\nMike Gwizdala \/ The Troy Record \/ Aug. 30, 2022<\/em><\/p>\n
TROY, N.Y. \u2014 Hudson Valley Community College welcomed back students for the 2022 fall semester on Monday. Students were greeted with free cookies and ice cream and music outside the Siek Campus Center.<\/em><\/p>\n It\u2019s part of a weeklong celebration that also includes free barbeque, a club fair, global partnerships, and perspectives webinar, a vaccine clinic, and live bands.<\/em><\/p>\n For students, the day marks a new adventure, experience, independence, and a sense of adulthood.<\/em><\/p>\n For Melody Hadley, of Cohoes, the college experience feels liberating compared to high school.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cHonestly it\u2019s pretty cool. This is my first semester here and I\u2019m kinda in a program where I am in high school still but I go here for college credits for graduating. I can get my associate\u2019s degree by the time I\u2019m done with high school, so I\u2019m saving money. Honestly, transitioning from high school to here it\u2019s so relieving, I feel so much more freedom,\u201d Hadley said.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m taking a whole two-hour gap break between classes, if I would\u2019ve done that in high school I would\u2019ve been penalized badly. So having this break time to be able to do my stuff and having classes where I feel like I can do my own thing and I can lead my own life and have my own choices. It\u2019s just so freeing and I feel like I feel so much happier with myself right now and I know it\u2019s my first day, I\u2019m probably gonna eat those words when I\u2019m struggling with finals and stuff but I am honestly really happy with being here. It\u2019s the first day and I only had two classes but I\u2019m so happy,\u201d Hadley explained on her adulation with attending HVCC.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe different environment is really invigorating. You can walk anywhere on campus as long as you\u2019re at classes on time, you just have the freedom. It\u2019s so freeing, it feels so good!\u201d Hadley noted on the differences.<\/em><\/p>\n Hadley added that she\u2019s looking to follow her passion of being an artist.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m thinking of pursuing some type of arts degree because I\u2019m an artist. I\u2019m thinking of doing game art but that\u2019s not offered here so I\u2019m just taking general arts here. So for now I\u2019m just going to be taking art history and stuff like that and going through my classes and start getting my credits with anything involving art because that\u2019s what I want to pursue,\u201d Hadley noted.<\/em><\/p>\n The class of 2022 saw 35 students from other countries graduate. Gaia Vallee, who moved here from France a year and a half ago, glossed about her first impressions of being on campus.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s pretty good. I like the teachers, they\u2019re very nice. It\u2019s better than high school,\u201d Vallee remarked.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m doing individual studies. It\u2019s more free, the teachers are very nice, it\u2019s more social,\u201d Vallee added.<\/em><\/p>\n For Annalee Herbig, of Cambridge, who is studying to be a nurse, transferring to HVCC has been a welcoming experience thus far.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI feel good. I\u2019m actually a transfer student, so this is my second year of college but my first year here. It\u2019s really nice, I like the campus. The people here are super nice, so I\u2019m enjoying it,\u201d Herbig commented.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI like the campus, I like that it\u2019s not too big, the sports complex is really cool too, I enjoyed that. Everyone I\u2019ve met has been super nice and helpful, teacher-wise too. I\u2019ve only been to one class so far but she was super nice. I\u2019ve been in the library and the distance learning center which has helped me out a lot so that\u2019s really nice,\u201d Herbig added about making her way around campus.<\/em><\/p>\n Also elated with her initial experience with HVCC was Tashanti Pichon, of Niskayuna, who\u2019s studying to become a registered nurse.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI love it! It was actually a really cool experience because at first, I was nervous like I wasn\u2019t going to find any of my classes but everybody felt the same way I felt so I was like be comfortable, be good with whoever you\u2019re talking to, be in your own skin. Teachers are actually very, very welcoming here as well. Some of the teachers I had, had good personalities, made you laugh, made learning fun. Personally, my first day of school was the best experience I could ever have,\u201d Pichon said about the welcoming atmosphere.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a good day, it\u2019s a good environment, everybody\u2019s outside meeting new people. It feels good especially because I graduated in 2020 from high school and I\u2019m coming back to school just now. So it\u2019s just like feeling back to normal, meeting new people, making friends! I\u2019m excited to continue with my journey as an RN,\u201d Pichon continued.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m already a CNA so it\u2019s just basically getting more of a heads up of education, you\u2019re preparing yourself for different experiences in life and opportunities and opportunities open responsibilities, so everything is just coming together naturally, it\u2019s beautiful,\u201d Pichon noted on furthering her educational aspirations.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ll see me at 2024 graduation, I graduate in two years and you\u2019ll definitely see me on the stage!\u201d Pichon exclaimed.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Published:<\/strong>\u00a0Tue, 30 Aug 2022 12:15:40 +0000 by\u00a0d.gardner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hudson Valley Community College celebrates first day of fall 2022 semester Mike Gwizdala \/ The Troy Record \/ Aug.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2086,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2086"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18478\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/BackToSchool_The-Record-300x225.webp\")
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