A University Campus Visit
For the week or so that we were in Dayton back at the very beginning of this past summer, we visited a lot of different and historical places but we stayed on the campus of the University of Dayton during our entire time there. I definitely wanted Kenzie and Lukey to visit a campus like this one and I'd like them to continue visiting as many campuses as possible. Before we even made plans for this trip, I knew that if we were going to spend some time in Dayton, a UD campus tour would be something to do especially if we had the two of them in tow.
I wrote above that I definitely wanted Kenzie and Lukey to visit this particular campus because it is a stunningly beautiful campus, it is an outstanding school and the people are unbelievably friendly both on the campus and off the campus. This school is truly special. There is a vibe, a feeling, like it has a life of its own. You don't find that in a lot of places.
I have very positive memories of UD and a fair history with UD which I'm not going to get into specifically here or in any great detail but this school is one of my favorite schools in one of my favorite places and I know it provides an excellent and a very widely varied education. As someone who has bounced around the US throughout my career, I've always said that "home" is where you hang your hat at the end of the day and it is what you make of it but, truth be told, there are really only two places on this Earth that I feel the warmth of "home". One is the place I spent all my summers growing up, Brant Lake in the Adirondack Mountains, and the other is Dayton.
I've spent some time on the UD campus and was friends with more than a few UD students in my younger years. I've always been impressed with this school. To this day, I still religiously watch every single Dayton basketball game! Although I don't want to write specifically about my connections and history with UD (no name dropping here), I do want to write a little about how and I why ended up in Dayton and some of my feelings about that since each visit to Dayton also brings back a flood of really good memories.
I didn't get a whole lot of offers from colleges while I was in high school (only three) but I was offered a music scholarship to UD when I was a junior in high school. At the time, however, I knew nothing about colleges nor had any idea of majors, campuses, and how each school varied greatly and, honestly, I had never heard of UD at that point in my young life. Even though I was a classically trained and educated pianist who was at that time exceptional classical pianist, a music major was not something that made much sense to me, nor to my family nor to my piano teacher so I didn't pay much attention to this scholarship offer but I was pretty proud of myself for getting the offer (hence why I remember it so vividly). In hindsight and knowing what I know today, I probably could have chosen a music minor with that scholarship and majored in something more appropriate for my career hopes and desires. As I said, at the time, I had no idea how any of this worked.
Truthfully, at the time, I absolutely hated school and couldn't wait to graduate high school. Consequently, I also had zero experience with colleges, no working knowledge of majors and potential jobs after graduation in a particular major, and I had no idea how each campus has its own identity, its own feel, its own character (or lack thereof in many cases). It is like a home... some homes are filled with character while many others are devoid of character.
The adults in my life should have been educating me on various jobs, the associated majors necessary for each job, and showing me around as many campuses as possible. They really should have been showing me around, physically, at various jobs too so I could get some basis of understanding of what is out there for adults. Unfortunately, that never happened... not even once.
I'd like for Kenzie and Lukey to have more opportunity and experience and this comes with curiosity, research and the help of adults who have been down this road before. Sheila and I have been talking more and more about jobs, careers and different majors as these two get older. This visit to UD would fit right in for what we are trying to prepare them for in just a few very short years... only three or four short years to be exact.
I hope for these two eldest grandchildren to at least have a little bit of knowledge of campuses and what's available to them so they can make the best decisions for their own interests and skills. So I knew that I wanted to give them a short tour of the UD campus while we were in town.
Actually, while we were planning this trip and after watching yet another Dayton basketball game on television last season, Sheila and I watched one of UD's current orientation videos. I wanted to see what had changed and I knew that Sheila knew nothing about this school so this was a good video to watch. It would also help me decide which highlights to try to hit when we visit with the grandkids.
The video showed some of the campus, showed the housing for each scholastic year (the housing improves with each year you progress), interviewed some students, and showed some of the facilities of the various majors they provide. When the video was over, I asked Sheila what she thought of UD and she exclaimed with wide eyes, "I want to go there!" with a strong emphasis on the "I".
This orientation video and our plans for this upcoming visit reminded me of those days when we had to make these decisions which is probably why I'm rambling a bit here. (You could just scroll down to the photos below if I'm about to lose you due to my personal ramblings.)
After I graduated from high school, since I knew absolutely nothing about colleges or even jobs people could get, my parents chose a school and a major for me (neither of those selections were even remotely close to what I wanted, I should add). Little did my parents know, they chose a school that would kindle the career military aspirations in me and open up a path toward a career in the military. Which, for my mother, was probably the last thing she wanted to do.
I went to college on a historic airfield that was half converted into a new college campus (an ugly concrete jungle if I'm being blunt) but the other half was still being used by our military which was the old side of the campus. I would jog on this campus almost everyday but would purposely run mostly through the old military side of the campus.
The phys ed complex on the new side of the campus was beautiful so I made sure to enroll in a phys ed class every semester so I had full access to all the complex had to offer. (Yes... I'm one of the few who always loved PE classes and sees the importance of them.) But even back then, before I went into the Air Force, I was definitely more comfortable on the older, historic side of the campus that the military still owned and utilized. The college leased some of the buildings on this old side of the campus for their humanities and language arts classes. I took art and English classes often too so I was in classes over on this old side too.
I was president of the civil engineering class, graduated top of my engineering class and spent a lot of time with the other class officers in other majors as well as befriending the student board officers of the entire school. Before long, I was often found in the school's student officer's offices on the upper floor of the Student Union.
I enjoyed all of that but I knew I was missing something. I often would sit alone eating a meal in the Student Union or having a beer in the Rat wondering why there was such a disconnect between me and... well... just about everything. I was working full time, going to school full time and seemingly partying full time. The fact was, however, that I felt more at home on the old military side of the campus which happened to have been one of the first pilot training bases in the US. It felt like that side of the campus was calling to me and it was something I couldn't help but notice.
I know I felt something alluring while jogging on the old side of the campus. After a couple of semesters, I knew a part of me actually deeply felt the history of that campus too. Let me be clear... I didn't have any deep feelings for the campus as a whole but I did have deep feelings for the history of this old airfield.
During this period of my life (first years of college), I did visit quite a few other campuses but I never felt any sort of connection to any of them. None of them inspired me nor pulled me in... period. Each of them, for me, just felt like another school where I was expected to just go through the motions. "Going through the motions" was something that didn't interest me at all and, even back then, I felt would be an immense waste of time and money.
I had graduated with a civil engineering degree at the top of my engineering class and then another year or so had passed while I ran my own home construction contracting business. I was accepted to Cornell University for architecture and a few other schools but I couldn't land any grants or scholarships so those options were well out of my budget. Whenever I evaluated where I could see myself in a few years, well... I couldn't.
Before I had graduated with my Civil Engineering degree, I got into some trouble with the Dean of Physics and was actually kicked out and banned from all physics classes at the school. This school had a couple of cross-school programs (and is a part of the Penn State Nittany Lions) which came in handy at this point so I took all my required Physics classes at the Merchant Marine Academy which was one of these schools with a working relationship with my school.
This physics professor at the Merchant Marine Academy was excellent which also drew me even closer to the path of a career in the military. This professor tried encouraging me to enroll fully at the Academy (he knew I had the grades and was a bit of a mentor who took me under his wing during this period of my life) but I couldn't see myself in a career at sea all the time. I like boating and sailing but living at sea has never sounded appealing to me especially on a merchant ship. However, this experience at the Academy cemented my interests in the military so, not long after graduation, I went to talk with an Air Force recruiter. I knew enough about the military and flying that I knew the Air Force was my place to be.
I tested and scored high enough to qualify for every job in the Air Force and my physical strength tests also qualified me for every job in the Air Force. I set up a meeting with the Recruiting Commander in an effort to convince her to allow me to get shipped out for Basic Training as soon as possible. Within a matter of days, I was at Fort Hamilton and shipping out to Lackland Air Force base to begin my training.
For my first assignment after training, I was suddenly and unexpectedly "quick-shipped" to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton. What is interesting here and the reason why I wrote more detail than seems necessary for what should be a simple blog entry about a college tour is that the only college campus to inspire me up until this time was the half of a college campus that was on a historic air base and now my first assignment in the Air Force was at a historic air base where the Wright brothers first flew.
I already knew two people at UD when I had arrived in Dayton so I was immediately introduced to this campus once I settled into the air base and the beginning of my new career. This was the first campus I had visited that drew me in fairly well. I loved the beginning of my new career in the Air Force but this school was definitely something special and I knew that the first time I, myself, had stepped onto this campus.
Eventually, I would meet more students from UD while in Dayton. Our base basketball team was asked to scrimmage a few times with the UD basketball team so that produced a few more acquaintances at UD. UD and Dayton in general was growing more and more like home for me and I was making connections that I would feel for a lifetime.
When I left Dayton seven or eight years later, this small city was beginning a rough transition. I'm not going to go into any of the details nor history here but I wanted to point out that UD grew significantly during this rough transition. Not only did it grow significantly but it is also now one of the most beautiful campuses I have ever seen in my many decades of life.
Kenzie and Lukey are now 13 years old and I want them to not only see as many campuses as possible but I definitely wanted them to see UD. I highly doubt either one of them will choose this school but it is an experience they should have and one they should remember. And, actually, I hope they will always remember it fondly.... and I think they will.
When we first arrived in Dayton we were making our way from Cincinnati up to Dayton to check into our hotel on the campus. The moment we left the highway, we passed by the UD baseball field and the softball field, then the basketball arena, then the football stadium and then over to the hotel. The sports facilities were impressive and Lukey excitedly noticed how nice everything looked.
We would later pass a few Little League fields and they were just as nice albeit smaller. Little League fields in Vermont that Lukey has played on are little more than mud-pits with overgrown grass and rutty infields devoid of color, devoid of stands for spectators, devoid of associated facilities. The fields are always in poor condition, at best (in some ways, I had better in the paved schoolyards of New York when I was a kid). The few fields that do have limited facilities are poorly planned and executed.
In Dayton, the contrast of their Little League fields hit you like being surprised at a surprise party. These Little League fields, even within the city, were bright and clean with saturated colors like some sort of baseball oasis with perfectly manicured fields, towering lights, concession stands, an announcer's booth, and beautiful grandstand bleachers reaching high and all the way to the outfield fence. This did not go unnoticed by Lukey. In fact, he now says he wants to play baseball again!
When we had a chance to walk around the campus (we had a lot of plans and were working around the weather), I pointed out each building and its purpose. The campus was immaculate. All the lawns perfectly mowed, gardens meticulously designed and manicured, brick walkways throughout, old style lamp posts, historic buildings... the buildings all had character... the housing was impressive... the food choices on the campus today made me very envious.
We parked just off campus at the very edge of campus because I didn't want to have to deal with security, parking passes and finding the right parking lots. This photo below shows us walking past all the university shops, some of the restaurants and this was the beginning of some of the housing for upper-classmen (apartments over the shops where we are walking in photo below).
Incidentally, campus housing ranges from quite nice impressive dorms for freshman and sophomores to apartments and beautiful small homes for upper-classmen. There are "neighborhoods" of housing developments just for student campus housing.
The sidewalks are empty in this first photo below because the shops hadn't opened yet (we had just eaten breakfast in one of the cafes) and we were there during the week between the spring semester and summer session so things were a bit quiet.
We first walked past the chapel... Chapel of the Immaculate Conception...
Kettering Labs is the building of engineering and research named for Charles Kettering, a medical research philanthropist who also invented the first automobile starter and was the head of General Motors research branch. He had over 180 patents and is the co-founder of Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research in New York...
Below is St Joseph's Hall,,, the first academic building built on the campus. The interior was destroyed by fire in 1987 but it was rebuilt and reopened just two years later. Today, this is another one of the dorms on the campus...
Below is the main entrance to St Joseph's Hall...
And, below, we've made it back to the side of the Chapel...
And now, we were walking past the shops making our way to the car before we go visit the graves of the Wright brothers which are up at the end of this block and to the right a few blocks...
Below is a frieze of Shakespeare cast into the foundation of St Joseph's Hall or one side of the Humanities Center (I can't remember which but it is in the area of those buildings... I think it is on the back side of the Humanities Center)...
I know Sheila and I had a good time walking around this beautiful campus. For the most part, this visit was probably lost on Lukey and Kenzie (they are still a tiny bit young at only 13 years old and thinking that their college years are still a lifetime away) but hopefully they will remember parts of it and remember it fondly to use as a comparison to other colleges. Having this blog entry to revisit will help them remember.
NOTE: Now that I'm finished writing this blog entry... wow... I really rambled on in this entry. That was not my intention when I started writing!
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