Freshman Welcome 2022: “These next few weeks will change your life!”
Wyoming Catholic College’s Freshman Arrival Week is underway once again, welcoming the Class of 2026 and their families to Lander.
Registration was held in the downstairs of the Baldwin Building on Monday, and the rest of the week features a series of meetings and activities designed to familiarize the newest members of the Wyoming Catholic community with the College’s physical locations, liturgical traditions, and academic programs, as well as a few days of wilderness medicine training designed to prepare them for the highlight of their first few weeks at the College: the 21-Day Freshman Expedition, “the most unusual Freshman orientation in the country!”
Members of this year’s class have traveled from as far afield as Belize, Ireland—even Ukraine!—to Lander to enroll at Wyoming Catholic College, and if the energy and joyousness displayed during Tuesday afternoon’s “Food Pack” session was any indication, they already consider it well worth the journey. The food pack is an annual event, where the incoming freshmen and their families help assemble the food necessary for the 21-day trek.
President Glenn Arbery, speaking to the assembled freshmen and their families during the formal Welcome event on Tuesday afternoon, highlighted just how unusual these next few days (and next four years) are in the world of American higher education. “Wyoming Catholic College exists for the truth,” he said, “and the truth will be revealed when all the sham opinions and philosophies fail and fall by the wayside. Some truths are self-evident, regardless of attempts to legislate them away. But others you can reach only by thinking through the important and timeless ideas—questioning, examining, and discussing them until they lead us to the truth. That’s what we do here, grounding our students in the real world and forming them in virtue, not just in the current opinions.”
“Nearly as important, though,” he stressed, “is what we do not do. We don’t undercut the tenets of our faith or encourage our students to redefine the moral order. We encourage real friendship and genuine community here, because friends help you see who you are, truthfully and deeply.” Dr. Arbery closed his reflections by assuring the fifty-six members of this year’s class that “these next few weeks will change your life; these next four years will give it shape and direction. God bless you, Class of 2026.”
