AC Sends New Students On Mackinac Trip
posted 7/19/07

Mackinac Island. Photo courtesy of Brad Whitehouse.

Sure, the freshmen are always the new kids who don’t know anyone yet. But before the first day of class at Adrian College ever happens, incoming students are taking a road trip together.

All 500 of them.

Adrian College is trying something new this year to give incoming students a chance to bond. Every first-year student is invited to an overnight trip to Mackinaw, a resort area in northern Michigan.

“Last year there was a Welcome Week trip to a Toledo Mud Hens game,” said Kristi Maxwell, dean of student life. “The students loved it, and so we decided to go big for this year's trip.”

Over 550 students have made deposits to attend Adrian this fall, indicating the largest freshman class at the College since the Vietnam War era. The class is approaching twice the size of the freshmen class when Adrian’s new president, Dr. Jeffrey R. Docking, arrived in 2005 and initiated a series of remarkable changes.

Included in the trip are roundtrip motorcoach transportation, hotel accommodations, meals, and a roundtrip ferry ticket to Mackinac Island. The new students will return from their adventure the evening before upperclassmen arrive back to campus.

“The students are very thrilled about the upcoming trip,” Maxwell said. “Registration forms for Welcome Week are pouring in, and I think a lot of it has to do with the excitement surrounding the trip.”