Newly Connected Students Take Giant Step Toward College Life

Published 07.01.2016

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Kimberly R. Cassel (on stage), director of student activities, and the Links warm up the Klump Academic Center crowd.Lauren J. Crouse (kneeling), an applied human services major and one of this summer's lead Links, gets acquainted with her assigned first-year students.The Connections beach ball, a toss-able conversation piece that probingly elicits answers to the day's important questions – Favorite jelly bean flavor? iPhone or Android? High school nickname? – lands with Amber M. Gardner. The Sugar Grove resident will be a pre-dental hygiene student this fall.Jonathan W. Best (right), an incoming electronics and computer engineering technology major from Downington, has fun with the icebreaker activity.A gregarious bunch, those Links, having as much fun as anyone during their introduction to Connections participantsAnd just like that, the first week of Connections – Penn College's summer orientation program facilitated by helpful staff and student Links – is history. A comprehensive schedule of activities provides a healthy mix of fun and information, from buying books and selecting a meal plan to learning about academic expectations and social opportunities, that gird new students and their families for the choices and challenges ahead. The next session will begin shortly after the Fourth of July holiday, as enrollees and parents alike celebrate (and occasionally mourn) their impending independence from one another.
Photos by Tia G. La, student photographer