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GSU holds ‘Visit Us’ sessions

Special correspondent In order to avoid the lines in the fall and complete registration, many high school students and their parents attend early orientation programs, such as Grambling State University’s Visit Us sessions. The next session will be held on Tuesday, July 17.
Deborah Brown of Carson, Calif., said, Visit Us helped her and her twin sons, Trent and Devin.
“We decided to attend Visit Us because I like the fact that we can come early and meet their advisors and get registration completed so that it will be less stressful for them when they come this fall. To avoid long lines, we bit the bullet and flew down.”
“Visit Us gives students a chance to explore campus and get more in-depth information than taking a campus tour independently. Information is available on Grambling’s website, but it is good to have people answer questions, which is especially helpful for me because I live in another state,” Brown said.
This year the sessions are being coordinated by First Year Experience (FYE).
“Visit Us was designed as a one-day program to help new students make a smooth transition from high school to college,” said Valenica Clemons, director of FYE.
The students tour the campus, register for classes, meet their deans, complete the financial aid process, have lunch, get the latest on residential life and student life, meet other future Gramblinites and have the opportunity to pay tuition and fees.
“I would recommend this program to parents. All of the department heads and administrators are there at one time to give information, so students can explore their majors,” said Clemons.
Brown said,”All of the administrators and department heads were informative and made us feel welcome.”
She said, “A lot of information was given to us. Devin and Trent got a chance to complete registration. They have their fee sheets, and all they need are their ID cards.”
A similar program is also planned for the parents who accompany the students. “The parents were very happy. Some of the parents are graduates of GSU and they said they were happy to see GSU taking this route because they did not have these programs when they attended,” she said.
Russell LeDay, GSU alumnus and former regional director of the northeast region of Grambling University National Alumni Association, attended the session because his son will attend GSU in the fall.
I thought Visit Us was a great idea because it gave us an opportunity to see everything that is planned for Rashaad for the fall. It was well organized, and all of the information that would be of interest to me was presented. We got his classes and financial aid set,” he said.
“Our goal is to get as many new students to attend early orientation as possible.This will reduce the number of students having to wait for appointments and in long lines during registration,” Clemons said.
“The students who attend early orientation are more familiar with the campus and its procedures than the new students who arrive in August. They were able to assist other new students upon their arrival.”
Clemons said that Jeanette Moss, Kathy Lathon and the remaining FYE faculty have been instrumental in making the program a success.