High School Students Tour State Colleges
(The following is a recap of the State College Tour that took place February 27 -March 1 from the perspective of Mrs. Peterson.)
It's 5am on Monday morning, and the four college counselors, along with 45 students, are on our way to visit five of the twelve public universities in Florida. We arrive at Florida Gulf Coast, in Fort Myers, at 8:30 a.m. and are pleasantly surprised by its beautiful campus. Even though it's early, and most students aren't awake at this time, we get a pretty good feel for what life is like on campus. FGCU is home to roughly 13,000 undergraduate students, majoring primarily in business, marketing and psychology. After a great tour, we're off to our next stop, the University of South Florida.
We arrive at USF in time for lunch. Like most teenage boys, our students are hungry and thrilled with the many food options in the food court. The campus is buzzing with students racing to and from class. We are joined by two Belen Jesuit alums, who chat with our group about their college experiences. One of them even joins us for the campus tour. USF offers a nice large campus in the city of Tampa, with about 42,000 undergraduate students. Their most popular majors are nursing, psychology and public health.
Our next stop is the University of Florida. We arrive in time for dinner at one of their dining halls and are joined by over ten Belen alumni. The alums and the college tour participants have time for a meet and greet, where our young ones got to hear about life at UF from their older Belen brothers. It was awesome to catch up with so many of our former students, who are all doing amazing things. We start the next morning with an information session and campus tour of UF's beautiful campus, and are fortunate enough to meet up with two more Belen alums, who were taking a test the night before and unable to meet us for dinner. UF is home to a Gator Nation of roughly 50,000 undergraduate students and their most popular majors are business, engineering, social sciences, and biological and biomedical sciences.
It's now time to travel northwest to Tallahassee for our visit at Florida State University. Once again, our first stop is a dining hall, where we feed our growing boys some lunch. We then head off to Doak Campbell Stadium for our information session and campus tour. I attended FSU, so I'm a little biased, but it truly is an awesome campus. At the conclusion of our tour, we make our way to FSU's bowling alley and are greeted by close to 20 Belen alums who join us for pizza, talk to the kids about all that FSU has to offer and then take us on a more extensive campus tour. The undergraduate population at Florida State consists of about 32,000 students and their most popular majors include business, criminal justice, psychology, English, biology and biological sciences.
On day three, we hit the road early and head south to the University of Central Florida in Orlando. Our first stop on campus is Ash Wednesday mass, where we are warmly welcomed by Father Ben. After mass, we have time for lunch in the food court before we attend the information session and campus tour. We are joined by a Belen alum who was able to spend the afternoon with us. UCF is the largest university in Florida with roughly 55,000 undergraduates. Their most popular majors are finance, accounting, mechanical engineering, health sciences, biology, biomedical sciences and hospitality management.
Last stop, Belen Jesuit. After a whirlwind three days of info sessions, tours, meet and greets and lots of dining halls, we made it home safe and sound. It was a great trip and we look forward to many more to come.
BELEN JESUIT PREPARATORY SCHOOL
500 SW 127th Avenue, Miami, FL 33184
phone: 305.223.8600 | fax: 305.227.2565 | email: webmaster@belenjesuit.org
500 SW 127th Avenue, Miami, FL 33184
phone: 305.223.8600 | fax: 305.227.2565 | email: webmaster@belenjesuit.org
Belen Jesuit Preparatory School was founded in 1854 in Havana, Cuba by Queen Isabel II of Spain. The task of educating students was assigned to the priests and brothers of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), whose teaching tradition is synonymous with academic excellence and spiritual discipline. In 1961, the new political regime of Cuba confiscated the School property and expelled the Jesuit faculty. The School was re-established in Miami the same year, and over the next decade, continued to grow. Today, Belen Jesuit sits on a 30-acre site in western Dade County, only minutes away from downtown Miami.