to the representatives of schools of interest, and ask them the questions they had been dying to know. The Fair staff made sure the students were involved, and helped students get their questions answered by getting the ball rolling for them. The staff gave out brochures filled with helpful informative potential questions to ask colleges. Every available opportunity at the fair was encouraged to be taken, and students were provided the resources to properly take the opportunities given.
It’s just a great opportunity for them [Students] to go talk to colleges that they’re interested in, and to go find out what is it that they’re going to need.
— Amy Carr
Amy Carr from the College and Career Center said, “It’s just a great opportunity for them [Students] to go talk to colleges that they’re interested in, and to go find out what is it that they’re going to need. Do they need to take a language? How many years do they need to take?… A lot of questions that they will be able to answer.”
The National Honors Society (NHS) helped put the event together, because they understand the huge advantage it is to host our own College Fair. NHS students understood the difficulty that comes along with picking a college, and were excited about the availability of the College Fair. The opportunity to learn new information about potential colleges is something that lots of senior NHS members missed. With the encouragement and help from fellow peer NHS members, it encouraged fair goers to attend even more. NHS members like senior officer Mary Norkol felt that by exploring options, students could learn a lot about themselves, and what students may want for a future.
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Senior Mary Norkol explained, “If I’ve learned anything through my college search, it’s to learn as much as possible about as many colleges as possible. It sounds intimidating and overwhelming, but you could end up liking something you didn’t expect.”
The College Fair’s convenience for students made it a must go for many students. By having such a wide range of school exploration opportunities within a very close distance of students homes, makes college research much easier. Instead of potentially driving several hours to explore a college, the fair gave students a chance to get information about a school without being limited to going online. The internet may provide a vast amount of information about a school, but being able to face to face talk to a representative can do so much more than a website could.
Junior Mason Bartosh said, “It’s close to home, and very convenient being held in such a big place, a lot of colleges are able to participate which is huge.”
Norkol concluded, “I think the college fair helps kids start to narrow down their ‘must haves’ and ‘can’t stands’ when it comes to choosing a college. It’s really beneficial to talk to a representative from the college because they’re more likely to be honest, instead of just trying to sell their school which is what happens in the websites oftentimes.”
Cassie Hansen • May 5, 2016 at 9:32 pm
You did a great job describing the uniqueness of the college fair and how important it is for students to experience. The facts you provided really supported your points and got the message across.
Craig Sanislo • Mar 30, 2016 at 1:06 pm
I liked the mix of sources in the story. The article really captured what went on at the college fair, and how it helped students continue or begin their college search.
Dylan Foster • Mar 30, 2016 at 7:27 am
I like how the article goes in depth on the college fair and how you talk about who set it up and everything. I enjoyed the article and I like how this story can let a person experience the college fair without actually going there. Great article!
Megan Karnuth • Mar 30, 2016 at 7:22 am
I was unable to attend the college fair and this really gave me an insight of what it was like. You picked the right sources because their quotes made this article come together well.
Matt Johnson • Mar 29, 2016 at 9:39 pm
Really like how it shines light on what the college fair is all about while at the same time showing you and allowing you to pick among of 110 schools! Cool how Stillwater got to hold this and hope they can in the future as well.
Caroline Allessi • Mar 29, 2016 at 9:13 pm
Very good article overall. It was interesting from the beginning and provided a ton of information. For someone who wasn’t at the college fair, it could almost give them and idea of what it would be like if they were there and provide a lot of information to help them determine if they want to go to the next one. Great job
Karisma Vang • Mar 29, 2016 at 8:20 pm
The article was well written and had clear sources that had gone to the college fair. It was also interesting about all the benefits in the college fair and how it helped many people. It was very insightful and well done
Brianna Halverson • Mar 29, 2016 at 7:43 pm
Great article! Points are clear on benefits to the college fair. Wanted to go to this but was unable, however, it’s good to hear it was such a turnout and I hope that there is another, similar fair this fall! I appreciated that your quotes were from different people in different positions and a single person’s quotes didn’t carry the entire article. I kind of felt the emotion that accompanies searching for a college in this article (the exciting-but-overwhelmed-with-options-what-am-I-going-to-be-when-I-grow-up type of feelings).
Emma Brandt • Mar 29, 2016 at 6:30 pm
I love the variety of sources selected in this article, helps give a better understanding of the college fair and the process. I think overall the story is very insightful and helps give good information on the event.
Cole Lebourgeois • Mar 29, 2016 at 5:52 pm
This was a nice article and was very informative to the people who were not able to attend the college fair. Also the quotes were really nice too because they gave a lot of support to the facts and they were long too.
Annie Seiler • Mar 29, 2016 at 5:42 pm
The sources were very well picked in this article– the variety in someone who has already gone through the process and someone who has started the process. The information that it provided was very helpful and provided a lot of emotion due to the use of lots of quotes. I think that there could have been a little bit more flow to the story and the addition of a few more facts between quotes. The overall story has a lot of insightful information. I also think it would have been interesting if they had a quote from a representative at the college fair. All in all, great article!
Olivia Weirtz • Mar 29, 2016 at 4:04 pm
This article definitely highlighted the most important aspects of the college fair especially the range of schools and the purpose the fair serves for students. There were credible and in-depth quotes from sources directly involved in the event
Brian Jaap • Mar 29, 2016 at 2:02 pm
Very well written article, the quotes obtained were extremely helpful in understanding the article. Very interesting to see the ups and downs.
Jared Dean • Mar 29, 2016 at 12:14 pm
Very nice article, I liked how you told the story of the students that helped put this together not just an overview of the event. I liked how you informed the readers on some of the questions that were answered by the event as well as the students’ reaction to the event. I also liked how you present the information, it was very informative.
Lauren Feldkamp • Mar 28, 2016 at 8:51 pm
Really liked this article, it not only informed the readers what the college fair is but also gave more in depth insight by getting quotes from all different sources, from the college and career center to students who were interested in and saw the benefits and pros to having a college fair.
Jared Taylor • Mar 27, 2016 at 2:05 pm
Great job, this article gives a great description of what was going on with the fair and who were at this fair. Also the quotes given from the College and Career center, along with the two students really showed who was taking advantage of the fair, and the importance of hosting this event. Overall this was a great article about this topic.