This past Wednesday marked a continuation of the college’s yearly Houghton Life and Evaluation Planning (HELP) Day. The event, which spans the morning and most of the afternoon of a chosen Wednesday in the spring semester, cancels classes so that students may meet with their advisors to plan out their majors as well as attend various sessions throughout the day concerning topics such as career planning, graduate schools, and loan repayment.
Planning for HELP Day began on the second Monday of this spring semester. A committee comprised of Sharon Mulligan, Marge Avery, Helena Oden, Greg Bish, Marc Smithers, Dan Noyes, Brian Reitnour, and committee chairman Mark Hunter met on a weekly basis to decide on what sessions and other services would be provided for students that day. Certain sessions geared towards underclassmen and upperclassmen, with a Grad Central Station set up for seniors to prepare for graduation and post-graduation plans. Dani Johnson of Career Services, who ran a booth at the station, explained that the purpose is to “give seniors a last chance to talk about job searching and graduate school and let them know we’re here to help.”
One of the new aspects of this year’s HELP Day, according to Hunter and Bish, was the morning sessions given to students in the dorms and townhouses, with each speaker unique to each residence hall. Speakers included Rick Melson, Vice President for Advancement; Eric Currie, Vice President for Enrollment; David Smith, Vice President for Finance, Robert Pool, Vice President for Student Life, and President Shirley Mullen. “We wanted to start off in the residence halls and give the vice presidents and the president a chance to interact with students on their own turf,” explained Bish.
Also new to this year’s activities were some of the sessions offered to students. “We added a few new sessions this year, one about loan forgiveness,” said Hunter. The college brought in Houghton alum Bruce Campbell ’81, currently Director of Graduate Admissions at St. Bonaventure University, to speak on Houghton’s loan forgiveness program and applying to graduate school. According to Hunter, the loan forgiveness session “was probably the most well-attended session. Our next best-attended session was preparing for graduate school, and then ‘Navigating Personal Finance.’”
Also added this year was a session on Gallup’s StrengthsFinder, which was made available to students through the career services office. “I think that’s an underlying big thing we brought this year–each person knowing their own strengths, getting to see others’ better … how together we form the body of Christ and are unique in what we bring to the table,” said Bish.
However, HELP Day isn’t solely a day for students. Faculty too attend sessions dealing with topics of professional improvement. Past HELP Days typically planned one session for faculty. However, this year, three were made available, one for a general faculty audience, one for department heads, and another for faculty in the process of writing for grants.
Hunter’s gauge of student response was positive. “We actually had greater attendance of our afternoon sessions this year than last year,” he said. As for planning for next year, he said that “we always welcome student input about how to improve HELP Day. We want it to be a thing that really is valuable for students when they think about the future, whether it’s next fall’s classes or a career or graduate school.”