By providing a variety of different colleges and institutions at the Post Secondary Night on September 14, Souderton hopes to encourage students to explore their options following their high school career.

The Post Secondary Night is an opportunity for students to explore all of their options after high school.

According to guidance coordinator Tom Overberger, the event is about exposing students to different experiences.

“It’s all about experiences, like trying new things, and doing things with a purpose,” Overberger said.

According to Franklin and Marshall College admissions counselor Mariah Wagner, the Post Secondary Night is good for students to explore different aspects of different colleges.

“You have a bunch of different sizes depending on the school,” Wagner said. “There’s also liberal arts schools which have a different focus and curriculum than other schools.”

In the past, there were separate nights for all the events covered during the Post Secondary Night.

“We used to do everything separate,” Overberger said. “The college fair, separate, financial aid night, separate, junior presentation, senior presentation, everything used to be a separate night.”

Now all of these presentations, including the college fair itself, all take place on one night.

According to University of Pittsburgh enrollment services manager Dana Gowder, events like these are great for first generation college students who may not have learned much about college from their parents.

“You get that exposure, especially for students who may be first generation students whose parents may not have gone through the college process,” Gowder said. “So this would be sort of their first big interaction with college representatives.”

Students and colleges can benefit from the engagement that occurs at these events.

“It allows you to engage with [colleges] directly so they can remember your application, which is important for both sides,” Wagner said. “We like to have like a face to an application.”

 According to Gowder, the Post Secondary Night is great for “awareness and exposure” because colleges and post secondary institutions make appearances from all over the country.

There have been some changes to the organization of the Post Secondary Night following restrictions that have been lifted from previous years due to COVID-19.

“Before, it was less colleges so that we could spread out,” Overberger said. “But now, with little restrictions, we’re back to how it used to be.”

According to Overberger, colleges are incentivized to attend because of the profit of just getting one student to attend their school.

“Think about it from a numbers standpoint, I mean the cheapest college, you’re still talking $25,000 a year,” Overberger said. “The hope would be for them would be that a student would stay for four or five years and that would turn into a lot more money.”

Souderton’s goal for the Post Secondary night is to provide a good opportunity and source for experiences for students.

“Our goal, [is] opportunity. Hopefully, students will get going back to that pathway model. [It’s] just another experience,” Overberger said.