TRiO takes students to visit CWU, WSU & EWU

On April 15th, Lisa Taylor and Jason Moir of TRiO Student Support Services (SSS) took 16 Centralia College students on a college visitation trip to Eastern Washington. They visited Central Washington University (CWU) in Ellensburg, Washington State University (WSU) in Pullman, and Eastern Washington University (EWU) in Cheney. During their four-day trip, the students collected information about the three universities.

The trip began at 6 a.m. Thursday. The students left the College and headed to Ellensburg. CWU's SSS program prepared a warm welcome and a schedule for the students. They met Neil McFarlane, the SSS director, and Arthur Manjarrez, an advisor for SSS. Manjarrez held a short presentation on SSS at Central, which was very informative for the students. Afterward the Centralia group toured the campus with one of its students. The visit with a financial aid presentation and meetings with major department heads.

At 4 p.m. the group began their trip further east, heading to Pullman. They spent the night at a Holiday Inn Hotel and ate at Sella's, a local pizzeria. The following day they visited WSU, for a new student open house. WSU students led groups of visitors to various locations across campus for informative department presentations by faculty. Following the sessions, WSU offered free lunch for all the participants at three cafeterias. After lunch, the Centralia group headed over to the Transfer Student session to learn about important transfer information. Next some students got a tour of the campus by a WSU student, while others explored on their own. At 2:30, the group headed out of Pullman, north to Spokane.

SSS had organized a two day stay at the Davenport Hotel in Spokane. It was a beautiful hotel that most TRiO students would not have been able to afford. After a relaxing evening at the hotel, the Centralia group ate at The Old Spaghetti Factory. The next day, the group headed to Cheney for an EWU Open House which was in correspondence with WSUs. It was similar to WSUs welcome ceremony. EWU had a special transfer path at the open house event for transfer students that the group attended, which included Financial Aid and Student Life information. They met with their department heads to discuss potential classes and specific majors. After the open house, the group headed back to Spokane to spend a nice evening in and around the hotel. The following morning the group headed back to Centralia. Reviews from students show that this was a worthwhile trip to take. If you are a student who is thinking about attending a university in Eastern Washington, you should make this trip next year to help with your decision.