So yesterday my parents and I traveled north to the fine town of Elgin, Illinois to visit the ever beautiful institution of Judson College. This was really quite exciting for me because my parents had never seen the school and only knew what I had told them, so I desperately wanted them to love this place, and at the same time I was excited because on my last visit I didn't get quite a tour of the insides of some the more important buildings to me and knew I would this time. Anyways. So we arrive, park in the parking lot behind the Lindner Fitness Center and walk to Barton House to meet up with Brandon Estrada, my admissions counselor. It was cool because while waiting for Brandon I was able to see Holly Riemer, my former admissions counselor who I had worked with for the past year until they got switched around and I got Brandon who is equally as cool. Brandon and my parents were able to talk for a short time before we headed over to Herrick Chapel for chapel. The guy that was speaking was Mike Yankowski who wrote a book titled Under the Overpass. Mike and his friend decided to live like homeless people for 6 weeks and then wrote a book about it, it was a really cool service, my dad was VERY impressed which was a huge plus. After chapel we headed over to the CPO for lunch where we met up with Jeremy Espersen and had a nice meal. Then it was time to head back to Barton House to meet up with Sondra the student who was to give us our tour. I dont know if I can outline the precise course of the tour but ill give my highlights. on the tour i was finally able to see the fitness center which was quite nice and I'm glad Judson has it...I plan to make use of it. We also went through the Fine Arts building, which I had already seen and still love, but am all the more excited for the new Weber Center when that opens next fall. Of course I love the outside of Volkman hall with the beautiful pond and fountain and gazebo, and then it was time to see the inside of Wilson Hall. This was probably my favorite part of the tour, because when I had stayed with Jeremy last spring he was residing in Lindner, which is only open to transfer, international, and sophomore+ students so I hadn't seen where I was gonna be my first year.
Wilson was by no means disappointing, I was finally able to understand why someone would wanna live in there beyond freshman year when they could choose to live in Lindner, a former hotel. The last big highlight on the tour was to see the brand new 30-inch apple monitors in the media lab on 3rd floor lindner!!! Truly a sight of beauty :-D . At the end of the tour we went back to Barton House, met up with Brandon, i got my free awesome judson shirt, and we went home. My parents both loved the college and couldn't be happier that that's the place I've chosen.
