Why SNC Was The Perfect Choice For Me

This week is my last week of classes at SNC forever and the past few weeks have had me reflecting on my choice to come to SNC that I made almost five years ago.

I have heard of so many students hating their college experience and I was terrified that would be me, but thankfully I have almost all positive experiences and have reaffirmed my decision to come here many different times.

Here are a few reasons that SNC has been the perfect choice for me over the past four years.

Location

I had heard time and time again to move away for college and get out of your hometown. While I do think that there is importance to that, I feel the close distance to home was perfect for me. Throughout the four years, I was still able to attend all the major events that happened at home and at school and also had the benefit of only having to be gone a few hours at a time. This meant I didn’t have to pack a bag or bring anything home, I could just go back to school and sleep in my bed there. If I was homesick or wanted to see a friend from home, I could accomplish this fairly easily.

I will say I am more than thankful that my parents respected my boundaries and I really did not see them very often, maybe once or twice a month. I know some people can’t say the same and staying closer to home would not be safe or good for their mental health.

St. Norbert feels like its own little community and even though it is right next to Green Bay, it felt very different from my younger experiences. I was still exposed to many different beliefs and people raised much differently than me.

My Major

One of the main things I knew when I came to SNC was I did not want a huge major and lecture hall classes. Luckily for me, my major is one of the smaller ones. I feel like I’ve learned so much more and enjoyed my classes because they were the size they are and the department became more like a family than a group of classmates. I am sure most of that has Dr. McVey and Dr. Pankratz to thank for how much time and energy they put into making the students more like their children.

The Catholic Faith

Another huge reason I decided to come to SNC was the fact that it was Catholic. Now although there have been some ups and downs in how this was represented at the college, the opportunities of faith I now had were astronomically more than before. I was now able to go to Mass upwards of 8 times a week if I didn’t have class, I could go to Adoration which I didn’t even know about before college, and participate in a Catholic Women’s group. My favorite Mass of the week happens on Wednesday nights at 8pm and it is comprised of all students. Getting to worship and attend Mass with friends is such a unique experience and there is nothing like hearing 25 young adults singing the Mass parts or praise and worship together.

I’ve also met so many amazing people who are involved with the parish and some who are not who aren’t afraid to talk about their faith and dive deep into the tough questions together. I’ve had talks about my faith with almost everyone I’ve encountered at the college from professors, bosses, coworkers, and other staff members. Only at a school like SNC can you grab dinner with any of your professors on a random day and learn their life story and their faith life at the college.

Coming from a variety of public schools my whole life, I was so thankful to see the abundance of Catholic life happening on campus. With that being said, it is easy to miss if you aren’t looking for it. So if I would not have been as solidly in my faith as I was coming to college, I am not sure how involved I would have been.

Jobs on Campus

This isn’t a reason I chose St. Norbert, but I think it is one of the reasons I quickly felt at home and continued to fall in love. The past four years working for Academic Technology have been some of the highlights of my time here. The staff and my coworkers always help me to laugh and bring a smile to my face. Through the position, I have been able to present at several conferences, grow in leadership, and most importantly gain a few more friends. I am forever thankful that I applied for a position freshman year because of the incredible opportunities it brought me.

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My time at SNC may be ending, but I am so excited I get to now be a proud alum and stand on the sidelines cheering the next classes of Green Knights on. No matter where I go, SNC will have a special place in my heart and be the source of so many beautiful memories. Thank you SNC for the best four years of my life so far and a countless amount of memories and new friends.