Syracuse Welcomes Families to Campus
The Syracuse University campus community seemed to double in size over the first weekend in November with parents, grandparents, siblings and other extended family visiting students for Family Weekend.
Schools, colleges and other offices rolled out the red carpet for visiting guests, hosting tours, receptions, presentations and other special programs to offer families a taste of campus life.
Highlights included a game night at 119 Euclid, a lunch for multicultural and first-generation families at Dinosaur Barbeque hosted by the Newhouse and Maxwell Schools, and a concert by the Black Celestial Choral Ensemble.
For Our Time Has Come Scholars and Leaders, an important stop was the Office of Multicultural Advancement, which held a breakfast reception in conjunction with the Office of Alumni Engagement on Saturday morning before the football game.
“We were able to answer any questions that parents had, and alumni parents enjoyed looking at old yearbooks with their students,” says Maria J. Lopez ’05, G’12, assistant director of scholarship programs in the Office of Multicultural Advancement.
Jade Carter ’24 attended with her mom, Wanda, who visited from Albany, New York. It was the second family weekend the senior biomedical engineering major has participated in and the only one post-COVID. “Everyone was very welcoming, and I enjoyed meeting other families,” says Wanda Carter. “We learned about upcoming programs and activities and how they would impact Jade during her final semesters at Syracuse. Considering Jade entered Syracuse University during COVID, the Office of Multicultural Advancement did a fantastic job keeping students engaged.”
The Carters also attended the Engineering and Computer Science Dean’s Breakfast and Jade gave her mom a full tour of campus, including some of her favorite places to study and some of her classrooms this semester.
“It was definitely a better experience than during COVID and was great for my mom to fully experience what the campus is like,” says Jade.
Senior anthropological studies major Lizmarie Montemayor Robles ’24 attended with her mother, Lisandra Robles Hernandez, who had traveled from Puerto Rico for her first Family Weekend visit. “I enjoyed just being able to spend time with my daughter,” Lisandra says. One of her professors let me sit in on the class and I loved it.”