Family weekend provides parents the opportunity to visit their children and enjoy on-campus events. Many parents, grandparents and siblings visit to spend time with Geneseo students after being apart since school started again in August (Courtesy of Creative Commons).
There was a calming and serene feeling on campus this past weekend, as families were gathered all throughout the Geneseo community. With the leaves beginning to fall and school having been in session for a month, the weekend of Sept. 20 was a great time for family weekend.
Students are likely beginning to get homesick as we’ve hit the halfway point between school starting up and October break. Family weekend is when parents come to Geneseo to spend time with students on campus and attend events that the college has put on for them. This is a tradition at Geneseo that many students and families take part in, as is evident by how many parents were seen around campus.
There were many events offered this weekend, including breakfast with President Denise Battles, the chicken wing festival on Center Street and a painting event. The bookstore was also open longer to give families the opportunity to shop for apparel.
Even though many parents and siblings were attending the college’s events, others chose to spend more time with their kids, participating in activities more related to their personal lives. This was the case for parents Bill and Sonja Hotaling, who came to see their son take part in a sporting event.
“We are here because our son is a freshman swimmer. [Saturday Sept. 21] is the alumni scrimmage kind of swim meet, so the new kids’ team gets to swim against alumni,” Bill Hotaling said, the father of freshman swimmer Caleb Hotaling. “We are here to mostly watch that.”
“There is a parent reception for the swim parents after that at Bar-Eat-O, so those are the things that we are mostly interested in,” Sonja Hotaling said.
This weekend is also the perfect opportunity for parents to see how their children are adjusting to college life, and to get to know the campus and their children’s friends more.
Family weekend was a great time for students to reconnect with their parents who they might not have seen for a while, especially freshmen students who are completing their first year and might be having a harder time in school than the upperclassmen. The weekend, along with these events, are opportunities for amazing memories to be created with family on the Geneseo campus.