More than 100 Mountaineer parents are headed back to school to attend Parents Club University from 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, April 22, at the WVU Creative Arts Center.
Highlights of the day include a campus services information fair, student health presentation, College of Creative Arts performance, a talk about the millennial generation, round-table discussions and more.
We continue to find that parents want to take more of an active role in their student’s college experience as evidenced by the Mountaineer Parents Club’s record growth,said Sabrina Cave , director of the Club, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary.Over the years, club officers have told us that Parents Club University is a great place to network with other parents. They are able to gather ideas to take back and implement in their clubs.
While parent organizations have become more common at colleges and universities, WVU ’s was one of the firstand has raised the bar for others in the nation, Cave noted. The club is unique because it offers free membership, a toll-free helpline (1-800-WVU-0096) and a parent Web site (http://www.wvu.edu/~parents/) with transportation information and other helpful resources for families.
Cavealong with WVU President David C. Hardesty Jr.; Susan, his wife and national Mountaineer Parents Club chair; and Bernie Schultz, College of Creative Arts deanwill offer welcoming remarks at 9 a.m., followed by a talk,Minding the Millennials,at 9:30 a.m. in the Bloch Learning and Performance Hall (Room 200A).
Roger Casey, dean of faculty at Rollins College in Winter Park , Fla. , is an expert on millennialsa term used to describe teens and young adults born in the 1980s and 1990sand will discuss the impact ofGeneration Y(another term for these millennials) on higher education.
It is exciting that Dr. Casey is coming to campus as part of our seventh annual Parents Club University activities,Cave said.His research and work with this upbeat and engaged group known as the millennials will enlighten us all about this generation. Understanding our students better will help us continue to cater our services to meet their needs.
Casey is a Kellogg National Leadership Fellow and a former associate dean for teaching and international programs at Birmingham-Southern College , where he launched a center for leadership and service learning.
He was the youngest dean named to the Annapolis Group, an alliance of more than 100 of the top liberal arts colleges in the country.
Touted as edgy and entertaining, he studied with the Royal Shakespeare Co. and has been known to incorporate improv, theater and popular culture into his presentations.
Other Parents Club University activities at the CAC include an information fair with representatives from the Carruth Center, Student Health Service, Office of International Programs, Honors College, Department of Public Safety and other campus units; select scenes
fromBat Boy: The Musicalperformed by students in the College of Creative Arts Division of Theater and Dance; and a student health presentation by Dr. Robert D’Alessandri, vice president for health sciences.
In addition, Susan Lantz, WVU ’s parent advocate, and Margaret Phillips, chief of staff and Parents Club Board of Visitors member, will give a talk onFacebookphenomenon (an online directory that connects students through social networks), and there will be giveaways and the announcement of outstanding in- and out-of-state clubs.
The Mountaineer Parents Club, established in 1995 as a support organization for families of University students, has 14,000 members in clubs across the state and nation and international chairs in Canada , Germany and South America .
The organization keeps parents informed through a newsletter and e-mail updates and facilitates a Leisure Reading Collection in the Downtown Library Complex and Evansdale Library for WVU students, faculty and staff.
Local clubs organize Summer Send-off and Winterfest activities, game-watching events, field trips to campus and other get-togethers.
On the Net:http://www.wvu.edu/~parents/