Seeing family over the holidays always leads to questions like “Where are you going to college?” and “What are you going to study?” Seniors have heard these questions far too often. What many of them haven’t heard are personal experiences and stories from people they used to go to school with. That’s why Ms. Baldwin, the Upper School Government teacher, decided six years ago to begin inviting former students back to the School to share some stories about their college experiences. From first semesters in college all the way through to graduate schools, anyone who graduated from All Saints’ was invited to contribute their knowledge to the current seniors.
On Tuesday, January 5, the group of alumni who came back at the beginning of the day was small, but by the end of third period there were over 20 alumni gathered to tell their anecdotes about their life in college. They hit on many different topics, from academics and Greek life, to social events and safety.
Reilly Freeman ’15 who attends the University of Oklahoma, told seniors about how well All Saints’ prepared him for college, especially from an academic perspective. He shared that the classes were practically the same but just on a bigger scale.
The lecture style classroom that All Saints’ gives is just like that of a college class.
“It was really useful to hear the experiences from different colleges,” Taylor Simpson ’16 said, “and stories about how much All Saints’ has prepared us to go and excel wherever we go really helped me look forward even more to college!”
Freeman is a member of the Greek system at the University of Oklahoma, and also shared how he balanced his academics, rushing, pledging, and social life. He said it was hard but that he “wouldn’t change a thing” about how he did his first semester in college.
All of the alumni were very honest with the seniors. Patrick Kelly ’15 even told a story cautioning seniors on safety around campus. He was almost mugged on his college campus while walking late at night with his guitar. If it hadn’t had been for his friend walking close by, the story could have ended differently! He told this story to share his advice on how to stay safe, especially at night, by taking advantage of the emergency blue-light poles around campus and to remember to always walk with a friend.
This valuable Q&A session set to benefit the seniors did just that. Witnessing firsthand accounts of the good times and the bad from many different kinds of students from colleges all over Texas and the United States gave the seniors something to look forward to (even more than they already are), and also many things to be aware of. Everyone has heard that college is a great experience but you need to keep a level head, and these stories of past All Saints’ students rang true to that statement.
