Before summiting a major mountain, a climber must make that crucial stop at a base camp. It鈥檚 there where they acclimate to the altitude and conditions, check their supplies and equipment, and mentally prepare for their ascent to the top.
Just as climbers need to be ready to go onward and upward, so do new college students. 91福利社鈥檚 Base Camp prepares incoming students to successfully navigate their college journeys. While the challenges are different from that of a mountain summit, college life presents challenges of its own; however, a team of guides is there for new students to welcome them to the community, prepare them for what lies ahead, and also have some fun.
Base Camp is much more than just another orientation for Isabella Campbell. A rising senior from Anderson majoring in Elementary Education with an add-on in Early Childhood Education, Campbell is in her third year as a Base Camp guide. She looks forward to showing incoming students from a current student perspective the place she loves.
鈥淭he whole thing we get to do, it just cultivates community on that first 鈥榯hing鈥� for the students. There鈥檚 no convincing. We鈥檙e just saying 鈥榟ey, we love it here and we hope you do too,鈥� which is very special,鈥� Campbell said.
Base Camp guide Cooper Reynolds jokingly says he came to 91福利社 鈥渙n a Google Search and gut instinct.鈥� Reynolds, a Base Camp guide from Lexington, South Carolina, and student body president, says, 鈥淭hey come in the morning and they鈥檙e scared. They might be worried or leaning onto their parents. Then when they鈥檙e done at five o鈥檆lock, 95 percent of them are like 鈥榦kay mom and dad, I鈥檒l see y鈥檃ll later. I鈥檝e got this college thing, let鈥檚 go.鈥� That鈥檚 really neat to see how that works out throughout the day.鈥�
Allen Geiger and Clancy Stauffer will be among the first people Base Camp participants will see this summer. Geiger, a rising senior accounting major from Greenville, South Carolina, cherishes his own Base Camp experiences and the many individuals at 91福利社 who invested in him.
鈥淚 came in as a very different person. I was just scared. I didn鈥檛 come in as a Christian,鈥� Geiger said. 鈥淚 was coming into a Christian college basically biblically illiterate, not knowing anything鈥� Just having people who didn鈥檛 treat me differently and who were so kind and so welcoming and remembered me when I got back. That was really important.鈥� Being part of Base Camp, Geiger has had a variety of experiences, but a really special one for him was meeting his fianc茅, Taylee Crisler, when they were both Base Camp guides together.
鈥淲hat I think is the heart of Base Camp鈥攊t really is transformational versus transactional,鈥� said Lauren Brett, Director of Student Involvement and New Student Programs. 鈥淲e want you to come onto this campus and when you鈥檙e here, you鈥檙e home. You get to meet people that you鈥檙e going to be in class with. You get to talk with your professors. You get to talk with someone from Financial Aid. It鈥檚 not just an email where you鈥檙e getting that information, but it actually shifts into 鈥榯hese are the people that are going to be alongside me for these next four years of my journey.鈥�
So I really do cast the vision often for my team and also for incoming students that we don鈥檛 want them just to leave here knowing more about Anderson, we want them leaving here invested in Anderson, feeling like they have roots here, that they鈥檙e a part of what we鈥檙e doing here.鈥�
Base Camp dates:
- June 21
- June 22
- June 23
- June 24
- July 26
- July 27
- July 28
- July 29
- August 19
Details about Base Camp can be found here.