Visit to Carthage College

The boys didn't have school on Friday so Mitch and I took the day off work and we drove up to Kenosha, WI for a campus visit at Carthage College. It was about a 4 hour drive, and it was a pretty day ... nice to visit on a day when classes were in session as we toured buildings and we had a chance to interact with some faculty from the Music Department.

It is a beautiful campus, and sits on the shore of Lake Michigan. Lots of nice facilities and dorm rooms that are lakefront views. We had an orientation, then a student took a small group of us around campus for about an hour-long tour of all the buildings. The music classes are held in a building adjacent to the chapel and it looks like a lot of opportunities exist in Music Education right now ... as we have been told at other college visits, Music Ed is a teacher shortage area, and the odds of getting a teaching job when completing a degree are good. The Music Dept at Carthage told us they place 100% of their students at graduation and have a few more job openings for students to interview for than they have students to interview.

We have an interesting family connection to the school ... Drew's great-grandparents both went to Carthage College in the mid-1920's when it was located in Carthage, IL. There are still some places where Carthage, IL is recognized on the new campus after it moved to WI in the 1960's ... including the name of the school, some memorial plaques, and the "kissing rock" which was moved from IL to WI when the school moved.

We spent the night in Kenosha and checked out a bit of the city, then when driving back today we stopped in Lake Geneva for lunch. We had a neat encounter with an Asian woman who ran a shop there ... she had some items from China that drew me in and while I was purchasing something, Abby took a liking to a fancy hair scrunchie and showed it to me, telling me how pretty it was. The lady asked if Abby was Chinese and if she was adopted, and we talked a bit. As we were leaving the store she ran after us and gave the scrunchie to Abby as a gift. It was a sweet gesture, and I think she enjoyed seeing Abby and talking a bit about her adoption and our trip to China.

Drew now has 2 great schools where he has been accepted (Carthage College and Eureka College) and will have some interesting things to think about as he prepares to enter the next phase of life after high school ...