As students settle in to the fall semester, many of them got to spend a weekend with those closest to them: their families.
Every year, Winthrop University hosts Family Day which allows students to “meet [their] Eagle family” and “mingle” with the Winthrop community, according to Graduate Associate for New Student and Family Programs Renea Cox.
The morning of Oct. 5 was dedicated to getting to know members of the Eagle community — including faculty — and the first part of the day concluded with a “big lunch outside” Cox said. After lunch on the front lawn of campus, there were events throughout the afternoon that students and their families could take part in. Four of the Family Day events that Cox mentioned were trivia about Winthrop, a display of the Winthrop archives in the Little Chapel, decorating pumpkins and “Leaf Your Mark on Campus.”
The “Leaf Your Mark” event was an eco-friendly activity that partnered with the Office of Sustainability to give students and their families the opportunity to plant trees and other plants around Winthrop to add to the natural features of Winthrop’s campus.
Even after a full day, there was more for students and families to do on campus and around town. For entertainment, “The Addams Family” musical was being performed in Johnson and there was a showing of the 2019 remake of “Aladdin” in Dina’s Place. Cox said that Winthrop also worked with local restaurants including Wing Bonz and Mellow Mushroom to give Winthrop families options for places to eat.
Just before lunch, Winthrop’s College of Business Administration held an event in Whitton Auditorium. Several faculty members gave brief informational lectures about the CBA and answered questions from students and their parents.
Stephen Dannelly, chair for the computer science and quantitative methods department, opened the event by talking about how an advisory board made up of alumni, small manufacturers, managers for IT operations, employers and IT executives from the area — including from Microsoft, Bank of America and Wells Fargo — look at the computer science curriculum “on a regular basis” and give suggestions on how to tailor the curriculum to best serve the students for when they enter the workforce.
Dannelly also said that Winthrop’s computer science department gets feedback from employers who are looking for “particular kinds of skills” from entry-level workers. To meet those needs, Dannelly said that the electives that computer science students take “change greatly from year to year to year.”
“We watch the job advertisements to tell us ‘okay, which particular programming language are they after this year?’ Next year, what sort of database systems or security stuff,” Dannelly said.
Dannelly spoke about the challenges of a constantly-changing curriculum but said that it is “necessary for the computing side.”
The Dean of the CBA, P.N. Saksena, talked about the “Five P Model” which starts with partnership and from there consists of punctuality, being prepared, participation and being proactive — which Saksena said is the “most important.”
“There are a ton of things that we can do — and we are doing — but without you stepping up and being part of the partnership, it’s not going to happen. The results are not going to happen just because we are changing curriculum, just because we are updating, just because we are reaching out to companies. You have to show up,” Saksena said.
Saksena went on to encourage students to get to know their professors and to stop by during office hours. He also stressed the importance of asking questions.
“Contact your faculty…at the first sign of being confused, seek someone out, ask a question,” Saksena said. “At the first sign of running into maybe a little bit of trouble in a class, talk to the professor, even before.”
“It’s an adjustment, you’re making it, don’t feel like you’re alone because you’re not. We are here to help you,” Saksena said.
After the event, Saksena said in an email that the CBA has participated in Family Day every year that it has been held at Winthrop and described the event as “extremely important.”
“It gives us another touch point with students and their family members. This helps strengthen the bond and it helps the CBA achieve our mission, to provide a transformative education,” Saksena said.
Photos: Tate Walden/ The Johnsonian
