By Molly Burke
Youngstown State University’s Cliffe College of Creative Arts will host its first College-Wide Open House for prospective students and their families from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Oct. 18 at Bliss Hall.
Cliffe College’s program coordinator for Admissions and Recruitment, Stephanie Waltman, said the open house will allow high school students to experience a day as a YSU student studying at Cliffe College.
“We’ve invited high schools from all over, not just in Ohio — Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York. It’s for students to be able to come and spend the day as an art, music or theater student,” Waltman said.
Along with meeting academic advisors and having lunch, Waltman said students will engage with current students and participate in workshops.
“They’ll have the opportunity to tour our facilities here in the Cliffe College of Creative Arts. They’ll attend classes, see performances from faculty and students as well, and kind of get the sense of what it’s like to be a college student for the day,” Waltman said.
Waltman said parents and guardians are welcome to attend courses with students, but there will be informational sessions about housing, financial aid and more.
“There are some specific parent sessions that we’ll have just to answer any questions because as a parent you want to know what your child is signing up for,” Waltman said. “We’ll have a specific parent [and] guardian question-answer session with members from Admissions, University Housing and Financial Aid.”
In previous years, Cliffe College hosted more than one open house, having a combined one for music and theater, but a separate art open house.
Joseph Carucci, director of Dana School of Music and University Theatre, said it’s beneficial to have all the departments together in one open house.
“When we combine them, we found a much stronger sense of collaboration, and a lot of what we do is very similar,” Carruci said. “Adding the art to it this year is going to just add into that synergy because as musicians and as artists and as actors … we live in a world of collaboration.”
Freshman musical theatre major, Brooke May, went to a Cliffe College open house last year. She said it helped her figure out that she wanted to go to YSU for theater.
“It was really nice to get an insight into what the actual day-to-day life of a student would be, which was very useful especially in the decision process of colleges. I would encourage anyone who’s even considering a major that Cliffe offers to go to the open house,” May said.
Joy Christiansen Erb, associate dean for Cliffe College, said she encourages prospective students to come to the open house.
“It’s a great way for students to get to know the faculty, get to know what happens in the classrooms,” Christiansen Erb said. “Students can come in and kind of experience what it would be like if you were a student taking violin lessons or participating in a graphic interactive design course.”
Registration for the College-Wide Open House will be open until Oct. 18. Those interested in registering or viewing the open house agenda can go to the Cliffe College website. For more information, contact Waltman at sawaltman@ysu.edu.
