ADRIAN — Adrian College ’s campus was bustling during the week of Aug. 18, as hundreds of students returned to campus during the college’s Welcome Week ceremonies and activities.
More than 600 new students — 603 to be exact — were welcomed to campus by Adrian College faculty and staff during this year’s matriculation ceremony in Dawson Auditorium. The college’s incoming freshmen Class of 2028 are represented by 27 states, 16 countries and five Canadian Provinces, according to a news release from Adrian College, which has had an incoming class of 600 or more new students each year for the past eight years. Its overall enrollment heading into the 2024-25 academic school year is more than 1,800 students.
“Matriculation ceremonies are designed to celebrate transitions,” Andrea Milner, Adrian College Vice President and Dean of Academic Affairs, said during the ceremony. “This transition recognizes that our outstanding freshmen class is transitioning from home to a new home, from high school to college, from teen years to adulthood.”
During Welcome Week, which concluded Friday, students check in and meet faculty advisers and student leaders. Along with mandatory placement testing, a course scheduling session and various advising sessions on everything from financial aid to time management, the new students participated in events such as a Community Plunge, where they volunteered at a variety of service locations in Lenawee County . At the end of the week, the freshmen class had a group photo taken to commemorate their new beginning at Adrian College before they closed out the week with a trip to Cedar Point .
Another Adrian College summer event: More than 1,000 students and families check out Adrian College during 'Sneak Peek Day'
A majority of this year’s class hails from Michigan with 442 students staying in the state.
Forty-nine freshmen students (28 males and 21 females) are from Lenawee County. Breaking that down even further into county school districts are Addison (one student), Adrian (14), Blissfield (three), Britton Deerfield (two), Clinton (four), Hudson (one), home-schooled (one), Lenawee Christian (one), Madison (eight), Morenci (two), Onsted (five), Sand Creek (three) and Tecumseh (four).
Eighteen of the new Bulldogs are Legacy students with family members who are Adrian College alumni.
Ohio has 48 students coming to Adrian while Indiana has 19, Illinois, 13, Florida, six, Texas, five, Virginia and Wisconsin, four each, California and Georgia, three each, Arizona, Montana, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee, two each, and Arkansas, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nevada, and Washington DC, one each.
There also are 36 international students from 10 countries, including Australia (1), Canada (21), France (1), Ghana (3), Hungary (1), Jamaica (2), South Africa (1), United Arab Emirates (1), United Kingdome (3) and Zimbabwe (2).
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“For those of us on this stage, today is one of the most exciting days of the year. We love to see the wonder and anticipation in the eyes of our new students, as you anxiously await all the amazing experiences that will define your college years,” Adrian College President Jeffrey Docking said during the ceremony. “You stand today students on the threshold of a magical time in your life, a time of significant growth, introspection, self-awareness, challenge and opportunity, a time that you will always look back on as special years, never experienced before you arrived today, and never replicated after you leave college. You will make incredible friends here that you will cherish the rest of your life and meet professors who will impact you so profoundly that you will make great efforts to come back for homecoming year after year just to say thank you one more time.”
Aubry Morgan, Adrian College’s Student Government Association President, told the incoming class to not dwell on the past but instead think of the school year as a fresh new start and to make new memories, try new things, and set and achieve new goals.
For more information about Adrian College, visit adrian.edu . To view the college’s matriculation ceremony in its entirety, go online to tinyurl.com/AC-Matriculation .
— Contact reporter Brad Heineman at bheineman@lenconnect.com or follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @LenaweeHeineman.
This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Welcome Week at Adrian College spotlights 600 new students representing the Class of 2028
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