Reflections on a First Impression

We came to the UNC Charlotte campus for the first time in the fall of 2007.  It was a 49er Day and our daughter, SB, was a high school senior trying to decide where she would spend the following four years.  She was our second child to go through this process.  Our first child always knew where he wanted to attend college.  Other than a second choice for him, there was no work to be done.  Our daughter was looking for something different, something that would be a unique experience for her.

Previously having never explored UNC Charlotte, Beth and I really didn’t know what to expect.  We had several pre-conceived ideas about the university, very few of which would prove to be accurate.  As we drove on campus for the first time that day we were greeted at every turn by students in green and white shirts directing us where to go.  SB asked me how much I thought the university was paying those students to work at that event.  I remember telling her they were working because of the feelings they had for their school.

We learned a great deal during our 49er Day experience.  We learned that while our daughter did not know quite what she wanted to do with the next four years of her life, she did know that she felt very comfortable on that first visit to UNC Charlotte.  In fact, when we got in the car to return to our home in Greensboro, SB told me she had found the place where she belonged.  We learned that UNC Charlotte was not the “smaller” school experience we had hoped our daughter would choose.  It was a school with a student body of almost 24,000 students, making it one of the largest schools in the UNC system. We learned that the university was growing at a phenomenal rate with construction projects seemingly at every corner of the campus and at multiple sites in between.

SB was accepted to the university and early the following summer, we attended our S.O.A.R. session.  Yes I say “our” session because we found that experience to be as much for parents as it was for students.  It was during S.O.A.R. that we learned that UNC Charlotte was dedicated to the success of its students.  In spite of its size, and perhaps because of its size, the university was well equipped to deliver a quality education experience.  The faculty and staff truly want every student who attends to be successful.  We met a number of administrators and faculty members.  We were impressed as we heard multiple administrators talk about the size of the university community.  As though it was only yesterday, I can still hear Dr. Michele Howard, the Dean of Students, talking about importance of students finding some activity in which to participate.  In doing so, the larger university becomes a smaller community in which students might more easily function and interact.

When we were reunited with our student that day, we forced her to walk through the fair in the Student Activities Center.  Not only were we looking at the many academic departments in which SB might study, but also we were looking for extra-curricular activities in which SB could participate.  We found it, a group set up among the Business School, the School of Education, and the School of Nursing.  “It” was Club Tennis.  The students told us about the club and the practices and asked our daughter if she was interested.  After giving us a look that that only an embarrassed student can give her parents, she reluctantly signed up to play for the club.

SB is now a sophomore and continues to be a part of the Club Tennis program at the university.  Beth and I are convinced that her association with this group helped to ease her transition.  The friendships developed in this group have helped her become assimilated into the larger university community.  Through these friendships, she has become exposed to other areas of the university that otherwise for her would have been undiscovered.

We now know that she is in good hands.  The three of us were given great advice by people we have come to know and trust; by people who have become friends.  UNC Charlotte is proving to be a wonderful place, a place very different from those initial pre-conceived ideas.  For SB and for us, something that seemed so large and impersonal has become small and comfortable through those relationships formed from the very beginning of our experience.  It seems that we have all learned something here.

By Randy and Beth Spivey