UVU brings awareness to non-traditional students at Trunk or Treat

Oct. 29 – Nov. 3 was the Non-Traditional Student Awareness Week. UVU Student Success invited non-traditional students and their children to join in campus life. One of the events in the week was Trunk or Treat at the UVU visitor parking garage on Monday, Oct. 29 from 6:00-8:00 p.m.

Unlike the traditional students who attend college at the age of eighteen, the non-traditional students are the students that are older than twenty-five, married or have children. Martha Wilson, an assistant director of the First-year Experience & Student Retention, said, “We know that for [the non-traditional students] are more challenging to go to school, and we want to give them an event that they can bring their family too.”

Blaine Jensen, a non-traditional student majoring in university studies, said he and his family came to the event to support and show that there are non-traditional students at UVU that need to receive focus. He also said, “We try to get [my kids] to campus as much as possible so that they see where dad at all day, and that’s what he is doing.”

Truck or Treat started at 6:00 p.m., about ten cars parked at the fifth-floor UVU visitor parking garage; each car represented different UVU departments. Children and parents dressed up in Halloween costume, going around each car and did trick or treating. While children were doing trick or treating, the parents could talk to the department officers to get more information about the resources at UVU.

One of the trucks was the campus recreation, Lindsey Leavitt, a worker from campus recreation said she was at the event to promote the facility such as the gym. The other trucks were the military, Jim Booher, a soldier support, said, “We are here to support family, school, and community.”

Ellie Haskell, a non-traditional student, majoring in mathematics education mentioned the difficulty of being a non-traditional student is time management because time is limited. She said, “ The professors are amazing. They are always understanding, and having the daycare (UVU Weecare center) on campus is super helpful.”